 Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” ~CSB
As Christians, we should enter rooms excited. We should enter the next phase of our journey through the doors of the unknown, excited because God’s presence and power are in those rooms. These are rooms that He has led us to so that His power can be used through us to bless us and others who He will place in our paths. As His servants we should always recognize His presence. It is through this recognition we have the courage to continue knowing that God will do a great work in where He has brought us. Through these doors and in these new rooms He will have people there who have prayed to Him for His healing, His guidance and His wisdom and they will be able to receive all of that from God who will use us to that. With the passing of my mother I realize the significance of this. I feel that inside of her ceasing to exist physically, she has just finished her race. She has just accomplished a mission assigned to her by God Almighty. And in this completion of entering the next phase of her journeys in life, hearts were healed. Those who intersected with her path who were broken, became mended. After everything God has done through her was complete, it was time for her to take her place in the kingdom of heaven. To be with Him and His Son Jesus Christ. She did this because she had the spiritual courage to walk through doors of unfamiliarity. She had the strength to endure rooms filled with the unknown and confusion. She trusted God to use her in the places He brought her to. When we lose someone, instead of looking at the space where they once lived, look at the legacy they carved throughout their life. Use what they did to affect us and we will find that we can also practice celebrating God as we enter doors to rooms we know nothing about. To trust God to use us to make a difference in this world. I say this because my mother is a great example. During her final days and hours in this world, she made it clear that she was prepared. Her body was weak, but her spirit was stronger than ever. She knew her time in her earthly body was coming to an end. But she knew her story wouldn’t end there. She knew that because of Jesus Christ, there was a place prepared for her. She prepared herself to enter those gates, “...with thanksgiving…” and into “...His courts with praise…” And that is exactly what she did on May 13th 2025. Are we living our lives so that God’s accomplishments in us will be done? Have we practiced walking through the doors in this life and entering into rooms with praise and thanksgiving? Instead of fear, reluctance and confusion? We need to, because this is good practice in preparing us to walk in thanksgiving and praise in everything we do. Let us live our lives allowing God to work his power and miracles through us so that we may leave His mark of healing in those who cross our paths. May God bless and keep you in His love and protection in His Son Jesus’ name. Amen
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 Matthew 14:30 “But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord save me!”
It can happen to all of us. We have a game plan. We write the blueprint out for our next journey. Then we gather and obtain the resources we need to begin that new journey. Along the way things happen. Sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as we plan. In fact, obstacles appear that seem to block or maybe even destroy an avenue we were attempting to move forward on. This is what happened to Peter. In the text above, Peter can see Jesus walking on the water. He asks Jesus, in verse 38, “Lord if it’s You, command me to come to You…” Jesus tells him to “...Come…” Peter starts off well. He gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water. This is how we begin as well. We pray and ask God for guidance just like Peter did. And in our prayers God will guide us. In anticipation of God answering our prayers, we step out of our boats and begin to walk on a path we’ve never walked before. We do it because God tells us to ‘...Come…’ But then it happens. The world around us will throw things at us. These obstacles represent the ‘wind’ in the scripture that took Peter’s attention. These obstacles can be people, situations, or past memories coming back to agitate unhealed wounds. When these things happen, we want to quit. We get frustrated as the obstacles thrown at us make us tired. We begin to lean toward negative ‘mindsets’ like, ‘Maybe this isn’t for me.’ We begin to sink in our own ‘oceans of trials’ as we, like Peter, take our eyes off Jesus and focus on all the chaos around us. Jesus already gave us what we need in verse 27, when He said, “Have courage!” Jesus not only tells us to be brave, He is also telling us that He has already conquered what we are afraid of. When we know Jesus has conquered, we can then accept the wind of chaos and trial, not as an obstacle but an ‘opportunity’. An opportunity to become stronger spiritually and an opportunity to grow stronger in our relationship with God through this process. Avoid sinking in the chaos of obstacles and stay above the waters by embracing the opportunities to be a better servant for the Lord. By believing that He has conquered the world. May God bless and keep you in his protection, love and grace as you journey in Jesus’ name. Amen  1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 “Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way–by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” ~AMP
