Over the years I have been blessed to meet many amazing women who inspire me.  No, you want hear about these beautiful remarkable women on the evening news because in the world’s eyes they are just ordinary women:  moms, sisters, and daughters; but they are all around us.  Their beauty radiates in the way they live their life, the way they have eyes to see good in others, the way they grab hold of God’s call on their life and march on.  Do you know a woman like this?

The common thread I see with these women is they believe the time is NOW. Now is the time to embrace life to the fullest and walk in His ways with a passion for Him; get up no matter how many times she falls – oh, the beauty of a NOW woman.   

She is nourished by His word.  God’s word is literally nourishment to her each day.  She draws from His word daily and looks to Him to guide her, love her, teach her, help her, and strengthen her. She pauses in her day, prays in her day, speaks forth in her day and worships in her day. She knows she needs Him. She sometimes misses the mark but she does not let this stop her!  She regroups, prays, changes and overcomes!  She does not give up. She does not rehearse the past and fret over the future.

She believes God cares about every detail of her life {Psalm 37:23}.

She remembers His benefits {Psalm 103:1-5}: God forgives all her sins, heals all her diseases, redeems her life from the pit and crowns her with love and compassion, her desires are satisfied with good things so that her youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

She is an overcomer.  She has encountered hard bumps and bruises along the way but with God’s help she has learned to break through barriers and prevail over ridicules from the enemy.  She quickly realizes the hard times made her stronger than she thought she could be.  Her scars from these past moments no longer trigger pain and heartache but instead she sees the scars as victory markers where God intervened, where God reached in and saved her.  Her scars are now her beauty marks. 

She knows she is more than a conqueror {Romans 8:37}.

She confidently trusts God with her call as she focuses on the season she is in.

She knows she has been given authority in Jesus Christ over the enemy {Luke 10:19}.

She knows her fight is not against people but against spiritual forces of evil {Ephesians 6:1}).

She is worthy.  She chooses to believe her worth to God even when she feels unworthy.  She chooses to believe that the faithful love of the Lord never ends.  That His tender compassions fail not.  That His faithfulness is great and His mercies begin new every morning {Lamentations 3:22-23}.

She embraces the season God has her in now {1 Peter 2:9}.

She believes she is God’s child, His masterpiece, His very own possession {Romans 8:16, Ephesians 2:10}.

She knows condemnation is from the enemy.

She knows she is forgiven {Isaiah 43:25} and she knows the importance of forgiving others {Matthew 6:14-16}.

She knows she is fearfully and wonderfully made {Psalm 139:14}.

 She is a woman who is patient with others as they grow in Christ.

 
Maybe you are reading this and thinking I would love to be this woman. 

Can I interrupt your thinking right now?  Can you walk with me to your bathroom sink?  Go ahead.  Are you there yet?  Are you looking at your bathroom sink?  Ok.  Now raise your chin.  Yep.  There she is.  She's right there at your bathroom sink….. a NOW woman.  A woman who will not give up.  A woman who will press in to all God is calling her to be.  That woman at the bathroom sink knows the woman she just read about above did not become a NOW woman overnight but through growth to become she became.   

She knows she has to start somewhere so why not at the bathroom sink.

 I love you, my NOW woman friend ;) Now go be the awesome woman you are!

A Christian who cusses?  I know.  It sounds like an oxymoron.  But believe it or not as we begin our journey to live that Christ life we encounter moments of being an oxymoron. Yes.  There will probably be some apparent contradictions in our fresh new walk in Christ.

I grew up hearing bad language.  Thank the Lord I had a Mom that couldn't say a bad word if her life depended on it but I did have other people around me that cussed like a sailor.  It was quite normal for me to hear bad language growing up.  As I entered my teen years it wasn't long before curse words were sandwiched in my sentences and laced in my vocabulary.  

