Sin Country - Grace Country

I don't think I have ever read Romans 6 in The Message prior to today.  I love how it explains baptism and living in the freedom of Christ instead of the freedom that we think sin brings.  Here it is:

Romans 6

When Death Becomes Life

 ^1-3So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

 ^3-5That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

 ^6-11Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

 ^12-14That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

How Denny and I lost weight.

Believe me when I say that I understand the frustration of being heavier than you want to be, but not really knowing what to do about it.  I remember saying a couple of months ago, "if I just had a plan, I could be a more disciplined eater."  I know you may say, "yeah right", but it's true for me.  If I have a plan, I typically do a pretty good job of following it.  Not always, but most the time.

I typically gain weight over the winter and this winter was no exception.  Only difference was, I started gaining weight in October, when usually I don't gain 'til Jan/Feb.  But my work schedule, plus our home schedule kept us hopping this year.  I was ran crazy at work, and gone every night at home.  The only time I could have exercised would have been FIRST thing in the morning, or LAST thing at night.  To be honest, I spend time with Jesus first thing in the morning, and I did not want to give that up.  And, to be honest, by the time the end of the night would roll around, I would be exhausted!  To add to all of that, due to the craziness of our schedule, I found myself somewhat stressed out, and was finding comfort in food more than ever.  That's not good.

That's one thing that God is teaching me on this diet (which I think of as more of a fast) is that I should not find my comfort in anything, ANYTHING, but Him!

Denny and I are both doing this diet.  He has lost 20lbs in four weeks, and I've lost 14.  If you too are looking for a plan, click here to see the diet we are following.  We heard about this plan from our friend Linda Noel.  If you're local, then you may know Linda, or at least remember that her husband Jeff used to be our preacher at FCC Marshall.  They are also the couple responsible for leading me and Denny to FCC.  If I remember correctly, Linda lost 30 lbs in 40 days on this diet, and has kept it off for nearly a year.

Our drummer on the FCC praise team, Jerry Vickery, also has done this diet and he lost 48 lbs in 40 days.  So, if you're interested in trying it here is the link.  I recommend that you read EVERYTHING that is on the site, including Dr. Simeon's manual. The diet is very strict, and you won't want to miss a thing.

Feel free to ask me questions.

All I Had To Do Was Show Up

I have been so blessed this year by having the opportunity to lead worship at a variety of places.  I love leading worship.  I love Jesus.  I love music, and I love gathering with people and singing praises to God, pouring out our hearts to God, and meeting with Him with my Christian brothers and sisters corporately.


Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25


The more  I serve Him, the more He teaches me.  One of my favorite lessons this year has been the awareness of this, "All I had to do was show up."


I was invited to lead worship in Jacksonville, IL.  My friend Renee Swope had introduced me to them last year, and I led worship at their annual women's conference in 2010, and I was so excited when they asked me back to lead at this year's conference.  Last year, I led with music tracks, but this year they asked if I would lead with some of their musicians.  At first, I was a little apprehensive to commit to that.  It's sometimes hard just to "walk in" and lead with other musicians that you've never worked with.  But they assured me that their musicians could play anything, so I trusted them and agreed to lead in that manner.


I met, for practice, with their musicians the Friday night before the event.  Practice went pretty well considering the fact that we'd never played together before.  It wasn't what I would call excellent, but it certainly wasn't bad.  When you merge like that, most of the time even great musicians will play conservatively because you're trying to get the feel of each other's style, so that then you can play more freely.  And that's pretty much what happened at that practice, we got to know each other musically.


The next day was the event.  During our second song of worship, I remember noticing that the music was excellent, and in that moment, I felt God's presence immensely, and had this overwhelming, incredible awareness of "I am merely a vessel."  All I had to do was show up.  Do you "get" that?  Does that make sense?  


Often times when God calls us to something we try to figure it all out.  How are we going to make this work?  How is it all gonna come together properly?  And we stress out over the details of how to make things happen.  I'm not saying we don't need to prepare well in order to serve Him with excellence because we do!  However, we need to do our part of being responsible, and just let Him do was He does so well.  He just needs someone who is willing to serve Him.  Willing to be obedient to go where He calls you to go.  And He'll do the rest.  He'll enable you.  Empower you.  Equip you.  Give you everything you need to fulfill His purposes.  All I had to do was show up!!!


Fast forward from that event to the Unity Night Event.  This is an event that I/we had prepared for months for.  We form a team of women from various churches in the community to lead worship at this event, and God has given me the awesome responsibility/privilege of heading up that team.  I love these girls and we have become great friends.  Just prior to the Friday night Unity event, the Men's prayer team gathered around us to pray for us.  Then they anointed each of our heads with oil and said a prayer over each of us.  When Paul Boyer anointed my head with oil, he said these words, "Lord, Missy has the night off." 


Tears began to flow from my eyes the moment Paul spoke those words.  I was reminded of the event in Jacksonville and the thought of, "all I have to do is show up".  It was the same here.  I did have the night off.  Yes, I was on stage, yes I had a responsibility, but I could be "Free" because God had complete control of every part of what was about to happen.  All I had to do was be obedient to show up and do what He had called me to do.


What is God calling you to do?  Oh there is SUCH huge blessings in serving Him.  I have found that the greatest blessing and reward in being obedient to Him is that you get more of Him.  More of His presence.  

John 14:21 (Amplified Bible)

²¹The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]


Do you want to experience Jesus more?  Then listen to Him carefully, and go where He tells you to go.  Do what He encourages you to do.  All you have to do is be faithful and show up.  He'll do the rest.