Four Confessions of an Heiress....

I have been intending all week to give my highlights from Tuesday night's bible study. However my intentions were stalled by the flu. SO - better late than never. I must preface this blog by noting this is simply my debrief of our Session Two of The Inheritance bible study (Beth Moore).

Our Four Confessions of an Heiress, thus far are:
1) God has made me an Heir.
2) I am a real, live heir of God and co-heir with Jesus Christ.
3) Because I am a woman, I am technically an HEIRESS (oh - i love that!).
4) The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance (ps 16:6)

Although I could write a couple of essays on what God spoke to me on Tuesday night, the MAIN thing He drove into my mind was this question: "Do I believe God is a giver or a taker? How do my actions say that I believe?" WHOA! Hit me like a ton of bricks.
My initial reaction was to say, well of course God is a giver. However, I don't necessarily think I live this way. Going back to the first temptation in the Garden of Eden, Satan led Eve to believe that God was keeping something from them (i.e. fruit from the Tree of Knowledge). Centuries and centuries later - am I still believing this lie? Do I think that I have to go my own way and do the things the way I want them done if they are to get accomplished? AND, don't I fear sometimes that in order to live God's way - I have to give up FUN things?

Bottom line: God is a GIVER!! He doesn't have to take from us to get glory -- He has to give of Himself to us to get glory! He LONGS to give to us. God wants us to get it through our sweet stubborn heads that if we would only cooperate with Him - - He would bless us beyond our wildest dreams! We don't have one inch of a clue what God has in store for those who give there lives to Him.
Do I really believe Him? Do I believe Him to the greatest lengths of depths of my life? Do I fully trust that He is Who He says He is? and that He can do what He says He can do? Do I? Do you?

I SO want my life to be a wild ride with Jesus. I want to KNOW Him, BELIEVE Him, and understand WHO He really is!

Father, make this a JESUS-YEAR. I pray that 2009 will be a year of renewal, restoration, revelation, and revival.....not just for me personally.....but for my family....for my friends....for my co-workers....for my church. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we will know your glorious riches! Flame the fire in our souls! Tear down our walls and destroy our strongholds of fear, pride, and unbelief.

Let us REJOICE and HOPE and TRUST in You, the only true God.
In the name of the Beloved Jesus Christ, AMEN.

Cooking update...

Well, I've discovered that my cooking handicap may be somewhat related to the efficiency of my oven (seriously!). Neighbor Kathryn (I must distinguish between Neighbor Kathryn and Daughter Kathryn) and I made Chicken Cordon Bleu - and we baked it according to the directions. However, when we took it out at the appropriate time indicated on recipe - it wasn't even halfway cooked. SO - I'm chalking up my half-baked cake drama to an improperly calibrated oven. There is such freedom in discovering my oven shortcomings.

A prayer for today: "Father how I thank You that my help comes from YOU, the Maker of heaven and earth..." Psalm 121:2

Now - if only You would help me in the kitchen.....

I love Sundays!

It's Sunday evening, and I'm getting ready to cook dinner with my neighbor friend, Kathryn. We are both SO not mini-Martha's, but we try. She's truthfully probably a little farther along than I am.....considering last night I tried to bake a cake, and it came out soggy. It's just not my gift. I truly believe that God gives some people a cooking talent, and I just didn't get that. I mean, it may not be biblical, but how else can you explain that I just CANNOT mix ingredients together and have something come out "delightful"?
Oh well, Kathryn's here - let's see what I can mess up this week!

Scripture Memory Round 2

My second verse for 2009's scripture memory:

"I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love...." Ephesians 3:16-17a (NIV)

I'll be finishing the rest of verse 17 next round....so I know it leaves a cliff hanger - but it is what it is.

I love that God has poured out ALL of His riches on me! What an amazing reality....how would my life be different if I lived out this truth? How would your life be different if you lived out this truth? Something to think about.....

Confessions of an Heiress

I've changed the name of my blog to Confessions of an Heiress. Now, I'm not kidding myself in believing that I have a worldly fortune coming my way. No, this name comes from the REALITY of my inheritance in Christ.
Last night was the first night for the spring semester bible study at Houston's First Baptist. It's Living Proof ministry's bi-annual study taught by none other than Beth Moore (see earlier blog to know that Beth is my BFF....well, in my head anyway). The subject of this new study is the Inheritance, and last night we got a glimpse of what our true inheritance in Jesus Christ is. He made us for so much more than a mundane existence. We are REAL-LIFE HEIRS of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ.
I am uber-excited to learn more over the next nine weeks, and I'm especially excited to see how God will use this study to open my eyes to His riches.

So, an earthly heiress I am not......but an heiress of something greater - - YES, I AM!!

Friday flashback of this week....

So the Sooners lost. Big HUGE Bummer. We watched the game at the neighbors house - and I had to go home to bed early (during the 4th quarter) because I just hate to lose. I didn't even want to come to work and face the world today....but luckily everyone was sympathetic and there are no obnoxious people who love to see me suffer.

