The curling brown edges of the very last plant in my apartment were hardly encouraging. Plants grow best when they get the right combination of light, water, temperature and nutrients. And I had been somewhat negligent on the water side!
People grow best when they experience the right combination of ingredients as well. In the book, How People Grow, authors Henry Cloud and John Townsend discuss how grace, truth, and time are critical ingredients for personal growth. Grace means acceptance and peace with God-no condemnation. Hebrews 4:12-13 describes our situation…”Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.[1]” That is a scary, vulnerable and dangerous thought apart from the grace of God! The reality is that He knows everything about us and still is for us.
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Who are the people in your life you are the most teachable towards? Why? What about them enables you to learn from them? Who are the people in your life you find yourself resistant to when they offer you advice? Why?
The Lord has given me 13 years experience of discipling over 150 women. During those years I have made more mistakes than most but by the Lord's grace, He's enabled me to learn from them. From my experience and seeing how my own heart responds to some people and resists teaching of others, I've come to recognize these 3 helpful tips to help people relate well with those they disciple. I have worked with college students for over 11 years. I have studied them and spent countless hours with them and I believe the Lord has given me understanding of where they come from. Here are the top 10 things I believe the younger generation values. When we can't relate to them in these ways we cut ourselves off from being able to influence them.
Top 10 needs of young people from the people who influence them. It was in September of 2010. I had been in ministry for as far back as I can remember. If you were to ask me a biblical question I would give you the answer. The problem was my answer would come from memory, from years of serving in the church; it would not come from my relationship or from what I learned as I grew and walked with the Lord.
At the time my husband was a Student Minister in Kentucky. I was serving in every area of the church I could, while being a wife and having two small children. I thought I had it all together, I thought I was serving the Lord as best I could. You know that moment when you’re seeking the Lord and it’s as if He turns on a light bulb in your heart. It caused me to take a double look at myself and I realized, I was running a race but it wasn’t the one He had asked me to. I am honored to have Tanya share her heart and wisdom with us. I appreciate her deep love for the Lord and desire to live for Him with everything she has and is. Tanya Marlow was formerly in Christian ministry for a decade and was Associate Director and lecturer for a university-level Bible training course. Now she reads Bible stories to her toddler as she learns what it means to be a mum who is housebound with an autoimmune illness. She blogs at Thorns and Gold, on the Bible, Suffering, and the messy edges of life. Follow Tanya on Twitter and visit and like her Facebook page. I have worn glasses since I was four. Back then, they were a National Health Service (UK) cheapy-cheap granny-pink colour.
I'm not going to lie - they did not look good. But they were essential, because I really was as blind as a bat. Every morning I wake up and I look around at blurry, indistinct shapes. If I take my glasses off and look at the screen I can't see any letters at all. It looks mysterious and squiggly, like an Arabic script. (It's quite fun to try it if you are similarly short-sighted!) I need help seeing physically. But sometimes we also need help seeing spiritually. And Paul is a great person to learn from. Paul, in Acts 17:16, had just come from a fairly traumatic time, being chased out of Thessalonica and then Berea, and separated from his friends, Silas and Timothy. He was left in Athens to wait for them. "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens..." (Acts 17:16a) I don't know about you, but if I were Paul, I would have been tempted to just enjoy the unexpected holiday. He was in Athens, seat of culture and philosophical sophistication. I lived in Oxford, England for 6 years, and I imagine Athens at that time to be very similar to Oxford. There are historic buildings everywhere, and awesome libraries, and every coffee shop you enter you can hear the buzz of students discussing politics and religion and the meaning of life. The ratio of discussions of mathematical theorems to gossip about boys and lipstick is a pretty high one. I loved living in Oxford as a student minister, but I was also often intimidated by it. What on earth did I have to offer these students, who were so intelligent? How on earth could I begin to communicate their need for Christ when they seemed so sorted and to have everything they needed? If I had been in Athens, I think this is what I would have seen. I would have seen the excitement of being in a new place. I would have been wowed by the culture. I would have seen the things that would have intimidated me and kept me silent. I would have seen the chance to relax and have a break. But Paul has 20:20 spiritual vision. He didn't see these things: he saw something else. "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols." (Acts 17:16 NIV) Where I would see culture and sophistication, Paul saw idols. Paul saw spiritual need. Paul saw a people who were built for worship, but were grasping for God in the wrong places. He saw, and he felt distressed - and so he spoke. In order to get confident about sharing the good news of Jesus with others, we need to first sort out our vision, not our words. We need to see the glory of God, and feel the distress of our campuses, cities and nations being so full of idols. We need to pray to God for spiritual clarity, to see past the differences of culture, the obstacles to faith, to see with His eyes. Over to you:
