Make Your Next Event One That Transforms With Truths That Stick-- Invite Carol to Speak

An Encourager ExtraordinaireCarol weaves contagious enthusiasm, wit, and spiritual depth with a delightful complement of original music, to equip women for a life of hope that thrives--even amidst life's storms. 

"If God's in your boat, He will keep you afloat!"

A lively Bible teacher, trainer of winsome student speakers, and an award-winning speaker herself, Carol connects easily with women at the heart level, showcasing the inherent vibrancy of scripture so women can see how God's infinite power and unfailing love are more than enough for life's challenges.  As a singer/songwriter who has found by experience that songs of truth sustain the soul, her messages are enhanced and made even more memorable through the infusion of music.

"When Jesus starts a journey, He finishes it."

Carol brings the wisdom that comes from walking with her Lord for 51 years, as well as the rich transparency and fun relatability that come from being a wife of 36 years, mom to three (one adopted as a teen from Ukraine), a 16-year homeschooling parent, an admittedly addicted perennial gardener, and a survivor of lots of life's storms.  She is also an experienced worship leader and soloist.

She was recently seen on the community theatre stage playing Anne of Green Gables' nosy neighbor, Rachel Lynde.  Her engaging communication style and lively imagination make her an enduring favorite with both the young and the young at heart.  Familiar with both flying and thud, Carol definitely knows where to find a hope that thrives.

"Assess what you possess.
Then hand it over, and let Him be God with it!"

Carol is formally educated as a medical laboratory scientist, and though, in her earlier years, she was part of developing a treatment for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), she considers one of her most important discoveries to be that it's pretty much next to impossible to sing and worry simultaneously.

As a gifted teacher, who is certified to teach thinking skills to build intelligence, she also has a message of hope for moms of struggling learners.

Pointing people to Jesus, so they can know and trust Him is her greatest joy!

Click here to Contact Carol about speaking to your group!

God's Why

I've been thinking about WHY God came in Jesus to save us. It's overwhelming, really, in the best kind of way. Want to join me? Read on, friend, and pause to ponder, even if you already know all about it. Let it hit you anew.

WHY would God do what He did for us?

LOVE.

When's the last time you thought about what COMMENDS means? 
It's like, "HERE, look, this is FOR YOU--and it's REALLY, REALLY GOOD!"


And now this:

"But God commends His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 (WEB)

This next one may be familiar, yes, but always fresh, and it's FOR ANYONE. Don't let anybody tell you it's not for some! Read it again, s l o w l y, like it's the first time.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son,
that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life." John 3:16 *


And, by the way, Jesus said eternal life is knowing Him--John 17:3.

Ok, I absolutely love the word LAVISH!


"See how great a love the Father has bestowed [lavished NIV] on us,
that we should be called children of God;
and such WE ARE." I John 3:1

Don't worry that you're not worthy of being His child; Jesus fixed our mess. 
If YOU will believe, HE will make you family. He put it in writing, in John 1.

And we didn't have to be lovable first. NOPE!


" ...For God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us,
that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
I John 4:8-10.

I KNOW, I KNOW, propitiation.... not a word we use everyday, but it means Jesus sacrificing His life for us did ALL we need for God to forgive us--and not punish us--for our sin wrecking our relationship with Him. He literally CANCELLED/OBLITERATED the record of our wrongs for forever. (Thinking there of Colossians 2:13-14.) You've maybe heard the phrase, "He takes away our sin"? (Like in John 1:29.) Well, that's it, exactly! And, yeah, IT IS HUGE.

KINDNESS.

HE REALLY IS THAT GOOD.


"But when the KINDNESS of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us,
NOT on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
BUT according to His mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:4-7

Seriously, heirs!

COMPASSION.


IF YOU EVER WONDERED IF HE CARES, WONDER NO MORE. Consider Matthew 9:36:


"And seeing the multitudes,
He felt compassion for them
because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd."

