Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 11/30/2010)

How Quickly We Forget…

Ezekiel 23:35 (Amplified Bible)

35Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten Me [your divine Husband] and cast Me behind your back, therefore bear also [the consequences of] your lewdness and your harlotry.

I have been studying the old testament and I have found a consistent theme throughout it. God saves, rescues, restores and heals and Israel turns away from God. They were always having senior moments, forgetting what God had just done for them. They could not remember the good that was done for them. They could not remember the provisions and the strength shown towards them to help and to save them. They were always affixed and focused on what they did not have and what was not being given. They were forever trying to mold God to fit their needs instead of allowing God to be who He was and for them to be who they were in the scenario. So they began to believe in things that were false, and they began to exalt things over the true and living God.






I arrived in my old neighborhood last night and it brought back so many memories. It brought back things I had forgotten, because life had gone on since I moved away. But in those moments as we turned certain corners I remembered life as it really was before certain things transpired in my life. I remember the truth of relationships and connections while I lived here. It also made me remember of when I was younger how I would bring home stray animals to nurse them back to health. I would almost seek out anything hurt, suffering or feeble to minister to. My mom was teasing me the other day and said it went from animals to people, but anyone in need became my cause. I remember the countless hours I spent nursing some of my pets and wildlife back to health, only to have them, turn and run away from me, or bite or try to harm me. I have found this pattern through my life. That people will quickly forget what you have stood with them through and done for them. When they get healed or perceive they are healed they will often turn on you or run from you.






Just like the animals and many people have done in my life I find that it is not just the children of Israel, that quickly forget what has been sowed into their lives, we do to. We forget who God placed there and the reasons why. We forget all that God has delivered us from, and how He has placed His hand on our life. We forget the He healed us and saved us from so much. We forget the sacrifice that He made by giving us His son in order for us to have eternal life. We are what the Bible refers to as an untoward generation. God can show His mercy, His favor, His Blessings and His power and as soon as the hype is over, as soon as we make it through our crisis we go into a mode of seeking something else, or focusing on us, so much that what God is done is not even a faint memory in our memory bank.






God has been so faithful to us in so many ways. He has been focused on us, before we understood we needed to be focused on and before we were even a thought in the realm of time. We need not forget what God has done, what He is doing and what He is about to do. Forgetting who brings you over sets us up to lose sight of the truth that is our past, our present and possibly our future. We need to understand the value of remembering what God has done for us, who has allowed to grace our lives and what they have done while they were there and the enormous and the small blessings that God has graced our lives with. When we lose sight and forget we can become ungrateful and become misguided by the crowd and by our emotions. We need to do “our life” in review and remember all the times God stepped out of eternity into our situation, it will be a humbling experience, and one that helps us to remember who is most important and what He has done in our lives and continues to do!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Monday 11/29/2010)

Today’s Devotional Written By Tracy A Dixon, who God sees to the very heart of…and knows the very intent Of Her heart

X-Ray Vision

1 Samuel 16:7 (New Living Translation)

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Today's message in the music comes from Nicki Minaj's song "Right Thru Me." The chorus of the song says: "You see right thru me. How do you do dat?". Now the reason this is an ironic song choice, is because I literally hated this song. I made jokes and different versions of the song for the past week, since I first heard it. But Saturday afternoon while singing this song and cleaning out Jaida's room, the words of the chorus hit me: You see right thru me.






The past month or so I've been secretly dealing with the lost of some of my female friends. I had began to get to a place where I felt like the perfect person to be used and abused. I got up, went to work, came home, cooked, went to church, played on facebook day in and day out as if nothing was wrong. On the outside everyone saw what I wanted them to see, the newlywed, the mother, the co-worker, but underneath I was in so much pain.






You ever had people in your life that you attempt to include in everything, the good, the bad and the life changing moments from God, and then you look up and realize they never or very rarely include you in anything. Well, that’s where I was at. Dealing with the reality that two people I would have given my life for, just didn't seem to hold me in the same regards. But thank God for x-ray vision. First God began to heal my heart because He could look past the smile and see my heart beat was getting low. Then he used my husband to confront and support me about the situation, because he could tell something was off with my heart.