Meet Kristen. She is a one of our student leaders that loves Jesus a lot. I can't wait to see how God uses her for His kingdom this next school year. This summer she went on a summer project. A 10 week missions trip (either in the states or overseas). Summer projects are like a spiritual greenhouse. A ton of growth spiritually and emotionally happen as students take big steps of faith in the context of community. I want to share with you (in Kristen's words) a cool story of how God used Kristen to build His kingdom. "It's week seven of project and we are focusing on being Unashamed of the gospel! In Romans 1:16, Paul writes: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith'." We should not be ashamed of the Gospel and what we believe in because everyone needs salvation. This week we are challenging ourselves to not be ashamed and to push through the fears when we are around non-believers of sharing our faith with them. Today was probably one of the coolest moments I have had my entire time here!! I went to campus for evangelism, as usual, ready to talk to random strangers about the Gospel. Jesse and I were partnered up this week to share together and he suggested that we read 1 Corinthians 2 (I strongly recommend you read it if you need inspiration before sharing the Gospel! Or pretty much any chapter in the book of Acts. :) ). So after reading that we were ready to go share, knowing that the holy spirit is working through us, and that our words are nothing if we don't submit them to God! We were rejected the first few times that we tried and I was a little discouraged. We finally found someone who was willing to talk and he ended up being a Christian! We had a good talk with him before he needed to leave to study for a midterm. We then walked around looking for someone to talk to, and it was my turn to pick someone so I saw a girl ahead sitting alone at a table. I asked her if we could talk to her about her philosophical view on life and she said yes. She told us that her name is Lusi Lu (I don't think you can get more adorable than that!).We started by using Solarium (cards with pictures on them that we use to ask people about where there life has gone, what they believe, and how they see different things in life) and soon realized that her english was not good at all. She came to America from China a few weeks ago, and so we had to make sure to speak clearly and slowly. We found out that her religious past included going to the temple and paying money in order to earn blessings, and doing good works in order to get into heaven. So we then shared the Gospel and what we believe with her. She was a little confused so Jesse went through it again to make it more clear. She understood what we were saying and said it all made sense and that she wanted to believe it. She asked several questions and eventually we got to the point where we asked if she wanted to believe what we did and become a Christian. She said yes. Pretty much exploding inside I continued to explain how it worked. She just wanted to know how she could have what we had. She was desperate for love and happiness and hope in an eternity with God! So we asked if she wanted to pray to God to accept Him into her life and I had her pray after me. She was so happy after our prayer and I could not have been more excited with her! We answered several more questions and explained what it meant to be a Christian every day to her and then invited her to our on campus Bible Study that we have after we share. She said she would come and meet us there! So Jesse and I said goodbye and practically beaming with joy ran to go pray for her! We wanted to find a bible in Chinese for her as soon as possible but when I texted her asking what dialect she wanted she said that she would like one in english. So we ran to the campus bookstore and got her a Bible before our bible study! She came and had so many good questions about the passage we read (Matthew 18:1-5). In the middle of our study a girl nearby asked if we were an on-campus group, we said that we were not exactly but that she could join us. She said she would love to and that she had her bible with her! She ended up being a super strong Christian from campus and by the end said she would love to take someone like Lusi Lu under her wing! If you don't see God in this yet than reread this story! I mean how more planned out could this get! We got both girls connected with the team that is on campus every day and made sure that they had connections with believers after we left! Today I am so in awe of God's planning. He uses us as vessels, if we are willing, in order to bring glory to His name! If I bring one thing home from this trip it will be this. Everyone needs God and we just need to be willing and ready to go out and share it!" Have you enjoyed this? Want to have occasional missional stories sent quietly to your inbox (about once a week)? Don't forget to check out my home page.
