New Life Design Blog

I Corinthians 2:9-14 “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.  For the Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.  No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.  And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.  When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom.  Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain truths.  But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit.  It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. ”

I Corinthians 2:16b “But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.”

A wonderful aspect of living under the New Covenant of God’s Grace is that we have the priviledge of fellowship and union with Christ.  Part of that fellowship and union is being able to hear God speak to us.  Yes, He speaks!  We often miss it due to our busy lifestyles or our impure motives etc… But I am learning if we stop, take time to listen and be still, He speaks!

Under the New Covenant we now can receive wisdom from the Spirit because we now have the Spirit of the living God within us to talk to us and guide us.  The Holy Spirit is the key to everything in a believer’s life!  I think the enemy of our souls does everything in his power to cause us to miss this because it offers such a vital link to victory.  Because no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God and we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God inside us.  So we can now understand what God has freely given us.  We literally have the mind of Christ so we can know God’s thoughts and heart on an issue/decision.  This is marvelous news!!

Dana

Sorry I have been away for awhile.  Here is the next part of “The Evidence of A True Believer Part 3 and I have listed the first four points that we have already discussed so far for you:

1.  True Believers believe that Jesus is the Christ.  I John 5:1

2.  True Believers will live in the light as Jesus is in the light.  I John 1:5-7

3.   True Believers have a deep since of their sinfulness.  I John 1:8

4.  True Believers will keep His Commandments.  I John 2:1-2

Now for number 5….

5.  True believers will have a geniune love for others.  I John 2:7-11 

If anyone claims to live in the light yet hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness.  In the NLT the end of verse 11 says that, “such a person is lost, having been blinded by the darkness.”  On over in chapter 4 of I John verses 7–8 say, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.  Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  But anyone who does not love does not know God-for God is love.”  Chapter 4 in I John comes right out and tells us what “real love” is…..have you ever thought about it?  Verse 9 confirms that God showed us how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.  We did not love God first but He loved us while we were unlovely, while we were yet sinners as Romans 5:8 says.  Real love is not what Hollywood promotes but real love is that God loved us and sent His only Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  Obviously this is our standard to love others but we must remember that we can’t do it in our own strength which is why we so need to humble ourselves before our father and examine ourselves and then allow Christ to love others through us.  The last part of verse 16 is quite direct….”God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”  Now hear verses 20-21, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see how can we love God, whom we have not seen?  And God Himself has commanded that we must love not only Him but our Christian brothers and sisters, too.” 

I have purposfully put all the verses in here today so that you can see clearly what the Word of God says.  This is not opinion or even a good idea, it is God’s holy Word spoken to us.  We can’t fake this one….we must have His Holy Spirit living in us and loving through us as we embrace the love that God has for us all.

I John 3:1 “See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for He allows us to be called His children, and we really are!”

Dana

Hello Everyone,

As I mentioned in the previous blog, this is the first of several blogs about the evidence that will be in our lives reflecting that we are indeed children of God.  We must start here….

#1.  True believers believe that Jesus is the Christ.  I John 5:1

I don’t know that anyone could communicate it any clearer than Steve Green when he sang, “There is no other name but Jesus…”.  What a powerful message that is not very popular with the world due to it’s need to be politically correct.  Jesus himself is quoted in John 14:6 as saying that He is the way, the truth and the life.  Acts 4:12 tells us that there is no other name by which men might be saved.

#2.  If you are a true believer you will live in the light as Jesus is in the light.  I John 5-7

If we say that we are in the light, yet live in spiritual darkness we are only lying and we are not practicing the truth.  God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.  So there is going to be a difference in our lifestyle verses the world’s lifestyle.

#3.  If we are a true believer we will have a deep sense of our sinfulness.        I John 1:8

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  My friend, do you understand repentance?  Are you humbled when you look at the enormous price our Savior had to pay on behalf of your sinfulness?  I Corinthians 6:20 tells us we were bought with a price.  The price that Christ paid for our sin was one that was very, very expensive.  We are literally dead in our sins and transgressions.  We were helpless to save ourselves and doomed to spend an eternity completely separated from God.  Our state “in Adam” was a helpless state and only God could do anything about it.  Out of His deep love for us even while we were yet sinners, Romans tells us, that Christ died for us.  My friend, without Christ we were dead and doomed.  When I think about what my sin caused our Savior to have to endure it breaks my heart and yet….I worship and reach out to Him because without him, as the hymn says, “how lost I would be.”  I realize even now that my feeble attempts at righteousness is as filthy rags before Him.  So you see, our only hope is Christ alone!

