Former USA Today columnist Barbara Reynolds is showing women how to break free of drug and alcohol dependency

At one time in her life, Barbara Reynolds spent her days writing newspaper columns that shouted her outrage about national and world affairs to millions of people. Part of the founding editorial team for USA Today, she once found herself in the enviable position of opining on three major TV news shows in one day. It was what she lived for. Then.

Today, the Rev. Barbara Reynolds is working outside the media limelight. Her main platform is a pulpit at the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in Washington, D.C., which is affiliated with the historic Pentecostal denomination Mount Calvary Holy Churches of America.

She is spreading the gospel with fresh fervor to a more targeted audience. Her mission is to help women who are living desperately because of drug, alcohol and cigarette addictions.

She knows personally about the firm grip that alcohol can have on a person’s life. Reynolds said that for many of her years as a prominent journalist she was a weekend drinker who hid her problem from others. “People didn’t know what a slippery slope I was on,” she recalled in a recent interview.

She accepted Christ in the late 1970s at a storefront church in Chicago. “A cool alpine wind blew through my body, just like the way Jesus described the born-again experience to Nicodemus,” she says today.

Spurred on by the 1984 adoption of her son, now 22, Reynolds said she asked God to release her from her cravings. He did, placing in her a hunger to help other women find freedom in Christ through a ministry she founded in 1996 called Harriet’s Children, named after the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who helped liberate African Americans from slavery.

Reynolds will soon open a healing center in the Washington suburbs for women with addictions. She is also designing a seven-week program focused on spiritual makeovers to show people how they can change from the inside out.

On a warm night recently, Reynolds stood in the chapel at Greater Mount Calvary, looking regal in a dark suit accented with a brightly colored stole. “I just want to set the tone,” she told those who had gathered at the monthly “Friday Night ‘Get Right’ Service.”

“You have entered the supernatural,” she told the crowd. ” I believe in miracles. I believe something good is going to happen tonight, something awesome.”

Reynolds has experienced miracles. When she looked over the mostly female audience, she saw women who had given up addictions and accepted Christ. Many of them then joined in the work of Harriet’s Children.

When she glanced over at the young minister waiting to preach the evening’s sermon, Maria Terry, 32, Reynolds recognized the hand of God at work. Three years ago, Terry suffered a paralyzing stroke and short-term memory loss. “She came out of this [ordeal] a preacher,” Reynolds said about the young woman she calls a goddaughter.

At the service was another young woman, Millicent Barnes, wearing her security guard uniform and with two active youngsters in tow. “I rededicated my life to Christ this year,” Barnes said after the service. “Harriet’s Children has adopted my family because they know what I’m going through. It has been helping me keep my focus away from drugs and alcohol.”

Bishop Alfred A. Owens Jr., the pastor of Greater Mount Calvary, said Reynolds is a blessing to the ministry of his inner-city church. “I have literally seen the lives of hundreds of women changed. Over the years, she has done so much. And it’s not just the ones she ministers to on Friday nights.”

Owens ordained Reynolds in 1995. She is an elder on the church’s evangelistic board and is on the faculty of its Calvary Bible Institute. She earned her master’s
degree in religious studies from Howard University School of Divinity in 1991 and her doctor of ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 1998.

At 61, Reynolds is a woman transformed. She said she is experiencing more every day the power of God’s forgiveness and grace. She has overcome–not so graciously she said–her very public firing from USA Today eight years ago. Her strong political views and her insistence on writing about religion fueled her ouster, she said. “I was one step away from throwing away everything I had learned in seminary.”

After the firing, she considered drinking again and moving to Europe, until Owens stopped her and reminded her of the ministry she had begun.

More recently, she has begun a process of reconciling with the mother from whom she has been estranged for 58 years. “Through forgiveness, my whole life changed toward her,” Reynolds said, “and I began to thank her for bringing me into this world.” In 2002, she shared Thanksgiving with her mother, her brother from whom she was also estranged and a niece she had not met before.

Reynolds now hosts an hour-long Saturday satellite radio show and often lectures on college campuses. Next spring she expects to release her fourth book, an autobiography titled Out of Hell and Living Well.

