Grace Notes

Miscellaneous/Thoughts

Watch and Pray Conference

Earlier this month we attended the annual “Workers and Elders Conference” in Cedar Falls, IA. (In connection with our Bible chapel) I had been praying that the Lord would teach me to pray, and what did He do? Send me to a 3-day confernece on prayer!

Here are a few tidbits:

– “Watch” means to keep alert, just as Col 4:2 tells us to “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it…

-Prayer cultivates intimacy with the Lord. We pray because we want to become closer to Jesus –because we want to draw near.

-Praying is like building muscle. The more we pray, the more we want to pray.

-The word “fervent” could be described as “boiling.” God wants hot, boiling prayers, not lifeless, cold repetitious prayers. We must get close to the source of heat in order to boil.

-If our heart longs for the same things as Christ longs for, it won’t be difficult to pray in His will.

-Paul truly believed his ministry would be more effective if people were praying for him, because he asked for prayer so often in his letters! Prayer makes a difference.

-Church revivals in history start with prayer

-“When we talk to God, all other things that scare us begin to melt”

-We pray, not only because prayer changes things, but because prayer changes us.

To hear audio messages from the conference, click here.

This summer, one of my good friends (and great example to me) from church, Augusta, suggested that us ladies have more prayer time together. She’s from India and she told us about the frequent all night prayer meetings and times of fasting her believing friends in India held. So a few of us ladies decided to start coming to church at 7:30am to have a prayer meeting before the service started. It has been such a sweet, powerful time. We have become closer friends with each other, our hearts are more prepared for the service, and we have already seen the Lord answering prayers. How exciting to have a God who listens and acts!

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

Thoughts

Draw Near!

122908_1 James 4:8 has been a special verse to me recently. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” How often do we pray, “Lord, please draw me nearer to you,” without realizing that in many ways the ball is actually in our court now! (Hebrews 10:19-22) Anytime we want to, we can draw near to God through prayer or studying the Word.

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zec 1:3) Jesus was always saying things like, “Come to Me,” “Follow Me.” God has officially given the invitation. Now it’s our decision how much we are going to respond!

It’s obvious that God likes it when we search hard for Him. That’s why He hides things in Scripture and makes us work to find them. Like digging for gems. “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) The more we respond, the more “gems” we find. And often when we have to work hard for something we have a greater sense of appreciation for it.

“O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy…” (Psalm 43:3-4)

Witnessing Stories

A Painful Scream

Last Saturday, Sarah, my mom and I went to this park to witness. As Sarah was turning off the engine my mom let out a blood curdling scream (believe me, when my mom screams it’s really loud!). As the automatic window closed, it had caught my mom’s fingers in between the window and the top of the door. Sarah quickly rolled the window down again, and we looked at mom’s fingers. They had black indention lines where they had been caught, but Mom said she was okay. Sarah and I were pretty startled ourselves after that loud scream, and Sarah and my mom went home to get ice.
I stayed at the park thinking, This has never happened before, and when does it happen? Right when we arrive at a park to witness. But often enemy attack means something good is about to happen. And that was certainly true this day.

“What do you think happens after you die? Sarah asked one lady, after she and my mom had returned.
“I don’t know but I’m scared,” the lady replied.
“Well, that’s a good start. It’s good to be concerned.” Sarah said, explaining how we are all sinners and God is a righteous Judge.
“Now I’m really scared,” she said.
But just as Sarah began sharing the good news, her granddaughter came up and she needed to go. Now Sarah had to give her some answers really fast! Sarah looked her in the eyes and told her, “you don’t need to be scared about what happens when you die, you can know for sure you are going to heaven if you trust these verses…” she said.
“What verses?” the lady asked.
Sarah showed her 1 John 1:9 and Ephesians 2:8-9 and encouraged her to confess her sin to the Lord and ask Him to save her.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Sarah told her to read the tracts she gave her, and get alone with God to talk to Him about it. Sarah could tell by the look in her eyes that she was taking this very seriously. Wow–we prayed that God would direct us to hungry hearts and it’s so encouraging to see Him doing it.

