Words
Proverbs 18:21 (New American Standard Bible)
21(A)Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its (B)fruit.
This has to be one of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible. For all its importance, we still don’t get the power that is in our mouths! I got home from work one day, and the words “What a day!” just came out of my mouth! I am not talking about the overwhelmed expression of just a fabulous day, I am talking about the what a day that sounds like I just had a day from hell! I stopped and thought about that. I asked myself what was so bad about today? Where did it come from? I realized that I had heard other people say it so much and complain that it just automatically came out my mouth! The power in those words had brought my mood down, and I actually believed that I had had a bad day! Our words are powerful instruments of life and death. I wonder what my day would have been like if I had said “What a great day!” (in a non sarcastic tone of course) How would my mood and outlook be had I spoken those words!
I have situations and things I am dealing with in my life just like everyone else. I have begun to learn to think about how I say things before they come out of my mouth (most of the time! Haha!). You don’t have to put on the church face and tell folks everything is awesome when they are not. That is lying. One of my favorite sayings is: “My circumstances have not changed, but my focus is on what’s ahead”. My future, my finances, my family, is in the hands of someone greater than I. It does not say that I don’t have things I’m dealing with presently, but Christ is more than able and will deliver me from the mess I got myself in!
The scripture says that we will eat from the fruit of our tongue. Why not eat the best of what God has for us? Why not speak of God’s sufficiency? Why not speak the Word of God into our situations? When a new opportunity presents itself, why not thank God for the opportunity to allow God’s grace to work through us?
I am not perfect. I fail all the time. I am not telling you who read this anything that I don’t struggle with this, but God has so much for us to stay negative. His ability to get us out of the mess we are in is greater than our circumstances! Why don’t we start proclaiming His greatness rather than our inability. Think about what you say before you say it. It may be the difference between your breaking point and your breakthrough!
One of His
What to Expect When Your Expecting
The title sounds familiar huh? I read quite a few things from this book before my first daughter was born. It was a great help to prepare for the coming of my first little one. It’s kinda funny that when we are expecting or believing God to do something in our lives (ministry, promotion at work, raise) we don’t realize that there are things we can do during those expecting times till we receive what we have been believing God to give us to prepare ourselves for that moment! The Word of God says in Jude 1:20 But you, (BI)beloved, (BJ)building yourselves up on your most holy (BK)faith, (BL)praying in the Holy Spirit, 21)keep yourselves in the love of God, (BM)waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Also in the book of Luke, Chapter 6, Jesus said: 47“(AX)Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48)he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49)”But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
When a farmer goes out in the field to plant his crops, he does not simply go out in the field and start throwing his seed around. He has to prepare the soil to receive the seed. The first thing he must do is break up the soil and find out the condition of the soil. If the soil doesn’t have the proper nutrients in it, the seed may sprout, but it may not grow enough to bear fruit because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs to bear fruit.
Just like the soil of the ground, so you too must nurture and take care of the soil in your heart. Jude talked about told us to pray. He also told us to keep ourselves in the love of God. We must guard the promise or vision that God has placed in our hearts. There are many things that will take our sight off of God and His plan for our lives. The only way to keep our vision clear is to pray and keep our eyes on Christ, our provider. Bitterness, envy, and unforgiveness will eventually harden the soil of our hearts and choke the life out of whatever was starting to germinate inside of us.
There are things we can be doing to prepare for the promise of God to come! Are you expecting something? Has God birthed a vision in your heart? How many promises do we not receive because we have not prepared for it! Has God called you to pastor? The promise will not come by simply sitting in a pew. You must learn to serve! Are you believing for a promotion at work? Show yourself faithful in your job. Be on time! Learn what your boss does. Ask questions! Show interest and desire to learn new things. If you are believing or expecting a large amount of money, learn about investing; get wise financial counsel, so you will know how to best make use of the money.
Let us be those who are doers of the word and not just hearers. Let’s stop talking about kingdom come and be about establishing Christ’s kingdom on Earth! I am expecting. Are you?
Isaiah 61
I just got done reading Isaiah 61. God showed me some stuff. I do not claim to be a prophet, but I believe God showed me a few things for 2008 while reading this chapter. He showed me that 2008 is going to be a year of restoring relationships. Relationships that have long been destroyed. Relationships that people had long given up on. People that hurt you will be coming out of nowhere looking for restoration and redemption. It will be a year of forgiveness. It will be a year that those hurts that you have had with you for many years, finally break from your life! A year of divine indignation. A year where we finally get that the way we have lived our lives and ran our churches is not working and do something about it! An awakening out of the slumber of boring, lifeless, church. A new way of having church and BEING the church! Thank God!
Challenges of a “Blended Family”
I am married to the most awesome woman in the world! When we got married, I had 3 girls from a previous marriage. My wife had a son from a previous relationship. When it is my time to have my girls, it is the most challenging times of my wife and I’s lives. The dynamic of bringing 2 families together is just unreal. It is really bipolar. One minute everyone is getting along, the next minute one kid is screaming, one is crying, another is slamming a door,and another one is wondering where everybody went! It is enough to drive the saintliest person to do some rather unchristianlike things! You are bringing new people into a situation that they didn’t really ask for, but life is like that. It’s not always what would seem perfect, but it is what it is and you work on establishing relationships and making the best of situations. Not always easier said than done huh? All you folks that have blended families know exactly what I am talking about.
In my reflections, it kinda reminds me of the church. You come into a place that you are not sure about. You are not sure if you will be accepted by others. You may not know anyone. You don’t know how your personality will gel with anyone, but we are expected to come together, shake hands, hug our neighbor and even meet with them and others we may not know in some stranger’s home! I can see from the outsider’s point of view where this would seem like pure insanity! But if we look through the eyes of a Savior who paid the greatest price that we might have a relationship with Him, it begins to make a lot more sense.
