Dear Family of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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Thank you for coming by for your CUP!
We got this message from Leslie Judd Mouser after yesterdays CUP………..
Dewey,
Prayers out to all in need. My heart was saddened as well this weekend. I had this over powering sadness and I guess you could call it fear. But, over the weekend God refreshed my soul and spirit and reminded me of His Victory but more importantly I felt such a strong presence of His love. It engulfed me and released that ugly bondage. PTL!
I just wanted to reach out to those who need comfort and forward the amazingly Big Hug I received from our Heavenly Father! Pay it forward and blessings to you! Leslie
Thank you for the note Leslie!
Rev. Raymond Milner of Roswell, NM is already back home! WOW! God has answered our prayers for a speedy recovery for the 84 year old Reverend! Just think after 5 bypasses he is back home in Roswell and feeling so much better! PRAISE GOD! I talked to him last night!
Let me share a bit about prayer, as many of you know the Daily CUP is a praying ministry, has been for 17 years………..for the last 4 years friends like Pastor Leonard Navarre have took it upon themselves to pray for our son Lars as he went off to Chicago to study cinematography…..such a big step……but through prayer Lars graduated in May, is working full time at Target while pursing his life as a cinematographer, on his days off he is on a movie set in Chicago. Lars has matured so much and is growing in his faith. It is the prayers that have and are carrying him through life. As I told a young lady yesterday that I am counseling, prayer carries us through life, we must pray ourselves through life. The Bible teaches us that prayer is actually coming into the presence of God. When you approach God, it is not proper to rush into His presence and bombard Him with your needs. Neither should you pray as if you were merely leaving a message for God and then walk away without relating to Him. When you have prayer warriors like Leonard Navarre, Barbara Gould, Wanell Pate, Sonia Haylett, Paul Holt, Jo Holt, Richard Gordon and others surrounding you and your family in prayer, you have a Godly covering, Amen! God is holy and we must approach Him with humility and a contrite heart. “For this is what the high and lofty One says—-he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place , but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” Isa. 57:15
We thank all of you for praying for the Moede family and the ministry of FGGAM! It means more than you know! We feel your prayers, we feel your love and support, as Lars told me yesterday, he is forever grateful! Amen!
You all also hold us accountable to God, which we are very grateful for! I will write about that later…….being accountable to your prayer partners.
…….Gotta run to a counseling appointment. Please pray.
Here is one of out top posts from Shari Hardway Johnson, the Jesus Chick, in Grantsville, West Virginia:
Rock of Ages Minstry Team, Chaplin Edward Eisley and Me!
Spiritual Strongholds… seems to be a theme in my life recently. It was a theme in teen camp last week and as I walked out of the prison last night where I’d sang, I thought there was really little difference between myself and the inmates. Their prison bars were made of iron, mine were made of flesh. Both kept us from the people and things we love.
From the time I entered the sanctuary of the Salem Correctional Facility I could feel the Holy Spirit at work. The men were happy to be in that place, and had it not been for the uniforms it could have been any church in America. Actually, it was better than most churches in America, this one was filled with life! As I sang I watched several wipe tears from their eyes and a few others sat there cold and calloused to the Holy Spirit’s nudging. In all, twelve men have given their lives to Christ during the four day revival of the Rock of Age ministry.
They challenged the inmates to invite “their community’ to the services for the prize of a Bible and one man had invited 31 men from his unit. I tried to connect with as many eyes as I could when I sang, I wanted them to know that I had come to encourage them, that it wasn’t about me. Apostle Paul wrote pretty much the same thing from inside a jail cell to the Church of Corinth.
2nd Corinthians 10:1
Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:
Base and bold. In contrast to each other, but oh so very needful in the service of Christ. If I had gone into the prison with the attitude of the entertainment industry my portion of the service would have fallen as flat as a pancake. I wasn’t there to entertain or to show pity to the inmates. I was there to lift up the name of Christ and hopefully encourage brothers in Christ, my equals, to be bold in their temporary home.
