Give up to gain more!!

Encouraging song of the day: Marvin Winans - Draw me Close to You / Thy Will be Done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rexmQ0c634

Many of us are stuck in a situation or circumstance that is slowly draining us spiritually. It’s slowly taking away the joy in our lives and seems there is no end in sight. We have been praying, fasting and going to church. But somehow it seems that we are in the same place. Some days are better than others but for the most part things are still the same.

In these times we have to stop and back track a bit. Go back to where the problems first began. Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. The Word of God tells us even those called to teach have to be retaught. So from this we see that it’s best to sit down a moment and or retrace your steps and wait to hear from God rather than continuing on a destructive path.

When we are able to humble ourselves, acknowledge that the plan we were using is ineffective we can began to get into place where we can hear from God. 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Manna for thought: Many of us read this verse and can understand that in order for healing and deliverance (your breakthrough) we must humble ourselves, we must pray and we must seek His face. But here is where the issue lies; no one wants to turn from there wicked ways. We don’t want to give up what God is clearly showing us is the problem. The solution seems simple; give it up to gain so much more. I love you all. Have a blessed weekend

Beautifully Made

Encouraging song of the day: Leah Smith - Beautifully Made

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VPg_ZbBbE

Song of Solomon 1:6 (Amp)

6 [Please] do not look at me, [she said, for] I am swarthy. [I have worked out] in the sun and it has left its mark upon me. My stepbrothers were angry with me, and they made me keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard [my complexion] I have not kept.

Sometimes due to things that have happened to us in our past or even in our present, scars emotionally as well as physical have been developed. These scars have dictated and steered us through different courses of our lives and relationships. Which well for some, have left us emotionally broken and torn.

          Don’t allow your circumstance to overcome you and dictate who you are in Christ. At the end of the day that’s all that matters anyway (what Jesus thinks about you). Be encouraged by reading of His Word. When the world has a different opinion about you as they always will. Look to the Love letters that were meant for you to see how beautiful you are.

Song of Solomon 1:9-10

9 O my love [he said as he saw her], you remind me of my [favorite] mare in the chariot spans of Pharaoh.

10 Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

Manna for thought:  Be mindful to encourage one another often. You never know what emotional scars have been imparted in someone’s life that a few kind words could begin to mend. Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin

Mediator

Encouraging song of the day: You Alone - Tye Tribbett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asQxtzvrdMs

And He shall be called… Mediator

As leaders go, the position itself, the title and duties are that which are bestowed upon such a person by the Lord. Therefore as men and woman of God we give do respect and honor to their position as it is given by the Lord. For He has placed them there for a purpose and some for a season. Psalm 105:15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.  But by in no means are these leaders to take the place of God. 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Leaders should be training up disciples for the glory of God as well fathering children (sincere relationships) in Christ by the leading them to the repentance of sin and the acceptance of salvation. To esteem a man or woman of God to a place beyond where they should be will lead to potential stumbling block for both parties. For the leader you could potentially place a stumbling block of pride or arrogance in his way, and for the follower a stumbling block of idolatry.

Manna for Thought: Ultimately as leaders go, we should not only encourage but insist that the people of God not only look to man who is imperfect, but seek to know God for themselves who is in all ways perfect.  

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The Fear of the Lord

Encouraging song of the day: Deitrick Haddon – Strong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh6H7ShyFjE

Proverbs 14:27

 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

To have a fear of the Lord is not to be afraid of God but to acknowledge God for who He is. Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. When we are forever mindful of whom it is we serve, The God who is omnipotent (all powerful). This would careful govern our actions. We would be more mindful of everything we say and do because we would consider to whom it is we answer to and be assured we will answer.

Manna for thought: Don’t let satan deceive you by convincing you that you can do or say whatever you want and just ask for forgiveness and do the same thing again the next day. That’s a lie from hell. Galatians 6: 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

Deed and Truth

Encouraging song of the day:Big Daddy Weave - "Redeemed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzGAYNKDyIU

What if we were to stop posting God’s Word and start living it? The Word of God has become more motivational speaking, more so than true discipleship in this day and time. It’s time to not just read the Word but actually experience the Word of God through a sincere relationship with Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Manna for thought: We should not be looking to the Word of God for the band-aid affect. But instead, look to the Word to actually heal and restore us completely.  Only by His blood are we redeemed, forgiven and reconciled unto Him that created us. Therefore let us not only share and post our Love in comments, but also in demonstration of His gospel. 1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Sin is still sin

Encouraging song of the day: Uncle Reece - Leave Me Alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDXiQZDImhc

God is Love, satan is evil and our flesh is carnal. The fruit of the Spirit or the character of Christ is so far opposite of evil or worldliness. It is just as far different as north is to south or night is to day. So to say that we Love God would have to mean that we hate evil. Psalm 97:10 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. We can’t Love God and live for the pleasures of this world. Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

    Manna for thought: We all make mistakes or sin and fall short. But if we continue to fall in the same sin habitually without change. At some point it's no longer a mistake but rebellion. 

Just scales

NewWorldSon - Sweet Holy Spirit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEbs5ePV_6c

Many of us have been abstaining from the pleasures of this world in order to receive more from the Lord. Yet while we as believers abstain, the carnally minded, they indulge. It seems at times that the righteous are forsaken and the wicked are prospering. (But that all depends on the scale your grading things on.) The scale in which we (believers) judge and discern this world is just and perfect which is Jesus Christ. Therefore, thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14) for this cause hope is not lost for us. Jesus can see our obedience and faithfulness. It doesn't go unnoticed to Him. The wicked will surely parish for all their ungodliness. While we may suffer for a moment Joy will surely  come in the morning.

Manna for thought: Deuteronomy 25:13-16

13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.  

Don’t put your life on the same scale as an unbeliever, and compare where you are in your life to where they are in theirs. You will always come up short. Instead put your life in the just hands of the Lord and see that to Him you always measure up because your right where He will have you to be. In the safety of His arms.