Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 04/01/10)

Loving Me Like No Other Can part III

John 15:12-14 (Amplified Bible)

¹²This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.

¹³No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.

¹⁴You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.

My daughter is a loyal and faithful friend. No matter what her friends do or don’t do for her she will still go out of her way for them, if it is within her power or mine to do. I use to get upset with her because it seemed as if I was the go to parent, the one that had to chauffeur children, our house was always the one that everyone was coming to spend the night over, and we were the one’s always hosting parties and events. My daughter literally laid down her life in service to her friends, and still does. I guess what use to agitate me the most is that seldom did she get the same love and sacrifice given back to her. One day it hit me, don’t get mad, she had learned this from you, and how I was with my friends and family alike, that I rarely said no and I would lay down my life in service for others. But I cannot take the credit ultimately because I learned this behavior from my mother.

Christ loves us so much that he came into the earth with the express purpose of loving us to death. What I mean is that He loved us enough to endure death for us. His love caused Him to aspire to do the will of His Father that sent Him and to endure the cross and all that would entail. You see Christ would not have life taken from Him, but He would willingly lay it down for us. He would give to us, something that we hardly deserved, but so badly needed. Laying down one’s life is not just the act of dying for them, but it is the act of service to them, it is the offering of sacrifice, human subjection and sometimes suffering. Christ’s love brought Him there for us. There is a movie I love called the “Princess Bride” and there is a line in the movie when two characters are about to have a sword fight and one calls out “to the death” and the other says, “no, to the pain.” It is that pain of suffering that love carried Christ to and carried Him through.

How much of yourself would you lay down for a friend? Would you suffer, endure pain that was someone else’s just because you loved them and they were your friend? If we answered honestly, the answer would probably be no. But Christ did, it was His love that made Him do it! What has your service or sacrifice been to God, or to man? Think about it are you a friend or an outsider?

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 3/31/10)

Loving Me Like No Other Can part 2

Hosea 3:1-3 (Amplified Bible)

¹THEN SAID the Lord to me, Go again, love [the same] woman [Gomer] who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins [used in the sacrificial feasts in idol worship].

²So I bought her for ^[a]fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley [the price of a slave].

³And I said to her, You shall be [betrothed] to me for many days; you shall not play the harlot and you shall not belong to another man. So will I also be to you [until you have proved your loyalty to me and our marital relations may be resumed].

I remember a few years ago I was watching Praise the Lord and there was a woman that was giving her testimony about how her husband was a pastor and he began to have an affair with a woman from work. As the affair progressed, he eventually left the ministry and his family, but she said that the Lord told her not to give up on Him, not to ever deny him access to their home or her and not to deny Him physical intimacy. I thought to myself it couldn’t be me. She said she held fast to what God told her to do and prayed diligently for her spouse, and eventually he was restored to her as a true husband and friend in every way and he eventual returned to the ministry as well after counseling and time to reconcile himself with God. Whew, I sat there thinking this woman had to either crazy or just desperate. When I turned off the television and prepared for bed I could hear deep down in my spirit the words, she loved him like I loved you and the rest of the people in this world which are my creations. I was humbled.

How many of us could face betrayal, and public humiliation and still continue to profess our love and commitment for a spouse that is in an adulterous affair with another person and acts without remorse? Probably none of us if we are being honest or at least not many of us. Most of us would probably want to mount up and kill somebody or at least hurt somebody really bad. But consider for one moment, when God created us, He created us for “His” Good pleasure. We were and are “His” workmanship, His prize possession. But for many of us our backs were turned on God and we became a lover of another. We at one time and even now are lovers of sin, we chose to do wrong even when we know what is right and we chose to serve another instead of the Almighty, but yet, God still loves us with an everlasting love, He still pursues us as man pursues the woman that has captured his heart. God loves us with unshakable, unstoppable love. His love has gone to the auction block to buy us back; His love that has bore our sins and carried our grief. God loves us hard and strong, for even in our rebellion He will pursue us and if necessary break our leg and place us over His shoulder and bring us back to the fold. God’s loves gives us His most precious gifts and gives us eternity in His presence.

When you think about the love that people have for you, do not think for one minute that is how God loves you. His love has staying power. His loves endures the worst of us to get us to the best in Him. His love cleans us out of our dirtiest messes and our smelliest of circumstances. It frees us from being enslaved to sin and shame. His love turns our test into a testimony, and gives us beauty for our ashes. It bottles up every tear and gives us joy in its place. It soothes ever fear and calms every storm. It strengthens us and restores us even when human hands cannot. God’s love knows NO Bounds!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 3/30/10)

Loving Me Like No Other Can!

John 3:16 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁶For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

When I think of how many times in my life that I have suffered a broken heart, it is almost frightening. As I have gotten older I have realized that with each broken heart there was disappointment and pain that was associated with it. When I think of how many times I have heard the words I love you and they were in many cases just an empty confession, or a momentary feeling that consumed people because of how I looked or how I made them feel. In the natural realm, love is fickle and often comes as quickly as it goes, it lacks sacrifice and it lacks perseverance and power. Love is not fragile as most would like to think, love is the strongest emotion ever manifested. Love can carry you when you want to give up and it can make you do right when you have known nothing but wrong. Love can make you lay down your life as a gift for another…now that’s love.

