Gayla's Magazine

The Bishop's Broadcast begins.....

Today begins my husband's video broadcasts of  messages for your new year.  Just go to www.gregoryholley.com  for a uplifting mini word for your day! 

He is a great preacher who really gets down to the common man and helps encourage people on a real level.  I have never gone to sleep listening to him preach!! Often he is funny.... but  he brings balance to an often overwhelmed life.  Go receive something fresh for your day.....  

The Coming of the Lord is Near

Read this!  Many pastors are sending out the very same call around the world all at the same time!!! This is written by Pastor Steve Owens in California.

When fall arrives we search for the rake. We admire the beauty of the changing colors of the trees. When winter approaches we pull out our coats, sweaters, jackets, and hats. Then we make sure there is an ample supply of firewood to keep us warm. With the approach of Christmas, most people begin to prepare. The stores change their decor' in preparation for the coming season. It is impossible to miss the changing seasons, and when seasons change, we change.

I find it amazing that Jesus gave us such important clues as to 'the season' of His return, yet so many pastors, preachers and churches have not changed with 'the season'. This is the season that we should be making our preparations for His return, but so many are not. Too many pastors are preoccupied with 'another message' that they think is more relevant. They preach about things that are more palatable to the people. Things that are more 'in tune' with their lives and 'in touch' with their situations. I have heard many preachers that reject the concept of 'the rapture' as a myth, a misinterpretation of scripture, or a conjured up notion by a group of radical alarmists.

How sad... that the most important event for the church is imminent, yet some of the very people who are promised its benefits are ignoring it, denying it, or avoiding the subject. We prepare for winter, but not the rapture? We talk about Christmas. but not the rapture? Pastors preach about prosperity, relationships, christian walk, faith, and other Biblical concepts, but not the rapture? 'How-To Seminars' teach church growth, leadership, finances, and ministerial enrichment, but when was the last prayer summit? When was the last end-times summit? When was the last time our leaders impressed upon us how close we are to the return of Jesus. How long has it been since our church leaders told our pastors that they have a responsibility to preach the message of Jesus' return? Pastor, how long has it been since you preached about the return of Jesus Christ for His Church? Church member, could you explain what the rapture is to an unsaved person? Could you help someone in your family prepare for the return of Jesus?

Jesus said, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37)

In Noah's day they were preoccupied with having fun, selfish ambitions, and evil things continually; but the point here is, "They were not aware of what was happening until the flood came and swept all of them away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes again." (Matthew 24:39)

That's a good description of where the Church, as a whole, is today. Many are not paying any attention to the signs of the season. They are not aware of what is happening. It is alarming how many Christians don't know anything about the rapture. They are ignorant of its imminence, and oblivious to its importance. I am concerned about pastors who are preaching 'another message' that they believe is more relevant. I am praying for any preacher than finds any other thing of greater importance. The greatest event of the Church is near, even at the door. How many pastors have prepared their people for this monumental moment?

John the Baptist said, "'Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!'" (Mark 1:3)

When I was a child, you could not go to church without hearing about the return of Jesus. We sang about it, they preached about it, people talked about it because they were looking for it. In this age of contemporary issues, politically correct speech, tolerant attitudes and guarded sermons due to the fear of offending someone, there is a changing season.

The world is changing, politics are changing, the world's financial system is changing, will you not know it? We prepare for fall when we see the leaves falling to the ground. We prepare for winter when we feel the temperature start dropping. Why would we wait to prepare for the return of Jesus? He told us the season. We can see it coming. We can feel it in the air.

"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."
(1 Thessalonians 5:2-6)

It is not too late to make the change to fit the season! Pastor, church-goer,

Christian, the season of Christ's return is here. We need to prepare ourselves, our families, our church, and ourselves for the changing season.
Author
Pastor Steve Owens

The Most Awesome Day in the World

The rapture of the Church is at hand...... are YOU ready?

All prophecy has been fulfilled.... the world is now covered with the Gospel via the Internet.

The most Awesome Day in all of mankind is about to happen.

What do you need to do to prepare to hear the Trumpet, when Jesus will come to receive his own? To be sure you go with Him when Trumpet sounds?

