Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

 I get the joy of babysitting my grand puppy often. Tonight, my son's dog was enjoying his favorite ball. Not a problem, usually. Tonight, however, we were hosting our church small group while he squeezed his squeaky ball over and over and over . We had enough, so we hid his ball on top of my armoire. He saw us hide his ball and spent the next hour staring at the ball. He would walk away, become distracted, but always returned to stare at his treasure. What if we did this with our spiritual lives? In Phillipians 3:12 NIV  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. What if we had tenacious faith that focuses so intently on Jesus that when distractions come, our faith remains steady. When things happen around us, we only have eyes for the true treasure- Jesus. What if we stay focused until we obtain our prize? Oh the joy when we obtain it! May your eyes rem...

  As pastors, this is one of our busiest days.We celebrate the gift of God in His Son, Jesus. He died on the cross willingly to take our sin and brokenness on Himself. In return, we received salvation and everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Just to show you how important this day is to God, let me show you through the Bible. In Genesis, Adam and Eve chose their will over God's will when they are the forbidden fruit. In doing so, they created a distance between them and God. Sin cannot enter the presence of God, and Adam allowed the sin of pride and rebellion to be a part of his life. God immediately removed them from the Garden of Eden so they could no longer have access to the Tree of Life. This was merciful because it meant that man did not have to spend an eternity without God. Instead, they now faced death and temporary separation from God. Through sacrifice and obedience, they could enter back into relationship with God. Throughout the rest of the...

  I had the privilege of speaking at a women's retreat at Rock Haven Bible Camp this weekend. I always enjoy the time I spend there. I opened with a crazy thing that has happened to me over the last couple of weeks, so here goes ... with the weather changing from hot to cold and back again, I have struggled with dry skin. To alleviate some of the itch, I smear body lotion all over my arms and legs at night. After doing this for a while, I.noticed the itch getting worse. It got so bad that I had to swing by my house during the day to apply more lotion. By evening this last Wednesday, I couldn't take it anymore. I asked my husband to rub it over my whole back. I warned him to be careful because the essential oils in the lotion burned my eyes. I even told him that it must be long-lasting lotion. He replied that it was the slimiest lotion he had ever seen. While applying lotion, I read the tube. As I squinted at the tiny print, I realized I had been applying body wash to my body fo...

  As a result of a missions-giving competition in our church between the girls and boys, I was the person who shared an illustrated sermon this morning. My costume was a huge whale blanket. I've never felt so warm in my life! I'll share the main points. Jonah did not want to go to the city of Nineveh. It was a violent and depraved city, and God told Jonah as the prophet of God to tell them to turn from evil and He would spare them. Jonah did not want to do this, so he bought a ticket on a boat headed in the opposite direction to Joppa. While on the ship, God sent a storm that almost destroyed the boat. The men that didn't serve God figured out that Jonah had angered God. They eventually threw him overboard at his request. They repented.  The storm immediately calmed. God then sent a big fish to swallow Jonah. While in the fish belly for 3 days, he argued with God. After 3 days, he repented, and the fish spewed him on dry land. He obeyed God, spoke to the king of Nineveh, an...