Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Wednesday 02/29/2012)

What Are You Made Of

Psalm 120:1 Amplified Bible

¹IN MY distress I cried to the Lord, and He answered me.

            My husband and I share words of encouragement and scriptures throughout our day as time permits.  I am thankful for God instilling such a bond in us, that when adversity arises we have a pattern of behavior that reinforces the God in us and the good in us.  As we have gone along things have happened and adversity has come up in our lives.  From the outside trying to get in, or tragedy and unexpected circumstances that have arisen that have shaken us.  One day during a time when he was encouraging me, he said a Pastor that He used to play for said to him, that adversity will define you. When I first heard what he was saying I heard with my natural ears and started to rebut by asking how adversity can define us, all it does is causes us discomfort.  But then his words rang in my spirit and I began to understand, adversity and adverse times will cause what is in us to come out and show you exactly what or who us rely on for strength and what we are really made of.

            What is really in us when adversity hits our lives?  What comes out of us when someone has hurt us or has disappointed us or done something that has caused us to come face to face with adversity, discomfort and pain?  In the midst of our struggle who is seen, or what is seen in us?  Most of us have coping mechanisms and things that we do when pain and adversity come, but the question that I want to pose is, are these methods, based in whom we say we believe and who we say that we serve and represent?  Many of us are fighting a supernatural or spiritual battle by natural means. Many of us are allowing emotion to cloud what we should be doing and how we should be reacting.  Many of us are allowing us to get in the way and become the primary thing seen and heard instead of who we say we live for and serve.  No, none of us are perfect and none of us have arrived, we all make mistakes, and use bad judgment as it concerns things, But are those bad decisions and choices a part of our daily routine or a part of how we choose to live? In my distress, stress anger, hurt, betrayal, being talked about, lied on and mislead, and misused and abused, who do I turn to and who do I turn into?  When my father passed away, I was emotional, I was hurt and I was distressed.  Although I was angry and most it at God for allowing it, I tried not to talk to God, but I found myself in tears before Him every day, because that was what was in me.  You see the things that are deeply rooted will always be the things that surface when adversity and despair come calling.

            What is our defense, offense, what is our strategic plan, what is in us, and pouring out of us?  What are we saying and how are we living especially when all is not well?  I love the Ford commercial that says that their trucks are built Ford tough.  Ford has built a name and a brand by its toughness, what are we building our name and brand by?  Timex could take a licking and keep on ticking, can we be in a pressure cooker, be in a place of adversity and pain and still stay focused enough for people to see the God of our salvation in us?  Can God rely on us not to curse Him and die, when things get rough, or do we blow up at Him and those around us and show that what was is really in us and what is not so deeply rooted in us as we made it seem or we caused others to believe.  I remember hearing some of the older Saints in my growing up say, “you better praise God, worship Him, pray and read your word while you can, because there may come a day when you can’t and you will need to rely upon what is in you.” For surely what is in us is what is our make up and ultimately will be what comes out of us under pressure in those days when most things are wrong and most people are treating us even more wrong.  Will you call out to God or will you call out to man?  Will the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in God’s sight or will they not even be acceptable in the sight of most because it is rooted in flesh and shaped in the emotion of the moment?  What are we really made of?  Only we and God really know, but it is bound to come out one day when adversity, pressure and pain come!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Tuesday 02/28/2012)

Public Persona Private Personality

2 Timothy 3:1-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹BUT UNDERSTAND this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear]. ²For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. ³[They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good. ⁴[They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God. ⁵For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them]. ⁶For among them are those who worm their way into homes and captivate silly and weak-natured and spiritually dwarfed women, loaded down with [the burden of their] sins [and easily] swayed and led away by various evil desires and seductive impulses. ⁷[These weak women will listen to anybody who will teach them]; they are forever inquiring and getting information, but are never able to arrive at a recognition and knowledge of the Truth. ⁸Now just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are hostile to and oppose the Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned. ⁹But they will not get very far, for their rash folly will become obvious to everybody, as was that of those [magicians mentioned].

