"People Development" - Jesus' purpose is and will always be PEOPLE. Our purpose is likewise.
Truth is, WE'VE GOT TO LOVE PEOPLE! Now GO...
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19 NKJV)
Last night I met four of my brothers at the church for a few minutes of prayer and 60 minutes later 5 men had poured out their hearts; poured out their tears; petitioned God boldly on behalf of the the Church, and the sick. Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship broke "IN" as we broke out of the grip of anxious thoughts, worldly concerns and carnal worries.
Five brothers came in with the weight of their world and walked out liberated, invigorated, rejuvenated and motivated!
"Men ought always to pray, and not faint" (Luke 18:1 KJV)
"Show me what you're working with" use to be a popular saying when I was younger. In sports your coach may say, "Show me what you got" and in the movies we have heard, "Show me the money".
We as a people have a need to have things not only shown to us but we must be convinced or another way to say it is that we want proof that what we are shown is what it is. Again, PROVE IT! I love God’s Word because if you need proof, you've got it!!!
The Bible says that, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 NKJV)
To demonstrate means to clearly show the existence or truth of something by giving proof or evidence.
The King James Version is even stronger as it states that "God COMMANDED His Love toward us..."
I particularly like this rendering as it speaks to me in this way...God's love for is so strong that while we were still drinking, smoking, gambling, stealing, cheating, getting high, cussing, fussing, lying, causing all sorts of confusion, slandering, fighting, hanging out, clubbing, fornicating, hating, selling, etc. I don't care what else can be added to describe our sinful selves...that God, not even wanting to look upon our sin, COMMANDED His love toward us...He ORDERED His love toward us...He MADE His love be toward us...even in our nasty, disgusting, stinky, smelly stench of sin that we were steeped in by sending His Son to die for us. That's demonstrating His love and that's proof that His love is real!
God didn't stop there, no, He gives us His grace and His mercy. God has given His Holy Spirit to be always with us and Jesus Himself intercedes even right now for those who calls upon His name.
God proves and demonstrates His love for you and all that is required of you is your acceptance of His love. It's right there in front of you and it is surrounding you on all sides. You have to literally push God's love away to deny it...but instead of pushing it away again today, receive the love of God, in the name of Jesus! Amen
The S-Factor vs the X-Factor
The X-Factor We've heard of and just a few days ago, I watched the television show by that name. The contestants in essence degraded themselves by performing dangerous stunts, being subjected to grotesque situations and on this particular show, being stung by thousands of Bees. The X-Factor here was who could put up with more torture, fear and humiliation than the others. The definition of an X-Factor is a variable in a given situation that could have the most significant impact on the outcome.
However, I subscribe to having the S-Factor which is to say that because of Christ, I am truly Significant and through Word, Worship and Witness lives are impacted unto Salvation. The S-Factor is to be:
A Sinner Saved by Grace...Set Free, Safe, Sanctified, Set Apart, In His Service to Serve others.
How will you "Factor" in this thing called TODAY? Will it be by grotesque actions or words, fear and humiliation...or will you be the one willing to offer a Smile; the one to be Supportive; to offer Security; to Stimulate greatness; to be Sustaining in times of trouble; or to be a Soul mate for the brokenhearted?
I choose to be an S-Factor!
(I probably need to STOP watching television, LOL)
Finishing Strong Friday: When is the last time that you received CORRECTION and what was your reaction and feelings toward that correction?
We must know that in order to be "Accountable" that we must be HELD Accountable! Appreciate and receive good counseling and correction simply for the mere fact that someone sees so great a POTENTIAL in you that they’ll take the time to keep you on track.
Know this also, it is much easier to ignore someone and to "Let the chips fall where they may", but it is truly the devoted person who takes time to support another...by way of celebrating them and by way of CORRECTION.
Proverbs 12:1 says this, "Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid."
My prayer today is only one word, Success.
May GOD bless and grant us Success in whatever we are to do today. May we have Success in our conversations, interactions and in our relations with others. May we have Success over our enemies. May we have Success while having to make difficult decisions and may we have Success in our planning and strategies for our tomorrow.
We pray for a lot of things and rightly so, but today, it has been placed in my spirit to pray our Success. Lord, may it be so. Amen.
Faith will Always Beat Fear!
John and Peter were both told that the Tomb in which Jesus was laid was empty. The Bible informs us in John 20:1-4, that both Disciples took off running for the Tomb. However, we learn that John arrived first!
You see, John was running as fast as he could to see the proof of what he has heard and wanted to believe of Jesus...that He would rise again. Now Peter was running, but his step wasn't as swift because "if" The Lord had truly risen, he feared the rebuke of The Lord for his denial of The Christ three days earlier...Peter was running in fear.
Today, run with faith and out pace life's situations and pitfalls that would otherwise make you fearful; thereby, effectively slowing you down. We already have the proof that our Lord lives, so we need to run in Faith, so that we may get out in front of fear, so that we can tell others that He lives!
Run on my Brother and run on my Sister!
What a Mighty God we serve!!
As a servant on our local church's Prison Ministry team, I am always taking inventory of the effectiveness of this ministry for annual reporting.
On Saturday evening at the Pre-release Unit, one young man rededicated his life to Christ and I praised God for that changed life!!