“I feel a great need to pass on what I have learned [about] how to survive, how to grow,” she said. Her desire is to do as Harriet Tubman did years ago when she risked her life to help slaves escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Reynolds said she and about 35 women ministers, along with other participants in Harriet’s Children are “snatching from the hands of the enemy” women enslaved by addictions and offering them healing through Christ.
Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Christian nightclubs are popping up in cities across the country, providing unique evangelism opportunities
Christians are taking back the night as more and more faith-based nightclubs are popping up in cities across the country. Sponsored mostly by churches and Christian youth ministries, these venues ban cigarettes and alcohol, are open to all ages and feature bands with positive lyrics.

“Christians want a place to go to hear music and have fun that’s not church and not a bar, and they’ve wanted that for a long time,” said Russell Hobbs, owner and founder of The Door in Dallas, a club he opened in 1998.

Once lone rangers, Christian club owners such as Hobbs are part of a growing crowd. In October, Club Three Degrees moved into the heart of the downtown Minneapolis club scene after occupying two previous locations under a different name, the New Union. After a $3 million renovation, Club Three Degrees has the largest capacity of any Minneapolis nightclub.

In addition to its regular club activities and concerts by such groups as ZOEgirl, Kutless, GRITS and Skillet, Club Three Degrees–an outreach of Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, church services on Sunday and Wednesday evenings that include rock-inspired praise and worship and “relevant, keep-it-real teaching.”

“We’re so accessible now,” Club Three Degrees co-pastor Nancy Aleksuk said. “Thousands of people walk by on their way to other clubs and come in.”

In the six weeks following the club’s opening in its new location, 43 people had accepted Christ, including a crack dealer who came off the street for a nightclub-style church service.

The Murray Hill Theater opened in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1995 and has a 500-capacity concert hall, a cybercafe and music shop. The Murray Hill Theater even sparked an economic revival in its declining area of Jacksonville.

“We’re hoping the Christian community will use the theater not just as a place to come and have fun and Christian social interaction,” Murray Hill Theater President and founder Tony Nasrallah explained. “But our vision is to have Christians invite non-Christian friends to a concert setting, not in a church where it would be threatening, and use it as a place to hang out and build relationships.”

Those relationships are being built at clubs across the country, including the Underground in Cincinnati; Club Praize in East Orange, N.J.; The Wreck in Kendalville, Ind.; Rocketown in Nashville, Tenn.; and Club Jubilee in Atlanta.

Creating a safe nightspot for youth is an attractive idea in itself, but making it financially profitable isn’t so simple. The Door is one of the few self-sufficient clubs, partly as a result of Hobbs’ wealth of experience. He started an entire club scene in a depressed area of Dallas in the 1980s before his conversion. That business savvy has reaped benefits for The Door, which recently opened a second club in Fort Worth.

Club Three Degrees in Minneapolis is mostly self-sufficient, but relies on support from Living Word Christian Center in tight financial times. “I think that’s the reason we were the first and have been around since 1989,” Aleksuk told Charisma. “I really believe it’s because we have the backing, spiritually and financially, of a local church committed to reaching people in their area.”

However, leaders at the Underground found church-sponsorship to be a hindrance. After Tri-City Assembly of God started the outreach in their basement, other local ministries complained that they were trying to steal teens.

“We’ve tried to tell youth pastors and senior pastors that this is not anything about building our own church,” said the Underground’s Chris Human. “It’s about building the kingdom of God.”

Still the Underground recently left its church to form a nonprofit organization, teaming with Christian music show The Zone and building a new 13,000 square-foot facility set to open this spring.

Even independent clubs are thankful for the support from individuals and local churches. Nasrallah started the Murray Hill Theater with money from his own pocket. Today the club manages to break even, thanks to the support of individual donations and local churches.

No matter how they’re funded, the clubs meet Christians’ desire for places where they can be entertained without feeling threatened by the negative aspects of the bar scene, or stifled by the traditional aspects of church, leaders say.

“God is pushing the church out of the Sunday morning box,” Hobbs said.
Kevin D. Hendricks

Bill Prankard and his wife, Gwen, have seen thousands come to Christ through their preaching in the northern territories
When God called Bill Prankard in 1972 to take His word from “sea to sea and to the ends of the earth,” the Canadian pastor didn’t dream that meant raising up Inuit spiritual leaders north of the Canadian Arctic Circle.

