Daily Devotional – 3/28/18 “What do you thirst for?”

Hours after Jesus was tried, beaten, mocked and hung; He says, through a dry mouth. “I thirst.” He’s probably feeling the effects of dehydration, by now because if you remember, He refused to drink the first time the soldiers offered Him the wine mingled with myrrh. But why would Jesus now say, I thirst? Again, this is simply Lakisha’s thoughts but here is what I gathered from this scripture. Jesus wasn’t requesting a drink of water but He was letting those, who were waiting on Him to die, know His body now lacked what it needed to endure life. You don’t have to take me at my work, I told you this is just me allowing you to peek into my thoughts, but when I looked up the words thirst and thirsty it says this. Thirst is a lack of the liquid needed to sustain life and thirsty is a need to drink something. If you look up the word thirst in Hebrew, you will see that it signifies a strong spiritual desire. So in essence when Jesus said in John 19:28, “I thirst,” He was saying, “I thirst for my daddy.” This is why when the soldiers put the vinegar soaked sponge to Jesus’ lips, bible says in John 19:30, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished:” and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Beloved, what do you thirst for? It is to be famous or faithful? Do you thirst to be greedy or grateful? Do you thirst after the word or the world? Do you thirst for that which can sustain your life or satisfy your momentary moment? What do you thirst after? As for me, I thirst for what I’ve been given access to that’s never-ending like Psalm 42:2, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” Because I want to be one of those counted in the number that Revelation 7:14-17 speaks of when it shares, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to fountains of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” This is what I thirst for. What about you?

Daily Devotional – 3/27/18 “Make it personal!”

I don’t proclaim to be a bible scholar. I don’t know every scripture. In fact, I don’t even know where every book of the bible is located. I used to be able to name them all in order but child, time has changed some things. Anyway, my purpose in saying this is, in reading and studying the bible, God has given us answers to everything we can possibly think of. He tells us how to overcome evil, how to pray, how to seek Him, what to ask for, His promises, His commandments and etc. However, the one thing the bible doesn’t show us is how to deal when God is the one who is against us. In Matthew 27:46, while Jesus still hung on the cross, after He’d been nailed and pierced and while He suffered; He cries out from His flesh in Hebrew, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now, what is interesting and important here is, Jesus said this in Hebrew. Why is this interesting and important? Because most of those standing below Him, didn’t understand what He said. I know this because bible shares in Matthew 27:47, “When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

Jesus was having a human moment, where He probably felt disconnected from His father. We’ve all had those but this is not what I need you to focus on. I need you to see that Jesus cried out to His Father in a language His Father understood but the people didn’t. They didn’t need to know that Jesus felt forsaken and alone by the one He’s been telling them about all this time. Jesus didn’t need to broadcast to the crowd, His pain of feeling like His Father had abandoned Him. Because no matter how Jesus felt, this was an intimate moment between He and His father. And sometimes beloved, you’ll feel just like Jesus; forsaken, suffering and alone. There might be a time you feel like God is intentionally ignoring you, a time you feel like He’s deserted you and you want to cry out. That’s fine but sometimes, the moment you need to have is not for people but for purpose. Sometimes, your cry needs to be personal between you and your Father because the fact of the matter is, some of those standing around are happy about your suffering and aren’t listening anyway. Those who heard Jesus, only caught the first word of what He said and assumed He was calling on Elijah. Imagine what those around you hear.

Book Lover’s Appreciation

29102022_10155404654213595_2992966751726333816_n

Hey Readers!

Please join me, this Saturday, March 31st for Book Lovers Appreciation Day in conjunction with The Life Center Community Festival. This day of family fun from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. will feature food trucks, entertainment, prizes, a Kids Korner with story hour (@ 2 p.m.), an Easter Egg Hunt and more! The best part is you get to mix and mingle with some of your favorite authors and receive a discount on their books.

This event will take place at The Life Center is located at 6385 Winchester Rd. (The Old Barnes & Noble). AND admission is FREE. The first 40 adults will receive a special gift bag.

For more information, check out the FACEBOOK Page

28954482_10155445563473595_4361586255995624327_o

Daily Devotional – 3/26/18 “Who are you beholding?”

As we get closer to the day set aside as Resurrection Sunday, I am still in the vein of Jesus being on the cross. While He hung there, He looked down to see His mother, Mary weeping to whom He said, “Woman, behold your son” and to one of the disciples He said, “Behold your mother.” (John 19:26-27). Now, I don’t know about you but the more I read this particular scripture, the more it confused me because I have to question the whereabouts of Jesus’ brothers? We know He had some but where are they? If your sibling is on trial and being prosecuted, would you not be there? Where are His brothers? However, here is what I have come to realize. Just because Jesus is in the home, it doesn’t mean everybody in the home is saved. Yea, you can say all day long, “As for me and my house,” but we all know you can probably save the actual house before you can, all the folk in it. This doesn’t negate your belief but people have to choose Jesus for themselves. Sure, you can drag them to church every Sunday and Wednesday but it still does not mean they’ll be saved. And we know the brothers of Jesus doubted His power because Jesus said in Mark 6:4, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”

Beloved look, I don’t care how well I preach and teach the gospel; there are still some folk in my family who will not believe. However, I cannot stop because I still have others who desire the smell and taste of Jesus. By why would Jesus say this to Mary? Well, this is Lakisha’s logic of thinking and I believe when Jesus sees His mother weeping over the agony of His sacrifice, He needed her to have somebody to lean on that understood the pain she was going through. Yea, it’s fine to be around family but if said family isn’t saved, they might not understand the difficulty of Mary’s suffering. Get this though, Jesus didn’t tell John and Mary to take care of one another, He simply said behold as to watch, see and observe. In other words, Jesus was telling them to now see the new relationship amongst those who believe in His Father. What does this mean? Simply to say, you may have to depend on, walk beside and agree with some folk, now, who aren’t related by DNA but by GOD. Because we know, or we ought to know that if the relationship is right; everything else should fall into place. So I have to ask, what or who are you beholding and are they beneficial to your spiritual walk?