God is Working in Me

Devotions
Nov 142011

God is Working in Me, but I am Part of the Process!

  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2: 12-13 (NAS)

Have you ever wrestled with the relationship between obedience and salvation? In this verse, obedience is directly related to working out salvation.  This does not mean that obedience accomplishes my salvation, for Ephesians 2: 8-9 clearly states that I am saved by grace, through faith, which is God’s gift. For me, to “work out my salvation” means to live it out through my daily experiences.  It has everything to do with consistently obeying God; working through the practicality of each challenge, each joy, each mundane task, and each unknown.  I have a friend who calls this being faithful in the “Dippy Dailies.”  Learning patience and contentment often involves a workout that causes us to drip with the spiritual sweat of uncomfortable effort.

I am reminded that although I am to strive for obedience, it is God who is actively at work in me.  God has this amazing way of working through our experiences to mold and shape the character, gifts, and responsibilities He has given each one of us. If I do nothing, God doesn’t have much to work with.  Imagine that.

I am REALLY grateful that God is willing to work in me, shaping my personality, temperament, emotional preferences, and tendencies.  His craftsmanship in my heart transforms the way I think, how I use my talents, and what I desire.  Because of sin, my personality traits are often two-sided–strengths often have a corresponding weakness.  For example, for me, the underside of creativity results a difficulty in following through with the practical things of life.  A desire to encourage my family often results in not handling correction and confrontation directly. For some, leadership can sometimes descend to manipulation, organization can default to control, and communication skills can disintegrate to gossip.    Left to our own devices the possibilities for misusing our talents and personality traits are nearly endless.  It is under the leadership and shaping of the Holy Spirit in my character that those traits are developed and refined. God is working what pleases Him and it is always for my good.  When I cooperate through obedience, and God is effectively working in me, it brings Him satisfaction and delight. I don’t know about you, but the idea that God delights to shape me into His girl blows me away.  On the occasions when I catch on and get a glimpse of what He is working in me, I am excited to see growth and fruitfulness begin to shape into something both holy and unique.

We can all learn to submit our  strengths and weaknesses to the Lord, as we give back to God what He has given us….The latter part of Romans 12:2 in the Message puts it this way:

God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Ginger Harrington

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Three Steps to Getting Rid of My Inner Wimp

Devotions
Nov 072011

You have probably heard the phrase, “I need to get in touch with my inner self.”  These days, I am trying to get out of touch with one aspect of my inner self…My Inner Wimp.

Here I am, wrapping up one adventure, and starting a new one as I make an overseas move back to the States. Times of transition call for faith, flexibility, adventurousness, boldness, and energy.  I wanted to arrive ready to blaze new trails, unpack numerous moving boxes, meet new people, attend to the billion and one details that go with helping kids get settled, and so on and so on. Although I did my best to leave My Inner Wimp behind, she stowed away in my suitcase. Who knew she had a passport?

Where does this girl come from?  Why does she pop her unwelcome head up at a second’s notice, right when I am feeling good about things and feeling ready to conquer?  She slips silently in the back door of my thoughts and sneakily plants something like,  “You won’t be able to… What will you do without…  You’ve made a mistake… It’s going to be cold there… You’re going to spend half your life sitting in traffic… Kids do drugs there…blah-blah-blah…..”

Once My Inner Wimp gets a word in, it’s amazing how my entire seemingly rational thought capability stands at attention, revs its engines, and races off with breath-taking speed.  She speaks with an uncanny influence—even though most of what she says is untrue, often ridiculous impressions that are enshrouded in the fog of “what if….”

Slowly, but surely, God is teaching me ways to deal with My Inner Wimp.

Three Steps to Getting Rid of My Inner Wimp:

1. Recognize when My Inner Wimp has slipped into my thoughts.

2. Identify the distortion in what I am thinking—separate fact from fiction, truth from supposition, real from imaginary, logical from irrational, seen from the unseen.  You see, My Inner Wimp loves to magnify one small issue, making it feel all-important.  This distorted hyper-focus takes my eyes off the big picture and tempts me to think as if God is smaller than He is and the issue is bigger than it is.  In many ways, it is an upside down view of life.  It’s kind of like looking at a beautiful painting and obsessing about one blade of grass that didn’t turn out right.

