Identity Check Part 2:The Father

By: Fred Reid

Wattup lovely people? I’ve been having this one in mind for a good minute now but never really got around to doing it though because I knew it was going to be long..please forgive me lol. Plus the first “identity check” I did was for satan instead of God smh Again I say please forgive me lol. Also I haven’t forgotten that I need to go back and do the second part of the purchase vs process series as well I got this : )

So this will be an attempt to explain some of the characteristics of our heavenly Father, the creator of all things and the preserver of light and life. That’s what we say at my old church in Fayetteville sounds good don’t it? Back on topic, one thing I am REALLY passionate about is making sure God is portrayed somewhere CLOSE to the right way cuz I can’t stand people lying on Him! Let’s get started.

God is love: On the surface this is a very commonly known thing but somehow it gets twisted. God loves EVERYBODY more than anybody could ever explain, I point this out because people often say stuff like “why is God letting this happen to me?” “God is out to get me” “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away”. While it is true that Kingdom business comes before personal business and the Lord may use you in ways you don’t understand in order to get glory out of your life, if you mature in Christ and remember that HE LOVES YOU you’ll be able to see that He is putting your life to its best use. Aight let’s call in the scriptures

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and NOT HARM you plans to give you hope and a future then you will call on me and come pray to me and I will listen to you, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart

Isaiah 65:22-24 “They shall not build and another inhabit (what’s yours nobody can take) they shall not plant and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people and mine elect shall long ENJOY the work of their hands THEY SHALL NOT LABOUR IN VAIN NOR BRING FORTH FOR TROUBLE for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear”

In an attempt to somewhat keep this short I’ll just stop there. But that’s only the OLD testament there’s even more love described for us under the new covenant in the new testament! And look that the promises I already pointed out, that God’s plans are for your benefit for a future and He will not only honor the work that you have done for yourself, He’ll make sure your kids are blessed, and He’ll ANSWER you’re prayer BEFORE you pray it AANNDD He’ll still listen to you when you pray it. Face it He’s basically obsessed with you!

God is Just: God is the great judge. He is the original (and in my opinion best) knower of Good and Evil. I point this out to say that some things have to happen a certain way just because God has to keep the balance of what is right and what is wrong. I feel like this part of the devotional is going to be poorly explained (lol) and leave room for a lot of questions but that’s good because it’ll get you thinking about it and hopefully you have some spiritual leaders to check in with. Ok so this mainly deals with sin. Adam and Eve sinned thus God HAD to put them out of the garden. We were thus all sinners, so in order for us to be graphed back into relationship with God there HAD to be a sacrifice…of blood…a life! I’m not saying anything along the lines of “if you’ve sinned then God will make you sick to make up for it” because Jesus took ALL the punishment we had to take, otherwise He wouldn’t have been a worthy sacrifice. I am saying that there are things you could miss out on because you were not in the right spot. Or maybe you could get these things later on in life because now you have learned your lesson. God is the great judge, He is the one who decides. If God made an exception for even one person, now the whole balance is out of wack. He MUST judge based on right and wrong. Also this hints at the fact that if you are doing wrong the Lord will straighten you out, out of love. I need a scripture here please:

Proverbs 3:11-12 “My son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord LOVETH He correcteth even as a father the son in whom he delighteth”

God is Powerful/terrible: God is powerful! Like OH-DEE powerful! Like the most powerfull-est force in the history of powerful forces! HE LITERALLY RUNS EVERYTHING!! He has created everything you CAN see (natural world) and controls everything that you can’t see (spiritual world). What a great force to have on your side…but think about your enemies…what’s it like to have something like that NOT on your side, ma fact DIRECTLY against you….ouch smh.

