Lessons We Can Learn From The Prophet Jonah

Hi ladies it's me again and happy Lord's day! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. I'm happy to present another blog called "Lessons We Can Learn From The Prophet Jonah". For those of you who may or may not know, on September 21st (which was last week Sunday) and tonight I've been sharing about the prophet Jonah in Sunday evening Bible study. That's part of the "Repentance series" I've been doing since the first Sunday of September September 7th! (On September 7th shared about King David's sin with Bathsheba and the prostitute in Luke 7 was forgiven by Jesus. On September 14th I shared John 3 about Nicodemus, Acts 9 about the Apostle Paul's conversion to Christianity and took Communion before the night was over. The second Sunday was a salvation message.) I'm sure most of us know the story of Jonah by heart as do I but I'm realizing that just because we may be familiar with certain Bible stories we shouldn't be "too familiar" with them as though we can't learn something! There's still so much to learn about the Bible in general and the first lesson we can learn from is when God speaks, He expects us to listen and obey. There's an old gospel song that says. "I'll say yes Lord yes to Your will and to Your way. I'll say yes Lord yes I will trust You and obey". Of course there's more to the song than that but what's the message of the song? It's saying with our heart and actions yes Lord yes no matter what! Plus the Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:22 "To obey ix better than sacrifice". Did Jonah obey? Of course he didn't! The Bible is clear that he rebelled against the Lord and took a boat to Tarshish! The second lesson to learn from Jonah is willful disobedience always leads to trouble. Remember what happened to Adam and Eve? God clearly told them not to eat the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and what did they do? Well the enemy tricked them, they disobeyed God, and therefore brought consequences to them and their lineage because of their actions! What about King Saul the first king of Israel? God told him to completely destroy the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 but he obey? No he brought Agag the king alive and preserved some of the cattle to sacrifice! King Saul's disobedience caused him to not be right with God and cause his kingdom not to continue through his seed and ended up being given to King David! When Jonah disobeyed, God allowed a horrific storm to break out and the sailors he was riding with feared for their lives because they never saw a storm like that or since! Can trouble happen to you if you live for God? Oh yes! The Bible says in Psalm 34:19 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all". Jesus said in John 16:33 "In this world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world". It's one thing to go through trouble because it's a part of life and for righteousness sake but it's different when you live in willful disobedience it's to be expected. The next lesson that Jonah thought that running away from God would help him. How many of you know that you can't run from God? God is omnipresent! That means that God is everywhere at the same time! Psalm 139:7 says "Where can I go from the spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" The bottom line is we can run from people but not God! Plus it's a foolish thing to do as well. Another lesson from Jonah is despite his willful disobedience, God used him to impact the sailors in the boat! Isn't that interesting? The storm got worse and Jonah urged the sailors to throw him overboard and the storm would stop. The sailors were hesitant at first until they had no choice. When they threw him overboard, they cried out to Jehovah God not their false gods for blood not to be on their hands because of their actions and promised to serve the Lord God! Wow! It's important for us God's people to pray to be godly examples for the lost as it says in Matthew 5:16 "Let our light shine before men so they see they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven". That's my prayer and that should be your prayer as well too. Of course we know the whale swallowed Jonah , he was there for three days and nights, and he also prayed. Then in the third day, the whale spit him out and it took a days journey to Nineveh and Jonah warned them to stop doing evil or God will destroy them. The people repented, revival broke out there, and God preserved them! Wow! You would think that Jonah would have been happy about the revival happening and lived being preserved but he wasn't. The last lesson to learn from Jonah was he did the right things, said the right things but lacked mercy and as a result got mad at God! Wow! Jonah didn't get angry at God for bad things happening but because God had mercy on Nineveh so God wouldn't have to judge them! Ladies I believe this is the most important lesson of all. We need to pray to the Lord that our hearts don't get like that because unfortunately there are "so-called Christians" today are like that. If something bad happens to someone who doesn't know Christ as Lord and Savior or a minister has "fallen from grace", alot of "so-called Christians" have a "Jonah attitude" and want God to judge people and not have mercy on them! Isn't that sad? God reminded Jonah that the people of Nineveh didn't know their right from their left and asked Jonah if he had a reason to be upset! We need to let the Spirit deal with our hearts so we don't have attitudes like that and we need to remember at once a time we didn't always serve the Lord and how much we needed a Savior. We need to have the heart of God and we need to continue to pray for souls to be saved and preserved from going to hell! That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. Blessings to each of you ladies, happy Lord's day, hope y'all can join me for Bible study, and have a blessed week everyone.

