Jesus Wept

Yes I know it's been a while since I dropped a few lines. Well I received the inspiration behind this blog entry while at bible study last Wednesday at the Guiding Light Church. We all know that sometimes you get to the point in life where you feel like you're going through tests and trials and no one cares. It seems as though the more you pray you don't seem to get an answer from God. Well hopefully this will speak to you if you feel that way.

My pastor, Bishop Jim Lowe has been teaching a series during bible study for a few weeks on Death. You may ask why in the world is he teaching a series on death. Well, he wants us to fully understand what death is for a Christian. The more you know about a topic, the less you fear it. On last Wednesday what I remember most is when he went to Matthew and was talking about the story of Lazarus. You know the story right? Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus was sick. Jesus loved that family, yet he stayed where he was another 2 days. So Jesus finally told his disciples, Let us go back to Judea. No on the way Jesus said that Lazarus had fallen asleep and he was going to wake him. Cleary Lazarus was dead, but for a believer death is but sleep. Anyway Jesus arrived and Martha was the first to approach. She came with an attitude. Just imagine Martha coming out with her hand on her hip and rolling her neck when she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." A little after that imagine when Mary came out she was weeping a little then fell to Jesus' feet and she said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Now to the part this whole blog is about...

John 11:33-35 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept.

Now we all know that Jesus wept is the shortest verse in the bible, but allow me to suggest that it is probably one of the more significant verses of all 66 books and the over 31,000 verses that are in the bible! Jesus did not cry because Lazarus died. Jesus did not cry because he believed all was lost for Mary and Martha. Jesus did not cry because he thought it was too hard to revive Lazarus. Jesus wept simply from seeing Mary and the other Jews were weeping. Let that marinate for a minute! It is amazing to know that we have a God that hurts when we hurt. It is amazing to know that we have a God that doesn't want to see us struggle. It is amazing to know that we have a God that rushes to our rescue when He sees us down.

So let me encourage you in knowing that just because it doesn't seem like those tests and trials are passing, God has already sent your rescue(answer) it is just up to us to have the faith and patience knowing that help is on the way. I'm reminded of a motivational youtube video where a speaker said that pain may last a second, a minute, an hour, a day, maybe a year(s) but... it will eventually subside. The only way it wont is if you quit. So don't quit people. Hang in there, God has already shipped your deliverance. Build your faith and know that God is building your spiritual muscles when you go through. Most of the time you will see me happy and smiling because I know that through all that I have been through in my life, and Lord knows I've been through a lot, that God has, does, and will always bring me out of a storm better, stronger, newer, fresher, and wiser than when I went in! Stay encouraged... help is on the way!

As always I pray that God will bless you spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially.

Encourage Yourself...

As I minister to you, I minister to myself, life can hurt you so, 'til you feel there's nothing left. (No matter how you feel), (speak the word and you will be healed).

The preceeding is an excerpt from Donald Lawrence's song Encourage yourself. I know that in the times we are living in many people need encouragement. Many people are struggling. Many people are lost. Many people just need a boost. Well I am a firm believer that the best way to encourage yourself is to encourage someone else. I think the most important line in that song is the first sentence of the bridge. "As I minister to you, I minister to myself."

It is so important that we help someone else along our journey and encourage as many people as we can. I promise you that everytime you do it, it makes you feel a little better than what you did when you started. It's almost like it's a relief for you. That's why I encourage. That's why I blog. That's why I share life. It is simply because the more I do for you, the more I help myself. There are many times when I need an encouraging word and the minute I encourage someone through a social media outlet or through some form of communication, it always gives me a boost.

So the next time you're feeling down, just find someone to encourage. The next time your are struggling, find someone to assist. The next time you don't feel like smiling, find someone to make smile. For it is better to give than receive. God Bless!

What do you do when you're at the bottom?...