            The one thing that I love about my Bishop is no matter where you see him, He is the same.  I have seen him out doing normal everyday things, I have counseled with him and of course as he ministers on Sunday morning he is the same.  It has become a sad fact that more recently we have seen public images within the church and individuals that profess Christianity and God as Lord and Savior, and yet their private personalities have come tumbling out of the closet and have been anything but an example or resemblance of God or Christ.  I remember as a child that my grandmother and the missionaries alike in our church were the same no matter where you saw them.  They carried themselves with the integrity and posture that gave no room for doubt that they served a God that required them to live holy and be obedient to His Word, and His will.  Now it is so difficult to know who we are dealing with, who is in God especially at home behind closed doors or in a work environment where they think no one can see them or with those who are close to them, or in environments that they think will not reveal the truth of who they are.  What has happened to us where we have turned away from Godly living to a place where we abide to serve our ego, our pride, our lusts and our need to divide and conquer?

            Strangely enough we don’t fear God, and God is no longer the priority that stands out in our lives.  We have children that seem fine one minute and have the intent to kill and harm, or seem respectful but are abusing verbal and physically their own parents.  We have parents that go to church each Sunday and Wednesday and serve in ministry that are going home and abusing their spouse and cursing out their children and generally just living like hell.  We have Ministers of Music that stand up to usher us into a place of worship and the very presence of God and they are engaging in relationships that are an abomination to God, and they are operating instead of under the anointing, under an agenda. We have Pastors that are declaring the gospel and mishandling and misappropriating funds, time, church resources and living lives that are contrary to the Word of God and to God’s call upon their lives.  What happened to what you see is what you get?  What has happened to who we encounter in people is really who they are?  Are we turning into those living a lie, just as many that do not profess Christianity and God as Lords and Savior?

            This is a season that God is exposing what is not His will.  He is letting the private personality be seen in the public venue.  If God was to do this to us, what would people really see of us?  Would there be a marked difference between what we betray and what we really are living?  Judgment is beginning with God’s church, His house, His bride.  We can no longer afford to have a form of Godliness that is seen by the public that is not what we are living in our private existence.  God knows us even behind closed doors, and whether we want to believe it or not what we do in the dark, does come into the light, because God will not look upon sin, and He will not allow us to bring confusion and disparagement upon His name and His Kingdom.  We cannot continue to live using the name of the Lord when God is not in the midst of our living and the way we are treating people.  We cannot serve two masters for one we will love and the other we will despise.  Who we are in private and how we are living behind closed doors should be who we are in public, and what our families, close friends, children and co-workers see and experience.  Our desire should be, not me but the God within me that should be evident not just to some but to ALL who know me, even those closest to me! 

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Monday 02/27/2012)

Know It For Yourself Don’t Just Repeat What You Hear…

2 Timothy 2:15 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁵Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

Deuteronomy 12:32 Amplified Bible (AMP)

³²Whatever I command you, be watchful to do it; you shall not add to it or diminish it.

            How often do we hear something across a pulpit,  from a friend or family member and instead of finding out the whole truth as it pertains to the situation we just settle into what we have heard, even when it comes to the Word of God.  How many times have we heard that someone was something that we later found out that they weren’t but we judged them or used the analysis of someone else to base our decision on and our positioning or belief?  There is a line in Marvin Gaye’s song “I heard it Through the Grapevine,” that states, “People say believe half of what you see, Son, and none of what you hear. I can't help bein' confused.”  Many of us have mistakenly placed people in a category that they did not belong in based upon assumptions and the allegations of others.  We do the same thing with God and His Word. 

