It's time for y'all to meet...

Please take a moment and allow me to introduce you to the two ladies who have changed my life. These two women don't know each other and will not meet till they are on the other side of heaven together but they have both had a profound impact on my faith walk with our Lord.

Lydia Prince

The first is Lydia Prince, and although she died several years before I was born, she and I have a lot in common. For one, God called her to Jerusalem to serve Him as He did me. Then she married a man that was younger than her (by 26 years to be exact) and I married a man younger than me (by only 6 years). But it is the book about Lydia's life that has impacted me in such a powerful way. The book, "Appointment in Jerusalem" is the story of how Lydia got saved in her living room, filled with the spirit and then sold and gave away everything she had to move to a land once known as Palestine. Every year I pick up this book again to read it and it's like being re-united with an old friend. In some ways I feel like I know Lydia so well and can understand what she was walking through. But mostly, the Lord always speaks to me through that book in giving me "rhema" (a word revealed) or revelations through it. I'm amazed that in this book that I have read so many times, I continually learn something new from it every year. One of the resounding themes from this book is how important the scripture is and how every answer to life can be found in it.

If you haven't read "Appointment in Jerusalem", please find it at The Carpenter Shop or on Amazon and possibly even Lifeway may have it.

Julie and Samuel

And here's the other love of my life, Julie Collier. A woman who has no idea of the profound impact that she has made in my marriage. Here is the most generous, warm, friendly, inspiring, loving encourager that I have ever met. It would take too long to list everything that she has ever done for me - but she knows. Every time I leave her presence after we've met for a latte or omelet at Edgar's, I feel refreshed. It's like she breathes life into me. And as I was mentioning this to Steve he said, she's like your Onesiphorus. Exactly! This past month, Pastor Chris has been preaching on this verse that Paul wrote in a letter to Timothy his mentoree:
      
"May the Lord bless Onesiphorus and all his family because he visited me and encouraged me often.        His visits revived me like a breath of fresh air." 2 Timothy 1:16

So here are the two women who have loved me (one without even knowing me), encouraged me, challenged me to go further in my faith and in my belief that God would come through for me in every situation and circumstance.

So I want to know who is the woman in your life whose visits revive you like a breath of fresh air?