Who's Who

While I was praying this morning, the phrase “it’s not fashionable” dropped in my spirit and it kept popping up all morning as I got ready for work and during my drive. Okay, God, what do you mean by that? What’s not fashionable? Well…I prayed and prayed asking for some revelation because I was completely blank. I sat down to write, still with nothing, when the title of a book that I just received from a friend, all of a sudden came into my memory. The book is called Not A Fan – Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus. AAAHAAA! Okay, God!  I got it!! We’re not on this journey for the world’s fads; you want us to be classics!

We are living in a world today that focuses on how a person looks and lives, especially famous people. In order to be seen as successful you have to look a certain way, drive a certain car, etc. Children at school are often judged by how new and “in style” their clothes are. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to outgrow that because adults are still being judged similarly. The question is, however, what will God look for when He ultimately judges us? Will He care that you had the hottest new Coach bag or the baddest Brooks Brothers suit? No, He will be looking at your heart. 1 Corinthians 4:5 says, “…wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

And just as the world has judged how we look, it has tried and convicted holiness. It has made people think that if you are living for God that you’re doing something wrong and outside the normal. You’ve heard it before or maybe even said it about someone that you know - radical, holy rollers, “it doesn’t take all of that”. In other words, it’s not fashionable to be sold out for God. But God says in Leviticus 11 to be holy because He is holy.”  Doesn’t get much plainer than that, right?

Maybe this will help, since people sometimes look at going to church all the time in the same light as trying to live a holy life.  It may be hard for you to imagine why it’s necessary to go to church any other time besides Sunday. I mean, that’s the main day, right? As long as I give God those 2 hours, I am covered! Nope! God is an all knowing, loving and PRESENT God. He is always waiting to talk to us.  So why would He want you to limit your time with him to one 2 hour period on one day out of the week? What if your breakthrough is waiting for you on a Wednesday night? Do you want Him to hold on to it until you get there on Sunday? I’m not saying that you have to be at church every night to connect with God. But are you seeking Him at all outside of what tradition says? Are you chasing after Him, anxious to learn more and grow more? It all comes down to this: Who are you trying to please?

God doesn’t want us to base how we live our lives on the world. He is calling for us to step out of our fear and walk in power. 1 Peter 4:16 says “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” If you want to be fashionable to God, walk in love! Tell someone about how Jesus saved you, forgave you and cleaned you up and that He can and will do it for them!  Present your body has a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He will replace all of your old habits with new experiences. He will give you the strength to put down those burdens that you have been carrying around like a suitcase. Let’s change the whole definition of style! Let’s show the world that being a Christian is not something that we put on when it’s convenient, like a jacket in the fall. I promise you that if you turn your focus from the world and towards God, you will be blessed!

I challenge you today to stop worrying about what the world has to say and seek out what God has to say! On that note, I will close with 1 John 2:15 -17 in The Message Bible.

 Don’t love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Be blessed! AMEN

Cross Encounter

I have been doing a lot of reading lately trying to dive deeper into the Word and draw closer to the Lord. It’s been a journey and I definitely still have a long way to go. As I’ve been reading and studying and listening to different sermons and teachings, there’s been a common theme of repentance lately. I even noticed how much that has been reflected in my last few blog entries. God obviously wants the message to get across to the saved and unsaved that the time for playing games and living any kind of way is over.  But I wondered out loud to God recently,  “Why is it so hard for people to give up the world?” Why does it take some of us years and years and often something traumatic to come to a place where God is at the forefront of our lives and we want to live the way God has called for us to live? The answer came to me a couple of different ways this week while I was on a business trip and had the chance to spend some uninterrupted time with the Lord.  The Cross hasn’t become real to some of us yet.

I have to admit to being a bit floored! What do you mean, Lord? That’s the first thing we confess when we get saved. How many Easters have we celebrated the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead 3 days later. I mean, when the preacher says “Early Sunday morning, He got up with all power in His hands”, that’s when everyone starts shouting, right? So how can it be possible that anyone could miss the meaning of the cross?  You’re going to have to clear this up for me, God!

