December 25, 2024

Winning Him Without Words: A Confession

November 6, 2012 by

Peter wrote this letter sometime between A.D. 60 and 64. Women in the first century had no legal rights. The husband and father was the ultimate authority over everyone in the household, including his wife. If the husband did not believe in Christ, Peter assured Christian women that they did not have to preach to their husbands. In fact, direct confrontation may even backfire. However, women could still show Christ to their husbands – by their behavior and character – not by their words.

In this section of our book, Dineen relates a story about an encounter she has with a receptionist at the doctor’s office. She was ashamed at her reaction to the situation. She silently prayed, asking God for the opportunity to apologize to this harried worker. The woman comes up to her right then and Dineen is able to apologize.

The best part of this whole story is that Dineen felt led by the Holy Spirit to share this entire encounter with her unbelieving husband. Every detail – even the not-so-Christian parts. And he was proud of her.

He saw the not-so-perfect part of her and he was proud.

How often do you let your husband see the not-so-Christian parts of you? Do you hide your true self from him for fear of what he might think or say? Do you fear that you might “look bad” or “unChristian” if you are authentic, if you really let your hair down and let your unbelieving spouse see everything? Do you think you might give Jesus a “bad name”?

What do you think would happen? Make a list. I’ll wait.

Are any of these things on your list?

  • My husband might laugh at me
  • My husband might mock me
  • My husband might say I’m not really a Christian
  • My husband thinks I should be perfect if I’m a Christian
  • My husband’s words might hurt my feelings

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)

The Holy Spirit that the Lord poured into you when you were saved is a spirit of POWER, LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND. There is one thing it is not – a spirit of fear. Even though your spouse’s words or actions may hurt you in the moment, remember that you have a power living within you that is greater than those hurtful words or actions. A power that parted the Red Sea and raised our Savior from the dead. That power is alive in you!

Girlfriends, when we are authentic, our unbelieving husbands can relate to us. They do not feel like they have to compete with this guy named Jesus. They see that we can own up to our mistakes, repent, and ask forgiveness of anyone we may have wronged. But, even more so, they will see that we are NOT perfect – and they do not have to be either. They will see that Jesus loves us anyway, even when we do mess up. And we WILL mess up! It is only through Christ that we are made perfect.

Today is the day, my dear friends. It is time to lay down the idol of perfection. We cannot be an authentic warrior for Christ if we pretend to have it all together. It is through our authenticity that Christ uses us to reach other people with the Good News of his saving grace. Are you ready to let go of the need to be a perfect Christian in front of your unsaved husband and let Jesus use your authentic self for His glory?

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Let’s Pray: Father God, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we come to you asking for your forgiveness. Lord, please forgive us if we have tried too hard to be a perfect Christian in front of the unbelievers in our lives. Align our hearts with yours and show us how to live authentically in front of our unsaved spouses and how to glorify your name through our gentle and quiet spirits. In your holy name we pray, Amen!

Your Assignment: Post the list that you made from the blog assignment – What do you think would happen if your unsaved spouse saw the “not-so-perfect, “unChristian” parts of you? Pray over these things and ask God to show you the truth from His Word.

Have a Blessed Week!

Jennifer

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For the “Winning Him Without Words” Bible Study, you will need the book, your Bible, pen or pencil, a highlighter and a quiet place. You can order the book right through our website by clicking the “sign-up here” button at the top of our webpage; which is also where you can sign up to participate in this awesome bible study!

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Winning Him Without Words: Are We the Sweet Aroma of Christ, Or the Stench of Death?

October 31, 2012 by

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those perishing. To one we are the smell of death, to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

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I had an Aunt that I loved to hug when I was a child. She always smelled like Lillie’s of the Valley. Her aroma was always so sweet to me, not only because of her perfume, but she radiated love to me. She always showed love and attention to me when I was with her. She made me feel special and that I mattered to her. Her love was genuine and I could sense it, smell it and see it every time I was with her. I want to smell as sweet as my Aunt did to me.

I don’t know about you , but when I get ready for a special occasion, or a date with my husband, I take time to put on special lotions and perfume. This part of our chapter really spoke to me. I never once gave a thought, before now, how I “smell” as a christian! But God wants us to know we give off an aroma to our loved ones, be it death or life. WOW! It is really an eye opener to me to know that.  I know that I can speak life or death to my husband, but what do I smell like when he is next to me??

Does he see me living out my faith as the aroma of Christ? Does he something in me that he longs for in the deepest depths of his soul? Or does he see an ugly example that turns him off?

