Seminar Review: CBC Women's Weekend Spring 2004

WOMEN'S WEEKEND FELLOWSHIP, APRIL 15-17, 2OO4

The following are notes taken by Virginia H. Lane during the seminars. Please be aware that thoughts or sentences may be incomplete.

The meetings were are follows:
Thursday, April 15, 7:00 pm Kay LeFever
Friday, April 16, 9:30 am Karen Duncan
Friday, April 16, 2:00 pm Baptism Ceremony
Friday, April 16, 7:00 pm Karen Duncan
Saturday, April 17, 9:30 am Kay LeFever

These notes are in order by Speaker rather than by date and time. You may click on the links above to go directly to the notes for a specific session.

Friday, April 16, 9:30 am Karen Duncan

Karen Duncan has Duncan Ministries. Contact them for information about her Tape of the Month Club. Karen also has a fly fishing group called Reel Women. She is planning on teaching a class in May and taking groups out this summer. A book editor and a magazine have contacted her to write for them.

Karen read:

THE POTTER'S VESSEL by Beulah V. Cornwell

The Master was searching for a vessel to use
On a shelf there were many,
Which one would he choose?
Pick me, cried the gold one,
I'm shiny and bright; I'm of great value,
And do things just right.
My beauty and luster will outshine the rest,
And for someone like you, Master, I would be best.

But the Master passed on with no word at all,
He came to a silver urn, it was narrow and tall.
I'll serve you, Dear Master, and I'll pour your wine,
And be at your table whenever you dine.
My lines are so graceful and my carvings so true,
And my silver would always compliment you.
Unheeding, the Master passed on to the brass,
It was wide mouthed and shallow and polished like glass,
Here, here cried the vessel, I know I will do,
Place me on your table for all men to view.

Look at me, cried the goblet of crystal so clearn,
My transparency shows my contents are dear.
Though fragile am I, I'll serve you with pride,
And I'm sure I'd be happy in your house to abide.
But the Master came next to a vessel of wood,
Polished and carved, it solidly stood.
Use me, Dear Master, the wooden bowl said,
But, I'd rather you'd use me for fruit, please no bread.

Then the Master looked down and saw a vessel of clay,
Empty, broken, it helplessly lay.
No hope had that vessel, that the Master might choose
To cleanse and make whole, to fill or to use.
Ah, this is the vessel I've been hoping to find.
I'll mend it and I'll use it and I'll make it all Mine.

I need not a vessel with pride in itself,
Nor the one so narrow who sits on the shelf,
Nor the one who's big mouthed and shallow and loud,
Not the one who displays its contents so proud,
But this plain earthen vessel filled with my power and might.

Then gently He lifted the vessel of clay,
Mended and cleansed it and filled it that day.
He spoke to it kindly, there's work you must do.
You can pour out to others and I'll pour into you.

God knows the plans and purposes he has for us. He will make us strong. Ask him "Do in me what I cannot do for myself."

Psalm 143.8 God's unfailing love. "I am open to new possibilities today."

Isaiah 52:1 Awake--put on your strength. Be aware. Put on strength, we don't naturally have.

Integrity, courage, hope, faith. God thinks we women are beautiful.

Luke 13:10-13

We need faith to be focused on this Journey. God knows each one of us in all our roles. He keeps us encouraged to come to the well. (Reference to a lecture she gave earlier in the year at a CBC Women's activity.) He wants us to rise up to our created purpose.

For 18 years this woman went to the synagogue. People didn't even notice her. How many of the women in the body of Crhist feel invisible? Jesus called this woman forward. Jesus sees us, too. Women need to come forward as women of strength. She understood suffering and compassion.

Women need to get free of artificial sameness in the body of Christ. She had to step out through the shame and legalism. When she was healed, people began rejoicing.

We must look at the cultural images that keep us bound. We are spiritually bound. We are spiritually bent over. He's concerned about the images in our mind. They keep us bound.
1. Negative beliefs about women
2. Aging

They are stifling the gifts. Grow older in grace. (Karen is 57 going on 58.) Do we accept the world's limitations? It stifles the body of Christ. We need to reach out to the invisible women of the world.

We defeat ourselves in our mind. For some, old means a loss of beauty. We have to look young, no matter our age. We shouldn't spend all our time "looking young." It would take all of Karen's time to be trying to look 18.

We are dependent too much on outside approval for our worth. he is calling us out today. Women hang back. They don't step out in church. We don't have to look right. By hearing truth, we can be freed of our infirmities.

Luke 2:36 Anna was an invisible woman--givinely inspired to make God's words known to the people--to tell about Jesus. She knew the times and seasons of God. She was a treasure; she had wisdom inside her.

We women aren't to be concerned about our age. We ened to have God's vision of ourselves. We ened to take our lives back. When Jesus calls us, step forward. It's taking back our lives for the young women who need mentoring. Our young women are perishing in this world that tells them who they are.

We have to redefine beauty--by what comes out of the Word of God. Free women to their purpose and reclaim spiritual power.

Do you have great roll models in your life?
1. Redefine beauty
2. Create a new vision of spiritual growth

The Word--relationship, interdependence. Women grow in relationship. We are created for relationship.

