Mouths Open....Or Shut!

I realize it has been a long time since I posted on here, but thankfully that doesn't mean a pause in life, because I've been living it and I know you have, too, because I've been living it with YOU! We sure have had a busy summer and while busy sometimes isn't a good thing, I am so thankful that is not the case for what has been going on at LifeSong. I am so thankful that God has been right here with us, guiding us and building us.

I've thought and prayed long and hard about what I would post today. Would it be something witty? Something inspirational? Something deep? Something informational? I just couldn't decide, and well...I didn't have to. God always leads me in a variety of ways and most of what I write...EVER...is from living life with Him. Sometimes life is hard and confusing, and that is pretty much where I find myself these days. With all that is within me, I desire to be what God wants me to be and let me say, on the flip side of that is a desire to NOT be what people think I should be. The two worlds often collide for me...do they for you? Sometimes God has us do, say or be the hard thing, all for a purpose in the end - His Glory! How does this play out in your life?
I often find that just because I'm a woman that I must try to fix it all because that is how God wired me. I want to nurture, protect, take care of... It gets hard doing it all by ourselves, doesn't it? I don't want to do it anymore, though. I want Him to do it for me, don't you? One thing I have felt a great burden about lately is "unwholesome talk." How almost funny it is for a women's ministry blog to "talk" about unwholesome talk. I mean, come on, we're women for Pete's sake! Women, whether you want to hear it or not, talk...and I do mean talk! We can, in name of "I'll take care of it", fixer mode open our mouths to fix it, take care of it, make it all better, etc., just because we think we are supposed to. Pause button! We're NOT supposed to let "any unwholesome talk proceed from our mouth." I have a real hard time with this. I am a "if you think it, you say it" kind of person and sometimes that means I just need a Holy Shut up and let God handle it, right?
Let's not confuse the notion of unwholesome talk with the other side of things...saying that which builds another up, and edifies. That sometimes is really not pretty to hear either, is it? Have you ever made the comment after you hear a sermon, "Wow, sure did get my toes stepped on today"? I have! Sometimes what we need to hear hurts, doesn't it? Sometimes being the one to have to say the tough stuff hurts, but I just want to say today...say it! When it is for the purpose of building and protecting the Kingdom...say it!
Read this... In Jeremiah 15:19, we're told...."...if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be My spokesperson." This verse puts so much in perspective on how we use our tongue. I don't know about you, but to be found worthy to be God's spokesperson is much more appealing and purposeful when I stop and think about how I want my life to influence. You know the great thing, too? The truth is that we all fail when it comes to how we use our words. If you don't fail, then you must not speak at all. Our words get the best of us by swallowing us up sometimes. The great thing is that we don't have to remain that way. We CAN make a turnaround. Our talk can become that, which we've designed our mission for Aroma to be..."life leading to life." Let me encourage you today. If you find yourself in a place where you feel bound to unwholesome talk, make that turnaround today and allow God to show you the way to those "worthy" words.

The Boogey Man

Growing up, my dad pastored Washington Baptist Church in Greer. We lived in the parsonage there, which just happened to be right beside the cemetery (Sidenote...the house is not there anymore...they actually picked it up and moved it years ago). My sister's and my bedroom was located across the hall from the guest room, and the guest room overlooked the cemetery. Many a night, I had trouble going to bed because I could "just swear" I saw ghosts rising from the cemetery and looking in the guest room window. My parent's never really bought into the whole "I see dead people" theory, so you can imagine their "understandingness" (yes, I made up a word!) when I was still crying and hysterical at 10pm at night, and they couldn't get me to go to sleep. Let's just say I got many "a Holy talking to" and we'll leave it at that! Irregardless, in my young mind, I still felt as though I saw the spirits of church members past rising up to greet me each night, only to cause me great angst and a mounting fear of the unknown. I wouldn't exactly say that this is the root cause of my fear today, but it certainly isn't unlike me to fear the unknown...whatever the situation. Until this Bible study on "No Other Gods," I hadn't really realized what a grip fear has on me. I am terrified of my children being hit by a car (really, I am!), which is in part because I was hit by a car when I was five. I am somewhat scared of the dark, due in part to my nightly visits from the ghosts in the graveyard and in part to too many Dracula movies watched as a child. I fear "not measuring up." I obsess, all too frequently, over not being what others think I should be, or even fear who God sees me as. I fear losing friendships. I am not too sure why I fear this because I really have only had to part ways with one friend my whole entire life, yet I still fear it. I fear what God may ask me to do, and yet I thrill in what God could ask me to do. You see, fear is such a strange thing for me. Half the time I am fearing, I don't know that I'm doing it at all. The part of fear that scares me, however, is how much I take it for granted. I know that we are told all through God's word to fear Him. This isn't something that means what I just previously described as situations of being scared or afraid of Him. This is a good kind of fear. It's an awe of a Holy God that has my very best interests in mind. A God that desires to see me soar and not remain stagnant. A God who will love me no matter what my past is, or how I screw up my present, and quite possibly try to control my future. He is a God that just sees me for me, and that's that! Typing those words overwhelm me because I see in them such hope and promise. I know that if it were just me on this earth, He would still love me just the same - wholly, completely, utterly!
Sunday night something happened to me that I don't have happen much. In the midst of our class in "No Other Gods" having a time of prayer God spoke to me so clearly, that while it wasn't His audible voice, it might as well have been. I heard God so loudly in the midst of ladies in the room praying to lay certain idols at His feet, that I almost had to look up to see if the Father Himself wasn't really standing right beside me. God clearly spoke to me, "pray for the one who needs to lay fear and worry down." Again, "pray for the one who needs to lay fear and worry down." As I began to pray a loud, again, "pray for the one who needs to lay fear and worry down."
I prayed it, ladies. I prayed it as best I knew how, as God told me to. The result of this has been just like God is and always wants to be in our lives. Specific lives needed to hear it. Two ladies in particular have shared how the thought of laying fear and worry down shook them to the core. At first I was surprised, but hey...God was trying to tell me something, wasn't He? He wanted them to know just how much He wants to take this fear, which had become an idol in their life, and wanted to remove it from their life. What a promise He has given us to "never leave us or forsake us." Today, I just want to grasp this...to wrap my little mind around it and just BELIEVE it!
All those years ago, I believed the Boogey Man was out to get me every night. As ridiculous as it sounds to be so scared of ghosts today, the reality of fear is still there. The other reality is that there is the same notion of the Boogey Man being out to get us. Lives were shaken Sunday night because the Boogey Man, or Satan, if you will just indulge me for the purpose of this illustration, is out to get us. He is prowling around, looking for those who desire to name the name of Christ...just so He can destroy us. Giving fear a foothold is just what he wants. Let's make way for the greater fear, though. Today, let's just see how a Holy fear of God will take us straight to the door of freedom, because it's there we find a Savior waiting to take it all on our behalf!

