"Invaluable Opportunities" Abound - The Book of James Series

Welcome to our Book of James Series!

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Hello there, friends!

Welcome to the second installment of our Study through the Book of James! If you missed our kick-off/introduction post a couple of weeks ago, you can read that by clicking HERE!

The plan is to post twice a month, and go through James' letter to the early church slowly, a few verses at a time, throughout this year! This book/letter is PACKED full of wisdom and challenges, so we're not going to rush our way through it or skim over the hard parts (as much as we may want to!)  

My hope for this series is that even more than with other posts, Y'all will interact in the comment section and share your own thoughts, insights, prayers, or questions! Let's dig into the Word together and help build each other up!

Today... we are simply going over James 1:1-4!

Oh, When We Long for an Easy Fix... a Five Minute Friday post.

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This year I have set a goal to write in this space more often. This is not a lofty goal... as I mentioned on January 1st, I only tapped out words here 5 or 6 times in 2020! Already - this goal has almost been met! Still... one of my favorite forms of writing here over the many years has been to participate with the Five Minute Friday community!

I have missed the free flow of a timed writing challenge --and even more so, I've missed the camaraderie of knowing we are not in this alone! Writing our heart out on a blank screen and hitting publish can feel oh so vulnerable and lonely... to be honest, I battled with that most of last year. It felt pointless... like it didn't really matter... But - it does matter! Even if I write these words and they only minister to me... they matter! So --let's get back into this routine!

This is a Five Minute Friday post... which simply means I set a timer and free-write for five minutes flat. I then add graphics and format a bit, but the actual writing stops (or at least is given an asterisk!) when my timer goes off! 

Today, our one-word prompt is: FIX

{GO!} 

Fix...

I see the prompt and immediately think, "Fix it, Jesus!"
(I mean, right?) 

No matter what we think is broken --in ourselves, our lives, our families, marriages, churches, country, world... whatever feels or looks or IS broken... we want it fixed! 

But if we are being totally honest... sometimes we don't really want the right fix... we want the EASY fix!  And, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but... Jesus? Yeah... He fixes things the correct way - going all the way down to the root. There are no shortcuts or quick-fixes with Him.  He's in it for the long haul and He sees the WHOLE thing from every vantage point!  

He's never in a rush... 

  It's not who He is or how He operates!

So while we long for an Easy fix, He longs for a Back-to-the-Original,-Never-Been-Broken fix... He longs, as He whispered to me softly on New Years' Day, Resurrection sometimes over Restoration.

The Book of James... An Introduction to our Study

Hello, Sweet Readers!

It's time!  

As I mentioned in an earlier post (which you can read HERE) I hinted at the possibility of doing a Bible Study through the Book of James this year!  

I'm not sure how many of you joined in a couple of years ago, but we went through the Book of Colossians, verse by verse... ever so slowly, over the course of a year! It was doable (new posts twice a month!) and so powerful! So this year, we will be following the same format and digging into James. This is the book of the Bible the Lord highlighted to me on New Years Day saying it will be a vital book for the Body in 2021! (I mean - in ANY year, right? But it feels like especially this year!) 

We will read a few verses at a time from James together and ponder the Truth and Wisdom that he lays out for us. The goal is to go slow again... to encourage some Community in the Comment section for you all to participate in as well, and to get through the entire book, a few verses at a time, by the end of the year!

In full disclosure, I am no Bible Scholar.  I mean --I love the Word and I have known Him for all of my adult life. I love to study and dig and read in many different translations... but I don't speak Greek or Arabic or Latin and, while I have studied the Bible for years and have been both a Pastor and a preacher, I don't have letters behind my name or a Bible College Degree tucked away anywhere! 

However, the goal of this series is to

When Your OneWord Revisits You... 2021

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Maybe you are not aware of the movement that is OneWord365... or maybe you are in the know and already have fully embraced your Word for 2021! I normally try to post a few times a year about my Word and let Y'all know how it is showing up for me, but 2020 was far from 'normal' and those posts just didn't get written! 

I've been doing this OneWord365 project for many years and yet, each December, I pray into what He may have for me and ask Him to lead my Word to me. (And --usually-- I argue and second-guess! It's fine. It's all part of my charm!)

My OneWord last year was... --wait for it... : GATHER!

Yeah... GATHER, you guys?! (You can't tell me God isn't funny!)

I wrote this at the beginning of 2020, regarding my OneWord:

"We are awake to possibilities... and we are opening our hearts and our hands (and our home, because --obviously!) and we're, once again, desiring to be intentional in how this OneWord shows up and shows off!"

I was intentional in the beginning of the year - and then, COVID.  

The Annual Prophetic Post for the New Year - 2021 edition!

Happy New Year, Sweet Readers!

We made it!  

Somehow we made it through the Dumpster Fire that was 2020 and, honestly, I'm sure we will find in the end, we are better for it.  But right now --well, right now, maybe it's still too soon!?

Here we are: January 1st! A Brand New Year... a Fresh New Start... and I think all of us are so ready for it! 

This has become an anticipated post around here... but it's been a tradition long before I started blogging (which was a long, long, LONG time ago! Way back before Blogs were a Thing... and then they WERE a Thing, and then they weren't a Thing but we still did them, and now they just may be becoming a Thing yet again?!) 

Anyway... long before I wrote this New Years Day post here for the public, I practiced this routine in private --and year after year, it proves to be... well, -True? Helpful? Accurate? (All of the above!? Yes!)

This is our Annual Prophetic Post for the New Year!

I always ask the Lord for a word or phrase that will speak to the Body at large prophetically over the coming year.  I also ask Him to lead me to a book in the Bible that He wants to be highlighted to us, for us, and through us, throughout the year as well.  

He is always so ready to meet with us... so ready to speak!


First - a quick look back:

I'll Do Better... Happy New Year!

I'm still here! I'm still alive and well! I'm still thinking about sitting in the chair to write --I just haven't actually sat down much to write as of late!  

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In fact, if I'm totally honest --this post has been in my Drafts folder since July? Yep... July!? I'm not sure if I have ever blogged LESS in a year than I did through 2020.  

Seven Posts... all year long. Seven. (And one of those was a Guest Post!) 

That's not great.  

I had plans... plans to edit and publish the Bible study and a few more mini-books from the 31 Days Devotional series.  I had plans to create more --not less. I DID manage to write the monthly newsletter each month this year, so there is that! But I have missed the sitting down to tap out words.

Here's the deal... 

Here's the ONE thing I would do differently in 2020...