What a WEEK!

This week I had the honor to come together with women all over the world to meet in an online conference. I also had the honor to speak...

If you've never attended one of the A Woman Inspired Conferences, I urge you to check it out. It's an 'amazing' experience, using the internet as a mission field.

The "live" conference  is an experience in and of itself, but EVERY session comes on an mp3 download to be listened to...because who can listen all day, everyday? 

It was anointed time. It was church. Check it out if you already haven't..it just might bless your socks off!

If you did attend the conference and happened to stop by, welcome! It's nice to "meetcha!" My session focused around this Colossians 3:17 verse. (Reviving Your Gift Giving Spirit) This wallpaper greets me at my computer each day, a reminder on how I'm called to live.

   

God bless & keep you...

It's not surprising that an ordinary man pursued by a relentless God had similar words inscribed on his breastplate when he died.

His name was Maewyn Succot and he wasn't even Irish, but God had great plans for his life and thankfully, for the nation of Ireland, he obeyed. Captured by pirates in his hometown in Britain, he was taken to Ireland at age 16 and sold to a pig farmer. For 6 years, he fed and herded the pigs as a slave, and in the midst of it, he found God's presence.

He was trapped in a pagan land and one night, a voice told him that it was time to escape. He made a treacherous journey back to Britain and finally home. He went on to become a priest and could have lived a happy and safe life, until one night he had a dream in which the people of Ireland were calling him back. He knew in his heart that it was God asking him to leave his homeland and return to the land where he was held captive and help teach the pagans about HIS God.

He faithfully returned, and while legend and lore swirl around about this great man, the facts remain that in a time where few could read and write, he used a simple shamrock to demonstrate HOW his God could be three in one...the Trinity.

He remained in Ireland, helped to convert a nation to Christianity, and was an obedient servant.
Certainly NOT the most qualified man on earth, but as we see over and over again...
all we have to be is willing....Jesus takes care of the rest.

In his own words;

And I was not worthy, nor was I such that the Lord should grant this to His servant; that after my misfortunes and so great difficulties, after my captivity, after the lapse of so many years, He should give me so great a grace in behalf of that nation, a thing which once, in my youth, I never expected nor thought of.

join us for more WFW!
Our hostess is the lovely Critty Joy

The Last Chapter....

I'm serving today...join me.

Find me here today...sharing His story in my life...

Solid

I try to notice.

I. really. do.


I try to see what God is saying in the "everyday" stuff.
It's almost Easter, and the I can't miss all the CANDY!




Chocolate and I are friends. Close friends. We get along famously.

But there is one thing that just sends shivers up my spine..

You know what I'm talking about.

Those "mystery chocolates," the ones that you are afraid to bite into for fear of what you'll get. Every once in awhile it's a nice chocolate cream filling but other times it's a jelly like substance, not fit to be paired with chocolate. Or the lovely "toothpaste" explosion, again not fit to be paired with chocolate.

But WORSE than a mystery chocolate, is a HOLLOW one!
Ever gotten one of those? I did. Every. Single. Easter.

The anticipation of a SOLID chocolate egg bitten into, shattered by the hollowness of nothing.


It was there, right in front of a Target endcap that the message came to me. Imagine that, God speaking to me a Target store. Amidst the commercial chocolate candy, God piped up and spoke to me in chocolate.

"Pssst, yeah you standing there on aisle 4....What kind of "chocolate faith" do you posses?? Are you a mystery to those you meet? Never really sure what they are going to get. Not sure of what's really on the inside. Looking good from the outside but go beneath the surface only to reveal "yucky jelly filling." You know the flavors Lori...pride, judgment, apathy.
OR
Worse yet, Lori, are you of the hollow faith sort.
The faith that LOOKS solid but when tested crumbles and disappoints."

I thought about it awhile. Stood right there in the aisle, pondering these Divine questions. Then I remembered it.

