Music Monday – Not Forgotten

Good Morning All! Doesn’t it feel great when someone we look up to or think is important, knows us by name? The Bible says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5. This tells me that He created the world FOR us and created us for a specific purpose. He will never forget us even when we go astray because He has an assignment for us. He wants to take care of us and has his arms open wide to bless us and welcome us back even when we lose our way. If God, our loving Father, Creator of the world knows us by name, we should be able to rest and stand on His promises. Nothing should be able to stop us.

Israel & New Breed – Not Forgotten

Wisdom Wednesday – Turning Your Back on Pride

One of the many issues that I still work on daily is the issue of pride. I have always had a hard time asking anyone for anything, I thought that I had it altogether even when I didn’t and I walked around deceiving myself about the control I had over my life. Instead I should have been humbling myself to know that it was God that helped me do any and everything I needed to accomplish. Now the issue with my pride is that it was hidden deep within every other issue I had in my heart. It took prayer and fasting for it to even be revealed to me that I was walking in pride. We should all have self-worth by knowing our value in God’s eyes and knowing who we are in Christ. The Bible tells us this in Galatians 6:3 “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” The problem is for some of us is that is not in the proper perspective nor is it balanced. Pride is dangerous. It can truly cause us to lose out on what God has for us. God does not look kindly upon pride and although He still loves us, He will allow us to be taken down a peg or two if we do not heed the warnings the Bible gives us about pride.

What the Bible Says about Pride:

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Proverbs 16:5

A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. Proverbs 29:23

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

How to Overcome Pride:

1. Repent – “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

2. Submit to Authority – “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (I Peter 5:5-6).

3. Meditate on God’s Word – “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts” (Psalms 119:78).

4. Trust God – “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies” (Psalms 40:4).

5. Serve Others – “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him” (John 13:13-16).

6. Humble Ourselves – “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:10), “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5).

Music Monday – All My Praise

This is one of my FAVORITE songs. It puts me in a position of praise & worship. God is SOOO worthy and deserves every bit of praise we have in us. We were created to worship Him in all that we do. Enjoy this song and have a blessed week!

Wisdom Wednesday – The Joy of the Lord is My Strength

I have found that when I’m excited, happy and enthused about something, everything seems bright and wonderful. I have a pep in my step and feel like I can conquer every task set before me! But when I’ve had a rough day or something has been on my mind at night, I feel sluggish and anxious and just all around bad. In my prayer time, the following scripture came to me to let me know that even when things don’t feel right or if I’m going through something like grief over a family member or stress on my job, I can still have JOY in spite of everything around me.

Nehemiah 8:10 – “the joy of the LORD is your strength.” This scripture of comfort was given to us because God wants us to pull on the joy He freely gives us so that we can use it to be strong and accomplish everything He calls us to do. He wants us to celebrate despite what’s going on around us. The joy of the Lord is the source of our fulfillment. As we experience fulfillment in the Lord this way, we work out our salvation in ever-increasing levels of refinement. Christ-likeness deepens for those who have determined in their heart to Walk by Faith and live for God’s glory alone. Just like there is power in negative emotions, there is power in joy. Joy is not just a deeper version of happiness or something that we feel. It is something that we have access to through our relationship with GOD. Why not make the choice to infuse joy in our lives? We can do this by following these steps:

1 – Study the Word of God. It is impossible to stay focused on the promises of GOD if do not know them. Develop & maintain a study schedule so that you can keep His Word at the center of your heart. Once you do this, anything that tries to come against your JOY will be powerless.

2– Stay away from negative influences. You know how it feels to come out of a Debbie Downer’s presence or how awful you feel when confusion about a situation is taking over your life? Like my Pastor Mike says, “Hang with people who have your answer, get away from people who have your problem.”

3 – Protect your heart. Instead of listening to sad songs, reading sad books and doing things that don’t encourage you, remove those things from your ear and eye gate and pray and ask God to help you enter into the pleasure of His grace.