“I experienced the Holy Spirit in an incredible way at a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting in 1972,” said Prankard, 58, an ordained pastor with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

“Right after that, God gave Gwen, my wife, and I Psalm 72:8 as our ministry mandate to take the gospel to our own nation first and then to other countries–‘He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.’

“So we left the church we were pastoring, preached all over Canada–from ‘sea to sea’–then on our first trip up north of the Arctic Circle, we fell passionately in love with the Inuit.”

On that first trip in 1973, a church was established in Povungnituk, in northern Quebec, within a few days. An elderly Inuit man who had never heard the gospel asked Prankard why he hadn’t come sooner and pointed to a white cross marking the grave of his wife, who had died just months earlier never having heard of Jesus. It changed Prankard’s whole life perspective.

“That man’s plight touched me so much that I made a commitment then and there to bring Jesus to the Inuit,” he said. Today, 90 percent of Povungnituk’s residents are reported to be born-again believers.

Prankard’s commitment has taken him and his wife across northern Canada. The couple has seen thousands of Inuit converted and hundreds brought back from the brink of suicide and addictions. Today, they frequently visit all the Inuit communities they influenced and hold huge conferences for them once or twice a year.

“In many of the communities, almost everybody’s born again. It’s a real book of Acts revival up there. White men introduced the Inuit to alcohol and drugs and destroyed their culture,” Prankard told Charisma from the Ottawa headquarters of Bill Prankard Evangelistic Association (BPEA). “Now the government leaders are Inuit Christians, and they hunt and fish the way their ancestors did because their minds are clear.”

In Nunavut, a new Canadian territory that was formerly part of the Northwest Territories, many of the government’s leaders are Inuit Christians. Louie Arreak, the wife of James Arreak, former director of finance for Nunavut Territory and an associate of BPEA, led an unprecedented revival in 2002 during which a mighty, rushing wind reportedly swept through a church in Pond Inlet, Baffin Island. David Aglukark, a land negotiator representing Nunavut to the federal government, is another one of the Inuit spiritual leaders Prankard has nurtured through the years.

These and other transformed Inuit Christians help Prankard minister to nonbelieving Inuit. Nain, a town of 1,500 in northern Labrador, is renowned for its animist beliefs and high suicide rate. BPEA workers distributed groceries for a complete Christmas dinner to every family in Nain in December 2002. The ministry is currently building an outreach center there for troubled residents to visit at any time for prayer, encouragement or practical assistance.

Manitok Thompson, minister of education and human resources for Nunavut, said Prankard is widely accepted by the Inuit because he respects their culture and wants to empower the people rather than condemn or criticize them. “Whenever Bill holds a meeting, people from all denominations come because they know he’ll give a positive message filled with hope,” she said.

Recently, Prankard began taking his team to remote northern Russia to spread the gospel to the thousands of Inuit there. “Their culture is very similar to that of the Canadian Inuit, so they can relate to what our workers are saying,” said Prankard, who visits Russia twice a year.

Although Prankard’s passion is to reach the Inuit and other northern peoples, he started the River Outreach Centre in Ottawa in September because he believes Canadian revival needs to start in the nation’s capital. The charismatic church already boasts several hundred members and a school of evangelism. BPEA hosts two TV shows, and Prankard preaches in churches around the world, from Ireland, England and Sweden to Korea and Japan.
Josie Newman

Since the death of their 6-year-old daughter, Harry and Cheryl Salem have been helping people find healing from grief
After spending years traveling to encourage congregations to become people of dynamic faith, Harry and Cheryl Salem are finding a new audience–through some of their prayers that were not answered.

The Tulsa, traveling ministers are helping people struggling with loss find new hope by sharing their own personal story of tragedy.

Although close friends such as Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland prayed for her, the Salems’ 6-year-old daughter Gabrielle died of cancer in 1999 after battling the disease for almost a year.

The family faced the ordeal publicly. They continued to travel in ministry, with the young girl appearing to sing hooked up to an IV drip on occasions.