I am extremely glad that the holidays (while they're wonderful) are over, and we are back in our normal routine. I think Luke is even glad to be back at Miss Dorothy's, although he refuses to go to the potty on a regular basis. I pray this isn't an indication at the stubbornness we will face when he's a teenager (oh please God don't let it be like "what goes around comes around"!!). Save me from that I beg You!!

Kathryn is coming to our house for the weekend. She's a sophomore this year; therefore Larry and I think this will be the last year that we actually have her every time we're scheduled to see her. It's already getting to be hit or miss since she's such a little socialite. Good thing is that she loves to be at our house so hopefully we'll still see her a lot.

I'm really looking forward to next week because I start my bible study on Tuesday night. My friend Allison and I have been taking a study every January through April (taught by Beth Moore "live") at Houston's First Baptist. It's always such a God-experience - and I can't wait!!

Since I'm supposed to be working this morning, I should probably get back to that.....but I wanted to check in with everyone. I hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Amy

Anxiety-Be-Gone

I have been in San Francisco since Friday (for work....not fun), and I'm so ready to be home. We left (my co-worker, Christine, and I) on Friday, January 2nd and we return home tomorrow evening. It's so weird because everyone goes back to full-swing routine today: to their offices, to their schools, to their normal lives. Yet, I'm not in my "normal" life - so I'm feeling anxiety. It's like everyone else is getting on with their 2009 - and I'm getting a late start. Not a good feeling for a competitive-obsessive-perfectionist.
My devotional today, though, gave me some food for thought to combat these helpless feelings. It suggested that we put our hope in God, who is the un-changing Rock of Ages. We (me in particular) so often put our hope in things, in our finances, in our jobs, in our appearance. How un-faithful these things are! My job can bring me temporary "happiness" when I close a deal; my cute new outfit(s) can make me feel confident for a couple of hours; my finances can bring me only false security; and the purchases I have made so far in San Francisco (yikes, please don't tell Larry) can only fill up my emptiness for a brief amount of time. So why am I so tempted to rely on things and circumstances to bring me some sense of peace? It hasn't worked yet! Only God can satisfy us....and when we don't KNOW Him, when we don't take the time to get to KNOW Him i.e., spending regular time with Him, we will never experience the undiluted joy and peace that only Jesus can give us.
So knowing this - I will mentally place all of the burdens of this day at the Lord's feet, and I will trust that He can handle my feelings of anxiety. They are completely unfounded.....the worst that can happen in this day that I'm not in my office is that I miss a call from a client (they can leave a voicemail) or that I don't get someone's interview scheduled because my blackberry service is jacked up momentarily (a major source of this helpless feeling!). It will all be there for me when I return to the office on Wednesday. In the meantime - I can enjoy this city of San Francisco - - keeping my eyes on Jesus all day long - - and when the negative thoughts attack me, I will remind myself that even the mountains are His, this world spins around only because He designed it that way, and that if the birds don't worry about their clothes or food - - then I shouldn't either. I am precious to the Lord; I am His beloved; and because He loves me just the way I am - - all my "fears" are just silly.

My prayer for all of us today: Dear Lord, thank You for knowing us inside and out and still loving us boundlessly. Thank You for giving us Your Truth to combat the lies that surround us daily. May this day be filled with yet undiscovered blessings.....and may we recognize Your work in our hearts minute by minute by minute. You don't abandon the work of Your hands; and heaven forbid that we forget that for one moment. Feed our souls with an onslaught of Your love today. I love You....and I so desperately need You. In the name of the Only One who can save us......amen.

We went to the zoo yesterday (New Years Eve 2008) - and as you can see, we were all smiles.....we had such a great time. Everything is an adventure to Luke!

Happy NEW Year

I woke up this morning with a sense of excitement, and I was reminded of this verse, "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23). God's mercies are new and fresh each morning we open our eyes to a new day.....not just on January 1st....but EVERY day. I'm going to pray that God would put a brand new excitement in our hearts every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

This year, I'm going to be memorizing 24 new verses as a part of Beth Moore's blog (see link below)
http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/12/anybody-game.html.
My first verse is Isaiah 33:6 - "He is a constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him." This is crazy, but I picked this verse out last week and set it aside to be my first memory verse for this year......and when I logged on this morning to post my verse to Beth's blog -- I saw that she and I picked the same verse!!!! How COOL is that?? Everyone who knows me, knows that Beth Moore is my best friend (well, she actually doesn't know me personally, but we're still BFF in my head). So when I saw that, I laughed and thought how cool God is sometimes.

Anyhow - I have to get off of here now because Larry is taking me to Barnes & Noble. I have to snatch up this chance any time I have it because Larry detests book stores. I sometimes wonder how in the world I could marry someone who doesn't like to read....it just goes against the grain...but I digress.