A woman was asked to describe the process of Chemotherapy. She responded by saying that it reminded her of an ‘empty chair’. After being asked to elaborate on that view she said, “You go into a room with other people that are going through the same process as you are. Throughout the process, we talk and get to know each other. Eventually we all get to be close like a family sharing our stories through our endurance. Then one day you come to the room and notice an empty chair. That chair where a friend of mine once sat.” When we lose our loved ones or close friends it hurts. That hurt is hard to live with. There are those of us who will tell you that you never get over seeing that ‘empty chair’. But there is something we can do and there is something we must know. First we must take everything we have learned from our lost loved one. All that they were in affecting the good in others. We must allow that characteristic in that person to flow from us so that it may seed the same goodness in others as it did in us. Second, we must remember who we are. We are believers in the One True King. We are children of God. He loves and takes care of us. Through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, death has been defeated. Believing in the power of the cross allows us to know that God will one day raise, "...all who have fallen asleep in Jesus…” The power of everlasting life will surpass all pain where death tries to bring sorrow. When you find yourself falling spiritually in grief, remember, Jesus has conquered the world, and He has conquered death. May God bless and keep you strong, healed and protected in Jesus name. Amen  1 Corinthians 3:5-9 “Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us–-servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.” ~MSG
Paul is saying some good stuff here. We may plant seeds in the soil. Watering them as needed. But we still wait on God with his creative power for the seeds to grow into the flowers or vegetables they are to be. Let’s take this concept into what we do when we attempt to help our brothers and sisters in need. Whether it be trying to help someone financially or someone with an addiction, we must realize as servants there is only so much we can do under our own power. When we do not realize this, we get caught up with unnecessary feelings that come from anxiety. Anxiety that feeds our want and need for ‘success’. We want to feel like we have accomplished victory in our loved one’s shortcomings. But that is a victory we cannot achieve under our own power, In other words, not by ourselves. We must always understand that we are just servants who plant and water. We can plant the ideas and direction in helping our loved ones get financially independent. We can water the seeds we have planted in our loved ones going through addiction. But, physically that is as far as we can go as servants in the field of our Lord. After this we pray. We pray to God because it is Him who has the power of growth to be given to our loved ones. It is God who has the power of healing for those emotionally wounded. Asking God to guide us in doing our part in this miracle that is about to happen, is important. Then, we listen and follow God’s guidance. It is the power of the King that this miracle, the miracle that will come, will be from Him and Him alone. Our loved one’s will need this wisdom because this is what they will lean on to battle their demonic situations. This is what they will need to feed their spirits so that they will have ‘Holy Spirit help’ in battling their fleshly desires. Our part is to plant seeds and water those seeds with spiritual guidance. But it is God “...who gives the growth…’ of their strength and desire to live righteously. So, don’t blame yourselves. Instead focus that energy on praying for guidance as you do your part in lending assistance to our loved ones. After all, it is God who brought you together with them in the first place. He knows what He is doing. Let it be God who will give you both growth, through His miracle.  Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ESV
I have a memory of me when I was attending pre-school on the campus of Tennessee State University here in Nashville. The pre-school was in a building just across the street from Historic Hadley Park. How do I remember something I went through during my pre-school era? Well, it is because it was terrifying. My mother and I were about to get on an elevator. When the doors opened, I went in, like we always do. Now, I don’t remember what I was preoccupied with, but whatever it was, I didn’t realize I was on the elevator alone. My mother was talking to someone and she did not see me get on the elevator. When the doors shut, I turned around and realized I was by myself. Cut off from my only resource, my mother. I was terrified. I remember yelling and screaming because I was so afraid of being alone. In life, anxiety, fear and confusion lead us in the direction of our mistakes. They also lead us to make some bad decisions in our lives. We may not know it, but it comes from an embedded fear of thinking we are alone. We think we have to do things by ourselves. We think, if we don’t decide who will? What we don’t realize is, as God’s children, we must totally rely on God’s direction in our lives. When we go through our ‘elevator’ experiences in life, we must learn to stay calm, because God will never let anything happen to us. Just as the scripture above says, nothing can separate us from God and His love for us. Not even a pair of elevator doors. My mother eventually got that elevator to come back to where she was. And when those doors opened, I ran to her and hugged her with tears in my eyes. I remember her saying to me, “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.” Today as I remember her saying that, I not only hear her voice as clear as if it were yesterday; I also hear my Savior’s voice as well saying the same thing. Today, I know that I am not alone. We must continue to build our relationship with the Father so that we can hear Him when He leads. Knowing that he will bring that ‘elevator’, the one we are trapped in, right back to him and open the doors to a new level in our lives. A level we will have earned in the endurance of our fears. Knowing that we are not alone is the first step in embracing our calling as servants to the Most High. Knowing that God will always direct our path and never allow anything to separate us from Him. May God continue to bless you with power, protection and wisdom as you journey in Jesus’ name. Amen  James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” ~CSB