GIVE YOUR HEART TO JESUS, ASK FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS,  BE BAPTIZED, FIND A SOLID BIBLE CHURCH TO ATTEND, SINCERELY BEGIN TO SERVE THE LORD, FOLLOW THE LEADERSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND OBEY THE WORD OF GOD.

Everything in this world seems to be designed to distract, hinder, side track, and even stop believers from watching and waiting for this Day. 

But it will surely come..... it will surely come.

Are YOU ready?

Ex Offenders

This article was sent to me yesterday and I am sharing it with you today.  Christians, do we not have a duty to gather up those from the highways and byways?  Please prayerfully read this and ask God what your part is in the picture. Sin breaks people, Community Bible College cares.... This was published in the Houston Chronicle November 7.

I had been told that he was a Baptist preacher and had worked as a prison chaplain in the Texas Department of Corrections for more than 30 years. When he walked into the restaurant to meet me for lunch he fit the stereotype one might expect. Wavy hair combed straight back, a western-style jacket and boots. When lunch was served he asked that we bless our food.

But as soon as he began to talk about the plight of prisoners and ex-offenders any preconceived stereotypes quickly shattered. For the next hour he spoke quietly but passionately about the desperate circumstances of individuals who had been released from prison, the inhumanity of the prison system, the apathy and cruelty of society and misguided public policies.

I was having lunch with Emmett Solomon because friends of mine had recently welcomed home a son from five years in the penitentiary. Their son's story is not unfamiliar. He developed a drug problem as a teenager that he was never able to whip. After four or five run-ins with our court system he found himself in Huntsville.

It was an agonizing time for his parents, who were embarrassed their son had gotten into such serious trouble, petrified that he would be seriously harmed and haunted about what he might be enduring in prison. Any parent can imagine their relief when the call came that he was finally being paroled. Soon after the joyous homecoming, however, the reality began to sink in that the hardships were by no means over.

No one wanted to employ an ex-felon. No apartment complexes wanted to rent him an apartment. They learned that he was barred from scores of licenses. Forget getting any credit. My friends have made do, allowing their son to live at home and finding him a job in a family company. But as I watched them struggle with trying to help their son get back on his feet, I wondered what becomes of the vast majority of ex-offenders who have no such support systems.

For years at the TDC Emmett Solomon had asked himself the same question and did not like the answer. So in 1993, he left TDC and formed the Restorative Justice Ministry Network. For the last 15 years, Emmett and his group have met men as they walked out of prison, welcoming them back to society and offering whatever help they can.

When people are released from TDC after serving their time, they are given $50 and a bus ticket home. Each day at 2 p.m., one or two buses leave Huntsville headed to Houston with 50 to 100 inmates released that day. It just so happened that Solomon and I were wrapping up our lunch at about 1:30 p.m.

“Would you like to go down and meet the guys being released today?”

Frankly, not what I had planned, but I agreed. When we arrived at the bus station, there was one unmarked bus, full of men, sitting with its engine idling. Solomon and his assistant, Bill Kleiberg, headed to the bus and motioned for me to follow.

I was not sure what to expect and have to admit a little apprehension about getting on a bus crowded with men just released from prison. I wondered if they would be belligerent because of the treatment they had endured or if there would be that sort of last-day-of-school air on the bus because their ordeal was finally over.

There was neither. The men sat quietly, waiting — obviously something to which they had become accustomed. Mostly they looked lost, staring into space or vacantly out a window. As I walked down the aisle shaking hands and chatting with those who would respond, I felt an overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness from men just given back their freedom.

Suddenly, from the front of the bus, Kleiberg shouted, “My name is Bill. I am from the church and I am here to help you. I was released from TDC 12 years ago, just like you are being released today and I am here to tell you there is hope.” Instantly, the mood in the bus was transformed as the men eagerly snatched up the information packets Solomon's group had prepared on where they could find help in their home cities. The men suddenly became more animated, asking questions about the information we were handing them. I was amazed how deeply they seemed to appreciate even this small act of kindness.

