Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Apply the Word
“There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing his praises.”
Well, if that’s the case why is it so hard to get our hand to raise?
It’s funny how God is open about the promises and plans he has for us,
But we only give him open praise when we have a positive in our life’s status.
“I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken;”
And if that is the case we are all mistaken;
When he wrote out the master plan it included all of our names,
Not limited to the poor, the weak, or the bearer of fortunes and fames.
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil;”
I laugh when I ponder, “Just why we grow timid when others become uncivil?”
You see God said that I will make your enemies your footstool; I will handle it all for you;
But as soon as that friend stabs us in the back we act like we don’t know what to do.
“When I said, my foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.”
So, can someone please tell me why so often we continue to give up?
Unlike man, God knows we aren’t perfect, and realizes that we will fall;
But when we are down and out why on the blackberry we continue to call?
It’s time to take heed to God’s promises. Bible verses are not given just to sound good, however, to give guidance. So many times we as Christians lose our way, and search for a way back to his goodness. The bible is the instruction manual to his way of living for us. Just as a cookbook for cooking, a map for travel, the bible is the guide for Christians to live by and seek guidance. Learn to trust in it, and understand it.
God Bless!
Well, if that’s the case why is it so hard to get our hand to raise?
It’s funny how God is open about the promises and plans he has for us,
But we only give him open praise when we have a positive in our life’s status.
“I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken;”
And if that is the case we are all mistaken;
When he wrote out the master plan it included all of our names,
Not limited to the poor, the weak, or the bearer of fortunes and fames.
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil;”
I laugh when I ponder, “Just why we grow timid when others become uncivil?”
You see God said that I will make your enemies your footstool; I will handle it all for you;
But as soon as that friend stabs us in the back we act like we don’t know what to do.
“When I said, my foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.”
So, can someone please tell me why so often we continue to give up?
Unlike man, God knows we aren’t perfect, and realizes that we will fall;
But when we are down and out why on the blackberry we continue to call?
It’s time to take heed to God’s promises. Bible verses are not given just to sound good, however, to give guidance. So many times we as Christians lose our way, and search for a way back to his goodness. The bible is the instruction manual to his way of living for us. Just as a cookbook for cooking, a map for travel, the bible is the guide for Christians to live by and seek guidance. Learn to trust in it, and understand it.
God Bless!
Give Me Strength to Ascend
Realizing the tiresome struggle, becoming the bearer of life’s tears, trying to rid ones self from the trials that compound, knowing there are fears.
There are emotions that have no boundaries, and a heart that has no doors, a mind that has no structure, and a soul that has no floors.
I am not equipped for the struggle, nor am I armored for the storm.
“My child should I moved this mountain?” No Lord, just give me the strength to ascend.
I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help, but I know God possess all that I am.
When he blesses me with things I require, that’s when even more I desire, and I overlook the true meaning God has for me.
The sleepless nights, the agony, the pain; the steadiness of life, no lost no gain;
The hurt of it all, I can’t bare nor can I stand, and I stand here crying...“Child give me your hand.”
I am not equipped for the struggle, nor am I armored for the storm,
“My child should I move the mountain?” No Lord, just give me strength to ascend.
There are emotions that have no boundaries, and a heart that has no doors, a mind that has no structure, and a soul that has no floors.
I am not equipped for the struggle, nor am I armored for the storm.
“My child should I moved this mountain?” No Lord, just give me the strength to ascend.
I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help, but I know God possess all that I am.
When he blesses me with things I require, that’s when even more I desire, and I overlook the true meaning God has for me.
The sleepless nights, the agony, the pain; the steadiness of life, no lost no gain;
The hurt of it all, I can’t bare nor can I stand, and I stand here crying...“Child give me your hand.”
I am not equipped for the struggle, nor am I armored for the storm,
“My child should I move the mountain?” No Lord, just give me strength to ascend.
A thought on Love
What is the world without love? Yet love is a complexity that one can not place a true definition to. So, if love makes the world go round, why can't its rotation provide a meaning to the emptiness that is so prevalent?
