Wednesday, January 31, 2007

One can never say thank you enough. As I drive to work each day a church sign reads "Give without remembering and take without forgetting." I like this sign and hope that I remember to do just that in all things.

Thank you for your prayers for Fred. We believe in the power of prayer and today was a testament to that belief.

He went for outpatient surgeries. Yes, surgeries, one for a cyst in his right hand that had grown into a vein. This sounded very scary as the doctor had described stripping away the vein during a visit to his office. Fear tried to grab hold, but deep down we knew we had to believe. The second was for an inguinal hernia. This was part of Fred's stubborn attitude that he is always fine, he had to give in and allow it to be repaired. Our primary physician was disbelieving that Fred would want two surgeries in the same day and added more tests from a heart specialist possibly delaying or canceling the operations due to Fred's "advanced age". We still believed and prayers were being said, this would be fine. The heart specialist could find nothing that would present a problem for Fred to undergo his surgeries, so it was on for Tuesday.

We arrived on time and were told to sit in the waiting area until he was called. This was delayed by about 20 minutes but he was told to don his hospital gown and be careful of the open back. The nurse was thorough in all her instructions and an IV was attempted twice. She gave up and said she would get someone else to attempt a third try. Fred and I said prayer asking God to bless these nurses in all they did, to bless their day with excellence. The next nurse came in and in less than a minute the IV was in place. I knew this was normal procedure and all was in order, but ultimately, Fred had to wait four hours before they came to take him to the waiting area of the surgical area. In this four hours he was started on his second IV. I thought this was a very good thing, as Fred had been advised he was slightly dehydrated when he had received a SCIO treatment the day before from Brenda. A second IV bag of fluids could do nothing but benefit Fred. During the four hours we watched some TV, listened to praise music from Lakewood Church interspersed with a meditation tune here and there. Even TBS was airing his all time favorite movie "The Fifth Element", this was a calm and peaceful morning with all of his favorites things except for coffee, bread and jelly.

At 1:30 PM his surgeon for his hand came out to tell me Fred's surgery was excellent, the cyst was smaller than he had originally visualized and had to remove a very small portion of the vein. He stated he could foresee no problems in recovery and that the remaining surgery was going well. At 3:20 PM the second surgeon appeared in the waiting room and advised me Fred was doing fine, but would probably have a lot of pain since he repaired one big ugly hernia.

All in all, Fred did extremely well, which any day in surgery is a blessing. We did not realize how well until he was in the final stage of the recovery prior to being discharged. His nurse apologized for the process taking all day only due to every other outpatient surgery having some type of complication. Fred had been their easiest surgery patient the entire day. As we drove home Fred told me the last thing he remembered prior to his surgery was saying the Prayer of Protection. The light of God surrounds us, the love of God enjolds us, the power of God protects us, the presence of God watches over us, the health of God flows through us, wherever we are God is . . . and all is well. We say "Thank You God", we shall never forget this blessing. We say thank you for all your prayers because without them things just might not have gone so well. We know and appreciate the power of prayer and their blessings.

The title of this past Sunday's Sermon was "Ex Fide Fortis" which means from faith come strength. Fred only shares the title of his talks with me prior to Sundays. I hear them the same time that everyone else hears them. This past Sunday, when he spoke of Peter getting out of the boat and actually walking on the water to Jesus and then becoming fearful, I knew I had experienced this recently at my work. I know I am fine with my friends from church, my friends at home, but work is a place of choppy waters, and people unaware of the power of faith. After centering myself and recognizing the divine presence that is in all of us, I could handle it much better and things went smoothly for the rest of the week.

The universe always provides, we just have to be on the lookout for those provisions. As a student of the "72 Names of God" by Yehuda Berg I was provided with not just one name of God this week, as is normal. Yehuda provided three names of God: ayin lamed mem "eliminating negative thoughts", mem hey shin "healing", and kaf hey tav "defusing negative energy and stress". Just what I needed at the exact moment.

