Daily Devotional – 3/6/12 “Pay it Forward!”

There was this young man who was homeless and would spend his days sitting in the subway station with a cup asking anyone who would help him for change. Each day this young woman would pass by in her expensive suit, expensive tennis shoes (her expensive heels were in her expensive bag), while talking on her expensive cell phone. Although she passed the same way every morning and every evening, looking him in his eyes, she never would place even a penny in his cup. After a month or so, the young man got up the courage to say, “Excuse me ma’am, can you spare some change?” She looked at him, again in his eyes, but never mumbled a word. One late evening, the young man was again in the empty subway when he saw this young lady pass by on her way home but this time he noticed a man, a suspicious looking man, following behind her so when she got ready to pass by he grabbed her arm. At this point, she is furious raising her voice asking him why he would put his dirty hands on her $300 suit. She kept ranting and raving saying I don’t know you and for you to touch me, you must want me to scream for the police. Finally after a few minutes, he let her go. She said, “The nerve of you to grab me like that, who do you think you are?” “I can’t believe you just did that,” is all she kept saying. Finally able to speak, he said, “Ma’am, please excuse me for grabbing on you but..,” she interrupted, “But what? What gives you the right or the authority to put your hands on me?” He said, “Ma’am, if you would let me explain. I grabbed you because there was a man walking closely behind you with a knife and he was about to snatch you and your bag and the only way I could stop it was to grab you. My apologies ma’am, I won’t ever touch you again.” She slowly stepped back to regain her composure because she couldn’t believe someone, a stranger who she avoided like the plague, would risk his life to save hers. Tears started to swell in her eyes and although her mouth was open, no words were present. He stood there just to make sure she was alright and when he started to leave, she placed her hand on his arm to stop him. With the tears now streaming down her face, she said, “Day after day I walk past judging you because of the way you look without even stopping to ask how you got in this situation or putting money in your cup even though I have it to spare. I never take the time to offer you a cup of coffee or the sandwich in my bag because I think I’m better than you and wouldn’t ever allow myself to be in your shoes but who am I? You risked your life to save mine after the months that I’ve ignored you. You risked your life to save mine even though you don’t even know my name and I never speak. Why would you do that?” He simply replied, “I’m just paying it forward. See, I didn’t ask to be in the situation that I’m in but when I got sick with cancer I lost my job then I lost my apartment and all my so-called friends but I never lost God. Even in the midst of my begging for change in this subway, God healed my body. Even in the midst of you and others ignoring my pleas for help, God never allows me to be hungry. Even when folks judge me without knowing my story, God never allows me to be cold while I’m sleeping outside. So, because God never forgets about me, the least I can do is be true to his word which says in Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Although I don’t have much all that I do have, I’ll share with others.”

She stood in amazement at the mere sight of this man because although the world had forsaken him, he still stood strong in the midst of his circumstance. She couldn’t believe the strength of him and his will but she knew that he wasn’t alone because God was right there by his side. She put some money in his cup that night and she left there with the thought of him ringing through her head. He didn’t know this but she had connections in the city and after a few months, she reached every one of them to help her open a recently closed homeless shelter. She made sure it had all the resources it needed and she knew the perfect person to run it. She went back to that subway station and she grabbed him by the hand. She took him to the place and as they stood in front of the door he asked why he was there. She told him that the night he saved her life, he saved her and now she was returning the favor. She asked him to be the head of this homeless shelter, he would have a small apartment on the top floor, new clothes, health insurance and it would pay him a weekly stipend. He was amazed and gladly accepted. She took him back outside so that he could be the one to unveil the name and when he removed the covering from the window it read “Paying it Forward Mission.” See, she knew what God was doing in her life and the way she could repay him was by paying it forward to others who needed it.