Unlike our love that changes, God’s love for us is unchanged. Even before the foundation of the world God loved us, He knew that there was a, you and a me. Even when we were in sin and even when we go astray, God still loves us. He loved us in such a way that He was willing to bestow upon us His very best, the gift of His son Jesus. Jesus love for us was also unmatched because of the love He possessed for His father and for us, He was willing to suffer and die for us, to go into the grave and change the course of history for us all. Christ loved us so much that he left His eternal home to come to earth to take on human form for us. Christ loved us so much that He allowed ALL of our sins, our sicknesses, our weaknesses, and our very nature to be nailed to the cross with Him so that we could have new life. God for Christ sake loves us and forgives us when we ask of Him, He does not even look and see our sin once we have accepted Him, and He remembers it no more. His love is so strong that it took back the keys from death and victory from the grave, so that we can have eternal life. But the awesomeness and strength of His love allows for us to choose to love Him back. He never forces us to love Him back; He only asked that we do.

I am so glad that it is not human love that is my measuring stick for what real love is. I am so glad that I can look to the example set by God my Father and Jesus His son who is my Lord and Savior. For their love does not lack sacrifice, it does not boast of selfishness, it is not rude, it does not give up, and it does not end! Their Love has endured the betrayal of sin and the brutality of the cross and yet it still abides. Their love now is in preparation for the day that you and I will enter into “paradise” which is God’s presence, it is then we will know the fullness and the unmatched magnitude of God’s love for us…NOW THAT’S LOVE!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Monday 3/29/10)

Today’s Devotional Written By A Young Woman With Perspective: Tracy Koweh

Are You in God’s Habitat

Jeremiah 29:11 (Amplified Bible)

¹¹For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

Today's message in the music comes from a song I heard on Sesame Street called "It’s a Habitat". The storyline is about a bird realtor who is trying to help Big Bird find the right habitat for him. Big Bird is learning that doing certain times of the year, it is necessary for some birds to fly away to another destination in order to survive the conditions of life. The realtor shows Big Bird a swamp, a beach and a rain forest; and just as Big Bird prepares to migrate his friends and family on Sesame Street convince him to stay.

There are three points God showed me in this quick skit as I watched with Jai. One, both or all may apply to you, but I believe we all will be blessed by at least one point. The first is realizing when its time to move. Some of us have been living in our sin, failure, fear, past or lack for so long that we have gotten comfortable. We realize that the seasons have shifted in our lives but we are too afraid, stuck or lazy to migrate to better conditions. We are holding on to things, people, situations and circumstances that God never put in our hand to begin with. Today is the day for some us to migrate towards the "SON".

The next point is, that we need to be able to recognize the voice of God in our lives, and allowing His voice to become clearer and louder than any other voice. As well intentioned as some of our family and friends may be, they can and do cause us to miss God some times. The need to please man can and will cost us the presence of God. Jehovah is bad all by himself, and He will not fight to be number one in your life. You have to choose to invite Him into that position in your heart, mind, body and soul.

The last point is realizing that maybe you are right where God wants you to be. Some of us are moving so much and so fast that God can't speak to us because although we are in the right place, we don't know it. We have to all seek God for ourselves. We need to know that we know. I believe that when we let God be God in all areas of our lives, He will let us know when to move to that next level, or that next season. It is in trusting Him that we will be able to stand when all others doubt. If you don't know the habitat that God has purposed for you, a realtor of distraction will be able to convince you to move and you'll move right out of the will of God.

Today ask God to give you confidence in your position in the Kingdom. Know who God has called you to be. Know who God has called to you. Know where God has destined for you to go. Know your enemies and know your friends.....GET TO KNOW YOUR HABITAT.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 03/26/10)

It Is Taking Way Too Long…What Am I To Do?

Romans 4:17-249(a) (Amplified Bible)

¹⁷As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. ¹⁸[For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be. ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah's [deadened] womb. ²⁰No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, ²¹Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised. ²²That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God). ²³But [the words], It was credited to him, were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴But [they were written] for our sakes too. [Righteousness, standing acceptable to God] will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God

Habakkuk 2:2-3 (Amplified Bible)

²And 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. ³For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.

Have you ever had a desire in your heart that was so strong you felt as if you could just reach out you could touch it? Have you ever had a dream so vivid that you woke up just knowing that you had just lived it because you could still feel the effects of that dream upon you? But then realization set in and it was just a dream and it was just a desire that had not manifested itself. We have all felt the frustration of waiting on dream to become reality, for desire to become purpose and fulfilled destiny. Waiting on God to move and bring things from spirit to life can work a nerve and try your soul. It can make you lose sleep and wonder what the holdup is. It can make you question everything you were so sure of when God first planted the dream, the vision or desire within you. What is flesh and blood to do?

