Okay gals, a couple more clues cause tomorrow (today) is the big day. Please e-mail your best guesses on where we'll be with our 23 events in 2010. This may help you a little bit.
So email me your best guesses by noon, July 31 at paige.greene@lifeway.com and guess as much as you'd like. Don't post it here or you'll give away your best ideas. Will send a few more clues out tonight and early in the morning on twitter.
Here are a couple more clues. I'll be blunt and say its one of the Dakotas! and for that matter, there's one in one of the Carolinas too! Hmm, I hope you've seen the hints on Twitter from me, Amy and Pam. You can follow us at @pamcase, @paigegreene and @amycato for a few final hints in the a.m.! You can do it.
There's one place we are going where they say it never rains...okay, that's it for tonight. Maybe, just maybe, we are coming to your town! Probably not, but you never know!
Night gals! Tomorrow....DEEPER STILL!! whoo hoo. I love being back in the motherland!
p.s. the entire 2010 list is IN the Deeper Still listening guide! :0)
This weekend Melanie and I are going to a conference in Charlotte to lead a couple of sessions on blogging, and since we've been committed to the conference for a pretty long time, we figured that going to Deeper Still Greensboro wasn't going to be an option for us.
But then we, you know, LOOKED AT A MAP.
I'll tell you what. Maps are handy.
Anyway, once we realized that Charlotte and Greensboro are only about an hour apart, we checked our conference schedule, realized that Friday night was free and clear and GLORY, HALLELUJAH a quick little road trip was born.
It'll be just like college - only without the acid-washed jeans and the teased bangs that defy all nature.
We'll only be at Deeper Still Friday night - we'll have to drive back to Charlotte after the event so that we can be up and at 'em for our conference sessions on Saturday - but we cannot wait. And if any of y'all are there, we would love to meet you. We'll be sitting somewhere on the floor (well, not actually on the floor, mind you - no criss-cross-applesauce will be required because we'll be in actual seats on the floor), and we're usually in the general vicinity of the praise team. If you're not in a mad rush once the event is over Friday night, come find us so we can hug your neck.
Unless hugging makes you uncomfortable. In which case we'll be happy to just shake your hand. But just FYI: Melanie and I are certified huggers. Consider yourself warned.
I can hardly wait to see you at our Deeper Still conference this weekend! I am not kidding when I tell you that I've never failed to see God show up with a stunning outpouring in North Carolina or South, for that matter! I've never quite been able to put my finger on why! Often Travis, the team and I see God's mightiest outpourings in some of the smaller areas where people have far fewer events to attend. They are desperate for worship and revelation and, because God delights in that kind of anticipation, they usually get it. The part of the country where we're gathering this weekend, however, is a center notch on the proverbial "Bible belt" yet I've seen God do some of the wildest things there. To be seasoned - but UNSPOILED - followers of Christ is a rare and wonderful trait only the Holy Spirit can explain. I can hardly wait to see what He'll do now.
I am so honored to serve beside my dear friends and co-laborers, Priscilla and Kay. I deeply respect both of them and my own walk with Christ is always refueled by their influence. We haven't been together in a while so it will be great to team-up again. It's a beautiful thing to share the platform with other speakers because, the way I see it, if you don't like one of us, as diverse as we are, surely you'll like another! All of us have different tastes and different learning styles, even if we wish we were too mature for preferences. At one time or another, yours is surely going to get hit this weekend and, if not by someone on the platform, by someone sitting next to you! Far more importantly, God will overcome every obstacle and speak to every willing ear and, if you'll really listen, cause you to receive exactly what He brought you to hear. I'm counting on that for myself. I am coming for a word from God, Girlfriend, and I am positive that I'm going to get it.
Recently I've had a fresh appreciation for what we get to do this weekend. My staff at Living Proof Ministries and I are going through Jennifer Rothschild's Me, Myself and Lies together. (I do tons of other people's Bible studies - like Kay's and Priscilla's, for instance - just for my own personal walk. My worst nightmare is that I'd get where I only listened to my own voice. Can you spell I-M-B-A-L-A-N-C-E??) While we were having group discussion last week and I was marveling over the NOW word God was speaking to every single one of us, I could nearly have burst into tears with the wonder of it. I said to my staff, "It's just hit me afresh that this is the very kind of thing we get to do: we get to encourage women just like us to get to know the Maker of Heaven and Earth and His Son, Jesus Christ, through the living, breathing pages of Scripture. He causes every study - no matter who wrote it - to become exactly what the willing person needed at that exact moment in her life. It's not a man-thing. It's a total God-thing. I do not know where I would be, even right now in this season of my own life, without the hope and direction and exhortation of God's Word. What we're doing works because He works."
