APPRECIATE THE PASTOR WHO DILIGENTLY LABORS AMONG YOU

“But we request of you, brethren that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the LORD and give you instruction and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.” I Thessalonians 5:12, 13 (NASB)

We are to respect our pastor and his family for the countless value they are to the church and also to the community.

The flock is to know their pastor well enough to have an intimate appreciation of the many hours and sacrifice’s he makes to pastor and to spiritually nurture each of his sheep.  No one but God knows how many hours our pastor studies the WORD and prays for his flock.  There are many nights he is awakened in the wee hours of the morning with a heavy burden on his heart to pray and intercede for a church member or a member of the community.

His work in God’s chosen vineyard for him and his family is continually laboring and working sometimes to the point of exhaustion; he is “on call 24/7”.  He stands before his flock to lead them in the way of righteousness, and instructing them in the truths of God’s WORD.

The pastor’s calling is from the Throne Room of God, and there is no backing out if the going gets tough.  That is why the prayer warriors of each church are to hold their pastor and his family on their priority list of prayer.  Satan is always out to try to make a pastor slip and fall, because the world is always watching and looking for something to use against the church.  Please never, never let a day go by that you do not pray and intercede for your pastor and his family.  Just as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses in a great battle against the enemy, so that a great victory would be won, we must hold  our pastor’s hands up through prayer and fasting. He cannot do it alone but must have all his sheep holding him up to God for strength and guidance.

In addition to knowing our pastor well and to remember to pray for him and his wife and family daily.  (Not just an “I lay me down to sleep, oh yeah, Lord remember my pastor, I’m sure he had to do a little something or other today for the church.) But to earnestly, wholeheartedly, shed some Holy Ghost felt tears for the heavy burden he carries for each of his sheep.  A true pastor feels responsible for the welfare and well being and the salvation of each one of us.

We are to esteem our pastor highly as a true servant, called by God.  Congregations are to think rightly and lovingly of their pastors. Not because of their charm or personality or preciousness, but because of the fact that they work for the Chief Shepherd as His special shepherd to his flock of sheep that God has entrusted to him..

This Pastor Appreciation post is dedicated to my Pastor, Dr. Thomas Batts and his wife Lynda,  and their son Todd, who are Pastor’s of Welcome Assembly of God Church in Dellwood, FL (just down the road from Two Egg, FL.)

We are having Pastor Appreciation Day service this Sunday, September 22, with a lunch after the am service. If you live close please come and share the lovely service and the lunch after, come and bring lots of your favorite foods to share.

Love and Blessings Gloria (one of my Pastor’s fat happy sheep)

Copyright 2013 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.

GOD WANTS ALL MANKIND TO PRAISE HIM

“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing, Know that the LORD Himself is God, It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.  We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name, For the LORD is good, His loving kindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100 (NIV)

This well known psalm declares the universal nature of God’s Kingship.  Most of the psalm is a call to worship Him and to praise Him, and thank Him for His goodness and lovingkindness to us.

The psalmist asks us to come before Him with joyful singing, because we know that the Lord himself is God. It is He and only He that has made us, we did not have anything to do with it.

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. This indicates that not only are His chosen people, (the Jewish Nation), but we who have been washed in the Cleansing Blood of His Son Jesus Christ are also counted among His sheep; and; we can feed freelyand with His Blessings in His pasture.

He is our God, Jesus Christ has freely shed His Blood for our sins and that joy should never ever,  leave us.  Yes, there are trials in this daily living, but these trials will pass; but we should choose to let the joy of the LORD overwhelm us and be aware of our NEED to thank and praise Him continually.

The psalmist asks us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, I think that indicates that we should be spiritually ready to enter into His gates and into His courts with praise, and thanksgiving;  meaning that when we enter the parking lot of the church we should be prayed up and ready to praise. We should come into His House with a thanksgiving praise on our lips and a thanksgiving song in our hearts, in other words we should be ready to praise Him. 

