Identity Crisis: Value

I know ya’ll bout tired of all my devotionals being entitled Identity Crisis (lol) but when you’ve been lied to by the devil for so many years it’ll take more than a few devotionals to straighten it all out. This one is about knowing your value and the value of God’s principles.

First we will start with knowing your own value and abilities. You were a sinner for YEARS! And if the truth is told you were still kind of in and out of it after being saved; or maybe that was just me, yet the Father STILL decided to stick with you because He saw how valuable you were and all that you could become. Just to make it more plain there are times when God will tell you something about yourself and something you CAN do but instead since you don’t know your value you respond with some type of excuse or flaw you have…or maybe that’s just me…and thankfully  Moses too. People give him a hard time for resisting God at first (and I’m about to too lol) but I find comfort in knowing someone like the great Moses had a few moments like I have.  In Exodus 3 around verse 11 Moses gives PLENTY of excuses of why he can’t go tell Pharaoh to free his people from bondage. The part that I want to focus on though is in chapter 4:10-11:

“And Moses said unto the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither hencetofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue ¹¹And the Lord said unto him, Who has made man’s mouth….”

GOT’EEM!!! Seriously though God is ssssoo bbaaddd!! So here we have Moses that has been complaining and making excuses and second guessing himself for literally about a full chapter. And AFTER God does signs such as turning Moses’ staff into a snake and then giving his hand leprosy and then taking it away, Moses just comes right out and admits that he can’t really talk impressively enough to get the job done. We’ll take a break to insert ourselves into the story. What has God told you to do or that you are capable of and you are steady telling him you can’t. There are plenty of excuses that you are making, flaws that you are finding but God says otherwise. He asks Moses who made his mouth. It is God who made His mouth and I’m sure God feels that He did a good job. And to bring it back home it is God who has made you, and made you exactly how He wanted you to be made. You have been through exactly what you needed to go through to focus on God and hear what He is saying to you. My challenge to you at this point is to believe what God is saying.  If God says something about you and you disagree not only is that disobedience but one of ya’ll is lying and I trust that you are smart enough to figure out who it is.

Hopefully you don’t find my tone overbearing or judgmental but its really time to get with the program and run with what God is telling us. First we must slow down and listen so that we can hear what He is revealing about us. There was something about us that allowed Him to love us through all of our constant compromises, sins of commission and omission and I think that valuable gem was the words that He spoke over us and the purpose that He gave us. Don’t resist the Lord any longer, there are people waiting on you to get in your place so that they can get the answer from God that they have been praying for. How many enslaved people had been praying and crying for God to free them from Pharaoh? While Moses was going back and forth with God about whether or not he could go through with the plan how many people gave up on being free or maybe even died a slave? Don’t’ be scared or intimidated simply believe God and line up with the will. Moses let us know how messed up he was but look at how much he got done and how great he ended up being, we are talking about him to this day!

Lessons in Disobedience: The Story of Jonah 1 (Don P.)

We all have probably heard the story of Jonah and the whale.  For the sake of this devotion, let's briefly recap before we get into the lessons God shares with this story.

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and share a word with the people there. Instead Jonah fled, taking a ship in the opposite direction. A turbulent storm came upon the ship and the crewmen were petrified.  They tried all they could to weather the storm, however had no resolution.  They cried out to each of their gods looking for solace from the storm, as Jonah lay asleep in the bottom of the boat ...

There are two perspectives that I hope to share on the lesson God shows through the story of Jonah. The first - Jonah 1:5

Your Disobedience Could Be Costly To Those Around You

Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. -Jonah 1:5

wares: (7) keli, a "prepared" something, as an implement, tool, weapon, utensil, armor, furniture, sack, vessel, hence, wares (Jonah 1:5).

Not only did Jonah's disobedience cost him the monetary fare of the trip but the people around him had to throw away those preparations that would benefit them on their journey! Now that's costly. Take a moment to think about the people around you. Would you want them to be punished for acts of YOUR disobedience?