3. Change my focus.  Many things are a matter of perception.  I need to see clearly–to look at the right thing.  I have to purposefully take my focus off what My Inner Wimp says and fix my attention on Christ.  Hebrews 12: 2 puts it this way…” fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”

Have you ever thought about what an amazing gift God-focused perspective is?

When I see clearly, I can walk confidently.

As I think about this, the Spirit reminds me that we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This includes all the worries that My Inner Wimp tries to glue the eyeballs of my attention to.  The following verse is great ammo for blasting out My Inner Wimp:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Mathew 6:31-34 NIV

 

My Inner Wimp may show up, but she is not welcome to stay.

Ginger Harrington

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The Unexpected Journey

Devotions
Jul 112011
Submitted by Carolyn Hudson

Like a lot of military families, our family loves to travel, see new places, and meet new people.  However, we all know that some trips are better than others.  It’s been my experience that the trips that we think are going to be the easy ones sometimes turn out to be the trickiest. 

We found ourselves on a journey like that in 2008.  We were preparing to move to Germany for our second time.  The first time, we’d lived in three homes, had a baby, and my husband had deployed from there.  We, along with our three children, thought we were very well prepared.  Within a few weeks of arriving, it became clear that this was not going to be like our previous tour.  There was a lot going on in both our unit and the community that was not healthy, and we were headed into a deployment.  In addition, we learned that we were expecting our fourth child.  Surprise!  So far this trip was not going quite as I’d planned.  

We then entered a deployment that was similar to being in a car wreck at least once a month.  Something terrible would happen; we would attempt to make it as right as possible, and then something else would happen.  The Lord was gracious and carried us through, but there were some very tough days during that time.  In the midst of this chaos, my sweet baby Josh was born.  He was a huge blessing from the day he arrived.  Everyone held and loved him, and always commented on how he was just a perfect baby. 

Eight months later, my husband and the rest of the unit returned home safely.  We were so thrilled to be back together as a family, and really ready to get back to life as normal.  However, within a month, my sweet, perfect baby Josh was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome at 9 months of age. 

So what do we do when the journey doesn’t go as expected?  What examples does Scripture give of people who found themselves on a journey where they weren’t sure of the outcome? 

The Apostle Paul is an excellent example of someone who trusted in the Lord with all his heart, every step of his journey.  The letters he wrote attest to all the places he visited, and his heart beat with the urgent need to follow the Lord’s calling to spread the Gospel.  He didn’t seem particularly concerned with how he got to those places – by his own free will, with a shipwreck en route, or in chains.  He only prayed that God would be magnified in his body, either by his life or death.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  I’ve understood for a while now that Jesus is the author of our faith, but I’ve only recently begun to understand that He is the finisher.  He gets to decide when we are finished.  We don’t get to tell Him when we are done, or when we don’t want to do something anymore.  It’s up to Him to decide the end, because only He knows where we’re going and what we need to look like when we are finished.

As we continue on our unexpected journey with Josh, we have really tried to focus on what Josh can do, rather than what he can’t.  As a result, we’ve experienced several unexpected blessings.  We have met people we never would have otherwise.  We have also grown in our compassion for others.  Our biggest desire is that God would be glorified through our family as we walk on this unexpected journey with Josh.  We know that there will be detours and rough spots, but I also know that in God’s wisdom, we are going to arrive when and where he wants us to.  And our desire as a family is to follow Him.

 

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Elijah

Prayer Points
Jun 172011

Submitted by: Rosario Seelen

As a servant of God, Elijah had several difficult tasks.  He prayed powerful prayers and experienced miraculous wonders.  Obedient to God’s calling; he publicly stepped out in faith.  He believed GOD would do as he said and prayed.  One obedient act led to several others, ultimately ending with victory.  Elijah saw God work mightily in his life, yet he went through a season of discouragement, loneliness, feelings of defeat and fearing for his safety.  Even then, God continued to show his faithfulness.

