“The ladies who attend the Women of Faith events fill arenas and theaters, eager for a life-changing encounter with God,” says Janice Gaines. “I’m so blessed to be able to lead them in worship, preparing their hearts for God to speak to them.”

Because the events are in smaller spaces than Women of Faith’s usual arena-filled two-day conferences, seats are limited. Make your reservation NOW!

For more information about these spectacular One Day events, visit the Women of Faith One Day website.

See you there!

It was the early 1980′s, and I was attending one of the daycare centers of YMCA in Memphis, TN. The teachers had sat us children on the floor to listen to a popular song on the record player. Whitney Houston’s voice came over the speakers, and I was immediately moved. I was so moved that I started crying, fully aware that I wasn’t crying because I was sad. A nearby teacher rushed to my side to ask me what was wrong. My reply: “it’s just so beautiful!” It was the first time I remember being completely and unapologetically affected by music. It was the first time I would understand the power of the gifts the Lord places in His people for His people–whether they acknowledge Him or not (and I’m not making ANY claims about Whitney Houston’s beliefs).

Cut to twenty-something years later, when our culture had already begun to make this woman’s life the ultimate punch line. And sadly, I must confess that I prayed for her a lot less than I should have. Somehow, people outside of our reach are easy to forget to pray for, when they may need our prayers the most.

Hearing the sad news of her passing, I couldn’t help but to think that it’s just not funny anymore. Our society laughed because we thought she was resilient enough to have troubles, yet come out unscathed. It’s just not what we expected. And it’s not funny anymore. I’m convinced that the more we live, the less funny life is. The more you live, the more painful experiences you have and witness, that serve as evidence that this is not our home. And these experiences become impossible to forget as their memories are triggered by simply living more life.

Today I’ve learned to take my job of loving and praying for people more seriously. No one’s woundedness is funny. It should break our hearts. What do you think?

The conference, to be held from Friday, February 24 to Saturday, February 25, 2012, is themed “Dressed for the Light” and Janice will perform at the Friday night portion of the conference. The featured speaker this year will be Rev. Denise Anders-Modest of Anderson Chapel CME Church.

Registration is just $30 per person. For more information about the conference, and to get tickets, visit the Women of Power Conference website!

Check Janice’s tour page to find an event in your area!

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Let’s say a child is adopted from an orphanage by a parent at an age where they’re aware of such a wonderful gift. They can respond in three different ways: 1) they can accept this as a wonderful gift of a new life and delve into it wholeheartedly 2) they can pretend to delve into it only to get what they need (out of fear from having been without before) or 3) they can rebel and reject the love of this adoptive parent.

When the child is eighteen years old, if they’ve truly accepted this parent’s love and shown love in return, they’ll most likely maintain this relationship in this way. If their intent was only to use the parent to meet needs, this will become clear as there will be no evidence of relationship beyond what was necessary to keep up appearances. If the child completely rebelled, there will be an even larger fracture between this parent and the child.

In each scenario, though, the legality of the adoption didn’t change. That’s how I believe salvation is. Christ offers us salvation, and His salvation lasts. We can choose to accept it, with the proof being in the fruit of our relationship, or we can reject it altogether. We can even pretend and trick ourselves into believing that we’ve accepted it, but the fruit of our heart doesn’t lie.

In all of this, it’s not God’s extension of salvation that’s fickle or wishy-washy. It’s always us. Let’s choose to accept Him, even when His way runs against ours. What say you?

I tend to get so lost in daily rituals and preparations for future plans that I lose sight of what I’m really living for. We say we believe that this is our temporary home, but we’ve moved in a whole lot of our stuff. I imagine that this life is like the mere nine to ten months of a child in the womb. We’re developing all the parts we need to live our REAL life outside of this confined space and time.

And if Revelation is true (and as Christians we believe it is), then we are going to have to stand before the largest, most powerful, most perfect God and answer His questions about what we did on Earth. (I say “most” to express degree, but there is no other god.) Let’s not forget–He’s kind, but we’re to fear Him/revere Him as well. But I think that will be one of our very natural responses once we see Him anyway.

The Good News is (pun intended) that if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, then we have someone’s perfection to speak for the lack of our own. And that will make for a celebratory ending–one where we will be allowed and invited to spend eternity in bliss with our King.

It seems so Hollywood dramatic doesn’t it??? But that makes it no less true. Are we prepared like we say we are?

One of her favorite things to watch was Praise The Lord on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). And in her last days in the hospital, it was all she wanted to watch. I think she would have been proud to see me there.

I had a BLAST during the taping! Pastor McClurkin is so wise when it comes to the Word of God! He really challenged me to consider Christmas a little differently than what tradition would dictate. He had myself, Micah Stampley, Trent Cory and Beckah Shae searching the Word before the taping began to find out what the Bible says about Christmas trees! I was so grateful to be in such good company.

The taping itself was a true blessing! We were able to really focus in on the true meaning of Christmas-the sacrificial love of a God that would send His Son to earth to make Himself like us in order to save us from death and give us eternal life.

I’m excited about future opportunities to partner in ministry with TBN. Thank you to all of you who watched! If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the full episode below (or by clicking right here)! Let me know what you think!

That same day, Janice will perform it live on the TBN’s Praise the Lord Christmas special, hosted by Donnie McClurkin, 10pm ET. Tune-in!