That, Beloved Sister, is what we're doing together this weekend. We're reminding one another that God STILL SPEAKS and that He is perfect in His timing and His relevance. If you've never really gotten to know Him personally, this is a terrific time to get started! If you've been listening to Him speak through His Word for years, well then, there's a place to go that's deeper still!
I am floored to be able to serve you. God is merciful and kind to this former pit-dweller. I'll see you Friday!
I was at the beach all of last week, and while I tried to keep up with blogs via my feed reader, I wasn't as plugged in as I normally am because, well, I was at the beach. Which might explain why I just wrote an entire blog entry about something that Melanie already mentioned last week, and I scheduled it to post, and I only realized what I'd done four minutes before what I'd written was supposed to show up on the blog.
It was just like an episode of "MacGyver," except that it was completely devoid of any real suspense whatsoever. Unless you're a bit of a nerd like I am, in which case you would've found the entire situation FRAUGHT WITH BLOGGY INTRIGUE.
Anyway, while I'm trying to get my post-vacation act together - which, if I'm honest, will probably happen sometime in November - I want to share something with y'all that has really touched my heart over the course of the last month. And this isn't something by a LifeWay author, but it is something by a Southern Baptist pastor, so surely that counts. SURELY.
It's this. And if you are a woman who has ever wondered why God wants to use you for His glory - or maybe even IF He wants to use you - you need to listen to the entire series. Start to finish. Do not pass go. Just click and download the podcasts and prepare to say "amen" a whole lot.
In fact, I listened to some of the series when I was driving down to the beach last week, and apparently I talked back to the iPod so much that when I said, "Oh look - we're almost there!" - my little boy piped up from the back seat and said, "AMEN!"
I feel like there's been a lot going on here this week, but maybe it's just because I'm easily overwhelmed by anything new and different.
So, in case you've missed anything, I feel like we need a recap or reminders or whatever.
Two quick reminders to end the week:
1. Don't forget about the "Where in the world is Womens' Events?" contest. Paige Greene has left a clue in the comments of that post and you can also find hints daily by following LifeWayWomen on Twitter.
If you're not already on Twitter, you now have a reason to get on there ASAP.
2. Don't forget to leave a comment with any questions you have for Kay Arthur, Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer to answer at Deeper Still-Greensboro.
This blog post written by Pat Layton, author of Surrendering the Secret
Jer 9:20 (NIV) Now, O Women, hear the word of the Lord, open your ears to the words of His mouth--Teach your daughters to wail (utter a prolonged, inarticulate, mournful cry in grief or suffering) teach one another a lament (To feel and show grief, sorrow or regret).
The line that follows these words of scripture says, "Death has climbed through our windows".
Indeed it has.
Since January 22, 1973 America has aborted over 1.5 million babies each year. That is over 50 million lost lives. For every baby lost to death by abortion, a mother lives with her heartbreaking choice. Statistics tell us that 43% of all women of childbearing age has experienced at least one past abortion. Many of those women are sitting next to you in church, Bible study, or Sunday School. They are your daughters, sisters, best friends and neighbors. They are Bible Study teachers, bank clerks, wives and mothers and they are hiding a secret deep inside. A secret rarely discussed and one they feel terrified to share.
They have had an abortion.
Some of us who have made that shame filled choice have found and understand the redemptive healing of Jesus Christ. Many, many more, have not. Millions of our Christian sisters still remain captured by the shame and guilt of a past abortion. The result is not only a live that is not fully free to embrace all that God has for her, but also
results in a silent and powerless church.
Through Surrendering the Secret Lifeway Women's Ministries has provided a "wailing wall" of sorts that provides those women as well as our sisters and daughters who have not experienced an abortion, an opportunity to "wail" and "lament" their way to healing and restoration for themselves and for one another.