God's Will WILL Be Done

Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. -Jonah 1:14

Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. -Jonah 1:16

Now, even after Jonah's disobedience he was STILL used to bring people to Christ.  Verse 14 and 16 tell us that after their experience with God through Jonah's acts of disobedience, even the crew members came to recognize, reverence, and respect OUR God, the TRUE and living God.  We know from Proverbs that this is where it all starts; until you have THAT experience with God you are lost.

Proverbs 1:7
7  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
   fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Jonah was in a fleeting state-he was running from God, but was STILL used to carry out God's plan of reaching the lost.  I encourage you brother and sister, don't let your disobedience be costly to those around you; even in the absence of cooperation and alignment with Him, YOU could be used to minister to others. How much sweeter would it be to acknowledge and cooperate with God as He only seeks to prosper us beyond belief!

My Prayer:

Father, thank you for your patience, grace and mercy. As I am constantly falling short of your expectations for me, I ask your forgiveness for those things that separate me from Your righteousness. Remove any rebellious and disobedient spirit.  Continue to cultivate in me an upright and pure heart so that I am in accordance with Your will.  Thank you for using ME to help carry out your plan.  God, I love you. AMEN. 

Blessed, in Jesus' Name

Humility

            Being humble is paramount for the believer. It is extremely important to understand your role in your relationship with Christ. As the Lord begins to bless you it is EASY to mistake Him through you to be your abilities and knowledge to be the reason why things are going so well. The bible is FULL of that, and each time the Lord has simply stepped back just a little and things have completely fallen apart.

            Therefore I will present a few scriptures that truly testify to the importance of humility. To me humility is simply understanding how much you can do without God. It’s almost embarrassing to say but I had to be humbled by the Lord because I would always tell Him my plans with some type of “get in where you fit in” type mentality; as though the plan could go forth without Him. Thus He quickly showed me the type of life I’d live depending on myself and once I was beat up enough and let Him take the lead, He quickly blessed me and showed how He can make something good of my mistakes so I KNOW what I’m talking about. But to the word:

1 Peter 5:6 “humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time”

Matth 23:12 “And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted”

Humbleness brings forth elevation as one of my close friends often tells me. Furthermore it proves that it is better to humble yourself that to make God do it.

Proverbs 15:33 “the fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom, and before HONOR come humility”

In order to learn and then be honored you must first be humble.

James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is OPPOSED to the proud but gives grace to the humble’”

Yikes! The idea of being opposed to God is just…smh wowza

Colossians 3:12 “And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved put on a heart of compassion, kindness, HUMILITY,  gentleness and patitence”

Humility is one of the characteristics that prove that you have been redeemed by God.

In closing Jesus himself was humbled enough to take on filthy flesh and die for us though He was the holy, blameless word of God. How much more or easier should it be for us to be humble? Humbleness does not have to be exaggerated and obnoxious but simply a recognition of what you can do without the Lord; an understanding of how big, smart and able you are in comparison to the ancient of days…that’ll keep ya head on straight…believe that!

Over and Out J

Who are you following? What kind of benefits do you reap from following them?

By: Monique Smith

Hello friends! Today’s devo will be coming from Acts 8: 9-13.

⁹ A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and astounded the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great.^{(F) 10} They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God!”^{[b](G) 11} They were attentive to him because he had astounded them with his sorceries for a long time. ¹² But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.^{(H) 13} Then even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he went around constantly with^[c] Philip and was astounded as he observed the signs and great miracles^(I) that were being performed.

When I read the above passage, I immediately thought about the difference in following secular artists vs spiritual & saved artist.  Take a few moments and get your favorite (current or former) secular artist in your mind. Okay. In relation to this passage, whoever your secular person is, they will be Simon. Now get your favorite saved artist in mind. That person will be Philip.  My “Simon” is Young Jezzy. (haha, for those of you who don’t know, in my BC days, Jezzy was my FAVORITE rapper. I just loved his flow, punch lines, beats, etc etc).  My “Philip” will be Lecrae.