Thank you God for our faith. Thank you God for our blessings of health, friends and love for one another. Thank God. Amen.

Blessings,

Fred and Kat >^. .^<

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

1 Thess. 5:17, Pray without ceasing

The demands of every day existence tend to occupy most of our thoughts during the hours we are awake. Other thoughts on how God is Spirit and we are Spiritual, generally are but fleeting thoughts during the day.

Webster’s dictionary tells us, anything that is dynamic is active.

One of the Great lessons we can learn is that true prayer is creative-active-forceful. Things definitely occur. How many times have we said, “Let just us pray about it?”

Just implies that since we think nothing really can be done, we'll just throw it out to the universe and hope that God will do something.
First of all you can not just throw your items out into the universe, because nothing is for free. The hole you created must be filled with something---praise-prayer-signs of gratitude.
Prayer does not consist of mimicking programmed words and “Just Hoping” for any desired results.

Jesus the Christ often clearly outlined a method for us to follow in obtaining certain goals in our lives. He gave us methodical instructions on how to pray in Matthew Chap. 6, and I see nothing that implies that we just pray in some indifferent manner and then hope for the best results.

Prayer is communion with God, when we commune with God we place ourselves in the great stream of creative life that will bring all the wisdom, love, understanding to solve any of life’s problems. Instead of telling God how big our problems are, tell the problem how great our God is! Through positive prayer you can do just that! Changing your consciousness thereby changing your very situation.

We do not need to wait until some crisis comes into our lives to concentrate on our praying…..Start NOW! A whole new confidence and enthusiasm for living a positive life will be born in the depths of your consciousness. You will build up a prayer reserve that will give you strength in times of challenge. Matthew 6:20-21 “lay up treasures in heaven where your treasures are, your heart will be”

Blessings,

Fred & Kat >^. .^<>

New Day Unity Fellowship
Practical Christianity for Positive Living

January 17, 2007
1 John 5:4 “for everyone born of God overcomes the world”
As a child of God we have the power within us to overcome all the adversity of our daily world. To do so we only need to praise God everyday in some way, such a simple thing as just a pause to say thank you God. Sing out that praise and build up a reserve in your consciousness, there is strength in reserves, for strength is our support for faith, and it is this faith, this rock, that carries us through the challenges to overcome the world. That includes everything in the world, and everything the world brings your way…..after all He of this world is far greater then anything of this world. Isn’t it high time we recognize that and show our faith, by instead of stating God can you do! Start praising God with you can do!


After Addison Phillips gave a reading from The Nature of God out of the Keys to the Kingdom this past Sunday, Gary Littleton addressed the fellowship with an uplifting testimonial. Traveling along with Gary’s narrative of his life journey, one could not help find the journey to be full of truth lessons. His awareness of these truths became a reality before they were labeled by Unity or any form of spiritual institution. His determination to overcome the world was the inspiration for me to quote 1 John this week. What impressed me the most was his genuine humble courage at baring his soul for the first time to this Fellowship. Truly, I say his testimonial stands as a lighthouse beacon for all when who come up against those trying to put inferior blocks in the way of their journey. Thank you—Gary and Addison.

Our thanks to God for Sondra and Louis, who as of this writing are aiding in the continuing development of the Bi-lingual side of New Day Unity Fellowship. They are currently in negotiations with a nursing home to offer our hand of friendship weekly to their Latin residents who so desire prayer, the Daily Word read to them, simple memorial services or hear the word of Practical Christianity for Positive Living.

You may not really know where your tax dollar is going, but, here at the New Day Unity Fellowship your donations continue to go to provide school supplies for underprivileged children, soft cuddly bears of comfort for the children’s hospital, police and fire dept to hand out to a traumatized child and to further the ministry of New Day Unity such as providing La Palabra Dia in the nursing homes.

To all of you who have made donations to New Day Unity Fellowship to date, we thank you from the deepest chamber of our hearts.

