Hello My friends! 

I’m excited about our upcoming PWC meetings on Jan 26 in North Dallas and Jan 27 in Allen.  Go to RoaringLambsministries.org for more information about times and locations.  I’m excited to see you and hope you are off to a great start in the new year.  Here’s a New Year message from Karol.

Begin the New Year Brightly

We are more than a week into the new year and hopefully you are settling into a good routine for 2010. I do hope that you have set a few goals or resolutions for the coming year as you take positive steps forward in your personal life as well as your work life.  One area I want to encourage you to be deliberate about  is spiritual growth.  I want to challenge you to make a plan to read God’s word and begin to allow it to permeate your life. 

A systematic approach to reading the Bible works best for most people. If you haven’t discovered the One Year Bible, I would recommend it highly.  It has daily readings marked out from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.  You simply open to the current day’s date and it has it all laid out for you.  I’ve gone through the Bible many times using this approach.   Last year I decided to only read the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, so I could really concentrate on these portions.  This year I’m doing the Old Testament day by day.  

No matter what you have going on in life, when you take a little time to read God’s word each day it keeps you looking at things above.  Reading the Bible not only reveals who God is, but also reminds us of His sovereignty and power in every area of life.   God told Joshua as he prepared to lead the Israelites:

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:8-9

This week I had coffee with one of my friends, Sonja Samuels.  She is working with Scripture Union, a ministry committed to helping people get to know the Bible more intimately.  They offer wonderful, colorful materials starting with children’s guides all the way to adults.  Their motto is “Helping people meet God every day.”  If you want to know more about their excellent materials contact my friend Sonja at sonjas@scriptureunion.org

By the way, Sonja will be speaking at the Ready to Win conference in Grapevine on Jan 18.  I’ll be the emcee and I hope you will join us for this fantastic event!   Go to www.ThelmaWells.com to register. See you there!

Happy New Year!  As we look forward to a fresh start in 2010 let’s determine to take positive steps forward in personal growth.  Please don’t forge ahead on your own. Ask the Lord to guide you as you pursue His leadership in your life.  Reach out toward potential new friendships and strengthen you r current relationships.

Often I take time during the holidays to reflect on the blessings I am thankful for in the past year, and I deliberately consider what I can do differently in the new year.  It’s always good to take some time to do a personal assessment and work toward improvement and growth.  For me personally, I write out goals and action steps for myself professionally, mentally, physically, spiritually and even socially. I even think of an overriding area which I need to work on for the whole year.

This year I am working on discipline in several areas.  I recognize I need to be more disciplined in getting up right when the alarm goes off in the early morning hours.  I need to be more disciplined in eating less and eating healthy foods.  I also need to be more disciplined in the area of returning phone calls and emails.  Most importantly I want to be disciplined in pursuing Christ and knowing Him more deeply and intimately.

God’s word always gives me strength and encouragement in this direction as I read Paul’s words about pursuing Christ in his own life.  In Philippians 3:12 – 14,  Paul says:

“ I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

I like how Paul talks about forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.   The new year is a good time to do that.  We need to forget things in the past such as past mistakes, sins or hurts.  We need to drop those reoccurring negative thoughts rather than continue to replay them in our minds.  We also need to be careful of resting on our past successes or accomplishments and becoming comfortable or complacent in where we are.  Paul said he strained toward what was ahead.  He pressed on toward knowing Christ and becoming more like Him. Think of an athlete who leans forward into the finish line.  In the same way me we lean in toward Christ.

May I encourage you as this new year unfolds to press on toward passionately pursing Christ.  Just as Paul strained toward what is ahead in becoming more Christlike, we can do the same.  It’s an active pursuit.  This December I bought a pair of Snoozies.  They are soft comfy slippers to wear around the house.  They are good if I am doing nothing all day, but if I am going for a walk or going anywhere – the Snoozies won’t work.  I need my running shoes. 

Spiritually speaking, don’t wear your Snoozies and rest in your walk with Christ. Put on your running shoes and actively pursue a deeper relationship with Him.  He welcomes you into his loving embrace.  Actively pursuit Christ by reading His Word and doing what is says.  Spend time with Him in prayer seeking His help and guidance.  Consider going the extra mile and memorize a passage from the Bible.   I know it will be an exciting journey and a great year as you actively pursue Him.

I hope you are off to a great 2010.  Are you ready to win in 2010?  Consider joining me at the Ready to Win Conference with Thelma Wells on Monday, Jan 18 in Grapevine.  For more info go to ThelmaWells.com.

Don’t you just love the week between Christmas and New Years? I do!  The pressure of the gifts, the cards, the wrapping and the parties is over and now we can relax for a short while and think about how we may do things differently in the coming year.  It is a good time to reflect on what worked and didn’t work from the past year and consider what to do differently in 2010.

Here are three questions to ask yourself as you take some time to relax this week:

What were some of the highlights of the past year which are worth repeating?

What are some changes I need to make in my life from last year to this year?

What is one new achievement I would like to accomplish in 2010?

Prayerfully ask the Lord to lead you as you walk through the doors leaving 2009 behind and as you step into the possibilities that await you in 2010.  Seek His power to strengthen you on your journey and follow His path as He lovingly guides you.  This week take some time to read and reflect on II Peter 1:3-7.  Think about each phrase and ponder what it means to you personally. Consider memorizing it for the coming year. And yes, Happy New Year to you my friend. May it be a year filled with a deeper love for God and for the people He places in your life. 

II Peter 1:3-8

 ³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello dear friends!  I hope you are doing well and feeling well during this month of Holiday festivities.  I look forward to seeing you on December 15.  Please be sure to RSVP to Donna Skell at:  dskell@roaringlambsministries.org

Be sure to watch my Holiday Show at: www.webtv4women.tv

Here’s our weekly devotional.  God bless you and looking forward to seeing you soon.

This past Sunday we celebrated the second week of Advent and reflected upon the theme of Love.  God’s love was demonstrated to the world through the gift of Jesus Christ.  God loves us because He is Good, not because we are.  Let us take time this week to thank the Lord for His dear love for us and to consider the power of His perfect love in our lives.

 Deep within every individual is a need to be truly and sincerely loved. Our hearts long for the satisfaction of true love.  We tend to search for love in a variety of places, trying to satisfy the longing in our hearts through temporary pleasures which only bring temporary satisfaction. 

Only God’s love can satisfy our hunger.  He alone loves completely.  He is gracious, compassionate and full of mercy.  He knows us better than anyone can know us, and loves us with reckless abandon.  We can’t say that about a person or a thing or a pleasure.  This week let us focus on the One True Love, the Lover of our Souls.  And let us consider the love He demonstrated to us through sending His son Jesus to die on the cross on our behalf. 

I want to encourage you to spend some time this week contemplating Ephesians 3:16 – 21:

^16”I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 ²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”