Sunday, January 30, 2011

Good Morning Girlfriends,

Thanks so much for ALL of your prayers regarding our daughter Brooke. She met with her surgeon on Friday and the pathology reports were all negative! We were concerned because there is a long history of cancer in my family. God is so good!

God wants you to trust him each day even when it may feel he is asking you to trust him for the impossible. God has promised to help you accomplish and endure.

I know how busy our lives in ministry can be and I also know how many burdens we carry for others as pastor’s wives and women in ministry. But God never intended for you and I to do this thing alone. We will not accomplish what God has called us to do in our own strength. We will become weary, discouraged and worn out and often times those feelings cause people to leave the ministry.

No matter what you are walking through today, God is able. I know I repeat this often but He has proved over and over again in my own life how BIG and awesome he truly is. Mother Teresa wrote, “God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in Him. He will always look after us. So we must cleave to Jesus. Our whole life must simply be woven into Jesus.”

When you enter into friendships your trust develops over time. At the beginning of your relationship with Christ you may trust Him for things that are not likely to happen without his intervention. As you trust God for bigger and bigger things, your faith expands as you mature in God and we learn to trust for the impossible.

George Mueller’s trust in God was tested to the limit. He operated a number of orphanages in nineteenth-century England, housing two thousand children at one time. He was criticized for giving unfair advantage to the poor and his ministry to the children came under scrutiny. It became well known that he did not ask for donations and often there was no food in the pantry to prepare meals for the orphans. But George Mueller instructed the children to take their place at the tables, totally trusting God would provide. And God always came through. Whatever was needed always arrived at the door at the right time.

I don’t know what many of you are facing today. I don’t feel the pain some of you are experiencing today regarding your ministry but I serve an almighty God who is capable of doing the impossible in your life.

1 Peter 5:7, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Ask God for the impossible today then trust him for the miracle. We are on a faith journey and God will provide!

Praying for you today friend. May God bless you and do the impossible in your life and ministry!

Love and appreciate you,
Debbie

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Good Morning Beautiful Girlfriends,

Thank you so much for praying for our daughter Brooke this week. Her thyroid surgery went very well and now she is at our home this week with her family recovering. The pathology results will not be known until next week but the surgeon feels everything is normal. PTL! I will be on vacation this week and also working from home as I help care for our grandchildren Luke and Victoria.

Many of you have expressed prayer needs to me over the past month. I pray for this group daily and I encourage you to pray also. We truly need the prayers and encouragement of one another. Even though I have never met many of you I feel your prayers and your words of encouragement truly speak to my heart.

George Mueller had a saying that faith grows with use. I encourage you to put your faith to work. Our faith will grow and become stronger daily if we practice trusting God for something small and ordinary and next week or next month or next year you may be able to trust Him for answers bordering on the miraculous. Everyone has some faith, said Mueller; the difference among us is one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one who has not dared to exercise the little faith he has.

According to the Bible, we have because we ask, or we have not because we ask not. God wants to display His power in our lives. NOTHING is impossible for the God we serve…… NOTHING!

I know many of you are facing huge challenges in your life but God loves you and wants the absolute best for you and your ministry. The enemy continues to knock on our hearts with discouragement and lies. He is a loser! God is a God of victory and we win when He is in control of our lives!

Seek God for the impossible. He is waiting for you to ask so He can do something unbelievable in your life. This could be the week!

Have a God-powered day filled to overflowing with His amazing anointing.

Love and appreciate you,
Debbie

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Good Morning Friends!

My weekend has been packed full to the brim and I am weary this morning like many of you. I traveled on Friday to our area District campground for a planning meeting with the women’s ministries. Saturday I had a committee meeting at the District office and did not arrive home until 4:30pm. Of course there was prep work that needed to be done for today, a hubby to feed along with a hamper full of laundry, etc. I am so thankful that Monday is a holiday and our office is closed!!

How often does the enemy mess with your mind? You are aware that feelings of insecurity, inferiority, discouragement and many other negatives in our lives comes directly from the pits of hell! And, when we are tired and weary the doors are sometimes opened wider for these feelings in our lives to come in like a flood.

"The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act." ~ Rick Warren ~

When I read this statement I can't help to think about all the "sad" Christians who are walking around our workplace, neighborhoods and churches, which are constantly dragging their lips across the carpet. Why? Because they have become overburdened with the cares of the world and life has become overwhelming to them. They have lost their joy in the Lord. Even pastor’s wives and ministry women sometimes experience these same feelings. Is that YOU today?

If we think insecure thoughts, we will feel insecure and those around us will recognize our insecurities. If we think we are losers, we will feel like losers and those around us will recognize us as losers. If we think we are defeated, we will feel like we are defeated and those around us will recognize us as being defeated. If we think we are secure in Jesus Christ, saved by the blood of the lamb, pressing towards the prize of heaven, we will feel encouraged and those around us will see us as encourager's. Our attitudes will become contagious and people will want what we have. You are what you think.........