Psalms 47:2-3 “For the Lord most high is terrible, he is a great king over all the earth, He SHALL subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet”

Jeremiah 20:11 “But the Lord is with me like a MIGHTY WARRIOR so my persecutors WILL stumble and NOT prevail. They will fail (in case it wasn’t clear so far lol) and be THOROUGHLY disgraced; their dishonor will NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

Matt 10:28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both the soul and body in hell”

Wowzers! Lol Seriously though, keep this in mind when you realize you’re in battle, not only are your friends, sisters and brothers backing you up, along with heaven and all the angels but this God with the aforementioned strengths and abilities has sent you out to this battle that you may win to make Him look good. So when people say loving people that do you wrong, forgiving everybody and praying instead of fighting is weak and pointless keep all these scriptures in mind. Plus they just can’t understand how strong God and His principles are because they are blind to the truth.

There’s SO MUCH more I could put in this thang but its already od long lol don’t worry it’s all in your bible though ;) I just really hate it when people lie on God or make Him look bad. Especially if it’s me that does it! So I try to keep all this in mind. I know I hate people lying on me and my character so I don’t know HOW God puts up with it. But then the scripture came to mind Gal 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” If I may translate, “Don’t it get it twisted, people can’t play me, it’ll all be straight in the end partna” lol

Over and Out :)

P.S. Here is a link to Part 1: Click Here

Trayvon Martin Case vs. FAMU Band Hazing Incident

By: Shwanda Jones

“I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.”
Langston Hughes

During the recent weeks, I have watched and listened earnestly as new evidence unfolds in the Trayvon Martin case. I have also witnessed the black community rise up, put on its armor as if entreated to war. A travesty indeed, a young man being slain and being taken from the world far too soon. However, those of you with a religious or spiritual background, whichever word you prefer, know that God does not make any mistakes. Our brother is no longer but there is something to be said, a message to the world that we indeed need to hear, behind this incident. An angel was returned.

A few months ago just four hours north of the site of Trayvon’s death; another young man by the name of Robert Champion was killed. Champion, a 26-year-old drum major at Florida A&M was said to have died due to complications from an alleged hazing incident. There hasn’t been any marches, protests, Facebook events or demonstrations on Champion’s behalf. Champion as well, a victim of violence, innocent blood shed and in some cases “authority racism.”

What then differentiates the two victims? Race. An individual of another race killed one victim and an individual (or perhaps several individuals) of the same race killed the other victim.

There’s a popular song by the Williams’ Brothers that says “sweep around your own front door, before you try to sweep around mine.” I applaud the black community for stepping in and taking a stance against injustice. However, individuals of another creed may state that African-Americans are quick to take a stance when race is involved in a killing but no one says anything when they kill each other.

Now, I am by no means excusing Zimmerman and the heinous crime he committed. Nor am I saying that race did not play a role, however, I am saying why are we not just as furious at the people responsible for the killing of Robert Champion. He was a young man, taken far too soon. He wasn’t causing trouble or bothering anyone. His killers were just black or minorities as well.

Now, I am not making a case against hazing, fraternities or sororities; but I am making a case against blacks assessing all issues fairly. Follow me. Negativity and degradation in our community has become acceptable. It’s okay for us to kill each other, call each other “Ni**er” and call our females “B****es” but no one else better do it. Explicit colloquialisms and community racism has become socially accepted. We don’t correct each other because that would be too much like doing the right thing. We have become bold in standing our ground for wrong but we have become mute and silent when standing for righteousness. The same reason individuals with the most Twitter followers degrade women and lead examples of poor life styles is the same reason we don’t take a stance against one another. Affirmation. No one wants to rock the boat. We all want to be accepted in the community. We all want to be the crème de la crème of a willowing crop, unbeknownst to us. We dare not speak against the norms of wrongdoing in our own social circles and communities for we run the risk of becoming the elephant in the room. No one wants to be the elephant…that is unless everyone is an elephant.

I understand that we as a minority, as a people have been fighting for equality for years. I understand we as a minority, as a people need to uplift each other because of the fear that uplift will not come from anyone else. I understand that we as a minority, as a people must ban together in times of tragedy. Trust me, I do. But what I do not understand is why we are biased in our battles. Why are we continuing to use suffrage as an excuse to war in certain instances, when we should use suffrage as a catapult to grow every day? Yes, there will always be individuals with more money, more power who don’t believe we can achieve and who do not believe we are equal…but these individuals aren’t always of another race…sometimes that look just like you and I. And sometimes, just maybe sometimes if it’s not too hard to believe, there are individuals who do not look like us who will help us.

