2011 WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION

Sunday - September 18, 2011

Theme: Women United By the Love of Christ

The final day of celebrating and rejoicing this years Women’s Day was Sunday morning service and it began with devotion and praise by the Women’s Day choir. The Mistress of Ceremonies for the program was Sis. Metia Floyd. Greetings were given by Sis. Mary Watkins and the call to worship by Sis. Constance Thomason. Responsive Reading was done by Sis. Renay Stroud and prayer by Sis. Edwina Perrin. Sis Charlesina Yeargin gave the congregation the purpose and history of why we celebrate Women’s Day and the speaker of the hour was introduced by Sis. Tracey Black.

Minister Elizabeth Seawright of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Simpsonville, SC opened her message with scripture from Psalm 20. Her topic was “Prayer Changes Things - Hang On, Help Is on the Way”. She began by telling the congregation that NOW is the time to worship in spirit and in truth. She said that we just can’t talk about being saved, but we must trust in God and acknowledge Him so that He will direct our paths. We must also pray for those in authority, especially our President. We need to pray that God gives him wisdom. There is a spirit of hate that is dividing our people. We need to pray for our pastor and all pastors in other churches. We know that we can not make changes, but we do know that prayer can change a lot of things.

“For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you” (Isaiah 64:3) KJNIV

Minister Seawright said that we need to stand in the truth and continue to pray. If the sisters in the church want the ministries to grow, we need to pray in unity for our leaders. God wants us to fall on our knees and pray. If we want to move in the spirit and vein of God, we need to pray more. In Psalm 20, the scripture tells us that the men came together to pray for their king. Some of us who are Christians thought that once we were saved, everything would be all right. But being saved is a process! God wants us to know that in our weakness, He is made strong. It is time to put on the whole armor of God, so that you can be a warrior for God because we are in the midst of a battle.

Minister Seawright stated that we are depressed, discouraged and disgusted. She told the congregation that when we are praying, we need to do more than just cry. We need to declare the word of God over ourselves and say “May the Lord answer me in time of trouble”. We need to know that God delivers us out of all our troubles! Christ died so that we can have a relationship with God. God is trying to draw us out to a place in Him. His salvation is enough. He will remember how you cried all night long and how you had to minister to someone else. So instead of complaining about situations in your life - learn how to pray! God will allow you to get to the place where you will have no other recourse but to call on Him. This enables Him to do His work on the plan that he has for you. He will hide you in a time of trouble.

We are God’s anointed. He has plans for us. We need to declare the Word of God over ourselves! And when we come to the end of ourselves, we have to let go and let God have His way in our lives. We must ask God for exactly what we want. We don’t have to depend on our own resources, when we have God; there is power, healing, deliverance and love in the name of the Lord.

“Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6, 7) KJNIV

Mary Sexton