In 1 Kings 18, God tasked Elijah to deliver a harsh warning to the evil and sinful King Ahab along with his wife Jezebel.  Their sinful and wicked ways not only affected them but their entire kingdom.  God sent Elijah to bring a severe ultimatum…. repent and return to God or bring a 3 year drought on the land.

Elijah challenged 450 false prophets, settling the score when the people saw the fire of the Lord consume his water saturated sacrifice.  The Bible tells that the people fell prostate and cried “The Lord-he is God!” not once but twice and then it rained.  Through Elijah, God orchestrated words and deeds.  Undeniably this could only come from the one true living God.

Most of us, can relate to Elijah.  Elijah was a man of prayer and those were the times when God moved most.  We can credit several facts that helped Elijah become a powerhouse of prayers.  Here are just a few:

(1) Obedience– Elijah didn’t question or deny the power of God.

(2) Faith—Elijah prayed in faith.  He had an intimate relationship with God, clearly demonstrating that he knew God’s will.

(3) Trust—Elijah believed and trusted God.  God answered his prayer.  In these cases it was shown with great might.

Sisters, in our prayer life we can live as:

A power boat; driven with impure motives.

A power cord; accessing power only when needed.

A power broker; selling or negotiating with God.

Or…

We can choose to be a powerhouse, a source of influencing inspiration for others to seek God through prayer for His perfect will.

Let it be say that we women of PWOCI choose to be a Powerhouse of Prayers.

Lord, we repent of our sins.  Search us!  Reveal areas that aren’t holy, need strengthening, fortification and growth.  Help us to be obedient to you always.  Let faith arise with us and in this ministry, even when we don’t understand or things don’t make perfect sense.  Give us a discerning spirit for us to know to trust in the difference between yours and our will.  Show yourself mightily in and through us.  Give us a love for prayer. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

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What is God Calling You to Today?

regional review
May 262011

Submitted by Leona Tatem, West Region

Just recently I began a bible study with a group of people entitled, “If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got To Get Out of the Boat” by author and pastor John Ortberg.  I have done this study a total of four times and I have to say that each time each group is different.  One of the great things about this book (and there are many) is that it begins to help the students/readers understand a process for discerning their call.  Basically, what is God calling them to do for Him?

One of the statement’s that I found to be especially true is this, “We are not called just work for God. We are called to work with God.” (Ortberg, pg 70)  I wonder how many times we may have forgotten that piece of the puzzle.  We can get so busy doing the things that we think God is calling us to do that we forget that He has not called us to the work alone but that He has really called us to walk alongside Him as He accomplishes His purposes not just in the lives of others but in our lives as well. That is another nugget that I am able to get when I get me out of the way.  I can so easily look at what I can do for others in their walk; however, the question will often come back to me what does God want to do in my walk.  This leads me to understand how by being involved in this bible study or this ministry God ever increasing in me.

Just recently I really began to see that as I have often stepped out to minister to others that really God was ministering to me as well.  He was showing me that I am capable of doing more for Him than I could imagine or even understand because I am doing it with Him.

Another nugget for me this fourth time around also came in the form of another statement that was made.  To paraphrase the statement, I can understand my calling in relationship to my deep gladness and the world’s deep need.  What is it that God is calling me to and in relationship that I have a deep gladness in doing it and in return in will meet the need of His children? That is such powerful statement!  To know that God is calling each of us to answer the deep need of this world by understanding the deep gladness that is in each of us.

So, what is God calling you to?  I pray that you hear Him as He asks you to step out of your boat and walk with Him.  What is God calling you to?  Is He calling you to lead bible studies, is He calling you to serve on the local board, is He calling you to disciple.  What is He calling you and me to do; but what is so much more important, what are willing to do for God?

Around the West

Just recently I visited Vandenburg Air Force Base as they held their last PWOC meeting for this board year.  They hosted a two-day women’s in-house retreat entitled, “Reclaim, Recycle and Revive”.  It was a wonderful event with some women only able to come one day but some able to come both days.  What I really enjoyed is that they had activities planned that allowed for bonding time.  The first day, Friday night, there was an activity called the Blessing Jar.  It gave each women an opportunity to share five ways in which they had been blessed and then an opportunity to pray.  The second day each lady was encouraged to make a journal.  Again, it was a great event.  As I talked with the program vice president, she shared that each month they do an activity.  One month the activity is for each person to keep and the next month they do an activity that is for the community.  What a wonderful way to touch the community and leave an impression of the love Christ for all people.