Abraham was advanced in his years, but he had a desire and a dream of being a Father. He knew that God was able and He knew what God had promised and although the promise tarried, he still remained in faith. He did not let his circumstance stand in the way of his belief, nor did he allow the length of time to deter his faith. He trusted God to make good on His promises and to bring His dreams into a state of reality. He held tight to the courage of His convictions, understanding that God had never failed him, and would not start now, primarily because He is God and His promises are yea and amen, but also because Abraham honored and reverenced God. The other thing that we need to learn how to do is just waiting in peace and in patience realizing that God is processing us. We are in a state of preparation. But for some of us God is just taking us to school to teach us a bit of patience and to prove to us that He is in control and not us.

Hold on to faith. Hold on to your confidence in God. Hold on to His promise. But most of all hold on to His powerful and unchanging hand that will see you through to completion and that has started an amazing work in your mind, body and spirit and will see it through. He will make your dreams a reality and your desires a manifestation, and He will make your visions clear. Don’t lose heart for you will reap the harvest, the benefit, and the promises if you just wait upon the Lord, to do what no man can!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 3/25/10)

Have You Given Your Dreams Back To God?

Proverbs 16:3, 7, 9

³Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.

⁷When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

⁹A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.

I became involved in a relationship some years ago and when it went bad, I prayed and asked God why, He sweetly and gently spoke into my spirit one night in the midnight hour, “Did I ever tell you that was for you?” I wanted to scream out of sheer frustration. I remember other times in my life when I had gotten involved in business dealings and plans with people, and because it was part of a dream or a desire I felt God had birthed in me, I jumped at the opportunity without much thought or prayer, only to find out that, although God may have given me the desire, showed me the dream , or placed that dream within me that it did not mean that I did not have to take it back to God an submit to Him and consecrate it before Him and seek His will and His guidance for it and over it.

I have seen so many people do the same. My brother and I were conversing the other day, and I was encouraging Him in some things that God was about to make manifest in His life. I was reminding him to ensure that God was at the helm and that he submitted these things unto the Lord, He turned to me and said, “I cannot do it any other way for I have tried and it didn’t work out.” I felt shock and relief all in that moment. Sometimes it our failure to submit our dreams, desires and plans to God that cause them to fail. If we realize that the plan, dream or desire is His to begin with why wouldn’t we bring it into His presence for Him to give us guidance on how to handle it, the timing of it and the steps in which to take to achieve success. But all too often we figure if God plants it we are to do the rest. It is just like when God blesses us to steward finances isn’t our responsibility to seek His word for guidance and Seek Him for direction as to how to handle it, and it is an understood fact that the tithe belongs to Him, because that is His will.

Don’t allow the enemy to trick you into thinking that just because you have a dream planted in your spirit that you can take it from here and bring it into manifestation. It is our responsibility to take it to God and submit it to Him so that it can be established and succeed. Look to Hills from whence cometh your help you help cometh from the Lord!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 3/24/10)

Pressured, Pressed And Postponed

James 1:12 (Amplified Bible)

¹²Blessed (happy,to be envied) is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor's] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.

My daughter is almost ready to take her road test. Every time we are ready to go somewhere she wants to get behind the wheel. I let her drive as often as I can, but there was a time when she was just beginning that I would not let her behind the wheel as often. She would get upset, because she was feeling the pressure to get her license and she was constantly pressing me about letting her drive, but I had to do what was best, so in certain instances I would postpone her lessons or restrict her ability to drive until I felt she was ready to tackle that particular driving task. Now that she is about a month away the pressure has shifted from driving to getting a car. The press is on, but that is another thing that will probably be delayed until her 18^th birthday (we will see).

How often do we get to a place in life where we feel like we are under pressure to progress or make something happen, but things seem to constantly be postponed? It can be one of the most frustrating times in life. We can pray and believe God, knowing that we are endeavoring to get it right with Him first and things still are delayed or denied. We find our minds reeling and our thoughts turning our stomachs every which way, because things are not how we imagined and are not turning out the way we think they should at the time. But did we ever stop to think that God’s timing is not our timing, and His ways are not our ways. God may have us in a holding pattern for a reason; it may be because He needs for us to truly understand the source of our strength and who really has to be in control.

Often we look at how well we do things, and how it appears that we are a natural at things, but God is wanting us to understand that He gave us those abilities to steward for His Glory, not our own, and if we are still singing Frank Sinatra (My Way) God will continue to let us stew in our season of preparation and He will make us wait until we can see the true order of things. It is His will, before our own, His way not ours. When we come to understand the pressure is to get us to stand and rely upon Him we come into His will that much quicker and easier. We are able to press in and persevere, even when we are pressed, pressured and postponed.

Realize we are not forgotten, we are just in the state of preparation and processing, in order for us to get to a place of being able to handle what God is going to do in our lives. God wants us to humbly accept His will so that we can go from postponed into purpose, from pressured into permitted, from pressed to promoted. Don’t despise the delay; know that in this time God is working in us to get out what is good and acceptable in His sight. How do we get the most precious element out of an Olive we press it and apply pressure, just as God allows to be done to us, so that He can gain the most precious elements from us.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 3/23/10)

Dreaming With A Broken Heart…

Genesis 37:3-10 (Amplified Bible)

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a [distinctive] long tunic with sleeves. ⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved [Joseph] more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not say, Peace [in friendly greeting] to him or speak peaceably to him. ⁵Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him still more. ⁶And he said to them, Listen now and hear, I pray you, this dream that I have dreamed: ⁷We [brothers] were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about my sheaf and bowed down! ⁸His brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or are you going to have us as your subjects and dominate us? And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for what he said. ⁹But Joseph dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers [also]. He said, See here, I have dreamed again, and behold, [this time not only] eleven stars [but also] the sun and the moon bowed down and did reverence to me! ¹⁰And he told it to his father [as well as] his brethren. But his father rebuked him and said to him, What is the meaning of this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow down ourselves to the earth and do homage to you?

