Category Archives: faith

Esther Bible Study…

This week I finished the Beth Moore Bible Study “Esther” with my church. It has been an incredible study… one that I knew would be powerful – but still had no idea on where all of this would lead. I’m still in awe of how God has used this study to show me where and how He wants me to live for him… and that I need to wait upon his perfect timing for all of this.

Some of the wise words I’ve learned from this series are from the video sessions. A few of the phrases I wrote down that still stick with me are (and I am most likely paraphrasing from the video)… We will never fulfill our God ordained destiny if we are ‘straddling the fence.”…”We will lose our strength when we wait upon the event/time/thing. We will gain our strength when we wait upon the LORD.”…”You get to decide how good your story is going to be. You may be one brave decision from and important step in your destiny.”…”God’s patience always involves His passion. Anytime we are waiting for something we are also longing for it. And God longs with us too. Isaiah 30:18.”

I can not stress enough… if you have the opportunity to do this study – take advantage of it. Invest the time into it… or into any Bible Study really. I have been blessed by so much in the past year not only through the 2 Beth Moore studies that I’ve done, but also through the Jennifer Rothschild study I did this summer.

So because this study is coming to a close… I have to decide what’s next to finish out December. I might just work on finishing a couple of books I’ve started — “Captivating” by John & Stasi Eldredge and “Breaking Free” by Beth Moore.

Looks like in January I’ll be leading (or co-leading) another Beth Moore Study “Daniel” with my church. I’m really excited that this might be happening. It’s not final yet… but I have a feeling it will be soon.

Have you enjoyed a particular Bible Study? If so… which one?

Drowning (Facedown)…

This weekend has been a tough one. Food wise… and creativity wise. I don’t know what’s happening with me in all of this. And why I feel so “off”.

I was hoping to have my Christmas cards done and ready to send. Instead I have a shell of an idea and nothing mass produced. I was hoping to get at least one more section of my book written. I was hoping to have a book ready to submit to Shutterfly for my DR Trip… but as of this writing, I have yet to upload a single photo to the website. I was hoping to have a design idea ready for my future sis-in-law for wedding stationary… but the idea still resides in my head.

I spent a fair amount of time this weekend listening to music. Various music — some of which will be highlighted on here this week… my ode to Christmas music. Yes, I do like Christmas music. AFTER THANKSGIVING. And I have a couple new songs that I really enjoy that I know you all will want to check out.

But this is not about Christmas music… this is about me. I was listening to Saving Abel’s “Drowning (Face Down)”… a song that I had heard first at their concert earlier this year (they opened for Nickelback). The song really didn’t strike me, except that I liked it and should check it out further… and then I forgot about it. (After all, there was much more left to the concert!) The next time I heard/saw it, was when I was working out at the healthclub. The TV’s there had the video on — and it features Jeremy Mayfield and his journey into NASCAR as an independant owner (although, some might say he’s still “drowning” since the recent allegations of Meth use on his part — I’m hoping it’s not true, I kind of liked him as a driver.)

Well, I got to listening to the song a number of times and thought I should really look up the lyrics. Here’s the chorus…

I’ve gone too far to turn around
It’s hard to reach for you
when I’m lying face down
I can’t relieve my soul
I’m lost in a moment
Lying face down.

I think the reason that this affected me so strongly this weekend was because of the lack of discretion on my part of what I ate this weekend. I *HAVE* come too far to turn around and go back to my old life of eating fast food or pizza or snacks VERY often. But like any journey, you must reach the bottom — lying face down perhaps — and realize that you need to be real with everyone around you. To be concious of what you are saying versus doing. To live what you are saying.

Friday night was particularly hard for me. I had WAY too much to eat… and just didn’t know why I was doing it all. So I started writing in a journal I had laying close by. Soon enough, I was writing things that I hadn’t even thought about for a while… and ended the post with the following…

“God what do you want for me? What do you want me to change? How do you want me to move forward? Do you want me to move? If so, where? Do you have a new job/career in store for my life? Who do you want me to marry? What traits do you want him to have? Or is marriage not in my future? What is the next step for my weight loss journey? Do you want me to write this book?

