Daily Devotional – 11/27/13 “Do not quench the Holy Spirit!”

I am not sure who this is for but I simply stop by to share with you what the bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Now, in order for you to fully understand what this means, you have to first know that quench means to suppress a feeling completely or (catch this) to put out a fire or light. Simply put, stop putting out the fire of the Holy Spirit and the light of God that is within you. Yea, if you’re always complaining then you are quenching the light. If you sit on your praise then you are quenching the spirit. If you talk more than you teach, you’re quenching God’s light. If you sin more than you shout, you are quenching the spirit. If you’re always angry just because you’re always angry then you’re quenching God’s light. If you hinder those around you from praising then you are quenching the spirit. Baby, if you get up on Sunday morning, get dressed in your Sunday best, drive all the way to church for Sunday school just so you can raise hell about what ain’t going right, you are quenching the spirit.

The bible says in Mark 1:8, “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” but many of us are dipped in the spirit but won’t put the spirit on. Yea, you allow the water to touch your flesh but you won’t let it seep into the crevices of your spirit because although you may look like a Christian on the outside, the inside is filled with nothing but hell. But you do know that your flesh means nothing to God, right? Well Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” So while you’re trying to quench the light of God that should be burning like a torch on the inside of you, you might not have a chance to lite it again. And while you are trying to quench the Holy Spirit, you might want to recognize that the Holy Spirit works on your behalf more times than you probably even know. So don’t put out the fire that is burning because you may just find that you like how it feels.

Daily Devotional – 11/26/13 “Hold your peace …”

Yea, I know that sometimes this is hard to do but what’s the sense in shooting off when your emotions are on overload? Don’t you know when you’re mad you say some stuff that you really don’t mean? Well, actually you say stuff that you mean but you may say it in the wrong way and at the wrong time which is why you should cool off and keep your peace. The bible says in James 1:26, “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” Besides, why are you trying to fight a battle you aren’t prepared to win anyway? Didn’t God tell you that He would fight for you? Well, my bible says in Exodus 14:14, “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Oh, but you got the nerve to stand up and argue with your parents when God say respect your mother and father. You wondering why no one is asking you to pray for them but aren’t you the one that keeps saying, “Folk is going to make me lose my religion?” You can’t get promoted because you’ve cursed out all the managers and you’re not asked to lead nothing in church because you’ll act a plum fool there too yet you’re the one complaining. Baby, hold your peace. What are you fighting for anyway? The 3 Hebrew boys didn’t fight and God showed up for them in the midst of a fire. Daniel didn’t fight yet God shut the lion’s jaw. The woman with the issue of blood didn’t fight against those who couldn’t help her yet she was healed. The blind man didn’t fight those who had cast him aside yet his sight was restored.

Oh, but you fight with the children and you’re the adult. You fight with your spouse after you’ve gone looking through their stuff. You fight with folk on the job because you can’t hold your tongue. You fight with family because you’re always in someone’s business. You fight more than you love simply because you can’t hold your peace when Psalm 34:13 says, “keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.” If you can’t hold your peace then you need to read and repeat Psalm 141:3 that says “Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips,” because Proverbs 21:23 says, “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” Hold your peace and you keep peace. Holding your peace gives you time to ponder your problem preventing you from proceeding without patience that can provoke a punishment you’re not ready to pursue. So hold your peace and pray instead!

New Cover Photo

Cover photo

Check out my new cover photo for Facebook that was created by Ron Jackson of RWJ International. (I love it!) Now, you too can have your very own custom made cover photo, business ad, business cards, postcards, banners, flyers, letterheads or whatever you need. You can visit their website at www.rwjinternational.com/ or their Facebook page, RWJ Int. You will not be disappointed!

Contact Info:

Call them at 901-347-2453
or
Email Us at: rwjinternational@gmail.com

Daily Devotional – 11/25/13 “In all things …”

The bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus,” but I asked the question; what if sin is involved? Do you still thank God? Do you thank Him that He allowed you to come out of the sin so that you are now able to repent or do you not thank Him because you are in something that you shouldn’t be in? Some may say that God gave us repentance so He must have known we would sin but does that make it right? Just because there is a liquor store on every corner, does it give you the right to drink, get drunk and then drive? I’m simply asking. Should you give thanks while you are thinking about sinning, in the midst of sin or coming out of it? The bible does say, be thankful in every circumstance; right? So, I asked the question again and it was said to me (by someone I think is knowledgeable and whose opinion I welcome) that “you should give thanks for the ability to understand and acknowledge that you have sinned as well as give thanks to God for allowing you another opportunity to correct the situation where sin arises in your life. So I would say yes it can be appropriate to give thanks in that situation however, not thanking God for allowing one to enjoy one’s sin…”

But why give thanks? That’s simple; because you have the chance to do so. See, nothing happens without God knowing because not even the devil can get close to you without prior approval from your Father, so give thanks that He deemed you worthy enough to be chosen. Now, hold on, I am not speaking on sin but I am speaking on the storms, circumstances, situations and trying times that we often face. No, sin happens because we allow it to happen because we live in fleshly body but read the above answer again because even though we don’t thank God for enjoying the sin, we thank Him for knowing enough to repent for it. So, give thanks for the going in, going through and the coming out. Give thanks for the downs and the ups. Give thanks for the yes and the no. Give thanks for the well and sick days. Give thanks for the falling down and the get ups. Give thanks for the mistakes and then the ability to recognize them. In other words, “always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).”

Daily Devotional – 11/22/13 “Clean it up!”

One of my fellow bloggers recently re-blogged one of my devotionals from a few years ago entitled, “Why are you crying over spilled milk?” and I just thought I’d share a portion of it today for someone who is crying over the mess you should have cleaned up a long time ago. After hearing, “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” for as long as I can remember, I now know that it’s not actually referring to milk but it’s the things that have happened or happening that you have no control over.

Let me explain. You’ve been married for ten (10) years to your high school sweetheart. You have the house, cars, 2 kids, a dog and all seems to be right in your world. Your husband is the provider, you all attend church every Sunday as a family and he is a deacon while you sing in the choir. You know that God has ordained your household, so you aren’t worried. Then one day your husband comes home early from work and he wants to talk because he’s leaving you for somebody else that makes him happier. He doesn’t want to discuss it because his mind is made up, so he packs his bags and leave. He leaves you at the table devastated because your world has been turned upside down. So, what now? Do you retreat to your bed to cry for 2 weeks straight or do you fall down on your knees asking God to strengthen you, keep your mind, wipe your tears and show you the way? Yea, you are probably wondering what you could have done to make him stay but I’m here to tell you that no matter what you did or didn’t do, this was a circumstance you had no control over, so why are you crying over the spilled milk? Please note, this may not be your situation but you get what I’m saying. Stop crying over things you can’t control. Whatever happened has happened so what you need to do is, pick up the empty carton (you), wipe up the spilled milk (tears) and refill your carton (with God’s word) and move on! If they can walk away from you so easily without a second look, they weren’t yours to begin with and maybe, just maybe, they were standing in the way of the real blessing God has for you! Be thankful for what you do have and not miserable over what is gone and watch God enlarge your territory. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that God won’t bring you to anything that he won’t see you through.

If you are questioning God, your milk is spilled. Wipe it up and refill your carton with Ecclesiastes 3:1 that says “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” And if you think that you are the only one facing problems, your milk is spilled. Wipe it up and refill your carton with 2 Corinthians 4:17 that say “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”