Well, I hope these are thought provoking for you and allows you to examine yourself as well.  I was reading in Revelation 21 & 22 this morning and oh, what a glorious place we are going to be called to one day soon.  I feel such an urgency to remind the church to examine herself!  I feel such a burden to participate in the disciplining of the church because there is still much to be done and eternity is so close – even at our doors!  The fields are rich and ripe with the harvest but our workers…..where are they?  Many have been wounded and have abandoned their post.  Many have fallen to temptation and are caught in the holds of sin.  I’m telling you, our time is drawing nigh and many are lost all around us. 

Now, I know some of you may be thinking, “yea, yea….people have been saying that, “the end is coming” or that, “we are living in the last days” for years now and we are still here!”  First of all, we must be careful of our interruption of the term “last days”.  We think that term means within the very near future.  But in the Bible the term was used several times in the New Testament and that was over 2,000 years ago.  So, it is important to note that the Hebrew term “the last days” can also be translated as “in the distant future” (NLT) or “in the days to come” (NIV).  Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the term “the last days” refers to an indeterminate period of time leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Now, with that said, I will say that no other generation that has lived has seen what our generation is seeing.  Prophecy fulfilled!  If you are a student of eschatology (the study of end times) and you have been keeping up with what is going on in our world then you know what I am talking about.  You are seeing events unfold and fall into the line of Bible prophecy like never before.  My friend, it is amazing!  It was behoove all of us to pay attention to the Word of God and what is going on in the world today….and literally….. for Heaven’s sake….let’s be busy accomplishing Kingdom agenda items!

Dana

Well…I hope you are ready for this one! 

This past Tuesday morning I was obviously so tired from all our activity over the weekend and had not yet recovered so I was not able to think clearly.  I was taking my dog (Nissi-miniature Schnauzer) out to potty after she finished eating and Tony (my husband) was headed out for work at the same time.  I decided just to head out the back door with him and said goodbye, yet there was this sinking feeling in my stomach and something just said – go out the front door with her like you usually do, but of course….I ignored the thought.  (Big mistake!)  While Nissi and I were in the back yard Tony was about to get in the car and it dawned on me that he might accidental forget I was out there and put the garage door down as he drove off leaving me locked out of the house with no form of communication.  So – I did what any other reasonable person would do.  I hollered up the hill and ask Tony to please leave the door up so I could get back in the house which he was happy to do.  Well, as fate would have it, his mind was on the busy day before him and in about 20 seconds flat he has forgotten my request and hit the button for the garage door as I am still in the backyard with Nissi.  I hear the door going down and see that he is about to be to the street so I tear off running like some mad woman waving my arms in the air and screaming, “Tony!!!”.  Yea – I know….not a pretty site!  At least it was not a Sunday morning when I would have just had in my robe!  Thankfully I was planning on doing a short run so I had put on my running shorts and top but I still had flip flops on and it is pretty difficult to sprint up hill in flip flops while waving your arms in the air and shouting.  Well, I gave it my best effort and was probably just about 5 seconds off from catching him.  I thought he might fiddle with his phone or GPS or something but not on this day.  As I got to the stop sign he had just turned from the next street and my fate was sealed!  I envisioned myself sitting on my back porch with Nissi from 7:30 in the morning until 6:30 in the evening.  Within an instant I am rehearsing thoughts like, “Gee, I’m glad she has eaten already….at least we have cool water from the water hose to drink…I guess I’ll be potty-ing in the woods today….etc…”  As I was still running with the fumes of the exhaust from Tony’s car already evaporating I came face to face with this lady out walking.  The expression on my face must have been one of panic because I think I frightened her a bit.  She ask me if anything was wrong and could she help me.  As soon as I could catch my breath I ask if she had a cell phone and she did.  Thank the Lord for cell phones!!  I was trying to call Tony quickly as he was heading to a clients office on the other side of Atlanta.  I knew if I couldn’t get him then my chances would be hopeless for getting back in the house until he came home that evening.  Well….wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t remember his cell number!  See, we have these engenious little things built into our cell phones called “Contact Lists” and we no longer memorize numbers!  I couldn’t even remember his parent’s numbers, my good friends number or anything!  Strangly, I could only remember my office number!  I tried calling that and leaving a message for Rebecca, our Office Manager hoping that she could call Tony as soon as she got in and maybe he could come home during lunch and let me in.  This would also mean that Rebecca would have to cancel my morning appointments.  I was just fit to be tied.  It is not like me to panic in emergency situations but on this day I just lost my head!  After leaving a very long message for Rebecca, wonder upon wonder….I remember Tony’s cell number!  I was so relieved!  When he gets on the phone and I share my plight he was so sympathic and apologized profusly for putting the door down, but….he then ever so gently reminds me of that little steal gadget that is coded and has a spare key inside!!!  UGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I felt like a crazy women!!!  I thanked him for his help….I’m sure he was laughing on the inside, but to his honor he saved me some dignity.  If he did laugh, he never let me know it and then I said my goodbye and let him get back to the task of work.  The lady that was allowing me to use her cell phone walks down to my house with me to help me find Nissi because I tore off like a banchie and left her in the back yard.  Bless her heart….she was sitting on the front porch waiting for me.  She must know her mother is insane sometimes! 