Many joined in praying for Gabrielle, but after her funeral one man approached Harry Salem–formerly a senior leader in Roberts’ ministry–and told him his daughter had died because Salem did not have enough faith.

Just three months later, while they were still reeling from Gabrielle’s death, the couple discovered that Cheryl, a singer and former Miss America, had cancer and needed surgery. Their message of faith was being challenged.

“It’s easy to have faith when everything is going good. Faith really comes out when things are tough and when you don’t see what you are hoping for,” Harry Salem said. “We went from faith to trust. Faith is believing for something good in the future; trust is going on when it doesn’t happen.”

The Salems have recounted their journey in two books–From Mourning to Morning and From Grief to Glory–and in numerous TV appearances. They have also found themselves speaking on grief and ministering to individuals they meet as they continue to travel to churches with their two sons, Harry III, 17; and Roman, 14.

“We have a deeper message,” Harry Salem said. “Our ministry has exploded because there are more people out there waiting for their miracles because they didn’t get their first one, people sitting in churches asking: ‘What did I do wrong? Where did I fail?'”

Now cancer-free, Cheryl Salem said she had learned “you can’t have religious ideas about grief. It has no economic lines, no political lines; people deal with so many forms of loss–maybe a loved one, sometimes a career or a marriage. People grieve over some of the strangest things.”

They encourage people to be honest about their feelings and doubts. “People say a faith person shouldn’t ask why,” Harry Salem said. “Jesus hung on a cross and asked, ‘My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ Our flesh has a voice.”

For the Salems, part of their healing came from gaining a higher perspective. “God showed us that Gabrielle was not in our past, she was in our future,” Cheryl Salem said. “She is healed, whole, happy, filling heaven with joy. You can’t go forward looking back. … We had to begin to let God give us a new vision for our life.”

The Salems were not strangers to adversity. Harry lost his father at age 10, while Cheryl overcame the injuries of childhood sexual abuse and a serious car wreck. They knew they had to work hard to avoid the marriage and family breakdown many who suffer serious loss experience.

“If you focus on what you don’t have, you will lose what you do have,” Harry Salem said. “Gabrielle is where we want her to go; we still have two boys and still have choices to make. We can’t neglect them.”

They said the outpouring of love and support they received from around the country helped them. “We had to decide, do you still go on when you have no answer? That’s the real question in life,” Harry Salem said. “Can you go on when you don’t always get a yes? We all go through stages when we don’t understand, and the question is, ‘Do I still serve God when I don’t understand?'”

They find reliving their experiences tiring at times, but satisfying. Cheryl Salem said one day God showed her that “only scars that have changed other people’s lives will be seen in heaven. This [loss] is one of those scars that we have, and we want it to be one that we keep for eternity because we want it to change other people’s lives.”
Andy Butcher

BOOKS

Fatal Distractions
By Joyce Rodgers, Charisma House,

224 pages, paperback, $.

Church of God in Christ evangelist Joyce Rodgers is a minister who seeks to prevent Satan from using one of his most lethal weapons, distractions, to poison our hearts. In Fatal Distractions she discusses the attitudes that distract us and bring about spiritual death, specifically “the death of our God-ordained purpose in this life.”

Rodgers’ seven deadly sins are envy, loneliness, anger, bitterness, hurt, despair and rejection. They build until we cap them with the most insidious distraction of all: ourselves.

Fortunately, she reveals how to stop Satan dead in his tracks: by practically applying the Bible and prayer to our lives. She emphasizes, much like Bible teacher Joyce Meyer, whom she quotes, how we can block internal distractions with godly attractions–such as replacing fear with unrestrained praise.

Having a heart for women, Rodgers addresses her primary audience like an older sister. She tempers a deadly serious message with humor and
compassion.

Sometimes the author goes for the jugular. For example, she writes, “Women in particular are susceptible to the subtle yet insidious distractions that ‘dress themselves up’ to be something beautiful, yet inside are rotten to the core.” Some women might not appreciate the stereotyping here, since men are certainly vulnerable to the same temptations.