My God is not a loser. He is bigger than anything this world can place upon us. He is our hope. He is our future. He is our encourager and He loves us. He cares about us and He is available to us 24/7. When we feel alone in the middle of the night, God is there. When the enemy speaks words of discouragement into our thoughts, God is there to assure us that we are special. We are His creation and He doesn't make mistakes nor does He make junk?

I know I am nothing without Christ. He has made me who I am today. Each day, part of my prayer to Him is, "Lord, may I decrease and you increase." I want to be a light in this dark and hopeless world.

The key to our victory in Christ is spending alone time with our Heavenly Father. We all know that. We preach that to our churches but many times the busyness in our lives crowds out the most important thing we need to do.

Be INTENTIONAL about your TIME with the Lord. The doctor prescribed blood pressure medication for me last year and I know in order to remain healthy I must take those meds daily. If we desire to remain healthy spiritually, we must take our meds daily. Those meds are spending alone time with Jesus Christ. Studying His Word, meditating on His Word, filling our soul with God’s Word and praying to our God.

Have an incredible and blessed Sunday and an awesome week!

You are loved and appreciated,
Debbie

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Good Morning Beautiful Peeps!

It is officially the beginning of a New Year in my house! All the Christmas decorations have been neatly packed away for a long nap……….. What a task!

Ministry is rewarding, exciting, stressful and sometimes even discouraging. I shared my heart last week about how God has spoken to me regarding being more intense this year about studying God’s Word and seeking His face. In my own life it is even more than that.

How many times do we find ourselves comparing who we are with other women in the ministry? How many times do we allow the enemy to convince us that the sermon we preached was a BIG zero? How many times do we find ourselves thinking that we just don’t measure up to others around us who are successful in ministry? Those are thoughts from none other than our big ugly enemy who is a liar and master of deception! It is cool to be who God created you to be because His fingerprints are on your soul. God has chosen us to be vessels of the Word in a dying world.

God’s plan for all of us is magnificent and unbelievable! His power and anointing is all around us but sometimes we fail to tap into those resources. Intimidation and insecurity are real and if we are honest with ourselves we would admit that both of these tools from the enemy invade our lives often. The enemy will do anything to keep us from achieving all that God has for us.

Each of us has dreams that have been engraved on our souls by God. If we feel limited in our walk with Christ we are limiting Him to achieve those dreams.

Are there others who can preach better, sing better and teach better than we can? Absolutely but that doesn’t mean we refuse to pursue God’s plan for our lives. You are unique in God’s plan. As I mentioned last week, God specifically designed His plan for your life. He has called you to do things for the Kingdom that no one else can do. Friends that is an awesome challenge!

Psalm 125:1 tells us that those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. We must trust God in 2011 because he never changes. He cannot be shaken by the changes in our world, and he endures forever.

Do we need help achieving the plan God has for our lives? Absolutely! I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121: 1-2 NIV).

Don’t buy into the deception of the enemy. Hang on tight to God’s promises. He will never fail us and if He has called you He will equip you to accomplish great things for Him! Don’t try to be a carbon copy of someone else’s ministry. Pursue God and allow Him to do a great work in YOU. When we fully submit our lives onto our Heavenly Father it is amazing what He will do!

Have a blessed week and a powerful Sunday.

Love and appreciate YOU,
Debbie

Sunday, January 2, 2011


Happy New Year Beautiful Friends!

My hubby and I left on Christmas evening to travel to MO to spend the week with our son and his family. We traveled in snow all night but 18 hours later we were holding our new grandson, Cayden. He is precious and we had an awesome week! I absolutely hated leaving them to come back to VA but I know we were blessed to have the opportunity to spend the week with them.

Opportunities…….. The thesaurus lists words like, chance, occasion, opening, break and prospect under opportunity. Yesterday was the beginning of a brand New Year. I know many people make all kinds of New Year Resolutions but we truly have all kinds of brand new opportunities coming our way this year. Are you excited about that? Are you looking forward to what God has planned for your life and ministry? Are you prepared for what God may be planning for you?

I don’t make New Year Resolutions because they quickly disappear after the first couple of weeks. But, God has been speaking to my heart about what I need to do in this New Year. I am going to become more intense about studying God’s Word and seeking His face. I am going to prepare sermons and teachings as God leads so I am ready to share His Word when the opportunity comes before me. For me personally, I need to focus more on the NOW and less on what I am praying for regarding the future and my ministry. I believe that we can often become so focused on what we want and miss opportunities that God places before us daily.

I encourage you to listen intensely to what God is speaking to your heart. He DOES have an awesome plan for our lives but WE sometimes get in the way! This ministry thing is not about US. It is ALL about God and what He has planned for our lives.

Let’s become intense about serving Him and truly seeking His face. I will pray for you daily and let’s pray for one another throughout this year. Please share your prayer requests and all that God is doing in your life on the wall of Chocolate and Coffee or email them to me so we can encourage one another.

Some things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it. A.W. Tozer

Lord, as I seek your face and study your Word please guide me. Use me Lord in a mighty way as Your servant as I boldly proclaim Your word in leading others. Amen.

I am praying for you ladies! You are so special and God has a plan!!!

Love you,
Debbie