Fill Up! Introduction and pt 1

Today's Scripture text to study is John chapter 15 with particular attention to verse 11, which says, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

We must reach the maturity level in our Christian walk where we realize that our lives as Christians do not stop and restart; meaning we are not just Christians when we feel happy or when we are at church or when things are going well for us. Instead as soon as we believe in our hearts and make our confession we are at that moment Christians.

That means that the totality of our lives is now enfolded into that definition and there are good days, down days, delights, and depressions. There are happy times and sad times, times of celebration and times of great sorrows that come with the human condition. However, what I am sharing today is that God wants one thing to remain constant in the life of the Christian because His character rests upon it. He wants us to always have the embers of His joy burning within us.

We go to the gas station to get fuel that will feed the engine of our vehicle so that the potential of that 2000 pound or more mechanised machine won't just be found somewhere on the side of the road unusable. God realizes that we are the same. He has placed within each of us the measure of faith and spiritual gifting, but all of that is useless without His joy remaining in us as that ember of fuel that continues to ignite purpose in us.

Here is what we ought to be excited about within this scripture:

1. Verse 2 explains that if you are trying God sees, knows, and recognizes that you are doing all that you can. Now what you must wrap your mind around is that in order for Him to take you to another level He has got to subject you to a process of weeding (training) and pruning (changing the pattern of your growth). These together will ultimately make you more productive (fruitful).

What you can bear

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it. I Corinthians 10:13 is the scripture to study today and the lesson is simply this God knows what you can and cannot handle. All my life I have been hittable. If that is a word. A college professor used to pop out of his office when I would pass by his door and he would hit me in my arm. When I asked him why he did it, he simply said that I was a hittable person. I think he meant that I am the kind of person that tolerates a lot out of people.

I know why. I may not understand why, but I know why. Right now I'm tolerating some things that I know other people wouldn't and I probably shouldn't. It hurts more deeply than I can even explain in words. My heart aches. I turned to God and He gave me this scripture. I Corinthians 10:13. That was it in a nutshell.

When you come to the place where you feel like you can't go further or can't take any more, God wants you to know that He is stretching your faith. We are all provided the measure of faith when we become Christians but to excel at faith we must be willing to be stretched well beyond our comfort zone and to journey to a place that is unfamiliar and hard to take and we have to be able to tolerate staying there for a prolonged period of time. We have to be able to watch loved ones make mistakes and not judge them, but love them and restore them when they are ready. We have to be able to forgive 70 times 7 when someone so close to us hurts us in ways that ache and keep us up at night praying and pleading with God to please take that burden away from us. We have to be able to endure misunderstandings our own frailties and mistakes and miscommunication. We have to take it when we are right but must be quiet and when we are wrong and must be disciplined. All of this is how we grow in maturity in our relationship with Christ.

How do you know when you are being stretched? You are being stretched when you are doing everything that you know that you can do to please God--you are praying, praising, worshiping, you are obeying, keeping His commandments, loving people, striving to live holy and yet, you are struggling, floundering, failing, falling, things are confusing, you are off balance--and still God is expecting you to get up and walk toward Him like a baby with your arms out toward Him taking those baby steps. He wants you to learn, mature and grow. He wants your name to be permanently written in the Book of Life with the righteous. I think about this when I'm going through something that is so painful. There is eternal life and it is eternal life with Him to reign with Him or to be separated away from Him--either way it is life eternal.

He is growing you and making you. Do not fear that. Embrace it. Everyone can't handle it. Everyone can't understand it. Everyone can't go with you. Sometimes you will be in the press--endure the press. God knows what you can handle.

Use your gifting not your gabbing

Today's scripture text to study is the book of Job. The book of Job chronicles the well known story of Job's loss, his tribulation, his test, his endurance and his ultimate triumph. Today as I read chapter 20 I noted that Zophar took a look at the obvious and made some harsh judgments about what he saw.

It sounded familiar. All too often as Christians instead of walking a faith walk and allowing God to use us to speak life into a situation through our gifting and the calling on our lives we look with our natural eyes and talk about what we think we see and we just start calling things all kind of wrong. We think we are on point sometimes because we start telling folk positives and they are going to get this and God is going to bless them with that. We forget that the Word of God comes to exhort, to edify, to uplift, but also at times to admonish or to warn. The Word is not always going to be sunshine and roses. Our job is not to perceive with our physical senses and try to phophelie to make people feel something. Job's friends allofinasudden felt it was their duty to tell him where he had gone wrong because they knew what was up down and around. Here was a man they knew was righteous--they had been with him and watched him live a holy life--they couldn't explain what was happening to him so instead of just keeping quiet and keeping him company--I mean this guy actually pretty much said that he just couldn't hold his peace any longer--instead of consulting God and comforting a friend who he knew was going through and suffering--he decides to go with the obvious--mistake! And this is a tragic mistake that we should ask ourselves as Christians are we falling into.