Then I got it, it’s not that people don’t honor the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again. But until you’ve have had what T. Austin Sparks calls a “Cross Encounter”, it is just words to you. Have you ever had an experience where you felt like you were out there all alone? Your family didn’t seem to quite understand. You were being talked about, you were hurt or you were just plain lost? You might have even felt like God had left you and wasn’t answering your prayers as He had in the past? But then the sun started shining again. You could get through a whole day without crying. God brought you back from a dark place and gave you a peace and joy that you didn’t understand. Then all of a sudden when you read Isaiah 53, it hits you at your very core because you realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for YOU! That He laid down His life KNOWINGLY for your lying, hateful, gossiping, fast self!  Or that He took the punishment so that you could have peace!  That’s a cross encounter! When you’ve experienced something that shook everything that you thought was you and you got back up. That’s a cross encounter!

It can’t just be words that we read out of habit. It has to be real! It’s when we really come to see that we are only here because of God’s grace and sacrifice. Sometimes all it takes is really thinking about what we were and I mean really examining ourselves and realizing that Jesus took on ALL of our sins so that we could be new creatures!

I challenge you today to have a personal encounter with the Cross. Take some quiet time and just remember what Jesus Christ has done for you. He did it just for you because He loves you. How much of ourselves can we give back to Him? Isn’t the Cross enough to strive to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? I’m a witness that once I had an encounter with the Cross, I couldn’t live the same old way anymore. I wanted more and more of God and that desire overwhelmed the need for the things of the world. It’s not always easy, nor do I always get things right but it's worth it because of what He did for me.

I want to leave you this week with Isaiah 53 in The Message Bible translation. I pray that it blesses you as it blessed me! To God be the glory for the great things He has done!

 ¹ Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

^2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

^7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.

¹⁰Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

^11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

AMEN!

Heart Fixer

It seems that everywhere I’ve turned recently, people are speaking of repentance and bringing people into the Kingdom of God. In a time of political correctness and “feel good” enabling, God is urging His people to be real, get it right and share that news with the world. He wants people to know that Hell is real. It’s not a party place where people go that didn’t want to live holy. There are people that actually think that! I saw a whole conversation on Facebook a while back where people were basically signing up for hell because that’s where all the fun people would be. I was stunned! There will be nothing fun about hell! Eternal torture and suffering is more like it. I don’t know about you, but that’s not my idea of fun!

So God is really urging His people to witness to people about His goodness and His grace. He created us and wants us to return to Him, not be condemned to Hell. Last night, as I was sitting in church, God dropped the words Heart Fixer into my spirit. This was immediately after receiving a strong word about repentance. God wants people to realize that He doesn’t have a list of qualifications and requirements for salvation. You don’t have to be sober and clean to come to Christ. He wants you to come just as you are and He will do the cleaning!

I’ve heard so many times from people in my family and friends circle that they will get saved when they’ve gotten themselves together. You don’t have to do that! If you are an alcoholic, God is the ultimate AA counselor. If you are addicted to marijuana or cocaine, God is better than Betty Ford or any detox clinic. If you are a liar or a gossiper or a molester, whatever you are, God is the HEART FIXER! He can restore you like no one else. The key is to confess it, repent and GIVE IT TO HIM! You can’t get clean, holding onto it.

Even some of us that are saved are holding onto old habits and addictions that we have not fully released. It is time to let them go…now…TODAY!  God is waiting to take your hand and perform a complete detoxification on you. Lay those weights that you are carrying down. 1 Peter 5:7 says to “Cast your cares on him, for He cares for you.” Jesus did not die on the cross, for you to keep sleeping with someone that you aren’t married to. He died on the cross for you to be free of that.

