Not today, Satan.

That was the theme for yesterday when I filmed the teaching videos for my NEW Spring 2020 Bible Study on the New Testament book of Galatians titled, Breakthrough: Finding Freedom in Christ.

Friends, I had a really rough start.

Words that I’d rehearsed many times wouldn’t come out. I’d look at the teleprompter and second-guess myself, then forget what I wanted to say.

After repeated stumbles and bumbles, my Abingdon Press editor and friend, Sally Sharpe, intervened from Nashville through her Zoom screen, “Barb, stop for a moment and take a five very slow deep breathes.”

While I wasn’t noticably nervous, all of the tissues in my body vibrated with the stress of unexpected car trouble two days in a row, a very emotionally- upsetting incident that happened two nights before, an angry social media dumpster fire the day before …and Friday was also the third anniversary of my dad’s passing.

This was all clearly an escalation of a spiritual push to undermine for my preparation for teaching six messages about freedom in Christ. I knew that. I expected it. While I never doubted God’s power and presence as the fiery arrows from evil searched to pierce my heart, I still felt the heat of the spiritual battle, hurt and pain.

Sally, lead videographer Zak Hermiller, videographer Brittany Kaelber, make-up artist/style, Cassie Agullana and our friend and Cassie’s co-worker, Adeline Orwig, witnessed my struggle. I appreciate their non-anxious presence. They sat, prayed and held space with me. As I closed my eyes and prayed, they spoke gentle, kind encouragement over me.

Then, I began again.

I finished that first session with good energy. I taught with passion, I spoke with conviction and I knew that I was riding on God’s power to get it all out. When I finished the closing prayer, I felt like I slide sideaways into homeplate.

Sally smiled and said that I sounded great.

The rest of the day chugged along in a cycle of outfit changes, set re-sets, make-up retouches and repeat. For all of my starts and stops, we managed to stay on time – that’s all God right there.

We filmed the final session and promo videos outside because it was so beautiful that we just HAD to! Normally, I’m pretty wimpy with the cold, but I was concentrating on getting the last session done well that I didn’t feel a thing.

I’d love for you to flip through the photo gallery and see the pictures of the filming day. The cover for my new study is below and I’ve linked it to Amazon for you to check out! Read below the gallery of photos about my new study, too 🙂

My new Breakthrough study releases in Spring 2021. This study on the book of Galatians was also inspired by my journey to let go of believing that I had to follow the rules in order to feel like a “good Christian.” I found freedom when I finally believed that Jesus came to set me free and I didn’t have to measure up to earn God’s love for me.

I wrote Breakthrough for women who worry that they aren’t good enough for God, feel pressured to follow religious rules or have experienced “church hurt” because of other Christians. Together, we learn that God’s love is based on His perfect promises, not our performance.

I’m not surprised there would be spiritual opposition to what I was teaching. Jesus came to set us free and of course, the enemy of our soul wants us to believe that we have to earn God’s love or earn our freedom in Christ. That’s not true!

So, I don’t want to focus on strategies or arrows of the evil one. Rather, I’m standing and celebrating the truth that I could proclaim! Even as those evil arrows flew in the days before the taping, I never, ever doubted that God would be with me and for me.

Even in the moments when my confidence flagged, I knew God’s faithfulness was all that I needed!

P.S. I began the process of shopping for a new car to replace my 305,000 miles old car. After not having a car payment for nearly a decade, this is big deal for me. However, THREE unexpected freelance jobs came in this week. But, God.)