God’s presence

Women Getting Real Weekly Class

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

This  is a great place to go deeper into relationship with Jesus and  other  women. Both seem scary we know. But this is a place where we talk  about  real life topics and look for God to show up in the middle of  our lives.

The class is for all ages and does not require perfect attendance. Or homework.

Join us in person at Fellowship Church on Middlebrook Pike,  Knoxville,TN every Tuesday night from 7:00pm – 9:00pm (childcare is  provided for those who register).

For specific details around the class please feel free to email us at info@womengettingreal.com.

We meet three weeks on and one week off. Dates of class are listed below. We are planning to Livestream at least once month. So stay tuned for those details. Be sure to sign up for RSS or Facebook alerts so you don’t miss out on “Monday Snack Time with Jana”, its a weekly vlog.

Class Dates for Spring Semester 2011: April 5, 19, 26; May 3, 17, 24, 31
(new class location coming soon, stay tuned for details)

To hear audio from classes up until now check out our archived classes

What Are You Battling and Why?

/ Jana / 1 Comment

The world, the flesh and the devil.

I have heard three very powerful concepts lately. First: Graham Cooke talks about how “in the Kingdom we fight from victory not towards it.” Second: another devotional talks about how weary we become when we battle the world, the flesh, and the devil. And finally the Lord is giving me a revelation out of Psalm 19 about the meditations of our hearts and the words of our mouths. Stay tuned as we unpack all three of these and how they are related over the next few days.

For today, I want to sit in the reality of the sufficiency of God in our lives and in our moments. If Christ is victorious, then why do we live such defeated, helpless lives? If God is for us, then why do we live as if we are abandoned and alone? If the Holy Spirit leads us into truth and comforts us, then why do we talk more about our world, our flesh and our enemy than the presence of God? 

This morning my soul groans to be swept up into the arms of God to see the greater reality of Him. Either He is, or He isn’t. If He truly IS, then everything about our lives is changed because of it. If He IS NOT, then indeed our lives are as bad we say they are. It is our trying to live between these two statements that is killing us.

Today, let’s realign ourselves with the Truth. He is a warrior God, Almighty is His name. He is victorious over the world, our flesh and the devil. We are on the Winning Side. We are not the conquered captives, hanging our heads in shame. We are the valiant ones charging forward in the name of God, in the shadow of His wings. Be still and KNOW that He is GOD over all. Even your world, your flesh and your devil.

The Great Divide

/ Jana / 2 Comments

A lot of people have used this phrase to denote the great chasm between the saved and the unsaved. But I think it is a great description of what separates the Saved and the Living.

I hear lots of stories. What I see as the biggest hurdle for most believers is the notion that God is present, relevant and available in their lives.

Today. Tomorrow. Now.

He is important enough to save us from sins. Indeed, enough to punch a card for entry into heaven. Yet He seems irrelevant and even irrational for our daily lives.

Why is that?

Have we gotten so self-sufficient, so IN-dependent, that we don’t think to ask God for help?
Is He too busy?
Are we too broken, beyond His repair?
Are we unclear of what is ours to handle and what is His?

I was reading a book that lists many of the ways God introduces Himself to us. One is that we are soldiers and He is the King of Angel Armies. The other name and picture was of us being His sheep and He our Good Shepherd.

Don’t know about you, but a soldier and a sheep? In one package?  My friend Meagan said she feels like a sheep holding a sword.  That awkward and that foolish.

Or maybe it is precisely that need and dependence God has set us up for. We are part of the Great Battle Plan. We are also lowly, needy, sheep that can not cross running water, don’t know when to move on to other pastures, can’t get back up when we fall down unless helped, and who are the stinkiest farm animals around. That’s us. Snort. God’s sheep.

Today, instead of scraping to figure out how to make your life work, ask the Lord to be your Shepherd. Ask Him to lead you beside still waters so you can cross safely. Ask Him to lead you to pastures where there is good green grass. Make the metaphors work in your life. Just ask Him. And then watch and wait.

Begin to close the Great Divide by relinquishing your need for control, and acknowledging His Very Real Presence in your moment right now.

