I saw this on the site called Church Crunch and I'm still blown away. For all the evil the internet has going against it, God gets the glory because so much is used to further, advance, and promote His kingdom. I love that!
I will link you to the site I read about but in a nutshell, you can conduct a prayer walk for Haiti thanks to a program using Google Earth. I found it fascinating and can other strategic prayer places be far behind? New Orleans? China? Nashville? London? Romania? Can you imagine all of us praying with Kim when she is serving in Romania? The options seem endless.
Check it out and let's enter the throne room on behalf of Haiti! Prayer walk link here.
http://www.juliearduini.com
Surrendering the good, the bad, and---maybe one day---the chocolate
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Putting Feet to Your Prayers---Without Leaving Your Computer
Sunday, December 6, 2009
We're On the Winning Team!
Of course I couldn't get it to cut and paste but I feel this is a message from God He wants the masses to know.
It's over at my blog today. Check it out!
By the way, the blog is a few years old but the site is new. If you like what you see, would you tell others and/or subscribe? Thanks!
Remember, we're on the winning team!
Image From: Photobucket
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Lessons from a Cast Iron Tub
As you get to know me, you'll realize I'm the lady with a story for everything. God takes the daily stuff of life and teaches me, and then I tend to write about it. So here goes the cast iron tub. I sense this is something for someone out there, and I'm learning right with you!
Our house is a 1939 Colonial with a cast iron tub with peeling paint. We've had three different kinds of "tub people" in there giving us their ideas and estimates. Perhaps because the estimators worked with products they always dismissed replacing the tub, but always said they advised against to because it was a cast iron tub.
The tub is too heavy and impossible to move out of a small bathroom and out of an old house.
It's a heavy burden that would be easier to take care of it you buy a pretty shell to surround the tub, throw down a new liner to hide the flaws, or buy a nice kit that you can gloss over the paint.
Gee, that sounds like my approach to how I handle conflict in my life!
Like the estimators, I also get in my head that I have to deal with the entire process that moment. Cast iron tubs aren't meant to come out easy. It isn't pretty trying to picture a group of workers hauling a tub out of a small bathroom because it's not reality.
Last week a new estimator came in and looked at the tub. Without a beat he asked why we never replaced it. I explained the workers before him and their reasons. He shook his head.
"We take the tub out a piece at a time. This way you still fix the problem, but in a doable way, not some cheap fix that will have your tub showing new peeled paint in a year or so."
Knock me over with a feather! That spoke to me on so many levels. Instead of thinking I'm a failure because I'm having trouble trusting God with finances (which is a lingering issue for me) I realize I'm throwing some paint on a tub because I'm afraid I can't carry the tub. I can't. I can deal with it a piece at a time and know God is doing a greater work in me this way. I tend to think in marathon ways instead of sprints. The tub showed me a true work is a work in progress, and one that takes care of the issue, not just temporairly hides it.
Does this speak to anyone?
If you're thinking about fixing a cast iron tub, take it from me, do it a piece at a time.
(This originally appeared in a group message over on the Facebook group: Julie Arduini: The Surrendered Scribe
Julie Arduini is a writer and public speaker residing in NE Ohio with her husband and two children. Her heart is to encourage readers to find freedom through surrender. She knows that has to start with her, so she's surrendering the good, the bad, and maybe one day, the chocolate. She'd love if you bookmarked her website and signed her blog guest book at JulieArduini.com. She also went all techie and created a gadget you can use on your iGoogle page. Feel free to add it and tell others.
Photo courtesy photobucket
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
We Give Thanks
The Narrow Gate Girls are thankful for so many things..jpg)
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The grace Jesus has lavishly given us (and you, if you accept it)
Our marriages
Our families
Our many blessings
which include...
YOU.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I Like it Bold
If you knew me growing up, I might have across as confident, but it was the furthest thing from the truth. I had a lot of self esteem issues and unresolved anger. It's my faith, time, and a whole lotta tears that have transformed me from the inside out.
I realized that in the past year, bold is a new part of my identity. My sister remarked that my coffee smells so bold it stings her nose when she walked into my kitchen. It's true. I'm someone who never drank coffee before. I switched off of espresso to Italian Roast because the espresso wasn't bold enough. Tea? That's just dark water to me (sorry my tea friends).
