Encouragement For Women

Here we are at the end of 2006, well almost. This year has been an incredible journey for me and I believe for many of you it has been also. As we reflect on the way we lived in 2006 and how we want to live in 2007, may we pray this for ourselves and for all the women we know – “Lord, help me/us to keep my/our eyes fixed on Jesus. Because I/we know, nothing else satisfies.” React versus Respond “Jesus didn’t react, he responded” is what I heard one Sunday morning as my tired wandering mind finally focused. Since then it has been bouncing around in my head. You know me by now with my interest in etymology and definitions, so you might be expecting a little Merriam-Webster action – I won’t disappoint. To react is from Latin re- + agere to act whereas to respond is from Latin respondEre to promise in return, answer. Responding is with thought and intent and to react is just simply acting. I am a reaction waiting to happen; I would like to be a responder. ...

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion ; proclaim among the nations what he has done. (Psalm 9:9-11) I am beginning to know the Lord as my refuge and a stronghold. I am learning more names of God, like my provider, my redeemer, my salvation, my strength, my comfort, etc. and my heart at the same time is beginning to open up and trust him. This issue I wish to touch on the topic of trust. We all trust God for and with different things. Sometimes we trust him with everything and sometimes we trust him with a few things. Sometimes we test him to see what we can truly trust him with. Miriam-Webster lists some synonyms of the word trust as; confidence, credence, faith and stock. Then lists some antonyms as; distrust, mistrust and near antonyms as; disbelief, incredulity, unbelief; doubt, dubiousn...

Hola! Welcome to the October issue – again, sorry it is so delayed. How goes your reading adventure through the Bible? I confess to have let some dust accumulate on mine from time to time! Lame, but true. I’d like to share this month with you about surrender. One definition of this verb, surrender is; to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another (according to Merriam-Webster). I’ve chosen this subject because I seem to have a really difficult time with this one. I think the life of a believer in Christ could be summed up simply in this one theme. Not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus prayed that in the garden of Gethsemane as he was seeking God’s face before facing the Cross. I’d like to pray that more often! When God reveals something to me through his word, I am so ecstatic. That is until I realize what it usually will require of me. The actuality of surrendering my heart, my emotions, my plans, my hurts, my rights ...

Welcome to the September issue! How are you doing on reading through the Bible? I’m sidetracked and reading a portion of Ezekiel… This month in EFW I want to share something I learned from a toy that my son has. My son loves trains and has a train set. It has two trains and a locomotive front loader. One train collects “rocks” and transports them to the front loader. The front loader scoops them into the coal bin of another engine, which dumps them into a hopper for the first train to collect. As the trains work together, their individual work keeps the whole set in harmony. Then my son takes all the “rocks” and keeps them in his hands while the engines and front loader aimlessly go through the motions basically wasting batteries. I tried to convey to my son that the engines and front loader are sad when they can’t do their work. Then he began helping them to do their work by manually dumping the “rocks” for the front loader, which I relayed to him made th...

Hello and welcome to this month’s issue. This month is the 8 th in our venture towards reading through the Bible in a year. I am struggling to meet this goal, but desire to do so. Have you ever wondered why eggs are in the dairy section of your grocery store? I certainly have. Dairy has everything to do with products made from milk. However it did derive from a word meaning bread dough kneader…go figure. But eggs? Some-times we find ourselves more in the world seeking to fulfill our needs, rather than in fellowship. Much like those crazy eggs hanging with the cream cheese, butter and sour cream, whoa are you getting hungry too? Or perhaps as “eggs” we say, hey I didn’t ask to be here in the “dairy section” that is just where I ended up! Like myself. I didn’t ask to be “exiled” to Houston for my home, the land of heat and insane highways. I had my share of excuses for why I wasn’t in fellowship – want to know them? 1. Can’t stay after church, I have to g...

Happy 4 th ! Hope you are all enjoying the freedom that comes from knowing Christ as your personal Savior and wisdom from God’s word! Today I sit at the computer humbled and greatly in need of Jesus’ loving arms. I don’t know if you can relate, but it seems like as the years go by trials get bigger and lessons to be learned even bigger. I wish to share with you something about which I lack much of, the fear of the Lord – the beginning of wisdom. King Solomon penned this in Ecclesiastes (Chp.12), “13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. Richard Mayhue in his book, Practicing Proverbs Wise Living for Foolish Times describes fear of the Lord as this; “On the one hand, there is the sweet awe, reverence and submission to the Lord in whom a true believer delights because of hi...