            I was guilty for years of saying “work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling,” but that is not what the Word of God says, it says in Philippians 2:12, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” I had heard it across the pulpit for many years the wrong way I just adopted it the wrong way and began to repeat it the wrong way.  I have heard people refer to Malachi 3:10 as a responsibility and not something that God will reward or bless you for doing what you are supposed to do, but that is not what the scripture says.  It reads as follows: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”  God promises that if we would walk in the obedience to tithe that He would bless us, even though it is a command, and that He will prove it to us.  Just as people will take scriptures such as “the poor will be with us always, or Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” but do we understand the context in which these scriptures were written? In most cases no, this scripture in Mark 14:5-10 was referring to the when Jesus was about to be crucified and Mary came and poured the spices over Him and Judas made the comment that the spices could have been sold and the money given to the poor.  Jesus’ response was the poor will be with you always, because he was trying to get them to see that He was only there for a specified time and this act was necessary.  The scripture in I Corinthians 14:34-35 that speaks to the issue of women speaking church is about women being on one side of the synagogue and men being on the other side and when woman did not understand something being said by the priest they would stand up and ask a question while the service was being conducted and it was disruptive.  We have to understand why things are said what was meant by them instead of us just repeating or placing our own twists on things.

            The Bible instructs us to know the Word for ourselves that we as workmen in the Kingdom of God need to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, so that we aren’t ashamed and that we do not bring shame upon the Kingdom of God.  All too often we hear things and do not bother to search the scriptures out for ourselves and learn what the Word of God says and the context in which the scriptures were written we just, hear through the grapevine and repeat it, and live it as we have heard it.  This is one of the reasons many of us are missing the blessings of God and missing what God is saying and we are out of obedience and compliance with the Word of God because we have not bothered to learn what the Word of God says for ourselves.  Seek God first and His kingdom, seek His wisdom and His words, we should not take it as we hear it but know it as it is written and what its intent is.  It says that Heaven and earth will pass away but God’s word will stand, but it won’t stand as it is said or repeated but how God wrote it and meant it!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Thursday 02/23/2012)

Is The Fruit You Are Producing Nourishing or Poisoning

Luke 3:8-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸Bear fruits that are deserving and consistent with [your] repentance [that is, conduct worthy of a heart changed, a heart abhorring sin]. And do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up descendants for Abraham. ⁹Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

            I remember when I was a young child, I was in the yard at our home, in New York and I was roaming our yard as I did quite frequently, and I came across something to me that looked like fruit.  It smelled like fruit, but before I could do what most kids my age would do, my mother walked up on me.  She said “Lisa do not eat that, it is poisonous.”  I could not image that anything that looked like fruit and smelled like fruit would not be good to eat or good for you. Much to my bewilderment, I found out in that moment that everything that looks good and smells good and resembles something familiar is not good for you and even more surprisingly could be poisonous.             

As I woke this morning and prayed I heard so clear, “what are you growing?”  This morning, as with most mornings, my husband on his way to work, texted me a word of encouragement for my day, which simply said, “Your fruit saves lives.”  All I could do was let the tears that had formed while reading these words fall. We all produce fruit, but what type of fruit are we producing?   Our life is fruit, our words can be fruit and our actions and behaviors are fruit as well.  The Bible reminds us that there are attributes and character traits that are categorized as fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22).  But just as I learned that morning just as there is fruit that is good to eat, there are trees that produce fruit that can make us sick, and even cause us extreme harm and death. This is the same with us.  Just as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control add life to us as believers and to those we encounter and God assigns to us; The acts of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Galatians 5:19-21) are poisons that can be harmful, destructive and even kill us, but sadly enough it can have a profound effect upon those with whom we encounter and include in actions, behaviors and attitudes towards, especially when we claim Christ.  We poison people to the thought of Christ and having a relationship with God because of how we handle our lives and treat them.