Faith requires an unmitigated trust in God. We must refuse to do anything but trust in God! Whatever He says and tells us to say that we will say that we will do. If He tells us to say something to a brother or a sister we will. I promise you that God will give you a Word that will bring life to the situation. Often I have said something to a person and they have said wow that was confirmation. I had no idea what they were going through or why I was led to them that day and there are times that I have missed the mark and spoke out of self because I wanted to comfort someone. We have to be careful and hear from God first and then speak.

Today resolve within yourself to use the gift of God that is within you and to desire good gifts.

No Greater Love

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life John 3:16

Sometimes when the same thing keeps happening to us over and over it is helpful if we ask God to show us the lesson. Recently I asked this of the Lord and He told me that I'm wound too tightly. I don't trust. I won't let anyone else in. No one else can help me. No one else can do anything. I wind up suffering because I won't let go and let other people just do what they can do. This deepens their development, develops my relationship with them and lightens my burden. We can all learn.

I thought about this against the backdrop of why Jesus did all of what He did. I mean He didn't have to come as a baby in a manger. He didn't have to come in such a humble way--after all He was and remains God almighty. He could have come thunderously proving what He could do from day one. Isn't that what we do? That's what I do sometimes. I have to prove what I can do--who I am--my talents--my skills--my credentials. He didn't have to humble himself to go through adolescence and teenage years. He didn't have to obey His mother and stepfather. He didn't have to fulfill prophesy and submit to three years of process before He launched into miracles and ministry, but He did. Why? John 3:16. He did it just for a hard head like me. He did it all for the lessons that it takes me a life time to learn and discover about myself.

There is no greater love.

Renting Religion vs. Owning Relationship

Saturday morning Pastor Christine Woods shared with Women Empowering Women an hour of powerful and anointed prayer full of revelation. Pastor Christine is blessed with the divine ability to see into your situation and call out the things that you need to work on. She does it with love and with authority.

She told us to study 2 Corinthians 4:17 after the powerful time in prayer. As I was sharing this experience with a sister last night my thoughts turned to the mission and vision of our ministry Urban Empowerment and this scripture opened for me and showed me that our Pastors are leading us into what it means to own your relationship with Christ through accepting His will, seeking Him first, being obedient to His call and open to His purpose all under the guise of humbling yourself in spite of what things look like on the outside. Because there could be trouble on every side, but God is looking for some Gideon soldiers.

I was reminded this morning of a story that a friend of mine told me one day while I as visiting her home. She has a curio case with some artifacts in it that belonged to her grandparents. One of those items is a bankbook. It reminded her, she said, of how hard her grandparents had worked to earn everything that they owned. They were able to purchase a home and a car, which was unheard of for African-Americans in those days, but they saved everything that they earned and used it wisely. She then said that today's generation doesn't care about owning. Today's generation only cares about how things look so they will rent an apartment full of furniture paying a lot more than it is actually worth, ruining their credit scores because they are overwhelmed with debts just so they can speed up the process and make it look like they have earned what it took her grandparents a whole lifetime to earn.

The point is this, we cannot rent a relationship with God. Some people believe that they can. They believe that on Sunday mornings they can come in and throw their hands up, wail, moan, cry and fall out and that will get for them something that they have not earned by simply entering in beyond the veil into God's presence and offering Him honest worship.

Renting is a funny thing. When you rent it looks like you have it going on. You can have the best furniture and the biggest and best tv and surround sound system, and car, and house, but behind the scenes you're paying out so much that you exhaust yourself. It's like you're out of breath. You cannot relax because you have to keep up the front. You have to keep things looking a certain way. All of your resources go to the look of wealth.

Renting religion is the same. All of your effort is in the look, but behind the scenes on Monday you cannot be reached to encourage or uplift someone else. On Tuesday you cannot be found to lift up the name of Jesus and no one can drink from your well because you are dry. On Thursday no one can find you for a hug because you're depressed yourself. On Friday when Pastors need volunteers to help promote events you cannot be found because you're tired and run down, but Sunday you're there with your weekly payment in hand!

