Ministry Update September 10, 2008
Message from Anita
Mark 3:13-15
“And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out …”
This morning in my time alone with God, I decided to start our time together reading the assigned reading for September 10 from Charles Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening Devotional.” I was just hoping for words that would encourage and prepare me for the strategic planning day I was having with JoyShop Ministries board of directors. What a timely reading the Lord had in store for me from a man who lived in the 1800’s. Rather than explain it, I am just going to quote from the devotional.
“The call of Christ’s servants comes from above. Jesus stands on the mountain, forever above the world in holiness, earnestness, love, and power. Those He calls must go up the mountain. They must seek to rise to His level by living in constant reunion with Him. They may not be able to ascend to classic honors, or attain scholastic eminence; but like Moses, they must have familiar fellowship with the unseen God. If not, they will never be fully qualified to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Jesus went alone to have high fellowship with the Father. If we are to be a blessing, we must do the same. Little wonder the apostles were clothed with power when they came down from the mountain where Jesus was. This morning, we must endeavor to climb the mount of communion, for there we may be ordained to the life work for which we are set apart.
Let us not look on a human face today until we have first seen Jesus. Time spent with Him is repaid with blessed interest. We too will cast out devils and work wonders if we go to the world with the divine energy that Christ alone can give. It is useless to fight the Lord’s battle until we are armed with heavenly weapons. We must see Jesus. This is essential.”
Two hundred years later the message remains the same through JoyShop Ministries! As I think back on my “old” Christian days of spending time with God when it was convenient or when I felt I had the time, to where I am today after making the life changing decision to put our relationship first every morning….well, there is just no comparison! Every morning as I crawl out bed and walk “up the mountain” to meet with my Father, I know that He will meet me there and clothe me with His mercy, love, and forgiveness. As our hearts mingle and He speaks words of truth and power, I rest in the knowledge that He is in control of my life and JoyShop Ministries. And I come down the mountain equipped to face the challenges of my day.
Dear friends of JoyShop Ministries, I cannot stress this enough. If you truly desire to serve Jesus with your life, then climbing up the mountain daily to be alone with the Father is a must. May God grant us the desire to look upon His face before we see any other face!
Joy Alerts:
Thank you for your prayers. Wow! What a great week of ministry. It all began last Friday night at Victory Church which meets at Greenfield Industrial Park. It was a woman’s event and there were 40-45 women of all ages in attendance. Paula Frey served with me over the weekend and we sensed God’s presence in a powerful way! What a joy to see the Holy Spirit stirring hearts.
One young lady spoke with me afterwards with tears in her eyes, as she shared the revelation God had given her while I was sharing my story. She does not know her birth father and she had been spending time looking for him without much success. God gently reminded her that she should be spending the same amount of time seeking Him as she is putting in to seeking her earthly father! How I praise God for revealing this marvelous truth to her.
Received these message through facebook:
“Hi Anita! I wanted to proclaim to you the faithfulness of our God! Many, many things were settled in my own heart thru the teaching at your seminar at Victory! Thank you for your obedience for sharing this Gift with others. I understand that many years ago, God spoke "JoyShop" in your heart and life and I want to testify of the fruits of your obedience! Be filled with joy today, my friend. Thank you!”
“I can't thank you enough for doing what you do. To be so willing to follow God in faith, even when you don't always know what the outcome will be. I admire you for trusting God, especially during the tough times! I shared a bit with you about my past life … and where I'm at now. I'm so glad I've found my way back to God. I feel like I am being restored. I was so moved, while doing the exercise of reading John 15 at the workshop on Saturday. The theme of LOVE just kept popping out and screaming to me. I have so much hurt when it comes to feeling loved. I feel like there are clouds over my eyes, I can't see how anyone could love me. I know that those thoughts and feelings are all lies...Satan is feeding into my message of the wound, that I am not good enough. I know deep down that I AM good enough though. I am LOVED by God! I want you to know that I have accepted your 21-Day Challenge. I am soooo confident that God is going to rock my world through this. Already today, Satan is trying soooo hard to bring me down! It's not gonna work though! I'm praying that God will continue to bless your ministry.”
I praise God for every life He allows me to encourage. Do you see and feel the power of God’s Word already taking place in these women’s hearts? If we can just encourage everyone to seek God through spending time alone with Him in His Word, then He does the rest!!!
The beginning of the week I had two morning chapel sessions with 9th-12th graders at Mount Calvary School in Elizabethtown. We had the opportunity to serve over 90 students and faculty. Cindy Rutt, Shelly Kibler, and Kay Risser assisted me on those mornings. I had an hour and a half each morning and the students were very attentive. After each chapel service I had students come up to thank me and say how it had impacted their life! An adult who sat in one of my sessions responded through facebook:
"I joined a men's group (24 weeks) @ LCBC this morning @ 6:00 AM. I was so encouraged and inspired by your love and commitment to God that it clinched the decision to join this series (which actually began today)... I knew that I needed a kick in the butt … God clearly was telling me this was needed @ this time of my busy life. Thanks!!"
