Good Day Pudgy Girl Followers!
How are you? Have ya'll been well? I pray that is so. This last Saturday, I ran the SHHS Early Bird 5k, 2015 for the sixth time. I've lost track, but I believe since I began this journey of physical and spiritual fitness that makes my 13th or 14th 5k race. I run to push myself and stay active. I do not race competitively, I simply sign up to do 5k's so I keep running every week with a goal in mind, oh and for the t-shirt of course!
For any new readers I'll recap, In September of 2009 I embarked on a mission to lose weight and find fitness. At that time I weighed 260 lbs and was 273 lbs. (pregnant with my son) at my heaviest. I went from 260 lbs down to 163 lbs in the next year. Losing 97 lbs has been a wonderful struggle of self discovery, and I will always struggle with food and weight issues. I know that. I have used no magic program, I just count my calories faithfully, staying between 1200-1400 per day and try to exercise 3 or more times a week. Since my weight loss, I've had a third baby, and gained about 60 lbs with that pregnancy, That caused a lot of stress and concern. After having the baby, I lost 20 lbs and have been struggling up and down with the last 40 lbs for three years now. Ugggg! It's been a lot harder to lose the weight since I'm getting older, however, I am still working at it. I took a break from running for awhile, and now I'm finding I am enjoying it again. My 5k times are terrible, and it feels like starting over, but the key here is I'm not giving up I will keep putting in the miles and counting the calories all the way back down to 160 lbs. (my goal weight)! I won't give up because the prize is worth the effort!
As I put time and effort into my physical fitness, I am constantly working on staying spiritually fit. My prayer life is a daily and sometimes constant source of encouragement from my Heavenly Father. After all, prayer is our communication and conversation with the Savior. It also holds in it such power as we can not humanly understand. I have different facets to my prayer life, and one of the most important privileges I have as a Mother, is praying for my children. Not just a privilege, but a responsibility to pray for their very souls, lives, health, spiritual growth, protection, understanding, etc. It is our jobs as parents to be the proponents of prayer for our children. It is also our job as parents to lead by example.
You can't give away what you don't possess. If you don't know the Savior in a personal relationship, you can't effectively witness for Him and pray for others. Your prayers will not be effective for a couple of reasons:
1. Unconfessed sin separates us from God, so that He will not hear.
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities (sins) have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that He will not hear” Isaiah 59:1-2
2. We don't really believe God can answer them.
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” James 1:6-8
I don't want to get too theological or "deep", I just want us to arm ourselves with the truth. The truth is we need to pray daily for our kids. The truth is in order for our prayers to be effective, we must be right with the Lord ourselves. Let's go to battle friends, and use prayer as our weapon against the enemy. Let's be in the Word of God daily so we are filling our minds and hearts with the power that comes from the Bible.
Like we must work to stay fit physically, we must work to stay spiritually fit as well. Let us not give up on reaching our goals. The goal is always worth the effort! Lord, bless you friends as you strive toward health!
In His Service,
Pudgy Girl
Monday, November 9, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Are We Losing our Sensitivity?
Hello Friends! We've been traveling, singing and sharing the Gospel of Christ all over this country for four years now. As a music evangelist, I have a unique perspective on church. We're serving in different churches every week. This includes all different denominations as well as non-denominational churches and inter-denominational functions. It's very interesting to see the differences, as well as note the similarities in worship styles and ideals in the church today. I did not go into this ministry with any expectations, I mean to say, I answered the call the Lord placed on my life with a resounding "yes"! I excitedly embarked on the work the Lord had for me to do with whole-hearted eagerness because I truly love what He is calling us too. Singing and sharing the Word of the Lord is something I've always felt drawn to do. Having that in mind, I pray daily, that the Lord would have me share His message and nothing more. Not share my agenda or personal opinion, but share His words wherever we go. I pray the Holy Spirit would fill-up my being so I can be an effective tool for His Kingdom. I also read the Holy Bible daily, and then study and listen to Biblical material to prepare for our ministry time and to grown in my own faith. That truly is my daily focus.
