Saturday, May 12, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Ladies' Night Out!
It's that time of year again!
Ladies' Night Out
will be
Friday, March 30th
at the
Sulphur Springs FWB Church
Family Life Center.
Tickets are $10 each.
See any of our ladies to purchase your tickets.
You are sure to receive a blessing!
Ticket includes your meal, and great door prizes will be given.
Please be in prayer for our speaker, Nikki, as she prepares.
Ladies' Night Out
will be
Friday, March 30th
at the
Sulphur Springs FWB Church
Family Life Center.
Tickets are $10 each.
See any of our ladies to purchase your tickets.
You are sure to receive a blessing!
Ticket includes your meal, and great door prizes will be given.
Please be in prayer for our speaker, Nikki, as she prepares.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
YWAC Bible Study for February
The February Young Women Active for Christ Bible Study is available online now! Go to www.wnac.org and check it out!
Thoughts on being single
God created women to be a help meet for men. (Gen. 2:18)
A virtuous woman has a honorable husband. (Prov. 31:23)
Young women are commanded to love their husbands. (Titus 2:3-5)
The older women are to teach the younger women how to do so. (Titus 2:3-5)
Women are to submit to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22)
I understand all that.
God has a plan for the way a home and a family works. The man is the head of the household and the woman is his supporter and helper. She submits to his authority, he loves her like Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:22-25).
So what does that mean for a single woman today? If you don't have a husband, what does all of that mean to you?
I'm beginning to wonder if this is one of those questions that is unanswerable... You know the kind - like why do children die of cancer? And if God tells us to be fruitful and multiply then why do people have problems with infertitlity?
Why do some people have to go through life alone?
It seems like such a heavy cross to bear, but Paul considered being single a blessing:
"I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them to abide even as I." I Corinthians 7:7-8
I can understand what he was saying there. When you're single, sometimes the only person you have to talk to is God. That can really deepen your relationship with Him, while if you were married or in a romantic relationship you probably would spend that precious time with another person instead of spending it with God.
Plus, the people in Corinth were having problems within their marriages. He continues the chapter with warnings against divorce and fornication.
He even encourages the young, single men and women in verse 25: "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."
Be faithful.
Those two words are encouraging and discouraging at the same time. It's good to know that you can always count on God, but it can be so hard to wait on His timing. It's always worth it, but that doesn't make the wait any easier.
So what does all this mean for people like me - people that hope to someday be married, but just haven't gotten there yet? Paul sums it up pretty well in 1 Corinthians 7:34b "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit."
We are to be faithful and remain pure and holy.
A hard task? Sometimes it can be. But God has His reasons.
God says "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you," in Matthew 7:7. He wants His children to be happy. Tell Him about your dreams and desires. And have hope for the future, but don't spend so much time living in the future that you forget to enjoy the present.
A virtuous woman has a honorable husband. (Prov. 31:23)
Young women are commanded to love their husbands. (Titus 2:3-5)
The older women are to teach the younger women how to do so. (Titus 2:3-5)
Women are to submit to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22)
I understand all that.
God has a plan for the way a home and a family works. The man is the head of the household and the woman is his supporter and helper. She submits to his authority, he loves her like Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:22-25).
So what does that mean for a single woman today? If you don't have a husband, what does all of that mean to you?
I'm beginning to wonder if this is one of those questions that is unanswerable... You know the kind - like why do children die of cancer? And if God tells us to be fruitful and multiply then why do people have problems with infertitlity?
Why do some people have to go through life alone?
It seems like such a heavy cross to bear, but Paul considered being single a blessing:
"I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them to abide even as I." I Corinthians 7:7-8
I can understand what he was saying there. When you're single, sometimes the only person you have to talk to is God. That can really deepen your relationship with Him, while if you were married or in a romantic relationship you probably would spend that precious time with another person instead of spending it with God.
Plus, the people in Corinth were having problems within their marriages. He continues the chapter with warnings against divorce and fornication.
He even encourages the young, single men and women in verse 25: "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."
Be faithful.
Those two words are encouraging and discouraging at the same time. It's good to know that you can always count on God, but it can be so hard to wait on His timing. It's always worth it, but that doesn't make the wait any easier.
So what does all this mean for people like me - people that hope to someday be married, but just haven't gotten there yet? Paul sums it up pretty well in 1 Corinthians 7:34b "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit."
We are to be faithful and remain pure and holy.
A hard task? Sometimes it can be. But God has His reasons.
God says "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you," in Matthew 7:7. He wants His children to be happy. Tell Him about your dreams and desires. And have hope for the future, but don't spend so much time living in the future that you forget to enjoy the present.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Are you available?
Our God is all-powerful. He can do anything that He wants. And yet, He chooses to use us - unreliable, imperfect people - to carry out His will. He chooses to work in our lives; not because He needs us, but because He loves us.
