Take A Walk With Me

Today's sermon at Bethel was preached by Bro. Jonathan Walker.  His sermon was titled, " Praise Is What I Do When I don't Know What To Do". His main text was taken from Psalm 150:1-6. You can watch/view it  here.   He preached a great sermon about the power of praise. In all honesty, I was able to relate to what he was preaching today. I am at a point where I have no idea what is going to happen next. I can stress out about it or just praise my way through it and that is exactly what I have been doing. It's very liberating. There are three aspects to praise. I may have gotten the first one wrong, so I suggest you watch the sermon if you can. I apologize if I did not get it accurate. I will share what I have in my notes and as always, I encourage you to listen/watch it on your own. 1. Praise is your identity. 2. Praise is comely to the Lord 3. Praise changes the atmosphere. When you praise God, you open the door to step into your destiny and walk into what God has ...

 For tonight's Thursday night Bible study at Bethel the Discipleship Series was taught by Bro. Greg Smith. The topic covered was Fasting. Bro Smith shared some personal examples of how fasting is very powerful and gave his testimony. As I have done in the past, I will share the lesson with you directly from the notes that can be found on the Bethel App.  Fasting is an important Biblical discipline. There are over 70 references to fasting in the Bible. Both Old and New Testament leaders were moved upon to fast before the Lord. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus Christ were led by the Spirit to fast for 40 days. Fasting was also a part of the New Testament church lifestyle. Joel 1:14 – “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.” Daniel 9:3-4 – “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I...

 RJ and I decided impromptu, to go to the beach. A storm is coming and we wanted to see the waves rolling in. As we walked along the water we saw a large crowd near the water. As we got closer, I realized it was a baptism.  One person after another braved the waves and were baptized. They all had matching shirts on. I walked up to one who had recently come out from the water. His shirt said “NEW ACTS 2:38”.  I congratulated him and stood with RJ and continued to watch these precious people who were hungry for God be baptized in the Ocean with the words Acts 2:38 on their shirts. Tears began to stream down my face. I began to pray for me to have eyes to see and ears to hear a hungry soul. I prayed for a revival to spread from the East Coast to the West Coast. I prayed for our churches to take this beautiful truth out of the building walls and get back to the roots. Tradition has numbed us.  I love this truth. I love our doctrinal foundations. I just don’t ever want to...

 The past two Thursday night Discipleship Series at Bethel focused on The Fruit Of The Spirit and was taught by Bro. Tom Vayna.  As with past blogs, I will pull directly from the Bethel App portions of the actual lesson. Galatians 5:16-25 – “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit i...

 For Bethel's Sunday Service we had one of my favorite preachers. It doesn't really matter which Linder brother is preaching, I know that the sermon will not only be anointed, but there will be some good laughs thrown in, because they truly are very funny guys. Today, we had the privilege of hearing Bro. Harold Linder preach. On a personal note, I really appreciated his sermon.  His sermon was on, " You Are So Valuable". The main text was taken from Luke 12:6-7. I strongly recommend you watch/listen to it on your own. You can do so  here. I did take notes and will share with you what stood out to me the most. As always, you may receive something different, therefore I suggest you also take the time to watch the sermon on your own. It was very encouraging. Bro. Linder, first started off by giving honor to Bishop Davis and thanking him for coming to NY and starting a church.  We are the church body, but it's so important to have a sanctuary to come and find an alte...

 This Sunday Bro. Walker preached a sermon on "Life and Life More Abundantly". His main text was taken from John 10:10. The sermon is not yet posted on the Bethel App via the Web, so I am not able to share it with you here. Bro. Walker was really mainly preaching to Bethel as a church family. In September, they will be starting something new. The Care Groups that used to take place in people's homes on a weekly basis will be changed to Life Groups and they will take place on the last Thursday of the month. I was so happy to hear of this. The intent and purpose of this is to encourage connection and community among the saints of Bethel. One of the things that happens when a church becomes large is if you are not careful a disconnect can take place. We come to church together twice a week, but do we really know each other. Personally, I can't tell you how many times I have heard the name of someone who passed away and I had no idea who they were. NYers are busy. Bethel ...

How do you describe and truly honor a woman like Angela Crowder?  She turned 50 this week and spent it getting things together for Vacation Bible School that is taking place at Bethel next week. Angela truly has a heart for the children. She is strong. She has a smile and a laugh that lights up the room. She should have a van for all the kids she picks up and takes all over the place, simply because she wants to make sure they don't miss out on anything. She has had multiple operations, pulled through many health scares and still shows up and shows out no matter what. She is a rock for many.  I will never forget when she showed up at my door with food. I was going through a really tough time. She didn't preach at me or tell me what she thought I should do. She sat and cried with me. She prayed with me. She fed me. That day gave me the strength I needed to pull myself together. On that day, she was the hands and feet of Jesus. This is Angela. The one who shows up. The one who p...