Another adult who sat in on the sessions said:
“It was Wonderful having you come to our school and speak these 2 days. I was truly inspired by your testimony and challenge. Please pray that I will give God authority in my life so that He can accomplish what He desires for me.”
One of the things that I personally love about this ministry is that it impacts the young and the old!
Strategic Planning Day: The board of directors had a great day with our facilitator today at The Hurst House Bed & Breakfast. The Hurst’s were kind enough to donate the meeting space to the ministry free of charge and Curvin and Cathy Hurst of Oregon Dairy, provided a wonderful lunch. We felt so blessed to have these provisions taken care of for us! The board worked hard at defining our strengths and weaknesses as a ministry. Together we came up with some goals for 2009 and ways we can successfully implement themJ! One of many things I have learned since the founding of JoyShop Ministries is that ministries evolve! They do not happen over night. Drats! Actually, I have learned to appreciate the process, knowing that God is always on time and we make less mistakes when we proceed cautiously.
This sums it up for now. I leave on Saturday with my family for Myrtle Beach, S.C. which has become a yearly tradition for us, 25 years to be exact! I know it seems like I just got back from vacation, but this trip I get to stay in one place and be with all our grown childrenJ! Yeah!
Thank you for your continual prayers for the ministry. Always remember, prayer is the greater work.
May His Name be exalted now and forever more!
Anita
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Message from Anita September 4, 2008
I Samuel 12:20-24
“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people…Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”
Recently I started to begin my quiet time with the Lord each morning with this prayer, “Dear God, please grant me a deeper realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation for the surpassing worthiness of your Son so that I might serve and glorify you with ever increasing zeal and faithfulness.” Now this is a type of prayer that is a little scary to pray. Yet somehow this was a real desire of my heart. When one is busy in ministry for the Lord and you are constantly reaping the joy of seeing lives impacted for the kingdom, you can tend to forget the real wickedness of your own heart. What I wasn’t expecting was for Satan to jump on this request. One morning during my time in the Word, an assault began on my mind. At first I thought it was the Holy Spirit bringing conviction over sins of my past to remind me of how wicked my heart can be. Yet the strange thing is that I have always felt the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing in my heart. For four days I searched scripture and cried out to God during this assault. God pointed me to Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Through out my days as this burden weighed on my heart, I kept praying what is called the Jesus prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,” and I waited on Him.
Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:00 which isn’t too normal, and I just knew that God had some business to do with me so I went to my “spot” and just started devouring His Word and praying. I stayed at that spot for 4 hours! In that time, God pointed me to the passage above in I Samuel as well to another book that I felt God wanted me to read. I came to the realization that God had allowed Satan to torment me, but He used it to answer my prayer request of a new realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation of what Christ has done for me. Yes, I am a sinner. I have had shameful attitudes and actions, yet God in His infinite mercy, keeps me from turning aside and has given me a passion to serve Him will all my heart. I don’t have to fear! To think that it pleases the Lord to make us His people is truly too marvelous to fully comprehend. Praise God! It just makes me want to shout for joy over all the great things He has done for us. I continue to pray that God will use times like these to keep me on the path of humility and brokenness in serving the body of Christ.
Ministry update
Our time in Franklin, Pa. was a lot of fun. The Todd Agnew Concert was great! He is a simple communicator with a gift of expressing his soul through song and guitar. Previously I had sent one of my books to his parents who live in Franklin, in hopes that they would pass it on to Todd as a way of introducing myself. To my surprise during the concert, Todd mentioned that he was adopted! After the concert, I had the blessing of meeting Todd, his parents and his adopted sister. They ended up sitting in on my session on Saturday morning. We enjoyed conversation afterwards centered around adoptions
More important though were the young people that I had the opportunity to serve! I only had one hour with them, but I pray that the workshop made an impact on their spiritual lives. . If you go to my blog and look at my last entry you will see a picture of Todd, his family from the area, and myself.
Sunday morning I spoke for one hour during a combined Sunday school hour with about 140+ people as well as Sunday evening for the youth/a few adults. This congregation was so receptive to the message and many shared with me afterwards that it had been just what they needed! One high school age male student handed me a note written on the church bulletin that said, “I’ve been praying for a message about what you gave us today. Thank you so much for speaking today.” That was worth it all right thereJ! Another great comment came this week in the mail from a woman in that congregation, “I want you to know that your message sunk in—my husband read his Bible before the paper on Monday morning!! A miracle, since he is an avid paper reader first thing each a.m.!”
An email we recently received:
“You spoke at Camp Hebron in June of last year and gave us the 21 day challenge and I took it! I was really amazed how journaling added to my devotions and Bible reading. I never thought that journaling would stick for me - I've tried over the years and my entries were few and far between! I now have over a full year of journaling the amazing things that God has been showing me, mostly through His word and I actually write in a nice journal instead of a little throw away spiral note book. :o) There really is an amazing connection that happens when you write down the thoughts the Lord gives you - not just leaving them swimming around in your head. So I just wanted to send you a note of encouragement and to testify to the Lord's faithfulness! Keep cheering for Jesus - it has impacted my life.”