We hear the term, ‘relationship’ tossed around in church all the time. When it’s in the air like that do we actually catch it, or even try? If not, let’s see if I can catch it for you and give it to you. When we think about the action of ‘relationship’, think about it in the form of a question. For instance, what if someone asked you, “Hey, how well do you know your mama?” Wow, what a question! Our first reaction may be a feeling of being insulted. Who has the right to ask another about their mother? We ponder, ‘what are they trying to say?’ 'That’s my mama you talking about!' Feelings of frustration and curiosity to know why we are asked a question like that. Why, because we know our mothers. Now, let’s take that same question and put it a little different. “How well do you know Jesus?” Our reaction to this is much different. We come up with a lot of excuses to defend why we are Christians, “I got to church ‘every’ Sunday.” I ‘read’ my Bible!’ ‘I do Bible Study every week!’ But none of these excuses have the conviction we had when someone asked about how well we knew our own mothers. That, brother and sisters, is the example of ‘relationship’. If we do not have the same conviction about God, in the question asked, that we had when asked about our own mothers, we need to change some things up in our lives. When asked, “How well do you know God…” we should be ready to give a defense to how we feel! We should tell others about John 3:16, that God loves us so much that He sacrificed His One and Only Son. That we believe in this with all our hearts. And we show this and testify to this by sharing our relationship with God and what He has done in our lives. And if we are not there yet. In other words if we seek that godly relationship with the Father then we should pray for it. David helps us with our prayer in Psalm 143:8-12. Just ask God in thanksgiving following these scriptures in Psalm: Ask him to give us the experience of His love in the mornings when we wake. Ask Him to reveal to us the way we should travel in this world on the path He chose for us. Ask Him to rescue and protect us from our enemies. Go to Him for protection. And ask Him to teach us how to do His will in this world and lead us on ‘...level ground…’ Our relationship with God is important in how He uses His power within us. Not only to bless us, but others around us; our families, friends, co-workers and strangers. God wants all his children to have a chance at salvation and His best work is done through us. It is up to us to build that strong relationship with God. Just like we did with our mothers. Take the initiative to draw closer to God, and He will draw closer to you. May God bless and keep you safe, loved and healed in His Son Jesus’ name. Amen John 5:19 “Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things…’” ~CSB
Have you ever asked yourself, “Is this it?”, where your life is concerned. We may have a house and we may have a car. Our job is a job and all these things make us look at our lives and wonder, "Is this it?" By this time in our lives, some of us think we would have more or experience more. Well the first thing we have to do is make sure we are in the same place where God has led us and not in a place where we have led ourselves. When we do find that we are in a place where we have been led by the spirit, we must realize one thing, and that is we cannot walk the whole journey on our own. We were created by God, for Him to use us in His will for this world. In other words, in life, that ‘pause’ we feel is the place where God wants us to turn it over to Him, so He can take over. In the text above, Jesus says He is not ‘...able to do anything on His own…’ If our Lord and Savior wouldn’t move without God, then we shouldn’t either. God’s intention for us is great because in verse 20 He says, “For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing, and He will show Him greater works than these so that you will be amazed.” The key phrase here is, “...greater works…” God authorizes the Son by giving Him greater works. Jesus passes that favor on to us and confirms it in John 14:12, “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me (That’s Us!) will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these…” God loves us and has intent and purpose for our lives. We must take on the responsibility of following God’s lead for that purpose by putting ourselves in position. A position for Him to show His power to us and others around us, through us. We cannot do this alone. He did not create us to do so. That time of ‘pause’ in our lives should be embraced because this is the area where God wants to perform the next steps in our journey. He wants to do this for us. Jesus recognized this, and we should as well. May God bless and keep you under his umbrella of protection, direction and wisdom as we journey in Jesus name. Amen  Psalm 34:14 “Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.” ~CSB
You pull up to the grocery store. You park your car. As you get out of your car a man walks up to you angry. He yells at you claiming that you deliberately parked in a space where he was intending to park. He says you saw his intentions but you parked there anyway. In actuality, you did not see him and this is all a mistake. At this point, this man does nothing physical, but he is in your face and appearing confrontational. What do you do? Maybe the Lord heard someone praying for this man’s anger and God decides to allow this angry man to cross paths with one of His precious children. One of His children who has shown obedience and great spiritual strength in their walk in Christ. That chosen child is you. Now with this perspective I ask again, what do you do? Well, there may be many things you want to do under your own power. But this is a time where we allow God to take over and allow His healing power in blessings to do its work. This type of Christian behavior may be hard at first so let’s take a look at our situation first. We have a confrontation in front of us. A man arguing over a parking space. The evil one has influenced this man to create actions that will take away our obedience to God. It will take away our peace and the enemy hopes that by doing this, our actions in response will stand in the way of allowing God to do a