With that being said, I felt led to share some thoughts for us to consider as Christ followers today. Here are some questions for you to ask yourself;
1. Do you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life?
2. If your answer is no, then why do you think that is?
3. Do you think you feel Him occasionally but not consistently?
4. If you feel and hear from the Holy Spirit do you follow His leading?
5. Do you think it is important to be sensitive and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit?
*6. Are you actively growing and maturing in your Christian faith?
In the United States, approximately 70.6% of the total population claim to be Christians in 2014 according to the Pew Research Foundation. I won't break down further the number of peoples who belong to this or that denomination or particular line of thinking. I'm just going to assume for the purpose of this blog, these folks are believers and followers of Jesus Christ and believers of His word the Holy Bible. In the societal time in which we live in, making that assumption may be a mistake, but lets not quibble that detail now, lets just go with this thought process.
If a very certain majority of the people in this country believe this way, why is our government, (a representation of it's people), passing un-biblical laws? Why are so many of our churches empty and closing? Why are there people in our churches acting and speaking against biblical fundamentals? Ah the questions could go on and on here. Clearly this is a widespread topic that is much too big of a bite for me to chew on all at once. The answer of course is sin, disobedience to the Holy Spirit of God.
What can be done about these problems is the same answer as to *question number 6 above *. The answer is a very real presence of the Holy Spirit in our personal, every day lives, AND an obedience to His leading. This very large important subject is an umbrella under which I would like to point out just a couple of things for us to consider. As Christ followers, we need to be both encouragers and witnesses.
We need to be encouraging fellow believers including our Pastors. Spurning one another on in the faith. We should be attending church services, praying with and for each other, corporately worshiping together and giving of both our time and money offerings. We should be uplifting our Pastors and praying for them daily. We should seek ways to cooperate and be good teammates with our church leaders and fellow Christians, for we really are on the same team! We are not called to criticize our Pastors or each other or secretly plot against one another. We are not called to tear down but to build one another up.
So should we also be witnessing to our family and friends about the saving power of Jesus. Telling people one person at a time, what the Lord has done for us and what He can do for them. Inviting them to church is a great start. Be a friend to them. Show love, forgiveness and kindness, all the while remembering you are a representation of Jesus and acting accordingly.
As a final thought, I remind you that none of us are perfect. We will make mistakes, the key is to daily invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your life, and then listen and obey His prompting. Daily prayer and reading of His word is crucial to growth and maturity in your personal walk with the Lord. This is how we learn and become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Now make it a point to plant a seed for Christ today. Go today and encourage and witness in the hopes of expanding the Kingdom of God one soul at a time! I pray for you today to invite and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Take care and God bless!
Prayerfully Yours,
Pudgy Girl
With that being said, I felt led to share some thoughts for us to consider as Christ followers today. Here are some questions for you to ask yourself;
1. Do you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life?
2. If your answer is no, then why do you think that is?
3. Do you think you feel Him occasionally but not consistently?
4. If you feel and hear from the Holy Spirit do you follow His leading?
5. Do you think it is important to be sensitive and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit?
*6. Are you actively growing and maturing in your Christian faith?
In the United States, approximately 70.6% of the total population claim to be Christians in 2014 according to the Pew Research Foundation. I won't break down further the number of peoples who belong to this or that denomination or particular line of thinking. I'm just going to assume for the purpose of this blog, these folks are believers and followers of Jesus Christ and believers of His word the Holy Bible. In the societal time in which we live in, making that assumption may be a mistake, but lets not quibble that detail now, lets just go with this thought process.
If a very certain majority of the people in this country believe this way, why is our government, (a representation of it's people), passing un-biblical laws? Why are so many of our churches empty and closing? Why are there people in our churches acting and speaking against biblical fundamentals? Ah the questions could go on and on here. Clearly this is a widespread topic that is much too big of a bite for me to chew on all at once. The answer of course is sin, disobedience to the Holy Spirit of God.
