Greetings!
I know. I know. It seemed like I fell off the face of the earth. It's been six months since I last posted something. THAT is outrageous even for me. I have taken procrastination to a whole new level, but with a new year, brings new hope.
I have been in a season of testing. I know without a doubt what my purpose is, but even knowing that, I have still been vulnerable to the enemy's attacks on my mind at times. That is why it is so important to know who you are in Christ. That is the only way that we will be able to put the enemy in his place. Because I knew that Christ had saved me and delivered me from the enemy, I knew what to do. I knew that I had to listen for God's voice by meditating and reading His word, and I knew that I had to stay in prayer and surround myself with others who knew how to pray. The enemy is already defeated--he just doesn't want us to know that. God has given us everything we need to conquer the enemy...right inside of us. We just have to call on Him.
This year, I will attempt to take our discussions in a new direction. Our church has begun to really step up our efforts to evangelize. To let others know about the goodness of the Lord. My hope is that through this medium we will together become enlightened in that area. That we will grow together, and that we will use everything we learn to be soul winners for Christ.
If you have any thoughts on the subject of evangelism, please let us know about it. The only way we can defeat the enemy at his schemes is if we work together.
Until next time...
Be blessed!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, July 18, 2011
This is a new Day!
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm 118:24
God is moving like never before. He has called us to a higher purpose and it’s time to stop being afraid. To stop walking like we don’t know who we are or what we can do. John 14:12 says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (NIV)” God would never give us a work to do and then not give us everything we need to succeed. That’s not the kind of God we serve.
This month, my focus has been on faith. I know what God can do and even though I do, I still have doubts every now and then. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have faith, it just means that I am not exercising it like I should. I know that there is nothing wrong with my faith; the problem is with my relationship with Christ. I have been taking Him for granted and when I neglect my time with the Father, I feel weak and powerless.
I guess that’s how I should feel. As a follower of Christ, I am to do whatever is necessary to maintain that connection to the Father and when I don’t do that, I should feel weak. I can’t make it without Him and I’m not supposed to. I love the Lord more than anything. I read His word; I pray, I stay connected to my church and I check in regularly with my accountability buddies, but I don’t love on Him the way I should. I know that He will be there no matter what and I sometimes take that for granted. I know that no matter what I do, He won’t stop loving me. I do all of those things, but I have learned that God expects more.
God wants us to come to Him for everything. Not just those things we can’t handle. Don’t let the enemy trick you into believing anything else. He will whisper things that are untrue. Don’t you believe him. He is a liar and the truth in not in him. Walk knowing that you carry The King within you.
This is a new day. In Isaiah 43:19, it says, "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." You have the choice right now to change your thinking. God has a plan for you. Don’t let the enemy keep you from it. We will make mistakes…sometimes the same ones over and over again. Just take those mistakes and let them catapult you into your future. Don’t let them stop you. Learn to lean fully on the one who can keep you from falling. He will show you great and mighty things—if you let Him.
We have victory in Jesus, we just have to believe it.
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm 118:24
God is moving like never before. He has called us to a higher purpose and it’s time to stop being afraid. To stop walking like we don’t know who we are or what we can do. John 14:12 says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (NIV)” God would never give us a work to do and then not give us everything we need to succeed. That’s not the kind of God we serve.
This month, my focus has been on faith. I know what God can do and even though I do, I still have doubts every now and then. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have faith, it just means that I am not exercising it like I should. I know that there is nothing wrong with my faith; the problem is with my relationship with Christ. I have been taking Him for granted and when I neglect my time with the Father, I feel weak and powerless.
I guess that’s how I should feel. As a follower of Christ, I am to do whatever is necessary to maintain that connection to the Father and when I don’t do that, I should feel weak. I can’t make it without Him and I’m not supposed to. I love the Lord more than anything. I read His word; I pray, I stay connected to my church and I check in regularly with my accountability buddies, but I don’t love on Him the way I should. I know that He will be there no matter what and I sometimes take that for granted. I know that no matter what I do, He won’t stop loving me. I do all of those things, but I have learned that God expects more.
God wants us to come to Him for everything. Not just those things we can’t handle. Don’t let the enemy trick you into believing anything else. He will whisper things that are untrue. Don’t you believe him. He is a liar and the truth in not in him. Walk knowing that you carry The King within you.
