Church guide

Amen and so true...thanks for the reminder, Cheryle Schwartz Smith

Amen “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:13-26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ https://www.bible.com/bible/114/gal.5.13-26.nkjv

Peace....🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 ““If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever. He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you. “When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you. “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them.” “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ‭‭John‬ ‭14:15-21, 27‬ ‭GNB‬‬

Amen! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕💕💕🌈 “You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you. Trust in the LORD for ever; he will always protect us. LORD, you make the path smooth for good people; the road they travel is level. We follow your will and put our hope in you; you are all that we desire.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭26:3-4, 7-8‬ ‭GNB‬‬

Oh God, help us to come confidently and boldly to You in prayer, KNOWING if we come humbly to You in truth You hear us 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 Oh, Father Do you ever take a moment to pray but feel like you stumble out of the gate? Do you have trouble finding the words when it comes time to bow your head? Remember, the One who hears your prayers is your Daddy. You don’t need to wow him with eloquence. Jesus downplayed the importance of words in prayers. We tend to do the opposite. The more words the better. The better words the better. We focus on the appropriate prayer language, the latest prayer trend, the holiest prayer terminology. Against this emphasis on syllables and rituals, Jesus says, “Don’t ramble like heathens who . . . talk a lot” (Matt. 6:7 God’s Word). Vocabulary and geography might impress people but not God. There is no panel of angelic judges with numbered cards. “Wow, Lucado, that prayer was a ten. God will certainly hear you!” “Oh, Lucado, you scored a two this morning. Go home and practice.” Prayers aren’t graded according to style. Just as a happy child cannot mis-hug, the sincere heart cannot mis-pray. Heaven knows, life has enough burdens without the burden of praying correctly. If prayer depends on how I pray, I’m sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, and if the One who hears the prayer is my Daddy, then I have hope. Prayer really is that simple. Resist the urge to complicate it. Don’t take pride in well-crafted prayers. Don’t apologize for incoherent prayers. No games. No cover-ups. Just be honest—honest to God. Climb into his lap. Tell him everything that is on your heart. Or tell him nothing at all. Sometimes “Daddy” is all we can muster. Stress. Fear. Guilt. Grief. Demands on all sides. All we can summon is a plaintive “Oh, Father.” If so, that’s enough.

KNOW how much He loves you! 💕 “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:2-14‬ ‭NLT‬‬ https://www.bible.com/116/eph.1.2-14.nlt

Be blessed and live out the TRUTH that we are enough just as we are...If we would just walk in the purpose HE designed us for what a wonderful world this would be🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕💕🌈 Grace Refocuses Our Eyes On God We all ask questions like, “Who am I?” and “What am I worth?” Many of us seek the answer to these questions fervently. We might look to the opinions of others for a clue. Maybe we read self-help books to find answers, or we search social media for someone we want to be like and imitate them. Too often we come away feeling as though we don’t measure up—mostly because we believe the lie we have to be enough in the first place. It doesn’t matter if you’re a middle school girl or somewhere in the middle of your life like me. Every one of us is searching. Knowing what God says about us will make a world of difference in how we view ourselves and how we live out our stories the way He planned from the beginning of time. But first we must shift our focus. This is no small thing. The answer to the question Who am I? isn’t bound up in you at all; it’s a treasure buried within the heart of your Father. The truth from Ephesians 1:3 reminds us that grace shifts the focus off of ourselves and refocuses our attention on God. God, the Father who has blessed us, is first. We bless Him because He has blessed us. Everything is about Him. Can I confess something to you? I like to think you like me because of what I do and who I am. I want to impress you. But when I look at the 25 words in Ephesians 1:3, I’m reminded that my search for worth and significance begins and ends here. Oh, my friend, we are His sons and daughters. He has blessed us. It’s who He is. It’s what He does. It’s what He gives.

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 “We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭33:20-22‬ ‭NLT‬‬ https://www.bible.com/116/psa.33.20-22.nlt

TRUTH! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾

Let HIM fight your battles! He’s a battle ax in the time of a battle! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🌈 “But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭3:3-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ https://www.bible.com/114/psa.3.3-8.nkjv

