Our Space Butterfly

Hi everyone!  I hope you are all doing well this morning.  I love this new fall weather.

Today you have met some more of the wonderful board members we have here at PWOC, and now I wanted to introduce to you our logo this year.

If you didn't know, PWOC is a military-wide organization, and many of you have probably been to other PWOC groups around the country or world.  

So this year, PWOC International chose the scripture verse Romans 12:2 as their theme verse.  Lindsey and the rest of the board really liked this as a theme verse, but we decided to come up with our own theme to go along with the verse, and we chose "Not of this World".  

While we were brainstorming about the year and thinking what our logo could be to go along with this theme, all that kept coming to mind was space and aliens and stuff like that.  In an effort to not take such a sci-fi approach to things, we kept talking and of course we started thinking of butterflies because of the "be transformed" part of Romans 12:2, which was also part of PWOC International's logo for this year.  

We didn't want to just do a butterfly, and we wanted to work in the "not of this world" theme, so we took the image of the butterfly and the idea of space, and put them together.  Here is what we got:

She is a space butterfly.  If she was a celebrity her name would be sputterfly or butterflace.  

I think we were all really happy with this image, and what I love most is that it is really unique, just the way we are called to be as Christians.

I had my doubts at one point if this should be our theme or not, and I was a little concerned but God kept repeating space and butterfly themes over and over to me in different ways, so I know without a doubt that this is the theme, scripture, and logo He intended for us to have this year.

For example, when contemplating the theme of "not of this world" and doubting it because all I kept thinking of was aliens, I came across this article on Facebook entitled "How to Raise an Alien Child" by Jen Wilkin - about raising our kids to not be like the world.  And if you know me at all, you know that I am passionate about raising kids to know and love Jesus and shine His light to the world.  This was a pretty clear sign to me that we should not fear the whole alien thing.  In my life, God tends to use things I'm passionate about and He will put them right in my face so I can't ignore them.  There were other things too, like the day we had a PWOC board meeting at my house, I did a kids' devotion with my kids that morning, and the scripture for that day was none other than Romans 12:2.  

God has been showing me scripture after scripture that pertain to this theme and verse, like 
1 Peter 2:11-12 which says, "Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.  Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world." 

and Philippians 3:20-21, which says, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

But the most amazing way that God kept confirming our theme for this year, was through His own amazing creation.  

I planted some Italian parsley this year from seed.  It took a while to get going, but I have this one pot in the front of my house where it just went crazy.  

One day we noticed these little caterpillars on the parsley.  Our family is kind of a bunch of nature nuts, so we Googled the caterpillars to see what they were.  Here's what they looked like:

Turns out, they are Black Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillars.  

We watched them as they ate and ate and ate and grew and grew and grew.  

What is interesting about these caterpillars is that they only eat parsley, fennel, rue and dill.  I did not know this when I planted the parsley, but now that I do, I will probably plant parsley every year.  

We started to find some chrysalises around the house that we would watch in hopes of seeing a butterfly emerge.  But then, we started noticing these little orange spheres on the leaves of the parsley plant and realized the butterflies had laid more eggs!  

These hatched and more tiny caterpillars started eating and growing and eating and growing.  Then one day, I noticed a black swallowtail butterfly flying around our parsley, and as we watched, it would flutter down and place an egg on a leaf, hover and place another egg on another leaf, and so on.  So now the kids and my husband and I have been able to see the entire life cycle of this butterfly in nature - all except for the hatching of the butterfly from the chrysalis.  

All told, we probably had ten hatchings of caterpillars, and got to watch numerous butterflies come lay eggs on our parsley.  

Sorry if this is boring to you, but to our family it has been an amazing display of God's wonder and beauty.  And for me, it has been the perfect gift and inspiration for this year of PWOC.

This wonderment has also been great for our first year of homeschooling, because it has provided many opportunities for activities and educational discussions.  And, you may know the spiritual analogy of the butterfly to the transformation we go through when we accept the free gift of salvation from Jesus Christ, but I have been thinking and praying about this a lot and wanted to share my version with you:

So as a new homeschool teacher, please allow me to give a short science lesson.  

Bear with me if this is too elementary for you, I promise I will connect it all together in the end.  

So, the lifecycle of a butterfly goes like this:

An adult butterfly lays an egg.  

-In the case of the Black Swallowtail, it looks like a lot like a shiny, bright orange seed.  

