I vividly remember my juvenile love for shooting basketball on the courts at Attucks Middle School. I say shooting basketball, but I really meant shooting bricks and air balls. If you know me then you know my heart was really never on the court, but rather on the grass doing backflips. However, my passion for gymnastics did wain my desire to shoot ball with the homies on the court.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the necessary athletic skill-set to play to their level of expectations so I was ‘that kid’ who rarely got picked to play on anyone’s team.

This somewhat painful childhood memory reminds me to be thankful to God for choosing me despite my inexperiences to be His adoptive son through the blood of Jesus and for allowing me a permanent spot to be a part of His heavenly squad.

Ephesians 1:4-6 confirms, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One [Jesus] He loves.”

For some people God’s choosing of His people even before he made the world is a hard concept to embrace because according to critics, predestination quashes human freedom and free will. The truth of the matter is one doesn’t cancel out the other. How does the adage goes, “The Lord works in……..” Well mysteriously, the Bible shows that there is both election and free will. God’s sovereignty and our human responsibility may be difficult to explain logically, but in the Bible we see lots of examples of both at work. Just think of Paul’s call on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

In his letters to churches, Paul insists on election, but nowhere does he fully explain the mystery of God’s choosing and how that works with our own will to receive Him as Lord and be saved.

Nonetheless, Paul describes election as a teaching of great comfort. In his amazing mercy and grace, God loved us and chose us even before He created the world! Ephesians 1:11-12 further explains, “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.”

Here’s another kicker for you, God’s choosing is also a calling. Out of His unmatchable grace and limitless mercy He has chosen us for acts of love and service so that we can be a part of bringing his love and mercy to all those who wants to be a part of His earthly squad!

My brothers and sisters, by grace alone you should find comfort today in God’s predestination and election because it doesn’t matter if you shoot ball or shoot bricks! God chose you despite the measure of your skill sets before the foundations of this world to be a part of His everlasting squad! 1 Peter 2:9 hit the nail on the head, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Ok, put me in Coach….I’m ready to play!

How many of you have ever traveled through a desert? Most people like myself have never literally traveled through a desert physically but, we’ve all experienced traveling through situational deserts in our lives. Deserts are surprisingly diverse and one might picture it as being a sandy, hot place, but some deserts are snowy and cold, like the polar desert of Antarctica. Likewise, deserts can be small rather than stereotypically vast. Despite their variety, they hold one thing in common: all deserts are dry. And traveling through a desert leaves us dried up, thirsty, and parched.

The good news is that desert moment experiences aren’t meant to break us but they are intended to test and fortify us.

In the gospels of Matthew (4:1-11), Mark (1:9-13), and Luke (4:1-13) we learn that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit and was led by God’s Spirit into the Judaean desert to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights. It was in this desert that Jesus’ identity was established as the Son of man and His authority as the Son of God to overcome the works and attacks of the world, His flesh, and the enemy. Notice, His desert moment experience took place before the launch of His 3 year ministry. Also, not one single miracle was preformed and not one single parable was spoken until after traveled through this desert.

His plight and latter victory over the temptations in the desert reveals that Jesus is fully one of us; He experienced hunger, fatigue, and weariness in a very physical desert. And just like us, He experienced temptations. Yet, as fully God, He does not fall into sin, He does not fail, and He does not succumb to the temptations of the devil. Truly, Jesus reveals to us what it means to live out one’s humanity in the midst of the physicality of temptation, as well as how to lean on the divine, a reality we all share in as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. 

With all that said, I officially dub this year, ‘Desert Storm 2020’ and I believe that God is getting ready to reboot families, churches, and communities across the globe. I am not an IT expert, but the first thing they will suggest to an end user experiences computer related issues is to shut the device down and reboot it! I am told that when this action is perform it refreshes all the drivers in the system and it also flushes out all the random, unimportant, and temporary data bogging down the device.

Brothers and Sisters, my point of encouragement for you and me is to embrace the journey and don’t quit. Although the desert represents barriers, obstacles and challenges; it also represents preparation (Deut 29:5-6), separation, inspiration, revelation, and elevation (Exodus 19:2-6). So don’t be disappointed if today we set foot on the road that God called us to travel doesn’t immediately lead us out of desert storm 2020. I am unequivocally convinced that for those in Christ Jesus all roads will eventually lead us to God. That is, after all, the purpose of the ‘desert’ in the lives of God’s people and just like Jesus, we too were led into the desert, so that God might bring us to Himself (Luke 4:18-19).