Today as you prepare to begin another week, don't be concerned with what’s on the outside to man. Be open and honest with God about what’s going on, on the inside. He already knows the problem, the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure. Don't waste precious time trying to hide behind what you think people should see. Instead, go the Father so your smile can truly reflect what’s going on inside of you. Let Jehovah Rohi (the God that heals) heal you so your x-rays are without spot or blemish.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 11/25/04)

With A Grateful Heart…

Colossians 3:15-17 (New International Version

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Every year as the days approach Thanksgiving I begin to think about what I am thankful for. As I looked over this year it seemed that most of the year had been a struggle and that the happy times were few, but as I walked into Walmart, I realized in spite of it all I was grateful, and my heart was still full. I realized that many of the things that I had encountered were lessons learned and things conquered. I realized that through everything I had been through there was still a hallelujah and that there was still a tear filled praise. As I was reminded that Jesus blotted out all I owed and all my wrongs and short comings and I realized that in spite of what people think, He still qualified me, He is still justifying me and that God has a unique plan for my life that will supply me with a future and a hope, through Him that loves me.

As I thought of every encounter, heartbreak, every trial and every pain and everything that on the surface seemed so messed up, I remember how I had gained perspective, I remember how God had allowed these things to strengthen me and to give me courage to love and give of myself. To stand and do what was right before God regardless of what man was encouraging me to do. I remember how God carried me, and How he walked with me, through this past year. All I could do was allow the tears of this trip down memory lane to grace my face and for my heart to be filled to overflowing by His Grace and His Mercy that had overshadowed my life and kept me. You see I realize that my issues did not have me; I just realized that I may have had some issues. I realize that I have things that came into my life but they had a reason and a purpose. For me this year is about being grateful to spite what was going on around me, who was shunning me, or not treating me right. It was about being more than a conqueror and truly becoming an overcomer, through Him that loves me.

So it is our choice this Thanksgiving day to choose our perspective and to choose our attitude. Will we be grateful and will we purpose within ourselves to be thankful to God, in spite of what we see, feel and hear? For yes I will, I will bless the Lord at all times and His praises shall continually be in my mouth. I will show forth praise and gratitude to my God in the seasons of planting, in seasons of watering, in seasons of harvest or even when the crops have been devoured, and when people around me leave me because of it. I will still determine to see the good in it and grasp a hold of an attitude that will identify to God my thankfulness and gratitude for all He has done, all that He is doing for me and all He continues to do!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 11/24/2010)

You Are Asking For My Help, But Are You In A Place To Receive It?

1 Samuel 28:5-19 (Amplified Bible)

⁵When Saul saw the Philistine host, he was afraid; his heart trembled greatly. ⁶When Saul inquired of the Lord, He refused to answer him, either by dreams or by Urim [a symbol worn by the priest when seeking the will of God for Israel] or by the prophets. ⁷Then Saul said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium [between the living and the dead], that I may go and inquire of her. His servants said, Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. ⁸So Saul disguised himself, put on other raiment, and he and two men with him went and came to the woman at night. He said to her, Perceive for me by the familiar spirit and bring up for me the dead person whom I shall name to you. ⁹The woman said, See here, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and wizards out of the land. Why then do you lay a trap for my life to cause my death? ¹⁰And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, there shall no punishment come to you for this ¹¹The woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you? He said, Bring up Samuel for me. ¹²And when the woman saw Samuel, she screamed and she said to Saul, Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul! ¹³The king said to her, Be not afraid; what do you see? The woman said to Saul, I see a god [terrifying superhuman being] coming up out of the earth. ¹⁴He said to her, In what form is he? And she said, An old man comes up, covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and made obeisance. ¹⁵And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me to bring me up? Saul answered, I am bitterly distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do. ¹⁶Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, seeing that the Lord has turned from you and has become your enemy? ¹⁷The Lord has done to you as He said through me He would do; for [He] has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to your neighbor David. ¹⁸Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord or execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. ¹⁹Moreover, the Lord will also give Israel with you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me [among the dead]. The Lord also will give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.

