We have had a wonderfully busy month, and have seen the Lord working all around us! And as I have been around people from all walks of life, with all different kinds of backgrounds I see the Lord using those backgrounds to make those vessels ready for what HE wants to do in their lives. You know He knows all things, and uses it for His purposes. You know my first judgmental thought about this new "Passion of the Christ" movie coming up? Well I thought I remembered Mel Gibson being in some questionable films, I thought how can God use him? The Lord answered me reminding me that He knew Mel Gibson's heart better than I and He knew Mel Gibson’s past better than I and not only that, but that he allowed it all, so that He could use Mel Gibson "for such a time as this". I believe dramas and movies and such are not necessary to preach the gospel, Jesus stood on a hill, but you know what? It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters that the gospel gets out. And while Jesus could stand on a hill and be heard by the multitudes, He will also use any willing vessel. And if that willing vessel has been some places I haven’t then who am I to say how the Lord chooses to use him? Yes Jesus is enough, He always has been. But human people are the ones who need him, and they are imperfect. I have shared many times that even though we have shared healing and seen the dead raised and believe, even so it was when our baby boy died and we still praised the Lord that people learned faith from us. Seems backwards to me, but who am I to say how God can work. As long as He is working I should be in agreement. So about the movie, whether you agree with it or not, know that there will be hundreds if not thousands of people soon asking serious questions about our Lord. It will all of a sudden become "politically correct" to say the name "JESUS" in public!!!!! BE AN EXAMPLE OF HIM!!! The world around you has always been a mission field, but now it will become an altar!!!! Be ready, I challenge y’all to seek the Lord and ask how He would have you approach this opportunity. Be ready, the season is upon us. Prepare yourself with His truths, with His love. You will hear a lot of excuses. The first thing people have to deal with is forgiveness. Yet they always have an excuse not to. "You don’t know where I have been, I have had a hard life, I have been through this and this" , they will say. They have a hard time looking at Jesus because "this happened and that happened", and yet HE knew all! He not only knows about all that but He will use it if you allow Him to! He allowed it to happen and it broke His heart, but He let it happen anyway to prepare you for what is to come with HIM!! You ask, "you mean HE, JESUS, let this happen to me". He sure did. He let you go through divorce, He let those terrible things happen in your life, for a reason. HE IS BIGGER THAN THE ENEMY!!! SATAN CANNOT TOUCH YOU WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION!! Now many times the enemy is allowed to mess with us because we are outside of God’s will, but even then, JESUS MADE THE RULES!!! Many times the Lord will allow tragedy to show us we are outside His will. Or to show us how much we need Him. Or to show us our own selfishness. Or to finally get our attention. Or to simply tenderize our hearts. Or sometimes it doesn’t make any sense at all. But know that HE IS GOD!! And we are not. And as you watch the coming movie (or hear about it from someone who does) know that all that blood was spilt because HE took what we deserve!! Yes we deserve to be treated the way HE WAS, but He took our place. WE have all sinned, and yes it is our fault, no more excuses. Your past can be used for His GLORY if we stop using it as an excuse. We stay in our present miserable state because of excuses. I could have chosen to never have anymore children and be depressed for the rest of my life because our baby died. But NO! Jesus is bigger than us, wiser than us, holier than us. And although He has shown us that we were not in sin at the time and we were not being punished and we were not lacking in faith, still HE HAD A PURPOSE!!! He tenderized our hearts, made life so much more precious, made His kingdom so much more real, gave us His compassion for His children, filled our lives with this incredible LOVE, and made us more pliable clay in His hands. He alone is WORTHY, and HOLY!! So why would we want to give Him an excuse to stay miserable. You can choose to submit to Him and grow from your experiences or you can choose to stay holding on to those excuses, wallowing in your misery. Choose you this day whom you will serve, the KING OF KINGS or yourself. I promise you he is the right choice. He is King, He is savior, and He loves you. He was standing beside you as you went through tragedy, He cried with you, and He chose what would ultimately be best for you, even though His heart was breaking while you hurt, He has a parents heart, always had.

FAMILY MINISTRY- First it was April leading worship at a local church youth service, now Beau has joined her, along with some other young people who truly have a heart for the Lord, last Wed was one of the most powerful services we have been in in a long time. You know how sometimes the Lord’s presence comes in in waves, and other times it is like fire. Well, this was like Jesus came down in wind, fire and rain, kind of like a burning hurricane, all at once, and didn’t let up! Words cannot describe it. What we minister to other people is direct fruit from our private time with the Lord, has He heard your voice today? If you are local and want to know where we are ministering, contact me.

NEW THINGS- We recorded our part of April’s next CD last week. The next step is the other musicians doing their part and maybe recording some stuff "live" all together. We hope to take pictures and get the cover and insert going this next week or so. Then we send everything off to be printed and replicated and it will soon be available to you!! Please join us in praying for the needed finances to have the actual CDs made and the printing. That and mailing are the only costs, all else has been given as a gift, an investment to the Kingdom. We have seen so much fruit from the last one, "Love Songs To A Savior" and again are determined to give them as gifts. Got a request the other day from Malawi, (Heidi Bakers’s territory) in Africa!! Visit www.awesomeglory.com/worship to request your free CD!

PRISONS AND JAILS- Most people think of this and think "heathen of the worst kind" but the opposite is true. Many times these are seasoned believers, who have been saved and made a mistake, (anybody want to cast the first stone?). Or they got saved while behind bars and used their time productively. Either way most are hungry or they wouldn’t bother coming to the service. Many times they actually minister to us. There is one man in particular who came to the altar awhile back. Jim prayed for him, and now he is seeing in visions quite a bit. Detailed visions, had one last service of "wine being poured out" , and it sure was, new wine filling the believers. He has also had visions of stuff going on with our ministry, and it was confirming what the Lord had already shown us. It encouraged us that we were on track.

WWW.AWESOMEGLORY.COM- due to some things out of my control (but always in HIS) our website was recently changed to another server. In the midst of change some of our e-mailing list was lost. So if you know other friends that you know have either been getting this newsletter or might want to, would you forward this? Feel free to forward our newsletters anytime, but please especially this month and next, so that we can get everyone resubscribed. I have hundreds of names to put back in, and I don’t want anyone missed. You can subscribe here at www.awesomeglory.com/subscribe . Thanks so much, I also love to hear feedback on the site!

IN CLOSING- Again words cannot describe what the Lord ha been doing. It feels like we are in our year of Jubilee!! The Lord has just been pouring out His goodness upon us!! Then again maybe He always has we are just learning to see it and appreciate it more. Either way we are just in awe of HIM!! Thank you so much for being part, supporting us with your Jesus-led prayers and gifts. We pray that the blessings you send our way are multiplied back a hundred fold in your lives every day.

                                       Sincerely in HIS love,

Penny & Jim Raine