Romans 5: 6 – 8 in the Message Bible sums it all up! “Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

There is nothing that you have done or are doing that is too bad for God! He is waiting! Don’t let Satan convince you that what you are doing is alright, if its not. If you aren’t sure, read the Bible. If you don’t know where to go in the Bible, ask someone that you know that has a relationship with God and is living it.

 I want everyone that reads this blog and everyone that doesn’t, to go to heaven! I won’t be satisfied until I’ve done all that I can to tell you that there is a fullness of joy in being with the Lord. I am telling you this as someone who had a full experience of what the world has to offer. My friends and I were the party crew! We drank while we were getting dressed for the club, at the club, and maybe after and we shut it down! But it was a temporary high…when we woke up the next day, we didn’t always feel so good. But I can tell you, that when I finish praising God, it’s a real high that lifts me and stays with me!

If you aren’t saved today, I invite you to give Jesus Christ your heart and let Him fix it! Seek out godly people who will pray with you and support you on your journey.  If you are saved and are struggling with some things, I encourage you to return to your first Love. Let Jesus love on you and bring you back into fellowship with Him. He’s such a forgiving and merciful God and He’s the ultimate Heart Fixer!

God bless you and AMEN!

Don't Just Speak About It...

Recently, I’ve been really seeking God for direction and for confirmation and clarity on the purpose and calling that He has for me. It’s been an uncomfortable journey and the answers that He has given me have truly shocked me! I mean mouth open, eyes big, shaking my head shock! I’m still trying to find my footing and walk in what He would have me to do. In this experience, I’ve had to do some soul searching and repentance and really walk in truth. I have had to examine myself and be honest about my shortcomings and sins. I am still a work in progress but am confident that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it...

Well, Monday night, I was flat ironing my hair and very clearly heard “Tell them I am about to start uncovering some things”. If you have read this blog any amount of time, you know that I am real. So y’all know I was looking around like WHAT? I said God? My spirit next heard don’t just speak about it, be about it! I started shaking my head and I said, I cannot write about that. Who am I to tell somebody that? I can’t keep doing these preachy blogs, Lord! I have struggled with this since that night and every day since, God has sent some confirmation that I needed to address it. I prayed again this morning hoping that He would take this from me but on the way to work, another confirmation. So here I am.

In the end, what I think about you doesn’t matter. I am not your judge and neither is any man or woman that walks this earth. Only God can judge you and He is the one that counts. John 4:23 says “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” We have to worship Him in spirit and in TRUTH! How can we do that if we aren’t telling Him the truth? He already knows our every thought and move. But yet, we will pray and not acknowledge and repent for things we are doing that we know are not right. For example, when I was in college, I sang in the Gospel Choir but would get super drunk and/or be somewhere I had no business being the night before I sang or went to church!  I didn’t want to give that up so I just didn’t acknowledge it. I knew I was wrong but I didn’t want to expose myself to God. What I was missing was that He SAW me!  Now…don’t get caught up on what my sin was or the fact that I was in college because what you believe about drinking is not the point. I was willfully sinning. I knew it was wrong and felt that I was stepping outside of what I knew to be right but I kept doing it because I wanted to. Alot of people get messed up because they rationalize their sins and come up with all kinds of reasons why its okay...never mind...that's a whole other conversation!

But so much is happening now…there have been fires, hurricanes, tornados and an earthquake in the space of a couple of weeks. It’s time to stop playing games. God is not just warning unsaved people. He is talking to His people as well!  If we are professing to love God, and still hating people, then we have a problem. If we are telling people that the wages of sin are death, but we are still committing adultery, then we have a problem.  How can your prayers be answered if you have “secret sins”? We have to get this thing right! It’s not about being perfect but it is about being honest – with yourself and with God.