 

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Boldly Proclaim

Leadership Development, Leadership Wednesday
May 252011

Submitted by Jenn Cook, PWOCI 3VP Communications

Webster defines a testimony as a public profession of a religious experience, but I would take it a step further to say it is a divine experience, orchestrated by the hand of God that begs to be proclaimed for all to hear…and we are called to do just that…proclaim it!

A Christian testimony tells your story, or of an experience that transformed you on your spiritual walk. A testimony can explain why you are a Christian; testify to a transformation, or how you overcame a battle through the power of Christ and for God’s glory! Luke gives an account in chapter 8 about a man who had been possessed with many demons. Jesus freed the man of this bondage by casting the demons into a herd of pigs, which rushed down a steep hill, into a lake and were drowned. What a sight to behold and in it, a man was delivered of his extreme bondage! However, the townspeople were filled with fear and asked Jesus to leave. This transformed man begged to go along and accompany him but Jesus said this to him, “‘Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

He began proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. Simple equation: BONDAGE + DELIVERANCE = PROCLAMATION. In this man’s case, it was a deliverance from bondage which made it possible to give glory to God for his freedom from captivity. For you it might be making it through a deployment’s hard day, the Lord healing your marriage, a spiritual or physical healing, or possibly the testimony of how you came to accept Christ in your heart. You might have a testimony of how your PWOC or someone in your PWOC showed you kindness, spoke truth in love or ministered the love of Christ to you.

The Communications Team wants to encourage you to share A Story for God’s Glory. When we hear the story of someone overcoming a struggle or testifying to the hand of God at work, our own hearts are encouraged. Our desire is to post these on our website at www.pwoc.org for other ladies to be encouraged and to give God praise for His power at work in and among us.

If you are interested in sharing, go to www.pwoc.org and click on the button “Testimonials” in the bottom carousel or email us at testimony@pwoc.org. We look forward to joining with you in proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus has done for you!

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Choosing Praise Over Doubt

Devotions
Apr 042011

Submitted by: Jeni Kopp

“My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.”

Psalm 42:3-6

On a resent trip to a family member’s wedding, my mother, my children, and I were nearly hit three different times by cars that lost control on the last leg of our twelve-hour journey. With only twenty minutes to go until reaching the safety of our family’s home, black ice proved to be the last and final attempt to ruin our nearly perfect drive up into Oregon from California.

As each careening vehicle came closer to us than the last, we prayed for safety. Our car never swerved or slid as I applied the breaks, hoping to avoid the cars resembling hockey pucks atop the slick road. At one point the only distance between a brown sedan and my crossover was a few inches. Yet, we remained safe for the rest of our journey.

I was thankful for his blessing of protection and shared the story many times while on the trip, acknowledging that only God’s hands saved us. However, inside my heart there was an entirely different thing going on. I had a selfish and disdainful attitude toward the whole situation. In clarity now, I can hear the question I was really asking God, “If you could easily do that, then why not this other thing I have been praying about for months?”

Days after the incident I was traveling by myself and began to think back on the last year, and all the times I had cried out to the Lord. My excitement didn’t last long, before a shadow of pain and discouragement came over me. There was this one request that I had petitioned God for months ago and nearly everyday since. I really felt like he would answer the prayer of my heart and I have clung to the verses that he gave me during that prayer time.

Alone in the car I turned off my radio, and began to voice my opinion to God. My arguments, although they were honest, sounded more like a three year olds’ than that of a twenty-six year old woman. “God,” it started, “Why in the world when I ask you to show me that you have heard my prayer about this major pain in my life, have you simply ignored it, but yet you have allowed me to be safe from cars so that I could continue to live through it? Why can’t you show me that you have heard my cries to you and that you will keep your promise that you spoke?” I admit, it was a raw and not very thought out prayer, but it was my prayer nonetheless.