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says this:
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

This scripture pierces the very meaning of ownership of a relationship with God. It says this, I might be really going through, but I see it only as a minor thing that lasts for a short time because what I'm doing for and in the Kingdom is storing up a treasure for me. I understand that what I'm dealing with in this world is only temporary--it's not going to last so I'm not working hard for this world, but what is real is what is unseen so my labor and my work is what I do for Christ because that will last throughout eternity. In other words only what we do for Christ will last.

Read the whole chapter of 2 Corinthians 4 and make up your mind to own your relationship with Christ through hearing the Word, obeying His commandments, taking one for the team, really understanding that it's not about us, but it is about Jesus. It's okay if folks talk about you--didn't they talk about Him? It's okay if you are sometimes misunderstood--did they always understand Jesus? It's okay if people scandalize your name and speak ill of your intentions--it will happen sometimes--you are not exempt. As we are learning to own we must learn discipline. We cannot react to everything that the enemy throws our way, but we must be like a tree planted by the waters--determined not to move--flexible, but not breakable. It is important to be flexible because a relationship means you'll have to take correction--you'll have to take criticism and direction and teaching and guidance and pruning. When you own your relationship with Christ you recognize that He chastises those whom He loves so you humble yourself no matter who He uses to correct you.

Make a down payment on a real relationship with God and stop wasting your earnings on renting religion.

Get over it.

Today's Bible study passage is Acts chapter 10, which deals primarily with the story of a soldier named Cornelius and how God worked through His instrument Peter to bring about an eternal-life altering experience for Cornelius.

Peter was Jewish and as such submitted himself to the customs, rituals and the laws of his heritage. On this particular occasion, Peter went on top of the house to pray. The Bible reports that he was very hungry. While praying Peter fell into a trance where he saw a vision of various animals being offered to him and a voice said, arise Peter, kill and eat. Peter experienced this three times. During the same time span Cornelius was hearing from God too. God had instructed him to send for a man named Simon Peter because that man had something to tell him.

If you will remember Jesus told Peter that he would be the rock upon which the church was built. So now here in the 10th chapter of Acts we see where that opportunity could have slipped away because of what Peter knew and what he was used to--because of who he used to be and the traditional religious and ceremonial rites that he used to practice. Because Peter was a Jew his primary ministry up to that point had been to people who looked like him, who spoke like him, who he hung around with. But God had to help Peter to get over himself so that a willing soul could be saved.

This is just like us today. We have things in our lives that we need help getting over. We need God to reveal to us how to accept that our past is our past--even if it was a few moments ago--that may be what we knew and what we learned to do to cope in the past, but in order to be open to the move of God today we have to simply get over some things in our lives.

Notice that God could have just told Peter to go minister to Cornelius--just like He revealed to Cornelius that Peter would come to minister to him. However, God needed to touch Peter more deeply than that.--Some of us need to be touched more deeply with the message that whatever it is that you've done in the past--get over it! Sometimes we are so guilt ridden that we cannot make any forward progress. But the Bible tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Just because you've done something for a long time and nobody knows about it doesn't mean that you should not use your experiences to help someone else overcome--ask God to help you get over it so that you can share your testimony.

Note that Peter was hungry and the Bible makes clear note of that. Peter didn't have to be hungry to see the vision--God could have just shown him that vision, but the fact that Peter was hungry matched to the fact that he saw this vision of food that he formally wouldn't eat became powerful when he met Cornelius. Peter was able to empathize with the hunger that Cornelius had to be saved and to know God and it made the transition for Peter to minister easier. He was able to accept the will of God and do the will of God freely because he understood where this man was coming from.

Read Acts chapter 10 today and ask God to reveal to you what you need to get over so that you can tune in to the hungry souls that are crying out for the Word of the Lord. They are waiting on someone to keep that divine appointment and share with them the good news and gospel of Jesus Christ. People in your family may want to throw in your face who you used to be, but let them know that with God's help you're getting over it! You may want to regress and go back to your old ways, your judging ways, your gossiping ways, your not seeking God first ways--no matter--the vision has been revealed to you. God wants to touch you deeply and to have you know that there is work to be done and it is time for you to get over whatever has been hindering you.

It isn't about other people--it's about God's will. It isn't about your excuses--it's about God's will. Don't miss another divine appointment to minister to someone hungry for the eternal-life changing Word of God because of your hang up. Get over it.

What's in your file?

