EASTER

We had a wonderful Easter service on Sunday with 31 in attendance. Paul Netherton opened the service with a warm welcome and a few words.
Here are a few more photos taken after the service.

Prayer Request

I was informed this morning that my nephew, Josiah, has a temperature of 103, and Jennifer is taking him to the doctor today. She has not been feeling well, either, so she has an appointment, as well. Please keep both of these in your prayers.

Pastor Ken Dyer

It was a joy to have Pastor Ken Dyer from Harvest Christian Fellowship as our special guest yesterday. Pastor Dyer preached an awesome message entitled, “Are You Ready for Action?” His text was from Acts 10:34-44 with emphasis on verse 38.

“Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him” (Acts 10:38 MSG).

He stated that there are two things that give legitimacy to our existence as a church: 1) The fact that God’s presence is here, and 2) that we are making a positive impact in our community. These two go hand in hand.

We were challenged to bombard heaven with prayer and to bombard our community with the love, grace, and power of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s time to make a difference.

Reminder

This Sunday, March 9, Daylight Saving Time begins. This is the time of year when we “spring forward” one hour. In the U.S., DST begins at 2 a.m., so it’s a good idea to move your clock forward one hour before you go to bed.

Also, Pastor Ken Dyer, of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Knoxville, will be our guest minister on Sunday morning. Pastor Dyer is the President of Harvest Restoration Outreach Center Ministries, Inc., and is also the Senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship Church. HCF is a spiritual arm of Harvest ROC Ministries.

Pastor Dyer is a native of Knoxville, TN. and is a graduate of the old South High School in South Knoxville. He is also a graduate of Johnson Bible College where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Ministry and Leadership. Later, he received his Master of Theology and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling from Life Christian University, Knoxville Campus.

A Wonderful Worship Service

Yesterday was a wonderful time for New Beginnings. We had 25 in attendance with 3 new people.

Lisa Shaw opened the service with the Word, and our newly formed praise team led the congregation in an enthusiastic time of praise to our Lord.



I preached on the subject Overcoming Spiritual Limits, and we had an awesome time of prayer and praise. It was a great day, indeed!

New Life

NEW CREATION

London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.

As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.

"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."

Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God's, the old life is over (2 Cor. 5:17). He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.

Ian L. Wilson.

The photo is from http://www.heartlight.org/cgi/heartgallery.cgi
The illustration is from http://www.higherpraise.com/illustrations/new_creation.htm

Men's Ministry Breakfast

Just a reminder that our Men's Ministry is having a Men's Breakfast tomorrow morning at 8:30 A.M. at Ryans. We are looking forward to a good time of fellowship.

Prayer for Brother Varlack

I received the following e-mail from Glynis last night.

"Please be in prayer for my dad, Adrian Varlack, Sr. He's been sick for 3 weeks and is being advised to go to the emergency room with swelling in his legs that medicine isn't helping. He has not been this sick as long as I can remember. Please also remember my mom, Janice. Please please pray! Thank you! ~G~"

I spoke with her this morning and she said, she talked to Brother Varlack last night and he has fluid around his heart. "Just pray for his overall healing as he has several issues right now and pray for wisdom for him, mom and the doctors. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love you. ~G~"

Brother Varlack is a powerful and anointed man of God! Please join me in prayer for his healing.

Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests.

Gertrude Turner is still in the hospital and is not doing well at all. Sister Turner is 96 years old and has given her life in service to our Lord. She is the mother of Bishop Jimmie Turner and the grandmother of Lisa Shaw and Tina Blaylock.

Audra Spurlin is still in need of our prayers. She is back home now, but still recovering.

Mary Waldo broke her foot yesterday and requests our prayers.

Dan and Marcia Juday are both sick and request our prayers.

Also, Bishop McKinley has posted a request for John Payne on his blog. You can read it here.

Please join me in prayer for each of these! Our God is an AWESOME God!!

Praise Report

We are thankful to the Lord for all He is doing at New Beginnings! Sunday morning we had a very exciting worship service and we had 4 new people. I preached that we need to stop limiting the power of God in us. God wants to do great and wondrous things in and through His people. He wants to give hope to the hopeless. He wants to strengthen the weak. He wants to restore the broken heart. He wants to heal the sick. God wants to shower His people with every good thing (Psalm 84:11), but we must have faith and trust Him. After the message, several people made their way to the altar for prayer.

