Amy, who is one of my spiritual mentors, will often ask me, "what's God doing in your life?" My normal response is, "Amy, I feel like I'm just along for the ride..." and then I'll go into what He has going on in my life.
Three times in the Bible, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23, it is recorded that Jesus says, "you're not in the driver's seat...I am." (MSG) And boy, when it comes to being obedient to God, often times I totally feel like I'm just along for the ride. Many of the things He calls me to do are not things that I would do on my own without Him saying "I want you to do this." You can read, "my life is not my own" on the devotion page of my website to see one particular instance of this. Another time I felt like "I was just along for the ride", was last year, when I felt like God was urging me to go to the Proverbs 31 Ministries "She Speaks" Conference which is a conference for speakers and writers.
I was in the process of signing up for a worship leading conference, when my friend Kathy, asked me to go to "she speaks" with her. I wanted to tell her "no" right away. I didn't think of myself as a speaker or a writer, I'm a worship leader...but because Kathy said that God had impressed upon her to ask me, AND I trust her ability to hear from God, I knew that I couldn't just say "no" without praying about it. In my prayer time, God definitely answered that I should attend this conference with Kathy, so we went. We had a blast hanging out together, and we learned a lot from the conference, and met a lot of great Christian women, one being my friend Marybeth who has been an awesome encourager to me. You can click on her blog on my side bar. I'm so glad God introduced us!
Anyway, through "She Speaks", God taught me much about my calling, and steered me in some new directions as to what He was wanting me to do. I'm thankful that I attended, and it looks like we're going back again. SO, if you're reading this, and you feel called to speak or write, or are in charge of women's ministry in your church (this year they've added a track for women's ministry) then you might want to prayerfully consider this conference as well. You can check it out at www.proverbs31.org.
They also have an online daily devotion that you can sign up for while you're there! I was super excited when they used my "Duty Calls" devotion a couple of weeks ago! My biggest excitement came from the fact that I had felt God calling me to write that specific devo for the purpose of submitting it to P31...so I did, and they used it! Pretty cool!
If you're interested and have questions regarding this event give Kathy or I a SHOUT! Kathy's blog is also on my sidebar.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Gettin' back in balance!
I feel SOOOOOOOOOO much better!!! I finally feel back to normal. The turnaround started Tuesday. It's been a really long time since I've been that sick. It gave me an appreciation for my health!
My life had been out of balance for a while. For the past several weeks I've been in the studio working on our new praise team CD. For a couple of those weeks I was there two nights a week. When you throw in Wednesday night church service, that means I was gone three nights a week. Since I work outside the home that means on the studio nights I was gone from home 7:30am to 11pm each of those days. On church night I'd get home about 7:30 or 8p, so not quite as bad, but it still made for a very long day.
The exciting thing is, if the recording sounds as good on CD as it does in the studio, then I'll be very pleased! It's a "live" recording. Most churches, when they do live recordings, go into the studio afterward and "touch" up everything. Alot of the churches will take their vocalists in and redo all of the vocals, as well as touching up any instrumental errors. Believe me, if we had the money, I'd do that too! But we don't, so what we have is the actual live recording...raw. And I'm amazed at how good it sounds. I believe I have one more night left to finish the mix down process, and then we'll get it "mastered", and send it off for duplication. Woo Hoo! I'll be so glad to have my nights back!
I decided a long time ago that if I was going to work outside the home, that I needed to "protect" my evenings so they could be spent with my family. That's why I very seldom attend jewelry parties, candle parties, and various other things that I sometimes get invited to. I even prayerfully weigh various ministry things that I get called to do. All that to say, I obviously felt like this CD was something I was called to do, but I'll be glad to get things back in balance!
My life had been out of balance for a while. For the past several weeks I've been in the studio working on our new praise team CD. For a couple of those weeks I was there two nights a week. When you throw in Wednesday night church service, that means I was gone three nights a week. Since I work outside the home that means on the studio nights I was gone from home 7:30am to 11pm each of those days. On church night I'd get home about 7:30 or 8p, so not quite as bad, but it still made for a very long day.
The exciting thing is, if the recording sounds as good on CD as it does in the studio, then I'll be very pleased! It's a "live" recording. Most churches, when they do live recordings, go into the studio afterward and "touch" up everything. Alot of the churches will take their vocalists in and redo all of the vocals, as well as touching up any instrumental errors. Believe me, if we had the money, I'd do that too! But we don't, so what we have is the actual live recording...raw. And I'm amazed at how good it sounds. I believe I have one more night left to finish the mix down process, and then we'll get it "mastered", and send it off for duplication. Woo Hoo! I'll be so glad to have my nights back!
I decided a long time ago that if I was going to work outside the home, that I needed to "protect" my evenings so they could be spent with my family. That's why I very seldom attend jewelry parties, candle parties, and various other things that I sometimes get invited to. I even prayerfully weigh various ministry things that I get called to do. All that to say, I obviously felt like this CD was something I was called to do, but I'll be glad to get things back in balance!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Psalm 119:169-176
I love to read Psalm 119 from The Message...LOVE it! Just thought I'd share a passage from that with you today... may this scripture, this prayer become personal to you. Blessings...
Psalm 119:169-176 (The Message)
Let my cry come right into your presence, God; provide me with the insight that comes only from your Word. Give my request your personal attention, rescue me on the terms of your promise. Let praise cascade off my lips; after all, you've taught me the truth about life! And let your promises ring from my tongue; every order you've given is right. Put your hand out and steady me since I've chosen to live by your counsel. I'm homesick, God, for your salvation; I love it when you show yourself! Invigorate my soul so I can praise you well, use your decrees to put iron in my soul. And should I wander off like a lost sheep—seek me! I'll recognize the sound of your voice.
Psalm 119:169-176 (The Message)
Let my cry come right into your presence, God; provide me with the insight that comes only from your Word. Give my request your personal attention, rescue me on the terms of your promise. Let praise cascade off my lips; after all, you've taught me the truth about life! And let your promises ring from my tongue; every order you've given is right. Put your hand out and steady me since I've chosen to live by your counsel. I'm homesick, God, for your salvation; I love it when you show yourself! Invigorate my soul so I can praise you well, use your decrees to put iron in my soul. And should I wander off like a lost sheep—seek me! I'll recognize the sound of your voice.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Lovey...
Friday, February 16, 2007
Achy and Ugly with Friends
Well...I'm still sick. I finally went to the Doc today and got some drugs...I hope they're good ones. I came home early from work, and went straight to bed. I couldn't wait to get to bed...in fact, while I was waiting at the doctors office, all I could think was, "I just want to go home, and go to sleep"...I was SOOOO tired!
I feel a little better this evening. We went out and ate pizza for supper because I didn't want to make anything, or clean any mess up. As we were walking out the door our friend Jennifer called...so they ate with us. After we ate, the kids wanted to play together, so, Tim and Jen came out to our house. As a matter of fact, they're here right now. It's quite hilarious actually. We've decided that we've reached a new level of friendship...we're not really talking. We each have our laptops out, and we're all on the web doing our own thing...every once in a while we break to talk!! :-)
Alright...I'm signing off now...
I feel a little better this evening. We went out and ate pizza for supper because I didn't want to make anything, or clean any mess up. As we were walking out the door our friend Jennifer called...so they ate with us. After we ate, the kids wanted to play together, so, Tim and Jen came out to our house. As a matter of fact, they're here right now. It's quite hilarious actually. We've decided that we've reached a new level of friendship...we're not really talking. We each have our laptops out, and we're all on the web doing our own thing...every once in a while we break to talk!! :-)
Alright...I'm signing off now...
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