            In the world of music, I was a huge follower of Jezzy, he amazed me with every new song he produced. I was hooked on every ad lib, and his music made me feel good and hype while listening to it. Everyone I knew loved Jezzy as well. We were all fans. Everyone would have a Jezzy CD in his or her car and you would always hear him bumping in someone’s trunk. The benefits that Jezzy gave us were: Good music and a good time.

            Let’s fast forward to the present. My current favorite rapper is Lecrae. He is a saved artist who speaks about the Truth. Before Lecrae, I didn’t believe in “Gospel Rappers” because everything that I’ve heard in the past was straight WHACK. Lame word play, lame beats, just lame, lame, lame. But once the scales were removed from my ears (through surrendering my will to God), I believed in Lecrae and his music. I realized he was spittin’ the good news about the kingdom of God and I realized that after listening to his music, my spirit felt better, I was a tad more knowledgeable about the things of God, and I started growing in God.  The benefits that Lecrae gave me was: Truth about God in a form I was accustomed to and a filling of my spirit with fresh new “water” of the Word.

            In the passage in Acts, we see how people were following Simon who was keeping them very well entertained by his witchcraft and sorcery. Everyone thought he was great because they had never seen anything that amazing before. The benefits he gave them were simple: entertainment. BUT when the people started listening to Philip and believed him and his teachings about Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, they were BAPTIZED. The benefit Philip gave them was extraordinary: salvation.  The passage goes on to say that Simon, who was once famous for his lifestyle, believed in the teachings, he was also baptized! Amazing right!? Then Simon started proclaiming the gospel! (Modern day example of that in the music world is Malice from the group Clipse, y’all remember Grindin’! Homeboy raps about the Truth now a days!)

            This devo was to get you all thinking about the people who you follow and let feed your spirit. What kind of benefits are you receiving in that “follow-ship”? Are these benefits temporal or eternal?  Think about it. SE’LAH! (boo-yow!)

Prayer: Lord! I love you! Thank you so much for allowing me to first follow you and second, for all the benefits I receive by simply abiding in your shadows! However, Lord, I need more help in realizing the impact of following others you have placed on this earth. I know you have given me free will to do many things, I just want to make sure my spirit is constantly being fed and that I do not grow stagnant. Protect me from things that are contrary of you. I want to be more like you, each and every day. Lord I love you! In Jesus name, amen.

           

           

           

End Carnality!!

By: Fred Reid

“I want carnality to die I want life in my spirit so when God speaks a word in my heart I can hear it!” Those are the lyrics from a song by YPJ that almost ALWAYS makes me run it back! This is like a declaration for life for me! I’ll be the first one to be honest my carnality; holds me back often! It is a very obviously a separation between me and God, but it can be defeated!

What is carnality? 1 Corinthians 3:1-3:

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ  ²I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto ye were not able to bear it neither yet NOW are ye able ³ For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are yet not carnal and walk as men?”

Few things are I want to point out about carnality. It is NATURAL! As in you are born into it or with it however you want to say it. Carnality is your first reaction if you don’t catch yourself and find a spiritual response that is more appropriate. Carnality has you upset and wanting to fight or cuss somebody out, carnality has you lusting for sex or saying sexually inappropriate things. Therefore carnality is mentioned as a characteristic of them that are babes in Christ. You literally have to grow in Christ to grow OUT of carnality. Finally the fruits, or results of carnality are expressly mentioned: envying, strife, and divisions. None of these characteristics bring glory to God, are exemplified by Christ nor build up the Kingdom. And as Romans 14:23 tells us “whatever is not of faith is of sin”

In summation what I’m trying to say is don’t be alarmed or feel bad if you feel or do carnal things, that’s what comes natural and what you’ve been doing for years. It doesn’t make you a bad person. However, don’t settle! Grow and  mature in Christ. Be a peacemaker and spread love, stop letting people and their words make you place your cross down so often. If Jesus did that we’d all be done for! Besides the upside to all this, is once you do mature and become less carnal the Lord can speak to us as unto spiritual and then there is NO telling what type of things we will learn and things that He can do through us! GREATER works my friends! The world NEEDS us! Be blessed!

