"Focus can never truly be lost, only redirected to things of lesser importance." This next year will be a time of unprecedented gains for the body of Christ in the advancement of kingdom purposes worldwide. Many of the dreams, visions, and revelations from the Lord that have seemingly been "pending" will begin to unfold with a velocity that the earth has never seen. For the individual, one of our greatest needs is to bring our lives completely into God's order, and focus. That is, narrow in on God's will, God's way, for every aspect of our personal and corporate lives. We must eliminate things which seek to steal our momentum, and cause us to deviate in our thinking and behaving. We must align ourselves with sure moves of the spirit; lending our gifts, talents, and resources to the advancement of kingdom causes. This is our year of EXCUSELESS MATURITY! Dr. Mark T. Jones Sr.
Happy New Year to All Readers, from ―The Voice‖! For 2012, ―Our Year of Excuseless Maturity‖, VOM Newsletter remains focused on the vision of reaching partners and the community. In essence, the vision includes evangelizing, encouraging, building & lifting up. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit continues to impart in the life of the reader through each page. We will continue to go across the country and around the world spreading the gospel. We will continue speaking in the lives of an audience that have open hearts; continuing to hunger for the Word of God. It’s not only door to door; but e-mail to e-mail. We are designed to touch someone’s life, thereby giving God all the glory and honor, and doing all unto Him. If you are interested in joining the newsletter’s team or would like to communicate with the community or partners, please email Yesmin Negron at ylnegron13@gmail.com or call 813-775-5381. In this issue, we celebrate 2012 CFM’s Leader of the Year, Pastor Eddie Boles. Additionally, enjoy the Words of Reflection from Dr. Jones. Also, remember, this is the beginning of the chronological bible reading. Teacher Eva Johnson, using ―Where in the World Is….‖ Page,
provides background information for each book of the Bible. This helps us gain a better picture and insight into each book we will be reading. Be sure to check out the ―Flash Back‖ pages and SMILE!!! Moreover, if you are a parent, please read ―Teaching Champions‖ page. Sister Felecia King provides parents tips to help our children during the school year. Lastly, we invite you to visit page 10, ―Redemption‖, where a simple prayer accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior will lead you to receive eternal life. What’s more, you can reconcile your life with Him. For God desires intimacy with the saints. VOM Newsletter encourages you to be a partner in this great work by sharing with your friends, coworkers, & family. Simply email the newsletter link, its FREE!! ...And remember; someone plants, someone waters and God gives the increase. Till the next time, Manifest!! Yesmin Negron VOM Newsletter Dept Leader
It's a new year with twelve months to complete The past shall no longer beset me As I wipe the dust from off my feet For now the enemy I can defeat Looking forward with great expectation Living by the WORD brings restoration Knowing that I am able to do Just what my God will bring me through Conquering all negative mindsets With discipline and determination Canceling all doubts and fears While welcoming a new year Prayer and fasting brings consecration For now I have forgotten the former things Neither considering the things of my past Opening for change for only in Christ I shall last So as I am renewed and restored I give God thanks, honor and praise Recognizing His mercy and grace For through HIM is our lives made new Written by Sis. Jennifer Cole
and fro and carried about. It’s akin to a As we prepare to close out the year of roller coaster. Believers are being shaken 2011, many believers complete an assess- and rocked by trials and circumstances; by ment of their lives. Typically falling short offences; by men’s cunning words; by false in some areas, believers then resolve to do prophetic doctrine. And, because the sure better. Resolution lists abound all around foundation has not been laid, some believus. ers fall prey. Subsequently, they mentally Notwithstanding, some resolutions re―fall apart‖, thus walking as zombies main on lists for years and years, thereby through life. indicating no change. I surmise that there Therefore, before this year ends, take a is no growth within these areas because careful assessment of your heart! Ensure there is no root. that you’ve surrendered and completely In chapter 4 of Mark, Jesus expounds submitted to Him. Similar to a tree’s root, upon a parable of the sower. Of specific grab hold and firmly plant yourself in interest, he noted that the seed upon stony Christ. Ensure that you’ve kept accounts ground sprang up rather quickly. Howcurrent and there is no aught in your hearts ever, since there was no root, it withered with anyone1 Ensure that you are walking away. and living in the Spirit, moment by moConsequently, some believers have ment, day by day. good intentions; resolving to do better. Consequently, the seed will germinate Yet, this resolve only settles itself upon the within you and flourish to produce change, lips. It is never settled at the heart level growth and fruit. through Christ Jesus. The root, or foundation is Jesus. Until By: Wilma Weems one is founded upon this Rock, no growth is evident. It’s time to grow up! The Word also tells us that believers should be no more children; being tossed to
