I'm Back!

Well, I have been back for about a week but with lots of laundry and school to do with the girls...we are just not getting back into the swing of things. We had an amazing time in Disney...and my trip to Richmond was AWESOME!

God really met us and led in wonderful ways. God gave us vision, friendships, connections, answered prayers, opened doors, and valuable knowledge that will last a lifetime! I met some wonderful women and pray that God continues to work all over this country and world calling more and more workers to the harvest!

Thank you for praying! Your prayers were answered in mighty and unexpected ways! There are several things I am praying over and processing right now. Please continue to pray for me and Desert Flower Ministries as we have open doors. Jay and I need much discernment as we pray about directions and opportunities in the future with this ministry.

For the next few weeks, I will be sharing some from the new study God has called me to write and it will be followed with practical ideas for engaging in the heartbeat of God as found in Isaiah 58. So...hang on and check back often as we start another journey...hang on for the ride!

Thrive!
Frances

Kingdom Women: Impact Your World

I will be headed to the Kingdom Women: Impact Your World Women's Leadership Dialog today and I would love to have your prayers! I will fly to Richmond, VA to meet up with women from around the nation to dialog about how to engage women in missions. Each woman has a specific area of leadership in ministry and they desire to bring us together to talk about ways we can all work together to engage women in missions.

Please pray for me as I will be one of the session speakers on "Going as Engagement." I will be sharing along with Paula Hemphill about ways we can engage women in going! Pray that God will fill my mouth with the words He desires!

I will then be out of town for the next week with my family on vacation. I'm so looking forward to this time and will not be posting for that time. Thanks again for your sweet prayers for myself and for DFM ministries. Have an amazing week in God's Word!

Thrive!
Frances

Blessed Weeping - Luke 6:21b

"Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” Luke 6: 21b

This verse really caused me to think today. We don’t really feel like weeping is a blessed thing. Our culture runs as fast as we can away from those things that would cause us to weep. We hate feeling sorrowful, sad, full of remorse, pain, or suffering.

As I thought about this verse this morning…I wondered how it can be blessed to weep. In a culture that tries to insulate ourselves from every pain, suffering, and sadness…do we truly understand and embrace this verse? Do we truly see the blessing in weeping…or do we find ways to flee from its presence in our lives?

Jesus wept. That could be the most famous and most quoted verses in the Bible. But, it’s true. He DID weep. He wept over the rebellion of Jerusalem and His people. He wept over Lazarus and his sisters in their grief. He wept in prayer the night he was arrested. Jesus understood that it was blessed to weep…for one day we shall laugh in joy!

Jesus was not immune from sorrow. His life was filled with hurt and suffering and rejection and denial. Many times in our own daily life we try so very hard to keep ourselves from such things. We don’t want to suffering along with Jesus’ example.

If we do not see the blessing in weeping, then we do not experience the joy in Christ to the fullest! In weeping with others in their times of mourning and pain, we follow Christ’s own example of weeping with Mary and Martha after their brother Lazarus died. Jesus knew he would raise him from the dead…but he wept because he fellowshipped in their pain. He loved them deeply…and when they mourned he did also. He wept because He loved.

In weeping over sin in our lives, we will experience the joy of the Cross fully. We will realize that each moment we rely on a Savior. Jesus wept over the sin and rebellion of His people as He gazed over Jerusalem. In our Christian culture our desire to be happy all the time has insulated from the godly sorrow that leads to repentance. We are truly blessed when we weep over sin because in that godly sorrow we see the worth of Jesus Christ moment by moment in our daily lives.

Weeping is truly blessed in God’s eyes…but this verse also gives us a hope of laughter! Perhaps you will not experience laughter in this earthly life in your particular situation…but you are promised a day when you will have complete joy in the presence of Jesus Christ! His Word is true…His promises answered YES in Christ.

Weeping lasts only for the night…joy comes in the morning. May we fellowship in weeping for it shows that we love like Christ loved, we grieve over sin as He grieved, and that we surrender to the will of our loving Father. Let’s not run from weeping…may we see it as blessed when it enters our lives…knowing that our sweet Savior was very familiar with weeping and He promises laughter one day!

National Day of Prayer

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. " 2 Chronicles 7:14-16

Lord,Today we join with those around the world in prayer to You. We humble ourselves, for the very nature of prayer reminds us that we are completely at Your Sovereign mercy. We come to You knowing that we can not heal ourselves or forgive our sins...or restore our land. We know that You are omnipotent...all powerful.