Over and Out J

God can take it back

By: Monique Smith

 Quick thought- Even though God promised you something, He can take it back. He can renege if He wants to!  Often I find myself taking comfort in the fact that God has promised me x and y and take for granted how precious life is. To be more specific, God showed me a few things that's going to take place in 3 years so I take for granted life, health, and strength now because I feel that I'll def be alive in 3 years cause God has to fulfill His promise. And it's true no word of His returns void, but if He takes it back... Who gone check Him?! He's God! (lol)  Peep scripture in 1 Samuel 2:30--  "Therefore, [this is] the declaration of  the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Although I said your family and your ancestral house would walk before Me forever, the Lord now says, "No longer!" I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be  disgraced. (1 Samuel 2:30 HCSB) Background of that: Eli's sons where very wicked and had no regard for the Lord. They had leadership positions in the temple even though everyone knew they were sleeping with all the women serving in the tent; not regarding the sacredness of sacrifice, etc. Their Father, the priest Eli, addressed their behavior once in scripture, but he didn't remove them from leadership.  God then speaks to Eli and reprimands him because he knew the promises that God gave him and he knew the ratchetness his sons where carrying out but he let it continue, in fact, he even enjoyed some of the proceeds of their sins (his sons would take the best fat of the calfs men went to sacrifice God and would eat them instead of allowing the sacrifice to be burnt in full for God).  So God was like, Not so! Not in here.... Not in here!! So God took that promise back.  To you, brothers and sisters, walk out what God called you to do. Don't be flaky. Promises come with restrictions of following the rules before receipt. Be mindful.

 Prayer: God we love you, thank you, and bless you! Help me in this area if you see that I am struggling. I want to take part in full of all the blessings you have for me! I love you! In Jesus name, amen. :) Love y'all! 

OUCH! That HURT!

By: Monique Smith

Today I want to share the new found understanding I have of what thorns in our flesh are.

This devotional is coming from 2 Corinthians 12:1-8.

So I’ve been conversing with a few people lately about possible thorns they may have in their flesh, and honestly I thought that things people called “thorns” were just struggles they wanted to justify by labeling it as a thorn. But thankfully, my lovely cousin Qu’Derrick was able to offer more insight on the concept of thorns.

Thorns are used to humble us. Thorns are used to keep us in line with God. Thorns are used as alerts or warning flags to remind us to get back “on it” with the things of God. Thorns can be reminders of how far God has brought us. Thorns are wake up calls.

Thorns are not in our lives to make us feel worthless or unholy. Thorns are not in our lives to make us feel bad about our struggle or weakness. Thorns are not in our life so we use those things as excuses to sin.

In the passage, Paul starts off telling us about an out of body experience that a man had. This man is Paul himself, but when reading it, if you’re like me, it seems a tad odd and confusing. But after some research, I realize that Paul is speaking of himself. Paul is sharing the revelation God gave him with others.

Paul lets them know that even though God showed him that revelation, he is no better than anyone else. However, with that revelation, he has the ability to boast in those things, but he’s not going to. It’s just like me. I could boast about the impact I’m making in people’s lives and the huge difference I am making everyday, but I don’t. I have a right do that because it is a fact that I am making a difference, but I know that all glory goes to God, so I leave it at that. Plus, I don’t need pride in my life anymore; I’m not bout that business these days!

Paul later goes on to tell us that one of the main reasons he chooses not to boast is because there is a thorn in his flesh that keeps him humble. Now I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I sin, I honestly feel like I have NO business trying to help encourage others and talk about the goodness of God when my life looks a hot mess. That indeed is a HUMBLING experience! Whew! But, I then remember that “fall” or that sinful experience was NECESSARY to keep me humble or keep me focused or keep me motivated, or whatever I need in my life to live as Christ wants me to live, I am thankful.

