Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 05/31/2011)

Today’s Devotional Written By A Young Woman Changing Lives One Family At A Time: Mrs. Tracy Dixon (Shane’s Wife and The Mother Of His Lil One)

Speak or Repeat

Ephesians 4:14-15 (New Living Translation)

 ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

These past few weeks have been filled with many highs and lows. I’ve have some great victories, and I’ve taken some great blows. I had a conversation with a family member this past weekend that saddened my soul. When God had told me that I’d be one of few that would be different, I had no idea what was truly going to be in front of me.

The conversation started off pretty normal. My viewpoint was aired and then they gave commentary about the things I had said. Well, after about twenty minutes I realized two very important things. One was that nothing I had said was actually listened to, the words were heard but the meaning was not received. Secondly, I no longer felt the need to defend myself, my actions, or my God. I didn’t feel I needed to prove my side of things, because the jury had already pre-selected the verdict and nothing but more drama was going to come out of this moment.

So I just sat there and listened. I listened to the accusations, the lies, the untruths, the misunderstandings and the language and I said to myself, thank you God for choosing me. Thank you for allowing me to know you enough, to be changed, even though I still got a ways to go. Thank you for letting me break the cycle. In my family we have so many secrets and suppressed junk that now it’s coming out in alcoholism, drug use, child neglect, manipulation and so much more. The problem is not even the problems, it’s the denial and cover up of the problems. Everyone wants to go to church, but no one wants to have church live on the inside. We all want to act as if the past is in the past and that it is not having any effect on our future.

We ladies have followed in the footsteps of our women models: marrying the wrong men, staying in abusive relationships, settling for less than we deserve and having babies out of wedlock. Young men are following in the footsteps of the male examples before them: having babies by multiple women, turning away from their responsibilities and drinking/doing drugs as a recreation activity. Just because the generation before did it doesn’t make it right. And if you recognize your childhood was jacked up, why would you choose to continue the cycle. We are scared to tell the truth, and our secrets are starting to become exposed. I boldly declared that the cycle has stopped in my home, despite what people may try to speak. Divorce is no longer an option, and my children are MY priority. I’m so proud to see my cousins taking a stand: getting married, settling down, raising their kids, going to school, working hard and trying to save the next generation. One house at a time, and we will change the world. People always say what you don’t defeat, you will repeat. But the same is true: what you don’t speak, someone else will repeat. Your rape, your molestation, your abuse, your pain, your scars, your secrets……….won’t end with you staying silent. The pain, hurt, shame, guilt, and/or fear carries

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Monday May 30,2011) Always Remember, Happy Memorial Day

Today’s Devotional Written By A Beautiful Expectatant Mom, Not Just Naturally But Spiritually: Mrs. Tracy A. Dixon( Shane’s Boo and Baby Mama)

Your Memories: Complications or Confirmations

Judges 6:14-16 (New Living Translation)

 ¹⁴ Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” ¹⁵ “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” ¹⁶ The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

Today’s message in the music comes from Whitney Houston’s song “One Moment in Time”. The chorus says: Give me one moment in time. When I'm more than I thought I could be. When all of my dreams, are a heartbeat away. And the answers are all up to me. Give me one moment in time. When I'm racing with destiny. Then in that one moment of time. I will feel, I will feel eternity.

A little over 4 years ago I gave birth to my babygirl Jaida. I still can remember the joy of carrying her and the way I enjoyed all the “complications” of my journey that led up to her delivery. See what the world focused on as “complications” were actually “confirmations” for me, because a little over 5 years ago I miscarried twins. Now I’m pregnant again and I’m amazed at how quickly the enemy and some people would try to bring up my past “complications”. The moment certain words came out of the doctors mouth, my mind took me back to the words of the doctors 5 years ago, but God. I’m thankful for a husband, a godmother and a spirit that reminded me, Jaida came AFTER. So if I want to focus on anything, it would be that God had already healed me from my past “complications”. So now we are 5 weeks in and I celebrate it all. The tummy growing, the headaches, the upset stomach, the swollen and sore areas, because for me, they are signs that God is protecting His gift on the inside of me.

Today is supposed to be Memorial Day in America and most won’t take a minute to think about anyone who has died for their freedom, physical or spiritual. Like so many other holidays, the meaning has slowly been pushed to the back burner and today’s celebrations will be about bar-b-ques, beer, and a paid day off of work.  But some haven’t forgot and will never forget the lives that have been lost for them. I have a friend who spent the last two and a half years remodelling his basement as a tribute to his sister, who was the first woman to die in the war in Iraq from her city. He made it a point that he would nail every nail, paint every wall, and pour his heart and soul into every detail because He wanted to create a positive memory of his sisters legacy for years to come. We have the choice to let our memories make us or break us.