At the rate we put people in prison in Texas we need to be concerned about what happens when they are released. Worldwide, the incarceration rate is about 160 individuals for every 100,000 people. The second highest incarceration rate is Russia at about 650. The highest is the United States at 750. In Texas, the rate is about 1,000. That is, at any given time, about one person in 100 in Texas is in a prison or jail, six times higher than the world average and higher than even the world's worst dictatorships. Even if we stop putting people in prison at the current rates, we will be releasing 20,000 to 30,000 prisoners each year for many years to come just from TDC. Many thousands more will be released from county and city jails.

Most of those released do not have a family to take them in as my friends' son did. Solomon told me that only about 5 percent of the men released are met by family members. The odds are heavily stacked against those with no support system. With almost no chance of finding a job or a decent place to live, most fall back into trouble within a few years. TDC studies show that about one in three is back in prison within three years. If you extend the time frame to five years and include other prisons and jails, the recidivism rate is more likely 60 percent to 70 percent. Since most of these inmates are also fathers, long absent from serving as any positive role model for their children, the cycle will likely be handed down to the next generation. The fact that Texas has one of the nation's highest incarceration rates and still has three cities with violent crime rates in the top 10 in the nation suggests that what we are doing now is not working.

In the Gospel of Luke, there is a story about a man whose son has come home after deserting his family. The father rejoices that his son was dead, but is now alive. He was lost but now has been found. The truth is that we as a society would just as soon that these lost sons and daughters stay lost. We have branded them with the mark of Cain, made now more indelible with ubiquitous, easily searchable computer databases. Their crimes will never be forgotten. They will never be forgiven.

Driving back from Huntsville, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be coming home on that bus. To arrive at the Houston bus station with no one to welcome me, no one to offer any help and with nothing but $50 dollars in my pocket. I tried to think what I would do if I were that person. I had no idea.

There are unquestionably many government policies that should be examined in the search for a solution to this dilemma. Many will be surprised to know that Texas is actually in the forefront of developing programs that attempt to prepare inmates for release. But there are no easier answers. Employers' and landlords' reluctance to employ or lease to ex-felons is hardly unreasonable and, given the potential liability issues, some would argue it's simply being prudent. Add that many ex-offenders, even if given a second chance, will disappoint us and it is easy to understand why society would just as soon wash its hands of the individuals.

There will be no solution until we as a society begin to feel differently about ex-offenders. People of faith should be in the forefront of such a transformation, for the principles of mercy and forgiveness are the cornerstones of virtually every great faith tradition. We can continue what we are doing now and likely get the same sad results, or perhaps, we can find another way. I think a soft-spoken Baptist preacher from East Texas has, at least, pointed in the right direction.

King is a frequent contributor to Outlook.

CBC Instructors - you can be one!

My prayers today are for the men and women enrolled in our Community Bible College.  Each of them from 43+ States send us their exams from the different  studies  we provide in the Bible.  Every day letters flow in, awaiting our Instructors to grade their papers and return them.  Men and women who are incarcerated are being taught  day by day, one by one. 

It's an wonderful ministry that many believers from different states serve as Instructors along with us.  We email the inmates exam to an Instructor - it gets graded and emailed back to us.  It then is printed off in the CBC offices by the staff and mailed back to the student.

It's such an important ministry... would you like to be a Instructor?  Email me today!!!

Really..... why not pray about ministering to someone who really could use your help!

Have you every wondered how you could use your talents for God?  Here is your chance to really help change a life.   Email me and I will give you all the details about how to be a part of this most valuable school.  

Are you going to church today?

There is no greater gift a parent can give their child, than to raise them in the House of the Lord. Recently a father and son worked together in ministry at New Life.  A Dad raising his son in the Presence of God, can give his child no greater preparations for life and the many travels thru it safely. 

Many adults have an rebellious heart about how they as a child were raised 'in church'.  But the truth of the matter, somehow they neglect to think  through what it really meant to be raised by christian parents.

Think about this conversation:

 'My parents MADE me go to church.   I was raised without alcohol, and all the terrible reactions that go along with drinking issues.  I didn't deal with drugged parents who were not there mentally to raise me right. My parents were not in jail, they were beside me in church.  I didn't have to raise myself.  My parents cared about how I was raised and they wanted to protect me from the  harmful influences in the world.  They saw to it that I learned values, and character and the balance between material things and eternal things.  Yes they MADE sure I gave God a chance to direct my life'.