Well, I share this with you because a huge spiritual truth hit me as I came back inside.  I was laughing at myself first and then told the Lord that He would really blow me away if He had something to show me out of this situation and immediatly it hit me!  2 Peter 1:3 “…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”  Christ is all we need and if we are Christians then we already have all we need for any situation that we face.  All the provision, power, love, compassion, patience, strength, self control etc….that we need in this life has already been given to us.  Christ meets all of our needs!  Why then do we go chasing after what we think will satisfy and either it remains just out of our reach or we get what we are chasing only to find that it doesn’t completely fulfill us so the chase continues.  All that I need as a child of God I already possess.  As a Christian, I have the answer and that answer is in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Thank you God for being my everything!

Dana

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your prayers, support and words of encouragement!  I am glad to be on this side of the weekend.  As a matter of fact, I have never been happier to see a Monday come in all my days!  I love running and staying fit but this was a tough one!  Several ask if I would share about my journey and what I experienced during the race so that is what I would like to attempt to do. 

First off, I must say thank you to all those who participated in giving towards my financial support so I can continue doing the ministry of New Life Design.  I was overwhelmed at those who wanted to participate and give.  Each of you have just blown me away with your generosity and love for me and Tony.  We are so grateful for each of you and with the risk of sounding a bit “cheesy”, please know that many lives will be changed because you gave!  May God bless each of you beyond belief for your generosity!

Now for the story….We were all very excited as we left Atlanta on Friday around lunch time.  We arrived at the Race Expo in time to get our numbers and do a little shopping!  If you did not get to see the picture of my shirt let me know.  The caption read, “Running Is Cheaper Than Therapy” Ha-Ha!!.  We had a great dinner that evening with our friends but I think all of us had a hard time sleeping as we were all wondering what kind of race we would have and how “hilly” would the course be. 

