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Volume 5 Issue 17 8 May 2008 |
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The E-pistle
What Are You Doing???!!! By Pastor Jasmine Jones |
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"..Every part doing it's share causes growth in the Body..." Ephesians 4:16 NKJV The Word tells us that every part…not just some parts…doing it's share causes growth. You see, some people think that
what makes the church grow is that the pastors are to do everything. They
make sure the Word is ready to be presented in an anointed atmosphere. They
think it's the worship leader's job to stir the people up on Sunday mornings.
They think that it's somebody else doing their part that makes the church
function. It's somebody else that is going to invite someone to church that
will get us to the 150. But the Bible is very clear….every part doing it's share causes growth. So my question to you… what
are you doing? In On this trip and visit here to New Covenant, I learned through a casual
conversation with a couple of people that the housekeeping of this sanctuary
has been done by one family for several months. I heard that the chairs are
straightened up and are wiped down by their son. I learned that they
faithfully come and clean up after the church family and prepare God's house
to be ready for church on Sunday and Tuesday night. I'm sure you know that is
not a small task. I'm sure it takes them a few hours to do everything. I'm
sure you can imagine what the church would look like if they weren't
"doing." I decided to call Shelley to ask "Why do you do what you do?"
She said at first she started doing this "because I wanted to help Sara.
God told her to do it, so I wanted to help. Then it just became a regular
thing that we did as a family. I don't like to clean my own house. I don't
like to clean our house toilet so it's funny that I enjoy cleaning a public
restroom!" She went on to say, "I can't explain the blessing that I
get out of doing it!" Yes, she said "doing!" I got so
blessed just listening to her talk about cleaning toilets! I said to her
well I see that there is a spirit of excellence in what your family is doing.
Do you need some help? She said, "well, you have to ask Sara because
when we get there I just say, 'What do you want me to do' and Sara delegates
the work and we just get it done." I know one thing for sure, if you want to get a blessing, you should find
out when they clean and run down here and ask "How can I be a part
of what you do here? Delegate some responsibility to me! I want to get some
of the blessing that you are getting! I want that spirit of excellence
operating in my life!" You see, the growth in the Body is not only in numbers. The growth you
will see in your life is the blessings of God coming upon you. You will find
a joy in doing. You will find a joy in serving. No one asked me to write this little article. I just felt moved when I
heard their story and I know that they probably could use some help. Maybe
you can come alongside them and let the blessing and the anointing of the
spirit of excellence rub off on you. Maybe a few
of you will run to the plate so another team can be formed so they won't have
to carry the load themselves week after week. Call the church office and ask
when are they cleaning next? Then be there. I challenge you. Find your place in the local Body. You might say,
well I don't know what my place is. Or maybe you might say, well, one day
God's going to raise me up to teach or preach. Maybe so, but what are you
doing now? What you do now will prepare you for what God has for you later.
If you really want to know where your place is, I can tell you. It's not
hard. Just find a need, and fill it. Just like Sara, Shelley, and Anthony have done. "Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men,
knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of your
inheritance." Colossians 3:23 |
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God Gave Me a Heart to Forgive: The TrueTestimony of Cathy Campbell |
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Editor's Note: This testimony is
shocking! We have spoken extensively with Cathy's family and it is the
entire family's wishes that her full testimony be published as was written by
her hand. When we asked Cathy for her testimony, no one knew what was about
to be revealed. We thank you Cathy for being so brave to tell this testimony. |
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I was born When I was four
or five, my dad started having an affair. So he ended up leaving me (age 5)
and my brother (age 10) with our mom. My father's relationship with his new
woman wasn't working out too great. It was a constant on-and-off relationship.
