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Happy Mother’s Day!!!
Happy Mother’s Day to ALL mothers and potential mother’s!
As I sit here thinking about this day, of course my own mother Dorothy McCall comes to mind. She has graduated and gone home to heaven so I won’t be able to spend this day with her, but I will be thinking of her and all that she’s done for me all day long.
My mother was born in the 1920’s, so her childhood was so different from my own. She made sure of it. When my mother was a child, woman didn’t have a voice and because her mother died in childbirth, my mother didn’t have her mother to raise her. So, she did whatever she felt she could to make sure that my sister and I did not have to live our lives without the direction & guidance of a mother. She never wanted us to have to depend on a man like she had to do. Her father didn’t promote woman having an education or a career. Housewife/homemaker was it. I didn’t appreciate that about her until I had children of my own.Fast forward many years, as a mother myself, I find that my mother did a great job in directing me to God so He could help me develop the true spirit of a mother. She knew that you can’t do anything with God, especially, trying to raise children in various types of conditions. And we all know woman who have given birth but are not real mothers, so I have truly come to appreciate all of the things she was trying to teach me.
As I now sit and think about the kind of mother I had and the kind of mother that I am, I am truly appreciative of the hand and direction of God every step of the way. Mother’s do a lot, let’s take a look.
Teachers – mothers teach children about God and His Word – Deut. 6: 6-7; And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (nkjv)
Disciplinarians – mothers show children how to follow the rules and consequences if they don’t. – Proverbs 13:24; He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. (nkjv)
Nurturers – mothers provide an atmosphere of unconditional love, acceptance, affection and support no matter what – Gal 5:22 – 23; But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.(nkjv)
Model Great Character –mothers should live what they say and should foster dependability, stability and security – Proverbs 11:3; A gossip tells everything, but a true friend will keep a secret. And out of the above comes so many additional roles mother live everyday – counselor, nurse, advisory, friend, etc.
Mother’s Day also brings to mind all the mother “angels” who may not have given birth, but who uses their mother spirit to be a mother to many. I have a few of “play” mom’s over the years and I thank God for every one of them.
Being a Mom is the greatest job in the world. I am so glad that give me the opportunity to be a Mom. A lot of woman that want to have children never get to for many reasons. It can sometimes be a thankless job but hang in there until after puberty because it gets better as they get older and realize that you were just doing your job and you did know what you were talking about! lol. All yall Mom’s out there know what I’m talking bout!So to all the Mother’s reading this – birth Mothers, adopted Mom’s, play Mom’s & spiritual Mother’s please know that your role is vital to the lives of your children – its shapes them and prepares them for not only life on earth but eternally life too!
Thanks Mothers for all that you do, all the sacrifices you make. You are truly appreciated, not only today but every day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
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What About Your Soul?
What about your soul? In my “Hang On” post, I spoke about our 3 boxes – flesh, spirit and soul. We attend church to feed our spirits, we know that we should not listen to our flesh, but what are we doing to care of and develop, nurture and heal our souls? In this day and age, we live such fast-paced lives. And this can cause us to miss some really important things in our lives. In addition to that, we put others – almost everybody before ourselves and when we run out of time in the day, month and then the year, we still have not done the things we wanted to do for ourselves. Then time continues on and over time we get used to “doing without” and to add insult to injury, as Christians, the religion demon tells us that we should “give” to others before “giving” to ourselves, especially if someone else needs too! This can cause great damage to our souls that goes unnoticed until something tragic happens.
So, I beg to differ. I feel it’s a sin not to take care of yourself first, especially, when the desire or motivation to do so does not come from the demon of selfishness. With that being said, with all that you have to take care of, are you taking care of your soul?
The Bible talks about it in Romans 12:2 (cev). Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him Here God tells us to stop acting like the world and immediately start the process of changing the way that you think. Whatever the subject, and how you feel or think about it, you still have to find out what God thinks about it and then change your mind to line up with God’s mind. This is the process of renewing your mind and then your soul can start its healing.
