PRAYING

Pastor Scott challenged us all to pray for 5 neighbors, 5 minutes per day, for 5 days. I had to actually go to two doors to ask for their names. One thought it was great and thanked me for my prayers. The other neighbor chuckled and shook his head. I think he thought I was --"not normal." But that's okay. He is getting my prayers anyway.
As most of you know, we have an intercessory group that meets every week to pray for our church and the people. The second week we met, we had FIVE answered prayers from the week before. That is awesome. Through prayer God is going to change some stuff.
Maybe you are not one who prays. But if you will start today and spend just 5 minutes in prayer. Just thank God for all your blessings. Then next week, spend 10 minutes a day in prayer. I promise, you will start to see a difference in your life. Just try it. God Bless you.....

Laying It On The Line

You would know what I mean if you were at CIOC last night. Pastor Scott just plain-----laid it on the line--for us. And what he said is so true. Sometimes we look at others and see faults but we don't want to look at ourselves that close. So we let things go that is In us. Sometimes, we let things go too long. It is our attitude about things and ourself. When we alter our attitude, we alter our life. If we look at ourself as critical as we look at others we would find all the things that are wrong. That one statement has made me stop, look, and think about myself. But the more we look at ourself and correct problems the closer we get to God. And that is what we all want. To be more Godlike and to be in His perfect will.
I hope you take a moment to think about the statement above and see what needs to be altered.
I love you and God Bless.

I attended the prayer class last night. It was good. It was very interesting. As our church grows, more people have opportunities to serve for the Lord.
Most of you know I have started a prayer group that meets every week. What is so amazing is Pastor Scott confirmed stuff I have planned for our group, this past Sunday while he preached. And some of it was hit one last night in the class, so you know that has to be GOD. Amen. I thank all the ones that were able to go to the class last night. I know that as we pray daily things will start happening. And it WILL be a good and positive thing. I pray that our prays will be so effective, even our own lives will change. God tells us to pray. Pray about everything. This is a sure way to be in God's will, as long as you listen to Him and obey Him.
Have a blessed week----

We had our first church wide prayer meeting last night. It was good. Pastor Scott shared some things with us and instructed us on what he wanted us to pray for. I truly believe this is going to change our church and the people in our church.
I use to go to church and just listen. Most of the time I could not tell you what the preacher had said. But now, I am a DOER, not just a listener. And that is what is so exciting to me. I have God given power to do things I never would have dared to do. I use to Never say anything to a group of people. I would lose my voice and start shaking all over. It was awful and embarrassing. And now, look at me. I actually teach in children's Church. If I can do something and overcome, you can to. But I know God gave me the ability to do what I need to do, because I stepped out in Faith to do something for Him.
Try taking a small step in Faith and God will do great things for you. More than you can imagine. I will be praying for you. God Bless.

Shout out to God

Yes, I just want to give God a shout. I know prayer is important. I know God answers pray. God is answering prays today. He may not answer them when we want or how we want, but He answers them for your good. that is one if the reasons we have to have patience. God knows all.
He knows how and when to answer our prayers. I just want to thank all the dedication to the ones who have decided to intercede in prayer for others and for situations. When you truly stand in the gap for others you feel their hurt and pain. Therefore, you can truly rejoice when prayer is answered.
I urge you to start spending time in prayer with God. It will change your life, your world, and your situations. Now, the first time you prayer, or even the first few times, it may not change anything immediately. But God will change things for you, for the best.
If anyone has a prayer request they want us to pray over, let me know. God Bless You and your family.

Living in the Peace God Provides

If you go to church at CIOC, you have heard Pastor Scott talk about not letting the things that just happen in your life, rock your world. Believe me, this is so true. I was talking to a very close friend of my the other night and she made a statement that really made me think. She said she had never seen me so peaceful, and that my church had really been helpful for me. She said I was always smiling and would just go on liking nothing was going on but now there was just a peace that radiated from me now. That spoke to me. At that moment I realized I was depending on God regardless of my world. I thanked the Lord at that moment. God will use someone you least expect to confirm things for you. Anyway, we talked for awhile. As much as I have talked about Pastor Scott and Pastor Tyra, I think she knows them without having met them. But that goes for about everyone at my work place too. This is a friend who does not go to church, believes in God, and is a caatholic. We talked about praying. And before we hung up she said she would pray about something. Hey, I have been knowing her for 14 years and that is the first time I have heard that.
So, what people see and hear from you WILL influence them. Now you decide if your influence will be positive or negative. God Bless.

First Intercessory Prayer Meeting

We had our first intercessory prayer meeting last night. It was several that did not show up for different reasons but it was a good two hours. We set the meetings for each week through September. We are having several meetings at homes. This is going to be SO EXCITING. I can wait to see the changes that will take place because of prayer. If you have a prayer request, just email or phone it in to someone, and it will be prayered over every day by several people. And you know what that means. The Bible says, "Where one or two agree in my name, I will do." So if we are all agreeing the same thing Jesus will answer the prayer.

