Seven Sacrifices to Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Oh, it’s a great day to write from my heart to yours, to have this sort of fellowship/communication that I don’t take lightly but cherish knowing we spend this time together! Grab your coffee and come on in for some more foundation of communication.
Hebrews 13:16 says: "But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." The word “communicate” means to share what you have. But why am I trying to spiritualize communication, you ask? Well, the simple answer is: This is a spiritual matter but let me explain a bit more, and thanks in advance for hearing me. :)
I don’t know about you, but my flesh can be incredibly greedy and stingy and unwilling to part with my acquired pride which drives my opinions and my need to be heard and/or understood! This becomes a fleshly hindrance to a spiritual gift but also a key to the ultimate way that communication is a sacrifice. See, the Spirit in us is quick to share, to give, to communicate. And not that we want to compare sacrifices or level of sacrificing, per se, but God is pleased when we sacrifice that which hinders the type of communication that edifies and builds up. This sacrifice pleases God because God is a living God and desires for His children to be like Him, pursuing relationships, healthy relationships.
Did you know that information is giving out while communication is pouring in? I just heard that in class the other night and thought I’d share it with you! :) So communicating is a type of sharing of ourselves, especially when it leads us to helping others or to consistent fellowship. This of course requires that we share our time, thoughts, resources, and our prayers with others. Sometimes the greatest gift you can share with someone else, especially with God, is yourself. And when people you love the most communicate the least, isn’t that infuriating? No communication is like being in a big dark room with someone and you know you’re eventually going to bump into them, but you’re not sure when! You’re left with all kinds of suppositions, predispositions and crazy expectations.
Just the other day, my husband and I were walking to our car and he communicated something to me that brought me out of what feels like that dark room and I stopped as he spoke. He said, “You know how when you’re asked, ‘how’s your day,’ or ‘how is this,’ or how is that going,’ and you don’t even think and you just say fine?”
I wasn’t quite tracking what he was saying so I said, “Sort of.”
And then he gave me a sweet example where he replayed a typical conversation we’d have at the dinner table with little Bryden and asking about his day and his one-word answers were either good or fine and we’d have to get a little bit more specific to help him use some different words. I smiled at the memories and nodded my head.
He suddenly indicated to his head by pointing to it and saying, “Well, I have so much in here, but when you ask me stuff, all I can say is the same thing.”
I was stunned into silence, my heart falling more in love with him. I didn’t know what to say. Imagine me, speechless! :)
He went on: “I know it’s a guy thing, but I don’t want to be that way with you.”
My darkroom suddenly went white with bright light and all I could do was hug him to me and suggest that maybe I could slow down, and be a safer place for his thoughts, as jumbled as they may be to lands.
Oh, you talk about a huge dose of sweet humility! Coffee Hour Friend, things are never as they seem, even in the darkroom of no communication. Continue to pray, seek to speak words that edify and build up that you and those you desire to communicate with can rise above the darkroom of no communication or painful conflict!
Love,

Evinda

WHO'S YOUR DADDY - Part II

Who's Your Daddy?

 Ohhhhh my goodness!!! I am at a laundromat in a new state with an old problem on my hands: I am a selfish and self-centered person who needs the saving grace of a Being so dang big that my sins cannot only be forgiven but overcome. Let me let you in on a little secret… I am a wreck! I feel like I can barely see ten feet in front of me and need to see a hundred. I think that if I could see that far in front of me, then I would think that I knew where I was going, and let me be clear; I do not know where I am going. Every time that I think that I do, and take the wheel, I end up stranded on the side of a desert road with a blown engine, dehydrated, with buzzards circling above me head.
I just don’t know, you guys; I really, really, really don’t. I have no idea what tomorrow holds. I know I have a final interview for a job, but I have no idea what will happen. I just don’t know. Sometimes I wish I did know what was going to happen, but like the Bible says, it is His pleasure to hide certain things and for us to find them when we seek Him. [Matthew 7:11] I am definitely learning that He is a good father, wanting to surprise His children with good gifts when they look for their Dad. This is a hard concept for me to grasp; all I’ve ever known is an absent father. Could He be trying to teach me something different?
So I am in the great state of Texas with nothing familiar around me except His big blue sky, which is a little bigger out here, by the way, and I am so scared but at the same time I have a great peace because I know who packed my parachute. I don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next so I just keep praying for strength, wisdom, and favor because I need it. I have eyes to see, but it’s like I am blind. I want to be completely in His care and living in complete abandon to His spirit. Pray for me, please… We need it.
Jesus, help me. There are so many questions spinning around in my head: Where am I even at? Why do you even love me? You’ve seen all that I’ve done but still you insist on blessing me! Please teach me what it means to know a father, to know unconditional love and to know what it means to trust You. Please, never let me go, God. Please don’t let me ever get away from you. Amen.