God, from the moment He created us, had one purpose for us: to have relationship with Him. He created us to be creatures who have the desire to have relationships. First with Him, and then others. Man drove a wedge in that relationship when we sinned against Him in the garden of Eden. From that moment, our divine, God given desire for relationship was tainted and even destroyed in some folks.This is why we have people who don’t know how to have, or be a friend. We would rather keep to ourselves than to reach out or expose ourselves to the possible ridicule of others. In many instances, people that we never meant to hurt have been scarred because we have yet to understand why we need others and relationship with others and pushed those people away. Creating more broken hearts and making it harder for folks to open up. The church in general has been greatly to blame for this. We say we have relationship with Him yet we gossip about our brothers and sisters when they are having a hard time and need our love and not our judgment. How can we say that we have relationship with the One who created love and showed the ultimate act of love and not be able to reflect that love?
Do I love everyone the way I should? That answer would no. No I most certainly do not, but daily I ask Him to reveal His love for me and He gives me another chance to show His love to someone else. I challenge you to ask Him to reveal His love for you. He will bring the hurting and the lost to you. Will you reach out? Will you be the conduit of His love? This is my prayer every day, that He gives me another opportunity. How about you?
Momentum
Momentum :
1: a property of a moving body that the body has by virtue of its mass and motion and that is equal to the product of the body’s mass and velocity; broadly : a property of a moving body that determines the length of time required to bring it to rest when under the action of a constant force or moment2: strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events : impetus <the campaign gained momentum>
I am a big guy (6’4″ 250 lbs). When I start walking briskly, it is not extremely easy to stop on a dime. When I am trying to get somewhere and someone comes around a corner in front of me, It’s like trying to stop a large truck because my size and speed makes it difficult.
There are forces of nature that influence and move us in some way, shape, or form. Rain moves us under cover. Gravity keeps us from floating into space. Hot temperatures (like down here in Florida) compel us to go indoors. We see and feel these forces in our natural body. Most of the time we fail to see or understand the spiritual forces that compel us and move us in our daily lives.
We feel the wind on our cheek but we fail to discern the fear that grips us whenever we feel like we should talk to someone about God. We feel the gravity against our bodies as we struggle to get up in the morning but fail to understand the unusual hostility we feel towards our coworker who hasn’t said a word to us. There are forces at work all around us in the spiritual realm. Have you ever said “Where did that come from?” after you shared something with someone about God or after you just made verbal sushi out of someone? Think about it. I’m sure you if you thought about it you could think of many instances.
( 2 Corinthians 5: 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.)
Momentum, the word just keeps resonating in my head. When you begin to seek Him and you get a revelation of who Christ is to you and in you… These are two different things. I have a revelation of Christ’s love for me but there is more than that! There is the revelation of who He is in you! He is at work in you! He is changing your desires, your tendencies, your likes and dislikes. He is changing your view of yourself! He wants you to see yourself the way He does. He wants you to have authority over your thoughts and when it seems like all hell is breaking loose to have peace in the storm. He wants you to believe when you pray and when you speak, you have power to bring change because of Christ in you!
When you get that in your heart, you will be unstoppable. The circumstances may be there but they don’t have the power to stop you or slow you down! Get a revelation of Christ in you. He will take you places you never dreamed of and show you that you can do things you never thought possible! Ask Him to reveal Himself to you! Do it today!
Is your God too Safe?
Yes, I know that there is a book by this title, but what I have to say has nothing to do with it. What would ask you today is this very question. When is the last time God has challenged you to do something that you would never do before? When is the last time you took Him up on it? If you are not challenged. If you are not stirred. If you are not frustrated with the place you are, I have to ask you: Is your God too safe? Are you comfortable just going to church, reading your Bible, maybe attending a home group or extra church service during the week? Are you content with your walk with God? Maybe your God is too safe. Since man was created, it has taken men and women who were not satisfied with the status quo, people who felt like there must be more than this, to stir other believers to reach new heights, to not be satisfied with where they are. To get in God’s face and say “show me who You really are!” It is soon after this that God will challenge you with a task, or a word that will make you have to make a decision. Will I stay where it is safe and I know my surroundings or will I like Abraham who left his home in Ur to travel into a land that was not familiar, not safe, with dangers all around. It was in this wild, untamed land that God revealed himself to Abraham. Could he have served God in Ur? Sure, but would he have received God’s promise of being a Father of Many Nations? Probably not. It is in the wilderness, in the untamed regions where we find God. Not in our pew, but when we have to deal with the boss that doesn’t like Christians, when we have been faced with a negative prognosis from our doctor. When we don’t have enough money to pay the bills and the rent is due. It is in those times we make a decision to get up and believe God or sit back down in that pew. Satan has no problem with you sitting in that pew. He might even make it nice and comfy for you to be there. He’s not afraid of you there. Try to step out in obedience and see what he does. It will seem like all hell has broken loose but just like Peter when he stepped out of the safety of the boat and into the raging waters, so too will you find Jesus waiting there. I challenge you to find out who God really is. It is not an easy path but remember you are in good company.
Hello World!
Welcome to my blog! My name is Kevin. I am married to a wonderful woman of God. I am blessed with 4 bright, intelligent, children. There have been many times when God will give me a nugget and I have had an audience to share it with. Well, I just figured that maybe someone might get something out of my experiences and what God has showed, and continues to show me in my life. My successes and just as importantly, my failures. I believe sharing our shortcomings can encourage and build up as much sharing our successes. So enjoy!