Hi ladies it's me again and happy Tuesday! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. The title I have for this blog is called "Pray For Our Schools And Universities". You may be thinking. "Didn't you write a blog about that the day after Labor Day?" Yes I did. Actually the name of the blog is called "Prayer For Teachers And Students" and y'all can read that at your own time. But I feel the importance of mentioning it again because we witnessed another terrible school shooting at a college as a matter of fact. It was at a university where the late Charlie Kirk spoke at (I wrote a previous blog about him) and him being murdered the day before the 24th anniversary of 9/11. Ladies we've seen school shootings before with the Columbine shooting in the late 1990s, the shooting that happened in "Virginia Tech" in 2007, a shooting that happened at "Abundant Life Christian School " in Madison, Wisconsin, and a shooting happened at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year just to name a few (Side note there have been more school shootings than that and that is very disturbing talking about it.) but this shooting that happened at "Utah Talley University" was different. All the shootings that I mentioned were mentioned in the news especially the local news but the latest school shooting went viral. Charlie Kirk's death was mentioned on CNN, social media, and newspapers so it was impossible not to hear about it. Either way though it's never a pleasure to hear about school shootings whether it goes viral or not. As I mentioned in the previous blog it grieved me to watch a YouTube clip of the college students running away in horror after the shooting occurred. I can only imagine the trauma that those precious students as well as Kirk's loved ones left behind are dealing with because of that. (Side note I talked about that in the previous blog.) Ladies join me in prayer to pray a prayer for protection over our schools, daycares, and universities. Ladies it grieved my heart and I know that it grieves God's heart that we witnessed two school shootings both in Minnesota and now Utah at the beginning of the school year. I truly believe that there are reasons for school shootings one of them taking prayer out of schools, kids not being disciplined as they should, no fear of God, and the enemy seeking to attack and destroy our young people. I believe those factors contribute to many school shootings and let us pray for the safety of our teachers and students. We can pray Psalm 91 and Psalm 3 over our teachers and students because those Scriptures talk about God's protection and His angels watching over folks. Ladies whether or not you have kids under eighteen or have college students, or if your kids are out of college, you have grandkids, nieces and nephews, or have no kids at all, think about how you'd feel in this situation. Would you want somebody you know them personally or not to cover you as a teacher, student, or a parent/caregiver in prayer? I'm sure you'd want that! Think how you would have felt if you were at school, daycare, or at a university and out of nowhere a shooting broke out? I know that would have been traumatizing which is why I'm bringing it up right now. I know it's been a couple of weeks since the shooting happened in Utah and since of the murder of Kirk, but we need to keep praying! We also need to pray that prayer get out back in our school systems because God is not obligated to bless anything He's not invited to! That's the bottom line. Ladies praying is absolutely essential! We in the body of Christ as a whole need to pray! The Bible tells us to watch and pray and to pray without ceasing! I'm asking you ladies to join me in prayer over our schools, daycares, and universities and pleat the blood of Jesus against anymore school shootings. I'd also encourage y'all to join me at my regular virtual prayer meetings to join me in prayer that way too. That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. Blessings, happy Tuesday, and have a blessed week in the Lord.