TENDER MERCY.

"TENDER MERCY." Just let the meaning of "tender" envelop you for a moment.


And now, Luke 1:78:
" ...because of the tender mercy of our God,
with which the Sunrise [that's Jesus] from on high shall visits us,
to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Ah, yes, peace. The hope is indeed real.

If you're feeling lost, harassed, helpless, distressed, or downcast, or just in need of some tender compassion, the LOVE of God made a way to give you a beyond imagining relationship with Himself as the best Father ever. When Jesus willingly died at the hands of His enemies and rose to live again, He put everything in place to reconcile you with God, for you to be forgiven for everything you've ever done wrong and to be accepted by Him.  He'll give you a reason to live and His power to lead, love, and protect you forever.

It's all yours for the asking, yours simply for the believing.  What are you waiting for?

Mama Bear Speaks Up: Please Don't Go Beyond Words


A Tantalizing Trick

Mama Bear is back and means business.  There’s an idea gaining influence in the church these days that really needs to be addressed.  Sometimes it's vaguely described as “going beyond words.”  Hmmmm.  Sounds lofty, even intriguing—on the surface, maybe.  It's time to scratch below the surface, and expose it for what it really is.

The basic gist of this twisted idea goes like this:

 "Knowing God through the Bible is dry and meaningless.  
The written Word of God is lifeless and boring.  
If you’re stuck in the traditional and old standby ways of knowing God through His Word, 
you’re totally missing out.  
You need to go beyond words.  
You need an experience without words where you communicate with God
 through a mystical soul connection in silence or through 'contemplative prayer.'  
That’s how you really listen to God."

(I previously wrote here about what "contemplative prayer" is and why “contemplative prayer” is neither prayer nor meditation by any Biblical standard.) 

Here's the problem.  

This idea goes against everything we know about the way God has communicated with people since the dawn of time.

The word of God has been an active agent and central player in history since the first recorded day of creation when God said,“Let there be light.”  Throughout the years, the Word of the Lord has come to many people, and the prophets are famous for saying, “Thus says the Lord . . .”  The disciple John calls Jesus simply, “the Word,” in John chapter 1.   And Hebrews 1, in introducing the uniqueness of Jesus, says that, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son . . .”

Jesus made it clear that remembering what He said was a high priority when He explained what the Holy Spirit would do in His disciples after He returned to heaven.  “But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you  (John 14:26).  Matthew’s and John’s recorded gospel accounts and the letters from Peter and John are evidence of this work of the Holy Spirit through His disciples.

Yet there are those today who dare to say that knowing our Lord through the written word of God is dry and unfulfilling.  Just imagine for a moment what Jesus would say to that!

Peter Anticipated This Deception

Peter was very concerned that believers in our Lord Jesus Christ understand the importance of and pay close attention to what the disciples wrote and taught.  In light of the fact that false teachers would inevitably come, Peter was passionate that the accurate message from God—delivered by His true prophets and by Jesus’ disciples—should continue to be the essential lifeline of the church.

"This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of a reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles."  (II Peter 3:1-2)

Knowing that He didn’t have much longer on the earth, Peter’s consuming passion was to urge the Church to stay faithful to the teaching they had received from Jesus’ disciples.  He was determined that after he went on to Heaven the believers would always be able to remember what He had told them.  And Peter reminded them that he and the other disciples hadn’t been propagating cleverly devised tales, but that the disciples had been eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and teachings.

Listen again to more from Peter’s impassioned end-of-life plea for our diligent attention to the truth of God’s message that had been revealed in Jesus before his very eyes.

“Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.  For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the mountain.

So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.  But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves” (II Peter 1:12-2:1).

