Breaking Bread

Hey ladies,

We are a few days away from Thanksgiving day and the holidays are quickly upon us.  I want to encourage you during this time, that its not all about the food, but really about the people that are with us.  Take the time to gauge your friends and family, spend time with them, eat with them, pray for them, uphold them, listen to them and their needs, get to meet new people and invite them to dinner...etc. 

Thanksgiving is a very hard time for a lot of people that do not have family members with them, as this tends to remind them of their loss or absence of...however, as Righteous Women, we are to key into these needs and offer assistance as we can.

Remember to look out to others, and share what you have with them....and hopefully, your relationships will go beyond Thursday's dinner and will carry on for a period or a lifetime...

I pray for your families, and know that God will continue to shine upon you. 
Happy Thanksgiving week...and be blessed!

Happy Rest

Have you ever felt the sweet happy sense of rest upon going to bed at night? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle and letting your body go into perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.  The strain of the day had ceased, for a few hours at least.  You no longer had to hold up an aching head, a weary back, or a burdened heart. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute confidence and it held you up without effort or strain.  You rested!

But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed, and had dreaded each moment to find it giving way beneath you.  Could you have rested then? Would not every muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up, and would not the weariness have been greater than if you had not gone to bed at all?

Now, apply this analogy to what it means to rest in the Lord.  Let you souls lie down upon the couch of His will.  Relax every strain, and lay off every burden.  Let yourself go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, knowing that, since He holds you up, you are perfectly safe.  Your part is simply to rest. His part is to sustan you; and He cannot fail.

Rest Builders:

• Is there an area or issue in your life in which you need to experience God's rest and peace?
• When have you felt a God-given rest or peace after particularly difficult times?

Effortless

Smooth like satin,
soft like a baby’s cheek,
clear as a river running in the Congo
is what I truly seek.

EFFORTLESS…EFFORTLESS

I love this word
EF-FORT-LESS.
I say it …I believe it…I receive it!

The vibe I get from it
makes me feel alive,
and I thank God
He has allowed me
to survive all the rain, all the pain,

EFFORTLESS being my gain,
all because He reigns!
My thinking is reborn,
as EFFORTLESS helps me get through the storm,
and it has spun a radiant light,
shining on all my different plights,
reminding me – “ This is not your fight…”

With EFFORTLESS…
I relax,
I sit back,
I am in a constant siesta,
and EFFORTLESS even brings the confetti to my fiesta!

When I have to scale tall walls or if I fall,
EFFORTLESS calls me, finds me,
bringing me goose down pillows laced with harmony.

When I see EFFORTLESS blowing in the wind,
I caress, catch it,
dang, even my little dog wants to fetch it,

EFFORTLESS always leaving me in a good breathless…
EFFORTLESS

Simply amazing, His love never changing.
I am at peace, no labor, no drama.
I attract EFFORTLESS,
EFFORTLESS finds me
desiring to give me a continuity of glee,
empowering me so I can remain free,
and able to be all I can be.

I feel healed
just by rolling this delicious word
from my heart to my tongue and through my mouth
as I happily shout… EFFORTLESS!

I speak it with intention,
anticipating EFFORTLESS coming to fruition,
while thanking God for his son’s Crucifixion
none of this story is fiction,
as you read between the lines, feel it in your spirit
and you see the theme of EFFORTLESS mentioned.
Anyone who cannot offer EFFORTLESS
and her sister named PEACE,
I must release.

It is then I supernaturally increase,
and I gain more momentum,
I hum, I become uniquely undone
with awesome abandonment,
I go higher and higher, focused on what’s truly important.
And as I go even higher, I look back realizing
just how much the enemy is a complete liar
and his plan to keep you, me and all of God’s family away from

EFFORTLESS…
Selah.

L. Archie ©9/14/2011
In the Shadow of His Wings
:~: Lori Archie :~:

Hiding from God

Nehemiah 1:5-6

I think the real reason we pray so little is fear: fear of facing God, fear also of facing our own and others' brokenness.  Our hearts are saying: "Can I really trust God? Will He really show me His love when I don't keep anything hidden from Him - or will I be crushed by His anger and lose the little bit of freedom I have so carefully carved out for myself?"

"Do not be afraid" Those are the moments where you can get closer to God.  God is a jealous God, yes, but His jealousy is not filled with possessiveness and suspicion; as is our human jealousy.  This is why we have a relationship, and not a religious contract with God.

God loves us with a perfect love.  A love that casts out all fear and allows us to approach Him and His people in complete freedom.  He loves us so much that He in fact, passionately desires our love in response.

So, ladies, pray without fear, enter God's presence with a vulnerable openness. Learn to be silent in His presence, so He can first speak to us and reveal us to ourselves as women created in love and created free to love. Then we can respond with a full "yes", affirming from the depth of our hearts that we are indeed made in the image and likeness of God.