Even my wardrobe is bold. I've never been a small frame girl and a year after surgery, my body type is I think an apple and a pear. It's not pretty and yet I've never felt better in and out. God performed surgery on more than my girl parts, He changed my heart. I get, totally get, that I'm His favorite. Don't get me wrong, I totally get YOU are HIS favorite too. I'll spend my waking moments encouraging you with this truth. As I walk with this extra weight, different body and freedom of identity, my colors are bold. I wear deep purples, blues, corals. For the first time, I want people to look at me. Not because I'm covergirl material, but because I'm feeling bold. I want you to see Him when you look at me, and I'm bold enough to hopefully get your attention.
My actions are a lot bolder. I've always wanted to help people or let them know the nice things I think but for decades wouldn't for fear that you would be too busy to deal with me, or I'd be bothering you. No more! If I'm in your way I'm believing you'll let me know. If I feel moved to do something it's with what I have and am. I'm not Paula Deen nor am I Martha Stewart. I cook and bake simple and my accessories probably mismatch. But I'm done sitting in the shadows wishing I could do more.
I'm bold---believing, offering, living and dreaming.
How about you?
(This originally appeared in a group message over on the Facebook group: Julie Arduini: The Surrendered Scribe
Julie Arduini is a writer and public speaker residing in NE Ohio with her husband and two children. Her heart is to encourage readers to find freedom through surrender. She knows that has to start with her, so she's surrendering the good, the bad, and maybe one day, the chocolate. She'd love if you bookmarked her website and signed her blog guest book at JulieArduini.com. She also went all techie and created a gadget you can use on your iGoogle page. Feel free to add it and tell others---be bold!
photo courtesy photobucket
Thursday, November 5, 2009
I received the message and link below in an e mail and am not done listening, but enjoying what I'm hearing so far.
I know it's tempting for people to get caught up on the pastors/speakers/prophet/celebrity attached to messages and lose sight of the message. One of the best testimonies I ever read was in one of Donna Partow's books.
There was a woman who opened her arms to Jesus through watching of all things, Tammy Faye Bakker. It wasn't a live telecast and yet Tammy with her wild eyes and big tears spoke to the camera and gave a message of encouragement that God did everything but write Dear....and the viewer's name. The viewer was randomly flipping the channels and the message pierced her for eternity.
I confess, had I whizzed by and saw the Bakkers' back then, I would have kept on going. I get caught up on names too sometimes.
So I'm not asking if you're a Graham Cooke fan. I'm asking if the Bible is relevant to you. Are you sick of the gloom and doom? Are you ready to be part of a solution or a problem?
Like I said, I'm only part way done with this message and Graham explores Isaiah 61. What's the key word to you in the verse? It's interesting what his answer is, and looking back, any transformation for the better you've witnessed out of me really does go back to that key word.
Jesus is the King of Instead.
You on board?
Picture courtesy Heartlight
***
I found this on Graham Cooke's bookstore... FREE MP3 series! Can't beat that. I haven't listened to them yet, but.... It's Graham! :)
Anyhow, here's the link: Recession Busters
***
Help spread the word! By faith I created a website and moved my blog there. I'm "open for business" with a few kinks but am trying to get all readers to make the move with me. My mission at The Surrendered Scribe is to encourage women to find victory through surrender. I get that it has to start with me, so my blog is about surrendering the good, the bad, and maybe one day, the chocolate. There are book giveaways throughout November so leave a comment or contact me on my message page for your chance to enter. Additional entries if you let me know you grabbed the blog button, signed the guestbook, subscribed, etc...
Julie Arduini is a writer and public speaker residing in NE Ohio with her husband and two children. Look for her debut at the Exemplify Online marriage blog channel Thursday, November 12. She also recently learned her story, Midnight Surrender,will be in the Healing Power of Prayer book series for Guideposts. To learn more about Julie, visit her website.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Julie's Steam Cleaning Revelation
The house is slowly coming together. Carpet is in, but now comes weeding out and rearranging. Yesterday was our son's room. It took forever because he keeps everything. I'm thankful I tackled most of it during school hours because once he was home, he even asked if I could preserve a piece of string. String!!
Part of the process is steam cleaning. We recently purchased a new one and it works so great. I'm a results person so to watch the dirty water rush into the tank, that's thrilling for me to watch. I'm accomplishing something!
I also had an ephinany during the cleaning. Years ago I was a work from home mom with a toddler. I was suffocating under the pressure I was putting on myself to be perfect at every role in my life. Needless to say, there was never enough time. When I steam cleaned, I went at it like Speedy Gozales, right down to breaking a fairly new cleaner because I pushed too hard on a rough carpet. I only gave the appearance of clean, but deep down, I left a lot of dirt behind.
This time around, I'm bothered by the chaos but I know it's going to take time and I can only do so much. His room has seen a lot of action resulting in stains and ick I thought would be there forever. I took my time cleaning and as I methodically moved the cleaner back, all the dirt came up.
