Having a Mary Spirit---Speaking Love

What spoke most to me in this Chapter

Speaking the truth in Love
I could truly identify with Joanna remarks on tolerance- which is often a fear of rejection. I agree with Joanna I tolerate things people do because I don’t want to lose or harm a relationship. I believe people don’t want to hear the truth. My experience has been people believe themselves to be right and in God’s will. Joanna pointed out a fact I never considered before “Bottom line: we love ourselves more than we love others.” Not my intentions when I don’t loving speak the truth to those I care about.

Build Up-Don’t Tear Down
I learn Ephesians 4:29 over this pass summer- Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” This verse often come to me when I am getting ready to respond to some thing negative or persons who stand in need of encouragement. I need this verse so very much in my job.

Being Still
I can relate to Joanna, I too have written letters in the midst of anger, work related, thanks to God I had sense enough to share the letters with someone wiser before sending. This gave me someone to help me be still and let my anger past before dealing with the situation. “Being Still” is very wise advice and will save us from later regret.

Learning to control my tongue has been a struggle at times and I really am one of those quiet people who listen rather than talk, except when I am angry than my tongue gets busy and often uncontrollable. Hopefully knowing I must answer for the words I speak to God will help me to have better control even in anger. Learning to speak in love is a process as is all good character development. Thanks be to God He is working me for His good purpose and as He works like Joanna I pray I want my words to count for the Lord’s purposes, not undermine them. I want to be a Barnabas-an encourager, the kind of woman who reaches out to people and leaves them feeling refreshed and restored. I want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Taking time to encourage people with small things as a note, phone call, a positive word in turbulent times. I want o be a friend who is willing to speak truth gently, humbly, and above all lovingly. I want to refresh the Lord by loving others in word and deed.

Bold-Joanna Weaver
Please go to Valley Girl for more

Having a Mary Spirit---- The Flesh Woman Diet

Questions for Reflection
Read Colossians 2:20-23. How should we view the world’s approach to self-discipline? What warning signs does Colossians give for discerning what is good and what is harmful?The world way appears wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial and severe bodily discipline-but provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. The world’s ways are man’s view not God’s. God has set me free from the spiritual powers of the world. To discern good from harmful I need to determine whose rules I‘m following and cast them away if they are from man.

According to the following scriptures why is the person we are on the inside more important than the person we are on the outside?
Matthew 15:17-20 Matthew 23:27-28, Luke 6:45The words I speak come from the heart-evilness, sin flows from the heart.
Need to be righteous pure on the inside –that is where God looks.
A good person produces good things from the heart. An evil person produces evil things from the heart. The heart is the center of who I am, it is where my goodness flows from as well as my not so goodness. I CAN MAKE THE OUTSIDE LOOK AS GOOD AS I WANT BUT IF THE HEART IS NOT RIGHT THE OUTSIDE WILL SOON BECOME UGLY, NOT REFLECTING GOD’S BEAUTY.

What spoke most to me?
Discipline is very hard for me and I have yet to conquer it in a number of areas in my life, and there may lay the problem I have been trying to conquer rather than let God do what God do. Like Joanna I give things to Goad and than take back- she helped me to begin to look at discipline differently.
1-Immediately give back to God what I keep taking from Him.2-To remember I am saying no to God and yes to Satan whenever I resist the conviction of the Holy spirit and each time I do this hell clamps chains on my soul this is a WOW moment.
3-Holiness is about choices. I have to make the choice to do what I know is right. It is my choice not to eat the cake, cookies, ice cream etc. It is my choice to order the healthy salad rather than the unhealthy giant hamburger if I desire to lose weight.
4-The problem is I don’t want to be challenged I just want to be changed. How true this is. Why can’t I wake up tomorrow morning and be my desired weight, why can’t I stay focused the entire 8 hrs I am at work. Why? Why? Because than I would have no need of a relationship with my God- truth be told I don’t really want a fairy Godmother- I want the relationship with God- I want to know God as God is and yes as painful as it sometime is I want Him to grow and mold me and take me through so I will truly know Him and I love watching God work in me. “I want to grow into the beautiful woman He wants me to be.”

A Space for Grace
Often in our pursuit of holiness, we experience moments so filled with power that we are enabled to do what we could not do before. We find ourselves in holy places where “heaven touches earth and we happen to be standing there,” as my friend Michael Snider puts it. If you’ve ever experienced an extra ability to overcome sin or a sudden lack of desire for a once cherished indulgence---that was a space of grace.” A Space of Grace what a way to look at God’s blessings and how He blesses me- yes I have had such moments. Joanna’s say don’t ignore it and I will try to pay more attention to such moments for Joanna says they are a gift from God and truly they are. I look forward to the moment when God has moved me into this sacred space with discipline.

