2 Samuel 2

Take time today to read 2 Samuel 2.

What are some things that stand out to you personally about this passage?

Look closely at verses 1-4.

What about this conversation draws your attention?

I love the fact that David inquired of the Lord...and believed that He would answer him! And God does answer Him directly! How precious is the honor of prayer and talking with the God of the universe!!!

I walk early in the mornings...it is my favorite time of the day. I love being outdoors and I almost burst literally from trying to drink everything of God's creation and world in! I ask Him every day why I can't just bottle it up and enjoy it all day long...ah, the voice of a true addict! And every morning He replies to my request...then you would worship that feeling instead of ME...and He is right.

During these walks each day, I pray for 30-40 minutes talking with God about those things that are on my mind, my agenda,and my heart. Now, you have to understand that though I have been deeply entrenched in God's Word for 6 1/2 years consistently...I have struggled with intercession and prayer.

But, now during these walks I have experienced time with My Father in such a powerful way. I talk to Him and day by day I hear His voice answering. He convicts me, rebukes me, encourages me, and teaches me. He is real in those times of prayer and that changes me each day.

Today, perhaps you are like me and have struggled to pray as if God really hears and answers. Take encouragement from David in this passage and believe Him! He will answer...maybe not in our time or the way we would like! Let's make sure today that we are seeking God's direction in our day. Let's feast on His Word and talk with Him about those questions, hurts, frustrations, and confusing things we are going through today. I love to hear God answer His children and this passage reminds me that He is personally involved in this relationship!

2 Samuel 1

Hi ladies! I pray that you are allowing God's Word to fill your cup daily through His Word each morning. I am enjoying the book of Mark in my personal time with the Lord, but also enjoying a look back at 1&2 Samuel too.

Take time today to read over 2 Samuel 1. We are traveling along with David's life and see now that he finds himself in deep loss in this chapter over his beloved friend Jonathan. But, we also see him mourning over Saul...the man who hated him.

Look specifically at verse 24.

What do you notice here?

I am still amazed at David's heart. Saul wanted to kill David. He sought every way to hunt him down and kill him...yet here David is telling Israel to week over Saul because he was a wonderful provider and protector!

What perspective! I was challenged by that today. I pray that today I will follow Christ's words when He told each of us to love our enemies and to do good to those that desire to hurt us. That takes putting aside our rights, pride, selfishness, and emotional outbursts in order to truly love others the way Christ loved us.

Take time today to look at the way you view those who are not kind to you or treat you unfairly. Do we truly follow Christ in loving those who hate us...and do good to them? David honored Saul during his life and even now in his death. He showed love to Saul even when Saul was plotting his death!

Ask God to change that heart attitude in your life today and allow Him to bring His love to those unkind and hurtful relationships. He will do it!

Encouragement from long ago...

I read this devotion this morning from My Utmost for His Highest. It not only challenged me, but also was so encouraging! This was written years ago...and still it resounds in our own ministry today. Our call is THRIVE each day of our lives, instead of surviving it by the daily power of God's Word in our lives.

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature.

Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he "followed Him at a distance" on dry land ( Mark 14:54 ).

We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

Thrive!
Frances

Foundation Bible Series...launched!

First, I want to thank you for your prayers while I was in New Mexico this past weekend. It was a wonderful time with a totally terrific group of women. They were truly a blessing to me and I pray that I get to see some of them again one day! I will begin to share a few recaps of the recent retreats as soon as I can so that you may see the fruits of your prayers. Please know that you journey with me each time and you are a vital part of this ministry!

Tonight, I was thrilled to join a group of ladies that are going to be going through Foundation Bible Series for the very first time!!! What troopers they are:)

Ginger and I have been working, praying, and writing for almost 2 years on this series and we are giddy with excitement to finally share this with real women! We can't wait to start the journey!!

Please pray for us as we take this journey, and let us know if you have a group that would be interested going through this series. We have lots of detailed information on this site under resources that introduces this approach to studying God's Word. We will be taking a ride through the book of Genesis and I promise it will be unlike any journey you've been on before!

Please let us know if you have any questions that we can answer about this study and we look forward to sharing more as we continue!

Thrive,
Frances

Please Pray...

Tomorrow, I will be heading to New Mexico to lead a retreat. I am thrilled to have the chance to share with this precious group of women who have been going through Satisfy Our Souls for the past 6 weeks. I am coming to wrap up their study and to take them to the next step!

Please pray for safe travel, wonderful fellowship, and good rest for everyone! This is a longer retreat and I won't be home until Sunday night. I pray that each of us will encounter the power of God through His Word this weekend.

Thank you for your prayers and support. You are such a blessing to me...

Thrive!

Frances

Poland Recap #3

After we had a wonderful lunch, we headed to meet the pastor and wife that had partnered with our friends to reach outo Olztyn with the love of Christ. We were invited into their home, which was part of the church. It had one room that had a bed, table, and a wardrobe. It also had a small desk on the wall and a HUGE wall heater (they are very big over there because they burn coal). Then, the other room was a small kitchen with a tiny bathroom attached. That was it...and she is pregnant with their first baby!

They brought us into their home and served us food fit for queens. She had baked an amazing cake with fabulous hot tea (I was in heaven in Europe because they love hot tea more than I do!). It was on china plates and so beautiful. She was the picture of a servant.

And she had two little helpers who were 8 years old. They are two little girls who come to the Sunday School that they have in their bedroom while the parents are upstairs in the one room church. They served us tea and cake. They took the dishes away and washed them while we talked. They were the sweetest little girls and you could tell that they had learned so much from their mentor!

Arent' they just the cutest things ever? All three of them! She and her husband had just been voted on to take over the pulpit from the pastor (in the photo above with them) who is retiring. But, he still remains a mentor to the family.