You also might like: Giant Blog Hop List My Life is Awkward What Well are you Drawing From? Disregarded and Deserted I'm over at The Better Mom, Women Living Well, Internet Cafe Devotions, We Are That Family, New Life Steward, Raising Homemakers, New House New Home New Life, Proverbs14:1, Raising Mighty Arrows, Intentional.Me, Denise in Bloom, Leaving a Legacy, Thankful Thursday, Reflections of His Grace, To show them Jesus, Shanda Oakley, Finding Heaven Today. I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. My desire is to be a blessing to you so I've made theses Resources and tools available to you and write a Weekday Devotional (my home page) to provide insights from God's Word. The Importance of the Attributes of God“I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing more important to teach another believer than who God is, what He is like and why or how He does what He does. In fact, everything about our lives-our attitudes, motives, desires, actions, and even our words-is influenced by our view of God. Whether our problems are financial, moral, or emotional, whether we are tempted by lust, worry, anger, or insecurity, our behavior reflects our beliefs about God. What we believe to be true about God’s character affects our friendships, our work and leisure activities, the types of literature we read, and even the music to which we listen.” Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, the largest missions sending organization in the world. I bet Bill Bright and A.W. Tozer would have been friends. Here's how A.W. Tozer says it, “The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and the consciousness of the divine presence. …It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.” And yet, We live in a world shouting to us what God is like. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20 The Most Exciting Attribute of GodGod is Eternal. I honestly love this attribute of God more than all the rest. Because get this, it means everything about Him is eternal, without end. His attributes have no end. If we tried to make a list of the characteristics, or the things we discovered to be true about God we could study our entire life... and for all eternity and never stop writing things on that list. Wow! Just when I think I know Your complexities, You step into the light. But get this. If we studied say just 1 of His attributes, like His Power for the rest of our earthly life... and for all eternity we would never come to the end of all there is to know about God's power. Wow! So here is just a grain of sand in comparison to all the sand on all the shores glimpse into God's power. God is PowerfulPaul prayed for the Ephesians to “begin to understand the incredible greatness of His power for us who believe Him.” So how really how powerful is God? Let’s look at His creation: Jer. 10:12 says, “God made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom” So this earth that God made speeds around the sun at 18.5 miles per second, 93 million miles from the sun and has over 20 exact right conditions for life to flourish. Things like
Isaiah 40:15 says, “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And He counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away.” Scientist estimate that there are ten billion trillion stars in the universe, or about as many stars as there are grains of sand on all of our planet’s seashores. If all the stars were divided equally among the people of the world, each person would receive almost 2 trillion stars. God spoke and the heavens and the earth came into being. And all of it displays who He is. His invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature can clearly be seen. (Rom. 1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and he said, let there be light. And light came out of the mouth of God at 186,000 miles per second. He spoke and the 10,000 degrees sun came into being, 1 million times the size of earth. The Lord spoke and it was so intense that we don’t want to get any closer than 93 millions miles away. God is so powerful that He has the power to create anything from nothing. Ps 33:6-11 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The LORDbrings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” We can see the power of God through the life of Christ. He has the power to sustain everything, uphold the world by His Word, raise Himself, lazurus and a little girl from the dead, he made the blind see, limbs grow back, heal a paralytic, heal a lady who had a bleeding disease for 20 years, turn water to wine, feed 5,000, stay focused on his mission and not be controlled by the tyranny of the urgent, let people beat him, spit on Him and pull out his beard and nail him to a cross, calm the storm, walk on water, fulfill over 330 prophecies, and soften hard, resistant hearts. That is powerful. He is also powerful enough to not be controlled by His feelings and wimbs. He is powerful enough to not be controlled or manipulated by us toward our own destruction. He is powerful enough to not fly off the handle enraged at us. He is powerful enough to know how to speak to us in a way we can understand and to lead us to the truth and to shape our desires and our thoughts. God is powerful enough to show His power through imperfect people -Are you tired, overwhelmed? Well, be encouraged, God uses His power in our behalf. Isa. 40 “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket… Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Ps. 66:5,7 “Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man” Here are some other things that are true about God. List of the Attributes of GodAnd here's a helpful, fun resource. List of the Attributes of God {31 Days of Prayer}What a gift that we get to have the privilege of learning about God's character, His attributes for the rest of our lives and for all eternity. What a gift that He lets us seek Him which provides the deepest satisfaction to our souls. Like John Piper says it, "He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." We serve a God who loves to be sought and who is actively and eternally revealing Himself. So how would believing God is _____________ (fill in the blank with an attribute from the list) about God impact your daily life? (Choices, habits, activities, how you spent your time, talent, money and resources) How would believing God is ______________ affect your intentionality toward the mission all believers are called to of making disciples? Let's get to know this amazing God more by spending time in His Word. Have you enjoyed this? Want to have occasional missional stories sent quietly to your inbox (about once a week)? Don't forget to check out my home page.