Nonetheless, Rodgers’ powerful statements cut through to our hearts. She directs our passion toward God and away from fatal distractions. Rodgers’ audience appeal, which is evident by her many appearances on TBN, Daystar and radio, is strong. Her message brings life to defeat the power of Satan’s deadly arsenal.

Pamela Robinson

Optimize Your Marriage: Making an Eternal Impact on Family and Friends
By Phil and Susy Downer with Ken Walker,
Christian Publications, softcover,
264 pages, $.

Although this is a book about marriage, its primary focus is on Christian discipleship and training and how they affect not only the family but also all of life. This is not surprising, seeing that authors Phil and Susy Downer are the founders of Discipleship Network of America (DNA) and conduct conferences on aspects of Christian living.

Clearly, Optimizing Your Marriage was born out of the authors’ personal experience and ministry.

On the brink of divorce, this couple discovered that God’s grace could mend their broken relationship. Now they share the worst and the best of times, including the practical tactics they have learned to circumvent their personal weaknesses and turn them to strengths.

There is a strong call to mentorship here–to pass along this wealth of experience and understanding to others. The content is solid, basic principles that may be review for some readers and fresh insight for those new to the faith.
Deborah Delk

MUSIC

Illuminate
By David Crowder Band, Sixstepsrecords.

Worship leader David Crowder follows up his impressive 2002 debut with another groundbreaking modern-worship album. Produced by Charlie Peacock, Illuminate explores the theme of light, capturing God’s creativity on “Stars,” and emphasizing our earnest desire to be light and be filled with the light of truth on standouts such as the alternative arrangement of the hymn “Heaven Came Down” and “How Great.”

It’s difficult to find a weak spot on this well-crafted modern-worship feast. From the acoustic opening interlude “Sparks Fly” to the 1960s-turned-1980s electronic-flavored fun of “Revolutionary Love” and the catchy rocker “No One Like You,” Illuminate lights up the crowded modern-worship category.

As an added bonus, Crowder partnered with the makers of Propellerhead software to allow him to put a copy of the music program on the disc. Listeners can see and mix the tracks to their own taste, proving that Crowder remains a step ahead of the rest.

Natalie Nichols Gillespie

The Heavens Are Telling
By Karen Clark Sheard, Elektra Records.

Karen Clark Sheard, considered one of gospel’s premier vocalists, recently released her third solo project, The Heavens Are Telling. A member of the trend-setting group The Clark Sisters and daughter of the late gospel icon Mattie Moss Clark, Sheard showcases her strength as a live vocalist with the first half of the CD consisting of tracks recorded at her home church in Detroit.

Strong live cuts include a moving remake of Andraé Crouch’s “We Are Not Ashamed” with guest artists Mary Mary and the worshipful tune “God Is Here,” penned by Israel Houghton (of Israel & New Breed) and CCM artist Martha Munizzi. Other favorites include the calypso-influenced “Glorious (Make the Praise)” and the gospel rendition of R&B artist Jill Scott’s “He Loves Me.”

The second half of the CD includes five studio cuts, all produced and written by Sheard’s cousin J. Moss and Paul “PDA” Allen. Other urban-
flavored tracks include the inspiring “Go Ahead” featuring mainstream artist Missy Elliott and the funky “Praise Up.” “I Owe,” with special guest Ramiyah, draws the listener in with its infectious melody and gratitude-laden lyrics.

Sheard has sealed her place as one of gospel’s finest with this project.
René Williams

Songs 4 Worship: The U.K. Collection
By various artists, Integrity Music.

Songs 4 Worship: The U.K. Collection introduces or reintroduces listeners to modern praise songs made popular or recently emerging from the British Isles and Australia.

Tim Hughes performs his international hit “Here I Am to Worship” and Delirious rouses listeners with “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” Brian

Doerksen adds “Come Now Is the Time to Worship,” and Robin Mark leads worshipers with an Irish touch on “Forever.” Paul Balcohe closes disc one with the popular song “Open the Eyes of My Heart.”

Darlene Zschech is featured on “The Power of Your Love,” and Irish worship leader Eoghan Heaslip closes the two-disc collection with “O Come Let Us Adore Him.”
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

The Art of Praise
By various artists, Integrity Gospel.

This collection allows a variety of talented worship leaders in gospel-laden churches to show off their best side and work their background choirs into a frenzy of praise.

