Our Heart's Desires

Several years ago, God spoke a mighty word to both of us at the same time. At that moment, our ministry here on earth became more clear to us than ever! The word was from the book of Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 8:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then, I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Each of us , separately and together, made the lifelong committment to follow God anywhere He wanted to take us in order to walk in His perfect will. We never had to ask what He wanted us to do. We just knew! He wants us to speak His truth! He will provide the means and the circumstances to share with the world the most precious gift we have ever received as well as helping others discover their purpose in life. You see, our purpose here on earth is not being a good husband, wife, mother, father, daughter, son, or even the best at our chosen career. It is to worship and glorify God, and to share with others what He has allowed us to see! The Bible tells us to "delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Delight means to have great pleasure. Pleasure means to gratify or to please. So, in a nutshell, we should please God in EVERYTHING we do and then He will give us our heart's desires. Of course, we have also realized that when we are doing everything within our power to please God, sometimes our heart's desires change. Or, rather, we realized that our TRUE heart's desires are different than we thought they were! God gives us our heart's desires, but He also creates the desires of our hearts! So, if the desire of your heart is a certain career, you know that God put that desire there for a reason; not just to be that person.

For example: I (Melanie) knew many, many years ago that my heart's desire was to be a teacher. So, because I wasn't really seeking God's purpose for my life at the time, I didn't really understand the full consept of "being a teacher." It's not going to college, getting an elementary education degree, and teaching children in the worldly sense of it. It's DAILY, moment by moment, teaching others the wonderful, life-changing things I have learned over the years. I don't always "get it" at the moment, but He always shows it to me. Yes, at the moment, I am a teacher! I teach Kindergarten at a wonderful, Spirit-filled, Charismatic Episcopal Church School. I love every minute of it! Whether this is God's ultimate plan for my life is unknown at this time, but I know that He is faithful and will show me each and every day what He wants me to do. At this time, I feel as though every single thing I have been through up to this point in my life is coming together to be used for this very purpose! It is the most AMAZING thing to see everything come together after all these years of not really understanding how and why things happen the way they do! Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in ALL things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Maybe I have "babbled" a little, but it's just so exciting to be in God's will and allowing Him to take over my life! Sometimes I can't stop talking about all the great things He has done for me. There is never a time (now) that I doubt His will for my life. I am so greatful that "he who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!" Phil. 1:6

Rejoicing in Heaven!

One word keeps coming into my mind...REJOICE!
It means to "TAKE DELIGHT OR TO BE GLAD!"
Luke 15:7 says...I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
God and the Heavenly angels will take much delight if ONE SINNER truly repents of his sin and turns away from it!
So, I am reminded that the goal of PURIFIED! Ministries is to provide a means for this to happen...and if only ONE sinner repents...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! God will rejoice with us! Hallelujah!!!

Unity!

Over the past few months, as we have prepared our hearts for PURIFIED! Ministries, God has been constantly speaking to us about UNITY. We have known that we would play an awesome role in promoting unity within our community and the body of believers. God is always so great to show us these things in our lives almost daily. One way He showed us confirmation is the unity service held at our church this past Sunday evening. It was our first to attend and what an awesome experience in the presence of our Lord! We can't wait until the next one in December!One of the things God has brought to our heart is that somehow TABERNACLE OF PRAISE fits in to this wonderful puzzle God is helping us put together! The congregation of TOP is a wonderful, loving, Christ-centered body of believers with our same goal in mind...to love the Lord, their God, with all their hearts, souls, and strength! For we know "love binds them all together!" Col. 3:14 It is simply amazing to watch God work all things together in our lives for the good. We can't wait to see what God has planned for this ministry!

A Time of Preparation

The Holy Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:11-13,

11 Itwas he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to beevangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people forworks of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faithand in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the wholemeasure of the fullness of Christ.

If you are living on this earth, you canbe assured that God has a purpose for your life while you are here! One ofthe things all Christians are equipped to do is to share the Good News of theGospel of Jesus Christ with others. This may be something as simple asliving a life of purity in an effort to allow others to see the light of Christbeaming out of you. People are naturally curious and desire what othershave that seem to make them happy. This also could be that you are toserve Him publically by getting out there in the world and sharing your faithwith others. Satan would have you believe that it is a very difficultthing to tell others about Jesus. But, in actuality it can be veryeasy. All you really have to do is pray and ask God to help you share andto give you opportunities to do just that. He will gladly work throughyou!

