What a difference a year makes

Well, it's been almost a year since my last post.  That is terrible!  However, I have been busy since then.  I guess the greatest change has been triple by-pass heart surgery. But God, (don't you just love that Bible phrase) is good and I am fine.  A big life style change of course, all for the good.

Committing to better faithfulness here.  If not, it's time to shut her down!
Love in Him,

Living Free Online Bible Study

Living Free Fall Online Bible Study | Sign Up

Posted on August 26, 2015 97 Comments

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I know friends, it's not like you don't have enough to do.  But if the only Bible Study time you have is 11:00 at night in your pj's; here is one for you.  I copied this from the web site(at the bottom) Be sure to sign up there and not on my blog.  It is on prayer and it's good stuff.  

Welcome! We’d love to have you join us for Living Free: Learning to Pray God’s Word by Beth Moore as an online study this fall. Beginning September 17 and each Thursday for seven weeks, we’ll meet back here at the LifeWay Women blog to discuss Living Free together.

Ready to replace false strongholds with true freedom in Christ? As you learn to pray Scripture with Living Free, you’ll realize the life God desires for you. Author Beth Moore explores the somewhat radical idea that we cannot please God by being perfect. The study begins by defining false strongholds, then focuses on five key benefits for every believer:

1. Know God and believe Him
2. Glorify God
3. Find satisfaction in God
4. Experience God’s peace
5. Enjoy God 

With Living Free participants can learn how to develop a Godward focus in life, while beginning to incorporate the key benefits in their lives through practices of prayer and Bible study.
Here’s how the online study will work:

• Fill out the form below so we can know who is in the study and notify you via email when it’s time to “meet” each week.
• Purchase a copy of the Living Free Bible Study Book* here or in your local LifeWay Store. You can get an ebook version here. For those overseas, we recommend the ebook! Living Free, or Viva Libre is also available in Spanish.** We’d love to have you participate if you’re more comfortable speaking in Spanish, too!
• Return to the blog each week to watch a video of Beth we’ve put together just for this study!
• Participate by answering questions in the comments of this blog.

We’d love for you to gather a group from your church, your neighborhood, your school, or your workplace to do the study together. We believe that Bible study is more effective (and more fun!) in community. If you cannot find a group in your area, that’s OK! Join us here and answer the questions in the comments. You’ll still get a lot out of it, and you just might make some new friends!

This online Bible study is not meant to replace the Bible study your church may already do in the fall semester. We want you to study with your local group of believers first! If your group decides to do Living Free as their study, we think the online dynamic will be a fun addition for your group. But if your group is already committed to doing another study, you can come back and do Living Free with us at anytime—the videos and study posts will be live indefinitely.

* Living Free has recently been through a makeover! We absolutely love the new look, but if you have an older version, that’s OK! The content is the same, so you’ll be able to follow along with either copy.

** Este estudio de 6 semanas, combina algunos conceptos clave expuestos en ¡Sea Libre! con algunas prácticas de oración. Viva libre, ofrece una mirada más profunda a la libertad cristiana, al mismo tiempo que identifica cinco beneficios clave de la libertad que Dios desea para cada creyente. Los participantes aprenderán cómo hacer de la oración una conversación con Dios, al usar las palabras de las Escrituras. Como sucede con todos los estudios de Beth Moore, los lectores terminarán con una nueva comprensión de algunas verdades espirituales que les ayudaran a experimentar un cambio permanente en sus vidas. En el libro del discípulo se incluyen ayudas para el líder.

Living Free Bible Study

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• Address Line 2
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We’re so excited to study alongside you this fall!

If you’re participating in the study, feel free to download this share square to use on your blog, instagram, twitter, pinterest, etc., to encourage your friends to join you! Remember to provide a link to this post so they can sign up, too. Here’s a short version you can copy and paste: http://bit.ly/LivingFreeOnline

Love in Him,

KEEP TELLING THE STORY

              I just celebrated my 67th birthday.  We went to Johnny Cace's in Longview Tx.
 They are closing down after 66 yrs in business.  Up until about 10 years ago we celebrated almost every wedding anniversary there.  So when I heard they would be shutting the doors in March; I decided why not one last celebration there.  The interesting thing about that was that
we had to wait 2 hours to get a table.  The owner told us that if the crowds were always like this night they would not be closing!

