About the Author
Cathy Boyd Byrd invites others to join her in considering topics of interest to those on the Christian spiritual journey…..discipleship, spirituality, mental health, Christian growth, and Bible study. Cathy enjoys working with others as they transition from emotional emergency and brokenness to spiritual emergence and abundant living! Many of the topics about which Cathy writes are interrelated as experienced in her own life and in the lives of those with whom she works in counseling, teaching, and case management, and in friendships. She believes that sharing our journey of Christian growth and spirituality helps us know God and ourselves better and connects us with others!
Cathy is a Christian Educator and Life Recovery Counselor, and an ordained deacon through Christian Leaders Institute. She serves as Community Outreach MInister at Lynn Haven United Methodist Church. She is a student (disciple) of the Holy Spirit and shares with her students (disciples) the things the Lord teaches her through Bible study and contemplation, incorporating experiences interpreted through the Word, cherished traditions of her faith, and reasoning that comes from seeking the mind of Christ in accountable community. She was widowed in August 2020 after 48 years of marriage to Bill Byrd, is mother of 2 and grandmother of 5. Her journey of faith has been lifelong and continues to be an adventure with the trailblazer and guide, Jesus Christ!
Cathy is the founder and program manager for a Christian women’s residential life recovery program, Titus 2 Partnership, Inc.(www.titus2.life) in Panama City, Florida.
In All Things…..Trust God
I saw that a friend had posted this on Feb. 4,2022; "My husband and I were talking on the phone yesterday as he was driving. We were talking about all the stress we were under with the many things life has thrown at us lately. It’s like when one thing goes wrong, it becomes a domino effect. He has been really anxious and worried. He was asking why can’t we just get a break? I was telling him that we have to trust God and that he puts pressure on us sometimes to get our attention or to teach us something. As I was talking he interrupted me by saying “God is at work to make us who He intends...
Take My Hand
Every time I envision God's grip on me I think about Rev. Ron Ball talking about stooping over and clasping the entire hand and wrist of his toddler granddaughter as they walked together and how God spoke to him in that moment, calling Ron's attention to how he was holding her hand and letting Ron know that's exactly the way He holds ours.... enfolded entirely, securely, and never letting go. Isaiah 41:13 "For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Fear not, I will help you. ' Isaiah 42:6 “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness,I will also hold...
Taking Hits
When one says that “God told me to do .....” it would be prudent to spend some serious time in prayer and in the Word and ask oneself am I prepared to be used by God as a good example or even as a horrible warning, as God might choose or allow? As a vessel of honor or as a vessel of dishonor? If one has been faithfully being used for honor then it’s reasonable to expect that God will continue to do so. However, only God knows an individual’s heart and motives and God’s own purposes and plans for the individual and what and who needs refining. However God chooses to use me, so be it. I am...
Choose
Reflection on "Choices".............. The book of Joshua is one I have spent a lot of time in. Joshua's life, even as a young man in service to Moses, showed wise choices. "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15 One's growth in Christ can probably be boiled down to one word: choose. Choosing the right path is hard. Often we have to keep pushing through failures. Sometimes it seems easier just to ignore God's instructions. But Proverbs 8:10-11 says, "Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather...
HIdden Suffering
The matter of suffering and our desire to somehow avoid it in life has been very present lately as my awareness has been heightened by my own and others' experiences.... One person told me she'd had a dream in which her abuser, no longer in her life, had chased her. She ran in her dream, trying to hide, again and again. As he drew closer and closer, Jesus spoke to her and said, "Turn and face him." She turned and her abuser stopped in his tracks and could come no further. She said to me, "The Lord told me to face all of this." We discussed a time in her life when her choices were limited by...
Short Notes on Prayer
Short Notes on Prayer- Gleaned from a message by Craig Carter, LHUMC, 1/30/22 (based on book by Pete Grieg) Petition- asking for me. (An act of humility, dependence, and faith.) Matthew 7:7-9- 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. Intercession- asking for others. An act of love and faith. Christ is already interceding for each of us. Romans 8:34- “Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen...
Called to Church Beyond the Church
I have come to understand why Paul found a preference for ministering at the far edges of Christendom.... with an "ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that he would not be building on someone else’s foundation......" (that being an uncomfortable place of sometimes having to deconstruct a lot of syncretistic folk religion, religious abuse, and concreted-in dogma.... facilitating purging before illuminating.) His own experience of 180 degree salvation reorientation out of self-righteousness was such a soul-snatching, eyes-blinding experience, he seems to prefer to...
Fourth Days of Seasons, Reasons and Eternity
For the first time in a long time I was reminded this morning of my 25 years of involvement with The Walk to Emmaus as I participated in an online devotional conversation where the topic of individuals' experience with that renewal movement came up. I pulled away from involvement in Emmaus Walks after my experience with pursuit of deacon ordination in The UMC. Some of the individuals I'd encountered there in clergy roles had shown me a side of the " connection" and "discipleship-making" that suggested more talk than walk. I no longer felt comfortable inviting lay people to live into God's...
Two Disciples Were Traveling To Emmaus,Talking
Posted by a friend today: "My husband and I were talking on the phone yesterday as he was driving. We were talking about all the stress we were under with the many things life has thrown at us lately. It’s like when one thing goes wrong, it becomes a domino effect. He has been really anxious and worried. He was asking why can’t we just get a break? I was telling him that we have to trust God and that he puts pressure on us sometimes to get our attention or to teach us something. As I was talking he interrupted me by saying “God is at work to make us who He intends us to be”. I could tell he...
Dreams of Heaven
A young discipleship student with a lot of prior history of trauma and PTSD calls me frequently to discuss her dreams and seek help in gleaning the meaning that lies in them. Her dreams were, when we first met, nightmares of snarling, foreboding demons and feelings of being snatched from her bed, but that was months ago. Her dreams now are affirming and point her to a life of “hope and a future.” Today she called: her: “Last night I dreamed I went to heaven…. What does that mean?” My reply: How did it make you feel? Her: “ Good!” Me: I think it means you are learning how to live the Lord’s...