I agree with Dineen when she says she gets excited because the verse uses the present tense of the verb, “those who are being saved”. I love that because it gives us hope that God’s work in our spouse, or loved one, is NOT done. It is an ongoing process, continual. He hasn’t given up on them. As we pray for our spouses we can be assured that God is still working on them , even if we don’t see anything changed in them. On Page 89 Dineen says, “According to Paul, God may have put us where we are because we are to be a key factor to our spouse’s salvation. We may be one of the tools God is choosing specifically to use in bringing our loved ones to Him. God may have called us to this exact place at this exact time.”   This just gets me so excited!! First that God would use me, just a wife, mother and grandmother, but I love God and I want my whole family to know and love Him. Second it excites me because I don’t ever have to give up, God is always working!! God has placed us in our loved ones lives for a purpose. That purpose is the privilege of showing them Christ!  What an honor!

From now on I will pay close attention to the aroma I’m giving off, not only on special occasions or a date, but everyday life. Ask yourself, “Do I want to be the aroma of death, stinky, decaying, rotting, death? Or do I want to give off the sweet, loving, breathtaking aroma of Christ?” I choose Christ.

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Let’s Pray:

Lord I pray for myself and all the beautiful women involved in this study. Help us to give off your aroma to our spouses and loved ones everyday. Let them notice it and long for that aroma for themselves. Thank you so much for letting us be a part of your plan of salvation in their lives. Give us strength and life to pass along to them and bring it to fruition we pray.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Your assignment:

What kind of fragrance are you giving off to your spouse? Is it life giving or death? Share and tell us, if it’s the wrong one, How you plan to change it through Christ.

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For the “Winning Him Without Words” Bible Study, you will need the book, your Bible, pen or pencil, a highlighter and a quiet place. You can order the book right through our website by clicking the “sign-up here” button at the top of our webpage; which is also where you can sign up to participate in this awesome bible study!

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The Resolution for Women: Structural Soundness

August 21, 2012 by

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless”

Psalm 119:1

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It just would not be right if I typed one more word without quoting Mrs. Shirer from page 147…

“No doubt, this point of resolution calls for an intimate, personal, introspective look at what’s going on in our hearts and homes. It touches on some of those allowances we make behind closed doors, in the quiet of our dens and living rooms, where laziness and leniency have been known to hang around after dinner and stay up into the wee hours. That’s why, honestly, it often requires a resolution like this before we recognize that these things we’ve been sanctioning with our time and attention are a glaring contradiction of who we are and what we say we believe.”

It is all about compromise, ladies….. and with God, THERE IS NO COMPROMISE!

These compromises can come in many shapes and forms and you can probably easily justify them…..

  • watching a movie or television show you shouldn’t watch
  • listening to music you shouldn’t fill your ears with
  • flirting with an old flame online
  • reading a book you shouldn’t be reading
  • eating food in amounts you shouldn’t be eating or to fill a void
  • ________________________________.

I am not interested in telling you what parameters you should have in place for this, because that is not my place 🙂 BUT…. I really would like you to take a good hard, honest look at what you are spending your time on and filling your precious senses with and decide whether you are compromising purity and virtue for the sake of entertainment.

O U C H….. yes, this hurts…. but it is more than necessary that we rip this band aid off in one clean yank rather than continue to live this charade.

We cannot continue to discourage one thing in public and then derive pleasure from it behind closed doors. The world, and God, needs us to stop being one thing on the outside and something entirely different on the inside. He NEEDS this from us in order to fulfill His purposes AND for us to be living in the fullness of what He has for our lives.

THIS is integrity.

Structural Integrity is when something doesn’t just look good, it also has strong functionality. What is the use of a house that looks nice if it will fall apart at the sign of any storm? You wouldn’t want to be seen in a gorgeous new dress if you knew that if you bent down, it would rip at the seams from weak construction. We cannot continue living day-to-day in the hypocrisy of our own actions.

Priscilla shared something with us in this chapter that MUST be shared here. John Wesley (an evangelist) received these words from his mother:

“Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things- in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind- that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

Yikes!!!! So dear sisters, which do WE want more…. God’s best, or your personal favorites?

Psalm 101:2-3 (NLT)

2 I will be careful to live a blameless life— when will you come to help me?

I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.

3 I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I hate all who deal crookedly; I will have nothing to do with them.

The verse gives us some guidelines that we would do well to live by:

  1. Have no tolerance for evil.
  2. Closely monitor the type of people you allow to influence you
  3. Recognize your need for divine help

So….. the big question to ask ourselves here today is: “Are you who you claim to be?”

