Inside This Issue:

 Welcome

 Who is New Beginnings 

 What’s New-

       January 2010 Feature Article-

       Monthly Fitness Tips-

       Monthly Physical Fitness Article-

       Team News/Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

       What Have you Been Reading?

             Book Recommendation

             Your Recommendations Related to the Monthly Topic

 Upcoming Events-

 Reminders-Church Link    

 Word of Encouragement

 New Beginnings Scripture for January

 Our Mission Statement

Welcome to the New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries family. We consider it a privilege to support your fitness efforts. We welcome your suggestions and ideas, so please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your experience with the monthly newsletter, website, weekly messages or message board more beneficial. We can be contacted at contactus@mynewtemple.org. It is our prayer to bring you words of encouragement and inspiration to motivate you to become fit physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. This is your New Beginning and we want to make it an awesome experience for you. As you begin this new adventure we are praying for you.

 Who are we?

New Beginnings is a fitness ministry established in 2003 to offer a holistic approach to fitness that includes mind, body and spirit. A fitness ministry also serves to help people help themselves through physical and spiritual exercise. At New Beginnings we believe good health is a gift from God and can be obtained by following biblical principles as we lead a balanced life physically, mentally, spiritually and relationally.

 What’s New?

Don’t miss the “Start the Year Off Right Conference Call with The Fitness Angel!
    When: Sunday, January 10, 2010
    8pm Phoenix, AZ time (7pm PST, 9pm CST, 10pm EST)
Conference call Sign in information:
    Dial In Number-1-605-475-6333 
    Participant Sign In Code-354260

(This is a very important event, so invite your friends and family)
(Weekly conference calls are a service provided by Just Like Me Fitness www.justlikemefitness.com - Carroll Roberts, Founder and Personal Trainer)

 Monthly Feature Article-

To Trust Again!

  By Angela Willingham

If you have ever been involved in any kind of relationship you have had to forgive somebody. Maybe they betrayed you by getting involved in a relationship with someone else. Maybe they betrayed your confidence or hurt you in some other way. Maybe it was a parent that gave you up for adoption or just wasn’t there for you when you needed them. Maybe it was a lie that was told and for some reason you are struggling with giving that person the opportunity to do that to you again.

I know you have heard the saying fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. That is obviously a worldly answer not a biblical one. The bible is full of forgiveness stories. The greatest forgiveness story of all is the forgiveness that each of us who received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior receives.

Consider this. God knows everything that we are going to do, before we do it and when we come to Him requesting forgiveness, He forgives us. How can I forgive like that? Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but when they needed him, he forgave them and gave them what they needed, he took care of them in spite of what they had done to him. What is this saying to you and I? If Jesus and Joseph wanted to fulfill the purpose and plan that God had for them forgiveness was necessary and it is also necessary for each one of us.

I find myself at a crossroads. The Lord has revealed His will for my life, He has made it clear that there are some conditions that need to be met and one of those conditions is to let go of the past, to trust again. I have to stop trying to protect myself and let Him do it. I have to trust that the people He has placed in my life may have made mistakes dealing with me in the past, just like I made mistakes dealing with them and others, but they do have my best interest at heart.

So here is the question-What do you do when mistakes have been made and trust has been negatively impacted? Do you start all over with the same parent, business partner, spouse or friend or do you abort the mission? They messed up before. They let you down before. They left you hanging before. What do you do now? What do you do when God has given you clear direction that this is His purpose and plan for your life and it just does not look right to you, based on what has happened?

What do you do when your education and experience say you should be doing this or that, but you are not in control, and your business or ministry partner can’t see it and won’t do it, they won’t or don’t appear to be listening? What do you do when God has been clear that He did not give this to you, your role is to follow, encourage and support? If you are a child and this is your relationship with your parent you should be able to relate to what I am saying. Everybody knows parents are in charge. If you are a wife and you are a Christian you might be able to relate also, because the Word of God makes the man the head of the wife. If this is your spouse and you know God called you into this marriage you know what I am saying.

Well this was business/ministry and God had placed me in a very vulnerable position, a position that I was not accustomed to and He expected me to complete the task.

If you are me, you stay in position. You go back to work with the partner God gave you and you trust God to work through every issue and circumstance.

No it will not be easy, but God is building something in each one of you. You don’t know what He is doing in the other person, focus on what He is doing in you. The ministry and business were almost aborted, but God knows what he was doing and they survived. Many people have come and gone, but the core is what He wants the core to be. He intends it for good that many lives may be saved. He knew my business/ministry partner and I would have some issues with each other, that was all part of the plan. His plan to teach us to show love to those we come in contact with and to strengthen us for when the greater works need to be done. My gifts and strength would be placed in the shadow of the leader He chose to place over me and my humility had to grow to accept it. It was not about who knew the most or had the most experience.