Qu’Derrick shared with me that a thorn in his flesh is sexual immortality. He KNOWS if he is not diligent in reading scriptures about lust, or praying against that spirit; or focused on spending time with God, then he WILL fall into some sort of sexual sin, rather that be masturbation, porn, intercourse, or whatever. And that is REAL. If we realize that the thorn that we have is there to keep us in line with God, we understand the importance and how serious this walk with Christ is. We realize it’s not something we can pick up and be flaky with, but we have to be 100% committed to it at all times.

For me, I realize that a thorn in my flesh is becoming overwhelmed and busy. If you know me personally, you know that I’m always doing something. Many times I try to connect whatever I am doing with some aspect of Kingdom build up and often times find myself doing “good” things not “God” things. I was sharing with my best friend Deborah a few weeks ago how I really dislike getting to the point where I am completely overwhelmed with being busy. Why? Because when my life is not organized I don’t read my Bible. I just don’t. If you all haven’t noticed, I haven’t been diligent in writing devotionals as I was before. It’s because I allowed my thorn, being busy, to take over my life and distract me from the Word and from the things God wants me to do. I had NEVER thought of that being a thorn before until I talked to Qu’Derrick and understood what thorns actually were. My lack of scheduling and being consistent ALWAYS results in me not reading my Bible or praying like I should and that leads directly to some sort of sin for me because my thoughts become OFF the CHAIN and gossip runs rampant and complaining, whew, complaining is all up and through my mouth.

I’m not sure if we all have thorns in our flesh but I know that thorns can come in a variety of things.

I just wanted to share this with you all. I pray that it enlightened you in some way!

Prayer: God! YOU ARE DEEEEE Best! I love you so much! God you see the depths of my heart and you STILL love me! You know about the thorn that is in my flesh and you still love me! You see me when I get off track and enjoy sin, but you STILL love me! Your GRACE is sufficient in my WEAKNESS and your strength is made perfect!! God I love you so much! Thank you for new mercies! Thank you for new grace! Lord, please help me regulate my mind and bring thoughts of guilt, shame, defeat, unworthiness, and demise into captivity when they try to rear their ugly head! Remind me of your love through my surroundings! Hugs and Kisses! I love you DADDY! In Jesus name, amen!

Disconnect in Prayer Life

By: Monique Smith 

*This devotional is actually from a text convo I had with a friend who felt disconnected in prayer life. I know many of us may have felt this way before so here are some things that work for me*

Okay well the way I start off sometimes is by playing some worship music to get "in the zone" and then I start by asking forgiveness for my sins. For me, whenever I feel distant from God it's because I know I've sinned or have been sinning and not repenting (most recent i felt distant because I complained about everythinggggg in life for a whole month, like no lie. And I know complaining isn't right but I legit won't happy with anything and complained all the timeee. And when I prayed I def ain't feel connected or nothing smh) but once I repented of that sin and put in place things to prevent me from complaining, I started feeling more connected. For example: I went on a 30 day no complaining fast! As far as my actual prayer it's prolly similar to yours, nothing "super holy" I'm just talking to God about the day and sometimes I laugh with him and of course I tell him how much I love him and how thankful I am :)  So if you feel distant, try some of those things out and maybe they will help! :)  -- If anyone has any scriptures to share about this topic or any comments, please share!----  Prayer: Daddy! Thank you for prayer! It is clutchhhhh!! I love you so much! Help me understand why I feel distant from you at times. If its sin, show me what I'm doing that is wrong, if it not spending enough time with you, let me know! God I want to be close to you and have the confidence that you hear me. Please grant me that assurance! I live to please and honor you! I love you bunches! In Jesus name, amen!