4 – Use Praise as a Weapon. Even when you don’t feel like it, PRAISE. Even when you are going through, PRAISE. The enemy can’t stay in the atmosphere of PRAISE. And PRAISE brings you JOY so that you can life your head & keep it moving.

Challenge of the Week: Identify each area of your life that could use some JOY. Follow the steps to infuse it with JOY and share your testimonies here. Be blessed!

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. (NIV) Psalms 96:11-13

Music Monday – Not the Time, Not the Place

Good Afternoon…I am sooo late!!! I’ve had a death in the family and have had to take care of business. Today’s Music Monday video is Marvin Sapp’s Not the Time, Not the Place. It is an encouragement to me right now during my family’s time of grief and should be to anyone that is going through.

Enjoy!

Faith Friday – The War over Worry

Great Morning!!! It’s FRIDAY!!! I’m so excited about the weekend! Not only is it Resurrection Weekend where we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, but today marks the 30th birth anniversary of one of my closest and longest friends Michelle C. Coates! Happy Born Day Michelle! I love you so much and appreciate you. See you at the bowling party tomorrow night! Then, my friend Dorothy is having dinner after Sunday service so I’m looking forward to good food and lots of fun!

Last week, we discussed having Fearless Faith. Today, I want to go deeper into worry. A lot of people have conditioned themselves to be natural worriers. They say mothers never stop worrying about their children and business owners worry about the economy and sales but is it possible to put an end to worrying? The definition of worry is: to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; to torment with cares, anxieties, trouble and plagues; uneasiness and anxiety.

The world puts a negative vibe in the atmosphere. It’s on the news, in the music and everywhere we look. But we must not dwell in fear. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real meaning that it is something that has presented itself in our minds that causes us to believe its true. It’s the opposite of faith. When we dwell in fear, what we worry about usually comes about. For example, Job said “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me…” Job 3:25. We have to make a CHOICE to pray, act on what we believe and trust that GOD will see us through life.

The answer to worry and fear begins in your mind. Replace thoughts of fear with thoughts of faith by getting in your Word. Then it continues in your mouth. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 18:21 “the tongue has the power of life and death.” What you say has power. David wrote to us in Psalm 34 “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my MOUTH. I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

As believers, the enemy wants to keep us paralyzed with fear and worry. I know some people so afraid of certain things like spiders and snakes that they literally stay FROZEN on the spot. A fear of flying can keep you from traveling this beautiful earth we live on. A fear of driving can keep you stuck or relying on others to take you from place to place. A fear of getting hurt can keep you stuck alone and by yourself instead of exploring a new friendship or relationship. Worry and fear can make you unable to make a choice or hear God’s voice and unable to reach others with the love of GOD. Don’t give Satan the power to paralyze you. He can only do it through fear.

Accept God’s ability to preserve you. The Bible says in Psalm 107:2 commands “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” We are the redeemed of the Lord!!! Why should we worry? Its your choice! Choose faith. When others talk about the worries and anxieties of the world, don’t participate. You are the redeemed! God loves and you and fear doesn’t have to have a place in your life. Let the Word produce a harvest and a confidence in you. When we worry, we are calling GOD a liar. We are basically saying to Him, “I don’t believe your Word or in your power.” God says “FEAR NOT” over 360 times in the Bible. Will you obey? Search out those scriptures and declare war over worry today!

Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Isaiah 41:13 For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord Who says to you, Fear not; I will help you.”

