duh!

I did it again! This morning I got my cup of coffee and sat down in my office to spend some time in the Word before my busy day began. Problem #1: My computer is in my office. Problem #2: The little voice inside my head that says, "Just check your emails really quick." Problem #3: I usually listen to the little voice. And more often than not, get caught up in answering the emails, checking the new online Target weekly add and so on and on......
So this morning, I was so mad at myself because the quick check turned into 30 minutes wasted time and I had to get my kids up and ready for school, without any time being spent with my Jesus!
So as I was preparing lunches for the day, God caused this amazing wealth of wisdom to come into my brain!

"Don't sit down to read your bible in front of the computer!" Duh!! :)

Proverbs 17:24 (New Living Translation)
Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom,
but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth. Or all over the internet, or to all the latest sales, or to primetime television. (The last part I added, obviously)
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a fool! I don't want to allow my wandering eyes to keep me from being sensible. Not that shopping or tv or Facebook is bad. But if put in priority over the Lord, IT IS!
So I had to take this truth (common sense) that the Lord gave me and evaluate myself. Do you have any area in your life that you need to do the same? I dare you to do it.
And tomorrow morning, I will be settled with my Bible and coffee on the couch in my living room! :)
May God shower His love on you today.
Mariah

Pictures from Shoreline Retreat

This weekend we spoke at Shoreline Women's Spring
Retreat. We were so grateful for the opportunity
to speak to these women about "Growing Deeper".

We were able to take some pictures of the event.
Sorry if anybody was left out! We tried to get
pictures of all of these "new friends!"

We were so happy that two of our friends who
cover us in prayer, Karin and Kristi, could
be there with us.

Dawnielle was the MC for the event and we loved
her spirit! You could see how much she loves
Jesus and was the perfect MC.

Alisa started off the Retreat on Friday night and
spoke about "Preparing the Soil". She spoke about
engaging Jesus and cleaning out things that get in
the way of your relationship with our Loving God.

Mariah played some special music for the event.

Mariah spoke Saturday morning about "Protecting your
Garden" from the pests that can slowly creep in.
The two main areas of attack in our spiritual lives
are our enemy, Satan, and also our flesh. We need
to take up our weapon: the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God and protect our hearts.

Zsanae spoke on "Nutrients needed for Growth" and
talked all about who God is and knowing His truth.
We first need to surrender, and know God's Word
so we can plant new seeds of truth. We need to
learn the names of God and have intimate prayer
lives. When we do that, we will realize that
we serve a BIG God and anything is possible with
Him!

Leah spoke on "Flourishing in the Garden" God's ways.
We can only flourish when we abide in Christ- stay
connected and close to Him. If we prepare the soil,
protect our hearts from the enemies, get news seeds
of truth as our nutrients, the result will be flourishing
for God. He created us to thrive and flourish!

We had awesome worship from with this worship
team pictured below.

We had lunch and dinner in this tent outside. The
food was delicios.

They had some skits that related to each topic
that were very funny. We are bummed we didn't
get any pictures of that.

We had great fellowship as we met new people.

It was a beautiful day in San Clemente and for
some group discussions we went outside to enjoy
the great weather.

We had the opportunity to be prayed over
by the intercessory prayer team at Heritage Church.
We were so blessed by that opporutnity along
with many of the women attending this retreat.

We saw the body of Christ working together as Heritage
Church allowed Shoreline to have this event in their
facility.

We were able to take communion together and come
before the Lord for cleansing and renewing.

We were able to listen to women share what God had
spoken to them during this retreat. This is one of
our favorite parts- to hear how God moves!

Even though we came to speak, we were ministered
to by the Lord. That will always happen to anyone
who is seeking the Lord.

We praised God together as we lifted our voices up
in worship.

A HUGE Thank You to the TEAM who put this event
together. All of us agree that this is one of
the best we've been to (speaking or attending).
We are sisters in the Lord and He received the
glory due to Him throughout this event.

Let's continue to grow deeper in Christ!

We'd love to hear from you if you attended the
event! Please post any comments you have.

Shoreline Women's Spring Retreat

We are getting excited about our upcoming speaking
opportunity at Shoreline Women's Spring Retreat.
The event is being hosted at Heritage Christian
Fellowship in San Clemente. The theme of this
retreat is "Growing Deeper". Isn't that what all
of us as Christians desire- to grow deeper? We will
all have as much of God as we want of Him. The more
time we spend with Him, the more we will experience
of Him in our lives. The more we read our Bibles,
the more we will know the truth and be able to see
what is not true. The more time we spend in prayer,
the closer we will grow to our Father. The closer
we grow to our Father, the more like Him we will
become. We are excited about this opportunity to
encourage others to grow deeper in love with the
Lord and to live out His Call for each of our lives.
We know we will be ministered to as we minister to
others.