Yes we come to His house to worship in singing and in hearing the WORD from our Pastor, but we should also come to bless those at church who are down and out spiritually and need a word from God, that is why we should pray continually to be a spiritual blessing to our church, not to just go and get a blessing, BUT TO BE A BLESSING.!  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes to see the needs of others, we do not have to know their need, we just have to be aware of the need to pray for them, and to ask Gods’ blessings on their lives and their needs.

God is the source and perfect example of  His lovingkindness, and His faithfulness in keeping His promises. to us.

Blessings on you my dear Readers,

Love Gloria

(c) Gloria B.Powell. All rights reserved.

GOD WILL MOVE YOUR MOUNTAIN

“….Do not sorrow, for the Joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Does God even care when we cry in the middle of the night?  We question, “Does God even care”? 

There is no mountain to high, no valley too deep, in our lives that God does not care about, and can remove.

In our humanness, we want God to move our mountains with just one fell swoop of His Mighty Hand.

But God is All Knowing, and He knows because of the busyness of our lives because of packed-full daily schedules that time alone with God for prayer and Bible reading too many times so very sadly gets pushed aside.  Maybe if we do pray and read we do it in such a hurry it just does not give proper honor to God. Most of the time we don’t even remember what we prayed or read.

Our faith becomes weak in these slack times and the ONLY way to grow in faith in God is DAILY personal conversation and reading His Word.  So when we are spiritually weak the everyday little obstacles become mountains looming larger and larger and the mountain is all we can see. 

We pray Lord I can’t stand this, “please remove it from my path”. But Jesus who was NEVER slack in His conversation with His Heavenly Father or in reading the Word (The Torah). He gave us the perfect example of prayer even when we have not been as faithful as we should in following His examples for a successful life in God.  In fact this prayer is the perfect prayer for all times and I pray that you are not like me and you do not sometimes get “too busy” to take enough time to pray and read His Word.

We must always follow the example of Jesus on the night He was arrested to be crucified for our sins on the cross.  He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray to His Father., "Father if I must drink this cup. Thy Will Be Done, Not My Will, But Thine.”

No matter how big the mountain, if we pray for Gods’ perfect will in every circumstance in our lives and really submit our heart, mind, spirit and pray earnestly for a godly attitude  and submit everything in our being to God, He will renew our resolve for His Perfect will, in every situation, and we will be content with His will. 

When we get our mind and spirit back to where they should be, completely spiritually in tune with the Holy Spirit, we will find that the mountain after all, was  mostly  just a molehill.

Dear Reader until next time,.. Gloria

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Copyright 2013 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.

IS GOD OBLIGATED TO US?

IS  GOD  OBLIGATED  TO  US?

I have heard sermons preached and statements made that if Gods’ people will do so and so. that God is obligated to bless that person with so and so. Namely perfect health, monetary prosperity, worldly gain and the list goes on, and on.

DEAR READER GOD IS NOT OBLIGATED TO ANYTHING OR ANYONE,  GOD IS  ABSOLUTELY SOVERIGN.

God does not give us His complete love, mercy, grace and unmerited favor because He is OBLIGATED TO DO SO. HE GIVES IT TO US BECAUSE OF HIS NEVERENDING LOVE FOR US.  We are HIS and He gave His ALL, His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cruel cross and shed every drop of His Precious Blood, to pay our sin debt that He did not owe, and that we would never be able to pay.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

God loves us and His most earnest desire for us is to spend eternity with Him, not to be lost and spend eternity in hell with the evil one and his demons”

We give our tithes and offerings to our church in obedience to His Word.  We pray for healing of the sick and those in desperate need because the love of God dwells within us. We pray and read His WORD to draw closer to Him and have daily communication with Him, because He is our best and most personal friend.

Every time a seemingly impossible need is met by God we are amazed and awed at such an Overwhelming, Caring and Loving God.  He knows every need in our lives and He loves us enough to meet that need. Sometimes He meets the need in the way we ask, and if the way we ask is not His Will for us because our way is not always the best way, God answers the need in His Way. We see only the now, but God sees down the road around every corner and into the eternal.  God knows each and every one of us personally; He even knows our thoughts, motives and even every hair on our head.