If you would like to assist with the continued good deeds of this ministry please send any amount from your heart to the New Day Unity Fellowship, P.O. Box 891, Odessa Fla. 33556.

We affirm wonderful things in your future, with God all things are possible. No doubts, no worries, only great plans for a wonderful life.

Blessings,

Fred & Kat Join us for our encouraging service this weekend at New Day Unity Fellowship. Enjoy an inspiring time of worship, prayer, and a message from the Bible. Remember to invite your family, friends, and neighbors to come with you.
Services held at 3109 Lutz Lake Fern Road at 10:00 AM Sharp!

Wednesday message compliments of

New Day Unity Fellowship
Practical Christianity for Positive Living

January 10, 2007

Do not cast Away your confidence for it will be richly rewarded, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise, Hebrews 10:35-36

If you remain open and receptive, God is constantly planting new seeds of inspiration inside you, inspiration for enlarging your vision of obtaining new levels. Before your dreams come to pass, you have got to look through your eyes of faith and see those dreams, Dreams filled with blessings and victory over old ways, coming into their own.

So it is happening with this fellowship!

What a wonderful change has come about since that very first talk on Oct. 1st when eleven people in attendance sang a song from a scratchy boom box and listened to a message being delivered from behind an old music stand (that stand remains).

As you read this, The New Day Unity Fellowship, Inc. has been functioning for 102 days. To this blessing we can only thank God for the guidance to your board and Susan as head of the finance department.

Feb 4th at the fellowship meeting we will officially vote on the logo of this fellowship, so far we have one entry. All those that would like to submit an design must meet the following criteria:
1. The drawing must be able to be reduced to business card- business envelope size while maintaining the integrity of your design.
2. Consist of no more than three colors.
3. Must reflect an image proclaiming the New Day Unity Fellowship
4. Must be original
5. Can not contain any copyright wings, emblems nor the specific color combinations of any organization
6. You must sign a statement affirming your drawing, if accepted, will become a part of/ or the registered trademark of New Day Unity Fellowship, Inc. and you relinquish all rights and claims to the design.
7. All submissions must be complete and to the fellowship not later then Jan 28th .

Each weekend we see another new face or two or hear of some inquires into the foundation of New Day Unity Fellowship by truth seekers. Our policy is simple, give us a try, we are here to “feed you—not brow beat you”. Our message is simple, “Practical Christianity for Positive Living” The greeter Sandra and all of our membership will welcome you and make you feel right at home.

The web site www.newdayunityfellowship.com is improving rapidly due to the dedication of a couple of our members, and the head of our Chaplain’s Dept. Dianne. People will be able to find us and get an impression of who we are and what we stand for. Your privacy will be respected and information will never be intentionally shared with any outside organization.

Our Wednesday Message will continue to be shared with all those requesting it through newdayunity@aol.com. We encourage you to read it and pass it along to interested parties regardless of the state or area, we now transmit to several states and another country. This blog will contain timely information about what the fellowship is up to, any special request for prayer and the reception site of any comments and or spiritual contributions anyone would like to make. All financial contributions are graciously accepted at New Day Unity Fellowship, Post Office Box 891, Odessa, Fla. 33556 and will be acknowledge by the fellowship’s finance committee.

In addition to having established a prayer tree among the chaplains we are asking all members of the fellowship to pause at noon and six and simply send out a very short prayer of gratitude for and for the continued guidance with the growth of New Day Unity Fellowship.

Construction is due to start this week on an office for the growing bi-lingual ministry of The New Day Unity Fellowship Inc. Chaplain Luis is spreading the word of “Practical Christianity for Positive Living” in places like Plant City, Lakeland, Sarasota, St Pete and Arcadia.

With the increased family interest of New Day Unity Fellowship, we are in negotiations for space to hold the Children’s Ministry at our present location. I know without a doubt that once this space in the universe is created for our children, a teacher will appear to guide them.

