Pastor & Sister Watts
Pastor's family
There is only One God, Choose who you will serve! "God or Man Deut. 6:4 / Eph. 4:5 *******************************************************************
Fellowship
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My Blog:
“Let me see what you see,” I said as I drove home from the
office last week; “Let me see through your eyes Lord, what you see. Let me feel what you feel, as you walk and
ride beside me each day,” this was my thoughts.
I could barely make it into the driveway, open the garage
door, or even pull the car inside, before the door barely closed, before I
found myself weeping so hard for what seemed like a sea of lost souls. Do I think I am better than others? No, by far I am no better than anyone; but, I
am humbled to think that the God of the entire universe would take the time to
even impede upon me His spiritual insight, such as He did on that day last
week. I have pondered upon the incident
and longed to feel His spirit such as He shined upon me on that day and it is
my heart’s desire and daily prayer that I may see more clearly His purpose for
my life and not becoming self serving as the world has become and many within
it.
We have to remember, I keep reminding myself or perhaps God
reminds me, because how can any of us ever move forward if we don’t look
back? God, He makes promises and in
remembering we see the truth, because He keeps promises, even when others may
let us down.
The New Year has been a complete reminder and a time to
ponder over how, why and what if and sometimes it all seems so
overwhelming. So, when I think of whom I
am not, I am reminded that I may at times forget who He has always been; He is
all power, faithful and is able to do exceedingly above and beyond all. So, as I reflect over the hard, sad, low
times and the smooth, joyous and the brighter times throughout the past year, I
can see God’s faithfulness in each of these and it makes it possible for me to
move forward continuing to follow the path of Jesus.
As I found myself pondering, I lay prostrate, crying and
praying before the one and only true God of the universe, Jesus Christ our Lord
and savior, in gratitude for all that He has done. He was speaking in a small still voice and
reminding me that He is with me always.
He reminded me that He has not left me nor will He leave me as long as I
am near to Him; even when I may have strayed sometime throughout the years, He
waited patiently for me to return unto Him.
For this you see, is why He has told me, “It is your job to share with
others what I have done for you.”
There are some things I cannot change and only God can
intervene; yet the Bible is truth and He has said in His word that if we cast
our every care upon Him, He will see us through. If I hold to His hands, live like He
commands, I know the Lord will fix it for me.
There will still be days that the dark clouds of doubt will loom, but if
we continue to trust Him, seek Him and put all of our faith in Him and obey His
word He will carry us each and every step of the way. It is only our “reasonable service” to live
according to His words, not upon our own nature, but by the nature of God. After all, if we don’t want to live Godly,
what makes us think we have a “right” to live eternally with Him? None of us have a “right” and when we do not
accept the only salvation plan or backslid from it, it is as if we are crucifying
God all over again. Too great a price
has been paid for my salvation for me to turn back now!
Please continue to keep our family and church in prayer, as
we do for the many souls that are searching for truth; many who don’t even know
they are.
~Sis. Watts
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The Apostolic Voice from the Wilderness
Newsletter
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The Apostolic Voice from the Wilderness
Newsletter
Our Little One bedroom Apartment
True reflection by, Pastor
Watts
When
Sister Watts and I got married I was making $5.00 per hour working for Fresno
Dealer services running cars back in forth for a new car dealerships, mostly
Mazda’s and Datsun’s, before they changed to Nissan. I remember when I drove
the new 1981 Datsun 280z and I would cruise down Blackstone making my way
to the dealership, crank the stereo, role down the windows and I dreamed that
it was ours, but the day would end and I would climb back in my1968 little Blue
Toyota Corolla, with no Air-conditioning for the commute home.
In 1981
the year Mama (she is my wife, but I will just call her Mama) and I got married
the economy was worse then, than it is now; Inflation was 10.1 % compared with
today only 3% inflation rate, so the dollar did not stretch as far as it does
now. Times may get worse, but remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24
paraphrasing a few scriptures together: “Be not troubled these things must come
to pass but the end is not yet.” How many a roller coaster of life we
must go on before the end comes no man can tell, but my advice is to buckle up
and ride with Jesus and you will be alright.
