Live Only True Stories

Real leaders always begin by leading themselves.

Power only needs a position. Leadership requires position, capacity, and skill.

The Old Testament story of Nehemiah is a gold mine of leadership practices and

principles!

In the first chapter Nehemiah models two leadership practices: initiative and prayer.

Nehemiah’s initiative leads to empathy, and his empathy leads to action.

Genuine empathy always leads to action. If it’s only an emotion, it’s not empathy!

Nehemiah’s empathy first leads to fasting and prayer. Not just a “toss up a few words and

hope they land” prayer, but a powerful model of prayer we can use in just six steps! In just seven verses Nehemiah incorporates six steps:

1. Recall God’s goodness.
2. Request God’s attention.
3. Repent of wrongdoing.
4. Remind God of his promises.
5. Remind God of his relationship.
6. Request God’s favor for others and yourself.
7. 
   

Download a beautiful PDF for yourself and your kids to learn and use this model of

prayer! Visit the website and subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie

Presents for this and other free resources.

Invite Stephanie to speak at your women, mom, or parents’ event. Email [email protected] or visit the website for more information!

Together, we can build spiritually strong, emotionally healthy, and relationally smart

generations!

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Ever played a mystery game based on figuring out clues?

Ever had someone say your name in "that" way?

Ever heard, "Three strikes! You're out!?"

Three of Jesus' followers could tell stories about these scenarios! Their experiences can empower and transform us as we encounter hard times in our lives.

A folded piece of cloth gave John a divine clue to the whereabouts of Jesus' body after his death and burial.

A "stranger" answering her question with her name sent Mary Magdalene running to deliver a message of hope as meaningful to us today as the original listeners.

A simple question posed three times, "Do you love me," initially gave Peter grief, then the understanding his failure hadn't cancelled his calling.

Hope. It was the common factor in each of these encounters. It's what we desperately need today. The last two chapters in John's gospel is a message of hope for all who grieve and all who doubt.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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What was Jesus’ #1 reason for coming to the world as the God-Man?

We don’t have to guess at this answer because Jesus stated it plainly. Not to the religious leaders. Not even to his disciples. But to a Roman politician. Pilate, to be exact.

Jesus answered Pilate’s infamous query, “What is truth?” by saying, “This is the reason I have come into the world: to bear witness to the truth.”

As followers of Christ, this is to be our purpose as well.

But fear – the wrong kind – has a complicated relationship with truth and too often tempts us to become truth beaters rather than truth bearers. And most often in subtle ways.

Learn more about how to live in this aspect of life’s great tension as we continue unpacking John’s gospel, chapters 18-19.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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Everyone in Jesus’ arrest, trial, and execution by crucifixion was motivated, at least in part, by fear. Everyone, that is, except Jesus.

Fear is a powerful driver of human behavior, even when it masquerades as concern for others.

One fear or another will dominate every person’s life: a holy fear that leads towards God or an unholy fear that drives away from God.

It’s not always easy to discern the difference.

It’s one thing to feel fearful: it’s another to live fearful.

John 18-19 helps us see:

* the impact of being motivated by an unholy fear

* how betrayers seek to bring others into their camp

* how we can face betrayal like Christ did

* that a sudden and unexpected change in circumstances can make us vulnerable to acting out of fear

* the temptation for leaders to hide self-serving actions under the cloak of caring about others

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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#lifeskey3

Mike Tyson once answered a reporter’s question about an upcoming bout with a rival by saying, “Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

That sums up Jesus’ disciples experience on the night of their last Passover together.

Jesus knew what was coming. They had no clue.

They probably had plans. For later that night. For the next day. Likely they had a plan for the rest of their life.

And then they got punched in the mouth. And the gut.

It could have been a knock-out blow.

And they initially fell apart, but they came back and followed Jesus’ last words.

Abide.

Bear fruit.

Love.

Over and over, these were Jesus’ last instructions. Abide in Him. Bear fruit. Love Him. Love one another.

The sum of the Christian life in four words: Abide. Bear fruit. Love.

We need this message today because sooner or later, life punches everyone in the mouth – and the gut. While we may be knocked to our knees, we don’t have to be knocked out.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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#lifeskey3

Be honest. There's at least one person you would like to "uninvite" to Thanksgiving -- if not all events you'll ever attend. They make giving thanks a spiritual discipline!

(Okay, maybe that's just me. I'm still a work in progress.)

It's easy to give thanks when we're comfortable and things are going our way. Not so much when we're called upon to do things we don't want to do -- and might even be desperate to get away from.

There's a guy in the Bible like that. He struggled with gratitude. And to be fair, I can see why on this particular mission God gives him.

Jonah isn't probably the top Bible character you'd associate with Thanksgiving, but his story is worth visiting. Not just for what it can teach us as we (in the United States) celebrate this holiday but for every day of the year. Including Leap year!

