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.
Bending Low In A Healing Flow
Oct 9,2016 Sermon at Carillon Beach Community Chapel by Cathy Boyd Byrd, UMC Provisional Deacon Today we examine a miracle, up close and personal. Naaman was a military leader of a powerful nation which defeated Israel. To his king, Naaman was a great man. He was brave and victorious, a man with position, reputation, and power. He was a winner, successful and wealthy, admired and treated as a hero. Then a tiny, little word in the text changes everything, "but." Instantly, we see that, great as he was, Naaman had a problem. He had leprosy. The man who had it all was at risk of...
Prayer of St.Columba and H.Ian
My prayer of St. Columba was posted on Wednesday morning as Hurricane Ian ambled toward the southwest Florida peninsula. It had popped up on my FB history for that date from a few years ago. What delicious irony and a brilliant red thread of history and grace God weaves...I knew nothing of Columba...I simply save prayers and had saved that one. He was 6th century UK monk. "He was not only a great missionary saint who won a whole kingdom to Christ, but he was a statesman, a scholar, a poet, and the founder of numerous churches and monasteries. His name is dear to Scotsmen and Irishmen alike....
20 Years’ War…… or 2000?
9/28/2022.... Taliban “refugees” sexually assaulting female US military troops ON OUR OWN bases here in the US. ….. Do you not see the degradation and disdain they are showing for our nation, everything about our way of life, including any professed faith in God, our view of justice, mercy, and their boldness in violating the rights of all women??? If our system administered justice in the rigid and merciless style of their own Sharia, they’d be dead or eunuchs by sundown. And there are some… here among our citizens who would be happy to administer it. Our justice system today is so wimped,...
St. Columba Prayer
Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me, Be thou a smooth path below me, Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me, Today - tonight - and for ever -St Columba (?521-597) Irish monk and missionary in Scotland
God’s Ways, Our Ways
Jill Carattini, devotional writer, reminds us that God's ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts.......I've had a revelation of sorts this morning upon arising. At first glance it was somewhat disturbing. But upon reflection, it seems just like what God would do......not what I'd expect, not even what I'd want.....but very much what God would do. I am humbled by God's revelation of himself to me and the privilege of serving God. "The parables draw pictures that, like Jesus, turn everything upside down, exposing idols that look curiously like us. It is in the light of his...
Sustainable Ministry
From 9/28/2016; There are some, I expect, who wonder why I, at 62, continue to explore new "vistas", pursue new goals, and continue going after ministry activities and opportunities with passion and energy.....because that's who God made me to be. God's not done with me yet. I'm not done with life yet. "Retirement" is not a word that fits easily into my vocabulary. Moses was 80 when God called him to his greatest and God-chosen work! For many of us, the opportunity to do the things in life that we really love and have been prepared for come only after years of working in other careers and...
COVID Issues: from 9/28/2020
A tale of two perspectives: #1: posted by Rene Evans: This is attributed to Dr. Fauci. The facts about the respective diseases are easy to check.  From Dr. Fauci: “Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for...
Spirit, Soul, and …….Body
from 9/28/2020 What good does it do to continue in the body if one’s spirit and soul are strangled to death by isolation, anxiety, loss of the important relationships and activities of one’s life? Only those who are willing to sacrifice that biocentric view of life that preservation of one’s physical well-being is the be-all and end-all of one’s existence will know the joy of truly living into the fullness of life -spirit, soul, and body-while it continues and when the physical life ends, according to God’s timing, one’s spirit/soul will gently transition without skipping a beat into...
Moon Struck
From Our Daily Bread: The eye never has enough of seeing. Ecclesiastes 1:8 “Frank Borman commanded the first space mission that circled the moon. He wasn’t impressed. The trip took two days both ways. Frank got motion sickness and threw up. He said being weightless was cool—for thirty seconds. Then he got used to it. Up close he found the moon drab and pockmarked with craters. His crew took pictures of the gray wasteland, then became bored. Frank went where no one had gone before. It wasn’t enough. If he quickly tired of an experience that was out of this world, perhaps we should lower our...
Spiritual and Physical Senses
This is a testimony and significant part of the reason why I am so adamant about no smoking at Titus 2 or around my home. Written a couple of years ago, I have shared it a number of times with women in recovery. Kicking nicotine along with other chemical dependencies provides significantly greater long term sobriety success according to multiple long term studies. “I have written in the past about randomly smelling stale tobacco smoke in the past and, after medical consultation, Christian counseling and discussion with others who have experienced the same phenomenon, I had recognized that it...