We are given no instruction anywhere in Scripture to disregard previous Scripture or to “go beyond words.”  The methods used to "go beyond words" are the very same techniques used by persons involved in the occult to contact demons.  It is no wonder that Paul writes in I Timothy 4:1 that, “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

A Ticket to Trouble

The surest way to fall prey to false teaching is to circumvent and ignore the Word of God as the source of our knowledge of Him, His will, and His ways.  And how like Satan to push, with only slightly updated packaging, his same old lie that we’re missing out on something by sticking to what God has already said.  

If you're wondering if any false teaching has already come from contemplative prayer, wonder no more.  So-called "Christian" practitioners of contemplative prayer/contemplative spirituality "awaken" to accept the idea that humanity's problem is not what the Bible calls "sin" at all.  No, instead they become convinced that people's main spiritual problem is that they do not yet realize that they are actually already divine.  Practitioners also "awaken" to accept the idea that all religions are essentially the same at the core, and that all religions are essentially just separate wells into the same "wisdom stream."

Claiming to receive personal sightings and messages from God forms the perfect cover for lies, for teachings that completely contradict God's written revelation in the Bible.  People who get their own messages through contemplative/mystical means see no need to test what what was revealed to them against what God has already said because they have already rejected the written Word as outdated and irrelevant.  Their experience is a real super-natural experience (albeit originating from the demonic realm), so no one can argue that they didn't experience something.  The problem is that, as Paul pointed out, Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

Please, friends, be warned!  If you choose to go beyond words, you choose to enter a spiritually dark fog where you’re more likely destined to find yourself over a cliff with no way out, and taking direction from demons, than to end up in any sort of truly enlightened state.


The Stories of Our Lives


A Flood of Memories

Being at my father-in-law’s house after his funeral brought such a flood of memories. I’ve been puzzling over why my older memories of times with Dad affected me so differently now than they did before he closed his eyes to this earth.  I’ve decided it's partly that, now, the book is completely closed.  Mom had already gone on to heaven 14 years before, and we have no more time here to make memories.  The memories are all we have, at least for now.  But there’s even more to it.

Concerning memories of things we used to do together in previous times, but that we couldn't continue do together in his later years, it was still sweet to be able to reminisce together with him about those times.  Now, though, our partner in remembering is gone, and it feels so very, very different.

Context, Connection, and Meaning--The Value in Stories Shared


Now, I’m beginning to see how good and healthy it is for us all to keep speaking of times gone by, even if it’s to others who weren't a part of the original memories, because doing so preserves the important dimensions of context, connection, and meaning for our lives.  And those dimensions, in turn, form a backdrop of significance for our lives, as storytellers and story-hearers alike.

 

When we are all alone with memories that we don't actively communicate or share with anyone, there’s a danger that something inside us can begin to shrivel.  It’s as if each of us can become a sort of timeline orphan, and not only do we suffer, but those who come behind us are robbed of their connection to a grander story.  We have a very real need to continue to tell our stories—including the many ways God revealed Himself in His work in our lives—and others have a very real need to hear them.

 

A Connection to Yet an Even Grander Unfinished Story


In a way, God’s preservation of the stories of “our people” from the past in the Bible is both an inspiration and a model for us to continue into the future.  I love how the stories in the Bible, the recorded episodes in the lives of our spiritual ancestors, give context, connection, and meaning to our lives, too, as we understand that we are part of God's big and beautifully orchestrated plan.  

 

And that leads me to one more thought.  As God’s people, we have more than a connection to a shared past, and we have significance in more than the past or even the present.  Those who bear the name of the Lord Jesus Christ have a glorious shared future.  The parting of death is only a temporary one.  The resurrection of Jesus means that, actually, the book is not closed after all; death only marks the end of the earthly chapters.  


“But as it is written,

 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, 

Nor have entered into the heart of man 

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'”  

1 Corinthians 2:9  

(NKJV)

 

It's true we can't even imagine what is ahead, but knowing the Author, it's bound to be good.


