Wake up.....you've been rescued…

I was reading back over my notes I took from a Women of Faith conference in October; remembering the message from Christine Caine on that Saturday.  I feel so blessed to have been able to attend the two-day conference and to be able to hear from so many inspirational speakers.
Christine Caine, author of the book; Undaunted, started out in Matthew 6, reading the verses where Jesus is feeding the 5,000.  

She addressed us with a few points and questions...

Key Point:  Jesus can not multiply what we don’t recognize!Reflect Point:  Would you give Him what you have?

What would you have done in this situation if you were there?  What would you have been thinking?  Would you give up everything for Jesus, if He asked you to?  Something to ponder, right?  Great thing is what we give up to Him, He just multiplies into more.  I mean, how awesome is that?

Christine also talked about the A21 campaign.  These girls that are being rescued day after day from a life of trafficking are miracles just because they are still alive after suffering as they do.   Same as we were rescued by God in any or whatever situation we've have been through.  Then the wonderful part is that now we have the chance to rescue others, just as we have been rescued.  Even though there are times we may feel broken…it’s through the brokenness that we need the grace of God.  
I love this next quote that she used when we feel like we are too broken or not good enough.  “The devil on his best day, didn’t take you out on your worst day!”  How powerful is that?  God is with us on good days as well as bad ones and He is there when we fall and to help us get back up again. 

The same God that is with you in the storm will get you through it.  Because storms will come in your life.  It doesn't matter what happens in the world we have an eternity with God, sealed to be with Him forever, when we enter into a relationship with Him.

It’s time for the church to grow up and not just exist!  It’s time for us to do something about reaching the people out there in this world and sharing the love of Christ and why it is so important to believe and develop a relationship with Christ.
Also, don’t think that YOU need God any less than you did before.  We need Him just as much now.

The same God that was with you then is with you now! 

Heaven is for Real

 

This is a great book! Easter 2014 the movie releases. Check out the trailer below.

 

 

 

 

You gave Your life away...

Love this song we sang in church this past Sunday. Here's the chorus...powerful words! 

"...You gave, You gave Your life away
You gave, You gave Your life away
You gave, You gave Your life away for me

Your grace has broken every chain
My sins are gone, my debt's been paid
You gave, You gave Your life away for me..."

Coffee Chat #3

Hello to my readers, I hope everyone has been great!  This past weekend I was so blessed to be able to attend the annual Women of Faith conference. As always I’ve came back to incredibly blessed to be in the presence of God at this conference with these other women.  Singing, praising, worshipping and listening to other women share their faith and story. 
I was able to hear from some incredible speakers such as Lysa TerKeurst, Roma Downey, Anita Renfroe, Kari Jobe, Judah Smith (the one guy speaker there other than MercyMe), Natalie Grant, Christine Caine, Angela Thomas and Mercy Me.  I’m sure that each speaker that shared left a profound impact on each person in the room, I know they did for me.  
Each speaker has their own story to tell about their life experiences they have had.
I’ll take these next few coffee chats to talk a bit about these inspirational speakers I had the pleasure of listening to.   Let’s get to know a little from Lysa TerKeaurst this week, shall we? 

Lysa opened up with 2 Samuel 20. With the title of her message, ‘One Wise Woman.’ 
The first lesson we learn from this section is that, you do not mess with the anointed and appointed.  In the start of this scripture we learn of a troublemaker called Sheba.  (I included the link to the above scripture for you as well).

As we read through the scripture we learn about a Wise Woman.  Here are a couple points we can learn from her.  Her approach and how she had dealt with the situation of ‘the troublemaker.”  We learn that a servant-hearted woman is a wise-hearted woman and because of her willingness to show up in the midst of everything happening, God sees, God notices and God smiles. 
Second, we can learn from her assurance.  She was peaceful and faithful.  She relied on her identity to over shadow her circumstances.  I am a child of God; therefore, …
Her assurance was rooted in reality.
And, third, we can get advice.  Philippians 4:13, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” See we can use the New Testament through the Old testament.  See how they go together so well. 

Lysa told a story of her daughter who set out to be a pole vaulter.  Every time she would get out on that track she would counter on her 10 fingers, I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength, she ran and jumped and fell flat.  Although, at the end of the meet she was still like, I am a pole vaulter, every time!  She did this for, I think 3 years before she finally grabbed her pole, counted on her 10 fingers, ran, jumped and sailed over the bar and broke the school pole vaulting record that year.  Persistence pays off in the end, right? 

