Daily Devotional – 7/11/18 “What has happened?”

I don’t know if you are familiar with the gospel singer, LeAndria Johnson and if you have heard her rants on last week (she has since issued an apology to those she offended) but in her videos, she angrily says, “F Christianity and F the church.” Some people fired back at her use of the F bomb and other curse words while others agreed and encouraged her. Here is my take on this … Her delivery was wrong but she had some valid points. See, her outcry wasn’t against God but against the politics of the church. While she spoke from a place of hurt and anger, she should have waited until she calmed down to get her point across, in a much better way. Yet, I am left to ask, “What has happened to the church?” By church, I mean people who claim to love and follow God. I’m looking and He is not pleased. Please understand, I am NOT perfect but I have some questions. Why has fame and fortune overshadowed going and making disciples? Why has being on the latest conference overshadowed saving souls and offering Christ? When did it become about custom suits and tailored made dresses? When did the amount of members become important and not deliverance? Why has rebellion become popular? And before you say it hasn’t, look around. You can have a pastor who is removed from his/her assignment of shepherd, due to his/her actions and instead of getting clean, they simply start another church. When I say getting clean, I am speaking of anything that keeps them outside of God’s will.

What has happened? You have people, still doing the work of the Lord, who He has snatched the anointing from and the only reason they are still being glorified is because of their name and you like their method of preaching. Yet, if you were to really listen to their messages, when you are not in flesh, you’d quickly hear there is no oil. This is why most of their messages is throwing shots at their ‘enemy.’ Get out of your flesh! Do you not see that a lot of our youth and young adults are missing from the church because they can’t get any nutrition from the teaching? Most of them are longing for God and all they get is a twenty-minute sermon of your whoop and taking Jesus to the cross. They are hungry for God yet leaving worship slayed and not delivered. What has happened? When will you stop preaching these feel good messages of promise (milk) and teach about the sacrifice, the suffering, the stretching, the strengthening and the salvation (meat)? Because these are all the things we have to go through to get the promise. This is why I don’t want to worship with perfect people. I want to worship with those who have some scars and some testimonies of how God delivered them from addictions. I want to fellowship with some folk who has a criminal history yet now declaring they’ve been changed and live it. I want to worship with some folk who don’t brag about what they have but boast about what God has done. I don’t want to rub elbows with the rich and famous but I will share the altar with the righteous and favored.

Daily Devotional – 7/10/18 “How accurate is your reaction?”

We see the news stories, we read the social media post and we even hear about what happened to someone we know and reaction is usually what you would have said or done. But how accurate is your reaction? I mean, how do you know what you would do in a situation, you’ve never been in? How do you know how you’d react, if you’ve never come face to face with danger? Don’t you know fear has the power to paralyze you? I get it. The bible says God does not give us a spirit of fear but baby flesh is something else. All you have to do is get woken up, in the middle of the night by a strange sound or let someone walk up on you when you aren’t paying attention or have a gun stuck in your face. You don’t know how you’ll respond so stop speculating on what you’d do in a situation if you’ve never been in it. Stop offering your advice on something you know nothing about. In other words, hush! Because it is easy to say what you would do, when you are on the outside looking in. But how accurate is your reaction? Sure, you’ve experienced grief but you can’t tell a mother, who has lost her only child, how it feels when you haven’t. Losing a parent is different from losing a sibling, losing a sibling is different from losing a spouse and losing a spouse is different from losing a child. Grief is grief but there are different levels and if you haven’t experienced, firsthand, what someone is going through, HUSH!

Yes, it’s easy to say you’d leave an abusive spouse if you have never come face to face with a monster who looks like your husband or wife. Of course, you can say how fast you’d leave somebody who cheats on you, if you’ve never been cheated on by a man or woman who you love with all of you and willing to give another chance. It’s easy to say how you’d deal with someone who has mental issues until that person is a brother, mother, sister or father. You can say, you’d walk away from a fight until it’s your life on the line. You just don’t know how you’d react. Maybe you will react differently and maybe you will not but you don’t know until you’re faced with the same situation. So, please, stop judging people who have made decisions you might not have made. Your faith may be stronger and wider than theirs. However, the bible says in Romans 14:1, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” Do not make people feel bad over the choice they had to make while in the middle of a situation. Do not judge folk over what they did when anger was consuming them. Do not condemn those who make a mistake. Bible says in Romans 15:1, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” And if what I’ve shared isn’t enough, just remember this … It may be me today but it could be you tomorrow so be mindful of how you react to my reaction.

Daily Devotional – 7/9/18 “God’s Garage!”