-This is called the "egg" stage.  

-Then the egg hatches and out pops this tiny, scrawny caterpillar.  -This is called the "larva" stage.  

-This is the stage where the caterpillar eats and eats and eats.  

-It can obliterate a plant in days, it eats so much.  

-And it grows.  Pretty fast.  

-The next stage is called the "pupa" stage, and this is when the caterpillar attaches itself to a branch or in one case at our house, a black hose, and this is when the most amazing thing starts to happen.  

So I read about this stage, because we saw some of our caterpillars that had attached to a branch, and it looked like nothing was happening on the outside, but apparently, the change starts on the inside.  

This next excerpt is taken from a website all about butterflies.  This is science ok, listen to this: "Within the chrysalis the old body parts of the caterpillar are undergoing a remarkable transformation, called ‘metamorphosis,’ to become the beautiful parts that make up the butterfly that will emerge."  

I don't know about you, but to me that sounds a lot like this: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"  This is 2 Corinthians 5:17 from the Bible.  How generous of God to give us illustrations of His word right in front of our eyes in nature.  He uses His creation to teach us.

Romans 1:20 says this: "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."

I would say that most people use the butterfly as this example of God's transformation in their life.  That they were once caterpillars and are now butterflies.  I like this thought.  However, after witnessing these miraculous creatures all summer long, I see it a little bit differently.  

As we emerge from our eggs - our mother's womb and we start to grow, we start consuming whatever we come across.  Be it good wisdom, or bad advice, love or hate, wrath or gentleness, we take it in.  There were a couple caterpillars that wandered from the parsley on to some carrot tops, and I carefully moved them back, thinking, "You're not supposed to eat that!" As do we take in all that we come across, some good some bad.  We grow and grow and learn and grow.  

1 Peter 2:2-3 gives this great advice for caterpillars: "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,  now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."

Then for those of us who have grown in the Lord, we attach ourselves to the vine, like the Bible says in John 15:5-6  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."  

My husband actually found one of our caterpillars that had started to attach itself and he tried to bring it to us so we could see, but the caterpillar came loose from the twig, and ended up dying.  We need to be careful not to get pulled away from the vine as we attach ourselves to the Lord.

And then, as we are attached to Jesus, this amazing work begins from the inside out.  

I think this was the most striking thing to me about the transformation of a butterfly as it relates to us as Christians, was that once the caterpillar was attached, it did nothing.  The rest of the work is an absolute mysterious transformation.  This is so poignant to us as Christians, because it is not US who does this work, but it is GOD.  And once we give our lives to Jesus, it is by faith that we know He will turn us into butterflies.  We can rest in Him and stop striving to be "good people", and be free in Jesus who has freed us from sin.  

Philippian 1:6 says, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

So here is where my analogy changes a bit from the usual one.  

I think that the pupa stage, the chrysalis stage is actually those of us believers in Christ Jesus who are still on this Earth.  This is the part of our life where we are resting in Jesus, we are in Him, and He is in us.  And we start looking different than the rest of the world.  Things start changing.  

Unlike the caterpillar in the chrysalis, we still have to live our lives and we can't just stay in a sleeping bag all day, but the transformation that is going on inside of us is so mysterious and miraculous.  

And sometimes, on bad days it seems like maybe God has stopped changing us, but we believe by faith that the work is still being done.  We don't see caterpillars in the mirror anymore but we also don't see butterflies yet.  

And this brings me back to Philippians 1:6, because it says we won't be completed until the day of Christ Jesus.  Meaning, we will not be completed until we meet Jesus face to face and He takes us to glorious Heaven.  I think we are still wrapped tight in our chrysalises, and we will not emerge as butterflies until our lives on this Earth have ended.

Let me read you 2 Corinthians 5:5-10

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.  We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.  For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.  While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.  God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.  For we live by believing and not by seeing.  Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.  So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.  For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body."

I think this should encourage us.  

I think whenever we see the image of a butterfly we should remember the good things that God has prepared for us.  We should remember that He is still working on us, even when we don't feel like He is.  We should be encouraged to keep up the good work He has put us here to do, and encourage one another to do the same.  

And like the adult butterflies, we need to plant seeds in peoples' lives and spread the gospel to those who so desperately need it.  

We need to stay firmly attached to the vine and defend ourselves from anything that threatens to detach us.

