Watch for Exciting Guests During Ask the Experts Week, Romance Week, and Upcoming Mystery Guest Fridays!

REMINDER: Don’t forget Patty will be dropping in as a featured author to Jefferson, Texas this upcoming weekend at the PULPWOOD QUEENS AUTHOR EXTRAVAGANZA!!

We all had such a great time visiting last week with author Lisa Samson. In addition to Mystery Guest Fridays, I’ll be hosting an occasional “Ask the Experts” Week. Here is the upcoming calendar, so be sure and post it to your Blackberry or Outlook calendar so that you can sit in on the fun:

February 2-6 “Ask the Experts” Week
“Women Authors on Prayer”

☺ Mon. Feb. 2 “Praying When it Seems God isn’t Listening”will kick off the week with a chance for bloggers to post your thoughts and comments about this very complicated issue.

☺ Tues. Feb. 3 Girl, you will Bee excited to sit in on this day when author and Christian Communicator Thelma Wells and Patty chat about “Praying God’s Will”

☺. Feb.4 Are you hungering to go deep? Then join author and popular conference and retreat leader Jan Winebrenner and Patty as they discuss “Prayer and Meditation.”

☺ Thurs. Feb. 5 Calling All Cracked Pots!!! Yes, it’s a week of extravagant grace as Women of Faith’s Patsy Clairmont and Patty talk about “Praying From a Surrendered Heart”

☺ MYSTERY GUEST FRIDAY!! She’s a best-selling novelist and this mystery will leave you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out who she is! Drop in Friday, Feb. 6 to hear Patty and this Mystery Author discuss the most difficult responsibility in a woman’s faith journey, that of praying for our kids. Join Patty and one of today’s most popular and beloved novelists in a candid discussion just for moms.

♥ COMING FEBRUARY 9-14 “ROMANCE WEEK AT WORDS TO GO!!!
Veteran romance editor and author Karen Ball and I will talk about the realities of romance and marriage in real time and how romance can still sizzle out of imperfect relationships.

♥ Additionally, Marilyn Meberg, Women of Faith anchor speaker, humorist, and author of Love Me, Never Leave Me and I will discuss one of the deepest of emotions, the fear of abandonment. Marilyn says of this subject, "We crave connection with the ones we love most, and when our bond with them is broken, damaged, or threatened, we fear being left. We fear abandonment." Join Patty and Marilyn as Romance Week at Words to Go continues to soar.

♥ Fri. Feb. 13 MYSTERY GUEST FRIDAYS VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL hosts a veteran bestselling author whose stories of redemption have touched hearts the world over selling in the millions. One of her novels has never left the bestseller list to this day, nearly a decade later. Your heart will palpitate as this author and Patty discuss the Greatest Romance of All Time. Can you guess what that romance might be, Soul Sisters?

♪ Now don’t forget Patty will be dropping in as a featured author to Jefferson, Texas this upcoming weekend at the PULPWOOD QUEENS AUTHOR EXTRAVAGANZA!!

Mystery Guest Fridays Welcomes Author Lisa Samson!!

Today’s Mystery Guest is none other than best-selling and Christy award winning author, Lisa Samson. Lisa’s latest novel will release in March 2009 and is entitled The Passion of Mary-Margaret (Thomas Nelson). Lisa and I have been friends for several years. We’ve shared writer’s sleepovers at her cabin in the Kentucky hills. And we’ve commiserated and fretted into the wee hours of the morning over our growing pangs in Christ. Welcome, Lisa to Words to Go. We’ll start Lisa, by asking if you’d mind giving us your take on “Being Good”?

LISA: I always equated being good with being busy for the Lord. So, the more I did, the more God would love me. At one point in time, I was writing Christian fiction, teaching Sunday School, leading the worship ministry, typing the bulletin, teaching creative writing at my children's Christian school, writing for a Christian children's radio program, leading a neighborhood prayer group, and taking care of my dying mother.

PATTY: I remember when your mom died. Grief can surely be the final straw on top of a hurry-sick load. What happened that changed all your perceptions?

LISA: A friend took me aside a few years after my mother's death, when my schedule had cleared of a few of those things, but the mentality had not. She told me something God had for me to hear. "I know you're doing good works to please me, but I want your heart."The truth was, I didn't even know how to love God. Particularly God the Father. Jesus, well, what's not to love? The Holy Spirit is here among us. But God the Father was aloof and disapproving. I loved Him because I had to, not because I felt any particular burning affection. And was that really love? Well, probably not. My first step in understanding what it meant to please God, was to begin to understand His great love for me. Let's face it, it's easier to love someone you know already loves you. I had just never really believed He loved me.