She established a pattern of discipline and kept pushing toward her goal.

What pattern of disciple can you establish?  How does this scripture affect you? 


Blessings,

Praise Him in the hallway...

Coffee Chat #2

Overcoming a Hurricane...

I hope everyone had an amazing week!  So, as I was deciding over this weeks topic over this past week, Natalie Grant's new album, Hurricane, has been being played over the Christian radio stations. I love the title song, Hurricane.  Just because, sometimes in life it feels like we have been hit with a hurricane, a great, big gust of wind whisks by just to knock us down. Sometimes it's hard to get back up and start again.  Sometimes we feel as if it's easier just to stay down and not to care anymore about anyone or anything.    It just seems easier, to stay down, right?  Wrong!  Although it may seem like the 'easy' out, it's better to get back up and start again.
Has your life ever felt like a hurricane has just blown in leaving you in pieces?  Most of us have experienced some sort of trials at some point in our life.  So, like the song, "I’ll step out on the edge" and share my heart though this blog. 
Speaking of tough experiences, they really only make us stronger when we experience them.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
We all experience trials and sometimes we have experiences with people are going through trials around us and hurt the people around them with their words and/or actions. 

 It's like being in the midst of a hurricane.  It's hard not to feel a little betrayed by people you thought you knew and sometimes betrayal can make you just want to crawl into a corner never to come out again.   It can make you feel completely alone.  We have to continue to love and show compassion, just as Christ showed to us.  No matter how hurt we are in this world, with God on our side whom shall we fear! God will get us through the storms in our lives because He walks us through them. 

 So forgive those who have hurt you.  The power of forgiveness is much stronger than anything anyone can ever do or say to us!
  
It’s then that I heard the words to this song, 'step out on the edge, don’t be afraid of it, when you feel the rain, call His name He’ll find you in the Hurricane.'  And, even though we feel hurt and betrayed, we know that God was on our side and we have nothing to fear as along as we put our trust in our Heavenly Father.  He can get us through anything that we are going through, if we just CALL HIS NAME!

I’m not saying that it was easy, I’m saying that it is possible to move on from the hurt and be healed from the pain that someone/something has caused you.  Forgiveness is just a powerful thing.  When we choose to forgive those who have hurt us, we can free ourselves from the past and press on toward the future and the good that God has in store for us. 

I’ve found a shelter, a safe place through Christ, someone that I can tell everything to from my joyful times to my more tough times.  He is my shelter in the raging storm of the Hurricane.

 
Blessings,

Coffee Chat…

 

Dear Readers,
How is everyone out there in cyber-world?  I really would like to be the type of writer that can really connect with her readers and share about life’s happenings with each other.  I don’t want to be ‘just a writer', I want to be able to reach out and connect with my audience of viewers on a personal level, heart to heart. 
We all have our great moments to share as well as our trials, so why not come together and be able to lean on each other and help one another out through our blogging.  We may be hundreds to thousands of miles apart but we can be close through this blog.
I would like to make a weekly coffee chat and be able to share with my readers about what’s been happening in life.  I recently read a blog from Lysa Terkeurst; entitled, “I don’t want to be a writer.”  She talked about  being able to connect with her readers and being more on a heart to heart level with who ever is reading your work.  (The link above will take you to her blog).
I would like to try out and talk about different topics each week.  If you have any suggestions on topics you would like to discuss just make your comments below and I will do my best to reach out to everyone.  Since I’m starting this on a Tuesday, I will make this a Tuesday morning coffee chat.  So grab a cup of your favorite coffee, tea, etc. and head on over and see what’s happening.  Let’s connect! 
Blessings,

Bubble up breakfast bake

Hope everyone is great out there. There are just so many recipes out there to try, I thought I would try another one.  I recently made this breakfast dish, so here's the recipe I found.  Okay, for all of you who love a wonderful hot breakfast in the morning but just don't want to spend a lot of time preparing it, this is amazing!  It's great for those Saturday morning breakfasts, but easy enough to make even the night before on a weekday and pop it in the oven in the morning.  The "Bubble up breakfast bake" is a meal that I came across by browsing on Pinterest.  It's super easy and quick to make and yes, it's delicious and very flavorful.