While walking through the house this week, I experienced an overwhelming sense of gratefulness overtaking me. I started thinking about the things God through Christ has done for me over the years. Frankly, it was a bit much to handle. I was grateful for this feeling I believe the Holy Spirit graced me with it. For I’d gotten to a point of being a little stressed because I wanted to do some things for the kids this year that I just wouldn’t be able to do. I know Christmas isn’t about all the rushing to the stores and paying for a bunch of things I can’t afford. It’s not about getting in debt either. But, every father wants to be able to do more for their kids than perhaps their parents were able to do for them. I quickly snapped out of that stressed state, though. God was showing me that I had nothing to feel worried about. I allowed myself to sit back and bask in His loving and giving nature. My children are wonderful and simply happy that I’m with them. As a man, it’s easy to give, but so hard to receive. This is a human flaw. Some of the best things in life can’t be purchased with money. Some of the best things in life are free. Consequently, I thank God for the free gift of eternal life that he gave us through Jesus. It’s not just a future hope, but a present reality. I encourage men everywhere this holiday season to open themselves to receive the unconditional love of God, and the love of family and friends. Let’s take our hearts off the things that will soon fade away. Let’s set our hearts on the things that truly matter in life. From one brother to another, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
3 Taught him how to conduct himself as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ His prayer is to be used by God to have a positive impact on every individual he comes into contact with. For the year to come, his prayer is to be positioned in such a way as to alleviate more of the day to day responsibilities from Apostle. This will help Eddie Lee Boles Jr. was born in Apostle to concentrate solely on Kingdom Gainesville, Florida and was raised in High building and strengthening the pastors, leadSprings, FL; he attended Santé Fe High ers, and churches all over the world. School in High Springs. He was very active in many sports such as football, basketball, From a wife’s perspective, he is baseball, track & weight lifting. After high fueled by a passion to fulfill God’s mandate school, he attended University of South and he readily and candidly shares, ―It’s not Florida where he received his BA degree. about platforms; it’s about people.‖ He’s like David ―a man after God’s own heart‖ On June 9, 2002, Eddie Boles gave Psalm 16: 2 “I said to the Lord, “You are his life to Christ, being invited to CFM by my Lord; apart from you I have no good his sister-in- law. Consequently on Septem- thing,” ber 8, 2002, he married his beloved wife David recognizes that the only good in him Gail Boles, and they’ve been married for 9 was the God in him. I believe great godly years. leaders are willing to step aside from their own need for ego building and selfLife began to change years before confidence and humble themselves before he joined CFM when the Holy Spirit started an almighty God. dealing with him about his sinful life. The Eddie walks in the power of quiet majority of all of Apostle series have had an confidence in God “In quietness and in conimpact on his life in one way or the other fidence shall be your strength.‖Isaiah because God is always dealing with him in a 30:15. progressive tense. Being under the leader- He’s totally committed to his assignment in ship of Apostle has affected him mostly in assisting Apostle here at CFM; he’s simply a three different ways: servant of the most High God. 1 Taught him how to be a man by example 2 Taught him how to be a husband by example
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ACROSS 6. Throw Me a ____________ 7. Agents of _________ 10. ___________: Mastering the Art of Accuracy 11. ___________ Operandi 13. The Art of _____________ 14. ____________ for the Call
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Undoing __________ ___________ 2. Losing My _________ 3. __________ of Power 4. Life in the ____________ 5. P u llin g Do wn the __ __ __ _ ________ of Compromise 8. The ____________ Work of Christ 9. Finding Your _____________ 12. Breaking _____________
A new year has come in, but our problems & issues have not disappeared. Many unrealistic goals & plans have been made that was never accomplished. Then; from time to time the question of ―why‖ comes to mind with no answer. Do you know the plans God has for you? Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Take a step of faith to first know God. Receive Him as your Lord and Savior with a simple prayer. Then, as your relationship with Him progresses, He will reveal His plans. I assure you that you will agree with Him! Pray with me, Father, I believe. I recognize that I am a sinner and that I have sinned against you. I repent, forgive me. I believe Jesus Christ died for me. Come into my heart. Wash me, show me your ways, teach me your status. I want to be like you, fill me with your Spirit, make your ways my life, In Jesus name, Amen
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make: resolve to be transformed from within by the renewing of your mind through God’s Word (Romans 12:2). When you do, you will find that sticking to your plans in life; such as losing weight, going back to school, or saving money, comes much easier. Because the truth of the matter is this, nothing lasts without Christ as the center. So if you want something new in your life this year, then you must seek the newness within Christ, first and foremost. There’s no way around it. I can sense that you agree with me. However, another thing that I see happening over and over again is that we repeat the same behaviors and expect to get different results. Now I know you have heard all of this before. But have you really taken the time to reflect upon what it really means? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result has been said to be insane. And I agree. We will never move our lives forward in the new year or the next new year, if we don't change our beliefs...our mindsets. Your current beliefs have created the life you are now experiencing and if you plan on experiencing someI love this time of the year. A new year represents a thing different in 2012, you will need to change new beginning. It’s another opportunity to start over, them. to leave behind all the things that did not serve me in the previous year. It’s another chance to walk One of the major beliefs that tend to follow God’s through new opportunities and new possibilities. Daughters is how they view themselves. The way we As one year comes to an end and another year besee ourselves and love ourselves comes from the gins, many people participate in the tradition of love we see reflected towards us in our father's eyes. making New Year’s resolutions. I have a question, And for most of us, that did not happen. Many of us one that I want you to consider, as well. How many didn't have our dads around as we were growing up New Year’s resolutions have you made over the and others whose dads were there, were still absent years about food, career, ministry, weight loss, exer- in our lives. So what shall we do? We can begin to cise, budgeting, and a host of other things, only to retrace our identity, our beliefs about ourselves, beresolve, ―I’ll do better the next year‖? If you are like yond our mother's womb. We can start by connectthousands of other people, years have come and ing with the most powerful, loving force in the unigone, taking with them our best made plans and our verse and for me that force is "God." God is the very good intentions. This year before you get started, essence of true love. As we learn to identify our beand I want to stop you before you go down the same liefs with a loving, forgiving, always present God path again. ―Listen to me, daughters,‖ God pleads. and stop focusing on the love, protection or support ―For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are we didn't receive from our fathers, then and only your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the then can we move forward to a new year, a new life heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways and a new world. higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts‖ (Isaiah 55:8-9). Sisters, God is telling us So what steps will you take this year to retrace your that our old way of thinking is not going to give us life beyond your mother's womb in order to form a the results or the successful resolutions we desire. new set of beliefs? What this means is you must make a different type of resolution this year. Not about food, money, caAs always, thanks for reading until next time… reer, or weight loss, but about YOU –the real you Happy New Year to Your New Life !!!!!!! who was created in the image of God. This, my sisters, is the most important resolution you could ever
Where we develop and encourage our children to know God intimately, love Him passionately, and serve Him selflessly!
Happy Birthday to our Students Celebrating their Birthday in January!!!! Help Your Children Discern God's Will Let's look again at Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The phrase, "in the way he should go," is not speaking of the way you want him to go. Rather, it's the way God wants him to go. In other words, taking into account that child's gifts, his emotional makeup, his personality, his intellect, his calling, you help him discern the path God has for him.
Tell Your Children of God's Faithfulness In Deuteronomy 4, Moses is talking to the children of Israel about the importance of keeping God's commandments. And then he speaks directly to parents and grandparents: "Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchil-
In preparation for those who will be starting the Chronological Bible Reading for the New Year, I will give background information for each book of the Bible to help you get a better picture and insight into each book you will be reading. For January, we start with the books of Genesis and Job. These books actually flow together and are historically around the same time, interestingly enough. Here is a Quick Insight into the Bible itself: The Bible is a Unit – Its parts conspire to form a unified whole, bound together by the theme of God and His relationship to mankind. There are 66 books collected in 1 volume – written over a period of more than 1600 years by over 40 authors from a wide variety of backgrounds. Each book, section, paragraph and verse work together with the others to reveal God’s Truth. The Bible is God’s Revelation (meaning God’s unveiling) - God has revealed things that would otherwise not be known. He has unveiled that which is absolutely true. His truth is entirely consistent. The Bible is Inspired by God (meaning God breathed) – When the Bible speaks, God speaks (II Timothy 3:16-17). It is the very words that
God wanted communicated. God breathed out the scriptures and God used human authors to pen the words, without compromising the perfection, integrity or purity of the finished product. (II Peter 1:21) The Old Testament is divided as follows: The Law or Pentateuch : Genesis – Deuteronomy Historical Books : Joshua – Esther Poetical Books: Job – Song of Solomon Major Prophets (determined by length of book): Isaiah – Daniel Minor Prophets (determined by shortness of book): Hosea – Malachi Genesis-Genesis is a Greek word meaning “origin, source, generation or beginning.”The original Hebrew title is “Bereshith” which means “In the beginning.” It is the foundation for the entire Bible in its History and Theology. It is the book of beginnings and is the first in a series of 17 Historical books of the Old Testament. It is also first of the 5 books of the Pentateuch (A Greek word meaning five scrolls). Other names are Torah (meaning Law) or 5 Books of Moses. Genesis moves from General (Chapters 1-11) to Specific (Chapters 12 -50). Genesis can be divided as follows: Creation 1:1 – 2:25; Fall of Man 3:1 – 5:32; Flood 6:1 – 9:29; Nations 10:1 11:9; Abraham11:10 – 25:18; Isaac 25:19 – 26:35; Jacob 27:1- 36:43; Joseph 37:1- 50:26 Its authorship is attributed to Moses. Several key verses are Genesis 3:15; 12:3. Genesis covers more history and time than all the books of the Bible combined (around 2100 or more years). Look up Genesis in a good Bible Dictionary to find more information about the book. As you read Genesis, think about: 1. What you have learned from the lives of those mentioned?