Every day we are faced with decisions and circumstances that one moment of time can change the entire path of our destiny. Don’t let other people, your mind, or the enemy remind you of the bad memories and complications you’ve been through. Remind yourself, your doubters, and the enemy of God’s confirmations and how He brought you through them!! Don’t let a nightmare of your past plague the dreams of your future.  God will give you the strength to turn your most painful experiences into great moments of witness.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 05/27/2011)

Today's devotioanl written by a Sweetheart of a Person: Mrs Tracy A Dixon
Don’t Be Ashamed to Stand Up For Him?

Mark 8:38 (New Living Translation)

³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Earlier this week, Shane and I went through a situation concerning the selfishness of some people in our lives. I felt used and unappreciated, and I was ready to cut somebody in Jesus name :o). Well, Shane although feeling the same way, was so calm and collected about the whole thing it caused me to feel hurt and abandoned by him. I needed him in that moment to activate his roar of the lion. I needed to FEEL he was my ride or die, my heartbeat, my billboard that told that world not to mess with me.

So after some silence, tears and one great Godly phone call, I realized that the issue wasn’t that Shane was wrong for being calm, but that I wanted  a Peter spirit to rise up in him. It’s not that I needed him to get up and go cut somebody, but I needed to feel like he would to protect my honor. I believe that God feels the same way. Sometimes He tests us to see if we will obey at all cost. Sometimes He allows things to happen in our presence to see if we will cowardly stay silent, or if we will boldly proclaim His word. Sometimes God just wants to make sure we are His ride or die children, His heartbeat and His billboard that lets the world know not to mess with Him.

In this day and age we celebrate and tolerate so much junk. Men marrying men, infidelity, lying if it protects someone, drugs and alcohol if the person can continue to function, babies having babies, babies out of wedlock,  and the list goes on. The world stands up to God every day and shows Him just how much He really means to them. The question is when are the saints of God going to do the same thing? When are we going to activate the word and become bold and victorious? When are we going to truly live righteous and according to His word, at all times and in all situations?

The next time you find yourself struggling to answer His call, know that He will give you everything you need to pass the test. When He asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, He already intended to put the lamb in the bush, just wanted Abraham to show Him that He really did trust in Him. God won’t put more on you than you can bear, so go ahead, get fired up for Christ and let the world know that our God is the one, and only living God.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 05/26/2011)

Today's Devotional Written By A Beautiful Young Woman in a Season Of Increase: Mrs. Tracy A. Dixon

Fear God or Fail God

Psalm 56:3-4 (Amplified Bible)

³What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You. ⁴By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?

This past Sunday I answered an altar call. I'm not one to run to every altar call, because I don't believe every call is meant for everybody all the time. But when my Bishop began to speak on releasing anger and the need to pay people back, I knew the Holy Spirit was dealing with me.

About five minutes into my encounter with God, I “thought” I heard God tell me that a specific person was going to come up and pray with me, but the person never came. Then my Bishop said that God had strategically placed each person at the altar for intercessory purposes and I thought: okay, this is the moment, the person is on the way. I wiped my face, sat up and looked around, but the person was not there.

So now I'm feeling strange and out of place, and like I missed the voice of God. Moments later, doubt begins to play on my emotions. My mind convinces me that I haven't been hearing from God EVER, and I should not be telling other people what the Lord had spoken to me concerning their life. Well, another five minutes go by and I hear another voice and now I think: well this one must be God, so I followed it and almost got my head chopped off.

Well, later that day while talking to the person, they apologized to me for not obeying God fully and coming to the altar. In the midst of their obedience, fear of causing a dramatic moment in my life caused them to stay back and pray from the location they were already at. I thought, wow God you are such a great God. He didn’t have to let the truth come out, but He knew the enemy was using it against me, so He stepped in and shut it down. I was thankful and relieved but in that moment I realized how following His instructions no matter what could make or break someone else’s life. Sometimes we are afraid to just step out and trust God that we don’t always think about whose destiny path we are disrupting. So the next time God tells you to sow your last dollar or speak a word of encouragement to someone, just do it. Don’t question it or worry about how they will take it. The choice is yours, either you fear God enough to follow Him or you fear man and fail Him.

 

Words Of Encouragement to Start The Day (Wednesday 05/25/2011)

Anger Management

Psalm 4:4 (Amplified Bible)

⁴Be angry [or stand in awe] and sin not; commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be silent (sorry for the things you say in your hearts). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Romans 12:9-12 (Amplified Bible)

⁹[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good. ¹⁰Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. ¹¹Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord ¹²Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer.

