Transformed Through Sharing Faith - Women's Seminar

Women's Seminar- Saturday, April 27th, 9 am to 3 pm.

Poor examples and distorted expectations often undermine our confidence in sharing our faith. "Transformed Through Faith Sharing" will examine the Great Commission, the role of the Spirit's enablement, and common fears.

Besides spiritual and emotional refreshment, you will leave with practical ways to overcome your identified fears and share your faith.

This women's seminar will be held at Cross-Wind United Methodist, 616 N State Road 25, Logansport, Indiana on Saturday, April 27th, 9 am to 3 pm.

Your registration of $39 includes a healthy and delicious lunch catered by Rob & Angie McMinn. We invite you to get a group of friends and come sharpen your skill as a disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of your world!

Groups of 5 or more pay $29 each if registered together and prepaid by April 20th.

Please send your name, address/email, phone, church affiliation, and checks payable to Paula Gast, 5801 Trinity Road, Muncie, IN 47304. For groups, please send in one envelope with info for each person. Thank you.

 Please contact Paula Gast through transformingword@sbcglobal.net if you have further questions.

 

It Was I

"They did not realize it was I..."

This phrase (Hosea 11:3b) pulled me back for a closer look.
In the midst of reprimanding His people, God breaks into tender reminiscing, and Hosea describes the LORD's heart broken by the children He loved.

God had taught them to walk. Allowed their young fingers to curl around His pinky for support. Threw them up in the air and played hide and seek with them, all the while never leaving. God stood up to their bullies, provided bread when they thought they'd die, and healed them from diseases.

A father throws his giggling child up in the air. He knows his strength and grins at his child's willingness to trust. A mother gently leads her toddler, picking her up when she falls and kissing her bruises.

As the child grows, independence and self-sufficiency surge. She copies her neighbors' ways and ignores her parent's calls. 

Preoccupied with herself, Israel also forgot God's tenderness. She overlooked the ties of love that connected her to her Lord. God had stooped down to feed them and remove their yoke of slavery. But those were now faint memories. They were striking out on their own. 

"They did not realize it was I who healed them."

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Oh God, please remind me that you didn't make me to live without Your love. I want to always realize Your loving interventions in my life.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Read Hosea 11.

Listen for God's voice calling you. What is He saying?

Are there life situations in which you've forgotten the Lord's loving presence?

Where has God been patient, healed you, fed and guided you?

Thankfully recount God's interventions. Don't give your heavenly Father an opportunity to say "They did not realize it was I..."

A Taste of Love: Practicing God's Presence

A Taste of Love is the title of the upcoming Women's Spiritual Refresher on March 12th, 2011. I plan to reference the Great Commandment along with a touch of spiritual disciplines (worship, prayer, scripture meditation and service) to set the table for a taste of God's love.

We women are busy -- with good things -- but often we don't take the time just to enjoy God's presence.

My goal is to give women an opportunity to focus on God through the disciplines and so open doors to experience more of God's presence.

To love our precious Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength produces joy in God's presence. Oh how I pray -- and invite you to pray with me-- that we will experience Love's presence.

I am praying that the Holy Spirit who presents Christ's living PRESENCE to us, will sharpen my thoughts and heart. I desire that God use me to bless the dear women who will be coming.Would you join me in praying that?

A Taste of Love is open to women in the north Indiana area and will be held at the Mount Etna United Methodist Church at the corner of Highways 9 and 124. For more information, or to get a brochure, please leave a comment below, or email me at transformingword@sbcglobal.net.

Extravagant Love

Our daughters drove 20 hours around the clock to Indiana to surprise their Dad for his birthday. They arrived tired but jubilant to give him their love gift.

Through the corner of his eye, he saw them sitting quietly on the stairs waiting for his eyes to find them. They were out of context and his sensory input didn't make sense. It prompted a quick second look and we all went into peals of laughter. We hugged and laughed some more.

Sometimes God's extravagant love comes to us in overwhelming surprises. The first look may not make much sense, until we realize the gift has already been given, the cost paid, and it is waiting for our readiness to receive. Follow up attention and open armed embrace are the doorways to benefit from the gift, allowing us to make time to examine, talk, listen and enjoy.

Those rare occasions punctuate the mundane with exclamations of God’s lavish longing to bless us. Love picks us up and twirls us around in joy.

