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July 8, 2025 25 mins
Pastor Vera McEwen is incredibly excited to give an open welcome to all at Love God Ministries! An online community where all truly are welcome, Pastor Vera embodies the Love of Christ through witness and discipleship. She founded Love God Ministries because conversations with people revealed a need for a community of believers where it does not matter how you look but recognize that you are a child of God.

Pastor Vera has been teaching and preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Word of God for over 30 years. Her primary emphasis is spreading God's Love by providing pastoral care, preaching God's Loving Word, teaching God's Light-Filled Word, and implementing God's Living relational group architecture via in home communities.

She is currently reviewing the prospects of a doctorate in religious studies with an emphasis on Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic as encouraged by her professors at seminary. In addition to her vocation as Pastor she ministers as a certified professional and personal coach.

With God's help, she implements 1 Thessalonians 5.11, motivating people to be and do their very best by building one another up. Pastor Vera is a joyous, ever singing sister in Christ who after years of being pursued by God, stopped running and answered the call, halleluiah, הַלְלוּיָה

https://www.lovegod-ministries.org/
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The following content is provided by I Am Refocused radio
contributor Pastor Vera McEwen with Love God Ministries. We'll be
sharing today's message, and now here is your host, Pastor
Vera McEwen.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Love is patient, love is kind, Love rejoices in the truth.
Turn with me to Mark Mark chapter ten. We're gonna hone.

(00:49):
In on verse twenty one, Jesus is in the process
of recruiting. Last week we read that he recruited a
tax coll He basically said, follow me, and immediately the

(01:10):
tax collector got up and followed him. But here in
Mark ten, we have a different situation, and we have
a person who is so excited about Jesus. When they
see Jesus, they have this glow about them, and Jesus

(01:32):
sees that glow, and Jesus and this wonderful person have
this conversation, this back and forth, and in verse twenty
one we learn something about Jesus. In verse twenty one

(01:55):
of Mark chapter ten, we learn about love. We learn
directly from Jesus how we are to love one another,
how we are to love God's glorious creation.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
We learn love. It's twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
We're diving into the divine word of God, and this
day we're diving into love. You might be thinking, well,
pastor Verra, I thought we were talking about the principle
of penitence and repentance and shoover what happened? Well, God

(02:44):
turned that around on me this week, asking that the
infinsis be placed on something totally different, that the emphasis
be placed on love. So we have this very wealthy

(03:04):
person who is in this conversation with Jesus in Mark
chapter ten, and Jesus says the same thing that he
said to the tax collector, give everything you have away and.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Come follow me. And the rich man. I can sense
that the rich man is all deflated, right.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
He comes in excited, full of joy, ready to do anything,
believing in Jesus and everything, and then as to get
rid of everything, all the acquired wealth, all the things

(03:54):
that they have, all that they possess, and follow Jesus.
And I can see that the person deflates and he
tells Jesus, I cannot do that.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
And what I love about Jesus is that it doesn't
matter if we're rich or poor. It doesn't matter if
we say, hey, we'll follow you right away. Jesus loves him.
It says.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Look at the verse verse twenty one of chapter ten.
It says, Jesus looked at him. Jesus looked at him.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
And loved him. Say that with me.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Jesus looked at him and loved him. Can you imagine
the compassion the love. Love is patient, love is kind,
love rejoices in the truth. Jesus looks at you, Brayalen.

(05:24):
Jesus looks at you, Ian. Jesus looks at you, Maggie.
Jesus looks at you, Savannah. Jesus looks at you Denise.
Jesus looks at you, Dante, Tommy and loves you right now.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
In the midst of whatever's going on right.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Now, whether you believe or not, Jesus loves you.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Jesus has a patience.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
A patience that says it doesn't matter if you can
give up whatever you're into right now, drugs, alcohol, partying,
whatever it is, Jesus is patient, and Jesus loves you.
If you're wealthy and you can't give up a dime
to help a person, if you can't go out and

(06:19):
feed the hungry, if you're a litter bug, whatever it.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Is, Jesus is patient. And loves you.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Love is patient, Love is kind, Love rejoices in the truth.
Turn with me to Psalm one thirty six. We're gonna