The soul contains your mind, your will and your emotions and all of them have to be aligned with God’s mind, will and emotions. Your spiritual growth depends on this, because this growth is determined by how much your soul has been healed by the Word of God. Once you were born again, your spirit was transformed into the image of God, but your soul was not. That part is up to you – 3 John 1:2 – 2 Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health [physically], just as [I know] your soul prospers [spiritually]. If you don’t renew your mind, you hinder yourself from experiencing the full power and life that a renewed soul commands. Your soul determines your actions and behaviors, and you will only step out in the things that you believe.
How many times have your thoughts about yourself or a situation stop you from doing something you really wanted to do? Did you hear thoughts like – you’re not good enough, you’re not tall enough, pretty enough, smart enough, black enough, white enough, small enough or big enough? If you are anything like me, you’ve heard this many, many times. You probably heard it today!
As you can see in Psalms 139: 14-16 (msg) Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day, during his time of praise with God, David was able to see how awesomely he was made. You are awesome too! You are wonderfully made by the hand of God. If no one else has told you today, you’re smarter than you know you are. You’re big enough, small enough, tall enough. You are brilliant because you were personally made by God and it gave Him great pleasure to create you! Anything and anyone telling you anything different is simply lying to you! Don’t believe them, believe God!
Now you have a decision to make. Are you going to believe what God says about you, or are you going to believe what others are saying about you? How would the quality of your life change if you just chose to believe God? Hmm-mm, take a minute to think about that!. Let me help you out. Joyce Meyer has the best material in the business called “The Battlefield of the Mind”. It comes in many forms – books, DVDs, CDs and workbooks to help you achieve victory. So whatever way you like to learn, you can get it. This process is not quick work. It will take a lot of time, commitment, dedication, and perseverance. However, if done properly, it will be effective and very powerful! You are worth the work!
Again I ask you – what about your soul?
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Pharrell is Happy – How bout you?
As I think about Pharrell’s ” Happy” song and the popularity of this song – I know you’ve heard it so much by now that you’re singing and dancing along. (smile) I know I am singing and dancing to it and I know most of the chorus by heart. I liked the music and beat from the first day I heard it, but they play the “happy” song everywhere I go and I was beginning to get tired of hearing it. So as I was driving and the “happy” song played on the radio once again. I listened closely to the words and realized that the concept was really simple, yet powerful!
Pharrell tells us over and over that he’s “happy”, then Pharrell tells us how “happy” he is. Pharrell goes on to tell us that he’s made a decision that no matter what comes his way, or what anyone has to say, he chooses to stay “happy”. He is not going to let anyone or anything bring him down. Sounds too simple right? Can we just decide to be “happy” no matter what’s happening in our lives? If we did, what would happen?
Well, let’s see. Pharrell never said in his “happy” song that he doesn’t have any problems. He simply said he wasn’t going to let that change his decision to be happy. As I talked to God about it, God reminded me that this came from Him in Philippians 4:10-14 (msg). I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.
Above, Paul is speaking to the Philippian people about his appreciation of their generosity toward him. Because of the persecution of Christians, their support did not always get to Paul. So Paul tells them how he had to learn to be “happy” when he had a lot, and “happy” when he only had a little. Paul knew that his strength and joy came from Jesus, not his circumstances – whether good or bad. This takes your happiness out of the hands of people and back in the hands of Jesus where it comes from anyway.
OK, this sounds good, but can we really do it? I decided a long time ago that I was going to dictate my emotions, not people or what people may or may not do. When I first started to strategically meet with God about His vision for me I stated to make a vision board each year. On my vision board for 2013, the goal for my life and family was not only to be “happy”, but to “live in my dreams”. Satan told me that I have too many dreams for them all to come true, but I chose to believe God anyway. He told me that I had too many big dreams, that I should let go of the big dreams, but I chose to believe God anyway. I then chose to work the plan for my life that God had given me, and guess what? My dreams have been coming true. And this is only the beginning! Yeah!
