Daily Devotional – 9/12/12 “Revival Time!”

I am inviting those of you who can and will to come and share with us on the first night of our Youth Revival at Macedonia in Hollywood, MS. It starts at 7:00 PM and our speaker this year is Rev. Brian Bartlett of Lake Grove Baptist Church (Memphis). For the first time ever, I will be tonight’s lecturer (yea I know right). Anywho.. Tomorrow Night’s Lecturer is the anointed LaShundra Richmond of Ebenezer Baptist Church (Memphis) and Friday’s night lecturer is another dynamic young lady, Ms. Iesha Gilliam of Believers in Faith Church (Memphis). So come on out and be blessed.

Now, you know I couldn’t leave you without a little encouragement! So here goes! STOP WHINING ALL THE TIME! Yes, I said it. Yea, I know you are irritated about this and mad about that but still, whining; really? You’re grown! Deal with whatever it is that has pissed you off, ruined your lunch or messed up your day because either way you probably couldn’t have stopped it anyway. I could have been mad after getting a call from my son saying he was out of uniform (for the same shorts he’s worn 3 times already) and that I needed to bring him a pair of pants to the school but why? I couldn’t change the fact that A. he had on the wrong pants and B. he needed new ones. So, why don’t you try it. Stop giving folks the happiness you’ve worked so hard to get. No, they can’t steal it because happiness starts within which means you have to give it. Be happy for you, for a change and stop pretending to be. Baby, life is so much better when you’re happy and you know it. Be happy in the skin you’re in. Be happy with the hair you have, with the clothes/shoes you wear, with the car you drive and the home you stay in. Be happy with the person you’re with (well, you’re with them so you may as well be happy) and if you can’t be then move! Stop letting the bill collectors get you down, pay what you can when you can and the rest can wait. Stop stressing over stuff you can’t change and stop worrying about tomorrow that you may never see. Be you and be happy being you.

That’s all!

Daily Devotional – 9/11/12 “Check the expiration date!”

Yes, you read this right. You need to check the expiration date on some things in your life. Oh, you didn’t know? Well, let me tell you, everything has an expiration date. If you don’t believe me then turn your bible to Ecclesiastes 3 and read the following verses…

Verse 2 says, “A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,” which means people have an expiration date; it’s called dying and even things that are planted because when they expire, they are uprooted from the ground. Verse 3 says, “A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build.” Now, kill here means as in self-defense and not because you felt like harming someone because the bible says in Exodus 22:2, “If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.” Even old buildings expire, which is why they are said to be unlivable and are torn down. Heartache, yes it has an expiration date; it’s called getting over it which is why verse 4 says, “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Verses 5-8 goes on to say, “A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” So you see, all things have an expiration date. Bad relationships do, it’s called moving on. Sickness has one, it’s called healing. Sorrow even has one, it’s called joy. Suffering has one too, it’s called peace. Why do you think everything that you buy has an expiration date on it? Because at some point, some things just get old and need to be thrown out. Yea, you know those favorite shoes that you have that are barely holding together, it’s past their expiration date. That man, that other woman’s husband, who you’ve been holding on too for years now; it’s past their expiration date. That woman that you’ve been asking to move in and she won’t because she still needs time; it’s past her expiration date. That job that keeps overlooking you for promotions, it has expired too. That raggedy robe that you keep holding on too that no longer has pockets and has no buttons, it also has expired. See, it’s time you do inventory in your life and see if the things that you’ve been holding on too are expired because if they have, they maybe the thing that is affecting your health. No, I don’t mean you need to go home and act a fool on your spouse but I am saying just take a look around. If you are still allowing your grown child to live at home with no job and can’t even clean up the room they currently stay in, for free, their time of freeloading has expired. If that friend who always need help from you but can never be there when it’s your time of need, they too have expired. Even trouble has an expiration date which is why Ecclesiastes 8:6 says, “For there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.”

I’m not trying to tell you that you need to start acting a plum fool but I am saying look through the things that you have to see if they have expired, the same way you clean out your medicine cabinet. Old medicine is no good and neither are old feelings of hatred and malice. If folks hurt you, in the past, it has expired and now you need to move on. Stop holding on to all that old crap because it’ll soon weigh you down and then you won’t be any good. Let go of things that keep you from being exactly who you need to be. Let go of that old boyfriend who only comes around when his new girlfriend isn’t providing for him. Stop answering the phone every time that girl calls you only on payday. There are a lot of things that have expired that you’re holding on too because you think you can’t do without them but how do you honestly know if you haven’t tried to do without them? Expire means to come to an end or be no longer valid or in operation. Just like your credit card has an expiration date, so does everything you touch. Let go of those things in order to get the new things. The only way for you to receive a blessing, you have to make room for it. It’s like buying a new rug to replace that old one that expired years ago. You know the one that used to say welcome but now you can only see the w and the ome at the end? Yea, it’s time to throw it out because it has expired but the only way to put your new rug down, you have to first throw out the old one. Blessings are the same. If you constantly asking God to bless you with the means to buy new clothes yet you haven’t cleaned out and donated the old ones, where will you put them? Take charge of your life and throw out all the things that have expired because they are no longer usable. Just like those batteries you keep putting in the freezer, no baby, they have expired; throw them out and go get you some from the dollar tree. Stop holding on to things, thinking they can be revived because if it is expired, it’s no longer worth it. Try drinking milk once it’s spoiled … my point exactly!

