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Well, this is exciting - Six Secrets To A Powerful Quiet Time is featured in the latest CBD newsletter. I am so excited about this. One of my favorite days used to be when my CBD (Christian Book Distributors) catalog would arrive. I used to sit for well over an hour just studying every page figuring out what books I wanted to put on my wish list. And I do admit I love books. I grew up with books. In fact, my mother used to give me stacks of books for Christmas and I would have them read all within a week’s time! As a little girl I would read books using a flashlight under the covers. I’ll never forget the day the Lord led me to begin writing books - I was in a Christian bookstore and realized that it was time to write Pilgrimage of the Heart - a book of quiet times in the Psalms. That was the beginning and ultimately led to 10 books including Six Secrets To A Powerful Quiet Time, Knowing and Loving The Bible, and a new one, Walking With The God Who Cares to be released in July 2007. But back in the days when I studied the CBD newsletter, I never imagined one of my books would be highlighted by CBD. How cool is that! To God be the glory. Our Bible study meets this morning and, of course, I’ll have to give them this latest update. It’s so fun to be on this “great adventure of knowing God” - I just never know what’s around the corner. I thank the Lord for opening such doors for these books. May He use these books to draw others to Himself and to His Word.

What will happen when hundreds of women gather together to worship God and draw near to Him in His Word - the Lord will make them women of revival and set their hearts on fire! Oh what a day the Lord gave hundreds of us yesterday in Carlsbad. About 600 women representing 53 different churches gathered together and worshipped, shared, prayed, and drew near to God in His Word. I sensed the Holy Spirit at work in a powerful way among us all. You can’t imagine how incredible it was for me to look into the eyes and faces of so many beautiful women who have hearts for the Lord and want to know Him more. Pictured here is our Women of Revival team: (First row) Paula Zillmer, me, Myra Murphy, Stefanie Kelly (Second row) Julie Airis, Shirley Peters, Conni Hudson, Cindy Clark, Kelly Abeyratne. I can tell you that it is just an incredible privilege to serve with these amazing, creative, godly women. Oh what a joy it is to run this race with such a team.

We began the day with Pastor Charles Youngkin welcoming us and sharing about revival. I LOVED that he shared the same quote that I knew I would be sharing at the end of my first message - Charles Wesley said “Give me 100 men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world.” Oh I just love that quote and was so happy that the Lord led him to begin our day with it. Then he prayed for us - what a blessing. Then Kris Williamson, the amazing director of Women’s Ministries at Carlsbad Community Church welcomed everyone. Then I took the whole team up and introduced everyone. Our day of revival focusing on “Set My Heart On Fire” was filled with messages from the Word of God and worship led by Stefanie. Oh what a day it was - amazing and incredible. Our lives were changed by the Lord as we gathered together.

Look at all these women - can you believe it. It was just a thrill to meet so many groups of women from different churches. That is one of the things I envisioned in thinking about this day of revival - that groups of us from different churches would come together to worship the Lord and focus on quiet time with Him. It was a thrill to look out over the room and see so many of us in one place. I just pray that the Lord uses this very special day to change our lives forever, catch our hearts on fire for Him in a new way and spread His love to those around us.

I personally learned so much on Saturday and was challenged to be part of the “Fellowship Of Hearts On Fire” myself. The challenge I issued was one I took to my own heart. One amazing thing for me happened at the very beginning. The stage was set to look like Emmaus, focusing on the theme of Luke 24 and the two on the road to Emmaus. I had planned to tell that story in my first message. However I had almost two pages of notes filled with other illustrations to begin my message. As I was sitting there during Stefanie’s time of worship, I got the idea to begin with telling the story of Emmaus setting the stage for the whole day. It was a step of faith for me because it meant I had to reorganize my entire message but I went for it and seized the moment. I’m so glad I did. I realized it was the way I should have written the message from the start. I love such opportunities to trust the Lord and launch out believing Him to do what only He can do. It was a joy and an incredible privilege to rely on the power of the Lord and watch Him in action throughout the day. I’ll share some more pictures in the next few days. I just thank the Lord for doing such a mighty work among us.