It was about being obedient to God and submitting to His will. I wish I could tell you I got everything right but the truth is that I did not. I wish I could tell you I did not try to submit my resignation every other week, but the truth is I probably did. It became a joke some days. The truth is there were times when emotions led to division, but I am grateful that God did not give up on either one of us.

The enemy brought distractions that led to division. There were many nights I found myself working on the project alone, but even in that God was trying to teach me something, not to force my will, not to try to find a place for myself. There are days when I don’t know my role and God is teaching me that I have to trust Him even in that. Those of us who are accustomed to being in corporate America have to have a role (job title) and job description or we can’t function. All God wants from me is for me to trust Him and use the gifts He has given me.

When we started building this ministry at God’s direction 8 years ago, I had no idea what it would entail. I thought I had it together. I believed that my deliverance had been secured already and I was straight enough not to get into anything else.

Little did I know that the very thing God was building this ministry on was my trusting Him in spite of new hurt and new misunderstandings that I as yet had not even experienced. Little did I know that what He would require of me was more, more sacrifice, more hurt and more life experience. More trust. Anyone that knows God in an intimate way is probably saying, “girl you had to know”, but the truth is that I did not. One of my sisters once told me, “God would not allow you to go through as much as He has or prepare you as much as He has for something small”. I did not know the rollercoaster ride that I would go on for God to get me to the place He has me in right now. The things that I thought to be betrayals were really just the tools and experiences God was using to prepare me for a greater level of ministry.

Little did I know that my very life and life experiences would be required of me and that the scripture we used for our Temple Time exercise class was going to be one of my theme scriptures 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. My experiences are not my own. They belong to God. They are the testimony of what He can do with a life that is given to Him. They are the experiences that will be used to help walk another sister through the things I have had to experience.

Over the last week, I have felt like I was going crazy, still fighting and not realizing I was fighting the very will of God. Thinking the problem was someone else and having to realize the problem was me, my disobedience, my will and my desire to protect myself. I have been hearing the Lord say in more ways than one trust me. I thought I had, but when it became clear that the arguments I had been having were based on a lack of trust, I had to repent.

If you are like me you don’t always get it so sometimes God has to send someone to hit you over the head in a gentle and loving way. Some one who will know nothing about you or your situation but can speak the truth, a word from the Lord in love (Ephesians 4:15). I was struggling. Fighting against the very person God put in my life for me to work with. Watching my ministry partner work to resolve issues when at every turn or appearance of adversity, I was willing to quit and said so. I wanted to stop my attitude and actions, but not knowing how. Thinking I was the victim in it all and still trying to protect myself.

God sent a beloved sister in the Lord from Facebook.

Yes, I said Facebook. You have to know that God can use whomever He wants to use, when He wants to use them. God owns everything including Facebook.

A sister I had never met, but those of you that are familiar with Facebook know how it works. You see someone with something that interests you and you send a friend request. I am on Facebook to network. Identify other people that are going the same way I am going in ministry, in relationship with the Lord and people I have known in the past. I saw the face of Prophetess Tina Campbell. At the time I did not know she was a prophetess. I saw her robe and assumed she was in ministry. (You know this really was not about me, but about the divine appointment that God had established for me.)

I sent a friend request. She responded with more than a confirmation. She responded with a request that I call her when I had time, she had a Word for me from the Lord. I did call this vessel of the Lord and she spoke to my situation, she spoke to my spirit. She made it clear to me what the real problem was and the very things I was struggling with were cleared up. She told me God had showed her I had a wall up. The final comment was that I had to let go of the past, put it on the back burner to move into the thing that God had for me.

For me that meant I had to let go of the hurt from the past. I had to trust again. Two days later I read a devotional that said something about being gun-shy. If you don’t know what that means, it means afraid, distrustful. That was me. I had been hurt. I had let my guard down, trusted again and I did not want to let that happen any more. While I believed that the people that hurt me may have intended it for evil, God didn’t. He intended it for my good. He intended it for me to grow into the beautiful butterfly He intended for me to be physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. He intended it for my good and His glory in ministry to others that were going through .

My son’s father brought me a word too. In discussing my vulnerability and never having had to follow a man’s decisions in this way, he said, “what did you do before”? I said I followed God and he said, “keep doing that, follow God.” The truth is that if I am following God and God has placed this man in authority over me in business I am following God. My flesh is what is fighting. My flesh is fighting submission to his God given authority.