Desmond Pringle shines on the opener, “You Are Good.” Other standouts include the jazz-infused “Above All” by the Take Six-like harmony group J-4 Twenty3, the smooth silky vocals by Daryl Coley on “Desperate Desire” and the give-and-take by Joe Pace & The Colorado Mass Choir (featuring Alicia Williams and Maurice Carter) on “I Will Bless the Lord at All Times.”

The Art of Praise easily brings down the walls between “gospel” music and “modern worship,” allowing the body of Christ to benefit from both musical styles.
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

Professional Rapper
By John Reuben, Gotee Records.

John Reuben, known for sharp wit and occasional musical quirkiness, gets more serious with his third Gotee Records release, Professional Rapper. Sure, quirky John Reu makes his mark. But a probing Reuben teams with Adrienne Liesching (The Benjamin Gate) for the haunting confessional of “I Haven’t Been Myself,” which states: “I’m not all right / I haven’t been myself lately / I’m not OK with the way I’ve let my thoughts overtake me.”

With that same transparency, Reuben narrates his insecurities on the romantic “5 Years to Write.” Reuben deserves credit for stepping outside his comfort zone, providing inspiration and comfort to listeners who identify with struggles like his. His passion and sincerity make Professional Rapper one of his best and a milestone for Christian hip-hop.
DeWayne Hamby

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

Stacie Orrico Is Staying True

With her song “More to Life” being the No. 3 dance single in the United States and following right on the heels of her wildly popular hit “Stuck,” Stacie Orrico is on her way to reaching her goal.

Orrico, 17, sings edgy R&B, has toured with Destiny’s Child, appears repeatedly on MTV’s TRL, and is popular in Europe, Australia and Japan. Yet this pop star is a Christian who says she wants to “change some people’s lives along the way.”

“I want to set a new standard in the mainstream market and show up-and-coming artists that you can be a respectable woman, stay true to the things you believe in, and you don’t have to take all your clothes off to be successful,” she says.

Her music is making a difference. “Stuck” made one young woman reconsider a relationship she was in. Orrico explains: “I said in a show that relationships are supposed to add to your life and bring you joy, and that person should be teaching you things. … You should be growing together. This girl had never heard anyone say that relationships were actually meant to be beneficial to your life.”

Orrico’s lyrics are about growing up, guys and family. “I’m writing music that doesn’t say Jesus, doesn’t quote a Bible verse, but it’s about things that every girl–I don’t care if you’re a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist–you’re going to go through this. But it’s music they can groove to as well.”
Marsha Gallardo

The first step in prayer is clearing the channel, making it ready for God’s love.
In February, my thoughts always turn to love–not only because of Valentine’s Day but also because 32 years ago this month I met my true love, my wife. Yet as wonderful as the love is that I have for her, as important as it has been in my life and as much happiness as it has brought me, it is but a speck compared to the love of God, which is manifested to us in the form of His Son, Jesus.

The Bible teaches us that God is love. It is the very essence of who He is. What small child doesn’t learn that in Sunday school? But for most of us, coming to understand His love is a process that occurs as we grow and mature spiritually.

It is as infinite as the sky appears to be. And God’s ways of manifesting that love are, Glenn Clark writes in The Soul’s Sincere Desire, “as uncountable as the stars of the heavens.”

Clark’s book has opened new realms of prayer to me recently. Through his words I’ve begun to see that if I want a message from the God of love my receiving apparatus must be pure and vibrant with love. Any unloving thoughts will interfere with the flow of communication between us, just as rusty pipes prevent the flow of life-giving waters from reservoirs in the mountains.

This means that hindrances such as unbelief, selfishness and fear must go. John, the disciple of love, considered fear one of the major sins that separates man from God. In fact, he believed that love and fear could not abide together. He wrote, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers … shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8, KJV).

John also wrote that “there is no fear in love; [for] perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). According to Clark, John could have added, “Absolute fear casteth out love”–and without love we cannot have perfect prayer.

