Winter Grace 2019: Life-Giving Friendships

Can you think of someone in your life who has “given life” to you in things she did or said? As we walk through life, there are those in our lives who have done and said things that have “given life” to us. We have also experienced others who have “taken life” in the ways they have related to us — those whose words or actions have wounded us in minor or deeply-lasting ways. I can certainly think of many times I have taken life from my friends and family with angry words, sarcasm, gossip, criticism, and more. Can you? I long to give life rather than take. But how does change happen? 

The Bible tells us our God is a God of life-giving relationship, and He made men and women to be in life-giving relationships as well. Each of us has a choice every day to be a life-giver or a life-taker in our relationships. Even in the Garden of Eden, the very first woman had the choice to be a life-giver or a life-taker. The woman listened to the lies of the Devil telling her God was not enough to satisfy her and give her a full life. So she decided to go her own way, and she became a life-taker when she ate of the fruit God had told her not to eat and then told her husband to eat as well.

But God didn’t leave Eve in her misery. He promised that he would fix what was broken. He would give her an offspring to “crush the devil’s head.” And Adam named his wife Eve, a Hebrew word that sounds like “life” or “living,” because she would be the mother of the living. Even after betrayal, God was giving the woman who had taken life the opportunity to give life.

As descendants of Eve, we have to decide which part of Eve’s legacy we will repeat. What would it look like if we related to all of our relationships as those who have life to give because of the new life Christ has given us? What if we were so filled to the brim with Christ’s love for us that every jostle spilled life on those around us? What if when you and I walked out of a room, the beautiful aroma of Christ lingered behind because of the life we had poured out? What would this do in our relationships with other women inside and outside of the church? How would these life-giving ripples extend out into the brokenness of our neighborhoods, our city and beyond? I want to find out, don’t you?

Join the women of Redeemer Presbyterian for our Winter Grace Conference this February 8 and 9, 2019 to share life-giving relationships. Come drink of Christ’s love, worship His glory, feel His touch in the love of our sisters in Christ, and get saturated with the aroma of Christ!

Life-giving leader Karen Hodge is our speaker this year. She is the Women’s Ministry Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church in America and the host of the EnCourage podcast. She is also the co-author with Susan Hunt of two books, Transformed: Life-taker to Life-giver and Life-giving Leadership. She serves alongside her husband, Chris, who is the Senior Pastor at Naperville Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois.

We invite you to come drink deeply of the love of God:

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen dilegently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. - Isaiah 55: 1-2

Find all the information you need about Winter Grace 2019 and register HERE.