Daily Devotional – 4/20/17 “Don’t quiet your suffering!”

God, sometimes, allows us to go through the mess of life in order to certify our testimony. What do I mean? Well, God allowed you to hop from bed to bed because He needed your voice to save those, in this season, who are headed down the same path. God needed you to sell the drugs and run the streets because now you can relate to those brothers who are walking through the doors of your church. God allowed you to suffer in the ministry because now, after thirty years of preaching, you can help that young preacher who is about to give up. God needs your voice of circumstance in order to help that one who is running from the call on their life. God needs your voice of how you overcame abuse in order to tell your coworker how to make it out. God needs your voice of surviving prison in order to stop somebody from making the same mistakes. God needs your voice of how your marriage made it through adultery. God needs your voice of how you survive alcoholism/drug abuse. God needs your voice of how you got your GED at 30. God has need of you and the mess you’ve been through.

Beloved, your suffering isn’t just for you but it is for somebody who probably isn’t even born yet. Ma’am, your suffering isn’t about you but it is for that young lady in your church. Sir, your suffering isn’t about you but it is for those young men who are watching you and you don’t even see them. Your suffering isn’t for you but it is to show your daughter how to make it through when it shows up at her house. Your suffering is for your son to see how hard work pays off. Your suffering is for the child, down the street, who specifically speaks to you because there is something, inwardly, drawing him/her to you. Your suffering is setting the stage to snatch somebody else out of theirs. Your suffering is the manifestation of God working through you for that somebody who says God has forsaken them. Your suffering is the billboard, broadcasting, God can do it for you just like He did it for me. Stop shushing your suffering, share it!

Daily Devotional – 4/19/17 “Rough road to destiny!”

God can take the very thing that once interrupted your worship and turn it into the thing that now solidifies your shout! The cancer, MS, lupus, kidney failure and heart disease that used to make you weep, became the very thing that now makes you witness. That abusive relationship that once made you cringe, is the one that compelled you to accept God’s calling. Where you were once being used, you’ve now become useful. Those times you used to be the prey, forced you to now become prayerful. The times ‘they’ said you wouldn’t be nothing, shifted your thinking to know you can be anything! So, today, stop counting out your hurtful moments, God is using them to heal you. Don’t discount those painful places, they were/are needed to position you in purpose. Don’t dismiss the times you’ve fallen, God needed to see if you would fight to get up.

I don’t have to draw this devotional out because the point has already been made, so I’ll repeat myself. God can take that thing that once interrupted your worship and turn it into the thing that now solidifies your shout! Beloved, God can show up and flip your entire life upside down, making it right. All He needs you to do is trust His process. Joseph, in the bible, was being shown his future in dreams at an early age. Yet he had to go through being despised and sold by his brothers, falsely accused of rape and spending time in jail in order to get to God’s predestine purpose for his life. And for that Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Sometimes, you need to thank those things that tried to take you out for being the very thing to push you into destiny.

Daily Devotional – 4/18/17 “No competition!”

God will never put you in an assignment that will cause you to be in competition with somebody. Why not? Because what is yours, is yours and what is mine is mine. What makes you think God will give you a spouse you will have to snatch from someone else bed? Why, in the heck, do you think God will give you the responsibility to pastor a church that you had to sneak and apply for? Why would God give you the promotion you had to lie to get? God won’t ever have you competing over what is yours. This is why the bible tells us in Galatians 6:4-5, “Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.” Yes, friendly competition is good, when it comes to games but not blessings. This is why you will not ever see me trying to preach, pray, serve, write or do anything like someone else. It does not matter if they get four thousand views and I get twelve, I can only be me. And some of you are having a hard time, at this very moment, because you are competing with somebody for something or someone you thought was yours. Stop it!

That will be like me competing with somebody over a dude who is supposed to be mine or competing with another pastor for my position or even fighting on the job for a position ‘they’ said was mine. It does not make sense because what is mine will be mine and what is yours will be yours. Beloved, the only person you should ever compete with is self. You don’t have to believe me. Talk to God about it and He will tell you. Then, go and visit some successful businesses and they will even tell you. Why would they need to compete when their work speaks for itself? Stop competing for what is yours. Stop fighting folk over what belongs to you. On today, my prayer for you is this … That your eyes will be open to see and understand that you will never have to compete with someone else over what God has for you.

Daily Devotional – 4/17/17 “Whose report will you believe?”

The day after the Resurrection and some of you are being attacked, spiritually. It was probably somebody, at the family dinner, yesterday questioning you on “your belief.” You may even see some post on social media, downing what you believe in but whose report will you believe? In the bible, the day after some of the guards at Jesus’ tomb went running to the temple leaders to report to them what had happened. The bible says in Matthew 28:12-15, “A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.” They knew what happened because Jesus had already told them ahead of time, however, in order to discredit the faith of the believers in Jesus, they came up with a story to cover it up. Instead of owning up to the truth of being wrong, they bribed the guards to spread a false report. And you know what? It’s still happening today? Some of us are still being paid to tell the same false story. Yea, I know the churches are preaching “He got up,” in their good ole Baptist voice but do you know why Jesus had to die in the first place? Yes ma’am, yes sir; the resurrection is a good piece to make folk shout but the suffering, in the Garden of Gethsemane, is even greater to make folk save!

See, some of you are in covenant with folk who will try to convince you that all what you believe isn’t true. They will try to shame your faith, simply because it isn’t in line with theirs. They will try to cover up the fact that what you say contradicts theirs. They will have you sitting, near them, in order to hear what you’ll say and keep you close to ensure you don’t blow the cover off them. Some will brand it, ‘spiritual growth,’ when they know good and well there is nothing spiritual about it. They are bribing you to tell a story and you’re going along with it because the money and the fame is good. Well beloved, on this Monday, whose report will you believe? I mean, you’ve read the biblical report (I hope) and you know the tomb was empty, right? You do know that Jesus wasn’t there, don’t you? You also know that Resurrection Sunday has nothing to do with bunnies and eggs too; right? Then whose report will you believe? Listen, I am not knocking how you celebrate the Resurrection because I love me some boiled eggs and family dinner and I also enjoy the innocence of my nephew who wants to dress up in his suit and get his easter basket filled with candy and treats from my sister. However, I have a responsibility to teach him about Jesus and to let him know the real report. Stop accepting anything just to be in the presence of someone who has followers. Stop tell their story and tell Jesus’. There are reports out there but whose will you believe? I believe Jesus. Even when I have to suffer, I believe Jesus. Whose report will you believe?

Daily Devotional – 4/14/17 “Because Jesus lives! “


God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!


Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone,
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!


And then one day, I’ll cross the river,
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives!

Anybody else got this testimony on this Good Friday? Anybody else yet thankful knowing that because Jesus lives, we get chance after chance? Anybody else, excited to celebrate the rising of a Savior who died to pardon our sins? Knowing that because He lives, we can face a tomorrow we haven’t even seen. Knowing that because Jesus lives, we can mess up and still be forgiven. Knowing that because Jesus lives, we can too. I don’t know who you are but Jesus got up so you could stop allowing fear of the unknown to keep you in a grave of groaning or tarrying in a tomb of transgressions. The seal has been cut, the rock has been rolled away and your freedom is waiting. Wake up! Come out! Get up! Because He lives, you live. Don’t take another moment for granted.

Because Jesus lives!