"I have become its (the church's) servant by the commission God gave me to present to you

the word of God in its fullness -- the mystery that has been kept for ages and generations,

but is now disclosed to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,

which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present

everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.."

Colossians 1:25-29 NIV 2011

Dear Ones in Jesus,

I am so grateful today for you! This past week-end has been filled with needs of the churches in forms that has caused my heart to stay on its knees. I am thankful that I am not there alone. Not only is the Lord Jesus my ministry partner, but you are there with me as well. I delight in knowing we do not even have to know names or details to be able to effectively pray for the needs that are so pressing. Psalm 19 and our family are all well. But many across the Body of Christ are not and are facing huge challenges. So thank you for joining with me for them -- all of them. If we did not have such a marvelous Savior, what would we do? He enables and empowers us to lay all our burdens in His very able hands and release them to Him. So what has been heavy in our hearts and minds, gets released into thankfulness. 

This is the wonder and joy of intercession. We learn to willingly exchange our heaviness for His release and train our hearts not to "stew" in the heaviness which would undercut our ministries, our health and our families. So thank you for joining me in the exchange and in the joy! You are precious to me and to all of us who are doing the work of the ministry through Psalm 19. You are a part of all of that, and I thank our Lord for you -- all the time. 

The scripture chosen above speaks deeply to me and what we are commissioned to do in Psalm 19 Ministries. The ministry is to teach the Word in such a way that we will be empowered to grow and mature in Christ and that the Holy Spirit principles of Kingdom living would become our very nature. This is an impossible task if we seek to do it in our own energy, strength or intelligence. We can only accomplish any of this calling if we stay on our "heart knees" (some of us have trouble with the natural ones - we would stay there if our natural body would allow - but the Lord knows all about "heart knees"). So you see, as we dwell there, you are a part of our Throne-room fellowship. As I am laboring in the text to allow the Lord to show me how it should "say" and what I am to say about it -- in our course work for the fall -- I lean deeply into your prayer fellowship. The work is coming along, but it is slow and takes an enormous amount of time for me. I am enjoying the editing and the translating, but because I am not a Greek scholar and must lean into many helps (praise God for them), my days get eaten up with eye,brain, heart intensive data. Again thank you for praying! This should work for my maturing -- one would think. 

This week will be a continuation of that for me as well as for most of the summer. I am taking good breaks -- some walks, and some photo side trips so I can get some new photo's to use. All in all the days are full of Him and I am eternally grateful for that. I am getting some yard and painting work completed around the house as well as enjoying my flower gardens. So you see, it is not all work. Our Lord would not be glorified by a stressed Iris. 

So we move forward. I do want to let you know that all our classes will be on vacation during the month of July. Our very faithful staff need some time that they do not need to relate to work needing to be done in Psalm 19. We do have a Summer Event in July and I am very excited about that. Patty is getting the fliers ready today and later today I hope to have all the data up for you to register on-line if you would like to do that. Let me encourage all of you to plan on being with us. Our worship will be led by One Voice. They are a worship team from Auburn and do a fantastic job. You will want to be exposed to the work in worship the Lord does through them. Lauren and I will both speak and the day will be much like our one last month in Stella Maris. So do plan to come. 

Now to work and again, thank you for being there for the Body of Christ.

I so appreciate you and your prayers in our Jesus, 

Iris

Now for the Schedule: (Week of June 26-July 2, 2011)

I am editing on most days. I also have some web site work to complete this summer. So prayers that direction are very helpful. 

Wednesday 

10 am - Greek Reading class with John Hernandez

12:30 pm - Psalm 19 Prayer with Diane Hernandez

1 pm - Bible Study with Joe Godfrey

Joe is working hard to get video of our teachings to me for placement on the web. Keep praying for him. He is also working on some new TV programs which I hope to be able to use in 2012

TV program at 9:30 pm Sunday Evenings on Time Warner (Syracuse) #98. 

We so appreciate your prayer covering.  

 

Coming Events: Please pray ahead with us. 

July 23 - Summer Event - Guest worship team ONE VOICE; Iris and Lauren both speaking -

Church of the Resurrection building. Details and sign up on line soon. 

Be certain to check our new web site: http://www.psalm19ministries.org and my blog: www.mannaword.blogspot.com