Rev. Deb

Pictures

I added a few pictures of our trip to an album marked Ireland on this blog.  Enjoy!

Ireland pics

Many of you have ask me about seeing pics from our Ireland and England trip.  We went to Ireland to be with Dr Conelly and support a FCCI meeting so keep in mind that we didn't get to do a lot of sightseeing on this trip.   I will share some of the pics I took on this blog, but I will have all of them printed to share at VWC.

 

Baptism

Congratulations to all those that were baptized a few Sunday's ago.  Our baptismal services are such an exciting time at VWC .  This past baptism we had a couple of extra people decide to get baptized after Pastor explained the significance of it.  Let your deacon know or the Ruiz's if you would like to be included in our next baptism service.

 

 

Carefree life

This morning I was talking to the Lord about something and I still had my Bible opened on my lap. I just looked down and this verse jumped out at me it seemed. "Casting the whole of your care - all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concern, once and for all on Him; for He cares about you affectionally and cares about you watchfully..." 1 Peter 5:7 AMP Bible What a peace washes over me when I read this, I know that no matter what happens in this world I have a heavenly Father that loves me more than I can comprehend and he is always aware of what is going on with me. Wow he loves us so much, we just have to make sure we are having that fellowship with Him everyday and staying close. He said He would never leave us, so we need to make sure that we aren't staying so busy with life that we lose that sense of His presence. He loves us so much!

Piedmont Campmeeting

I wanted to send out a big HUGE thank you to all our Valley Word Family who came out to Piedmont Campmeeting last night.

Thanks for coming to support Pastor and thanks to our Music and Sound team.

The Praise and Worship was so awesome, it was very high energy, I really enjoy it when the congregation really joins in.  Of course Pastor Eddie brought a great teaching on "Destiny". 

We had so many people come and talk to us after service that said they really enjoy his style of teaching.

And of course no night at Piedmont would be complete without the fellowship over hot dogs after service.  It was a great evening.

I will be speaking at Campmeeting this Thursday morning at 11:00, if you can come plan on staying for lunch afterward.

Hope to see you there.

Piedmont Campmeeting

Piedmont Campmeeting is July 9-18.  This is the 101st year of the Campmeeting in Shawsville Va.  If you haven't been, it is a very rustic Campmeeting in the mountains, in an open air tabernacle.  There are meals available for purchase during certain times of the day and after the evening service they sell hot dogs and everyone gathers under the picnic shelter for fellowship. 

This year Pastor Eddie will be speaking on Sunday night July 11 at 7 p.m. and our Music team at VWC will be leading worship.  On Thursday morning July 15, I will speak at 11 a.m.  There are various speakers each morning and night until the last weekend when Bob Ely will be the speaker. 

If you would like more information on the schedule or need directions, go to the website piedmontcm.org.

Attitude of Gratitude

Last night I had the privilege of speaking at VWC and my topic was "An Attitude of Gratitude". 

No matter what we feel we may be missing in life, if we are children of God we have so much to be thankful for.  Don't be tempted to focus on what you don't have, focus on your blessings instead.  God has been so good to us that He deserves our praise everyday.  No one has a perfect life and we all have our challenges, keeping our attitude right is so important.

Here are a few of the Scriptures I shared last night.

Psalm 35:18

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous for praise is becoming and appropriate for those who are upright in heart.

1 Thess. 5:16-18

Always be joyful.  Keep on praying.  No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Col. 2:6-7

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him.  Let your roots grow down into him and draw nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught.  Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done.

What are you grateful for?

Sermons on Website

Hi Everyone,

We received a notice this week that Sermon Player has lost about two months of our most recent sermon files that we had uploaded.  We are in the process of getting everything back on the Web, and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thanks

What to say when you feel overwhelmed!

In yesterday's post I talked about some steps I take when I start feeling overwhelmed with life.

Today I want to focus on how important our words are when we feel this pressure.  Feelings of being overwhelmed can make you want to express a lot of negative emotions.  Many times people say "I just needed to get that off my chest".  Well there is a certain release to expressing how you feel, but if you don't follow up with a positive confession what have you done?

It is so important that we are speaking the promises of God over a situation and not just continually rehearsing the problem itself.  Many people are expressing the pressure they are under but if they don't follow up with the Word there is no lasting relief or solution.

There are many great examples of what we need to do in Scripture.  In the book of Psalms we see lots of examples of David pouring out his heart to God about his troubles, but then we also see him expressing his hope in God.

"Why am I so sad?  Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my Saviour and my God."  Psalms 42:5

Watch out for words like this that want to come out of your mouth when you feel overwhelmed.  Nobody cares, no one will help, everybody has deserted me, I can't go on like this, I can't do this anymore, etc.

When we begin to let our negative emotions spill out of our mouth,  we reinforce them instead of speaking the Word of God which has our answers.

What do you need? 

Find the promise of God in His Word  and  begin to speak that over the situation.  At first it may seem hard, but keep pressing in, instead of giving in to the pressure.  That word will begin to bring hope first, then faith.  You speaking God's words can take the pressure off and turn the situation around.   

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

I know as a Pastor's wife many times I hear people express feelings of being overwhelmed.  I not only have heard this many times but many times I have felt this way myself. 

Today I wanted to share with everyone what I have learned about this.

Notice in the title I used the word "feeling".  When I "feel" over whelmed, it feels like I have all this pressure on me to perform and it is more than I can handle.   When I feel overwhelmed, if I will just take a few minutes to examine what is going on I can get that feeling of pressure off of me. 

First of all I know this feeling of pressure is never from God.  The Holy Spirit leads us, he never pushes us, so I establish that in my mind first.

Second I pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help. Help me get my priorities straight, get my mind settled down and get back over in peace.

  Then I start writing down what the important things are that I need to get done.  Once I have gone through these steps I can formulate a plan and be effective again.

Tomorrow I will continue this teaching and we will talk about how important your words are when you feel overwhelmed.