As we know, our dreams come from God in seed form. And like all seeds, they have to be planted in good soil (that’s you). Then you have to water the soil so the seed can grow – as you stay connected to God, listening to Him, the watering takes place. To help you get off to a great start, here’s a free secret I’m only telling you – take control over your mouth and what you say. A lot of people curse and kill their dream seeds by the negative things that they say. I’ll go into detail about that later because that’s a whole lesson in itself. Here’s another tip – do the right things you already know you should be doing as you and God develop your new plan of action.
Consider that no matter what issues you are currently facing, you are still blessed. You are still alive; you still have another day to win whatever fight you are in & winning is guaranteed with God. That makes you blessed so why not be happy too!
Now, just in case you have not heard this song or you don’t know the lyrics, click here.
So, just like Pharrell, I’ve decided to be “happy”, too. Just like Pharrell, I’ve decided that no matter what someone says or even does, I will NOT allow it to bring me down or change my decision to be “happy”. Pharrell and I are happy. How bout you – are you happy?
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Resurrection – What’s Still Dead In Your Life?
In this resurrection season, when we should be celebrating what Jesus did for us on the cross, I found myself wondering how much true celebrating was actually happening in our churches since we have allowed the resurrection season to be about eggs, candy and bunnies!
Then as I sat in our Sunday morning church service on Resurrection Sunday, Pastor Rochelle said something that hit home for me as she touched on the true meaning of this season. She asked us to look inside ourselves to see if we had any dead things that need to be resurrected. Things like goals, dreams, hopes, etc. That, in a nutshell, describes the true meaning of the season! I loved it. During this resurrection time of the year, there is no better time to honor Jesus as we remember what Jesus (via his resurrection) was willing to lay down His earthly life for; for us to live a “dream come true” life! Let’s check out John 10:10 (amp). The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
Jesus proved Himself to be the good shepherd because He did exactly what He came to earth to do. You too have come to earth on an assignment from God, so why have we let Satan steal and kill our goals, dreams and our purpose? What’s still dead in your life? Can you resurrect them? What would change in your life once you do? Spend some time thinking about that one for a while (smile)! Resurrection is sounding real good to you now, isn’t it?
Each year during the resurrection season, we are given another opportunity to breathe new life back into those things we have allowed to die. So we have to make sure we do not blow this chance. With all of that being said, how do we bring something back from the dead?
1. The first thing we have to do is to take a hard, honest look at ourselves – answering the question, what did I let die that I once really wanted to do or be? Write all of those things down on paper. Nothing is too big or too small. God gave us this instruction in Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by (amp). Easy right? Lets move on!
2. Next be honest about the reasons you’ve allowed them to die. What was really going on with you at that time?
Let’s take a look at some of the major things that trip us up.
SIN – we still want to do our own thing. When we hold onto our sinful habits, mindsets and actions, we give Satan access to our lives and the lives of everyone we love. It gives him something to hold over our heads – John 14:30 (nkjv) – I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
IGNORANCE– Look around, look around, we all know or have seen or heard of someone who has done something stupid and we’ve thought that they should have known better. But, if we are telling the truth about ourselves, we have all done something that we later admitted was dumb and stupid. All we ever have to do is ask God and be willing to do what He tells us to do. Hosea 4:6 – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. (amp)
UNBELIEF – This is a very serious thing. The bible calls this sin in Hebrews 3:12 – Beware then of your own hearts, dear brothers, lest you find that they, too, are evil and unbelieving and are leading you away from the living God (tlb).. Unbelief condemns you before you ever get started – Romans 14:23 – But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats [perhaps because of you], stands condemned [before God], because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful] (amp). You do not have to agree with God, but we can all agree that God is smarter than us, so it’s in our best interest to defer to God.
FEAR – This is one of Satan’s most effective weapons against us. Mainly because we don’t see ourselves through God’s eyes – as the powerful creations that He made. But we see ourselves through Satan’s eyes with many weaknesses, faults and imperfections. This allows Satan to interject fear, which paralyzes us; freezing us where we stand. And many years later, you are still in the same place. Look at what God says about fear, 2 Timothy 1:7 – For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. We have to start believing what God says about us!PRAYLESSNESS – I’m not talking about the religious, rigid, ritualistic monologue full of vain babbling prayer. I’m talking about honest conversation between you and God. It’s us taking time out of our day to spend time with God discussing His word. It’s telling Him the truth about what’s going on with us in order to get direction and input on what God has put you on this earth to do and do well. Ephesians 6:13-18 – Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out (msg).