Then Sarah began a little questionnaire with a young mom who said she believed in Heaven because she has good dreams about her grandfather and she knows that he is there. She believes she is a good person and that she is going to heaven because she gives all her time to take care of her little boy.
Sarah gently walked her through the 10 commandments and then talked about how “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” and also John 3:16 and how it’s not a general belief but a personal belief.
She looked at Sarah in a funny, curious way and asked, “Can I ask why you picked me to talk to?”
Sarah replied that there wasn’t really any particular reason, but that she had been praying the last few days that God would lead her to the right people.
“I’ve seen you at the mall before,” the young mom said, “and you’ve talked with my niece before.”
“Did your niece mind when we talked with her?” Sarah asked.
“Oh no, not at all!” she said. “You come across so nice—and when you talk with people they always remember it,” she told Sarah.
Sarah gave her some tracts and reminded her how every person has to make an individual choice to come to Christ. She asked Sarah’s name and shook her hand with a big smile.
“Thanks for being so sweet!” Sarah said.
“Well, thank *you* for being so sweet,” she responded.
I tell this story as a reminder that often people are very grateful when we talk with them. Not always, but often. But we won’t know that until we take the time to step out and begin the conversation!

I talked for about an hour with some staunch evolutionists. Very interesting and enjoyable conversation. Here’s a quick summary.
“Hey I’m working on a little project learning what people believe. Would you mind answering a few questions?” I asked.
“Sure,” they said.
“What do you think happens when someone dies?” I asked.
“Nothing–you just go into the ground,” they said.
“Okay. So did you grow up with any certain faith or religion?” I asked.
Sam hadn’t, and Naomi had grown up in a Unitarian church.
“The next question is this: If you had a problem with Christianity or an argument against it, what would it be?” I asked.
“Just one problem with Christianity?” Naomi asked.
I smiled. “No, you can give more than one,” I said.
“Well, I guess it would be that I don’t agree with Christians who say the Bible is 100% literal and has to be taken as fact— I think it’s more metaphorical,” she said.
“What about you?” I asked Sam.
“I don’t have a problem with Christianity,” he said. “In fact, a Christian friend just helped me out with something recently. Actually, I hope there is a God,” he said.
“So why don’t you believe the Bible?” I asked.
“Because I believe in evolution,” Sam said.
So we dove into a long discussion about Creation and evolution. Dinosaurs. Holes in the evolution theory. Complexity and beauty in creation which speak loudly of a Creator. And so on.
Naomi explained how they believed in science and I just take the Bible by faith.
“But it takes faith to believe evolution too,” I told them. “Because it’s a story of something that happened in the past.”
They couldn’t disagree.“Yeah, I wasn’t there [when it happened],” Sam said.
“So really, you don’t see any problem between Christianity and Science?” Sam asked.
“No not at all!” I told them, explaining how many of the early scientists were Christians.
“I really hope there is a God,” he said again. “The idea of a Creator and afterlife is so much nicer than just going into the ground to become worm food.”
Sam asked, “What actually is God?
As I explained God’s attributes I admit I was amazed by how little Sam knew about the Lord!
Finally, I got to share the gospel—how God, the Creator, became a man, Jesus, to take care of the problem of sin.
“Jesus is God??” Sam interrupted me, very surprised.
“Yes,” I said.
“I thought He was God’s Son,” he said.
Sam mentioned how he had never talked about religion very much with his friend who is a Christian. He said he didn’t want it to breach the relationship.
“Well we’ve been talking about it all this time and we’re still friends,” I told him.
He agreed.
I know Sam was genuinely intrigued and surprised by all I told him. They took the booklets that I gave them, and we parted with a friendly goodbye.
Please join me in praying for Sam and Naomi that the Lord would open their eyes to the truth!! It’s so, so sad to see how our society just indoctrinates people in evolution. Even though they can’t defend evolution, they still believe it because they’ve been taught this all their lives. But God can open the eyes of the blind.

