 By Toney Driver
Joel 1:15 For the day of the lord is near, and as destruction from the almighty comes 2:1 let all the inhabitants of the lands tremble, for the day of the lord is coming it is near 2:13 Return to your lord your God, he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he relents over disaster.  By Donna Churchill
I am a collector of quotes. I have been collecting meaningful-to-me quotes for many, many years. This year, thinking these quotes were just too good to keep to myself, I began sharing them with friends via a weekly text. This is the quote I shared a few weeks ago: “Humility teaches us to find rest in confession. Rest from the need to hide, the need to be perfect. We rest by saying, both to God and others, ‘I am not enough. I need help.’” Hannah Anderson I grew up knowing I was not enough. Lest I forgot, my mother reminded me often. As a result, I made it my life’s work to be more than enough. I worked hard to pretend I was enough. I’m sure I didn’t fool anyone, but I worked extra hard to fool myself. I could never confess I was a fraud. On those occasions when the façade cracked, when I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t enough, I still found it hard to admit I needed help. I set myself up as the “god” of the kingdom of my own making. Thankfully, that began to change when I met the real and true GOD! As a loving and merciful God, He began the work of sanctification in me. I, as the “god of my kingdom,” am very unforgiving and a merciless taskmaster when I fail. God, the real and true God, is not only forgiving and merciful, but picks me up with great love when I fail. I, as the “god of my kingdom,” on my quest to be perfect, needed to prove to myself that I was enough and that I didn’t need help. God, the real and true God, tells me that I don’t need to be perfect, only faithful. He tells me that yes, I am not enough, but I don’t need to be because Jesus is. I, as the “god of my kingdom,” consistently fall short of living up to my expectations. God, the real and true God, releases me from the pressure of living up to my own unrealistic or harsh expectations. His only expectation of me is to be faithful. “Humility teaches us to find rest in confession.” I find rest in confessing my sin, humbling myself before God and laying bare before others that I need help. I find rest from trying to be perfect, rest from trying to hide my sin and imperfections, rest from pretending to be “god of my kingdom” in complete control, for there is only one real and true God and one Kingdom. Rest follows repentance and as I repent of trying to be “god” and give up the control of my life to the only One who has genuine control, I find true rest. Psalm 25:9 says, “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.” How can I be led and taught if I don’t acknowledge my need for help? “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) I do not want to be opposed by God; I cannot win that war and I don’t even want to try! He knows best! “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 How thankful I am that I am no longer the “god of my kingdom” and that I no longer have to pretend to be! How thankful I am that the work of sanctification is His and He promises he will do it!!  by Joyce Pelletier Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good those who love him, and who have been called according to his purpose. [Even Weeds!] This summer has brought about many challenges I wanted to ignore. The weather has been a challenge I despise. I am not a fan of hot sticky weather, yet every year it shows up and puts me to the test. After breakfast one morning, I was pondering the task of pulling out the crab grass in my Iris bed in front of our condo. In May of this year, I put out a request for help in cleaning out this tough grass that has taken control of one of my favorite flowers. My friend Denise joined me in taking on this task get rid of this weed. When we finished, it looked so good. I felt the excitement when the blossoms showed their beauty of blue and purple. I felt thankful for having Denise’s help to get this weed under control. We worked hard and it was successful. In this purposeful morning, we had fun! It gave a new meaning to our friendship. We had such fun joking back and forth happily putting the tools away when we were done. It’s now August and this morning as I sat on the couch contemplating cleaning out this bed of wonder, after noticing the mounds of grass covering the ground with this unappreciated harsh grass. This had to be cleaned up. I got up off the couch, went to retrieve some garden tools to start the “not wanting to do” task. Only this time, I coaxed Maurice to help with this task. He hunkered in there with me. We pulled many plants out as well as weeds and dirt and two hours later we finished the job. We now have a new composted irises with a new task, and I venture to say a new Iris bed in the woods. I will admit I lost my enthusiasm ended with about 85% completed, but I managed, and only with the help of Maurice, We were both ready to be done. It’s not a perfect job, but it was much better and I promised in the spring when I'm ready to tackle it again next growing season. I realized that Jesus didn’t slack off on completing his task on the cross. I did gave it my best shot, as did Maurice. But at every turn in life there are lessons to be learned. I guess it goes along with aging and aches and pain to boot. Gaining another year has taken that element of courageous optimistic strength then just a few years ago. Since hitting a higher birthday number has taken it’s tole on us. I can see that it means to reevaluate our approach for gardening. Artificial flowers might work, but they are not as pretty. Condemning myself for my lack of completion, would not make any sense. God understands my lack of finishing and the good news is we did give it our best shot. There is that saying ‘Do your best, and leave the rest to God.’ That might help, some! Offer God what you can give, don’t be afraid to ask for help, because we never walk alone. Again, I am reminded of the disciples falling asleep in the garden as Jesus prayed the night before he died, asking them, “Could you not stay awake for a short time?” Understanding the human condition we are in, Jesus didn’t condemn them, He understood. He knows the human condition. He also reminds us to trust him completely, in all things and don’t lean on your own strength but trust him in all things. Thinking more on where the focus should be on our journey, like purpose, over failure. What is the most important part of success? It overrates the outcome or multiplying the final result with the purposeful lessons as we walk the path. Spring will come again and those weeds will be there, perhaps a few less, or maybe I’ll be more prepared to try again. Who knows, I may have conquered the worst of them. There is a time for success. When we take the time to re-evaluate what success is all about and putting what’s really important into perspective provides more success than we realize. Our Sunday school kids lead us in our monthly memory verses. They are so enthusiastic and they want to please everyone in their successes, they are amazing! They lead the way for our whole church family. We cheer them on, because they set the example for all of us to give it our best shot. This kind of thing inspires me. Then I might be more successful.