A Good Thing

This Night was such a good thing, and the effects of it are still being talked about and felt, so I thought you might like to read about what Susan had to say after she came to speak! Thanks, ladies, for all you did to make it successful and to remind us that God truly does and is "immeasureably more"!
Susan's blog (click on link)

Thanks to all the ladies who attended Coffee Connection today. It was such a fun, relaxing time. Thank you to Barbie for doing a great job putting it together. Can't wait until the next one!

Reminder to join us next Wednesday, July 15th for 24:7 Moms morning at the park. See details on sidebar, or contact Jennifer Greene for more information or directions. We will be handing out invites to the upcoming concert with DecembeRadio. Hope to see you there!

Aaaaah!!!

Don't you just love those times in life where you feel filled up? Lots of things bring that about into our lives...like a really good meal that satisfies, or how about a night out with friends to watch a movie or just hang out? Last night at our "This Night...A Night to Reach Our Community" we felt that same filling up! I thank Susan High for coming last night to not only bless us through her words and encouragement, but she also challenged us. Don't we have an inclination to always categorize our sin, and also to stay stuck in our past? The truth of it is, however, is that we just all sin! Not one is worse than another, but they all break God's heart, and please...the effect that it has on us is suffocating, isn't it? I feel like we are being challenged on every front lately to "rise above" this. God is wanting us to live victoriously, to grasp hold of the promises that He has given us (and believing that He is truly going to give them to us!). I don't know a whole lot, really. I know this, though. Something has got to shift in our thinking. Why are we staying rooted and stuck in believing that once we mess up that God wants nothing else to do with us. I think our response to people when they have messed up has certainly messed up the way we view God. This one thing I know is that people are going to fail me. They just are. God, however, is not ever going to fail me. We have got to start loving the sinner. I sin everyday and I need you to love me. Let's start showing the sinner that God loves them, and stop just saying it. That is when we are going to start seeing victory in their life, and even in ours. When you keep hearing this over and over, don't you just wonder why it's the train of thought lately, or the subject of many a sermon, or a Bible study? Hellllloooooooo???? God is wanting us to pay attention to this. So, my prayer is that we will grasp hold of it and believe it. Let's start making some changes ladies, and realize that you can praise Jesus in it all! I'm posting the song that we praised Jesus to last night. Take some time to praise Him freely....go grab a flag if you have to!!! :)
Revelation Song (Just click on the link)

