Saved In Sin City

I'm pondering between Beulah Heights University & Regent University for my bachelors in Biblical Studies, I'm excited about where I'm going to go. Also, they both offer online courses which make it much easier to get it done. On Saturday I have a meeting for a new exciting church youth program that ties in with my ministry.

Congratulations to Dr. Hemphill, I've known him since I was in high school as a youth advisor for the Phi Beta Sigma Youth group and it is so great to see such great things happening!

October 18, 2009

Dr. Charles Hemphill Jr. and The Gethsemane Baptist Church Family, 2525 N Decatur Blvd. Suite #8, Las Vegas, will celebrate its third Year Anniversary at the 8:00am, 11:00am, and 3:00pm services. The theme for this year’s celebration is "Yes We Can." Mark 11:22-24. In commemoration of the third Church Anniversary, Gethsemane Baptist Church will launch their Radio Outreach Broadcast, "The Final Word", which will air every Sunday at 6:45pm on KCEP/Power 88.1.

October 15-17, 2009

Living Word Ministry Women’s Department invites you to attend the 9th Annual Women’s Conference at 976 Hassell Avenue, Las Vegas. The theme for the event is “God’s Purpose for Our Pain” and speakers will include Pastor Sonya Cheltenham on Thursday at 7:00pm and Evangelist Margaret Murray on Friday at 7:00pm. The workshop will occur on Saturday from 9:00am to 12:00pm and a continental breakfast will be provided. For more information, please call (702) 647-3858.

Yesterday someone posed the question "Does God use many circumstances to guide us to a certain job or mate or city?” And many agreed that yes he does. Currently, I’m reading Searching to Fill the Void by Sonia Adams and in it she tells of her search to find love, happiness and a mate. It’s a very powerful book that will open your eyes about how important it is to first find God and then he will lead you to a mate. Sister Sonia tells about her taking a big risk to leave a comfortable job as a teacher to attend the calling of Seminary. After leaving it all behind she met her husband there and has been granted many opportunities and blessings in her life. Also she shares the stories of many inspiring First Ladies and their journey to finding their husbands.

This book has been out there for a few years, and I just discovered it and it came to me at a crucial time in my life. My first marriage wasn’t a pleasant experience, I married a man who was emotionally cold and abusive and in a short time, I found myself walking away from that. But even though things turned out so badly, I wanted to still not give up on love. After my divorce, I tried dating again and ended up in a tragic situation after going out on a date with a guy I met online. I thought he was perfect for me, he was tall and very charming, and he claimed to be a regular church-going man. We went out a few times and on our 3rd date I was falling for the whole thing. That night I was so caught up in emotions that I didn’t notice how he downed a whole bottle of wine in a short period. In a few moments his demeanor had changed and he became very strange and started calling me by his ex-wife’s name and just went crazy.

I tried to get out of the situation by just going along with it and managed to get out of the restaurant and got him to take me home. I was hoping that I would just get dropped off at home but he pulled a gun out on me and held me hostage in my apartment and throughout the ordeal I feared for my life. The only saving grace came in a parking lot when I persuaded him to take me there to go get food, he left me in the car and I called the police. After that situation I became bitter, cold, and angry. My house was no longer a home, and I no longer felt safe. I slept every night with the lights on and a baseball bat under my pillow till my lease expired. I moved and although I had changed residences, I still lived in fear. One day I went to church and saw him in the pews, and I experienced panic to the point where my new apartment became my prison; I started hoarding things like crazy and looking to see if he might have found my new place. In hindsight, I regret trying to take things into my own hand; I wanted to have a mate so badly that I went looking instead of waiting and put myself into circumstances that God didn’t have for me.

Right now at this point, I’m learning to bounce back, I prayed for God to cut the soul ties between me and my attacker and some other unholy individuals. I’ve been praying for forgiveness for the incident and asked God to take the bitter roots out of my heart and spirit towards him and what he did to me. And as I’ve been working on that, I have been reading and working on the exercises presented in the book and they have helped me to foster an open dialogue with God as to what I need to do and where I need to go. Recently, I was blessed to be reacquainted with someone who has been really sweet and kind to me and for the first time in a long time, I’ve felt safe for a change. I’m fond of him, and even though he’s a really busy guy at times, I do still appreciate his friendship, and respect, and companionship. Even if he isn’t the one, he has been a breath of fresh air and an inspiration to me and such a blessing because he’s taught me through this friendship that I don’t have to stay hurt anymore and that it is possible to love again.