The truth is that I had been tripped up by a lie. The lie between my friend and I really did exist, it happened, but it was not enough to stop the work God had given us to do and it was not enough to claim or destroy our friendship, so what was the issue? Why was it still wreaking havoc in our lives? The truth is it was still a problem because I allowed it to be a problem.

After talking to the prophetess, reading a few more devotionals and readings that God strategically placed in front of me to get my attention, and most importantly talking to God I realized there was a trust issue. The trust issue was between He and I, not my friend and I. I would never be able to trust anyone if I did not first trust God. I had to trust that God put this person in my life, it was not something I chose. I had to trust that God had entrusted a friendship to us and also a ministry and all the drama and nonsense that had occurred was just the enemies way of trying to stop the work and will of God. My emotions were trying to destroy everything and isn’t that the way of the enemy, to get us caught up in nonsense?

I don’t know about you but I am so tired of the roller coaster. I want to see what God said come to pass. I shared with my business/ministry partner and friend that I was struggling with trust. I apologized for my bad behavior, the constant arguments. I shared that I was fighting with him because I was trying to protect myself, because I did not think he had my best interest at heart. His response was that yes, I do have your best interest at heart. The truth is that if he had said nothing, it is more important that God has my best interest at heart and this is where He has chosen to place me.

Maybe you are experiencing some issues of lack of trust because of something that has happened in the past. I want to encourage you to Trust God. We cannot trust anyone until we get it right with Him. We have to allow Him to operate through us.

The only way I will be able to trust again is to allow God to do it. There are a couple of things I have to do:

1. Trust God. Proverbs 3:5-6:
2. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
3. Get my mind right. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
4. 3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 [a]We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
5. Identify the reason behind it. Genesis 50:20:
   20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
6. Leave the end result to God. Romans 8:28:
   28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

If you like me find yourself in a place where you find it difficult to keep going, to trust again, be honest about it. You cannot fake your way through it and you cannot pretend as though that is not how you really feel, because God already knows. He is waiting for you to come to Him with the truth. Being able to forgive is difficult, whether it be forgiving someone else or forgiving yourself, but if you want to fulfill your purpose and do what God has called you to do it must be done.

Hold on to the scripture in Philippians 4:13: 13 For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength. On your own you cannot do it and neither can I. You can see that on my own I could not even recognize what my mess was, but I am grateful that God saw fit to love me enough, first to use me for this assignment and second to want to see me healed. The next step is mine. I have to decide to let it go and move on and so do you.

 Scripture:

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

For further discussion contact Angela at contactus@mynewtemple.org or write to us on the message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html

 Monthly Fitness Tip-

Do something different. If you are starting the new year off in the same or worse condition than you did last year, and you are serious about a change, you only have one option. Do something different. Whether you are talking about your physical, spiritual, emotional or relational fitness this tip applies. Stop talking about it and be about it. Do something different. Check out the January 1, 2010 Fitness Angel Get Fit Newsletter or one of our fitness websites if you need some suggestions on your physical fitness. If you need spiritual, relational or emotional help, check out our website www.mynewtemple.org. Check out the podcasts, articles, newsletters and the message board to see if what you are looking for is there. Start with your relationship with God. He can work out all of your other relationships.

Join one of our new website communities www.mynbfitnesscommunity.com for free or www.justlikemefitness.com for a small monthly fee.!


Check out the New Beginnings Message Board for more tips that will benefit you under the Physical Fitness Category. www.mynewtemple.org. If you would like to add your own tips and suggestions please feel free to do so. If you have forgotten your password submit a request to have it sent to you or reset through the message board sign in screen.

As always we encourage you to see a physician before beginning any exercise program. Take the first step by getting up and doing something to take care of your most valuable resource, Your Health.

 Monthly Physical Fitness Article-

New, New Years Resolution for 2010!

Check out the website www.justlikemefitness.com

Your Fitness Angel

27 Fitness and Weight Loss Tips
It's New Year's Day, and you have a clean slate, an opportunity to start over.

I don't know if you are one to make New Year's Resolutions or not, but if you are I am going to repeat the message I sent to you on December 26:
Make this the last year that you make your new years resolution to lose weight and get in shape. Make this the last year you use these reasons;

• I want to look good in this dress or these jeans
• I have to look good for this wedding or social event
• I have to look good for my high school reunion
• Somebody told me they thought I was pregnant (men and women)
• I can hide this with a girdle
• This year make it the year you stop giving yourself insignificant and absurd reasons to lose weight. Let's look at some reasons that make sense;
• I want to live longer and feel better
• I want to see my kids grow up and have families of their own
• I want to prevent dreadful diseases from attacking my body
• I want to look younger and healthier
• I want to live to reach retirement and be healthy enough to enjoy it

You know I could make this list go on forever with positive reasons to take care of your health, but I think you get my point.