2. What you have learned about God, His character, attributes, and the way He moves in people’s lives? 3. Remember Genesis when you get to the New Testament and note where Jesus refers to some of its events, affirming them. Job – Job is one of the Poetical books in a series of 5 Old Testament books as follows: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. The name Job has 2 possible meanings. The Hebrew name is “Iyyob” which means “persecuted one.” The Arabic meaning is “to come back or repent or repentant one.” Jewish tradition suggests several authors including Moses (since the land of Uz is next to Midian where Moses lived for 40 years), however, the author of Job is unknown. The dating for the book of Job is somewhere around Abraham’s time (Genesis 11 & 12). Job’s life span was close to 200 years. So how can we tell the book of Job happened around the same dating as the book of Genesis? Note several things: The amount of livestock a person had measured his wealth (Job 1:3) Job is the priest and patriarch of his family and offered sacrifices There is no reference to events after Abraham such as the Exodus or Mosaic Law The Chaldeans who kill Job’s servants are nomads not city dwellers yet. (Job 1:17)
Some key verses are Job 13:15; 37:23-24. As you read Job 26:7, you will note an interesting fact about the earth. See if you notice it as well. I wonder if Christopher Columbus ever read this scripture. He would have known that the earth was not flat! The book of Job is divided as follows: Job’s Dilemma: Chapters 1 -2 Job’s Debate: Chapters 3 – 37 Job’s Deliverance: Chapters 38 – 42 Read also James 5:11; 1:12 for comparison As you read Job, think about: Job’s beginning compared to his end and his response to suffering. What you have learned about satan and his relationship with God. Next month: background information on the books of Exodus and Leviticus.
Happy New Year CFM Family! We are beginning 2012 with excitement and expectation anticipating all the New Year has to offer us individually and collectively. As we enter in and look forward to our declared season of excuseless maturity, I believe it is also important for us to reflect on time past. I am not talking about reminiscing [though it has its place]—I am talking about purposeful reflection. All growth has a starting point—and that begins with an accurate assessment of where we really are and how we arrived here. We should ask ourselves questions that require us to consciously process through the growth and success we did or did not see this past year and the choices, decisions, and actions we made or did not make that contributed to the outcomes we experienced—using God’s Word as our standard. Once these questions are answered, we can learn from the choices we made by either being encouraged by the ones that propelled us forward or by avoiding the ones that hindered our growth. Thus, the outcome of the reflection is to initiate the changes required to entering into the fullness of the next season of maturity and success our loving Father has for us. What does this have to do with Teaching Champions? Simply put, don’t forget about the children! The same effort and attention that we, as adults, are exerting towards moving forward into this next season should be utilized to help support our children to do the same. Consequently, the previously mentioned is applicable to them as well. This is a process that we can guide middle and high school aged children through as well as elementary. By doing so, it provides an opportunity for us to learn about our children as individuals and what matters to them. Personally, this is a process that I have gone through with my son, Joshua [age 16], and the students in my classroom [ages 9 and 10] at the start of each school year. Understandably so, the effectiveness varies by individual based on their commitment to the necessary changes to obtain their expressed desired outcomes. This process is important because it actively engages us in the lives of our children and provides opportunities for accountable conversations. With that being said, sit down with a child that needs your support and begin the process that will guide them on the path that they too can take to excuseless maturity! Point to Ponder—When we know better, we [should] do better. Until next time… Best Regards, Felecia L. King
Father, we come before you in the Name of Jesus Christ. We lay claim on the blood of Jesus Christ which is our key over Satan and every demonic agent. Through Jesus, we possess the gates of the enemy in the nations and cities. Lord, release battering rams against the gates of hell. We declare and decree that the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. Lord, you are the God of the city; we bind and eradicate every goliath of the city NOW. We declare and decree that the gates of our lives and city are NOW closed to uncleanness, witchcraft, drugs, perversion, violence, wickedness and every evil work. We call forth the apostolic gatekeepers of the city. ARISE and take your place now! Lord, raise up apostolic gate churches in the city now that usher in God's presence and revelation. Father, as a prophetic voice, release the prophetic supernatural apostolic miracles. We open the Eastern Gate, and let the King of Glory come In! Come In! Amen