Specially For You

Here you are winding down another years end.

You are probably getting into gear with plans for the new year ahead.

Did you know that God has a plan already prepared for you specially?

His plan includes perfect timing, accomplishments, challenges and test designed just for you.

These all work together to shape and mold you into the person you were created to be.

With your own plans, you don't quite work in the occasional curve balls that you yourself, someone or something else throws at you.

These curve balls however are only curve balls to you and I

God had an already custom designed plan with curve balls included, that he made specially for you.

His plan includes everything necessary to chisel away, smooth out, and buildup, so that you may be developed into the person with a purpose for which you were created.

Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God's plan for your life was specially designed for you.

Seek the Lord's direction that he may lead you according to His plan and purpose for your life.

His plan is specially designed for  you and includes; perfect timing, accomplishments, challenges and test, designed to develop the true you.



He Is An Awesome God That Loves You

I think we all have a tendency to forget who we stand before

when we worship God, when we are petitioning Him in prayer,

when we are talking to our wonderful Lord. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, The Great I Am, The Holy One and so much more.

Yet we get star struck when we are in the presence of famous people, who are simply that; people who are well known for a job they do.

If we were to meet these people face to face we want to look and act our best.

Going to buy new attire, take a visit to the barber or beautician to get our hair fixed up nicely, have our makeup on just right, being on our best behavior.

Yet when we stand in the presence of the Lord God almighty, we don't give as much attention to ourselves, or how we present ourselves to Him,  nor do we offer the best of ourselves.

Why?

Maybe it's because as we see and experience  the many wonderful things around us,

we take them for granted.

We think they are simply things that have been and will always be, and so we don't take the time to appreciate them.

I am sure we have all been guilty of this, but some  even more than others.

We also take one another for granted, not showing our love and or appreciation for each other until someone is gone.

We often treat our own lives in  the same manner, until something devastating or drastic happens that makes us look at life differently, with a real appreciation.

It is my desire to take time to reflect and appreciate the goodness of God more in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years to ahead.

Let's purpose to slow down and enjoy the life that God in all of is awesome magnificence

has planned and purposed for us.

Psalm 8:4"What is mankind that  you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?"

This wonderful God cares and has you on His mind.

 

 



Please Don't Hurt Me With Your Words

Today as I sat meditating on the word of God,

I thought about how our words can have such impact on those we speak them to or about.

When positive words are spoken to or about someone.

Those positive words spoken can bring a turn-around, cheer one up,

build confidence, motivate one to greatness.

In like manner, when words of negativity are spoken,

those words can tear-down, frustrate, shatter hope, destroy a life.

Proverbs 18;21"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

We hear time and time again just how true this scripture is,

when we listen to stories of bullying, and verbal abuse that goes on in individuals lives.

Words that drive some individuals to a point where they don't want the pain inflicted by the negative words of others.

 Sometimes those negative words become the victims own words,

 after they've had it embedded in their minds by others.

Words can at times cause deeper wounds than a physical injury.

Physical injury can be something that happens and hurts for a while but the pain begins to subside

and you forget all about the injury.

Harsh words can be like a piercing through the heart,

that keeps bleeding and the pain seems to have no end.

The following scripture is great food for thought and should be apart of all of our daily prayer,

Psalm 141:3"set a guard over my mouth, Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips."

We can all at times have a bit of loose lips, saying things we should not say,

to others or about others, or even about ourselves sometimes.

Let's go into the new year giving greater attention to what we let go out of our mouths.

Are we speaking things that we want to give life to?

If not, zip it.

 



Think Differently

We all at times get caught up in wrong thinking.

When people say things to us or about us that we may have never thought

about ourselves, we can get thrown into a negative mindset if we take those words to heart.

This often is the source of self-esteem issues.
The individual has taken negative words spoken to or about them to hear.

A patient gets a diagnosis from the doctor,

and begins to research the illness and out come,

they listen to what  others are saying about their experience with the illness.

Isn't it amazing how the words of others can greatly affect our thoughts?

Why is it, we often do not allow the words of A Mighty God

  have that same if not greater affect on our thinking?

This is a demonstration of the power of the tongue (words from our mouth)

Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death."

This is why it is so important to watch what we let come out of our mouths.

We either speak things that will help build up or tear down.
 Words spoken, good or bad, are planted into the soil of our hearts.

What seeds have you planted in another's or  your own garden? 

Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."

 

The Angels Are Waiting

One Sunday as I sat in the pews of the church singing songs of praise to the Lord

as the choir also sang, I sat with my eyes closed and mind on the Lord to whom I sang.

I suddenly lift my head and opened my eyes, only to see the heavens opened above.