Help us, Lord 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕🌈 DELIVERANCE BELONGS TO THE LORD Deliverance belongs to the Lord; thy blessing be upon thy people. How is it possible to sleep when there are so many things bothering us? A disturbed mind and a painful heart robs us of good sleep. The Psalmist is being pursued by his own son Absalom. People were against him. But he says: I lie down and sleep. I wake again for the Lord sustains me. Is it possible to lie down and sleep in the midst of a hostile world when people have surrounded us with hostility in their hearts? Is it possible when things are crowding our mind? David gives us the secret of a good sleep. He confides in the Lord - he cries aloud to the Lord and receives his answer. He doesn't sit quietly saying that the Lord knows and is watching. He tells the Lord exactly as it is. People's words actions, attitudes and words pain him. Often the Lord is the last person we go to, after we have gone to friends and family. His confidence is in the Lord that the Lord will answer. He answers me from His holy hill. He believes very strongly that the Lord is our confidence. v3 - He shields us v4 - He answers us v5 - He sustains us v8 - He delivers us v8 - Thy blessing be upon thy people Thou, O Lord art a shield about me. The Lord surrounds us, covers us totally that nothing is exposed to the enemy. We are secure in His presence. We can walk into the presence of the Lord with confidence that deliverance belongs to the Lord. When God is for us, no one can be against us. One way to remember is to look back and see the acts of God in our lives. We will see His works, His words and His promise at work during our difficult times. Many of us use the Lord as our last resort when all else fails. Jesus said, Call upon me in the days of trouble and I will answer you. Let us remember that deliverance belongs to the Lord. We can therefore go to bed with confidence that God sustains us. When we are disturbed, let us confide in the Lord and be confident in Him, that the Lord is our shield, our sustainer, our deliverer and our blesser. When you are disturbed, don't count sheep, talk to the Shepherd.

Yes Lord 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕💕🌈 “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40:1-5, 8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ https://www.bible.com/114/psa.40.1-5,8.nkjv

Lord, help us rest in You KNOWING You’re working “it” out 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕💕🌈 REST, DON’T FRET Man is an impatient being. We want things to happen now. Impatience has caused lots of hurts. Road rage, failure, wrong judgement, misunderstanding are results of impatience. We need to develop the art of being patient. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Absence of trust is fretting. Many times, we want to do things on our own, we rely on our own wisdom and our strength. We can fail in the area of our expertise if we don’t give it in the Lord’s hands with trust. There should be a reason for being patient. When we know that a person has got the character and the ability to handle our situation, then we can remain patient and rest. So patience is waiting confidently for a solution to the problem. Psalm 37: 7: Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Patiently, let us follow the Lord calmly without fretting. When we fret, there is anger. Psalm 40:1: I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined His ear to me. It is not true that waiting patiently is a futile exercise. In waiting patiently, we develop the art of growing stronger in faith, trusting the one in whose hands the problem has been given and believing that He will accomplish things for us. The Lord inclined his ear; he leaned towards me. He is working on our request - it might take some time as He knows when the best time to handle our need is. Acts 26:3: Paul tells Agrippa to hear him patiently Hebrews 6:15: After he patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Not during or before, but after. Sometimes we wait. But when we see people overtaking us, we give up. We need to endure as long as it takes for the Lord to answer our need. We need to wait for the Lord to handle the situation, the problem in our lives. I Peter 2:20: When we do good and suffer, if we take it patiently, this is commendable before God. Patience in waiting, in suffering, in enduring and in trusting. How can we be patient? Because we know the Lord is able, available and He has the character and power to handle our situation. Let us leave our concerns in His hands. Let us not fret. Let us rest. Let us continue doing what God wants us to do. He will quietly work. Our answer is on the way. Let us be patient. Let us not see the situation and become impatient. Let us see in whose hands it is in and be patient.

Good morning! If you were at church yesterday you may have heard the exciting news that our own ROBIN PINK will be on tv tonight! She will be a guest on Chris Matthews’ nationally syndicated show “Hardball” where they will be doing a town hall meeting tonight! The show will deal with the upcoming primaries and the mood of Dayton voters. It airs at 10 pm https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/monday-chris-matthews-goes-to-dayton-ohio-for-the-deciders-town-hall-61968453905

God always knows what is needed for our lives. I BELIEVE that greater is coming! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:11, 17-28 NLT)

Whose report will WE believe? SPEAK LIFE TODAY 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 To speak life is to show hope for better days. To speak positivity into your life while going through turmoil is to say that your God and your faith are stronger than your issues and your circumstances. Against all odds, against all issues and worries, your faith must persevere. If you can speak life when the world is shouting death, then you will make it through. You will weather through the storm. The fire within you has to burn brighter than the fire around you. I speak life because I am anointed. I am empowered. I am equipped. I am called. I am creative. And because I have been blessed beyond all measure. Because the Holy Spirit dwells within me. It seems simple, but there is power in your words. A change in perspective can become a change in your attitude. A change in your attitude can become a change in your outlook. And a change in our outlook, can lead to change in our OUTCOME! When the going gets tough, open up your Bible. Reading the Word can help to remind you of God’s path for you. Reading life should lead to speaking it. After reading and digesting the text, it is important to speak it out for others to witness. Therefore it is important for your words to be words of Faith...words of Life! This is the only manner in which we as believers and followers of Christ can ever hope to bring others to the Lord. I encourage you to set out with a new outlook on your surroundings and situations. One of positivity and progression. One that speaks LIFE over death! 1. How has speaking life in the past helped you through difficult times? 2. What are some incidents in the Bible that displayed the power of speaking life?

