Pearls Workshop Surprised Me!

My experience in the Pearls workshop was nothing like I expected it to be.

In my head I was thinking it would just be another typical girls bible study where we would probably go through a book, maybe go around a circle and talk about what we are reading, and maybe share prayer requests now and then.

I was so wrong.

Pearls was eye opening and life changing for me. The mentors and counselors there really cared about us and had carefully planned and prayed over every single meeting. I could feel the Spirit of the Lord there.

Each week we heard amazing testimonies, had art-journal time, did visual activities to help us better understand the teachings, and had personal time with a mentor.

The message of Pearls is something that every girl should hear and be reminded of. It's all about our identity in Christ and how He truly values and sees worth in us.This workshop, as well as the Pearl
Workbook and homework, digs really deep and helped me identify the things in my life that were lies from the enemy that had taken root.

I highly encourage this workshop to any girl out there reading this.  It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.


Jordyn-age22

Before Pearls I was.....

....... living a life of selfishness, impurity, jealousy, anger, un-forgiveness and rebellion against God, among others. When I looked in the mirror I hated what I saw, believing the lies in my head.

Feeling alone with my thoughts and most of all my feelings, I felt that no one has, will or ever will understand me.

Through my experience in Pearl Workshop I learned more about who I am in Christ and who He is. The most important letter in Pearl to me is L, which in Pearl Talk is Love. I have heard "Jesus loves you" my whole life but never really understood what it truly meant.

Everything that I felt and did in my past that made me feel broken and unwanted and misunderstood was in direct response to not knowing who He is. With this new knowledge, I am able to change the way I think, recognize the lies for what they are, and walk away from my chains and in to new freedom.

I didn't think that eight weeks could change my life but I can say with confidence that it has. I have finally surrendered my life to Christ and am taking up my cross daily to follow Him because of His beautiful sacrifice.

Tess- age 20

Threads of Grace

It's the thread of grace that holds our pearls. Yes, it's true that every place in your heart that the Father touches He leaves a pearl. But it is His grace that provides the thread on which your pearls can be secured.

Grace requires that I do this one thing: receive it and hang my life on it. In order to receive and hang my life on the grace of Christ, I must die to my self, tuck in to His presence, His light, His truth and His system of dependence. This grace system is not a grid of works, but one of freedom, joy, and Love provided through Christ's perfect work on the cross.

I know "trying harder" is a beast that's hard to die.

Someone misinterprets what you say. So try harder!
Not smart enough. So try harder!
Haven't had the energy. So try harder!
Didn't say it well. So try harder!
Someone didn't get better. So try harder!

All acts of the flesh trying to find some form of comfort in knowing we did all we could do.

"All that comforts the flesh weakens the Spirit." AW Tozer

So, about that grace. He loves me. He covers me. Forgives and Fills me. Leads me. Covers me.  Fills and Leads again. It's in the gap of realizing the depth of my capacity for insufficiency, in that moment of humanness and self- dependence, where grace waits for me to stop trying harder.  Yield. Let Go. Let Him.

But self dies hard and wants to prove something.

I have nothing on my own, therefore nothing to prove. Nothing to pull out. Nothing to hold onto- but everything grace.

Some call it sheer grace- although it's solid- not frail and thin like most would think of sheer as being, but mighty and sturdy and steady and sufficient to cover my flimsiness and prideful self-dependence. Your being able to see me, God, without wrath being unleashed against me- is grace. I remember what I am capable of without you.

The fact that you  provide this grace coverage is humbling and makes me think of Beauty and Real Love; reminds me of the frailty of life without this Real Love which would be so empty, limp, and tinny.

In Grace Alone. In Christ Alone, I pearl. What delight!