As these words of encouragement come in I like to pass them along to you because with out your support I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for partnering with me!
Ministry Prayer Requests:
--Sept 8-9, (Monday and Tuesday) Mt. Calvary Christian School
--Sept 10, (Wednesday) Strategic Planning Day for the Board
--Sept 27, (Saturday) Two one hour sessions at Sandy Cove
Pray for receptive hearts, an anointing of God’s presence and lives impacted for eternity.
A fellow God Seeker,
Anita
I Samuel 12:20-24
“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people…Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”
Recently I started to begin my quiet time with the Lord each morning with this prayer, “Dear God, please grant me a deeper realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation for the surpassing worthiness of your Son so that I might serve and glorify you with ever increasing zeal and faithfulness.” Now this is a type of prayer that is a little scary to pray. Yet somehow this was a real desire of my heart. When one is busy in ministry for the Lord and you are constantly reaping the joy of seeing lives impacted for the kingdom, you can tend to forget the real wickedness of your own heart. What I wasn’t expecting was for Satan to jump on this request. One morning during my time in the Word, an assault began on my mind. At first I thought it was the Holy Spirit bringing conviction over sins of my past to remind me of how wicked my heart can be. Yet the strange thing is that I have always felt the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing in my heart. For four days I searched scripture and cried out to God during this assault. God pointed me to Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Through out my days as this burden weighed on my heart, I kept praying what is called the Jesus prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,” and I waited on Him.
Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:00 which isn’t too normal, and I just knew that God had some business to do with me so I went to my “spot” and just started devouring His Word and praying. I stayed at that spot for 4 hours! In that time, God pointed me to the passage above in I Samuel as well to another book that I felt God wanted me to read. I came to the realization that God had allowed Satan to torment me, but He used it to answer my prayer request of a new realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation of what Christ has done for me. Yes, I am a sinner. I have had shameful attitudes and actions, yet God in His infinite mercy, keeps me from turning aside and has given me a passion to serve Him will all my heart. I don’t have to fear! To think that it pleases the Lord to make us His people is truly too marvelous to fully comprehend. Praise God! It just makes me want to shout for joy over all the great things He has done for us. I continue to pray that God will use times like these to keep me on the path of humility and brokenness in serving the body of Christ.
Ministry update
Our time in Franklin, Pa. was a lot of fun. The Todd Agnew Concert was great! He is a simple communicator with a gift of expressing his soul through song and guitar. Previously I had sent one of my books to his parents who live in Franklin, in hopes that they would pass it on to Todd as a way of introducing myself. To my surprise during the concert, Todd mentioned that he was adopted! After the concert, I had the blessing of meeting Todd, his parents and his adopted sister. They ended up sitting in on my session on Saturday morning. We enjoyed conversation afterwards centered around adoptions
More important though were the young people that I had the opportunity to serve! I only had one hour with them, but I pray that the workshop made an impact on their spiritual lives. . If you go to my blog and look at my last entry you will see a picture of Todd, his family from the area, and myself.
Sunday morning I spoke for one hour during a combined Sunday school hour with about 140+ people as well as Sunday evening for the youth/a few adults. This congregation was so receptive to the message and many shared with me afterwards that it had been just what they needed! One high school age male student handed me a note written on the church bulletin that said, “I’ve been praying for a message about what you gave us today. Thank you so much for speaking today.” That was worth it all right thereJ! Another great comment came this week in the mail from a woman in that congregation, “I want you to know that your message sunk in—my husband read his Bible before the paper on Monday morning!! A miracle, since he is an avid paper reader first thing each a.m.!”
An email we recently received:
“You spoke at Camp Hebron in June of last year and gave us the 21 day challenge and I took it! I was really amazed how journaling added to my devotions and Bible reading. I never thought that journaling would stick for me - I've tried over the years and my entries were few and far between! I now have over a full year of journaling the amazing things that God has been showing me, mostly through His word and I actually write in a nice journal instead of a little throw away spiral note book. :o) There really is an amazing connection that happens when you write down the thoughts the Lord gives you - not just leaving them swimming around in your head. So I just wanted to send you a note of encouragement and to testify to the Lord's faithfulness! Keep cheering for Jesus - it has impacted my life.”
As these words of encouragement come in I like to pass them along to you because with out your support I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for partnering with me!
Ministry Prayer Requests:
--Sept 8-9, (Monday and Tuesday) Mt. Calvary Christian School
--Sept 10, (Wednesday) Strategic Planning Day for the Board
--Sept 27, (Saturday) Two one hour sessions at Sandy Cove
Pray for receptive hearts, an anointing of God’s presence and lives impacted for eternity.
A fellow God Seeker,
Anita
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