Ever felt that you have hit rock bottom and it seems as if there is no way back to the top? Ever felt that all of the hard work you have done up to a certain point was but a breathless vapor? Ever felt that the very person(s) that you thought were in your corner is the very same who landed the knockout punch? Ever felt that every step you take in a positive direction you seem to figure out how to stumble two back? Ever felt that life just had your number?

Can I be the first to suggest that you are not alone in your feelings? However, the bigger questions are what do you do now that you feel that way? Where do you go from here? What's your next step? Who do you turn to? If your car is in park and you want to get out of the driveway, an action must take place. By faith you turn the key and then proceed to put the car in gear. Only then can you get to your destination. So right now, if you feel like any of the aforementioned questions the only way you're going to get from where you are is with action. Now you know you need action, but what action.

There is this awesome guy who said, "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 Go to the source from where all blessings flow. You've been provided with a road map that is the top selling "how to" book of all time. Last I checked, I think it is called the bible. Begin to rebuke those things that are holding you back. The next thing is important... Realize the most powerful name to make things line up. Yeah, you guessed it, it's the guy I mentioned. The name is JESUS! There is power in the name. There is love in the name. There is prosperity in the name. There is hope in the name. There is deliverance in the name. There is life in the name. There is strength in the name. Did I mention there is power in the name?

I don't know your situation. I'm not sure what you're going through. I don't know which one of the beginning questions apply to you, but what I do know is that as long as you have the breath of life in you God is not through with you yet. Begin to establish the strongest foundation possible. No, I'm not talking about concrete. I'm talking about a foundation based upon the word of God and true (eternal) life through Christ. Seek what God's will is for your life. Ask Him to teach you to overcome, teach you to prosper, teach you to witness, teach you to be successful, teach you His ways. Begin with these steps and something has to change. There is nothing too hard for our God. He's delivered you before, and yes He will deliver you again.

Yes, that is what I needed. I was typing to myself the whole time. I don't know if this will speak to anyone, but Lord knows I needed it.

Reconnecting to the Power Source

Acts 1:8 NIV But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you: and you will be my witnesses...

Yeah, so once again it's been a while since I took the time to sit down and write another blog entry, but I've had one brewing for a while now. Before I go into this entry any further let me encourage all of you that are on twitter to follow me http://www.twitter.com/des10d4gr8ns pretty cool to follow also you don't want to miss my inspirational segments called what... none other than #toiletdevotion. If you didn't know, you better ask somebody. So many times in life we go through trials and tribulations until it seems like we're constantly going through. However, it is important to remember that we're going through and not staying in. So many times in our lives we go through things so that God can prune us and grow us to the next level of where He would have us to go, but a lot of what we go through is because of our disobedience or better yet lack of obedience. That is what has lead me to write this particular blog.

When our carpets get dirty in our homes it usually means it's time to pull out the vacuum cleaner and do some cleaning. Over time our carpet gathers dirt from various things including our feet, dust particles, crumbs, and many other things. In other words our carpets just gather a lot of filth. So we begin to vacuum and we like what we see, but then all of the sudden we go around that corner and the vacuum stops! What happened? In the process of us getting rid of the dirt in the carpet and being so focused on the dirt we stretch the vacuum too far and it disconnects from the power source. Well, until we go back around that corner and reconnect the vacuum to the power source we can not remove any more dirt from the carpet. Yep, you guessed it that is where I'm going with this one.

In life there are so many things that get in our way of excelling or having a closer relationship with God. Simply put there is a lot of dirt that gets in our way. Any believer should be able to make it through these things the more we pray, study and commune with God. So let's just think of our ability to deal with life as the vacuum cleaner. Well sometimes we get to certain junctures in life where we feel like nothing is working. It seems like all we try to do fails. No matter how hard we fight, it seems that we can not see the light of day. Many times it is easy to fall into a state of constant stress or depression. Believe me I know, because I was there just last year as I wrote about in an earlier entry. I realize that sometimes we just hit that juncture so hard that we become disconnected from the power source. As a great prophet said, "God is the only boss that will fire you and let you keep working." In other words we can still be operating as a Christian, we can still be operating as a believer, we can still be operating as witnesses for God but yet we have no power.