I'm over at The Better Mom, My Daily Walk in His Grace, We Are That Family, Pause on the Path, Finding Heaven. Mind Sharing? I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. My desire is to be a blessing to you so I've made theses Resources and tools available to you and write a Weekday Devotional (my home page) to provide insights from God's Word. Meet TinaJake (in the picture below with his girlfriend Marietta) went to high school with Tina. Jake came to the Auraria campus and got plugged in with our ministry. He is super awesome. He invited Tina to the Passion conference where 45,000 other college students were going to show up. He paid for her to go and prayed a ton the Lord would win over her heart. On the 22 hour drive she and Angi spent hours talking about what a step of faith was. At the conference during a Francis Chan's talk, Tina understood the gospel and gave her life to Him. Here is Tina telling what her life was like before Christ and how He drew her in His own incredible way. You'll be amazed and blown away by how awesome God is! It doesn't play sideways really. :) After Tina gave her life to Christ a little over a year ago, she began to grow. She was being discipled and involved in bible studies and found a good church. Tina is extremely smart and wrestled through a lot of apologetics and just this last week at our weekly meeting she spoke about Jesus being the only way. I just love seeing God radically change students lives! "If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them." Psalm 40:5 Want to see the rest of the series? God is Sending Rescuing Bus Stop Divine Appointment Willing & Available Seeking Sharing Wanna have occasional missional stories sent to your inbox? I'm over at The Better Mom, My Daily Walk in His Grace, We Are That Family, Pause on the Path, Finding Heaven. Mind sharing this with your friends? Friends I am so excited to be telling you about this opportunity. I first heard of the Allume conference last summer and this fall I have the privledge of joining Angi, Carly, and Sara (some of my dear friends) along with 400+ other Christian bloggers in Harrisburg, PA. The Allume Social Conference exists to offer a gathering place for kindred spirits to connect, learn, grow, and be refreshed so they can perservere in being a people who bring hope to the world through the social media medium. The goal is to go beyond the surface into intentional blogging and real life living, all to the glory of God.
The reason I'm so pumped about this conference is because I truly believe social media is the next great way of communicating. Just look at KONY2012 and what happened in Egypt last summer. A revolution was started through the use of social media! I believe in the power of the gospel to save lives and I think there is a way that blogging, social media, and the gospel can be integrated to spark our own revolution. A spiritual revolution in this country. I want to use this conference opportunity to start a partnership that blesses others as well as me. I am looking for a sponsor who would like to partner together for this conference. The sponsor would choose from one of the following packages to help me get to allume, and I would be my sponsors personal promoter through my social media sites. Why me?
Priority Focus {$800}
Funds from sponsorship will be allocated toward: Conference cost $259 Hotel split between four of us for 2 nights, $60 Airfare $410 plus tax Food for 3 days $50 Please send me an email at [email protected] to let me know what package you have decided on. Can't wait to hear from you! |
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