The first step, then, in preparing ourselves for prayer, is the clearing of the channel to make it ready for the inflow of God’s love. “This is best done,” Clark points out, “not by thinking of one’s self but by fixing one’s eyes on God. Think of Him as all-loving, all-powerful, all-perfect, with no anger and no distrust and no fear.

“Remember that every residue of wrong thinking, of malice or of selfishness in your heart or brain clogs the reception of the downpouring light of love.”

The cleansing of the soul Clark recommends is intended to liberate us, to “make the way straight for the message of God to come to us.” To be truly free, he says, “we must first remove all the beams and motes of Self, with its vanity, covetousness, and egotism; of Anger, with its brood of jealousies, envies, and faultfinding; and of Worry, with its children of fear and cowardice.”

When we have done this, we will be able to see God in a way we couldn’t when the channel was blocked. And merely to see God, Clark says, is to have Him. “One who sees–that is, one who possesses in his soul,” he continues, “is one whose prayers are answered.”

In light of Clark’s teaching, let’s use February, the month during which we direct our thoughts toward love, as a time to meditate anew on God’s love, a love that surpasses human understanding. Perhaps the following affirmation by Clark–what he calls a “psalm of love”–will help us to focus on it more during the holiday and beyond:

Thou and Thy Love are infinite;
Thy Love therefore fills all space,
There is no space where Thy Love is not,
Otherwise it would not be infinite.
It is filling the very space which we are
occupying,
Here and Now.
That Love is in us and we are in that Love.
We could not escape it if we would,
And we would not if we could.
It abides in us and we in it.
Therefore when we let go doubt,

and irritation, and self,
And resign ourselves completely to the great All-Power
That resides within and about us,
We are Love, even as God is Love.

Pulitzer Prize nominee Clifton Taulbert hopes his 10-lesson curriculum will motivate people to engage in acts of kindness
As the United States observes Black History Month, the residents of a Mississippi Delta cotton town are again rising to prominence through a native son who has shared their legacy worldwide.

Clifton Taulbert, whose memoirs have been made into a movie (Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored) and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (Last Train North), has transformed another book into biblically based teaching.

Becoming a Good Samaritan: On Your Road Between Jerusalem and Jericho is based on his Eight Habits of the Heart, originally published in 1997. Designed for groups of up to 20, the 10-lesson curriculum includes a challenge to commit to develop a caring attitude and engage in unselfish acts.

The lessons delve into the eight habits, which include such traits as brotherhood, dependability, friendship and a nurturing attitude. Those are qualities the Tulsa, Okla., author believes are necessary if the church hopes to become a community demonstrating Christ’s character.

Taulbert unveiled the Bible study in August at Victory Christian Center’s annual Word Explosion, which drew 35,000 people to the Mabee Center at Oral Roberts University. Afterward, the audience responded with a standing ovation.

The acclaimed speaker, who credits the Holy Spirit with inspiring him to write the best-selling stories about those who raised and trained him, said he was overwhelmed by the reception. “What I saw was people recognizing difficulties existed during legal segregation, but it also showed them when you yield to God you can do great things in spite of difficulties,” said the native of Glen Allen, Miss.

Ironically, Taulbert is better known in distinguished academic, governmental and professional circles. A guest professor at Harvard University, he has addressed corporate seminars, international forums and a Library of Congress audience hosted by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

However, when Victory Christian pastor Billy Joe Daugherty invited Taulbert–a member of an Assemblies of God church–to speak, Taulbert
initially resisted. After first appearing there in March, he accepted Daugherty’s suggestion to transform his “eight habits” seminar into a Bible-based study.

Daugherty said the message is a fresh word, one that is sorely needed in the body of Christ. Daugherty compares Taulbert to figures such as T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer, saying they came to prominence long after they started teaching.

“To me, the body of Christ is discovering a treasure with someone who has the ear of the Air Force Academy, whole school systems and Washington departments in our government,” he said.

Those who have used the curriculum say it has already had powerful repercussions. Mickey Gordon has taught two sessions to seniors in her Bible class at Victory Christian Center’s high school. It is also used at Glory House, a church-affiliated residential home for women.

The teacher thinks the study has the potential to create a kinder, gentler nation by emphasizing selflessness. “I’m seeing a calmer class and kids reaching out to teach each other and forming community,” Gordon said. “These are common-sense principles that have become uncommon.”

