Today I am borrowing words from Max Lucado.

Today’s Truth: Hebrews 10:35

“Do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward.”

Is there anything more frail than a bruised reed? Look at the bruised reed at the water’s edge. A once slender and tall stalk of sturdy river grass, it is now bowed and bent.

Are you a bruised reed? Was is so long ago that you stood tall? Then something happened. You were bruised…

• by harsh words
• by a friends anger
• by a spouse’s betrayal…

The bruised reed…Society knows what to do with you…The world will break you off; the world will snuff you out.

But the artists of Scripture proclaim that God won’t. Painted on canvas after canvas in the tender touch of a Creator who has a special place for the bruised and weary of the world. A God who is the friend of the wounded heart.

From Grace for the Moment/ Max Lucado page 347

I hope you enjoyed these words today as much as I did as I drank my coffee and read them out of a devotional. Sometimes there is not a need to say more than what you have taken in from another…so here you go!

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank you that you understand the wounded places in our hearts. I thank you that you will not snuff us out but rather heal and restore us. I thank you that YOU God are taking the broken and always working in your Beautiful Self in our wounded broken places.

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Anyone who has known me for very long knows that I love the devotional, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I have read it daily for about 7 or 8 years. Mine is a marked up, page bent copy that is priceless to me. The daily devotions have dates and years next to things that God has used to speak to me in those times. I am grateful for Oswald’s work and amazed how it spans so many years.

For those who are interested, here are some Oswald facts:

Oswald Chambers was known for startling his audiences. It was hard to ignore his points or his messages and he often used humor to drive home a sensitive point. He became a Christian at age fifteen, and was a member of the Rye Lane Baptist Church. This marked a time in his life where the was rapid spiritual growth and an intense struggle to find God’s will and  way for his life.

He was not famous during his lifetime, dying at the age of 43, from complications following an emergency appendectomy. At the time he had three books in print that were circulated just between a small circle of Christians in Britian. He was a gifted artist and musician, trained at London’s Royal Academy of Art. During the last decade of his life he was a traveling speaker.

He was married to Biddy Hobbs for 7 years before the Lord took him home. During those years his wife took verbatim shorthand notes of his lectures and sermons. After his death, she spent the rest of her life publishing her husband’s spoken words, His best know book, My Utmost for His Highest.

The quotes below are taken from some of Oswald’s sermons or writtings that most of us have not seen before. I attained them from the new book, The Quotable Oswald Chambers. I hope you enjoy them today.

On another note: I am amazed at a wife who took notes on everything her husband said, and then later turned that around into such HUGE Kingdom impact. And, amazed that God allowed such a gifted man to die so young. Being God knew Oswald’s days, perhaps the rush of spiritual insight and growth at such a young age was also part of the plan. There was a short time to use this man, and this man listened and obeyed. The fruit still remains.

That inspires me!

Here are some of  Oswald’s thoughts on purpose……

“Our lives mean much more than we can tell; they fulfill some purpose of God about which we know nothing; our part is to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean to our own understanding. Earthly wisdom can never come near the threshold of the Divine; if we stop short of the Divine we stop short of God’s purpose for our lives.” from Bring Sons Unto Glory pg. 236

“Nothing can hinder God’s purpose in a personal life but the person himself.” from Disciples Indeed, pg 394

Today we hold conferences and conventions and give reports and make our programs. None of these things were in the life of Jeus, and yet every minute of His life  He realized that He was fulfilling the purpose of His Father. How did He do it? By maintaing the one relationship and it is that one relationship He insists on in His disciples, and it is the one we have lost in the rubbish of modern civilization.  from The Highest Good  page 548

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I am blessed to be the proud mother of a new baby…

No, not a real baby…a book baby. This new book baby has been named, A Different Kind of Wild, but I just call it Wild for short. Wild stands for Women In Life-Long Development and is encouraging women to embrace the process of life in the Spirit rather than racing towards self-perfection. And, though the book sounds like it’s fun…it really is a charge to more of a deeper life. In the book Deeper, the charge was to Come to Him and embrace His love for us. Now in Wild, the charge is to Follow Him every day into the life He has planned for us to live.

It is my prayer that women are drawn into a fresh desire to Live Up in the power of God’s Spirit, Live Up in Faith, and Live Up in Truth. This Living UP is a wildly different way to live than most of us are used to. I want to live in this different kind of wild faith…will you join me?

Today’s Truth: Psalm 138:8

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”

It is amazing to me that God is always working in our lives. He is perfecting, shaping and completing us. This verse has one very important word…WILL. God WILL take care of us. God WILL watch over all that concerns us. God WILL…His word assures us of this.

I just returned from the International Christian Resellers Show in Denver, Colorado, where I signed copies of the new baby. I also was excited to see a display featuring the Design4Living Bible Studies and an advertisement for the new DVD format to go with those studies.  This recent trip was a reminder of God’s Grace and God being WILLING to do His work of restoration in our lives.

Let me tell you….The fact that I am writing books and studies for women is NOT about me. I, in myself, have nothing to offer that will make much of a difference. But God did such a work of restoration in the deepest parts of me over the past 20 years that I just want women to understand the difference between surface Christianity and being filled with His love, presence and truth.

I am not talking perfection here…I am talking about being filled with Him and being changed daily. For the record, I do not have it together, and realize I never will. But, I am enjoying the journey of growth and discovery.

Twenty years ago I was in such a state of brokenness and I could have never imagined how God would use one broken and lost Christian woman. The grace of God restores beyond our scope of understanding. I just know this…God is a God of forgiveness, healing, and redemption.  I pray that you will believe that He is at work in your life this very minute too. What is it in your life today that has you in need of believing, God WILL? Take that very care and stand on the Truth that God WILL!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

If you read Wild, Deeper or one of the Design4Living studies, a review on any of your book source websites would be very appreciated ( Amazon, CBD, Barnes and Noble…etc…)

Here’s the ” Wild”  review from Christian Retailers July 2009

“Too often as Christian women, we tend to talk the talk and forget the joy in waling the walk. Alsdorf encourages readers to become W.I.L.D. ( Women in lifelong development). Jesus has exciting adventurous plans for you. Don’t be afraid to take His hand and rely on  Him to lead you on the greatest journey of your life. Alsdorf is passionate in her conviction that we were “born to surrender to the process of the spirit working in us”. Accept the ordinary and extraordinary challenges everyday life throws at us with joy and anticipation. What an adventure! How can we possibly lose? Our leader is the greatest of all time: Jesus Christ. as we step outside the stale confinement of our comfort zone of perfection and cultural acceptance into the clear, cool air of self acceptance and renewed faith, we realize this is how it was meant to be, letting to and letting Jesus take the wheel. I highly recommend this book to women of all ages who yearn to live on the W.I.L.D. side. ( Connie Meier, Christian Retailers Magazine July 2009)

Signing the Books with

“Live Up!”

My dear friend Lorri Steer whose story of her courageous journey with advanced breast cancer is in the Wild Book. She was with me in Denver. Here we are picking out new things for the Design4Living Web Store.

Meeting women at the Revell booth and signing books. Enjoying the day!

Here is the Display at David C. Cook Booth.

Note the Design4Living Bible studies with their mock up of the DVD packaging! Go God!

Lastly, here I am holding the daily trade paper at the retail show…Wild Signing being advertised for Monday at 11:30!

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