Blog

• New Beginnings
• I AM

Happy New Year!
His mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23), but there is something special about the New Year. It is a milestone that marks the closure of one year, the welcoming of the next. No matter what happened in the previous year, the page has been turned, a new chapter begun.

There is nothing magical about that midnight moment in which we change our notation of the number of the year... just ask the thousands of people who will continue to make the mistake of writing the previous year for the first few weeks of the new one. New beginnings can take some getting used to.

New beginnings and new years are a time of reflection of all that has happened in the past and the anticipation of the future.

New beginnings can imply celebration or mourning: the couple who just got married or the family that lost a loved one.

New beginnings may come from choices we make or are the consequences of someone else’s decision: graduations or divorce.

Whether from positive or negative circumstances, whether you were ready for it or not, new beginnings offer us the opportunity to start over, learn from the past, and take the next step forward into the future.

And guess who was there walking with you before and who will continue to walk with you into your new beginning?
I AM.

I, personally, am not pretending to state that I am with you in your journey. I would love to walk with you through whatever you are going through. But I am limited, physically, logistically and emotionally, from doing that.

Please allow me to remind you of the I AM who is limitless in His ability to walk with each of us in our journey.

No matter what your new beginning in 2019, please welcome the I AM as the author of your journey.

This year, as a ministry, we will be preparing the way for the I AM—in our hearts, our minds, and in our conversations. We seek His perspective and are growing in our belief of the I AM and each of the names He represents.

Some of this focus is in anticipation of the next book (which I am working on right now!), entitled I already AM and also in conjunction with the Destination Retreat the first weekend in November.

Let’s join together and champion our new beginnings as iron sharpening iron, encouraging one another to bloom as beautiful roses, in spite of the thorns. Specifically, as a ministry, one new beginning is a renewed confidence in our belief of the I AM as our everything. As such, we are preparing the way for Him to work through us to equip more women to connect to I AM and one another more deeply.

We are praying with you and for you in your new beginnings with the I AM this year.

• Names of God

“Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel. Shall come to thee, O Israel.”
The chorus of this traditional Christmas hymn was sung boldly by my six-year old nephew during the worship service on Sunday morning. His exuberance was matchless and his faith exemplary. The fact that he mumbled through the words to the verses did nothing to quench the Spirit-filled way in which he rejoiced in each chorus.
My soul echoed with the cry of his heart, “O Come, Emmanuel!” We rejoice in the fact that “God with us” was a foretold prophecy (Is. 7:14) and a fulfilled promise (Matt. 1:22-24). The beautiful thing is that it was not a “one and done” kind of thing.
Through the Holy Spirit, Emmanuel is celebrated daily for those who believe and have been baptized, welcoming “God with us” to be “God in us.”
Emmanuel, for me, has become an invitation and reminder to keep God at the forefront of my thoughts and actions. Also, if God is for me, who can be against me?
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.
Be the author of my life.
Rescue my captive soul.
Comfort and convict,
Redeem and remind.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.