PATTY: Why is it, you think, that you’re sticking point was with God the Father?

LISA: I had the old illness of equating my Heavenly Father with my earthly one. (Sorry Dad, but you're in heaven now, so you know.) I never felt I could quite measure up for my father. And then, well, from young adulthood forward, I'd lived with a series of disappointments, prayers not answered the way I thought they should be. Probably a pretty typical drill for a lot of people.

PATTY: Yes. Most of us can relate. Even as parents, we know that we’re not perfect examples for our own kids. What happened next?

LISA: What happened next was a four year odyssey of a Father seeking His child. I pushed Him away again and again. But He held fast, constantly with me, proving to me over and over that He would not let me go. In a way, I was like that child in an emotional fit that a mother must hold tight until she finally calms down and rests her head against the bosom of her loving parent.

PATTY: How have you changed through all of this “letting go” process? Are you tempted to return to your old responses?

LISA: Do I want to "be good?" Well, yes. But the why is different. I want to be good because I want to be like my Father. And that is a completely different motivation. Because when I try to do the things He cares about, minister to the poor and marginalized, welcome the stranger, and other things, I get to know Him in ways I couldn't possibly otherwise and I realize how merciful and all-encompassing is His love for His creation. And then, guess what? I love Him more for all of that. It's a yummy, delicious circle and it leads to intimacy with God and man.

PATTY: Yummy. That’s a good description, like we’re wrapped in delicious comfort. The point of this week’s discussion was to help all of us contemplate the deeper path to intimacy with God—not being good, but in surrendering to a oneness in Christ so that we’re becoming more like him. You’ve helped us cap off this discussion so honestly, Lisa. In the process of this surrender you so aptly describe is where we find intimacy with God because now all of our desires are wrapped up in his. Do you have a favorite scripture that speaks to this intimacy or this surrender?

LISA: “How great is the love of the Father for us, that we should be called the children of God." And you know, "His mercies are new every morning," layers my soul with warmth and hope.

PATTY: Both great scriptures to feast on. Lam. 3:22, 23 is another one of those great morning devotions too! Thank you so much, Lisa, for being our mystery guest today. You’ve given us so much great food for the road to take us into the weekend as we prepare our hearts for worship, in whatever way we deem as our most excellent worship to God.

Thank you for visiting Words to Go—on the Road with Patty. Have a great weekend of intimacy with God who has a passion for you!

On Being Good: Healthy Alliance—Healthy Reliance

Teaser Alert!!!
Tomorrow commences "Mystery Guest Fridays," a day that spotlights bestselling and award winning Christian authors from around the country. This week's mystery guest and I will be chatting over coffee about this week's topic "On Being Good." Tune in Friday and see if you were able to guess who our mystery guest is this week. Here's your hint:
She's hip and trendy, but humble and gifted with the pen; a Christy Award winning author who's always "Straight Up" about her faith in Christ. Who is she?

Now, back to this week's topic "On Being Good."
As my friend Patsy says, it’s time to reach for the positives. I’ve admitted this week my earlier erroneous perceptions of obtaining spiritual maturity, that of trying to be good through sheer force of will. But for a practical perspective on how one might get on track and get on with growth, I’d like to introduce into the dialogue a healthy alliance that leads to a healthy reliance.

This morning I woke up like I often do as a morning person with an Alpha personality. At the top of the To-do list, along with my writing work, my family’s needs and a morning devotion was World Domination. It’s not a dangerous trait necessarily, often harmless since my desire for domination usually involves conquering the mundane daily problems that might possibly ruin my day later on if I don’t get them solved. This morning I woke up with my World Domination gear locked and loaded. It’s an exhilarating feeling, if you’re a card-carrying choleric. But it can go to my head very quickly, a wee problem when I’m committed to strengthening my spiritual muscles rather than trying to throw my weight around—Paul would call that operating in “the flesh.”

Because I’ve committed this week to the study of practicing obedience rather than “being good”, I mentally took a brick bat to my Inner Dominator. Then the thought came to me: “Hold on! What about this oneness with Christ you’ve been spouting about all week?” Wrestling with the self is an exhausting exercise so early in the morning. So I elevated my thoughts to a loftier plane. Reliance on God is an exercise, but not in sheer white-knuckle force of will. I have to drop one practice to pick up another. I traded my “be good” card for a “practicing the presence of God” card. I mentally began to praise God while admitting what had just happened. It’s like laying down your whole poker hand and allowing him to examine it—hmm, nope, you don’t have a full house after all—so here, Patty, I’ll give you My hand: Love, Joy, Peace, Gentleness, Kindness, Self Control . . .

