We all fall short of the Glory of God. There is no such person as a perfect Pastor, Teacher, Apostle, Evangelist, etc. We are all sinners and everyday is a struggle. We live in a world of sin and we have to choose all the time whether or not to sin and sometimes we sin and don’t realize it till it gets pointed out to us by God or the conviction of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness and go on. If God wanted a perfect Pastor or Teacher or etc., He would create one, but our faults, trials, tests, and sins make us a better walking testimony for God and what he can do.

Valentines Day

Can You Really Buy Love?

            Do you celebrate Valentines Day? Most of us do.  There are those who don’t who wish they could. Valentines Day has been labeled the day of love. So many people think there is something magical about this day. I have never really been a big fan of this day because even though I usually had someone to share it with there was never anything magical or special about it. I would see my friends getting expensive gifts from the one they were with (loved), expensive dinners, expensive jewelry, etc.

            Then on the other side of the coin are those who don’t have a significant other to share this so called magical-special day with. These people appear to be okay on the outside but are miserable on the inside----jealous if you will. But why? Because they don’t have someone to lavish them with expensive gifts and dinners just to show how much they are loved?

            Yes, we spend a lot of money showing our significant other just how much we love them on this “Special Day”.

Four questions….

            #1 Why do we spend so much money one day a year showing someone just how much we love them. #2 Can you really buy love? #3 Why do we need a special day set aside to show someone just how much we love them? #4 Why do those of you who don’t have a warm body to share this so called special day with get jealous of the others?

            Question #1 We spend so much money trying to show our significant other just how much we love them on this so-called special day because we don’t take the time to show the rest of the year. We use, abuse and neglect them. God doesn’t do that to us so why do we do that to each other?

            Question #2 You can’t buy love. Love is supposed to be unconditional. The kind of love God has for us is the kind of love we should have for our significant other. Do we?

            Question #3 We don’t need a special day set aside to show our significant other just how much we love them. We should do this everyday, just like God shows us everyday how much he loves us. God doesn’t pick one day a year to shower us with his love, He does this everyday of the year and we should be doing the same.

            Question #4 For those of you whom God has not brought your other half into your life yet…..there is no reason to be jealous of those who have a significant other or the fact that they get elaborate gifts and treasures one day a year. You have the ultimate significant other……you have God as your significant other until He so chooses to bless you with someone to spend the rest of your life with.

            Just because it is Valentines Day you should not be sad, depressed or anything else. You have someone who loves you unconditionally and showers you with love and blessings everyday. We all have this lover who loves us from afar…and we are all showered with blessings from Him everyday but do we acknowledge those blessings? If you don’t have a warm body to share Valentines Day with it is okay, you have God to share it with.  As for the couples they need to acknowledge God on this day as well.

            If you want to make Valentine’s Day a very special day then instead of looking at each other, together you should look to God and acknowledge him on this day. Take this time to tell Him just how much you love him and how much you love the person he has brought into your life to make you complete. We are each ½ and 2 –1/2’s make a whole which only God make.  If you are still only a ½ not to worry, you can still bask in the love of your lover. 

New Years Resolutions

New Years Resolutions

            Every year when the New Year begins we all talk about New Year resolutions. We all make them and we keep them for about two months. Right? Right! It is okay to agree with me I used to do the same thing…I would come say I am going to exercise more; I am going to do this and do that and so on. The past two years I decided I was not going to set myself up for failure…yes failure…think about years past and all the new year resolutions you made and how you felt after a couple of months of not keeping them. 

          First I ask yourself what New Year resolutions you made this year. Do you really think you can keep them going all year? Probably not, so why even make them? Let’s take a look at this from different perspective.

           Let’s reevaluate those resolutions and make them into simple goals something we can achieve. The first thing we want to do is pray about these goals and seek God first. If these goals/resolutions are not a part of God’s plan for us of course we will not be able to achieve them.  Next, once we have sought God and his advice, we need to reestablish those goals to meet God’s expectations of us for this year. The nice thing about goal’s we set up with God is that they can be flexible so if we find we are straying from those goals God can get us back on track or if they don’t quiet meet the plans God has for us this year we can change courses, reevaluate those goals.

          So don’t set your resolutions by what you want for you but by what God wants for you and what he expects from you. The bible is our life manual and we can find the answer to every question we have in there if we just look and look hard enough. So to find the plan God has for us look to the bible and set your goals/resolutions accordingly.

