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Showing posts from July, 2019

Discovering Your Blind Spots

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Honest and life-giving conversations  about blind spots  will lead to transformative change and spiritual growth To the outside world, examining and exposing your own blind spots can be viewed more as a weakness than a courageous step toward change in your life and relationships. However, true transformative change starts when we finally face our weaknesses—and we all have them. Uncovering our own unseen areas for spiritual growth is impossible without the help of God and trusted individuals. What does Jesus see that we tend to miss, and what does he think about the threats that blind spots pose? With the release of their book, Blind Spots: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You (New Growth Press/July 29, 2019), authors Tim Riddle and Fil Anderson discuss Jesus’s primary mission to expose the deadly nature of blind spots, sharing how he alone has the cure. They urge followers of Christ to engage in honest and life-giving conversations about blind spots: what they are, wh

The Bachelorette: Hannah B. - Week 12 (The Finale Part 2)

Here we go with the finale finale of Hannah's season. My eye twitch is back, and I am thinking of tall the things I really need to be doing other than blogging about this. Anyway, Hannah says you have to show all your good and bad layers during this, and she has done it all. She's fallen in love with both. Both men meet with Neil Lane. The overfed scripting has them each talking about how the ring is like their relationship with Hannah. For example, Tyler looks for loud and proud while Jed goes for a round diamond because the shape is more constant. On the car ride from the hotel to wherever they are doing the ceremony, Hannah freaks out and asks the driver to stop the car. She climbs out, starts walking across the street in heels and trips out in middle of an intersection. She's sitting out in the road in a white dress. She scraped her elbow on the way down. A producer offers to help her up, but she declines his help. Hannah says she can't do this. Falling in

The Bachelorette: Hannah B. - Week 12 (The Finale part 1)

A two-night season finale just means we are going to drag things out way more than they ever had to be, especially given that Chris Harrison is in the studio with an audience. But, here we go with night one. Hannah is ready to hand out roses. She has just sent Luke packing... AGAIN. The three men remaining are wondering who among them is going home. I say Peter stays after their time in the windmill and that Jed is leaving. We shall see if I am right. Cue the voiceovers aka voices in their heads. After her speech about not wanting to break anyone's heart, but she knows what she needs to do, the first rose goes to Jed. Crud. I was wrong on that one. One rose closer 🌹 #TheBacheloretteFinale pic.twitter.com/CBxC0bBHUM — The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) July 30, 2019 Ohhhhhh... I was sooooooooo wrong. Tyler gets the second rose. Hannah takes Peter out. She says it has all been so perfect. It was like when she was a little girl and he was her Ken doll. She will

Sanctuary

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Sanctuary By John W. Thompson; © Kruger Organisation Used by permission. CCLI # 1132191 (girls echo) Oh Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary Pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living Sanctuary for You. It was you Lord, who sent the Savior Heart and soul Lord, to every man. It is you Lord, who knows my weakness, You refine me with Your own hand. Lead me on Lord, through my temptations You refine me from within Fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit, And take all our sins away. Lord teach Your children, t o stop the fighting, And start uniting, all as one. Let’s get together, loving forever Sanctuary, for You. And when He comes with shouts of glory And our work on earth is done O, how I long to hear Him saying, “Faithful servant well done.”

What a difference curtains make

Go figure that I don't have pictures to share to prove my point, but just hanging curtains make a world of difference when moving into a house. I've been trying to get some boxes unpacked, but after missing a couple of days of work last week, and not having internet until into the day on Tuesday (I had to take my computer to my parents' house to sync three times on Monday), I've been trying to catch up on work. I just haven't gotten much house stuff done. Today's goal was hanging up all my curtains (check) and working towards getting all my mugs and curio boxes unpacked. I'll start posting pictures as I make significant progress. One week post move, with the curtains up, it's starting to look like home.