My Inner Dominator deflated and the real person inside of me—now admittedly exposed before the Master of the Universe--felt peace wash over me. I felt lighter. I wasn’t trying to conquer the world before my first cup of coffee. Instead, I was shifting it through a morning exercise of total reliance on God.

As the sun comes up, it’s a practice that will carry me through the day.

“I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.”
Psalm 119:147

On Being Good . . . and Letting Others Know the Difference

When coming of age as a teen, a friend of mine struggled with the faith passed onto her by her mother and her desire to just be herself. She was made to feel uncomfortable with desiring the few simple pleasures enjoyed in a small southern town. If she went to the movies with me, she had to lie to her mother about it. It caused her to finally rebel and throw out the beliefs that I had hungered for my non-Christian family to embrace. But I felt bad about the strife between her and her mother and she had a strange jealousy for mine. Of course, I had no rules or boundaries, could stay up as late as I wanted, see a movie, be it bloody or sensual. But I secretly yearned for the healthy boundaries that my mentally ill parents could never pass on.

There was a young man our age who hung out with us and saw our spiritual struggles as something he was glad to avoid. He said to my friend one day, “You’re never going to be good, so you might as well give up.” But that is how he viewed the faith of my friend as well as my newly embraced faith, as a list of dos and don’ts handed to us by a religious establishment. He was right, because that was how religion was perceived by us too so that’s how our lives were read by others. But my precious friend thought that there was something special about me because I didn’t worry about whether or not I could be good. While she struggled with guilt I struggled with believing God really loved me. I grew up avoiding abuse, learning the codified language I needed to survive. Being good was my salvation. But in the end it was not enough to sustain my rootless faith into adulthood. I was headed for a train wreck and didn’t know it. But just as bad, the friends who we might have influenced as teens wanted nothing to do with our spiritual journeys. Our Christology had little do with Christ. We could have been Muslims for all of our striving to “be perfect.”

I’ve tried many different methods for conveying my faith. I’ve been bold and aggressive, trying to throw faith over people like the "man's" harness thrown over me. I’ve used the post-modern method, becoming so much like others that my testimony was without any savor or substance. But when I finally found that Christ-central surrender, I was finally able to bear fruit and see that first person come to Christ through my influence, a person who is still living for the Lord today.

Ravi Zacharias explains this balance in “The Wisdom to Distinguish,” a CT article this week about faith in the workplace. He’s very comfortable with his boundaries because he is very comfortable with his oneness in Christ. It’s the kind of comfort I’ve found I’d never want to live without again.

“For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
Psalm 149:4

On Being Good

Quick Note:

The annual Pulpwood Queens Best Books of the Year list has just gone up and on it Painted Dresses. Here is what the Pulpwood Queens Founder said of this year’s selections:
“All authorss featured at Girlfriend Weekend will be either be featured Pulpwood Queen Book of the Month Selections or Bonus Book Club Selections. Each author is handpicked by me as the best in books today. I hope you will discover them all and add them to your bookshelves! They deserve to be discovered in really big ways for their books are enlightening, entertaining, educating, and give a new voice to literature which is why I selected them to be represented!”
Kathy Patrick; Pulpwood Queens Founder

I’m grateful to Kathy for selecting Painted Dresses. It’s a big thrill for me and I look forward to the upcoming Girlfriend Weekend next week. If you live in that area, please drop by and say hello to either me or Charles Martin, the two authors selected out of this year’s offerings of faith-based fiction. I had the pleasure of endorsing Charles’s debut novel.

Today's Blog Post:
All that said, today’s topic is on being good. As I mentioned yesterday, the concept of goodness in light of pleasing God was a tough one to crack as a young woman, at least in the early training I received through an outreach to my neighborhood. Like the children that were toted in through a bus ministry, I was fed religion in a hurry. I was a part of the rank-and-file of “outreach ministry” candidates assembled into a children’s Sunday school class. It was a well meaning system of processing children whose parents did not necessarily train them in spiritual precepts. I was handed a list of do’s and don’ts that seemed easily managed to a twelve-year-old who had no rebellious leanings. In comparing myself to some of my friends who majored in rebellious behavior, I was good at “being good.”