            This weekend when I was having a moment trying to get some work done on my Master’s dissertation, I took a moment to breath and as I did I thought how many times I had seen and heard about anger getting out of control to a point that it was unmanageable.  I began to just meditate on the fact that without proper management of emotions they can quickly go awry and we can end up doing, saying and behaving in a way that can be detrimental to not just us but others around us.  I have watched people unable to control a person or a situation try to use sarcasms, intimidation and rudeness to dominate and control an environment. I have watched people dripping with anger and malice enter a room and turn it from positive to negative with just a statement.  I have watched anger go from words spoken to pushes and shoves, to hits and slaps being justified by the words “I knew what I was doing or it wasn’t that bad?”

            Anger out of control is always bad.  It is always bound to hurt someone and cause them pain.  Anger if it is not managed can destroy a marriage, a friendship, a family, a church or a community.  In fact anger and revenge can wreak havoc in a world which all we need to do is turn on the television to verify that fact.  The Bible reminds us that anger within itself is not a sin, but it is when we allow anger to have a controlling interest in how we respond or react that it crosses from just an emotion to an area of sin.  When anger can cause you to justify harm and pain on any level to another individual, it has become sin.  When anger makes you begin to think how we can get back at that individual, then it is sin.  When anger insight us to be someone other than a child of God then it is sin. You see as long as anger is just an emotion that is kept in check and maintained, it is not bad, but it when it becomes unbridled that it becomes a problem.

            God wants us to check ourselves before we wreak ourselves in this area.  We need to establish a system of checks and balances.  Sometimes it is best for us to come away from that situation that is inciting the anger. We need to learn how to pray over ourselves and if we cannot we need to have an accountability partner that will speak into us wisdom and God’s word to help us come down off the ledge of anger, and they should be able to pray for us, as well.  We need to allow God to deal with our hearts and evaluate why we are becoming so angry and irate.  One of the biggest mistakes that we make is that we do not let love abide.  We rather get mad first and go all the way to the left then to allow the love of God show itself forth and the love that we are supposed to have for one another be visible and recognizable.  We need to recognize that the same forgiveness that is needed from us and being asked of us may be something we will need one day, so we need to use Godly wisdom and judgment to help us to know when far has become too far.  Respect for God, ourselves and others should always play a part in how we handle anger. We have to try to keep before us that our life is a testimony, but who is it witnessing to and who would be let down or damaged if our witness did not hold up? You see we can approach anything with reason or without it, but to do so with anger is to give way to actions and reactions that could cause a ripple of reactions and an aftermath of destruction in its path.  Get a handle on your anger, before it handles you and those who encounter it!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 05/24/2011)

Don’t Take It Out On Me!

Proverbs 15:18 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁸A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger appeases contention.

            One of the most mind boggling things is that I have experienced in my forty six years of life is when people are mad at someone else or they are mad at themselves and they proceed to go off on you for what would appear to be no apparent.  Well there is a reason and there is a problem, but none of it has anything to do with us!  In most cases there is a  level of anger seething within that is causing them to lash out irrationally and snapping at people becoming cruel and unkind; say things that make no sense nor do they fit the circumstance in which all find themselves.  Why do we feel it is okay to take our anger issues out on others?  We have convinced ourselves that it is better to sound off on someone else than to deal with our own issues of anger and to find its root and allow God to deal with us and that emotion that can lead us to a place of sin.

            Imagine for one minute if God was mad at someone in another state and proceeded to treat you with contempt and disrespect as we do to others?  How would it make us feel, if we were to receive the reaction meant for another?  It is ironic that the behavior we would hate to befall us would be the behavior we would bestow not just on others but on God as well. We take our issues of anger out on each other and God, lashing out irrationally hoping to relieve what has apparently gone wrong within us.  We want everyone to feel pain because we are in pain.  We want everyone to be in a place of misery and being conflicted as we are. Many of us would rather it be anyone or, everyone else than to accept the fact that we have anger issues, stemming from our inability to deal with issues in our own lives, or people who have treated us poorly. We have no right to treat others and definitely not God poorly because we don’t want to deal with us… The Bible says that we are to be angry and sin not, do we think for one minute being mean, unkind, unjust, vengeful, wrathful and ungodly is being without sin? We seem to have it twisted that this behavior is acceptable in God’s sight, but it is not.

            We have to begin to understand that anger is a normal emotion, and it is an emotion that God created and possesses Himself, but it is not an excuse or a pass to treat people with such distain and discord.  We need to shine the light on the inside of us and ensure that all of that anger that we have allowed to fester is not taking root in the very essence and core of personality and causing us to take our issues out on people or on God.  When we can allow God to help us to see what is really going on within us it keeps contention down within ourselves and with others.  But when we allow anger to settle in and become our friend, we can become hateful and mean, surly even without cause or provocation.   Anger is meant as a response to injustice or sin, not a lifestyle that we immerse ourselves within and get comfortable using as a shield and a cover up to coming face to face with us and our bruises, scars and abuses.  Anger is not meant to be turned inward to again be turned outward. We need to grow up spiritually, emotionally and mentally in order for us to handle our moments of anger in a way that pleases God and does not provoke us to sin!