(06:55):
hone in on verse twenty three.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
And twenty five. I love this Psalm.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
One day I'm gonna put it to a rap beat
with the Hebrew verse.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's my joy.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Leo l'ohasdo His love endures forever. God's love endures forever.
God's love endures forever. You'll see that throughout this entire,
this entire psalm. I can imagine it being a song
that people sang, and they sing a verse rejoice in

(07:30):
the Lord of Lord. His love endures forever, leolamhast do
His love endures forever. God's love endures forever because God
is patient, God is kind, and God rejoices.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
In the truth. And verse twenty.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Three it says God remembers us. God remembers us in
our low estate.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
God remembers us when we're weeping, when we're grieving.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
When we're in despair, when we don't know where to go,
when we're outcast, when we're into drugs and we're praying
for our brother or our brothers are praying for us,
or our sisters are praying for, Our siblings are praying.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
God loves us right then and there. Maybe you've been
kicked out of your home.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
God loves you right now wherever you are. Maybe you've
been embraced into a new house. God loves you where
you are now. God remembers us and our low estate.
Leo lom hasdo and in verse twenty.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Five it says God gives food to every creature.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Love looks like Jesus looking at the wealthy man, compassion
in his eyes, patience in his eyes, and loves him.
Love looks like God remembering those who are in their

(09:35):
low estate, who are being outcast. And as God gives food,
gives nourishment to all creation, so are we to do
like wise.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Leo lam hasadaux.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Love is patient, love is kind, Love rejoices in the truth.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Turn with me to First Corinthians, chapter thirteen. It is
the prescription for love.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
It tells us what love looks like. Jesus gives the example.
God gives us the example of what looks like. This
tells us verbatim what it looks like, and it tells
us what it is not. Read First Corinthians, chapter thirteen.
There are seven key to dos here. When you love,

(10:48):
I often wonder when people say I love you, Vira,
I love your pastor Vera, if they would love me
when I grind on their last nerve, because love is patient.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
If they'll love me.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
When I say something wrong, say something that offends even
though I don't mean to offend. Well they love me,
then love is kind.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Well they love me when I'm rejoicing all the time,
because love rejoices in the truth.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
There are seven key principles here that show us what
love looks like.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
And I encourage you young women. I encourage you women.
I encourage you young men. I encourage you men. I
encourage you people, whether you're in.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Your early ages or whether you're in your aged ages.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I encourage you.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
To commune with people who treat you with these seven principles.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Ask yourself, do.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
The people I hang around do the people I work
to love the most?

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Are they patient with me? Are they kind to me?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Or do they.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Cut me like a knife with their words with their actions?
Do they rejoice with me in the truth, the truth
that Jesus Christ died for me and was raised, cleansing

(13:06):
me and making me new through his blood.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Do they rejoice in that truth. Do they have this
protective persona about them with me? Do they trust.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Me? Do they have unfailing, unfeathering hope?

Speaker 3 (13:44):
And can we persevere?

Speaker 6 (13:48):
If you look in verses four through seven, those are
the seven principles of love. And we see these demonstrated
by Jesus in the Mark reading, when he has compassion
in his eyes, when he has patience for this wonderful

(14:10):
person who is wealthy but cannot give a dime up,
cannot give.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Everything up to follow Jesus. We see it.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
We see it in Jesus, rejoicing in the truth and
knowledge of each.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
One of us, for God remembers us in our low estate.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
We see Jesus as protector. We see Jesus as someone
we can trust. We see Jesus as someone who hopes
in us, hopes that will get our act together and
leave and follow rejoicing in the truth and persevering.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
No matter what.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Love is patient, love is kind, Love rejoices in the truth,
love protects, love trusts, love hopes, and love.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Perseveres. Turn with me to the Gospel reading for the day.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
It could be found in John eleven. We're Gonna hone
In on verse thirty five, And here we have a
very good friend of Jesus, Lazareth, who has died. And

(16:09):
Jesus finds out that Lazareth is dead, and in verse
thirty five it says that Jesus wept.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Jesus wept tears for his friend.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Jesus in weeping tears, demonstrates to.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
All of us.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
That it's okay to grieve, it's okay to love, it's
okay to hope, even as we persevere. Verse thirty six.

(17:04):
They respond, see how see how Jesus loved him?

