Joe & Becky Cruse

What an amazing time of the year this is as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ IS the reason for the season and the One we love, the One we worship, and the One who makes life worth living!

In lieu of our regular prayer directive this week, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your love, your prayers, and your support over the past ten years. You’ve encouraged us and stood with us as we have followed the dream the Lord put in our hearts and for that we are so grateful.

Many young people are serving the Lord, either part time or full time in churches and ministries around the world. Souls have been saved and a strong local church has been established because of your support and now, we have stepped into the next phase of the ministry by moving on the 26 acres the Lord is giving us to possess. It is here we will develop a world-class facility to train and impart the heart of worship to future generations and we couldn’t have come this far without your generosity. Thank you dear friends!

From all of us at Worshipworks Ministries International, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and blessed New Year!

Ps Joe and Becky and the team

What a great year it has been–Thank you Lord! As we turn our hearts towards 2010, we reflect on God’s goodness, rest in His faithfulness and look forward with great hope towards our future.

Just a few hours ago, we finished a strategy and planning meeting for the New Year and wow, it’s exciting. The team leaders of all the departments are praying, planning, and preparing. 2010 promises to be our best year to date.

As we close out 2009, one of the important dates in January we want to make you aware of is — 21 Days of Fasting and Prayer —Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails”.? As we set aside the first month of the year for prayer and fasting, I believe that if we do it together, we can move as a mighty army to accomplish His purpose both corporately and personally.

Sunday evening Jan 3rd through Saturday evening Jan 23rd, we will be fasting and whatever the Lord leads you to do—join with us as we consecrate our lives and our plans to Him the first month of the new year! If we give Him the first portion, the rest of our year will be abundantly blessed.

Turning our thoughts towards prayer this week, let me share a passage from Psalm 20:1-7–

1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. Selah
4 May he give you the desire of your heart ?and make all your plans succeed.
5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests.
6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

This scripture really blesses me and helps me refocus on God’s abilities and not my own. Why don’t you make this your prayer in these last few days of the year?

“Lord, as I look forward to the new year, I totally trust you. I won’t look to my own ways or to my own abilities but my trust is in your Name and you alone. I believe your plans for me are good and that as I keep my eyes on you, you will see me through to complete victory in every area of my life”. AMEN

We would love to have you join us for prayer (Recharge) this Wed night in the lodge @ 6:30 pm and don’t forget the Christmas Eve Candlelight service Dec 24th from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. Also, there will be no Wednesday night services 23 or 30th to give our staff a bit of much deserved time off.

From all of us at WMI Global, Merry Christmas and blessings for a prosperous New Year!

Ps Joe and Becky and the team

I am so thankful and grateful to God for all He is doing in the life of this church and its ministries.

The Christmas season always blesses me because it reminds me of the connection between giving and receiving. Most of you know how I love to teach on giving and though I have taught these same principles for so many years, it always excites me to recount God’s faithfulness and the fact that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him and are obedient to His commandments and His teachings.

We see God’s nature as a giver every Christmas season as we realize that He doesn’t require anymore of us than what He was willing to do. To give the precious, darling Son of heaven was the ultimate gift—an extravagant gift of epic proportions!

Since Christmas is really known as the “season of giving”, let’s talk about giving for a moment. One might ask, “Becky, how does this relate to prayer?” I’m so glad you asked. 1 Kings 3:3-5 says–

3 Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king (Solomon) went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

I. God rewards generosity

From the above scriptures, we see a connection between giving and prayer. As we know from the back-story here, Solomon was not required to offer but one bull but chose to sacrifice 1000 bulls! What a generous gift! Not out of coercion or extortion, but out of a generous and willing heart. God rewards generous giving and was the epitome of generosity. I will remind you of the very familiar scripture Ps Joe used in his message on Sunday, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

II. God rewards humility

Notice the rest of the passage in I Kings 3:7-9 “Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

A humble and contrite heart goes along way with God. Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. James 4:6 says, “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” and James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up”. And we certainly can’t forget 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

III. God rewards faithful stewardship

Now, let’s look at the last of the passage in I Kings 3:10-14. “The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

As I have studied scriptures over the last 10 years, I find that Jesus had as much or more to say about stewardship as he had to say about giving. When we are faithful with what God puts in our hands, He always entrusts us with more. I am reminded of the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25: 21. “His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the blessedness) which your master enjoys”.