--Carol

On Friendship: A Sweet Synergy

Outdo one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:10

Reflecting on some of my most precious friendships throughout the years, I realize they all have important features in common.  It also turns out they all avoid the same pitfalls.  The healthiest, most beautiful friendships and conversations thrive on a refreshing, intertwining balance of sharing and listening, the latter often with questions to draw others out.

Listening well helps make others feel cared about.  And the best listeners know how to do it while they guard against two things.  Pride sometimes makes good listeners view others as needy projects, while fear of vulnerability can keep good listeners from opening up.  Listen well without sharing well, and others will inevitably feel unneeded or inferior, and as though the listener sees them simply as a project, but unworthy of being taken into the listener’s own confidence.   The best listeners have no condescending pride or aloofness; they listen out of genuine love and enthusiastic interest.  They have banished fear of vulnerability, too, so that  their careful attention to what others say guides them to open up about their own lives in ways that are relevant, nourishing, inviting, and enfolding.

Opening up is indeed the other half of the lovely balance in friendship.  Sharing well helps make others feel needed, valued, and trusted. But those who find opening up easy need to guard against the tendency to be self-focused.  The best sharers know how to avoid a selfish approach to conversation that can initially make others feel needed, yet eventually makes others wonder if they are just being used.  Sharing without the counterbalance of devoted listening makes others feel that their own lives must be insignificant and that their worth only consists in what others can take from them.  The best sharers are not only guided by listening, but even as they open up about their own lives, they communicate both the gratitude and ease that comes from knowing they are loved and treasured by the listener and their pure joy and delight at having such a friend who cares to listen, to encourage, and often to pray.

Oh, how I thank God for the precious friends who inspire such reflections and who constantly encourage me to be a better friend by their examples.

Grateful beyond words,
Carol

Mystery

Have you noticed it?  Have you felt it?  There’s something different about this season.

People are different in this season.  Even the atmosphere at the grocery store is different.  The usually grumpy clerk has apparently found a supply of smiles somewhere, and now she’s giving them away.  People find themselves humming along to the carols in the air.  And some of the most unlikely might just go the extra mile for someone.  What’s up?

Some might say it’s the thought of getting a little time off.  Or it’s a sugar rush from all the extra sweets and treats.  Or the laughter of children in the snow is just contagious.  But what if it’s more than that? What if it’s more than just some elusive fairy tale magic cheerfulness in the air?

What if all creation could sense that something of truly epic proportions was going on? 

You know, the most anticipated event in all of human history took place roughly two thousand years ago in the small town of Bethlehem.  But at the time, it went relatively unnoticed.  Only a few from the humblest positions in society were in on the news when the birth took place—the birth of the long-awaited, much prophesied about, Jewish-born king who had a heart for every people on earth. 


But don’t let His quiet entrance fool you.  It may have been a relatively silent night, but the night that divine royalty left heaven and came to earth wrapped in the form of a child was nothing short of the utmost in extraordinary.

The world has never been the same since.

Praying your own world will never be the same either,

Carol


"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, 
and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, 
full of grace and truth."

"...As many as received Him, 
to them He gave the right to become children of God, 
even to those who believe in His name."

~from the prologue of John's biography of Jesus  (John 1:14, 12)

No Dead Ends

"The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of His heart from generation to generation."
Psalm 33:11

There is always a way forward with God.  He is never boxed in by "circumstances."

His plans are never thwarted.

Sometimes what we see as a dead end is actually a divinely engineered rest, for learning and for building our faith, while He clears the brush away for us to see the path ahead--the path that He knew was there all the time.

So thankful He is leading, and I am the one following,
Carol

Fifty-Two Weeks Of Wonder


I have accepted the challenge to read through the whole Bible in one year.  I am only in week two and I am already overwhelmed by His mercy and at His feet in awe and wonder.  Have I read this before?  Yes, most of it.  Does it ever get old?  Never.  Is there always something new?  Absolutely!

