ThePhoebe

November 2015 Issue 5

Phoebe Defined......
page1

Mate-enance, Managing
Your Marriage
page 2

Cancer Sucks
page 3

The Mask
page 4

Phoebe Defined...
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in
the church in Cenchrea. Welcome her in the Lord as one
who is worthy of honor among Gods people. Help her in
whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many,
and especially to me. (Romans 16:1, 2 NLT)

So what's this Phoebe thing all about? Phoebe was a noted

female working along side the Apostle Paul. She proved to
be trustworthy and instrumental in the early church. The early
church suffered persecution at the hand of the Jewish people
and Roman rule. Under harsh conditions Phoebe managed
with others to do God's work; helping to save souls and take
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Just like Phoebe
of the early church, this Phoebe dares to bring the
unadulterated gospel truth to all readers, with emphasis on
women of all shades, types, ethnicities, social-economic,
secular and non-secular backgrounds. This quarterly
newsletter will prompt the reader to think introspectively and
act externally. Topics of interest will include: world views,
women's health, marriage and relationships, spirituality and
the like.
The hard truth is that daily people are dying because of poor
living conditions, being sold in the sex trade, ending
marriage prematurely and suffering from mental illness. That
list could go on, but we must breathe, and take every
moment into consideration. We must be intentional with
every step we take. We must be walking talking hope givers
to the lost and this newsletter intends to equip you with tools
to do that. We intend to keep Phoebe's legacy alive and
remain relevant in a time where authenticity and reality rarely
meet........and Purposeful Design for Women,

which is dedicated to the topic discussed in

this article, to be released in the fall 2014.

Mate-enance
Managing Your Marriage

So, I stole this title from my

Pastors who recently did a
relationship series at our church.
The Mate-enance got me
thinking about why anything we
own needs service. According to
Webster to maintain is the
process of preserving something
or someone. Now, we have
scheduled maintenance for most
everything we own. Our cars,
stoves, dryers and physical bodies
all suffer if we do not take the time
to change the oil, check the lint
trap or our blood pressures from
time to time. Tell me then why its
so hard to sustain the most
important earthly relationship we
have? Our spouses rarely get the
attention they deserve or require

Suggested
Reading:
CRASH THE CHATTERBOX:
HEARING GODS VOICE
ABOVE ALL OTHERS is life
altering. Pastor Steven is
transparent about his struggle
with listening to negative self
talk and discouragement. His
thoughts are practical and
light-hearted. You will learn to
acknowledge and overcome
the typical struggles that many
face daily.

in order to ensure positive, healthy

relationships. We will push off,
completely cancel or not even
schedule date nights or just
intimate time alone with our
spouses and then wonder why our
marriages are busted and
disgusted. We plan everything
else in our lives! Our children, our
church business and our social
lives all have a calendar. Do you
have one for your spouse? As
simplistic as this sounds, I have
an alert that goes off on my phone
three times a day to remind me to
pray for my husband. It keeps me
focussed on my main job as a
wife, which is to help him meet his
plan and purpose in life. I don't
always do what the alert tells me

to do, but I know that I am praying

more for him and us than I have in
the past.
Be intentional about your marriage
today!! Schedule your MATEENANCE now! It cant wait. Be
deliberate and conscious about
your marriage today! Marital
engines have the capacity to run
well for several thousands miles, if
you keep the oil changed. Dont
let yours burn out because you
refuse to get your tune-up!

Hebrews 13:4
Let marriage be held in honor
among all, and let the marriage bed
be undefiled, for God will judge the
sexually immoral and adulterous.
ESV

"I want my life to be a novel that

when the book is read, the
reader has one more thought of
Christ than they did before..."
Rhonda C. White

