Rev. Steve

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We have just added Kathy's latest column to her page "Comments By Kathy", and once again Kathy has tapped into the very heart of God to receive a Word that is not only "in season" but one that speaks to the very core of what needs to be spoken in this day and age!

This month's column "Help! I'm In A Tunnel And I Can't Get Out!!!" speaks prophetically to everyone who has ever felt like you were in a situation in your life that you just couldn't get out from. If you have ever felt like you were trapped and there was no way out of your mess, then this month's column is for you!

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Will someone PLEASE tell me what happened to the past 20 years? Where did they all go? How did we get here so fast? Am I dreaming this?

If you want to know what I am talking about, I am talking about how that this year, 2008, marks our 20^th Year in Ministry! That's what! It seems like only yesterday that I was still in the Army serving my second tour with the 82^nd Airborne Division. I had just returned from a six-month deployment to Fort Hood, Texas in 1988. While we were deployed there we participated in an Airborne Operation (Parachuting out of a Military Airplane). It was on this Airborne Op that I had broken my back upon landing too hard upon hitting the earth again. It was sometime after that incident when I had rededicated my life back to the Lord again after running for many years while serving my country in the Armed Forces. And it was shortly after rededicating my life to the Lord that the first call from the Lord came to preach the Gospel. Over and over again the call came, until I finally conceded and said yes to my Lord that I would preach His Word.

From the day I said yes to God, immediately things began to happen supernaturally. Within only three weeks I was standing in a pulpit preaching my first sermon. And it was like that every single week of every single month of every year for the next 16 years until I started losing my health about four years ago. Since then I have not been able to be in full-time ministry like I used to be, but still I have continued to try to preach the Word of the Lord any chance I have gotten. My health has not always cooperated though and sometimes it has been a tough road. But just knowing that this year we celebrate our 20^th Year in Ministry is enough to encourage me to keep on pressing on.

So, as we enter into this 20^th Year, I ask each of you that know us and who have believed in this ministry through the years to please pray for us this year like you have never done before. Something big is coming. I can feel it. Something is about to happen that is going to be one of the most awesome experiences in our ministry, and believe me, that is saying something because we have seen some major moves of God through the years! But I believe that this that is coming is going to be bigger than anything yet! So please pray for us as we pray for all of you, and together we will see mighty things happen!

God Bless!
Steve

Everyone, as we near this yet another Christmas, I want to ask two things of you. First and foremost of course, is to worship, honor and adore your King of Kings and your Lord of Lords, Jesus the Christ, our Messiah, during these days of holiday feasts and family get-togethers. Do not ever forget that we are supposed to be worshipping and celebrating HIM and not us! But secondly this year I want to ask something very special of each of you. I would like to ask that you all remember the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and many others who are fighting in distant lands that others may know the meaning of freedom. While we here in America enjoying our expensive holidays and extravagant holiday parties with family and friends, let us not forget that the reason we get to do so is because some warrior in our past fought for the freedoms that we enjoy today. And if one of those warriors is a part of your family, do a favor for me - will you? Walk up to them during this Christmas holiday and tell them this..."Thank You For Serving Our Great Country And For Making It Possible For Us To Enjoy The Freedom Of Celebrating Christmas Like This!" And if you'll do that for me, you will have given me the best Christmas present possible.

I'll leave you with this awesome poem that was written by an United States Marine. It might not be the politically correct thing to do I guess, since it mentions Santa Claus, but it speaks volumes to the sacrifices that our modern warriors are willing to make in order that the next generation gets to enjoy the same freedoms that we have!

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS, A SOBER THOUGHT
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED
A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO
OF WHOM I 'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT
BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES
AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
"SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE";

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

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This past Sunday morning, November 4th, I was invited to minister for the Sunday morning service at A Place To Worship Church in Chatsworth, Georgia. God gave me great strength to be able to minister the Word. Although afterwards my strength was drained from me completely, I had a wonderful time being able to preach the Word again.