The Embodiment of Virtue

The Embodiment of Virtue By D’edra Y. Armstrong King Solomon, one of the wisest men in Biblical history, dared not close out the Book of Proverbs—Book of Wisdom—without celebrating the life of an admirable woman that King Lemuel christened “virtuous.” This passage is a literary masterpiece in its own right in many aspects, two of which should be briefly probed.  Notice first, the narrator’s brilliant use of the word “find” in the opening sentence—Who can find a virtuous woman? (Proverbs 31:10). At first glance, it appears as though the author is inferring to a search or discovery in terms of locality. However, the very next sentence gives a proclamation of this woman’s worth, comparing it to one of the rarest jewels—rubies. Worth mentioning is the fact that gemologists assert the ruby is a hundred times rarer than a fine diamond. Now, that’s rare!  Taken together, it is a direct indication that the author is not at all concerned about where this peculiar woman might be physically but is concerned about whether she can be obtained as a result of her value!  Notice also that the writer does not tell us what this woman “looks” like. Her physical semblance is not even mentioned. He doesn’t even mention so much as the color of her eyes. And that’s because the radiant qualities of a virtuous woman are the countenance upon which her beauty is seen and not her physicality.  In other words, it is the inside that stands out. So, the size of her breasts does not matter. The structure of her cheekbones is not taken into consideration. The length of her hair is unimportant. The texture of her hair is inconsequential. The shape of her figure is immaterial. The thickness of her lips is insignificant. Where’s she’s been and what’s she’s done in the past is irrelevant. The child she bore out of wedlock won’t exclude her from being a virtuous woman. Being a victim of rape or incest cannot prevent her from being a virtuous woman.  The dissolution of a past marriage doesn’t preclude her from being a virtuous woman. For it is the PRESENT character of this woman that is being celebrated and praised. Integrity is planted in her heart and great Wisdom flows from her lips. She is grounded in Faith and profound in Knowledge and Understanding of who she is. She is Patient and Kind. She is Gifted and Innovative. She is Creative. She is a Visionary. She is Organized and well Prepared. She is Strong and Diligent in her endeavors. She is altogether Blessed. Interpretably, this woman “got it going on!! Taken together, the real question asked is a rhetorical one.  Translated, it would read: Who is worthy of a remarkable, extraordinary, and highly unique woman? In other words, what man deserves you? What child is favored to have you as a mother? What people are richly blessed to have you as a friend? What employer is privileged to have you as an employee? These are but a few questions that you should meditate on, because for the woman described herein, she truly is VIRTUOUS!!  Scripture of the Day: "Priceless and Rare: The declared value of a virtuous woman." - Proverbs 31

"30 Thoughts for Victorious Living" excerpt

By: Shwanda Jones

 

 

I was reading this in a daily devotional book I have, "30 Thoughts for Victorious Living."

Declare Blessing

"Say to them, may the Lord bless you and protect you.  May the Lord smile upon you and be gracious to you.  May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace." Numbers 6:23-26

"A blessing is not a blessing until it is declared!  So today, declare a blessing over yourself and others.  Speak that blessing in the name of Jesus!  Declare you are blessed with God's supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for your life.  Declare today that you are blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance.  You are blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline.  You are blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favor and fulfillment.  You are blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection.  You are blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life.  Declare that any curse or negative word that's ever been spoken over you is broken right now in the name of Jesus.  Declare that everything you put your hand to is going too prosper and succeed!  Declare it today and ever day (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)!"

Prayer for Today:
"Precious Father, thank You for speaking blessings over my life in Your Word.  Thank You for equipping me with everything that I need to be successful.  Teach me to consistently believe in and declare Your blessings over my life and the lives of those around me."

This was taken from Day 11 of Joel Osteen's "30 Thoughts for Victorious Living"

Good Advice

By: Quaneisha Reynolds

Jeremiah 42:18-22 NASB

18For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.” 19The LORD has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not go into Egypt!” You should clearly understand that today I have testified against you. 20For you have only deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, “Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.” 21So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God, even in whatever He has sent me to tell you. 22Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.