You are not in this by yourself. That is why I am here. Use the resources on my site Just Like Me Fitness www.justlikemefitness.com (videos, message boards, daily journal), use me, to assist you in reaching your weight loss goals so next year you will not make this same new years resolution. Look at it as investing in a life insurance policy, that will pay dividends to you today and not just your heirs after you are gone!
Just to give you some additional help making this a reality, here are 27 Fitness and Weight Loss Tips to get you on the right track for this New Year:

1. Visualize the accomplishment of your goals each and every day. Experience the taste of success and feel that sweet satisfaction. If you cannot see it, it won't be real to you.
2. Push the intensity of your workouts. Don't kill time, just so you can say you did it, make it count, burn calories by maintaining a challenging intensity. When you feel like you just can't do one more rep, push through and do it. Remember no pain, no gain. My group exercise participants say, Beauty is Pain!
3. Use smaller plates at home and don't go back for seconds. This effortlessly reduces calorie intake and promotes weight loss. How does it work? It does not allow you to overfill a big plate and feel the need to eat everything that is on it. Your portions are limited.
4. Build accountability into your workouts so that you resist the temptation to take days off. The best way to ensure accountability is to work with a personal trainer either one-on-one or in a group training setting. If neither of these is feasible find a workout partner who is trying to reach goals of their own, so they know what it takes and encourage each other.
5. Believe in yourself. Know with conviction that you CAN accomplish your goals and surround yourself with others that believe in you also.
6. Drink water throughout your day. Do this by carrying a water bottle and opting for water rather than calorie-filled beverages. This simple action is extremely beneficial. You would be surprised at how many calories you can cut from your diet by getting rid of soda and sugary drinks.
7. Maintain your metabolism by eating a healthy snack or meal every three hours. This food should be unprocessed, low in fat and high in fiber. You have to eat to lose weight, but what you eat is important.
8. Don't be afraid to ask for help. That is why I am here, to help.
9. Incorporate High Intensity Interval Training into your cardio workouts by performing bursts of high intensity rather than exercising at a single steady pace. Walk, then jog, sprint or run. It gets your body moving and keeps it from getting accustomed to the same old thing. I promise it will get your heartrate up and burn calories.
10. It's not about will-power, it's about want-power. You have to want it. Do you want it?
11. Do not eat processed foods. These items are high in empty calories and contain a plethora of chemicals that are harmful to your health. If this is a big change for you, I want you to at least start cutting back. I promise you will see a change.
12. Stop talking about losing weight. Start doing it. Establish your program for eating and exercise and start working toward it. If you need help go to my website www.justlikemefitness.com or contact me carroll@justlikemefitness.com again that is why I am here.
13. Fat contains twice the caloric density of carbohydrates and protein, so limit the amount that you consume. Fill your diet with lean protein and carbohydrates from plants and whole grains.
14. Be wary of products that are labeled as ‘health food'. Always read the nutrition labels. You would be surprised at how much false advertising there really is.
15. Find a workout partner who is in better shape than you, or better yet work with a personal trainer to guarantee dramatic results. I am telling you I can help you.
16. Make a habit out of reading nutrition labels. Avoid items that are high in fat and carbohydrates, even if they do claim to be healthy.
17. Destroy negative self talk. Many people defeat themselves because they are always saying what they can't do or what they didn't do. They can't eat right, they can't exercise, I tried this before or worse yet they make jokes about themselves. Put an end to that in 2010 and don't look back. Yes, you can, Yes, we can. I can encourage you. I want to encourage you.

Visit one of our fitness websites to see the newsletter in its entirety or to signup to get it sent to your personal e-mail address. www.mynbfitnesscommunity.com or www.justlikemefitness.com. (Newsletter dated January 1, 2010).

 New Beginnings Team News-

Congratulations to Shawn Goodall (our photographer and videographer) and his fiance’ Kim Graham. They will be getting married Saturday, January 23. God has been the matchmaker in their relationship in every way. They are an example to all of what it is to really allow God to put it together, because when He does it, it is right. We look forward to interviewing the happy couple after the wedding of course. Please accept our best wishes and prayers as you prepare to start this new life together.