Hi ladies it's me again and happy Lord's day! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. I'm writing another blog and it's called "Pray For The Kirk Family & America". For those of you who may or may not know that on September 10th of this year Charlie Kirk spoke at a college and a young guy by the name of Tyler Robinson decided to shoot him! Whew! Another school shooting took place! Of course that caused a stirr in the media as well as many college students being frightened over what they saw. Not only that, many of them called 911 and I watched a video clip on YouTube about this and the dispatcher asked those who called 911 some questions. It was questions like "Where are you? Where's the speaker? Where's the shooter?" Many of those precious students had no clue where they were and I believe they were so traumatized trying to think straight and were too busy hiding for safety. That was so heartbreaking to watch it on YouTube to witness such horror and fear on those precious college students faces when this occurred. But to make matters worse, the shooter shot Charlie Kirk all in the name of disagreeing with politics and religion! We got to witness yet again another murder rooted out of such deep hatred and this spread all over the news and all over social media when it occurred. This is the first murder I've ever seen go viral since the 2020 brutal murder of George Floyd a black man who was unjustly shot and killed by a racist white police that it went viral on the news and social media. Acts like this grieve the heart of God and it devastates loved ones as well. I can only imagine the horror and sorrow that Charlie's widow Erika must be going through right now. To reveal a bit about her background she was a former beauty pageant and won Miss Arizona and got to represent Miss Arizona in Miss USA but didn't place. She attended a Christian college called "Liberty University" and got a degree in Christian leadership. That right there reveals that she's a strong Christian and she's also a podcaster and business woman! She's the CEO of Proclaim Streetwear a ministry project and works in real estate. She and Charlie Kirk dated in 2019, got engaged in December 2020, and got married in Spring of 2021. They had two children a daughter born in 2022 and a son born in 2024. Charlie Kirk was raised in Illinois and his mom was a mental health counselor and his dad worked as an architect for "Trump Tower!" Kirk grew up in a Christian home specifically the Presbyterian denomination but his faith became his own much later in life. In 2012 around 18 or 19 years and Kirk founded "Turning Point USA" and ran it to the time of his death this year. Not only that, Charlie Kirk stood up against the LGBT movement, disagreed against the "Separation Of Church And State", Christian nationalism, and believed that abortion was worse than the Holocaust. I believe because he was bold about his convictions it was viewed as a threat which is why I believe why Tyler shot and killed him causing Erika, her kids, the college campus, nationwide, and worldwide witnessing a horrible tragedy. To make matters worse this brutal shooting took place the day before the 24th anniversary of 9/11! I believe this murder shows how wicked and broken our nation is and how many believe that it's okay to shoot someone they don't agree with. Not only that, the shooter didn't take in consideration how that would impact Erika Charlie's widow and also the college students impacted by this as well. As I said stuff like this grieves the heart of God and if y'all can join me in prayer to really pray for our nation. Our nation is guilty for so much murder such as the blood of President Abraham Lincoln, President John F Kennedy, murder of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, murder of George Floyd, murder of babies, and now this. God I believe will hold our nation accountable for the murders that have been done and let's pray that the shooter will repent for murder and give his life to God so he doesn't do that again. Let's pray for Erika that God will comfort her and comfort Kirk's parents during this time, pray they feel the Lord's presence, and pray they don't get bitter at God despite this. Pray that God will give Erika grace to keep living and be a good mother to her children. Let's also pray for the college students affected by the shooting as well and I can only imagine the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) they must be going through right now and also because it's another school shooting early to the school year. We also need to pray and pleat the blood of Jesus over our schools, daycares, and colleges and pray against the spirit of murder and pray for God's protection over those involved with our education system. We also need to pray against division and pray against the spirit of hate that's so rampant in our nation which is the drive that killed Charlie Kirk. Perhaps pray this moment is a "wakeup call" for us God's people to stand up for what's right, stand up for freedom, and live for God no matter what. Another thing to remember because the old saying goes. "United we stand and divided we fall" is very true and I believe this incident revealed how much division is in our nation and unfortunately the enemy has been enjoying it! Also many Christians believe that we also witnessed a "martyr" in our nation as well too which also should be a "wakeup call" as well too. Let's also pray for our nation to be able to maintain our religious freedom which I believe is the most important freedom of all to be able to live for God and worship God how we want. I believe if you take that freedom away, all the other freedoms are meaningless and the truth is I value religious freedom. I want y'all to know I'm aware of cultural issues and I've done much prayer and research before sharing this blog with y'all. There's so much to pray for but that's what I wanted to share with y'all. Blessings to each of y'all, happy Lord's day, have a blessed week, and let's keep Erika, her kids, the college students, and our nation in prayer.

