Talented

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT

Gifts are amazing. I have always thought I wanted to be able to sing as the great singers have. Or to be able to do what some of the other big names do. If I don’t love my neighbors I would not be any better than a person just yelling in the air. We have to be able to love others in order to do what it is that God gave us. We see a lot of great singers and writers and preachers and teachers that do what they do but fall off right after. There is the one thing missing. Love! Are you making noise with your gifts or using it to make others see how great God has been?

HERE IT IS…

Your talent and gift should be used for Gods glory and not to make money. The Bible says that our gifts will make room for us. It also tells us that we are Gods greatest creation. So if you are his greatest creation and he told us our gifts will make room, why do we use our gifts for anything other than Gods glory? Don’t be a loud cymbals just making noise. Don’t be a loud voice not saying anything. Use your talents and gifts to glorify God and do it with the intent of loving others. If not, just as fast as you received your gifts God can surely take them away. Make your gifts a gift and watch God present you with joy to the father.

It’s in you

“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

Romans 8:12-14 NLT

There has been many of times that I have experienced things that I had the choice to leave or get out of. Some of them I did and some I didn’t. There were times where I thought I wouldn’t be cool enough. Times I thought I wouldn’t be accepted. Times that I thought I would be viewed as a square. I had to make a choice on what I wanted to do. Truthfully speaking I gave in a lot of times and it was like I had to do it. Truth is that you don’t owe sin anything. We don’t have an obligation to sin. We sometimes feel we have an obligation to do what is wrong so we can feel like we are right.

HERE IT IS…

It’s that little thing that gives you those signs from with Lin that let you know you don’t have too. Some say it was a voice. Some say someone tapped them. Some say they heard their name. God is not going to allow you to be in a place that you can’t get out of. You have way to much power inside you to think that you are stuck somewhere. You have more in you than anything that’s in the world. Stop feeling like you have to do something to be in the in crowd. Jesus was never in the in crowd and yet his name is the most powerful name. Stop thinking you have to be in something to be something. Believe in God and watch him do something in you that gives others a way to him.

Martian

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

John 14:18-20 NLT

There is a movie called Martian that came out in 2015. The movie is about a man who is a botanist and was left behind on Mars and discovered how to live there for months off of potato’s. However he had to grow the potatoes and scientifically Mars is not a planet that can grow because of the lack of oxygen and extreme temperatures it cannot grow. What he did was created a green house in doors and used what he had to make more potatoes. Even though he only had potatoes, He made it work. Even though he had to make water, he made it work. Even though he had no one with him, he made it work. He made contact with NASA and was able to make it home a little over a year later.

HERE IT IS…

Sometimes in our life we feel alone. Sometimes in our life we struggle. Sometimes we may not eat steak and have the finer things in life. But it’s good to know that we made it. We may not live where we want but we have a roof over our head. We don’t wear the best clothes and they may be from Walmart but we are warm and dressed nice. All I am trying to say is that we have to make due with what we got until God comes and rescues us. We are all just Martians on this earth and we all are trying to just get back home.

It’s not you it’s him

“Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”

Galatians 3:4-5 NLT

I look back over my life and think about the things I went through. Some of the things that I went through don’t seem to be worth all the trouble and heartache that came along with it. I think that is something we can all say in some time in our life. We also can say that we have learned something from those situations as well. I have often heard that if you go through something and don’t learn nothing your destined to repeat it. I can be honest and say I didn’t do what I was supposed to. I didn’t leave when I was supposed to. I didn’t apologize when I was supposed to. I didn’t do a lot of things and I did have to deal with it and repeat certain things.

HERE IT IS…

It’s not because we were so slick or we figured out how to get out of the situation that we were in that God spared us. It wasn’t the fact of who we were. God saved you because of your belief in him. God saved you not because of your house or your job. It’s because of his word and the word in you. Truth of the matter is that you didn’t get out of those situations because you thought you figured it out. It’s because of the grace of God sweet communion of his Holy Spirit. It rest, rules, and abides with us now, henceforth and forever. It’s the word that’s in you the develops the belief you have that gives you the protection you need.

Assigned

This is what the Lord says: “At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you. I will protect you and give you to the people as my covenant with them. Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again. I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out in freedom,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’ They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on hills that were previously bare.

Isaiah 49:8-9 NLT

In school when we’re assigned work we had a deadline to meet. We had to have homework in at the proper time. Projects in at the proper time. We had to have them in on time in order to receive the proper grade based on our work. The one thing that we over looked as kids is that even turning in homework we had to be mindful of who we were turning the homework into. I couldn’t take my science homework to my math teacher and ask if they could give it to the teacher. I had to make sure the the proper assignment was given to the assigned teacher. My work had to be in on time and to the proper teacher.

HERE IT IS…

GOD says, “through you I will reestablish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again.”. Your assignment is not linked to what you think you should do. Nor is it advised to do what you feel is good. The teacher doesn’t assign work that she knows is easy, but instead to challenge you. I believe that as God was talking to Isaiah and telling him what he was about to do he was also referring to us in this present time. God is moving and assigning you to the people, places and things, that will push you to be better than you have before. How? Well with his help! In the text he says that he will;

1. Help you

2. Preserve you

3. Now he is about to assign you.

Don’t get caught up in the assignment and get mad, but I would encourage you to move and get to know the one who assigned you.

