For Pastors
  Spending Time
   in the Desert

For Pastor's Wives
  How to Protect Your
  Marriage From Attack

For Pastor's Kids
Music, Media, Art?

For Youth Pastors
  The Truth, the Whole
  Truth, and Nothing
  But the Truth

FINAL WORDS

We'd like to take this opportunity to speak a blessing over your life and ministry. More than anything, we hope and pray that your life be filled with Christ.

As Deborah wrote to the ladies in this issue, we can't do it on our own, if we don't have the Lord carrying the load for us. The ministry the Lord has entrusted to you isn't your ministry; it's His ministry being carried out through your life. Let Him have the responsibility of it, and just be available for Him to use.

As ministers, more than anything, we need the presence of the Lord each and every day of our lives. That's why we're praying and speaking this blessing over your life. We would love to see God's presence so strong in your life that your very presence brings changes in people's lives (we'd like to see the same in our own lives as well).

There are always times in the ministry when we feel we are very much alone. As we all go through the struggles of working in people's lives, we need to feel that very real presence of our Lord, and His Holy Spirit working hand in hand with us.

Never forget that the Lord is with you. Jesus said, "behold, I am with you always" (Mt 28:20). Don't ever forget that. Don't let the pressures of the ministry, the pressures of family, the pressures of life take that central fact out of your memory. For the moment you do, you're fighting on your own. But, since we are yoked together with Him, when we remember that He is with us, we have a sure foundation we can lean on.

We don't want to see you become a statistic. We want to see you overcome and accomplish all that God has called you to accomplish. If there is anything we can do to help make that possible, we are here for you.

Be richly blessed in the Lord.