Maybe even more importantly, STS provides an opportunity to speak out about the pain and heartbreak caused by abortion in our nation.
"Surrendering the Secret" is a post abortion recovery and education Bible study that is setting women free all over the Nation. Since January of this year over 200 ministry leaders have been trained and thousands of products have been placed in the hands of the church.
If you are one of those women who have experienced the pain of a past abortion, or if you are a woman who just wants to hold a Christian sister in your arms while she cries, please consider offering "Surrendering the Secret" in your church or woman's ministry.
Verse 24 of this same chapter in Jeremiah 9 says:
"I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these, I delight declares the Lord"
Will you join us sisters, as we follow God's mandate and Wail and Lament for those lives lost to abortion and the mothers and fathers in the church who suffer in silence with the secret?
Did you ever play "Where in the World is Waldo?" when you were a kid?
Our team has a "Where in the World..." game for you.
Can you guess where in the United States our women's events are going in 2010?
We've put out several hints already and many of you may know 2-3 locations, but can you name all 23 women's events locations for 2010?
At the end of two weeks, the person who has the most locations correct will receive 2 tickets to any women's event of their choice, a t-shirt from each of our events and a tote bag. (All LifeWay employees, family members and anyone else that has had the accidental foreknowledge of learning the locations for 2010 are exempt!!)
So, let's start.
The Rules:
1. Name as many of the 23 locations (city/state) for LifeWay's Women's Events 2010 Calendar.
2. You must designate what event it is:
Living Proof Live with Beth Moore
Deeper Still with Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and Priscilla Shirer
Going Beyond with Priscilla Shirer
You and Your Girl with Vicki Courtney
3. You will continue to receive a set of clues to help you. You may also be creative on your own to find clues that we don't tell you about (hint...the speakers are bloggers themselves and sometimes let things slip on their own blogs/websites).
4. On Friday, July 31, we will release all of the 2010 dates and locations at Deeper Still Greensboro, NC. Make plans to attend today and be among the first group to find out our future dates and locations. We will release the dates and locations to the rest of you on Monday, August 3 and determine who our winner is!
Can I be honest? I've been looking forward to Deeper Still since January! I can't believe that it is actually July (where has the year gone?) and that our time in God's Word and worshipping at His feet together is almost here. Just one more weekend away.
Jerry, the boys and I have been having a blast this summer. We've been swimming, horse back riding, playing in the back yard, and trying to survive this Texas heat! It's hard to believe my boys are already 6 (Jackson), 5 (JC), and 8 months (Jude). And, girlfriend, I AM TIRED! I need next weekend. I need Deeper Still. I need to sit with you and soak in God's presence and power in my life.
I am eager to see how the Lord is going to speak to each of us next weekend. Would you begin to ask the Lord how He wants you to prepare for our time together? I'm in complete anticipation that He is going to show up and blow our minds. Would you already plan to walk in obedience in whatever He may ask of you? Miss Kay, Miss Beth and I are expecting a fun, life-giving time with you next weekend.
I've become more and more excited about the message I believe He wants me to share with you. Every time I read the passage that I'm going to go over with you, chills go down my spine because I get overwhelmed at its implications. So, go ahead and take a peak at Ephe sians 3:20-21 and see how God might speak to you even before we get to the Greensboro Coliseum
One of my favorite parts of Deeper Still comes at the end. If you are familiar at all with the event, you know that at the end of the conference there is a "panel discussion" where Miss Kay, Miss Beth and I answer questions that you all have about anything and everything. I normally do most of the "asking" so that I can let Miss Beth and Miss Kay do most of the "answering". Like you, I want to sit and glean from their immense wisdom. In the past we've answered personal questions and theological ones. Silly ones and serious ones. And, as you can imagine, it gets rather interesting! One time, Miss Beth and I actually ended up laughing so hard that we fell to the floor!
What we need from you is to reply to this post and leave a comment with ANY question that you want us to answer at the event. We will read through all of your questions and select some to answer next weekend. I know you have questions. Don't be scared. Ask away....