Jesus warned the disciples of this very thing in Luke 12: 2,3. “He said to them, "Watch yourselves carefully so you don't get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can't keep your true self hidden forever; before long you'll be exposed. You can't hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can't whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day's coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.”(MSG bible)

God knows our hearts and He wants us to be fruitful and blessed. Let’s be sure that we are living what we are speaking. Let’s be sure that when we go to God, that we are honoring Him with our honesty. God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness if we will repent!! That’s good news!  Be real with Him before He has to deal with us. In Luke 12: 4&5, Jesus warns us about worrying about man and having no fear of God. “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” If you know better, please do better! If you aren’t sure, seek God for guidance and help. Read your Bible and pray that God forgives you for the sins you know about and the ones you don’t! Once we know something, we are responsible for that knowledge! Let’s show the devil just how little we think of him!

The devil is defeated! God is EXALTED!!

Amen

Speak Life!

Proverbs 18:21 is my favorite scripture and what I try to base my life on. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Many of my friends can attest to the fact that I will tell them that in a heartbeat when they come to me with problems or issues. It applies to every situation that you will face in your life. 

Have you ever encountered someone who was facing a serious illness but whenever you asked them how they were doing, they always said they were blessed or doing great? They were speaking life! It’s easy to say I’m sick, I’m broke, or I’m lonely. But it takes a focused and determined mind to say I am healed, all of my needs have been met, and thank you God for your love.  The fruit of those statements is joy, expectancy, and relationship. She may not know this, but my mother inspired my love for this scripture. At one time in her life, she faced a difficult situation but when asked about it, she never spoke death. She believed all of the promises that God had made and she walked in that. The fruit of that faith and life speaking was that God did just what He promised!

Sometimes I listen to people talk about the hardships that they are facing in their lives and how it will never get better and how there is nothing that can be done about it. What if Jesus would have told the man that was blind from birth, “You are blind and have been for a long time and I just don’t see how you’re going to ever see again?” NO! He said that sin was not the cause but that the man was blind so that the works of God could be revealed in him. He told the disciples that He was the light of the world. He spit on the ground, made clay and anointed the man’s eyes.  After rinsing his eyes in the pool, he came back seeing!

What if He had told Mary and Martha that Lazarus was dead and that was the end of it? No! He said that Lazarus was asleep but He was going to wake him up! And He did just that! Jesus was the ultimate life speaker because He is the way, the truth, and the LIFE!

If we are going to be like Christ, we HAVE to speak life! The world is watching us to see how we respond to controversy, false accusations, and sickness. If we speak death over our situations, how are we any better than the world? God gave us power and He gave us Jesus as the best example. Next time, you are faced with a difficult situation, don’t throw negativity at it! Overcome that situation with life! Tell that cancer that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus! Tell that class that seems especially hard that you can do ALL things through Christ that strengthens you! Tell that debt that God promised to supply all your needs according to HIS riches in glory! Tell that friend that comes to you for advice that they are more than conquerors through Him that loves them!

Watch what you say! You have power in your tongue to change any situation towards life or death. If you know that’s something that you need to work on, start today!! Catch yourself if you hear negativity coming out. Eat the fruit of a life speaking tongue!

I declare that each person that reads this blog today will be blessed and victorious!! AMEN!

“Words kill, words give life;
                they’re either poison or fruit…you choose.”
                                Proverbs 18:21 (The Message Bible)

God Loves You...

I have been singing the song How He Loves Us (written by John Mark McMillan) since last week. It’s been constantly in my head and I’ve watched probably 20 different versions of it on YouTube- even a Spanish version! They even sang it in church on Sunday! I didn’t know why but today I understood.

This morning when I woke up for prayer, I was asking God’s forgiveness for making a stupid choice despite all of the opportunities for escape that He gave me. They say that hindsight is 20/20 and it’s true! You can always see what you should have done after the fact. I found myself really beating myself up. It was almost like I was condemning myself so God wouldn’t have to say anything. I was stuck in it for a long time. It took over my prayer and was taking away from where my focus should have been. Then the words of the song started playing in my head.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves us,
Oh! How He loves.

