Cassie's Nimble Nuggets

So I have spent much time since last week praying and thinking on what I wanted to say to you this week.  God began to give me some words and one of them was the word Mediocre.  Now when we think of mediocre we think of “meh” like lukewarm tap water, if I was thirsty enough I would drink it but it isn’t really satisfying.  I have spent the majority of my life being bi vocational, I have worked a job and done ministry and I had a time when I was ready to be done with my “job” and do my ministry.  I would walk every night after the kids went to bed and I would normally complain to God, it was a rough season.  I had two little kids, worked more than full time and did over 20 hours of ministry work.  I wanted to be in full time ministry, but my leader didn’t see me as full time leader material, half because of my gender, half because of my youthful zeal aka immaturity.  I was griping to God, telling him how unfair it was, how I didn’t understand, when he ...

    I have been not wanting to write this weeks blog, not gonna lie. I don't want to write it, tried to write something else, but I do believe in Gods perfect timing, and so after seeing a recurrent theme I have to say this to someone else other than me this week. God has given me a really big mouth, I am not talking about just a lot of talking but it carries sound.  People listen to me and it terrified me for a long time and as I get older I have come to terms with my really big mouth, not minimizing it or apologizing for it. But here is what I need to say to you and me.                   Your mouth is robbing you.  You see I sat down at my kitchen table laid my head on my bible and sobbed, when I was a child I sat in Sunday school rooms and listened to the stories of the children of Israel in my youthful innocence I couldn't understand why they were so stupid.  Always stories of the children of Israel messing...

      I had the greatest honor to sit under some of the greatest women leaders of our time in September and with that I want to share some Propel nuggets from the conference.  I loved each speaker and I came expectant and God downloaded some amazing things into us at this Activate Event and I can tell you we are taking our local community by storm and want to see God move in such a mighty way.   Lorie Ann, who was on the Panel said something so profound "Choose to hold onto the crystal balls and let the rubber ones bounce."        You see too many times we let people take more space than they should.  I am not saying we don't love people, we do. But as a women the expectations we place on ourselves and the expectations that others place on us make us weary.  I have precious fragile balls I am holding "my children, my husband, my relationship with God, these are my crystal balls.  I cannot fulfill my life on a mission if I am ...

So I see it a lot in my youngest what you may call sarcasm I call quick wit and I appreciate her humor.  It isn't so much humor as she points out what she deems obvious and we try not to laugh at her because although she is right we have to teach her the propriety of how to be life giving.  So I am going to take of my propriety and state that James is an oxymoron based on Today's standards of wisdom.  James calls out the unwise and really helps to put the church into the right.  Even back in that day people were confusing the gospel of Jesus with some sugary sweet kumbaya my Lord sappy crap. So lets dive in to the book of James. James starts out by calling himself a SLAVE of God in verse one.  James doesn't proclaim himself an apostle, Jesus's brother, second in command, he calls himself SLAVE.  Let's just start with this here because the reason Christianity has lost it's saltiness is because we got so many people vying for position instead of vying for G...

  I am not polished ladies and gentlemen, I am not perfect, I struggle to want to create a posh image of myself, that looks the part I feel I am supposed to play.  I am tempted to pull back, to be measured, to minimize and not move rather than push forward and embrace crazy.  I have wanted to be anything but crazy, I come from a family line of very imperfect people and I looked around at everyone else and wanted so desperately to be 'normal.'  When I was at a revival one time, the pastor came in from out of town, I am a nurse and the man was actively having a heart attack in the church.  I was only twenty five at the time and let me tell you it was an experience.  The pastor was praying over this man and a relative of mine comes, pushes me out of the way and grabs his hand. They then precede to telling him that when he goes to heaven tell her son hello."  We had to get her out of the room, and as this was the pastor's first time coming up and I gotta t...

        In November of last year I sat on my couch, completely and utterly done.  I was done doing things my way and completely in tune with the Holy Spirit.  I began to write down the longing of my heart.  God asked me the question: What kind of women do you think the church needs.  It was from this place I wrote down to God the Tuscarawas Propel Connect core values.  I told Him:  I want to see a  group of women that compliment instead of compete, that believe that the body of Christ is unified but not uniform, that naturally lead others back to Jesus, and understand that we are inclusive not exclusive.  One thing I know is when God speaks he doesn't just speak to one person He speaks to many.       So it is not surprising that the body of Christ is seeing this theme come forth through some pretty amazing and powerful men and women of God.  Lisa Bevere has come out with a new book and I have to tell you i...

So for those of you who know me, you know that I put myself under the teaching of two fearless women in the body of Christ.  Christine Caine and Lisa Bevere.  I don't know them personally, I haven't sat and had lunch with them, but I choose to be mentored by them through their books, podcasts, I serve as a Propel Chapter leader, I watch their facebook live feeds, and pretty much any sermon they post on youtube.   One thing Chris said yesterday that struck a chord with me was "Don't look back."  like Lots wife who looked back after she was told not too, she was turned into a pillar of salt.  In my version "She looked back and got salty."   I have been praying this season of my life, as I know God is getting ready to do something great, our team has seen it, I have felt it and this season we are setting apart time to fill ourselves first.   It has been a very difficult season for me because I have allowed God to search me, and point out my weaknesses, my...