A couple of weeks ago after I posted about Beth's message at Living Proof Live in Pittsburgh, several of y'all mentioned that you'd like to read more about it. I could never, ever do justice to her three hours of teaching in a single blog post, but I do want to share the seven points she made about Acts 27 and "the perfect storm."
Also, the last couple of points touch on Acts 28, so if you want to study the Scriptures with these notes as a guide, make sure you read all of 27 and 28.
All righty. Here are seven lessons from the storm.
1) Sometimes we're in the exact spot where several storms collide. - We have to realize that there is a point to the storm; it is for us and not against us.
2) The question of fault always arises in a furious storm. - Even Paul said I TOLD YOU we shouldn't have set sail. But we're in the storm for a reason - fault is not the issue.
3) The titanic temptation in a storm is to give way. - Don't let your storm blow you back into old habits and addictions. Giving way will take us to a place that was never, ever on our map.
4) To make it through the storm, sometimes we have to cut the ropes. - We may need to cut loose from things we've previously been involved in so that we can do the thing with Jesus.
5) Our one life can invite the favor of God to many in the storm. - You're throwing a fit in your storm, and God may want to use you to throw some favor. The way you respond to your crisis could very well minister to someone who's watching you go through it.
6) On the other side of a perfect storm, the serpent is all bite and no venom. - Once you've learned the lesson(s) from the storm, whatever the devil had planned will be broken to pieces.
7) The point of every perfect storm is to see the work of God through us unhindered. - No more bondage. No more strongholds. COMPLETELY unhindered.
GALS!!! Deeper Still Greensboro is two weeks and a few hours from right now!! I can't believe its been almost a YEAR since our last Deeper Still event in Las Vegas. Priscilla was 8 months pregnant (see in the rap video?) then and now that sweet Jude is 8-months-old!
Its time for the Deeper Still Greensboro Roll call! Where are you coming from? and who's coming with you? Whatcha got?
Travis and I are both from North Carolina and I've already done a shout out for NC peeps on my Facebook. Perhaps we'll give a Deeper Still T-shirt to the person(s) coming from the farthest distance!! I think we will.
Let the Roll Call begin! p.s. Watch for this upcoming Deeper Still Tuesday blog feature with a blog entry from Priscilla.
This is Kay - Arthur that is - the third and oldest one of the teaching trio for Deeper Still. The three of us are truly so very excited about our time with you in Greensboro. We are on our knees praying that God will move powerfully by His spirit through His word and that as a result the nation and the kingdom will be greatly impacted because we have heard from God and ordered our lives accordingly - no matter how radically He commands. We are also standing on tiptoe in anticipation of God working through the whole event synchronizing all His glory alone.
I am currently at a precious friend's house which she loaned to Jack and myself for 3 weeks at Lake Burton. I am writing a new book: When the Hurt Runs Deep. Would so love your partnership in prayer. Am also reveling in times of fun and fellowship with friends who go all the way back to the beginning days of ministry. They are praying with me.
Pray as each of us prepares our messages. We all so love our God and His living word. As I sit in the beauty of His creation I am awed by the so great a love God has for us and our so great a salvation. "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth." (Psalms 73:25). Oh may it be.
There's so much going on with LifeWay Women that it's probably inevitable that various little bits of bloggy news and/or notes will get lost in the shuffle. So today I thought I'd quickly revisit something that we told you about a few months ago, because quite frankly I tend to err on the side of obsessive and what if you missed it the first time, WHAT IF YOU MISSED IT, CLEARLY THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE.
Is it hard for anyone else to believe that summer is almost half over? I'm not sure where the days have gone, but I'm pretty sure I've spent most of them trying to survive the heat and find various forms of entertainment that don't involve going outside for longer than it takes to get in the car and drive somewhere with a pool or some serious air-conditioning.
But there are still a few things coming up before the summer winds down and I thought I'd remind y'all about them so you can check out anything that might be in your area.
Living Proof Live in Albuquerque, NM - July 10-11 (that's this weekend!)
Deeper Still in Greensboro, NC - July 31-August 1
Living Proof Live in Fargo, ND - August 14-15
Going Beyond in Louisville, KY - August 21-22
Living Proof Live and Simulcast from Green Bay, WI - August 28-29
A little more than a year ago, Sophie and I went to Nashville to meet with the Womens' Ministry team. We talked about all sorts of ministry-related things and also some non-ministry related things because sometimes when a group of women get together what they really need to know is "What color lipstick is that? I LOVE IT."