God’s desire is for us to surrender our lives to Him, not for what we can get from Him on this earth, but because He loves and cares for us so much He wants for us a life secure in Him, and He wants us to spend our eternity with Him in the home He is preparing  in heaven for those who love Him with all their hearts. This is the only way to have that peace over every situation  that arises in each of our lives, the peace which that passes all understanding.

I love you dear reader, Love Gloria

Copyright 2011 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.

THE PRAYER THAT NEVER FAILS

“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”  So He said to them, “ When ye pray, say: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   Luke 11:1-2 NKJV

This is known as “The Lords’ prayer, but Jesus’ disciples’ had watched and heard Him pray.  They knew that He prayed constantly and fervently and they wanted the same kind of relationship with God that Jesus had.  They wanted to know how to pray to God the Father, just as they saw and heard Jesus pray to the Father.

How many times have we said the Lord’s Prayer and used the word’s “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven”, and not given them really a second thought of what we REALLY are saying?  When we say “Thy will be done,” we are saying God I give this situation entirely to you. I will accept your decision on how best to take care of it. I now leave it entirely up to you, I will pray constantly for your will to be done and I am convinced that the way you answer will be the best.  You are eternal, all knowing and all powerful; God, you know the beginning from the end only YOU know the best answer to this need. I am leaving the answer entirely up to you, not my will but Yours be done in this matter. 

Dear Reader this is not playing around with God this is complete trust in God to make the best decision for the problem, and to bring honor and glory to His Name, and to cover us completely with His love and His Mercy for us.

The Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing”, not just when there is an emergency or crisis, praying without ceasing is to be in a constant communication with God, keeping in mind that His greatest desire is for us to be his children, obedient to His Word and live our lives completely committed to His Will for our lives.

If Gods’ Will is not what we personally wanted, or prayed for, the spiritual part of us will automatically seek to be at peace with Gods’ answer, but the earthly, fleshly part of us will be sad, sometimes mad, angry and so very confused.

 Dear friends God knows this and He wants us to climb up in His Lap and ask Him to hold us while we cry. If we listen we can hear Him gently speak to us as we Hear His Precious Holy Spirit say to us, “My child I love you, go ahead and cry it is okay, My child when you hurt, I hurt also, just keep trusting me and I will help you get to the place in your love and faith in my Love for you, that you will be able to go on with life until you can be at peace with my answer for this problem.

Love God with all your heart, mind and being, He will NEVER LEAVE OR FORSAKE US, BUT WILL GO WITH US TO THE END.

Love Gloria

copyright 2011 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.

GOD IS ALWAYS ON HIS TIME

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.  Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.  See he is puffed up; his desires are not upright – but the righteous will live by his faith.” Habukkuk 2:3-4 (NIV)

Has the Holy Spirit ever given you a message in your heart that you KNEW was from God?

If you are like me, when this happens, we get ready, for we want it to happen NOW, not down the road we are so consumed with the message that has entrusted to us that we literally are about to burst open, and we think that God just cannot go one more minute without making it come to pass.

When God entrusts us with a message from Him, do not let the enemy steal it from you, even though he may tell you over and over that you did not hear from God, but you know in your heart and mind, that you did.  If you have doubt,  remember that when God gives us something from Him  IT WILL ALWAYS LINE UP WITH HIS WORD, AND WILL ALWAYS GLORIFY HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON JESUS CHRIST.

But,  precious reader, remember there is NO time frame with God.  When He gives us a prophetic vision, it is for a certain time, and He usually does not tell us the when or where of it.  BUT when He entrusts us with a special message or vision, He expects us to be faithful to write it down, and be faithful to remember that our timing is not His. We are to keep praying and studying His Word to keep the message from Him fresh until His appointed time.  While we live on this earth we will live in minute to minute time, but when He takes us to live with Him eternally then we will never know anything about time again, everything will be eternal, no more counting time.