My eyes filled with tears as I saw my heart in its ugly selfish state, and immediately apologized for my sinful stubborn act of selfishness and hard heartedness. I had allowed one prayer request to be so important in my relationship with God, that I was ready to trade the prayers of safety on the road that night for an answer to my other prayer. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Moments after confessing my sin, my heart was filled with joy for all the answered prayers, blessings, and miracles that God had done in my life, starting with the making of Adam and Eve, and working my way through the Bible to the present, I thanked him for every trial and tribulation that brought about victory and glory to his name. I wept as I drove, wiping one tear just in time for another to fall.

The prayer is already answered, and although I have no proof, I have faith and trust. I don’t have to remind him of it or hold it up to him anymore. Instead I can choose to focus on seeing the things that build my faith in him, rather than the one thing that can cause me to question it. Thank you God, for saving my life that night so that I might be able to praise you today!

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Devotions are posted on Monday of every week. For comments click here.

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Thankfulness

Devotions
Nov 292010

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

In the verses above, Paul is exhorting believers to live their lives in Jesus, to be rooted and built up in Him, to be strengthened in the faith that they were taught, and to overflow with thankfulness. We must choose to do these things in obedience to the Word of God.

If you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, then you should be overflowing with thankfulness. Jesus has saved you from sin and eternal separation from God. He promises eternal life with God and abundant life on earth. According to The Oxford dictionary, overflow means to flow over the brim; be so full that the contents overflow it; extend beyond the limits; flood; to be very abundant (harvest). These are definitions that provide strong visual pictures in my mind. Our hearts should be so full of Jesus that thankfulness is overflowing the brim of our hearts and pouring out of our mouths. There will be an abundance of thankfulness in our words (speech) and actions and the people around us will see and hear the evidence of Christ Jesus in our lives. It will flood everything around us and impact the lives of others. There will be a harvest of thanksgiving produced in our lives ‘in season’ and ‘out of season’ and it will bless those around us as we share our lives with them. Actually, it will be Christ flowing out of us that will mpact the world through us.

I am so thankful my parents taught me from a young age about Jesus and raised me in the church. I thank God that at the age of twelve, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit of my sinfulness and received Jesus as Savior. At the age of thirty-one, in God’s grace and mercy, the Holy Spirit continued to draw me to the point of surrendering my life to Christ Jesus to be Lord; to rule and reign in my life (this is an ongoing process). Through Bible study, prayer, and seeking God in order that I may know Him intimately, I became more aware of the working of the Holy Spirit in my life and the power to live a victorious life in Him who loved and saved me.

I am thankful for PWOC. God has used this ministry to help strengthen me in the faith that I was taught and has kept me rooted and built up in Him through weekly Bible study, prayer meetings, monthly programs and conferences. PWOC has given me an outlet to serve God and others. Praise God this ministry flourishes within the military and blesses so many women.
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God, continue to bless PWOC! Bless the chaplains and the chaplain assistants that serve the military communities. Holy Spirit, help us to continue to live our lives in Christ Jesus and to be rooted and built up in Him. May we have hearts that overflow with thankfulness! Use us to be salt and light across the United States and abroad.
In Jesus name, Amen.

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The Hills

Devotions
Nov 012010

The Monterey Peninsula is one of the most beautiful settings of God’s creation. The panoramic view of the great Pacific Ocean with its foamy white waves crashing in is a powerful site. On all three sides of the peninsula, a person can view the gradual climb the land makes beginning with the sand dunes, to the rolling hills, up to the backdrop of the dry, yellow mountains dotted with trees. God has blessed many military families stationed at the Naval Post Graduate School and the Defense Language Institute with this scenic landscape. My family is a recipient of this beautiful location.

It is in this setting that the Big Sur Half Marathon takes place every November. I decided to make this event a personal goal for my physical fitness and hope to accomplish it at the prime age of forty. It is a challenging goal for me considering I have never run more than five miles at one time.

The last few months I have been in training to condition my body for the long race. I always begin running from my house which takes me down a ‘big hill’ in the neighborhood. The path continues on streets that plateau and then are interspersed with gradual to steep inclines.