Many Christians today are extremely hungry and thirsty for God’s word and touch! As many churches begin to reopen their doors, I am sure ministry leaders are witnessing this earnest and sincere pursuit back to the kingdom of God first hand!

Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” This is good news for those who are earnestly seeking God in this season!

The word blessed in the Beatitudes signifies deep, joy-filled contentment and the word righteousness speaks of right relationship with God and with man. Who reading this message don’t want to blessings and righteousness to be part of their everyday lives?!

Brothers and Sisters to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to possess an active spiritual longing! Like the Psalmist said, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When [where] can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2).

With that said, this desire (hunger/thirst) is not passive; it is a fervent seeking. The servant who hungers and thirsts for righteousness is the same as the one who seeks God’s kingdom and His righteousness before and above everything else (Matthew 6:33). This servant is blessed because he or she experiences a satisfied heart. This servant can openly and unwaveringly say, “It is well with my soul” despite these pandemics, the upcoming election, and this hyper hurricane season.

Now then, for those who are trailblazing in their Christian faith journey, don’t stop and to those are lacking, but seeking spiritual sustenance, don’t stop! The common denominator is don’t stop because as the scripture states ‘you will be filed’!

Let’s be clear, being hungry and thirsty is not so much about what you do. It’s more about how long and where you position yourself (consistency). Like a pot of water, if you sit on God’s flame long enough, the things of God will begin to bubble up. The passion, zeal, encouragement, and excitement for God will start to flow in you and ultimately pour out of you.

Here’s the deal, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been born again for one day or 30 years, your hunger and thirst for God never ends because we who are in Christ are not spiritual bulimics—we hunger and thirst for righteousness because we need to be filled and God in Christ is ready to unequivocally meet that need without fail!

Work, work, work, and more work! It’s seems like that’s all we do and it doesn’t matter what type of work you do, if you’re working on-site or you’re remotely working from home, work is work no matter how you slice it.

Work in the noun form is defined as activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. When you look at it from this perspective, work doesn’t sound half bad. Who doesn’t want to reach their purpose and achieve positive results in life.

Arbitrarily, many people think work is a bad thing because of the fall. They either misinterpret or was erroneously taught that work is a curse that stemmed from Adam and Eve’s fall from grace in the garden. If that’s you, let me set the record straight. Work was a part of God’s plan for man from the beginning and no, God didn’t curse man to work, He cursed the land. Then to Adam God said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; CURSED IS THE GROUND because of you; in toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field..” (Genesis 3:17-18).

Philanthropist and industrialist Andrew Carnegie said: “The average person puts in 25% of the energy and ability into their work. The world takes off its hat to those who put more than 50%, and stand on its head for those few and far-between souls who devote 100%.”

What if I told you that God expects us to give 110%? Check out what Paul said in Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Now do you fully comprehend why I said we should shoot for 110%? No one should blatantly want to give God their second best, right? Well, Cain tried it and hmmm, let’s just say that didn’t turn out so great for him (see Gen 4:5).

Having said that, here are a few things I’d like you to consider before you clock-in to your ‘job’ today: work is done not only to benefit the worker, by others also (Eph 4:28), work is a gift from God for his people to be bless (Ecc 3:12-13), and God equips people for their work (Ex 31:2-11).

Although God’s original design for work was distorted by sin, God will one day restore work without the burdens that sin introduced. However, in the meantime God never said for us to sit back and be idle. Remember the parable of the talents spoken by Jesus in Matthew 25:14-30? God calls the laborers (us) to come forth and work—not lay down and sleep!! Brothers and Sisters, our attitude toward work should mirror that of Jesus: “My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). If you don’t take away anything from the context of this devotional, let this soak in: work is of no value except when God is in it.

In 1992 author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson in her book ‘A return to love’ wrote the following powerful poem entitled “Our Deepest Fear”:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make and manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

These are some powerful awe-inspiring and convicting words. This poem reminded me that God placed a seed of greatness in each of us. And those seeds were intended to germinate and blossom as this is irrefutably God’s will for each of our lives.