Bold-Joanna Weaver
Please go to Valley Girl for more

Having a Mary Spirit---- Broken and Blessed

What spoke to me most?
Thinking too highly of me is dangerous. So is thinking too lowly of myself that is pride also. As I consider where I fall on this spectrum and where do I find a healthy balance I go to the Pride test and in a number of these areas I fall somewhere in between. To create a healthy balance is to stay as close to the “right” as I can, as I continually work toward being able to check all the boxes on the right.

Meekness means “strength under control”. This definition I believe speaks to the soul- I don’t have to be weak, that is never God intention. We don’t have to run from meekness we just have to understand what it really means and live that meaning, showing others how our God defines meekness. Part of the issues with the world is a lack of real knowledge and understanding.
A soft mouth now becomes my prayer. Lord may I respond to Your every direction without force. Let me be so in tune with what you want that I obey before You even ask.

My people are unwilling to be broken. It is only as they allow Me to break their stiff-necked pride that the truth can filter down into their hearts. “Then break me. Lord. I want to know You—truly know you. Not by head, but by heart.” Like meekness, brokenness is not a bad thing. The world has taught us it is. As Joanna notes it can be painful. Brokenness hurts. So we want to guard ourselves from it. Brokenness is a requirement to knowing the true God, knowing God with my heart. “Not one of His bones was broken.” Some wounds will appear, but they will heal and in the healing process I will be made whole. “On the third Day He got up with all power in His hands.”

“For if we hope to be fit for the kingdom of God, we must accept correction. Correction is not rejection. The Lord’s rebuke is always a gift to our souls. For in every check to our nature is a promise of change---if we will receive it, if we repent.”
As I repent and turn from the heart attitude that led to the sin, the Holy Spirit helps me respond and react in new ways—Christ--like ways. This doesn’t mean I don’t still struggle and stumble (Because I do) but gradually as I continue to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in my life my patterns begin to change. This has been true for me also, when I give the Spirit control and heed His voice I see change in my response to situations, circumstances which has lead me to sin in the past. Let me tell you it is better when the response if Christ-like, it draws you closer to God.

Martha’s gift to Jesus was just as sweet as Mary’s for when she accepted His rebuke, she lifted up the fragrance of humility.

“The Heart of a Savior”—“To lay down my own agenda to become humble and generous in order to love the world back to God.” What an awesome assignment, Lord grant me a Savior’s heart. Let my life become a fragrant offering, full of the aroma of Christ which through me will spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. In Jesus Name

More at truly captivating

Having A Mary Spirit-Bible Study

I won't be answering the questions this time either but want to share where reading this chapter has brought me.

I have struggled to forgive someone, in fact still in this struggle. I have always known from the moment when the hurt I would have to forgive in fact I had t forgive more than one person. Mostly I have moved past this situation, but it is a year later and I still struggle with one person. I have prayed for this person. I have talked to myself and committed to forgiveness, I understand how this situation could affect my relationship with God but in all honesty I am not 100% there. I can still get angry when I think of the situation. This chapter helped me by pointing out those things I already knew a goof reminder as I had to take a look at this very situation this week. So what do I do with this situation? I continue to pray, I will continue in my choice to forgive, I will bless and not curse; I will keep brining it to God. I will not gossip about it, I will accept I do not have to be proven right and I will never get an apology. I will cast evil thoughts away immediately giving it all to Jesus. The journey to forgiveness is not always an easy one but an important one and it is such a small thing to let interfere with my relationship with God which is a trillion times more important than this offense and it is God’s to handle anyway and not mine.

This one was very close to home.

More at truly captivating

Having a Mary Spirit

What spoke to me most?

•She had me with the opening paragraph when she asked if God has answered a prayer for me and I had not realized it. Had He given me something different? And later I realized I had received both. This opens the door for me to give much thought to how God has answered my prayers over the years.
•And then when she said her prayer had been to have a quiet and gentle spirit-I was right there because I have seeking to have a quiet and gentle spirit. But did she give me a different way of looking at this- a quiet and gentle spirit is a heart free from fear- this is not what I was pursuing. But this is exactly where God is gently taking me. He has quieted my soul.
•I love her method for falling backward in love.
•Difficulties can’t separate us from God-but fear sure can, Difficulties draws us closer to God, molds us and help us to become what God would have us to be- fear immobilize us-limiting change. Fear is really unbelief-it says God I don’t trust You. This is not the message I want God to receive from me.
•Speak God’s truth out loud- learning to do this-still need to get better with this, I am learning we have more power than we realize and speaking God’s promises out loud is more effective than quietly saying them in my heart-because for real Satan doesn’t dwell there and he can’t hear my silent speaking.
•Blessings pursue me-I don’t have to pursue them-I just have to listen for and obey God’s voice.