Over the last two years those that know me know that I have been through a lot. I suffered many things, at the hand of different people, and circumstances. They would be quick to tell you that my heart has been broken throughout my life by friends, spouse, family and co-workers alike. Strangely enough they said I never ceased to see God’s ability even in my greatest seasons of pain and discomfort. I’ve cried, I’ve prayed, I’ve even grown weak and I must admit that I have even complained; sometimes about the pains in my heart, in my body, sometimes one’s that were a part of my life and relationships. But even in the midst I remained faithful to God as He remained faithful to me. Don’t get me wrong this is not a bragging session, this is a testament to God’s faithfulness and His ability to keep anyone (even me) looking to Him and seeing themselves even where they have no idea how and why they would be there. He gave me dreams and visions of days to come even when I did not understand what they meant or could mean to me.

It is in our brokenness, our weakness and in our inability, that God becomes His strongest and He works at His best. He is able to show us things that we may not be able to comprehend, but that we will just receive because we are too weary and too tired from the battle to do anything else besides say okay I see it even if I have no clue what it means. In most cases we recognize that we don’t have a clue how can may come to be, but if it is to get done, that God will have to do it. I have a brother and a close friend that have believed for years for one thing. Although times have been tough, set back after set back have come and adversity, broken promises and unmet expectations have become routine of sorts and they have both been reduced to tears and sometimes fears they have never lost their ability to dream and see themselves in the place that they have been believing God for all along. When God is the dream giving in the middle of the driest desert you can bloom. When God is the dream giver in the midst of the stormiest of times He will show you the sun. When God is the dream giver He will cause you to dream even when your heart is broken and your well is dry.

Don’t think it strange when you find yourself in one of the most controversial, adverse, uncomfortable places and you begin to dream. Don’t even think it strange if it makes little no sense to you, because just like Joseph, your dreams are a foreshadowing of your purpose, your place and God’s perspective for you. May not be today or even tomorrow, but it will come to past, if God continues to be the dream given in your brokenness!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Monday 3/22/10)

Today’s Devotional Written By A Inspired Young Woman: Tracy Koweh

Tormented by Your Thoughts........................

Philippians 4:8 (Amplified Bible)

8For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].

Today's message in the music comes from the song "My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me" by the Geto Boys. It's really a song about serious hallucinations, about an imagination so vivid and intense that they actual feel real. Its' the physical manifestation of seeds that have been planted in their spirit at one point in their lives or another. The Bible says that you only need faith the size of a mustard seed (the smallest seed on Earth), and that same principle can be applied to seeds of doubt, manipulation or falsehoods we allow people to plant in us.

This past weekend started off as one of the most excited phases of our life. We had big plans and all of our younger siblings with us. Doing the course of the weekend when Shane and I were separated he received a phone call that although on the surface he was able to shake off, had planted seeds of confusion internally within himself. Nothing had affected him immediately but the tiny roots had started to attach themselves to him. So Sunday night over a game a cards, a comment was said that bumped up on one of those roots and man o man what took place over the next few hours was nothing but the enemy. The funny thing is that the comment was something that had been said many times before, but because of those seeds planted we both allowed it to take us to a place God was not too proud of you.

My Bishop spoke a few month ago about ANTS (Automatic Negative Throughts) and how if we don't pull up the root of negative words spoken over us and into us it will cause us to become those things. The Bible says that we are what we think on. Like in the song though, our mind is a powerful tool and if we allow it to be manipulated it can very dangerous to us physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Just as we must screen the shows we watch on television, the calls we answer on our cell phones, the friends we accept on social networking sites, we must also screen the seeds being planted in our minds.

Today allow God to go through and clean out those things that are causing you see a situation or person in the wrong light. Let God give you a renewed mind that will allow you to see the truth in ALL things. Don't let someone plant their insecurities, failures, hurts, misunderstandings or wrong thinking into you, and if they happen to slip a few in there on the down low.............don't let them take root. Cut it and give it to God and then make sure you get in God's work and fill yourself up with Truth.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 03/19/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

Disconnecting From Your Past

Revelation 21:3-5 (Amplified Bible)

³Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live (encamp, tent) among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God. ⁴God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. ⁵And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new. Also He said, Record this, for these sayings are faithful (accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy) and true (genuine).

When I look back over my life, at age 45 my life looks a whole lot different than it did at 25. A lot of the things I am most proud of and most of the things I wished did not happen actual were a part of that 25 and up time frame. I cannot begin to tell you how many days and nights I have spent in my adult life in regret and shame for mistakes I have made, pains I have endured and humiliation that I have been taken through by others. I had been moving forward but very much so still stuck in the past suffering from its pains and the scars it left in me, on me and to me.