Unfortunately, Satan has done an impeccable job at obscuring our vision and minimizing our seeds of greatness through personal fear, anxiety, worry, and doubt. 2 Cor 4:4 confirms, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe…..” However, Paul reminded us in Eph 1:4-5, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

Here’s some more good news-God is bigger than our fear(s)!! Therefore, we don’t have to live in fear. We can let go and allow the God who created a billion stars to lavish us in unmatchable love, grace, mercy, favor, and greatness.

The choice is yours to make! You can either accept God’s call to greatest or you can live in fear of being great! It’s just that simply, but before you choose know that you did nothing to earn God’s greatness, but through Christ you have been given the opportunity to be great! The funny thing is you don’t have to seek greatness—greatness seeks you!

TrustGod

TGBTG

BeStrong

The power is not in preaching rather, the power is in living out the words you preach. This statement is not only applicable to preachers and teachers of the word of God but to everyone who hears the word of God. James 1:22 (NLT) says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” With that said, teachers of the gospel will be held to the letter of what they teach. James 3:1 (NIV) confirms, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

Practicing what you preach as pastors, teachers, parents, supervisors, trainers etc requires that you behave in the same way you encouraged others to behave in. According to Hebrews 4:12, “the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The living Word is active in the lives of those who receive it and lives it. According to the psalmist, the person who meditates on and delights in the Word will be “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:2–3).

Now, I’ll be the first to openly admit that I am a ‘continued’ work in progress. God is still removing some scales, pruning some flesh, and reshaping my mind. Paul said it best in Philippians 3:13-16, “Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.”

Jesus, who is the greatest Preacher/Teacher that ever walked the face of this earth summed up a life lived for God when a teacher of the law asked Him the most important of commandments. Jesus replied, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

Brothers and Sisters, those who truly desire to live for God must seek Him in His Word. We must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to apply the Word to our lives. Living for God means giving up ourselves and desiring God’s will above all else. As we draw nearer to God and come to know Him more, His desires will more naturally become ours. As we mature, our desire to obey God’s commands increases as our love for Him and our fellow man increases. As Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).

As it stands, the best sermon ever preached 🗣is the one that is lived out through your feet 👣 because if we live by the Spirit, we will also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24–25)!

How do we make sense of things unseen? That’s a difficult question for some people to answer. Ultimately, we choose what we want to believe or not believe. In Hebrews 11:1 we find the non-exhaustive definition of faith; “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

With that said, it’s easy for us to believe that that light travels 186,000 miles per second, even though we’ve personally never measured it. It’s easy for us to believe there are 100 trillion stars in the sky without question. It’s easy for us to believe that an atom has neutrons and electrons spinning around a nucleus, even though we have never seen any of them. It’s easy for us to believe that E does, in fact, equal MC².

Undoubtedly, we pride ourselves on being sophisticated and logical creatures and if we can’t justify the unseen than we immediately reject its authenticity without flinching or batting an eye!

Equally said, when people can’t make logical sense of the Bible they choose to reject its authenticity or stoically question its reliability.

In short, there is solid proof that thousands of people witnessed the miracles of Jesus. There are testimonies from dozens who witnessed His death, only to see Him alive after His resurrection. There have been many historical archeological discoveries and yet people choose to question the Bible inerrancy and infallibility. Tell me, where is the logic in that? Logic goes out the window when people talk about Jesus.

If I am speaking to you and you are struggling with making sense of the ‘unseen’, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).

I was at Kroger’s picking up a few things and out of nowhere, I heard someone say something to me. Now, with facial coverings and social distancing you rarely hear people chatting to each other unless that absolutely have to do so. Then, I heard the voice again and a man quickly approached and sharply asked me, “Do you really??” It took me about 3 seconds to realize that he was referring to one of the many old NHC Caregroup shirts I regularly wear.

If you’re wandering, the question printed on the t-shirt states, “ASK ME… I CARE! As I mentioned, I wear these t-shirts quite regularly and in over 9 years no one has ever asked me that question.

Intuitively, I responded, “Yes, I do!” To that he immediately replied, “About what?” Realizing that now I’m on the hook to continue engaging him, I said, “To love Jesus Christ and to share His love with others!!” The gentleman smiled, pulled out a cross emblem from his t-shirt, and pleasantly said, “Exactly, that’s what’s it’s all about—especially during these times!”