Let me suggest to you that if you are going through some things in your life, if you can't seem to see the light of day, if you can't seem to see the end of the tunnel, if your life is worse now than it has ever been before, sit down and ask yourself have you disconnected from the power source. What is the power source you ask? The power source is the electricity of the Holy Spirit in your life. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV the bible says, if my people, who are called by my name, will 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. That means that we have specific steps to reconnecting to the power source. Then when we start the journey to reconnecting to the power source we need to immediately begin to Praise God more in everything we do. For there is power in our praise. Don't focus on the dirt or the negative in our lives. That is the best way to disconnect from the source. However, allow the source to generate the good in our lives. We don't know how to get ourselves out of situations anyway. So many times what we think is the right thing to do is in direct conflict with the right thing to do. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, "declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV I was watching youtube videos last night and I came across and interview with Prophet Todd Hall. He said that God desires, deserves, demands and then delights in our praise. That is so powerful to me, and I immediately begin to bury that in my spirit. As i wrote in an earlier entry, when life gives you lemons don't make lemonade and show signs that you had lemons but Praise God and show signs that you've been blessed.

My prayer is that this will minister to someone in a special way. I love and enjoy writing because it helps me bless others when I'm going through or from what I've been through. I'm just walking in the gift that God has given me. As always I pray that God will bless each and every person that reads this spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially. I ask that you pray the same for me. God Bless you and I love you!

Disobedience or Not?

John 14:12-17 This passage of scripture is so powerful. Jesus not only let us know that we need to and can continue to do what He did while He was here. However, the most important scripture in this passage to me is verse 15. "If you love me, you will obey what I command".
This week is about disobeying God. The problem is many us of don't actually take the time to realize what disobedient actions are. So I think sometimes we just need to stop and say, "Lord teach me right and wrong all over again like I'm a child."
I was tweeting earlier today on the topic Open Your Eyes! I was just wondering if Christians are paying attention to what is going on in the World today. If we don't think that it has spiritual implications then we simply need to Open Our Eyes! So if every religion on the map is coming out stronger than ever and we as Christians are hiding, is that disobedience? If we walk along see someone who looks distressed and hurt and we don't try to witness to them, is that disobedience? If we are around our family, friends, co-workers, etc. who will know are not saved and we don't lead them to Christ, is that disobedience? If we're disrespecting the order of God in and out of Church, is that disobedience? If we are cursing, lying, cheating, stealing, drinking, partying, and any other thing not conducive to the Christian lifestyle, is THAT NOT DISOBEDIENCE?
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Many people think I'm trying to be all "holier than thou", but I am the first to admit that I am a sinner saved by God's Grace and I'm thankful everyday. I just wish that Christians will stop making excuses for their sin and citing that "God knows my heart." Let's obey at all cost, by any means necessary. Let's come out of the closet since everyone else is, and stop being ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 1Samuel 15:22 To obey is better than sacrifice!
As always I wish that God will bless you spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially.

Don't Let The Devil Ride...

Galatians 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Many times in life we go through everyday not realizing the full consequences of our actions. We say things that we may not need to say to others. We do things that we probably should not be doing. We talk a little different then what we possibly should be talking. Then when things start happening for the worse in our life, we wonder why. Let me simply suggest that we can not let the devil ride, he will try to drive! If you give him and inch, he's taking a mile. If you crack the door, he's going to bust it open. He's always going to overstay his welcome.

Don't Let The Devil Ride! If you know you have a problem with alcohol, then don't put yourself in places or situations where is alcohol is a focus. If you know that you have the mouth of a sailor, watch what you feed into your gateways(eyes and ears). If you know that you have a problem with lust, fornication or anything else involving the opposite sex then don't flirt or allow them to reel you in. Whatever the problem may be just remember that in James 4:7 it tells us that if we resist the devil he will flee. Just try not to entertain anything negative or against the will of God.