Thankful Thursday – Magnify GOD with Thanksgiving

May all who seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee.
May those who love thy salvation say continually,
“Great is the Lord!” (Psalm 40:16)

O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. (Psalm 34:3)

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. (Psalm 48:1)

I once read that there are 86,400 seconds in a day. How many do we use being thankful? In the hustle and bustle of our day, do we really take the time to say “Thank You” to our Father in Heaven? The Bible says that we are BLESSED everywhere we go no matter what and the Word no matter changes so our BLESSED state NEVER changes. Every second of every day, no matter what we see, we are BLESSED. GOD allows us to wake up every morning in a warm bed, have food to eat, clothes to put on, transportation, a job to work and friends and family to lean on. Even if ONE or TWO of these things are lacking, that does not change our blessed state. We have to make a decision to magnify GOD bigger than our issues, problems or circumstances. We can magnify Him by being THANKFUL.

As I read the book of Psalm, I see the heart of the writers to bless and praise GOD and magnify His name. This should be the case with us. 1 Corinthians 10:31 instructs us this way: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of GOD. Did you know that everything we do should magnify our Savior? How else can the world tell us apart from them? How else will the lost find us? As you may know, I went through a hellish fourth quarter of 2010. Everything seemed to be changing around me but I am so thankful now because it all worked out, but I can honestly say that I had a hard time magnifying GOD throughout that entire time. Yes, I read my Bible, I prayed and fasted but there were sometimes that I felt like the walls were closing in. But GOD was and is faithful. Everything that I needed to be worked out, has worked itself out and this year, I have been working on trying to make sure that the decisions I make, the thoughts that I have and the things that I say magnify GOD above everything I’m going through and everything I see by being thankful.

WE ARE CALLED TO BE TELESCOPES FOR GOD

The key to doing this is to have assurance that GOD is as GREAT as He is. A lot of people put GOD in a box and like to say “God is the Greatest” and “He’s Awesome” but don’t really have the confidence in His greatness that they should. If we are sure of His greatness, wouldn’t we share it with people? Wouldn’t we praise Him more and complain less? David states in Psalm 69:30 “I will magnify God with thanksgiving.” This means that gratitude glorifies GOD. Let’s take a deeper look at this scripture. I looked up the word magnify in the dictionary and found two definitions that spoke to me.

1. Magnify can mean to make (something) appear larger than it is, esp. with a lens or microscope.
2. It also can mean to be capable of increasing the size or apparent size of something like through a telescope.

In other words, there are two different types of magnifying. One with a microscope and one with a telescope. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is. We are called to be telescopes. We aren’t supposed to make God bigger than He really is. He’s BIG. But we are supposed to draw attention to Him and exalt Him by SHOWING that He is indeed as big as He is. For example, the stars in the sky are the same size as they are through a telescope, but we magnify them by looking through this instrument. So are people to see the greatness of GOD in us as we thank and praise Him. God is THE biggest and greatest being there is. We don’t have to MAKE Him great, we have to SHOW His greatness. What experiences have you had that have shown how great GOD is in your eyes? Did you thank Him for it? Do you make an effort to magnify Him to show your appreciation? Let’s not be so caught up in our own lives and remember that we are not here for ourselves. Others are watching and want to know GOD like we do. Everyone has had some type of encounter with GOD that has shown His greatness. Let’s be thankful and draw other men and women in our lives to accept Him as The Great One in their lives as well.

Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So men are without excuse for, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks. (Romans 1:20, 21)

Wisdom Wednesday – The Greatest of These is LOVE

We all want it, we all have done so many things to obtain it and to experience it but do we really know what it is?

1 Corinthians 13:13 – Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is LOVE.

There are three types of love. A lot of people confuse the three and think that the type of LOVE they have is something different than what the Bible meant when it talked about the God Kind of LOVE. You can be the biggest philanthropist, serve on many boards of great organizations, work your fingers to the bone or recite scripture after scripture but if you do not have LOVE, the Bible says it doesn’t matter, we’re useless. I’m on a journey to exhibit and express the highest form of LOVE to everyone I come across. Whether it is an intimate relationship, someone I meet at the store or someone who cut me off in traffic, I am determined to have a strong love walk. GOD is love and if He lives in us, why shouldn’t we be LOVE as well?