3. Now take all the info that you’ve gathered from the above steps (this should be enough to get your started) and go to God with them. To help you out, treat your time with God like it’s a doctor’s appointment. Set up a specific time with God (keep the appointment no matter what may come up) and lay it all on Him! There is nothing about you that is a surprise to God. He’s a big boy and can handle you and ALL your stuff. Keep meeting with God to get a plan of action. Write the plan down and then “work the plan”. Satan will try to stop you, so no matter what comes – stick with it. As you and God continue to work together, you will see resurrection in ALL of the things you thought was dead. God is so awesome and so cool that He will even throw in bonuses – He will bless you with things you may have forgotten you even wanted! God is amazing and HE will help you resurrect everything you desire! If you can dream it, God can bring it to pass!
This is your time! This is your season! It’s your turn for Resurrection!
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POWER & Life Group 3
If you don’t already belong to a “Life Group”, then you should try to find a good one. Ask God and He’ll direct you to one. We would love for you to try ours to get a firsthand feel for what it’s all about. It’s the quickest way to connect with people who believe and want the same things as you do.
Churches use life or cell groups in order to stay connected to its congregation; to effectively know what’s going on with its members so that they can serve them more efficiently. For example, let’s say someone needs food, but doesn’t really know anyone at the church and they find their situation embarrassing and are fearful of speaking out. By the time someone finds out, calls the church, and that message gets into the proper hands, the person could have starved to death. Within a life group, the same person now knows at least one other person. They see each other in church and at the life group meetings, hear others share their problems, and know that the life group environment is strictly confidential so they soon relax, open up and share. In this way, a person can tell at least the life group leader that they need food. That leader now reaches out to the life group members discreetly about one of their members’ need, and the members come together and meet the need without revealing who the member is. If the need is bigger than the group can handle, the life group leader contacts the church and the church takes care of the need.
In addition to helping with a member’s carnal/natural needs, life groups help members apply the Word of God to their daily lives. For example, how to determine God’s purpose for your life, how to live right, how to pray, etc.
I’ve led many types of groups and ministries over the last 15 years and there is a common thread among them all. People want the things God promises in the bible for themselves, their families, their churches and their communities. As a result of that, I love bringing resources to people that will bless and enhance their God experience while making it practical and usable. Sooooo, I invited Rev. James Canada, Leader and co-creator of the POWER Ministry, to speak at one of our Life Group meetings.
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POWER stands for “Powerful Overcoming Warriors Experiencing Restoration” and it explains what they do. The ministry was started due to the great need people had to free themselves from whatever binds them – any addiction, drugs, food, people, etc. And since you fight spiritual problems with spiritual weapons, the POWER ministry shows you how to do that and walks you through it.
The topic for that evening was “Fellowship – You were formed for God’s Family” and I wanted Rev. Canada to connect that to the POWER ministry and speak to what it really means to be a part of God’s Kingdom and how ministry is supposed to support families and family related issues and concerns.
As we all know all too well, Satan attacks our families in every way that he can. He doesn’t care about attacking our money, our children, our jobs, our relationships, and takes advantage of the fear and insecurities we carry around. However, we serve a God that has already provided weapons to defeat every attack, every time, keeping our families strong and intact.
The bible tells us in Isaiah 54:17 that no weapon formed against us shall prosper… but many people don’t know how to work this scripture when the pressure is on and high in their lives. They give into the emotional component of the situation and this can be very distracting. Decisions made in an emotional state may not be the best or get you the results you really need and want. The good news is you don’t have to attempt to do this by yourself. So come on out to the POWER Ministry meetings and to our Life Group meetings to learn how. For those of you who have used this scripture to ensure victory over some tragedy, please tell us about that too!