All because our Creator loves us lavishly and wants to bless us.

No performance required -- only the willingness to receive.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION 
See 1 John 4:19; Jeremiah 32:38-41 and John 3.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).

Take some time to think about the kind of love that sent God’s only Son to die for you.


Though you might recognize that God’s extravagant love is directed to you personally, do you act as if you have to earn it?

What makes it hard to receive and enjoy Jesus Christ's love for you?

Kindness and the Lawnmower

Our lawn mower decided not to start. That was after the lawn got a growth spurt from the rains.

Our yard was beginning to look like we'd moved out already: the grass had to have been five inches high! I drove in from work and despaired that our lawn looked even worse between our neighbors' manicured yards.

Later, I was working on my computer and I looked out and watched Sue drive her mower beyond her property boundary, making repeated loops from her lawn to ours. With each turn, the side of our property was mowed. I was grateful because each fresh cut leveled a portion of my embarrassment.

I went out to apologize and explain the reason we hadn't cut our grass. Then I went to the shed to bring the lawnmower to the garage. I looked up to see Garry walking toward me offering to help me get it started as he had the week before.

When I explained my predicament, he helped me lift the lawnmower into the car, angle it and disassemble the handle so it could fit in the sloping hatch back -- a tedious task.

Driving home the next evening, I wondered how I could borrow or rent a lawnmower. I pulled in the drive and saw the front lawn neatly mowed. Honestly, the surprise sent me into giggles of joy.

My neighbor smiled when I went to thank her. She was happy to help. After all, my husband had helped hers when he was doing some construction, she said.

Today, I watched Garry use his rider to mow down the overgrowth in the back. Sam, our neighbor behind, mowed our extra 4 foot behind his yard to our tree line. How wonderful to have neighbors who help in practical ways! I'm amazed at their kindness and deeply thankful for their help.

God showed me love through my neighbors and their lawnmowers. They fulfilled Christ's law of love and my needs were lavishly met. That serendipity endears my Lord to me and makes me love Him more.


For Your Consideration

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:1, NIV)

Do you have any need that has grown beyond your ability? Have you asked for God's intervention?

You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. (Galatians 6:2, CEV)

Might you extend a helping hand to your neighbor when you see a need with which you can help? Will you acknowledge the joy God must also receive as you express Christ's law of love to others?

Delighted by Red on Gray

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Teaching is a wonderful way for me to learn.

To teach effectively, I have to absorb the material until it weaves itself into my fabric. Consequently, teaching “Spiritual Disciplines” at our District’s Lay Speaker’s Academy has required that I dust off some classic disciplines and that has afforded me several delightful encounters with God’s Spirit.

Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton (IVP, 2006) came to me highly recommended, and I wholeheartedly pass on the recommendation. Ms Barton is vulnerable, insightful, and practical, while sharing her treasures and welcoming you to find your own sacred rhythms.

The format for this particular course allows 3 hour sessions on 3 consecutive Sundays, so the challenge is to teach while incorporating time to savor God’s presence through some of the disciplines. Just teaching and practicing any one discipline could easily take an hour, but because of time constraints, I walk a tightrope of highlighting content then choosing an exercise or two for the students to experience. This past week we focused on discovering our “Breath Prayers,”and self-examination.

While referencing Psalm 139, I was making a point how we, finite creatures, encounter God’s grandeur. I shared how God often uses nature to reveal Himself to me. “Look outside,” I gestured.

Beyond the window and glass door a swollen, brown river hurried by and a nearby tree stood naked against the gray sky … until a cardinal’s red silhouette suddenly painted the dark trunk.

I was stunned. The timing of my eye meeting that cardinal’s brief perch, while making a point about encountering God, opened another window for the whole class to experience God. In that small room, twenty-three of us were privy to God’s fresh communication as I explained how God has often used cardinals on bleak days to remind me of the Holy Spirit’s vibrancy.

Our Creator punctuates the mundane with delightful surprises. When our attentiveness meets the beauty of God, a vibrant red bird on a gray day can remind us of the Holy Spirit’s revelations, bringing the hush of God to attentive hearts!



Scripture: Psalm 139

For Your Consideration

How can you develop an attentive heart?

Where do you sense the Holy Spirit at work in your life?

What, in your experience, registers God's love for you?