Happy Valentines Day

Twice As Sweet
On Valentines Day, we show our love;
We express our deep affections.
Those who are important to us
Get cards and sweet confections.

But Christian love is not just for
The ones we hold most dear;
Jesus said "love everyone;"
He made that very clear.

For Christians, it is every day
We should care and love and serve
Everyone we meet in life,
Whether they do or don’t deserve.

Let’s follow Jesus’ good command
To love everyone we meet.
Valentine’s Day every day
Will make life twice as sweet.

By Joanna Fuchs

For other poems by Joanna Fuchs, please click here.

Prayer Requests

Our General Overseer, Bishop Randall Howard, has posted a report on the violence in Kenya. You can read the report here. Please join me in prayer for our brothers and sisters who are suffering in this region of the world.


Also, please continue to pray for Gertie Turner who is still in the hospital.

Prayer Request

Granny Turner, Lisa and Tina's grandmother, was admitted into CMC yesterday. She is not doing well. Mother and I went by to visit her yesterday and had prayer with her. She said she is probably sicker than she's ever been, and she is in a lot of pain. This lady is well into her 90's and she has seen a lot in her lifetime. She has also been a faithful Christian for many years.

Please join me in prayer for her that the Lord will give her comfort.

Harvest Food Pantry

I received the following e-mail this afternoon. I'm posting it here as a courtesy to Sister Sharon.

_________________________________________________
As most of you know I have been actively involved in Harvest Food Pantry (a ministry of Harvest Christian Fellowship Church, 2505 Washington Pike, Knoxville, TN 37917) since the summer of 1998 when we first opened our doors. We went from serving 7 families on that first day in July to around 150 families each time the doors open now.

That's approximately 525 people who will benefit from the food distributed each time we are open.

God has blessed this ministry beyond words with our small congregation solely
supporting it, with the exception of some occasional contributions and donations.
In addition to providing for us, God truly helps us offer those that come,
"Bread for their Body, as well as Bread for their Soul" through His Word!

As we open our doors this coming Friday for the first time in 2008 we continue to face some challenges that have arisen in the past few years, as quality food is increasingly more difficult to find. This is one of the most common problems associated with poverty and trying to fill the needs of the hungry. Trying to obtain food that will nourish them, instead of junk food (which is always readily available) is a difficulty we face on a continual basis.

In effort to help positively impact the people who come to us in need without asking others for financial support, I am simply asking everyone that I know who belongs to a Church, a Sunday School Class, a Community Club, works in an office, are Local Business owners,
or maybe just attend a Class that's looking for a Missions (type) Project to help support this ministry in this very simple way:

Your Group would Choose 1 Item such as, Peanut butter, or Cereal, or Oatmeal, or Spaghetti, or Flour, etc., (you get the idea). Then have your group collect ONLY that item on a continual basis throughout each month of the year.

At the end of each month, I will come and pick up whatever you collected.
If you have a local business, we can bring a container where you could collect donations of that item to help support the Hungry. It takes about 150 of any ONE ITEM to fill one set of grocery bags for distribution. If you collected 150 boxes of Cereal, there would be enough for every family to receive one in their bag for that week.

This would bless this ministry beyond words, it would certainly be a blessing to those who receive food from Harvest Food Pantry and of course you would be blessed in your giving.

I will make a list of Donors to be placed in each bag that is distributed, unless you prefer to remain anonymous.

Not including any other expenses, it costs approximately $650 a month to purchase enough food from Second Harvest Food Bank to feed 300 families (approximately 1,050 people). So, if your class, business, school, or other would rather take an offering and donate funds, you could be responsible for feeding over 1,000 people easily!
What a tremendous and rewarding feeling it is to know that you are impacting the mission field that exists right in your own backyard!

Also, if anyone is qualified to teach a Parenting Class or Budgeting Class and would like to donate a couple of hours of time, we would love to implement that in our ministry! If you have any area of expertise that you feel you could donate, or maybe you work in the Food Industry and have any "Day Old" items that could be donated, that too would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this.
I hope you will pray about helping us, help those who come to us with desperate needs!

You can contact me via e-mail: Sharon6tn@aol.com or on my cell phone: 865- 705-2559

With Sincere Gratitude,

Sharon Aruta
Harvest Food Pantry Director
Harvest ROC Ministries
865-637-1295 church office

The Favor of God

We've been gathering people for this church we call New Beginnings for 6 months and it is absolutely amazing what God is doing.

Yes, there have been times when I wondered how this was all going to work out, but then the Lord would remind me that this is His doing, not mine.