It is interesting how we can be in Christ and not really be “in Christ.” When we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and God is our Heavenly Father, we are supposed to “forget those things which are behind, and press towards the prize of the high calling which is in Christ.” But seldom are we able to totally get free from our hurts, insecurities, mistake and bad decisions. For some of us we can live, worship and serve God until something happens that triggers a memory that causes us to see, hear, feel and even smell events of the past that still haunt us and make us unsettled ( even if there is no real need or reason to). Then for others of us we wear our hurts, and experiences of the past like a cloak of armor and we use it to keep people at bay. But no matter which category we fall into, it is far from healthy. If we are in Christ, we are supposed to be free, because Christ has made us that way. But for many of us we have not allowed God to take the shackles off of our feet yet. Letting Go of the past can be one of the most challenging events in our Christian walk, but it is necessary to do so in order for us to reach our full potential in Christ and become a vessel that is empty in order for God to fill us up again, the way He desires to.

We can never find the beauty if we do not give up the ashes of the past, We can never find the strength if we don’t give up the fears brought on by the past, and we can never come into our morning where gladness abides if we do not give up our mourning over the regrets of the past. It is time to stop basing our lives on what happened to us a year, a month, a week, a day, a minute or even a second ago. We have to start to let God take our past and throw into the sea of forgetfulness, in order for us to live, love and trust again, Him first and then others. It is time to release in order for us to better relate, to God and man!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Thursday 03/18/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

Disconnecting From The Familiar

Ruth 1:12-18 (Amplified Bible)

¹²Turn back, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband tonight and should bear sons, ¹³Would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; it is far more bitter for me than for you that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. ¹⁴Then they wept aloud again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law [good-bye], but Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵And Naomi said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law. ¹⁶And Ruth said, Urge me not to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. ^b]">[b]Your people shall be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. ¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said no more.

I love the fact that I can look at my life and see growth. It may not always be growth in the areas that I want it in, but when it is spiritual growth I cannot complain one bit. Many years ago, I did not know how to separate myself from people and leave people alone even when they were not good for me. Today, I can catch a clue, when I sense certain behaviors, and tendencies God no longer has to allow me to go through massive changes nor does He have to hit me over my head for me to realize that things are toxic or no good for me. I know how to remove myself and leave folks alone. I have also learned the art of consecration, even when it is not convenient for everyone else, I have learned to turn off my cell phone and break away from what is familiar in order to place myself in a place with God for a given period of time.

So often we do not see that the familiar can make us complacent and keep us from being able to move forward. It can hold us captive to a season that is past and keep us from obeying God, or entering into a place God desires for us to be. It is ironic to me that in my own life I have seen, and heard some of the people closest to me, misunderstand the move of God in my life and try to tell me that things I heard, sensed or knew were off. They have even been a discouraging voice that has tried to override the Spirit of God in me and have tried to be a negative force in my life. I have others who have seen what God was doing and immediately what He was doing for me became their testimony, it almost became like some sort of twisted competition. That is why the Lord encourages us in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “So, come out from among [unbelievers], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor, ¹⁸And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Sometimes it is those who we know the best or who are most familiar with us who believe in us the least and will trip us up on our journey to connect with God and His vision for us. If we do not make the choice to remove ourselves we will die in the wilderness never reaching the promise land, and never reaching our destiny and full potential in God.

For many reading this, you have been wrestling with decisions concerning family members and friends alike. You have even asked yourself do these people that say they love me so much, mean me harm or good. God is telling you it is time to move your tent and pitch it in the land that He has chosen, not one that holds sentimental value, or memories. Nor does it have a whole bunch of people who knew you when. It is time to step out of the shallow end where everyone is and into the deep end with God alone. Don’t waste time; hasten to obey God as He is asking you to disconnect from things that are familiar and to connect with Him on a deeper level and in a more profound way.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Wednesday 3/17/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

Disconnecting From Disobedience

Psalm 51:1-15 (Amplified Bible)

¹HAVE MERCY upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions. ²Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin! ³For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me. ⁴Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment. ⁵Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful]. ⁶Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart. ⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow. ⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice. ⁹Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. ¹³Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You. ¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness and death, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (Your rightness and Your justice). ¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

My mother use to always say to myself and my siblings, “a hard head makes a soft behind, every time.” Sometimes we would receive with great joy her words of wisdom and other times they fell to the ground like a leaves on a windy day during autumn. I remember my parents constantly telling us, that no one was allowed in the house, when they were not at home. My brother and I knew better, but we were new to the neighborhood and all we wanted were some friends and not to be imprisoned to the house. So against what was taught to us and what we knew to do, and what had been repeated anytime we were left home alone, we allowed some neighborhood children in the house. Upon their entrance nothing seemed wrong, all seemed to be a harmless event (I am sure we both thought, what’s the big deal?)…but little did either of us know that I would be violated by two of the individuals that entered the house. Had we only listened and had we disconnected from disobedience that event would not have taken place and I would not have spent years of my life, keeping my dirty little secret and trying to regain something stolen from me.