      So what does one do while you wait 2 hrs to eat?  You talk to the people around you of course.
I was blessed to be sitting beside this 80-something sweet lady who had to tell me about her daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughter.  How they were dancers and educators and had traveled the world.  She herself was an accomplished pianist and had 3 grand pianos in her home.  Then because that only took about 15 minutes, she told me again and again and "did I tell you about my dancing daughter"? Well, you get the picture.

      When we finally were seated my sister -in- law and I then got to talk.  She asked me a question that has prompted this post. ...................."So what do you do all day now that you are retired?"

     Well, that only took about 3 sentences and she said, "Hmmm".... I began to rehash that in my mind.  What DO I do all day?  Clean, cook, study my Bible, stay  in touch with out of town (out of state)                      family.
             Some of that cooking is providing for church family in times of need, but still.....
                      .seems mighty paltry to me.
     
                 Now the old me would have said, "So what?"  You put in your 37 years of time, you deserve it.  But I had to go to the Lord and ask, "Is this what You want me to do?  I was peacefully reassured that I just need to stay available to Him and be obedient and feel comfortable telling and re-telling my story; just like the lady in the restaurant did.  She was proud of her family and what they had done and still do.  It was pure joy to tell a complete stranger about her life.

                                                             My question!
Would you want to tell and retell your story and what your day consists of to a complete stranger?                                            

            More than that, are you comfortable before the One Who really matters about what you spend your time doing?   If you are, then go for it!  Live it to the fullest.  If not so much...then ask Him to sit down with you for a 2-hour span and tell you what He wants your life to look like.

    Now would I have chosen to wait 2 hours to eat?  NO!  Would I have chosen to sit beside a senile little old lady with more adventures under her belt than I knew possible?  Not before that night?  Next time though, yes!

      Your point, you might ask?  It's this.  Take some time ....  yes, even 2 hours and think about how your life is and what you want it to be like when you get 80.

      As I always say.  We are building our legacy NOW!  Today is part of your history and part of that story that you will get to tell when you're  stuck in a restaurant with a younger-than-you person.  Will they want to hear about your life even once?

     
Love in Him,

REST vs.IDLENESS

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. John Lubbock

Sounds inviting doesn't it?  But I know you might have had my grandmother who always said:
                 "And idle mind is the devil's workshop".  

     You know, I looked this morning and I could not find that in the Bible.  But even if I missed it...the saying is "an idle MIND, not body! Ok be honest! How many of you mothers out there feel guilty when you're "just reading a book"??  Your mind is not idle, but your body is getting a much needed REST.  

This is in the Bible and spoken by none other than Jesus:  And He said to them, "Come ye apart by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.   (Mark 6:31)

Have you been there?   Anybody?? When I was first made aware of this verse the one teaching gave his interpretation: 
                   "Come ye apart and rest or come ye apart."

      And I can hear you now.  "Lanita, you don't have my schedule".  You're right I don't and there was a day when I too did what you are doing.  But the "legacy" part for you is to tell you that my body has suffered for it and I can no longer do what I want to do even though I have the time.  Why?  Because I pushed and pushed and pulled and pulled and never took time to rest.  And I'm here to tell you; STOP occasionally and REST!!  
       
         My prayer for all of you out there that are meeting yourselves coming back or worse: you've lost yourself along the way... is taken from an obscure verse in Genesis:

"Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree."
(Genesis 18:4 )

Love in Him,

FOR THE YOUNG AND OLD-THINGS TO REMEMBER

This is an old piece, but I came across it this morning in one of my prayer journals. It did me good to revisit it because I am older now than I was when I first read it.  So, I am sure I need to remember it's advice more now than I did when I first read it. You can read it & weep or read it & laugh, but hopefully we will read it & heed.

                    17th Century Nun's Prayer

Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself

that I am growing older and will someday be old.

Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking

I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.

Make me thoughtful, but not moody: helpful, but not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all,

but thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the endless recital of details;

give me wings to get to the point.

Seal my lips on my aches and pains.

They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is

becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other’s pains,

But help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory,

but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness

when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally, I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet;

I do not want to be a saint *- some of them are so hard to live with –

but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places,

and talents in unexpected people.