Have you ever given anyone some really great advice that you knew would make a difference in their life? Advice like: you should get some sleep since you haven't slept in two days or you should break off that unholy relationship with so and so or you should fast and pray before you pursue that job or major. What did the person do with your advice? Did they take it to God and see if the advice was sound or did they reject your words while continuing to come to you for more advice that they would not listen to? The plurality of the Israelites in the book of Jeremiah listened to Jeremiah's words with no desire to heed them. In this book, Jeremiah informs the Hebrews that they will inevitably being taken into Babylonian captivity if they do not turn back to God. He shares this message over and over again. And guess what, they get taken into Babylonian captivity because they do not repent. Jeremiah next reiterates the importance of waiting for the Lord to free them from the Babylonians and not to go into Egypt. Guess what?! Most of them head on into Egypt and that is where our focal text is from. So captivity, deaths and destruction all resulted from Israel's rejection of the Lord's message through Jeremiah to repent ….

But enough about Jeremiah and Israel ... what about you and God. When the Holy Spirit tells you that you have sinned does your life display the fruits of repentance as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 7:11 or do you show that you miss being in the domain of darkness that He has transferred you from (Colossians 1:13)? When you are supposed to speak out ... do you remain silent? When you are supposed to ask the Lord to purify you from a lifestyle habit of masturbation, fornication (with the same sex or opposite sex) or lying, do you do it? When will we internalize Jeremiah 29:11, and realize that God's commandments are for our good and that there are consequences attached to our decision to either accept or reject His words? I am sooo grateful that Abba's kindness, tolerance and patience leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4), because HELL is our just wage for not repenting. 

Hey hey

By: Deborah Ross

I just wanted to share with you what Daddy shared with me this morning: Hold on to your dreams because the goal is to reach people :) (I'm sure he was smiling so I added the smiley face) oh and check out what Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15.

The Art of Prayer

By: Shwanda Jones

I don't have a devotional but I am reading this book by Kenneth E. Hagin called "The Art of Prayer." If you have time, please please go get this book and read it.  You can read it front to back or skip around.  It will really bless you.  It has opened my eyes to so many things of the Spirit and it has even offered interpretations of scriptures that I never once thought about in that way.  Please please get this book.  I highly recommend it.  It's always good to supplement the things we hear in church, pray about and read in the Word.

Chapter detail:
http://www.indwelt.com/display/0892765186/Kenneth-E.-Hagin/The-Art-of-Prayer/

Sight Devotional (Understanding) pt.2

                                             By: Fred Reid

  This is sort of a finishing touch to the previous devotional I did about the time Jesus healed the man’s sight in two touches. Just to make sure we on the same page the scripture was Mark 8:22-26. The focus of this devotional will be how your understanding changes as you spend more time with Christ.

     If we were to compare this man’s sight to our understanding of God it makes for an interesting comparison. When you first get saved you are so excited about the things of God but truthfully you are a baby in Christ. Thus your understanding must mature. Think of some of the younger people in your family, they may be eager to learn and do things but truthfully it would just be too much for their mind to be exposed to. Similarly this is why there are saints of varying ages that are still in the very beginning stages of understanding Christ. Now these are NOT sinner or heathens, simply people that need their understanding developed. These are people that truly believe in Christ but don’t understand how they give up their old ways for a life of salvation. They have good intentions but they don’t understand that its more about your lifestyle than it is about the services that you go to on Sunday’s. The interesting part of all this is that usually they are the most excited to spread the gospel, but as you can tell it is somewhat watered down. Their gospel sounds like I thought when I had been saved for a while, “you can do what you want to as long as you repent and go to church”.  They aren’t aware of scriptures like Hebrews 10:26. They say stuff like , “I love the Lord but sometimes people make me real made and I got to cuss them out.” They haven’t read AND applied things like Ephesians 4:28-31 or James 1:26.

