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.
Smoldering Wicks to Flaming Fires
Pondering "fire"...... I was at a restaurant with a couple of Titus 2 ladies at lunch and a woman with her back to me at the next table had a tee-shirt that said, "Be what God created you to be and set the world on fire." It reminded me of a number of Scriptures....about the world ending in fire, about the fire of the Holy Spirit, about the Holy Spirit being poured out on God's sons and daughters in the end days, about so many others and a thought occurred to me. What if God's Word means that the earthly realm of the flesh is going to be ended by the wild fire of the Holy Spirit coming upon...
How Will One Be Defined?
Like the unamed “rich young ruler” in the Gospels, anything one is unwilling to surrender for the sake of following Christ becomes the source and basis of one’s identity…….. and is her true god. It may be a relationship, material security, vanity, sexuality, career, or any number of other things one withholds from God for her own pleasure or peace that defines one’s identity. If that is the case, one will never know the fullness of pleasure or peace one can know in intimate relationship with God. The young ruler who came to Jesus had his own idea of what constituted righteousness….....
Whose Gospel?
A person came for Christian counseling and substance abuse care who immediately began to tell me about all of the religious teachers under whom she had studied, most of whom I did not know. She told me how she had been “in ministry” for several years and what her office, gifts and calling were…..and yet, here she was, asking me to help her with some profound issues. Among my first directives to her was to read selected sections of the Bible. After several days it was clear she was not doing that. As I talked to her about Christian principles from Scripture she lacked knowledge of some...
God in the Day’s Details
Give me a sign of your goodness. Psalm 86:17 "Our lives are stories built of small moments. Ordinary experiences. It is too easy to forget that our days are adding up to something astonishing. We do not often stop to notice the signs and wonders. The writing on the wall. But some days we do." Christie Purifoy (Roots and Sky) I am grateful for another day in which to observe God's goodness as God reveals himself in the small moments of life. CBB 5/11/18
Habitual Offender or One Long, Sad Season of Sorrow?
"Why would we rush to defend God to a broken world and not race to defend the image of God in the world's broken?" - Ann Voscamp, The Broken Way Powerful! I was sitting in court for the second day waiting to give testimony regarding a woman pleading for rehab over a state offer of 4 years in prison for violation of probation for multiple drug charges over 4 years' time. I was there under compulsion from God, even though I only knew her through her application and a brief video interview at the jail the day before. When I indicated my willingness to take her into Titus 2, the public defender...
Pay to Stay
The reality of running any addiction recovery program is that there are costs involved. Titus 2, because of the small size and the commitment of its volunteers, has minimized the cost of operating a residential program. However, there is only so much one can get donated. Rent, utilities, vehicle maintenance and operation costs, etc. are not easily obtained by donation. So, there has to be income. Every rehabilitation program either solicits donations, sells goods, or charges a fee for the program. Secular for-profit enterprises simply charge what is needed to cover their costs or what...
Living From the Outside In or the Inside Out
Simple Hand Metaphor for Thinking About Three-Part Human Being and How Conscience Works. I found myself in a spontaneous spiritual direction session with someone this week. The directee was grasping for a way to understand the concepts we were discussing about the release of the power of the Holy Spirit through our spirit in a way that transforms us completely. I used my open hand. “This,” I said, "is me." Figure 1 I crossed my thumb across my palm. I said, “This thumb is my spirit. It is the operating system.” Figure 2 Then I closed my four fingers over my thumb. I said, “This is my...
Spiritual Direction….Gift Not Vocation
About ten years ago I was encouraged by a friend to apply for a new program being offered through our church’s regional office, a spiritual direction training class. It was to be a three-year program. I applied, along with her. She was selected for the class; I was not. Other interests and areas of growth occupied my time for the next decade. However, in 2014 I was assigned a ministry coach and worked with the coach through phone contacts for over two years. At one point in our coaching, she told me that the spiritual work I was doing was not in her area of expertise. She was a technician...
Peculiar People
Titus 2:14 (KJV) says that Christ gave Himself to redeem us from sin and “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Bill and I listen many mornings to the teaching of Dr. David Jeremiah at oneplace.com . Today he was teaching from Revelation 14 regarding the 144,000 witnesses bearing the mark of Christ, singing before the throne in Heaven. “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as...
“Why are you doing this?”
"There are two choices in the Christian life. You can drift along, or you can employ your talents enthusiastically for the glory of the Lord........God is not going to measure the use of our talents against those of other people, but only against what we ourselves are capable of doing according to how he has equipped us." Charles Stanley John 13 Jesus, knowing that He had come from God and was going away to God, stood up from dinner and removed His outer garments. He then wrapped Himself in a towel, poured water in a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with His...