Some in the spiritual neighborhood were surprised how fast we got things done, organized and legally into operation; they just knew we had planned things out months in advance. Not hardly. We did not spend time talking about an unfavorable situation, rather we came together in prayer and then took a step as we were directed……it was as simple as that!

Nothing could be more erroneously stated. Truth be known we did not even know where we were to establish, who was really coming to this fellowship or for that matter who would step up to the reins prior to October 1, 2006. We just Fully Relied On God (FROG). The positive minded managers, leaders and members came into the picture in a timely method and are still coming. Our arms are held out, palms open, in friendly gesture to any who see the beacon of light burning in the storm.

The infectious love and enthusiasm for the growth of this fellowship is hard to ignore. Your talents are appreciated, anticipated and we will find a place for all those who wish to step up to the plate to add to the growth of this fellowship. This is your fellowship, and “we are here to do good for others, what the others are here for, I do not know”. I am not certain just where I read that but it has always stuck with me and it just became evident as I review the first 100 days of this fellowship.

This fellowship steps right up to do the best they can for the good of all the others whether it is stuffed bears or school supplies for children, cards of reassurance to those we know need a little boost or jumping in to help a person out. This past weekend for instance when we had key items of the service strung between a half dozen locations, was there any panic? Not a drop! We took what we had and went on with our belief system; actually it was more than that very first day and just the music stand, thank you all, bless you.

Finally, to clarify a couple of points about my leadership position you have bestowed upon me….to those that were in the military this will sound familiar, but, then leadership principles are the same from Alexander the great to now…..I make no pretenses of what I am not! I came screaming and kicking into this position all the way. I made the choice to forego my final LUT (Licensed Unity Teacher) testing in Children’s Ministry from Unity Village for the role asked of me for this fellowship. I did not receive any inner peace until I said OK LORD I will do it! Your will be done. Matthew 26:42

Having been here before, and knowing full well what all this could contain, I take this honor of leadership very seriously, enjoy the opportunity and I am getting more comfortable in the role. However, I realize fully that at any time the board wishes me to step down, I will comply.

To me titles are not the measurement of the substance of people, for every person or job in this fellowship is just as valuable and worthy as any other person or job. But, job titles designate to those in need of a place to turn, they are like a sign post, or establish credibility. I have said repeatedly you can call me Fred, Frog, Freddie, Frederica, I do not care. It is the message I deliver, my actions for the fellowship that one should consider me by, not the title those of the spiritual society are persistent in categorizing me.

Pastor to me only means to shepherd, to guard, to feed, to guide, to direct, to take care of; to be responsible for---similar duties of an sergeant which I was for more years then I’d like to recall.

Jesus the Christ is reported as stating, “Anyone wanting to be a leader among men first must be the servant, If you chose to lead you must serve”. In the army I learned it this way, “do not ask of your men what you are not willing to do yourself.” Notice neither said I must be perfect, be the greatest, it only states to be willing. This, my friends is the total sum of my leadership talent.

My actions are to willingly set aside my personal wants and needs to serve this fellowship.
My duty with this fellowship is to insure we have a quality message each week that reaches out to all the people of this fellowship not just a 10% of the people.
My overall purpose is to keep us within the parameters of a quality vision reaching beyond just a small group.
My realization is to reach this vision I must delegate responsibility and allow each of those who step up to utilize those talents they have freely volunteered; as long as it is for the good of the fellowship.

To each volunteer I remind that everyone wants to change the world, but, none want to change themselves, you must realize that the only person you can change is yourself, so who do you serve?
My goal is to train and encourage new leaders to come forth and continue this fellowship.
My objective is to establish a New Day Unity Fellowship. One that will expand the truth in all directions and last long after everyone has gone through transition.

Though I do not believe in using polls to dictate the needs of the people, I would welcome any feedback you may have over the first 100 days we have been in operation as a guideline to meet the needs of the people. Any suggestions or ideas of direction you would like to see us go may be sent to this e-mail address newdayunity@aol.com Attn: Fred. I give you my personal guarantee I will take your suggestions into review and/or place them before the board. If you have an uplifting story to share I would enjoy those as well.

