For Women...

"Journey to the Father's Heart"

     This teaching seeks to bridge the great divide between what we say we believe about God and what our actions indicate we really believe. As Christians we understand that we are saved by grace, but many of our lives reveal that we still secretly believe we are on a performance basis with God. We say that we belong to God, but many of us live at arm’s length from the Father, more like orphans than His beloved children. We may know about God’s love as an intellectual fact, but few of us experience the profound reality of His fierce and tender affection for us. Jesus promised on His last days on earth not to leave us as orphans, but through the gift of His Spirit to call us to a deeper trust in the Father’s personal, passionate love for us. “Journey to the Father’s Heart” is an opportunity to embark on a remarkable journey to the place our hearts long to call home: the safe, loving embrace of the Father.

“Getting on the Road”                              (Colossians 2: 6-10)
     This introductory session helps women to assess exactly where they are in their journey toward God. Have they become distracted from Him by busyness? Entangled in sin? Or are they hiding out from God in pain or shame? This teaching helps listeners discover the ways in which they may have been taken captive by the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” of our day. And having received the promise of Christ’s fullness for those places where they find themselves empty, they discover that “Jesus is enough” to meet every need and emptiness they have.

“Moving from Performance to Promise”  (Romans 3: 21-24) 
     This talk introduces listeners to two types of women who, though they appear quite different, have both built their lives on the shifting sands of performance. Samantha the Superwoman, forgetting that Christ has given her His righteousness, thinks she has to add to the work He has already accomplished for her. Sally, who sees herself as a Superfailure, lives under an ongoing sense of condemnation and fear of never measuring up.  But God offers to remove our Cape of Capability and Rags of Rejection and in light of our union with Christ to place upon us a Robe of Righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). This teaching helps women remove the “props of performance” and stand by faith on the promise that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 

“Moving from Orphan to Daughter”               (Romans 8: 12-17) 
     In truth most of us know that God is love, but few of us have received His great love for ourselves. We often believe the lie “God is just putting up with me.” In Romans 8, however, Paul reminds us that we have not received a spirit which makes us slaves again to this kind of fear. Believing this lie robs us of our rich inheritance in Christ, and causes us to live more like orphans instead of the beloved daughters we are. And we’ll explore the misperceptions we often have of our heavenly Father based on experience with earthly fathers and begin to take our first tottering steps into the arms of the only perfect father we will ever have. 

“Entering the Father’s Embrace”                                                                  (Luke 15: 11-32)
      Who better to show us a true portrait of the Father than His perfect, beloved Son? In this parable Jesus invites us to find ourselves, and the Father. Like the rebellious, discontented younger son, have we squandered our inheritance (including intimacy with our Abba) in a “far country”? Or do our hearts tend toward the Phariseeism and bitter duty of the older son? Like him, have we lived in the house of the Father and never really known Him? But given this compelling picture of the Father, can we begin to trust that He who Jesus says He is – willing to initiate reconciliation with both His children, quick to give mercy, and lavish in His love? What misperceptions about the Father is it time for us to release? What is He offering us? Will we receive it, and our full inheritance in His loving embrace?