First, I want to  welcome  all my Encouragement for Today friends joining us from my P31 Devotion.  I am so excited that you stopped by. One of my passions is encouraging women to spend time alone with Jesus…to sit at His feet …to dig into His Word…to grow deeper in prayer.  God has laid a new study on my heart that will equip us to do these very things.

Today I am announcing that new study.  Just so you know, announcing new studies is one of my favorite parts of being a Bible teacher.  So that makes today one of my favorite days!

Our new on-line study will begin May 8th and run for three weeks.  It is shorter than most of my studies, but it will be packed full of wonderful lessons gleaned from the lives of two of the most beloved women in the Bible….Mary and Martha.  We will follow the two sisters as they meet with Jesus on three separate occasions.  Of course, we will begin with the most well-known story of Mary and Martha where Jesus reprimands Martha for being “too busy.”  So before you leave the web site today, I would love for you to share with us whether you are a Mary or a Martha and why.

If you want to learn more about the study, please read the description below:

Quiet My Anxious Heart:  Learning to Sit at the Feet of Jesus

God longs for a personal intimate relationship with us. He waits patiently for us to come to Him.  But like Martha, often we are too busy. We spend our days attempting to be everything to everyone. In the busyness of life, we find it hard to hear God’s voice or even know if He is speaking at all. Join Wendy and discover how to choose what is “better” – receiving the unspeakable joy and peace that comes from sitting at the feet of Jesus. In this three week study Wendy will  …

• share practical tools on how to have an effective daily quiet time with God.
• teach you how to read God’s Word in a way that will make it applicable to your every day life.
• impart principles that will renew your mind with God’s Truths
• leave you with a Thirty Day challenge to apply what you have learned.

I am so looking forward to meeting here with you each week to discover what God has to teach us through the lives of these two amazing women.

My devotional today talked about living a life “set apart” for God…having the courage to say “no” to everyone else and “yes” to God.  Friends, we will struggle making these choices if we do not KNOW the Word of God.  As you and I fill ourselves with the Word, it becomes a part of us.  God’s Word becomes integrated into every part of our lives.  And as that happens, making the hard choices becomes easier.  Choosing to live a life set apart becomes the desire of our heart and not a drudgery that we must do to receive God’s approval.  In this study, we will begin to fill ourselves little by little with some powerful truths…truths that will bring life transformation.

I have prayed for every woman God will bring to this study.  I hope you are one of those women!  To register simply visit the right side of my blog and click on “Sign up for Wendy’s On-Line studies.”  Place your e-mail address in the box and click “subscribe.”  Doing this registers you for this study and ensures you will receive invitations for all future studies.  If you have registered for an on-line study in the past, you do not need to re-register.

If you would like to receive the weekly posts for the on-line study in your inbox, visit the side of my blog again.  At the top of this sidebar, you will see ”Subscribe to Updates.”  Place your e-mail address in the box and click “Go.”  Each week you will receive an e-mail with the post for the week.  It is important to note that to view the video, you will need to visit the web site directly.  You may do so by clicking on the title of the post in the e-mail.

All registration information you share stays confidential.

And please share this study with your friends.  We have placed a button on the side of the blog that you can grab if you want to share this study on your blog.

Also, if you have not joined Wendy’s Street Team, we now have a link on the right side of the blog that says, “Join Wendy’s Street Team.”  This Team will be an important part in helping participate in and promote my new Bible study that will be published by Thomas Nelson in February 2012.  To learn more or to sign up, simply click where it says “Click Here.”  I will share lots more about the new Bible study in weeks and months to come!

****I also want to announce the winner of Suzie Eller’s new book, The Unburdened Heart:

Sandra who posted on March 12th at 5:43 pm

Congratulations, Sandra!  Please send me an e-mail with your full name and mailing address so Suzie can send you your book. ****

Thank you again for stopping by today.  Don’t forget to leave a comment today and share whether you are a Mary or a Martha and why.  I am so looking forward to hearing what you have to share!

Blessings,

What a joy to read your comments and to see how you have practically applied the Resolve to R.E.S.T. post!  Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to share how God used your time with Him.

Here are some practical ways you shared on how to rest:

Kay and her husband  spend time reading and praying together.

Mary meditates on the verse “Be still and know that I am God” and spends time alone with the Lord visualizing and remembering a time He met her in a very real and personal way at the beach.

Melissa finds rest in the precious moments of life, whether it be in the quietness of the morning, the sounds of her children playing or  in the arms of her husband.

Charlotte finds rest in carving out time each day to sit with Jesus.

Michelle ends her day in the Word with her Father just before she goes to bed.

Elisa walks daily with her husband and they pray together; she also meets the Lord alone, face down on the floor in prayer.

Noelle finds a reminder of the significance of rest by looking to the example of Chick-fil-A closing  on Sundays…just as our Lord rested on Sunday.

Jill finds rest by being proactive in the Word, finding verses on rest, memorizing them and truly living them in the busyness of her day.

What a blessing to hear how each of you finds rest.  Each story is creative and unique, just as we are!!  There are no rules about how to rest…no regulations.  Rather, God calls us “TO JUST DO IT!”

And I so appreciate the honesty from  many of you sharing how you struggle to rest with the busyness of your lives.  You are not alone and that is why we spent time together these past two weeks practicing R.E.S.T.

My prayer is that our time of R.E.S.T will not end here but  will be a journey we will continue.