When I read one of my fellow bloggers blog on this morning, it reminded me that no matter where we are in life, how big we are in our careers and although we may not be homeless or sick, we can still pay it forward. Philippians 2:4 says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This doesn’t mean you have to help every homeless or less fortunate person that you see, but it means a little bit to you may be the world to someone else. Don’t throw away the clothes and shoes you no longer wear, donate them to charity. Skip eating lunch out one day this week and donate it to the Food Bank whose shelves are almost empty. Help somebody across the street, let the car cut in through traffic, volunteer or donate to your local shelter or simply whisper a prayer for your neighbor or coworker. You can never tell what a person is going through or dealing with so smile sometimes at someone else. James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” You are supposed to help one another, pray for one another and stand by one another because God has commanded you to do so. Take the time to bless someone else with a simple text, call or unexpected visit. While God is being good to you, pay it forward, by being good to someone else. Being a blessing brings you blessings. Well, that’s what God said. Don’t believe me, read Luke 6:38 which say, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” I don’t make this stuff up, study for yourself and you’ll be glad you did.

Daily Devotional – 3/5/12 “When you sow dirty, you get dirty!”

Didn’t your mom tell you that if you play in dirt you get dirty, if you walk through mud, you usually get some on the bottom of your shoes and if you are around somebody throwing dirt a little might spill onto you? Well, this is the same thing as spreading lies, gossiping and backbiting against folk – you’re playing in dirt. Haven’t you heard that whatever you sow, you shall reap? This wasn’t just talking about seeds for vegetables, fruits or flowers but it is also taking about sowing seeds of deceit, lies, etc. Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.” If you’re constantly planting trouble for other folk, you’re bound to harvest that same trouble. Take as an example, you and your friend decide to go to the mall to shoplift and you ask her to get you a few shirts while you stand watch and once you both get home, you find out that she didn’t get your shirts but she got a few for her boyfriend, so now you’re pissed off. You decide to go to the store to turn her in but what you didn’t think about is once they look at the security videos, they see your crazy butt as a lookout so now you both get arrested. See, while you’re plotting evil for other folks you need to take into consideration the same evil for yourself. The bible says in Zechariah 8:17, “Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the LORD.” Why are you mad at me because of the favor that God is raining down on me? Don’t be jealous, get smart and stand beside me so that some of this favor can fall on you too. There’s no need of trying to push me out the way to get what God has for me because you might not be able to do the same thing with the blessing that he sends me. See, God may have given you the ability to write but it may be poetry and not a devotional. He may have given you the ability to cook but it may be for pastries and not soul food. He may have even given you the ability to speak but it may just be evangelizing and not Pastoring. And just because I am able to do something better that you think you’re good at, you don’t have to sow seeds of failure in my life.

Haven’t you figured it out yet that when you sow ugliness in other folk life because you’re not accomplishing what you want in your life, you are blocking your blessings? Don’t you know when you plant seeds you’ll reap a harvest of whatever type of seed you plant? When you plant a seed of failure in my life, you reap failure. When you plant a seed of hurt, you reap hurt. When you plant a seed of death, you reap death. Don’t believe me, Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.” Whatever is planted has to be harvested at some point and time. When you put your mouth on folks and start wishing bad for their life, you’re going to reap the same thing. Why do you think you’re having is so bad during this life of yours? Every time somebody makes you mad, you start telling all the stuff they did or used to do even though you promised you never would without even realizing you’re also telling on yourself. Let me throw this in for free- you allowed somebody else to use your child on their tax return and they promised to give you a few bucks for it but when the time came they stopped answering the phone. Now you decide to turn them in to IRS and they got audited and guess what, so did you. Why? Because this was a mess to begin with so you had to know nothing good would come out of it so while you are telling on them you’re also telling on yourself. (What you sow, so shall you reap!) Oh, don’t think that because you turn somebody in for stealing, you will get a few favor points from God when you bought what they had before turning them it – you are just as guilty.

Stop sowing seeds of malicious intent into folks lives for Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.” If you fall under any of these, then God isn’t pleased with you. Just because somebody else got the job you wanted, it doesn’t mean you keep trying to get them fired when they make a mistake because you can lose your job just as fast. The only thing you should be sowing in dirt is those things that are supposed to be. Stop sowing death and sow life. Stop sowing lies and sow truth. Stop sowing backbiting and sow friendship. Stop sowing hate and sow love. Stop sowing hurt and sow help. Mahalia Jackson once said, “If you dig one ditch you better dig two cause the trap you set just may be for you.” Be careful when putting down traps for other folks because you may just forget where it is and fall into it yourself. God doesn’t need you to handle getting even with folks down here because he’ll have the last say so up there. So when folks hurt you, lie on you, stick knives in your back, and slap you in your face while kicking you when you’re down, let God handle it. No need of sowing seeds of revenge because you’ll only reap regret. God is capable of doing just what he said he would do, so let him handle it. Throw out all the seeds of doubt, lies, slandering, back stabbing and hate because they’ll only reap you the same thing to harvest.