I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist. It is alive and well. It has been passed on and recreated into new waves and new forms. But my dear patrons, my brothers and my sisters, that does not mean accountability is unexcused.

While eating lunch today, God began to speak to me. He showed me the relationship between the Trayvon Martin Case and the FAMU Case because He wants us to see while we are fighting for equality against others, there’s still fighting to be done for equality with one another. A man’s ways is a reflection of his heart. A man willing to kill is a man willing to kill…no matter what race he is.

We can say that the individual(s) responsible for Champion’s death didn’t intend for him to die or didn’t intentionally kill him as Zimmerman did Martin but whatever the moral reasoning, the people responsible did mean to inflict harm. The consequence of that “playful harm”, that “usual harm”, that “routine harm”, was an innocent life. Martin is dead and so is Champion. This topic doesn’t bring about the war of physicality but the war of psychology. If you believe that one death is less important because of the back information, then imagine your loved one being in either…it would still hurt the same. Let’s continue marching and taking a stance for equality and against injustice…no matter the source.

Is your mouth saved?

BY: Joyce Meyer

(notes from her conference on 3/17)

Hey folks! This will be a two part devotional from the notes I took at Joyce Meyer’s conference when she was in Winston. Please take the time and look over these scripture references.

Proverbs 21:23- “The one who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

· Are you a good representative of God?

· How many of your problems are a result of your own words? Really start listening to the words you say and the death you speak over your life.

· Are you commonly saying these words: “hate”, “death”, “crazy”, “sick”, “tired”? Examples: “I HATE this weather”; “I almost laughed to death!”; “This woman is driving me CRAZY!”; “He makes me SICK”; “I am SO tired”.

o If this is what dominates your vocabulary then no wonder your life is filled with many issues. Even if these things are said “lightheartedly” and “jokingly”, our words still have power. They create an environment. Be mindful.

· God has entrusted us with words and they are powerful! You can hurt or help your future with the words you choose day. So do like Paul says in Phil. 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

· STOP COMPLAINING! Talk about something wonderful instead! Remember what God has done that is great! Stir one another up about the great things that God has done in our lives!

· Complaining is a sin! When you complain, you remain. There’s no forward progress, you are just in that situation, not moving. But if you notice in the Bible, praise always precedes progress! Cover your prayers with praise on one side and thanksgiving on the other side (Like a sandwich)!

· If you’re complaining about what you have, why should God bless you with more things to complain about?

· Complaining opens the door for the enemy. It allows the enemy to come more into your life. Exodus 15:24; 16:2-3:

o So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

o ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

o The people forgot God had parted the Red Sea and they forgot all God had done! In the midst of problems, stop and remember what God has done. Don’t mumble and grumble! There’s always someone who wants to be in your place!

· Don’t despise small beginnings. Remain thankful! It develops Godly character! Not in the career you want to be in right now? Didn’t go to the school you wanted to attend? Whatever the issue, just be thankful!

· Your goal should be to become the most thankful person on earth. May sound silly, but why not? Think about it, if you’re always thankful, you would have nothing to complain about! The more positive you are, the happier you’ll be.

· Also, if you appreciate something someone does for you, open your mouth and thank them!

· A miserable Christian is an oxymoron. It’s impossible! Change the way you talk! We need to stay amazed at God.

· God is looking for worshippers who worship! Its who they are! Not what they do!

· Exodus 17:3: “

· Numbers 21:4-7

· Don’t wait until trouble comes to realize we have sinned. When we turn against God, we open ways for the enemy. 1 Corinthians 10:8-11 This story is in the new testament to remind us what not to do. We don’t need to repeat the same complaining the Israelites did.

· So what are you actually saying about the Lord? Pslam 91: 2? I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

· In Malachi, they were saying the wrong things. Malachi 3:13-16. While you are waiting, don’t complain.

· God hears every word we say! Find decent things to say if you want your life blessed! For problems say: I know it’s hard, but God has a plan for this. I just want to keep a positive attitude while I go through it.