It is the hills that make me question my goal. They hurt so much to run up. The muscles in my legs burrrrn! My pounding heart and lungs feel as though they will burst as I gasp for air; and when I exert too much, I feel an overwhelming sensation of nausea and weak bladder (due to childbirth). Honestly, I usually walk the hills because of the pain and discomfort they cause me.

Why do there have to be hills in the neighborhood where I live? I want the easy roads. The hills do make the journey more challenging and help me to grow stronger. I notice I pray to God more when challenged by a hill than when I am running with ease. Sometimes I think of myself as the Little Engine who said, “I think I can, I think I can” when ascending a path.

The last stretch in my daily run is going up the ‘big hill’ to get to my house. It takes more than ‘thinking’ I can. I have to ‘believe’ I can make it up the hill. I have been running this path for several months. I haven’t collapsed without making it to the finish line yet. God gives me the strength and perseverance to make it home. The fact I have overcome the hills on the roads in my community builds my faith and confidence that when I face an ‘unknown’ hill, I will overcome it too.

Our lives as Christians are filled with many different roads; some are easy as we run along. However, every one of us encounters ‘hills’, trials or difficult times that take our breath away as we pace through life. Don’t be crippled by the pain and discomfort of trials. Pick up your feet and continue to walk or run. You won’t collapse! Believe and know that Jesus is with you every step of the way. Don’t be the Little Engine who thinks he can overcome the hills by his own power. Believe in the power of God and have faith in Jesus; you will overcome the hills in His strength!

God does have a goal and purpose: The purpose of the hills is to strengthen your faith and reliance upon Him. You will grow stronger, more conditioned and spiritually fit as a woman of God and be able to persevere and make it to the finish line on the road of life-home in heaven. God won’t ask you to run more than you can endure….And the promised reward in this race is eternal life with the Almighty God and Savior, Jesus Christ!!!

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love him. (James 1:12)

By Laura Miller 2007

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Get out of the Boat

regional review, Testimonies
Oct 262010

Submitted by Stacie Dorris, Southeast VP

Last summer, (2009), our family moved from Ft. Leavenworth, KS back to Ft. Bragg, NC.   I started attending the local PWOC where they were studying, “If You Want To Walk On Water You Have To Get Out Of The Boat”, by John Ortburg.  This book reflects on the passage in Matthew 14 where Christ bids Peter to meet him on the water.  God used this study in a powerful way to reveal His calling on my life.

First, I was challenged to facilitate a workshop at the Southeast Regional Conference 2009.  I had facilitated local Bible study classes but had never facilitated a workshop at conference.   This was a huge step for me.   Once out of the boat I found myself saying, “What am I doing? I can’t do this.”   Like Peter, walking on water seemed an impossible task.  Little did I know, this was only my first step on the water.

While at conference, God began to speak to my heart regarding serving on the Southeast Regional board.   As the regional Chaplain prayed for the women who would be serving on the upcoming regional board, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart, step out.   Then, one of the leadership selection committee members spoke and said, “I believe God is calling some of you to get out of the boat!”   I knew God was speaking to my heart.   I guess God thought, your already out of the boat just keep walking.   So, here I am, out of my comfort zone, out of the boat, walking on water serving as the Southeast Regional Vice President.

Let me share with you some of the lessons I am learning as I am out on the water.   First, as I mentioned previously, the first step is always the hardest.  Once you surrender to the call and step out God is so faithful and meets you there.  He grants you the grace, strength and vision to do what He is calling you to.   Like in the old Indiana Jones movie when Harrison Ford steps out over a cliff because he knows it’s the right path to take.    As soon as he steps out over the ledge, the bridge appears.   That’s the way it is with God.  “We walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)    We take the step of faith and His strong arm appears and holds us up.

Secondly, I am experiencing God in great ways.   God has so clearly guided and provided for our conference site, speaker and praise and worship facilitator.  I can’t wait to share those stories.   I wouldn’t want to have missed this adventure with God for anything!  It is definitely more comfortable in the boat but it is certainly more exciting on the water!

Lastly, let me encourage you, if God is calling you to get out of the boat and serve Him within the ministry of PWOC, you can rest assured, He will met you there!

_________________

The Southeast region update is published on the fourth Tuesday of every month. For questions or comments please email southeastpresident@pwoc.org

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