 By Linda Hokit “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord” Isaiah 55:8 (NIV) When I served as a missionary in Georgia, I was out and about in the community so much that I literally carried my office on my shoulder in the form of a backpack. I became so well know by that practice that I was asked to create a presentation using my pack. There was to be a very large Saturday program for girls in elementary school from all over the region. They were going to rotate hundreds of wiggly little girls around from one conference activity to another all morning long. Usually, I am asked what I could offer the group. However, this time the event organizer told me just she wanted me to do during the 30 minutes I had each group. Her idea was for me to pull items out of my bag that described activities I did as a Resort Ministries Missionary. I did just that. It wasn’t long until I got requests to do the very same presentation for adult groups. So, let me share with you a few stories, we fondly called God Stories because of the obvious ways God made Himself known. One of the first things I pulled out of my bag was a bar of soap because we were able to start a campground worship service when a church went to the campground to dump greywater. For two years I tried my best to get permission to do a service for campers on Sunday mornings without success. Normally this is not a difficult thing to do. But it was! Then one day a church called the campground to ask if they could write one check a month for the dump fee. At that moment the new campground manager happened to walk behind the person on the phone. He stopped and asked the worker if she was speaking with a church. When she said, “yes”, he said, then tell them if they will do a campground worship service, they can dump the bus for free! A few weeks later we had out first service. We got off to a slow start but soon had more than 100 worshipers. Oh, by the way, we were not allowed to invite anyone in person to come. That was left up to the camp staff. Things went do well that the next year we were asked to also do VBS. After suggesting that the park put fliers up at the bath houses our attendance jumped to 200 attenders. That’s when we became the fastest growing church start in the area. Then we discovered that cancer patients were staying at the campground while they received treatment. We were able to find a retired pastor who also had cancer who agreed to serve as the campground chaplain. He was in place just before planes flew into the towers in NY. A park staff person requested a park-wide service be done. Our chaplain worked with him the service. It turned out to be the first time park staff gathered together all at once and it was a religious service. I continued to pull items out of my bag telling short stories children might related to. The last thing I pulled out was a loaf of bread. A lady in my sponsoring church made a request for a mothers’ walking group in the small town when the work was centered. We talked and I planned exactly what she requested. We were going to meet four weeks for a walk and talk activity. Nobody came any of the four weeks. However, I went just in case someone showed up. I could not let go of the fact that I was firmly convinced that God had something store. On the last day I discovered what He had planned for us! Over the course of about a year, refugees from a war-torn European country. The town is quite small, but within the first month more than 60 people had arrived. Our church a building for resettlement meeting and a child program and was one of the first groups to help them settle in. One that fourth week, one of the mother’s from our day camp program drove up right in front of the spot where I was waiting for walkers. Her question was, “Do you know anyone who needs bread?” I though for a quick minute and realized that there was a group across the street in the gym parking lot waiting on a bus to take families to a movie. However, the bus was late, so they just happened to still be there when the lady with bread pulled up. Likewise, the people our church who was working when the families also happened to be there. We gathered the bread and was able to arrange for each family to receive bread. They came to American because people who said they were Christians were killing them. And, yet God gave us an opportunity to flip that scribe. We were able to show them that there were Christians who cared for them and provided for them. They looked on bread as the staff of life but we were able to use the gift as a way for describe to them God’s love for them as the Bread of Life. Months went on as people continued to serve. Many other groups came. So many came we were able to start an international Sunday School Class. They teachers of that class discussed new church starts being created by other churches. Soon, people from our town where attending and came Christians. I see in these stories God working in His ways according to His timeframe. He uses people and resources in ways that show His hand at work in our lives! HE works in ways that show us His is the source of success and not just our skills. In short, “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”. (from the song “God Moves in Mysterious Ways” by William Cowper in 1773) Picture Note: The picture shows the gym parking lot where families waited for the activity bus. I was sitting about 20 feet away in front of the church main entrance when the lady drove up with a car full of bread  By Rebecca Vickery