Anyway, in the course of all this discussion, Paige Greene, the director of womens' events, mentioned Priscilla Shirer and the Going Beyond events. Specifically, she mentioned they hand out note cards for women to write down prayer requests.
So I shouldn't have been surprised when I opened my program at Going Beyond and a hot pink note card fell out. And not just your mediocre 3 x 5 notecard, but a good-sized note card. A note card that could hold some seriously lengthy requests, which is good because women are generally not known for their ability to be concise.
Not that I know anything about that. It's just a theory.
After Anthony finished leading worship (Did I mention how much I loved Anthony? Love him. But I'm not a stalker.) Priscilla got up on stage and pointed us to the note cards. She explained that anyone with a prayer request should write it on the card and come place it at the front of the church.
Well, the pens came flying out as women began to write their requests and carry their cards down to the front.
After all the requests had been placed, Priscilla said that she was going to gather them up, take them back to her hotel room and pray over every single one. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
Did I mention that Priscilla has an 8 month old baby who was with her that weekend? And do you remember that when you have an 8 month old baby that sleep is precious, especially after speaking to 1,000 women?
Not that I ever spoke to 1,000 women, well, ever. But I can imagine.
And not only did she take those cards back to her hotel room, but she brought them back to the church at 7:30 the next morning (an hour and a half before the event began) and invited anyone who wanted to, to join her in praying for these women and their needs.
That is dedication. That is a servant's heart. That is being the hands and feet of Jesus.
And it's just one of the million reasons I love Priscilla Shirer and her heart to serve Christ.
Well, Melanie and I have often said that Beth and Priscilla can turn anything into a teachable moment, and Beth's Ziploc iPhone case was no exception.
Friday night Beth showed her phone-in-a-baggie to the women at Living Proof Live Pittsburgh, and she talked about how she didn't want anything to happen to it. No smudges. No nicks. No cracks. And she said that we often want to do the same thing in our lives. We want everything to be perfect, and not only that - we want it to stay perfect.
I immediately thought of my little boy and how much I want to protect him. I was just starting to make a list in my head of all the ways that I try to shield him from "the big bad world" when Beth said something that made me sit straight up in my seat:
"We can't put our lives in a baggie. We'd smother."
That's a good word, girls.
So I'm curious. How do you encourage your kids to be in the world but not of it without smothering them? How do you try to protect them from the stuff that could be damaging to their hearts but also teach them how to deal with that very same stuff? Since my little boy is only six, I know I'm not dealing with this nearly as much as those of you who have tweens and teens, so I can't wait to hear your wisdom.
At Living Proof Live in Pittsburgh last month, Beth taught from Acts 27. I was immediately intrigued by the passage because honestly, I'd never really studied it before (I'M JUST SAYIN'), so I couldn't wait to hear Beth's message.
Well.
In Acts 27, Paul and Luke are on a ship headed toward Italy when Paul, who realizes that conditions are prime for a "perfect storm," warns the men on the ship that their voyage is going to be "disastrous" and they might be better off hanging out in the harbor for awhile. The other men don't agree with him and vote to keep sailing.
At first things seem to be working out for the guys on the ship. Verse 13 tells us that "a gentle south wind began to blow, [and] they thought they had obtained what they wanted."
That really resonated with me: they thought they had obtained what they wanted.
But right after they thought they had it made in the shade, their circumstances changed completely in verses 14-15: "a wind of hurricane force, called the 'northeaster,' swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so [they] gave way to it and were driven along."
Beth talked about how so often that is the case with us; we get to a point in our lives where we think we have everything we want, and then the clouds come and the rains fall and we feel like we are simply being "driven along" by our circumstances. We give way because it's not just one thing going on - it's several different storms colliding. And it can feel hopeless.
I don't know about y'all, but I have been there.
Beth went on to say that there's one critical thing we forget sometimes when we're in the middle of an exceedingly difficult time: the storm is for us and not against us. We need not forget who has ordained that stormy time in our lives; Beth said, "God is the one who has you in the storm. Settle it. It's to get you some place you'd have never gotten otherwise."
