Don’t you just love it when God confirms the season you are in. We are one week in our Bible & Group Study Pausing In His Presence: A Shut-In Experience by yours truly and I receive the following article by my good friend and editor, Barbara Hollace. I thought this word of encouragement was too good not to share. We hope you are as blessed as I was when I read it.
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 AMPC)
In times of uncertainty, I have found a place of refuge and strength. In the midst of the storm, I have found a shelter that is waterproof. When the hurricane-force winds of turmoil threaten to blow me away, I have found a solid rock that cannot be shaken.
There is no other name like the name of Jesus. There is no greater power than His resurrection power. There is no greater hope than what we find at the empty tomb.
As we emerge from the chaos of 2020, our lives have not instantly changed. Even what we thought would “stay the same” has not. If we put our hopes and dreams in a person, business, a leader, our bank account, or even our health, we will be sorely disappointed.
The only place where we will remain stable and secure is in His presence. “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” Are you experiencing the fullness of God’s joy today?
On my journey through 2020, God brought me new revelation and new “tools” to add to my “toolbox.” One of them was a new song in the night.
Over the past few months we had been praying about transitioning from the Pausing With God quarterly magazine to something different for the new year. When I received this wonderful article about my cousin, I couldn’t wait to share her with you all.
HARTFORD — The Rev. Cleo Graham, a New Haven native, has accepted a call to serve as pastor of Faith Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Hartford.
The Faith Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ is a historic church, located at 2030 Main St. The brick Romanesque Revival-style building, completed in 1872, houses the Faith Congregational Church, whose lineage includes the city’s oldest African American congregation. It was established in 1819. To learn more, visit https://faithmatterstoday.org/
“The UCC is the first denomination to ordain a black man,” members said in a statement. “It is the first to ordain a woman into ministry in this nation. We are a historic local church, having taken part in the nation’s first civil rights case, the Amistad trial, where the captives on the ship La Amistad were eventually set free. Faith Church raised significant dollars for the captive’s defense.”
“The UCC is the first denomination to ordain a black man,” members said in a statement. “It is the first to ordain a woman into ministry in this nation. We are a historic local church, having taken part in the nation’s first civil rights case, the Amistad trial, where the captives on the ship La Amistad were eventually set free. Faith Church raised significant dollars for the captive’s defense.”
The Rhode Island Conference UCC ordained Graham in 2013. Next, she co-pastored at Hope Congregational Church in East Providence, then served Beneficent Congregational Church for seven years. Beneficent’s community outreach programs, weekly open sanctuary sessions, and service to the sick, homeless, and aging populations of East Providence were a model for how people of all backgrounds can come together for the greater good, according to a statement. She was also asked to serve as Vice President of Administration for the Rhode Island Conference Board of Directors, a post she held for two years.
Registration for group study is closed. If you’d like to participate in a Spring 2022 study, send us your contact information to PausingWithGod@gmail.com
Genesis 2:21–23 (Life Application Bible) states, “Man gives life to woman; woman gives life to the world.”
******* HERE’S A LITTLE SNIPPET OF THE INTRODUCTION *******
While women are looked upon to meet natural needs, her immense spiritual contribution must be noted. Women are created to be more than physical carriers. Women are born intercessors. There is nothing like a woman who knows how to pray in such a way that she and her prayers reach the throne of God.
Registration for group study is closed. If you’d like to participate in a Spring 2022 study, send us your contact information to PausingWithGod@gmail.com
Pausing With God Ministries is deliberate and intentional about providing Engaging, Encouraging, Empowering group studies that will Equip you to be all you were created to be. If you’d like more information, email us at PausingWithGod@gmail.com
Registration is now closed, but email Sheri at PausingWithGod@gmail.com if you are interested in scheduling a future group study.
Currently we find ourselves in an unexpected shut in, but the doors of fellowship with God are always open. Here is your invitation to join us in Pausing In His Presence – A Shut In Experience
God is still in control, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. So let’s take advantage and take a journey from the Outer to the Most Holy Place.
Our time together will engage, encourage and empower us to be equipped before, during and after life circumstances.
Last year (2020) one of the items on my bucket list was to run a 5K by my birthday. So the wisest thing to do, I thought was to join the gym and get to stepping. It started out on the right foot till COVID hit and I was given a choice. Use this unfortunate event as an excuse to postpone the run or allow it to push me to an alternative.
