I Am God Designed

Kristi Neace, Valerie Howe and I are leading a conference called “Unshakeable” at First Baptist Church, Villa Ridge, on October 15. Our featured Scripture passage that day is from Luke 10:27—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as your love yourself” (TEV). Kristi will be speaking on loving God with all your soul and mind, and Valerie will be speaking on loving God with all your heart and strength. I’ll be speaking on loving your neighbor. Cheryl asked those of you in her blog readership if you had any questions for the three of us regarding these verses. One of you told her to ask me, “How do you love yourself if you never have?” Here’s My Answer I would question the “never have” part of the question. I suspect you love yourself some . You love yourself if you take care of yourself at all. You love yourself enough not to step out in front of a speedy car. You make

I was looking at my garden this morning. Or at least what's left of it. The weeds have gotten so tall now that it's hard to see the actual plants that are in there. Some of them are even taller than me(although, for those of you who know me, that isn't too crazy tall!). Even so, when I looked passed all of the craziness of what time, weeds, and chickens have done to this garden, I found quite a few tall, healthy, and fruit-bearing(veggie-bearing) plants!  I have peppers growing...lots of them!  And this was a garden that we had totally given up on, even to the point of talking about mowing it all down.  I had been so disappointed by the destruction that our chickens had done, I had come to terms with the fact that we just wouldn't get any peppers this year. I had stopped weeding it, watering it, everything! Then, I looked at those plants today, with amazement and excitement.                        There have been times in my life where I believe that I was

Hello, Ladies!! Today, we are in for a very special treat!  Valerie Howe, one of our speakers from I Am God Designed 2015 & 2016 will be guest posting for us today.  It was such a joy to work with her these last two years and I am excited to have her sharing with us today! Here is the link to her site, and while you are there, check out all the ministry work she has been doing lately and what events she has coming up! Cheryl http://www.valhowe.com/blog1/2016/8/8/sound-of-persistent-knocking-seriously

The yoke we bear is so heavy at times. Many times we feel like it will just squash us flat!  I have been  going through this Bible study, Breaking Free by Beth Moore.  As I was reading through the material this week, trying to catch up to where everyone else is, it is revealed to me over and over again! You can feel completely free from past sins and temptations that surround you today! Galatians 5:1 says: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." I don't know about you, but I can't tell you how many times I have laid a past sin or burden down at the foot of the cross and not a few days later picked it back up again!  Sometimes I think that I can handle it on my own...or maybe just feel so guilty over a sin (one that has been confessed and forgiven) that I don't feel worthy of forgiveness and mercy.  We must remind ourselves that Christ died for those sins and God has

Purity is so much more than the physical purity that we all think about!!  Matthew 5:8 says “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ” Purity, according to Miriam Webster Dictionary, means “lack of dirty or harmful substances” and “lack of guilt or evil thoughts”. That sums it up so well for us! The Bible tells that unclean, evil, impure things are sin. Sin causes our uncleanness. So to get to a place where we can have a pure heart, we must begin with salvation. After the fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, we are naturally sinful people(we are born with sin). Romans 3:23 “ all have sinned ” Romans 3:10 “ there is none righteous, no not one ” The punishment for this sin in our hearts is death(Romans 6:23). Jeremiah 4:14 “ O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? ” Jesus Christ was sent here to be a sacrifice for our sins..to pay our debt so that we may spe

Funny how meanings to some phrases can change depending on our perspective. Growing up being sold out was a bad thing! But to be considered sold out  for Christ would be an honor . To be a "sell out" would be when we tell people that we are "Christian" but nothing about the way we live shows people that. We may even go to church sometimes(maybe even every  Sunday), but our daily lives do not mirror the Word of God.  This happens far more than we could ever realize or would like to admit! I grew up going to church EVERY week, but my interactions with friends, coworkers, etc...didn't always match up.  I was nice to most people, but that was only as long as they didn't cross me or one of my friends...then the gloves came off. From the size of my sassy attitude, you would never have guessed that I was a petite, 5' tall girl! Something tells me that when I was acting that way...not many people would have been desiring to attend the same church that I d

Our women's conference this spring was titled With All Your Heart and focused on Mark 12:30. "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." This means that we are to love our God with everything in us! In John 14:15, Jesus tells us "If ye love me, keep my commandments". This is HUGE! This should not be taken lightly by any of us. We are to follow God's law always...not when it benefits us, not to make ourselves look good to others, not when its easy, not when its convenient, not to earn salvation...but simply as a way to show our outpouring love for the Father. "But we are all prone to sin." "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes." "Even so and so and such and such have done those things too, so it can't be that bad, right?" These are lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better when we fall to t