Eye on the Prize
In this world we live in today, there are many things that can make us take our eyes off God. The present state of the economy, endless crime, parents turning against children, children disobeying parents; not to mention the ultimate disconnect that is forming between God, and his children. If we place our minds back on Peter, we realize that in Matthew, Peter got out of the boat, and walked towards Jesus. However, when the wind blew Peter became afraid. I want to stop right there to define wind. In this context, wind is not used just in the literal term. Wind is that obstacle, that thing, that enemy, that Nemesis, that job that one is tired of, that child that won’t do right, that illness in your body, that mate that won’t compromise, that struggle within oneself, that past that keeps haunting you in your present state. The wind is anything that keeps you, or deters you from staying on the path that God has already set for you, and believing in the things that God has promised you.
Now, Peter was walking on the water, and had his eyes on Jesus, but as the wind blew he became afraid. The word tells me that he began to sink. Now, isn’t it funny how we have all this power, no-how, and spirit filled presence when things go our way. We often believe in the fallacy of life. We will receive food that was prepared by an unknown person, and eat with no fear. We will take medicine that the doctor (who is man) says will cure you, and have no knowledge of what it is, but take it with no fear. We have frequent flyer miles that tells us that we stay up in the air on a plane, and we trust the pilot, with no fear. However, a man that says I will be with you, a Man that says, I will sustain you, tells us keep your eyes on me, and walk on water, and we look down in fear, and begin to sink. Sink in our careers. Sink in our health. Sink in our finances. Sink in our families. Sink in or successes. All because we took our eyes off Jesus.
Now, Peter, once he began to sink, cried out “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
Isn’t it funny how when Peter cried out for Jesus, Jesus stepped in and saved him even though his faith was wavering? Furthermore, pay attention to the fact that the wind calmed as soon as Peter got back in the boat. How many of us know that sometimes God does things to challenge, and test our faith. It was not by coincidence that the wind blew just as Peter got out on the water, and stopped as soon as He got in the boat. Often, He will test us, challenge us, and place obstacles in our way just to make us stronger in Him.
I loved to think of God as the chess player, and we are the pieces on the board. If we stand in our respective places, and allow the man that knows the game, knows that way to win, and knows where to move us in order to place us in the best position for the victory take over, we will find life that much easier. You see, I figured out that God is waiting for us to realize these vital points. It’s nothing like that “Ah Ha! Moment.”
I will end with this short story:
There was once a little girl and her father that were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river."The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand.""What’s the difference?" asked the puzzled father."There’s a big difference," replied the little girl."If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."
Now, someone missed that. There is a difference in us holding on to God’s hand, and God holding on to our hand. God’s hand is forever present. No matter when we walk away, doubt him, fall short of his glory, his hand is still there. However, just like the little girl, if we become sick, money looks funny, classes are to hard to handle, friends talk about us, people scandalize our names, thing just don’t go our way, we begin to let our hand slip. This causing a disconnect from our father. You see if we let God hold our hand, it is only up to us to walk the other way. He doesn’t leave us, we stray from him.
I am so glad to know a man that takes me, all my faults, all my doubts, and even when the wind blows, and I may take my eyes off of him, he still keeps his hand on me. I am a living, breathing testimony that God will stand in presence of our doubts. He will step in when we are blinded by our pain. And he will never leave us, he will always be there when we turn to him.
Let God be over your life. Let God sustain you. Let God be your chess player. Let God direct your paths. And understand that even when times get hard, we are never buried, however, we are just planted, and sometimes DIRT is needed to grow.
I hope this blesses someone and that we will all grow closer and draw nearer to his unchanging hand.
God bless you!
Now, Peter was walking on the water, and had his eyes on Jesus, but as the wind blew he became afraid. The word tells me that he began to sink. Now, isn’t it funny how we have all this power, no-how, and spirit filled presence when things go our way. We often believe in the fallacy of life. We will receive food that was prepared by an unknown person, and eat with no fear. We will take medicine that the doctor (who is man) says will cure you, and have no knowledge of what it is, but take it with no fear. We have frequent flyer miles that tells us that we stay up in the air on a plane, and we trust the pilot, with no fear. However, a man that says I will be with you, a Man that says, I will sustain you, tells us keep your eyes on me, and walk on water, and we look down in fear, and begin to sink. Sink in our careers. Sink in our health. Sink in our finances. Sink in our families. Sink in or successes. All because we took our eyes off Jesus.
Now, Peter, once he began to sink, cried out “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
Isn’t it funny how when Peter cried out for Jesus, Jesus stepped in and saved him even though his faith was wavering? Furthermore, pay attention to the fact that the wind calmed as soon as Peter got back in the boat. How many of us know that sometimes God does things to challenge, and test our faith. It was not by coincidence that the wind blew just as Peter got out on the water, and stopped as soon as He got in the boat. Often, He will test us, challenge us, and place obstacles in our way just to make us stronger in Him.