Words Of Encouragement To Start (Monday 05/23/2011)

Today’s Devotional written By My Spiritual Daughter, Whom I have watched God mature, mold, make and develop: Mrs. Tracy A Dixon (Shane’s Boo)

Consequences….the Choice is Yours!

 1 John 3:6-8 (New Living Translation)

⁶ Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. ⁸ But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

Today’s message in the music comes from R.Kelly’s song “I Don’t Mean It”. The chorus of the song says: Now I might say you can walk. (But I don't mean it). And I might name call. (I don't mean it). I may pull some silly stunts.  But that's just a front, I don't mean it. Now I may holler at you. (I don't mean it). And I may tell you we're through. (But I don't mean) May give you looks that can kill. But it's not for real. I don't mean it. The context of the song is a man singing to his woman. He seems to want to be able to do and say what he wants to do, and then be forgiven because he claims he didn’t mean it.

As God began to speak to me last week, this song instantly came to mind because of some Christians live this way. We want to do what we want, when we want and how we want and then expect to say “oops, I didn’t mean too”, and expect God to turn a blind eye. Some of us have been misled and we think that grace and mercy are in place to keep us from experiencing the consequences of our OWN ACTIONS.

Somewhere in our past, we have convinced ourselves that we can fornicate before marriage or cheat within our marriage, and we won’t get caught, pregnant or infected with a terminal disease. We have tricked our minds into believing we can lie, cheat and steal our way to the top, and the truth won’t come out if we repent and ask God to forgive us. We think it’s okay to be a homosexual or live on the down low, just as long as we plead the blood over our mess and say it won’t happen again. We want to smoke, drink and inject any and everything into God’s temples and then claim by His stripes we are healed when the doctor says we have cancer or damaged organs. Well, God is no longer playing children games with adult participants. He is getting ready to take His grace and mercy off of those who are guilty of abusing the system.

Sunday our Bishop re-quoted this statement; in life, make original mistakes. What a powerful message. Stop willingly committing the same sin over and over because you think God’s forgiveness equals His forgetting your transgression. You will go to Heaven if you truly accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you just might still have a stroke, heart attack, failed kidney, or something worse. The choice is yours, choose life and make decisions that please God. His wisdom is available: you can learn it the easy way, or earn it the hard way.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 05/20/2011)

It’s The Little Things That Can Do The Most…

Song of Solomon 2:15 (New Living Translation)

15 Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!

I remember many years ago, putting the wrong ingredient in a recipe. Although the ingredients looked a lot alike in texture and purpose, they did not taste the same nor did they yield the same results. Although it wasn’t that I had dumped a tremendous amount of this ingredient into the recipe, it totally ruined the taste of what was normally a great tasting recipe. I have noticed that throughout the course of my life little things, subtle things can and often do produce huge changes, and those changes can be positive or negative. They can be the very ruin of us and take us out of God’s will for our lives.

It is always funny to me the people I meet and the ones that are in my life that are so focused on these grandiose gestures, these things that on the surface seem to mean so much but yet, underneath the small things, the details are lacking, they are neglected, or handled poorly. It is the little things that God is looking at. Some of us think that every time there is an alter call if we are running to the alter snorting and snotting God is moved by that, but then we get up go home and cuss our children or ignore our wife. What in the world. There are some of us that believe as long as we are busy in the four walls of the church all is great, but we will tell a lie, to avoid something or to embellish who we are. Many of us wear the nicest clothes and say all the right things but we will make promises we have intention of keeping or we will walk by people and not speak, because in some way we have rationalized that those things are not big. I have heard people say “well I don’t drink or smoke,” they think because they don’t do those things that all is well, although they haven’t spoken to a sibling or family member in years. Who are we to decide what is good and bad behaviors? The word of God maps out how we should carry ourselves and the things that we should do, say and how we should live our lives.

Without real relationship with God there is no way that we can identify what the little foxes, the little things the little ingredients that ruin us, change our, character our purpose and what we represent. If we never spend time in God’s presence allowing Him to shine the light of his love on the very heart of us and the very soul of what we are made of, little things will always be able to get in and take us places we should not go and have us saying and doing things we should not. If we never pick up a Bible or read scriptures and resolve to live by the Word, we will not have a guide by which we understand we should live and follow, so we will lean to our own understanding, our own logic, our own reasoning and that will most assuredly always lead us to compromise, lying or living with a piece of us out while that rest tries to abide. We need to be focused and try our hardest to get those little things right, let God into those little areas that we have kept him out of and off limits to. My desire is that EVERY area of my life be pleasing to God, not some and then the others I will leave to chance. Whether we know it or not, this journey, this relationship with God is All or Nothing, and little things mean A LOT!