Kingdom Woman Welcome from Chrystal

Hi everybody, it's Chrystal Hurst and welcome to our first Kingdom Woman Wednesday. It is our kickoff day for the Kingdom Woman One Month Journey and I am, um, glad to see you. Um, I hope you have gotten your book. This is my book, and I hope you have a Bible and some pens and different things to cruise through this journey with me. Now, I'm looking a little crazy, and I know I'm looking a little crazy. I actually posted on Facebook the other day about how I'm having some hair issues, and I went and worked out this morning, and my hair is really not doing what I want it to. So why am I telling you that right now? Because I I almost didn't do a video at all because I didn't look right. I didn't, um, feel that I kinda had that polished, made-up, camera, lights, action look going on, and that that probably wasn't a good way to start out having you meet me and having us spend time together. And then I thought, that's the problem with this whole Kingdom Woman thing in the first place. We have a vision of who we think a Kingdom Woman is and we don't really want to let other people know that we haven't quite made it. And the fact that we haven't made it is okay. It's okay. We're all on a journey to being the woman that God has created us to be. None of us are perfect. None of us have arrived because, you know, when we arrive, we're probably dead and in heaven seeing Jesus. And we have to give each other the grace and give ourselves ourselves the grace to go on the journey, to do the journey, to learn the lessons, and to become more like Christ as we walk the walk and as we talk the talk. So before we launch into the activities that we have planned today, I want to tell you a little bit about how this is going to work. There's lots of stuff written on the blog to explain this to you, but if you're like me and you just hardly have time at all to read You may glaze through the printed material really quick without paying attention to some details that I want to make sure you know about. First of all, every Wednesday you will find me here. Now hopefully I won't have this going on every Wednesday. Maybe I'll even have on some makeup. Um, I don't know, we'll see. But every Wednesday, regardless, I'll be here. I may be here by myself, I may be here with my dad, Tony Evans, author of the book, and we'll be here to answer your questions. So the first and most important thing I want you to know is if you have questions, any questions, but especially related to what we're reading that week or what we're talking about, please leave them for me on the blog. If you look up at the top of the screen, you'll see Chrystal Hurst. If you click on Chrystal Hurst, there's a drop-down box and then it will say Ask Chrystal Hurst. You click on that, you can submit your question. Easy peasy. There's too many different ways for you to submit a question for me to get the question from anywhere. So don't leave it in the comments, don't put it on the Facebook page, or tag me in Instagram, or hit me up on Twitter. I might see it there, but I'll definitely see it if you use the contact form on my blog. So that's number one, feel free to ask questions. Number two, apart from seeing me every Wednesday, I'll probably do another blog post or two in between to talk about it, but you can also catch me talking about our journey on Facebook or Twitter, but definitely here at the blog. If all you do is the blog, that's enough, but if you show up at one of those other places, you'll probably find me blabbing about the Kingdom Woman Journey there too. Um, let's see, what else do I want to tell you? Oh, it's very important that you comment on Wednesday. Why? Because that's the primary way that I'll be asking the deep questions. So today, be sure that you comment. I don't have any deep questions for today because we hadn't had a reading assignment before today, but I have fun questions for today. So be sure to comment. Use your first name, your city if you're comfortable, your state, your country if you're not in the USA, and then, um, after that, there's 4 questions 4 or 5 questions today that you can answer, and they're kind of fun, just as a way for us to get to know you. And I don't only want to get to know you, I want to see your face. That means you need to set up a Gravatar, and there are instructions in the print— the blog for how you do that as well. It's not hard, but it'll just allow me to see what your face looks like. See, I'm showing you my face. See, I mean, I've got all kind of weird things going on here. But I'm showing you my face. I wanna see yours, so be sure and take care of that little Gravatar thingy. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I wanna make sure I tell you today. Oh, there will be other things that we're doing besides the Wednesday blog. I plan on having a blog link-up on— oh, my screen went gray and I didn't know what happened. I plan on having a blog link-up on Tuesdays. We'll call that Talk About It Tuesday. So if you have a blog or planning to start one be sure to talk about your journey there, and then you can share that with everybody else on Tuesdays. Um, on Fridays I'll have a way that we can pray for each other. Still working on that a little bit. But basically, come back here as often as you want, and there should be something here for you to do or look at, or— just want to get to know you. And more than anything, I want us to all put into this journey experience what we want to get out. 'Cause you know the more you put in, the more you get out. Um, but record it in a journal, do a video blog on your computer if you have this thing that I have. I'm using Photo Booth on a Mac, but you can do it on a lot of different things. Use a blog, but write down what God is teaching you. Write down the questions you have. Write down the places you've been and the places that you want to go, because all of those things will be Joshua stones. They'll be stones of remembrance where you can see where God has brought you from and where he's taking you to. I know it's been that for me. But just as a quick word of encouragement, I just wanted to share something with you. I'll try to have a passage of scripture that we're reading through every week, and although technically this is not a Bible study, um, we are definitely referencing the Bible. And so I'll pull some scriptures together to hopefully minister to you and give you ideas for things you can memorize. So here I am sitting in a white sweater, kind of half-dressed, my hair's not done, don't have makeup on my face, and I am struck by the fact that God, not only does he love me, and not only does he have this plan for me that we've kinda come up with this name Kingdom Woman, the woman that he wants me to be, he's saying that even though I haven't quite made it, because he made me and because I'm his, that's kind of enough. And I think what I wanna start encouraging you with this week is just that wherever you are whatever place you're living in, who— whoever is in your, your world and what your world looks like, whether that's joy, pain, if you've got lots of people and family, or if you feel all alone, if you're working on your body like I am, fighting the fat demon constantly, or if you're working on your mind, maybe your mind is just your worst enemy. Wherever you are, whatever you're going through, whatever's in your path, God made you. You're his. And that's a great starting point. In Psalm 139, it says, O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my coming in. You're familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in, you cover me behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me. The knowledge, that knowledge of all the things that you do to cover me, that's too wonderful for me. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. And I'm gonna let you read that whole chapter by yourself, but I want to jump to this one part that many of us have already heard. Because you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know that full well. My frame, when you made me, I wasn't hidden from you in a secret place. You saw my unformed body before I was who I would be when I was fully formed. You saw me and you loved me. Ladies, no matter where you're at, God sees you whether you're fully formed or not, and he loves you and he cares for you, and he hems you in behind and before, and he knows your thoughts, he perceives everything afar off. He is covering you as you begin this journey. So let me just pray for you, and then I'll shut this thing off and let you get busy commenting. Lord, I just thank you for this day. I thank you for all of the women who are going to participate in this journey with me. I thank you for the opportunity to dig into your word and dig into the knowledge of who you want us to be. Help us to see to see who you wanted us to be when you created us. Help us to reach for who she is. Help us to deny the flesh, to deny Satan's attacks, and to fight the good fight for your namesake. But Lord, let us see what glory you bring about when we completely surrender our lives to you and are willing to become the woman you have called us to be, that kingdom woman. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Bye-bye.