The "More" Conference with Ann Graham Lotz

This weekend I was privileged to attend the More Conference at Harvest Ministries, in Riverside.  The guest speaker was Ann Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham. The Lord has gifted Ann in many ways and what was apparent to me was the gift of evangelism and teaching. I had never heard Ann speak or teach before this weekend and let me tell you, she is awesome.  Even after only having 3 hours of sleep the night before due to a wonderful time of fellowship (a few of us stayed at a hotel in Corona) I was intently listening to her teach all day Saturday. Here are a few nuggets I would like to share from the conference.  Also, the DVD of the entire conference is for sale on the Virtue website, through Harvest Ministries.com. http://www.harvest.org/virtue/

                        Lori w/guest worship ~ The Getty's

                       Steph, Xochilt, Charlene, and Nikki

                                   Ann Graham Lotz

~Friday evening we looked at John 17:1-4. The four points she taught from those four verses were: 

1) Having a personal relationship with Jesus 

         a. Jesus invites you into a relationship, not a religion, or a church, or anything else but a relationship. 

         b. It's personal! In the verse, Jesus addresses God as "Father".

2) Salvation is permanent 

        a. There is no other way to heaven except through Jesus.

        b. The verse says,  "Glorify Me (Jesus) .."

        c. The cross reveals the love of God.

3) A relationship / friendship with Jesus is a privilege 

       a. In Genesis, Abraham was said to be a friend of God.

       b. To know God is a privilege and He extends it to all of us!

4) Our life has a purpose

       a. Jesus had a purpose on earth, it was to glorify God - as is our purpose.

       b. People should see God in us as we go through life especially in the trying times.

       c. He wants to use us to reach others through our circumstances.

       d. How can we bring Him glory?

"Faith is caught, not taught" -Ann Graham Lotz

Ann used to catch her mom praying on her knees and reading the bible all the time and that was her example of a godly woman wanting more of Jesus.

~On Saturday we started with session 2 - More of His voice. We looked at John 10:1-10, Jesus the True Shepard.  We learned of 3 characteristics of His voice:

1) It is Biblical

     a. The authentic voice always comes through the door, which is the Word of God.

     b. Thieves and robbers (the religious leaders or false prophets) come from a different way.

2) It is Personal

     a. We need to stay close to The Shepard in order to know His voice (READ the BIBLE).

3) it is Powerful

     a. When we hear the voice, we must heed the voice.

     b. Hearing and heeding His voice is for our own good.

     c. His voice is life saving and life changing.

Session 3 - Learning to listen to His voice.  We need to get a grip on the Word, not just for information or for facts but so we can live it out in our lives. Select a paragraph, or 3-4 verses from a book in the bible that the Lord has put on your heart to study. Our aim should be to listen to His voice and not to get through the bible.

Step 1 : Read God's Word.  Look at the passage.

Step 2: What does God's Word say? List the facts, DO Not paraphrase (do not put it in your own words)!

Step 3: What does God's Word mean? Learn the lesson. (Is there a command to obey, warning to heed, or example to follow) 

Step 4: What does God's word mean to me? Listen to His voice

Our last session was about wanting more of His Spirit.  We looked at John 16:5-16 and found 3 characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

1) The Holy Spirit is a person

    a. Holy Spirit is referred to as He or Him

    b. Holy Spirit is invisible

2) The Holy Spirit has Power

     a. Victory in the life of a christian is through the Holy Spirit

     b. Be filled of the Holy Spirit.

3) Priority

    a. The priority of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus that we might know Him.

    b. If we want more of the Holy Spirit, then we need to make sure He has ALL of us.

I was so blessed by this conference and I walked out of there just wanting More of Jesus!

Be Blessed,

~Xochilt De La Cueva

Just Give Me Jesus...you won't regret these 10 minutes!

"Living Relationally" Women's Study Week 2 ~ Noah's Wife

Review to come soon!

"Living Relationally" Women's Study Week 1 ~ Eve

Our Women's Bible Study started up on Monday night as we set forth on the journey of exploring the Women of Genesis.  We implemented the book "Live Relationally" by Lenya Heitzig & Penny Rose.  We started with Eve, the first woman as noted in Gen. 2:18-3:24. Her name means "Mother of all Living." Matthew Henry says that "woman was formed out of man-not out of his head to rule over him; nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him;but out of his side to be his equal, from beneath his arm to be protected, and from near his heart to be loved."  We see the first marriage as mentioned in Gen. 2:19 "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh.  And they were naked and were not ashamed."  They lived in paradise with nothing to worry about and yet Eve was discontent and doubted God's Word. Eve committed the first sin.  That word for sin is an archery term for missing the mark. She choose to listen to the lie of the enemy and disobey the only command of God as to not eat of the Tree of Life.  Eve was deceived by the enemy to think that she would be like God, knowing good and evil.  She not only disobeyed God but influenced her husband to sin as well.  How are we wives influencing our husbands? For good or evil? Even in their sin, God pursued them as He was walking in the cool of the day calling out to them.  There's hope and grace even when we sin. We also discussed that she was the first designer of clothing- she sewed fig leaves together.  Which seemed like a good idea at the time, but in actuality the shrank and crumbled in a matter of days.  God's solutions are always better and He provided tunics of animal skins.  We see the first animal sacrifice for sin as well.  Then in Gen. 4:1 we observe Eve as the first mother.  She names her son Cain which means "with God's help I brought a man into the world.  
In His mercy & grace, Lori Cook