Click HERE for all the info.

The event is in a couple weeks:
Friday April 30: 6-9pm
Saturday May 1: 9am-9pm

We would love your prayers for each of us as we
share what God has put on our hearts with these
women! We would love to see you there!

The Body of Christ: Video Blog

Hope this blesses you! God has a position for you
that no one else can fill.

How Do You Trust?

How Do You Trust?

A friend recently asked me about a post I wrote a
while back. Here is the portion her question was
referring to:

"Handing over our worries, cares and treasures
to Him is the way to receive His gifts. Do you
trust Him, do you love Him? Do you really? Do
you know that what He has to give far outweighs
what you are holding in your flesh? It is through
Him alone that we receive what we need. He is
our Source. In Isaiah 58 the Lord declares,
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways My ways.” Letting (fill in your
own blank) go and giving it away to God shows
that we love Him, that we depend on Him, that
we trust Him. “Trust in the LORD forever, for
the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.”
Isaiah 26:4

Her question is this: How do you do that...
how do you let it all go? Trust with such passion?

I loved her question. I love hearing great insight
and scripture for living; but I am the type of person
that needs the real life application that goes with
the lesson or encouragement. I welcomed her question
and went before the Lord in prayer to guide my response.
I pray that God's truth, mercy and love touches you in a
personal way as you read the following.

First of all, I cannot do it on my own, not in my own
flesh. This comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.
My part is to surrender to Him. Then I ask Him to fill
me. The surrender part comes because of my trust in God;
and trust comes from looking back in my life and seeing
all the times He has proved to be who He claims to be.
I also look in the Bible. The more I study, the more I
see His character and that His nature is perfect and ALWAYS
loving to His children. His love for us is so incomprehensible.
There is an element of faith that comes into play too. There
comes points in all that we do where we put forth a portion
of faith: getting on a plane, getting into a car, even sitting
on a chair. You have faith in all of that. That the pilot can
really fly the plane, that other drivers will obey the traffic
rules, that the four legs are sturdy enough to hold you...
know what I mean. We practice faith all the time, but for
some reason we hold back more with God. They say that if you
believe Gen 1:1 the rest of the Bible should be easy to believe.

I trust with such a passion because I choose to
believe that God is true to who He claims to be.
That doesn't mean that I don't fail in that though.
There are times when I need to fall on my face at
His feet, ask for forgiveness for my lack of faith
and then ask Him to help me. When you fall back on
truth, and who He is....He is the creator of all,
He knows the end from the beginning, so He knows
what is the best route for me, I need to trust
that and call on Him for direction, wisdom, giftings,
whatever it is He has for me. I don't want to miss
any of it.

Now in all this, satan is going to attack you.
But if you know that you are in a battle up front,
grab your armor (Eph 6) and suit up for the fight
(which by the way has already been won!). Then you
will be more equipped and not fall into the traps.
If you do fall, pray and let God lift you back up.
Fight the enemy with truth. Just as Jesus did when
satan tempted him in the desert. He fought back with
the truth of God's word.

I love these conversations because it reminds me
that we are here to encourage one another in the
Lord and it keeps our focus on Him. We praise you
and love you Lord!

Living with Truth and choosing JOY,
Habakkuk 3:18-19
Zsanae Miller

Light in the midst of the storm

About a year ago, I was driving to our church
and it started pouring rain. I mean POURING,
or you could say DUMPING rain on our car. I
was with my boys and I was at a stop light with
both hands gripping the steering wheel, wanting
to get to our destination safe and sound. It
was the kind of rain where you can't see out
your window even with the windshield wipers on
full speed.

We prayed that we would be safe and as we
turned down the street where our church was located,
the brightest light was shining through the
darkest clouds. It was so BRIGHT I couldn't
look straight at it. It was a ray of sun through
a small area of clouds that had parted.

Immediately I thought about how many times in
our lives when we go through struggles, and when
everything around us seems like it's crumbling,
we are able to see God like never before. Those
are the times when many people meet God for the first
time or learn how trustworthy our Heavenly Father
truly is. Many times it's in the dark times that
we become fearful and discouraged and we look to
God and see the light that only He can bring into
our lives. We are reminded that Light will overcome
the darkness and we have reason to hope. We are
reminded to keep our eyes focused UP, on the Living
God because when we look around us, the answers are
not there.