          I encourage you to look at the resolutions you made for yourself and seek God concerning them. Ask him to show you if these are “self-centered goals/resolutions” or “God centered goals/resolutions”

Happy Resolution/Goal Setting!

What is your Christmas Wish?

If you could have one wish this Christmas what would it be? A new car, a new home, a NEW LIFE, maybe???? They always say be careful what you wish for. I just finishing watching a Christmas movie called "A Christmas Wish" I think was the name of it. It was a good movie. It was about a very busy woman who was climbing her way up the corporate ladder in her corporate world and totally forgetting about the family she had at home. In nutshell she told Santa her she wished for another woman's life and bingo it happened. In order to get her old life back she had to figure out what was more important her career or her family. Of course in the end she figured out it was her family and got her old life back. However, this movie made me stop think......

In this day and time I see so many of us (myself included) who spend so much of our time running around trying to climb that corporate ladder and leaving the most important thing behind.....FAMILY....I thank God, he got my attention and I have burned my corporate ladder and I am not pursuing the life God has in store for me. But there are so many others out there, men and women a like who put themselves first before God and family and it is destroying marriages and families. This time of the year is worse....because this time of year everyone is so stressed out over finding the time for everything.....Shopping, Corporate Holiday Parties, School Parties and Plays, Friends Parties and giving the most expensive gifts money can buy or giving those kids exactly what they want for Christmas in hopes it will make up for lost time over the past year. You know nothing can make up for lost time until you lose those precious few moments you spent with your loved ones. I have heard in the corporate world "Time is Money", well maybe to the corporate cold hearted Godless people, but in God's World Time is NOT Money....Time is all we have to share with family and friends and to spread the word of God.

Are you willing to give up all that you have to spend time with God and to live the life he has in store for you and spend time with family? Are you willing to allow your family to suffer while "YOU" better "YOURSELF"? That is that "ME" syndrome everyone falls into, including Christians and Pastors. We get so caught up in our own lives and our own careers (jobs) we forget about God and our Family. I was taught this is the order it is suppose to be #1 God First, #2 Family Second, #3 Me last, but it seems a lot of people have reversed that order, I see this order:  ME FIRST! ME FIRST! ME FIRST! then family and then God or God then Family, but it is always that "ME FIRST" syndrome that everyone gets into. Someday you are going to wake up and that is all that is left of your life is "YOU", there will be no family and No God. Then what?????? You sit around like a spoiled child crying you want it all back, but you can't have it all back until you get the order right. Although the movie didn't have God as the #1 priority at least it showed family should always come before "ME".

The past week has been really difficult as a member of our family is not with us right now, due to a long legal story, but between what my family and I are going through and this movie, I really understand the order and I am thankful God uses situations no matter how bad they seem to get us back on track, to slow us down. The last 20 years I have spent tyring to get ahead and make something of myself and my life.....missing out on my kids lives and not spending as much time with as I should have or could have. Fortunately God slowly pulled me away from the fast pace of my life and opened my eyes to what I was doing and where I was headed. Almost like the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future story. I am thankful God has shown me even this year I had gotten so involved with just volunteering that I was going back to my old ways. But now I see even that can make me so busy I miss out on so much. I understand a lot of families both parents have to work in order to survive but you don't have to overwork God will provide for you...He has shown me that this year.

If I had one wish for Christmas that would be that God would take everyone and open their eyes to the kind of life they are living right now and show them just what they have missed out on, are missing out on and will miss out on if they continue with this 24/7 lifestyle. We can't continue to go live like the city of New York and Las Vegas and Hollywood wants us to live....on the go 24/7 with no sleep or very little sleep and forgetting about what is most important to us......Family and Family begins with God.

Think about your Christmas Wish......What would it be?

What Does Christmas Mean?

Christmas means---The Importance of Christ.

It is not just about finding and giving that perfect gift or running around stressing yourself out over how much money you spent on gifts or did you get everyone exactly what they wanted. This is not what Christmas is about, all though it seems that way. Christmas has become so commercialized over the years, we go from July4th straight to Christmas bypassing Halloween and Thanksgiving. Christmas Season comes earlier and earlier every year. We have lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is about the Perfect Gift that was given to all of us so we may have eternal life with our Father who is in heaven. Christmas is about the importance of Christs Birth, for with out it we would not have open communication with God the Father and we would not have the ability to spend eternal life with them in heaven. Jesus came down to earth and became a human to restore the relationship God so desired with the people he created in his image....US! IF not for God giving us this great and perfect Gift we would not have the fellowship we have today with God.