I looked in absolute amazement at what I saw, and it was beautiful.

In the distance I could see illuminating light, which I believe was the throne of God, with angels dancing and singing all around. 

There was also a great number of angels mounted on horses that encircled the whole expanse as far as I could see.

One appearing to be a commanding chief, approached a group of angels that were to my right and appeared to give commands, sending those receiving the command off in urgency.

I than heard a still small voice that said " It is the prayer of a prayer warrior, warring in the spirit that has summoned the angels for battle.

This is what happens when you pray."

James 5:16"...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

It is according to our prayers, that we summon the angels to action, and the angel t1at is summoned is contingent on the prayer offered up. For it is written in Psalms 91:11"For He gives His angels charge over you,

 To keep you in all your ways."

As it was demonstrated to me here, when we are doing battle in the spirit, we summons warring angels for battle.

Ephesians 6:12"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places."

 

 

I Am Saying I Love You

We at times look at situations that we face as negative, and see no possibility of any thing good coming of the situation.

We examine it from all angles, talk about it to other people, stress over it, and still see no way out.

We look and wait expecting the worse, than suddenly something amazing happens.

That amazing is Jesus, who shows up and turns the situation around and than He speaks to you.

" I have been here waiting for you to talk to me about this situation. I intervened on your behalf to show you that I love you and care about everything that concerns you.

I have promised never to leave you, nor forsake you (Deut.31:6)

You may not see a way, but I am a way maker.

Don't lean to your own understanding, but trust me (Prov.3:5)

If the reason you are in this situation is due to your own mistakes, I am here to let you know where you went wrong, and bring correction so that you are able to get back on track (2Tim.3:16)

No matter how it seems to you, I want you to know that I am working on your behalf so that there will be some good that comes of this situation, if but to teach you the proper way, or to trust me. I am always looking to do things in a way that benefits you. (Rom.8:26)

Remember that I love you."



Giving Hope And Glory

As we are in the season of giving.

We each have a wonderful gift of hope to give another.

Every storm we have faced in life and gotten through, is by God's grace and mercy.

Share those testimony's with other's of your not just going, but getting through, giving another hope.

Those testimonies will also be opportunities to give glory to God, of all the wonderful things He has done in your life.

Will you GIVE?

Through New Eyes

I am sure that many of us can say we have tried many times to do the right thing. We have our minds made up and look to our will power to help us, but no matte how hard we seem to try we fail.

Romans 8:14-15" For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I don not practice, but what I hate, that I do."

Praise God, we don't have to rely on our own will power, when we serve a SUPERNATURAL GOD who is able to do that which seems to natural man  to be impossible.

2Corinthians 5:17"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away behold, all things have become new."

Instead of looking to will power, we can to look to God to help us with our areas of weakness.

In this world there are those who look at the life of an individual,and sees no earthly good, making it's own determination and labels that life useless to our society.

This all being based on the individuals background, appearance, mistakes, failures, education, gender, social and or economic status and so forth.

God said in Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was good and He approved it completely, and there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day."

God looks at the inner man that He created, that is good, the true man hidden under all the junk, the goo that the world has covered and filled him with.  God see's the value and usefulness of all that He has created. He sees the truth that is beheld only through spiritual eyes, seeing beyond the superficial layers that the world views, and can only see.

Let us pray to see through Spiritual eyes, that we may see value and potential in one another and not just see problems.

 

 

Blessed To Be A Blessing

I am quite sure you have heard the saying "blessed to be a blessing"

This is truly what God does in each of our lives.

Everything he does is always bigger and better than what we ask or think.

We should be more thankful to God for how he has blessed us time and time again.

If we were to sit back and think of his multitude of blessings in our lives, I am quite

confident that we will notice a pattern with God,

as he has blessed us there have been others who have benefit from that blessing.

Ephesians 3:20"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think..."

Isn't this awesome? when you look to God as the source of your provision, you can count on him to answer in a big way.

No, it may not be in the way you expect, but it will be better than you expect.

Think about the difficulties he's brought you through, and think about those with whom you have shared the story of those difficulties and  how God saw you through.

He blessed you so that you could share that testimony of his goodness, so the hearer of your testimony would be blessed.

If God has blessed you in your business, ministry, finances or any other area he does so out of love and wants you do the same and share the blessing.

From now on when God blesses you in any area, look and see who is blessed by that blessing that God has bestowed on you, and look and see how another's blessing has blessed your life.

His blessings are wonderful gifts that keep on giving.



Danger Of Festering Anger

Yes we see and experience a lot of injustice in the world, and yes we get angry about the injustice.

Yet it is written in Ephesians 4:26 "be angry, and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath."

