You're Not the Only One

We are all chosen for a purpose.  A purpose that only we can fulfill. Don’t try to be someone God did not create you to be. Discover your spiritual gift and live by it.  Walk by faith and believe that He is always with us. Sing His Praises and Worship the King most high because you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Giving thanks to my lLord for the ho He is and all He had done!
#thankuLord

Sometimes we forget that it is the Lord who created situations that lead to individuals being in positions of leaderships. Sometimes they are placed in those positions to teach the people of God a lesson about who they are and that they are not their own – they belong to The Almighty God. They belong to the maker of the universe and should act accordingly. Sometimes they are placed in positions of leadership to teach the individual that there is only one God – and they are not that God.

Many times we forget this and make ourselves God. The one who condemns God’s people instead of lifting them up in their times of weakness. Or the one who refuses to see their own ways that may be making and or creating conflict. Or the one who chooses to hold grudges by withholding compassion and love from the objects our disdain for a person who is in authority over us. I have to remind myself of this fact on a regular basis. We are all human and as such subject to allowing our humanity to govern our behavior instead of the spirit of God.

Sometimes rulers are placed in positions of leadership to teach the individual that there is only one God – and they are not that God. Egos get in the way of God’s guidance and disaster ensues. The books of Isaiah and Amos are God’s reminder to His people Israel of the poor choices that they have made and the disgraceful behavior of their leaders, but they also talk about the punishment reaped by the consequences of sin. Yes, we have salvation from the Lord. Yes, we have forgiveness of our sins, but we live with the consequences of those sins. There is no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus. But that does not give is a license to sin.  We must always be mindful of who is truly in charge of our lives, and the who place rulers in positions of leadership.  What can we do when their behavior distresses us? Pray What do we do if we are the leaders who are oppressive in nature? Pray, repent, believe in forgiveness and strive for the Holy Spirit to master our human nature (Galatians 5:16) and pray for our thought life, our vocal expressions, and written expression to be taken captive by God and demonstrated the living lives of obedience to Him (2 Corinthians 10:5). Finally, brethren remember that God chooses rulers, in all positions of leadership. In the church, in government, and in our homes. Trust Him that he has made the right choice and live accordingly.

Webster’ definition of light is poignant.

a :  spiritual illuminationthe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it — John 1:5 (Revised Standard Version

With this definition in mind, how does the unsaved world see us? When we participate in social media does our presence make the newsfeed a better place or are we just a part of the conundrum that permeates social media with mindless twaddle? Are we shining examples of Christ’s love for all of humanity or have we become so engrossed in all things worldly that our light is not a bright as a firefly? For even on the blackest night, a firefly can still be seen. We must be seen as sources of spiritual light that illuminate the world in the midst of the darkness, hatred, self-loving and others debasing world in which we live. Now is the time for us to be the “priceless” bride of Christ standing up for that which is right in the sight of the Lord not society, or a political ideology. The church has become so intertwined itself into the fabric of society that we have forgotten our first love for the Lord, His word, His mission, His Kingdom purpose and His desire for all men to come to know Him. We are snuffing out our own candlestick like the church in Ephesus. We cannot fix our community. No politician can fix our communities. Only Jesus can transform lives thus transforming communities, counties, states, and nations. Be light, be salt, be Jesus in your nation. We live at a time where the darkness of the devil is attempting to envelop the world and the people of God are panicking and looking for men to solve a spiritual problem! Our purpose in this mayhem? Be light, Be Love, Be Jesus, Share His love for humanity instead of the indifference and hatred that is openly embracing nations across the world.

Scripture is very clear about our responsibility toward our brothers and sisters. Yet we demonstrate behaviors that are completely opposite to this Scripture. We hold outlier groups of people is disdain and name them as deplorable:

1. Republicans
2. Democrats
3. Libertarians
4. Alcoholics
5. Drug Addicts
6. Abortionists – and people who have had an abortion
7. Gays – dare I say that most Christians demonstrate that they are homophobic.
8. Blacks
9. Whites
10. Arabic
11. Muslims

The horrible things that I have seen written and said against the above people groups have been the most despicable things that I have ever seen in my entire life. Our eyes are so covered with the social and political scales of our times that we have forgotten that this world is NOT our home and that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God first. We are the children of God first. No man, religious affiliations, or political ideology should ever be given the “worship” that belongs to God. Do not confuse what I am saying. We must respect those who lead and rule over us wherever we live. However, we can never make them our god, or people whom we worship. They will fail us. Our responsibility to our earthly leaders?

1 Timothy 2:1-3 (NKJV): Pray for All Men

 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.

Our responsibility to all human beings on the face of the earth?

1 Peter 2: 11-17

¹¹ Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims [for this earth is not our home], abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; ¹² Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, [by the way that we behave among men- it should be different from the unsaved not the save as the unsaved] which they shall behold, [ and because of this difference that they see they will] glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³ Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: [The right to defame the name of a political leader is not one that we have as Christians-it is the opposite of what God expects from us] whether it be to the king, as supreme;¹⁴ Or unto governors,[this Scriptures makes it clear that God’s word is ageless] as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.¹⁵ For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: [this is why we must be circumspect is what we say and do in social media. When our rants and raves becomes as inflammatory as that of people who do not know God them we are demonstrating that we do not love our brothers and sisters or all men. For how can we say that we love God when hatred is in our hearts toward any human being?] As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, [over the last 8.5 years I have witnesses maliciousness at a level I have never seen before in the USA] but  [live] as the servants of God. HOW ¹⁷ Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king [or leader].