This is a new day. In Isaiah 43:19, it says, "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." You have the choice right now to change your thinking. God has a plan for you. Don’t let the enemy keep you from it. We will make mistakes…sometimes the same ones over and over again. Just take those mistakes and let them catapult you into your future. Don’t let them stop you. Learn to lean fully on the one who can keep you from falling. He will show you great and mighty things—if you let Him.
We have victory in Jesus, we just have to believe it.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Greetings!
Here we are at the end of April. Spring is in full bloom. Rain is replenishing the earth and the trees and plants are starting to respond. New life...
This is my favorite time of year. I love new beginnings. It's our opportunity to do it over. Maybe you didn't get that project started yet or you went off your diet after two weeks...or you really meant to consistently update your blog (it's a work in progress). This is your do over. That's what God did when He sent His Son to the cross. God was saying that He knew we were not perfect, but His love for us was so strong and so deep that He was willing to devise a plan to bring us back to Him. He wasn't willing to let us go. What an awesome God!
In this month, we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is also the time to reflect and take note of what we have done with our lives. Are we really making the most of our time and our talents? Are we doing what we can to help win souls to Christ? Our mission is to stay the course, keep the faith and never, never give up. Yep, we are going to make mistakes, but that's what learning is all about. There is no condemnation in Christ, so when you make a mistake, repent, ask for forgiveness and then move on. It's that simple...we just make it hard.
So, in this month of new beginnings...simply begin again.
Be blessed!
Here we are at the end of April. Spring is in full bloom. Rain is replenishing the earth and the trees and plants are starting to respond. New life...
This is my favorite time of year. I love new beginnings. It's our opportunity to do it over. Maybe you didn't get that project started yet or you went off your diet after two weeks...or you really meant to consistently update your blog (it's a work in progress). This is your do over. That's what God did when He sent His Son to the cross. God was saying that He knew we were not perfect, but His love for us was so strong and so deep that He was willing to devise a plan to bring us back to Him. He wasn't willing to let us go. What an awesome God!
In this month, we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is also the time to reflect and take note of what we have done with our lives. Are we really making the most of our time and our talents? Are we doing what we can to help win souls to Christ? Our mission is to stay the course, keep the faith and never, never give up. Yep, we are going to make mistakes, but that's what learning is all about. There is no condemnation in Christ, so when you make a mistake, repent, ask for forgiveness and then move on. It's that simple...we just make it hard.
So, in this month of new beginnings...simply begin again.
Be blessed!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
In Celebration
Greetings!
As you read this, we are well into 2011. You may also notice that I have been a little slow in posting lately. With so many ways to communicate, it is sometimes hard to keep up. It’s an all day event to read your emails, update your blog, check in with Facebook, try to stay LinkedIn and Tweet. I was speaking with a friend recently and we were talking about how many different ways there are of communicating. The funny thing is...with so many ways you would think that families would be closer and we’d talk to friends more, but sadly that’s not the case.
One of my missions this year is to love more and to not spend so much time trying to keep up with technology. I don’t want to become so technically inclined that I forget how to have a real conversation.
The other thing I want to do this year is to learn to celebrate. I’m not talking about just the big things—I want to celebrate everything. I want to celebrate when God opens a door, but I also want to celebrate when He closes one. I want to celebrate the special occasions, but I also want to celebrate the little things like being able to walk without assistance. I want to celebrate having a great day, but I also want to celebrate simply waking up.
Simply put…I want to live purposefully. I want my life to reflect how grateful I am to God for everything. Even the things I don’t yet know about. He has kept me through some really rough times and He keeps me still. So this year I’m going to honor Him by loving you and celebrating Him.
How about you?
Until next time…
Be blessed!
As you read this, we are well into 2011. You may also notice that I have been a little slow in posting lately. With so many ways to communicate, it is sometimes hard to keep up. It’s an all day event to read your emails, update your blog, check in with Facebook, try to stay LinkedIn and Tweet. I was speaking with a friend recently and we were talking about how many different ways there are of communicating. The funny thing is...with so many ways you would think that families would be closer and we’d talk to friends more, but sadly that’s not the case.
One of my missions this year is to love more and to not spend so much time trying to keep up with technology. I don’t want to become so technically inclined that I forget how to have a real conversation.