Welcome to the June Issue of EFW! This month is a heavy hitter on the topic of rebellion. Rebellion is described by Merriam-Webster as opposition to one in authority and also as an open formidable resistance that is often unsuccessful. Do you know the Tom Petty song, “Into the Great Wide Open”? Well, in it is a phrase that I love – “A rebel without a clue” (I’ll spare you all the lyrics) which I think is a perfect description of myself when I choose to do my own thing against God’s word. When we read about the Israelites we find all sorts of rebellious deeds by both women and men. I’m always finding myself scoffing at them for their inability to heed God’s instructions for holy living. Yes, God quickly reminds my heart of my own personal rebellion. For those of us who are Mothers or caretakers of children, we know the absolute down and dirty definition of rebellion. Knowing I guess should be half the battle. But then why knowing the ridiculousness of rebellion – ...

Welcome to the May Issue! We are now five months into reading through the Bible…how’s it going? If you miss a day, just pick up with the next day’s reading. Don’t get bogged down in trying to make it up, or you might not. With the newness of spring, let us be renewed in our hearts to worship God with our whole lives. The Heart of Worship Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them (Deuteronomy 11:16). This was a clear warning to the Israelites as they were preparing to inhabit the Promised Land. I think today it is just as clear for us, whatever land we live in. We are even told by God not to embrace other religious traditions and ideology and put God’s name to it, The Israelites began incorporating “cool” things from their surrounding culture/communities into their lives. They even began to embrace the macabre as “cool” and God said this through his prophet: “ You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, b...

Hello and welcome to the April Issue. He is Risen Indeed! Let us all rejoice in the Resurrected Lord Jesus who is our peace and hope! Also, be encouraged to keep up the pace in reading from God’s word everyday this month as well. This month’s issue is about prayer. I will be sharing my notes and thoughts with you from a sermon given by Pastor Ron Hindt of Calvary Chapel Houston on 12/4/05. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5) · Prayer should be our first, not our last resort. · God wants us to pray without ceasing. · God wants us to be persistent in our prayers. · Satan doesn’t want us to pray and he’ll do anything to stop us. Have you noticed that sometimes your head is filled...

Welcome to the March issue of EFW! You and I should be making some good progress on reading through the Bible…a little bit each day! Well, winter is almost behind us and the newness of spring shall begin to blossom. This issue is about being a servant. The Toughest Job… I think being a servant is the absolute toughest job on earth. You are required to do much work and receive no thanks for it, all to please your master. Thankfully as believers our master is our loving Father in heaven. Yet, because of our prideful flesh – the job is one we really struggle with. When I was in high school I found a man’s wallet in the dairy aisle of a grocery store. It was “fat” with cash; he must’ve just cashed his paycheck. I was a young believer and took it to the customer service desk assuming I would be handsomely rewarded. As my Mom was checking out the man claimed his wallet and I saw the customer service clerk point to me. The man waved a sort of “thanks alot” k...

Welcome to the February Issue of EFW! Stay strong reading your Bible daily, this is our year long goal! Wayne Taylor, pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Seattle, Wash. once said this about the Bible, “This book will keep you from sin, sin will keep you from this book.” Although we obviously can’t be sinless – we are seeking to become more and more like Jesus. This issue is about pride, a grand issue in my life. Putting aside the pride… The world says to love yourself, God says to love others. The world says look out for you, number one, God says to put others first. My pride continually bubbles up within me as a nasty form of self-righteousness. Usually it begins with an internal battle like this, ‘I’m not going to apologize. He/she should apologize to me. It is so ungodly for them to have said/done that to me. No way am I forgiving them until they have apologized. And then he/she needs to make it right, not just words but deeds.’ That’s pretty much me....

Welcome to the first issue of 2006! Hopefully we’re keeping up on reading the Bible each day. Keep at it, only 11 more months to go to read all the way through! This month I wanted to share about disappointments. Something we can all relate to on one level or another. During a Sunday in November my pastor shared this during his sermon, “our disappointments can be God’s appointments for others to come to know Christ.” He was referring to Paul being chained for two years to a Roman guard during house arrest (II Timothy 2:9). Paul could have been overwhelmed by his situation and rightfully succumbed with disappointment and grief. Yet, he took this opposition as an opportunity to preach Christ to each guard who was chained to him. Not to mention anyone who came into the house where he lived. What a man of God! Paul’s opposition led to the salvation of many Roman guards and to the bold preaching of many believers in Christ (Philippians 1:12-14, Philippians 4:22). ...