· 2 Chronicles 20:22. Praise confuses the enemy. In the text, the enemy killed themselves because they were confused.

Action Plan: Commit to a 30 day fast of no complaining! A Word Fast! No complaining! You need to be the person that people won’t even go to with mumblings or complaints. Complaining weakens, praise strengthens. Just because you feel like complaining, practice the words you know God want you to say.

Prayer: God, thank you for such a convicting teaching. It’s so easy to complain and sometimes I don’t realize I’m doing so. Please allow me to be conscious of when I start complaining and allow me to take the message from this teaching and apply it strategically to my life specifically. Lord I really love you and want to improve daily in any area that I can. Today I want to take charge of my mouth and become more mindful of what I say so that I can better represent you and myself. God I need your help with this! It’s easy to say I’m going to do something, but It’s a completely different story to follow through! Lord I love you! Thank you for your help! You are amazing! In Jesus name, Amen.

The Important of SACRIFICE

By: Fred Reid

I really feel like GOING IN ON THIS ONE!! But I’ll try to keep it short. Sacrifice is a big part of our Christian walk! These days everybody is a Christian if you ask them, and while I’m not the one who is capable of judging or deciding who is or isn’t save you can DEFINITLEY tell a tree by its fruit. And by that I mean if you claim Christ your life will reflect it. Jesus specifically said to follow Him you need to DENY YOURSELF first, then take up your cross and follow Him. If you are doing everything your flesh SUGGUESTS (not forces) you to do then you are not sacrificing and Lord is not head of your life…your urges are. But nevertheless let’s get biblical.

Sacrifice has been part of a relationship with God from way back! So I want to put out the level of quality of sacrifice and how it relates to your position in God. Sacrificing animals was a religious practice and it was good and very commonly done. However, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, whom God had given him. A tough sacrifice none-the-least, but look how great Abraham is consider some two or three thousand years later. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham refers to the sacrificial process as “worship”. Thus we learn that sacrifice, not slow songs, are a form of worship. But it gets even tougher in verse 7 when Isaac asks Abraham, Father where is the sacrifice? Dddannng put yourself in the story for a second. What is something you KNOW God has given you, would you willing to sacrifice it if He told you too? Would you doubt it was Him and generalize that He would not give you something only to have you sacrifice if later on, or would you have the faith of Abraham and trust God completely at His word?

I pointed out that story to relate it to present day sacrifice. Some people wake up to go to church even though they are tired from working all week, Saturday night drinking, partying or whatever late night activities they’ve been doing and that’s good. But what valued item do you have that you’d sacrifice for God? Maybe you’re really nice car to drive people without cars to church or carpool some of the saints that struggle to pay for gas and other bills? Maybe your nice apartment or house church functions or get togethers. Maybe (dare I say it) some of your money to help cover church expenses or younger believers that are struggling to get by? Or maybe the most valued thing you have…your life! Will you truly lay down your life to make all your desires second to the will of God? Would you truly be ok with God taking you a totally different direction than you’ve been trying to go thus far because that’s not His will for you? I mean let us not forget that we were crucified WITH Christ and now live THROUGH Him, therefore making us the best definition of dead men/women walking.

I honestly don’t mean to “ruffle” anyone’s feather’s, or make anybody feel bad about what they are currently doing for Christ. But I fully intend to tell the truth and challenge my brother and sisters to do better in Christ because I want you to be everything you possible can be in Christ. There are other people that NEED you to be in your place so they can receive what they need from God. Think not? Where would we be if Jesus hadn’t sacrificed His life? Wow

Over and Out J

It’s up to you

By: Fred Reid

Guess who’s bizack! :D Sorry it’s been a while. But this one will hopefully be short but still powerful so don’t miss it! Ok a few basic principles to cover before I get this one going. We need to understand that the enemy is NOW powerless over our lives. We know this because Jesus rose with ALL power (Matt 28:18) and it takes no math mathematician to know the only thing left after ALL is none. Next we learn that Jesus has given us the keys to the Kingdom (Matt 16:19) thus the only power that the enemy can have we must give him, usually through what we say. Ex: The devil sure is busy. The devil made me do it. The enemy is chasing me. Etc However this devotional is going to be about the power of belief.

