Tis the Season to Boldy Proclaim Christ - by Kim Checkeye

We are entering into a very busy time of the year as we get ready for the Christmas Season by spending time with family and friends, decorating with lights, trees, candles and so much more. I want to encourage you this season to let your light shine for Jesus more than ever before.

As you go about your day and people say to you “Happy Holidays”, boldly proclaim back “Merry Christmas to you.” I am going to let you in on a little secret of mine. Promise not to tell? This drives me crazy when people say Happy Holidays! After all, isn’t Christmas about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

The Roman pagans would celebrate Saturnalia from December 17-25. During this time the Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the end of this festival which was December 25th, the authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

Christian leaders wanted to get to the pagans so they took over this holiday but it was no easy task. The Christian leaders announced that on the final day, December 25th, they would celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Over the years the struggle has always been the same, remembering why the Christians took over Christmas.

Christians took over this holiday in an attempt to bring the pagans before God Almighty. Christians took what was a time of self indulgence, self gratification and pagan rituals and attempted to turn it around to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Unfortunately, this struggle is still there. As Christians, we are bombarded by what the world has made Christmas to be.

I think it is time for us as Christians to stand up and fight for what this Holiday is all about. It is time to fight for our brothers and sisters who are still lost in sin and don’t know the truth. After all, wasn’t paganism about people wrapped up in sin? It is time for us to boldly proclaim that Jesus Christ is the one true living God, that He died for our iniquities and our transgressions and that we can have ever lasting life in Him.

I urge you that this Christmas as you go about your days, you are constantly reminding everyone around you why you celebrate this Holiday and what it means to you. I urge you to press into your relationship with Christ more than ever before. I urge you to study the Word and allow your heart to become a sponge so you can truly know who God is. His Word tells us that He is:

Jehovah-Shammah – The Lord my Companion
Elohim – The all powerful One Creator
YHWH – The one who is self existent one
El Roi - The God who sees me
Jehovah-Jireh- You will provide
Jehovah – Rapha – the Lord who heals
Adonai – The Lord. My Great Lord.
Jehovah-Rohi – The Lord is my shepherd.
Jehovah-Mekaddishkem – The Lord who sanctifies
Jehovah-Tsidkenu – The Lord Our Righteousness
Jehovah-Nissi – The Lord is my Banner
Jehovah-Rapha - The Lord who heals
Jehovah-Shalom-The Lord is my Peace
Jehovah-Sabaoth - The Lord of Hosts The Lord of Armies
El Olam - The eternal God. The everlasting God.
El Elyon - The God Most High
El Shaddai – The all sufficient One
Immanuel – God is with us. I AM.

This is the God we serve! This is God who gave His one and only son to be born. Jesus Christ came into this world to die. He was born so that one day, He would die for the sins of the world.

I urge you to fall on your face during this Holiday season and seek Him. I urge you to press into His loving arms and forget the things of this world. I urge you to be like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5. She had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. This caused her to be weak and tired. It was debilitating to her in all areas of her life. The Bible tells us that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and she had spent all that she had. I can only imagine what this poor woman went through. She knew that her only hope was this Jesus that she had heard all about.

There was a large crowd following Jesus and they pressed in around him. This weak and tired woman knew that if she pressed in through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment, she would be healed. Can you picture it? I can. I can see the crowd pushing and trying to stop her from reaching Him. I can see as she gets a few steps closer someone pushes her all the back to where she started. Her mind is telling her to give up but her heart is telling her to fight even harder. She doesn’t give up until she reaches the Healer and touches His garment. At that very moment the bleeding stops and she is healed.

I urge you to push in to the things of God just like that woman did. You won’t be sorry. The Lord God will turn to you and say “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Merry CHRISTMAS and God bless you!

A Life Changing Trip by Kim Checkeye

I have just arrived home after a twelve day mission trip to Ecuador. The time that I spent there was life changing. We first ministered in Quito which is the capital of Ecuador. Over 2.5 million people live in the city. What I saw in that city broke my heart. The crime rate there is so bad and out of control that they brought in the military forces. Military personnel were everywhere with their big guns trying to get control. The amount of garbage that was everywhere was mind blowing then to see all the homeless dogs running around was painful. Not only that, I saw dead dogs just decaying on the street. But what broke my heart and took me on my knees to God Almighty was the amount of children just running around. Just running and roaming the streets. I kept wondering where their parents were and why they were alone. One boy came up begging to us on the street. I saw elderly women and men begging for money. They could barely walk and they had no homes. I saw the homeless being robbed by other homeless people. What I saw in Quito will be forever grafted into my mind.