Someone I know recently wrote something on Facebook in reference to needing God’s intervention and needing God to give her what she needed and to fix a difficult situation in her life. I replied to her comment, and simply said God wants your full attention. You cannot have it both ways, wanting God to be all up in your situation when He is telling you He wants you heart, mind, soul, body and spirit and you are in refusal to submit your life to Him, and come out of some things, that He has been asking you to come out of. There have been some very interesting request to God for Him to do, and to help, but yet we have chosen our will over His and yet we have the nerve to ask, and in some case demand that He step into our situation and calm our fears and ease our pains, and fix our messes, but yet we have not given Him anything to work with. We are in refusal to get in a place where God can help us. We want to do as Saul did and be the big man or woman in our own life and then when our enemies, problems, fears, illness, complications, stresses, trials and tribulations come we are seeking out God wanting Him to answer, then when He is silent we become frustrated, upset and desperate and will try to seek destructive means to ease our pain and calm our fears.

Why do we think that God should answer us and cure what ails us just because we ask Him to and yet our life is being lived in the zone of a sin, compromise and denial of God? We sacrifice on the altar of our pride and self-absorption and we do not honor God with our time, our talents, our resources or our lives; but yet we feel that He should be there when we call. We are determined to appease our flesh ( all the while knowing it is wrong) and to deny God and His request. Then we fall out with fear and anxiety when God does not rescue us or when He shows us what our disobedience is producing or has produced. We do not realize that if God was with us, the minute we decided to sacrifice at the altar of self, God backed off and allowed us to be our own God. So if we are our own God then why can we not save ourselves or fight our own battles? Why then do we feel the need to come running to consult God in moments of distress? It is because we are not really the boss, we are not really in control and we certainly really do not have things well in hand as we like to think we do, or claim that we do. These last few years as my life has gone through twist, turns and changes at the hands of others, I have come to realize, I need God more than I need air; that I have to place myself in a place of submission to Him in order for Him to hear me and respond. I cannot choose me and my way; I cannot choose to be mean, angry, and retaliatory; I cannot choose to live my life any old way, doing and saying any old thing and expect that the battles are really the Lord’s. The more we invoke our will, our ways and our opinions over matters the more we move from where God can and will help.

We have to make up our minds; do we want the blessing of God and access to Him or not. We can never have God on our terms. He is Lord and He is creator and our choses will affect His willingness to reside with us and assist us. We cannot defile the body, do our do and live like Hell and expect Heaven as a return on our lack of investment. We cannot expect God’s protection when we live outside of God’s covering. The Bible says choose this day who you will serve will it be God or mammon, which is man, money materials. We cannot be subject to ourselves and still be under the authority of God and retain our connection with Him. The question that needs to be asked is, am I in a place where I am able to receive from God, hear God or be protected by God? Am I walking in obedience, submission and covenant with God? If you are not you can rest assured that His spirit will not rest with you either just as it did not rest with Saul, and the help that you seek may not be able to be found until you make up in your mind to take you down from the place of honor and place God in His rightful place!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 11/23/2010)

Happy 70th Birthday To My Blessing of a Mother....Ruby A. James

What Did You Take Out To Wear Today?...

Colossians 3:12-14 (Amplified Bible)

¹²Clothe yourselves therefore, as God's own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper]. ¹³Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive]. ¹⁴And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].

Every evening or every morning, we go through our closets and painstakingly look for something to wear for the next day or that day’s events. We go through our repertoire of tops, bottoms and shoes. We will even hold up accessories next to our outfits to see what best matches and will complement our outfit the best. I have known people who will take out two or three outfits lay them out on the bed with all possibilities for that outfit laid on top, in order for them to get a complete visual for what they would look like with that particular outfit on. We take so much time with the outside, but do we take the same amount of time with the inside?

