by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 9, 2022 | sermons
“….. the two most important notes in any musical composition are the first and the last. “The audience might forgive you for what comes in the middle,” a band director would say, “but they will forget neither your very first impression nor your final...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 9, 2022 | religious movements
“Our hearts hurt from the failed religion of extremism, and we deserve more than the failed religion of routine-ism. It is time for religious leaders and religious communities to take the lead in the spiritual and cultural shift that this country and the world...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 9, 2022 | Baptism
I realized decades ago that the adolescent baptism of my 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...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 9, 2022 | Spirituality
Because I work with women, generally I see more women willing to commit to “deep diving” in their relationship with Christ. But when a man is willing to dive deep, too, it is a wonderful thing! Deep-diving women in relationships with surface-floating men...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 6, 2022 | forgiveness
A friend told me about a young man, a veteran of the US’s Afghanistan war, who admitted having a great deal of anger and unforgiveness that led him to drunken rages. When she talked to him about about forgiveness he told her God had allowed him to not forgive....
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 6, 2022 | disappointment, spiritual battle
How many have noticed that, when one has a significant victory in the Kingdom that leads to peace and reconciliation, pretty close on its heels comes a sneak attack from the enemy that is sometimes so subtle and unexpected that it just brings one to her knees? That...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 6, 2022 | action
Each new day is an invitation to join God in abundant life…. I had a busy day but not a minute was rushed or anything less than holy……I had blessings in conversations where I was able to speak God’s Word into at least 6 lives with hope, joy,...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 6, 2022 | self-awareness, serenity, sleep
…”forces of culture insist we give up an hour of sleep here, or two hours there—the grinding schedules, the unnerving stock piles of e-mail in need of responses, the early-taught/early-learned push for more and more productivity.” Thus, author and...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 4, 2022 | heart, love, theology
In a recent devotional from seedbed.com JD Walt asked had we considered that the church has no “doctrine of love” and wouldn’t it be a good thing to have? I contemplated his question for several days before he got back to it today in a devotional in which he shared a...
by Cathy Boyd Byrd | Apr 4, 2022 | Childhood excitement
“Christ has truly given the world permission to touch, to experience, to jump completely into the great and wonderful kingdom in which God reigns. In this kingdom, we can be as children who delight in knowing life with dirty hands, who like Thomas need the...
