challenges of the flesh...

it's a constant war between flesh and the spirit...this weekend...looks like flesh might win one...

just open your mouth...

and He will speak...He always does...that is...IF...you allow yourself to be used...

stoning...

stoning is a process by which a person is tortured by having rocks thrown at them over and over and over until their bodies are battered and bruised and torn and weakened and eventually they die...

it is not the pain of a single stone that kills a person...it is the continual, non-ceasing pelting of stone after stone after stone that eventually wears down all resistance until a body gives in and shuts down...

it can be that way with words...words are stones that can kill a person's reputation...their spirit...their mind...

rumors and words can kill a person's reputation to the point that any good that they might have been remembered for is overshadowed by their fault....

vicious words can kill another person's spirit until the dreams within them die and they give up on becoming the person they were meant to be...

negative words and self-defeating thoughts can weaken the strength of a person's mind until they are lost in a sea of confusion and mental sickness...

are you stoning someone with your words?

"let he who is withOUT sin cast the first stone..."

getting your feet wet...

lately...i have been inundated with messages about vision and purpose and assignment and power...

it has been a common theme for me that keeps confirming that the greatest obstacle that stands in the way of my success is within my own mind...in the things that i believe about myself (i can do all things through him that strengthens me)...and the things that i think about myself (be transformed by the renewing of your mind) and the things that i say about myself (there is power of death and life in the tongue)...

and i am hearing and receiving and accepting all of these messages...i am taking the words that i hear to heart...because i am in need of a new reality...

and i am fervently seeking the one that can change my life in an instant...or...because some successes are not overnight...they are over time...then i am learning patience...the testing of my patience is making my faith strong...because i have to be patient enough to believe in a thing...even when i can't see it...

but what something happened that gave me a clearer understanding of one of the things that lies between me and my success...

you see i have been praying for strength...and while that is all fine and good...i have come to realize that i also need to pray for courage...because not only do i need patience enough to believe or strength enough to believe...

i need courage enough believe and the courage to take action...the courage to do my part...the courage to make the request...the courage to ask the question...the courage to ask the favor...the courage to look the possibility of rejection or denial or even failure in the face and move forward anyway...

you see...in order for me to fully walk into the miracles and blessings that i am destined for...i have to take the first step...

just like the children of israel as they stood before the red sea...the expanse of the water stretching out before them...pharoah's army quickly closing in behind them...

what to do?...what to do?...

you see god had a miracle for them...but first they had to have enough faith and enough strength and enough good courage...to step into the water...

so...that is my prayer you for all today...that you find courage to get your feet wet...

'c' words...

condemnation...

compromise...

caring...

collaboration...

cooperation...

commitment....

concentration...

consecration...

cruficied...

christ...

coming again...

clear...

called...

conqueror...

confident...

character...

cancel...

peripheral vision...

Because I don't like to give out bad or incorrect information...of course...i looked up the term...peripheral vision...on the internet...

boy...the internet is a useful tool...you can find everything on the internet...even the bible and bible studies and essays and church and well...i digress...

one of the definitions that i found...

When you see something out of the corner of your eye, that's called peripheral vision. and While you rely on straight-ahead, central vision for reading, driving and recognizing friends and objects, your peripheral vision is essential for sensing movement, depth perception and orientation.

so...what that says to me...is that what you see right in front of you is what you focus on...but there are things that you can see out of the corner of your eye that make up your "BIG PICTURE"...

my question today...is...what is in your big picture? what is it that you are focusing on and what is it that you are seeing out of the corner of your eye?

when i'm driving...i tend to focus on a few things...the car in front of me...the traffic lights...the road signs...the markings on the pavement...you know the lines and the arrows...all of these things give me direction while i'm driving...they help me to determine when i'm supposed to do what i'm supposed to be doing...they direct the ebb and flow of traffic...

but those are not the only things i see when i'm driving...i see the mcdonalds signs and the wendy's signs and the popeye's chicken signs and the krispy kreme hot now signs...sounds like i like to eat...but i see the shiny new cars on the carlots that i pass by and i see the bulletin boards advertising the low cost airtrain fares and i see who the century 21 agent of the month is and i see the little signs on the side of the road...credit repair...who buys ugly houses and shampoo your carpet for $5 a room...don't believe that one...

but all of these are things that are in my peripheral vision...things that have nothing whatsoever to do with where i'm going...or how i'm going to get there...these are simply things that distract me from my journey...

let me say that again...things that simply distract me from my journey...

so the question becomes...do i allow the things that are in my peripheral vision to change my course?