During the service something happened that I just have to tell you about. While the Praise & Worship Team were on stage playing and singing, a little boy climbed up on the stage with them holding a miniature toy guitar and started playing with them! It was one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time! And, he played a mean guitar too! Well, as he was playing his little heart out, all of a sudden Kathy took her camera cell phone out and took a couple pictures of him because she thought he was cute too.

I just had to share this with everyone, just to let everyone know that kids are NEVER too young to start hungering for being used in church services. Never disrespect them. Jesus always taught that if we are to ever become Christ like and understand the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children. Why? Because they are pure in heart! Well, look below at this cute little guy! His name is
ELI STANLEY and he is only 3 Years Old!!! I know his parents are proud of him and maybe by placing this picture on this web site, maybe some day he will become a famous guitar player. Who knows? GOD! That's Who! ;)

After being away from posting anything here on the web site for a long time now, I am thrilled to report to everyone that I'm back!!! After months and months of serious health problems that has prevented me from preaching the Word across the nation like I used to, I'm back! After months of preventing me from even having the strength to come on here and post just some comments, I'm back! God has touched me with a powerful anointing that has set my soul on fire and that has given me the strength to speak to you here today! Oh praise His Holy Name! I am not out of the woods totally yet with my health. There is still a lot wrong with me, but I am believing and expecting that all of that will be healed and gone shortly! Believe that with me! I believe if you will, I WILL receive it and I WILL be able to start back preaching again!

Kathy and myself both received a POWERFUL move of God upon our lives this past Sunday morning that is literally overwhelming us with the presence of God! I won't go into a lot of details about it, but let me say that God truly answered prayer and displayed His love for us and His Word unto us like we haven't experienced in years! Oh what a move of the Spirit of God that we received! After being in a vast wasteland of wilderness experiences one after another for the past four straight years, and after praying and praying hundreds of prayers for God to speak something, ANYTHING, into our lives so that we would know that He was still with us and had not forgotten us, WE RECEIVED IT SUNDAY MORNING!!!!! A Prophetic Word was spoken over us that pierced our hearts with the flaming arrows of God's quill. It was an appointment with Divine Destiny! After counting up all the different factors that went into what happened to us, we had totaled up 14 separate things that had happened! In order to place us in the exact spot where God wanted us, and in order to accomplish His perfect will and in order to speak His perfect Word into our lives, FOURTEEN different things happened to get us there! And any of you that have known me through the years knows how much I have always loved the number 7 in the Bible. And if you know that, you also know how important it is within Scripture when things happen in 7's. And after adding up everything and finding out that we had 14 separate things take place, we realized that BOTH Kathy and myself had BOTH received 7's!!!!! And as you know, 7 is God's perfect number, His number for completion! Hallelujah!!!

Finally, I won't say too much about it right now, but I will announce to you that we are planning on totally revamping the entire ministry web site in the coming weeks. I have plans to totally overhaul everything on the site and change everything within it to a brand new format, a brand new look, and even some brand new things to come within it! I do not know when it will be completed, or even when I will have all the time needed to accomplish this, but I wanted to give you a heads up for now about it so that you would have something to look forward to. And hopefully, by the time it is finished, it will be a blessing to you in a great way! More later.

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As all of you know by now, Kathy lost her Father back on April 10th. Then, only 6 days later, on April 16th, Kathy also lost her oldest brother, Bishop Bobby Brackett, Senior Pastor of the East Belmont Church Of God in Belmont, North Carolina.

To say that this has been an extremely tough time for the entire Brackett family would be the understatement of a lifetime! To lose both a Father and a Brother, both within only six days of each other, and both dying within only 5 feet of the exact same spot in Kathy's parents home, is beyond description. They both were even taken to the exact same hospital room! It has been the roughest two weeks of all of our lives to say the least!

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As all of you know by now, Kathy lost her Father this past week when he suddenly left this earth to go be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has hurt Kathy deeper than words could ever express. But we thank each and every one of you that have prayed for us, or who have sent cards and flowers during this very difficult time in our lives. Thank you so much for your love and friendship.