Daily Devotional – 3/2/12 “Keep talking, I’m listening!”

Have you ever talked to someone about something exciting or important to you and they seem to not pay attention but as soon as you stop they say, keep talking I’m listening? Does this sometimes work your nerves, because I know it does mine? But as I was thinking about the devotional topic on last night this came to mind because I would imagine God, as being an omnipresent (means everywhere at the same time) God, he would have to listen to a whole lot of folk talking while doing other things and when you stop, because you don’t think he’s listening, he sends something or someone your way to let you know to keep talking because he’s listening. Isn’t that something? Just because you’ve been praying for guidance and it seems like God isn’t hearing you he says keep talking I’m listening and then someone comes by with the message you need to hear. Even at times when it seems like you’ve been on your knees forever and no help is coming, God is saying keep talking I’m listening. The bible says in Psalm 145:18, “The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.” See, when you are speaking to God you have to come before him with a clean heart, the right spirit and in truth because John 4:24 says, “For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” And when you come before him in the right way, he listens even though it seems to you he doesn’t hear.

There was a woman, a single mother, who thought she had everything together until her storm came. She lost her job and it seems like every where she turned in a application it was being denied, even though she was well qualified. She was scrambling to keep food on the table and the little she had was almost gone. She was trying to keep a roof over their head even though it seems like the manager was knocking every day. She was on her knees every night, after the kids went to bed, praying and pleading with God to hear her. She said it was if he had forgotten about her. She was praying for food and clothes for the kids, she was praying for a job so that she could keep the small apartment they shared and she was praying for rest because she was barely sleeping. She kept saying, “Lord, are you listening?” A few days later when she woke, she got the kids up for school and all she had for food was a few eggs and bread so she fixed what she had for breakfast. She sat at the table going through the things she know she needed to do today, the second thing after dropping the kids off was finding a job. When she opened the door to her apartment she found 3 large bags of groceries, some clothes for the kids and a paper with a place circled that was looking for a receptionist that wasn’t far from where she lived. She couldn’t believe it so she began thanking God and in the midst a small card dropped that simply said, keep talking I’m listening. See, what she didn’t know was the place she did her nightly prayer was near the wall of her neighbor’s bedroom and he listened to her night after night and God touched his heart and gave him the means to be the blessing that she needed in the time she needed. Just because it seems like God is too busy to hear you, he is simply saying keep talking I’m listening!

Don’t you know when things happen to you that make you stop in your tracks, it’s God? He doesn’t have to always drop a blessing in your lap to let you know that he is working but he uses folk here, on earth, that look just like you and I to be your blessing. Don’t believe me? God can send a work luncheon on the day you’re hungry with no money. God can send a friend who stops to drop off a card with $20 in it, to thank you for all you do; just at the time you need gas money. God can give the Pastor a message that is the answer to the question you’ve been asking and he can send a job opening as a confirmation to your faith. Just because it seems like God is too busy to hear you, he is simply saying keep talking I’m listening! I know you may be asking why is the death angel choosing my family, why is cancer attacking my body, why aren’t my kids acting right, why does my car keep stopping, why did my job close and why did my friend leave and it seems like God doesn’t hear you but he is saying, keep talking I’m listening. He replies by saying, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)”, the cancer is just a test that’ll be healed real soon, your kids are being kids just keep praying for them and building their foundation in me, that car of yours is no good so I had to remove it in order to send you a new one, your job closed because it was stunting your growth and hindering your elevation and them folks that left they were blocking your blessings and stopping your praise.

God is omniscient, which means all-knowing. He already knows what his children need before you even ask but you still have to ask. But he says in Mark 11:24, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Keep praying, keep fasting, keep believing, keep holding on and keep the faith because although it seems like God isn’t paying attention, he says KEEP TALKING I’M LISTENING!