I loved to think of God as the chess player, and we are the pieces on the board. If we stand in our respective places, and allow the man that knows the game, knows that way to win, and knows where to move us in order to place us in the best position for the victory take over, we will find life that much easier. You see, I figured out that God is waiting for us to realize these vital points. It’s nothing like that “Ah Ha! Moment.”
I will end with this short story:
There was once a little girl and her father that were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river."The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand.""What’s the difference?" asked the puzzled father."There’s a big difference," replied the little girl."If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."
Now, someone missed that. There is a difference in us holding on to God’s hand, and God holding on to our hand. God’s hand is forever present. No matter when we walk away, doubt him, fall short of his glory, his hand is still there. However, just like the little girl, if we become sick, money looks funny, classes are to hard to handle, friends talk about us, people scandalize our names, thing just don’t go our way, we begin to let our hand slip. This causing a disconnect from our father. You see if we let God hold our hand, it is only up to us to walk the other way. He doesn’t leave us, we stray from him.
I am so glad to know a man that takes me, all my faults, all my doubts, and even when the wind blows, and I may take my eyes off of him, he still keeps his hand on me. I am a living, breathing testimony that God will stand in presence of our doubts. He will step in when we are blinded by our pain. And he will never leave us, he will always be there when we turn to him.
Let God be over your life. Let God sustain you. Let God be your chess player. Let God direct your paths. And understand that even when times get hard, we are never buried, however, we are just planted, and sometimes DIRT is needed to grow.
I hope this blesses someone and that we will all grow closer and draw nearer to his unchanging hand.
God bless you!
The Definition of Morning
The Definition of Morning!
We are creatures of habit, and influenced by society everyday. Through life we find that everyone becomes a product of their environment. Sometimes that is a good thing, however, in the opposition that is detrimental to our progression.
Now we as Christians, sometimes take God’s word so literal that we miss the blessing that’s right there in the text. We often hear “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the MORNING.” We have also heard that “It is by the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new everyMORNING: great is thy faithfulness." And to make this a little biased, I know my fellow Livingstonians can relate to that of Dr. Joseph C. Price when he says “I don’t care how dark the night, I believe in the coming of the MORNING.”
Now with these known statements being brought to the forefront of our memories, why is it then that we are missing the blessing in them? I want to take the time to express to you all that MORNING is not defined as when the sun comes out, nor is it expressed only by the sign “a.m”, however, it becomes MORNING whenever we surrender ourselves, and decide to wake and allow God to work miracles in our lives.
Morning is defined as a period of first development; the time from midnight to noon. Now, let’s go a little deeper. Noon is defined as the highest point; the zenith. Someone should have thanked God in that moment if you got what I received out of this. Morning is that brink, that beginning, that first light where God shows you “I’m here.” Now, midnight one will describe as the pits, the pain, the hurt, that point where even the strongest believer has hit rock bottom. Noon is that highest point. Now, God is capable, actually he is beyond capable, of taking us from the pit to praise, or even been described as the rags to riches phenomenon. So, then, if God is sharing with us that weeping may endure for a night, and joy comes in the morning, why do we decide to dwell in the midnight just because we are in the “p.m.’s” of our life?
You see God wants to take us higher, makes us better, and help us achieve greater, but we must start having an “a.m” mindset. In the a.m., birds chirp without fail. They always have a song before we humans even rise. In the a.m. the sun is beginning to shine. In the a.m. it’s a sense of newness, a new day, a new beginning. So, get this, and make sure you don’t miss it- If the morning signifies the beginning, and you know that noon in the highest point of the day, we should begin praising God for the places he is trying to take us. You see the morning signifies that point where God shows you who he is. That morning signifies that point where he sees if you are ready to receive that blessing. That morning is not when you wake and see the sun, and hear the birds chirping; that morning is when you cry out “Lord! I surrender to you! I say yes to your will, and your way.” It is that moment when we WAKE UP, and realize that we can not make it without God. When we WAKE UP to the heartache, when we RISE from depression, when we CATAPULT from the pain, and we ASCEND from our fears. The MORNING is now!