Verse 4 says, the ungodly people in this world are puffed up with themselves and will not listen to a word from God, they go about their way saying, “Look what hard work and sweat has accomplished for me no one has helped me, I owe no one anything.” But dear reader, where do they think they got the strength and the sweat to do the hard work?  Yes you are right they got it from God.  God is so merciful with people He gives them so many chances to live for Him every day He is patient and kind to them, but there will come a day of judgment and there will be no more chances for the ungodly to change their ways and live for God.

But take heart and keep believing and keep praying, because the last of the verse four says, “but the righteous shall  live by his faith.”

Love,  Gloria

Copyright 2011 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.

I-AM-WHO-I-AM

     "Then Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the people of Israel and I tell them, The God of your fathers sent me to you'; and they ask me, "What is his name? What do I tell them."
     God said to Moses. I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the people of Israel,'I-AM sent me to you.' " 
    EXODUS  3:13,14 (The Message)

I was in a grocery store several years ago and on their P.A. system they were playing a trivia radio show, and one of the D-Jays made the remark that the most complete sentence in the whole world consists of  just two words and those two words are," I AM."

I had often wondered just why God would say His Name is I-AM.


I prayed and asked God, "Why did you tell Moses that your name is I-AM?"

The other night God woke me up out of a sound sleep, I guess that is the only time He can get to me  when I am quiet, and  give me His Word.

The Holy Spirit began just pouring thoughts into my mind, it was like He had lifted the top off my head and just began pouring it into my brain.

Just think, I-AM, IS  ALL SUFFICIENT, ALL KNOWING, ALWAYS PRESENT EVERYWHERE AT ONCE, THERE IS NO DEFICIENCY IN GOD, NO LACKING IN GOD, NO BLEMISH IN GOD,  NOTHING  IS BEYOND HIS DOING, NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD TO FIX OR TO ACCOMPLISH.

 NO MATTER WHAT THE SITUATION, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, IS TOO HARD OR TOO MUCH FOR GOD, HE  IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE I-AM. NOTHING CATCHES HIM BY SURPRISE OR IS HE EVER UNAWARE OF THE NEEDS OF HIS CHILDREN.

Not only was God The I-AM of the Old Testament, He is also the I-AM of the New Testament and He can and will be my and your I-AM, in fact He Wants To Be my and your I-AM today and for eternity.

How you ever asked yourself,"Can God be my I-AM?  I am so glad you wanted to know. Dear Precious readers, before the world was formed God has a plan for you and me to know Him as our I-AM. That plan is Jesus Christ, Gods' only begotten Son.  Before the foundation of the world was laid Jesus Christ was the chief corner stone.

"Jesus said unto them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:'The stone which he builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORDS'  doing. and it is marvelous in our eyes." (Matthew 21:42 JKJV)  This was Jesus telling the people that He is the Chief  Corner Stone of the world and the people rejected Him.

But in John 3:16 the Word of God tells us how God made a way before the world was formed for all people in every nation, every race, creed and tongue, every one, me and you also "praise the Lord.)

"For God so loved the world that HE gave His only begotten Son , that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV)   GOD loved us so much that He prepared a way for us to live forever with Him, by sending His only Son Jesus Christ to be born from a virgin girl as a baby on this earth, grow up and give His life and every drop of blood in His body to cover our sins.  By accepting that blood to cover our sins and repenting to Him of our sins and living each day with the goal of pleasing Him and telling others of the saving grace of Jesus Christ we can and will live with Him forever.

Ephesians 2:19-22, (NKJV) "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.  Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together, grows in to a holy temple in  the Lord, in whom you are are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Precious readers please allow THE I-AM-THAT-I-AM, BE YOUR I-AM-THAT-I-AM,  after all that is really the most important thing you can or will ever do.

I love you, Love Gloria


Copyright 2011 Gloria B. Powell. All rights reserved.