 

Ingredients:

1 Can Biscuits

1 lb Sausage

2 c. Shredded Cheese

6 Eggs

1/4 Milk

Onions, chilies, bell pepper (whatever you like for the topping) :-)

Salt and Pepper to season

 

 

Cut biscuits in 1/8 pieces and spread on bottom of 9X13 glass pan.

Brown sausage and spread over biscuits.

Top with your favorite cheese.

Mix eggs and add salt and pepper to taste, then add milk and whisk.  Pour egg mixture in baking dish.

And, add onion, chilies, bell pepper's if you would like. Add great flavor to the breakfast bake also. :-)

 

Bake at 350 degrees for approx.  30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy! :-)

 

 

Blessings,

 

 

If God is for us…

Sometimes doesn't life feel like a construction zone? Rough and rocky?  We get tired along the way and sometimes we think that we can’t go any further.  It’s just that it’s not always a smooth path, but if it were easy, there would be no learning from those rough experiences. It’s in the times of trial that we learn just how to deal with ‘certain situations and people.’   It’s a time of building and rebuilding, whether in the physical or emotional sense.  Could be the physical building or remodeling of your house, or it could be the building or rebuilding of your relationships.  But, have you ever felt like Nehemiah in your lifetime?  Have you ever felt like you've been rebuilding your wall just to have the enemy come and knock it –or you— down?  Sometimes you just feel it’s too much and you start hearing those voices telling you that you can’t do it.  But there’s something more powerful that is out there. God is there for us.  He is there to walk with us and to help us, all we have to do is let go and give it to God and give Him the control of our life.  I love this verse from Isaiah 41:10, states that “I am with you!”  ”Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.  I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
Also, Isaiah 54:4 - “Fear not; you will no longer live in shame.  Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you.  You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood.  We don’t have to walk this path alone and we don’t have to do it by ourselves.  Sometimes we feel as if there’s no one else that would ever understand what we’ve been going through and we tend to take so much on ourselves that we let it weigh too heavy on us.  But when we let our Heavenly Father in on our life, that load becomes a whole lot lighter and our baggage doesn’t seem as heavy as it once was.
Psalm 24:8 states that, – “Who is the King of glory?  The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, invincible in battle.”We serve a great and powerful God, He is capable of taking care of each and everyone of us.  Don’t give into those voices of discouragement.  Remember that if God is for us, than who can be against us. Don’t give up hope.  Keep on fighting because God is going to do great things in you and for you. He’s got great plans for his children and He wants to be apart of your life for eternity. 




Blessings,

Never Forget...

You’re an Overcomer!

Absolutely love this song from Mandisa! “Overcomer.” It seems to come on the radio at just the right time.  Sometimes when you feel things are getting too tough and it’s circumstances are rough, it’s time to remember that, “you’re and overcomer!” With God on your side you can make it through anything that comes your way.  Sometimes it’s hard to –let go— and give God the control of the boat you’re in, but when we do let go of the paddle and quit trying to stir our own direction the waves don’t seem to rough and the water feels a lot smoother and nicer to be on.


Psalm 27:1 -The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? 

When we let Christ in our lives we no longer have to be afraid anymore.  There is always someone there to listen to us and to help us.  Although we are human and though we don’t always see the amazing opportunity we have to come to Jesus with our overwhelming issues, and we attempt to figure things out on our own.  Then when we do realize that we can’t do it by ourselves, we sometimes wonder what took us so long to figure out we can’t do it alone. He is always standing there with open arms just waiting for us, ready to embrace us, when we need it the most.

I love music!  The words to a song can change your mood/spirit in a split second.  I guess that’s why I love listening to positive and encouraging Christian radio stations.  Whether it’s K-Love, Air1 or our local KAMB station.  I know that I can turn on anyone of these station at anytime and hear something uplifting and encouraging. The music just gives my day that extra boost of enthusiasm to get me through and another reason to smile.

     

Blessings to you,

"What if your blessings come through raindrops?"

What if....

Make your dreams happen!

Love this, make your dreams happen! Go for it!

Happy Independence Day!

Most likely when you think of the Fourth of July, you think of a day of with family and friends, fun, barbecue picnics and fireworks.  You may also think of this being a day to remember those who fought for and stood up for this countries freedom so long ago and right now today.  This also being a day to remember our freedom to worship Christ whenever we want with out having to hide!  

John 8:36 says, " So if the Son sets you free,you will be free indeed."