One time while they were "on" they decided to get married. So I had
a step-mom and step-sisters for a few months or so. But my father was still a
raging alcoholic. So one day he went off on his new wife and hit her. She
took him to court and won. He was sentenced to ten years in prison when
I was six. I understood
what was going on but it didn't bother me too much. Honestly, I didn't really
like my dad that much. We used to go visit him every now-and-then. Now we
communicate through letters. Even after all that, I do love him and am
excited for him to get out of prison so I can experience a normal
father-daughter relationship. When I was 5 or
6 we started going to a Lutheran church. My mom had me going every Sunday for
a while, but I really didn't like it very much. They had a program there
called Kids Music Company (KMC) which I loved. We would get together every
Wednesday night and every year we would put on a musical. It was really fun.
I enjoyed it. I had to quit that when I graduated fifth grade, though. Back to when
I was 7 and 8 and my brother was 12 and 13. He used me for his sexual
experimentation and molested me for about two years until he got a girlfriend. When he was 14
he started smoking and got arrested for the first time for a hit-and-run accident.
Things only get worse from there. My brother got into drugs. He wasn't just a
silly teen pot-head. From about 15-18
he was a full-on drug addict with serious anger issues. Living with an angry
addict is like living with the devil himself. He was constantly stealing from
my mom and me. I would make money for good grades and birthdays and stuff. I
was always finding new creative places to hide it; only to look back later to
find it gone. He stole all kinds of money from my mom. He would also steal
things and take them to the pawn shop. If something was worth money at my
house, you couldn't expect it to stay there long. He even sold his own
stuff for drug money. When I started
middle school at age 11, that also meant having to start confirmation classes
at my church. Man, I hated those classes. Church was seriously the last
place I wanted to be. I had confirmation class every Wednesday throughout
my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade years. With my mom working late often and me making excuses not to go, I only attended about half of
them total. I probably went to church Sunday morning 10 times over that
period of time. When I was 12, I
had a best friend named When my brother
was 17, he got a 22 year old girlfriend. She ended up moving in with us for a
little while. That relationship was over a few months after she moved in with
us. My brother hung out with some very shady people. There would just be
random people I had never seen before in the house. Some nights I would go
to sleep fearful of what craziness could go on at night while I was sleeping.
There was no peace in the house. My last year in
confirmation class (8th grade), my mom became displeased with the church we
were going to. She said they were just a bunch of "Sunday morning church
goers." But I said, "Church is on Sunday, when else would they
go?" I obviously didn't get what she was saying; she wanted more. My
mom started going to a new church. She soon told us that this new church was
predominately gay and that she was seeing a woman named Reva. I was totally
okay with that. I never went to church anyways and I didn't care who my
mom dated. I don't think my brother cared much, either, but he would use it
against her when he got mad at her. About the same
time, my brother got himself a 15 year old girlfriend when he was 18. He
ended up impregnating his 15 year old girlfriend (which is totally illegal).
Also, my brother had his driver's license revoked for some reason. One
beautiful Saturday morning, my brother asked my mom to take him to his
girlfriend's house. My mom said no. This ended up in a HUGE argument. My
brother ended up threatening mine and my mom's life at which point my mom and
I packed up a few things and went to Reva's house
and called the police. My brother was arrested and was in jail for about a
year before he was going to have a trial. He pleaded guilty just a little before
that. He got jail time for the amount of time he would have been on probation
(2 years) and more probation when he gets out. Thank you,
Jesus! God restored peace to my life when my brother went to jail. It was just me and my mom alone in the
house (for a while. My mom eventually married Reva and we moved into her
house). A little before all the craziness with my brother's final arrest, I
became extremely curious about this new church my mom was going to. I
could tell there was something different about it and it wasn't just that the
members were gay. They went to church on Sunday nights. My mom would get back
really late most nights and I didn't really want to get home that late on
Sunday. Then, they
started having Sunday morning services. I decided to go one week.
I…..LOVED…..IT! I haven't wanted to miss a Sunday since. Of course I'm
talking about New Covenant Church of Atlanta. I went steadily for about 3-4
months before I gave my life to Jesus on One of the
most important things I've learned from church is forgiveness. I've forgiven my brother for all the
craziness he's put me through and I just wish him the best in the rest of his
life. Because people aren't able to carry around baggage like that and purely
serve the King of Glory; and NOTHING is going to keep me from serving my
king. I've also learned that you can't let the circumstances you're in (or
have been in) keep you from glorifying God. The past is
the past and that's exactly where it's going to stay. God has worked so amazingly in my life.