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Love. Love is patient, love is kind, Love.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Rejoices in the truth, love protects, love trusts.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Love hopes and perseveres.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
This week we had our first in person revival service,
Revival of Prayer. This is a summer of revival and
each month we're going to revive, revive prayer, revive praise,
and so we came together to do this revive. I

(18:01):
went to the church where I was baptized, pretty much
born and raised in the church, and I asked the pastor,
I'm like, can I borrow some chairs for our outdoor ministry?

Speaker 3 (18:16):
And he's like, yes, you may borrow the chairs. And
I knew exactly.

Speaker 7 (18:20):
How many i'd borrow, But then I realized I could
only have four, could only put ten in my car,
and I'm like, oh, okay, well I'll just get ten.
This time, we were told it was going to rain
and rain really badly.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I had received all these RSVPs.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
I'm coming Vera, I'm coming for that first in person service.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
I'm like, yay, yay, Raise the room, Raise the room.
God is good.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
And then as that broadcast kept coming in, I kept
seeing people say.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Pray for this, for me, Pray for this for me.
I'm not gonna make it. Pray for this. We also
had line.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Dancing so that we could praise and dance and prayer.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
And I will tell you.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
That the chairs that I brought were the perfect number
for each one of them were full.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
It was the right time, it was the right presence.
And it was thundering and lightning and raining.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Buckets outside, and people came.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
They came because they needed prayer.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
They came because they needed God's sustenance, they needed revival.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
And I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
I couldn't believe people showed up because I figured everybody
would stay home because it was raining so hard. And
during the prayer portion. I accepted prayer cars the prayers
of the people who were able to come, and we prayed.

(20:09):
We had poetry, we prayed, we commune, we danced, we prayed,
and in the midst of our prayer, there was weeping, weeping.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
In love like Jesus and Lazareth. Weeping in love.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Love is patient, love is kind, love rejoices in the truth.
And as we kept praying each prayer request, reading through them,
walking through them, doing a lyric through them, there were
not only tears. There was a communion, a communion through

(21:02):
hand holding.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
I was praying for something and looking at the.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Cards, and I had my knee on the person beside
me who was weeping. And I looked up and over
and that person was holding hands with the other.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
I had not said hold hands with one another, not
that I have to be directive.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
And then the next person was holding hand, and then
that and I thought we should be holding hands, and
I said, let's hold hands. Look at this glorious example.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
There was this love that was like an energy, that
a shockwave through this hand holding. And as we continued
to pray, we were all strengthened by the hand holding.
We were all supported by the hand holding. Love is patient,
love is kind, Love rejoices in the truth. And you

(21:59):
can tell all the handholding was a protection from anything
that might barrier become a barrier between the person receiving
the prayer and the enemy reigning buckets outside, or of
course God rejoicing in rain outside. We wept together, We

(22:28):
prayed together, We learned from one another together.

Speaker 8 (22:33):
It was a glorious communion as God remembered us and
remembers us in our low estate.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Later last week, I was blessed to be among two
hundred and fifty five of my work colleagues in a gym.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
And what were we doing.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
We were loving one another in community and loving those
who needed food.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
God tells us in the Psalm, what love looks like
Leolam hasdau by remembering God's people and remembering to give food.
We were packaging up bags of food over and over
and over. I was at the little funnel where they
put in the grain, they put in the spices, and

(23:33):
then they put in more grain, and then they take
that bag and then we'd zip block that bag and.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Over and over and over and over and over.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Seventy thousand meals in two hours love is patient, love
is kind.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Love rejoices in the truth.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
It protects, it trusts, it hopes, it perseveres.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
There are seven principles of love, and.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
When you engage in community, when you choose love, these
principles come into play as we hold hands and commune together.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
We can learn love from Jesus, Jesus who loves whether
we give up what we're.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Doing, what we have or not, God who remembers.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
And provides, and Jesus who weeps for us. Love.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Love is patient, love is kind. Love, Rejoice in the truth,
seek love, relationships, me the peace of our Lord, Jesus

(25:13):
Christ be with you all ways.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Take a moment and share that peace. Hey is frum
I agree with I Refocused Radio.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Make sure you go to in refocusradio dot com to
listen to today's episode once again, like you always say,
keep God first, stay focused in peace.
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