a miracle water

I won't use the actual name of the magic 'packet of water' that I just saw advertised on TV.

I feel like this type of advertising gimmick just proves once again how desperate we are to believe in something, someone...

Can you imagine being so desperate for eternal life, for healing, for support that you would place your hope in a package of water?

I can't explain how sad this made me, while at the same time it proved once again God created us to believe in something - to believe in Him.

Shame on me for not taking every opportunity to tell others of this amazing Savior that will fill EVERY desire they've ever had, a Savior that died so we don't have to suffer eternally.

I worship the Creator of the water, the designer of the very molecules that make up what men believe in.

Not a packet of special water.

spreading seed

I'm in my happy place today, spending time in God's Word on my sunny deck.

Watching birds eat from our feeders, dogs play and just exhaling.  It's a very good place.

The devotional I was reading today reminded me that each of us is gifted exactly as God intended so that we can be used by Him for the purpose of spreading His message.

I Corinthians 3:8-10 says, "He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled[a] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

It reminded me that although the Lord is the divine Sower, He places seeds in MY hands!  I don't have to have it all figured out, just be ready to take advantage of opportunities he lays right in front of me every day to sow into someone's life!

I loved this line from the study, " When I'm exhaling and not hyperventilating He uses me to spread seeds."  We are not usable when we're running non-stop and not listening to that quiet voice that allows us to recognize opportunities to spread the seed so the Holy Spirit can do God's work in someone's life.

I had a conversation with someone at Crossroads this weekend who said "as I get older I just look at my life and wonder, what have I done with my life?"  This is the tug at our heart to find our life's work and worth in Jesus alone.  Simply living an 'available' life with a heart surrendered to Him - with time to listen is all He requires.

It's no accident where God has placed you, there are seed to be sown that only your can spread!!

Crossroads concerts and special things

One of the things I love about Crossroads is the visionary leadership that allows us to be the premier provider of Christian music, special guests and speakers that bring quality to Mansfield that we wouldn't otherwise get to enjoy close to home.

I was going through pictures and trying to delete emails and old things from my computer when I found the pictures I took of the recent Sidewalk Prophets' concert at Crossroads and thought I'd share them!  These men were very kind and very passionate about sharing the Gospel of Jesus!

Here are a few of the shots I got of them!

Preparing our stage for the show

Crossroads volunteers helped to sell the merch

Sidewalk Prophets invited us to pray with them before the show!

We're looking forward to hosting Danny Gokey on October 10th, Gokey Tickets Here; and Tim Hawkins November 8th, Hawkins Tickets Here !

I hope you'll join us for both shows and use them as opportunities to invite friends that won't come to a regular church service please!!  Only your support of these concerts and our special things will allow us to continue bringing amazing things to Crossroads!

our Easter celebration

Our worship of the risen Savior began long before the public viewing of our work.

It began with ideas that we weren't sure would even work or how we were going to do them.  It began with prayer over those ideas asking the Lord to make it clear to us what He chose.  It began with casting the vision and convincing others to join the work.  It began with a commitment to whatever it required to be ready in time.  And it began with a hope that God would use it to change lives for all of eternity...and He did!!

We gave out over 50 Believers Packets as Pastor Dave carefully explained what it means to make a decision for Christ - to Empty ourself of all the shame, guilt and past regrets to simply follow Him!

It was obvious in our world that's so FULL of stuff and choices that people still feel so EMPTY.

Isn't it ironic that we have to be willing to give up our junk, to EMPTY ourselves in order to truly feel FULL?  Only the death and resurrection of a Savior fills us.

This is what my Easter season looked like!

I loved this picture, it's perhaps the one that sums up everything!  From children to
adults writing on the empty tomb - writing what they wanted Jesus to empty their lives of!

Behind the scenes at Crossroads with Justin our actor!  He worked hard to memorize
the drama for our video!

My precious son Eric our amazing videographer
working on behind the scenes pieces of the video drama.

Eric video taping Justin in his office.

Willow Creek was so generous to explain to me how
to make the 'oil concoction'.  

This is one of my favorite pictures...my son and grandson shooting the 'hand shots'
from the video/drama.  Where God washed the dirt of our lives away...

Although holidays are the busiest for us in ministry, we always try to still make
it fun for our family!

We miss our precious ones in North Carolina, but the Lord is already using them
in amazing ways as a family in their community and church!

I LOVED the simplicity of Good Friday.  It was the first Good Friday service I've ever gotten
to create and it was one of my favorite services in 23 years!  I think our lives are starving for
simplicity in Jesus...a focus away from the emptiness of life.

We even had fun at rehearsal!

The boys in the band!!

I loved the simplicity of the set design and I LOVED they way it

connected Good Friday to Easter!!  (HUGE shout out to Eric Longstreth's work)

Our amazingly gifted Senior Pastor Dave Vance - our friend!!

Monica and Ernesto using what God gifted them to do!

Meanwhile leading up to Easter, our fearless Worship Pastor Ernesto,
was also playing the role of Jesus in a musical!  What??