We are instructed to not allow anger to sit up and fester, becoming something nasty and ugly, which is what happens when anger is left alone to feed on angry words and thoughts. It gives way to angry, hateful actions.

This is just the type of opportunity the enemy, Satan, looks for so that he may use his now angry victim to reap havoc, and cause an snowball effect of devastation.

He uses anger left to fester, causing people to commit all types of horrific crimes, and sinful deeds,  leaving many victims.

The person with the unresolved anger, the recipient of their anger, and the loved ones who are left trying to pickup  the shattered pieces of  lives damaged by this

festering anger.

We have a choice in the matter of anger.

We can either control it or allow anger to control us.

We can also carry all that concerns, or bothers us to the Lord, including our  issues of anger.

Psalm55:22 "cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you, He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."

God will repay the injustice done toward  you.

Deuteronomy 32:35 " Vengeance is mine and recompense, their foot shall slip in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them."

How Did We Get Here?

We look around and see so much hate.

Where is the love and care for our fellow man?

Where is the brotherly and sisterly love God commands of us?

We see hate being addressed with more hate, which produces even greater hate.

Reaping and sowing applies to every area of our lives.

If we sow hate, it is hate that we shall reap and  like wise if we sow love than love we shall reap.

Just as if we were to sow apples, we would reap apples and so forth.

Is there anyone committed to sowing love?

Instead we find ourselves here, 2Timothy 3;2-4"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
If this does not sum up where we are today than I don't know what does.
We have a government more interested in power, money, and status than they are the lives of the people they claim to represent.
We live in a society where God is continuously pushed out of our lives, and replaced with man's wicked, selfish, deceptive ideas and plans.
The more distance we put between the creator of the universe and ourselves, we can only expect it to get worse.
The more we get away from his plans of order, the more we will experience disorder.
It is time for the body of Christ to wakeup from being religious,
and start being the righteousness of God.
It's time for us to stop being cowards of political correctness,
and start being the bold and courageous lions we were created anew to be.
Then we would find ourselves in a different place than where we are now,
wondering how did we get here?
It's time to move from this place of unrighteousness.



Looking For An Answer

There are times you come to a place where a decision must be made.

You assess the situation and pray for God's direction.

Sometimes in that prayer you ask God to answer in a way that seems reasonable to you.

God in his infinite wisdom, grace and love often has his own way in which to answer.

You wait expectantly for the answer and when the answer presents it's self in a way other than what you expected,

 you feel that either God has not answered your prayer, so now you make our own decision, or you really had your mind made up to do what you wanted all along, but somehow thought if would be best to get God to agree with you.

Whichever the thought process, you have gone our own way.

You may not have realized his silence was the answer to wait, the time was not yet right, or simply that God had an answer that you in your limited knowledge, and understanding had not anticipated.

Whichever the case , it is always best to trust God even when we don't understand his reasoning.

God is never caught off guard, he has never had nor will he ever have a "wow I never saw that coming."  moment,  He knows the beginning and the end of everything.

This is why we can trust him with all our heart, even when we don't understand the details, acknowledge that he knows what is best, and allow him to direct you to what is best.

When we make this a way of life.

We will find ourselves truly living in peace.

For out side of his peace is stress and worry which takes from the life,

that he sent his Son Jesus to give to us.



An Instant Society Wants Instant Christianity

We have become a society that wants everything instantly.

We don't want to wait for anything.

We want instant cocoa, instant oatmeal, microwave meals to speed up cooking, fast food restaurants so we can get a quick bite to eat, we use our fax machines, computers, and mobile phones so we can send and receive information instantly.

We get angry and have road rage if  pedestrians have not made it across the street when our light turns green.

We are angry if someone ahead of us is driving the speed limit, but we want them to go faster so we can get to our destination instantly.

We have gotten to a point that if things are not done instantly we get upset, frustrated, stressed, or just down right mad.

Why are we in such a hurry?

We don't care to do anything that requires time and patients, for we have none.

We want what we want and we want it NOW!

Generally speaking, anything worth while takes time, and requires a process.

When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior,

we have made a decision to allow him not only to help us, but to take us through a process.

Most of us don't realize that this is what we are agreeing to, when we accept Christ, but in fact, that is exactly what we are doing.

This process of transformation, like many other processes, take time and patience, and requires  commitment.

Are you committed to allowing the Lord to take you through and help you through the Christian Life Process?

It won't be easy, nor instant, but It will be well worth it.

James 1;2-4"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have it's perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."



Unlearing vs Learning

There is always those who feel it quite challenging to learn new things,

but have you ever considered how challenging it is to unlearn bad teaching?