What can be done about these problems is the same answer as to *question number 6 above *. The answer is a very real presence of the Holy Spirit in our personal, every day lives, AND an obedience to His leading. This very large important subject is an umbrella under which I would like to point out just a couple of things for us to consider. As Christ followers, we need to be both encouragers and witnesses.
We need to be encouraging fellow believers including our Pastors. Spurning one another on in the faith. We should be attending church services, praying with and for each other, corporately worshiping together and giving of both our time and money offerings. We should be uplifting our Pastors and praying for them daily. We should seek ways to cooperate and be good teammates with our church leaders and fellow Christians, for we really are on the same team! We are not called to criticize our Pastors or each other or secretly plot against one another. We are not called to tear down but to build one another up.
So should we also be witnessing to our family and friends about the saving power of Jesus. Telling people one person at a time, what the Lord has done for us and what He can do for them. Inviting them to church is a great start. Be a friend to them. Show love, forgiveness and kindness, all the while remembering you are a representation of Jesus and acting accordingly.
As a final thought, I remind you that none of us are perfect. We will make mistakes, the key is to daily invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your life, and then listen and obey His prompting. Daily prayer and reading of His word is crucial to growth and maturity in your personal walk with the Lord. This is how we learn and become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Now make it a point to plant a seed for Christ today. Go today and encourage and witness in the hopes of expanding the Kingdom of God one soul at a time! I pray for you today to invite and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Take care and God bless!
Prayerfully Yours,
Pudgy Girl
Monday, April 6, 2015
Lent, Easter, Then What?? Motive Check!
Dearest Friend,
Did you go to church on Easter last weekend? Did you participate in a Lenten tradition, like prayer and fasting? Why? Obviously I can't hear your answers, and they're not for me to know, I'm asking to get you to ask yourselves, then question your motives. This is something I do a lot. My husband Terry is the critical thinker. The motive questioner, if you will. When I say this or that, he often says, "why?" I've adopted this into my own personal thinking now without him even asking. So let's us try this personal motive check together, you and I.
When you went to Easter Service last weekend, did the minister give an invitation for you to pray and accept Jesus as your personal Savior? Or did he give an invitation for you to re-commit your life to Christ? Did you do it? Did you walk forward and publicly pray at an alter, or raise your hand and admit to the confession of your sins and acceptance of Jesus? Why? Were you thinking about getting home and getting dinner on the table? Mentally checking on the ham? Were you apathetic about that whole part of the service, as if his question was intruding on your thoughts or ruining a perfectly "nice" church service? What exactly were/are your motives for not accepting Christ as your personal Savior? Could it be that you feel there is time closer to the end of your life for praying that prayer? Or do you feel since the Lord is a loving God, He couldn't possible send you to hell? Have you done some things in your past that couldn't possibly be forgiven? Is that it? You feel to tarnished, too unworthy? Whatever, your reasons and motives are, please know this... it is a lie. It is an excuse fabricated by the enemy who is the king of lies and excuses.
Let's move back to you. What if you did make that choice for Christ, and you need this encouraging word? What is threatening your joy or your choice of salvation? Do thoughts and decisions from your past whisper to you in regret? The hopes of a baby dashed again and again like Sarah and Abraham in Hebrews? Or the deep desire for a romantic relationship? How about the fear that your children will never heal from your divorce? The unspoken fear that abortion is unforgivable? Is it drug use or pornography addiction? Or is it the angry word you spoke yesterday keeping you at arm's length from your husband or child or parent? Really, my friend what is your reason for keeping Christ out of every part of your life?
Know this, God was faithful in His promise to Abraham and Sarah in giving them a child of they're own. God was faithful to Jacob by keeping his offspring as numerous as the grains of sand. In fact, God's promises are numerous and He kept them. He will be faithful to forgive you, change you, give you the peace that only comes from Him, and He is faithful to give you eternal life. He is true and ever faithful. The enemy is the lie, and we mustn't fall for it one more minute. DO NOT fall for the reasons and excuses he's throwing up to you to keep you from coming to the saving and forgiving power of Jesus Christ. Pray forgiveness, repent and walk in your inheritance that is freedom in Christ Jesus!
