Excuses Only Satisfy the Person That Makes Them!

Excuse: An expression of regret for failure to do something.

Have you ever considered how excuses really only satisfy the people who make them? Seriously - take a minute to think about that. Do you REALLY think the person you're making those excuses to is pleased or happy with them? Not likely. However, luckily for you, we as people didn't just start making excuses, no - this all started with Adam and Eve in the garden! Back in Genesis 3:11, God asked Adam and Eve, " Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" Next thing you know - the excuses were born - "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Genesis 3:12-13). If you know that story, you know that God wasn't pleased with Adam and Eve's excuses then and He's not pleased today with our excuses.

More often than not, when God calls people into His service, they resisted by coming up with a lot of excuses. Moses, for instance, was a perfect example. God told Moses, "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt" (Exodus 3:10). God even went so far as to say, "...certainly I will be with thee" (Exodus 3:12). What more could a person ask for?? You would have thought that would have been good enough for Moses, but NOOOO! In Exodus 4:10, Moses starts in with his excuses - "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue;" and the Lord shuts those excuses down in the next verse: "And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?" Moses' words were truly an expression of regret for failure to do something (aka - an excuse!)

We so often fail to realize that whenever the Lord tells us to do something, He has already equipped us with exactly what we need in order to get that job done. It's time we stand strong in faith! Stop trying to pass the buck. You know, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are really better off than we think; we just need to look through the lens of gratitude and be very thankful that the Lord chose to use us in natural things as well as spiritual things.

Let's remember to give the responses of Mary and Isaiah. When the Lord said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). When the Angel said to Mary, "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS;" Mary replied, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:31 and 38). Friends, let's leave our excuses by the wayside and walk in faith!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!      

Goodness, A Fruit Of The Spirit!

Goodness: excellence, virtue

Today, I would like to share with you one of the fruits of the Spirit - the fruit of Goodness. Goodness is a virtue that we must all possess - not just in words where we talk about it here and there - but in action so that fruit can work on the inside of us. Once it's working down in us real good, it will reflect on the outside.

Someone might be thinking, "what do you mean when you say fruit of the Spirit?" What I'm talking about is the nature and character of a person. Think about it like  it's a fruit tree: once that tree grows up and those roots are deep enough, it begins to bear fruit. Similarly, when the Spirit grows deep enough on the inside of us, we should bear fruit as well - doing good, acting good, and being good. 

Dr. James Hamilton said it best: "Goodness is love and action. Love with its hand to the plow, love with the burden on its back, love following His footsteps who went about continually doing good,"  In Acts 10:38, the bible tells us how Jesus went around doing good - He actually sought out people to show His Goodness to. When He healed the blind man, when He touched the lepers, when He touched and healed little children - He didn't send someone else, He did it personally. Showing Goodness should be a hands-on, personal and up-close performance.

Let me share an example with you so that you will know how the Lord wants us to show Goodness. Joseph's brothers put him in a pit, took him out and then sold him. Joseph was sold to Potiphar, who was an officer of Pharaoh, but the Lord  showed him goodness and he was a prosperous man.  After Joseph got out of prison for something that he didn't do, Pharaoh made him governor over all the land. There came a time of great famine across all of the earth and Joseph's brothers had to come and buy food from him - only they did not know that he was their brother. Joseph, on the other hand,  recognized them and remembered everything they had done to him. He could have had them killed, but instead he showed them Goodness by giving them food. He eventually made himself known to them and moved his father and all his brothers and all their families to Egypt with him where he took care of them in spite of what they did to him - now that's Goodness!

My friends, it's imperative that we show the fruit of the spirit - Goodness - to everyone that we can, in all the ways we can, whenever we can.

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

We Are On A Mission!

Mission: an assignment or task to be carried out

We are on a serious mission -- to get back to our savior. On this mission we are and will continue to be given commands. It's so incredibly important that we don't turn to the left or to the right - instead we must remain focused.

That's not to say that we don't or won't make mistakes (an error arising from human weakness). Sometimes these mistakes are a result of misunderstood motives, misjudged appearances, and misplaced trust. These things happen, so it's imperative that we stay focused. Proverbs 14:12 tells us, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Let's take the military for instance - when a soldier is sent out on a mission, he or she has been sufficiently trained, and they don't allow themselves to become distracted. Distraction from their main focus could cause them their life. They are always watching and waiting for the right moment to carry out their assignment. The Lord has also equipped (or trained) us. Ephesians 1:3 declares, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

He equips us with His word, His spirit, and the power to pray. Our mission is to get His word first for ourselves so that we may be a witness unto His people. We are commanded to go and teach and preach the word and also to help others. We must remember the Lord did not save us just so that we could live comfortably, happily, and self-centered. No, we have a mission! We have a mission given to us by the ultimate Commander-in-Chief and that's to take His message of salvation into the enemy camp. We must never forget that we are on an assignment and we cannot let ourselves get caught up in the cares of this life. When we do, we become easy prey for the enemy, which results in mission failure.

Jesus fulfilled His assignment when He came to earth to do God's will; to save sinners, to bring everlasting righteousness, and to destroy Satan's works. Now it's up to each of us to complete our assignment. Our Commander-in-Chief loves each of us to the point that He died for you and me!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!!                          



 

What Love Does and What Love Does Not Do

Love: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for others.

I know that most of you are familiar with that song that says, "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love, that's the only thing there is just too little of." Have you ever stopped to think about just how true that little verse is? Can you imagine how peaceful and loving this world would be if love was shown as God intended it to be? Children would not be killing parents and parents would not be killing children. There would be so much less hatred, less robbing, and fewer killings, instead we would be sharing the real love of God.

Let me take a few minutes to share with you a few things about love:

• Love is a commandment and not a request. 
• Love is kind
• Love is greater than faith, greater than hope
• Most importantly, God is love

1 John 4:11 says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." Not because they do good things for us, and not because they boost our ego - but out of a pure heart.

According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, here's what love does:

1. Love suffers long. We have to get over these things we have in us - you guys know we're not trying to suffer long, we have no patience or time for that, right?! But that's not like Jesus because Jesus is love.
2. Love rejoices in truth
3. Love bears all things
4. Love endures all things
5. Love covers a multitude of sin. 

My friends, we ALL need this kind of love!

Conversely, here's what 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 tells us that love does not do:

1. Love does not vaunt itself. 
2. Love does not behave unseemly
3. Love does not seek its own
4. Love thinks no evil

In other words, Love is never haughty or selfish or rude, love does not demand its own way, it's not irritable or touchy, it does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice it when other do it wrong! WHOA! I know I'm still working on some of these things - what about you guys??

Thank God that He is loving, extremely patient, and eternally kind. Remember, God so loved us, so we ought to love one another!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and... AMEN!