Dream On!

I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams lately—not the kind you have at night but the kind you have when you’re imagining the future. I have dreams for our daughter Alex who just graduated from high school and for Erin who is at a worship conference this week developing her songwriting gifts. I dream about the day researchers translate the cure for Angelman Syndrome from mice in a lab to humans on the street so that Carly and others will be fully healed. I dream about a time when Larry is employed in a job that deeply satisfies him.

As a teenager, I dreamed about being a writer. When Larry and I started writing our first book together, we dreamed that God might use the challenges and blessings we’d been experiencing for some good. Especially on the very tough days, it would comfort us to know God values us and our suffering and that He would make it worthwhile. We began to catch a vision to minister encouragement to people so they would grow in their relationship with Christ and discover the adventure of life even in the midst of their own challenges. That dream started becoming reality when Walk Right In Ministries was born in 2008.

God does amazing things with dreams! Larry and I keep discovering that when our dreams rise up out of vision that God plants in us, when we make plans according to the passions He stirs up, when we walk decisively towards our goals energized by the Holy Spirit, when we hold onto our own hopes loosely and yield to God’s way of unfolding the plan, and when we trust in the Almighty God to shock us with His loving, powerful and sovereign ways, life is truly a grand adventure.

This week, another layer of the dream is unfolding. Walk Right In Ministries is launching an all-new interactive website which expands the ways our team is supporting people around the world who are facing challenges. It’s jam-packed with resources and ways to connect with others who want to grow and thrive even when life gets very difficult.

Here are just a few of the things you can explore at www.walkrightin.org:

• FREE downloadable tools on topics like marriage, disability, connecting in community
• Links to a growing library of resources and organizations helping people thrive
• Finding Glory resources store
• Descriptions of workshops and resources offered by Larry and Lisa Jamieson
• Blog featuring practical tools and insights along with engaging conversation
• …and much, much more!

We know first-hand what it means to thrive while facing adversity. We were enjoying successful careers and renewal after a storm in our marriage when our third daughter, Carly, was born with severe disabilities and later diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. Support from our church and community helped us in both practical and spiritual ways. Our experiences inspired the establishment of Walk Right In Ministries to help bring individuals, couples and families into healthier, deeper and more satisfying experiences of life, community and God.

Verses like these continue to spur on our hopes and dreams for Walk Right In Ministries:

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. PSALM 119:71

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. PSALM 126:6

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. PSALM 145:18

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. PSALM 147:5

Now, the Walk Right In Ministries team dreams that this new website will extend the breadth and depth of God’s work to thousands more people. We hope and pray that individuals and families — particularly those facing challenges such as disability, chronic health conditions and other life-altering circumstances — will find the new site immediately helpful.

Please take this opportunity to leave feedback, request prayer or register to share in the ministry. Please pass the word. And please pray for the ministry and those it touches.

Thank you for dreaming big dreams and praying bold prayers with us!

It's "Marriage Prayer Friday!"

Some marriages are facing great obstacles today. Thank you for standing with us right now in a moment of prayer for your own marriage and/or the marriage(s) of someone you know.

A prayer for your own marriage—

SOVEREIGN KING, my husband/wife and I are confronting great challenges. I am reminded today that there is indescribable power in Your Word. Jesus used it victoriously when confronted with temptation from the devil himself and will use it again one day to conquer the world. All I need, Lord, is the Word of God soaked up in my life in the context of a relationship with You. Please forgive me for trying to use other things in an effort to overcome obstacles. I confess that I have tried to use things like money, food, shopping, hobbies, manipulation, meanness, and even brute willpower to make me feel strong. Thank you for the reminder that You, through Your Word, are enough. Thank you that Your Word is alive, active and useful. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and promises to penetrate even to the point of dividing soul and spirit (Heb 4:12). Help me never to forget that Your Word provides all I need for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that I am thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16). Please increase my hunger and discipline for staying steeped in Your Word so that I am deeply familiar with it, empowered by it, comforted by it, and fruitful in it. Please cause my saturation with You through the Bible to spill out into my marriage most of all. Thank you for changing my heart, oh God, and renewing a steadfast spirit within me. I'm grateful to pray these things in Jesus' name. AMEN

Something to pray for a friend's marriage—

SOVEREIGN KING, I know of at least one marriage among my family or friends that is confronting great challenges. I am grateful today that there is indescribable power in Your Word. Jesus used it victoriously when confronted with temptation from the devil himself and will use it again one day to conquer the world. All that my friends need, Lord, is the Word of God soaked up into their lives within the context of a relationship with You. Please forgive each of us for trying to use other things in an effort to overcome obstacles. I, like my friends, have tried to use things like money, food, shopping, hobbies, manipulation, meanness, and even brute willpower to make me feel strong. Please remind my friends that You, through Your Word, are enough. Show me how to graciously encourage my friends of that truth! Thank you that Your Word is alive, active and useful. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and promises to penetrate even to the point of dividing soul and spirit (Heb 4:12). Help me and my friends never to forget that Your Word provides all we need for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that I am thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16). Please increase our hunger and discipline for staying steeped in Your Word so that we are deeply familiar with it, empowered by it, comforted by it, and fruitful in it. Please cause our saturation with You through the Bible to spill out into our relationships — our marriages most of all. Thank you for being the changer of hearts, oh God, and for renewing a steadfast spirit within us. I'm grateful to pray these things in Jesus' name. AMEN

FINDING GLORY Wednesday

This new online community format allows us to come together and share what is going on in our lives so that we might be encouraged by one another, learn from one another and pray for one another. Questions from the 7-week Bible Study curriculum Finding Glory in the Thorns: Group Discussion Guide serve as a starting point for our conversations. However, everyone is encouraged to get involved in this discussion whether you have read any of the Finding Glory resources or not.

Today’s scriptures and discussion questions are:

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. No my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" JOHN 12:24-28

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I lve in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." GALATIANS 2:20

Sometimes the daily logistics, pressing needs, the desire to care for someone, and even our passions consume our lives. How do you prevent these things from consuming the very nature of who you are?

How do these Bible verses influence your answer?

For more information about Finding Glory Groups, visit http://www.findingglory.com/findingglorygrou.html.

Today's reflections are copyrighted excerpts taken from Finding Glory in the Thorns: Group Discussion Guide.