And if you are not in Jesus, if you are like a caterpillar, still searching for food and growing, please don't get lost and end up on a carrot top.  

Eat the good food that God has given us, read God's word and surround yourself with people who are in Jesus.  

If you want to talk about giving your life to Christ, please talk to any of us board members.  We'd love to pray with you.

Right now, we have five chrysalises on my parsley plant.  We have not yet seen any butterflies emerge yet.  

I did read somewhere that some butterflies will stay in their chrysalis over winter and emerge in the spring.  So we'll see.  But for now, like me these little pupas stay securely fastened to their twigs, like little branches as they let the Lord do the work inside.  By faith, one day they will come out as magnificent butterflies, and by faith so will each one of us, if we continue to stay in Christ Jesus and allow Him to change us from the inside out.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, how wonderful is your creation, even today as the rain falls, we know that it is your design that the Earth be watered so that we can all have water to drink and plants and food to eat.  We thank you for providing all of our needs, but we also thank you because you are so generous that you also give us many blessings that we don’t need, but that encourage us and enlighten us, and help us in life.  I pray that we will see your glory everywhere we look.  I pray that we find miracles everywhere and keep our eyes on all things pure and good and worthy of praise.  I thank you for these wonderful women who are here today God, and for the hands that make every Tuesday run so well.  I pray for our small groups as we move into study time, and I ask that you watch over our children and families here or at home or work.  I pray that we will remember your presence among us, and that we will stay in step with your Holy Spirit as we go through the rest of this week.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Welcome to PWOC 2016

Ladies!  I hope you enjoyed our first Bible study day of PWOC.  If you were unable to make it, this is an outline of the devotion from Tuesday.  I pray that you are well, and that we will see you this coming Tuesday at 9:30 am!

So as I was preparing for this devotion, I started thinking about how where we are – wherever that is, matters.  It is by God’s design that we woke up this morning and are here right now.

It is by God’s grace that we are able to be together in the name of the Lord, as women of God in this place.

However, I think we all have those times when we find ourselves somewhere we don’t want to be.  We find ourselves in circumstances we never would have chosen on our own.  Sometimes these circumstances can be a great surprise, and sometimes we want to cry out and ask God, “Why?”

Sometimes it’s easy to think this life is all about us.  That’s what the world tells us.  It’s easy to be so disappointed when things don’t go the way we would like, when we don’t get the PCS we want, or our husband is gone at an inopportune time, 

and we can become complacent when things are going well, because we tend to forget that we are not here for our own comfort.

The truth is, this life is not about us.  It is about Jesus.  It is about loving others.  

-Maybe you’re not where you want to be right now in life.  

-Maybe your husband is deployed or about to deploy and your hopes for the next year are down the tubes.  -Maybe you hate New Jersey and never wanted to be here.  

-Maybe you are in a good place and loving it, but feel that God is challenging you in a new way

-Maybe your comfort in your circumstances has allowed for you to serve in a way God has never used you before.  

-Maybe you are a seasoned PWOC goer who has loved God and His people for years and years, 

-maybe you are here at PWOC to get some adult time and socialize.  

-Maybe you’re not sure why you’re here today.  

Whatever it is, you are here - right here for a purpose.  For a reason.  God sees you and He knows the plans He has for you.  Today.  

One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Esther.  

• Esther, a poor Jewish girl has been made queen by God’s grace, but her people are about to be murdered and her uncle Mordecai is urging her to go to the king (her husband) and ask him to do something.  To save her people.  In this time, she could be killed for asking anything of the king.  But Mordecai knows that Esther’s lofty position is not just about her own comfort.  

• And he says to her, Esther 4:14 ”For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

“And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Whatever your position you hold right now, it is royal.  

We are the daughters of God, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ to the throne of Grace.  

And we are not of this world.  

We do not look at our circumstances the way the world looks at them.  

We see that God has a plan, that God is working everything together for the good of those who love Him.  

In your pain, in your frustration, in your peace, and in your comfort, who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?

I am so excited about what God is going to do this year at PWOC.  I am so excited about the relationships we are going to form and how we are going to grow more in the image of the Father, and away from the image of this world.  