We do not realize that disobedience can place us in harm’s way. It can cause us to suffer at the hand of the enemy. It can take us out of the protection and care of the Almighty. God wants us to realize when He instructs us to stay away from certain things, or to do certain other things, it is for our own good and it is to keep us safe and in a place of covering. For many years now God has had me pray Psalms 51 over myself as a method of humbling, purging and restoring me. It disconnects me from my transgression and short comings. It keeps me in constant remembrance that I need to stay disconnected from sin and connected to Christ. We should be allowing God to do a check on us, to ensure that we are staying in the His house under His care minus the company of things that we do not need and that can do detriment to us. If we learn that God’s way is the best way and being obedient to His directives, instruction and His word is what will keep us safe and covered, we would be more apt to stay away from anything that is a connection that is not rooted and grounded in God.

Obedience is truly better than sacrifice. Are you willing to stay connected to your sin, and iniquity? If so at what cost will it be to you? Will it be your safety, your health, your peace of mind, your family or maybe your life? Make a choice to disconnect from the things that you have been willfully disobedient in so that you can be restored, made whole healed, purged and delivered in order for God to use you to teach transgressors His way!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 3/16/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

Discounting From Our Agenda

Romans 7:15-20 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns]. ¹⁶Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it. ¹⁷However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.] ¹⁹For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [^[b]fixed and operating in my soul].

I remember a time when my son was much younger; we had gone to Maryland to be with my sister for her graduation. Our whole family was present. We were going out to dinner and we needed to go to a place where my father who is diabetic could eat and not have a long wait, so my mother and father asked for suggestions and my son spoke up and said he wanted to go to TGIFriday’s, we all agreed and off we drove to the closet location. When we arrived and approached the entrance way, we saw quite a few people standing outside waiting. We reached the hostess and put our name on the list, but promptly asked how long the wait was, she informed us the wait was one hour and forty five minutes. We all looked at each other and knew that this would not due because my father’s condition would not allow for it. So we asked that our name be removed from the list and we convened outside to work on a new game plan. We made a command decision to go to Boston Market, well this did not bode well with my son, who had his agenda already set. He could not see himself deviating for anything in the world, and it was written all over his face and his demeaner. When we arrived at the next restaurant, we all ordered and my son was repeatedly asked what he would like, he replied “nothing,” with arms folded and lips poked out. My daughter was upset, I was spent by this point and wanted to deal with him and his stubbornness, but my parents intervened to slow my roll. My son was so stuck on His agenda and what He wanted He could not see the need that should have out weighted his wants.

How often do we do the same thing? We have an agenda for our lives and the way we do business and how we will handle life and even others and we find ourselves stuck right there, blinded by our own need to control things and have things the way we want them. But God instructs us to take up our cross and follow him. The cross is a sign of the sacrifice, the cost that it takes to follow after God’s will. It is important that we too must learn to lay down our lives, our agenda’s for the agenda and the ways of Christ even when it is unfamiliar, uncomfortable and difficult at best. When we make the decision to follow Christ it means we give up the lead, when we make the decision to truly become a servant it means that we stop being the master. We learn that God is the one that has control of the reigns and we are the one with the bit in our mouths, He should be able to lead, guide, direct, instruct and teach us, without resistance.

So be real with yourself (because God already knows the answer), ask yourself, who’s agenda is in operation in our lives? Have we laid all of us down and disconnected from the I, me to the He and we? In many of our cases if we are being real, the answer is no. It is time to let go and really let God be God. We have to make the choice to Disconnect from our reputation and our plans, to connect with the truth and the will of God. God’s way truly is the best way!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Monday 3/15/10)

Today’s Devotional Written By A Young Lady In Preparation: Tracy Koweh

Time to Let Go...........

Luke 9:62 (Amplified Bible)

⁶²Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.

Today's message in the music comes from Keyshia Cole's "Let It Go". The chorus of the song repeats: "If he ain't gonna love you. The way he should. Then let it go. If he ain't gonna treat you. The way he should. Then let it go". The main theme of the song is about a woman trying to hold on to a man who has proven over and over again that he doesn't love her nor does he want to be with her. For whatever reason, she is unable to let it go and trust that there is something so much better out there for her.

So many times in our lives God is held up from blessing us to His fullest capacity because we are holding on to things, people and past situations that won't allow us to grasp anything else. We are carrying around years and years of hurt and shame from our past and allowing the enemy, family, people and our thoughts to tell us that what we have is better than we deserve and more than God should have already given us, so we stay and settle because we think we shouldn’t have greater. From the moment Adam and Eve choose disobedience, God knew mankind would always fall short. He knew that we would never be perfect but He choose love over abandonment. He is so connected and in love with each and every one of us that He has chosen to bless us in spite of. He has decided to heal, restore, and rebuild us despite our continual disobedience and lack of wise decision making in our lives.

Sometimes the problem is not that our future is outside of arms reach, but that our arms are closed off because we are holding on to things keeping us from being able to reach back to God. God is always ready to let us back in with open arms, but our arms have to be free to receive and reciprocate back to the Father. Today ask God to remove those things that are holding you back. Ask the Holy Spirit to build up your self esteem and confidence so that you no longer settle for less than what God has ordained for you. As Keyshia Cole said it best, " If it ain't gonna love you, treat you right, make you better, teach you something, build you up, bless you, heal you, or bring you closer to God..............LET IT GO".