God is able to help us through anything, but we can't keep putting ourself in the same situation that got us in trouble before. We should strive everyday to grow in life and more importantly in Christ. So remember... Don't Let The Devil Ride, He Will Try To Drive! I pray that God blesses each and everyone of you Spiritually, Mentally, Socially, Physically and Financially. Share Life, Let's Go!

Foot Work 2011

http://www.youtube.com/embed/3uapzc6SDY0

Don't Ride That Roller Coaster!

Luke 6:31-36 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

My prayer all the time is that God will bless everyone in my life in any way, shape, form or faction spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially. Yes that means YOU, I truly want to see all those around me succeed in all that they put their hands too. We should all be that way, especially if we call ourself a Christian. So I simply say to you... Don't Ride That Roller Coaster!

Now, I know you may ask or wonder where I'm going with this one. Well in life we are supposed to be constantly growing or getting better in whatever we do. Many times we hear that we need to change our friends when we begin to grow. I would like to interject that we don't need to change our friends. Why not help them get like you? Why not help them become successful like you? Why not "share life" and tell them how you begin to grow? Why not give them a chance to grow with you before you write them off? Now don't get me wrong people, there are times when people don't want to change, and then you have to make the better judgement to let them exit our of your life!

I got off on a tangent, but back to the roller coaster... For those of you who have rode a roller coaster, you know that that first hill is usually the hardest to reach the top. You come around the corner fast and then they slow you down, you go up to the peak of the first drop slow. Now the whole time you sit in a position where you can see the top where you are trying to go. It seems as though that's when all hell breaks loose. Your stomach begins to buckle. You don't know if you're gonna actually reach the top. You begin to second guess yourself on why you got on the roller coaster, eventhough you rode many before. Then as you approach the top it gets slower. You begin to hear a nose that sounds like the roller coaster is about to break. *cluck cluck cluck c l u c k* When you get to the top it seems as though life stands still for a minute for you to reflect, and then in the blink of an eye you descend 2, 3, 4 or more times faster than what you ascended! Before you know it the roller coaster is over.

So, let me suggest to you to not get caught up to much into your success that you start mistreating people. As fast as you rise, you can come crashing down. Don't Ride That Roller Coaster, treat everyone as you wish to be treated along the way and remember to stay humble. God will allow your gifts to elevate you. You just make sure that you keep Him first and treat people right so you can stay climbing instead of preparing for "the first drop". God has blessed me to be in the position where I have been able to hire 3 of my close friends in the last 4 months, 2 as personal trainers and 1 as a manager. I want the people around me to climb that ladder of success as I do. If you want to be successful, help someone else become successful.

As always, I hope this blesses someone out there. If it blesses you please share; likewise I pray that God blesses YOU spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially! Remember to SHARE LIFE!!!

Tolerating Excuses to Sin!!!

I took a fast from twitter and facebook for a week, and when I came back tonight (2/25/11), this is the first thing I read. This will be the first time I've ever put a blog other than my own in my blogs, but it's so worth it! This blog was written by my big brother and person who inspired me to blog, Darrell James. I know it is long, but it is well worth the read for anyone claiming to be a Christian! I hope it blesses you as much as it blessed me! Enjoy!

On Tuesday, February 22nd I did a status posting that I knew was going to invoke good dialogue between the ones who read it. Here’s the posting again for those who missed it: When I worked in the drug/alcohol field, we said that “once an addict always an addict”. I was talking with a friend and he mentioned giving into temptation also bringing up the song, “we fall down but get back up”. My humorous side responded, so once a sinner do we keep sinning just because God is a forgiving God (once a sinner always a sinner). He didn’t find it too funny. What do you think? SHARE LIFE-LET’S GO!!