These studies we are about to begin today are all Biblical studies about what it means to be royal in God’s kingdom, to be less like the world and how to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  

Whether you are going to Girl Talk with Annie and learning how to bond deeper in relationship with other women (which is something we all need as believers), 

or studying the book of Philippians with Ginny and diving into what it means to be a more mature Christian, 

or if you are discovering how to treasure the Gospel in your home with Alissa, 

or if you are in Lena’s class about what it means to be more than just a bible study girl, 

or if you are going to study Ephesians and how to put on the full armor of God with Katie, 

you are in the right place.  There is something for each of us in these studies.  

I believe by faith that each of you are here with your God-given gifts and talents because God has created you to worship Him with those gifts and make the body of Christ complete.  

Together we make up the family of God.  One person does not a family make.  A family is many people with strengths and weakness, who bear each other’s burdens and forgive one another’s faults, and compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. 

We know this to be true in the military!  It takes every person on this base to make this base successful, and every person in the military has an important job to do.  No matter how small one feels, they are just as important as anyone else.  Each job fits together with other jobs to make the machine known as the United States Military go forward.  As it is with this family of believers here right now.

Let me read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26:

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

You are an integral part of the body of Christ, and so you are royalty in the family of God.  Know that you are right where God has you for a reason in life and in circumstances, because “we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”  And you’re not here by accident.

Father God,

I pray over this amazing group of women Lord, that our hearts would be stirred today.  I pray that we trust you in the trial and trust you in the triumph.  I pray that we go into our Bible study groups with open minds and open hearts, eager to see what you have for us.  I pray over each of these teachers Lord, that they would depend on you fully throughout this year, as they lead these ladies in learning more about you and your Word.  I pray for the individual groups, that you would be present among each one and grow us each closer to you and closer to one another in turn.  I pray for our little ones as they are in the nursery, and the hands that are caring for them.  I thank you for even being able to come together as believers, and I pray that this study time would be fulfilling and refreshing, and that we can take the gifts you give us home to our families and our workplaces, and to anyone else we come across, that others may see your light in us.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!

Let the Peace of Christ Rule in Your Hearts...

Good morning ladies!  I pray that you are all well on this first day of September!  It's hard to believe summer is almost over, and kids are going back to school!  I'm so excited to see you all on the 13th!  We have such a great year of PWOC planned!

I didn't know what I was going to do for a devotional this week, but this morning I opened my Bible to Colossians 3.  The whole chapter is great because it instructs us how to live as people made alive in Christ. The verse that struck me this morning though, was Colossians 3:15, which says,

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful."

This verse is very similar to one of my favorite passages: Philippians 4:6&7, which says,

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Jeremiah 17:9 says,

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?"

Proverbs 4:23 says,

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Before we had Jesus in our hearts, we may have listened to the world when it says, "Just follow your heart".  And this probably led us into trouble more times than not.  Without Jesus, our hearts are selfish and prideful and lustful, and when we take the world's advice and follow our hearts, they will lead us to places of darkness and destruction.

Now that we have Jesus residing in our hearts, we have this battleground where the sinful parts of our hearts try to fight the renewing process that is taking place.  When we let God's peace rule in our hearts, the sinful parts are quieted and the good parts win.

So how do we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts?  We pray.  We stay in step with the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.  We submit to God's ways.  We listen for His voice.  We strive for peace.  Philippian 4:6 tells us to pray about everything.  When we reach a decision we don't know how to make or when we are tempted, we can pray.  God will give us peace and we can proceed with confidence.  Both Colossians 3:15 and Philippians 4:6 also say to be thankful.  With a heart full of thankfulness, we are more likely to let God's peace reign.  When we are ungrateful, we are still letting our greedy hearts rule.

I believe Proverbs 4:23 is so important, because if we don't guard our hearts, we can unknowingly let in new foes that have to be fought on the battleground.  When we choose to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, this peace will guard our hearts and we no longer need to worry that we will be deceived by our sinful hearts.  It's not that we learn to trust our hearts, as much as we learn to trust Jesus who now rules our hearts.  This is peace that exceeds anything we can understand.

Father God,  Please bless us to be ladies that daily give our hearts to you.  Help us to stay in step with your spirit, and pray continually so that we can hear your voice and be in your presence.  Please make us subject to your will in our lives so that we will trust you and let your peace rule in our hearts.  Help us to guard our own hearts by growing in our relationship with you and always, always being thankful.  You are our rock and our salvation.  Thank Jesus.  Amen.