In 1981
Gas had gone from 55 cents a gallon to $1.38 a gallon that year; sound familiar
with what we are experiencing today. Food prices increased to: a dozen eggs
went from 50 cents a dozen to over 90 cents, then finally topping a dollar with
today’s prices it does not sound like much, but remember I was only making 5.00
dollars an hour and inflation was 10%
I remember
counting Pennies and handing them to the Gas station attendant for a couple of
dollars of gas to get to work. I also remember running out of gas and pushing
the car quite a bit, which is why Mama is always looking at the gas gage
and starts to panic when it gets below the last line! But, we use to
drive every day on the last line while praying we would make it.
Our rent
started out at $335.00 per month for a 2 bedroom apartment at Monterey Pines
with a club house and weight room. (Oh My! did not we think we were Hoity
Toity). There was no lease, so the second month they raised the rent 50 dollars
because of the times to $385.00 per month. With the 50 dollar increase we
could not afford the rent with all our other bills, so we moved to a one
bedroom apartment for only $275 per month. If I could show you the
difference in areas and apartments you would understand how Life and the truths
it brings set in fast.
When
I look back to that move I can see the hand of God preparing his visitation
into our lives. The world would say it was a set back so soon into our
marriage; we were still newlyweds and to be honest with you I realized my first
lesson of having to depend on others for help and accepting it with
thankfulness and gratitude.
If it had not been for my Mother and father in-law’s help we would not
have got into our little one bedroom apartment when we needed to, but with so
many things in life, even in our relationship with our heavenly father, I had
to ask for help. “You have not because you ask not,“ When you don’t ask it does
not make one stronger, but weaker; it is telling the Lord you have no need for
his provisions or you don’t like his method of delivery. God was so good to us
even before we knew him in his fullness.
I know we
did not live through the depression like our Grandparents and Great parents
did, but those were hard times for us financially.
It reminds
me of a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone,
except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told
her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I will marry you.”
One day,
someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able
to see everything, including her boyfriend.
He asked
her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” The girl looked at
her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids
shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at
them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.
Her
boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: “Take good
care of your eyes, my dear; for before they were yours, they were mine.”
This is
how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few
remember what life was like before and who was always by their side in the most
painful situations.
Life Is a
Gift and we were thankful for our little one bedroom apartment, for it is was
here that the Truth was witnessed to us for the first time. In 1981 as
the world was facing troubled times and uncertainty was in the air, we sat
around our used hand me down kitchen table with the loose seat pad and we broke
bread and our best friend shared with us the word of God.
Our little
one bedroom apartment, it was here we spent the first night coming home from
Church full of the Holy Ghost, both of us speaking in other tongues and going
to bed that night praying together.
Our little
one bedroom Apartment, I remember as if it were yesterday sitting with our
brother and sister, from the church as they taught us a home bible study. I
remember coming home after we were baptized in Jesus name and the joy that
would light up our little one bedroom apartment.
The
fellowship, as several of us would cram into our little one bedroom apartment
to fellowship after church.
It was
this closet of our little one bedroom apartment that we cleaned out and change
our apparel, when Jesus gave us the revelation of Holiness, there is no reason
for us to fill it again with Worldliness, no mater what some may be doing today. Those that are changing the old
paths probably never had a little one bedroom apartment or if they did, they
are not allowing God to bring them back through Prayer to remember. I say thank
you Jesus, for your mercy and grace to allow me to remember our little one
bedroom apartment in prayer this morning.
It was
here in our one bedroom apartment that we
removed our Television from
our home never to see it
return; why should we bring it back? Should we, just because our home has
gotten bigger?
It was
here my love grew stronger for my wife, the love that would bring us through
the hard times and the difficult times, but trust me the good times have out
weighed the bad times. If I had it to do all over again I would marry the same
woman and move into our little one bedroom apartment.
To finish
on a lighter note it was here in our little one bedroom apartment that when our
power bill was too high to run the Air at night, we opened our bedroom window
and placed a fan in the window sill, to hopefully allow some air to blow in;
instead, we woke up soaked with water, the bed and all! We realized the
sprinkler out side in the flower beds was aimed at our window. We laughed so
hard.
Oh, those
were good days in our little one bedroom apartment.
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Acts 2:38 (King James Version)
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Acts 19:2-6 (King James Version)
He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
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