Well I am happy to say that I did accomplish this goal, but soon afterwards something happened…
2020 Prepping for 5K by my birthday
One of my ongoing battles, is that I reach a certain number on the scale, slide in my favorite jeans and then I tend to think that it’s time to pause and celebrate the weight loss. Before I realize it, I reached out for that extra bag of chips, candy bar, topped with a midnight snack. ‘But oh no, this was not a best practice for me nor a healthy one.’
December 2020, with encouragement from a few friends, we started a Zoom online exercise group. This group’s focus isn’t about weight loss, though that will be one of the outcomes, but about living a healthier lifestyle.
So I hear you say why online? I say why not. For me, hosting a class online is enlarging my level of accountability base and it is also another item on my bucket list. I would like to become a class or Zumba instructor by the time I retire (wish me luck, I got 5 to 8 years to go)!
Let this video from Rachel Engaging, Encouraging and Empowering you!
One of my biggest fitness heroes happens to be a good friend. I trust her because I have witnessed her journey and her beautiful success. From time to time, she will be sharing some tips or best practices that are sure to Engage, Encourage and Empower you.
So do more than stay tuned, let’s get physical! Send us an email to PausingWithGod@gmail.com, in the Subject matter enter: Zoom and we will send you the Zoom dates/times/more information.
May God bless us with a healthier New Year (emotionally, mentally, physically, financially and spiritually).
PWGM continues to work hard in fulfilling our mission engage, encourage, empower and enrich women. We have seen numerous lives transformed. Women are challenged to turn their weakness into strength and using their gifts and talents to make a difference in their life, their family, and their community.
In All You Do…Don’t Forget to Pause and enjoy the Reason for this Season!
We thank God that for more than eight years, some wonderful sisters and I have gathered, Monday through Friday at 5:30 a.m. for Early Morning Prayer. We often pray for one another, but the mandate the Lord gave when He called us together was to be intercessors. Every 3rd Saturday of the month our group gathers to encourage one another. Someone would share a Scripture and then we close out in prayer.
We often remind one another of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It was Jonathan Swift, the satirical author of Gulliver’s Travels, who said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” I like to paraphrase that to say, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but notenough of a relationship with Christ to make us love one another.”
(I do not own the rights to this video)
Paul explained three characteristics of Christian love that show why it is so important in ministry.
In verses 1-3 we are reminded that LOVE IS ENRICHING (improve or enhance the quality or value of). Paul named five spiritual gifts: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, and giving (sacrifice). He pointed out that, without love, the exercise of these gifts is nothing. Tongues apart from love is just a lot of noise! It is love that enriches the gift and that gives it value. Ministry without love cheapens both the minister and those who are touched by it; but ministry with love enriches the whole church.
The most important lesson in the school of faith is to love one another. Love enriches all that it touches.
In verses 4-7, we are reminded that LOVE IS EDIFYING(providing moral or intellectual instruction). “Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth [builds up]” (1 Cor. 8:1). The purpose of spiritual gifts is the edification of the church (1 Cor. 12:7; 14:3, 5, 12, 17, 26). This means we must not think of ourselves, but of others; and this demands love.
The Corinthians were impatient in the public meetings (1 Cor. 14:29–32), but love would make them long suffering. They were envying each other’s gifts, but love would remove that envy. They were “puffed up” with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18–19; 5:2), but love would remove pride and self-vaunting and replace it with a desire to promote others. “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another” (Rom. 12:10).
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 carefully and compare this with the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22–23. You will see that all of the characteristics of love show up in that fruit. This is why love edifies: it releases the power of the Spirit in our lives and churches.
In verses 8-13, we are reminded that LOVE IS ENDURING(continuing or long-lasting). Prophecy, knowledge, and tongues were not permanent gifts. (Knowledge does not mean “education,” but the immediate imparting of spiritual truth to the mind.) These three gifts went together. God would impart knowledge to the prophet, and he would give the message in a tongue. Then an interpreter (sometimes the prophet himself) would explain the message. These were gifts that some of the Corinthians prized, especially the gift of tongues.
When the gifts fail, and they will, it is love that will endure forever. We will not be fully completed until Jesus returns, but we ought to be growing and maturing now. Children live for the temporary; adults live for the permanent. Love is enduring, and what it produces will endure.