OK, I AM TIRED OF CANCER! She, it, they whatever you are; You are working my nerves!! I am
just down right angry at you. You come at the most inappropriate times. You show up
unexpectedly and overstay your visit! You are a horrible house guest, rude even; taking over
spaces, removing objects from the homeowners without permission. You are the worse part of
the most awful man and the lowest part of the most pathetic woman. You are cranky, pompous,
arrogant, snobbish, selfish, unrelenting, devious and deceptive. You stink, you are a liar, a
cheater and a thief! You rob, steal, kill and destroy. You make me sick! You make me frown and
in fact I HATE YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME CANCER?.I HATE YOU!
I am so tired of you messing with my family, my friends and my co-workers. You are all take and
no give. You are so inconsiderate, apathetic and impatient. You dont give people time to
breathe. You bring your friends like Chemo, Radiation, Biopsies, Transplants and Ectomies
with you and they stink too! They take hostages and don't accept any ransom. Sometimes your
peeps stick around for years, constantly burning, killing and ruining even the healthy house
owners where they reside. You and your boys bring their associates named Clinical Trials,
Tomoxiphen, and Zophran and all of you stay way too long. You cost your hosts millions of
dollars and you don't guarantee that you will leave once your friends stay.
Did I say you make me sick? You have been around way too long! Its fishy to me that no one
can find a cure for you. I think someone is getting paid to keep you around. You are cocky and
heartless. You stink and I need you to go! I am serving you notice. You have overstayed your
welcome and you are no longer able to stay. You are evicted and I am done playing with you!
You must LEAVE!
In the name of Jesus I cancel every assignment that you cancer have been charged
with. You can no longer sabotage my family or my friends. You must take your hands
off the lives of the people I love. You were commissioned to kill, steal and destroy lives
and I stand against you and say that your job in my life is over. You no longer can
stand, your fight here is done. I come against every symptom, every side effect, every
long term repercussion, every secondary illness and infection that you might set up in
the mighty name of Jesus. I take away your power through the Holy power of the
Jesus Christ. You no longer have authority. You are now the victim and I target you
with the weapons given to me by God and deem you powerless in the lives of people I
love. Gods Word is able to win every battle that you set up and I refuse to be afraid. I
will not fear you. I will not engage in your reckless behavior. If God be for us, you
cannot stand against us. Everything that you stole from us will be return one hundred
fold. We stand against you even in death! We will believe the report of the Lord. We
are healed from the damaged you caused. We do have victory and we are free from
your devices, now and forever more.
Amen
Psalms 30:2
James 5:15
Isaiah 53:4-5
Exodus 23:25
Psalms 41:2-3
Matthew 8:5-17

Jeremiah 17:14
Psalms 147:3
Mark 5:34
Revelation 21:4
1 Peter 2:24
Matthew 9:35

Proverbs 4:20-22
Philippians 4:19
Isaiah 41:10
Joshua 1:9
Luke 1:45
Psalms 103:1-3

THE MASK
Taylor Swift has a catchy tune out

called, Shake It Off. While I

have no idea what the song is
about exactly, I have adopted it in
terms of thinking about how I
should respond to the emotional
mask that we can so easily put on
from time to time.
You see, we are taught from very
young, to hide our emotions, to be
a big girl, to not let things get us
down, to do the opposite of how
we feel. Big girls dont cry, goes
off in my head often as I am one
of the biggest cry babies around!
While I believe parents are good
intentioned when we teach that, I
think it also backfires on us to
some degree because we actually
instill in young children that its
okay to paint a smile on and keep
it moving regardless of what is
going on inside. Being able to
control your emotions is one
thing, but way too many of us
hide behind the mask that we
think everyone wants to see and
end up not ever addressing the
internal truths that prevent us
from moving forward. Whether we

admit it or not because of the

mask, we set up hypocritical,
schizophrenic, wishy washy type
thinking. And while everyone
thinks on the outside that all is
well, our insides are falling down
slowly, but surely. There has got
to be a better way to maintain our
emotions without lying to
ourselves about how we feel.
Yes, there are absolute times
when we need to conceal and
contain our emotions, however
there is NEVER a time when we
should compromise how we feel
to ourselves or our God. Address
your true emotions in private if
you must, but address them. You
aren't hiding from yourself or God.
Take the mask off and be your
genuine self to yourself. When
you do this God is able to address
your emotional needs and help
you process and conquer them.
So shake off the mask and get
free of your hypocritical thinking!
SHAKE IT OFF!
Hebrews 12:1

Rhonda C. White is the independently published author

of the novel, Joshuas Coming, (amazon.com) an
inspirational story of a couples struggle with infertility
and wounds from the past. This story is loosely based
on the authors life. She is currently working on books
entitled, The Daddy Void, Discovering the Creative and
Purposeful Design for Woman and How to Change Your
Husband in 30 Days. She is a devoted wife of 17 years
and mother of a remarkable 8-year old daughter. She
serves at Christian Life Center in Tinley Park, Illinois in
the Childrens, Married Couples and Counseling
Ministries. She works as an adjunct professor at Morton
College and is a school district Physical Therapist. Visit

her website at: rhondaw897.wix.com/rhondacwhite

Contact the author for engagements at:
thedaddyvoidproject@gmail.com.