FPT (Front Porch Therapy): Women Of Faith part 3

Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day. Fog everywhere. Walking out in the evening though, it felt like spring.

Psalm 143 - I was watching the women sing and we've been discussing in our group what it is that makes women raise their hands in praise during music. Wondering if they catch themselves doing it while they're driving in the car. As I watched the women this morning, I was hit by a thought. What if these women are giving all of themselves to the music in this moment. They aren't letting anything else distract them. They are making a direct connection to the Spirit in this moment.

Mike Lewis came to paint for us. It was an amazing experience.

He tells the story of Jesus in his painting. Once the whole story has been shared, you see the face of Jesus. It was amazing.

Liz Curtis Higgs was our next speaker.

God loves you exactly as you are.
1 John 3:1 - lavished...what a word. - and an exclamation point.
Eph 3:18 - wide, long, high, deep, it's got all aspects covered kind of like one size fits all. To which she wanted to know all of what? All of your arm, your leg, what part. She then informed us that they are changing it to one size fits most. Which she is so thrilled about because now she can leave the house with most of it covered.
He knows your first breath and your last.
He stores every tear that falls in a bottle.
God never said, "oops" about any person.
It's easy to look around and compare yourself to each other. There will always be someone more thinner, taller, younger than you. You are the definition of beautiful for you.
Stop discounting your beauty and disagreeing with God's creation.
Beyond faith, into something all together more
When you get dressed in the morning, you definitely do not want to do this naked, jump in front of the mirror and throw your hands in the air and say, "TAH DAH". Two reasons. One, when you throw your arms up in the air, it picks everything up. Two, Tah Dah stands for, "Thank you Father". And if you do this in front of your daughters, they can think, "If she can say Tah Dah with all of that, I've got it going on."
Psalm 149:4 - beautify us with salvation.
He looks down and says, "She is Mine." (which reminded me of leaning over the balcony and watching all the women go by.)
Deut 7:6 - chosen to be...his treasured possession
2 Tim 1:9 - before the beginning of time
Now on to the story of Adam and Eve. She had one commandment to follow and it was a diet. It was a food problem from the beginning. The one fruit you couldn't resist. God was ready from the beginning. the fruit was there to prove how much we need him. It couldn't have been an apple, the apple is always the last fruit in the fruit basket. It had to be chocolate. The man was with her...when did he get there? She had quite the long conversation with the serpent in order to convince her to fall to temptation. All Adam needed was her.
When we sin, we try to cover it like they did in the garden. They wove vines and leaves and covered themselves. But the thing with leaves is that once they are plucked, they wither and die and reveal what is behind them. Just like our attempts to cover our sin are worthless and eventually fade away. God had to make proper coverings for them to wear to hide their sin. Only God can properly cover us. Some innocent animal had to die for us to get those skins to wear out of the garden that day. From the beginning innocent blood needed to be shed to cover our sin.
Book of Ruth 2:9 nobody is lower than the gleaner, which was Ruth's job, and was offered good water from Boaz. It was an offer of hospitality and says, "I want a relationship with you."
Ruth 2:10 She's blown away by this offer. "Why are you looking at me?" She felt unworthy. why have you looked my way? Why have you chosen me?
"I chose my pit, a Moab of my own making." Nobody dives into a pit in a day. Starting at age 16 the spiral started for her with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, men. Most men won't care when the lights go out. She shares the different mental states at the end of the night in the bar.
"He let me hit bottom." It's the only way they'll get out.
The prodigal son. He came to his senses that he was in a pit...his senses....especially the sense of smell.
God is with you in that pit, you cannot out run God. God saw all of it. He is there, you just have to seek Him.
"There are reasons I shouldn't have survived that pit."
Brand new Christians are like puppies just waiting for someone to piddle on.
The power of a hug (which I got to use later that day). Love them, don't judge them. Wrap them up in God's embrace.
It's not "you have to believe in God", it's "God believes in you".
"These Christians had Bibles everywhere. In their car, in their bathroom, everywhere you could think of."
He died for us, so why not live for Him.
Walk chosen.

Max Lucado was up next.

He shared that he was excited to be here this weekend because he would finally get a bathroom all to himself. He has three daughters at home. And we confiscated the bathrooms just like at home.
There are still a few things he doesn't get about women. 1. the purse 2. going to the bathroom together...because if he ever got up to go to the bathroom and three guys got up to join him, that he would change his mind and not go.
But the world would be empty, dry and stale without women.
You're going to get through this, He'll turn it good.
40 Days of Prayer for the USA - for God to grant a candidate
Seeing the ocean for the first time and how it moved. The waves just kept coming. They might knock you down and you have to crawl back to the shore because they just keep coming. Just like the Grace of God keeps coming. Wave after wave it comes. You get knocked down and it washes over you again and again.
Grace is the Big News. Timothy - be strong in it. Hebrews - make sure no one misses the Grace of God.
Abundance of Grace = lack of bitterness
John 8 - the story of the harlot that was caught in adultery and brought to Jesus at the temple where he was teaching. "He who is without sin, throw the first stone." Turns out it was a whole trick because there is no mention of the man being caught with the woman. After Jesus is questioned as to what this woman's punishment is meant to be, He stoops down and writes something in the sand. What did He write? Jesus had stooped down so that the woman would not be the lowest one there. He also wanted to be at eye level with her and not them. Grace is the God that stoops.
Jesus spent his life building chairs and putting up with cranky customers.
Warmness in your heart and openness of mind is God talking to you.
Back to the story in John 8, beginning with the eldest, the accusers all turned and left. They arrived as a group but they left one by one. Jesus stooped back down as they started to leave and wrote some more in the sand. Then He stood up and asked, "Where are your accusers?"
Where are your accusers? Those voices that pull you out of bed at night. The feel of the stares as you walk down the street. We can relate to the condemnation whether it's been for a lifetime or just a moment. Guilt is the preferred commodity of Satan. He recruits demons to follow us around and look for those weaknesses.
He will not allow anyone to take us out of His hand.
Satan steals our joy with accusations. In Revelations, ...was cast to the earth, the accuser...
The Bible is not just to show us what He did but what He still does for us today.
He's your intercessor, He's your advocate. He stands up for you, He speaks for you. Your name has been spoken in heaven. He gave his help to that woman but he gives his heart/hope to us. When you give your heart to Jesus, He returns the favor and gives us his heart.
Get a new Want to, a new Can do.
No other religion talks about having their deity in their heart.
Taylor's gift. "I want to hear my own daughter's heart beat one more time." Their 13 year old daughter died in a skiing accident and a mother of three was waiting for a heart. The families kept in touch. (Go to the website if none of that makes sense to you.) Who's heart beat did they hear?
When you give your heart to Jesus and He gives His heart to you, that's who heart God hears.
216 times Christ's indwelling is told about in the Bible.
Maybe you can't control your temper, but Jesus can and He lives inside you. Maybe you can't control your addiction, but Jesus can and He lives inside you.
It may take awhile because "transplants" take time.
He's going to change you.
You are not stuck. (reminded me of the Jennie Allen study I did.)
Maintain the heart of a sponge not the heart of a rock.
Soften your heart, you are not an exception to the rule.
Youtube video Joy placed herself between a cliff and a runaway SUV in order to save her three kids still inside.
Back to the woman in John 8 - Jesus said, "I don't accuse you, now sin no more." Each stone that fell from her accuser's hand is a burial stone of judgement and pride. We may guess that Jesus wrote in the sand, "Grace happened here today."
It's amazing what God can do with a broken life if you give Him all the pieces.