And give me, oh Lord, the grace to tell them so.

*Just one correction of this nun..if you know Jesus personally, you have no choice ..you are a saint.

 

Mothers Day Mentoring

With Mothers Day upon us; I just wanted to remind all of us women what Titus 2 says:

"....the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things...that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God may not be blasphemed. " (NKJV) 
   
Now in all honesty...many of these words we do not even remember what they mean!  Discreet, ???chaste..??? Read it with me in the New Living Translation:

"....Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God.  They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers.  Instead, they should teach others what is good.  These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their home, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.  Then  they will not bring shame on the Word of God. .."

 OUCH!  Not a problem understanding those words.  Don't shoot the messenger.  God said it first through Paul.
     When you think about it; you are both the older woman and the younger woman in every instance of your life.  We learned this recently from Priscilla Shirer in the Gideon study.  So, you should be mentoring someone younger than you and you should have someone older than you that you can go to and say HELP!! In fact you are probably already doing this, but have just never thought about it.  Who is it that's younger that comes to you with questions?  Maybe your daughter? Maybe a younger woman at church?  You are that woman's mentor.  Who is it that you go to when you need advise with anything that has you stumped?  That person is your mentor.  It doesn't have to be planned or regimented.  Just avail yourself and it will happen..
     
       My mother went to be with the Lord 20 years ago today and I still miss her.  And I am so grateful for all she taught me.  My prayer is that I am being a mentor, an admonisher to all the women that God brings me in contact with.  
       
          Passing the faith along.. This is the way it's done ladies.  Until next time, I hope you all have a glorious Mother's Day.
 
 

Love in Him,

MANY LITTLE THINGS

                                                                  
                                                                     

    It has been many months since my last post ; but this morning I just have to share a life moment .  My last post was "One Thing".  Well, today I want to talk about Many Little Things. So often we forget to praise Him for the many little things He does everyday for us.  I hope to instill in my children and grandchildren that LIFE is made up of "little things" and not just the big life changers.  So what's all the little hallelujahs about?
     
 Back in the summer Glenda gave me a pair of earrings that said "My Grandkids Rock".  Well, you might guess where this is going...yes, I lost them.  Now, they came from Sam Moon so not a great monetary loss, but I loved those earrings and wore them a lot.  I looked where I knew I had put them and only found ONE!! Well, I looked and re-looked (bookshelf in bathroom) and still no earring.  So I gave up and Penny said, "don't worry Mom we'll get you some more."  Isn't it funny how when you get older the little things are what matter and the big things you've just learned to trust God for??? Oooo...that will preach!
        Anyway, yesterday I picked up one of my devotional books that I keep on that bookshelf in the bathroom AND inside that book was the missing earring.  Now you tell me how that earring jumped inside that book?  I do not even read this particular one that often, but this day I decided to.  Well,  NOW my devotional that day had nothing to do with what was printed in that book (sorry Kay Arthur), but it was all about this little thing that God had given to me.
                                     

                                JUST   ONE  MORE  and I'll let you get to your own "little things"........

          This morning I got to looking for a book..RABBONI by Phillip Keller.  Of course this Sunday is Easter and since this is the Name that Mary called Jesus at the garden tomb, I thought that it might have some insight for me.  I was so delighted to find the book relatively easily.  (My library is in terrible disarray) However, the last section (106) pages was missing!!! And of course that was the section I needed for my research.  Well, once again I'm on the hunt and not for Easter eggs!.  I gave up.  Then I thought no, it's got to be in that library!  So I started searching shelf by shelf, book by book.  Hallelujah!! There it was!! You've been there.  So happy, happy, happy to find something that has been lost.  (ooooo..another sermon).  Well, that's TWO Little Things in as many days that God has blessed me with.

            Will the earrings make my "look" as I wear them?  NO!  Will that portion of Rabboni that I will  
read impact my Sunday School lesson? Probably not!  BUT GOD, wanted me to see that HE is in the little things of our lives. And if we miss them.....well, we miss most of life.

             Don't miss His Life today.  Glory in the MANY LITTLE THINGS that HE provides so richly for us to enjoy.



Love in Him,