Now what on earth is so wrong about that?

Parents...... think this through, you are the parent.  Do you really want your children to be raised without careful thoughts about their eternity? To only go with the flow of public opinions which you know are full of regrets later in life. To allow the world and it's sins to mark your children for life? 

Sometimes parents think, 'but I raised my kids in church and look at them now'.  Seriously think this through.  Did you really truly deeply get involved in your church and it's ministries.  Did you involved your children in the work of the Lord.  Or did you simply attend as a spectator - only watching from the pew.  Our priorities as parents often are rushed, 'I have no time'.  When really the reality was 'I didn't take the time' Or was it - we acted one way at church and another at home.  Our children can only become what is put in front of them.

Life will always hand you an excuse to not go to church.  And the devil will certainly help you decide other things to do on Sunday besides church.
I am so glad my parents MADE me go to church.  I am so glad we raised our daughter with the same values.  And now my grandchildren are being shaped at church.

Whose image do you really want to be MADE in after all?

So today, let this pastor's wife tell you, 'Set up, get up, stand up, dress up, drive up, walk up, and pray up a storm,  and prepare your hearts in God's House.  One day I plan to GO UP!  Do you'?

The Lamb

The Lamb our multi-media worship experience was so awesome!  It was majestic, powerful and full of the anointing of the Lord.

The stage was set, the mountain of sin from the beginning of time represented, the Word of God read and a clear understanding of the Pass Over Lamb in place. 

The 'Behold the Lamb' song, takes center stage as they take down the doorway and turn it into the Cross in the interpretive dance.

Taking the words of the songs, 'Worthy is the Lamb' and making it personal becomes the role that I play.

 

'One Drop of Blood' is portrayed by the accuser of the brethren and the redeemed of the Lord.

 

Beautiful scenes and pictures of meaning for each song, plus words so the entire congregation could clearly understand the words, videos and sound effects all added to the message of the Cross and the Blood of the Lamb. I think this Drama had close to 75 slides at last count!! There are so many hours involved here that I can't even begin to tell you how long it has taken me to build this - weeks on end, even while traveling I have been working on it. But this Bishop's wife loves it!!

 

More songs - but I can't show you because my photographer was too overcome to remember to take the pictures!  But this is when Jesus reaches down through time into our personal lives and sees us through the Blood. Not what we are, but what He could be in us!  And when the Blood touches the mountain of sin in our lives, it is collapsed and instantly removed from our lives! 

 

The Revelation Song is so powerful and we sing with joy and love!

 

'When I Think About the Lord' brings another layer of worship.  I turn the cross into the present doorway  of 'NOW' and what it means today.  Standing in the doorway and knocking on the hearts is Jesus reaching for the souls of mankind.  Open today and let Jesus come in!

 

We begin the testimonies of our personal lives and it was so incredible to see!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so many many many more that I just don't have space to share with you!

 

It was a wonderful drama with more parts, but this just gives you an idea of our special Easter Sunday this year.

 

Happy Resurrection Morning to all my readers around the world!!! He is Risen!!

St George Chapel at Windsor Castle

St George Chapel at Windsor Castle is magnificent inside!  We were so honored to get to be there, I so wish I could have taken some personal pictures inside! 

You can view the tours on the St George’s Chapel website

www.stgeorges-windsor.org

The wonderful history of this church is deep and full of meaning. This is a real church with regular services daily. 

The Bishop spent a quiet moment talking with the Dean of St George talking about the different  ministries here. I wish we had time to attend a service.  We were invited to give a prayer request for their prayer service - we did!

www.eyerevolution.co.uk/.../  says....."Dating from 1348, the chapel is steeped in history, and is the burial place of Henry VIII as well as the executed Charlies I. If you take the virtual tour of ‘The Quire’, scroll down and you’ll see where Henry VIII is interred. You can see where the Knights of the Garter (including Margaret Thatcher, and Prince William, and who have included Edmund Hillary and Winston Churchill in the past) sit in chapel, and view their stall plates showing their coats of arms and titles".

Go see this place for yourself - virtually!