As time passes by and years come and go, our jobs as follower's of Christ gets more important day after day.  The harder the times get in this world the more we need to share the love of Christ and why He is so important to our lives as Christians.  In this day and age people tend to take for granted that we have so many churches around in our country, but seriously what's the point of having so many "church buildings" if we're just sitting around talking among ourselves.  If we were really being "the church" we would be stepping out of the building we worship in more often and 'hitting the streets,'  bring church to the one's who have been afraid to step into a church building or traumatized in some way by "so-called Christians."  Even by changing they way we have our worship services by being able to make our services casual enough for people to really feel welcome and comfortable enough to 'walk-in off the street' and sit down have a cup of coffee or glass of ice tea and hear about the love that Christ has to offer them, without feeling judged by their attire or past behavior. 

Acts 20:24 says, "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God."

I love this verse, we used this verse in my drama group in college for the back of our t-shirts. It was a great reminder to remember what our work is to do here on Earth.

Today is a another great reminder of what Christ did for us in the cross over 2000 years ago. By giving us the freedom to live. Now we can tell others about the same freedom. 

******************************************************************

Side note: Also, it's another great day to bake something fun and different!. Here's a firework cake made! 
:-)  

       

Blessings,

Give it your very best….Never Give Up!

I’ve seen Facing the Giants so many times but this is probably one of my favorite motivational scenes.  I’ve seen the clip below used many times and at various times through out inspirational messages that I’ve listened to as a way to motivate us into doing our VERY BEST!  Isn’t it true though?  Sometimes we think we ‘can’t’ do something, and we convince ourselves it’s ‘too late’ or ‘too hard.’  Check out my previous post, Defying the odds, because a bumblebee was never meant to fly, but it did anyway!

It’s probably one of the hardest things to do, to force ourselves to keep going when things get hard or tough.  It may seem like it’s too difficult and it’s easier to do what we need to do ‘to just get by.’  You think, 'I’ve done just enough to meet my minimum goal.’  And, the minimum goal is all you think you can do, but what about that Big Hairy Audacious Goal you have set for yourself?  How are you going to ever meet that if you never get past that small goal?  So many times we find ourselves sitting by the sidelines when we should be out playing the game.  I know you’re probably thinking, “but the game’s pretty scary, I could get hurt, I can’t make it though the entire way.”  I have those exact same thoughts at times.  What if I get in the game, and I totally…well, ‘mess up?’ “What if I get out there and people laugh at me and think I’m crazy?”  Well, we all make mistakes, we’re human.  If we never take risks, we can never mess up and we can never learn from our ‘mistakes.’  It’s the ‘mistakes’ that make us stronger and help us grow.  Also, if we never step out of our comfort zone because we are afraid of people laughing at us or making fun of us, we will be missing out on so much more that God has planned for our lives.  Like it says in, Joshua 1:9, “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” If we let God in and give him control of our life, He is with us where ever we go and we don’t have to be afraid. 

If you really give it your all and step out of your comfort zone and really push yourself….yes, people are going to watch you, but it’s the people who are really seriously watching you who are going to be ‘in awe’ of the courage and strength you have to do something so insanely courageous.  It’s the same people who want to do something courageous as well, but needed to see you as an example. I can remember this quote from, We Bought a Zoo, ‘all it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage’  and your life could completely change.

What if everyone took 20 seconds to do something insane and incredibly courageous?  What would that look like?  How would you feel?
Take a few minutes to watch these short clips from Facing the Giants and We Bought a Zoo.

Just when something may seem really, really hard to start and even harder to finish, just remember when you finally make it through it’s all going to be worth it! Then, it’s time to start something NEW again!

What’s your 20 seconds of insane courage?  Please feel free to share your thoughts below.

Motivational Scene from “Facing the Giants” -- Give it your VERY BEST!

20 Seconds of Insane Courage

Blessings,

Defying the odds...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my inspirational messages in the mornings, whether I'm reading them or listening to them over the phone.  This one came from one of my Mary Kay hotline phone calls the other day. 

This person based their discussion this morning about the story of the bumblebee.  It's such an incredible life story because the bumblebee was never intended to be able to fly because of its body size and wing span/size, it would be just impossible for this thing to fly through the air. Good thing the bumblebee never "read" that, right?