I too have been setting side time each day to be with the Lord.  Some days it is just a few minutes and other days it is much longer.  What I love is that my prayer journal is full again.  Notations fill my devotional book  as I jot down what I hear as I read.  And my heart is more tender to hear the whispers of the Spirit.

I pray that you have found these  two week that there is NO BETTER PLACE TO BE than at the feet of Jesus!

I announced that I would give away two devotional books.  Well, guess what?  I will be giving away three because of a precious friend and sister in Christ who follows my blog.  She has offered to donate a third book for our giveaway.  Thank you, Tarnisha!

The winners are:

Jennifer January 19th

Jana who left a comment on January 20th

June who left a comment on January 25th

And, no, it was not a requirement your name begin with a “J’ to win.  It just worked out that way!

Please e-mail me at deuteronomysix@aol.com with your full name and mailing address.

Please join me here on  Friday as I have a Proverbs 31 Encouragement for Today Devotional running entitled “How Do I Know that I Am Called?”  I look forward to meeting you here on Friday!  If you have a friend struggling to hear God’s call on their lives, please send them here for a visit.  Scripture contains powerful truths on this subject, and I look forward to sharing  some with you and hearing from you!!

Blessings to you,

 

When we write a blog post, we pray for God to use it.  We pray for it to make a difference in at least one person’s life.  God answered my prayer from last week’s divine appointment post in an Ephesians 3:20 way!!!

God’s timing is always perfect. I had been talking with my dear friend and author, Noelle Dey, about scheduling an interview with her about her new book, Transformation by Truth: Thirty Days to a Healthy Heart, Mind and Body. We were working with our calendars, and she was praying about what she should share.

During the few days she was praying, the Lord led me to write last week’s post, Divine Appointments: God in Our Midst. God touched Noelle in a powerful way through that post. God answered her prayer and gave Noelle her own divine appointment to share.

But first, let me tell you a bit about Noelle. Noelle’s heart burns fervently for Jesus. God brought us together through one of my on-line studies, and we have been friends ever since. She has a passionate heart for prayer and longs for everyone she meets to know and love Jesus the way she does. You will experience this in full when you read her book Transformation by Truth.  She has been gracious enough to give three signed copies of her book away today. To be eligible for the giveaway, read on through the end of the post.

I thought you might like to see Noelle.  In the picture below of our on-line study Bible study girls taken at She Speaks, Noelle is the beautiful Asian woman dressed in blue.

 

Noelle’s Divine Appointment…..

Traffic school. Need I say more? If you’ve spent an entire Saturday in a windowless room with a hundred other Speed Racers, you are sighing right now. As the policeman barks the laws (which you haven’t studied since high school), you silently swear you’ll never break the law again. And you don’t. For a month. And then the memory slowly fades into the recesses of your mind.

That cycle not only holds true for my driving, but also for divine appointments. Did you read Wendy’s most recent post? What did it stir in your heart?

I have had divine appointments. Some monumental. Others were as small as a genuine smile and prolonged eye contact with a stranger.

But like my time in traffic school, those God-authored appointments fade into the background of my mind and my to-do list takes center stage again.

Wendy and Karen were living a typical day, doing a run-of-the-mill errand. They easily could have missed God’s whispers if they didn’t have attentive spiritual ears. Their story brought me back to traffic school. After reading Wendy’s post, I swore I’d live differently. And thus far I have.

I had a work appointment this past Thursday at an oncology office. I sat in the empty waiting room because I arrived early. As the door opened, I looked up to see a man slumped over in his wheelchair. He looked up and our eyes met. It was Jim. Joanie’s husband. Joanie was my fitness client five years ago. Jim’s cancer has really progressed.

Our conversation was heartfelt and it ended with an open invitation to visit their home. Knowing the extent of Jim’s disease, my husband Ryan and I arrived with dinner the next evening. I expected God to show up big time.

Two-way conversation is very difficult since Jim loses his words and train of thought mid-sentence. Joanie is exhausted as she juggles being his full-time caretaker while continuing to be an amazing Mom to their ten and 12 year-olds.

As the night came to a close, I asked God, “Really? Was that it? Did I do something wrong? I want them to know You. I tried with all my might, God!”

Joanie and I shared our last words in the kitchen. And then it happened. Ryan called us to pray over Jim. God moved. Miraculously. Ryan spoke the truth boldly. His conviction mixed with compassionate love brought them peace. They were questioning if God was real. Joanie said two days ago she was shaking her fist to the sky saying, “If you exist, God, you’re going to have to send an angel.”

He didn’t send an angel, but he sent a ragtag couple who know God’s grace.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

We are God’s workmanship, and He created us for divine appointments! Some may be epic while others might be a quick gesture of God’s grace to our family members or strangers.

Divine appointments are beckoning us daily. We just need to be prepared so we can recognize them.

I prepare my heart by starting my day with a quiet time. My Father-daughter date helps me tune in to God’s whispers.

Those quiet times also help me to renew my mind. The Holy Spirit is constantly directing my steps, but I have to train my mind so I don’t lose focus.

I also nurture my body with exercise, healthy food and hydration because I need energy and stamina to get out and share the good news!

When we take a heart, mind and body approach, we are living examples of Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

How do you prepare for your divine appointments? Share an idea to be entered into the drawing to win one of three books.  We will announce the winner on Monday.

Thank you, Noelle, for sharing your story and some nuggets of wisdom from Transformation by Truth.  To connect with Noelle, click here.  I pray God will continue to establish the work of your hands as you minister to the least, the lost, the broken, and the hurting in His Kingdom!

Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Noelle’s new book!

Blessings,