Before I start I must give a DISCLAIMER (lol):
The purpose of this disclaimer is not to deny responsibility for what I’m about to write and share with you, or to cover up for anything you’re about to read. NOW LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT….. The purpose of it is to let you know that this is strictly my opinion on a topic and I do not claim to be a Mr. Know It All or that everything I say is GOLDEN. Nor do I claim to live a spotless and sin free lifestyle, YES I do sin and fall short of perfection BUT I strive to be more like Christ in my daily walk with Him asking Him to help me grow and remove my sins as not to repeat them. What you’re about to read was considered greatly and requested of God to help me express it diligently and without offended anyone who read it. (Whew, I’m already sweating and I haven’t even started to write yet, lol.) THAT’S ALL I’M SAYING, now let’s go……….ENJOY!!!

Sin is a big but small word, reminds me of an old song by Prince called ‘Sign of the Times’ where he says: AIDS is a big disease with a little name. Sin is a small 3 letter word that is so BIG that in the book of Genesis (v. 5-7) it speaks about God being so grieved at His heart about the sin of man that they were choosing sin and death instead of a relationship with Him, that He was going to destroy them (the story of Noah). Now take a moment to consider that this is just the book of Genesis and shortly after the creation of mankind. Now fast forward years ahead to current time and imagine the sins of the people of today, WOW. I’m just glad for His mercy and grace.

Now to give you more about what provoked this posting. I was talking with a friend on Monday and he was telling me about his disappointment in the area of trying to be a single Christian young man in a dating world of trying to find his mate. He was telling about how he’s tried staying within the church to seek out like minded women that were trying to walk the walk of faith. Within the last year of dating 4 different women he say that they tempted/pressured him sexually more than when he dated women outside the church. I went into how this didn’t give him an excuse to give in and then run crying to God for forgiveness. He said he had talked with an elder at his church about it was told that God will forgive him as well as the women for we’re not perfect and mentioned the above song. This triggered my funny bone and caused me to chuckle, saying what I had said, “so once a sinner we’re supposed to continue to sin and just take advantage of God’s mercy and grace because we know He’ll forgive us”. Let’s just say that our conversation went on for hours and ended with him asking me if I would be interested in talking with the elder at his church because of what we shared. This intrigued me to see what others thought of the discussion and I immediately wanted input from my FB fam, thus the status posting.

Now that you have that, let me take a brief commercial break to give you a little background info about myself so that you’ll know how my thought processes are formed. (Please keep this info private because once it comes out on The OWN Network and in my book I want everyone to at least pretend to be interested, lol.) I grew up 1 of 10 children to 2 of the best parents I could have asked for (imagine the assembly line for babies picking out their parents, yes I chose the ones I had, lol). They were both grounded in the church as my pastor likes to say, “from the old church” (big shout outs to my Pastor Keene and his leadership at KCC), Apostolic faith to be exact. My dad a bishop and my mom an evangelist, both great people in their time as they now rest in peace and shine through the legacy they left behind in the 10 of us. Well for me I grew up to dislike the fact that I was born in the church and forced to go because my parents went. Church was a priority in our house, when we weren’t there we were at home being made to do family prayer daily. I recall making a promise with a friend that I grew up with in the church that felt similar, we promised that once we were old enough to make our own decisions we wouldn’t step foot in a church again in our lives except for funerals and weddings (lol, this cracks me up now, however it happens still to youth that live similar lives to what I did then).

My mom being the praying mom she was talked/prayed to God so much that I thought at times she was talking to someone I never saw, now that I’m older and working in the mental health arena I’ve told people that she would’ve been diagnosed as schizophrenic, lol. I can recall times of hearing her cry out and running in the room thinking she had fell or one of my siblings were arguing about something. I had several talks of how I would never be able to run from God and what He had for me and I would think alright I hope He’s a good runner because I’m sure going to try to run and hide all the time, dodging under church pews, hiding in the balcony and trying to disguise my doings, lol. I didn’t understand scriptures like Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. My pastor broke this scripture down during a message one service in a way that really Blessed me, which was during the upbringing of a child he/she may take you through hell in the process but if you continue to train them correctly as they mature they’ll grow into the knowledge of what they were taught. So here I am today a changed man and glad to say that I don’t only go to church for funerals and weddings no more, lol.