As I close, let me remind you that one of the greatest rewards in this life is answered prayer. As we faithfully bring our tithes, offerings and extravagant offerings to the Lord, the Lord says to us just as He said to King Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Let me remind you of one last scripture. Acts 10:3 and 4 tells us, “About the ninth hour (about 3:00 p.m.) of the day he (Cornelius) saw clearly in a vision an angel of God entering and saying to him, Cornelius! And he, gazing intently at him, became frightened and said, What is it, Lord? And the angel said to him, Your prayers and your [generous] gifts to the poor have come up [as a sacrifice] to God and have been remembered by Him”. In this beautiful season of giving and worship, I remind us all to see the correlation between giving and praying—the heart that is open to give is the heart that is open to receive! AMEN!

1. Pray for the upcoming Christmas presentations and that souls will be saved
2. Pray for our single parent families in the church during this season
3. Pray for our church and its ministries
4. Pray for our pastors and leaders
5. Pray for our business people and business owners
6. Pray for the students as they take their end of first semester exams
7. Pray for favor as we continue to take possession of the land

Church, have a very blessed week and don’t forget to get your tickets and bring a bunch a folks to “Worship the King” this Sunday, Dec 13 @ 6:00. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! (come early for a good seat!)

Blessings,
Ps Joe and Becky and the team

We trust you had a great Thanksgiving holiday—we certainly did. Lots of family, lots of turkey, lots of fun! And now ladies and gentlemen—we’re off and running towards another Christmas. Before you know it, the big day will be here and gone with a new year staring us right in the face. Time does fly by!

Let us take just a moment and give you and update on the first month in our new home. SPECTACULAR! The tent is definitely a work in progress and we must again say thank you to so many of you that have given your time in the evenings and on the weekends to help. We are still in the process of sealing it against inclement weather and will be adding some things in the next couple of weeks that should enable us to completely keep out the weather and keep in heat/ac. Speaking of that—we are awaiting extra funds to add the heat/ac units but hopefully, the weather will cooperate until that time. Otherwise, just plan on bringing coats and blankets if you need them. Wow—one of these days we will look back on “these days” as “the good ole days”. How funny!

The services have been so incredible—the worship team has done an outstanding job of leading us into the presence of God, the Holy Spirit has showed up and “showed out” and the attendance this first month has been very favorable. Thank you church for your faithfulness to God’s vision and call for CWC. Without your faithful attendance, prayers and financial support, we could not move forward. We are praying for you during this season that God’s blessing and His favor would be upon you as you put Him and His kingdom first in everything you do.

Don’t forget to invite folks to our Christmas production, “Worship the King” Sunday night, Dec 13th @ 6:00 pm. This year’s performance is going to be a lot of worship mixed in with the traditional songs of the season. Tickets are available before and after the services over the next two weeks or you can pick them up in the office during the week. This is a great opportunity for outreach and to get people on the property. Would you help us? They still say that word of mouth is the best form of advertisement. Let’s invite folks out to this very special event. As we partner together in telling the story of Christmas, let’s agree together for a harvest of souls

You know, friends, we truly are grateful for your partnership. In fact, it was partnership that Paul prayed for with the church at Philippi. (Phil 1:3-11 NLT)

“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. ?I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation-the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ-for this will bring much glory and praise to God”.

Did you catch the two prayer requests he made? Paul prayed for love to overflow and he prayed for continual growth in knowledge and understanding.

Listen, those requests should be at the top of all our prayer lists! Overflowing love and constantly growing in knowledge and understanding. Friends, if we can grasp these two powerful keys-my goodness! Nothing could keep us from total fulfillment of our life’s purpose.

Paul loved the people in Philippi. That was obvious from the prayer. He recognized the part they played in the gospel going forth and He was convinced that what God had started in them, He would complete. Finally, he prayed that they would be filled with the fruit of their salvation. How powerful! God’s righteous character alive in us that would bring glory to Him! In other words, we don’t have to strive to do or be—all we must do allow the fruit of salvation to have its proper work in us and the righteousness of God will be made manifest in us, resulting in the Glory of God being seen by the world! (I believe this was Ps Joe’s message to us this past Sunday!) HALLELUJAH!

Friends, (or should I say partners?) our prayer for you is that God’s love will overflow in you this week and that you find yourselves continually growing in knowledge and understanding.

• Overflowing love for everyone we come in contact with
• Continually growing in knowledge and understanding
• Faithfully serving His people and His church
• Boldly telling the good news of the gospel to all
• Constantly being filled with the fruit of our salvation that will manifest God’s character in us

If you have any prayer requests or praise reports, let us hear from you. We would love to share them in our Wednesday night prayer service (Recharge) @ 6:30 pm. You may send them to worshipworksmin@aol.com.

Have a blessed week,
Ps Joe and Becky and the team