Psalm 63 says: “My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.” O Lord, lead us in your way everlasting. Interrupt our lives. Realign our thoughts and needs to You. You are the Good Shepherd. We need You. Amen.

The Long View of God

/ Jana / 1 Comment

Have you ever been somewhere where you can see a long way? Picture in your mind the view from a mountain top. You can see a lot of landscape. Rivers, roads, tree lines, meadows. There are a lot of details and specific markers that help you identify where you are and where you have been.

If you are like me, when you look from the mountain view of your life, you can rattle off many markers that may have shaped your life. School, abuse, addiction, car wreck, divorce, bankruptcy, abortion, buying a house, getting new jobs, losing jobs, getting married, having children, death of loved ones, moving to new cities. These markers act as points on a map tracing our journey. But. There is more.

Here is one of those Holy Buts. If you look at your life and you only see those woundings or events, only see the hurt and scars, you might need to look again.

Many of us have long memories of past hurts and use them as stumbling blocks and excuses to stop us from moving forward. With great precision, we can articulate how this person did this and now we…. Or we say, “I chose this and now I can’t….”

When we do this, we need to look again because we fail to see God’s presence in the exact same life. Do we have a long memory of God’s faithfulness and help? With the same precision, can we articulate, this happened…but God…?  He is, in a word picture, the mountain that we move over and around and through. He is our rock.

God was there. God is there. God will be there.

Was working, is working, will be working for our good.

In the book, The Shack, they pose a question to Mack about why he looks to the future and makes up things that will happen, but he never sees God in the future with him. Our regret about the past, our fear of the day, our anxiety about the future might be radically altered if we zoom out and see God is here.

It is, after all, His world. And we are His people.

Take a moment to pray this prayer out loud over yourself and your loved ones. Take a long view at God. Learn how to recount His presence in  your life. It may help you see better.

O LORD, You have searched me
       and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;  
       You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; 
       You are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue 
       You know it completely, O LORD.
 You hem me in—behind and before; 
       You have laid Your hand upon me.
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.
 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from Your presence?
Psalm 139 1-7

When Life and Death Collide

/ Jana / 4 Comments

Within a week there have been two infant deaths in my world. One unsaved woman delivered a still born at eight months. Another woman, a strong believer, was carrying triplets, and one baby died. In the process, all three babies were delivered by C-section. The two surviving babies are in critical condition.

And often the first question is, “How could something like this happen?”  More piercing questions sound like, “How could GOD let something like this happen?”

Really gut-wrenching, honest questions sound like, “How can this be good in any way?”

If we are not careful, these are the horrible moments when we throw around spiritual band-aids because we don’t know what to say:

“At least you have another child.”
“At least you didn’t have to fill-in-the-blank…”
“God must be teaching you something…”
“God works all things together…”

If we are not careful, because we are so uncomfortable with pain, agony, and despair, we will make all manner of attempts to fix, tidy, gloss over, and cover the gaping hole in those broken hearts.

And if we are not careful, we will miss the aroma of Christ. I told my friend who is truly broken-hearted over our friend’s loss, “God is good, and He is here.” He is right here. In the middle of this mystery. And misery. He knows exactly how it feels to lose a child.

The Bible says to mourn with those who mourn. And to trust that God is doing the same.  I remember delivering Judah when we found out he had died at 16 weeks. He was so small, he fit in our hand. To some it seemed odd because he was so little. But he was our son, is our son.

Sure we got a gamut of responses — the gossip, the “glad it didn’t happen to me”, the “you can always have another baby”, even the God comments that cut like knives rather than soothe like a balm. But the sweetest gifts I received during that time were friends and family who would simply weep with us. That’s all. It hurt and that was okay.

The help and healing came from those who had nothing to offer but their tears. These precious few didn’t come to my bedside needing me to make them feel better, needing me to explain anything or defend God. They just came to journey with me and pray for me, when I was too weak to pray myself.  My friend Nan says, “When you grieve together the love goes deeper still.”

Oddly enough, yesterday, the same day we heard about the death of the triplet, my sweet friend Amanda gave birth to her baby boy. And so we live. Life and death side by side. And somehow we are comforted because we stake our whole existence on one belief: God is good and He is here.