Is that not what earth is? We’re here for just a short while. A prison sentence to a new inmate seems like an eternity, and yet it’s just a little while in the scope of actual eternity.
2nd Corinthians 10:2-4
But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Strongholds. Those things that hold us back from sharing the goodness of God. Most of us are not behind steel bars, but there is still imprisoned. When I walked into that facility last night I was bold in the power of God, I had come to do what God has called me to do. But on the outside…it’s much harder to be bold. Ironic is it not? I felt more freedom inside a prison than outside. Outside is a scary place to me. Most don’t want to hear the gospel and they’re quite adamant, vocal and threatening about it. And I cower back into the shadows and my boldness is gone. Satan is good at what he does.
I left a little piece of my heart in the prison, I’ll have to go back and see if I can find it. I doubt I will, I’ll probably have to make several trips…
Thank you Shari for this excellent post! So inspiring!
Here are two FGGAM News exclusives:
Would You Rather Have Perry Or Martinez For Your Governor?
The World We Live In Radio Podcast 7-28-14 with Pastors Dewey Moede & Paul Holt Rick Stambaugh fills in for Paul, who is on special assignment.
Here is another top post at FGGAM from Dawn Rae Bridges in Presque Isle, Maine:
When my friend, Angel Murchison asked me several years ago to be interviewed for her program Destiny Moments, I said, “NO!” A couple of weeks later she asked me again and I gave her the same answer. A couple of weeks after that, she said, “Dawn, I really feel the Lord wants me to interview you for Destiny Moments.” I told her I would pray about it.
That night, I asked, “Father, is this something You want me to do?” He said, “Yes, I do.” I said, “Okay, Father, I’ll do it. I know You will take care of all the stuff that goes with it.”
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him (the accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death.
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
Romans 12:1,2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
I didn’t want to share my testimony because I didn’t like telling people who I used to be. I left a lot of heartache and carnage in my past and wanted it to stay there. I was addicted to many things: cigarettes, credit cards, pornography, men, racy romance novels, and inappropriate magazines. I was a liar, and adulteress and I was a selfish, miserable little puke.
Some of these addictions carried over even after I became born-again because I didn’t know who I was as a new creation in Christ Jesus. I felt and thought I was powerless to be free from all of the things that kept me from walking in the freedom my Jesus had died to give me. I felt condemned, unworthy, ugly, unloved………all lies, but notice the word “felt”.
When we don’t know who we are after Jesus, we continue to go by feelings, an earthy response. (See my post “In Adam or in Jesus”) When you get the revelation of who you really are when you become born-again, all that stuff doesn’t matter, because that is who you USED to be. Let me explain:
When you become born-again, the old is passed away. I believe that. At the time, I thought I was powerless to walk in the freedom Christ gives me. I thought I was helpless when the devil would tempt me and drop stupid thoughts in my head. It was exactly what he wanted because it rendered me powerless because that is what I thought I was. We are NOT powerless! The living God dwells in us! He has given us all power and authority in His name. He gave us a Helper, precious Holy Spirit, to help us walk in Christ. He has stripped the devil of all power and the only power the devil has over us is what we give him.
Even though I saw who I was as a new creation, I still had to fight for freedom from my addictions.
James 4:7,8 Therefore, SUBMIT to God. RESIST (Take your stand against -be active to do it.) the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you….
I had to choose to not look at pornography, and that stuff would pop up everywhere let me tell you. I had to choose not to use my credit cards, but to keep paying them off. I had to take a stand after I submitted to the Lord, and I asked Holy Spirit to help me and He did. I asked Him to remove unhealthy images from my memory, and He did. I asked Him to help me see men as brothers, fathers, uncles….and He did. The cigarette addiction was the hardest.