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Hi ladies it's me again and happy Lord's day! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. I'm happy to present another blog called "My New Pastor At New Life Church" and I'll be sharing with y'all what its been like having him as the new pastor. Again I have stated a number of times in previous blogs that I have been a part of three different Bible-based and Spirit-filled churches my entire 31 years of living in this earth. When I was a baby until I was eight years old, (1994 until 2002) I attended a non-denominational church called "Capital Christian Center Church" now called "Mercy Memorial Baptist Church" and was under Pastor Michael and Pastor Andrea Dudley. Then in 2003 when I was nine years old until 2020 when I was 26 years old for seventeen years I attended and was a member at "Discover Church" formerly called "Oak Creek Assembly Of God Church". I got saved in kids church when I was eleven years old in 2005, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at eighteen in 2012, was involved with kids choir, youth choir, adult choir, did musicals, (Easter, Independence Day, and Christmas musicals) volunteered in kids ministry, (helped out in Sunday school and sometimes helped in kids church) and did missions trips! That's quite a bit I did there and I became a member there in 2013 when I was nineteen years old and was a member there for seven years while I attended there for seventeen years. But from 2020 on, I've been attending a smaller North side church "New Life Assembly Of God Church" on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights the past five years and have been a member there for four years. I for five years was under Pastor Kevin Olson and he pastored there from 2002 until he retired this year which makes out a total of 23 years. That means I was at the final stage of being at "Capital Christian Center" Church and "Discover Church" for many years the majority of his time there. But now we have a new pastor and his name is Pastor Antonio Bowen and he got to speak at "New Life Assembly Of God Church" July 20th this summer and the Holy Ghost came down that day! He was wrapping up his time at the church he was pastoring at before transitioning to pastoring at "New Life Assembly Of God Church". He attended "New Life Assembly Of God Church" in his youth and was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before he moved to Nevada in 2009 when he was eighteen years old! He attended seminary school and pastored at different churches while living in Nevada at some churches he was associate pastor while others he was lead pastor. Sunday morning service was wonderful, I and a few others got to help serve Communion, Pastor Bowen preached a powerful message, the time at the altar was great, and we got to fellowship afterwards in the church basement! I'm gonna say what makes Pastor Bowen unique? Well he's the first black pastor I've had in 23 years! Remember when I mentioned the Dudleys? The Dudley's are a godly black couple that led "Capital Christian Center" Church and after we left there, I've been under mostly white pastors and they are Pastor Jerry Brooks (he's still pastoring "Discover Church" to this very day) and Pastor Kevin Olson who previously led "New Life Assembly Of God Church". I'm so happy to have a black pastor and Black Lives Matter lol! The other thing that makes Pastor Bowen unique is he's only three years older than me, has the spiritual gift of word of knowledge, and he's a man of prayer! I've never been under a pastor close to my age ever which is quite insane but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm very happy about the new pastor and the other thing was I had a say along with the church we voted for the new leader! On the previous pastors I was under I didn't have a say who I was under but I had a say with this one though. As a Christian female leader I know the importance of submitting to a spiritual head male leader and I believe that this one is a good one to submit to. So I want you ladies to know that I do submit to a spiritual covering even though this women's ministry is separate from my church. That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. Blessings to each of y'all, happy Lord's day, and hope to see y'all at Bible study tonight!