After our regular Sunday service on my drive home to prepare to preach again a few hours later, I prayed that God will increase the Harvest.
Well, after I finished preaching last night at the Maryland Corrections Institute in Jessup, I STOPPED counting those who were responding to The Word of God by coming to the Altar after my count had reached 35 men. I stopped counting so that I could praise God for His Awesomeness because as I looked out, they were STILL coming!
It is amazing how He takes our little and makes it GREAT! Many were set free and for this I'm thankful. I am also aware that there are many more who need to be set free from captivity, and for that, I make myself available.
Oh what a Mighty God we serve!
When GOD tells us, "Have Faith", He's saying that visibility will be limited, funds may be low and people may go, BUT Trust Me anyway! - Hart Ramsey
Have a great weekend and not only have faith, but keep your faith!
Today is a good day. Notice that I said "is" instead of saying "will be". You see, I'm making a statement that aligns with the truth. I'm calling it as it "is" and not hoping that it "will be".
God created this day with you and I in mind; therefore, it "is" good! By acknowledging from the onset that today "is" good, I'm speaking into and over every aspect of today how things are to be, "good". I'm not speaking wishes or feelings on how I want today to be, I'm declaring in the authority that is mine in Christ Jesus of how today "is" to be, again "good".
So today, when I greet you by saying "Good Morning", know that I'm also speaking "good" into and over your day!
Trust and believe that God has not set this day in motion with our failure as the outcome, no, He has set this day in motion so that we may be better on today than we were on yesterday, so that we can acknowledge His love and provisions with thankful hearts and so that we may be victorious over the tricks and schemes over everything evil.
GOOD MORNING Y'ALL!
Yeah, it happens. You are not an isolated incident. It is not necessarily because of something that you've done wrong. Karma has absolutely nothing to do with what you are going through.
It's just life and sometimes life can break us down or tear us apart and we can get to a point to where we feel that we deserve to be going through whatever it is we're going through, but that is just a LIE!
Today, search the Scriptures and you will quickly be reminded that you are a child of God. You will rediscover the great love that God has for you. The Word of God will shed light in the darkness of life and it will break the shackles of bondage that is keeping you and I from living an abundant life in Christ Jesus.
Call on the name of Jesus today and come out of the funk that you are in, be freed from debilitating thoughts and stress-filled days. Pray for Peace in your life. Pray for solutions to your problems. Pray for deliverance from the traps of life...just pray.
If you don't know the words to pray, pray God’s Word...that's what we ought to do anyway. Here is what you and I can pray today:
"Everything’s falling apart on me, God ; put me together again with your Word." (Psalm 119:107 MSG)
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
In order to be "Whole", we must first BEHOLD!
Almighty God, we need to know that if you don't intervene, there would be no intervention.
I pray that You send The Holy Spirit into our lives today to cause the reversal of diseases, the reversal of brokenness, to reverse spiritual and generational curses and to reverse self-destructive actions.
I pray that we indeed will BEHOLD His presence and power as He equips us to triump, to take authority and to walk in authority in our homes, in the lives of our children and in our worklife.
I decree and declare that we shall not be defeated and that we shall not be made to feel less than who you created us to be.
Today, I pray that we BEHOLD, so that we may be WHOLE! In Jesus' name. Amen.
Why would a child of God try to please the devil? From time to time, we need to ask ourselves this question.
There are times, in carrying out our vocations, our occupations and even possibly during our daily interactions that this situation can occur. I want to remind you Brother and I want to remind you Sister...DON'T COMPROMISE who you are and whose you are. There is absolutely no pleasing the devil, there is only grief and strife.
Pleasing the devil comes in many forms...subcoming to drugs and alcoholism, giving false testimony for gain (lying), slandering a coworker, compromising your integrity for personal or professional gain, abusive actions or language towards another, etc. We were NOT CALLED to do these things - We cannot be a Saint on Sunday and a demon on Monday!!
Remember, don't compromise your anointing for deadworks! We can't sway back and forth...choose The Lord and deny the devil.
I'm here to tell you and to remind myself, that we can live this life better...we have no need to live indifferent to who and what God has created us to be!
"You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons." (I Corinthians 10:21 NKJV)
Question: Something about TODAY is worrying you? Let me remind you that you have been created by The Creator; The King of kings and Lord of lords; The Almighty; The All Sufficient One; The Great I Am...in the image and according to the likeness of The Father, The Son and The Holt Spirit. You and I have been given dominion over all things in the sea, on the land and in the air...and THEN God Blessed us to increase and to subdue!
So, let us get past our insecurities, doubt and trepidation and INCREASE, SUBDUE, RULE and be a blessing; because we have a blessing, we are to be a blessing!
Let's do This!
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV)
We need to be so busy obeying God that we cannot be distracted by our enemies. As a matter of fact, while we're doing what He will have us to do, He'll be taking care of our enemies schemes against us. Not only is He taking care of it, He's comforting us; providing for us; He's delivering us; and blessing us, right in the face of our enemies! HALLELUJAH!!!
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm OVER THE TOP EXCITED about God's love for His people!
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." (Psalm 23:5 NIV)
When it comes to choices, obedience is always the smart choice, the wise choice, the choice of blessing. Obedience always brings blessings, and we bless others when we remind them of this simple fact.
"...Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live." (Jeremiah 38:20 NKJV)