I can hardly believe how much has happened in the space of just a little over one week’s time. I have had SO MUCH FUN! About a week and a half ago we were in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Fellowship Bible Church. It was so much fun to meet amazing, incredible, and creative women there at FBC and a total joy to share with women who have such hearts for the Lord. Also attending were women from other churches in the area. So many were involved in the organization of our women’s conference and their faithfulness was seen throughout the sanctuary - in the stage decorations, the nametags, the table decorations, the food served, the worship team - and everything worked together so smoothly. You should have seen the decorated tables - someone had embroidered table runners with verses - they were amazing - and I was given a gift of a beautiful pillowcase with my embroidered name and our theme verse. It was very difficult for me to leave Tulsa because I felt such a part of the team. Then, when we were in the Tulsa airport, I was standing at the counter buying some water and my favorite cheddar cheese crackers (because you don’t get too much on the plane these days so I always bring snacks:) - and my husband said, “Cath, look over here!!” And I turned to look and guess what!! Six Secrets To A Powerful Quiet Time was in the Tulsa Airport!! How cool is that. Now I’ve truly seen it all. What a surprise! Of course - we took pictures because I just had to save that moment somehow and I did want to share it with everyone up here. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement - I must have walked back into that store ten times just to look at my book on the rack.

After Tulsa, we came back to the desert where I taught at our church on Thursday Women’s Bible Study. I gave a message entitled “The Help Of The Lord” from Psalm 121 - I talked all about why I love to run to the Lord for help - He is enough - He’s responsive enough, creative enough, compassionate and understand enough, knowledgeable enough, caring and watchful enough, present and close enough, strong and powerful enough, wise enough, comforting enough, observant enough, and transcendent enough. That’s all from Psalm 121. Is that enough for you? He is ENOUGH of everything I need for anything I face in life today. Just before I got up to speak at our church here in Palm Desert, a lady handed me a catalog from Lighthouse bookstores and guess what was highlighted there - Knowing And Loving The Bible. I just couldn’t believe it. That afternooon we flew to Seattle for a women’s conference at Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue, Washington. Oh what a weekend we had there at CBC - the theme was “Revive My Heart O Lord”. I gave three messages on revival and then spoke on Sunday morning and gave a special message “Set My Heart On Fire.” Saturday lunch was a highlight - each of the 300 women who attended received a beautiful boxed gourmet lunch wrapped in a blue ribbon and a copy of my book of quiet times - Revive My Heart! The one who designed that whole lunch and gift was their amazing Director of Women’s Ministries, Paulette Gledhill. You can’t imagine how difficult it was for me to leave Bellevue and those amazing women. I will hold them in my heart and pray for them as they faithfully run the race set before them.

The next day was filled with many things happening at once - the pilot of my new book, Set My Heart On Fire, the finishing of the galleys of my other new book coming out this summer, Walking With The God Who Cares, and taking 30 minutes to go three blocks down the road from our Training Center to Christian School of the Desert where my former boss, Josh McDowell was speaking to all the students. It was a special appearance the school had arranged for Josh and I had found out about it at the last minute because a bunch of the parents emailed me about it. I just wanted to hear him speak again. So I snuck in at the very end and stood in the entry way and watched as Josh interacted with these kids - Josh is amazing. Just about everything I do in ministry now I first learned from Josh in the four years I worked with him in the Josh McDowell Ministry. I learned what to do the moment you arrive at a place where you’re going to speak. I learned how to make the most of my time. I watched Josh interact with crowds and one on one with hundreds of people attending his events. Josh even taught me how to pack books in a box so that they could be shipped without being damaged - little did I know that one day I’d be packing my own books in boxes - how exciting is that. It amazes me how the Lord orchestrates our life and prepares us for what He calls us to do. It was an absolute joy to see Josh and of course, as always, I have a picture to share with everyone.

And that’s my week. And now, another big weekend is ahead. Our Women Of Revival conference at Carlsbad Community Church will be this Saturday, March 17 (Women Of Revival) and there are 560 women registered representing 53 different churches. I have been thinking about the call of Christ, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). There is nothing so exciting as following the Lord and watching Him change lives. May our hand never leave the plow of the work to which He calls us, no matter how rough the road or great the obstacles. May we just keep our eyes on Jesus - EOJ - and continue to run the race set before us.

Oh what a joy it is to be here at Crossroads Bible Church! We had such a wonderful day yesterday. How is it that sometimes it seems that a lot fills up one day. Cindy and I arrived at the church yesterday morning. As we drove up look at what greets every person that comes to this church - the cross! How cool is that. So, of course, I had to have a picture of me standing by the cross. Then we went into the church and met Paulette Gledhill, the Director of Women’s Ministries and Sue Foote, her assistant. They took us on a tour of the church, a beautiful facility - my favorite part of this church is the area where everyone can sit and talk and have coffee - there are lots of places and lots of space for fellowship here - I LOVE that!! And then, an unusual thing that I would never see in the desert - at each entrance of the church there are large containers filled with umbrellas - I wonder why there are lots of umbrellas - I think we’re going to find out because everyone here is saying that today it’s going to rain a lot. I’ll report back on that.