We think that having a casual conversation where we are bashing others is okay, but it isn’t its poison.  Our misuse of our body through ingesting, abusing and engaging in things that God specifically instructs us not to is poison.  Our bad attitude and the dissention that we stir up at work, at home, in and through social and organizational affiliations and in church is poison.  Our anger, unforgiveness, our cut throat mentality, our jealousy and our judgment of others and their circumstance is poison.  My mom used to say to us, if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.  If you can’t do something good, don’t do anything. There are many of us that need to adopt this motto to live by.  Many of us are not producing fruit that is fit for consumption by the way we are living our lives.  We are poisoning ourselves and others.  We need to take inventory and see what has grown and is growing in our lives and cut away those things that are poisonous and burn them up, before God’s ax is raised upon our lives.  Just because we seem to be blessed and all seems to be relatively well with our lives, does not mean that God is pleased with us and His ax is not poised and ready to cut down.  Are you the tree that feeds, saves, nourishes, or the one that poisons, makes ill and corrupts?  Our desire as ones called of God should be to become the fruit that nourishes, feeds, saves and preserves those around us, for this is the true heart of a servant and child of God!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Wednesday 02/22/2012)

Love’s Intent

Romans 13:9-10 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹The commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet (have an evil desire), and any other commandment, are summed up in the single command, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. ¹⁰Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law.

            As I read this scripture in my devotional time yesterday it struck me and the question that I heard being posed was what is love’s intent?  What should the intent of love be for those who believe God and call themselves after whom they say they believe as a Christian?  One of the saddest facts is that growing up before there was ever a reality television shows or reality television really became some of the top rated shows, I saw more drama unfold in the church than anywhere else.  I saw people that said they loved God and that would shout, speak in tongues and pray down heavens fire display a lot of things but much of it had little or nothing to do with love. There was backbiting, gossiping, killing people with their words and deeds, being jealous over positions and people, people just being down right mean because they could and taking people to task over position and over men and women.  Even as a young adult I had served under ministers and people who intentionally hurt me in the church and used fear and manipulation and say that God was using them to work things in me, yes they were right, but it wasn’t what they thought but patience and to increase my prayer life and really know God for myself.  But to take a line from Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway, “Where is the Love” and where was the love?

            If God is love and we are following Him, why are our footsteps not based in love, but in emotion, power, pride and the excuses of the day?  Why is it so easy for us to be hateful to one another, to form an opinion and take a disliking to someone based upon something they have on or don’t have on; by the tone of their voice or the way they speak or even praise God? Love never intends on doing wrong, hurting or destroying.  Love covers, it does not seek to destroy, or even have its own way. Love will lead us to do what is right by people, not what is wrong, to sacrifice, and make things right.  Love will force us to examine ourselves, our words and our intent; love won’t just allow us to fire off words or actions without thought for God being aware of our actions and for the feelings and spirit of the person or persons involved.  My husband has an interesting way of ministering to men that say that they are in love.  He will take them to I Corinthians 13 and read it with them, and then ask, are they doing all of these things or at least aspiring to do all of these things?  He will ask are they willing to give their lives for her.  Love’s intent is about healing, help, understanding and sacrificial giving.  It is about the right not the wrong, truth and correction done in a way that promotes change and covers and gives direction that benefit not tears down and destroys.  Love’s intent is not of judgment but of mercy and grace.

            When we say we love and we are in Christ, our life should show the intent of the love of God in the earth.  There should be a difference in our reaction and our responses, we should not be the same as everyone, else or worse for that matter because we have the very essence of love abiding in us, or do we?  My mom and grandma used to say the proof is always in the pudding. It is true how we live will inevitably alert others and tell us the truth of who God is to us.  You see because the very intent of us loving will state who has preeminence in our lives and the very descriptive nature of how we show love will tell the story of how we are living and if we have a heart and spirit that is bond and connected to the one true God. If you ever watch a child that is close to their parent or parents and loves them deeply and admires and aspires to be like them, they have attributes that can be identical to them.  They may walk, talk and address people like them, they will demonstrate respect and regard for others like them, and they will certainly care for and love as they do.  It is the same with us.  The way we love and the intent of that love will tell who our parent is all day, every day! So who’s your Daddy and what are you showing about how He has taught you to love?