Doing God's work, one step at a time

Have you ever been reflecting on events in the past and said, “Man I wish I would have handled that situation differently!” Growing up my parents would always say shoulda, coulda, woulda! Naturally at the time I had no idea what that meant. Since then, in my life, I have heard so many people lament on their past wishing that they had done things so much differently than they did. If we were to follow their line of thinking, we could waste our entire lives regretting the choices of our past while never realizing the full truth: God is with us and He intervenes on our behalf for the betterment of His kingdom. I chose Psalm 46 because it is one of my favorite Psalms because I believe it to speak the words of Truth that God will never forsake us. If you would, follow along with me please. Psalm 46 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth A song. 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the...

Offering Devotion At this time each week, we reach the portion of our service where we pass the plates and bring our tithes before God. As we come together and the plate passes before you, I urge you to think and reflect on a few things. As I go on, please keep this one thought in mind… We, as humans, are creatures of habit. We go through the motions sometimes and don’t think outside of the box. Before I go too far, I want to define a couple words…words that to me seemed elementary and didn’t need defining, but yet I felt the Spirit guide me to look them up anyway. This is what I found. The word Sacrifice means –something given up or lost OR the destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else. Offering means – a contribution to the support of a church OR a SACRIFICE ceremonially offered as a part of worship. (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary) 1 Peter 2:5 says- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, of...

I had a thought for a sermon and thought I'd share part of it on my blog. Today’s Sermon is Titled “Renovating our ‘house’”. Our house, referring to our bodies as the Temple of the Holy Spirit as stated in our text for today, 1 Corinthians 3: 5-17. The sermon hit me as I was working at the Huddle House, thinking of what I had to do that evening in preparation to the renovation of my mother-in-law’s house. It hit me that so many times we, as Christians, focus our energy on the physical things of the world without one thought to the spiritual side of our being. These days we don’t live in our houses for 50 plus years like we did in the last century. My grandfather still lives in the house he and my grandma bought and paid for in 1955, even after her passing. These days instead of staying put, we’re more often inclined to move around. With that being said, we still renovate our houses today. We make changes every 5 years, maybe more often, maybe less, but still yet, we make changes, n...

When is it that we find out what we're really made of? Is it during the good times? Perhaps it's during the times when we don't know where to turn. Usually during the trials in our life is when we find our inner strength. During these past few months, the trials have come as thick as the "Ole' 96'er". But during these trials, unlike in the past, this time I have stood my ground, with my Lord Jesus by my side giving me His strength. Too many times in my life I have run from trouble. Finally for the first time in my life I am sticking my ground. I am not letting the powers of evil deter me from my task given by God. I made a vow to God that I would follow where He leads me, so in order to keep that vow, I must be strong and stand my ground. How are you at standing your ground? Do you have a tendency to run away from trouble? Do you not deal with the things in life that need to be dealt with? When we stand our ground, we need to be sure that we don't let...

As my education furthers and I feel the tugging of God at my heart telling me that I am ready for a ministry and I should be ready to accept a position, I am wondering what everyone's opinions are on this subject. Many of the people at my school and in my classes working to achieve their Bachelor's degrees are in or have been in the ministry even without the proper education. I was at my family's house around a month ago and received heavy resistance from them when I told them I am applying for paid positions in churches. They believe it's not right because I do not have the proper education. Keep in mind that these are the people who are also criticizing me for going into ministry in the first place as well. In my opinion, if we refuse to accept it when someone says that God is calling them to be a preacher, even without an education, who are we to doubt that? If we do doubt it, aren't we putting a box around God and saying that He couldn't possibly prepare som...

It's been a while!! Here's the topic: Life Plan and Personal Mission. Do you have a Life Plan and Personal Mission? I just completed my Personal Planning and Management Bible class. Only 3% of America today says that they actually plan. I mean make goals, write out strategies, the whole works. What about a Personal Mission statement? Do you have a Mission in Life?? Here is mine: To serve God in the way He calls me, anywhere He calls me, anytime, To recapture areas where the enemy has taken hold, and Raise my children and love my family like Christ loved the church. Tell me more about whether you do or not and why?!

I have been watching the media ever since my last post and they've been going on about "the end of Christianity in America". For real??? I really hadn't noticed! I will agree that there are problems with some Christians, but hey, we're all sinners, right?? We will never perfect, but there are standards. For example, on AC360 the other day, Anderson had 2 people, one was a reverend, the other was some kinda Theological professor at a university I think, I can't remember. Anyway, Anderson (whom I like very much) was pitting these two against each other and against Rick Warren (author of "The Purpose Driven Life"). The discussion was about proposition 8 in California. These two are arguing the end of Christian America because they've allowed gays to marry. Let's clear something up. There are two issues in the paragraph, gay and abortion. I don't believe gays should marry, it says in Genesis that God created man to procreate. Why would G...