Jana Spicka and Women Getting Real Ministries
Posts tagged Jana Spicka
Trees Without Christmas?
Dec 3rd
Now here is a sad statement of the day.
Everywhere we go, people are saying “Happy Holidays” for fear of intolerance or offending. Or they are being pure spiritual wimps. Yet we are still selling Christmas trees. I mean seriously, where are the militant atheists when you need them? Where are the political, historical scrubbers who try to erase any sign of religious freedom in our country? Are they taking naps? This is a pretty serious oversight…
(Deep breath.) Is anyone else chaffed by this duplicity in our culture? If we are not going to SAY Christmas then why are we still SELLING Christmas? I mean, let’s just drop the whole day altogether if we aren’t going to have the freedom to call it what it is. Now hear me, I happen to love unbelievers and folks of other faiths. I spent a large part of my life in that belief system. But the last time I checked, neither they nor I were the authorities on what Christians could and could not do. If I didn’t believe in Jesus, then I didn’t participate. Today however, for non-believers to tell me what can and cannot be said around my Holy Day is ridiculous. At the very least, if you want to make money off it, then you should have to at least call it the same name I do.
I don’t believe in Halloween, Santa or the Easter Bunny, but I don’t try to move legislation to silence those things. Christmas is a religious holiday, part of our religious heritage.
Can you imagine trying to pull off this heresy in a Muslim culture?
So you know what we are doing as a family? We are wishing every single store teller, Salvation Army ringer, and restaurant server, “Merry Christmas.” No matter what they say, we are singing it out. It is a simple act of faith, but a stand for God nonetheless. No matter what their reactions are, we smile and bless them anyway. Why?
Because that’s what the angels said that glorious day. Without fear, without shame, they declared the good news in a world just as hostile to the Messiah as ours is today.
“Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born.” Merry Christmas.
Christmas Red
Dec 2nd
I am sitting tonight by the last embers of our first official fire. The first fire kind of marks the beginning of winter in our family so it is a big deal, at least to us. I love watching it blaze bright yellow-orange then transition into varying shades of reds. And as I sit mesmerized by the fire, changing before my very eyes, I am remembering our first night in Charleston.
It was truly one of those moments when you didn’t want to blink or breathe for fear of missing something supernatural. There was a sunset, which is always beautiful at the beach. But moments after the sun had gone down, the sky turned a vibrant red – so red that the water in the marshes and the ocean reflected red. Not pink, but red. Blood red.
The thought came to me, “The world is covered in blood.” We were on historic ground, where much blood had been shed, that of native Americans, soldiers in the War for Independence and in the Civil War battles. Thinking of the sacrifice of wars, I felt this grateful grief come over me. They died that I might have freedom.
The expanse of the red sky was so great that the whole landscape was covered. Any place that there was water – the intercoastal, the beach, small inlets – it looked like great pools of blood. I sat there breathless in awe. I heard it again: “The world is covered in blood.”
And it hit me. “All of creation groans for the sons (and daughters) to be revealed.” Creation was groaning and reflecting the greatest sacrifice, reminding us of the Blood that was shed for the whole world. The blood that has truly set me free.
After this vivid picture, I notice the color red seems a little more dear to me this Christmas. More than a merry color, it helps me remember the “why” of the season, by His stripes we are healed. So this Christmas, think red.
God Speaks In Funny Places
Dec 1st
Just in case you think hearing from God is crazy. . . . It is, but it is also wonderful. I love how creative He is in talking to us. And I love how if you ask, seek and knock, He will answer, find and open!
This year has been one of birthing and refining a vision. I have been asking, “What exactly are God’s plans for me, for WGR, for the ministry?” And so every couple of weeks He speaks in more power, more clarity, more truth. Here is the latest download from Him.
As we were taking in the new city sites, I was just praying and thinking. Here is a conversation that happened, all through billboards, each one building on the other.
The question from me was, “Lord, tell me again what we are doing?”
His answer was the following:
Masters Inn.
Grace. (Read that: Masters in grace.)
I believe. (Complete with butterfly photo!)
Dedicated people, Dedicated energy.
It’s amazing what we can do together.
A glimmer of hope in a needy world.
We raise ambition.
Be one.
We know women.
We do things a bit differently.
I believe.
Thank You, Lord, for Your presence. For Your mysterious ways of
interrupting our lives. Thank You for speaking and making known the
paths of life. Amen.
Decisions
Nov 30th
“We tend to become the decisions we make. The more we choose something, the more we become that something. We are all in the process of solidifying our identities by the decisions we make. With each decision we make, we pick up momentum in the direction of the decision.” Greg Boyd
Page 51, Letters from a Skeptic, a Son Wrestles with His Father’s Questions about Christianity
by Dr. Gregory Boyd and Edward Boyd
Isn’t this a powerful truth? Don’t you see this everywhere, inside the church and out? The Bible says, “The tongue has the power of life and death; ” “where your treasure is your heart will be;” “if the eye is full of light the whole body will be light.”
I am reading this powerhouse book, Finding your Strongest Life, by Marcus Buckingham and it really twists your head around how and why we do what we do. It seems like the Lord is bringing this over-arching message to me, to us, about the intention of our focus, the power of our decisions. Intention doesn’t mean a happy ending. It just means that we will reap what we sow. The spiritual harvest comes from living out of the belief, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Whatever you think, is what you is.
The Bible says that “David said in his heart…” That particular decision led him into months of murder and destruction for the enemy as he pretended to have joined their ranks. It also says that “Daniel purposed in his heart” that he would not defile himself with the king’s food. Both of these men made decisions, focused their intentions with radically different outcomes.
So where are your thoughts these days? What decisions about your life are you choosing? Or refusing to choose? Because you know, the absence of a decision is still your decision.
And to flip the coin, dwell on God’s decision about you. You are loved. You are lovely. You are His handiwork, created in advance to do good works. He loves to think about you and brag on all the two of you will do together. He has made His Decision about you. He chose you forever.
waiting room
by shane barnard
i will run when i cannot walk
i will sing when there is no song
i will pray when there is no prayer
i will listen when i cannot hear
sitting in the waiting room of silence
waiting for that still soft voice i know
offering my words up to the rooftop to Your heart
trusting that this closet’s where You are
Lord i know if i change my mind
You will change my heart in time
Sovereign Lord this time’s from You
so i sit in the waiting room of silence
cause its all about You
i will fight when i cannot feel
i will trust when You don’t seem real
i will tell when i cannot speak
i will step when i cannot see
A Merry Heart – Friday Funnies
Nov 27th
Charis and I were doing school a school project about the lifecycle of ladybugs. You know, the eggs, the larva, the pupa, the adult?
And as Charis was coloring the little eggs on a leaf she asked me:
“Mom, do ladybugs have babe-n-sitters (her word for babysitters)?”
I laughed and said, “No, why?”
“Well who keeps her babies when she has to leave? Poor Mama Ladybug, she must be so tired.”