Daily Devotional – 9/10/12 “A prayer because it’s Monday, again!”

Our Father in Heaven,
It is me once again, petitioning your throne. God, I know that I don’t always do or say the right things, yet you still listen to my pleas and for that I must first thank you. Thank you, oh God, for giving me a fresh anointing this morning and thank you for giving my eyes sight when you opened them. Thank you for giving my hands, arms, legs and feet power to move and for putting strength in my body when I got up. Thank you for giving me my mind back, better than it was on last night. God, I thank you that I didn’t wake up to find my spouse gone from this world, thank you that I found my children alive and well, thank you that my home was still in working order, that my car was still parked where I put it last night and that no voicemail/text was on my phone delivering bad news. God, I must thank you because even when I was too sleepy to pray on last night, you still kept me well. God I must thank you because when I was too mean to thank you on yesterday, you still gave me back everything I had and more. Oh, what would I do without you? Now, Father, as you listen to my prayer, I ask that you comfort the grieving families now. Wrap your arms around the mother that has to prepare to bury her child, around the children that is about to lay their mother or father to rest, the brother who has to say a final goodbye to his sister or the sister who is saying her final goodbye to her brother. God, give strength to the friend who is standing behind someone who is going through turmoil in their own home today. Bless that person who is looking for a job and yet they can’t see their way because of their tears. Bind that taste for drugs or alcohol that has a hold of that teacher who is standing before a class of students right now. Bind the stronghold of sexual desires on the mind of adults who may be lusting after a child now. Bind the peer pressure that has a child thinking suicide is their only way out. Bind the mouths and hands of the bullies who make living for a child harder than it already is. Bind the wandering mind of the child who needs to focus in class. Bind the social networking that is taking over our children and even some adults. God, this world is in need of your guidance now. Father, I pray for the men, women and children of this world. I pray for the deliverance of the man who finds joy in hurting his wife, for the wife who finds joy in sleeping around, for the children who finds joy in stealing from others and even for those who don’t see the error of their ways when they are being disrespectful. God, right now, I am praying for your deliverance on this mean world. Some young lady is going through hell because she is young and pregnant yet afraid to tell somebody. Some young man has an STD yet he is afraid to tell and still passing it around. Somebody is still driving drunk even after the numerous times you’ve allowed them to make it safely home. Somebody is still shooting crack or heroine in their veins or swallowing prescription pain medicine even after you’ve stopped them from overdosing. God, for that pacing mother now, replace it with praise. For that single mother who can’t seem to make ends meet, replace her crying with shouting through her storm. For the daddy who is doing his best to raise his children with the woman who is making it hard, increase his finances. For the woman or man doing their all, bless everything they touch. For the student who is doing all they can, increase their knowledge. God, I know that sometimes it seems like bills are increasing and money is decreasing but I am asking for a special financial blessing for each one reading this now. I ask because you’ve given me power in my tongue to do so. God, decrease the balance of the electricity bill, credit card balances, student loans, pay day advances, title loans, bank loans, car loans and mortgages. God rain down blessings on those who stand in need on today and although I don’t know every situation, you do, so I ask that you fix it now. Send healing where it is needed. Send love where hate now resides. Send peace in the midst of somebody’s storm. God somebody needs protection in their own home, send it now. God somebody needs deliverance in the midst of them shooting death into their body now in the back of an alley. God do it now! I know that I am just one somebody but I stand in the gap for all those who don’t know how to pray for themselves, for all those who feel like there is no hope and even for those who feel like they can’t go on. Today, I stand for them, God and I am asking all these things as though they are. Do it for me as well as for them. Continue to strengthen me, on this journey, so I can continue to strengthen them. Thank you for hearing my prayer and thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to swell in me because I surely do need Him. God, do these things that I ask in your name because without you there’s no me. Bless, heal and deliver your people now because I am asking in your name. AMEN.

Daily Devotional – 9/7/12 “So they’re talking about you, huh?”

So what? Baby, they talked about Jesus! A man who could turn water into wine, feed a multitude of folks with mere morsels, heal folks who had been sick for years, raise folk who man had declared dead, give when there was nothing to give from, go when He didn’t even know the destination, make a promise that He knew His Father could keep, suffer when He had never even mumbled a harsh word and die when He had never done wrong; yet He still forgave and died so that we could be forgiven of the sins we commit over and over again. So, again I say who cares about who is talking about you and care even less about what they are saying. Don’t you know the bible says in John 8:32, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” See, it doesn’t matter that folks say you’ve done this or that because the truth will set you free. So, what it if they talk about your past, that’s the past and the bible says in Isaiah 43:18, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” So what! When folks can stamp your ticket to Heaven or banish you to Hell, then they can judge but until then, tell them to kick the rocks on their way out. Stop allowing folks to dictate to you how you should live, who you should love, the car you should drive, the job you should work, the doctor you should see, the man/woman you should date, the food you should eat or how to raise your children. Stop allowing folks to make your life miserable when they can barely keep their own head above water. If the truth should be told, their relationship ain’t all that either but they are quick to show you the defects in yours when the bible says in Matthew 7:3, “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” See, why they are so busy trying to run your house, theirs is falling apart. Why they are telling you what your man is doing wrong, theirs isn’t even coming home. Why they are trying to tell you how to budget your money, they are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. Baby, you’d better stop letting folks worry you into an early grave. You want even go visit your family because your cousin always got something to say, when she should be sweeping off her own porch to find her stuff that needs fixing.