I'm so in love with my Savior. I live my life for Him and no one else. God is
going to use me in great ways. And I know that He wants to work greatly in
you, too. All you have to do is let Him. I love you. And I hope you were
blessed by my testimony. |
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Pastor’s
Corner & More |
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Lighthouse Ministries by Pastor Brian Grizzle |
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God has given a name to the Clayton ministry.
It's Lighthouse Ministries. What that means is, we
are called to be God's lighthouse. A lighthouse lifts up light so that those
who are trying to find their way at sea can navigate and the lost can come
in. That's exactly what we are attempting to accomplish in We had 52 in our meeting in April (which
included a lot of out-of-town visitors) and 47 this month (and many of those
were local people). The growth in the attendance for those from the Clayton
area continues to increase. We've also been consistently growing in our
Thursday night Bible study and many are exhibiting spiritual growth. We count it a privilege to be a part of this
great work that God is doing! |
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Preparing the Way for SpiritFest 2008
by Jason DeShazo, There's
Victory Ministries
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I’ve been doing some research on the Omni and CNN center. WOW .. GOOD things.. it is SOOO GOD that we are doing SpiritFest2008 there. Intercessors -- be praying!!! I'm meeting with pastor and we're going to
set up a prayer walk for the area to prepare it for the Conference. Here are
a few things that I found: 1. The site seems to be where the original 0 mile marker was and it was a
train depot The 0 mile marker was the center of 2. The exact site was a slum area and a man bought it (history says he had
a "kingdom mindset" to being diversity and progress to the area).
He was a Christian and went to a church whose ministry had a heart even for
he gays/lesbians 3. The Omni, from the Latin for "all," or "every," 4. The CNN Center had a theme park in it and it didn't last long. The reason I'm putting this out is God is speaking through history and we
can be a part of another historical event. The following was sent to me by Ruth Cooper of Above All Names Ministries.
These are prophecies concerning Atlanta's Redemptive Calling by Billy Humphrey Winds
across Atlanta & the Southeast by Jacquie Tyre |
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Runner's High by
Pastor Angela Brown
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Don’t know if you are familiar with the term runner’s high, but I wanted
to share that with you this morning. When a runner is on course and they feel
themselves growing weary, they don’t quit and after a while they get their second
breath and run like they did at the start of the journey. As Christians, we
often get weary in the race of life, but we should not give up and quit. When
you feel your strength leaving you, keep going. Dive, dig, and delve into the
word of the Lord. The Bible is an always ready instruction manual that will
apply to every situation that may arise in your life. Don’t quit, keep going
until you experience your Jesus high, when he gives you your second, third,
fourth, etc. breath to finish the race. Isaiah. 40:31 But those who hope in the LORD will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow
weary, they will walk and not be faint. |
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Confession of Faith
by Pastor Joan Castle |
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What a mighty God we serve. You are awesome in splendor and
radiant as the sun. You are a light in the midst of darkness. God brings me to my knees. I want to know Jesus. I humble
myself before You and want to know Jesus more and more. Abba Father I love You. Here I am longing for You. Hide me
in Your love and keep me in the shadow of Your wings. Come breathe in me, come live in me. All my life take over
and be in control. I wait on you Lord and King. I wait! Lord I wait. I desire to know you my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So I
wait on You and am stil, and know You are my God
and King. You bring love and peace into my life each day. I wait on You. |
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Fire Institute |
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May 4-10 Read
Deuteronomy 8 – 1 Samuel 15 May 11-17 Read 1
Samuel 16 – 2 Kings 15 Come ready to discuss
these amazing passages! |
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Announcements |
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Events |
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SpiritFest 2008
Upcoming Events
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