1) The first type of LOVE is known as EROS. Eros love is an erotic love. It is based on a physical attraction that leads to strong feelings and usually happens in the first stages of a romantic relationship. Eros is passionate and longing. The Modern Greek word “erotas” means “Intimate Love”. The term erotic is derived from eros. We’ve all heard the term “love at first sight.” Eros loves gives us the feeling of being IN love. Eros is a natural feeling, however, it can cause us to lose focus of getting to know someone on a deeper level and make us think that we truly have something more than superficial. Eros is more about what can be done for you instead of a giving type of love that can benefit the other person.

2) The second type of LOVE is known as PHILIA. This is the love between friends & family. Philia connects us with a strong bond between people we share a common bond or activity with. When people in a relationship start off as friends, the bond is stronger and the marriage has been proven to last because PHILIA is like the glue that holds people together. It is not based on merely attraction or “what’s in it for me” but it is based on a vested interest and responsibility to the growth and development of the other person. It is a give and take type of love.

3) The highest form of LOVE is known as AGAPE. Agape is the GOD kind of LOVE. Love that is unconditional, stands the test of time and is 100% selfless. It is all about “what can I do for YOU” regardless of the circumstances. It gives no matter what even if it is not benefited in any type of way. This is the type of love we all should strive to develop and nurture within ourselves in order to have the strongest friendships and relationships. This is the type of LOVE the world needs to see the God in us so that they may be drawn to Him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16 God knew that we would be doomed to eternal damnation if He did not send His son to die for our sins. We did nothing to deserve it or earn it and sometimes we forget just how much He loves us but He does it anyway. The Bible says that NOTHING can separate us from the LOVE of God. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and display of LOVE and we should look to that sacrifice daily in order to be an example of God in the Earth.

The true definition for Agape love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. It says: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Let’s do a LOVE check to see if what we’ve been expressing and displaying on a daily basis stands up to what we are taught.

We are spiritual beings that have a soul (mind, will & emotions) and live in a body. Agape love, the highest form of love is SPIRITUAL, Philia love is based on a MENTAL loyalty to your family member or friend and Eros love is a purely PHYSICAL love. We will experience all the types of love during our lives, but isn’t it AWESOME to know that we have access to the strongest, most powerful, in-exhaustible gift of the God-kind of Love?

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37)

Tiffany Tuesday – My Favorites

We only get one life. Who has time to constantly bicker, complain and be serious all the time? Jesus died so that we can be free to love, live and enjoy life! Today on Tiffany Tuesday we’re going to talk about favorites. Things that “give you life,” make you smile or make your day. Things that make you do the happy dance! LOL! Or am I the only one that has a happy dance?

Capital Grille Restaurant – delicious food and exquisite service

Thrift Store & Consignment Shopping – makes me feel like a treasure hunter

Zumba! – A calorie burning workout that makes me feel strong, healthy & energetic

Roller Coaster Riding!!! – A temporary adrenaline rush that excites me more each time

Reading & Writing – Love going to the park or a quiet spot to receive and purge!

MUSIC!!! – I love listening to music! It is so powerful and I like listening to music that improves or boots my mood!

What are your favorite things to do and experience?

Phillippians 4:8 – Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Music Monday – Celebrate (He Lives)

Good Morning Everyone!!! I decree and declare a blessed week full of favor, joy, peace & love! I pray everyone had a great weekend.

Today’s Music Monday selection is in honor of Resurrection week which is the week that we observe the celebration of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. God sent His ONLY son Jesus to Earth to substitute his sinless life for OUR sins so that we would not be condemned to hell. Jesus gave His life for a ransom for the entire world (Matt. 20:28) and not only did he die and go to hell on our behalf, He rose again and lives today!!!! This is REASON to celebrate!!

All week we will celebrate this miraculous gift that we can NEVER repay. Let’s kick the festivities off today with Fred Hammond’s hit Celebrate (He Lives)!!!!

Romans 6:8-11 – Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (NIV)