Daily Devotional – 3/1/12 “What makes you different?”

Is it because your skin is a different shade or color? Maybe it’s because your hair is long and mine is short? Is it because you are taller or shorter than me or it’s probably because we think, talk or sound different or because you got a little more money in the bank, a nicer car or house and a better job? Could that be the case? No, maybe it’s because I’m a sinner and you’re a Christian. Is that why you think you’re different? Well, that may be your thought but the only thing different about a sinner and a Christian is that one repents and the other hasn’t learned. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That means you too, the one who has their nose in the air looking down at somebody who isn’t living life the way you think they should. You know, it’s crazy how Christian folk get so biblical that it makes them no earthly good and now all they find is fault in other folk. But baby, if you were so perfect you’d have Jesus beat and I honestly don’t think you can walk on water, heal sickness/blindness and feed a multitude with mere morsels. Don’t you know that no matter who you are; man or woman, black or white, sinner or not we all still bleed red blood if cut open, we all have the same intestines, the same amount of bones, 10 fingers and 10 toes, we have to put pants on one leg at a time, a sock on one at a time, etc. – in other words we are all still the same.

As a Christian, it isn’t our responsibility to beat folk over the head with God’s word but it is our responsibility to help them know it and most times they learn it by looking at us. If you carry yourself like the person God has made you then a sinner, in the world, will see God in the way you live and they’ll want to get to know your God. See, when you accept God into your life your walk, talk and attitude should be different. You shouldn’t want to go to the same places you used to go and you shouldn’t want to do the same things you used to do. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” When you accept God’s calling on your life, it changes you but it doesn’t make you different because if you stump your toe, you’ll scream just like a sinner because you’re still the same – human. Yea, I know that you’ll have a different mindset and a different way of doing things, that’s fine but don’t raise yourself up too high because it’ll hurt a lot more coming down. Don’t you know the only time you are supposed to look down on anybody is when you reach down to pick them up? God didn’t elevate you to the position you are now to become rude, unpleasant, malicious and hateful for the bible says in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

God called you for a specific purpose and when he placed that calling on your life, he made you strong enough to handle it. Not because he wanted you to act like you are better than others but because he wanted you, the strong to now help the weak. Don’t believe me, read Romans 15:1 which says, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” See, God didn’t call you because he thought you were better or different from me but he called you because of the folks that were around you. Let me break this thang down. You hang out with a group of 4 friends and you all smoke, drink and only God knows what else but these 4 look up to you. One day, God touches your life and you feel a total change has come over you. You don’t want to do the same things you used to do so you don’t drink, smoke or hangout anymore. You’ve started going to church and you have a job now and you’re on the right track. Your friends still can’t believe the change but you no longer have time for them because they aren’t on your level. Then God stops by one night while you’re sleep and he says, “Son, why are you treating your friends differently? Don’t you know that I didn’t touch you and bring you up out of that situation to turn your back on them, but I chose you because they look up to you and if anybody can get them to come to me, it would be you? Don’t be so quick to leave them behind because you have a responsibility to save those who are lost.” God doesn’t call those who are qualified for the work that shall be done on earth but he qualifies those who he calls. God used Moses to lead his people to freedom and he was a sheep herder, he used David who was still a young boy to defeat Goliath, he used Mary and Joseph who were peasants to be the mother and father to Jesus and he used Abraham who was 75 years old.

God doesn’t look at your resume and he doesn’t call your references to see if you are qualified for a position in his kingdom but he looks at your heart for 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” God doesn’t have you interview in front a panel of folks and he doesn’t make you pass a test to be elevated, but he looks within you for Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” You are who God made you and I am who God has made me but we are still God’s children so there is no difference. Although our outside appearance looks different, our inward heart and mind should be the same, if we work for the same Father. Stop trying to pattern your life after worldly folk but allow the world to pattern themselves after you, if you live right. Yea, you won’t be perfect and you will make mistakes so stop acting like you don’t. You will stumble sometimes and you may even fall but let me see all of you and not just the person who always seem to have it together. Let me see the trouble in your life sometime so that I can see the works that God can do. Let me see you struggle sometime so that I can see how God can make a way out of no way. Let me see you going through your storm so that I can know that God can bring you out. Show the world all of you, the good and the bad, so that they may want to know the God that you have in you.