The world must know that we are Christians by the words that come out of our mouth or from our fingers. We must be different. We must love people, not their sins, because they are individuals created in the image of God.

https://youtu.be/7CobNWUXb1M

#blessings

#loveneverexcludes
Agape love is not partial. It loves all of humanity- even the enemy.

https://youtu.be/geVbSntnOd8
Choose to love like Jesus!

The King of Israel was in trouble. He was ill. He needed to know what the future held fo him. Instead of calling on the Almighty he went to a foreign God. It was an insult to the Almighty. He sent His prophet to pronounce judgment on the King of Israel.  I listened to this king’s tenure as ruler of Israel and when I got to this Scripture immediately I considered the numerous ways that we – as Christians – do exactly the same thing.  We go to psychics when we need answers instead of God. We will ask electronic apps for guidance instead of God. We will look to horoscopes for our daily “fortunes” instead of God. We will take those fortune cookies as a message from God instead of His holy Word. God does not look kindly on His children when we give the authority over our lives to anything and anyone other than Him.  We tend to do that with pastors, priests, rabbis, self-defined prophets, and so many others who have set themselves up as a conduit between God and His people. We forget that when Christ died on the cross the veil was ripped into two parts. The wall of separation between God and His people disappeared. They no longer needed a go-between. Christ stands as our intercessors between us and God. No human being can forgive sin, predict our lives, and or predict the will of God over our lives.  Only God is supreme. Let us ensure that we do not make the mistake that the King of Israel made in this Scripture.

#worshipinspiritandtruth

God’s word is clear about acceptable worship practices. Worship is not something we do on Sunday mornings because it is the tradition of the church. It is something we do 7 days a week and it is supposed to be part of who we are as a Christian. When all we do is open a book turn to page blah, blah, blah, and speed through the words and music on the pages. Then go to the next page and repeat the process we are not worshipping. God forbid that someone chooses a song from the same book that a person may not have sung before – it becomes an act of treason – well almost! No, my dear ones when we participate in congregational worship we are coming together as members of the family of God to lift up our hearts to Him through song, giving, reading, listening, and living out the words He has shared with us through His servant. It is not supposed to be a same old, same old, got to get out of here so we can go to wherever for Sunday lunch with my friends and family, or so I can go to the beach!

Worship is not supposed to be ritualistic. It must come from the heart. It must be spirit led, it must be done in reverence to God or it is just another “Going through the motions” thing that we do one day per week.

We were created to worship our creator in every facet of our lives.

In our relationships with others. In how we conduct ourselves on our jobs, in the supermarket, in the McDonald’s line when the person at the cash register is going as slow as molasses in January. In our behavior on social media-we are the only Jesus that the social media world sees – what are we showing them? We worship him in the words that we allow to rumble around in our heads all day long. Why? because our thoughts impact in how we respond to the act of worship through singing, giving, and the reading of His word on Sunday mornings.

How do we prepare ourselves for worship on Sunday morning? Is it something that we do at the last-minute, maybe Sunday morning on the way to church? Is worship considered something that is “preventing” us from “doing life” and is worship an intrusion on how we do life? Is preparing to worship something that is placed on the back burner until we have done “everything” else we want to do? I learned a long time ago that anything that I put before God has become my God – that included my family. Worship is in honor of part of our relationship with the Almighty. If I am so busy every single minute of every single day that I do not have time to worship my creator then something is wrong with my vertical relationship with Him. He has to come first before my job, my husband, my children, by aspirations, or they all become my God and serving Him becomes something I have to do because one day I said “the Sinner’s Prayer” and someone said going to church every Sunday shoes that I am a Christian.

Loving God enough to put him first in my life is my act of worship. Then everything else flows from that. I won’t whine when I am asked to learn to read from a different translation of the Bible or serve in my congregation – because my act of service is not for the congregation it is for God! I won’t be flippant in carrying our my act of service in my congregation because I will understand that is part of how I serve and worship Him. I will not put my service in my congregation responsibilities on the back burner until Saturday night or even Sunday morning because God should never be an afterthought in my life. Yes, He expects me to live life. He will give me the time and ability to do everything I need to do as I put Him first in my life. Worshiping God with the words that come out of my mouth but not with my actions and my time is empty and meaningless worship.

As a person who has sung on a worship team, or choir, for decades, I have looked out into the congregation and have seen those faces. I started to worship with my eyes closed for that reason. I want to worship in spirit and in truth when I am leading or part of a team that is leading, congregational worship. I could not do that with faces looking back at me that sent messages of disinterest. Worship is an integral part of my life and has been for some time. I cannot imagine going through a 24 hour period of time without reaching out to my Father in some act of worship.

We seriously need to get back to the heart of worship the way God wants it to be. When we do that we will not just stand there in our congregational worship service with a face that says “I don’t want to be here. I hate being here. I am moving my lips but this is meaningless to me. My heart, spirit, and soul are not participating in this!” Worship the King of King and the Lord of Lords with all that you have and you will see how your spirit feels at the end of that time of worship. Do it every day and we will see how our outlook on life changes. Our need to be somewhere, and do something to make us feel better will begin to change.

I don’t ever want the Lord to say this of me.

This kind of giving is without fanfare!
#GiveasHeHasGiven