Tag Archives: Northeast Texas

Live Like That

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

Rodney Hogue at Trinity Baptist Church Adult Freedom Weekend

Ever get a song stuck in your head? Of course, we all do. Well, for me, God super glues them in my brain. He speaks to me through them and writes their messages on my heart. Sidewalk Prophets has a song called Live Like That that I keep hearing over and over lately. The message is humbling.

Am I proof 
That You are who you say You are 
That grace can really change a heart 
Do I live like Your love is true 

People pass 
And even if they don’t know my name 
Is there evidence that I’ve been changed 
When they see me, do they see You 

I want to live like that 
And give it all I have 
So that everything I say and do 
Points to You 

I recently got to know some people who truly ARE living like that. And it makes me realize that I was just going through the motions. I was just “standing in the doorway” to what God has to offer me here on earth. I want to crash through that doorway and be can’t-wait-to-spend-time-with-Jesus SOLD OUT and tell everyone I meet about his amazing love!

If you can relate, if you are hungry for freedom in Christ and a deeper, richer, more powerful relationship with Him, I want to invite you to an event that could transform your life. Adult Freedom Weekend at Trinity Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, TX starts Friday night, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m., introducing Northeast Texas to Rodney Hogue. He’s the pastor of Community in Grace Church in California and his focus is “growing up the saints to become transformation agents who expand the Kingdom of God.”

Jennifer Nickerson of Gateway Church will lead worship.

So, what is a transformation agent? Pretty cool job title, in my opinion. Like the Sidewalk Prophets song, I imagine my job description would be to make an eternal difference in the lives of people right here in my small world. I pray that I am doing that. How about you? Do people you work with, see at the ball game, or pass in the grocery store see Christ in you?

Another song has recently made a powerful impact in my life. It’s a remixed version of Shadows by David Crowder Band featuring Christian rapper Lacrae. It blew me away when I first heard it performed by Tennison UMC’s praise band.

DCB’s part is awesome, (When shadows fall on us…We will not fear…We will remember…the cost…We’re resting in the shadow of the Cross), but here’s part of the rap that really strikes a chord here:

And I will boast in the cross, I boast in His name
I will boast in the sunshine, boast in His reign 
What’s my life if it’s not praising You
Another dollar in my bank account of vain pursuit, I do
That count my life as any value or precious at all
Let me finish my race, let me answer Your call

Will you answer His call?

Come hear Ps. Hogue and find out how to LIVE LIKE THAT at Freedom Weekend.  The cool thing is, it doesn’t end with the three-day conference. Trinity is launching a new ministry to disciple these new “transformation agents.”

Freedom Ministry is led by Judy and Steve Capps.  The ministry’s focus is to “help Christians walk in all the Freedom Christ paid for them to have and to learn how to be an influence in the lives of others for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.”

Freedom Ministry classes, which are open to everyone, begin Wed., Aug. 29.

You can register for the conference online at www.trinitytx.org or in the Fellowship Hall at the church.

Boast in the Cross. Answer His Call. Live. Like. That.

Narrow Back Roads

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

Photo by Erin Bowers

If there is one thing this self-proclaimed city girl has learned since moving to my small Northeast Texas town from DFW, there are lots of back roads to get lost on. Winding, curvy Farm-to-Market roads where texting is impossible, county roads that the locals don’t know the numbers of and give you landmark directions to; and dead-end roads that I will always find when I don’t know exactly where I’m going.

As a mom trying to impart some wisdom to my 21-year-old son, Matthew, and my daughters, Mandy, 23 and Kristin, 16, those back roads are a good reminder of the path that God wants us to take in life.

Matthew 7:13-14 shows us there is only one route in the GPS on your way to Heaven: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

They have all made the choice to follow that path, so I know their destination is secure, but I worry, of course, about them getting lost along the way. Their eyes roll back in their heads as soon as I start a sentence with, “When I was your age…”

But, what they can’t see now is that I have BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!

I am at a crossroads in my life, personally, professionally and spiritually. I lost my mom not long ago and have had a lot of time to think about what she and others in my life taught me and the destructive 4-lane highways and detours I took to get back to this place of narrow tree-covered roads. A warming glimmer of sunlight has found its way through the leaves, a reminder of God’s promise to never leave me. That’s the truth I want them to hold onto!

I hope that I have imparted lessons that will stay with them as they follow their dreams. I hope that I have taught them how to keep this narrow road in their sights. Will they hear a voice – possibly with a female British accent – saying “Re-calculating” or “Make a U-turn” when they veer off track in their lives?

I just have to trust that I have been the best mom I can be and that even with the “Crazy Lady” label they have so lovingly donned me with, they have learned to follow God’s path.

My prayer is that if they veer off the roadway, take a detour, miss the exit and have to make a U-turn – my signature move – or find one of those hopeless dead ends, they will turn on God’s GPS and always find their way home to these narrow back roads.