Even in the midst of all this pain, crime and heartbreak, God’s presence was so strong. My mind could not get around what my eyes could and what my heart sensed from the Lord.

My home church is Kingdom Life Family Center in Orefield and my Pastor’s are Tony and Tammy Adamo. They lived in Ecuador for 5 years doing missionary work. The church plants that we have in Quito and Latacunga wanted to do a women’s conference. Now, for you and me, women’s conferences are the normal thing to do. In Ecuador, not so much! They don’t do these kind of things. Plus, to pull the churches together to work and support a women’s conference, well, that is just unheard of. However, they put their hands to the plow and started the work. They asked Pastor Tammy to come and speak at the conferences and talk to their leaders and married couples. We went as a support system for Pastor Tammy and to teach some breakout sessions.

After most of the conference times or after church services on Sundays, we had the opportunity to pray for people. This part worried me a little because I don’t speak Spanish. Nothing!!! So, I was concerned about how I was going to pray for people and how they were going to understand what I was saying. However, what God did just blew my mind.

God moved in such a mighty way that the language barrier didn’t matter. Women and men were so desperate to hear from God, to experience God or to just receive a touch from God, that their hearts were so open. Language did not matter. As we prayed for the people, I saw and experienced things that I had never seen before. People broke so openly and poured their heart out to God. Some I just held in my arms as they wept and cried. Some fell to their knees, some danced, some jumped, some shook, some fell over and the list goes on and on.

Sometimes, when I prayed for people, I just wept. I could not contain myself because my heart was breaking for them. I could literally feel their pain. Now you may think I am crazy when I say that but that is the only way I can describe it.
The one woman that stands out in my mind was in Quito. We had a women’s leaders time for any woman who was in ministry or in leadership. Pastor Tammy taught an amazing lesson on women in ministry and at the end, we had time to pray for the women. I was praying for women and I looked up and saw this elderly Indigenous woman who had to be in her 70’s or over. She was hunched over and she looked like she has had a very hard life. No doubt, life has not been good to her. She pushed her way through the women to get to the front so she could be prayed for. She reminded me so much of the woman with the issue of blood in the Bible. As she pushed her way through, she was weeping. I started to pray for her and she was yelling out to God. I have no idea what she said and I know she had no idea what I was saying. We just wept together and prayed out to God. Two hearts were united that night and we cried out together to God for whatever it may have been that she was asking for.

That was it for me. That night I learned so much about God and His presence and who He is and who I am in Him, it was like a crash course in experiencing the presence of God. I knew that that night, I would never be the same or ever look at praying for people the same ever again.

That is what it was like every time we prayed for people. They were so hungry for God because most of them had no other option but God. He was all they had! It was like they were teaching us what it was like to have nothing and only have hope in God. Time and time again, we prayed over people and time and time again, God answered them.

I went to Ecuador praying to God about four things:
1. Continue to create in me a servant’s heart
2. Break my heart for your people
3. Why do miracles occur in third world countries so much and not in the USA?
4. Continue to stretch me in my faith

I can honestly tell you that God answered every single one of those prayers!! He taught me so much about His faithfulness and just trusting in Him. He taught me that if I trust Him and reach out in faith, He will supply what I need and what I am lacking whether that be physical, mental, emotional, in ministry and spiritually. At times, I wanted my family that my heart ached for them. Yet, God filled my heart and helped me in my longing for them. At times, I was physically tired that I didn’t feel like I could give any more out, He supplied me and strengthened me. Even when I was emotionally gone because of all the tears that were shed for others, He helped me to go one step farther.

I was asked a question from a friend months ago about this trip. The question was “If your call in life is Truth for Women, then what does this trip have to do with that?” My answer at that time was “Nothing. It has everything to do with me and my growth in the Lord”. Now please hear my heart that definitly was the case but I also realize now that it was also to help me as I lead this ministry forward. After what I saw in Ecuador, my heart longs even more for women to embrace God’s word as truth and for women to experience the presence of God like I saw there. My heart longs even more for lives to be changed by the presence of God because they see Him, feel Him and experience Him like never before.

This has been my first mission trip ever in my life and I can certainly tell you, it will not be the last.