Paulette and Sue took us to lunch in the old town area of Bellevue. We went to this incredible restaurant - the food was so good. It was one of those places where you could sit and talk for just hours. That’s one of my favorite things to do. We talked a bit about ministry, what the Lord is teaching us, and how exciting it is to be involved in Women’s Ministries. Pictured here from left to right: Paulette, Sue, Cindy, me. Paulette has been Director of Women’s Ministries for 15 years. That’s amazing. It was fun to share about what the Lord is doing among our women. Driving back to the church I was able to see more of the beauty of this area - they pointed out Mercer Island where one of my friends, Julie, lives. I hope to get there later today after the conference.

It’s always an amazing thing to me when all the planning for a conference or retreat finally comes to fruition. When I stand up and begin to give a message I am always so very excited to share all that is on my heart. Last night we spoke together about revival. I had the opportunity to share how the Lord began to build a message of revival in my own heart. I’ll never forget reading Psalm 119 and noticing that little word “revive”. Hmmm - I wonder what that means, I thought to myself. And so, of course, curious as I am, and loving Bible study as I do, I looked up the word, “revive”, in a lot of different word study tools. That’s when I discovered that revival is “a quickening of heart and soul imparting whatever is necessary to sustain one’s spiritual life and enable a return to the experience of one’s true purpose as ordained by God.” That definition comes from all that I learned as I read through all the different lexicons and dictionaries. I also discovered in Psalm 119 that it is the word of God that God uses to revive our hearts. And so, one of the most important things we can do in order to be personally, spiritually revived is open the Bible and find out what God has to say to us. That was really the message last night. As always, I shared where to begin in quiet time.

After our time together I had the opportunity to speak with many women in attendance at our conference - that is one of my favorite times - to just connect and make new friends. A lot of us hung around for about an hour just sharing - I enjoyed how intentional so many were following our time together - many came up just to tell me that “one thing” that they were taking home with them. Paulette was so wise at the end of this first session - she provided a place in the handouts for everyone to write out that one thing they learned. I just think that is such a great idea. Today I’m going to share about Seeking The Face Of God and also radical discipleship. I’ll also be sharing ten minutes of a very powerful DVD entitled the Revival Hymn. The entire Revival Hymn is available here on this blog - any who desire to watch the 38 minutes in its entirety can just click on the link in the right margin of this page. It is so very powerful and never fails to challenge my heart. I will share more about our time together in the next day or so. I just can’t wait for today!!

I’m so excited that the Lord has opened up an opportunity to challenge others with the message of revival and quiet time here in Seattle. We left 90 degree weather in Palm Desert and arrived here in Seattle to pouring rain and temperatures in the 40-50 range. Isn’t this picture incredible out the window of the airplane as we were landing in Seattle. Oh what a difference and airplane flight makes when it comes to weather and area of the country:). I just love being here and can’t wait for the Women’s Conference at Crossroads Bible Church to begin. I am speaking on one of my favorite topics: personal, spiritual revival. I believe more than anything that the Lord desires to revive our hearts daily - but it is imperative that we draw near to Him in quiet time, living in His Word and talking with Him in prayer. I can’t wait to share these messages that just burn in my heart. I’ll speak four times - three at the actual conference, then a fourth time on Sunday morning with a message titled “Set My Heart On Fire.” I pray that the Lord moves in a powerful way among us all. I will share more in the days to come.

Many years ago my mother gave me a little red hardcover devotional entitled My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. At the time I had no idea who he was or how important his words would be for me. Now, many years later, Oswald Chambers is my friend and I lovingly refer to him as OC. In fact, all of us on the Quiet Time Ministries team call him “OC” and love to share what we have read from his little devotional. I confess there are days when I read his words and I am unsure what he is talking about - I don’t understand - it’s a mystery. And then, a couple years later, I’ll read those same words and I understand exactly and the words pierce my heart and draw me closer to the Lord. That’s the beauty of OC - he is brilliant, spiritually deep, and profound in what he says about the Christian life. I was moved to say a few words about him today because today’s reading in My Utmost is exactly why I love to see what OC says - the reading was OC at his best.

