Fresh Wind. Fresh Fire.

At Your Refreshed Life, we believe faith is foundational to living a fulfilling life. So let me tell you a little about a story. After 10 years of infertility and many doctors’ diagnoses that Thelma would never conceive, she quit her job at the Pentagon in DC and went home to pray and ask God to become pregnant. And miraculously, she did.

But due to a previous head-on car collision with a Mack truck on a rainy night (which she and her husband miraculously survived), and the blood transfusions the hospital gave her with the wrong blood type (B+ blood when she was B-), her blood was killing her B+ baby throughout the pregnancy. The baby was born completely jaundiced with little or no hope for life. An experimental procedure was tested on the baby. The baby was given a complete blood exchange transfusion with little hope for success. It was touch and go for almost two years before they could be assured the baby would live a healthy life. That baby was me.

My mother raised me with that story and would always tell me, “You need to meet this God who saved you and find out what His purposes are for your life.”  I spent my entire youth seeking to find these answers.

After attending church most of my life and searching to really know God, a new church pastor arrived at our church and his first words when he stood in the pulpit were, “You can know God and you can know Him through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.” I knew I finally found the answer to my lifelong search. I placed my faith in Jesus Christ that day, and I’ve then spent the next decades drawing near to Him, learning, teaching the Bible, and enjoying the privilege of sharing His love with everyone I meet.

But ten months ago, I was reminded of that “First Love” relationship I experienced after coming to know Jesus… the joy and excitement I felt as I learned more about Him. Those many years ago in college I was introduced to a study series written by The Navigators ministry called “Design for Discipleship.” I realize now that this series provided me with a solid foundation for my entire life and everything I believe today!

Something awakened within me as I learned more about the ongoing discipleship ministry of The Navigators and reviewed that series again. I began asking women leaders, “If a woman came to you today and asked if you would disciple her, would you know what to do?” Every woman said, “No.”

As Reen explained last week, somehow, we’ve missed a crucial part of the Christian life- if not the most crucial part- discipleship. No one really knows what it means. Few know how to do it. Yet it is one of the most, if not the most, important commands Jesus gave us before going to the Father, “Go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:18)

I keep thinking about the words, “Fresh Wind. Fresh Fire.” In the last ten months I feel God has breathed fresh wind and fire into my soul. I’ve been overcome with the deepest desire to learn more about and begin intentionally helping others go beyond being Jesus-believers to being Jesus-followers by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Join me, won’t you? Reen and I will continue focusing “Your Refreshed Life” on living a fulfilling and meaningful life of balance and purpose. And that includes the all-important aspect of a spiritual life. We will be exploring together what it means to move from being a Christ-believer to a Christ-follower. We will seek to answer the questions, “How can you follow someone you’ve never “seen-in-the-flesh”?, “How do you “know” a God you’ve never touched?”, “What does it mean “to follow” in today’s world?”, and “How do you discover God’s very specific and very personal purpose for your life on this earth?” We will be offering ideas and strategies to equip you to lead others not only to know Jesus but learn the steps to follow Him in the same way His first followers did.

This, my friends, is the truly abundant, refreshed life. We don’t want to leave any one out. We don’t want you to miss it. We want you to experience all God has for you here on earth as a believer in Jesus Christ, a citizen of His Kingdom, as you prepare to live eternally with Him forever.