It hit me, that's what I've surrendered and let God do. It's so much more than growing older and possibly maturing. I yielded my life, my fears, hurts, goals, expectations and all the dirt to Him. He's not done but already I can see the dirty tank resevoir is full and the floors are clean. I'm no longer tied to living the perfect life. In fact, I find I get a bit cranky when I sense someone is trying to pressure me to be perfect.
How about you? In your life, is everything perfect at a glance but deep down the dirt remains? I challenge you to take your time and let God work a deep cleaning within you. I feel as alive as my son's carpet looks---and that's something God is willing to do for anyone that asks through faith in His Son!
By the way, the Love Dare is on over at Christian Women Take Root. If you've tried the Dare before on your own, join us. There truly is safety in numbers. This is open to all approved members of Christian Women Take Root.
Julie Arduini is driving herself to exhaustion trying to balance writing, marriage, children, website creation, working out, and chocolate. Her website is still under construction, but check it out at JulieArduini.com.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The $20K Life
(This is originally from my The Surrendered Scribe blog. I'm still learning off this message, and thought I'd share it).
I'm a vivid dreamer and I've long let go of the thought that it's a bad taco. I'll admit sometimes an interpretation doesn't come to me, but I pray and often one comes. It's rarely what I actually dream about, and it's always such a great life lesson that I know it wasn't anything I came up with. I totally give God credit for those interpretations (mine always line up with the Bible, not once have I had a dream interpretation tell me to leave my family or anything, just so you know).
Anyway, this dream and the interpretation isn't leaving me. Maybe you are in this situation too, so I thought I'd post it. If I already posted it, forgive me. I am absolutely grasping for the finish line called September. This summer is suffocating my sanity!
So here is the dream...
I am back in Upstate NY, arriving at a pawn shop at 6am. I know I only have 30 minutes because my husband has to leave for work by 7. The line is long and I have with me a heavy, thick black necklace to pawn. In addition, I have separate from the cross but at once attached to it, a cross. One side of the cross is a black cross, an actual necklace my husband gave me two years ago from El Salvador. The other side is not actual and was a white porcelain cross with a single rose on the cross.
Once I get to the counter my husband is with me. A lady waits on me and says that the cross is probably worth twenty, but she needs to talk with the manager. I think, hey, $20, pretty good for 6am.
The manager comes over and looks it over. With the white porcelain portion he says, this is a treasure. It is worth twenty. Twenty thousand.
Twenty thousand dollars!? Well I got so excited I woke myself up!
I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to reveal the dream to me. Here is what He gave me:
The black double strand necklace is an albatross I'm allowing to hang over my neck. With it is the black cross that my husband gave me two years ago. The last two years have been challenging in many ways, and it's left me tired, worried, and skeptical. By clinging to the black necklace and the burden that hangs over me when I choose this life, I'm living the $20 life.
WOW.
The porcelain cross represents what I can choose. I can let go of the past and trust God. Life won't be easy, but by choosing Him over the bitterness of the past, I get the white porcelain cross life. That necklace was worth $20k.
WOW.
Ever since when I've turned my mind on the past or started to worry about the future, I remember I'm choosing the albatross feeling necklace worth $20. I want to live free from burdens, fear, and anxiety. I want the $20k life.
Anyone relate? I'm struggling, so don't think I have it mastered. If this is your story, try to find a picture or draw one of a white porcelain looking cross with a single red rose on it. Give yourself a visual that you want the $20k life over the $20 one.
I'd love to hear your comments and updates!
PS
The website is moving along. Check it out at JulieArduini.com. I also created a group page on Facebook and a separate Twitter account for my fiction story, Discovering Nancy Struthers. Check it all out and feel free to join! 
Julie Arduini is a writer and public speaker residing in NE Ohio. Her website, JulieArduini.com, is set to launch October 1 as she shares her surrender journey online. You can find her most recent work in Kathy Vick's Run Like a Girl. She also moderates the Love Dare over at Christian Women Take Root and is a new contributor for the marriage channel at Exemplify. She lives with her husband and two children.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Inviting you to the Christian Women Take Root Love Dare Challenge
This originally posted at my personal blog, The Surrendered Scribe.
It's Character Confession Time!
(This is a long one, but sometimes that just are how confessions are! If you want to pass any of this information on, especially about The Love Dare Challenge at Christian Women Take Root, please, please feel free. We don't want any women left out!)
