Live The Dream 2011

If you’ve never attended the Live The Dream (LTD) Women’s Conference at Healing Place Church, you are certainly missing out. We just wrapped up our 5^th annual LTD, and as usual, this was the best one yet!  Every year I question how this year can be topped, and then the next year rolls around bringing things to a whole new level.  We had the honor and privilege of hearing Christine Caine of the A21 Campaign, Ps. Craig & Amy Groeschel of LifeChurch.TV, Ps. DeLynn Rizzo of Healing Place, and Priscilla Shirer of Going Beyond Ministries.  As if one long message was strategically broken into multiple segments, the overall theme of LOVE was delivered with flare and lots of sparkle.  It was one big God orchestrated message for the 2,500+ women in attendance. Here’s a blip of what I learned:

The weekend kicked off Thursday night with Christine Caine encouraging women to be ready and watching for their appointed time.  We must not confuse our due season with a due date.  It’s not about a date, but about God using us in the season He has destined for us.  We must come with child-like faith, expecting! Perspective is everything. If you don’t get in a place of disappointment, then your God Appointments will certainly come.  Question: What am I expecting?

Friday morning we gathered to hear Amy Groeschel share how we can be faithful rookies with our gifts and calling.  We must take the first step, but it’s ultimately about Him and His will for our lives.  It’s not about initiating “our own” plan.  There are countless examples in the Bible of this, but we discussed a few in particular.  God can give us the confidence we need (like Gideon), the ability to carry out His plan (like Moses), and the compassion to love others right where they are (like Jonah).  Never compare your calling or gifts to anyone else’s; just go and do what He calls you to go and do when He calls.  It’s by our weakness that His strength is made perfect. Question: What are my gifts? How am I called? 

Christine Caine followed up with Jesus being our “first and only love”.  Always stay true to your first love.  No affairs…God wants fidelity; He wants ALL of our heart and devotion. If we just put our whole heart in, God will work out the rest.  Be careful: Affairs come from lust, lonliness, bordom & familiarity, insecurity and laziness. It’s so important to guard your heart by getting in the Word and in His Presence.  A good marriage takes a LOT of work.  Find your identity in Him, and be the best bride you can be…the Bridegroom is coming. Question:  Am I faithful to God?  Am I committed to Him first?

Ps. Craig Groeschel wrapped up the morning calling us face-to-face with our fears.  Fear is simply putting faith in the wrong thing.  Name your fear and call it what it is.  Realign your faith by choosing to trust God.  The answer comes from seeking the Lord until He removes all of our fears.  God is able and knows every detail of our fears.  Our Abba Father has it covered. Perfect love casts out all fear.  Question:  Am I choosing to truly trust God? What am I afraid of?

By this point in the weekend, God had truly read my mail to everyone, and it was only the half-way point.  Priscilla Shirer expanded on the story of Gideon from earlier in the morning.  He was marked with a brand new name.  She reminded us that when we are made new in Christ, we are not the same people we were, and we have no business going back there.  Posture and perspective are everything in the battles we face.  Fear will come, but never allow it to control your thoughts or your words.  God equips us for the battle ahead.  Be careful of the view since the vantage point can skew the view.  When our resources are depleted, it’s then that God steps in.  Questions:  Where am I spiritually camping out? What type of people do I allow to speak into my life? Where am I leading others?

Then there was the famous “After Party” Friday night.  Smores, sweets and a great show rounded out the night.  Although Saturday morning came early, Ps. DeLynn Rizzo wow’d us with a powerful and practical message to help us in our breaking points.  Breaking points really are good places where we get on our knees at God’s throne.  Don’t focus on the situation, but on the solution.  She gently reminded us that God hears us, cares for us, and heals us in His Presence.  Weeping becomes a place of refreshment.  Question:  What area(s) of my life am I trying to control?  How can I give this area to God?

The wrap up came from Priscilla Shirer reminding us not to sleep through the present trying to get to our tomorrows.  We must be present in our present.  It’s time for us to be fully awake and fully alert so we’ll be able to tell the whole story of what God’s done in our lives.  Question: Am I fully engaged and awake?

There was so much meat on this bone that we’ll be chewing for months until LTD rolls around again next year.  I cannot wait to get the CD’s in so I can listen to these messages over and over.  Thank you HPC, Ps. DeLynn Rizzo and staff for another great conference.  Get registered, and I’ll see you there in 2012!

To learn more about this amazing conference, visit www.livethedreamconference.com.

REPOST: The Temple In Me

REPOSTED/EDITED: Original from Nov 2006

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is 1 Corinthians 3:16.  “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”  Then I get to church yesterday, and what did Jason Laird speak about?  Praying for God to turn over the tables (that are not pleasing to God) in “my temple” (my heart)!  He referred to John 2:13-19.

Great thought for the week.  God wants pure hearts, not a heart turned into a market place.  He desires obedience.  If you were to walk into the church (the physical building), and someone had trashed it, would you be happy? angry? sad?  Why is it that we can trash our “temples” with the things of this world, and it doesn’t bother us?  Most of us don’t even think twice about it.

I want a clean temple…to be pure in every part of my life. I want to be like water from a spring that no one has touched or contaminated.  Completely pure in motive, speech, thought, deed…  Of course, I can never be that pure on my own. I am a sinner…not perfect, not proud of it.  Just honest.  I need Jesus.