     By no means am I attacking them, because I was definitely one of them. The truth of the matter is if you couldn’t see for years and then all of a sudden your eyes are opened there would be too much light for your pupils to take in. Likewise if God were to drop all this knowledge on you at first  there’s no telling how your mind or life would have reacted…you prolly would have ran even more than you did at first (or maybe that was just me). If you look back over your life the Lord has slowly and patiently brought us out of our bad habits but most importantly our old thought process. There were a lot of things that I just thought would never change about me, but first the Lord let me know that they HAD to change and secondly showed me how to change them. Thus we should let these younger, immature Christians know that these are things that need to change, but slowly and patiently let them know how they can change. They mean well and can easily be discouraged by “church folk” coming down on them all the time. But if instead there was someone that was consistently loving, ready to teach and patient with them, then they too can change like you did. Let the Lord touch you, so you can touch them.

Over and Out J

Salvation in Sight

                                            By: Fred Reid

Dang sorry I’ve been gone for a while again smh but the Lord has been speaking! The craziest thing about this revelation is there was a man that did a sermon on this same revelation all the way back in 1866. It was definitely nice to have some confirmation. Anyways let’s get to it. 

     Mark 8:22-26. I hope this isn’t long but I’m excited! Just to give you a quick synopsis, there was a blind man that was brought to Jesus to be healed. This is the famous healing that entailed Jesus spitting on dude’s eyes and having to touch Him twice. But let’s take a closer look friends because there are some huge similarities to salvation in this story. 

      The blind man is seeking Jesus and someone brings him to Him (notice the capitalization if you almost get confused lol) which points to the importance of friends and family that will bring you to Jesus. Verse 23 Jesus TAKES THE MAN AWAY FROM THESE FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVEN OUT OF THE CITY TO BE HEALED! When you are in the process of giving your life to Christ He will take you by the hand and lead you away, not only from sin but also some people that you know/are close with. If I get into the spitting on the eyes part this would REALLY be long so sorry I’ma keep it moving. 

    It begins to get even better when Jesus touches this man and asks Him how he sees (as if the Christ didn’t already know) why is it that this man couldn’t see properly? Why did Jesus have to touch Him twice?! How does this relate to salvation? I ask you to think back to when you first got saved. No doubt you had been touched by God and began to see things differently, BUT honestly you probably didn’t see’em quite right. As for me, I went through both an extreme phase and a justification phase. I was extreme in that everything was bad at first! By definition the little things of life I saw as trees: I was not going to go the movies because they were full of sin, I wouldn’t talk to anybody that was a sinner, I would have to pray several times a day and read my bible at least one or two hours a day OR God wouldn’t love me as much. I was focusing too much on the letter of the law than the love and knowledge of God. Then I went the complete opposite way, because I was saved and God would forgive me I could do ANYTHING! I would engage in sin PURPOSEFULLY banking on the fact that God will forgive, knowing that I’d be right back at it first chance I got. NOT true repentance. This is why I need to be touched by God again. Hopefully you can relate. 

       I am NOT saying that we need to be “re-saved” instead that we need to mature in Christ. Jesus didn’t re-open this man’s eyes…He simply purified his vision. The fact that He touched this man again when he was not seeing correctly is yet another testament of His grace and mercy. Jesus could have left buddy walking around getting trees and men mixed up which clearly would have cause confusion and thus not an effective life. The same way He could have left us mixed up in our convoluted understanding of what it is to be saved. But because He loves us so much He’ll touch you again. He’ll send somebody your way to give you a chance to learn and understand instead of criticizing you. Hopefully ya’ll are still reading this despite its length I even left some stuff out to try to keep it short. I might have to come back and deal with it later. But another major point that I want to leave ya’ll with is Jesus told this man NOT TO GO BACK to that town or tell anyone there. Not because the savior was ashamed or secretive but rather because this man was starting a completely new life and needed not to return to his former things. Also sometimes it is hard to explain what God has done in your life to others. This may cause you to doubt what has taken place or be frustrated that others won’t believe with you. I encourage you to allow your life to be transformed by Christ and enjoy its newness! When it’s time to go back He will lead you there.

 Over and Out :)