Guide me Lord, guide me in a way that I know it’s your path… it’s your river that I’m on. I feel like I’m lost. I feel like I’m on the outside of life looking in… and missing out on something. Show me Lord what’s next. Amen.”

I’m going to keep praying this as my prayer before I read the Bible… as I am working (it’s been written on an index card for me to take with me)… or simply said, as I am living life.

I think I’ve been trying to re-gain control of a lot of things in my life once again — and just need to surrender it all, surrender to HIM, and pray that I find the direction, the guy, the life, the place, the everything that HE has planned for me.

Something strange…

First, as promised from yesterday morning – my weigh in results. I had a small gain from last month — but that brought me to my goal weight EXACTLY… so I am good to go for the month of December. My eating yesterday definitely showed the stress that I am under at work (I caved and went to Wendy’s for lunch… blamed it on my need for caffeine). Today is going to be better. I’m going to make it that way!!!

So onto the “something strange” that happened to me yesterday…

Yesterday I was working on my Bible memory project for church that I’m hoping to start up in the new year. Toward the end of this, I started looking up very random chapters of the Bible trying to “fill in” (for lack of a better phrase) my list of the alphabet.

Before I continue on with my story — let me say, while I *love* reading and spending time in the Bible and am familiar with many things within it, I by no means am a scholar and typically can’t find passages I’m looking for right away. I truly believe that’s why God created Bible Gateway. Seriously.

Well, I start by looking up “Colossians 3″ trying to find a verse that starts with the ones I’m still missing on my list. Didn’t find anything there, so I decide to move on to Ephesians… and choose chapter 5. Still nothing. But found a very interesting correlation between these 2 chapters. They both talk about marriage. Hmmmm…

Once again, I should back up a little. In the past week or two, I’ve told a number of people (as well as on this blog yesterday) that 1) I’m not going to start dating anyone during the holidays… it’s already a stressful time of the year, why add on to it – right? OR 2) I’m giving up on men altogether. I’m just not going to get married at all. It’s just not worth it.

The second of the 2 “decisions” was based on a number of interactions from guys/men in my life recently… and just don’t want to have that negativity or downward talk in my life on a regular basis. Because of this, I just swore off men altogether — it’s just not worth it when all you really want/need is a hug.

Anyway… so I’m finding it all a little bit “funny” to say the least that I accidently looked up these two passages… and wondering if God was behind it all along — speaking to me. After all, He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere. And for this one little moment in time, maybe -just maybe-He was right here by me… telling me to not make silly snap-judgement decisions once again.

I’m thinking God is laughing at me… and I’m not sure what’s going to happen here. All I know is that I’m looking out for a “brick from above” to hit me across the head one of these days. I’ve been asking for a sign as to what’s going to happen in my future… and maybe I’ve been ignoring it somehow.

At this point, I’m going to “keep on, keeping on” because I know that God will make himself known to me. Even if it is with an actual brick.

Sietas Scripture Recap…

So in the past few months I’ve been trying to learn (or re-learn) scripture passages with the Siesta’s over at the LPM blog. Because December is a crazy month… I decided that I am not memorizing anything new — but rather review all that I have memorized (or gotten close to memorizing) and work on all of them over the next month.

I’m also working on a new project for the women’s ministries at my church to start a Bible memorization program — I’m thinking about including a “devotion” with each as well… so it could be more of a “study” format. If everything comes together, the first one should be ready on the first Sunday of the year (January 4). I’m really feeling great about this project and am quite excited about it!

So with that… today I am doing a “recap” of the verses I’ve memorized over the past few months.

Ephesians 3:20 NIRV

And here is the link to a number of other verses that I have pondered/read/meditated on through-out the year.
So there you have it. I started memorizing scripture in 2009… and am thinking that 2010 will be the year that I accomplish reading the Bible in a year — or in 90 days!

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