Saturday morning the clock went off around 4:20 and I must say I was relieved to be getting up and getting this thing started and done.  I noticed the weather was not very cool but I really didn’t think much about it at first.  We found our corrals and were ready for the start.  The first five miles were done at a very fast pace due to the excitement and push of the crowds.  We were running with about 30,000 other runners.  I should have slowed down after the first mile but I got caught up in the excitement with everyone else.  I was pretty hot by mile 5 and had to do some adjustments with my clothing and re pinning my number which was very frustrating but I didn’t lose very much time because we started out so fast but I had depleted some much needed energy in those first 5 miles and that would come back to haunt me later in the morning.  I was doing pretty good until about mile 10 and it became very apparent that I was not going to be able to keep up my pace.  I was having severe problems with my feet.  I was not sure what the problem was but later learned that I was putting my Body Glide lotion on the wrong parts of my feet which was causing my feet to slip in my shoe which was causing chaffing.  Add that to continuous pounding on pavement that was extremely hot and my feet felt like they were on fire.  By mile 11 when I got to see Tony I was just about in tears and very tempted to split off with the half marathoners and just finish at 13.1 and call it a “bad” day.  He kept encouraging me not to quit in those few moments we had to chat so I decided to tough it out and keep going with the full Marathon.  One really cool thing that God did was as I had started running again after seeing Tony our good friend Glenn Rigby that was running the marathon too had caught up with me and he was a great encouragement and that got me passed the 11.5 mark where all the half marathoners were branching off to head to their finish.  Glenn and I ran together until about mile number 14 and my feet were burning so bad that I just had to walk some at that point.  After mile 15 the cramping and dehydration had hit and it was becoming impossible to run much farther that a couple of tenths at a time.  I stopped at the medical tent after mile 16 and they confirmed my problem with my feet and wrapped them with ace bandages and gave me a new pair of socks and told me that I needed to take some salt packets for the depletion of sodium and potassium.  I’m not sure that I understood all of that due to the frame of mind that I was in.  I tried taking some after mile 17 and the packets got wet so I didn’t get much in my system and there was this awful hill looming in the distance.  The temperature sign on the bank said it was a whooping 80 degrees at this point and I have never in my life seen so many people sick and dropping out of a race.  Ambulance siren’s were heard all around you from time to time and the medical tents were full of people with heat exhaustion and dehydration.  I struggled on to mile 19 because I knew Tony would be there.  I must admit in the back of my mind I secretly had hoped to just tell him that I was going to walk the rest of it and wanted to talk him into walking it with me to keep me company and keep my mind off the pain.  I think every muscle in my legs were cramping at this point and my feet were back to burning again.  When I saw him we walked and talked a moment and he continued to encourage me to keep going but reminded me that there was so shame in bailing out if I needed to.  I decided to keep going, so off I went.  Ironically, at this point our route paralleled the half marathoners route and once again there was the temptation to just hop over there and join them on their 12th mile and head to the finish line and be done with this thing.  The only thing that I can say kept me on my course was God Himself!  The temps were continuing to climb, more people were getting sick and dropping out but I saw an overpass coming up and knew I could stop and stretch for a moment in the shade and that was a God send for sure!  As I stopped off to stretch many more followed suit so I was glad not to be the only one.  After this a tough stretch of road was ahead.  Again there wasn’t any shade and not a cloud in sight.  We got through miles 20-22 on this stretch and it was tough.  At a moment when I really needed to see a friendly face, our friend Sally who had run the half marathon called out my name.  Boy, was she ever smart just doing the half….you know, come to think of it….she is a doctor and all.  Maybe that should tell us all something! She was at the 21 mile marker watching for me and she ran out to chat a few moments, took my picture, gave me some good words of encouragement and took a few things from me to lighten my load (my old, smelly socks, and shirt….what a wonderful Christian servant to carry someones smelly socks-thanks again Sally).  At that point I kept going and headed into Shelby park to finish miles 22-24.  I must tell you, it was a beautiful park but I just hurt to bad to enjoy it!  I stopped at the medical tent again just after mile 23 and through tears told the medic that I was cramping really bad.  He gave me a moment to get myself together and then gave me 3 salt packets and I told him I wasn’t sure I could get that down but he told me that if I wanted to finish I had to take them.  Well, I got all three down and drank some Cytomax Sports drink and headed out once again.  I noticed that after a few moments the cramping seemed to decrease (FINALLY) and I was able to do some serious power walking….and before I knew it I was doing some serious running again and was able to run straight to the finish line!  I was broken hearted at seeing one fellow loaded into an ambulance at the 25.5 mile mark….so close to finishing.  The finish line was the most glorious sight I had seen all day.  They had this sprinkler system going and I went over and just stood there in it forever just relishing the medal around my neck and clinching the stale bagel in my hand.   Funny thing is….I just thought my journey was over at that point but due to the finish line being so crowded with people, Tony couldn’t get anywhere near it so the plan was to meet under the “D” banner in the friends/family reunion area.  As I struggled through the crowds wet and still clinching my stale bagel I couldn’t find the stupid reunion area.  I walked forever only to FINALLY hear Kay hollar “Dana!”  It was so nice to hear a familiar voice.  As they rushed over tears just couldn’t be held back and we all relished the moment of having finished.  At this point…no one really cared about race time because we all knew we were extremely blessed just to have finished on our own two feet.  I got to soak my feet in this barrell of ice water which was really awesome after 26.2 miles!  Afterwards we enjoyed calling our families, exchanging our stories and eating at chick-fli-A….a Kay Rigby favorite! 

