Sylane Mack and TBG Team Members DeAnne Harland and Julia Mack will be ministering at the 2010, 50th Annual  New Jersey Christian Ministry (NJCM) Convention, hosted at Hawthorne Gospel Church. This year’s theme is Empowered by Christ We Keep Pressing Towards the Goal.

On Friday, 10/22 at 7:30pm — Sylane will present the workshop: Body Image – Kingdom View – which calls us to reflect on and take seriously God’s desire and purpose to make His children, all of His children — as individuals and as His Corporate Church — look, think, speak and act more and more like Jesus Christ in order that we would be God’s powerful ambassadors of His grace and truth to all those who are still lost without the saving love of Jesus in this world.

On Saturday, 10/23 at 9:00am– Sylane will present a second workshop on Prayer entitled: Running Into Abba’s Throne Room of Grace – which offers a greater understanding of the Intimate gift of communication we have been given by the Sovereign Lord of all Creation.

Transformed By Grace will also be hosting a ministry table in the exhibit hall throughout both days of this fabulous ministry event!

This is an open even for all interested! Please check out NJCMs website for more information on attending this fabulous event at www.ministriesconvention.com

How was that for a blunt title for this blog-post devotional? Don’t Be Stupid!

Sometimes the Book of Proverbs actually makes me laugh out loud because of the extreme, cut-to-the-point, life-lessons that are put before us. Like this one:

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,

but he who hates correction is stupid.

Proverbs 12:1

It really says that? That way? Yep! And it’s even from the NIV translation—not from a paraphrased version of Scripture. Isn’t that cool?

I believe God wants us to clearly—and without a lot of room for interpretation—understand that there are consequences for our attitudes and behaviors. God wants us to understand that this all-up-in-our-face Proverb is meant to bring us life-giving, life-freeing truth.

When we love discipline—when we love to learn how we should live and act, speak and respond—we will love the knowledge and understanding it brings to our lives. And when we reject and hate the wise and godly correction that comes to us—we’re just being stupid!

And PRIDE is the root-feeding material for that kind of stupidity.

Our pride blocks us from humbly and open-mindedly accepting and learning lessons about ourselves that would actually free us and deepen us to grow in strength, wisdom and love.

We may not like the manner in which the discipline and correction comes into our lives. We may not even like (at all!) the person from whom the discipline and correction comes into our lives.

But it would be STUPID of us to NOT check our PRIDE at the door, and PRAYERFULLY ask GOD:

• What truth-filled discipline, from His heart and mind, should we learn and accept?
• What correction in our thinking, doing, speaking and responding needs to happen?

Learn! Grow! Accept correction that comes from the heart and mind of God—even when it comes to us in harsh ways, teaching us hard truths about ourselves!

Choose the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ—who brings truth and freedom and power into our lives! Choose HUMILITY—and, thereby, choose wisdom!

In other words: Don’t Be Stupid!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane 

This is what the LORD says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

Jeremiah 6:16

So, there we are facing another life-decision, wondering what to do…which way to go.

The LORD tells us to STAND and LOOK—to recognize—that we are at a decision point in our lives. We are to be stable and alert—not pushed around nor blind-sided—when assessing our circumstances and the decisions we need to make.

Maybe for you those decision-demanding-crossroads are about a major life change—a relationship, a move, a job, a total career change, a change in your physical or mental health.

We also need to recognize that we are standing at decision-demanding-crossroads everytime we choose to think, speak or act. Yep, everytime—whether in our daily-day lives and relationships OR in the more obvious crossroads during a major life change.

No matter what decision-demanding-crossroads we are at, the LORD tells us to ASK for the ancient paths, ASK where the GOOD way is. In other words: ASK the LORD—who is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal One—what His righteous, GOOD direction would be for us.

Then the LORD tells us (because apparently the LORD knows He needs to be that specific with us!) to WALK in that GOOD way—to WALK in His way.

The LORD loves us powerfully and passionately and wants the very best for us. God knows that His GOOD way is the very best for us. And our LORD promises that we will find rest for our souls—peace, restoration, security, strength, joy—when we do WALK in His GOOD way.

Oh! It would be so fabulous IF that was where this Scripture verse ended. You know—we stood, we looked, we asked God, we obeyed God and we received the LORD’s strong and loving rest for our souls.

But, sadly, that’s not the end of it. Instead, our tendency towards stubbornness and rebellion against our LORD’s Holy, Loving Authority is revealed. Way too often, we—in our thoughts, words and actions—stomp our feet, shake our fists and turn our faces away from where the LORD wants to lead us. We make it clear—one way or another—that when it comes to the LORD’s way, “We will NOT walk in it!”

Living our life really is ALL about CHOICE! And it is ALL about trusting God’s Word and God’s Love for us as we make those choices.

Choosing the LORD’s good way gives rest to our souls. Anything else weakens and warps us.

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Today is going to be a very special, very meaningful day for me. I get to go back, for the first time, to minister to—and with—the Counselors and Staff at the Christian camp where I first accepted Jesus as my Savior. I’ll be doing, first, a session on Leading a Child to Christ in the afternoon and, then, in the evening I’ll be speaking at the Counselor and Staff Commissioning Service.

Thank You, my ABBA, for this humbling and beautiful privilege!

Forty-two years ago when I was seven (yes, that currently makes me forty-nine for all you math whizzes in blog-cyberspace—FIFTY in December!), my parents sent me and all four of my siblings (all of us born within five years from oldest to youngest!) to a camp for one week. They needed a break. I don’t think it really mattered much to my parents what camp would take us.

But! It mattered very much to our God.

For just one short week back in 1967 I attended Ontario Bible Camp in Oswego, NY. And through the faithful servant hearts of the OBC staff, and especially through the Camp Chaplain’s clear, powerful and loving sharing of God’s grace and truth through God’s Word, Jesus became my Savior. Oh! What a difference a moment…a day…a week—orchestrated by the loving heart of our God—can make in a life!

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Jesus entered my life with His passionate love for me and His eternal salvation. I knew, then, that no matter what the hands of others would do to me, I was still held in God’s perfect, loving, strong, good hands.

Thank you, ALL of you, who have served over the years at OBC—or in any form of ministry, formal or informal—to share with others the grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, His salvation, His transformation and His outrageous, unfailing love!

Your seemingly small act of service in the Name of Jesus, the Name that is above ALL names—ABOVE the names of abuse, incest, rape, fear, brokenness, hate, anger, my own sins, the evil I have done and the evil done to me—has made ALL the difference in my life! For all eternity!

Before I left OBC I was given a Bible.  And it was—and is—only through God’s intervening love, God’s living and active Word and God’s intimately present Spirit that my life has been completely healed and transformed—from a broken, abused child to a mighty woman-child of our Sovereign God!

Yes, today is going to be a special, very meaningful day for me at OBC! Thank you, JESUS! It is All from you and it is ALL for you!

May we ALL seek to let Jesus use us to touch at least one life for Him! Oh! What a difference a moment…a day…a week—orchestrated by the loving heart of our God—can make in a life! Amen!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane