Emanuel ExpressNews. A Call to Worship. March s Focus:

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1 Emanuel ExpressNews 3058 West Van Buren Ave Chicago, IL phone Pastor Michael & First Lady Anastasia Richardson March s Focus: Inside this issue: First Things First 3 State Women s Retreat Installation Dinner Welcome 6 One Word 7 March Calendar 8 March 2015 Edition A Call to Worship reetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who G has blessed us and kept us in his abiding presence, provision and power. I trust that you are doing well and that the blessings of the Lord abound in every area of your lives. Our ministry theme for the month of March is Worship. Worship is simply defined as reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred. According to Nelson s Bible Dictionary worship is defined as reverent devotion and allegiance pledged to God; the rituals or ceremonies by which this reverence is expressed. The English word worship comes from the Old English word worthship, a word which denotes the worthiness of the one receiving the special honor or devotion. Worship is important to God, so much so that out of the 10 commandments, the very first one deals with the subject of worship. Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. In Exodus chapter 34, the commandments are re-instated and God says in verse 14: Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: The insinuation here is that while we do not worship other gods, there is One God Who is to be worshipped. When you read the Old Testament, you cannot help but see the importance of worship in the lives of the people of God. Abraham worshipped (Gen. 22:5), Jacob worshipped (Heb. 11:21), Moses worshipped (Exodus 34:8), Joshua worshipped (Joshua 5:14), and of course David the king worshipped (2 Samuel 12:20). Continued on page 2

2 Page 2 Emanuel ExpressNews From Working Your Gift continued We find in the New Testament that worship is still important. Jesus told the woman at the well that God is seeking for worshippers. John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. The Greek word used here for seek means to seek for, desire, or to demand. God is looking for and demanding true, sincere worship. The disciples worshipped the Lord (Matthew 28:9), the New Testament church worshipped (Philippians 3:3) and at the end, when God wraps up this world in the completion of His redemption plan, worship will still be important! We read in Revelation 4:10 that worship is not only confined to the earth but worship will be present in Heaven. For John writes that the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him. Our highest priority as Christians is to give glory to God, to exalt Him by giving Him worship. I know that we are a sophisticated and educated generation and some may feel that worship and all that is involved with worship is not important. You may feel that it is too emotional or temperamental and not productive and beneficial. You may feel that it s unnecessary and you may suggest removing it from our services so that we can have more time and energy to do other things on the Lords day. But allow me to serve notice on my sophisticated, educated, time sensitive church attendees that worship is not a waste of time. In fact true worship is the best use of your time, because during worship something phenomenal takes place. First of all true worship brings real satisfaction and fulfillment. Warren W. Wiersbe in his book The Integrity Crisis writes that true biblical worship so satisfies our total personality that we don t have to shop around for man-made substitutes. William Temple made this clear in his masterful definition of worship: For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. Pastor and author Eugene Peterson wrote worship does not satisfy our hunger for God it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week. One day David thought about all of the phenomenal benefits of worship and declared that I will bless the Lord at all times and His praises shall continually be in my mouth. David was convinced that worship was not a waste of time, but the best of times. During this month of Worship, let us answer the call to worship. Let us enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His Courts with Praise, Be thankful and bless His name for the Lord is Good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth until all generations! Be Blessed, Pastor Michael Richardson

3 March 2015 Edition Page 3 F ebruary was quite an eventful month. We opened up the month with our Jurisdictional Women s Department Annual Retreat and Conference under the direction of our Jurisdictional Supervisor, Mother Shirley Hughes and the New Generation Committee. The event was held at the beautiful and accommodating Sheraton Hotel in Lisle, IL. The theme this year was Women of God Prepared and Positioned for Effective Change Esther 4:14. Friday night was a meet and greet fellowship. The session opened with a few words of testimonies, which was immediately followed by an icebreaker exercise. The women were encouraged to disperse into groups of 10 or more and discuss various ways that a Woman of God should strive to pattern her life. Each group was instructed to list on parts of the handout (which was a paper outline of a woman s body) scriptural references, and positive affirmations that we should embrace to prepare us to be effective in the Kingdom of God! It was a great fellowship and a lot of fun. On Saturday after our morning glory and prayer, three presenters came forth on the topics: Rediscovering Our Personal Worth to God Attacked and Still Standing Change Agent: Through God s Wisdom and Knowledge The Lord moved in a mighty way during this session. We ended with our luncheon and my what a powerful Word we heard from our guest speaker, Evangelist Lawanne Grant of the Kingdom Builders Church of God in Christ, Charlotte North Carolina. We were blessed to have a few of our ladies to attend this wonderful Retreat and Conference. See page 4 for more highlights on this event. The women of Emanuel are still in force on their One Word. Our goal is to keep the One Word in front of us for the year so we can focus on what really matters. During February we requested a scripture to represent their One Word. See page 7 for scriptures notes.

4 Page 4 Emanuel ExpressNews First Jurisdiction Women s department 16th Annual Retreat & Conference The First Jurisdiction Women s Department recently held its 16 th Annual Retreat & Conference at the Sheraton Lisle Hotel. New Generation under the divine guidance of our Sainted Jurisdictional Supervisor Shirley Hughes did an excellent job with this years theme: Women of God Prepared & Positioned for Effective Change. Mother Shirley Hughes Jurisdictional Supervisor of Women On Saturday promptly at 7:00 a.m. the Morning Glory prayer was led by Evangelist Erma Houston. Heaven was bombarded by seasoned Women in the Ministry, 1 st Ladies, Missionaries, Aspiring Missionaries, Teachers, and laity alike all lifting their voices as one giving praise, honor, and glory to our God. After breakfast in the Main ballroom the Seminar Session began with wonderful praise and worship led by Missionary Lavern Gregory and the Praise team. After which three Anointed women of God came forth. The First presenter was 1 st Lady of Redemptive Tabernacle COGIC Missionary Veronica Coleman. Her topic was Rediscovering Our Personal Worth to God. She admonished the women that we must be aware that the Lord made each and every one of us special, and knew our birthdays before the foundation of the world was set. Lady Coleman let the women know that we must give God our best at all times because he gave us His best! Her closing scripture was 1 st Peter 2:9-10. Each woman was given a beautiful compact mirror and instructed to open it and talk to our reflections and say I can do ALL things through Christ! It does not matter what kind of abuses or neglect we ve suffered in life with God we can overcome all and give him our access baggage. Rediscovering our worth is an on-going process and It is only through him that we can rediscover our true worth and understand there is a King living in us! The 2 nd presenter was Assistant District Missionary of the Edward Booker District Portia Thomas. Her topic was Attacked and Still Standing. Missionary Thomas opened with a wonderful and thought provoking illustration entitled The Life of a Tea Cup. It entailed the process of how the cup came to be, as it was being admired for being exceptionally beautiful while on display in an antique shop. As a lump of red clay while in his Masters hands had to endure; pounding, patting and being spun around to take on the desired shape of its creator. It had to be prodded, poked, spun around enduring fumes from being painted, before being placed in an oven where the heat was unbearable when it complained the response from the Master was always Not yet. Finally the cup was removed and placed on a shelf to cool it waited and waited wondering what was to be done to it next until the Master showed it a mirror and said Look at yourself. The tea cup was astonished at its beauty and workmanship and exclaimed I m Beautiful! The Master then explained to the cup that everything that it had to endure during the process ; the poking, prodding, pounding, and even the spinning and heat of the oven all were part of its making without all of those steps and enduring the pain it could not become the desired finished product that the Master created it to be! Missionary Thomas went on to say that the Lord knows what he s doing with each of us, Though we face various attacks we endure as II Timothy 2:3 as a good soldier and though we suffer attacks, with the Lords help we can be found still standing! The 3 rd and final presenter was Missionary Laurie Reed Her topic was Change Agents through God s Wisdom and Understanding. She spoke of the need for change in that the world is so full of differing opinions and expressions which indicate to the saints that a change needs to occur. We as women of God need to be willing to extend and avail ourselves to become vessels that will usher in change into our homes and the world. RETREAT: continued on page 5

5 March 2015 Edition Page 5 RETREAT: continued from page 4 The sacred institution of marriage as God ordained it is under attack as the world embraces a new normal. The role of males and females has become interchangeable as the gender roles desire to embrace the opposite of what they were created to be. A true identity crisis is in the land, and a change is needed! Proverbs 4:5-7 which says that wisdom is the principle thing and has its own character it is; pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to live, full of mercy and good fruits, without hypocrisy or partiality. Chairlady Reed admonished the Women that we have to have a personal life changing encounter with God and be full of his wisdom and discernment in order to affect change with others. In this way we can be a catalyst for change, courageous, strong and willing to respond. We must have a reverential fear of the Lord and possess the ability to hear His voice John 10:27 and I Samuel 3 and be sure to fast and pray and maintain a real relationship with him if we do all of these things we will be Change Agents full of God s wisdom and understanding! Our Jurisdictional Supervisor Mother Shirley Hughes came forth after these three dynamic Women of God and exhorted and prayed for the Women. She told us that she heard the Spirit say Good and with all the bad that we ve had we can rejoice in good! Mother told the Women that we must forget the past, and confront the future! In this New Year we must be willing to move out of park and move into our breakthrough! The Lord used our Jurisdictional Supervisor in a mighty way! After refreshing ourselves we reconvened for the final session of this wonderful 16 t Annual retreat. The sermonic solo Every time I turn around and when Jesus says yes nobody can say No! was delivered by Sister Antoinette Brown. Our keynote speaker for the retreat was Evangelist Lawanne Grant of the Kingdom Builders Church of God in Christ, Charlotte North Carolina. Her scripture was taken from the book of Esther 4: She spoke from the subject I have been prepared for this. Evangelist Grant stated that our feelings of doubt and inadequacy can be answered if only we look to the Word. There is something on the inside of you that has the power to change the atmosphere. She said that when we make the proclamation I have been prepared for this This means something different for everybody; my this is not yours and vice versa, but whatever your this is it is what has prepared you! For some of us it is a loss of a marriage, a wayward child, death of a loved one, or crisis on our jobs! There are even some that have multiple this s that we have to deal with! It may get to the point where we cry out under the strain of our burden and ask God if we can handle this? The answer is yes we can handle it! Everything you have gone through has prepared you for this! Just as Esther was the catalyst for the nation to be spared, even though it could have meant losing her life, she spoke when the time came, and the result saved a nation. So are we to be willing to open our mouths in prayer, in praise in submission to the Lord during these last and evil days. We must not be afraid, knowing that the Greater one lives in us! It is then that we will truly be able to say whatever the this is I have been prepared for this! Submitted by Msny. Viveca Williams

6 Page 6 Emanuel ExpressNews INSTALLATION DINNER Even though Thursday, February 19 th was one of the coldest days of the year. The weather didn t stop people coming from the east, west, north and south to help First Jurisdiction Illinois celebration the installation of Jurisdictional Supervisor Mother Shirley Hughes. This event was held at The Carlisle in Lombard, IL. There were a host of bishops, jurisdictional supervisors, pastors, elders, missionaries, friends and family that came together to salute and wish Mother Hughes the best on her recent appointment. Mother Willie Mae Rivers our National Supervisor of Women for the Church of God in Christ was the guest speaker. It was a wellplanned and organized dinner and a wonderful showing of the love for Mother Hughes. March 16 th March 20 th JURISDICTIONAL WORKERS MEETING 7:30 PM Nightly MONDAY, MARCH 16 TH Reed s Temple Church of God in Christ 1300 North Broad Street Griffith, IN Supt. David A. Reed, Host TUESDAY, MARCH 17 TH Inspirational Deliverance Church of God in Christ 647 N. Parkside Ave. Chicago, IL State Supervisor Mother Shirley Hughes, Host WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 TH Faith Temple Church of God in Christ 1932 Dewey Evanston, IL Bishop Carlis L. Moody Sr., Host THURSDAY, MARCH 19 TH St. Paul Church of God in Christ 4526 South Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL Bishop Charles Ford, Host FRIDAY, MARCH 20 TH St. Paul Church of God in Christ 4526 South Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL Bishop Charles Ford, Host Lo, Children are a heritage from the Lord. Psalms 127:3 The Calloway Family Welcomes Kayden Micah Born: February 2, lbs 4oz 18 1/2 inches long Congratulations to his parents Leonard & Krystal The Thomas Family Welcomes Kuri Jae Born: February 9, lbs 14oz 18 inches long Congratulations to her parents Terran & Nekia

7 March 2015 Edition Page 7 ONE WORD SCRIPTURE NOTES SACRIFICE - Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. - Psalms 4:5 PRIORITIZE But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt 6:33 FOCUS - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3 DILIGENTLY - Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29 INTEGRITY - Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalms 119:105 RECOVER - And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. I Samuel 30:8 TRUST - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5,6 BREAKTHROUGH - So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. - Joshua 6:20 PERSISTENT - I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14 BEST - But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. I Corinthians 12:31 RELEASE - Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 RESPONSIBILITY - Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8 COMMITMENT - Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:5 APRIL 9, :30 PM AIM AWARDS Heritage Plaza Banquet Center 1551 W. 95th Street - Chicago, IL Donation: $40.00 Guest Speaker: Pastor Edwin Walker Friendly Temple COGIC

8 March 2015 Edition Page 8 SUNDAY, MARCH 1ST 9:00 AM 1st Sunday Corporate Prayer THURSDAY, MARCH 5 TH 7:00 PM State Speaker s House Of Prayer COGIC S. Page Harvey, IL Supt. Hermond Durden, Host SATURDAY, MARCH 7 TH 4:00 PM Pastoral Installation Service for Reverend Timothy J. Williams Greater Sweet Home M.B. C W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL SUNDAY, MARCH 8 TH - 5:00 PM D. A. Reed Sr. District Fellowship Penson Temple COGIC 8608 S. Summit Ave. Chicago, IL Elder Michael Hill, Host MONDAY, MARCH 9 TH 7:30 PM State Fellowship Meeting 6:30 PM Women s Institute The Power of Liberty Temple Church of God in Christ 5230 S. Halsted Street Chicago, IL Admin. Asst. Robert East, Host TUESDAY, MARCH 10 TH 7:00 PM Leadership Everybody s Bible Institute 5958 s. Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL Pastor Richardson will be the Speaker SATURDAY, MARCH 14 TH 12:00 NOON State Ministers Wives Alliance The Hancock House South Emerald Ave. Chicago, IL MARCH 16 TH MARCH 20 TH Jurisdictional Workers Meeting (See Page 6 for more information) MONDAY, MARCH 23 RD 7:00 PM Jurisdictional Pickens Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ 5659 S. Union Ave. Chicago IL st Admin. Asst. Supt. Van Wells, Host SUNDAY, MARCH 29 TH SUNDAY, MARCH 29TH 4:00 PM Annual Women s Day The Greater Love Church of God in Christ 1612 S. Hamlin Chicago, IL (Our ladies of Emanuel will be attending) 2 nd - Sis. Guadalupe Owens 10 th Sis. Jennifer Gipson 11th - Europe Hudson 14th - Sis. Taschaunda Hall Are you in need of a job? Do you need help creating a resume? Don t know where to turn? Sister Antoinitta Tamika Hall is willing, ready and prepared to HELP anyone in need. Available jobs will be posted in the vestibule. Please see her for more information.