{"id":12051,"date":"2013-05-22T01:01:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T05:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=12051"},"modified":"2013-05-21T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T02:28:07","slug":"girls-with-swords-manage-harvests-pg-147-150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/22\/girls-with-swords-manage-harvests-pg-147-150\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls with Swords: Chapter 9 “Manage Harvests” (pgs 147-150)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been to three churches in my adult life and have been able to see the different cultures in these churches. One of the things that I have noticed is the fact that some individuals in the church are more concerned with their image and looking better than others than they are with spreading the Word. I think that being competitive is part of our nature; it can be fun. I know that I enjoy a friendly competition with family and friends; but, \u201cCompetition has its place in the Olympics but not in the house of God\u201d (pg<\/span>. 148).<\/p>\n

I enjoyed how Lisa examined the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist. \u00a0I liked how the powers that be (religious leaders) were unable to create a rivalry between the two.\u00a0 I like how John was \u201ca forerunner who understood his season and purpose…Like him, we should herald the One to come\u201d (pg<\/span>. 149).<\/p>\n

Life is full of competition and it is full of trying to be the best. But there are areas of<\/span> life when competition is not warranted and, in this case, it can do harm. When we are going head-to-head with our fellow Christian, what message are we sending?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard the term herald<\/em> before, and I knew that it was an individual who acted as an olden day announcer; but I wanted to look the word up in order to better understand the responsibilities.<\/p>\n

her\u00b7ald<\/b><\/p>\n

1:<\/b> an official crier<\/span> or messenger<\/p>\n

2:<\/b> one that precedes or foreshadows<\/p>\n

3<\/i>:<\/b> one that conveys news or proclaims<\/p>\n

4<\/i>:<\/b> one who actively promotes or advocates<\/p>\n

Messenger<\/i><\/p>\n

Crier<\/i><\/p>\n

Foreshadows<\/i><\/p>\n

Proclaims<\/i><\/p>\n

Conveys News<\/i><\/p>\n

Promotes<\/i><\/p>\n

Advocates<\/i><\/p>\n

Are we clearing the paths, or, are we adding more barriers for those trying to reach Him? \u00a0\u201cIn times of harvest, paths must be cleared and maintained so the harvesters can get to the fields\u201d (pg<\/span>. 147).<\/p>\n

\"TimesOfHarvest.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have been assigned many titles—woman, wife, mother, daughter, friend, employee, girls with swords, warriors, and now we are also heralds<\/em>. We now need to walk our paths, sword in hand, clearing paths.<\/p>\n

In times of harvest, paths must be cleared and maintained so the harvesters can get to the fields<\/em> (pg<\/span>. 147)<\/p>\n

\u00a0*****<\/p>\n

Let’s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the path You have placed us on. Lord, with so many responsibilities and titles we often try to outdo one another. Please forgive us for this and remind us that we are all assigned to be Your heralds. \u00a0We are assigned to proclaim Your glory, working together to clear paths and lead others to You. Thank You Lord for Your assignments in our lives. \u00a0In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been to three churches in my adult life and have been able to see the different cultures in these churches. One of the things that I have noticed is the fact that some individuals in the church are more concerned with their image and looking better than others than they are with spreading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":12054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[144,147,2083,2082,218,2087,365,370,379,394,425,1985,436,2550,2081,554,1986,620,723,2549,879,1617,2085,2084,1075,1135],"class_list":["post-12051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-bible","tag-bible-study","tag-choice","tag-choose","tag-christianity","tag-destroy","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-fellowship","tag-friendship","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-god","tag-herald","tag-hero","tag-jesus","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-love","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-paths","tag-relationships","tag-satan","tag-steal","tag-target","tag-tonya-ellison","tag-womens-bible-studies","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TimesOfHarvest.jpg.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-38n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12051"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12060,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12051\/revisions\/12060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}