Then, after hearing about their ministry and a few songs from the girls that they learned in Sunday School (video below), we headed off to meet some people in his church. They had invited us into their meager homes with love! It was awesome!!

Home after home were heard amazing stories of God's love and how He is working in Poland. We were offered amazing dishes and lots of tea...much to my delight!! This is a very traditional dish called Bigos...made with sauerkraut and vinegar. It was yummy! But, my favorite food from Poland were the Pieroges. Wow are they awesome!

After we had made several visits, we headed back to their little home and found his wife (I am not using names because I don't want to compromise their ministry) had gone to pick mushrooms...in the wild. Now, this woman had baked a cake, was disciplining young girls on how to serve and show hospitality, is a pastor's wife...and the girl picks mushrooms to cook with! It puts American women to shame...or at least puts me to shame! May I remind you that she is PREGNANT!

They have a beautiful garden in the back of the church where she grows much of their food. They have bees for their honey and apples, pears, etc to eat. She is the proverbs 31 girl!

Then, as if her day hadn't been long enough...we all load up in the van and go to meet this precious women. She is the "mayor" of this town. She is not a believer, but was extremely open to God as we met and shared with her. She invited us into her home and allowed us to share our hearts with her. It was all in Polish and was a wonderful night just to see and hear the missionaries share in Polish...and translate for us at times. We look forward to what God is going to do through those relationships He is bridging.

We fell into bed that night and were grateful again for Aletha's hospitality. Her home was a haven to rest and unwind after such a busy and terrific day!

This video is precious. You may remember the song that says:

"Read your Bible, pray everyday, pray every day, pray everyday

Read your Bible, pray everyday...and you'll grow, grow, grow.

Don't read your Bible, forget to pray, forget to pray, forget to pray.

Don't read your Bible, forget to pray and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink."

This is that song in Polish and shows how sweet their little Sunday School class must be. You can see in the video that the outside of the wardrobe is used as a Sunday School board and their bed is where the kids sit. It really showed me that ministry is our of their hearts and serving God is the center of their lives. I am challenged by this young couple.

Poland Recap #2

After we spent 2 days in Prague, our team got up at 3:30am and headed to the airport to fly to Krakow, Poland. We got there just in time for church (in Polish) and met lots of great people! We were very tired, but enjoyed the service. That night, we went back to the church for the International service. This consisted mostly of English speaking Polish people and the personnel that lives and works there. Our team helped with Sunday School for the children. It was great to spend time with their kids and it was wonderful to have 2 retired teachers on our team! Kay and Lynn did wonderful and I enjoyed playing with the kids.The next morning we were off to the train station to ride to Olztyn. We were to meet and see the ministry that is going on in this extremely Catholic area of Poland.We were met by the Olztyn team ladies and a wonderful meal made for us by one of the journey girls. It was a great time of fellowship, prayer, and encouragement. We were blessed to stay that evening (Paula and I) with Aletha who is in the front in the green. This is her apartment and she graciously opened her home to us! We had Internet, wonderful food, and great talks. We loved Aletha!!!The next morning we went to the site of the only Vatican approved sighting of Mary in Poland. We got to see first hand the hold the Catholic Church has on the people of Poland. Many in my family are Catholic and I was raised in the Catholic church. It was a personal journey of prayer for those in our world who are not in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This was the plague that was found at the sight of Mary.
At this location you can see the people gathering the holy water in bottles. Some even used their empty Dasani water bottles. Several literally bathed themselves in the water that they believed sprang from the ground in front of the tree Mary was seen in.We then walked into the church that was erected near the tree. Here you can see the machine where you pay to have "candles" lit for those you are praying for and those you love.
After a time of prayerwalking in this area, we headed to a beautiful sight for lunch! It was an amazing place with authentic food and wonderful flowers. It was quite chilly that day and it felt like fall! They were even filming a Polish cooking show that day...it was that pretty of a spot!

Prague

I began my trip with Women of Hope from Atlanta and flew directly to Frankfurt, Germany. I arrived and had about 5 hours before I got a chance to meet the Women of Hope team! It was wonderful to finally meet women I had been having conference calls with for 6 weeks! It was awesome to put faces with the sweet voices!

Then, we all boarded a plane and headed to Prague in the Czech Republic. This is where we would have the chance to hear about what God is doing in the Central and Eastern Europe area. We enjoyed time of fellowship and had the chance to be trained in the history of the CEE region.

We also had the opportunity to prayer walk the Prague area. It was a powerful time! I loved hearing from the leaders of this region personally and to hear their hearts for God's glory.

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to see the city and enjoy the beauty of this area. We went over the very famous Charles Bridge. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Here are some of my precious sisters on Women of Hope! We had such a great time getting to know each other and sharing Christ with those around us!

Prague is a beautiful city filled with wonderful old buildings and architecture. But, it is also full of people merely interested in money, themselves, and "religion." The apathy here was truly obvious as we prayer walked and as we heard from the field workers here.

Though the city has many statues of religious events and people, there is still a disconnect from the vibrant relationship Jesus offers each of us. He promises us we can have life to the full...but most people here are just living for self and claiming religion that is merely on the outside and not the inside.

It was wonderful to be a full team for the two days we were in Prague. The next morning, our Poland team had to get up at 3:30am to board a flight to Krakow, Poland! It was like we never went to sleep because Prague is a city that never sleeps like New York. And in Europe, many places do not have air conditioning (like our hotel) and we slept with the windows opened and heard the LOUD party each night! So, we were pretty tired our first few days there.

But, the fellowship was so sweet and our prayer time together as a team was wonderful! I would not be able to see these ladies from the other teams again, because I left directly from Krakow to head to Disney to be with my family. So, these days were precious and too short!