PURIFIED! Ministries could be a place Godwants you to have one of these opportunities. Please unite with us inprayer as we seek God's will for this ministry. We are looking forward toseeing God "show up and show out" in this world. This is a TIMEOF PREPARATION in the heart's of those He will use to further his kingdomthrough PURIFIED! Ministries. Pray with us that God will open eyes, ears,and hearts of those He wants involved and allow us all to come together in unityas we take this journey together. If you think you may be interested inhelping out in ANY way, please contact us. There will be so many ways toserve our Lord through this ministry in the near future. But, either way,please pray with us. The prayer of a righteous man is is powerful andeffective! James 5:16

God Bless You!

Purified! Ministries...in the beginning (get ready to read a book!)

Where to begin?
Scott accepted Christ into his life at a young age while attending Calvary Assembly of God with his family in Selma, AL. He knew that God had a special plan for his life. He has always felt a burden on his heart for those younger than him and always knew that leadership was a God-given gift that would be used in his life to further God's Kingdom.

Acceptance of Christ in your life, while it is the most important decision you will ever make, is simply not enough! God created us to worship and glorify Him. In order to do that, you must give over your entire life to Him. So, in EVERYTHING WE DO, we must worship and glorify HIM. That's easier said than done! God takes us from the moment we ask Him to come be in charge of our life, and molds us into the servant that He wants us to be. Sometimes we are stubborn and do not learn everything in a few days, weeks, months, or even years! But, praise God that He doesn't ever give up on us and He uses EVERYTHING that happens to ultimately bring glory to His name! Hallelujah!!!

As an adult, Scott re-committed his life to following Christ. This is when he began to see all that God has in store for him. He was given the spouse and children that God had set aside for him, resulting in a God-fearing, evangelical family committed to serving our Lord and Savior. In February of 2006, Scott and his family accepted a strong call on their life to FULL TIME YOUTH MINISTRY. With no idea what was ahead, we walked the aisle in our home church, Hillwood Baptist Church, Huntsville, AL, to make this commitment public before God and our congregation. Then, we sat back to wait to see what God had in store. We always thought that we were to just pray and wait. Soon after, God began showing us that sitting and waiting is not at all what He intends for us to do! He expects us to "take the ball and run with it!" That is exactly what we did. We began praying for God to open doors that HE wanted open for us to be able to serve Him ANYWHERE He called us to...AND to close the doors HE wanted closed. This allowed us to be sure we took the ball and ran the right way!

Today...

God sent us back to our home town of Selma, AL (which is somewhere we said we would never return to - be careful what you say!). About a year and a half earlier, the Lord gave us a word from the Holy Bible, Isaiah 6:8:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then, I said, "Here am I. Send Me!"

We began specifically praying for God to SEND
US! He gave Melanie a vision in the form of a dream that He would send us
to "Crosspoint" and this would be where He would reveal His ministry
to us. We didn't really know what that meant at the time. We knew it
was a church, but we did not have a Crosspoint Church in Huntsville. There
was one in a nearby town called Crosspoint, but we never felt a desire or
leading to go there. So, we kept praying. One day, while home to
visit family, we were at a gas station about to pull back out to Dallas
Avenue. We both looked up and saw THE SIGN! Yes, Cooper Memorial
Church had changed it's name to Crosspoint Christian Church! We were
stunned! At the same time, we looked at each other and said, "I am
not moving back to Selma!" As you can tell we were still being
stubborn! Over the next year, a series of events led us to realize that we
were moving back to Selma! In June of 2007 Scott, reluctantly, went to
spend a week in Selma to look for a job. Within a day, Scott had a job
(for both of us!) and a house. He came home that weekend and we packed up
and moved ONE WEEK LATER! GOD MOVES FAST!! Of course, there is
much, much more to the story, but this blog entry has become a book already, so
details later!

We currently attend Crosspoint Christian Church in Selma and are starting a new ministry for college age young adults called C4, which will serve as a ministry to Purified Ministries.