Love Builders:

• What fears keep you from sharing openly with others?
• What fears keep you from feeling free to approach God in prayer?

Be certain of God's limitless love for you...no matter what!

Article from Joyce Meyer

Throughout the course of our lives, negative things happen...dissapointing things....heartbreaking things. People let us down. Situations we expect to turn out one way end up turning out another way.  It's really just part of life, but Satan always tempts us to wonder: God, what is going on, don't you love me?

The Bible makes it clear, very clear that God does love us (Ephesians 2:4-5). Still, every now and then, we find ourselves trapped in that mindset (of God, don't you love me?). 

If you struggled with fears and doubts, I want you to get a revelation today - a heart knowledge that no one can ever take away from you - If God loves me so much and He's so strong and capable of doing whatever needs to be done, then I don't have to live in fear because He's going to take care of me.

If we will simply believe that God loves us and wants to bless us, we will see good things happen in our lives.

A lot of women don't love themselves or see themselves as valuable because they've had life experiences that make them feel worthless, or because they struggle with sin and they think God is mad at them. And they become so accustomed to having disappointing things happen that they just kind of vaguely expect things to go wrong.

The only way to break the chains of fear and doubt is to know in your heart that God loves you - no matter what.

Sticking it out

So ladies, as you know, I hardly ever write about marriage, as I like to encourage women in general. But forgive me on this one :), I needed to put this down... Hopefully, we can all take something from it.

There is woven into the fabric of marriage a sense of something ongoing.  One woman, one man, together for a lifetime, right? But somewhere in the beginning, in between, somewhere along the journey, we adapt to some reasoning that as couples, we do not have to be "communicating" or having fun or constantly setting goals together.  We literally live single lives in a married home. We accept that all it takes is that we have to be together - and intend to stay that way.  This is faithfulness to each other and to God, according to feelings and whatever guards we have set up. 

Unfortunately, too many times, and too many people have been deceived to think that marriage should not be fun or fulfilling, or entertaining.  The dissapointment sets in when we get married and deep down inside, we know that we know, that things should not be this way, and should be vibrant...but we can't do anything about it...so we take it for what it is.  Or we bail out of one marriage and keep searching and find even more frustration with another marriage setting. 

As I read through scriptures, I see teachings on joy, yes, joy - the kind that flows with obedience, submission, tenderness, love, compassion, sensitivity, service (to each other), from glimpses of the Holy God.  God wants us to do that which glorifies Him - to be faithful, to keep His commandments, to love and cherish our spouses/fiancees (not just doing the works, but actually loving each other deeply). 

Sticking it out means being faithful, and out of faithfulness there is peace. It's being tender, and out of tenderness, there is reciprocity, joy and love. I see too many couples these days with a lack of tenderness...and it really breaks my heart because marriage really should be founded on Godly perspectives, should be fun, has to be loving and something to boast about.

Married ladies out there, please.....stick it out - let this be our first principle!

Marriage Builders:

• What are the challenges you are facing as a wife/fiancee as you try to be faithful to God?
• What challenges are a part of faithfulness in your relationships?

God's Patience

God's patience is not like ours.  It is unfathomable.  How many times have we turned our backs on God and worshipped foreign gods? i.e. things, fame, relationships, self, carnal desires etc... And how many times did God punish us, only to welcome us back later with open arms?

Think about that....

Although our sinful ways anger God, He always makes His mercy new and available to us when we seek His forgiveness.  No matter how badly we fail, He still desires an intimate relationship with us. Even when we are reaping the sour fruit of our wrongdoings, He still draws us back in ... with waiting and loving arms.  NOW, that's love!

The test now lies with us.  Do we practice the same kind of patience, the same kind of mercy , and the same kind of forgiving love with each other? How many times do we say to each other, "I told you not to do that", "You didn't listen to me", "Why do you keep forgetting what I say", "If you weren't so hard-headed", "You left the gas gauge on empty again! Why can't you remember to fill up on your way home?".  Sound familiar?

If a Holy God can bear with us in spite of our daily transgressions, why can't we extend to each other a larger dose of mercy, grace and acceptance?  No matter how frustrated we may become with people, the medicine is to approach them with open arms - rather than anger, silence or judgement.  A lot of times, its not even necessary to remind the person of their wrongdoings...just being a friend, a human being, a confidant is wonderful enough.

This, ladies, is a clear picture of who God is and His patience with each and everyone of us. 

Patience Builders:

• What has someone done or said in the past few weeks that really frustrated you?
• How can you communicate patience and mercy in your actions?

John 3:16 -I don’t understand it.

FORWARDED BY SHELIA

A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers.

He walked up to a policeman and said, "Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and its awful cold in there for tonight. “Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, "You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16 and they will let you in."