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 3/12/10)

It Just Clicked…And I Made The Connection…

John 4:10-29 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁰Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God's gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water. ¹¹She said to Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with [no drawing bucket] and the well is deep; how then can You provide living water? [Where do You get Your living water?] ¹²Are You greater than and superior to our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also? ¹³Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life. ¹⁵The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may never get thirsty nor have to come [continually all the way] here to draw. ¹⁶At this, Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come back here. ¹⁷The woman answered, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have spoken truly in saying, I have no husband.¹⁸For you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. In this you have spoken truly. ¹⁹The woman said to Him, Sir, I see and understand that You are a prophet. ²⁰Our forefathers worshiped on this mountain, but you [Jews] say that Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary and proper to worship. ²¹Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither [merely] in this mountain nor [merely] in Jerusalem. ²²You [Samaritans] do not know what you are worshiping [you worship what you do not comprehend]. We do know what we are worshiping [we worship what we have knowledge of and understand], for [after all] salvation comes from [among] the Jews. ²³A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers. ²⁴God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality). ²⁵The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, He Who is called the Christ (the Anointed One); and when He arrives, He will tell us everything we need to know and make it clear to us. ²⁶Jesus said to her, I Who now speak with you am He. ²⁷Just then His disciples came and they wondered (were surprised, astonished) to find Him talking with a woman [a married woman]. However, not one of them asked Him, What are You inquiring about? or What do You want? or, Why do You speak with her? ²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went away to the town. And she began telling the people, ²⁹Come, see a Man Who has told me everything that I ever did! Can this be [is not this] the Christ? [Must not this be the Messiah, the Anointed One?]

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a dear friend and sister in the Lord, who is a “First Lady.” She and I use to work together and when we met it was something unique, special and quite rare. As she recounted our meeting and how we” just clicked,” she said that is what makes our connection what it is. We both understand the dynamics of who God is in our lives and how He works to bring people together. As we continued she relayed that her desire is to see others touched a connected through a spiritual bond of sisterhood as we had encountered. I was touched realizing that there was purpose in our meeting and in our friendship.

How amazing it is that we encounter people and without the foreknowledge and yielding to God we can miss what one encounter may do to change our lives. Just as in this scripture there is a woman who encounters Jesus, or should I say Jesus encounters her. In the initial phases of the conversation she was focused on everything ascetic, it was about Jesus being a Jew and her being a Samaritan. Then she moves to addressing Him with respect, as the conversation continued, she began to call Him Sir, but it when revelation comes and Jesus gives her some helpful hints that she realizes the man that stands before her may very well be “The Messiah, The Christ,” the one that could change her and see into her past her present and still want to deal with her. It is in the moment that things become clear as to who God is connecting us with that things click and revelation, restoration and even recreation can flow, a connection that spans all reason. When we can understand placement and purpose we know that we may not understand all of who this person is but we understand, if God is bringing them into our life there is something in them that we need to connect with to get us to God or another place in Him. You see God builds upon what is present in our walk and in our seeking of Him. It is like building blocks, as He encourages us to go higher we have to disconnect with some things, people and parts of our lives in order for us to connect with God; but often He will use relationships to establish truth in us or to give us accountability for whom we really are.

Today let God lead you. Let us humble ourselves and allow God to bring us into the His presence in a new and more fulfilled way, by connecting us to those who are to represent growth, a push or a level of culpability for our next level in Him. Don’t look at it as a chance but see it as a purpose. Let the knowledge of who God is and who He may be aligning us with click in a way that we realize that we need each other to be whole, to be healed, to be delivered and to survive!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 03/11/10)

Connected By Love…

John 3:16-18 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁶For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. ¹⁸He who believes in Him [who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation--he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe (cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ's name.]

As I looked over at my daughter the other day my eyes filled with tears because I realized I had no more babies and that my youngest child was now seventeen years old and looked more mature than most thirty something’s. My heart broke because I remembered the love I had for her the first time I heard her heart beat and realized she was there, my heart ached when I remembered when they told me they did not think I would carry her to term, because of complications, my heart was beating at a rapid pace when they told me my baby was in fetal distress and they need to do an emergency C-section. As all of these memories came flooding back I realized that in every one of these instances I felt an overwhelming sense of connection through love. So much so that I cried out and begged God to keep her safe through all things and to afford me a miracle if it was His will. Although I had never seen her or even heard her breathe I loved her, with a fierce and intense love that caused me to stay off my feet for eight of my nine months and to take shots for twelve weeks straight and to endure pain and discomfort, all for the love of her. As with my son the minute the doctor said you are pregnant I loved both of my children with a depth that I could never explain.