Ever since I can remember, songs have spoken to my heart. I remember one time when I was sitting in Church as a child feeling restless. My father told me, you need to pay attention to the lyrics of the hymns, because they are rich with meaning. It was something that stood out to me and would begin to connect music with something higher. Since becoming a believer, I have at various points in my life used songs to remind myself of what God has delivered me from, or what he was speaking to my heart at various times in my walk. Eventually, I plan to go through and write a little story about each of these momentous songs and how they ministered to my heart at the time of their hearing. But for now, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite hymns of old. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, by Robert Robinson is a hymn I’ve known since I was a child. After I became a follower of Jesus, it became a theme of my heart: Come Thou fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it Mount of Thy redeeming love Here I raise my Ebenezer Hither by Thy help I come And I hope by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood So to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let Thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee Prone to wander Lord I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart Lord take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above I love the jubilation of the first verse. It is so good to find ourselves overcome with love and admiration for the God who is the source of our every blessing, and the streams of mercy that never cease. Could you not just bathe yourselves in the streams of mercy? And I find myself inclined to worship as I think about such things. And in that first verse, he’s fixed upon that Mount of his redeeming love. The beginning of our relationship with Jesus can be filled with these high highs that you think will be all that there is to be in your relationship. In fact, we used this song in our wedding ceremony. It is a wonderful song to remind us of our allegiance to God and also to one another. Much like marriage, when you first start out, you think it will always be a precious and wonderful thing. But we are nothing if not fickle. We don’t tend to stay in this place of exaltation either in our relationship with the Lord or our relationships with other people. And yet, as we move into the second verse, we have a resolution. Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I come. What is that all about? Well, in 1 Samuel, the Philistines were rising up against the Israelites. This is right after the Israelites had turned back to God. (We are fickle, aren’t we?) They say to Samuel, PLEASE don’t stop praying to God on our behalf. So he does. And the Lord answers his prayer and throws the Philistines into confusion so they do not defeat the Israelites. In response to this, Samuel takes a stone and sets it up and names it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” (Read from 1 Samuel 7:1-10) Thus far the Lord has helped us, or Hither by thy help I come. The Ebenezer or stone of remembrance is there for the people to remember what God has done for him. It is then a prayer that God will continue helping until he is brought home. Until WE are brought safely home to God, we depend on His grace and mercy to get us from our first confession of faith until the end. Lord God, remind me that you have helped me so far, and that you will continue to be my help. “Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.” This is one of my favorite lines, because I do remember so well how he adopted me into his fold. I was a different person, but he still is the one who guides me and rescues me from danger. He still rescues me from danger on a regular basis. “So to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.” What a relatable phrase. It is so easy for us to fall into sin. “Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.” I have prayed this over and over again through the seasons. Let your goodness by my heart to you. Chain my heart to you Lord. Bind me. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” Oh Lord, again, I know how fickle I can be. I know that I am prone to wander. I am prone to leave the God I love. Why? Because sometimes being a Christian is hard. Demanding standards for myself that apart from his grace and mercy are hard to attain, the easy road is far more tempting. You want me to love when I don’t feel anything in return? That’s not an easy ask. But I know what I know. Jesus redeemed me. And HE is the one who can keep my feet from stumbling, and place me before his throne blameless at the last day. “Here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” This song has taken on so much more meaning for me since we sang it at our wedding all those years ago. Jesus is still the One who seeks and saves the lost. Jesus seeks those who as a stranger wander from the fold of God. But I can remind my heart again and again and again that He is the God who rescues—not only me but everyone who I love as well. Jesus, thank you for seeking me even when I was far off from you. Lord, I ask that you would seek and save those who are wandering from the fold of God. Rescue them from danger and cover them with your precious blood. Tune my heart to sing your grace Lord. Strengthen us with the hearing of your word and by the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit in our Lives. Take our hearts Lord, take and seal them for your courts above. Amen.  August 3, 2025 note from Joyce Pelletier
Oh no, it's one of those weeks that caught up with us. We still trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 We must have crossed the line of seasons. Maybe we will cool off for a bit. I'm sad to say our blog is missing this week. See how we miss you. Maybe you would like to write a blog so you can fill our hearts with great messages. Share your Heart and God will bless your words. We had a problem with our email this week. Please send future emails to [email protected]. Contact Mary or Joyce at [email protected]  by Kadeen Edwards
Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow the anger. ”Anger does not produce righteousness that God requires.” James 1:19-20 James One is so rich in wisdom on walking through our Christianity. Which I consider wisdom that every Christian should have written on their hearts. One of the many verses that stood out to me is James 1:19-20 because I’ve had a couple situations that has caused me to feel anger rising up within me. “Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow the anger. ”Anger does not produce righteousness that God requires. God has been reminding me of this last few days that my feelings may be right about a couple of situations that I’m facing, but allowing anger to rise is not the way to go about it. So I prayed about it, and God responded last night with such a simple solution, and it brought me such joy and peace because it makes me understand why we should seek God in all things first before going in our own strength. If I’m being honest, I had a lot in my mind that I wanted to say and as scripture says, none of it would’ve produced the righteousness that God requires. It is good to pray about the things that you want to say to people who we love and are members of our church family or leaders, especially when it involves their feelings, thoughts or actions etc.. I love when God speaks because I could not settle within myself Anything and I woke up in the middle of the night just so agitated and could not go to sleep. Something that I realize was that we can pray and hand things over to God, but if the enemy notices that it causes a stir or some kind of aggravation in us, it’s not necessarily that we pick it back up, but it might be the enemy, stirring the pot so we are constantly going back to that agitated or frustrated state of mind. I find repeatedly, that we have to release this things to Jesus. We lay it at his feet over and over again. What I realized this morning is that it wasn’t me that wanted to bring it back up, but the enemy who wanted to stir dissension and get me frustrated. He is known as the deceiver. His power lives in deceiving people into making a decision That would take us off the path of righteousness. It says in Genesis 4:7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. The enemy brings us situations that will stir anger up because anger is a door. Darkness is the enemy’s dominion given to him by God. He has a right to any dark place in us. once we choose anger we open that door.  by Peggie Potter
Matthew 6:1 Take heed that ye o not your alms before men , to be seen of them: otherwise ye will have no reward of your Father which is in Heaven. 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have the glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. 3 But when thou doest , let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret and my Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly. My precious husband Gary has a difficult coworker who frequently criticizes Gary's work & will never utter a kind word, compliment, or any form of affirmation of Gary's conscientious efforts at work. Such people desperately need prayer ! They have very low self-esteem masked by a false sense of superiority. Such folks are incapable of acknowledging anyone else's efforts, talents, &/or accomplishments. They "strut their own stuff" & "toot thngs". Gary, on the other hand , is a true follower of Jesus Christ as evidenced by his humility, kindness, & servant's heart. Gary's apparent calling is to minister to & share Jesus with very young children. (Matthew 19:14 Suffer the little children to come to me & forbid them not to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven ") a rare & beautiful calling for a man ! I keep on meeting young adults who are all too happy to let me know how Gary was a spiritual father to them ! this requires a truly humble Christ-like heart ! Aside from these occasional blessed sharings, Gary will probably never receive any grand earthly acclaim. But his reward in our Father's Kingdom is priceless & eternal ! Many will never understand why any man or woman would desire to share Jesus with children or even venture into a mission field, foreign or domestic, to minister to others in Jesus' Name as it is the rare instance when any of these precious souls gain earthly acclaim. They probably don't even focus on their Heavenly reward ! They are just busy being about the overflowing, life-giving loving work of Jesus, making them as Jesus was while on this earth, one's who serve ! I choose to dedicate this blog to those who serve in Jesus' Name: my husband Gary, Gloria, Rev Lance & Kim Ahn Cross, Ted McKenzie, & the many devoted precious souls who diligently & lovingly serve in Jesus' Name ! God bless you ! Peggie Potter-Balau  by Toney Driver
This comes from the book of Joel: Joel 1:15 For the day of the lord is near, and as destruction from the almighty comes 2:1 let all the inhabitants of the lands tremble, for the day of the lord is coming it is near 2:13 Return to your lord your God, he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he relents over disaster.  by Kadeen Edwards
“He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” Ephesians 1:9-10 NIV I enjoy that we are reminded here in Ephesians 1:9-10 that God desires us to become one cohesive unit under Jesus. Something that does cause a stir in my spirit is there’s always that sense of division when a community of people come together. People tend to gravitate to what makes them comfortable, whether it be people who are like them, people who have the same beliefs or look like them. I believe in this season, God is calling us out of our comfort zones that we would embrace discomfort to experience each other in a revelatory and profound way. I believe God is calling us to build new connections by learning how to sit in discomfort. In this past season, I’ve experienced a lot of discomfort. However, I also found in the discomfort is where I experienced abundant growth. It’s like training your muscles physically your body doesn’t grow until you feel you can’t push yourself any further, but you keep on pushing anyway and when you push yourself it tears in the muscle fiber. Muscle growth is caused by tears in the muscle fiber from the stress of working out. The torn muscle causes soreness and initiates a reaction in the body to repair those cells and they grow bigger. That’s kinda like our faith we need to stretch them beyond comfort, and once we push past the fear of discomfort our faith grows. In pushing past the discomfort we discover things about ourselves and others that we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see had we stayed confined to our comfort zones. Growth isn’t comfortable, but it is necessary because where there is growth there’s revelation. |
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