So what's to stop anyone from doing what they might be able to do if they never tried. If we never try something we will never know.  So..."if you thing you can, you can.....and if you think you can't, you're right!"

Turn the "impossible" into "I'm Possible!" Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."  I love this verse! 

There's so much packed into these words. When we try to do things by ourselves we fail every single time but when we let Christ in and follow His plan instead of our own, things just seem to "flow" better. It may not be easy and and it may be really, really hard but it's extremely possible and always worth it! 

My favorite quote from "Soul Surfer" just happens to be, "I don't need easy, I just need possible!"  

Blessing to all,

Support our troops with Operation Sunscreen!!!

 

For the month of June I am promoting the Mary Kay Sunscreen (SPF 50) and Lip Protector (SPF 15).  With YOUR $20 donation you can help support our troops and I will be sending the MK Sunscreen and Lip Protector that you purchased to our troops!

Plus, your donation is 100% tax deductible! (see flyer attached).

Feel free to share this flyer with friends, family and co-workers.

Message me with any questions and orders at tgregor@marykay.com and I will answer any of your questions and process your orders. 

Thanks in advance for helping out!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Grace and Peace,

 

 

Sharing Christ through drama….

Christian Drama has been my passion for several years now.  I’ve loved performing for my whole life, but it was at a Women of Faith conference that I saw sharing skits in a whole new way.  Being able to witness and share with people on so many different levels through each skit that I perform.  It’s so amazing to be able to share my heart to the hearts of other people through stories of laughter, prayer and sometimes even through tears. 

I was able to be apart of the Good News Players (serving as President for a term as well) while I was living in Southern Indiana, where I was able to gain even more of an insight about being able to work with and minister to so many people around me. We not only traveled from church to church, but we attended youth rallies, and youth all-night events, and there were times we came back extremely exhausted but all the while loved what we were able to do. :)  We were able to share at drug/alcohol meetings, and just be there for our community and the communities we were traveling to, where we were able to pray for and with them as well.

It was also such a blessing to be able to share skits with The Remedy (my church while I was in Southern Indiana). To be able to be apart of a great church family while away from home was so amazing and to be apart of sharing Christ to 'the world' with them.

Here is a skit that I shared while I was in the Mid-West….

This is Rocks!…..

              

Tami Gregor (ME) sharing Rocks! (Skit) at a church in Illinois with the Good News Players (Oakland City University)

 

Proverbs 31 Woman

Just a little something I came across recently. A great reminder....

A day on the farm….

What better way to spend a Saturday morning than going out to a farm and being able to pick some blueberries and cherries.  Ott Farms in Modesto is one of the best blueberry and cherry farms around the area.  I would highly recommend coming here with the kids, make a day of it and just have fun.  

One of the best parts of choosing which ones to pick is “taste testing.”  It is always recommended to taste the different varieties of  what’s out there, so you know whether you want a sweeter taste or a more tart taste. Of course, by default, by the time you are ready to leave the farm, you’ve eaten as many as you have picked….and loved every one of them.  There are rows and rows of blueberry bushes just ready to be picked for your bucket and taken home. It was a especially nice day on the day we went, so it was nice being able to just take our time and have fun while we were out there.  The bushes were loaded with blueberry clusters as well as the cherry trees.  There were at least 5 varieties of blueberries and a couple varieties of cherries as well.

You can check out my post about Baking with Blueberries as well for some more delicious blueberry recipes. 

Next, it was time to take home our stock of fresh fruit.  I had a recipe to try for blueberry muffins again…and….they came out…
A-MAZ-ING!!!

Blueberry Cream Muffins

Now for a little bit of CREATIVITIY…

I even tried out a great blueberry smoothie recipe as well, another great breakfast on the go drink.  I love smoothies on a hot day and I can’t always make it over to a smoothie place to buy one, so it’s great when I’m able to grab some fresh fruit and yogurt to make some of my own when I have a craving for a smoothie. 

Strawberry-Banana-Blueberry Smoothie

1 Banana
1/2 cup Strawberries
1/2 cup Blueberries
2 TBSP Greek Vanilla Yogurt
about 1 cup of Milk

Ice (if needed for consistency/thickness)

Grab your favorite blender and add the ingredients and mix it well until the desired thickness is achieved.
Then pour into your favorite glass and enjoy!  

I tend to vary my ingredients by what I have on hand, but this mix usually produces a really great smoothie to start off your morning with!

Blessings,