I want you to walk away from this understanding that God has given you enough power to have what you confess and believe. Thus I assert to you a very commonly used “churchy” saying “Whose report will you believe?” Any situation you go through is actually an opportunity for the kingdom of darkness as well as the kingdom of God. Therefore, both sides present reports for you to believe. There are plenty of examples of such throughout the bible, from Joshua(his spies told him the cananites were too big to be over taken but Josh aint believe that so God gave him the city), Job (feared that his kids could be sick due to this disrespect of God and then they got sick and died) but the example that I’m going to use today is the time daughter that was presumed dead until Jesus showed up. When initially confronted with the problem Jesus told the ruler “Fear not; believe only and she shall be made whole” Luke 8:50. As a result Jesus claimed that she was only sleeping, and those who couldn’t get with that were kicked out so that the miracle could happen.

I want to make sure I’m not selling anybody any false hope so behind that I want to also assert that what you BELIEVE in you act upon. For example, I believe I am a good shooter in basketball so I throw that thang up there quite often in games lol but on a more serious note if you believe that God is truly king you will treat Him and His statutes as such. More specifically if you believe that you are healed you will do things like praise thank God for healing you and make decisions that will support your healing rather than cause it to be in question. For example, if you are sick claiming to be healed you will eat your soup and get rest to strengthen your body rather than claiming healing and still going outside in the cold improperly dressed and refusing to wash your hands. So in closing choose you this day whom you will serve..and believe.

Over and Out J

Hunger

By: Monique Smith

Stop. Hunger. Now. Familiar with the phrase? There are many social justice groups all over the country, out with a goal to stop hunger in the world, especially child hunger. With the huge unfailing passion I have for young people, my heart melts every time I see a young person hungry or struggling in society. When hearing statistics about the number of children who die every hour due to hunger, I can’t describe the feeling of sorrow and confusion I have. So with this passion, when an opportunity presents itself where I can donate to a trustworthy missions group to feed those kids, I donate. However, during the Joyce Meyer meeting I attended earlier today (March 17^th), I had an internal conflict and God quickly gave me revelation about the issue.

The conflict I was having was this: 1. Why are all these people reaching out to these kids over seas that are hungry, when we have kids right in our community who do not have enough to eat? Take a look at DC, the nation’s capital; the poverty/starvation rate is ridiculously high. Why don’t we fix our problems here and then move on? Yes, I know we are the richest country in the world and could stand to donate to other countries, but our people here need the money too. (That last thought was very selfish, I know, but I’m being totally transparent here).

Conviction the Lord gave me: Immediately after Joyce shared her mission video with us and asked us to donate financially to her overseas food ministry, I thought back to the beginning of the program when she told us the amount of food that was collected via donations from everyone who attended the conference in Winston-Salem, NC. With the conference being free, everyone was encouraged to bring can foods to donate. I forget the amount of food that was collected but I know it was up in the thousands. Why was that convicting? Because Joyce stated that all of the food that was collected would be donated to food banks and distributed to hungry families in the Winston-Salem area. (So that was a shot in the gut to the internal conflict I was having about there not being enough done at “home” for our kids).

Revelation the Lord gave me was this: The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

God is calling this nation and the world to attention with the destruction we are bringing on ourselves. All of this hunger, violence, financial trouble, terrorism, etc. is brought on our country and the world simply because of the lack of reverence for God. Until this nation realizes that and stops blaming these social issues on God and starts looking at themselves, this world will continue to deal with these issues. The world must repent and turn to God for the solution for these issues.

So with that being known, that should be an energizer to believers all across the world to amp up the spreading of the gospel. By spreading the gospel, we introduce or bring others back to Christ, which in turn allows them to realize their sins, leading to repentance, and then the healing of the world! How great is this! This definitely encouraged me to continue being a standout for Christ and being a light because child hunger is an issue that I care about and that can not end 100% until this nation turns back to God.