As intense as my love was and still is for my daughter and my son, through all that I endured to get them both here, it is nothing in comparison to the Love God felt and feels for us. We are His greatest creation, and He is connected to us because He loves us. He loved us so much that nothing would stop Him from trying to redeem us back into a place of fellowship and connection with Him. In His awesomeness and His wonder He created redemptions story by sending us His beloved and only begotten son to die for us. To provide us a new life a new chance to be in covenant and a new found connection with Him. The power of love can overcome obstacles and heal things thought to be unsalvageable. Love can hold us in a bond even when we really don’t want to be there. It will cause us to push through the worse of pain, just as Christ did for us, and it will even cause us to lay down our lives as God instructed Christ to do and He was obedient to do because of His undying love toward us.

Love is a wonderful thing, but more over it is a powerful element. Just as God for Christ sake used love to redeem us back, so we should be using love to connect and touch those we encounter. It is said that there is nothing stronger than love. Well Christ proved that when He hung His head and died for you and for me to connect us back to God “Our” Father! So it is your turn now, can you prove to God that truly there is nothing stringer that the love we have for Him, by doing His will and connected the lost to Him through love? Turn around is fair play, and it is all in the name of the love connection…

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Wednesday 3/10/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

The Power Of Connection: Strength In Numbers

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (Amplified Bible)

⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good [more satisfying] reward for their labor; ¹⁰For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹Again, if two lie down together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone? ¹²And though a man might prevail against him who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

A special blessing and an extraordinary individual texted me this scripture the other day, and as I read it, a spark went off in me. How powerful and profound a word this is, but how much more powerful it is in its state of application. To be in connection with someone that enhances our life and we are able to enhance their life. When the two of us are together we are bound by the bonds of friendship, the commitment of love and the inspiration of the other. We not only have the strength that is innately ours, but now we have the strength that lies within the one that we are connected to. What a revelation, what a blessing, what a connection!

I have few friends that I feel privileged to be able to call on whenever no matter what time of day or night. But the few that I have I cherish, because they are my go to people, the individuals that God has blessed my life with and connected me to for a time such as this. They can pray me out of ditch if I fall, they can speak life when I feel I am dying. They pray for my healing without any thought for themselves, and they keep me warm through the words of love companionship. They remind me of who I am in Christ and they encourage me to seek God and not to lose my focus, when all seems to be going crazy around me. No matter if we speak every day or not but once a year, the connection remains the same. Untouched, stronger than ever and clear as to who they are in my life and why God allowed them to be present for me. I have people that I too am blessed to be connected to in the same way, that I am their go to person and that they are connected to me for purpose. You see as God allows us to form bonds and connections that strengthen us, we too should be allowing connections and bonds to be formed that strengthen others and prompt health and healing and spiritual strength.

God has purpose in all the things that He does. When he bonds us in heart and spirit to an individual it is for purpose. It is so the union, the covenant, the friendship that is formed is to strengthen us, encourage us and to help us to combat the enemies that come into our lives that attempt to tear down our faith, our joy, our commitment and any number of other things. Knowing that we have someone that is in our corner and can pray with us, and stand with us makes the day easier to bare and the trial a bit easier to endure, but even more important an relevant is where the two of us are God is as well, making that connection even stronger, even more relevant and unbreakable!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Tuesday 3/9/10)

The Call Of Connectivity

A Secure Connection

Exodus 32:9-14 (Amplified Bible)

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; ¹⁰Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation. ¹¹But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people. ¹³[Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. ¹⁴Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.

The internet is an amazing place. It also can be a complex and even dangerous place especially when you are using personal information or bank information on it. One of the most beneficial tools utilized on the internet is what many web sites call a secure connection. A secure connection is something that a company or organization utilizes to protect you from having someone tap into a site and gain access to your information that could destroy you or bring you to ruin. When I began to think on this fact it hit me that all of us at one time or another in our lives has had a secure connection; an individual that has kept us from destruction or ruin. Someone that safe guarded us from the wrath of God (through their prayers) or from our own ruin.

The children of Israel even in their disobedience and their inability to stay focused on the miracles and deliverance God had provided for them time and time again still was provided a secure connection, on who pleaded their case and reminded God of His words and promises towards them. Moses stood in the gap even as God was seething with rage and anger. Moses reminded God of His promises and declarations to Abraham and Isaac and Israel (Jacob), the generations that came before. In our family we have had one that did the same for us; it was my Grandma James (my mother continues it as well). No matter how off the track her children or Grandchildren became she would remind God of her promises to Him and His promise to her. She would become the High hedge that provided us safety and allow us to see that God of second chance. She was the security, the strength and the one who stood in the gap for all of us. It is that same type of connection that is exhibited throughout the Bible; as prophets stood in the gap for Kings, Queens stood in the gap for nations, and chosen people of God stood in the gap and became the secure connection for individuals, nations and Kings alike. It is the Connection of one that can secure the safety, well-being and abilities of many.

Ask yourself today, who has been my secure connection or who have I become the secure connection for? God desires for us to be the one who is connected to Him first but shares that connection with others as a means to intercede and shield them from, disaster, despair, and even destruction. Are we in a position to guard the life of another, or do we still need to be secured ourselves? Can we protect or do we still need to be protected? Are we the deterrent or are we the enabler? Be the one that secures that safety of others; become the watchman, security guard, and the solider that tightens the boarders around our families, our friends, our communities, our nations and our world! Be the Secure Connection that we all need at one time or another!