as christians...as believers...god is supposed our focus...our destination even...and the bible has been so wonderfully provided to us as a road map...in it...we find the things that we are supposed to focus on...delighting ourselves in him...keeping our minds stayed on him...drawing nigh to him...praying to him...tithing to him...witnessing about him...praising him...serving him...honoring him...loving him...making him the head of our lives...letting him handle the details...

but so many times...the things that go on in our lives...distract us from our journey...some of it satan sends...yes...the enemy would love nothing more than to throw up roadblocks in our way and send us on a detour...but all of it is not the enemy...some of it is you...


okay..there is a lot more that i want to touch on here...but i need to get ready to go to choir rehearsal...

i want to talk about tunnel vision...

want to talk about mary having tunnel vision and martha being distracted by her peripheral vision...

it might be time to lose your religion...

has it ever occurred to you that something that is done faithfully or religiously can have nothing whatsoever to do with God?

among the definitions that webster gives in the dictionary of religion...you will find the following...

"a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices; scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS; a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith"

and yes...part of the definition in the dictionary includes reference to God and a supernatural system of beliefs...but what i want to focus on in this hour sits in the middle of the passage that i have chosen to highlight...and that phrase...scrupulous conformity...

in fact...let me go back to the beginning of what i have chosen to pull from the definition...a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices...a system...guidelines that have been set that you follow consistently...religiously even...

let me think about that...so...religion can be broken down as something that you do regularly...so...don't you go to work regularly?...and some of you...don't you work out regularly?...and don't you spend hours on the phone with your friends regularly? and don't some of you watch television regularly?

now...i'm not trying to be irreverant or mocking of religion in its truest defintion...but what i'm trying to get you to see that you are allowing the things that you spend time doing regularly to become your religion and to replace your relationship?

so does that make you understand that just because you get up on sunday morning and come to church regularly and because you sing in the choir or greet or usher regularly and because you give money regularly that you might not have the relationship with your father that you need to have?

now don't get me wrong...all of those are good things...your reasonable service and you are called to serve...which some don't but that would take this into a whole other direction and i'm not going there right now...

but when are you going to realize that you need to get out of your religious ways and get into God? when are you going to get to the point to where you are following God because it is the truest desire of your heart and not something that you are doing out of habit?

i grew up in the church...for years...i came to church because i knew it was what i was supposed to do...not because i yearned to be in his presence...and for me...because i was only coming to church to just to be coming to church...i didn't have any kind of relationship with god outside of the church...

i was experiencing all kinds of turmoil and strife and pain and heartache and disappointment that kept tearing me down and breaking me apart and stealing my peace and because i had no peace...i had no joy and because the joy of the lord is my strength...it meant that i had nothing to sustain me...nothing to keep me...

so when anything jumped off and i wanted to be sad or depressed or irrational or angry...i jumped my little unhappy behind on that emotional rollercoaster and rode, rode, rode...

i would get sad....and have my little pity parties...depressed and sit around feeling sorry for my sorry self...irrational and having thoughts of suicide...angry...going off on people...grumbling about how they were going to make me lose my religion...

little did i know that if what i had was relationship and not religion...people and temporary situations could NOT MAKE ME LOSE IT!!!! and in all reality...i didn't have anything to lose...

listen to that...i didn't have anyTHING to lose...i couldn't lose my religion because i didn't have any religion...all i had were the things that i was doing regularly and out of habit and because i thought that was what i was supposed to be doing...

i was exactly the person satan wanted me to be...a church going, praising and worshipping, thanks to God giving, bible toting, scripture quoting sunday morning christian who was walking around here talking about i was saved and praising god for jesus and all the while walking around with my eyes wide SHUT...still fussing and cussing and clubbing and stealing and fornicating and prevaricating...and for those of you who don't know...that means lying...and i was doing everything that i thougth i was big and bad enough to do...and you couldn't tell me nothing...

but one day...and let me take a moment to just reverence god...and his awesome grace and his mercy...the lord had mercy on me...and he kept his hand on me...even when i was out in places i could have been killed in with people i had no business being with...when that idiot i was dating tried to kill me and when that truck turned over on I85...he was right there...cradling me...protecting me from myself...

there are many who didn't make it to the place that god has allow me to realize...and really...when i say...there but for the grace of god go i...i really do mean that...because it was his grace and his mercy that brought me through and lord i live this moment because of you...

so...what i did...i found god and learned to seek his face...began to yearn just to be in his presence...and i lost my religion...but i gained a relationship...

isn't it time you lost your religion?