Hi ladies it's me again and hope y'all are doing well. Well I'm happy to present another blog called "My Rollercoaster Labor Day Celebration". You might be thinking "Wasn't Labor Day last week?" Yes it was but I'm gonna share with y'all what happened that day. Well I did my morning devotions with prayer and the Bible as always then I decided to sleep in. Well I got very very sick. How many of you know that's it's not fun when you're not feeling well on a holiday or any day for that manner? Well my allergies flared up on Sunday the day before during church in the morning (I attend "New Life Assembly Of God Church" and I shared that on a previous blog.) and I rested after lunch before recording my music video. I later ate dinner and did Bible study and my allergies seemed to have cleared up. Well after my morning devotions and me sleeping in my allergies went from bad to worse I was coughing and sneezing but that wasn't even the worst part. My lower back was hurting, my legs were numb, and I had a slight headache! Whew on Labor Day? Yes that's right y'all! I prayed softly and quoted Isaiah 53:5 "By His stripes I am healed". It was also challenging to eat breakfast and lunch because I didn't have much of an appetite though I did eat some. Don't even mention how I was feeling emotionally feeling extremely vulnerable. How many of you know that being sick can impact you emotionally? I quickly had to learn that but the Lord put a gospel song back to my rememberance called "Safe In His Arms" a gospel anthem by the late Reverend Milton Brunson And "The Community Singers" but the version was gospel artist Vickie Winans version. (Yes that's right she was married to pastor and gospel artist Marvin Winans Sr who's the brother of Bebe and Cece Winans! I know right?) That song reminded me know matter how I felt physically or emotionally because I was feeling vulnerable and unsafe it was God reminding me that I'm safe if I abide in Him. I heard that song in my head over and over again. I did meanwhile get sufficient rest and eventually I got up again maybe 3:30 PM in the afternoon because I slept on and off because my energy was low. Eventually I rose up from my bed and walked downstairs though my legs were very numb and me, my parents, my sister, and my nephew Abraham headed to my great-uncle Uncle Cleo's house. (Uncle Cleo is my paternal grandma's brother one of them anyway and he owns a car business that's lasted 59 years!) We got to see Uncle Cleo of course, his adult kids, his grandkids, great-grandchildren, my grandma and so many others. I believe we got there around maybe 4:30 PM or a little bit after that and we didn't leave until maybe close to 7 PM. Y'all even though Uncle Cleo is an old man he has a sharp mind and he knows how to cook some good food and still loves to host various events! I even got to bring some food home as did other family members! Was my energy still a bit low? Yes but God continued to strengthen me and I believe the warmth of the atmosphere of family somewhat helped too. Was my appetite still low? Sadly yes because I ate lesser than normal but I first dessert though! I've never written a blog talking about what happened to me on Labor Day since I'm private about certain things but I felt what happened to me this past Monday was too good not to write about and I even mentioned what happened on Labor Day before last week's prayer meeting! Yep! This Labor Day will be one I'll never forget but one that God helped bring me through. That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. I hope y'all had a good Labor Day last week since mine was a bit crazy but it's all good. Blessings to each of you ladies and have a blessed week everyone.

Hi ladies it's me again and happy Lord's day! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. I'm happy to present another blog and it's called "Why I Do Women's Bible Study". I know that several of you who have been with me probably know the answer but some of you who are new may not know the answer. First of all is to keep the tradition of "Sunday night service" going. For those of you who may or may not know "Discover Church" (the church I previously attended and was a member at) used to have Sunday night services as a consistent service.(They also hold Sunday morning services as well too past and present.) Only once in awhile did they not have a Sunday night service. "New Life Assembly Of God Church" (the church I'm currently at on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights) also used to do regular Sunday night services as well too (Of course they hold Sunday school and Sunday morning service) but things have drastically changed. Since Covid, "Discover Church" only does Sunday night service twice a month while "New Life Assembly Of God Church" stopped doing Sunday night services altogether. (They do Thursday night prayer to replace Sunday night service.) The first reason is to keep the Sunday night service tradition going because I used to love attending Sunday night service. The other reason is because there's so many messages from God's Word that He puts on my heart to share and also I like to get into the deep stuff. The other reason is I do it virtually because in person if you rent property or buy property you have to pay for it and you have to ask permission if you host it at someone's house. It's cheaper to do it virtually and some people may live far away and technology can help bridge that gap. The other reason that's painful yet difficult to talk about is why I do Bible study, the prayer meeting, (prayer meeting is for another blog) and women's ministry training is because no traditional church would hire me to be on staff if you can believe that! I won't get into detail about that but I knew that God put something