We recognize today that You are all powerful...meaning there is NO other power. We are powerless and humbled before You. We seek You face because You are our only hope.Hope is never found in our country, government, parents, bank accounts, jobs, IRAs, families, children, the next generation, or ourselves. Hope is from You alone. Hope that flows from Jesus Christ's veins on Calvary. Hope of standing forgiven and right before You...the Holy and all powerful God. Our coming to You alone today in prayer...is a reminder that our hope is in You.

As we seek Your face today, we must also be faced with our wicked ways. For we can not see Your holiness and then look blindly at our own depravity. We deserve death and the wrath of a perfect God. Sweep us up in your mercy today in order that we may turn from our wicked ways. Open our eyes as we seek You...to who You are...and a sobering view of who we are.

Thank You that by the blood of Jesus we have His power to turn from our sins and embrace You as Lord!Thank You for hearing us. Thank You for the awesome relationship we are allowed to have with You through the gruesome death of Jesus. Open our eyes today to see the amazing worth of Jesus. For without His death, burial, Resurrection and rule...we would be a part from You forever...experiencing the focused wrath that sin deserves.

Oh, Father I pray that you will forgive our sins. We are so depraved...every thought is dipped in self-absorption, every deed is motivated in some way by our own agenda, and every moment drenched in rebellion of a Holy God. I am depraved...I am the poster child. Have mercy on me and forgive my sins.Lord, today we turn our thoughts and our hearts to You.

May we see prayer as it is...a declaration of total dependence on the mind and thoughts of You alone. As we surrender our lives to Your sovereignty...may we see our sins as you see our sins, may we be about the "least of these," may we give up the American Dream...for a cross every day.

Father, I ask that You bring those around this world to Yourself. Restore our land...not to prosperity but to holiness. This scripture is spoken of your temple, built by Solomon. Lord, we know today that WE are your temple! We are Your body and your bride. Hear our prayers.

In the Name of Jesus at which every knee WILL bow and every tongue WILL confess He is Lord, I offer this prayer. Amen

Blessed are...

Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6:20

Matthew's version of this text tells us that blessed are the "poor in spirit." I prayed over this small sentence this morning. In America we don't do poor. We don't like to do without anything at ANY time. We use credit cards, loans, and lines of credit to do exactly what we want WHEN we want...we don't do poor...especially poor in spirit.

In our society, we are about rights. We are about equality. We are about...ourselves. No, we don't want much to do with poor...or poor in spirit. We want to be treated like queens by our husbands, admired by our friends, treated with respect by our coworkers, and obeyed by our children. We don't want to be poor in spirit...completely destitute with nothing of our own to claim. We want to be rich in spirit and in our bank account too for that matter.

But, Jesus looks deeply at his disciples where a "great number of people" were gathered around and being healed by simply touching him. Can you just see this? Can you see desperate, sickly, demon-possessed, and the poor of this town desperately clinging to him? Can you see our Jesus there in the midst of all this...living the picture of love...in the midst of the poorest?

He lets them gaze upon him in the midst of this chaos of healing and tells them that the poor are blessed. Um...what? No, no, no, Jesus! WE are blessed...right? I mean, we are the ones who lead Bible studies, who write eloquent words about You, who clean ourselves up very nicely for church on Sunday, who smell nice and have it together. We are blessed...right?

Jesus reminds them that we are desperately poor. On our own we are NOTHING. We don't own our bodies, our finances, our families, our possessions, our spouses, our children, our jobs, our coworkers, our friends, our churches, ourselves...we are dirt poor. But, in understanding and EMBRACING that poverty of spirit...we are blessed!

In embracing the fact that our Father is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords...we are blessed. In the understanding of sin and the cost it requires and knowing that we deserve wrath and death forever and ever...we are blessed. In clinging to grace and mercy that flows from Emmanuel's veins...we are blessed. In taking up a cross, denying ourselves, and following Him...we are blessed.

In our poverty...amazingly we have inherited a Kingdom.

Jesus used the poor to confound the rich. He used the foolish to confuse the wise. He used a cross to give us an inheritance we could never earn or buy...

because we are poor.

When you embrace poverty of spirit in your life, the next action is to reach out to those just like you and share the grace you have been given! It is all His! Ask Him today how you can be a blessing because you have been richly blessed.

Embrace your poverty...because only in that will you inherit a kingdom.