January 25 - Bringing Sin to the Light 


     Fellowship is the place of light. This is why fellowship is a place of testing. The closer the fellowship, the brighter the light, until you come to the place where there are no hidden corners. There are no shadows; nothing is swept under the rug, nothing is covered up. It can be a frightening place for the natural man. But it is the only place where the blood of Jesus fully fulfills its function of cleansing. If you desire cleansing, it comes in the light. If you are in any way wrong before God, or wrong with your neighbor, you are not fully in the light. And the blood will never be applied except in the light.

     What do you have to do? Come to the light. What is “coming to the light”? Confessing your sins, acknowledging them openly before God. Now, that is the hardest thing for natural man to do. The light seems so bright. You may think, Oh, I couldn’t bring that terrible thing, that awful memory, that guilty secret; I couldn’t expose it to the light. The natural man shrinks from it. But the truth is that when it gets to the light, it disappears because, then, the blood cleanses it. But if you do not bring it to the light, you keep it. This is a tremendous principle. The blood operates only in the light.
 
     Supposing that we have met the condition of walking in the light. If this is the case, then we are in fellowship with our fellow believers, and we have the right to make this our testimony.


Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. I proclaim now that I bring to the light any awful memories or hidden sins (state them here), and I expose them to the light of Jesus and the cleansing of His blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, continually cleanses me from all sin. Amen.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.and his outstanding contribution to our society on so many fronts. I challenge you to listen to his last Sunday Sermon before he was so tragically taken from us by an assassin's bullet.

He fought against racism, hatred, bigotry, poverty and so much more. Listen to this message and how these themes and vision are shared to congregation. Then I challenge you to take up his cross and help us all to continue the fight and let true freedom ring.

A Christmas message for the whole CGMF family and our friends in Christ. God richly bless you this Christmas morning. 

Merry Christmas,
Reverend Patrick Vossen, Founding Pastor

We have started our new yearly lectionary series of messages dedicated through 2020-2021. The message is entitled" Biased Love " which comes from the book of Genesis talking about Joseph and his family. This teaching deals with the many challenges of family and considerations concerning relationships in the Body of Christ.

This powerful message from our founding Pastor has been made available for you. A week ago he ministered this message via Google Meet to all our Shepherd Leaders, and various Shepherd Neighborhood Groups in our monthly Virtual Gathering ( Covid Inspired, LOL ). It was a very timely word.

We were considering a more radical change to our website, but after a lot of thought went into it. We found one that works best for uniformity and professionality. Let us know what you think about it? Until we figure out the best way to organize our ministry archive page we've had for ten years. Well, we are just going to have to be a little patient. LOL.

Grace to the CGMF family and our ministry friends.


Jan Welch
Spiritual Administrative Coordinator

We have decided because of redundancy that we will be removing the News and Ministry Special Features from the website. Why? For it seems 90% of it is already posted within the Ministry Blog Posts. That being the case, we will be doing away with that page altogether. A Special Events or Special Notice section might be forthcoming. However, for now we are going to be removing that page from the website. Please check out the Ministry Blog concerning any dates, times or meetings that have changed, or ministry news. You will find it here.

Reverend Vossen shares his final lesson from this past year's lectionary series. Trust you will find the message to be of great value in your Christian Walk.

I have had this book in my Logos library for awhile, but have until now not had the time to read it. It's is an excellent read and one that is practical and inciteful. 

Whether pastoring in CT. at FCF or here at Covenant we have had a special place for intercessory prayer within the fabric of all we do. When we have Gathering meetings we have some folks who are just intercessors during the service praying for all that is going on and the anointing and will of God in the service. This book is a nice introductory work to understand intercessory prayer, or to have a prayer soaked or saturated church. I highly recommend it to the Body ( I am going to require it for our Shepherd Leaders to read ).

Blessings to all this fine Sunday morning. 

Reverend Patrick Vossen, Founding Pastor

PS. Here is an excerpt from the book.

THE ROLE OF THE PASTOR’S INTERCESSORS
Problems sometimes arise between pastors and intercessors simply because the role of those serving on the intercessory prayer team has not been clearly defined. The following guidelines will help define the personal intercessor’s role:

Pray daily if possible.

The intercessor should be faithful to pray for the pastor on a regular basis. However, intercessors should not be under bondage or fall into condemnation when they’re unable to pray. The length of time each intercessor on the team can spend in prayer will vary greatly depending upon his schedule, circumstances, and gifting.

Pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.

Many intercessors find they pray for one particular area of their pastor’s life more than other areas. For instance, some intercessors feel inclined to pray mainly for the leader’s spouse or children, others for some particular aspect of the leader’s life, such as integrity and moral purity. Feel free to pray whatever the Holy Spirit directs you to pray.

Pray—don’t counsel.

Intercessors need to resist the urge to counsel the pastor or give direction to the ministry. God, however, does often reveal His plans to those who pray. If you receive a Scripture or prophetic word for your pastor in prayer, ask the Lord if you are to share it with your pastor or just pray about it. Ask the pastor or prayer coordinator what the best way is to pass on information of this nature. Unless it is an urgent matter, one suggestion is to drop your pastor a note.

Avoid expecting pastors to pray for you personally.

It’s the pastor’s responsibility to faithfully pray for his prayer team, although he cannot make the same commitment in prayer to his personal intercessors as they make to him. It, therefore, is not appropriate for an intercessor to ask the pastor to pray over his prayer requests, except for critical requests.

Never talk about or entertain anyone who talks about your pastor or his family.

Set the example. Never repeat anything your pastor asks you to pray about. If you’re uncertain about the confidentiality of the request, ask for permission to share the request with others. Prayer team members who speak critically about the pastor or the pastor’s family or share confidential information have ruined prayer ministries and brought pastors much pain.

Expect intercession to be a sacrifice of love.

If you expect to receive special recognition from the pastor, you may be greatly disappointed. Let your prayers be a sacrifice of love, and the Lord will reward you.
Stand in the gap.

The Enemy is looking to attack the leader in a place of weakness. The intercessor’s role is to stand in the gap where the wall of protection is crumbling. Ask the Lord to rebuild vulnerable places in the leader’s life. Be on guard that if you do not understand your role, you may become disillusioned, disappointed, and even critical of the leader.

Don’t be an overcommitted intercessor.

Agree to serve as a personal intercessor only if you are directed of the Lord and have enough time to pray adequately for that pastor or ministry leader. Some intercessors say they pray for ten, fifteen, or even more ministries a day. This may be true. However, to commit to that many ministry leaders as a personal intercessor would take more time than most people have.

Be patient for pastors to reveal personal requests or needs.
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Pastors are under no obligation to share prayer requests until a trust relationship is built.