Daily Devotional – 2/29/12 “Your wife, your watchman!”

Yesterday’s message was to the women, so today I couldn’t dare leave out the men. I can’t write this from a man’s point of view, because I am a woman, but I can write it from my point of view to men. Now, I know you’re wondering how a woman is supposed to be a watchman over her husband but I’ll explain in a minute. As I said on yesterday and as everyone knows, woman was created by God’s hands from a rib from man’s body and in creating woman and man, God did so in his image and in his likeness. Now, because woman was made from man using a part of him, he is supposed to love her with all of him because she is him. As a man, if you follow God, he’ll lead you to your wife (your rib) and when you take vows you become one flesh for the bible says in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” See, when you stand before God proclaiming the love for your wife you are binding yourself together as one and this is a binding contract that the 2 of you sign before God so you are supposed to be in it until death. I know, you may say that a woman changes after marriage, she nags all the time or she doesn’t want to give love like she is supposed to, but just hold on and please stop with the thing that we (women) are supposed to be submissive to you because you’re the head of the house. We got it and it doesn’t have to be told to us every day!

Now, you are supposed to be the head and as the head, you are bound to certain things that you are supposed to do. Number 1, the bible says in Ephesians 5:28, “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.” See, when you, as a husband, disrespect your wife, you are in a sense, disrespecting yourself because she is a part of you. When you hit your wife, you are hurting yourself because she is a part of you. God made you the head of the house but he didn’t give you beating rights. God made you the provider but he didn’t make you a punisher. Stop treating your wife as your child just because you have the authority to be the head for Colossians 3:19 says, “Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.” Yea, I know there will be times when her mouth keeps going and you wish she’d be quiet but it’s in a woman’s nature to have the last say, so just be quiet, leave the room and let her calm down (plus you being in her presence makes her madder). Number 2, you are the provider and it is your duty to do what you have to do, within God’s line to make sure your family eats because the bible says in 1 Timothy 5:8, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Now, this doesn’t mean that woman shouldn’t also be a helpmate because men need help too although they won’t always say it. Yes, the helper needs to be helped sometime. Number 3, you have to carry yourself worthy of being followed. Titus 1:7 says, “Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless–not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.” This scripture says overseer and was geared toward the overseer of church but I think it fits here because as a man you have been entrusted, by God, to oversee your house therefore God’s work so you must also be all those things mentioned above. It is your responsibility to be a role model for your son and an example of the type of man your daughter wants to marry. You, as the man, instill the core values and morals in your children. Yea, they may stray from it while they are going through their rebellious faze but if you start them out on a strong foundation, they’ll have something to rebuild on once everything else has been blown away.

As a man, you have a greater responsibility because your family is in your hands. When you choose to be a deadbeat dad or a lousy husband, it isn’t up to the woman to make you pay for that because God will judge you for it and you will be judged. Why? Because God has given you these things to take care of and if you choose not to, then you’re going against what he has destined for your life. Just because your baby momma is acting like a female dog, it doesn’t give you the right to walk away from your child. For the record, paying child support doesn’t take away those responsibilities because they still need a daddy. So, take her butt to court and get some visitation rights. So, stop hiding behind what she is doing or saying because she’ll have to stand before God on that. Finally, a woman is destined to be her husband’s watchman because who else, besides God, can have his back better than his woman? It’s like 2 police detectives who are partners. They have to have faith and trust in one another to know that when they go into a hostile situation, they are covered by the person standing behind them. It’s the same way in marriage. Your man is stronger, wiser, more determined and better at what he does when he knows he has someone just as strong, wise and determined standing behind him. (By the way ladies, standing behind your man doesn’t make you less than a woman so stop thinking you have to always stand beside him because standing behind him shields and protects you). You are his watchman because Proverbs 31:11-12 says, “Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” Men, be the man God has destined you to be. Just because you’ve fallen and made some mistakes, so what, get up and dust yourself and start being who you are supposed to be. Provide for you home, love and respect your wife and raise your children! God has made you the head, so your family needs and depends on you.