God used women of all ages in all walks of life. Jesus lays His hands on us where we are broken. Jesus probably laid hands on this woman's back. She stepped out. We must step out in our gifts.

It takes courage to step out against the world. some would say "Let someone else; you are only a woman."

Release from-step in to your created purpose. We have a created purpose. Stats say by 2010 over half the women in the US will be over 50. Many of us have sat under the Word for years. We are being called.

The women went to the tomb in the early morning hours. Women are still faithful. Jesus said "go."

What is God asking you at this time in your life? Go and tell your story. Go and tell what God has done for you. There are women out there in the world that need you and your gifts. These women have known how to wait. We need discernment to know when it is the right time to bring joy to a troubled world.

Young women need to see us working in integrity. Step out of the shadows so they can see us walking in God's created purpose.

Friday, April 16, 7:00 pm Karen Duncan

You have something to share no matter how insignificant it is. God will use it to bless others.

You don't always look so good now but you are getting better.

Karen told stories about her fly-fishing expeditions. God can use anything. She's in a small group and also leads a small group. She saw God's first desire is relatioship. You don't have to have a great spiritual interest. It can be anything (to make a small group). Common interests, common need, common purpose.

Hope comes from when people share their testimony of how God has done things for them.

"I'm an ordinary woman with extraordinary hunger (for things of the spirit).

Isaiah 55:11 The Word of God will achieve the purpose.

I Cor 5:5 It is God who has made us for a purpose. He has given us his spirit.

Gal 4:18 Be zealous for the purpose God has created for us.

Eph 1:11 God has a purpose--heart.
horses
Phil 2:2 This was one of Karen's marriage scriptures. Be harmonious. Pray this over your marriage.

Phil 2:13 Act not in your own strength.

II Tim 1:9 It's not because of something we had done. God has a purpose in His mind for us. God is able to make everything work together for good.

John 4: The women in the bible have left us a spiritual inheritance. We learn from them. The Samaritans and Jews didn't get along. jesus went there for this one woman. The spies had to go to Jericho to meet one woman, Rahab. God cared about her. god knew he had plans; there was no need for spies to go out at all.

The more Karen studies the women of the Bible, the more she sees God's unconditional love.

John 4:6 The 6th hour--noon. It's hot. People didn't go to the well at noon unless they didn't want to be seen. Most women went early or late when cooler so they could socialize.

Then somebody (Jesus) invaded her space. v9 Jews didn't speak to Samaritans; men didn't speak to women.

This is the story of personal transformation. She meets Jesus and was changed. This happened because she spent time with Jesus. WE have to be willing to invest time to have transformation.

Life in Samaria was dependent on water. Have you ever felt empty with everything around you dry? The only hope is to get to the well of living water. Her life must have been out of control. To have had five husbands and was living with someone else. women do what they have to do--go to work, etc, even if they don't feel like it. This woman went to get water every day--to sustain life for herself and those around her. women carry on in the midst of trials.

But we have to get to the well. Her pot represented by hope. We have hope as our empty water pot.

On this ordinary day, something extraordinary happened. Jesus met her at the well. We need to have encounters with Jesus. She was at the well at the wrong time. But she was in the right place. God is always there for us.

v11 She looked at the natural--you don't have a bucket. But Jesus has a source. In transformation, we:
1. Let go of familiar
2. Questions
3. New beginnings

"Significant, defining moments never ask my permission, they just happen." We have to know that god in his created purpose for the universe will take it and make it work.

Women didn't have jobs. Man had to care for them.

"If I don't do this, what's going to happen?" We have to let go and let God.

This woman was missing a relationship with God.

v.27 This woman went back to town and told the people about Jesus. She had previously avoided people; they had rejected her. She went among those people and told them about Jesus who knew her past. maybe the men would say "Oh ho, I hope he doesn't know about me."

This woman was changed from a prostitute to an evangelist. Jesus just loved her. he didn't say anything about her (criticize). He didn't judge or condemn. Then she fulfilled her created purpose by becoming an evengelist.

(Time spent with God. When you hang around the Lord, Joy, Peace and Compassion is the result.)

God's nature is love. he sees us trying to carry those empty water pots. We ened to carry our pots, go tot he well, have time of quiet with the Lord and drink of His water. In time of solitude, it becomes an atmosphere of prayer. Then God can speak to us. We ened to be women who go to the well every day. Go to the well.

"Our beauty secret is spending time with God."

Thursday, April 15, 7:00 pm Kay LeFever

God wants us to lay it down and fellowship with Him. some people feel like they try and try and never achieve. God doesn't want that. We are accepted. Don't have to be anything special.

II Cor 9:1-6
1. Sow first
2. Thenyou may have abundance through grace.

A wilingness and generosity. Our sowing is ministering to the saints.

Heb 9:9 Being set free--from guilt, shame, etc. Even though God commanded the sacrifices, it still didn't do anything for our conscience.

Conscience--sense of obligation to do what is right. A sense of blameworthiness about what you do.

We are always blaming ourselves about what we should have done.