Jeff

Wednesday’s Word from Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Welcome to our coffee hour and to Wednesday’s Word. I realize it’s the 1st of the month, which is normally our WOW time, but I’m still praying for direction as to which verse He wants me to share, so I’m postponing our WOW until next week. In the meantime, I do have another powerful revelation to put into words inspired by His love and patience.

Last week, George and I found ourselves in a bit of a precarious situation where we had to pray and trust instead of worry and fret. The thing that made it a lot harder is we were so far away from the situation physically speaking, so the only thing we really could do was pray. We clasped hands and did just that.

When we were done, we both got up and I began to do something – I don’t remember what, and I looked over at George and he was just standing and staring off into who knows where. I fanned my hand in front of his face to see if he would come back and at least blink, and it worked! Where did you go? I asked. “I’m just worried,” and then he did something so cool: As if God were physically there, he began to talk with Him, and refreshing his own faith with scripture. It was one of those moments in our marriage that I will savor for a long, long time.

So as I share this power thought which is a great accountability tool, I hope it helps you overcome the sin of worrying:

Worry is like a squatter: it sneaks in and tries to stay without paying rent! Serve it eviction papers!

Oh, that we would worry less and pray more . . .

Evinda

Reality Check-October’s WOW-From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks so much for joining me for a little break today. I know it’s not always easy to get away, but I pray this will be a wise investment of your time today. Grab your coffee and come on in and let’s get back to our WOW.
I’m still stunned at the reality of the necessity of walking in the truth of these words, and my desire for them to manifest in my DNA and rid me of anything that is not from Him, with Him and for Him. And while we’re at it, Father, could you help me to quit comparing myself to other authors and speakers! (Go ahead and pray that one for me and for you!:) )
Here’s the Words of Wisdom: Philippians 2:3-4 (don’t you love that easy address?) Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit – I wasn’t going to take the same detour as last year, but I think I’d better so we can receive all that is intended! Since this is New Testament, I’ll go to the Greek concordance. The word that is pulling at my attention is ambition. So, ambition – wait, there is no “ambition” in the concordance. Well, that’s weird. Okay, so it must be a translation thing. So, that’s okay; I’ll go to my Holy Bible (1865 copy) which says: “Translated out of the original tongues,” which says: “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.” Interesting! Now let me look up strife. This is getting fun! :)
The word strife translates to eritheia and “denotes self-seeking ambition, self-will being an underlying idea with an emphasis on drawing followers.” It also says: Seeking to win followers creates factions, and factions are the result of jealousy.
Oh, my, the taste of conviction is bittersweet as I think about tweeting on Twitter and connecting on Facebook, and dealing with all the other forms of social media that help in the platform-building process for an author. And as I rewind my book-signing experiences, I can’t help but admit that He’s used them all, individually and collectively, for His purposes. I’m totally smiling right now because I remember one recent book-signing at my nail salon. This woman was getting her toes done and she was totally engrossed in a book, a book that has gone to the New York’s Best Seller’s list in record time. I literally almost broke out in tears at the inadvertent rejection and my mind spilled out questions that only He could answer. Just before I jumped in the pool of pity, I received a text from a team member sharing that someone who had been to our recent workshop had rededicated her life to Christ afterwards. I pulled myself away from the pity pool and my phone announced another text, sort of like a P.S.: “Oh, after she read Back to Single.”
My heart smiled while my mind begged for forgiveness for coveting the success of this author who was reaching people in the flesh while He is reaching hearts, albeit one at a time, through Back to Single. And somewhere in this WOW is the key to balance in this mind-boggling challenge of how to get what He has written through me out to the hearts of women all over without sounding as though I’m all about me.
Oh, how true it is that the Word is alive and Holy Spirit inspired. Please join me tomorrow for the conclusion to our October WOW.
Humbly,
Evinda