A friend posed a question to Facebook yesterday asking, “Why are you really going to church?” I replied as honest as I knew how because I can remember, just a few years ago, when I was going to church but church wasn’t in me. I was going through the motions of looking religious because it was what I was used too but I was leaving worship with everything but religion. I would get up on Sunday and dress the part but I wasn’t living it. I’d sing in the choir and serve in positions but there was nothing genuine about my praise. Now though, my thoughts and actions have changed. It didn’t happen overnight and neither am I perfect but I had to change. Why? Because I wasn’t being true to me, let’s not even talk about what I was doing to God. But then one day, I woke up tired of suffering and playing. Now, today, when I go to church; I treat it as my routine checkup in God’s Garage. See, I have come to realize that going to worship is like going to a mechanic’s shop and unlike getting your oil changed every 3000 miles, it’s getting your oil renewed every 8640 minutes. Yea, going to worship is to make sure you have the right amount of ‘living water’ so you don’t overheat. Going to worship is checking to make sure all of your parts are working properly so you don’t give out, on your way. And going to worship, allows you to fellowship with others who may not be in pristine condition like you are. You know how you sit in the dealership’s waiting area? Worship is God’s Garage waiting area. While you’re there, you can chat with others who are there.

When you do, you may find somebody who is at their wit’s end and you can offer hope. You may connect with somebody who is fearful of the work that is needed to get them right but you can offer hope because you know the mechanic personally and you can testify of His work ethic. You may even talk to somebody who is thinking about changing their mechanic but you can offer hope because you’ve been where they are and walked in their shoes. You can offer hope because you’ve been utilizing this mechanic’s shop for a while and His work speaks for itself. Why do I go to church? To make sure my oil isn’t low and if it is, to get it topped off. Why do I go to church? To make sure everything is at the level it should be in order to work effectively. Why do I go to church? To give hope to somebody who may be struggling with paying what it cost to the mechanic. This is why God’s Garage poster of ‘Please Come Again’ says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:19-25).”

Daily Devotional – 7/3/18 “Overstaying your welcome!”

You cannot blame folk for the conditions you find yourself in, when you are the one overstaying your welcome. In Matthew 10, when Jesus sends the 12 apostles out, He did so giving them authority over unclean spirits AND with instructions. He told them don’t travel the road of the Gentiles or enter the Samaritan towns but seek the lost sheep of Israel. He told them what to preach, what to carry and not carry, what house(s) to stay in and those to leave. Bible shares in Matthew 10:11-14, “Whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy and stay at his house until you move on. As you enter the house, greet its occupants. If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.” Had they overstayed, they would have been outside of Jesus’ instructions. Some of you are finding yourself in unbearable conditions because you didn’t follow the instructions. You know God told you not to go but you did anyway. However, you didn’t just go and visit but your silly self moved in and now you’re crying, acting like you don’t know why you can’t sleep. You weren’t supposed to be there. God showed you the signs and you still went. God answered your questions and you still haven’t packed up and left. Stop staying in placing you are not welcome.

How do you know you’ve overstayed your welcome? You’re uncomfortable. Think about it. How well do you sleep in an uncomfortable place? Can you truly get peace in a place that is painful? Can you let your guard down in a place you don’t feel safe? I can answer it. NO! Some years ago, when I first accepted my calling, God told me it was time for us to move from the apartment we were living in. Our lease was up and although we had signed a new lease, it couldn’t be found. We didn’t realize it but it was God working. He was forcing us out of our uncomfortable place. And because we were obedient, our life changed suddenly. I have shared this before but we’d overstayed our welcome and I knew it but I was being stubborn. Yet, He told us to move. No lie, one weekend we packed our entire apartment without having a place to stay and it was the best decision we could have ever made. When we stopped overstaying our welcome, our life changed. Who are you that has overstayed your welcome? Who are you that is ignoring God’s command to move? Keep staying, if you want but you cannot blame folk for the conditions you find yourself in when you are the one who will not follow instructions and overstaying your welcome. Proverbs 25:17, “Don’t visit your neighbors too often, or you will wear out your welcome.”

WRITING IS NOT FOR WIMPS!

It takes hard work, patience, determination, passion, money AND courage. No, it doesn’t take some of these, it takes all of these.

1. Hard work – you have to sacrifice time hanging out, time sleeping; time period to get it done. For some, writing is full time but it still takes hard work. You NEVER give up!

2. Patience – it takes patience to build a following, to get people to believe in you, to make it to bestseller and to see a return on your investment. You NEVER give up!

3. Determination – Who will work harder for you than you! You have to be determined to make it. Which means … you NEVER give up!

4. Passion – writing can be a career but it works better when it’s a passion, something you believe in. Your passion is something that you’ll willingly lose sleep over. You NEVER give up!

5. Money – you have to spend money to make money. From book covers, editing, promotion, ads, newsletters, gifts, etc. You spend more when you are an Indie Author. You NEVER give up!

6. Courage – You absolutely have to have courage. Why? Because you will have strangers reading your work and some will not like it. You’ll have folk combing through every word and scene with a fine tooth comb, leaving “constructive criticism.” Writing takes thick but for the few who don’t like it, hundreds will. You NEVER give up!

But let me leave you with this piece of advice, don’t allow anyone to detour your dreams. Writing isn’t for wimps but it’s worth it! You are your best advocate. Make daggum sure everyone knows!

Just NEVER give up!

— Keep writing 🧡