Understand that God’s goal for you through your integrity isn’t to take away all of your fun, like it might look on the surface. He wants so much more for you than that, dear one! His goal is to “position you as a clean, pure, available recipient of His best, most fulfilling blessings.” He needs you to leave all of these compromising distractions behind so that He can fill you with His best!

That’s what I want and I hope you want it, too! Let;s dig deep today, my dear friends, so that we can once and for all be a complete open, pure vessel ready for God’s best!

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Let’s Pray:

Dear Lord, You know how hard it is for us to let go of these worldly pleasures so I ask You to please kelp give each and every one of us the strength and courage we need today to stand for YOU and Your best for us! Impress upon our minds, hearts and soul what You need us to stop compromising in and help us to kick it all to the curb! We want to begin living the same life in private that we profess to live in public. We want YOur best, Lord, and although it won;t be easy, we know it will be worth it! In Your Son’s pure name we pray, amen <3

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Your Assignment:

What do you participate in right now that weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, and/ or takes the relish off spiritual things? Please share with us in a comment below….

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After you complete this assignment, then go back to your Facebook Group and see what Megan has for us for our daily activity.  I’m sure it is going to be interesting!!  If you do not belong to one of our FB Groups, and you wish to be added, please send us an email to: GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com, and we’ll be happy to add you!!

Join us back here tomorrow where we will discuss the next chapter of this section:  The Three Percent DIfference.

Be a blessing,

Megan <3

…don’t forget to read what the men are up to over on Craig’s blog…

www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

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The Resolution for Women — Weekly Overview

July 6, 2012 by

Well, how was your first week with The Resolution for Women?  Were you able to make some changes in your life, or at least see some areas where changes are needed?  I know I did!  I saw a few things!

Our Memory Verse of the week:  

Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.

1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)

Monday we talked about making “every bite count” and enjoying your life where you are right now!  Taking the time to smell the coffee, and enjoying what God has given you; scraping up every last crumb of that amazing dessert!  No matter what age you are, there is still time to start enjoying your life TODAY!  Resolve to make that change in your life; spend more quality time with your husband and children, and move on from there.

Tuesday we talked about the “secret” to contentment.  Do you remember what the secret is?  Choosing to recognize that God has already supplied us with everything we need in life, and choosing to be perfectly content with what He has already given us.  Only then will we be able to fully engage in life in a way that we never have before….living life to the fullest.

Wednesday we talked about His “overflowing blessings”.  Here we learned how to be more comfortable with giving, because we have learned that God’s got our back, no matter what!  To use the abundance that He has already given us to give to others, and not to worry about “what if I run short by giving what I have to someone else”.  This was truly an eye-opening chapter for me!!  How about you??

Thursday we talked about the “balancing point”.  Again, another eye-opening chapter, for me!  What is true contentment?  Priscilla describes in so many different ways in this chapter, but the one that I liked the best was this, “It’s a balance.  A holy equilibrium.  A genuine gratitude for what the day brings, all the while maintaining a controlled anticipation for tomorrow may offer.”  I LOVE that!!  Having gratitude for today, and a “controlled anticipation” for tomorrow!  Meaning, not allowing ourselves to get ahead of God and begin to worry about tomorrow!

I don’t know about you, but I have learned a lot in this section of the Resolution for Women!  Be sure to go back over this first section once more, before we head into next week.  Highlight areas in each chapter where you feel God is speaking to you about.  Then pray and ask Him to help you resolve to become increasingly satisfied in your life, as Paul was.  Ask Him to teach you to be content.  As Paul said, being content is a process that we need to learn.  It isn’t something that just happens overnight.  But it is something that can be learned!

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Next week, our topic is “Purposefully Feminine — a resolution to champion biblical femininity”.   Another awesome chapter!
 
Have a Great weekend Ladies!  See you again on Sunday! 
 
Living Intentionally for Him,
Christi
 
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Let’s pray:
Father, thank You so much for the lessons we have learned this week.  As Paul learned how to be content in all things, Lord, we ask that You help us learn to be content in all things, as well.  We understand that in our own power, it can’t be done completely, but through You, Lord, we can truly learn to be content!  We thank You Lord for what You are doing in our lives through this study.  We ask special blessings upon Priscilla Shirer, the author of this book, for the work she put into writing this amazing book!  We love You Lord, in Jesus’ Name, AMEN!
 