Now developing the “a.m” mindset is not always easy. When we find ourselves in those midnight experiences, it is hard to fix our mind on God’s promises to us. But what is the point of learning benchmarks and teachings if we are never tested on them? So, what is the point of faith if we are never tried? Faith and strength grows when we conquer the obstacles placed before us.
I will end with this memo from God:
“I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I DO NOT need your help.If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved... but in MY time, not yours.Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.Should you have a bad day at work; think of the man who has been out of work for years.Should you despair over a relationship gone badly; Think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you... you may have touched their life in ways you will never know!”
It is my greatest hope that we all learn that God is waiting on us to surrender. He will never leave us, nor forsake us. He is just waiting on us to WAKE UP! And when we do that he will take us to the “noons” in our lives. He wants to take us higher, and give us more, but just as a child, we must learn and grow in stages. He blesses us according to our needs, and by seeing how we have handled what he’s already given us. Trust God, trust his word, and the desires of your heart will be granted unto you.
God Bless!
We are creatures of habit, and influenced by society everyday. Through life we find that everyone becomes a product of their environment. Sometimes that is a good thing, however, in the opposition that is detrimental to our progression.
Now we as Christians, sometimes take God’s word so literal that we miss the blessing that’s right there in the text. We often hear “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the MORNING.” We have also heard that “It is by the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new everyMORNING: great is thy faithfulness." And to make this a little biased, I know my fellow Livingstonians can relate to that of Dr. Joseph C. Price when he says “I don’t care how dark the night, I believe in the coming of the MORNING.”
Now with these known statements being brought to the forefront of our memories, why is it then that we are missing the blessing in them? I want to take the time to express to you all that MORNING is not defined as when the sun comes out, nor is it expressed only by the sign “a.m”, however, it becomes MORNING whenever we surrender ourselves, and decide to wake and allow God to work miracles in our lives.
Morning is defined as a period of first development; the time from midnight to noon. Now, let’s go a little deeper. Noon is defined as the highest point; the zenith. Someone should have thanked God in that moment if you got what I received out of this. Morning is that brink, that beginning, that first light where God shows you “I’m here.” Now, midnight one will describe as the pits, the pain, the hurt, that point where even the strongest believer has hit rock bottom. Noon is that highest point. Now, God is capable, actually he is beyond capable, of taking us from the pit to praise, or even been described as the rags to riches phenomenon. So, then, if God is sharing with us that weeping may endure for a night, and joy comes in the morning, why do we decide to dwell in the midnight just because we are in the “p.m.’s” of our life?
You see God wants to take us higher, makes us better, and help us achieve greater, but we must start having an “a.m” mindset. In the a.m., birds chirp without fail. They always have a song before we humans even rise. In the a.m. the sun is beginning to shine. In the a.m. it’s a sense of newness, a new day, a new beginning. So, get this, and make sure you don’t miss it- If the morning signifies the beginning, and you know that noon in the highest point of the day, we should begin praising God for the places he is trying to take us. You see the morning signifies that point where God shows you who he is. That morning signifies that point where he sees if you are ready to receive that blessing. That morning is not when you wake and see the sun, and hear the birds chirping; that morning is when you cry out “Lord! I surrender to you! I say yes to your will, and your way.” It is that moment when we WAKE UP, and realize that we can not make it without God. When we WAKE UP to the heartache, when we RISE from depression, when we CATAPULT from the pain, and we ASCEND from our fears. The MORNING is now!
Now developing the “a.m” mindset is not always easy. When we find ourselves in those midnight experiences, it is hard to fix our mind on God’s promises to us. But what is the point of learning benchmarks and teachings if we are never tested on them? So, what is the point of faith if we are never tried? Faith and strength grows when we conquer the obstacles placed before us.
I will end with this memo from God:
“I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I DO NOT need your help.If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved... but in MY time, not yours.Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.Should you have a bad day at work; think of the man who has been out of work for years.Should you despair over a relationship gone badly; Think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you... you may have touched their life in ways you will never know!”
It is my greatest hope that we all learn that God is waiting on us to surrender. He will never leave us, nor forsake us. He is just waiting on us to WAKE UP! And when we do that he will take us to the “noons” in our lives. He wants to take us higher, and give us more, but just as a child, we must learn and grow in stages. He blesses us according to our needs, and by seeing how we have handled what he’s already given us. Trust God, trust his word, and the desires of your heart will be granted unto you.
God Bless!
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