At this point, the lane we were obstructing started to get a little congested by fellow shoppers who weren’t the least bit interested in our 20 second bantering session. So in parting, I asked him for his name and he said, “Martin” and I told him my name and then I parted ways with saying, “God bless you.”

Which brings us to the foundation of this devotional. What if the only Jesus someone sees is through you? As followers of Christ, we bear the responsibility to demonstrate to the world what Jesus would look like if He was walking the earth today.

We live amongst people that will never enter the door of a church or read the Bible or hear a sermon. But these people have the opportunity to know Jesus by watching us! I know Martin was wearing a cross emblem, but what I don’t who is where he was in his faith journey. Perhaps, he need confirmation that grace still exist despite the hate we see climbing rapidly in our world.

In Matthew 5:16 Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” The light Jesus is referring to is that positive change within you; that contentment; that inner peacefulness (even when chaos is all around you) that you just can’t contain with subtlety or oblivion.

Brothers and sisters, now more than ever, we are called to be light to a world struggling against physical and spiritual forces like never before. As we currently deal with issues involving our health, identities, finances, and governments, our presence as light for God is so important.

To be honest, for a moment, I thought Martin was being rude and my first thought was to say, “What’s it to you”, but that’s not what The Holy Spirit (Light) led me to do!

In hindsight, I don’t know the impact that 20 second encounter meant for Martin, but it meant enough for me to write about it. Fact is; when we embody the light of Christ and are willing to share that light with others as Jesus did, serving them with peaceful hearts and directing them toward God’s provision, grace, and mercy it opens up opportunities that births faith, hope, and love in the hearts of God’s people and it glorifies God in heaven.

Quiet as it’s kept, God is probably asked this question more times than many and I would be willingly to bet the farm that if someone ask Him ‘does He care’, He would respond with one question; “Is the tomb empty?!”

We are all tried and worn out!! In fact some days it feels like we are burning our candles at both-ends. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it appear that months turned into weeks, weeks turned into days, and days feel like minutes?! Just think about it, Monday was Labor Day and in one blink BOOM; today is Friday. The earth is definitely spinning faster than ever before.

Let’s be honest, we are still having to do ‘work-arounds’ with this lingering pandemic, an economic crisis, remote learning, a looming election, police reform, and social injustices. Not to mention the everyday debacles that we all individually face and deal with everyday! With that said, it’s not uncommon for our bodies to want to shut down because we pushing 100 MPH everyday!

So to combat all of the stress, anxiety and tiredness we need rest! If globally we can’t solve world hunger, why in the world are we so stressed out trying to solve things we absolutely can’t control?!

Quite as it’s kept rest is one of the greatest gifts God gave to mankind. Rest is synonymous to peace. Naturally, we associate rest with sleep. When we are so tired, we think of sleeping and resting. After that, we are refreshed and energized to move out again. We feel good and happy. This is not God’s rest, but rather man’s rest!

Let’s be clear, God ‘s rest is deep and profound. It supersedes the rest derived when we are physically tired or sleepy or worn out from every day life; when we have worked so hard that we can hardly stand!

The Greek word for rest is ‘anapausis’ meaning cessation from labor and refreshment. Christ’s rest is not a rest from works, but in works; not the rest of activity, but of the harmonious working of all the faculties and affections, of will, heart, imagination, conscience- because each is found in God the ideal sphere of its satisfaction and development.

(Vines concise dictionary).

Jesus extended us an olive branch in Matthew 11:28 and He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Additionally, in Hebrew 4:1-3 believers are strongly encouraged to enter God’s rest!

God’s rest is found in our love in obeying His word! It’s putting faith in truly embracing and understanding God’s rest so that we are able to pass it along to others; practicing compassion like Jesus and helping the weary. It is the way of prayer-coming to the throne of grace—seeking God’s face whether on our knees or bellies!!

Beloved, when we possess God’s rest it eases the pain/burdens we bear because it refreshes and relaxes our minds, spirits, and physical bodies. We are able to lay down in peace in lieu of being torn by inner and outer struggles. We are able to operate our lives in peace and achieve our visions and goals. God’s rest settles our fears and drowns out any all distractions. Yes, It’s our duty and responsibility to work but even more important than that, it’s our duty and responsibility to seek out God’s rest in our lives—-everyday!!