This weekend I had a full weekend and I had not slept much and I had not eaten much. My blood sugar was running low and I was over tired. I had wanted a roast beef sandwich for a few days, and I was looking forward to having it today and just enjoying the moments of today, after a weekend that wore me out. As I entered the kitchen, I went to the refrigerator and my favorite kind of roast beef was there, the lettuce and the mayo I even had chips that would accent my lunch perfectly, then I went over to where we store the bread and I have a thing about my roast beef on a Hawaiian roll. Now because I am a picky eater, I buy what I like or if I know I am going to want something I ensure it is in the house. When I got over to where I left my rolls they were not there. I looked around, and then I asked my brother and my daughter and they both said they had not eaten them, at that point I had a mini snap moment. When it dawned on me to ask my son, who admitted he ate them. I lost it for a minute. After I realized I had gone off a bit. I caught myself and realized what was really going on, I hadn’t really eaten in a day and I was over tired among some other things. I realized that although I had prayed this morning and read my bible I had forgotten to get dressed. I had left mercy, kindness, tenderness, gentleness, patience and tolerance in my spiritual closet. Even my unconditional love I only had one sleeve on today. After I snapped out of it and came to myself. I asked for forgiveness and then apologized to my son.

It is so easy for us to take the time to make sure we are adorned well externally, but we forget that we need to apply that much time if not more to adorning our insides. We need to ensure that in and outside of our homes that we are representing Christ and that we are placing on us and inside our hearts daily the attributes and character of God. We think that because we go off in the house, or we think thoughts that are based in unforgiveness or lack of tolerance that we are okay, because no one can see them or us, but we are not. Dressing for success is not just an external act it is an internal act. It is about applying God to every area of our life, not just the areas people can see. No need to wear a skirt down to our ankles and we have the nastiest attitude in the world or we are walking around in unforgiveness, intolerance and offense. We need to ensure that we make sure the inside is looking better than the outside and the Christ is shining through. That God’s love is being seen and that His character is on display. Yes we all have bad days, but if we falter we need to be quick to let God, convict our heart and we should be quick to get it right with people and make a mends, with those we may have hurt or offended. Remember don’t go out half-dressed or undressed. Make sure you are putting your spiritual outfit together and wearing the heart of God and His character well, whether at home or out, you should be the best dressed person in the place!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Monday 11/22/2010)

Today’s Devotional Written by A Voice Crying loud in The Wilderness: Tracy A. Dixon

Temporary or Permanent Ink??

Isaiah 49:16 (Amplified Bible)

16Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.

Today's message in the music comes from Jordan Sparks song, "Tattoo". One of the lines in the song says: You're on my heart, just like a tattoo. I'll always love you. Last week while taking Jai to school, I was listening to the "Steve Harvey Morning Show" and he had callers discussing tattoos they regretted they had and why. The number one regretted tattoo was that of a name and the location of it on the caller's body.

Most callers had put a person's name that they thought would be in their life forever but had fallen short of that dream and left for whatever reason. Some had parents who in a matter of moments, turned on them and had broke their heart. Almost all of the callers had the tattoos put in very visible places for all the world to see. As I listened to Steve and his crew give suggestions on possible ideas to alter the original tattoo, the above scripture popped into my head.

I began to wonder whose name God would call into the show to tell Steve about. How many church going, Bible card carrying members, tongue talking believers would be on the roll call? How many names would Christ say He regretted putting on the palm of His hand? How many started out so faithful, so focused and so sold out that He permanently inked their name into the palm of his hand, only to look up one day and not be able to find them at anybody's church on a Sunday morning? How many times a day does He see the daily reminder on the palm of His hand and wishes He had used temporary ink?

Today as you begin a new day of destiny, ask yourself are you ink worthy to be tattooed on the palm of His hand. Make choices that please God, and not ones that disgrace Him. Let us choose to be permanent ink for God, and not down low Christians. Let us be an outward representation of Christ, and not a cartoon character hidden by the things of the world. Don't make God have to alter Victor to Victorious, or Jo to Joyful on your behalf. He's got the whole world in His hands...... are you a temp or permanent name?