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.
Little Things After The Storm
In the days, weeks, and months after H. Michael most everyone had one or more, some had many, flat tires from nails and other construction debris all over the roads. This incident happened on the 8th day after the storm near my house. "A little lady, a widow, stopped me at our neighborhood gas station as I was filling jugs with water and asked for a ride to a friend’s house across the lake. Her little Chevrolet truck had a flat tire. No spare. No jack. So I took her to her friend’s house and she left the keys with me with a promise I’d try to get it fixed. My day was busy and at 3:30 I got...
Maxie Dunnam: “Let Me Say That Again”
Let Me Say That Again By Dr. Maxie Dunnam Most ministers have a preaching style with practices that are common in their delivery of the sermon. Somewhere along the way in my preaching, I developed a practice of emphasis and repetition using the recurring phrase, “Let me say that again.” I say that when I want to lodge solidly in the mind and heart of the listener something I have already said and want to emphasize. “Let me say that again.” As I am responding to the raging division and separation in the UMC, I thought my common practice in preaching would be a good communication tool....
Champions of Hope
From 10/20/2016 Imagine my surprise: "Rev. Byrd, I'm calling from Gov. Scott's office......" Shared with Titus 2 board members and instructors! The faithfulness you all have shown has helped make Titus 2 something to be proud of and given us a broader "territory" to share the power of faith-based life recovery! Titus 2 program director Cathy Byrd received a call today from a representative in Governor Rick Scott's office advising us that Titus 2 has been nominated for a Florida Champions of Hope Award. The awards are presented to outstanding faith-based organizations for best...
Assurance
Assurance…. A hallmark doctrine of Methodism….. yet do we really “get it?” It is not “all about the heart”….. it’s only about the heart after it’s been circumcised and healed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit operating by invitation to Jesus to take control of one’s life…… Hebrews 6:19 (AMP) “This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells]…”...
Natural Healing In An Unnatural World
“Jesus’ healings are not supernatural healings in a natural world. They are the only ‘natural’ thing in a world that is unnatural, demonized, and wounded.” German theologian Jurgen Moltmann quoted in Dana Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners snd Sufferers. ( pg. 31)
Starry, Starry Nights
Sweet memories....... ”On the night that I first saw Bill Byrd, I was picked up at my dorm by one of his fraternity brothers and was escorted to a social event on Auburn's campus for those of us who were candidates for sweetheart of their fraternity. As my escort and I walked down the steps at the end of the walkway toward the car in front of the dorm, I saw a shooting star arc across the sky and thought how auspicious that seemed for that particular night. Twenty four years later our son had been dating a young lady for a couple of months when they called to tell us they were getting...
Subtleties In The Word
Sometimes I hear people carelessly use this phrase, "your ways are not our ways. Your thoughts are not our thoughts", to direct us toward the "what" of God's will and work in a circumstance is a scripture I have pondered a lot. The reference is to Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. The first part: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts...." This first-person order of God's declaration suggests 2...
In Between
Reading: "The Land Between, Finding God in Difficult Transitions" by Jeff Manion. Transition is a topic discussed often at Titus 2. The Father of one of our ladies gave this book to her, which his church small group had studied, and gave an impromptu testimony about his own life transition experience to the ladies in the house when he stopped by this week to do the inspection on our fire extinguishers. From the book: "I firmly believe that the Land Between - that space where we feel lost of lonely or deeply hurt -- is fertile ground for our spiritual transformation and for God's grace to be...
The Church Ladies
Cricket, Dixie Bell (Stephanie Wheat), and Eulalee (Emily Davis) all dolled up and ready to sing! Someone asked last night how we got our start....it started after I saw a group of ladies from a Pentacostal church sing some of these songs and I asked the writer if I could use them for a church camp event. She gave me permission and a tape of the songs. I tried for six months to find someone to harmonize with me and put it together. with no success. Then one weekend Emily Davis and I were working on a refreshment team together at an Emmaus Walk and I casually shared my dream with her, to...
A Plain Account of Perfect Love….
“You should be thoroughly aware of this—the heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else; if you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, ‘have you received this or that blessing?’ if you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them on a false scent. Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more but more of that love...