During my upbringing my mom drilled into us, “once you see the light walk therein”. Now for me I didn’t care about this at the time because if I was going to be walking anywhere and there was no light I was cool with using a flashlight to light my path, not looking at it spiritually. Now I know that she meant although we walk and live in a world filled with darkness (sin) once you see better walk better. This to me meant a lot because as much as I rebelled against church I actually learned and held on to quite a bit and as much as my siblings would tell you that all I did was pout and sleep every service, trust me IT’S NOT TRUE, lol. Yes, there was times my dad would get in his mood and make me sit on the front row thinking it would make me at least sit up and not lay on the floor or the pew pouting and I would do it and act like I was sleeping. In spite of this, I actually learned and retained some things. I never wanted to get involved in church if I wasn’t going to be sincere about it, I didn’t want to be the lukewarm or indifferent believer because of knowing how God disliked this. I didn’t want to plan my next sin while repenting or asking God for forgiveness (yes, this happens - Lord please forgive me for the sin that I’m about to do, knowing better).

I struggled with things I would hear, like we should be careful of the spirits we allow or invite into our lives knowing that everything carries some kind of spirit with it. For me music was a big challenge and I was a hip-hop head refusing to let it go until I discovered gospel hip-hop and it’s what I bounce to now as well as bits and pieces of other gospel varieties of music but it’s all stuff that’ll encourage and speak positively into my life. So as I said earlier: Do I live a sinless life? No, but I do strive to eliminate and avoid it with the God’s help. Now let’s return back to the regular programming, enough about me, lol.

Sin is something that’s been around since the beginning of time and caused trouble every since; destroying lives, families, relationships, marriages and so on. God tried helping us to avoid sin at all cost, giving us guidance and tools to help (The 10 Commandments, Biblical Laws, The Bible, etc.). He knew that it would be difficult to live a perfect and sinless life, however He said (in my Bible it’s in red, depicting He directly said it, not a disciple, apostle, prophet but Him) in Matthew 5:48 - Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. - Now when this was said He knew of the temptations we would face in our walk and the difficulties that would come with them because He too had been tempted before. The sin isn’t in the temptation but in the giving in to it. He died so that we might be saved and strive to avoid sin to lead to a life more like Him - PERFECT. Through His death He washed us of our sins and forgave us but this wasn’t to condone or give us an excuse to continue to sin.

In the book of John where He says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (the parable of the adulterous woman) if we read further we see that He tells her, “Neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more.” Once God renews our thinking and life, we’re to strive to be more like Him, PERFECT. Will it be difficult, yes; will we fall, yes but does this mean we continue to fall, NO. In our walk, we’ll stumble and fall, become discouraged, think of giving up but these are the times we have to rely on the promises He gave us and when we forget them, just pick up the Bible and read them, It’s a complete book of promises. Our goal as Christians should be to eliminate sin from our lives, not excuse it. Sin is deliberate rebellion against God and when it happens we should pray and ask God to help us remove it, overcome it and not tolerate it. In this life it’s hard to be flawless and free of sin because it surrounds us, but we can aspire to be as close to Christ like as possible demonstrating morally sinless behaviors. A tendency to sin doesn’t give us the right to sin.