I was listening to the Ty Show on WDJC tonight and heard Matt Pitt, the founder of The Basement (a huge youth rally in Birmingham). He was talking about how God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I love this quote from him:
This is so true! Need proof? Check out the New Testament. When Jesus began His ministry, He didn't go to the Temple to find strong religious leaders to be His disciples. Instead, Jesus called on normal, common men that were a little (or in some cases, a lot) rough around the edges. He called Peter, a hot-headed fisherman. He called Matthew, a tax collector. He called James and John while they were in their fishing boat.
When Jesus met these men, He didn't ask them what abilities they had that would help His ministry. He didn't ask them about their strengths and weaknesses. He simply asked them to follow Him. He didn't need any ability that they had. He just needed for them to be available and for them to be willing to walk with Him.
That's all God is asking of us today. He doesn't need a list of your talents. He knows what they are already because He blessed you with them. He doesn't need a list of your weaknesses and excuses. He already knows about them, and He has the power to overcome them. All He wants is for us to follow Him.
When we choose to be available for God, He will take our ordinary lives and make them extraordinary.
I was listening to the Ty Show on WDJC tonight and heard Matt Pitt, the founder of The Basement (a huge youth rally in Birmingham). He was talking about how God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I love this quote from him:
"God doesn't need your ability. He needs your availability."
This is so true! Need proof? Check out the New Testament. When Jesus began His ministry, He didn't go to the Temple to find strong religious leaders to be His disciples. Instead, Jesus called on normal, common men that were a little (or in some cases, a lot) rough around the edges. He called Peter, a hot-headed fisherman. He called Matthew, a tax collector. He called James and John while they were in their fishing boat.
When Jesus met these men, He didn't ask them what abilities they had that would help His ministry. He didn't ask them about their strengths and weaknesses. He simply asked them to follow Him. He didn't need any ability that they had. He just needed for them to be available and for them to be willing to walk with Him.
That's all God is asking of us today. He doesn't need a list of your talents. He knows what they are already because He blessed you with them. He doesn't need a list of your weaknesses and excuses. He already knows about them, and He has the power to overcome them. All He wants is for us to follow Him.
When we choose to be available for God, He will take our ordinary lives and make them extraordinary.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Need some encouragement?
In Deuteronomy 31:6, we are told, "Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."
When we are facing hard times, we can count on God! Whether you need a cheerleader to lift you up or a coach to straighten you out, God offers you the encouragement that you need to get through anything.
Check out the Young Women Active for Christ Bible Study for January at www.wnac.org for some more encouragement this month!
When we are facing hard times, we can count on God! Whether you need a cheerleader to lift you up or a coach to straighten you out, God offers you the encouragement that you need to get through anything.
Check out the Young Women Active for Christ Bible Study for January at www.wnac.org for some more encouragement this month!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Called to Wait
I've never liked waiting for things. If there's something I want, I want it now. Patience is a virtue, and it is one that I am constantly working on and stuggling to practice.
I recently read an article about the Biblical roles of men and women in relationships. This is something I have noticed a lot of Christian writers and speakers focusing on lately, and I think it's because our culture tries to tell us that the sexes are equal. We are taught from society that women can do anything men can do and vice versa. We are taught that men and women were created equally, but when you look into the Scripture, you can see that is not the case.
God created men to be leaders. He gave them practical minds and leadership skills. He gave them dominion over all the other creatures of the world.
God created women to be helpers. He made them nurturing. He gave them the gifts of creativity and multi-tasking and the wonderful priveledge of bringing life into the world.
He created us very differently, because He had designed two very different roles for us to fill.
The article I read ("Designed To Be Different" by Candice Watters, The Brink Magazine, Fall 2010, Randall House Publishing) talked about these differences and how they affect our relationships. One part that especially stuck out to me was:
"My friend Carolyn McCulley illustrated one of these differences in a talk she gave about romance, 'Men trust God by risking rejection. Women trust God by waiting.' We're equally called to trust, but in different ways.
That's hard to hear. Why the difference? For women, it feels passive. For both, unfair. Yet from Genesis forward, God made male and female distinct. We are the same at the cross, equally in need of redemption, equally invited to receive it. But in our sexuality, we are not the same."
That's something I have never thought about before. Male and female are both called to trust God when it comes to relationships, but in different ways. And I have to admit, its a hard thing to do.
Because just like Mrs. Watters said in her article, waiting feels so passive. Finding a spouse is one of the most important things we will do on this earth. And it can be really hard to wait for God to send that person.
One of the hardest things for me to accept has been that I am not promised a spouse. I'm still not sure if I have accepted the fact that Mr. Right may never come. It's something that I have always assumed would happen. Getting married has always been in my plan. But I don't know if it is in God's plan or not. All I can do is trust and wait.
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