Why don’t you stand up for yourself sometime and tell them folks to mind their own business? Who cares if you hurt their feelings because if you’re truthful in what you’re saying and you deliver it the right way, then you’ve done nothing wrong. Stand up for yourself sometime! Shoot… stop allowing them same folk who always got something to say to ruin your day. Stop allowing those folks who have no bearing on how you live to talk about how you live. You know good and well if that man is worth investing your time in and if you choose to do so knowing that he isn’t, and you’re happy, then do you! If you’re content with that man going upside your head or that woman treating you like a doormat, then gone on boo! If the person whose always talking in your ear isn’t paying your bills, filling your refrigerator with food, your car with gas, your closet with closet/shoes, your heart with love, your head with kept promises and your hands with theirs; then their advice, no matter how messy, doesn’t matter. If you’re in a place you know you don’t belong, you eventually see it, at least I pray you do. Stop allowing folks to beat you over the head because of mistakes you’ve made because they’ve made and still making some. Are you perfect, no? Are they perfect, no? Folks will always have something to say about you. They’ll talk when you’re doing well and they’ll talk when you do something wrong. They’ll talk when you sick and they’ll talk when you’re well. They’ll talk when you’re in church and they’ll talk when you’re not. The point is, there will always be somebody talking but the only person’s judgment that matters no matter the day or the time is God’s. Follow after him, seek him for advice and guidance, trust his leading and get your own understanding. Man will always talk more than they listen even though God gave them one mouth and 2 ears. Decide today to let your haters talk because the more they say your name, the more God hears it and the more He hears it, the more abundantly you’re blessed. So let them talk about you but pray for them.

Daily Devotional – 9/5/12 “It’s revival time!”

No, I don’t mean at the church on the corner or even your church but I mean its revival time in your life! See, revive in the dictionary means to come back to life, consciousness, or full strength, or bring somebody back to life, consciousness, or full strength but my definition is another chance to walk on top of the dirt that could be covering your casket, another chance to smile when you could be getting your last bath from the funeral home, another chance to trust God when you could be facing this mean world alone and another chance to be thankful for the things you have because you could be a “have not”. Yes, it’s revival time!

Yea, I know that your life may have been hard growing up but you’re grown now. I know that you may have looked into the eyes of an abusive spouse in the past but that’s the past now. I know that you may have been homeless once but you’re not now. You may have been without a job before but you have one now. You may have never even felt love back then but you have it now, so you’ve been revived. The bible says in Psalm 71:20, “You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth,” – this means you been revived. Ok, so folks used to talk about you, lie on you, scandalize your name because they were jealous of your blessings, tripped you up when you walk because they wanted the directions to where you were going and even tried to pull you down from your elevation because they wanted to beat you to the top but Psalm 71:21 says, “You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again,” – which says there is some reviving going on! Baby, you don’t have to look for your present in your past because you won’t find it there. You don’t have to look for your happiness in the heartache of your past relationship in order to move on because you won’t find it there. You don’t have to look for a new way to live because it’s already on the inside of you and all you have to do is revive it. Cry out to the Lord, “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:19)

Don’t you know that when a revival is done it is supposed to be for the reviving of a dying spirit, soul and mind? A revival is meant to revive your joy after the world has tried to quench it. A revival is meant to revive your laughter after grief has stolen it away. A revival is meant to revive your rest after pacing has taken its place. A revival is meant to revive your smile after tears have taken over. A revival is meant to revive your heart after all it has felt is hurt from folks who said they’d love you until death do you part. A revival is meant to revive your prayers in the place of the pain you feel. A revival is meant to revive your faith when fault is eating you up on the inside. A revival is meant to revive your trust when trust is the last thing you want to do. It is revival time y’all! This world is getting crueler, folks are getting meaner, children are more disrespectful and disobedient, spouses are less forgiving, jobs are few and far between, friends are scarce and enemies are doubling in size. Its time, RIGHT NOW, for us to be revived!

See, getting revived means were getting our spirits refreshed which renews us to a better state than we were before that allows us to be ready to rebuild what has been torn down, reap from what has been sown in God’s soil, reach for our goals that have become reachable with God’s power, recover from the traps the devil thought would take us out, release the chains that have bound us for too long, remove the shades from the windows so that we can enjoy the sun, repent for the sins we’ve made, repair any relationships that we’ve broken and resolve any hurt that we’ve caused because with being revive it now allows us to rejoice righteously in God’s rewards. Yea, there is some reviving to be done, are you ready?