We need to take the time during this season of our life and reflect on Jesus Birth and what it really means. It was the greatest gift ever, the perfect gift one that can never be duplicated but only passed on to everyone and every generation. IF you are looking for that perfect gift look no further than Jesus Christ and share the story of his birth with everyone you know and meet. We need to be giving of ourselves from our heart not our pocket book. God gave from his heart not his wallet!

If you think you have nothing to give this Christmas you are wrong! You have yourself and the sharing of the Perfect gift you many many many years ago.  Don't get caught up in the hype of Christmas, get caught up in the "REAL REASON FOR THE SEASON......The BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!" Now get out there and start giving!

God Revealed His Plan for My Life.....

Okay I am sharing what God revealed to me. When I was 20 I had gone on a woman's advance with the ladies of my church. I was told in a prophetic word I would be known as Anna. I read about Anna & thought she was a prayer warrior all these years I thought my ministry or calling was to be an intercessor. Until Last night when do research for Dec Bible Study. I read the entire passage and foot notes in my bible and found it she was an elder and told everyone about God and The baby Jesus. I learned she was a prophet ...and that had a different meaning from what I had learned in the past and what I thought a prophet was. I became an ordained Pastor this time last year. I knew last year God wanted me to become a Pastor/Teacher. I always liked teaching so I thought nothing of it till this year when I read about Anna again in Luke Chap 2....with a new understanding and footnotes from my bible. I understood why every-time I called out to God he would save me from my situations. I had cold chills all over me every time I reread the scripture and thought about what all God has done for me, where I have come from and through. I had been ???? my decision to be a Pastor the past few days and all that doubt and unsureness left. I know now what God had planned for my life...I know I still don't have all the details and I know as I continue my walk God will reveal to me how to use my ministry. For now I know all all the social medias I use online is getting the word out about him, and I am learning more and more each day about God. I encourage everyone to continue on and keep seeking God for the plan he has for them.

Thanksgiving.....The Forgotten Holiday

Thanksgiving is giving of thanks, a means of expressing, thanks.

Thank-- acknowledge, appreciate, recognize.

Give---to present impart, and convey.

Thanksgiving---an act of expressing gratitude.

Holiday---celebration.

            As you can see above the words: thank, give and holiday express a celebration of giving thanks. This has become such a lost art and a lost holiday. It is stuck between July 4^th, Halloween and Christmas. The only reason I mention Halloween is because everyone still decorates for and celebrates Halloween. However it seems we go from July 4^th straight to Christmas with Halloween somewhere in the middle but we always forget about that one special day that was set aside to give thanks. The first year the pilgrims were in the new country and realized they made through the first year of hardships they threw a huge celebration and gave thanks. We have lost that concept all together. For those who do celebrate Thanksgiving it is about all the food, family and friends.

            We are commanded to give thanks in all things, however, it is good to set aside one day every year to sit back and look at all we have walked through all that God has brought us through. If it were not for God and his Grace you wouldn’t be here and there are a lot of us that can honestly say that. So why do just totally skip setting a side a day to totally give Thanks to God for everything he has done for us and will do for us. I encourage you as you sit down to your huge Thanksgiving feast with family and friends, you take the time to go around the table and express openly and honestly how thankful you have made through the fires and you are making it through the fires you are currently walking through.

I Thessalonians 5:18 says “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; THANK God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”

Colossians 6:7 (B) says “And let your living spill over into Thanksgiving.”

Isaiah 41:7 Says, “Urge one another one---Great Job! Great Design!”

I Chronicles 23:30 says, “…..Thank and Praise God…..”

            You may be in the midst of the fire right now and may not feel much like giving Thanks because you feel like there is nothing to be thankful for. You are wrong! Remember the story of Meshech, Shadrach and Abednego, in the midst of the fiery hot furnace they sang and gave Thanks to God above and they walked out of that fire untouched. So will you if you stop and quit complaining about your circumstances and start giving thanks to God for those circumstances. God is with you in the midst of all your fires, all you need to do is give him thanks for being there and bringing you through unharmed.

            We all have a reason to celebrate and give thanks this Thanksgiving so look around you and see all that is good and all that God has done for you and give thanks. Don’t make it just about food and spending time with family, especially family you don’t really like but this is the one time of year you have to be around them. Be thankful that you can be around them. Ask God to show you the good about them.