The difficulties one has to unlearn bad habits that have been picked up along life's journey

and etched into a persons character over a coarse of years?

If we really take time and think about a new life in Christ,  living as a  true child of God,

does that present itself as being quite challenging?

We have all been taught the worlds way of dealing with and responding to things of this world.

The worlds view and God's view are through completely different eyes, and are contrary to one another.

The world way's and God's ways are in opposition to one another.

The worlds way of dealing with someone who has wronged you, is to get them back.

God's way is to forgive them.

The worlds way of dealing with difficult people is avoid them, ignore them, speak badly of them or to them.

God's way is to pray for them, love them and not return wrong with wrong.

The worlds view of money, is the more you get the more you have to spend to get nicer or more things, the happier you will be.

God's view is, the more money you have, the more you are able to give to helping others, the more you share and help others the happier and more blessed you will be.

We have all been taught the worlds way of managing life,  but as a child of God we are to let go, to unlearn the old, and open ourselves to learning a new way of living, A Godly way of living.

2Corinthians 5:17"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.

Are you up for a challenge, unlearning v.s. learning challenge?

That you may learn to live more Christ like.



Do We Bring Out The Best In Each Other?

When you are choosing who to let in your inner circle as a friend,

Do you ever consider what you and that person bring into each others circle?

Do either of you bring baggage of negativity?

How about drama of situations & relationships?

Do either of you bring gossip, and back biting?

If your answer is yes to any of the above, and you are not the one bringing it, 

Are you strong enough to bring them out of the negativity, drama, gossip or whatever it maybe that weighs on a friendship.

Either way, if your relationship with a person does not bring out the best in them, and vice versa, is the relationship any good for either of you?

Maybe on up the road, as you grow stronger in confidence, knowing who you truly are, you will have an opportunity to really impact that persons life in a positive way.

As you seek the Lord through his word, your mind should constantly go through renewing.

With your renewed mind, you have change in your thoughts, which brings about change in your actions.

As you continue this renewing process of your mind and are being transformed in your character, you will want to be a blessing to others, including your friends,  not being conformed by theirs or others bad habits,  that they may see the change in you and hopefully and prayerfully see hope for their own ability for change,  and be better.

So again ask yourself, do you and your friends bring out the best in each other?



Perception Deception

I find that often times we are deceived by our thoughts of God.

There are those who's view of God is that he is this big powerful spiritual bully

waiting for you  and I to make  mistakes, do wrong, so that he can punish us, or worse, send you to hell.

They are deceived into thinking, we some how have got to get this Christianity thing down pat or else, we are doomed, the big G is going to get us.

Why do we associate such harsh actions with a God that is said to be loving?

A God who himself is said to embody love and is love.

The word of God says in 2Peter 3:9"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

It seems that our perception of God needs some work.

The truth of the matter is God does not send anyone to hell, people send themselves.

The way of escape has been provided, payment for ALL offenses has been made,  forgiveness of sin has been provided, a helper in your new way of life has been provided, and instruction has been provided, but yet some choose not to accept any of God's provisions.

There are those who stay viewing through a shattered glass and their view is distorted.

These individuals continue with this deception, because of wrong perception.

 



Morsels of Truth: Teaching Moments

Morsels of Truth: Teaching Moments: God knew we were not going to be perfect, he knew there would be many mistakes along the way. This is why he gave us his only begotten Son,...

Open Up

When you allow past negative experiences to bring you to a place where you close your heart,

 your mind, or your hands, you trap the pain and hurt of those experiences into those very places,

where emotions such as fear, anger and shame are locked in, tormenting you.

The torment of your heart makes you unwilling to let anyone close enough

to share real love, you keep your heart closed and guarded, trapping in the poison, and the antidote for that poison locked out.

The torment of your mind keeps you unwilling to let go of the memories that replay in your head like a recording, and your mind is made up that this is what will happen again if you allow it.

The door of your mind is now closed locking in the negative, and out any positive.

The torment to your hands is that you will try to hold on so tightly to a little something,

that you never open your hands wide enough if at all to receive the big something that awaits you, therefore never allowing yourself the chance to experience more than enough.

The Lord wants you to open up your heart, your mind and your hands, so that you may receive the abundance of his grace, his goodness.

Are you ready to open up?

Teaching Moments

God knew we were not going to be perfect, he knew there would be many mistakes along the way. This is why he gave us his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus paid the price for our many mistakes, yet we have to deal with the natural consequences of the mistakes made. 

This is simply God working things out for our good.

He uses our mistakes as teaching moments, for us to get better, and do better, so that we don't have to experience that negative consequence again. 