Whew! I pray that blessed you all and brought some revelation to your heart as it did mine.

Prayer: Dear Lord, I love you so much. Thank you for conviction and revelation. Thank you for speaking directly to my heart and giving me insight. God please give me more boldness and opportunity to spread the gospel to those who need to hear the Word! Lord I know and realize it is my responsibility, as laid out in the great commission to go out and preach the gospel, so I accept this charge today and want to be better at doing so. Lord you have blessed me so much and I am so much more fortunate than many people in this world. I want to be able to show my appreciation and gratitude by being a blessing to the poor. I understand that you are not allowing people to suffer because you are evil, but because I am evil and bring the consequences of my sin on myself and others around me. Help me Lord so I can live a holy and acceptable life and to become rooted and grounded in you! You are so worthy Lord! In Jesus name, Amen.

Huh?! What you said?

By: Monique Smith

“He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles” Proverbs 21:23.

Hey y’all! This scripture is concise and straight to the point. Basically, If you let anything slip out of your mouth and do not practice self control or discipline, you will find yourself in trouble. Not only in trouble with fellow humans, but also with God. Take a self check, are you bringing unnecessary drama and problems into your simply because of the way you speak? Are you complaining more than you are being thankful? Are you speaking death and being negative? If so, you can contribute many of your problems to that. You reap what you sow. Sow negativity, reap negativity. God has entrusted us with words and they are powerful! So everyone, let’s stop complaining and talk about all the great things God has done instead! Joyce Meyer stated that “When you complain, you remain. But praise always proceeds progress!” If you haven’t realized it yet, when you complain about your situation, nothing better comes from it other than the “satisfaction” of the flesh in your lack of self control. But when you praise God, even though everything looks terrible, that is when things start to change and your situation improves!

Challenge: Join me in a 30 day fast of NO complaining! That’s right! For 30 days, make a commitment not to complain about anything. Of course this will be difficult, but anything worth doing is difficult at times right? So Monique what if I have a real problem and I just need to talk to someone about it? Well Joyce Meyer says there is a way to talk about your problems in a way that still glorifies God. You can say “I know this situation that I just went through made me feel ___ and ___ etc etc, but I KNOW that God has a plan for this and I will be thankful for it none the less. God help me keep a positive mindset through this situation because it is very difficult.” Give it a try folks! And if 30 days seems too long for you right now, try it for three days and then progress from there : )

Prayer: God thank you for convicting my spirit and reminding me that complaining is a sin and you are not pleased with my complaints. I know you hear every word I say, all the time, and I want my mouth to be as saved as I claim my soul to be. Lord please help me in my fast and immediately show me when I am complaining so I can repent and correct my behavior. Lord I LOVE YOU! Thank you for being you! In Jesus name! Amen!

Prayer

By: Monique Smith

I don't know if anyone else feels like me any time....but I find myself more often than not, being distracting throughly during prayer. For example: I may say a prayer and then immediately start thinking about what I need to do tomorrow or what if this or thinking about him or her and then my prayers turn into thoughts and more talk than dialogue with Daddy.

And this my friends, frustrates me. I know God wants to hear from us at anytime, anyway, and he loves when we talk to Him. But c'mon. He want's to talk back to us sometimes and not allow the conversation to only be one sided.

So yesterday after work, I was determined to fix that! I was sitting in my bed, it was about 5p.m. and I had my Bible out, singing worship songs in my head, and then I begin to clear my mind. It was difficult at first, but I finally got it clear and sighed a sigh of relief and was ready to talk to the Father. I started by asking for forgiveness for the countless things I did wrong during the day. Then that lead into a conversation with the Father....until.....about 45 minutes later, I found myself waking up from a NAP!!! -_-!!! What!!! Monique! You fell asleep!! SMH.

As you can see that was a fail. For many reason, next time, I will not be trying that on my bed! LOL. But the purpose of this is to let you know about the retry that happened today at work. Thankfully I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I was asked to proctor a test from 8:15-9:45a.m. I agreed, not really wanting to. But my God, I'm so glad I did. During the time of proctoring, I had SO much free time to really talk to Daddy. I cleared my head and ask God for clear guidance for what I should do during this summer and He BLEW ME AWAY!! I'm not able to share details right now, but He gave me so many ideas about how to build up my community and make a change! I was so excited!!

