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.
Presidential Popularity and the Press
This little piece of history trivia crossed my path today. It’s worth noting that the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same……. President Harry S.Truman sent a very personal and powerful handwritten letter on December 29, 1955 to his Secretary of State and confidante, Dean Atchison: “Dear Dean, Well, I have the urge to give some of these lying, paid prostitutes of the mind a little hell, and rather than speak out publicly, you are the victim. Old Man Webster, who is purported to have written a collection of words with derivations and definitions says that...
A Study of Two 8th Day Events in the Life of Jesus
The difference 8 days can make........ Consider this event after Christ’s Resurrection: Jn 20:19-29- 19 Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, (which was Resurrection Sunday) and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and *said to them, “Peace be to you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”...
Healing from Demonic Oppression
It is not unusual for us to discern oppressive spirits that have attached themselves to women who come into Titus 2’s women’s residence. These women’s histories of self-indulgent, unboundaried, and many times reckless activities have placed them in horrific situations of evil presences which give evidence of their presence once the women come into the house. It can be manifested in nightmares, attitudes like resistance to instruction, anger, fearfulness, paranoia, hearing voices, smelling odors, inability to gain relief from anxiety or to experience peace and contentment within the home that...
Obedience and Connecting: Generations and Posterity
Fourth in series of four weekly sermons at First Church of God- PC- 5/2/21 Our primary texts for these 4 Sundays after Easter have been from the book of Acts, looking at key principles proclaimed by and revealed in the lives of the disciples after Christ’s resurrection. We looked first at......... UNITY on 4-11-21 Then…………………… RIGHTEOUSNESS on 4-18-21 Then…………………….BOLD WITNESS on 4-25-21 Today………………… FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE to GOD and CONNECTION to one another Acts 8:26-40 (NASB) 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get ready and go south to the road that...
What’s In a Name?
I've always been intrigued by Simon Peter's name change dubbed by Jesus and the way in which, at particular times of reprimand, Jesus would resort to his former natural flesh-life name and when Jesus was seeing something more promising and worthy of favored note, Jesus would use his latter spiritual-life name. We can all flip-flop in our sense of self from time to time and find ourselves stamped with one or the other moniker. I suspect that Simon Peter understood how Jesus was using his name(s), the same way we as children knew what it meant when mother used the full name...."Cathy Charlene...
Bold Witness
April 25, 2021 On the first Sunday after Easter, our Scripture led us to a consideration of UNITY. Last Sunday, it led us to a consideration of RIGHTEOUSNESS. Today we’re going to consider another principle of the Gospel- BOLD WITNESS Acts 4:5-12- 5 On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6 and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. 7 When they had placed them (Peter and John) in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you...
Sharing in the Suffering of Christ
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Something shared in social media by a friend and worth remembering; . “In Gethsemane, the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not.” C.S.Lewis Not my will, but Yours. Amen. My observation: I realized that the Apostle Paul, who also asked three times to have a “thorn in the flesh” removed, found his prayer answered with the promise of the...
Finding The Way…… Eventually
I realized decades ago that the pre-adolescent baptism of my 10-year-old youth provided a sense of spiritual "security", of possessing a ticket into heaven that would never be taken away. It was a sweet, tender surrender of a childish emotional affection for the idea of Jesus Christ as Savior. However, there was insufficient follow up, a failure to prepare me for the multitude of additional surrenders that would be necessary as I grew into other aspects of my life in the decades to come. I heard it said once that we give as much as we understand about ourselves to as much as we understand...
Times and Justice Change
On more than one occasion I have sought through prayer the justice exemplified through the Gideon case memorialized at the Bay County courthouse..... I just love hearing stories about how certain things came to be the way they are. I was at the courthouse one day with a young lady and we parallel parked on the street next to the Gideon case's historical marker that occurred here in Bay County. I told her about the book and movie, "Gideon's Trumpet", the story of Clarence Earl Gideon. She listened as I told her the story of Gideon v. Wainwright and the Supreme Court's landmark decision that...
Spelling Does Count
A question posed by a friend this stormy morning: Why is lightning spelled differently than enlightening? Why does one get an extra "e?" Who made up these rules? You went back and checked, didn't you? My perspective on this linguistic dilemma: To lighten or enlighten is a gradually illuminating experience -the “e” is the energy under control within the process that is being driven by something separate from the light itself, it seems to me. And it gradually reaches a sustained level that overcomes darkness. Lightning is a sudden explosive act that releases energy that creates a brief light...