Perhaps you remember The New Yorker cartoon in which two monks in robes and shaved heads are sitting side by side, cross-legged on the floor. The younger one, with a quizzical look on his face, is facing the older, who is saying: "Nothing happens next. This is it."

That's exactly what it means to live in the here and now. We aren't waiting for something else to occur, we aren't distracted by anything around us, and we aren't trying to escape mentally to another time. We are "mindfully awake." Paying attention. Savoring the moment for all it's worth. We are fully alive!

I once heard Diane Sawyer say on television, "The most important thing in life is to pay attention"--and I would agree. But how often are we able to achieve that? Not often enough, unfortunately. Nevertheless, our richest times in life are those when we are completely present, consciously heightening our awareness because our journey has brought us here--and we choose not to miss it.

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Many believers I know desire to work for a ministry or Christian company someday. Their goal is to work in an environment with praise music playing, co-workers praying and Scripture verses beautifully calligraphied on wall plaques. They imagine such a workplace as holy, peaceful and devoid of that common problem: difficult co-workers.

I wish this were the case, but until our Lord comes back we will always have some level of difficulty relating to co-workers, whether Christian or not. I have traveled the length and breadth of this nation and most of the world, worked with Christians and non-Christians alike and believe me, there is little difference in how personnel operate under pressure.

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Someone once said, "People of vision see the invisible, hear the inaudible, think the unthinkable, believe the incredible and do the impossible." No one better exemplifies this adage than Christian women in the marketplace.

These visionary women are discovering their call from God to affect every arena of life. They are setting high standards of integrity and morality in their places of work. They are using their spiritual gifts and anointing, which have traditionally found expression only within the walls of a church, to bring success and favor in the secular world.

For women to succeed in this arena they must be willing to give up their old mind-sets. Hanging on to the old will keep them from the success and purposes God has for their lives.

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Yet every girl wants a career that will bring success. The difficulty is in determining what that means, for to scarcely two people in the world would it be represented by the same thing.

"Would you exchange places with that woman, performing her duties and receiving her income?" I asked a poorly remunerated literary toiler, in reference to one of the buyers in a large dry goods establishment, who earned several thousand dollars a year.

"Never!" was the quick reply. "I should rather write for $3 a week than to bargain for fabrics and faces at a hundred.'"

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When I was in high school, I thought I was going to be a rock star, but in 1968 God revealed to me that He had other plans. After graduating from the University of Mississippi, I taught school for a while and then stayed home after my second child was born.

I was happy and fulfilled with my family, but there was something missing--something I longed to do--something creative. I began to look for an outlet.

My search led me to begin "fooling around" with ceramics at my kitchen table. Soon my experimenting became an adventure, and I now have a company that manufactures hand-painted dinnerware and accessories in Ridgeland, Mississippi--with 110 employees!

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In every generation from the Egyptian refugees until the present, human beings have attempted to define a physical sphere in which God can be observed. From the Ark of the Covenant to lavish cathedrals, people have built containers or boxes for God.

We deeply desire that He get into the box and stay there. Our humanity needs to establish God in our three-dimensional paradigm so we can watch Him and try to figure out where He is, what He is doing and what He might do next.

History suggests that after A.D. 300, as Christianity became legal, God seemingly was willing to confine Himself to another box so His growing, struggling church would have something tangible that could be seen, organized and managed. This box became a building, which the people began to understand as "the church."

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When I was in high school, I thought I was going to be a rock star, but in 1968 God revealed to me that He had other plans. After graduating from the University of Mississippi, I taught school for a while and then stayed home after my second child was born.

I was happy and fulfilled with my family, but there was something missing--something I longed to do--something creative. I began to look for an outlet.

My search led me to begin "fooling around" with ceramics at my kitchen table. Soon my experimenting became an adventure, and I now have a company that manufactures hand-painted dinnerware and accessories in Ridgeland, Mississippi--with 110 employees!

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If you hold a job outside your home, God has plans for you--and for your workplace.

It doesn't matter what kind of job you have or where you fit on the company totem pole. What matters is that you embrace your calling to transform your work environment by using the power that God has made available to you.

Perhaps you don't like your job. Maybe you can't wait to move up or move out. But don't let your current circumstances prevent you from seeing God's purpose for your life right where you are.

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Laurie Malaby dialed the number on the business card she had been given earlier that week, never dreaming that a single telephone conversation would open the door to a life-changing experience. Trained as a pediatric physical therapist, Laurie had worked with disabled children in the United States for many years.

As part of her job with Wicomico County Public Schools in Salisbury, Maryland, Laurie often places orders for new wheelchairs when her students outgrow them. "In my profession, we can't bear to see perfectly good equipment discarded," Laurie says. "So I began storing these used wheelchairs in the basement of my school, thinking there had to be someone who could recycle them."

One day in 1997, while talking with a wheelchair vendor, she mentioned the collection of wheelchairs that was gathering dust in the basement. The vendo r handed her a business card with the telephone number of a volunteer for "Wheels for the World."

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Since the American Revolution, women have played an active military role in every United States conflict. Three thousand women served in World War I, 7,000 in Vietnam, and during Desert Storm, 7 percent of deployed American forces were women--more than 40,000.

Events involving U.S. military women gained international attention during Operation Iraqi Freedom, including the dramatic rescue of prisoners of war Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson, and the loss of Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman killed by enemy action in our nation's wars.

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It's 6 a.m., and the alarm is beeping relentlessly. Decision time: Slap the "snooze" bar, or up and at 'em?

These days my feet hit the floor with great anticipation for what the Lord has planned for me. In prayer and in His Word, I get my marching orders for the 24 hours ahead.

It was not always that way. Before my life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ in 1980, my bed was my hiding place; the clock, my enemy; sleep, an idol. If only I could hide in eternal night, free from the responsibilities of marriage, family, life in general. I hated myself, and I was sure God hated me too. Read Full Article >>

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Lord, cause me to hear Your prophetic Word for my life today. And lead me to places and peoples who need to receive that Word--even at the risk of being thought a fool."

This prayer is tucked inside Myrtle Amundson's Bible. It's part of a list of prayers from The Calling, a book by Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors ministry, and Myrtle has seen God answer it in her life. In fact, He's given her an unusual calling that enables her to touch many countries of the world without leaving her own backyard.

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In the small town of Berryville, in northwest Arkansas, members of the board at First Baptist Church voted in February 1997 to close their church-run day-care center. They made the abrupt decision not because the facility was too expensive to operate or because they didn't have enough children enrolled. The official reason, as stated in a letter that was mailed to parents, was that church leaders felt their day-care center was encouraging women to work outside the home.

"God intended for the home to be the center of a mother's world," the letter from First Baptist stated, adding that working moms "neglect their children, damage their marriages and set a bad example." First Baptist's day-care center board, under the direction of the pastor, also noted in their letter that families should learn to get by on the husband's single income."

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When I was in high school, I thought I was going to be a rock star, but in 1968 God revealed to me that He had other plans. After graduating from the University of Mississippi, I taught school for a while and then stayed home after my second child was born.

I was happy and fulfilled with my family, but there was something missing--something I longed to do--something creative. I began to look for an outlet.

Read Full Article >>