My friend, Mary, told me that the Lord had delivered her from her cigarette addiction with no withdrawals. I got with the Lord and admitted to Him that I couldn’t do it without Him. I had tried the patches, the gum, and cold turkey to no avail. I asked Him to deliver me like He did Mary and make it like I had never smoked. I asked Him to bring me to that place where I could let it go. He did! Praise Jesus, it has been 18 years since I’ve had a cigarette after smoking from age 15 to 36. (I am 54 in December.)
John 8:32,36 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Growing into who you are in Christ is a process. I am so far from perfect, but my heart is right and I continually get my mind renewed with the washing of the Word. I feed myself continually on the Word, listen to teachings, and especially listen and commune with my Lord. I will share a few of my battles:
I was driving my daughter home from school and I was singing, “Jesus, I don’t want anything coming in between you and me……” (Holding Nothing Back by Ryan Stevenson) This guy came zooming up and cut me off. I yelled, “Hey! One lane per customer you idiot.” Then I looked at Gabi and said, “That was dumb.”
I was muttering, yes, muttering, one day picking up after my husband and daughter. “I’m not your little servant girl.” Still, small voice “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Ron, my husband likes things loud. I like it quiet, especially when I read. He was playing a video game, then music and I had determined I wasn’t going to say anything because it is his home, too. I went on the porch to try to read and I was really trying hard not to let it get to me. After reading the same sentence 10 times, I decided to go somewhere because I really just wanted him to relax and just be him. I got my purse and told him I’d be back soon. He knows me really well and wanted to know what was up. Well, I burst like a broken dam. “I’m trying to read and you’re driving me nuts.” I stomped to the car, got in, slammed the door…….still, small voice, “You need to get ahold of yourself Dawn.” That stopped me in my tracks. The Lord doesn’t call me Dawn unless I am in trouble. (He calls me Dove.) When I got back inside, I explained to Ron and he is a grace man, plus he already knew what it was anyway.
One day, I was telling (yes, I know, eek) the Lord what He needed to do. I had been at it all day and I got in the shower still telling Him…….NOT so still, NOR so small voice, “Who do you think you are?” “Nobody, Lord, I’m sorry.” Nothing like being naked in the shower and getting in trouble from the Lord.
The worst one to date and to my sorrow. I was trying to teach two young women that I love with all my heart the way Timothy says older women are to do and instead, I took it upon myself to be their Holy Spirit……still, small voice, “Do you mind if I do My job Dove?” Let’s get this straight, I hate the devil and I love them. I could see what the devil was working on against them and told them. My heart was right, but I didn’t go about it right, even barreled through a couple of times when I heard the Lord saying not to.
So here I am, sharing some of my crud because I love the Lord, and I love you. My heart’s desire is for all of you to know who you are in Christ and to walk in the freedom Jesus died to give us. You aren’t helpless. You aren’t powerless. You are children of the Most High God! You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Hold your head up! You are His dearly beloved children. How I got my new name:
Ron and I had left a home group in 2003, I think. It had been tough on me due to some people speaking things and trying to get dirt on me……okay, it was a few of the women in the group that didn’t like me. On the drive home, Father was telling me and showing me that He would want me to share my testimony at some point. I told Him, “Okay, holy Father. If exposing who I was and what I did brings people to You, I will do that for You.” He said, “Oh, My gentle Dove. I love you. Don’t be dismayed nor worried. I am always with you and for you.”
You can hear my testimony, as well as Ron’s on this website. Go to Destiny Moments. It is audio. It aired first here in northern Maine on WSFT. After my testimony, they played a few songs that I hope you will listen to afterwards. They are:
LouAnn Lee My Hope Is In You, Chris August Starry Night, Mat Kearney Nothing Left To Lose
The picture on this post is me, taken by my daughter Gabi. I am free! Praise Jesus, I am free!
Thank you Dawn for blessing many!
For God’s Glory Alone in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, Dewey, Sharon, Family and FGGAM Team
Let us continue to pray for each other and our families.