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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#lifeskey3

Have you ever known the pain of betrayal by a close friend? If you’re honest (which, of course, you are), did you want to let everyone in your circle know about the betrayal?

It’s astounding how Jesus doesn’t do that when he knows Judas is going to betray him. What’s even more amazing is Jesus makes no last-minute effort to stop Judas from what he was going to do!

As we continue to look to the gospel of John for how we can live wisely and fully engaged, we see in chapters 13-14 these significant discoveries:

1. Jesus wasn’t thrown off course by Judas’ betrayal. When we experience betrayal, we also don’t have to be knocked out of commission. Neither do we have to call it to everyone’s attention in the moment. Sooner or later, the truth has a way of coming out – just as it did with Judas.

2. Jesus modeled the necessity of sometimes giving people warnings about their direction. But the point isn’t to shame or condemn but to let them know we’re here to keep loving them even when they fail.

3. Actions do speaker louder than words. Jesus makes it clear love for him results in doing what he says we should and not doing what he says is wrong.

4. Unity with those who share our love for Christ is our #1 life purpose. Oh, so easy to say; so hard to live!

5. Understanding our origin and knowing our destination empowers us to live out our callings on earth. Not just origin in the “evolution vs. creation” since, but origin as in how we grew up. This isn’t an exercise in parent-shaming but in accepting the humility none of us are self-made people.

Leave a review! This doesn’t need to be a book report and doesn’t require a thesaurus. Something as simple as “Insightful, encouraging, and thought-provoking” makes a huge difference!

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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What does Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous expression that when God calls a person, He says “Come and die!” mean in everyday life?

Is “dying to ourselves” a different way of expressing God’s goal is to erase us?

We investigate this in today’s episode as we wrap up John 12. In addition, we see:

• Jesus acknowledges his heart is “troubled.” He doesn't dance his way into the coming spiritual battle; he fights his way forward.
• Incorrect and “non-essential” theological beliefs can keep people from Jesus.
• If Jesus couldn’t do enough to win people over, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when we can’t either.
• FOMO isn’t new. It thrived in Jesus time. Fear of missing out – on other people’s acceptance – kept many people hiding their beliefs.

It’s fascinating to see what Jesus doesn’t do as he prepares to wrap up his time on earth in human form.

Have you had to go looking for weariness or anxiety recently? Said no one ever!

Now available on the website is a free guide, “10 W’s to Renewing a Weary, Anxious Heart.”

Sign up and download this transformative tool today!

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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How does a person measure real change in themselves or someone else?

What’s the point of Bible prophecy?

We dive into both of those topics from the gospel of John. Yep, in that book Jesus displays

the purpose of Biblical prophecy – of telling it forward.

We also get savvy about measuring behavioral patterns to assess whether there’s stagnation or genuine growth occurring in ourselves and others. No easy task, especially when legitimate concerns get mixed in with selfish motives.

Don’t miss out on a brand new resource to help renew a weary, anxious heart! Weariness and anxiety don’t wait for invitations. They come find us and, if we’re not diligent, will move right on in and take up permanent residence. You don’t have to take that sitting down!

Get the new guide, “Ten W’s to Renew Weary, Anxious Hearts” at https://www.stephaniepresents.com/

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story!

Remember, you have an impact that is immeasurable, eternal, and irreplaceable!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

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I doubt when Mary and Martha saw Jesus raise their beloved brother from the dead they anticipated Lazarus would soon be targeted for assassination. Yet that’s what happens. One of the reasons we must identify and confront right & wrong is because of its eventual outcome, not just its immediate impact in a person or society. I doubt when Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding that if you had said to the religious leaders, “You’re going to be plotting an assassination against this man someday,” that they would have believed you. But that’s exactly where their refusal to lead a genuinely “examined” life led them.

In John 12:1-9, we see:

1. Worship and gratitude might make you a target of criticism from those who are close to you.

2. Receiving God's divine intervention (a miracle) might make you a target of outrage from those who are opposed to the status quo and Jesus’ presence making a real difference in your life and others.

3. Goodness and evil are insatiable. They have unending appetites. Goodness always wants to bless more, love more, care more. Evil always wants to enslave more, blind more, destroy more, deceive more. That’s one reason we must choose a life of intentionality and close relationships with godly people who really know us and are invited to speak into our lives. It’s another reason we must not only be “hearers” of the Word but “doers” so we do not deceive ourselves.

Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!

Check out speaking engagements for women's gatherings, parenting conferences, and Christian education events.

#bible

#faith

#truth

#biblestudy

#familydevotions

#christianfaith

#christianfamilies

#christianparenting

#christianwomen

#christianity

#familybiblestudy

#biblestudyforkids

#biblestudyforchildren

#lifeskey3