Fast forward to the night I gave my life to Christ.  I gave Him all of what I had.  I decided that night if He could do better then He could have it all.  Well, I did not stop saying bad language that instant and I was 100% sold out to Christ.  That's right, I was a cussing Christian.  The funny thing now is that I didn't even know I was a cussing Christian.  Isn't it amazing, looking back now, I wasn't even a bit convicted about my language.  I am pretty sure, in the beginning of my walk with Christ, that people questioned my Christianity.  I definitely got the turned up noses and the sarcastic remarks.

But today.  Today, I don't use bad language.  I actually cringe inwardly when I hear it.  I have been bad-language free for about 18 years.  When did I quit becoming a cussing Christian?  I don't really know the exact moment.  I just know as I passionately pursued God there came a moment when all of a sudden I heard the words that came out of my mouth.  But by then bad language was a habit.  It was part of my vocabulary.  Thank God for His grace and patience and unconditional love for me.  He never put His nose up to the air or turned His back on me during the process of changing my vocabulary to line up with His word.  I love Him so much.  I love the way He loves me.  I love the way He loved me even when I was a cussing Christian. 

Maybe you know a cussing Christian?  Can I encourage you to show and give them grace.  If they are actively and passionately pursuing Christ it is only a matter of time they will hear their words and seek to line them up with His word.  Until that happens, smile and don't cringe too hard.  They are still a Christian and still loved unconditionally by their loving Father. 

(This post is not referring to a "mature" Christian who continues to use bad language. That's a whole other post! :) 

Be Blessed! 

It's so easy to live life day after day and become indifferent to sin or lukewarm to sin. It's so easy to fall into the worldly thinking of "if everybody else is doing it why not me."  Do you agree?

What I have learned in my own life is when we continually see or tolerate specific sin that is coupled with enjoyment and pleasure it’s not unusual for us to lose the shock reaction for that particular sin that it once had with us. Instead of quickly turning away we are ok with this sin being around us.  Now we are no longer living life fully in Christ.  We not only affect our daily walk with God but we affect our family's walk and growth in God by the sin we are now ok with.

What sin am I talking about?

All sin. Anything the Lord says is sin. It's not hard to live a life free of sin. I’m not saying we are perfect.  We are going to make mistakes but there is a life to strive for that is without sin.  All it takes is a willingness and a heart turned to the Father to receive truth from His word.   To receive what He says is right living and what He says is wrong living.

The enemy wants nothing more than for you and me to become lukewarm to sin.  When we become lukewarm or indifferent to one specific sin it is THE open door the enemy has to now walk in and start working on allowing you and me to become lukewarm to another specific sin then another specific sin and so on. The enemy's whisper is "if everybody else is doing it why not you?"  But the problem with that thinking is the devil is not our creator. The Father is. The bible is not the Word of the enemy. The bible is the Word of God.

Are you indifferent or lukewarm to a specific sin today that you had a shock reaction to in the past? God's word says in Hosea 14:1 that our sins are our downfall. The more we tolerate sin and allow it to seep in our lives it is just a matter of time before our life as we know it crumbles.

Nobody needs to tell you or me whether we have become lukewarm to sin. Right where I am sitting, if I am honest with myself, I know where I have let sin enter my lifestyle and stay in my life.  Right where you are sitting, if you are honest with yourself, you know where you have let sin enter your lifestyle and stay in your life. But because of God’s love for me and God’s love for you there is hope! 

Hosea 14:4  says, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him."
 
Have you felt distant from the Lord lately? Like God is mad at you?  Have your family relationships been struggling lately? It may just be that the sin you allowed to seep in and make itself at home in your life has become the very reason things are in disarray, the very reason you keep asking yourself "Lord, where are You?"

You truly desire to be used by God to change this world but some specific sins that you now allow in your life that you did not allow before has caused God to turn Himself from you. I have come to know God cannot use me to change the world if I refuse to change and be obedient to His word and His ways.

Say to Him, "forgive my sins and receive me graciously, Lord."

God is clear that when His people turn back to Him He will heal their waywardness, their backsliding and love them freely!  To genuinely turn from sin and obey Him is to live that Christ life. And sometimes we have to be the change to spark others to change.  Sometimes when people see others striving to live that Christ life it encourages and inspires them to do the same. Do you agree?