The other thing I want to do this year is to learn to celebrate. I’m not talking about just the big things—I want to celebrate everything. I want to celebrate when God opens a door, but I also want to celebrate when He closes one. I want to celebrate the special occasions, but I also want to celebrate the little things like being able to walk without assistance. I want to celebrate having a great day, but I also want to celebrate simply waking up.
Simply put…I want to live purposefully. I want my life to reflect how grateful I am to God for everything. Even the things I don’t yet know about. He has kept me through some really rough times and He keeps me still. So this year I’m going to honor Him by loving you and celebrating Him.
How about you?
Until next time…
Be blessed!
Friday, November 26, 2010
More Than Thankful
Greetings!
I cannot believe we just celebrated Thanksgiving. It's incredible to think that we are almost at the end of the year and as usual it makes me think back over the past year. I start wondering if I've accomplished at least some of the things I set out to do. I know that I’ve fallen short on a few of the things I wanted to achieve, but I have gone so much further in others, that it makes up for the ones that I may have missed.
This time of year also makes me think about the things that I am grateful for. The dictionary lists grateful as being appreciative of benefits received; thankful. Although, that is a good start, it doesn’t seem like enough when it comes to God. That means then that we have to show Him how grateful we are. But how do we do that you might ask? We do that through worship and praise. That means that we have to praise Him not because He’s done things for us, but simply because He is.
If we really understood the power that comes from loving and living for God, we would never stop praising Him! We have got to learn how to let go and really focus on God without having an agenda. So, this year, that's what my personal goal is going to be. I'm going to learn how to let God be God in my life and stop trying to understand everything. I don't need to know the plan, I just need to trust the man who does.
How many of you are ready to join me?
Until next time...
Be blessed!
I cannot believe we just celebrated Thanksgiving. It's incredible to think that we are almost at the end of the year and as usual it makes me think back over the past year. I start wondering if I've accomplished at least some of the things I set out to do. I know that I’ve fallen short on a few of the things I wanted to achieve, but I have gone so much further in others, that it makes up for the ones that I may have missed.
This time of year also makes me think about the things that I am grateful for. The dictionary lists grateful as being appreciative of benefits received; thankful. Although, that is a good start, it doesn’t seem like enough when it comes to God. That means then that we have to show Him how grateful we are. But how do we do that you might ask? We do that through worship and praise. That means that we have to praise Him not because He’s done things for us, but simply because He is.
If we really understood the power that comes from loving and living for God, we would never stop praising Him! We have got to learn how to let go and really focus on God without having an agenda. So, this year, that's what my personal goal is going to be. I'm going to learn how to let God be God in my life and stop trying to understand everything. I don't need to know the plan, I just need to trust the man who does.
How many of you are ready to join me?
Until next time...
Be blessed!
Friday, October 8, 2010
God is doing a new thing!
Greetings!
This month, I want to talk to you about God's blessings. The past couple of months have been so awesome. God has blessed me in ways that I can't even explain. To start, I accepted God's call into the ministry and did my initial sermon on August 27th. That alone would have been enough, but He didn't stop there. I was one of the participants at the Baltimore Book Festival with the Black Writers Guild on September 19th, and this month, I did a radio interview with Doresa Harvey of Heaven 600 and had a book signing at A Quiet Place Book Store in Baltimore.
God has really been showing me that once I stop trying to figure it all out by myself, and take the limits off of what He can do in my life, He will show me things that I never even imagined and take me places that I have never been. And guess what? This is only the beginning. Praise God!
I was recently at a Women's Ministry meeting at my church and at a certain point in the meeting, the Director always asks us to share in any testimonies, words of encouragement, etc. Well, if anyone should have a testimony it should have been me, right? You would think that I, the author of "Let My Life Be A Testimony" would definitely have something to share. I sat there feeling like I was going to burst, because God had been so good to me that I didn't even know where to start, but that night, I didn't share--almost no one did. The Director had to go around the room and just point out the different ways that she knew we had been blessed. That was embarrassing.
Later that night, when I was on my way home I wondered why I didn't share the many blessings that God had been pouring over my life and I realized it was because I felt almost like I would be bragging. How crazy is that?!!! That's exactly what the enemy wants us to believe. That no one cares about our blessings. That there are people who are really hurting and here you are being blessed and you have the nerve to tell everybody about it. When the Holy Spirit revealed what I was doing, I made a promise not to do that again.