Note that all three of the Christian graces will endure, even though “faith will become sight and hope will be fulfilled.” But the greatest of these graces is love; because when you love someone, you will trust him and will always be anticipating new joys. Faith, hope, and love go together, but it is love that energizes faith and hope.
In his commentary, Wiersbe says that he has ran across too many local church problems created by people who were zealous for the gifts, but careless of the graces.
Let’s break that cycle…. let’s not complicate a simple four-letter word.
Love is the key!
(excerpt from Wiersbe Commentary)
Ladies if you’d like information or to join us for Early Morning Prayer, email me @ PausingWithGod@gmail.com IN SUBJECT LINE: Early Morning Prayer and we will send you information within 24 to 48 hours.
Sheri is available for seminars, conferences, evangelistic outreaches, youth events, bible studies, workshops, or book signings for your event. To contact or book Sheri for your engagement, submit a request by US Mail: Pausing With God Ministries P.O. Box 9172 Fleming Island, FL 32006 or call (904) 610-4947 or feel free to email at PausingWithGod@gmail.com.
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If you ask my kids, I have always laid on the cautious side about partaking in the festivities around or on October 31st; but this post isn’t about me. Tonight after viewing my East Coast families posts, I thought about things differently.
There were several families on social media that caught my attention. Families are gathering in their homes creating memories. From carving pumpkins, to making paper crafts, to sipping apple cider, roasting marshmallows and eating smores.
While we are still be in the midst of a pandemic, but I see a new beginning. People are ceasing from complaining what we don’t have to celebrate what we still have before us.
There is a thankfulness in the air, thankful that we indeed have air in our lungs. Thankful for the family members that remain in the land of the living. A gratefulness that we got to see another day to say, ‘I love you’. True that in each family there are challenges and difficulties, but I see families being intentional about loving and spending time with one another.
Mother Teresa is know to have said, “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” This perspective is like an eraser on the top of a pencil. Removing what the world would have us to focus on and seeing the light in the darkness.
Today is setting the tone for us to become even more consistent and deliberate about spending time with our loved ones. This time together, doesn’t have to involve spending money or even going to a far away place. While it may be nice, we can have a picnic on the living room floor. We can create any kind of getaway if we want to, simply using what we have around the house. Keeping it simple, simply creating precious memories that we can keep.
So may today cause us to pause and remember that even though it’s easy to forget at times, family is the most important thing in the world.
A while ago as I sat prepping for an upcoming event. I came across a nugget and thought I’d share an excerpt with you.
Why can’t women get along, it’s because we are afraid to be vulnerable, afraid to be soft, afraid to be hurt, most of all afraid of our power. So we become controlling and aggressive – vicious. Why can’t women get along, it’s because we’ve been taught to be bad rather to be powerful. (Courtesy of Iyanla’s reflections).
Pausing With God Ministries is a nonprofit corporation organized to inspire and engage congregations and the community at large. The Lord has given us a platform to encourage and edify women of all ages. We are partnering with the Body of Christ to break the silence and address uncharted territory. The topic of the day is MENOPAUSE. It is estimated that as many as 6,000 US women reach menopause every day. The gender makeup of a vast majority of churches and religious groups reveals that there is a higher percentage of women than men attending on a weekly basis.
By the year 2020, the number of women who will be older than 55 years of age is estimated to be 46 million. In addition, with the increase in life expectancy, more women will spend up to 40% of their lives in the postmenopausal stage. With these alarming statistics, it is vital that we bring awareness, especially to the Body of Christ.
Along with the physical challenges we face with menopause, many of our sister-friends are overwhelmed emotionally and mentally. Others are trying to dig out off a spiritual drought. PWGM is your female version of Aaron or Hur, coming along side of a you, holding up your arms, encouraging you one step at a time (Exodus 17:12).
(I do not own the rights to this video)
Our workshops, sermonettes, conferences and shut-ins are presented to encourage, enrich, edify, empower women to love themselves, one another and be all that they were created to be. For more information, schedule or invite us; email Sheri at PausingWithGod@gmail.com.
Years ago, when I began experiencing several symptoms of menopause I was afraid to talk to anyone for fear that they would think I lost my mind. But the opposite was true, it wasn’t until I began sharing …that I realized I am not alone. Continue reading “Don’t suffer in silence!”
Pausing With God 