It is sometimes difficult to be starting a church in an area that already has so many churches (and several of them COGOP). The enemy has tried to discourage us by directing criticism our way, but we remain focused on our mission. Nehemiah, too, had his critics and those who opposed what he was doing, but he walked in the favor of God.

We believe we have heard from God, and we have stepped out in faith. We have no desire to compete with what God is doing in other churches. We simply want to join in the harvest and win the lost for Christ and His kingdom!

The only way I know how to explain what’s happening at New Beginnings is that for some reason the timing seems right and God seems to pouring out His favor on us.

Here's what's been happening...

1. From August to January we were meeting in a small chapel (the Sam & Zella Lawsom Memorial Chapel) free of charge.

2. In December the Lord suddenly opened a door for us to move into a much larger building in Crossville in an excellent location, and the rent is VERY low. We had our first service in the new building yesterday.

3. The Lord has been speaking to our people, and we have received pledges that will more than cover the rent of this facility.

4. Since the very beginning (in August), Harvest Christian Fellowship has been partnering with us in prayer and financial support.

5. We have received financial support for youth & children’s ministries from not only people who attend New Beginnings, but people who are interested in what we are doing.

6. Recently we received a substantial donation for a multimedia system and other needed items.

7. Yesterday a lady (from another denomination) stopped by after church to let me know that she has been telling people about our church and is excited about what God is doing.

It seems very clear to me that God's favor is upon us, and we are deeply thankful for His favor and blessing!

MyCOGOP Space

This morning I discovered that there is a Christian alternative to popular online communities such as myspace.com, youtube.com, facebook.com and many others. MYCOGOP SPACE is a One-Stop online community for the Church of God of Prophecy world wide, a place where COGOP members and friends can come and share their, thoughts, ideas, testimonies and more ...
You can check it out here.

God Leads Us Along

Today I found a little song sheet (printed in 1962) that belonged to my maternal grandmother, Mildred (Dyer) Greer. One of the songs printed was of particular interest to me. I haven't heard it in a very long time, so I just thought I’d share it with you here. According to Timeless Truths website, it is in the public domain.

GOD LEADS US ALONG
George A. Young (1903)

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain:
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
God leads His dear children along;
Away up in glory, eternity’s day,
God leads His dear children along.

Women's Ministry

Just a reminder, our women’s ministry will begin a bible study tonight at 6:30 in Roy & Faye’s home. The curriculum is A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place, by Beth Moore. This is an eleven (11) week course and the classes will be approximately two (2) hours in length.

Come! Study God’s Word! Interact with other women! Be challenged to prepare your heart, like the holy of holies, to become a home for His love and glory—a dwelling place for the Most High God.

Just a Reminder

• January 27—Plateau Region Leadership Meeting (sponsored by the State office of the Church of God of Prophecy in Tennessee) at the Lawrence Chapel Church starting at 6:00 p.m.

• January 28—The Women’s Ministry bible study will begins in Roy & Faye’s home. The curriculum is “A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place,” by Beth Moore.

Thoughts for today

Excitement is mounting as we prepare for a new phase of ministry in the life of New Beginnings. We were planning to meet at the building on 4th Street this evening for cleaning, etc; however, due to the fact that we couldn’t get the gas turned on by tonight, we will need to re-schedule. We will be meeting tonight on Mawila Ridge Road.

It is important to remember that it is God Who has called us together to join Him in this work, and His plan is continually unfolding. The heart of any ministry we engage in must always come from the heart of God! Our focus should not be on what we can do for people and how we can help and encourage them, but rather on how we can join God in what He has already done and is doing for them now!

In his Foreword to the book, Outreach Teams That Win: GROW, W. A. Criswell says: “Up and down every street in every city are those who are lost, families and friends and neighbors and acquaintances and fellow citizens in the communities where we ourselves are rearing our children and building our families. God Himself knew of our desperate need insomuch that He sent His only begotten Son to teach us the way of life, to die for our sins according to the Scripture, and to go before us in the evangelization of our families, of our communities, of our cities and nation, and of our whole world.”

We recognized long ago that the ministry God was calling us into would force us to leave our comfort zones. For most of us this is new territory, and it can be a little unsettling; however, our confidence is not in ourselves, but rather in God Who has called us! Remember,

“God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

There is much work to be done, and there is a work for everyone. I am excited about the future and I pray the Lord will bless you and strengthen you as you continue to submit your life to His purpose.