Each Easter, amidst the jelly beans, peeps, and hollow eggs,  I would faithfully find a SOLID CHOCOLATE CROSS in my Easter basket.

I never paid much attention until today.


A SOLID CHOCOLATE CROSS.
SOLID through and through.

You know, THAT is the kind of chocolate I want to be. As solid on the inside as on the outside.

The only way for me to be a "solid chocolate" kind of gal is to cling to the "solid cross."

That's all there is to it. Talk about authentic faith. Jesus met me right where I was. Right on the aisle 4 endcap.

We live in a world of imitations. Plenty of chocolate out there to distract me. Some of those hollow chocolates are even packaged up "all pretty," and they disappoint, every time. None  will every be as satisfying the way a SOLID chocolate will.

That's what HE was.
HE was real. No hiding who HE was. There was never a doubt about how HE lived. Scripture tells us that. No jelly filling in Jesus. That's what AUTHENTIC looked like.

HE certainly wasn't hollow. When tested he stood firmly on solid ground. Endured the temptations of this world and walked surely in the knowledge of WHO HIS Father was. Knowing each step of the way, HIS WILL WOULD BE DONE.

Hollow?
Certainly not.

SOLID.
Jesus Solid.

That is what I want to be.
SOLID.

It's not always easy. It's often easier to "look" solid and be full of something that no one really wants or worse yet, be hollow.

I'm working on solid.
I've got a ways to go.

Here's the amazing part....He's willing to MOLD me! In fact He'll sometimes have to break me and remake me to remind me of just how hollow I am. Then, as He helps me pick up the pieces, He reminds me just how SOLID I can be.

Solid.

Jesus.Solid.

WFW ...And I hid...

Twice this week, this verse came up. That usually means someone is trying to get my attention. Why is it that we "run and hide" rather than just confess? God knows it ALL already, and I don't know about you but I find myself playing the childish game of hiding my face as if He can't see me, if I can't see Him. OR better yet, I make excuses. Excuses like those two, (who bear a striking resemblance to myself if I'm honest) made in the garden. Rather than confess, I'll find an airtight excuse justifying my behavior which does nothing for restoring peace in my soul...a sham.

I began a new book this week. The Feast, by Joshua Graves. "How to Serve Jesus in a Famished World." Within the first few pages, I read this;

G.K. Chesterton was once asked by a prominent London newspaper what was wrong with the world. He responded simply by writing a short letter:

Dear Editor,

What's wrong with the world, you ask?

I am.

Cordially Yours,

G.K. Chesterton

Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed that "confession is the beginning of authentic discipleship."  (Life Together:  The Classic Explanation of Faith in Community) So hiding isn't an option if we want to emerge as disciples. It means coming clean. It means resisting the urge to "hide."

There's no need denying that we "want" to hide when it would benefit our souls to confess. It's clear that it's been going on since the beginning of time. 

Resist the urge to hide. I am what's wrong with the world. I am a conglomerate of unbecoming behaviors...pride, judgmental thoughts, apathy and complacency. Not the Christ~like qualities that Jesus represented...

Confession, the beginning of authentic discipleship.
Authentic discipleship.
Not for show, not for prime time, not with a hidden agenda, but simply authentic.

Authentic discipleship.

I love those words together.

Let's stop hiding. We're all singing "broken hallelujah's." 

Every. One. Of. Us.

  Authentic disciples is what this world needs.

No more hiding.

If you're joining us today. The rules are simple.

If You’d like to join us for Word Filled Wednesday,

post your photo and Bible verse. (or feel free to add mine to your site) Than send a link back so others can visit and have a word filled day!

impossible!

March Exemplify Issue!

exemplifyonline.com

The March Issue of the Exemplifyonline Magazine is ready!

The theme this month is OBEDIENCE...

and it's my debut column as the "Moving Toward Holiness" columnist.

While obedience can be a tough word to digest...this issue will encourage and uplift you!