It was this processed faith that I carried with me into adulthood along with the baggage of a difficult home life. Although it seems as if I were only being handed another piece of luggage to stack on top of the others, I see God’s hand of providence in it. I’m still a big proponent of outreach through children’s programs to neighborhoods. Some measure of faith has a way of taking root in a young child’s heart. I still remember hearing the Word of God and, even though it was coming through a rather legalistic filter, how it made my heart burn. God breathed on that early seed and just kept working the soil of my life until it took root.

But it took me a long time, years that still seem wasted to me, to learn the difference between “being good” and obedience. Here’s what Oswald Chambers said:

“Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of Spirit.”

I stumbled around in my up-and-down faith for many years before I finally got that oneness of Spirit, the thing I needed most to finally begin to mature and also find inner healing. But it was the pain inside that led me to not stop trying. But my priorities had to shift from desiring that pain to be taken away so that I could obtain what I wanted to finally desiring simply what God wanted. “It is important to note that James did not say that a believer should be joyous for the trials, but in the trials. . . Stress strengthens and deepens a Christian’s faith and lets its reality be displayed.” (The Bible Knowledge Commentary)

The difference between living out faith in order to obtain something for the self and living in the oneness of Spirit will show itself over time as what is true or what is false. I had to learn the difference through painful life’s lessons.

Real Christian faith will stand in the midst of trials because we’re standing or not giving up. That doesn’t mean we’ll never have days where we want to throw in the towel. It just means that we have the assurance that if we don’t, we’ll be strengthened for the next leg of the journey. The stress of those days is our refining process. We’re no longer “being good”, we’re persevering as we are made holy at the hands of a patient God.

“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
Ps. 119:71 NIV

Ready to Ramp

I’ve hit the ground peddaling, trying to finish my WIP The Pirate Queen in the coming days. And after it’s finished, I’m so filled up with God and the things that he’s ordained as missional in my life, I can’t wait to get the spiritual wheels spinning in 2009.

That in mind, I’d like to ramp up the missional language here at Words to Go. So I’m going to offer to you a few weeks out of the year designated as “Ask the Expert” week. I’ve sent interview requests to several authors who are considered “giants of the faith.” But I must add that, in having known most of them for many years, the fact that they’ve humbled themselves to the priesthood of Christ is what has elevated them spiritually. They are not “celebrity” driven leaders, but are simply Christ followers, sold out to obedience to Christ. The first “Ask the Expert” week will have as its topic prayer. Each author/communicator will offer us bits of wisdom about a prayer subject that’s near and dear to her heart regarding prayer and how prayer has changed her for the better.

Additionally, you my friends and fellow bloggers may chime in with your comments on that day. Once the authors are confirmed, I’ll post the dates and reveal the big mystery of who I’ll feature each day. If you don’t mind, please help spread the word in blogdom for those interested in biblical discussions—you’ll want to when you see the list of names.

Fun, fun, fun and even a little deep, deep, deep! This week, I’m going to delve into a subject that for me is personal, the subject of being good versus being obedient to God.
Tomorrow’s blog is entitled “On Being Good.” I look forward to your comments and, please, feel free to chime in with any thoughts or personal stuff. I’m a big believer in being the Confessional Church and that means that I have to unpack my life in all of its flaws with an awareness of my “nothingness” without Christ. I encourage dialogue that speaks to our own flaws rather than others; that’s where we begin to glean from a pure well of thought, filters removed.

Ready to ramp!

A New Year's Blessing From Your Southern Author Friend

With an entire year to elevate my thoughts, to contemplate the peace of Christ and His redemption, I can still battle negativity just like anyone else. But over time I’ve realized that by embracing the morning with whatsoever things are lovely, it brings hope for at least that day. I can blow away negativity now much more effortlessly than in the past with simple mental practices like meditation on God’s Word and His goodness. How about you? How do you know you've grown since last year? The changing of years helps us regain perspective and think on our life and what good things have come from our struggles.

We’re in the final hours of a year that is nearly finished. Here in the South, it’s the commencement of our true winter, a season of blooming pansies and light dustings of snow, at least down in the foothills. I brace for winter and a new year and somehow hope surfaces. It’s the season of do-overs and bowl games, winter beginnings and sports endings shaking hands.

I pray your new beginnings are powdered with snow and hope and football and faith. Toast and awaken and come alive to the fact that God’s still pondering you and what he might do with you next. You’re in his hands and that’s a reason to throw a party and kiss the cheeks of your friends. You are dearly loved, appreciated, and prayed over by this southern author. Happy New Year, friends!