I have always known that I would one day have to answer for all I did and said. Well, guess what! I also have to answer for what I did not say and did not do. Some christians seem to think they can come to church, say a prayer occasionally, smile and hug a neck or two, and they are okay with God. Sorry. It don't work that way. If you pass up an opportunity to witness to someone about Jesus and that person is a lost soul. You WILL have to answer for that. I really believe that on the final day, true christians will be trying to answer why they DID NOT DO or why they DID NOT SAY ANYTHING. I do not want to be one of those. I want boldness about me, so I can speak up without any fear, and so I can do for others without fear. There has been a couple of times I was hesitate to say anything but I did anyway. After I did I felt such a relief. And I would wonder why I felt a relief. I truly believe if I had not spoke up and witnessed the Holy Spirit inside of my would have grieved. That is why I felt a relief. I submitted to the Hly Spirit and done what Jesus would have done. It really felt good and I did not care who heard me or seen me. I was doing a work for the Lord who is ruler over my life.

My prayer for everyone is to be the person God has called you to be. Submitt to the Holy Spirt in you. Have boldness to do God's work without fear. Be a better person, christian, spouse, child, parent, student, or whatever. Remember, you are never alone. God is with you always. And if you got God with you, WHO can be against you? God Bless---

Be Who You Were Created To BE

God created us in His own image. God also created us very unique. Each one of us is very different from anyone else on earth. So why do some people always wish they were someone else? This hit me today as I was doing something. You just hear people say "I wish I was like him/her." If you were that person, you would have that person's life. Yes, you would have the good times, money, and friends. But, you would also have the bad times, hardships, and other things we don't see. I have read the story about Gloria Vanderbilt. I think she had a very lonely life as a small child. Sure she was born into wealth. But, money does not make you happy. After she was grown, married, had children, she still had money. But money did not keep her from losing one of her sons. What a heartache. I had rather have just what I got right now, than to lose one of my children. I was born to parents who were not rich as far as money but we had alot of happiness. I would not trade that for nothing. I can remember my parents, and my brother and I sitting on mama and daddy's bed playing a game. The funniest game we made up was each had to take a turn whistling a tune and we had to guess what is was. My dad was the only one who could whistling really good. My brother and I were like 9 and 10 yrs. old. So of course our whistling was not understandable. But it was fun.
The way I grew up made me into the person I am today. I understand hard times, appreciate the good times, and enjoy the happy times. I can be satisfied with simple things. Don't let what you see from the outside influence you so thinking everything is so great. The very things you can not see is what really has made the person. And most of the time it is the hard times, and the pains they have had to endure that has molded the person.
Be yourself and be happy. If you are not happy find out why and start doing something positive to be happy. God created you and God Does NOT make mistakes. God Bless.

We had clean-up day at the church this morning. Five people cleaned and then we had a prayer session afterwards. It was so relaxing. (not the cleaning part, but the prayer part) I hope several of our members are praying about our intercessor prayer group that is fixing to start. If you would like to be included come join us. Prayer can be so powerful and effective. And I want it to be this way in our personal lives as well as in the church. Our faith is what carries us when others and other things fail us. People are not going to do what we want them to do, I don't care how hard we pray, talk or whatever. People are funny creatures.

They make crazy decisions, then whine when things go wrong. I don't want that for my life. I want to make Godly decisions, and praise God for the outcome. Because what ever the outcome, I am trusting it will be God's will and not mine. Start thanking God for answered pray, the healing, the job, or whatever you need and let Him do all the work and the worry. That is why He is God, He is so much greater than we are, and knows all. We don't need to worry about anything. Because God is in controll. God BlessYou.

Hello everyone. Didn't we have a great service Wednesday night? Sunday had to be good. I do not have the CD yet, but we got some good workers for KICK. I am just so EXCITED about the prayer group starting back up and the monthly prayer meetings. Hope to have some other excited people show up Friday, Aug. llth, at 7:30 p.m. This has been a busy week for me, alot going on. At least the kids are back in school. Have and safe and happy weekend.

Outreach Or Witnessing?

I guess most all of you know how much I love to do outreach. I have really missed it. But I have not been able to find anyone who wants to do outreach- - - but ME. But that's okay, god will just use me in another way til I can do outreach.
Everybody at work knows me. They know I am a christian and I believe 100% in prayer. We were in the breakroom last night and a lady started asking me questions. she said she was raised in church but there was some things that she had heard lately that she had never heard before. Everyone told her she was asking the right person. First, she was asking about missing your blessing by not asking for more. She had gone to a church Sunday morning and the Pastor was talking about it, but she did not understand. I gave her the Bible verse, and explained whatever I can ask for, think of, or imagine, God can do exceedingly more than that. She was asking about getting a whipping for God. There was several things she was asking about. Oh, one of her questions was, Is there some people who keep asking for forgiveness that are not forgiven. Of course we all know, as christians we sin, but if we keep deliberately sinning god will not keep forgiving. At some point we have to know we can not keep doing wrong and expect forgiveness. To make it simple, my earthly parents would let me make a mistake and not say Too much. But if I kept making the same mistake- - - you better believe I was going to be feeling something other than a few soft words.
We had a great talk and several admitted they learned something they did not know. So, was that outreach or witnessing? I say it was a little of both.
As I walked back to my department I could not help but smile and say Thank You, Lord. I thank God I have a Pastor who has actually taught me something and not just said some words in the pulpit. There is a big difference. I am also thankful that God has put something inside of me to want to know Him more.
When was the last time someone asked you questions about the Bible or God? Is it because your life that people see is not reflecting God? Always remember, if you proclaim to be a christian, ask yourself before you do or say something, Is God being reflected in this? If not, do not do it or say it. God Bless you and your family.