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.

Walking with God in the Cool of the Evening--the study of a relationship with God

The Bible describes for us how God so desires to have a real relationship with us. God created Adam to be different than the plants and the animals. Adam was even different from the angels. Adam had will and dominion. He had a soul and a mind. He could rebel against or embrace God. He could reject or worship God. He could run away from or toward God.

Often we find ourselves trying to make up for what we have lacked in our lives and if we are not careful we can waste a lifetime attempting to create relationships with people who simply do not wish to have a relationship with us. I shared with my husband the other day that we are sometimes so invested in a cause or a person or an organization, but that investment is not requited. It is simply a bad relationship. But in all that we do for Christ we would never be able to beat God giving no matter how hard we tried.

Sometimes you long for relationships that just aren't meant for you and while you're longing for them you're ignoring God, you're neglecting your gifts and you are not being true to who God called and made you to be. There are times that the enemy wants you to feel left out and an island unto yourself because the damage isn't about you as an individual. It is about crippling the body as a whole. The devil wants to destroy generations. He wants senseless infighting because we are supposed to be known for our love toward one another. I have noted and have written that there are more and more sound bites about everyone having haters. We are a body in Christ. Who are our haters? Are we each others haters? Does an arm hate it's fingers or does a foot hate its toes? It is the enemy's tactic to divide and conquer the body of Christ. It's a great sound bite and it makes you feel good some where on the inside, but why? How does that promote a relationship with God? How does that edify the body of Christ? If you really took the time to think about it really really really hate is the lack of love. If we are one body--jointly and and tightly fit together then certainly we are done so with love. The relationship that we forge with God refreshes and renews and restores a very real love relationship within the body.

God desires a very real relationship with each of us like He had with Adam. The Bible says that God would walk with Adam in the cool of the evening in the garden of Eden. That reminds me of how my Grandmother and I used to sit on her front porch swing and talk or sometimes not talk--just keep each other company. God wants to be in our lives--not to the exclusion of others--we are social beings and even God said it is not good for us to be alone, but He doesn't want us to lose focus--trying to substitute what we feel we lack or what we didn't get as children for something or someone other than Him. No one can love you like He can. I hope today's blog releases someone. It has released me.

Now for the zinger. God is a Spirit and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. In order to experience a real relationship with God we must recognize that all that we know to be tangible isn't reality and all that we have experienced in the spiritual realm is very and eternally real. We have to draw on what we can not see through faith in order to be able to please God--this is where we are weak, but in this weakness is where God is pleased with us because it is where He is strong and His strength pierces through the spiritual into the tangible.

It is time. Let's praise Him with our whole hearts. Let's love Him with all of our might. Let's surrender all to Him. Let's call out to Him. Let's sacrifice our first and our best with love in faith because without our faith it is impossible to please God--that's why Cain's sacrifice failed. Let's walk with God like Adam and Abraham. Let's return to Him. Let's love our neighbor as ourselves. All of the law and the prophets hang on these things . . . Our relationship with God, how we are called, how do people know us?. . . How do we want them to know us? It yet remains the love that we have one for another. Do you want a relationship with God? The way to get there is to love your brother and to keep His commandments.

It's time to recover all!

David at Ziklag is one of my favorite scriptures (I Samuel 30). This scripture describes a time that David went out to battle and when he and his men returned their home was desolate, burned and empty. Their wives and children had been kidnapped and their belongings had been taken. When the men took all of the loss and tragedy in they began weeping and cried until they no longer had strength to cry. The men were angry and upset with David and were ready to stone him. 1 Sam 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved ... but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

What is interesting about this scripture is the mention that David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. In this scripture the word for encouraged is translated from the Hebrew word chazaq pronounced (khaw-zak'). This word actually translates to mean to grow firm or strong. Instead of this situation bringing David down, he gained strength in the Lord. Why is this lesson important? Because so many situations occur in our lives and we become discouraged, disappointed and down. This happens because we are looking at the people involved or the tragedy that happened rather than looking to God as our source for deliverance. It happens because we do not seek God first. Let's be real; David's men wanted to kill him because they had just been robbed. Imagine how you would feel if someone came into your home took all your stuff and then kidnapped your family and to add insult to injury burned your house down and you didn't know where they were or why they did it. You didn't know which way to turn for answers. You would understandably be angry, sad, hurt and upset.

But the measure of your faith, your maturity in Christ and the development of your relationship with God is how quickly you are able to snap back and recover. Instead of this tragic situation continuing to grieve David, he had this epiphany in the middle of it all. He said to himself that God could handle the situation. David recognized that he couldn't solve this problem, but because of all that God had done for him, he knew that God could solve it! All of a sudden where David was weak, God's strength was made perfect.

As the story goes, David sought God and asked Him what to do. God told David to pursue the enemy and to do it quickly. While obeying the command of God, David and his men ran into the break that they needed in the case. There was an Egyptian servant out in a field on the brink of death. David fed him and gave him something to drink and found the information that he needed. He learned where the enemy was. As a result David was able to recover all! He got his family back. He got his stuff back and he took the enemy's stuff too! If David had hesitated at all the Egyptian would have died because he hadn't eaten or had water to drink in days.

What does this mean? You've got to seek God first. Then you must obey God's command. If you hesitate at all the information that you need or the door of opportunity may not be available. When you realize that God has the solution to whatever situation you encounter then you can proceed with confidence knowing that along the way your opportunities will be revealed to you. So what the enemy has taken something from you. Dig in and encourage yourself in the Lord. Seek God diligently and obey His command. When you do this you can recover all quickly.

Know today that God is your source. He is a loving God who desires to that you prosper even as your soul prospers. He is a righteous God who is moving behind the scenes on your behalf. He is working it out for your good. He sits high and He's looking at your situation. He knows you and how you operate. Think about how you've responded to situations in the past? Is that working for you? If not then this time--this time do something different. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. No you don't have enough money to make the ends meet. Yes your bills are all due and folks are calling you. No you can't save your family member. No you are not able to make yourself have the job and the house and the car that you want. No you cannot stop cancer, aids or diabetes. The answers are not in our power or in our might. We cannot even cause ourselves to grow with our thoughts, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! There is deliverance in Christ. There is healing in Christ. Bills get paid and you don't know how in Christ. Depression is turned to joy in Christ. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Today choose to recover quickly!