Love and Blessings from
Your Family and Friends at New Beginnings

 What Have You Been Reading?

Minister Angela just read, God Meant It For Good by RT Kendall

For those of you that don't know she has been stuck on the story of Joseph in Genesis for a very long time. I saw how much he went through and how he ended up. If you have never read it I encourage you to get your bible out and read it (Genesis Chapters 37-50). We have all gone through some things that just don't make sense. At the end of Joseph's story he told his brothers, "you intended it for evil but God meant it for good." It is hard to understand the full meaning of that. Who could believe someone doing something with the intent to hurt or harm you and God having it all as part of the plan? At least it was a little difficult for me. I took the time to read this book by RT Kendall and it makes sense to me now. There is not reason for us to be upset or discouraged by the things that happen when we can put it in perspective.

Check out the book and let me know what you think. It had a huge impact on clarifying some things for me and I hope it will do the same for you.

Many of you have read some awesome books that have really ministered to you, spiritually, emotionally, relationally or physically. Let us know what you have been reading by writing to us on the message board. Your recommendations might help someone else. Please let us know if you have read some good Christian fiction as well. Many of those books have awesome messages contained within them and we want to encourage people to grow spiritually any way they can.

Let us know what you have been reading by writing to us on the message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html or sending us a message at contactus@mynewtemple.org.

 Book/Bible Study Blog

Feel free to write about books you have read or to comment on the ones the New Beginnings Team suggests by going to our message board.

 Upcoming Events-

Watch for-

My NB Fitness Community (www.mynbfitnesscommunity.com) ads in the Generation Health AZ Magazine. Generation Health is a Phoenix based magazine with a focus on health issues. www.generationhealthaz.com Check it out and find articles about Phoenix visitors and residents, like Ali Vincent from “The Biggest Loser” and Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals.

A Relational Focus-Watch for upcoming podcasts and articles focused on our relationships, beginning with our relationship with God. If we get our relationship with God right our other relationships will also be better.

If you have suggestions for upcoming articles or New Beginnings content please write to us at contactus@mynewtemple.org.

 New Beginnings Reminders-

The Fitness Angel’s Fitness Community and Newsletter-
You can create your own personal free account and sign up for the bi-monthly newsletter. Remember the newsletter is only a help to you if you open it so we encourage you to open it and read the articles that are included. If you have a spam filter on your e-mail account your copy of the newsletter may have been blocked. Check your spam folder and then set up the Get Fit Newsletter in your mailbox so you can receive it bi-monthly uninterrupted. Remember it is free, so don’t keep it to yourself. www.mynbfitnesscommunity.com or if you need more check out the paid site www.justlikemefitness.com.

Church Link-
We have added a couple of churches to our church link. Please take the time to check it out and see if yours is there. If it is not already listed add it to our list by clicking the link below. Is there a church near you that does an outstanding job of promoting spiritual, emotional, relational and physical fitness? If you're looking for a church, check here to see if our members have recommended one near you. If you know of a church that should be on our list, please add it to our list.

If you want to ask for additional information or would like to have some one from our team contact you regarding the churches on our church link contact us at churchlink@mynewtemple.org.

 Word of Encouragement-

2010 has begun. In a devotional by Bishop Eddie Long, there is a story of a man who said that he wore sunglasses all of the time. When asked why he always wore sunglasses he said it was because his future was so bright. 2009 might not have been the best year for you, but 2010 is opening with new promise. You may have been rejected, but you are still here and God is still very much in control.

 To each of you, we want to say, Get your sunglasses.

 New Beginnings Scripture for January 2010

Psalm 118:17-24:

 17 I will not die; instead, I will live to tell what the Lord has done. 18 The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die. 19 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord. 20 These gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. 21 I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory! 22 The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. 24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

 Our Mission Statement

Our Mission is to draw individuals to Jesus Christ through the Ministry of Holistic Fitness and to see the Body of Christ become fit in all areas by providing tools and information to empower you to succeed. New Beginnings is dedicated to helping you gain personal, spiritual, physical, mental and relational fitness by developing the courage and confidence necessary to set and achieve goals based on biblical principles. Most people encounter difficulty reaching goals, sticking with a diet or completing a task by trying to make an outward change without having made any inward spiritual changes. In other words, all improvements in your life begin with a change in your mind and spirit.

New Beginnings Contact Information-

Mailing Address: 5130 W. Baseline #117, PMB# 224, Laveen, AZ 85339

Contact us at contactus@mynewtemple.org or on our message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html

  To view previous monthly newsletters click here