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.
Living The Crazy Cycle Is A Choice
The "crazy cycle"......repeating the same behaviors over and over again, in spite of brokenness, grief, disastrous consequences, and attempts at bargaining with God. I've described this cycle many times to students through showing them how it is described by Jesus in the first three purgative steps of the Beatitudes process....Blessedness coming to one through poverty of spirit (brokenness), grieving, and meekness.....One attempts over and over again to deal with the consequences of her sinful behavior when it catches up with her. She gets to a place of recognizing the need to change as...
When Prayers Merge
This morning as I contemplated my prayer life, I realized that 2 decades-long-standing matters of prayer for me have been the cause of pro-life and renewal in The UMC ... Both of those prayer matters have broadened and matured into larger prayer foci for me. This morning the two merged in something that occurred to me as I prayed and I wrote about it elsewhere. I had commented about an article by an African Bishop about the delay in the UMC split. My comment was, "Instead of birthing fraternal twins ( or more offspring) what the episcopacy is doing by stalling and thwarting the split feels...
Welcome…in Jesus’ Name
I heard about someone who had started attending our church and is casting about trying to "find her place".....in need of discipleship and direction. I told the individual who was aware of this to give my number to this person and have her call me or get her permission for me to get her number and call her. One of my heartfelt desires is that our church would follow through on establishing a mentoring/discipleship program for new Christians and be more personally engaged in helping new attendees to find their place through personalized one on one connection with someone specific. While I am...
Goodness of God
The observation below was from 2016..... many times since then the Spirit has moved greatly in my life, at Titus 2, at Lynn Haven UMC and big changes are on the horizon for The UMC and the global church. So many things have changed. Good things continue to be manifest in the world......I prayed on more than one occasion that I might see “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”........ and I do! “There's been a steady stream of prayer for revival going on at our church for a while....This morning, sometime around 2-3 am, I stirred from sleep and the Lord spoke to my heart. "A move...
Social Holiness Per John Wesley
“John Wesley once famously said, “There is no holiness apart from social holiness.” Over the years, many have mistakenly asserted that he was talking about social justice. In reality, he was talking about doing discipleship in the context of real relationships. In essence, you can’t become a real Christian alone. The way forward is as close as a few other people who are willing to band together.” JD Walt, Seedbed. I have been blessed to have had several women in my life who are my “band”..... sometimes in formal weekly meetings, other times as our lives’ demands permitted. The disruptions of...
First Death, Second Death
The Holy Spirit of Christ in our spirit that transforms our soul IS God present, abiding in us, just as it was in Jesus. The difference is that Jesus was born to the body of man with the equipping to attain to the full measure of that reality from the beginning because he was incarnate God Himself. It is a reality that was the plan and will of the Father, to abide in the body of the Son, fulfilling His promises and His plan for redemption since He conceived the creation of the earth. and to demonstrate to us the possibility that we, too, could experience God abiding with us through faith...
Remembering the Headaches of Hurricane Michael
April 17, 2019 Bill has had a worker here to do some projects. They’ve installed our 3 outdoor post lamps in the backyard, repaired a blown out porch screen section, installed a chandelier and more. I don’t know if it’s gratitude that life is easing back into “normal” or the stress of the migraine but tears are slipping out and sliding down my cheek. When a rare afternoon migraine hits, crawl into the hammock, have Bill bring me a Zomig and don’t get up until I can maneuver again. It’s been years since I had a migraine hit like this. This is my view as I peered out over the side of the...
Prophesy Repentance
Jeremiah Johnson reports a prophetic dream he had while meditating on Matthew 7:22-24. It is from an article published in Charisma magazine and reported in a newsletter from Intercessors For America. His message is of a lopsided gospel that works great signs and wonders in the name of Jesus’ love for us but does not give equal voice to Christ’s call to repentance, to “go and sin no more.” Such people who preach a lopsided gospel and those who follow them are seen to have missed the true message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “In the prophetic dream, I was taken to hell where I saw all these...
When Appetite Declines
Barbara Bush died three years ago. Dr. Marc Siegel, calling Barbara Bush a pioneer, observed that she led the way in choosing well for end-of-life considerations. "When do you conclude you’ve come to the end of your life? There are questions and more questions. How is your breathing? How many infections have you had in the past year? How many emergency trips to the hospital have you had to make? How uncomfortable are you on a daily or hourly basis? How would you rate the quality of your life? We are all mortal, destined to exit this world at some point. How hard do you want to fight, how...
Abiding In Communion
Do not be anxious about anything, for I care for you....... I felt the love of Christ wrap around and embrace me as I took communion last night among my brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the Presence, power, and security of abiding in Him. I felt, too, the love of my husband, Bill, with whom I had shared in communion and the abiding of Christ with us for 48 years. I had written about the experience of meeting Christ in the moment of receiving the elements last night while still sitting in the parking lot after this Holy Week Communion Service.#HolyWeek "Tonight we gathered at Lynn...