Beth closed Saturday morning by putting the perfect storms of life into even greater perspective: "every bit of your journey is getting you where God wants you to go." She went on to say that "the point of every perfect storm is to see the work of God through us unhindered: no more bondage, no more strongholds, completely unhindered."
The storm is about something.
The storm is for you and not against you.
And ultimately, the storm is for your good and His glory.
Last Friday, my best friend, Gulley, and I headed to Austin to go hear Priscilla Shirer at Great Hills Baptist Church. We had been excited about the prospect for months because not only were we excited to hear Priscilla, but for the chance to spend a little girl time together without our kids. It's amazing the conversations you can have when you don't have little people interrupting you every three seconds to tell on each other.
On the way there, we decided to go eat a late dinner at Z. Tejas after the event was over because it has always been one of our favorite restaurants. However, once we got to the hotel around 4:00 p.m., we agreed we were both already hungry and didn't know if we could wait until 9:30 to eat dinner.
I said, "Well, we could go to Z. Tejas right now instead of later?"
And Gulley, not skipping a beat, replied, "Ewww. That's lame."
So, not wanting to appear lame, we grabbed a small snack and then went to Z. Tejas at 9:30 Friday night and ate way too much delicious food.
The next morning Gulley said her stomach hurt from eating all that food so late and she really needed a Zantac.
Yeah. Who's lame now?
In other news from the weekend, I'll tell you who wasn't lame.
Anthony is Priscilla's brother and he and his praise team led worship for the Going Beyond event. It was amazing. Anthony and his team did such a phenomenal job of preparing our hearts for the words Priscilla was going to share.
And as much as I was ready to hear Priscilla speak, I was sad when it was time for worship to be over because I loved listening to Anthony sing as the women in the sanctuary worshiped.
Here's Anthony.
I took that picture after I walked up to him and said, "Hi. I blog for LifeWay. Can I take your picture? I promise I'm not a stalker."
Which you know in his mind translated to "Hi. I'm a stalker who is creative enough to make up something about a blog."
And just so you can hear a little bit of Anthony for yourself, here's a short video that I took during worship. I apologize in advance for the horrendous quality, but my videographer skills are limited at best and unbearably horrible at worst.
If I could've picked a theme song when I was 20, it probably would've been something by Amy Grant. I wore out my cassette of "The Collection" driving back and forth to college, and since I fancied myself a very deep and thinky English major, I loved analyzing her lyrics as I sang.
Nothing like some late teens / early 20s angst to give "Faithless Heart" a whole new level of meaning, you know?
And if I could've picked a theme song when I was 30, it probably would've been something from Nichole Nordeman's "This Mystery" CD (can I get an "amen"?). God was so gracious to do a whole lot of work in my heart between 27 and 30, and those songs are the soundtrack for that time. I still can't listen to "Home" without getting all teary-eyed.
So in the the interest of getting ahead of the game, I have made a decision. Even though I'm not 40 yet, I've already determined what the new theme song is going to be. Christy Nockels sings it, and oh, it is a good 'un.
Raise your hand if you want to stand up and clap when she sings the chorus.
It's a mighty good word for any stage of life, isn't it?
Dr. Phil show to re-air audience favorite, featuring encouragement from Bible study teacher Jennifer Rothschild
Don't miss this TOMORROW: July 2nd on Dr. Phil show!
Most of us find raising children is challenging enough, but imagine that your child could neither see you, nor hear you. Now imagine having three children like that. Liz is the mother of deaf and blind triplets. Her three daughters are now 6 years old, but one of the girls communicates at a 2-year-old level, and the other two at only a 10-month-old level. Liz's world is consumed with their 24-hour care, plus the care of her oldest daughter, who is 10 and often overlooked among the chaos of the triplets.
See this story on Dr. Phil along with our gal, Jennifer Rothschild, who's world was turned from light to dark at the age of 15. She's got a message for George and Liz. Don't miss this heartbreaking and heroic story!
After the Dr. Phil show, we'd love to hear your comments and stories. Let us know what you think and if you've done the new study, are doing it, or now plan to do it . . .
Melanie
Melanie
Sophie
Sophie
Pam
Pam
Paige
Paige
Kris
Kris