So you missed your opportunity to accept/re-commit/be encouraged in Christ on Easter. SO WHAT! Today is a new day, and the resurrection is still true today. Easter can and should be celebrated everyday! Don't wait another minute, pray today. Not sure what to pray? Not sure who to ask for help or what to read or do? I will help you. I want too! E-mail me today Melissa@TheWrightsMinistries.com When you're tempted to doubt or be fearful or listen to the lies that call you a failure or bring up your past remember this. If you accept Jesus you belong to the Creator of the Universe and you are a child of the living God. Accept your right to live in peace and joy that is Christ!
In service to Him and Sincere love to you,
Pudgy Girl
Did you go to church on Easter last weekend? Did you participate in a Lenten tradition, like prayer and fasting? Why? Obviously I can't hear your answers, and they're not for me to know, I'm asking to get you to ask yourselves, then question your motives. This is something I do a lot. My husband Terry is the critical thinker. The motive questioner, if you will. When I say this or that, he often says, "why?" I've adopted this into my own personal thinking now without him even asking. So let's us try this personal motive check together, you and I.
When you went to Easter Service last weekend, did the minister give an invitation for you to pray and accept Jesus as your personal Savior? Or did he give an invitation for you to re-commit your life to Christ? Did you do it? Did you walk forward and publicly pray at an alter, or raise your hand and admit to the confession of your sins and acceptance of Jesus? Why? Were you thinking about getting home and getting dinner on the table? Mentally checking on the ham? Were you apathetic about that whole part of the service, as if his question was intruding on your thoughts or ruining a perfectly "nice" church service? What exactly were/are your motives for not accepting Christ as your personal Savior? Could it be that you feel there is time closer to the end of your life for praying that prayer? Or do you feel since the Lord is a loving God, He couldn't possible send you to hell? Have you done some things in your past that couldn't possibly be forgiven? Is that it? You feel to tarnished, too unworthy? Whatever, your reasons and motives are, please know this... it is a lie. It is an excuse fabricated by the enemy who is the king of lies and excuses.
Let's move back to you. What if you did make that choice for Christ, and you need this encouraging word? What is threatening your joy or your choice of salvation? Do thoughts and decisions from your past whisper to you in regret? The hopes of a baby dashed again and again like Sarah and Abraham in Hebrews? Or the deep desire for a romantic relationship? How about the fear that your children will never heal from your divorce? The unspoken fear that abortion is unforgivable? Is it drug use or pornography addiction? Or is it the angry word you spoke yesterday keeping you at arm's length from your husband or child or parent? Really, my friend what is your reason for keeping Christ out of every part of your life?
Know this, God was faithful in His promise to Abraham and Sarah in giving them a child of they're own. God was faithful to Jacob by keeping his offspring as numerous as the grains of sand. In fact, God's promises are numerous and He kept them. He will be faithful to forgive you, change you, give you the peace that only comes from Him, and He is faithful to give you eternal life. He is true and ever faithful. The enemy is the lie, and we mustn't fall for it one more minute. DO NOT fall for the reasons and excuses he's throwing up to you to keep you from coming to the saving and forgiving power of Jesus Christ. Pray forgiveness, repent and walk in your inheritance that is freedom in Christ Jesus!
So you missed your opportunity to accept/re-commit/be encouraged in Christ on Easter. SO WHAT! Today is a new day, and the resurrection is still true today. Easter can and should be celebrated everyday! Don't wait another minute, pray today. Not sure what to pray? Not sure who to ask for help or what to read or do? I will help you. I want too! E-mail me today Melissa@TheWrightsMinistries.com When you're tempted to doubt or be fearful or listen to the lies that call you a failure or bring up your past remember this. If you accept Jesus you belong to the Creator of the Universe and you are a child of the living God. Accept your right to live in peace and joy that is Christ!
In service to Him and Sincere love to you,
Pudgy Girl
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