Carol Cutler Column

January 1999
From My Watering Can: Pouring Out What God Pours In
by Carol Cutler

Themes of Simplicity

Greetings ministry friends and Happy New Year, 1999. What an exciting time to be living! It seems that there is a yearning in hearts of women to simplify their lives in order to get more out of them.... by being able to hear from God and find His will for our lives and not be wasting any time!

The theme of our women's ministry this year is "A Simple and Pure Devotion to Jesus". Paul was concerned that Satan would deceive the Corinthians like he had Eve and pull them away from a simple and pure devotion to Jesus.....so Paul sent a warning to them....read 2 Corinthians 11:3.

We are having only 4 meetings for the year Sept '98 through May '99 using this theme.

1. September was "Simple Love is Extreme."
Think of Jesus' loving sacrifice...His love was extreme. He calls us to love as He loved.....John 15:12 Our speaker told of her difficult marriage and how the Spirit of Love told her specific ways in which to love and wait....and He is working mightily in her relationship with her husband. She is an artist, a sculptor and we used her pieces as centerpieces, with greenery and candles around them. People could purchase them for gifts..(Christmas was near!) We had a salad bar and baked potatoes and cheesecakes. Delicious!

2. In November, we had a seminar to teach our women how to make or purchase very simple gifts..."Simple Gifts of Old Fashioned Kindness."

The ladies of the church turned in ideas to a basket which was centrally located throughout Sept-Oct...these ideas were gathered and printed in booklet form to be purchased at cost. The speaker, talked about each one, showing the item as she spoke. There were 7 six foot tables full of ideas! The speaker spoke three times so that many women could benefit from simple ideas. The cost of admission to the seminar was a plate of their favorite finger foods for our buffet line. It was very tasty and varied. We also had 17 different tables set up with service for 8, decorated with simple ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The ladies brought their own dishes, centerpieces, name cards...everything to set the table....we were so blessed and got some great ideas. Ask your ladies to be a part of creating simple ideas and pass them on to others!

3. In February, '99, our guest speaker will share her testimony, the title being, "Simple and Pure Devotion to Jesus". She is now going through breast cancer and treatment....the Lord has brought her to
a place of simple and pure devotion to Him. We will decorate with greenery and red hearts to go along with "heart and love month". Our wonderful cook has planned a delicious meal of ham, vegetable medley, garden salad, and dessert is cherry chipped cake in shape of a heart with fluffy icing and a cherry on top. Our music will be a great soloist from our choir who will sing about love.

4. In May, our special speaker and singer is the one and only Jennifer Rothschild! She will share her testimony and speak on "Simple Gifts of Grace" and sing for us. We can hardly wait! This will be our mother/daughter/friend celebration, so little girls who are old enough to listen quietly will attend too. Our menu is baked chicken in foil with cooked vegetables, layered salad, tomatoe cheese bisquit and red velvet cake in the shape of a gift box. Our decorations will be spring flowers and simple gift boxes. We always ask our children to come forward to sing to their mothers an easy song printed out to a well-known tune.

Is the Lord nudging your heart to simplify? If so, make quality time for Him, get into His Word and let Him speak to your heart. The Scriptures will "jump out at you" and you will know He is speaking and leading you. Obey Him one day at a time.

Gripped by His Simple but Extreme love,
Carol carol_cutler@email.msn.com

Other contributions by Carol
Themes for 97-98

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