And the winner is....

Thank you SO much for helping me celebrate my blogaversary, my friends! I wrote everyone's name on pieces of paper (in crayon - it was easier to find from where I was sitting LOL) and had one of my kids pick a name.

And Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God goes to...STEPHANIE at Truthsharer. Congratulations, Stephanie! I'll send the book off to you once I have your "snail mail" address.

Monday Manna - Freedom

Today is the LAST DAY to enter my blogoversary book giveaway. Go to last Monday's post and leave me a comment. I'll be drawing a name first thing Tuesday to win Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving and Extraordinary God. Welcome to Monday Manna. The purpose of this meme is to get together and get to know Christ more through His Word. On the first and third Monday of each month, anyone who wishes can post their thoughts on a verse I introduced at my blog the Thursday before. It doesn't have to be a long post -- just a few thoughts, a picture you feel helps express it, a poem, a short story, a devotional.

Anyone is welcome to participate. Just put a link to your Monday Manna blog entry in the MckLinky gadget below, and check out others' thoughts.

I tried to choose a freedom-related verse because of Independence Day (and I hear Canada and Venezuela celebrated the same on different days last week!). I hope it made 4th of July even more meaningful for you. I know it put ME in a bit of a different mindset.

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 1 Peter 2:16 NIV

Looking forward to reading your contributions. My thoughts are below.

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It seems like a contradiction when you first look at it. The first part of this verse, and the last part.

Live as free men

Live as servants of God

Free men are indentured to no one: how can someone be free AND a servant?

What is the freedom that God gives us? What are we freed from?

When we accept Christ as our Savior we are saved. But from what?

SIN - the guilt of our sins, the power of sin over us, and, once we're away from this earth, even the presence of it.

And because of that, we are free to do what is good and right: what is pleasing to God and in His will.

But we don't have to. And often, we don't.

And even if we are free from sin, it doesn't mean we don't keep committing it. In fact, we often do exactly what the middle part of this verse says. We use [our] freedom as a cover-up for evil.

We figure we can ignore God's will and desire for us, since we're already saved and we can't lose it. We use our freedom as a reason to judge others. We even sin, while in the back of our minds we figure it's okay because we're already forgiven.

And this is NOT the life our Lord wants us to live. He sent His Son to die for us. Is this any way to show our appreciation?

When someone does something nice for you, you are often motivated to return the favor--not necessarily because you feel like you "owe them," but out of gratitude.

Is it too much to ask for us to do the same for Someone Who gave His life for us?

And the freedom to do right, and to please God, when acted upon, is doing His will and serving Him.

Not such a contradiction anymore, is it?

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Thanks for reading! Be sure to link up below with your own thoughts, and read what others have to say. I'm sure you will be blessed.

Nurturing The Whole Writer (part 4) (and Independence Day)

I'm celebrating my Blogoversary this week--be sure to stop by Monday's post to enter the drawing for the wonderful book Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God.

Remember - it is only if God blesses America - and us - that we WILL be blessed. No other blessing matters. Thank You, Lord, for all the freedoms we have in this country that we take for granted. Help us, Lord, to remember that the greatest freedom we have has nothing to do with our country, and everything to do with our Savior.

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We are ever-so-close to having this ticker of mine counting in days. (Don't mind me - milestones like that get me excited. Did I ever mention that I REALLY got excited about how close having my second child was when I was clipping coupons that expired after her due date? LOL) This conference truly IS just around the corner.

Again, here's the basic info:

FAITHWRITERS' 2009 CONFERENCE
Nurturing the Whole Writer
Friday and Saturday, August 7 and 8, 2009
Radisson Hotel, Livonia, MI
Cost: $72 for FW 500 members
$82 for others

Today, I'm going to talk a bit about where you can get more "inside," etc., information on the conference. There are several links below that can take you to further details and such about this wonderful event.

First of all, you might want to register for the conference. Highly recommended (LOL though we are taking registrations at the door!) The form also has information on hotel arrangements (not included in the conference registration).

Wanna know what the schedule looks like for those two days? (You'll need this information for picking out your sessions for the registration form.)

So, you see the schedule, but you're not sure exactly which workshops to choose? Check out the workshop descriptions (which were very helpful to me - though I'm still considering cloning myself so I can attend every session. Deb, would I have to pay two admissions???).

How about those speakers? Who are they? What makes them qualified to teach us what they're teaching. Have a look at their bios.

Have you written a book, or do you have a piece in an anthology that you'd like to have available at the conference book table? Fill out this form, drop the books off, and you're good to go!

Wanna know who else is going? Need a ride from the airport? Looking for a roommate? Check out the conference forum on the Faithwriters' boards. Lots of super discussions going on there!

So, I'm asking again. Are you coming?