Here is the reading from OC today - the title is Amid A Crowd Of Paltry Things: …in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses. 2 Corinthians 6:4 “It takes Almighty grace to take the next step when there is no vision and no spectator—the next step in devotion, the next step in your study, in your reading, in your kitchen; the next step in your duty, when there is no vision from God, no enthusiasm and no spectator. It takes far more of the grace of God, far more conscious drawing upon God to take that step, than it does to preach the Gospel. Every Christian has to partake of what was the essence of the Incarnation, he must bring the thing down into flesh-and-blood actualities and work it out through the finger-tips. We flag when there is no vision, no uplift, but just the common round, the trivial task. The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to damp you. Continually get away from pettiness and paltriness of mind and thought out into the thirteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel.”

Oh I love these words today from OC! He has taught me exactly this - “The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to damp you…” That is why my quiet time is so imperative for me each day - “to live looking to God.” Life is filled with a thousand moments of the “paltry things” as OC calls them - those things that must be done to accomplish the task. I love the exciting - like going to Tulsa or Dallas and meeting incredible women who love the Lord, or writing a book and seeing that book come to life as others read it and get excited to know the Lord and draw near to Him, or getting a new idea and just going for it and developing that idea into something more than the original thought as God gives it dimension and purpose. But behind all of these exciting experiences are many tedious hours with no one watching, no one cheering you on - except, that is, the Lord Himself. And if you have spent that good time with Him, then you need nothing else to keep going. And the point is, you will keep going, you will persevere to finish the task and ultimately the course. OC has helped me to understand these truths over the years and someday in heaven when we are face to face with our Lord, I hope to thank OC for thinking deeply about God’s truth from the Bible and saying that truth in ways that have led me deeper in my relationship with the Lord.

It’s amazing to me how much can fit into the space of just a few hours when we dedicate it to the Lord. That is really what happened with all of us this morning as we met from about 9:30 to 12:30 for the second half of the Women’s Conference, Fruit For A Lifetime, at Fellowship Bible Church. Part of the design of this conference was four questions that I asked of all of us: Are You Tall Enough To See Forever?, Will You Dance With Him?, Will You Seize The Moment?, and “Will You Live On The Edge?” This morning we talked about those last two questions. We began our time with worship led by a wonderful women’s worship team that included piano, drums, a violin, and beautiful voices. The theme song of our weekend was “Refiner’s Fire.” I love the words to that song: Purify my heart. Let me be as gold, and precious silver. Purify my heart. Let me be as gold, pure gold. Refiner’s fire. My heart’s one desire. Is to be holy. Set apart for You Lord. I choose to be holy. Set apart for you my Master. Ready to do your will. What a perfect song to prepare our hearts for the morning of thinking about some powerful truths from God’s Word.

One of my favorite messages is “Will You Seize The Moment?” I love telling the crazy story about how I got Willie Mays’ autograph. It is such a good picture of how we need to do what it takes to open the pages of our Bible day after day. As I shared this morning: A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase. And it is so true. Oh how I have a passion for all of us to open the Bible and hear what God has to say to us. I’ll just never forget the day that the Lord showed me those powerful truths about hope that led to the writing of two different books and totally changed my view of hope and the promises of God. What if I had not spent time with the Lord that morning. I would have missed the incredible blessing of what He had to teach me that day. After the first message this morning, we did a drawing to give away the Knowing And Loving The Bible Collection of the book, journal, and DVD. It is my great joy to be able to do these drawings and I firmly believe that the Lord designs exactly whose name is drawn and who is meant to win these resources.

I closed with the challenge for all of us to be radical disciples, recklessly abandoned to the will of God. I shared the prayer by the pastor from Zimbabwe who was martyred for his faith in Christ. I barely made it through the end of the prayer because it was so powerful for me to think about the words of the prayer and they just burned in my own heart - especially the part where the pastor prayed: I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And, when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me…my banner will be clear!! Those words just express my heart’s desire and how I feel about serving the Lord. And I guess today, in sharing this time together with my new friends at Tulsa, the words meant even more to me. Once I finished that message I just had to sit down for a few moments, still drinking in the deep meaning of the words of that Zimbabwe pastor’s prayer. When I give messages I think about what I am sharing for myself as well. Oh that the Lord will continue to keep me teachable and hungry to know Him more and more. After the message we shared together some questions the women had written out for me. I’m still thinking about one profound question about how intimacy with God relates to intimacy with our husband – how can we grow in both relationships at the same time? What a great and profound question. The beautiful truth is that the more intimate you are with the Lord, the more you love others including your husband. There is not a division of time and attention, instead a multiplication of capacity to love. No time is ever wasted to know the Lord for knowing Him impacts everything in our lives. Then, different women from the group shared what God had taught them. Oh, how blessed I was from the sharing. And how fitting it was at the very end, one woman read Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” What a fitting benediction to an amazing morning. As we parted ways, I had the opportunity to sign books and talk with so many who had been at the conference - what a blessing that was for me! I always love those personal times when I can look into another’s eyes and hear what God is doing in their life.

As I sit here reflecting on this weekend in Tulsa, I am first amazed that I even had the opportunity to be here. Somehow Janis David, the Director of Women’s Ministries at Fellowship Bible Church (pictured to the left of me) came across my books of quiet times - I totally credit that to the Lord and to a woman (Janis) who truly loves God and His Word. Wow. But then beyond that, pictured here with me are two women who have said “yes” to the Lord. And when they got the idea to put together this conference and to invite me, they went for it and called Kayla, my assistant a year ago to set it up. That just humbles me and blesses me. And now, one year later, we have all experienced the result of Janis saying “yes” to the Lord and also Julie Heritage (the conference coordinator pictured to the right) saying “yes” to chair this event. Two servants of the Lord who have said “yes” to the Lord and what a ripple effect has occurred as a result. Heaven will tell the story of what happens when we enter into the “dance” with the Lord and follow His lead, saying “yes” to His ideas. It is truly “the great adventure” of knowing God.

I pray that the Lord will take all that we’ve learned this weekend and multiply it in our lives, transform us, and continue to grow us into the masterpiece that He has in mind. For me, I will take with me as we fly back to Palm Desert hundreds of new friends that I carry in my heart, who I will pray for, and believe God for big things in their lives. And now, it’s onward and upward for me. The galleys arrived for my new book, Walking With The God Who Cares - Finding Hope When You Need It Most and I will be reading through those in the next few days. I also will be writing a new message on Psalm 121 that I will give to our Bible Study on Thursday. And so as I close out this day’s post, I just want to say, “Lord, thank You for all You are doing and let me just say to You what a privilege it is to love and serve You.”

(Pictured here from left to right: Cindy Clark, my traveling assistant, Julie Heritage, Conference coordinator, and me. )

This weekend we are in Tulsa, Oklahoma with an amazing group of women at Fellowship Bible Church. This weekend conference is all about Fruit For A Lifetime. Our theme verse is John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” One of the great privileges the Lord has given me is meeting incredible women and serving with them in ministry. The Director of Women’s Ministries is Janis David and the Conference Coordinator is Julie Heritage - these are two women who love the Lord and are having a powerful impact on the lives of other women here in Tulsa. To actually put together a women’s event like the one here at Fellowship Bible Church involves at least 15 committees of women who are servants of the Lord. You can see from these pictures the beautiful stage decorations - all those flowers form a beautiful and colorful garden and when I spoke it was as though I was standing in the middle of it all.

Part of the stage decorations included an actual “quiet place” with a chair and a place for my quiet time basket. I didn’t expect this and when I first saw it I knew it would fit in perfectly when I shared about how to have a quiet time. Even my basket matched the chair and table. The Lord arranges details like that when we least expect it. Last night I shared about what it means to grow spiritually and challenged all of us with the example of Paul as I asked the question, Are You Tall Enough To See Forever. I shared road signs that would help us on our road to spiritual growth such as: God has a plan for your life, wait for the Lord, look at your map, listen to your Guide (the Holy Spirit), and never give up. After that challenge we took a ten minute break. Then, I shared from John 15 and talked about what it means to abide in Christ. I taught some principles of quiet time alone with the Lord and closed by asking the question, “Will You Dance With Him?” I shared about intimacy with the Lord and what it really means to have a heart that dances.

Later that evening I had the opportunity to spend time talking with some of the women. What a joy - this is one of my favorite times. Different women came up to me and shared how they have been using my books of quiet times in their time alone with the Lord. One woman who lives in Tulsa shared how she has been using the Quiet Time Notebook, went on our website, found out that I was going to be speaking here, and was able to attend the conference. I was so thrilled to meet her. She also brought the Director of Women’s Ministries from her church to the conference - we all had a great time talking together. This just amazes me that the Lord is takes these books everywhere and that, as a result, I have the opportunity to meet women from women’s ministries in other churches throughout the United States. These women are becoming my dear friends and oh, what a blessing they are to me as we together serve the Lord.