“I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:18)

Miscellaneous

Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ True Woman Conference


A few weeks ago Sarah, Nickie, Bekah and I took a booth representing Bright Lights to Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ True Woman Conference in Indianapolis. There were over 6,000 women present! It was exciting to see the many ways the Lord is using Nancy Leigh DeMoss and her ministry.

My favorite session was one by Joni Eareckson Tada. Because of her breast cancer and other health issues, she wasn’t able to be there so she made a DVD the week before. Talk about a powerful message on suffering! Joni reminded us that our lives are on display. Ephesians 3:10 says “so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” When angels, demons, and other people see us responding with grace to the suffering God brings, God gets the glory! We prove, like Job, that God can be trusted and loved on His own merits—even though He allows pain in our lives. We don’t suffer for nothing. Hebrews 6:12 tells us that we are to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” You can listen to her message online from this page.

Talking with moms and girls and explaining the purpose and goals of Bright Lights…


In between the Deeper Conference and Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ conference, Bekah, Nickie and I enjoyed volunteering for a few days in the Answers and Genisis office. There is always so much going on over there! If any of you ever have an interest in volunteering at the Creation Museum / Answers in Genesis see here.

Miscellaneous

HSLDA Radio

HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) interviewed Sarah, Stephen and me about “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends” on their HomeSchool Hearbeat Radio show airing this week, starting today. They are just short one minute clips. Click here for details. To find a station in your area, click here. Also, on November 4th we are teaching a webinar on “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends.” Details here.

Announcements

Upcoming Event!


We are very excited to announce that we have scheduled a weekend Bright Lights Leaders Training Conference for October 29th-30th, 2010 in Council Bluffs, IA!

This two day training will be a combination of several video sessions taught by Sarah Mally and also live sessions taught by two of the Bright Lights staff, Nickie Biegler and Rebekah May.

Topics include:
What is Bright Lights?
A Pattern For Discipleship
Principles of Ministry
The Leader’s Responsibility
Leading an Effective Bright Lights Meeting
The Offense of the Cross
The Unexpected Quality of a Leader
How to Develop a Ministry
Dealing With Special Situations
Planning a BL Meeting
Seven Ways to Train Young Ladies
Rewards and Demands of the Ministry

Also included will be times of sharing, interaction, and hands-on projects and ministry assignments.

If you live in the Iowa / Nebraska area, consider coming to be encouraged and strengthened in your walk with the Lord and to enjoy fellowship with other young ladies.

Date: Friday, October 29th and Saturday, October 30th
Time: Friday -9:30am to 8:00pm, Saturday- 9:30am to 5:30pm
Location: Valley View Baptist, in Council Bluffs, IA
Cost: Free

This conference is for young ladies (ages 13 and up) and mothers who have a vision to disciple younger girls and a desire to learn how to have an effective ministry.

Please contact us for questions!

Miscellaneous

DEEPER Conference

Two weeks ago, Nickie, Bekah and I drove to Cincinnati to attend the Living Waters’ DEEPER Conference.

The conference was doctrinally rich, “diving deeper” into the Person of Jesus Christ. Each session pointed to Christ in a different way–analogies between Adam and his bride and Christ and His bride, developing a solid understanding of the doctrine of imputation, understanding and applying the ultimate proof for defending the faith, the coming judgment of God, seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, and knowing how to answer common asked questions about witnessing. These are just a quick summary of some of the topics presented. I loved the fact that the speakers brought our attention back to Jesus again and again.

Lots of passionate people buying tracts, books, and DVDS.

We enjoyed getting accquainted with these young ladies from TN who are excited about missions and discipleship.

After the conference, we spent a few days volunteering at the Creation Museum, the Answers in Genesis Pastor’s Conferenc, and then we ran a Bright Lights booth at the Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ True Woman’s Conference in Indianapolis. Check back because I will post pictures about the rest soon!