Rom 7:14- We want to be good but we think we aren't. v25 Striving but never seeming able to accomplish. We get locked into thinking this is who we are. No, this is who we were. We are in Jesus' likeness now.

Rom 8:1 Condemnation. If we are not looking at flesh but looking at our lives through Jesus, there is no ocndemnation. It's not the actions but the heart we have to deal with.

condemnation is an adverse sentence. We're passing verdict against ourselves. It's not God. Jesus erased it. There's nothing between God and us. He replaced it with grace, forgiveness, love, mercy, sanctification, justification, etc.

Fearful and inadequate we don't have to bge. It's not in God's mind so we had to erase it from our mind. He knows what's on the inside of us and doesn't hold it against us. He not only erased it; he replaced. it.

If we keep our minds on what the Word says and what God says, we won't be focusing on the negative. Jesus came to set the captives free.

Jesus paid it, there's nothing against us anymore. We owe no debt--except our lives in service to God. But nothing we owe to be in right standing. Jesus set the righteous requirements.

v7 We're the only ones who are holding us back. The fleshly mind is opposed to God. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Nothing can change what God has done for us.

v8 Most of us read only as far as--we can't please God.

v9 But the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Are we going to keep our thoughts from building a house in our mind. Birds flying over don't build a nest in our hair.

Because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus was beaten. He did that for us. It was supernatural that he lived. He took our humiliation, etc. on Him so I didn't have to have that. He took every sickness, sin, evil thing, pain upon Himself. Everything that mankind has ever done and is doing. He paid the price; we don't have to.

When it tries to come on us, Jesus comes between it and us. We don't have to feel inadequate, etc. He did it for us.

We are going to suffer consequences for our sins and our actions. But if we understand what Jesus has done for us, a lot of those actions will be eliminated. We'll not be doing things (or do them less often) so there are less consequences. But Jesus is standing there.

Heb 9:14 The blood of Jesus has cleansed our conscience. We're the one that keeps the junk in there.

Works of the flesh won't do anything to clear a guilty conscience, etc. We are free.

Rom 10:17 If he doesn't think about it, why should we? He has set us free. We don't ahve to feel unworthy. v22 We have no evil conscience.

In Jesus we have redemption, not atonement (to cover, to placate, to appease). We are not just covered over; we are ransomed, paid in full.

There is nothing against us. We shouldn't be against ourselves. We need to be aware of the thought in our minds. Replace those thoughts with what the Word says. Recognize those thoughts as a lie. Light expells darkness. We are going to see God in a new way.

God wants us to experience the abundance of his love NOW. The blockage is in our mind.

Why do we deal with something over and over? He accomplished it. Why has it happened again. It's you!

Saturday, April 17, 9:30 am Kay LeFever

Matthew 11:12 The violent take it by storm.

It's ;nice to be pampered/honored as women. But we also need to get out of the victim mentality. We aren't supposed to be submissive to the enemy. We don't let emotions take over. We have to be violent.

Rom 8:33-37 WE are conquerors. We can conquer something but better to be in a place of rulership!

Let's rule in a queenly, priestly fashion. We have emotions and passion. But we rule it, not it rules us. It will take time to process what we've learned this week. Ruse our lives according to the Word of God.

Col 1:13

It's a done deal in the spirit realm. Then we need to work it out in the soul realm.

Everything Jesus is has been a deposit for us. How would we live our lives differently if we understood it is an accomplished fact. (Like what would we do if we had unlimited money in the bank account.) Speak scripture into your life.

My body has been redeemed. You must line up.

Son't see yourselves as a sick person trying to get healed. See yourselves as the healed fighting against attacks against our body. We are in the Kingdom of God and we need to wrap our minds around that.

v21 At some point something happened to change us to thinking God is against us. Jesus came and bore away the things that come between us and God. We are reconciled. Only can be there if we let it into our mind.

v22 In God's mind we don't have one fault. Through Jesus, God can see us without one fault. To live in the Kingdom of light, victorious.

We are unblamable, etc.

Col 2: 13-014 Blotting out--obliterated. no more requirements that we have to earn anything from God or achieve anything.

Now we receive and live our lives accordingly. Jesus sufferend everything so we escape punishment for what we deserve. But that is not to live for the devil. But because there is a love relationship, out of our love for Him we want to do Good Works.; It's then building relationship. We don't just be nice while dating; it continues after the marriage.

Are you closing off God in the same ways you are closing off your husband? These two relationships are parallel.

Jesus wants us to have fun, not be burdened. These old feelings were comfortable. We can't let them come back. Tell them they can't come back. They are not yours any longer.

Know what Jesus has done for you and to know you are free--to accomplish and fulfill what God has for you.

Our emotions will still think we are chained. Like the elephant who was trained he couldn't go further than the chain. Let him loose and he still won't go.

Col 2:15

Friday, April 16, 2:00 pm Baptism Ceremony

During our afternoon break between sessions, I performed a baptism ceremony for one of the conference attendees. First year students Jerri Betts and Jo Reynolds also participated. At school the following week, I gave a Speech about the experience in our Teaching Interactive Group.