After reading today’s blog, please return to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook for your daily activity!  ♥  You just never know what we have in store for you!
 
 
If you are not currently a part of our Online Bible Study group, and would like to be, please send an email to GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com, and we’ll be glad to add you!
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The Resolution for Women: The Secret

July 3, 2012 by

Memory Verse for this week:

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain”

1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)

I am speechless. Dear Priscilla…….. I, Megan Smidt, am SPEECHLESS!!!!!

I don’t even know what to write. There is no way I could add anything of importance to what Priscilla penned on the 6 pages that make up the section of Chapter One called “The Secret.” If you have not read it yet, I BEG YOU to stop reading my words, pull out your Resolution book, and read pages 17 to 22. Go now. I’ll wait…..

Ok so I just gave you pleanty of time to read this all for yourself. Now….. let’s chat.

I was a retail sales manager for over 10 years and I was good at it. It was my job to motivate people to sell things to other people wether they needed it or not. I’m not talking about a $30 handbag either…. the handbags I sold cost anywhere from $500 to $10,000. I decided I couldn;t do it any longer when my boss came to me a few weeks after 9/11 complaining about our sales numbers. She urged me to make my sales people “play up” feeling better about life and the state of our world by buying things to make them feel better. While we were living in the midst of complete uncertainty about EVERYTHING, I was supposed make my sales people prey on our customer’s insecurities, fear and doubt to get them to buy stuff to give them a false sense of security.

I couldn’t do it.

I was recruited to a higher paying retail job managing “secrets” of another kind involving lots of bras and panties. I didn’t work there for very long though, as I was more needed managing my newly acquired full-time household of 7.

Philippians 4:12-13

12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Priscilla states: “When you’ve concluded that what you already have on hand is enough, that it’s adequate- that it’s been deemed by God as sufficient- then you’re EQUIPPED and EMPOWERED to participate fully in the tasks set before you during this season of life.”

Do you know that you can BANK on that? Really, deep down in your soul, do you TRUST that God is not only capable of providing for you but He wants to give you even more than you need to be able to EXCEL at His purposes?

This is Biblical, my friends, and I urge you to let this sink into your heart. Priscilla shares with us that “God has already given enough. He always does. And when you and I choose to recognize this and TRUST in His continued supply, we’ll be able to engage in life in a way we never have before. We’ll finally be living life to the fullest.”

THAT is the secret. WE MUST RESOLVE TO BE CONTENT!!!

Please, please, please DO NOT keep it to yourself!!!!! Really let this penetrate into every crevice of your heart and soul today. Spend time with this TRUTH and I urge you to spend a good amount of time in prayer with your Heavenly Father before beginning today’s homework.

HOMEWORK:

When you are ready, begin your journey to contentment by making a list. Label one side “My Needs.”  Label the other side “God’s Provision.” Then match up your needs with the way God is currently meeting them. Place your list in a handy place for the times you are tempted to lean toward dissatisfaction.

Let’s pray:

Dear God, You don’t ask us to do anything in Your Word that isn’t possible through You and through having a deep, intimate walk with You. Thank you for this perfect provision, Lord, and I pray that TODAY is a new day for every woman who reads this blog who is struggling with trusting You with every aspect of her life. Speak boldly into her life today, Lord! Wake her up to your perfect provision so that she can FINALLY be all You have created her to be for YOU to get all the glory Lord! You want more for us than we could ever come up with on our own for your love is truly extravagant…. more amazing than anything we could try to replace it with of this world. Help us to only seek satisfaction through walking intimately with You within Your will, God, and help us to boldly share the  perfect provision found only through You with every life we encounter. We are believing for INCREDIBLE revelation today, Father, and I pray that none of us will EVER be the same again as our eyes are now open to YOU being the only satisfaction that could ever quench our thirst. We love you and we thank you. In Your Son’s matchless name we pray, amen <3

Question of the day:

What might God be trying to grow in your character or cement in your relationship with Him by keeping you separated from some of the things you want but don’t have yet?  Please share your thoughts about this in a comment below!

After reading today’s blog, please return to our Online Bible Study Group on Facebook for your daily activity!  ♥  You just never know what we have in store for you!

If you are not currently a part of our Online Bible Study group, and would like to be, please send an email to GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com, and we’ll be glad to add you!

…AND don’t forget to also follow my husband Craig and I’s blogs as we are writing about this journey daily here:

Me: www.glorytoglorylifecoaching.wordpress.com

Craig: www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Many blessings, dear friends,

Megan 🙂

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