While Evangel Christian School in Louisville, Ky., is just implementing the curriculum in high school Bible classes, middle school students began reading Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored last fall. Principal Kevin Miller said shocked students wanted to know if the events described in 1950s and ’60s Mississippi really took place.

“We talked about the importance of everyone being created in God’s image and being equal,” said Miller, whose suburban school has doubled the number of African American students–from 7 to 14–this year. “There’s a lot of lessons in there. And I think the curriculum will help with the atmosphere and culture of our school.”

Taulbert hopes Good Samaritan will help stimulate positive actions. And he couldn’t be happier that the characters from Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored–the real people who shielded him from many of segregation’s cruel realities–will help make that happen.

“I find it very exciting that behind the wall of segregation there was Jesus Christ, preparing hearts and stories for another time in history,” Taulbert said. “[God] knew it would be needed in the 21st century.”
Ken Walker

Our spiritual health is as important to our well-being as our physical health.
There’s something about starting a new year that motivates us to focus on getting fit. After the holidays, gyms are full of people huffing and puffing to get their bodies in shape. During the years I’ve made it a priority to work out, yet I’ll admit I’m more likely this time of year to be disciplined about it.

Since the Bible tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:19), it makes sense to keep them in top form. But as every worshiper knows, the outside of the temple is not the crucial part; it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

The insides of our temples–our souls and our spirits–need exercising, too. That’s why I’m more committed this year than ever before to learning how to “work out” in prayer.

Recently an old book by Glenn Clark has given me insight into ways to pray that have radically improved my spiritual life. In The Soul’s Sincere Desire, Clark states that physical exercise provides a model for strengthening our inner man. He suggests that we pray as consistently as we exercise–for at least 15 minutes a day.

“Prayer should be for the spirit exactly what calisthenics should be for the body,” he wrote in 1925. “Something to keep one in tune, fit, vital, efficient and constantly ready for the next problem of life.”

Who doesn’t want to be “constantly ready for the next problem in life”–and for the next blessing and the next divine assignment as well? I’m sure we all do. So with the enthusiasm of those who want to work off the extra pounds gained by eating too much during the holidays, let’s focus this new year on prayer in a way that makes prayer not something we must do to be good Christians but something we engage in to expand our souls to receive the infinite love of God.

How do we accomplish this?

In my own workout routine, I’ve learned to first stretch my muscles. In prayer, the first step should be to stretch the mind and spirit to take in the reality of God–in all His vastness.

While exercising, we must breathe deeply so that oxygen reaches the muscles. During prayer, we must breathe deeply, too, clearing our brains and hearts of the bad and praying in the good.

We must dismiss from our minds the trouble that seems imminent and restate emphatically the promises of God. In addition, we must forgive those who have sinned against us and repent and accept forgiveness for our own sins.

Physical fitness experts know that if you exercise, the benefits of burning fat and breathing deeply continue after the exercise ends. This is the goal
of prayer–to stretch the spirit and make the deep breathing of the soul something that goes on throughout the day. It is the goal Paul referred to when he told us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).

The trouble with most of us is that our praying is too negative. We shut ourselves up by breathing in again and again the troubles that we should release to God. When we give them to Him, we can take in the new, fresh air of His Holy Spirit.

Glenn Clark describes the process: “Just as in physical breathing we expel the poisons we wish to eliminate and then drink in slowly of the new, fresh, life-giving, body-building ozone, holding it, first deep in the lungs, then high, turning it over, so to speak, till we have completely absorbed the life-giving oxygen, so we should intentionally expel our wrong thoughts, turning instantly to the constructive, soul-building affirmations.”

Because our spiritual health is as important to our well-being as our physical health, I’m recommending to you Clark’s daily prayer regimen, which I believe will help you get in shape inside and leave you feeling more alive in the new year than ever before. It has certainly helped me to become more aware of God’s kingdom all day long.

Prayer is no longer just something on my daily “to do” list or a recitation of things in which I need God to intervene; it is a continual awareness of His presence. I’m trusting it will become so for you also as we continue in the next few issues to look at prayer as a way of entering God’s kingdom here and now.