“Your attitude can either be an asset or liability. There is no in-between..”. Whose report will YOU believe and react to??? Help us, Lord. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈 The meaning behind the concept of speaking life is that you have real power. God-given power. With free-will comes both responsibility and strength. You have the power within yourself to shape your destiny with your words. Use your words to speak prophetically over where your life is headed. If you need to change, then say so! You were born to multiply all of the gifts and talents that are inside you. You were created to stand apart, not to stay where you are at. God wants progress and progression for you, not stagnation. You were born to rise above, not sink below! Because faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen, the Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight. Although your senses are deprived, your faith wlll allow you to carry on. Just because you cannot see it now does not mean that it will not come to fruition later. It takes faith the size of a mustard seed, and a lot of hard work, but God always comes through. I believe that speaking life all comes down directly to your attitude. You can’t always control your circumstances or surroundings. Bad things happen to good people sometimes. You can, however, control your attitude towards these situations. Your attitude will be either an asset, or a liability. There is no in-between. Speak life. Let your attitude reflect your faith. In every aspect of life, attitude is key. The attitude that you have walking into the office today will determine your level of success tomorrow. The attitude that you hold towards school work, chores, your career, your significant other, or difficult times will play either a positive or negative role in your life. An attitude can be wordless. You don’t need to necessarily voice your opinions or frustrations for it to be felt. An attitude can not only plague your mind, but infect the minds of those around you as well. It is felt without being spoken. People who speak death have spoken it long before they have opened their mouths. What is your current attitude as of late? With your job? With your life? What can you do to try to maintain a better attitude during hardships?

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕🌈

Good morning! Every once in a while we all just need a little reminder of how important real love is to God 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾💕💕 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭13:1-5, 7-8, 10-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Just as a farmer cannot pick fruit where he has planted flowers, you cannot reap the goods that you have not yet sown. If you sow bad seeds, then you will reap bad seeds. Life is about give-and-take in many aspects. When you are not speaking life, and worse, you are speaking death, then death is all that you can expect to receive. There have been times in my life in which I was not speaking life. Times in which I was being too negative for too long. Times in which I assumed the worst rather than assuming best. Even times in which I felt that my agenda, or my plans mattered more than God’s plan! The result of what I call “stinkin thinkin” was that I forced myself to go through unnecessary stress. Problems would arise that may not have, had I made the decision to remain positive. Pastor Charles R. Swindoll once said that life was 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. There are few things that we can actively control. Our response to the situations that we go through, however, is one of them. I believe that the true test of a Christian is not where your faith lies when things are going well. It is when you are going through tribulations that your faith will be tested. Speaking life is easy when life is going well. But holding onto an inner peace in the midst of outer turmoil is difficult. During times of hardship, my best advise to is to read the oldest self-help book known, the Bible. By rereading the Bible, it helps to remind myself what God says about speaking life. The power of life and death is in the tongue. Speak as if your words are seeds that will be sown. What is one way in which you can react more positively to upcoming issues or events? When you begin to lose faith or lose sight of the plan that God has set out for you, what else can you do to remain focused?

Good morning! We have been soooo very blessed to have CHURCH while learning new ministry from Chester D.T. Baldwin this week! This is just a snippet from rehearsal last night! If we but think about how kind and merciful our God has been... See you tomorrow morning and/or 6:30 p.m. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾💕

What a wonderful first week of Faith Discovery Zone! The classrooms were full and our youth had a great time praising God! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

We praise God for Pastor Pruitt and the Mt. Enon Baptist Church Family for closing out our revival tonight. Luke 13:10-17, when Jesus comes to Church!!

We praise God for Pastor Pruitt and the Mt Enon Baptist Church who closed out our revival tonight! Luke 13:10-17, when Jesus comes to Church!!

We salute our graduates and scholars as they continue to excel! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾💕

Yesterday evening, many from our congregation had the privilege of seeing our very own ShayLyssa Alexander in her benefit recital to help offset the cost of participating in The Pittsburgh Festival Opera this summer! We couldn’t be prouder! She’s beautiful, she’s annointed, and as Pastor Allen prayed and we all believe she’s going places! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕

St.Luke Praise Dancers performing last night at a University of Dayton Law School Awards Banquet. 🙌🏾

Thoroughly enjoyed today’s Seven Last Words Service! God is always in the blessing business. We praise God for His spirit and His Word today. Bless you, Pastor Allen for bringing the 6th Word, The Word of VICTORY! John 19:30 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏾💕💕