Priority’s Glo Girl Conference is just a couple of weeks away (don’t worry, you can still register), so I thought I’d give you a sneak peek into the messages I’ll be sharing. God has been prompting, prodding, and sometimes even pestering me (and I mean that in the most positive pestering way possible) about the topic He’s given me to teach at conference. It’s a topic that is very near and dear to His heart and very important for you and me.

But before I share that topic with you, I want to ask you two quick questions:

• Question #1:  Are you a Christian?
• Question #2:  Are you a disciple?

If you answered question #1 with an immediate “yes,” that’s wonderful. If, however, you hesitated to answer question #2, that’s OK. No, it wasn’t a trick question, but question #2 was designed to make you stop. And think.

You see, many women feel very confident answering question #1 with a great, big, positive YES!  But question #2? Ummm. Sometimes not so much. And that, precious sister, is a problem, and here’s why:

Jesus called us to be disciples (Matt. 16:24). And although ALL disciples ARE Christians, ALL Christians are NOT disciples. See the problem?

It reminds me of a program I watched the other day called Desperate Landscapes.  It’s a series on HGTV where they do an amazing makeover on someone’s scourge-of-the-neighborhood, eyesore of a yard. But in the episode I watched, they were making surprise visits to several homeowners whose yards they’d transformed the previous year. They wanted to see if the homeowners were maintaining their outdoor makeovers.

I could only watch about five minutes. It made me sad. And sick. Weeds everywhere. Dead trees and crispy shrubs. Yards that looked as bad as they had before the makeover. And excuse after excuse after excuse from the embarrassed and ashamed homeowners.

You know what? Jesus did a makeover on us: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV).  So . . . what if He surprised us and came back today? Would He find us thriving – glo-ing and growing – in our walk with Him? If we are disciples, yes, He would. But if not, the Bible says that we’ll be a lot like those embarrassed homeowners on Desperate Landscapes: we will “shrink away from Him in shame” (1 John 2:28).

I’m hoping and praying that I’ll see lots of you at the Glo Girl Conference!  But I’m hoping and praying even more that all of you will respond to Jesus’ call to discipleship just like Peter, James, Andrew, James, and John did: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me’ . . . and immediately, they left their nets and followed Him” (Mark 1:17-28 NASB).

Precious sister, do not hesitate. And do not settle for a watered-down, lukewarm version of Christianity either.  Accept the invitation of a lifetime. Follow Jesus. Be His disciple.

Your sister . . . and His disciple,

Email Laurie

The first ever Glo Girl Conference is this month, and we still have a seat saved just for YOU! Don’t miss out on the dynamic teaching, moving music, and awesome fellowship! Register today and get ready to Glo! with us in just a couple of weeks!

Remember, there are a limited number of seats available, so reserve your spot today!

Dig the Hole
by Emily Ryan, Executive Editor 

When I was younger, every summer brought the same story as the last. The day school let out, my brothers and sister and I would begin pining away for what every child covets at one time or another – a swimming pool. We’d drop hints at first, exaggerating extreme temperature increases and fabricated cases of heat exhaustion. When that didn’t work, we’d attempt logic and appeal to our parents’ sense of reasoning. And finally, when all of that failed, we’d resort to good old-fashioned whining and complaining.

The strange thing was that no matter our style of appeal, the answer was always the same. The even stranger thing was that the answer was never no. In fact, every time the subject came up, my father would say, “Sure! You kids can have a pool any time you want… just dig the hole.”

“Dig the what?” We wanted a pool, not an experience in manual labor. To be quite honest, we would have preferred it if he just would have told us no in the first place. A “No” was certainly better than a conditional “Yes.” At least with a no, we could have blamed him for our lack of summer fun. Instead, we had to live with the reality that we didn’t have a pool, and it was pretty much our own fault.

I don’t know what my father would have done if the five of us had actually gotten out there – shovels in hand – and started digging. My guess is that he would have been pretty surprised. But when it came right down to it, he knew us well enough to know that we weren’t interested in the process of working for what we wanted; we were just interested in the end result. Dig the hole? Probably not.

How many times have we approached God in the same way a child approaches her father? We pray for Him to bless us. We pray to be used in great and mighty ways. Yet, when He asks us to work for what we want, even just a little, we throw our hands up in the air and give up. When it comes right down to it, we don’t want to work for our blessings; we just want to be blessed.

“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). The Bible is very clear that the Christian life is not a life of lucrative living and bottomless blessings. We are called to be workers – not to attain our salvation but as a result of our salvation.

God wants to bless us. He wants us to have that swimming pool, so to speak. But He also knows that often the greatest blessings are not in the end result, but in the progress of attaining the end result. So when you pray for God to bless you, don’t be surprised if He immediately calls you into action. For the real blessing lies not in the swimming pool, but in digging the hole.

Read Matthew 25:14-30 – The Parable of the Talents. What is God’s opinion of those who are not willing to work for Him?

What blessings are you asking God for right now? How is he calling you to action?

Emily

Click here to email Emily

Here's where Laurie will be going and glo-ing soon.  Please pray.  Thanks!

Priority Prayer Points
by Nancy Campbell, Prayer Director

The Glo Girl Conference is heavy on our hearts this month! Here are some specific ways that you can join us in praying! Attendees – Pray for every lady who will be at the conference: for safe travel, for a receptive heart, for her family back home, and that nothing (car trouble, work schedule, sickness or anything else) will keep her from hearing God’s message for her that weekend! Speakers – Laurie Cole and Jan Silvious: for clear messages, for smooth logistics, and for hearts aligned with His Word. Singers – Bill Cole, Sagemont Praise Team, and Lisa Pierre: for spirit-filled moments of worship and for no technical mishaps. Conference Directors – Theresa Buckner and Mary Burnett: for last-minute preparations, for clear leadership, and for no unforeseen problems. Host Church – Lezli Busby, Women’s Minister of Sagemont Church: for all from Sagemont to be able to live out the church’s mission statement to be “living proof of a loving God to a watching world.” Volunteers – too numerous to mention! Pray that each will be able to fill her assigned role and that each will be a blessing to every attendee with whom she comes in contact! Do you have a prayer or praise? Share them with Nancy Campbell, Priority’s Prayer Director, and let the Priority staff join with you in prayer. Email your request to Nancy

Gotta Glo

Your Priority sisters,

Laurie Cole, Pam Henderson, Shanda Stiles, Jan Hart,
Stephanie Cole, Nancy Campbell, Emily Ryan, and Mary Burnett
Priority Ministries Staff