Over time law enforcement collects what's termed a R.A.P sheet on various criminals. The RAP sheet is a criminal's record of arrests and prosecutions, but what I want to know is how long is your R.A.P. sheet (Record of Authority and Prayer)? Every Christian ought to have a RAP sheet that records our triumphs, our lessons learned, our getting ups, our encouraging others, our turning the other cheek, our taking authority in our lives and the lives of those around us, our restoring our brothers and sisters in a spirit of meekness and humility realizing it could be us, our bearing fruit, our stirring up the gift, our working by day, our loving one another. Every Christian ought to have a RAP sheet so long that tells the complete testimony of how we have overcome.

As we build our file there's all kinds of information about how we've taken on the mind of Christ and how we die to our flesh daily. There's information about how we learn to let go of our hurt and the pain that causes us to hurt others and cause them pain. We learn that we are justified by faith and that we have peace with God because of the blood that was shed by Jesus on Calvary.

Open your file. What does you RAP sheet look like? Is it a couple of pages? Is it clean? I hope my file is full and running over because I've fallen down, but gotten up again and I've made mistakes, but God has encouraged me through the Word that comes from my Bishop and my Pastor. I hope my file is full because God has stretched me past my comfort zone and grown me in ways that I never thought I could grow. He took me higher when I never thought I would have made it. I hope my file is overflowing because I'm learning to humble myself under His mighty hand and serve with a broken heart and a contrite spirit--Blessed are the peacemakers! I thank God and hope my file is overflowing because when I was caught red handed and guilty--He took away all the evidence. He covered me--thank you Jehovah Nissi. I don't know about you, but that's enough for me to shout on right there! I was way down and He reached all the way down and picked me up--my God! What kind of God is this? He loves us in spite of our self destructive behavior and allows us to build a RAP sheet for His glory! Your RAP sheet ought to include prayer--much prayer---fervent prayer--reverent prayer--thankful prayer.

Build your file--don't stop. So what if you've been the messy member. God is the God of change and another chance. Your reputation doesn't have to remain the same and that will go in your file! So what if you've played the harlot--Israel did many times and God redeemed her time and time and time again and called her His--that will go in your file! His love for us is unimaginable. So what if you don't feel that you're worthy; God deemed you so when He sent His son and that's in your file!

I thank God for an out of the box ministry that doesn't do it the way that someone else does it. Go ahead and talk about it because God says the stone that the builders rejected--eventually became the chief corner stone. You see they picked all the pretty stones and the smoothest stones first--they cast that one stone to the side, but in the end when they needed the one stone that could HOLD IT ALL TOGETHER--they had to go back and get it! So talk about that out of the box ministry! It is a gift! Why? Because I was a wretch undone and I needed the message sent to me in a way that I could receive it--not the same old way, but God saw that I needed it in a new way and He thought about me, just like He thinks about each and everyone of us. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Check your record and keep building your file. . .

Overcoming through ministry

I write. Whether or not any one ever reads this blog. My deliverance. My growth. My healing is through this ministering so I write. I am literally driven to it. Scriptures crowd my mind and find their way through and out. My process is usually that God drops the memory of a scripture in my heart and I am inspired by it.

Today's scripture? Matthew chapter 21. Initially I was thinking about the portion of the scripture that spoke of how we can fall on the rock and be broken or the rock can fall on us and we can be crushed, but when I read the whole context and asked God to open my understanding the scripture became so much more powerful to me.

The general context of this scripture is Jesus fulfilling prophesy as His crucifixion is imminent. It is also a look into His very human side. This scripture talks about Him beating the money changers out of the temple--done out of anger, healing people--done out of compassion, and speaking to the chief priests and elders in parables when they questioned the source of His authority--done out of frustration.

There is a very special power in each of us. It's like how a super hero is formed or something--I mean there's always a vat of toxic waste that deforms a person, but also makes the person superhuman. We each have something that we struggle with--thank you Pastor Christine--something that becomes righteous indignation to us--it is our toxic waste. As we wrestle to overcome that thing; God blesses us to understand that our deliverance is in turning it over to Him by realizing that we cannot handle it on our own.

I cannot handle my fears on my own. They are born out of not having a mother and out of being abused by my father for many many years. They are born out of not trusting anyone because the person that I was supposed to trust misused me and stole from me. I learned to cope with that and became an adult as a child. My healing is in these posts. It is in talking to people after service. It is in calling people and seeing how they are doing. It is in the Community Bible Studies. It is in diving into the very thing that is the hardest for me to do--communicate.

