300,000 Women Said So Long Insecurity and I was ONE of them

Today was the culmination of a journey I've been taking with God the last few months. Today was the live simulcast for "So Long Insecurity."  I read the book by Beth Moore entitled, "So Long Insecurity"...you've been a bad friend to us. It was life changing. Studying what the scripture says about my security in Christ along with wrestling the thing out with my best friend and accountability partner has proved monumental in my faith walk. I didn't even know how much I was a slave to it until God made it evident...then I saw it everywhere I went. Once God has shown you the grace to set you free from bondage, you suddenly have mercy for those around you who act the same way. This wasn't just another bible study with a pithy message...it was transforming. I am not the same person I was before, I am a new creation in Christ...the old is gone, the new has come. (2nd Corinth 5:17). I was a greeter at today's event. While standing at the door welcoming the over 900 women in our town (out of 300,000 nationwide) who attended, I was overwhelmed. When I thought about how God had worked in my own life and what he could do for all the women attending nationwide worshiping Him together, I got choked up. Then I thought, "Get it together girl!, you can't be a greeter standing in the doorway and crying." But I know today blessed God's heart and it definitely blessed mine.
TODAY this new woman plans to be SECURE; it is the only way to fulfill my calling. Now Beth always tells us that the battlefield is the mind and to be secure will only happen with intention. So daily I have to take off the old, and put on the new. This will help me to act secure even when I don't feel like it; then the actions will produce feelings. It is not the other way around. If you wait to act secure until you feel it first...you never will be. We don't live in a world like that. Besides you have an enemy who does not want you to walk in the truth of your foundation in Christ. Today we learned that a SECURE woman is 6 things:

1. S : She is saved from herself. Not by herself, nor for herself, but saved from herself. Trust me when I tell you I have been my own worst enemy on numerous occasions and girl have I acted the fool. I needed a Savior to save me from myself...that pretty much sums up why I turned my life over to Christ. It wasn't working so well when I was running the show.
2 E: Entitled to Truth. We learned the farther you live away from Christ the more deceptive your thinking becomes and this hardens your heart. In a world that grows darker and brings more and more deception I need to stay connected to the truth; this is God's word. I need to know it....by heart.
3. C Clothed With Intention  As a woman, you don't get dressed by accident and you certainly won't be secure by accident. You have to "clothe yourself with dignity and strength"; insecurity wants to take your dignity. I am determined not to let that happen...anymore.
4. U  Upended by Grace  Beth taught us that if we really were convinced that we were forgiven...and believed it..we would not withhold grace from others. Most of our un-forgiveness and what we view as offenses root from our insecurities. If you want to be secure, you have to practice forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32..we have to grace others just like Christ graced us.
5. R Rebounded by Love. I can never really be a secure woman until I fully accept that I am completely and unfailingly loved by God. Everyone has the need to know there is someone who will unfailingly love them and will not leave them. Beth told us that insecurity is not a weakness....it is unbelief. I realized this is the one area I am still struggling. I know God loves me, but I'm pretty sure I don't know it with the confidence I need to. If I did, I wouldn't be needing others to love me to meet my needs of security or depend on others to make me feel good about myself. Lord, I do believe you love me,  help with me with my unbelief.(Mark 9:23-24) When it comes to God, it always comes back to love.
6. E Exceptional in Life. We all have a need for significance...to matter. God has shown me during this last week through a wonderful illustration that you will never matter more or be more exceptional than when you are fully executing your spiritual gift. A secure woman in this culture stands out...she is exceptional. I want that. "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Manifold in the original language means multicolored. When God gives you your spiritual gift it is like he clothes you with a multicolored coat that shows the world you are his "most loved and highly favored child." This is exactly like what Jacob did for Joseph. God showed me this week that when I am 'wearing' my gift, I am really being 'clothed in the strength and dignity' that the world and my own insecurities would choose to rob me of. My worth comes from God's manifold grace flowing through me, not from anything or anyone else. This so touched my heart.
If you haven't read this book, I cannot recommend it any more highly. What a journey. What a day. Lord you are such a wild ride.

Resurrection Run Weekend

Last weekend was a wonderful Spring weekend. The weather was great and everyone I saw in the office on Monday had a pink skinned glow to them.
Last weekend was the Resurrection Run at Village Baptist. I ran the 10K..a little slow for me I shamefully admit. Here are my list of excuses...1. A headwind..the run is a long the beach and you have to fight the wind every time. 2. My body was tired from working fairly hard. 3. Mentally I have been challenged by events at work. Running is both mental and physical and I'm working so hard on some challenges in the battlefield of the mind that my enemy keeps testing me there. Ok, I'm done with lame excuses. This photo was after I finished the race.

On Sunday we went to Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile to take family photos w/ the Azaleas in bloom and we ate at Lamberts Cafe..."Home of the Throwed Roll." Ok, eating there did not help my cause of improving my running time, but oh it was so good. After our feast, I have vowed to give up bread for a while, so maybe this will help improve the pace. But as for the pace of the rest of my life, I'm still feasting daily on the Bread of Life, Jesus. I consider it carbo loading for the daily grind. 

Standing in the Door of the Tomb

As we approach Easter and everything that it symbolizes to Christians, God has consistently had me wrapping my mind around its interesting dichotomy. You see, there really are two parts to Easter that we remember each year. The first and probably most obvious, even to non-Christians, is that Christ died for us on the Cross. In the old testament God taught his people the concept that to atone for sin there had to be a sacrifice with the shedding of blood on the altar to God. This physical concept laid the foundation for what he would want us to accomplish in our hearts after the new Covenant. After Jesus came, we no longer have to kill sheep, birds, or rams in order to be forgiven by God. He was the only sacrifice that could take away all the sins of the world. He died for you and for me, even before we chose to accept his gift.  "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) When an individual really comprehends this and the fact there is nothing we can do on our own to be saved, most turn their life over to Christ. Even though we don't have to make sacrifices anymore, God does require us to participate in his death. Col 3:3 (For you died, and now your life is hidden in Christ); Rom 12:1 (Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to present yourself as living sacrifices,holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship). This means that everyday we die to self. The problem with living sacrifices is that they try to climb off the altar. It takes daily submission of our will to God's will for your life.  This is the point in which I think most Christians get stuck. I'll call them and myself, "Zombie Christians". We walk around life as the living dead. The world looks at us as we say, "See, I'm dying to self...I'm denying myself and taking up my cross for Christ." To a non-Christian who hasn't comprehended what Christ's sacrifice was all about, this is not very attractive.
God does not want us stuck in the door of the tomb. If all we needed for life was for Christ to die, God would have left it that way. But he didn't; the tomb is empty because Christ was resurrected...he is alive and this is the way God wants us to live. He has made available to us the same power that brought Christ back from the grave. As soon as you or I accept Christ, we have that power available to us. You know what? I WANT IT! " I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead." Phillipians 3:9-11. I'm not simply talking about eternal life and living with Christ forever. I already have that. I'm talking about fears, insecurities, and daily life struggles.  I don't just want to daily put those things on God's altar as they continue to cause me pain; I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I'm wanting God to make them non-issues for me. This only happens if I am willing to step out of the tomb. I am wanting the next time I experience rejection or the feelings of insignificance, they don't even affect me like they once did. Why? Because I live with resurrection confidence. If my God is for me, then who can be against me? The enemy thought he had won when God's son was killed; he didn't know the second half of the story. Imagine what life could be like if we all fully comprehended the power of the resurrection and actually lived that way.