If you had asked me on Saturday afternoon or on Sunday what I thought God wanted me to learn out of the experience, quite honestly I would have said, “NOTHING!”  I was a little disappointed in how the race went, my time, the weather etc….  We had felt so good about our training, the race itself and all our prep going into it and so for the day to just turn into a disaster I was a little confused.  But on Monday morning the fog began to clear and I started putting together a few points of how the marathon coincides with our faith walk with Jesus Christ.  I am going to go ahead an apologize for leaving you hanging here but I am going to have to finish the points tomorrow due to our Board of Directors Meeting being tonight.  So tune in tomorrow afternoon for some interesting parralls about life and marathon running!

See you tomorrow!

Dana

Prayer Team,

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”.  2 Corinthians 5:17

Thank you so much for your continued efforts in praying for New Life Design.  God has been so faithful to us and here we are with 7 months under our belts.  All our needs have been supplied and even in abundance!  We are paying rent on our facilities, keeping the lights on, heating and cooling paid for, buying office supplies as needed, supplying the resources for our clients, paying insurance and taxes and we even have an emergency fund!  Yes….even Dave Ramsey would be proud!!  You bless us with your prayers.  Here are a few updates on things and some specific prayer requests that you can bring before Father this week:

1.        Pray for our clients’ eyes to be opened to the truth that will set them free.  Pray that God will heal the broken places in their souls and that they would completely surrender those things that are holding them back to Him.  John 8:32, Prov. 14:30a, Ps. 23:3, Matt. 16:24

2.       NLD is hosting our very first “Marriage! The Journey” Conference on May 16-17 here at our offices.  We only have room for 8 couples so pray that God will bring the couples that he wants to come and hear this message on God’s design for marriage.  We hope in the future to be able to do this conference in many different churches and have enough room for many more to attend.  Pray that God will open the right doors at the right time for this.  On April 11-12 Tony and I will be doing what we call a “trial run” of the “Marriage! The Journey” Conference in our home with some of our family and friends that have graciously volunteered of their time to let us “practice” on them.  So pray for us as we prepare and that this weekend would be helpful for us.  Eph. 5:1-2, I John 4:18-19

3.       Pray for God to put a hedge of protection around NLD and that the enemy would be completely blocked from attacking us.  This is very important as we are still in our infancy.  We battle not against flesh and blood but against powers, principalities and spiritual forces of this present world.  Eph. 4:12

4.       Pray that God would continue to meet all our budget needs and that God would continue to speak to people about supporting our ministry financially.  It is our prayer that one day we would grow to a place where Rebecca and I can draw a small salary but that is in Father’s hands and we are completely dependent on Him by faith.  If He does not desire that for us we are ok with that.  Phi. 4:19

5.       We seem to be adding new clients each week!  This past week was one of the busiest weeks so far.  Pray that God would continue to send those people who are ready for this process and that He would give them the courage to call us.  I Peter 5:6-7

Dana

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your prayer support for NLD.  The last two weeks have been very busy and we are so thankful.  We added a new client, have another considering going through the process and another prospective client coming in the first of next week.  If you have read the previous blog you know that I had a speaking engagement yesterday and got a chance to share Truth with a wonderful group of women here in Douglasville.  God is at work and we are amazed at every turn.  As I was wrapping up a session with one lady this week I was just overwhelmed with such a sense of privilege and gratitude to be used by Father to help others find life and freedom in Christ.

This next week will be a busy week of appointments, study and prep and then the next week I am going with Tony to Las Vegas to a trade show to demo a product that DATO Technologies has been able to help create.  While he is “wheeling & dealing” at the trade show (not at the casinos ha-ha), I will be held up in the hotel room studying a resource and going through training Cd’s in hopes to incorporate this into our coaching process.  Please pray that Father will give me a clear mind ready to learn and discernment as to how this could help minister to many who are dealing with deep wounds. 

Some additional resources that I will be studying has to do with how to protect your ministry.  As you know, the Enemy does not like that we are sharing the Truth that liberates with many who have struggled and many who have been bound up in so much emotional and spiritual bondage.  As my Pastor, Mike Woods, whom I had the chance to serve under at FBC Powder Springs, would often remind us as a staff that “hurting people hurt people”.  Our Enemy, the Devil would like no more than to use one of these precious ones that we are helping to try to attack us and destroy us.  So, we must be “wise as serpents and as innocent as doves”.  Pray that Father would provide much wisdom and insight through these resources.

I Peter 5:8-9 (NLT) “Be careful!  Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.  Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith.  Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

Dana