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

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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
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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.

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.