in my heart to do and I prayed for God to show me another way and He did! I also realized there are other ministers who were in the same boat as I was who were rejected by the traditional church in leadership that had to start an online ministry to make up for it. I also do Bible study so I can also lead y'all to the presence of God through singing! For those of you who may not know when I first got started I only started with teaching the Word no singing in 2021! But in 2022, God told me to change that to sing worship songs first then get into the Word. After all that's how most church services do so don't they? The last and final reason is to minister to others who don't feel comfortable in a traditional church setting or unable to go to church in person due to distance. Don't get me wrong do I have having services in person? Yes. Like I said on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights I attend those services in person and prior to Covid, I attended "Discover Church" services in person too. But again I know not everyone is able to do that which is another reason why I offer this and for those who may not feel comfortable with regular church, this is a great experience for them. I know how important it is to gather with the saints. Whether it's in person or virtual because the Bible says in Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some but exhorting one another much more as we see the Day approaching." Do you wonder why the word Day is capitalized? Let me say this Day here is not just a regular day but Day here is about Jesus coming in the rapture! Did you know that one way to be prepared for the rapture is being in regular fellowship with God's people? Of course there's other ways to prepare for the rapture and that's for another blog so the Scripture emphasizes the importance of gathering with other Christians. I know Christians argue everything has to be in person while others think virtual is all right but honestly it's important to gather period in person or virtual. That's the point and that's the message. (Side note as a female in ministry I go to church on Sunday mornings yes to honor the Lord's day but also to submit to a male leader as a spiritual covering.) That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. Blessings happy Lord's day, hope to see y'all at Bible study, and have a blessed week everyone.

Hi ladies it's me again and happy Tuesday! I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families are doing well. It's September 2nd the day after Labor Day. I hope and pray that each of you ladies and your families enjoyed time with family and friends on your off day. The title that I have for today is called "Prayer For Teachers And Students". First of all there's so much to pray for and in this blog I'm gonna share with y'all some ideas how we can pray for teachers and students. Number one prayer for protection. I can't emphasize that enough. We all know unfortunately there have been many school shootings that have impacted teachers and students alike such as the "Columbine shooting" in the late 1990s, "Virginia Tech", and what took place in Madison this past year. Of course there have been more shootings than that but we need to pray for God's hedge of protection over our teachers and students. It says in Psalm 91:11 "He shall keep His angels charge over ye and keep thee in all thy ways." Pray for those who seek to shoot people to reconsider their decision and if they try to shoot the bullets don't come out! We must pray against the spirit of murder and I believe school shootings are an attack of the enemy seeking to do as it says in John 10:10 "To steal, kill, and to destroy". Pray for protection. The other thing is pray for teachers to have patience with students and pray that students have the desire to learn. It's important to pray that students have respect for teachers and parents because unfortunately some students have behavior problems which can make teaching difficult. Pray for students who may have challenges in learning to pray that teachers know how to help those students as well so they can pass their classes. Pray for teachers to not experience burn out and not give up when the going gets tough. Teachers go through many things and pray that God will rejuvenate them to keep going and teachers need to know how to take care of themselves too. It's important to against bullying. Bullying is very difficult for students to deal with and if there's bullying, pray that the adults at the school handle it the right way. Most of all if any teachers and students are Christians that they like Matthew 5:16 "To let their light shine before men so they may see their good deeds and praise their Father in heaven". Pray that other teachers and students who are nonChristians see the light and love of Christ and want what they have. Let's also pray that prayer will return back to our schools. I believe that the majority of problems in our schools would be resolved if God is welcomed back to our school system. God will only go where He's welcome. Let's also not forget to pray for homeschool parents as well as teacherpreneurs (as I am) that God will help them as well. My mom was once a homeschool parent who homeschooled me and my sister from preschool through high school while my brother was homeschooled from preschool through middle school. (He later attended a public high school and graduated in 2018.) A teacherpreneur teaches and owns a business and if you ladies can keep my kid and teen program in prayer and also keep my women's ministry training in prayer would greatly be appreciated as well too. That's what I wanted to share with you ladies. Blessings to each of you ladies and have a blessed week everyone.

The Seasonal Shift Of Summer To Fall