This is why it is so important to stir up the gift that is within you--your spiritual survival depends on it. The soul that you are needs your ministry to thrive. The enemy never wants you to realize your purpose--he never wants you to see yourself as God sees you. Fortunately for you, the devil is a liar! God says, you're good enough! He says you're valuable. He says you're needed in the Kingdom. He says your healing and your ability to overcome any circumstance is in your ministering; it's in your reaching out beyond yourself. It's in your thinking about someone else. It's in our missing someone on Sunday and calling and checking on them. It's in your mothering. It's in your administration. It's in your singing. It's in your preaching. It's in your social work. It's in our edification and encouraging. It's in your giving. It's in your children's ministry. It's in your evangelism. It's in whatever God gave you. What you need is in what God gave you. Open your hands. Open your heart. Open your mind. Change your perspective. For the people had a mind to work . . .

Just Add Faith . . .

II Peter 1: 5-9
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

The person who invented instant mashed potatoes must be stinking rich! All you have to do is add some hot water and man you've got food! From that invention we have so many other instant meals (pancakes, oatmeal, ramen noodles--you get the picture). In each of these cases, the hot water changes a dry and unappetising product into warm, savory smelling food that may not be a full course meal, but if you're a college student it'll do the trick. There is a metamorphosis and a chemical reaction that alters the substance from something inedible to something that can be used.

We can think about faith in the same way. When we add faith to our situation the same type of life changing reaction happens. Add faith and your situation comes alive--it is no longer dry. Add faith and God comes in and begins to expand and grow your favor and your opportunities. Add faith and watch God bless you in your relationships with others. Without faith the things that we've hoped for are just dusty, empty, and dry but when we add the measure of faith given to all of us, God is alerted in the spirit realm. Because God is our Father when we call on Him in faith He responds. Faith is our hot water--it is the substance of what we've been hoping for and the evidence of what was before unseen.

Without faith it is impossible to please God because you are not in the spirit, but with faith then you bring along with you all of the attributes in the scripture above. You begin to add to yourself virtue and knowledge and self-control and patience, holiness, brotherly kindness and love. Your eyes open--your spiritual eyes and your mouth closes--you are able to listen more and hear the voice of God and be open to know where He has opened the windows of heaven. As we add these attributes to ourselves it is hard to hold on to the way we used to live.

As I add faith I can see better, hear better, I feel better because I have substance--I'm not dry and tasteless. Today just add faith . . .

Think big!

Today's scripture to ponder is found in I Samuel chapter 17. It is the well known story of how David slew Goliath.

Before David came on the scene Goliath had been torturing, teasing, terrifying and tormenting Saul and his Army. After all, Goliath was bigger, stronger, and seemingly tougher--right?

Isn't that just like the enemy? His very best weapon against you is a lie. You see the enemy is betting that like Saul you will buy into the hype, believe that you are already defeated and not do what David did. What did David do?

The scripture text reveals that when David arrived on the scene to deliver the food and supplies he was confused by what he saw. He saw men of the most high God cowering before another man. At that moment, even as a young man, David remembered what he had been able to do with the help of God. His heart raced as the memories of how God had strengthened his hand to be able to defeat the lion and the bear returned to his heart. He looked over the Army and began to encourage them by asking who was this uncircumcised Philistine? In other words don't you know who you are! Don't you know who we serve! We belong to the Most High GOD! Has anyone asked Him what to do? David didn't know what to do, but he absolutely knew that God's people were not going to be defeated. David was a big thinker! His big thought were the memories of what God had already done.

All too often in our lives we allow our problems and our circumstances to have a Goliath impact and we cannot remember how God has taken care of us in the past; how He has strengthened our hands so that we could defeat the lions and the bears in our lives. This lesson about David and Goliath is about how God works through natural law to give us the power and the authority to do all things through Him. This is why David was such an excellent warrior. He learned to trust God and to seek Him first then to execute the Word of God.

Today seek God, listen, execute. God is larger than the Goliath in your life so think big in your memorial to what God has already done for you. It's okay. I have always been told that I was an idealist full of unrealistic thinking. You know what I say to that? There is nothing to hard for God! I must think larger than where I currently am. You see God has strengthened my hand! He's done so much for me that I know what He is capable of doing. I just trust that God is going to move me to where I want to be. I can see past Goliath to a God who has the cattle on a thousand hills and who has the thousand hills and who has the earth the thousand hills rest upon and who owns the solar system the earth is a part of and who created the universe the solar system is in and the many universes that exist; my God! God is big so why shouldn't I think BIG! He's bigger than your circumstance! He's bigger than your financial burden--it will not depress you. He's bigger than your family matters; they will not crush you. He's bigger than your illness--it will not defeat you. He's bigger than the devil--the devil can't have you. God is bigger than your worries and your doubts and your inadequacies and your insecurities. He is the lifter of your head. When you know that He meant it for your good then you can think BIG.