"Open my eyes, 
that I may behold WONDERFUL things from Your law."
Psalm 119:18

You know that's a prayer He will answer!

With expectant joy,
Carol


The Platform of Pain

“You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, 
having received the word 
in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit…” 
—from Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Thessalonica 
(I Thessalonians 1:6)

That stopped me in my tracks—joy and much tribulation in the same sentence, simultaneously existing in the same life context.  Tribulation and joy are surprisingly uncommon partners indeed.

They’re surprising partners because too often I let my joy be based on my circumstances.  Life happens to me, and I react, and not always well.  Pain or problems pull back the curtain and reveal the foundation for my joy.  Then they point me back to anchoring my joy in Jesus alone.

Please let it end!  Or maybe not...
I usually pray for pain to go away.  But could it be that God wants to do something else through me?  Too often I forget that pain creates a powerful platform.  Joy in the midst of pain is the very last thing a watching world would expect, so people are going to notice it.  When I reflect on my own life, I realize that some of the most powerful testimonies of encouragement and joyful faith I have ever seen were from people in less than ideal circumstances.  

And that’s exactly what happened with the Thessalonian Christians, too.  Paul’s letter goes on…

“…in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 
SO THAT you became an example to all the believers 
in Macedonia and in Achaia.” 
(I Thessalonians 1:7)

So people all over heard about their faith and joy in the Lord.  And it gets even better.

“For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you,
not only in Macedonia and Achaia, 
but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, 
so that we have no need to say anything.  
For they themselves report 
about us what kind of a reception we had with you,
 and how you turned to God from idols 
to serve a living and true God…” 
(I Thessalonians 1:8-9)

That’s right.  Paul would arrive somewhere, and the locals would tell him about the Christians at Thessalonica.  Incredible!

In this world you will have tribulation, so open a Fountain of Life stand.
I want to be one of those talked about believers.  Oh, not for my sake, not to draw attention to myself, but because Jesus deserves to have the story of what He’s doing, the story of His joy, told far and wide.  Especially when life isn’t pain-free.


O, Lord, turn our eyes to you, fill us with your joy, and make us magnetic messengers who make the most of the platform of pain, for your glory alone!

All for His Glory,

Carol

Loved.

"See how great a love the Father has lavished on us, 
that we should be called children of God."
 I John 3:1

How should we measure our worth?  How do we measure our worth?   Unfortunately, the answer to those two questions isn't always the same.
Have you ever measured your worth by your problems or by your performance?  I have.  And then I have to remind myself that it's not an accurate measure.
My worth will never be accurately measured by my problems or by my performance.  Nor am I accurately assessed by the reviews I receive from others, whether face-to-face or Facebook likes.  
The only accurate measure of my worth is based on who I am in Christ.  Jesus sees the real me, the real you, yet was willing to die to redeem us.  Every single one of the flaws I wish to hide from others are known to Him, and still He loves me.  Still He died to redeem me.  Still He calls me His friend.  Greater still, He invites me into His family.   He chooses to make His home in me.  He chooses to include me in His plans for His kingdom and for His world.
This truth matters every moment of every day.  It affects how I treat others in every way.  If I am insecure in my own feeling of worth, I cannot be free to love others without being distracted by my own needs for affirmation.  All of life can descend to being about propping me up.
The truth is, though, that my worth does not depend on my surrounding, my challenges, my family or friends, my failures, or my successes.
"God demonstrates His own love toward us, 
in that while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us."  
Romans 5:8
When I realize I am loved that much, by the One who matters most, I am set free to love, and not just to love from my own limited storehouse, but to love as a pipeline of God's love, forever connected to His unquenchable supply.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God."
[Yes, but what about when life is hard?  What then?]
"And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulatons, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint [Why?] ...because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy spirit who was given to us."  Romans 5:1-5

Feeling, (no, not just feeling), KNOWING I am loved,
Carol
P.S.  Why don't you go love somebody who needs to hear this!