great work in us. A great work in healing and blessing; not only for who is in our path; but also for us, in Jesus’ name. What we must do is ‘turn away’ from our feelings of participating in confrontation. We must ‘turn away’ from our feelings of embarrassment, hurt and anger. ‘Turn away and do what is good…’ God gives us an ‘out’ in Philippians 4:7 when He says that His peace will surpass any understanding we may have of a situation in front of us. In other words, we may not know what God is about to do through us when we stand in obedience to His Word in ‘any’ circumstance. The peace we have is knowing that God will use us to do the right thing, say the right thing and ‘be’ the righteous one in the room. This is where miracles happen. When we allow His peace to take over our thoughts and actions, He will guard our hearts and minds in His Son’s name. Although that situation above may be a hard one to work with, (should we ever be faced with it), we must prepare ourselves because the enemy is good for throwing weak spiritual minded people at us, because he wants us to fail as Christians. But fear not! ‘Seek God’s peace and pursue it!’ In that we can never go wrong. May God bless and protect you as you walk your journey in the name of Jesus. Amen  Ephesians 4:32 “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” ~CSB
These days when I think about forgiveness, I think about my second oldest daughter. Alysa was around ten years old when her mother and I divorced. Looking back on that time I was not the best father to her and her sister. What I didn’t know was the damage caused by my character and my actions. My alcohol addiction was still in its growing stages, but it was mature enough to affect how I treated her. First of all being in the military, I was not home a lot. But when I was, I did not spend a lot of quality time with Alysa. At that time, I considered my time off, ‘my time’. But that was far from the truth. Because of who I was then, I damaged the relationship between me and my daughter. In time I learned how much damage had been done. One of my mistakes happened after the divorce with Alysa’s mother. As far as my ‘weekends’ with her, I allowed my ten year old daughter to decide if she wanted to spend the weekend with me or not. She did not so I did not push the issue. I should have because that resulted in me not being there as a father to her in her younger years. Years later, because of my lack of stepping in, I received a phone call from her stating that she did not want to talk to me anymore. Fortunately this was a time when I was building a strong relationship with God. He led me to not give up, but to not be ‘pushy’ either. I shortened my calls with Alysa to once a month. Several months later we were able to have a breakthrough. God answered both our prayers and she allowed me to have a long and enlightening conversation with her. As a result of that conversation, Alysa forgave me. I could tell in her voice that she was still hurting. I could tell that she really did not want to forgive me at that time, but she did it anyway. It took awhile but we became closer. Today I can still tell its hard for her sometimes because she is stuck with the memories. Memories I was too inebriated to remember. But she fights everyday to remain righteous in her forgiveness of my past actions toward her. It is this power she demonstrates everyday in her relationship with me as her father that keeps me strong in my daily living as a servant to the kingdom. As far as forgiveness goes, once we receive it from those we hurt, we now must do better. We may not be able to change what we did, but we can make sure we show and live genuine love to all our brothers and sisters in Christ just as God created us to do. I 'love' because God loved me first. I continue to love those who hurt me because God taught me that, through my daughter's "...compassion and kindness..." Joshua 2:9; 12-13 “...I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us… 12 …Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my father’s family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death.” ~CSB
Rahab was a woman who was a prostitute. She had a history that people around her may have talked about in front of her as well as behind her back. Although in life we may take the wrong paths, God will still use us when we recognize who He is. In the second chapter of Joshua, Joshua sent two spies into the land God promised them. This land was ruled by a king who did not want to give up this land so easily. The spies met Rahab and she hid them in her home. She recognized them as God’s people. She saw God’s presence in them. So much so that when the King sent his men to apprehend the spies, Rahab covered for them. She not only kept the spies safe in her home, she sent the king’s men on a ‘wild goose chase’. Sending them in a pursuit in the wrong direction. This took courage on Rahab’s part to give false information to a sitting king. She risked her life because she was more afraid of God than the king. In her plea to the spies she acknowledged that everyone knew who they were. They all knew that God was with them and the land she lived in would be conquered by them. She simply asked that when they come and take the city, can they spare her family and all attached to them. The spies did just that. So, what does this mean to us? It doesn’t matter what we think we may be guilty of in our lives. We must understand that we serve a God that loves us. He has forgiven us no matter our past. This holds true as long as we embrace what we know about God and what we do with His love for us. Rahab wanted the men to succeed with God’s plan and wanted to do her part in that plan. And because of her actions, God blessed Rahab in spite of her past. Not only did He allow for her and her family to be saved that day, He also made Rahab an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Give your life to Christ and begin your journey to redemption and purpose. God loves you and His power is great enough to turn your ‘mess’ into His ‘message’ for your life. Amen |
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