Please go to Truly Captivating for more on Having A Mary Spirit

Having A Mary Spirit Chapter 9 Guarding the “WellSpring”

My study group is not discussing this chapter this week- but there was so much good in the chapter I decided to share anyway. So please join me and offer your thoughts.

This chapter focused on guarding the heart. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

Joanna points out the importance of not even letting a little sin into our wellspring as even the little has the power to pollute and corrupt the very essence of who we are. We must be careful not to begin to compromise, "After excusing one sin, we find it much easier to committ others". We will reap the consequences of sin. Even when others sin against us we must be careful not to become bitter and sin. "Because what we plant today determines what we will harvest tomorrow."“ We need to be cleanse daily, washed in the blood daily this was not a one time thing, it is ongoing. If you are thirsty, go to Jesus who "will cause streams of living water to flow from you." Be carful not to leave the well dry for "we were ment to be rushing rivers, pouring out His love and mercy to everyone around us. We were meant to be conduits of living waters,the sweet and refreshing flow of the Holy Spirit coming in and flowing through and out of our lives." Joanna ends this chapter with a great reminder: "God has chosen us to be vessels for His presence. As we dig our spiritual wells deep and rely on Him to help us keep them clean, as we daily prime the pumps of our spiritual hunger,Christ fills us with Himself. Than He places us strategically as living water drinking fountains in a drought-stricken land. Tall crystall goblets filled with His mercy, brimming over with His love. Lush oases where travelers come and taste and see that the Lord is good. You and I have been cleansed--and filled-in order to be spilled. A crystal-clear "refreshering" drink of Jesus Christ."

Questions for Discussion
“Others May---You Cannot”
Why do you think God convicts some people of certain things while He doesn’t seem to convict others?
a-The path and purpose God has for each of us is different and I believe based on His purpose and the lessons He is choosing to teach me may contribute to why others may not seem to be getting convicted while I am
b- Some are being called to a higher calling.
c-For whom much is given much is expected.
d-God is preparing me for His purpose and His plan.
e-God is growing me
f-I am praying God will show me the things He desire me to correct in my life
g-I am truly seeking to become more Christ-like
h-We don’t know for sure others are not being convicted-we don’t know what others are going through. My Pastor often say we don’t know what it took for someone to get here. We can’t measure or judge someone else‘s walk with God. We don’t know their relationship- regardless of what it may appear as.

(This also spoke to me most in this Chapter)
“If God has called you to be like Christ, He may draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put on you such demands of obedience that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let others good people do things which He will not let you do.”
*Others Christians who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot and if you attempt you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make your sorely penitent.
*Others may boast of their work, success, self but the Holy Spirit will not allow you, if you begin He will lead you to deep mortification, that will make you despise yourself, and good works.
* Others will be allowed to succeed in making money, but God will likely keep you poor-because He wants you to have something far better than gold, and that is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs days by day out of an unseen treasury.
*The Lord will allow others to be honored and put forward, and keep you hid away in obscurity because He want to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory.
*He will let others be great, but you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing.
*The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you…rebuking you for little words and feelings, or for wasting time.
Yes, I have been in this place even in the place where I stood in judgment because of how it appeared, thus my answer to the initial question. God has grown me and I am learning what God has for me is for me and what He has for you is for you and as G. D Watson states God has the right to do what He pleases with His own, and I am His own.

The Bible is clear that we must manage our freedom to avoid harming ourselves, harming others and hurting God. The following 2 scriptures speak to our hurting GOD.
Hurting God- Hebrews 6:6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

1 Thessalonians 4:7-God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Hebrews speak to non believers-no believer wants God rejected we understand the importance of this we cry because we don’t want anyone to be lost, but this scripture gives us another reason to cry when God is rejected He is hurt, brought to shame , nailed to the cross again and again and again. He has already paid the price for us why must He continually be nailed to the cross.

This speaks to my heart the matter of witness and evangelism is more and more necessary not only for others to come to Christ but that our Savior is not continually put to shame. Once we turn from the unbeliever we must look at ourselves-believers.

So often we reject the message because man/woman brings it. We must look to the word and know it is not man we reject or hurt but God. We must be careful not to nail Christ to the cross again and again as the unbeliever. This is a problem that has been around for some time. Exodus 16: 7 Moses said this very thing to the Israelites when they were complaining not having food. In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that should complain about us? What has the messenger of God done but brought us his word?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.