See it

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT

I love to take road trips. I absolutely love the drive, the peace of just driving. The sound of the wind. The way the scenery looks. I love how if you just turn the radio off and take it all in it gives you a sense of wonder. What I discovered as a child was that there is a reflection in the window that allows you to see the opposite direction. It’s almost as if you have to look into the glass and not through the glass. When you look through it your seeing what’s on the other side of the glass, what’s in front of you. If you look into the glass the reflection you see is what you would have to turn around to see. It’s the things you can’t see at the moment because your facing the other way.

HERE IT IS…

This gives me hope as this scripture does. Because I can fix my eyes on the things I cannot see and still know what’s to come. Sometimes we get so interested in looking at what’s in front of us and concentrating on that. Well if you just look to the one you can’t see. Look at the things he wants to provide you. The protection he has over and around you. The peace he will give you. You will be able to look past your struggles. Your heartache. Your money. Your bills. And see just what God is doing in your life. You will be able to see just how good has been to you. Don’t look at your problems instead, look at the one who will solve them.

Recognizing

“That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24:13-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Technology has been advancing so much through the years. Now they have personal devices that don’t use finger prints but they take a facial recognition as security. It is something that has been around for years but not at the public level. Cell phones now ask you to use this type of security measure to unlock your phone. The problem that I have seen is that sometimes the phone doesn’t recognize who you are. Depending on what has happen or if you have makeup on the phone may not recognize you because of something you have on. Could be the change of hair or the a new lipstick. Something about you that you have changed may not be recognized.

HERE IT IS…

Do you recognize God in your life? Do you see his hand over your life. The scripture says that God hid Jesus face so he wouldn’t be recognized just to see what they were talking about. As you go further in the scripture it says that they finally recognized him and then he disappeared. After they recognized one of the men says that his heart was burning as he spoke. Sometimes God may show up just to see what you are doing and saying. The mean were in disbelief of the events that happened the day Jesus had risen from the dead. Be careful what you say because God is listening and hears you and will show up. If you don’t recognize him, will he recognize you? Will he know your name at the end of your journey?

Reflections

“But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:10-13‬ ‭NLT‬‬
What do you see sun you look in the mirror? Who do you see? How do you feel about that person? A deep question about yourself that sometimes we have to answer. Know this, that all that you know is partial and incomplete. All that we know and have learned does not compare to what God says and knows about you. Think about this, if the back of the mirror is changed or adjusted in anyway, it changes the reflection of your self. This will in turn give you a different view of what you see of you. A person who looks in one mirror that looks wide will make a person think they are wide. But until they look into a mirror that shows them what they really look like will they know how they look.

HERE IT IS…

Your view of yourself is what you have learned and believed growing up. From what people tell you and say to you we can internalize it. It’s not until you look into Gods word and hear his voice that you know who you really are. You are Kings and Queens. You are above and not beneath. You are the head and not the tail. You are of royal priesthood. What you see and know is only partial and is incomplete. Truthfully what you think you know can be discarded because of the thoughts you have of yourself. God sees you and knows just who he created you to be. Ask and know just what he says and believe what he says about you. When I WAS a child. But now, that I know God. Now that I understand better. Now that I see differently. I put those things away and walk in what God says I am.

Sleeping arrested

“The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate.”
‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭12:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Have you ever been arrested, booked and placed in a cell? Whether you have physically or not we all have been just like Peter. Arrested and chained to something even while we are sleeping. Sometimes we may be arrested to the point we can’t sleep. Something has been troubling you. Someone has your attention and has you worried. We are losing sleep even though we appear to be sleep. We wake up tired and exhausted and don’t get a good nights sleep all because something has arrested our attention. Peter is asleep and is chained to, two guards, and being guarded by two more guards. All of that for one man?

HERE IT IS…

Don’t let what’s going on in your life trouble you to the point that you are arrested even while you are sleeping. Don’t let something arrest your attention and guard your life from continuing on because your worried. Let go and let God handle what it is that is troubling you. We can often times go to sleep weighed down to the point that we can’t rest and end up doing damage to ourselves. Then we try to get up and fix what we wrestled with all night. Turn it over to God. Give him control. Let him handle it for you. Stop allowing things to arrest you to a place that makes you feel like you can’t move and live your life. Give it to God and let him fight your battles.

The Dream lives

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.”

Romans 12:9-11 NLT

This year we started off with people storming the Capitol of the United States of America. As we watched the along with the world in awe and disbelief of how people have become so upset and divided that we would deface and hurt our Capitol and leaders of America. This year has started off wild but yet and still we have words to live by. Don’t just pretend to love them, really love them. We all may have seen or experienced first hand what it feels like to be talk to in a negative manner. To feel like people hate you that don’t really know you. Dr. King fought for those who experienced that. Dr. King placed his life in danger so we would have to experience things like that.

HERE IT IS…

I didn’t know Dr. King, but from what I do know is that he embodied this scripture and more. I encourage us all to love those who look down on you. Do not deal with things that are wrong. Only deal with the things that are good. Honor and love each other and don’t be lazy either. Work hard for God and do it with great joy. That is what Dr. King showed me through his videos, speeches, life work, and trips to Washington. We celebrate Dr. King and all that he has done. His legacy lives on through us. His work has shown us the way. Let’s keep it going!