Jennifer Rothschild is one of our LifeWay Women and we've got something coming down the pike early February you'll all want to check out. She's already written two other LifeWay Bible Studies. This study is based on her trade book, Self Talk/Soul Talk. Jennifer's been on Good Morning America. We love her! Stay tuned for more.
Create Your Own
I can't even tell y'all how excited I am for my sweet friend Melanie and for the rest of the bloggers who are going to the Dominican Republic with Compassion next week. Their trip is going to change their lives and rock their worlds and, most importantly, it's going to result in hundreds of children being rescued from poverty in Jesus' name. That's a mighty cool thing.
But I also know from my own Compassion trip that what Mel and the other bloggers experience in the Dominican Republic is going to change them forever. As my friend Brian told me in Uganda, "Once you've seen poverty up close, you can't pretend that you haven't." He was so right. And it's hard to process those third-world country experiences and reconcile them with the relative prosperity we enjoy in this country.
So given all of that, I think this would be a great opportunity for us to "spur one another on toward love and good deeds." If you've served in the mission field overseas (whether short-term or long-term) or if you've witnessed extreme poverty firsthand, do you have a verse or a word of encouragement that you could offer my sweet friend and her fellow bloggers before they leave? I know whatever you have to share would mean so much to them.
Here's mine: "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."- Philippians 2:1-4
Thanks in advance for your sweet words, everybody.
That's the countdown of how long until I leave for the Dominican Republic with Compassion. By the way, if you click "share" on that graphic, you can get the code to display it on your blog if you'd like.
Anyway, yesterday on my personal blog I wrote about a few of my fears as I get ready to go on this trip. I made the comment that it is definitely out of my comfort zone.
Then, this morning I opened up my "Discerning the Voice of God" Bible study and the topic was "God's Challenging Voice". As I read Priscilla's words I had no doubt that God was speaking directly to me.
"I find that His message challenges me because His purposes are always higher than mine. When followed in obedience, His Word causes me to step away from the comfort zone of my natural abilities and into the realm of His supernatural possibilities."
That's what this trip is for me. It's stepping out of the comfort zone of my natural abilities. My prayer is that everything we do in the Dominican Republic next week will bring glory to Him and that lives will be changed forever because of His mercy and goodness.
I'll be reporting live next week from the Dominican and I pray that his "supernatural possibilities" will be revealed.
In the meantime, what supernatural possibilities is He calling you to?
I spent a pretty fair chunk of my teenage years at various and sundry church retreats. I actually accepted Christ at church camp when I was 13 (and in true teenage fashion, proceeded to rededicate my life at least four or twelve times in the years that followed). But once I hit college, the camps stopped, save for a trip to an adult retreat when I was around 22. Which means that before Festivals of Marriage (FOMMMMMM) this past weekend, I hadn't been in an overnight conference setting in, oh, about seventeen years.
As soon as my husband and I pulled into Ridgecrest, all those "camp memories" flooded my brain. I remembered the practical jokes, the camp food, the way our junior high camp always seemed to coincide with the first hint of fall. I remembered the Amy Grant songs I'd listen to on my Walkman (you know, the ones that played CASSETTES), and I marveled that my husband and I were actually together on so many of those junior high and high school trips (we were just buddies, mind you). It seemed exactly right that I'd make my inaugural trip to Ridgecrest with him by my side.
Now that the weekend is over and I've had a little time to process everything, I have to say that the structure of FOM is excellent - it's ideal, in fact, for people like us who don't necessarily like to be "locked in" to one session after another. There were optional individual classes throughout all three days (some of the topics were respect, sexuality, seasons of life, parenting, etc.), and then there was corporate teaching and worship on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning (Travis Cottrell led worship; Jena & Dale Forehand did the speaking) .
We enjoyed that corporate time so much...it was such a treat to go into the sanctuary with my husband and know that we didn't have any other commitments pulling at us. We also had some really, really good post-session discussions, and to be able to dig deep in conversation without any intrusions was such a blessing.
(sidenote: I bet most of us are probably good at remembering that we love our husbands, but sometimes it's also really fun to remember how much we like them, you know? I got to do that over and over again in North Carolina. And it was good.)
Just like church camp of yore, the most memorable part of the weekend was the fellowship - the time we spent with each other and with some of our sweet friends. In short, we had a blast. The weekend was a total treat for us. We came home without a bit of that typical post-retreat let-down. We were rested, recharged and more grateful than ever for the blessing of our marriage. I've often said that our marriage hasn't always been easy, but it's always been worth it.
And after this past weekend, I'm more certain of that than ever before.
We are thrilled and excited to announce the arrival of the 3rd Shirer son born to Priscilla and Jerry Shirer! Jude Maddox Shirer made his entrance into the world on October 16th at 5:28pm. Priscilla and Jerry are grateful for your prayers. The buttons on Dad's shirt have all busted. HIs brothers are taking good care of Jude. Mom and baby are doing great! Post your comments here for the Shirer family to view.
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