To give my confession, I'll share a story. Years ago when I was a new mom I was at a church where once a year a guest preacher came to play his guitar and pray. I know folks squirm at the thought of someone praying over them and I get that, because I've seen the "thus saith the Lord" prophetic moment abused. But I'm also living proof God still uses donkeys to talk. Not that the preacher was a donkey, but I get I'm dust. I also get how fine the line is when someone prays over someone. So to be responsible with you, I will not say "thus saith the Lord" and if I feel like I'm supposed to share something, it's something I want you to go to God with, don't take the generalization I have in Him as gospel. I can assure you none of my prayer moments in this vein have encouraged anyone to drop everything and run to Africa---or Vegas--or leave their husband, etc...Simply put, people have asked me to pray for lost things and I have and returned with a thought that is not mine because I'm not that smart. I've said pray about it, and look there, that location kept coming back to me. And they did, and it was there, even though they looked there before. It's not a Julie thing, it's a God thing, and if you disagree, I understand, but it's central to my confession, this background. By the way, I'll jump on the soapbox for a second and say I'm not afraid of authentic prophetic moments due to the new age movement, counterfeit, psychic stuff the enemy has out there. Any tricks evil has is a counterfeit of what God already had going for His glory. We just saw it abused and got afraid. There, I'm off my soapbox.
I say all that to say at the end of that service, there was an altar call and this man prayed over people. Again, it wasn't thus saith the Lord, and it wasn't quit your job or marry that person. It was direction I believe at least for me, was Holy Spirit directed. This is what was imparted:
"You are frustrated because you look around and see all the people dealing with the little things, stressed because of the little things, and you get the big things. You wonder why doesn't that person over there have to deal with that? Why me? You know you are dust in My hands, that's why I use you. And as your faith grows you will continue to have those hard times, but you will have faith to speak to those big issues and say in His name, mountain move, and you will see it, in Jesus' name, move."
That's the gist of it. But no one, not even my husband, knew my heart then, and it was exactly where I was. Where peers were wondering about clothes and whether they would get a raise or not, I was nearly bedridden and infertile. I was so scared, but I prayed. Each day my prayer got stronger. That mountain disappeared.
The same for so many other issues. God uses our family to go through injustice or crisis for lessons in grace, forgiveness and trust. I am not a perfect example in any of these times, but I am learning to be a willing one.
And here I am.
On May 4, the social network Christian Women Take Root is kicking off The Love Dare Challenge At our own pace we each have a copy of the book The Love Dare, by Stephen Kendrick. This is a book from the movie Fireproof. Character Caleb Holt faces the end of his marriage when his dad hands him the book and dares him to give it a real try before divorce.
We're offering this as a group at Christian Women Take Root because I guess the cliche goes, "there's safety in numbers." The group is private, Christian, and for women only. Although we encourage women to take the challenge with their spouse, this is a place you can go with daily discussions that can encourage and show you are not alone. It's called dare because it isn't easy. No matter where your marriage is, God is asking you to take it to the next level. That can be scary.
That's why I'm a fraidy cat!
I'll be overseeing the group but trust me, it by no way means I have marriage perfected. It means God gave me a burden for marriages to live in a consistent state of oneness, or strive for it. There are times I fall flat on my face through my own selfishness, or I give what I think is my all and that oneness is not returned, again, because my spouse is human. I know the defeated one hates marriage, and I know anyone daring is going to have a target on their back.
That's where I'm done being a fraidy cat.
I am personally inviting you (unless you are a guy, then I ask you to pass this info on to your wife, mom, sister) to join Christian Women Take Root (if not already a member, membership is free) and then join the group, the Love Dare. There are so many other groups for women available, please check them all out. If you want to find me, I also facilitate Finding Freedom Through Surrender and Marriage: Striving for Oneness.
Discussions are going on at Love Dare group right now, and you are welcome to start your own. Your information will stay within the group and we absolutely will not tolerate someone having the courage to share in the group find that their information be passed on at a place like Facebook or Twitter. The Love Dare is a safe place where we can hold cyber hands together and trust God to change our hearts and our marriages.
One thing I want to really emphasize is just because it kicks off May 4, it doesn't mean we end in exactly 4o days. I'd rather we do this as we can, and from what I've heard and read, there are days where applying the challenge that day is going to take some "wrasslin'" with the Lord, yourself, and that takes time, been there, done that. Each lady is to take this at her pace as He directs. There will be a discussion for each day, but approach it as you feel led, and please don't feel obligated to participate in discussions, although we'd love it. Just come and feel encouraged, share your wisdom or experience.
But let's not be fraidy cats. We have mountains to move.
In Jesus' name.