The only way that we can truly be free in the Lord is if we come to Him with an open heart, believing that everything we are going through, good and bad, serves a purpose in the plan. When God moves you to share, stop second guessing Him and just do it. We have to learn to celebrate the wonder of God and all the things He is doing to us and through us.
So, that means that when God blesses you--tell somebody. Yes, you are bragging, but you're bragging about the goodness of your Father--not you. It's all about Him.
Until next time...
Be blessed!
This month, I want to talk to you about God's blessings. The past couple of months have been so awesome. God has blessed me in ways that I can't even explain. To start, I accepted God's call into the ministry and did my initial sermon on August 27th. That alone would have been enough, but He didn't stop there. I was one of the participants at the Baltimore Book Festival with the Black Writers Guild on September 19th, and this month, I did a radio interview with Doresa Harvey of Heaven 600 and had a book signing at A Quiet Place Book Store in Baltimore.
God has really been showing me that once I stop trying to figure it all out by myself, and take the limits off of what He can do in my life, He will show me things that I never even imagined and take me places that I have never been. And guess what? This is only the beginning. Praise God!
I was recently at a Women's Ministry meeting at my church and at a certain point in the meeting, the Director always asks us to share in any testimonies, words of encouragement, etc. Well, if anyone should have a testimony it should have been me, right? You would think that I, the author of "Let My Life Be A Testimony" would definitely have something to share. I sat there feeling like I was going to burst, because God had been so good to me that I didn't even know where to start, but that night, I didn't share--almost no one did. The Director had to go around the room and just point out the different ways that she knew we had been blessed. That was embarrassing.
Later that night, when I was on my way home I wondered why I didn't share the many blessings that God had been pouring over my life and I realized it was because I felt almost like I would be bragging. How crazy is that?!!! That's exactly what the enemy wants us to believe. That no one cares about our blessings. That there are people who are really hurting and here you are being blessed and you have the nerve to tell everybody about it. When the Holy Spirit revealed what I was doing, I made a promise not to do that again.
The only way that we can truly be free in the Lord is if we come to Him with an open heart, believing that everything we are going through, good and bad, serves a purpose in the plan. When God moves you to share, stop second guessing Him and just do it. We have to learn to celebrate the wonder of God and all the things He is doing to us and through us.
So, that means that when God blesses you--tell somebody. Yes, you are bragging, but you're bragging about the goodness of your Father--not you. It's all about Him.
Until next time...
Be blessed!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Greetings!
This month, I wanted to share with you an event I went to that may be helpful to you or a writer you know.
On Saturday, September 4th, The Black Writers Guild hosted How to Publish Your Book at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. A panel of writers presented information on everything from the writing process to what publishers to use.
The panelists included, Karla Brady, JC Faulk, Agnes N. Hopps and James S. Wright (please visit www.blackwritersguild.org) for more information on these writers. Also, one of the writers, Karla Brady, has documented her journey on her blog at cheapindieauthor.blogspot.com. The site includes several articles and links that will help any writer achieve their goal of becoming a published author.
Please also visit the following for upcoming events:
September
www.baltimorebookfestival.org.
www.aaculturalfestival.com/cms/
October
Book signing for Let My Life Be A Testimony at A Quiet Place (see Web site for details)
www.quietbooks.org
Until next time!
Be blessed
This month, I wanted to share with you an event I went to that may be helpful to you or a writer you know.
On Saturday, September 4th, The Black Writers Guild hosted How to Publish Your Book at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. A panel of writers presented information on everything from the writing process to what publishers to use.
The panelists included, Karla Brady, JC Faulk, Agnes N. Hopps and James S. Wright (please visit www.blackwritersguild.org) for more information on these writers. Also, one of the writers, Karla Brady, has documented her journey on her blog at cheapindieauthor.blogspot.com. The site includes several articles and links that will help any writer achieve their goal of becoming a published author.
Please also visit the following for upcoming events:
September
www.baltimorebookfestival.org.
www.aaculturalfestival.com/cms/
October
Book signing for Let My Life Be A Testimony at A Quiet Place (see Web site for details)
www.quietbooks.org
Until next time!
Be blessed
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