We pulled into the parking lot and just over the church
was half of a rainbow. I was able to talk to Jake,
my 8-yr-old son, about how God will always keep His
promises and the rainbow is a reminder of that truth.

I am so thankful for the Word of God that sets my
foundation on the truth of who God is and what He
is like. Jesus Christ is the light that was sent
into the world to overcome the darkness. No matter
what storms we go through in life, if we look to
God and cling to His truth, we will see His Light!

John 1:9: "The true light that gives light to every
man was coming into the world."

John 8:12: "When Jesus spoke again to the people,
he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life."

Living by faith,
Leah Amico
(also posted on www.leah20.blogspot.com)

God- Please Fill Me Up

As I was leaving the gas station after filling my
car up, I had what I would call a "God-Thought".
I get many of these analogies and I'm not thinking
this way- they just come to me. I believe it's
just the way God speaks to me and gives me things
to relate to His truths.

So I was leaving with a FULL tank of gas after getting
down to about 10 miles left with gas. I know how much
was left because my car tells me the number of miles
on my dashboard. I felt like God was showing me that
when people start to fall away from God it is a slow
fade. They probably know they aren't as close to God
because they aren't reading their Bibles, going to
church, praying, and so on. But they are able to go
on just like they normally do. Eventually they get
less and less of God until all of the sudden, they
are completely empty and things fall apart. Our cars
will drive until they are completely empty, then they
just won't go any further. We become "empty" and our
need to be filled up with God is the only way to get
back onto the right path.

After church last night I felt like another meaning
was there as well. The message was all about who
the Holy Spirit is and the power we have from the
Holy Spirit. We need to ask God daily to fill us
up with His Holy Spirit. This is different from
the Holy Spirit living in us. Many times in the
New Testament the Holy Spirit came upon people and
they spoke God's Word with boldness. There were
also other gifts that came from the Holy Spirit
and allowed Jesus' followers to minister to others
in different ways. We need to be "FILLED UP" with
the Holy Spirit to accomplish what God has for us.
We need to ask God to fill us up and to direct us
in His will for our lives. Obedience and submission
will lead to blessing and a life that can be used
by God. Just like we need to keep filling up our
cars, we need to ask God to keep FILLING US UP with
His Holy Spirit!

Leah Amico

"The Lord is My Shepherd"

Our Bible has many references about shepherds
and sheep. We know that David was a shepherd
as a young boy and then God called him to be
the Shepherd over His people, Israel. The Bible
also tells us that God is the "Good Shepherd" and
David is quoted in Psalm 23, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

As I was reflecting on the idea of God being our
Shepherd, I started to think about how important
it is to stay with the other sheep and close to
the "Shepherd" so He can protect you. When a
sheep wanders, there is the chance that they will
become lost, or even worse, they could become
prey. The Bible tells us "Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil walks about like
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" 1 Pet 5:8.

A true shepherd would give his life for his flock
and that's exactly what God did when He sent Jesus
to die for our sins. Even with our salvation secure,
we need to stay close so that we are protected by
God. The devil will try to isolate us from the
flock (other believers) and try to get us to not
believe God's truth so that he can destroy our lives.
Stand secure in your faith, read your Bible so you
can know the truth, and believe God's promises that
he is not just another shepherd- but He is the GOOD
SHEPHERD who KNOWS His sheep, LOVES His sheep, HELPS
His sheep and SPEAKS to His sheep.

Stay close to the flock- get plugged in at a solid
church that teaches God's Word as the final authority.
Find a mentor or be a mentor: God will grow you in
either position! Pray so you can have conversations
with God and allow Him to change the areas that do
not line up with His will for us. Step out in faith
by obediently following what you believe God has
called you to do. Always remember: never stop following
the Good Shepherd.

John 10:4: "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes
before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know
his voice."

John 10:14: "I am the good shepherd; and I know My [sheep],
and am known by My own."

Matthew 9:36: "But when He saw the multitudes, He
was moved with compassion for them, because they
were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."

John Piper on Finding Your Niche

This really spoke to me. The Bible tells us that
there is a purpose and a plan for each of our lives.
Sometimes it's hard to know what that plan actually
is. The gifts we have been given by God will show
up in our talents as we step forward in opportunities
that come before us. This short clip talks about
this topic as well.