Lies

What a dart right between the eyes our new Bible study on Sunday nights has been. "No Other Gods" has been exposing some things to us - no, let me correct that - God's word has been exposing some stuff to us that I personally know has been stepping on my toes. Without fail, when we start a new Bible study I will get up and say something like this, "Beware...Satan doesn't want you to grow closer to God, and now that you are committing to Bible study, he wants to have a field day with you." When will I learn to wear that big, padded suit to protect me from the fiery darts he is throwing my way?! I am not so sure this time, though, is completely just Satan's attacks on me. He is definitely attacking from every angle, but the more I dig into God's word and see what it says for me about idols in my life, the more my layers are being peeled off to reveal some things I don't like about myself.
We discussed on Sunday night how the very idols we have in our life that we want to rid ourselves of are also the things that are our protection - our identity, if you will. For me... get ready, I'm about to be a little vulnerable (I don't like to be!) ... I struggle with a lot of fears in my relationships with others. There is a point in my life that I can go back to that I didn't have those fears, so I can go back those "safe" relationships today and feel perfectly ME, myself and I. There is a definite shift, however, without going into the sordid details, that all of that changed for me. What I despise is that it has taken much longer to weed myself out of the fears that negative relationships have played in my life. I've been hurt. My family has been hurt. The result, for me, has been a lack of trust even in this most blessed time in our lives. The season of hurt in my life started off like the very best times of my life - happy, joyful, "go get 'em," and safe! It turned to hurt and pain, and quite frankly made me negative and cynical. That is just not who I am, but it's a season I find myself getting stuck in a lot, unable to break the cycle. What do I do? We talked about it on Sunday night. We believe God! So, how do we do that? I am finding it is allowing Him to peel back those layers and say it's OK to be vulnerable, to be exposed. Satan feeds me lies all the time that those I think I feel safe with now will, too, hurt me, so don't give too much to them. I can say I have learned some lessons along the way, though. Sometimes you have to go through a season of hurt to learn who to trust and who to give yourself to. I know that for me, I try to surround myself with people that exude the love of God, and that is what drives them. I know that I've found myself in relationships of just wanting people to like me, so I would talk about others with them (gossip), group myself off with certain people while excluding others, and really just trust anyone that came along. Some time and being burned have shown me that you can't always be what everyone wants you to be, and yet it is the very fear associated with this that holds me at bay from completely believing God. In essence, I am believing Satan's lies instead! I just don't like that I do that, do you? For me, I have a hard time knowing that I teach my children to ask for forgiveness - not just saying sorry because there's a wide chasm between saying sorry and asking someone to forgive you - and yet those that hurt us, and even those that loved us and allowed others to hurt us, have never asked for forgiveness. It has made me a cynical person in many regards. I have had many that loved me through this, but I think sometimes even the ones that love you, just don't know what to do with you when you get all desperate and at your breaking point. Thankfully (I'm saying that as loudly as I can) we have our Father God to be the One who fills us. It is, once again, believing Him to do it and that is simply enough for us.
What lies are you believing, or better (worse) yet, what lies are you holding onto? Lies are destructive. It is not just the ones we tell, but lies can be secrets we keep for fear that our lives will change if it is exposed. It can tear us apart, a family apart, and most of all, our relationship with God can be fractured. I am holding onto some lies! I said it! I can't look past the lies to see that there are people who love me for me, that I won't be hurt, or that people will just stop going through "it" with me. Our lies become our idols, too. I feel sick writing this. I'm supposed to have it all together, right? The same could be said of you, too. So, let's make a deal. I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me! Pastor Jeff talked about walking through "it" with people, but as we do, we are pointing them the right direction, and that is UP! I was reminded today of this passage, "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if somebody overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

The deeper we dig into this study, the more uncomfortable we might be. I am feeling a new resolve coming on to just GO WITH IT! I need to see my Jesus without this clutter in my way, don't you? Press on, today, ladies. I may not always get to verbally tell you face to face, but know I love you dearly. I may have fear, but there's a truth I cannot waiver on, and it is the love that I have for you. Live in victory today.

Got Idols?

Last night we began our study "No Other Gods" for our next Women's Bible Study. A flood of emotions came over me as I watched 33 women enter the cafe to participate in this journey over the next three weeks. As they entered the room, I heard most all introduce themselves to one another, everyone enjoying fellowship over food, and many were anxious to look through their new book. There seemed to be an excitement in the air as we got together for the first time. I believe that God ordains each day with a purpose, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God ordained yesterday be a day that we gather together to begin this new journey together. I want to encourage you, ladies, to stand firm and stay committed. I want the very best for you, and deeply desire to see you soar over these next 8 weeks, so that you can soar for a lifetime! Know you are being prayed for and prayed over. We are seeking God's favor on your behalf, and we pray with great anticipation that God is, and will, do something extraordinary in your life! Seek God today with renewed purpose and vigor. We found out last night that we all have some sort of idol in our lives, but we were challenged to make God the one and only object of our affection. Memorize the verse that the study is based on, "They worshiped God, yet they served their own idols." (2 Kings 17:33) Seek today to change that in our lives, that we might say "We worship and serve our God." I love you deeply. Have a wonderful day!!!

Good Books?

I posted this question on my facebook, and I thought I would post it on here, too, and hopefully get some responses. What is everyone reading this summer? I'm curious. I love to read and summer is a time for getting myself lost in a good book. I have some here at my house courtesy of a good friend, but I am still curious to know what you are reading that you would recommend to anyone that reads this blog. You can just mark this under "random thoughts" for today. Can't wait to read your responses!