Mini College Reunion

For all that is bad, annoying and addictive about Facebook, if it weren't for Facebook, I would have lost track of every last one of my friends from college. We had a pretty tight Christian Campus Center group when I was at the University of North Texas. Not only was it the students that went to UNT, but at Texas Woman's University too. I was there for three years, 1997-2000. Sadly, one of the guys in the group from that time passed away last week in a motorcycle accident. One of his closest friends got a group of us together tonight before the memorial service tomorrow. The building we met in is no more, but we met up at the new CCC building which is actually a former frat house (that frat got kicked off campus). First off, it took two and a half hours to get to Denton on a Friday afternoon. Once upon a time, from the front door of my parents' house to my apartment took 90 minutes on a Sunday with no traffic. Including our campus minister, there were eight of us th

Stepping on an IED was just the beginning of the struggle for his life

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Part 2 of an interview with Carlos and Rosemarie Evans, Authors of Standing Together During his fourth deployment, US Marine Corps Sergeant Carlos Evans stepped on an IED--and the loss of both legs and his left hand was just the beginning of the struggle for his life. For the next two years, he and his wife, Rosemarie, went through the rehabilitation process together. As a nurse and mother of two young children, Rosemarie was used to caring for people, but the task of taking care of her triple-amputee husband brought new challenges every day. In addition to his limb loss, Carlos faced PTSD and developed an addiction to painkillers. He was sure Rosemarie's life would be better without him--and that it might have been better if he hadn't survived at all. But unlike the majority of marriages put under similar strain, Carlos and Rosemarie stayed together. With the help of family, friends, and--most importantly--a strong faith, they've built a solid marriage

Looking for some Radically Different reviewers!

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For review copy and interview information, contact: Audra Jennings -  audra@newgrowthpress.com  - 903-874-8363 Now available for review! Click here to access the sign-up form! If you signed up via the combined summer release email, you don't need to sign-up again. By signing up to receive this book, you are agreeing to: 1. Post a review on your blog or website within 30 days of receiving the book. 2. Post your review on the New Growth Press website as well as other consumer websites (Amazon, GoodReads, etc.). 3. Share your review via your social media accounts. 4. Email your review link to  audra@newgrowthpress.com  so that we can share your review via our social media accounts as well.  Building Radically Different Relationships Champ Thornton helps middle schoolers use God’s word to untangle the twists and turns of life  Greensboro, NC  –  As adults it’s hard to figure out how to live as Christians in a morally murky and increasin

Are You Living Out Your Mission?

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Are You Living Out Your Mission? The Mission-Centered Life explores how God’s grace empowers his people to serve in places of need God calls us to live missionally, but what exactly does that look like? Do we have to sell everything and head to a foreign country? For Christians who long to serve God in broken places but aren’t sure where to start, The Mission-Centered Life: Following Jesus into the Broken Places (New Growth Press/July 22, 2019), speaks to the “whys” and “hows” of missional living. In this new ten-week group resource, author Bethany Ferguson draws on her fifteen years of missionary experience to examine the reasons believers should pursue lives of service and evangelism. The Mission-Centered Life is organized into ten lessons designed for readers who want to explore their role in building the kingdom of Christ. Readers will consider how the gospel propels them to go out and love their neighbors, including people who might be far away or very diff

The Bachelorette: Hannah B. - Week 11

Well, I’m not starting off The Batchelorette on time for a number of reasons. It’s not going to post right afterwards either because I don’t have internet. I was supposed to have internet last Thursday when it got turned off at my old house. Long story, but not getting it until tomorrow. My “equipment” which was just phone cords and Ethernet cables got delivered to the old house which promoted call #5 to make sure the tech was coming to the correct address tomorrow. Sigh. Between having to get up early and syncing my work laptops that had not downloaded email since last Wednesday night and going back two more times (once around 1:30 PM and again around 7:00 PM) to send and receive more email, I put in an 11 hour work day that was not as productive as it could have been with use of the internet because everything requires the internet these days. I am so glad to be moved all the way in with the other house empty. I’m even more glad that after a long day, there isn’t three hours o

Roll the Gospel Chariot Along

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Roll the Gospel Chariot Along Roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along And we won't tag along behind. If a Brother's in the way We will stop and pick him up If a Brother's in the way We will stop and pick him up If a Brother's in the way We will stop and pick him up And we won't tag along behind. Roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along And we won't tag along behind. If a Sister's in the way We will stop and pick her up If a Sister's in the way We will stop and pick her up If a Sister's in the way We will stop and pick her up And we won't tag along behind. Roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along We will roll the gospel chariot along And we won't tag along behind. If the Devil's in the way We will roll right over