 

Change Is Supposed To Come

There are people who have attend church for years and yet their life, their attitude, their character does not change.

The word of God says that we are being transformed into the same image of the Lord, that we are going from one degree of glory to the next.

Let me repeat, there are people who attend church for years and yet their life, their attitude, their character does not change.

Our going to church, sitting on the pews, no more make us a Christian, than our going to sit in a garage makes us a vehicle.

Transformation is change, something is supposed to change, and transformation into the Lords image  is nothing but good change.

Sacrificial Giving

People are generally more liberal with giving when they have more than enough. Let's face it, it's much easier to give out of our abundance, but how about when we have very little for ourselves?  Do we find ourselves with that same sense of peace when we give, or do we even give when we don't have as much, and when we give is it truly ungrudgingly?

Jesus is the true picture of sacrificial giving. We have difficulty sacrificing things. Jesus sacrificed his very own life.

Stop Living In The Past

There are many people who focus on their own past mistakes and failures or that of others.

 

When focused on these, we use them as excuses for not being able to move forward.

We somehow forget that we have a choice on what we think.

Often our minds are filed with numerous thoughts that come and go, but there are times people choose to focus on a passed negative event that keeps them held back, from moving forward, from growth, from new and exciting experiences.

Why? when the choice is yours as to what you think in your mind.

Philippians 4:8" And now, dear brothers and sisters , one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."(NLT)

The choice is yours, are you ready to move forward, and come out of the cell you have allowed your thoughts of the past to hold you in?

Change For The Future

We can pray for change, fight for change, look for change or change for change.

Our children are our future. They are the one's who will take offices, move into roles of parents, teachers, law makers and such.

We want change to come for the good, we must start with our future, our youth. Teaching them by example, encouraging, directing.

We have to change our mindset as the adults in their lives, from thinking we are to be their cool, hip  friend, and start being the parent that raises a child into a responsible, productive adult for society.

Proverbs 22:6 (NIV) "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."

Let us begin with the children in our lives,  that we are surrounded by, who's lives we impact day to day.



God of Order

We serve a God that is a God of order. He has given us instructions in his word on living a life of order. When we choose our own way and go against God's order, we suffer the consequences, when we chose to follow God's order we reap the benefits. The reason our society is unraveling at the seems, is due to man's decision to follow his own way instead of God's.

Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)"we all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

He has made away to get un back in order, and that way is through Jesus Christ.

The Supplier Of My Needs

 

We often look to other people, our selves, or things as our source.

Therefore many stay in a place of wanting, and needing, simply out of ignorance, not knowing our true source, or supplier of needs.

Philippians 4:19 "and my god shall supply ALL my needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  This is a promise to those in Christ, and we all need to trust him that we may experience all of his provisions.

Do They See Love

The song says, and they'll know we are Christians by our love. Is this true about you and your treatment and behavior towards others?

Is it true love, the love between a mother and child, between a husband and wife, between siblings, between family members, between friends? Where did you learn how to truly love? If we don't learn true love from God, Is it true love? Does your degree of love change based on the response you get from your way of loving others? Is your love truly unconditional, is it pure, is it real love, as the love God has towards you?  Let's ponder upon the love thing today.

Lord Be Glorified

Have you wondered how it is, that the Lord is glorified in our lives?

First let's start by saying that glory is: a source of honor, admiration, adoration, astonishing beauty. When our lives reflect the goodness of the Lord, by demonstrating Godly character, or when he pours out his wonderful blessings on us and the world sees how wonderfully blessed we are.  The Lord is glorified.  The Lord loves to bless his people, that he maybe glorified. 

He's Already Planned For It

Isn't it amazing that God has purpose for everything he does?  He doesn't act on a whim, he isn't spontaneous. He knows and has planned for everything that goes on in our lives. He knows all about our whims, impulsive, and spontaneous ideas and behaviors, and he already has a plan on how he deals with it. We can never catch God off guard. After all he is the omniscient God

Our God Of Abundance

I am often amazed at our God.

We may have a prayer petition for others or even ourselves.

God answers in such a way like we never imagined. He not only blesses you concerning that which you prayed, but does abundantly more than you even thought.

Ephesians 3:20"Now to him, who by the power that is at work within us, is able to do superabundantly, far over and above all that we ask or think.

Dare to ask God for what in the natural seems impossible, but with God, who is able, all things are possible

God is good!

God is Good! 

Come celebrate with me at my Morsels of Truth book release celebration event will be 11/15/14 2pm - 5pm at 

4753 N Broadway Suite #608  Chicago, IL. 60404 

Event is FREE, w/ FREE parking available just east of building where event taking place. 

There will be beverages and lite hor d' oeuvres served.