Iron Rose Sister Ministries

Did you forget to pre-order In God’s Right Hand: Whom Shall I Fear? and now you haven’t placed your order because you don’t want to pay for shipping? Well, here is your chance!

For two days only (until midnight CDT, Thursday, August 27), you can order a copy of In God’s Right Hand: Whom Shall I Fear? for yourself, for a friend, or for your ladies Bible study group without paying for shipping!

Spread the word and place your order today.

Spanish copies of the book are also available via the same link and for the same price.

All proceeds from the book go straight to the ministry and help subsidize books to Latin America.

Her hands were wrinkled and marked with dark age-spots. They were often caked with dirt and marred by thorns as she tilled the soil and tended her garden. She only needed to run her hands through the dirt to know which plants would thrive and which would wither away. A simple tap of the soil with a single finger would signal to my grandma if her garden needed water.

Read this verse and reflect on it as a prayer for this weekend.

“Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.” (from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis)

“Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.” (from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis)

And so it is with God’s promises. How can I count on the promise of being like a well-watered garden (Jer. 31:12) if I am disconnected from the source of Living Water (John 4:10, 14)?

How can I be transformed into the image of Christ if I don’t place myself in the hands of the one who can mold and shape me?

Let’s drink of the Living Water. Let’s turn our lives over to the hands of He who transforms.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few... (Matt. 9:37).
Harvest is the theme for the Equip Conference, a Spiritual Growth Workshop that begins this evening at the Rosen Hotel in Orlando, Florida.
IRSM will have a booth at this event, and Michelle will be speaking for the women’s class in Spanish on Saturday: In the Hands of the Divine Gardener.
If you are in the area, we would love to see you! Please stop by and say hello, or tell a friend in the area that we would love to meet them.
Thanks for your prayers and support as we follow God’s call across the Americas, equipping women to connect to God and one another more deeply.

My thumbs are black. Not green. I did not get the gardening genes in the family. I tend to overwater or neglect the plant and end up killing it.
I am improving in this area a bit as I now have rose bushes and a tomato plant at my house, all of which are thriving, thanks to my sister´s assistance and God´s provision.
I love homegrown vegetables, fresh herbs, and flowers, but they take time, patience, and dedication. It takes good earth, water, and sunshine. And the most important part? Faith.
“Who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see, believes in God.”

Jesus’ hands were calloused and wrinkled. The son of a carpenter would have had more than his share of splinters at an early age, which toughened his skin, as he grew older. But the callouses do not compare with the scars...

On June 4, 1976, David Allen Goff and Jocelynn Brown made a commitment to one another and to God. The nearly 20-year-old girl and 23-year-old guy may not have known what they were getting themselves into, but they knew whose hand they were placing their lives in.

As they took each other’s hand and pledged their love to one another, they joined their hands in God’s, trusting that he would lead and carry them through the good times and bad, sickness and health...

Overwhelmed. I think that would be the best expression of my state of being the past couple of months. Overwhelmed.
I will spare you the list of things that have given me that feeling, knowing that you have your own list. Now, don’t go there and start feeling overwhelmed at my mere mention of the list... stay with me for a moment of reflection on something I have come to realize.
How can I feel overwhelmed and frustrated about something that is no longer in my hands?

He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.

    We are the clay, you are the potter;

    we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

My first car was a 1986 Chevy Nova. But the first time I drove it, it still belonged to my grandparents, and my lack of experience was quite evident.
My granddad likes to remind me of that day and how I punched the accelerator, such that the engine pinged a bit, hesitant to smoothly go the speed I desired. The engine’s hesitancy matched my own.
Mom warned her dad that I might need to practice a bit more before driving him to work in Miami, but he thought this would be a great opportunity for me.
After a few final instructions, still sitting in the driveway of their very busy street, I proceeded to back out of the driveway the wrong way. Twice. After the second time, Granddad mercifully said, “Just drive around the block.”
Before I could complete the task of driving around the block, I had already provided more evidence of my poor driving skills. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see around the bushes at the stop sign in order to turn right, back onto their street and get going the right direction. Nope. First, I needed to come to a complete stop behind the line, and then inch forward until I could clearly see.

A lot of prayer and anticipation have gone into the Destination Retreat this weekend. And I can’t wait to see how God touches the lives of each of the women who are able to attend—but not just them.

I trust that the blessings from the first IRSM Destination Retreat will extend beyond the scope of the weekend and will reach many more women than the ones in attendance.

One aspect of the weekend that I am very excited about is that the ladies present for the retreat are a wonderful representation of Iron Rose Sister Ministries: a diverse group of women gathered together who long to grow closer to God and one another. We have English and Spanish-speaking women from seven states, including four congregations in the Denver/Colorado Springs area. What a blessing!

For those of you that wanted to attend, but were unable to, I am pleased to inform you that we will be recording the classes and making them available for download or for order.

The reusable bags and booklets from the weekend are also available with an IRSM pen for $10 each (plus $2 shipping). The booklets walk you through each aspect of the weekend and allow you to participate as if you were there (pages for lesson notes, small group questions, guided quiet time, etc.)

Prayer Requests:

As you enter into whatever plans you have for your weekend, please take a moment to lift up the Destination Retreat in prayer:

• That God will be glorified in all we do.
• That we will grow closer to the Divine Gardener.
• That we will grow closer to one another in Christian relationship.
• That God will speak through me and the breakout class teachers.
• That the effects and blessings of the weekend will reach beyond the scope of this event.

There is peace in the waiting—or there can be.
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for while they sleep he provides for those he loves. ~ Psalm 127:1-2

Taken from chapter 2 of In God´s Right Hand: Whom Shall I Fear?
I have always clung to God’s promises in Joshua 1:5 that he will never leave us nor forsake us; his call to be strong and courageous and not be afraid in verses 6, 7, and 9; and his promise to always be with us at the end of verse 9. Did you recognize the similar language of promise and accompaniment in Isaiah 41:10? They are parallel passages. However, Isaiah adds a unique detail—these promises come at God’s right hand.

11For the Lord will deliver Jacob
    and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
12They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
    they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
    the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
    and they will sorrow no more.
13Then young women will dance and be glad,
    young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
    I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
14I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
    and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
declares the Lord.

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know...
Be still... (Psalm 46:10).
One can only truly be still and rest in God’s presence when all else is quieted. The sixteen ladies who gathered at a hotel in Juno Beach, Florida, were able to experience this stillness through a weekend focused on An Attitude of Rest.
The Hispanic Women Workers (pictured) learned, lived, and practiced that rest, returning renewed to the eight congregations they represented across south Florida.

Dry, desolate, thirsty, forgotten, barren, weak...
Healthy, luscious, vibrant, growing, strong, secure, beautiful...
Sun-scorched land is the opposite of a well-watered garden.

I was no ordinary child. From an early age, everyone knew I was special. To start with, I was the only kid in my grade—the only Hebrew kid.

My Hebrew roots were obvious because of how I looked, but I was safe in Pharaoh’s house, raised by his daughter.

God had been merciful.