In closing I find it interesting that if you look at every adulterous sin done in churches, every act of deception committed, every act of wrong doing - the first thing said by the person that committed the sin is, “well nobody’s perfect and my God is a forgiving God”. I would love to ask someone on the receiving end of the sin, “How do you feel about the affair your spouse was involved in that you found out about only after you hired an investigator and saw it on ‘Cheaters’ (that’s my show, lol) after you both had got home from church? Point being that as we mature we know right from wrong. There’s an old saying that goes, “Everything I needed to know in life, I learned before the kindergarten”. This stands true for our walk with God as well, He’s given us instructions to live by while giving us the ability to choose if we want to live by them. Sin isn’t mandatory for being human, it’s a choice.

I pray that each of you that took the time to read this is Blessed in your daily walk to be more like Him. Please leave comments, if it provoked your thinking about the topic please pass it on. SHARE LIFE-LET’S GO!!!!

Wow, I like that so much I have to repeat it or as my pastor says, “that’s a good place to say amen”, lol…………………
SIN ISN’T MANDATORY FOR BEING HUMAN, IT’S A CHOICE.

Love and Blessings.

He's Pruning Me!

Family, God must be preparing me for something, because I've never had so many people take advantage of my kindness and attempt to push me to anger! I've had a couple of instances in the last few months (since God brought me out of the state of depression I was in for most of 2010) where either I got bad service at a restaraunt or got burned by someone taking advantage of my kindness.

We went to Chilli's on Lakeshore Pkwy in Birmingham/Homewood, AL tonight. I was with my wife Felicia, my God-sister Bridni Hunter and my best friend MC. We got to the table and our waiter said, "I'll be with yall in a minute." He came back about 5 minutes later and got our drink orders. He brought the drinks back and then walked off. He then came back about 5 more minutes and asked if we were ready to order. Before Felicia can get out two words of her order out, He left the table and didn't say what he was leaving for. Well, he went to get his tablet to write down the orders. (Should've had it anyway right, or said excuse me, let me get my tablet) I asked him about a different type of ranch that they had, and he looked puzzled and then just walked off without answering. So after he didn't come back for a while I saw a nice young man that works there named Patrick whom I had previously met. I asked Patrick about it, and he told me I was talking about the avacado ranch. I asked him if he could let our waiter know, and he said no problem. I had to go wash my hands. When I came back everyone at the table let me know that our waiter just sat the plate down and walked off. Well, the plate had 2 ranches, 1 blue cheese and a honey mustard. (none of which are avacado ranch) So we all thought that it bothered him a little that I asked him about something that was in his job description... CUSTOMER SERVICE. Oh yeah did I mention that MC and I's drink was still empty?... I politely went to the manager, and asked her if she would come to our table when she got the chance. She responded it'll be just a moment while I finish up something. Well that moment turned into about 15 minutes. I asked one of the other guys, who also had a bad attitude to go get her. So when she got to the table she started giving excuses as to what took her so long. Then when I went into why I wanted to talk to her, she kept interrupting me and trying to make light of the situation. She didn't really take to heart what I was saying until I mention 2 of her workers that I know. So then she says give me a minute while I rectify the situation. Guess what people... she never came back. While we were waiting on her, the waiter went and told all of his co-workers that we were complaining. So all of the co-workers started walking by our table looking down on us and stairing like we were a circus act or something. So by that time I can feel my temperature rising, and I suggested that we just leave. MC never got his to go box, so he had about 5 chicken fingers sitting on his plate along with 3 cheese sticks from Bridni's plate. So needless to say I will NEVER go back to Chilli's on Lakeshore Pkwy in Birmingham/Homewood, AL.

When MC and I got in the car, I begin to tell him that I think God is pruning me lately. Then on the way home I thought about Job. Job 1:8 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." So as all these things are happening to me, I'm just thanking God for all He has, is and will do in my life. I know He is going to take me to a whole other level, so instead of getting sour... I will yet praise! The devil may keep trying to throw me curve balls, but guess what?.... God is my batting coach, so I know He will have me ready.

As always, I pray God will bless each and everyone of you spiritually, mentally, socially, physically and financially. I just ask that you pray the same for me. Jesus loves you and so do I!