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.
The Re-Ordering Of Worship
John 4- Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar.... 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and...
Christian Hospitality In Community
3/19/2017 The Islamic Society cooked the breakfast yesterday at the Community Breakfast (now in its 4th or 5th year) and served the guests side by side with the rest of us regular volunteers. The organizers of breakfast have generally given the privilege of offering a prayer of thanks for the food to the group responsible for providing it. Imam Dabour gave that honor to a gentleman who appeared to be associated with the Avicenna Clinic for uninsured indigent people in our community. He offered what I and others received as a gracious and inter-culturally respectful prayer. I as a...
Interdependence: What Teamwork Looks Like
One lesson learned during Hurricane Michael was the value of teamwork and process. Now we seem to be having to apply all of those lessons again in all this COVID 19 chaos. What that teamwork looks like depends on one's own internal and external resources and the relationships in one's life.... all relationships. These two factors- resources and relaiionships. In fact, relationships and the ability to work with and through others in a crisis IS one's greatest resource for recovery.... no matter what the dysfunction is that is plaguing us. People-units are the functioning agency of all action...
Wesley Trusted God
Where would the Methodist movement be today if John Wesley had failed to respond to circumstances and had failed to yield to the need of those to whom his movement was ministering, and deferring to the need of the movement in the American colonies rather than insisting on maintaining his own control and preferences over the clergy? As long as the non-negotiable authority of Scripture and the guidelines provided regarding conduct of ministry by those whom he and other trusted persons had trained were in place, it would be God's responsibility for the outcomes, not John Wesley's. Sometimes,...
Rich Mullins
3/18/2018 Listening to some of Rich Mullins' live concerts with Bill......vulnerable, honest, broken, used by God. "One of the reasons I love the Bible is that the people in the Bible are not very refined....they're pretty goofy when it gets down to it." And God doesn't care....he loves them and us anyway. He takes the junk of our lives and makes the greatest art out of it! "God is a wild man....and I hope that during the course of your life you encounter him and you have to hold on for dear life!" That's the God that I know! Extravagant, exciting, surprising.....even shocking, at times....
Raggedy Ann
"A ragamuffin knows he's only a beggar at the door of God's mercy." Bill and I are watching the story of Rich Mullins....and the impact Brennan Manning had on him. Some are ragamuffins.....and God loves us just as we are! My Mother tells the story of me receiving a Raggedy Ann doll when I was about 3 and screaming in terror, rejecting it. I love Raggedy Ann and Andy now. I have a sweet pair of them that are just simple and plain......It is a blessing to be comfortable just being simple and plain, our raggedy selves, living in the kingdom just as who we are!
Scandalous
Scandalous...... Pastors seem to be only somewhat less likely to be involved in scandals these days than anyone else.......as attested to by some statistics in a recent sexual ethics workshop for clergy. People are still people, subject to the same brokenness of temptation and sin even after the laying on of hands, it appears. I overheard a member of the UMC Board of Ministry about a month ago telling someone in a dining room serving line behind me that the Board was looking for clergy candidates who were "self-aware, scholarly, and serious." That was another of those moments when I knew...
God Only Knows
3/18/2020....... Reflections I have had several women come into Titus 2 who have told me that the reason they got sober was because God told them, in no uncertain terms, at a critical point in their addiction that, if they continued, they would die. While it is not unreasonable to expect that some of them would likely die if they had continued in their addiction, I believe their testimonies of hearing the voice of God warn them.. No one makes up a story about God telling them they are going to die....I'm curious if there are any people hearing God's voice of warning in the midst of this...
Authority and Splendor
From Luke 4:5-7......the satan's second temptation of Jesus: 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” The authority and splendor of the satan is nothing more than the common carnival-ware things of life that shine temporarily in the world of the flesh. The enemy may have the power to offer the world's best but, even at that, at its best, lofty...
“What’s The Key?”
An individual asked: What do you feel are the experiences, new learning and resources that Titus 2 provides that result in an environment in which women overcome their addiction and take advantage of your assistance to greater self sufficiency? Are there key characteristics to your recovery and restoration process? Our response: It’s not quick or easy, but it is pretty straight forward when the goal is firmly in mind and the means are in keeping with biblical principles and can be explained in terms the individual can understand. Our Titus team brings a unique and broadly holistic view of...