Our lobby at Crossroads

People used the backgrounds exactly as we had prayed they would!
Both as a place to write the things the Lord was emptying them of
as well as a place to take pictures with friends and families.  These simple backgrounds
become part of their families' forever stories.

I stood off in the distance and watched a precious friend battling
cancer write Empty of Cancer on the tomb and wept when she
walked away - lifting her in prayer!!

In all the years I've been involved in creating things at Crossroads, I think these two guys by far have logged the most hours
helping me!  My amazing, perfect husband Ron and our dear friend Greg Crawfis!!  They roll their eyes but don't complain!  ha ha ha!!  A huge shout out to Dan Zachman for helping construct the tombs!

We decided at the suggestion of a friend to leave the walls from the EMPTY tomb up this weekend for people to see what was written on those walls during the other services of Easter weekend.  

As our new series EMPTY begins it will continue to be relevant as we examine our lives and submit them to the Lord!

To God be the glory - for His sacrifice for us.
And thank you to the leadership at Crossroads which gives us space to create, figure it out and ultimately be a team God uses to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

preparing for Easter

I was reflecting with my hubby today about the fact that this will be the 21st year I've been involved in helping design Easter for Crossroads. The years pass like the blink of an eye!

Every year I wonder what we can possibly do to provide another experience that will draw people to Christ, bring a new understanding of His sacrifice for us, and we pray and we plan and we hope...

I always go through a difficult nervous time of casting the vision for all the pieces and parts that I've gathered all year long, ideas I think we need to include (vision casting is NOT one of my gifted areas), and when the original idea is all approved I LOVE the part of hands on work.  Kind of the middle part of the process - writing scripts - tweaking ideas we find to make them our own, physically showing the teams pictures of what I want created.

Then I hit another nerve racking part of the process, turning all the things over to the experts on our staff -  like shooting video and being willing to hold loosely to my ideas as other gifted people also touch the project and bring their own view of what should be created.  Everyone involved gets to insert 'better things' then what the original idea included!  And one of the most frustrating parts of waiting always has to do with set design both on stage and in the lobby because I'm so visual I desperately need to 'see' it fast, and that just can't happen.  And if my eyes aren't focused on Him, I worry.

And that's the part of Easter we're in now, waiting for everyone else to complete their parts.  This is the part that all I can contribute for the next few days is prayer over the project, lots of prayer, and just staying out of the way!

Each time we get to take the creation of a special event or service and lead others to join us in order to complete the dream - it's actually a pretty good example of the life Christ creates for us.

He creates us with a specific 'role to play' that no one else can fulfill.  He then surrounds us with all the people and resources we NEED (not want), to fulfill His plan.  It's the letting go of OUR plans, it's the discipline of accepting it won't look exactly as we think it should and finally just sitting back when all you can do is pray part that's the most difficult.

So, as we finish preparing Easter services at Crossroads, will you pray with us? 

The entire process takes place to win others to Him!!  We can create the fanciest, most amazing service of all time and still not accomplish a thing, unless you invite your friends to join you!!   Please grab a handful of the Easter postcards we created and just lay them on a friends desk at work, invite a  relative that you know needs to meet the Savior and together let's be crazy determined to do our part, the part only we can play, to make all the work and planning and praying usable by the God of the universe!!!

21 Days

As many of you know, our ministry is partaking in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. 

I love an organized plan of action like this!  Even though I haven't asked anyone to hold me accountable for a daily commitment to prayer and fasting, just knowing so many of my Crossroads Church brothers and sisters are also participating makes me feel responsible to be committed.

I loved this statement in the challenge "Repentance means an internal change of heart that leads to an external change of action" - it explains so well the 'why' of repentance.

As I've spent some time preparing my heart for today, I pray for an internal change that identifies what needs to change in my life!

Will you join me?

building a legacy

My devotions hit me right where I am today.

I was sitting here trying to think of something spectacular that my grandkids will remember on our Tuesday together...

Then I sat down and was quiet long enough for God to speak - I Samuel 16:7&8 talks about God not using what the world expects Him to use.  Samuel looked at all of Jesse's sons' as a candidate for the future king of Israel.  Some were tall in stature, some had accomplishments that were admirable - but Samuel turned to Jesse and said, "Are these all the sons you have?".  Shocked Jesse told him he had the youngest song tending sheep in the field.  Surely God wouldn't make an animal tender king?

The minute Samuel saw David he knew this was the anointed one that God would make king!

Short, dirty probably even smelly - just like the laundry we do each day...

God teaches us what He needs us to learn in our everyday life - usually NOT in the spectacular!

If we're in God's word, quietly spending time with Him he will use us to reach our full potential.

Our grandson excepted Jesus into his heart a week ago.  It wasn't spectacular kids programming that moved him, it was his parents being available to talk with him when he had questions - not on cell phones, not watching TV or playing on-line games - talking...quiet...available.

When I shared this news with my team a week ago at Crossroads praising Jesus - Pastor Dave said "your legacy"...

The only legacy I have to leave is serving my grandkids and my children, being available to those in ministry I serve with, asking God to help me show them what being set-apart from the world and available means.  Nothing spectacular, just being available, just being who God created me to be.