The point of this all is to encourage you all to try try try again at cleaning your mind and having a conversation with Daddy, not a monologue! He really will speak to you and guide you! Its such a beautiful thing!!

ALSO, yesterday, God directed me to a book in the Bible that will be super important in the fulfillment of the plans he gave me for the Summer!

This is a great thing!

Be blessed y'all!!

Submit.

By: Monique Smith

Disclaimer: This is to be taken literally

Romans 13

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. ² So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

God places people in authority in every area. Even if you feel they aren’t effective or if they aren’t leading properly, they still are placed there by God. By being rebellious and not following suit, you are blatantly disobeying God’s command and are bringing unnecessary judgment on yourself.

³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. ⁴ For government is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.

Think about it, people in authority, in most cases, don’t bother you if you’re doing good, only if you’re doing bad. For example: Police officers. If you don’t want to be afraid of authority, do good and y’all will be on good terms. We have rules and government in place to produce good things or provide the safest place for us. It’s God’s mechanism to keep us in the right lane and will also bring wrath and punishment to disobedience. God hates disobedience, don’t you?

⁵ Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience. ⁶ And for this reason you pay taxes, since the authorities are God’s public servants, continually attending to these tasks. ⁷ Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.

In obeying these rules though, don’t do it out of fear or dislike of punishment, but do it because of the love you have for God. Do all that is required of you. If you owe someone, pay them. Don’t owe anyone anything except love. (This is a word to me as well considering my credit cards. I need to keep the balances at $0 and limit the number of credit cards I have in my possession so that I will be able to live according to this scripture. I don’t want to be the borrower! I’m the lender!).

Love, Our Primary Duty

⁸ Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments:

Do not commit adultery;
do not murder;
do not steal;
do not covet;

and whatever other commandment—all are summed up by this: Love your neighbor as yourself.

¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

Love is the key to the puzzle. You need that to solve any problem. To fulfill your purpose and God’s law, you need to love.

Put On Christ

¹¹ Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light¹³ Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.

Wake up, get up, get up, get up! Don’t you see that “its getting late in tha e’ning?! The world is coming to an end. Put away disobedience and other deeds of the enemy. Walk in the daylight and in the way of the Lord at all times and put on Jesus. Make no plans to satisfy the flesh. Point. Blank. Period.

Prayer: God, I love you! Help me in all aspects of my life! In Jesus name I pray! Amen.

Got beef?

By: Monique Smith

Whats up folks! Long story short, I find myself running into difficulties and unnecessary criticism many places in my life, which at times leaves me to think that I am doing something completely wrong. At times I feel that my every action is being analyzed and there are people scoping out my life, waiting for me to mess up. And honestly, it’s a bit frustrating at times. I shared my frustrations with my Sunday school class and my aunt clearly stated “Everything that is bothering you or causing trouble in your life, YOU caused it. Its something about YOU that made the difficulty happen.” That really caught me off guard at first. I clearly understood how if I said bad grades or debt was causing trouble in my life, but how could I cause difficult people?! I was clueless until my father stated that the “something about you” could be GOOD or BAD”. Whew! What a relief!

Then God pointed me to this scripture: John 15:18- "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." So basically if the God in you creates friction and causes conflict for you in life, you know it's really God that is in you. There HAS to be people in the world who will try to set you up for failure or hate on you for no reason in order for the scriptures to be true and so that we can be more and more like our big brother Jesus.

Take courage my friends! Your light will continue to shine through difficulty if you don’t allow your natural frustrations and the tendency we have to gossip overpower your spirit. God will make a way for you and make your enemies your footstool in the future!

Prayer: God! You are so good to me for no reason! I don’t understand you or your actions, but I love it all! God thank you for the “sandpaper” people I have in my life who rub me the wrong way in order to produce smooth perfection in me in the future! God that is so amazing!!! I love you so much! In Jesus name! Amen.