And I realized why God had put this song in my spirit. He knows that guilt and condemnation are some of Satan’s most powerful weapons. He knows the end from the beginning so He knew that I was going to be in this place on this day and He prepared me. He told me that He loved me. God loves me so much! And He loves you and your husband and your friend and your mama. He loves us all. Even after we ignore Him and live our lives the way we want to. Even after we get mad because we don’t have what we think we should have. Even when we feel like we are nothing. He loves us!

I started to think about people who commit suicide or contemplate it. We often hear them say or read in their letter that they felt that no one loved them. That what they had done was so bad or what had happened to them was too hard to come back from. Even some of us who know God, have thought, even if just for a minute, that it would be easier if you just weren’t here anymore. That’s a trick of Satan!  God wants you to know that He loves you! 

Romans 8:1 & 2 in The Message Bible says “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.” God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus who took condemnation with him to the cross and freed us of it.

When all this was coming into my spirit this morning, I told God that I hoped I could remember all this for Thursday but He said now! Somebody needed to hear today that God loves them. When you feel like you can’t go on, focus on God’s love. It’s an everlasting, unconditional love. There is nothing that you can’t come back from with His love. He doesn’t remind you of what you did wrong. He picks you up, brushes you off and wraps you in His arms. You don’t have to fix yourself or your situation first. Let Him do it! Just go to Him and let Him love on you.

I pray now that God’s love would surround each person reading this blog. That it would heal your heart and uplift your spirits. I pray that the evil voice of Satan would be silenced by the sound of God’s word and that the chains of old feelings of depression would forever be broken by the power of God’s love.

Amen.

Unshakeable Praise

Man! This has been a week for me! The devil has been so busy, using his tricks to attack and bother me in various situations and people. I found myself wondering at times if he was bothering anyone else or if my picture was the only one that came up in his system. It seemed that I was walking in constant spiritual warfare, fighting to stay on the right path and say the right things. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Like if you could just make it to Friday or Sunday or any day when the drama would be over with your sanity intact. Well that’s where I was this week. I cried out to the Lord for something to bring me back into focus. He sent an earthquake!

I have thought about this thing and listened to other people’s thoughts. I thought about the fact that this was a warning that God isn’t playing games with us and wants us to stop playing them with Him. But mostly I have thought about the sheer greatness of God. He can literally do anything! Just think about that for a minute. That earthquake was felt from Canada to Georgia! He can do anything, anytime, anywhere that He wants to.

What does that have to do with my crazy week? Well…as I began to really think about how big God is, I had to thank Him and then I started giving Him the praise and there was the revelation! The devil can throw whatever darts he wants to. He can blind the eyes of my friends and family from seeing the truth. He can even send sickness to me or those I love but he can’t take my worship unless I let him.

I choose to worship God! When Satan uses someone to try and throw me off course, I tell God thank you that no weapon formed against me shall prosper! When he would try and get me to cuss someone out or act like him, I tell Satan that greater is He that’s in me than he that’s in the world! I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus! We have to recognize Satan for who he is. He’s not your friend. He isn’t walking this earth for you to have fun. He is the master deceiver. He is a liar! But guess what he is even subject to God.  James 4:7 says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you!”  That means stand up to Satan and tell him to go!

This week I gave God the praise even when I didn’t feel like it. That’s reality! Sometimes we are tired or hurt or grieving or even broken but if you look beyond your present and give God the praise for what He’s going to do in the future, you are breaking the devil’s hold over you. We can’t stay in misery and tiredness and depression!  Decide in your heart that you are going to praise God through your situations because He is bigger than any circumstance! Believe in the God that has brought you this far. He is faithful and His will is perfect! That’s what I’m going to stand on!

So…if you are facing a storm or have been on Satan’s target list, purpose in your mind that you have the victory! Go in your secret place and just worship God. Your praise should outweigh your reality! Hebrews 12: 28 – 29 (The Message Bible) makes it plain and closes us out perfectly.  “Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!” What can Satan do with that? Nothing…

AMEN!