Iron Rose Sister Ministries

When I moved back to Baton Rouge from Venezuela in the spring of 2007, I prayed that God would provide some Christian sisters that could be like iron sharpening iron, encouraging me, and praying for me. I knew it was probably going to be a difficult transition back to life in the U.S. and wanted God´s help to pave the way.

The manifestation of that answered prayer became additional inspiration for the definition of an Iron Rose Sister.

In honor of those ladies, I would like to issue a challenge with a prize attached.

Challenge: Post a picture to the Iron Rose Sister Ministries Facebook page of you and some of your Iron Rose Sisters by the end of this weekend. Be sure to tag your friends and include your location.

Prize:Monday morning, September 14, one of the pictures will be randomly selected and the one who posted the picture will receive a free copy of In God’s Right Hand!

As daughters of the King, securely upheld in his right hand, whom shall we fear? Nothing! Affirmed through a vivid description of our heavenly Father that transcends the Old and New Testament, God’s right hand is a special place of honor from which he demonstrates power and authority, promises protection and salvation, and provides a source of strength. God’s righteous right hand is also where Jesus sits to intercede for us!

These are truths on which we can rely! His right hand is where we can
securely rest, peaceful in the protection he provides, free of fear, and filled with hope.

With only one minor edit, I want to share the following song with you that I wrote my senior year of college. It is my prayerful invitation to join hands together with God and one another as we continue on the journey.

God’s Right Hand We Hold

Will you think and pray for me

As I think and pray for you?

While we’re apart in time and space

It’s all that we can do.

Chorus:

Our lives are held in God’s hands,

He is in control.

When so many things tear us away,

God’s right hand we hold.

We both call God our Father,

Our bond is more than friends.

And through the blood of Jesus,

The friendship never ends.

P.S. A very special birthday shout-out to my mom, Jocelynn Goff, who has always encouraged me to cling to God's capable hand.

One of my many favorite verses that refers to God's right hand. What is yours?

Overwhelmed. I think that would be the best expression of my state of being the past couple of months. Overwhelmed.

I will spare you the list of things that have given me that feeling, knowing that you have your own list. Now, don’t go there and start feeling overwhelmed at my mere mention of the list… stay with me for a moment of reflection on something I have come to realize.

How can I feel overwhelmed and frustrated about something that is no longer in my hands?

If I have truly given things over to God, left them in His capable hands. If I depend on Him to meet my needs and trust His protection for whatever comes my way, why do I take those things back out of His hands and attempt to juggle them in my own. By not leaving my worries in God’s hands, I welcome back the feeling of being overwhelmed, frustrated, and discouraged.

My encouragement today is not to give things over to God, but rather to leaveit all in His hands.

While debating what car to purchase, I had all but settled on a Toyota® Corolla. As I weighed the merits of my choice and finalized my decision, the other Corollas on the road began to jump out at me. I’m sure they had been there all along, but my awareness was heightened by my attentiveness to my new car.

In a similar fashion, my fascination with the reference to God’s right hand began while I was meditating on Isaiah 41 at a ladies’ retreat hosted by the South Baton Rouge Church of Christ in September 2012. I later included those reflections in an article for Wineskins magazine (May 2013), and in chapter 4 of the first Iron Rose Sister Ministries interactive Bible study, Human AND Holy. I will share some of those reflections in Chapter 2: A Promise of Protection and Salvation.

However, after that weekend, like my Corolla, I started to notice how often the Bible refers to God’s right hand: sixty-four times, according to the NIV! The references were jumping off of the pages of Scripture and I was captivated. It was as if God’s right hand was guiding me to those passages and, ultimately, to sharing the encouragement found through those verses with you.

When facing challenges, filled with fear, or on shaky ground, I have been renewed and strengthened by the reminder that I am secure in God’s right hand.

Please join me in taking God’s right hand as he enlightens us and broadens our understanding of the honor, blessing, power, authority, protection, salvation, strength, and righteousness that come at his right hand.

God has carried me and Iron Rose Sister Ministries in His capable right hand all the way to Searcy, Arkansas, and to the release of the second small-group interactive Bible study book, In God’s Right Hand: Whom Shall I Fear?

Thank you for your prayers through this process and transition!

I am extremely excited to share with you the promises and hope that are found in God’s right hand.

Securely held in God’s right hand, whom shall I fear? A vivid description of our heavenly Father that transcends the Old and New Testaments, God’s right hand is a special place of honor from which he demonstrates power and authority, promises protection and salvation, and provides a source of strength. God’s righteous right hand is also where Jesus sits to intercede for us. Through this six-week interactive Bible study, we will explore these characteristics of God’s living and active right hand in our lives. Let’s join hands with him and walk together on the journey!

Order your copy today!

Yesterday morning, at the Downtown Church of Christ where I attend in Searcy, Arkansas, we sang the song Whom Shall I Fear?

The song was sung as a prayer in honor of the Waldron family—a special request for Hayley Waldron whose husband Harrison is in a coma following a traumatic brain injury in a four-wheeler accident just over a month ago.

The Waldron family has always been special to me since we have worked together in one missions context or another starting back in 1999. Phil and Donna Waldron (Harrison's parents) and I were part of a team that was going to start a church in Bogotá, Colombia, and while that team never materialized, we worked together in Cozumel, México, to establish a new work there. Last November, I had the privilege of conducting a seminar where they currently serve with Mission UpReach in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras.

The song is one of my favorites, but I found myself singing with even more conviction Sunday morning for the Waldron family and for others who long to remember the promises reflected in the words to that song.

The sentiment expressed in the lyrics echoes many of the promises found in God’s right hand and are ones that I cling to often (expounded upon in the book, In God’s Right Hand: Whom Shall I Fear?)

So, in honor of the Waldron family, I would like to simply paste below the lyrics to that song as a prayer for today.

You hear me when I call

You are my morning song

Though darkness fills the night

It cannot hide the light

Whom shall I fear

You crush the enemy

Underneath my feet

You are my sword and shield

Though troubles linger still

Whom shall I fear

I know who goes before me

I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

My strength is in Your name

For You alone can save

You will deliver me

Yours is the victory

Whom shall I fear

Whom shall I fear

I know who goes before me

I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

And nothing formed against me shall stand

You hold the whole world in Your hands

I'm holding on to Your promises

You are faithful

You are faithful

And nothing formed against me shall stand

You hold the whole world in Your hands

I'm holding on to Your promises

You are faithful

You are faithful

You are faithful

I know who goes before me

I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

I know who goes before me

I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The one who reigns forever

He is a friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side