My sincere appreciation, love, loyalty, dedication and blessings are extended to each of you who has inquired about or supported the growth of New Day Unity Fellowship.

Blessings,
fred

New Day Unity Fellowship P.O. Box 891 Odessa, FL 33556 (813) 500-3623
Join us for our encouraging service this weekend at New Day Unity Fellowship. Enjoy an inspiring time of worship, prayer, and a message from the Bible. Remember to invite your family, friends, and neighbors to come with you.
Services held at 3109 Lutz Lake Fern Road at 10:00 AM Sharp! If you would like to receive our weekly email message please send an e-mail to NewDayUnity@aol.com with Subscribe in the subject line. We bless you. We love you.
We recognize the Christ within you. God Blesses You!!!!

January 3, 2007

R.W. Emerson once wrote “man looks forward with smiles, but backward with sighs”

2007 is now upon us and over the past few days I know there are times when we yearn for the days past, the good ole days, actually these days we are going through now will be the good ole days in a few months, any way, the days of, if nothing had just changed. If they had just remained so-so, if only! If only! If only!

Oh how safe. Settled we were. Robotically going to church on a non athletic Sundays, if we thought about it! Keeping the social blinders in place so we just pulled our life carriage straight between the prescribed lines and not really questioning the path we are on, almost as if we were doing a by the numbers painting. We just do the numbers of the paint and know it will come out beautiful according to someone’s standards.

Well to put it bluntly, Get over it! 2006 is over, and here we go into 2007 and it is going to be a ride!

2 Corinthians 6 tells us: “We, as workers together with Him will not receive grace in vain”

So it is with a lump in our throats, a tightness in our chest, with butterflies in the stomach we begin to Fully Rely On God and think where we are going in 2007. All of us. Together! We will see the formation of the Women’s ministry, organization of our Children’s ministry, continued improvement of our temporary sanctuary and elaboration of the praise ministry.

James Dillet Freeman said it far more eloquently then I in his poem from his book What God Is Like:



One Step More


A hill is not too hard to climb
Taken one step at a time.

One step is not too much to take;
One try is not too much to make.

One step, one try, one song, one smile
Will shortly stretch into a mile.

And everything worthwhile was done
By small steps taken one by one.

To reach the goal you started for,
Take one step more, take one step more!


In the book of Isaiah, 43:18-19
“remember not the former things nor consider the things of old for behold I will do a new thing it shall spring forth. I will even make a way in the wilderness---clearing undisciplined thoughts----and rivers in the desert----overcoming man’s impressions of lack.”

Is it any wonder that 2007 to the New Day Unity Fellowship means more than just another year? We will continue to provide an even brighter beacon in the fog to those side tracked, lost, wandering from the home of the heart they once knew. We must recognize the difficulties in life are there for a beneficial reason. In Indian lore one must walk a mile in their shoes. NOW is the time for all of us, you, I, all of us, to go that extra mile. Remember that the only mile that counts is the extra mile. Let us extend our interfaith arms openly in a sincere welcome so that any may feel sheltered among friends, nourished from the bread of God and loved at the New Day Unity Fellowship.

Got a personal idea for 2007? Step out on the edge of your comfort zone, it is time to enlarge your vision, see yourself getting that promotion, your family prospering, your marriage improving, 2007 can be the greatest time of your life….you must vision it in your mind and believe it is possible with His help IF you ever hope to experience what ever it is you so desire.

Over the next few weeks invite friends and people you know who are just setting out there wanting something but, not knowing where to go, invite them to experience New Day Unity Fellowship. We are here to feed you not beat you!

Happy New Year!

Blessings,

Fred & Kat >^. .^<



Join us 10am Sunday Jan 7th as Fred will present The Dash



Don't forget to visit to our website:



http://www.newdayunityfellowship.org
or
http://www.newdayunityfellowship.com