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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
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True Church Stories - #8

Our Christian Education building here in Tampa has windows that are covered, making the inside of the building rather dark and lit artificially.  The only light that comes in is from the main doors.  (I don't like that, maybe someday it'll change, but for now it's the way it is.)  One day about two years ago I had something to return from the office building to the kitchen (which is located in that building).  I was in a hurry and decided I wouldn't turn any lights on, I would just quickly go, put the item on the counter in the kitchen and leave.  Since I know the building like the back of my hand, I can find my way in the dark.  So, I did.

I walked in the foyer through the dark fellowship hall, into the dark kitchen, and laid the item on the counter and as soon as my hand touched the counter I heard a horrible, guttural voice in the dark, spewing vulgar language.  I won't repeat everything that was said here, of course, but suffice it to say, it was awful.  It began with, "I hate you" and digressed into something worse than  you can imagine.

I am experienced in spiritual warfare and have cast out demons on quite a number of occasions.  I don't have any fear in this regard.  However, I have always been able to "see" exactly what I'm dealing with if that makes sense.  In other words, a person is in front of me that manifests as demon possessed and...we deal with it.  Such was not the case this time.  I was in the pitch dark, in the presence of God only knew what.  (Since then God has dealt with me about trusting Him even in the dark!)

At first I thought, "maybe I'm going crazy and hearing things," but just that quick the voice spoke again.  The hair on the back of my neck stood up.  I was frozen with fear wondering where the voice was coming from.  I didn't want to face this alone.  When it got down to it, I had a fear of the unknown because I was unclear about what I was dealing with.  I slowly backed out of the kitchen, ran through the dark fellowship hall, through the foyer, into the light outside and up to my office as fast as my legs could carry me.  I burst through the office door and yelled to the staff members, "You guys!  I need your help!  There's a demon in the kitchen.  I swear, I'm not crazy...you need to come with me...please believe me..." and our secretary at the time just very nonchalontly kept typing and said, "Oh yeah...I know.  There's is a demon.  I encountered it the other day but just didn't mention it."

"WHAT!!??"  I was incredulous.  Pacing back and forth in the outer office, I tried to wrap my head around this.   "There's a flippin' demon in the kitchen and you said nothing to me about this?  Are you serious?!  This isn't like, 'hey we're low on copier paper', or 'you got a call from the district office,' I mean...this is a freakin' DEMON, for cryin' out loud!!!"    

Calmy she said, "Oops, sorry.  I just forgot to tell you, but actually it's coming from a person who is living underneath the window.  I'll show you...come on..."

We walked down to the building this time staying outside and we snuck around the corner to peek and listen and sure enough there was a person who had taken up residence living underneath the kitchen window.  Their sleeping bag was underneath the window and there they sat...all kinds of voices coming out, spewing out this bitter venom.

Going back inside to the kitchen and listening again it was interesting how with the way this person was sitting under the window and how loud they were talking it indeed sounded just like they were in the kitchen.

I teased the secretary for a long time about forgetting to tell me this, just like I tease my husband about forgetting to tell me about the blind man.  :)  Ha ha!

Many people have asked upon hearing about this story about the final outcome of this story.  Is the person still living under the window?  No.  We can't let people live on our property in this manner, although we do feed and clothe 100+ people a week through our recovery ministry, we unfortunately don't have housing facilities at this time.  Some try to "camp out" at the church but for safety reasons we cannot allow this.   Did we cast the demon out?  This time, unfortunately, no.  I am avoiding preaching and teaching as a part of these stories but since everyone asks about this outcome, I will just say for those who may not know that you have to be very careful when casting out demons, to make sure the person actually wants to be free.   You should never cast demons out without a person surrendering to Jesus and they were not willing .  If the person does not want to be free the Bible says the demons will not only come back, but they come back seven times worse. As hard as it is to see a person in this torment, demons should not be cast out the person is ready to renounce false gods, and fully surrender to Jesus, accepting Him as their Lord and Savior.

Since I'm on the subject of demons, I'll share another story Monday about them...funny, and with a more positive ending!  I am taking a break for tomorrow from church stories and will blog about something else but will be back Monday full force with a whole new group of new church stories!  Stay tuned!

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