One last thought.  Earlier this week I was listening to Erwin McManus.  According to his podcast, the Greek didn’t have a ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘best’ for the word HOLY.  They just had one form of the word.  So when the angels said “holy holy holy is the Lord God, the Almighty…” what they really meant was “He is the best in holiness, the most holy thing.”  Later in the week as we sang the Revelation Song at Refuge/PF, it meant so much more than when we sang it before.  Think about that next time you hear or sing that song.

Questions:  What does my heart reflect?  What parts of my temple have I turned into a marketplace?  Do I really act as if “the” Holy Spirit lives within me?

God, turn over the tables in my heart!  Show me anything that is unpleasing in Your sight.   I love You Lord!

Leaving “Well Enough” Alone

Some days I can get myself into such a mess.  Today is such a day.

After a little digging around, I decided to change up my theme.  You know, make it custom to Connie with a few little CSS changes.  No harm, right?  Well, now I cannot get it to revert back to the original.  I’m afraid I’ve lost my header, title and subtitle and feel like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz.  I just wanna go back.

I should have left “well enough” alone.  Please pardon the mess until I can get someone to help me straighten it all out.

****5/28/2010 UPDATE****

Appears to be straight now.  Thanks for your patience!

Are you the smiler?

Today I went to Hammond to visit my grandpa in the nursing home.  As I walked into the building from my little comfortable world, I wasn’t expecting what I was about to encounter.  Immediately I felt as if I had walked into a war zone.  Despite the buzz of activity along the hallways and the workers moving like bees in and out of rooms helping patients, a feeling of doom, gloom and heaviness filled the air.  There were some patients with more freedom than others.  The ‘others’ were limited only because of their own lack in mobility.  A couple just laid in their beds crying out for help.  If you translated their cries of “help me”, it really meant “I just want someone, anyone, to talk with me…please.  I just want attention.”  What an experience!  It was my first time in such an environment.  I decided to make the best of it, so I did simply what I know to do…I brought my smile down the hall and began sharing it.

First was the aid that came in to feed my grandpa.  She entered the room with a serious expression, almost as if she expected me to complain to her.  I started asking all about her and lightened the air by telling her how special she was to work in such an environment.  The smile instantly became contagious.  She was now infected.  Next I targeted my grandpa.  He cannot hear well so smiling worked wonders with him.  He finally broke his silence by asking me “Are you the smiler?”  I replied “Yes” with another smile.  He said “I like it.”  Again, contagious.  After that, I observed the man sharing a room with my grandpa.  He had no company today (not sure if that was normal or unusual).  He (VERY SLOWLY I might add) got into his bed without one word, took a little power nap, and with the same amount of energy and words, put himself back into his chair.  Down the hall he went.  As I exited the room to leave the nursing home, I began smiling at everyone I passed.  It was as if people had not seen smiles in days or weeks, and didn’t know how to respond.  Upon reaching the front desk, there was grandpa’s roommate sitting all alone with such a blank expression.  I flashed a smile at him with a “have a good day”.  He lit up like a Christmas tree and nodded.  Again, the smile infection continued to spread.

On the drive home, God reminded me how smiling is such a simple and inexpensive gift to give.  In fact, it doesn’t cost a thing.  It brightens the day of everyone around so when you don’t think you have anything to give, you can always share one.  Never under-estimate the power of a smile.

Questions:   Am I leaving a trail of smiles?  How contagious am I?  What am I reflecting to others?

May the entire nursing home be infected with simple smiles Lord.  Fill the building with people overflowing with joy.  Let it be a place of hope and life Lord.  Bless the nurses that work there and the aids that daily take care of so many in their final days, weeks and months.  Pour Your presence and healing in those rooms God.

Oh Brother!

Warning:  This post may not really have a point…simply something to think about or just some late night rambling…

I was thinking…again.  (My husband would likely say “you might hurt yourself if you keep this up!”)  We like to watch Deadliest Catch.  I know, these guys are not the most polished group of guys, and about every 4th word out of their mouths is beeped, but I still love watching the show.  The story of their lives and their livelihood has captured my attention for the past few years.

This week as we were watching the Hillstrand brothers carry on as usual, I had this crazy thought:  Were the disciples like this motley crew of guys when Jesus called them?  I wonder if the “sons of thunder” (James and John) were similar to these 2 brothers, or perhaps like Captain Phil’s sons Jake and Josh or maybe even Sig and Edgar?  I’m sure Jesus didn’t give James and John the name “sons of thunder” because of their calm, polite personalities (Mark 3:16-18).  And Peter…well, he’s most likely a topic for another post.  His ear chopping temper would certainly hit me as material for this show (John 18:10).

I don’t know… I just wonder what it was like when these men dropped their nets, walked away from their livelihoods and began pursuing a man named Jesus 2,000+ years ago.  Have we made these guys in our minds into little holy soft-spoken guys standing by the edge of the pond reciting poetry to one another?  I was going to say “we’ll never know”, but actually, I plan to watch the replay on the big screen in Heaven one day and hear their story first hand.  I’m willing to go out on a limb to say they might have been just like some of these guys, just trying to make a living out on their own version of the Bering Sea.  Hmmmm…just thinking.