Deuteronomy 1:18 (NIV version)
And at that time I told you everything you were to do.

There is a saying that time is money; for years I always viewed that saying as a mere cliché, but as I grow older I realize that there’s much truth in that statement. When we choose to make time for something, we are showing that we support that cause. Time is like money because our efforts bring value in our lives due to our focus on that subject.

Time has a value, and if we aren’t careful it can slip away never to be regained once more. I’ve learned this as a parent, when I see my daughter grow and change into a pre-teenager. I often wonder where the time has gone and now my once little baby is now looking me in the in the eye and in time I’ll have to look up at her once she grows to her predicted height of 6 feet & 2 inches. Time is a powerful factor, it can change things in a positive or a negative way, it all depends on what we devote our time to. My Mom used to say, that if you really want to do something, you’ll find the time for it or rather you’ll make the time for it.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Yes, He has plans for us but if we don’t make the time to get to know him or about him, then we rob ourselves of this future because we miss out on the potential of this powerful connection with him. Time is of an essence when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, and it’s something that is definitely worth making the sacrifice. When we make the effort to spend time in prayer, bible study, or communion with him we are saying that “I choose to get to know you better because I value you and I want you in my life.”

Lately, I’ve made the decision to humble myself and let God help me manage my time because I waste it so much. So many of my activities were about quantity rather than quality and I was keeping busy just for the sake of being a busy person because I wanted to look busy and feel as if I was doing something. I’ve been blessed because in my idle time I now see that some of the things I was filling my time with weren’t bearing the fruit that I needed for my growth, so I’ve asked Him to give me a spirit of discernment so I can find the people, places and things in my life that nurture me and to help me take control of my time so that I can enjoy these blessings.

For the past few months I’ve been making more of an effort to show God that I want to make time for him and the results have been immensely satisfying for me. I’ve been doing more writing and studying. I had a conversation with my Cousin which revealed some things to me. I participated in a Woman’s Conference where the speaker’s message resonated with me to the point that I swore that God definitely was telling me what he needed me to hear and I was lead to a book that is helping me overcome some issues in my past. I also have been starting to get out of my loner mode and am starting to take more time to talk to the people that I love more often, especially God. Our conversations are starting to be much more meaningful and many more things are starting to fall into place; projects that I had procrastinated on started to come together and many more wonderful things are starting to bear results for me. We live in a world where everything is at a rapid pace, and we tend to take that approach sometimes with God as we say a quick prayer or dash out; however, taking the time to be with him as sincerely as we can does make a difference not only in our lives but in others as well.

I'm looking forward to attending this one!

Yesterday I had the joy of getting to see a friend of mine preach at his church for the first time and it was very inspiring to see this side of him. His church is much larger than the one I attend and the different atmosphere was quite refreshing and uplifting to my soul. My regular norm for worship is on a small intimate basis because I worship at home and other places where I'm by myself frequently. I had gotten accustomed to a quiet private thing being the basis of my worship so being surrounded by what had to be hundreds of people in a packed church offered a new experience for me. There was this amazing energy and vibration surrounding me and it touched me in a beautiful way and changed my shift point to a level that I had been unconnected with for quite some time.

Strangely, I almost didn't attend it because I was trying to talk myself out of going to the service for various reasons such as: my hair wasn't done, I had to preach a sermon the next morning at 11 and I hadn't finished it yet, I had a disagreement a few weeks earlier him and I was still salty and was convincing myself that looking at him was not going to be a good idea. In a short amount of time, I had made all of these various excuses as to why I wasn't going and at the last minute when my sister called me at 6:55 a.m. I decided to go. In hindsight I'm glad I went because it made me enjoy my own service with a new vigor. Sometimes we resist change, because we get so comfortable with things as they are that we don't make the time to do something new or make the time to do something fun. What I learned from this experience is that I need to fellowship more often and look for new things in the Lord through these various opportunities. Often in Las Vegas, the perception of this city is that it's full of many ways to satisfy many carnal desires and lusts, but one of its secrets is that there are many wonderful places of worship that can fulfill your spiritual desires as well and that is the focus of my new ministry, I'm excited to create a medium that will inform, educate and inspire those who live in this area with tools to help them flourish in their lives with God.