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door, and a lady answered.
He looked up and said, "John 3:16."
The lady said, "Come on in, Son."

She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself: John 3:16... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm.

Later she came back and asked him "Are you hungry?"
He said, "Well, just a little. I haven't eaten in a couple of days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,"

The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat any more. Then he thought to himself: John 3:16... Boy, I sure don't understand it but it sure makes a hungry boy full.

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16 ... I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.

The lady came in and got him. She took him to a room, tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night, he thought to himself: John 3:16 ... I don't understand it but it sure makes a tired boy rest.

The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible.

She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face.

"Do you understand John 3:16?" she asked gently.
He replied, "No, Ma'am, I don't. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it,"

She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace, he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought: John 3:16 … don't understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe.

You know, I have to confess I don't understand it either, how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don't understand the agony of the Father and every angel in heaven as they watched Jesus suffer and die. I don't understand the intense love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end.I don't understand it, but it sure does make life worth living.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

If you aren't ashamed to do this, please follow the directions. Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father." I do Love God. He is my source of existence. He keeps me functioning each and every day. Phil 4:13 If you love God and are not ashamed of all the marvelous things he has done for you, SHARE IT with someone else.

Be Encouraged

Forwarded by Debra King-Cooper, a fellow RW I'm too blessed to be stressed Too anointed to be disappointed I refuse to be discouraged To be sad, or to cry I refuse to be downhearted And here's the reason why I have a God who is all-mighty Who is sovereign and supreme I have a God who loves me And I am on His team I refuse to be defeated My eyes are on my God He has promised to be with me As through this life, I trod What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. ~ author undisclosed

Overpowering Love

I was reading Romans 8:31-39 this morning and was really blessed by how much God's overpowering love will never change....no matter what we do or don't do. There are so many things that try to sway us away from our love with God; there are other things that just happen to us in this life that can easily distract us and cause us to doubt God and His love for us; BUT, this paragraph of scripture is so encouraging and gives a sense of peace that embraces all fear and overpowers all doubt. God is still God, and that's that! NO MATTER WHAT. Whether He does want we want Him do or not...the fact remains that HE is still who HE said He is.... - our Father, friend, and comforter. Sometimes, we may be feeling stale and dry, or too busy, or physically exhausted, or guilt from not spending time alone with God. The guilt starts to remind us of all the teachings we have received, all the Bible College classes we have taken, all the great sermons we have heard - or even preached at times, all the notes we have taken - but never studied them again, all the powerful books we have read - but yet to apply them to our day-to-day lives, all the people we know - that we have learnt nothing from, all the critical things we have done or said, all the lazy moments we have had, all the unkind words we have spoken or thoughts we have entertained etc..... Then it begins to get really clear to us that we are not the saint that we want to be, or the saint that we have been portrayed to be. When we get all these feelings bundled up in one, its the best time to read Romans 8:31-39 - to remind us AGAIN, and bring to our consciousness that God's love is with us...no matter what. God loves you in spite of you! Sometimes, as ladies, we think that the less we deserve God's love, the more we have of it. If you have kids, you know that the one child who struggles the most, is the one that you reach out to the most. If you have any friends, the same logic applies - you find yourself emotionally or physically present with the friend(s) that struggles the most. Now imagine if you are exerting this kind of love and attention to a struggling person, how much more does our Heavenly Father love us even when we've fallen flat on our faces? Love Builders:

• When have you felt spiritually dry?
• When have you felt like a failure?
• How does receiving God's enduring love encourage you in times of staleness or spiritual dissapointment?

Committed to Love

These days, there is a widespread belief that the real problem people have in relationships is they haven't learned to take care of themselves properly. You hear people say all the time, that we should love each other as we love ourselves. AND we interpret the teaching as "we're pretty good at loving others; but our problem is loving ourselves". This may be true in some respect but not entirely. I believe that what Jesus was saying in Mark 12:31 is for us to love others with the same kind of commitment that you already have in loving yourself. The scripture does not justify learning how to love yourself before you love others....which is sadly, what we hear most of the time. If your commitment to loving yourself is invaluable, uncertain, low and dim, then guess what, your commitment to loving anyone else will be just the same. It's just the way it is! Love builders:

1. What do you think "loving yourself" means?
2. Why are you responsible to love others, even if your self-esteem is often low?

{"The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." (The Message - vs 29-31) }

The way He loves.....

God's love to us is just like water to a thirsty soul; food to a hungry heart; clothes on your body; protection and shade on a hot sunny day; air to your lungs; a cool cloud on a bright afternoon; blood to your veins; arms to run to on a weary day! How is it possible that God loves us that deep and that wide? How could it be that He chose to die for each and everyone of us, so that we might ultimately be in eternal living? Meditate on that....