In good times, God is worthy. In bad times, God is worthy. When we are under attack, God is worthy. If we never do another thing, God will always be worthy of our worship.

What’s the literary motif in the above paragraph? You got it, worship! I don’t know if you fully understand that something happens when you worship God with a pure heart. David new the importance of this critical attribute in true worship hence the reason he penned these words in Psalm 51:10-11, “Create in me a clean [pure] heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.”

Undoubtedly, a pure heart of worship is a heart, delighting in God and expressing praise to Him for the true things the Scriptures teach us about who He is and what He has accomplished for us through the irrevocable work of the Cross. It is, then, “all about” Jesus, not us. It involves us, but we’re at the periphery. Jesus is at the center. He’s the focus. It’s his commands we consider first, not our own preferences.

I’ve heard it said, “The attitude of our hearts becomes the heartbeat of our worship.” I don’t know what this statement means to you but for me, it means that when I worship, I would rather my heart be without words than my words be without heart.

My point of encouragement is for you not to allow your heart to be filled with all the negativity circulating in our world today! Don’t let Covid-19, Election 2020, or Pandemic 2020 keep you from doing what God created you to do. Without the inward attitude of a pure heart, you cannot worship God the way you should. All the art forms—singing, dancing, playing of musical instruments, etc.—cannot express the attitude of a pure heart, but they can be used to help in the expression of your truth in worship.

So just be genuine in your attitude of worship! God is looking for genuine people, willing to give their heart, mind and soul, to Him freely, authentically, and consistently! A pure heart is nothing more than being real with God, and not pretending to honor and adore Him.

Praying according to God’s will is not as difficult as we oftentimes believe. Before the opening of the world wide web and google, in order to download information we had to walk or drive to the library and use the Dewey Decimal Classification System to locate the information we needed.

This numerical system is still used today to mark and arrange various non-fictional books. It is an essential tool for students or seekers to understand why books are numbered and how to find the numbers on the shelves, so they can use the library effectively and in a timely manner.

The Bible is somewhat set up like the Dewey system in that it’s divided into books and each passage of text are numbered and grouped by chapters and verses. So if there is something specific you need to refer to or study it makes it that much easier to find.

With that said, the will of God is found in the word of God. The Bible tells us that when we pray to God “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). For many Believers who feel in the dark about God’s will, those words send them into doubt and insecurity.

Well, if that’s you I would like to help you first identify what it is that you want God to do and then how to apply the appropriate scripture to that request in prayer.

So, the first thing to do is to differentiate what you’re praying for is it a need, an opportunity, or a desire. Understanding what you asking will help you determine which passage(s) of text line up with your request and if it lines up with the text it will always line up with God’s will.

For example: if you are praying for a need to be meant, Philippians 4:19 confirms, “Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”

If it’s an opportunity that you are pondering, I John 4:1 advises, ”Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

If it’s a desire you need filled, Psalm 37:4 instructs us to, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

These are only a few suggestions that if coupled with prayer will help to bring peace in the in-between. In others words, while you are waiting on God to respond to your prayer request(s). Please recognize that the right scripture for you and your situation may not be what’s cited above, but always trust that (a) Holy Spirit will always lead you to the right passage(s) and (b) He will always send confirmation.

Furthermore, the Bible speaks about the will of God in three categories: (1) God’s sovereign will (Ephesians 1:11; Acts 4:28). (2) God’s moral will (Exodus 20:1-17). (3) God’s permissive will (Acts 14:16). In full disclosure make note that category 1 is not relevant to 1 John 5:14 since we are not privy to the secret counsel of God. But either or both categories #2 or #3 could play a part in what it means to pray according to God’s will.

Let’s be clear, God’s can not be compromised or manipulated. However, the good news for us is that God promises to show us how to pray His will for every situation we face. All we have to do is differentiate what it is that we are requesting, line His word up with that request, pray about it, faithfully wait for His response, and trust Him to do whatever needs to be done according to His will, plan, and purpose!

#BeStrong

I’m far from perfect and God is still working on me, but living for Jesus Christ has been the best decision I’ve ever made in my life!

#Periodt

#LivingTestimony

#TGBTG

#BeStrong

What is HOPE? According to Webster dictionary, it simply means to cherish a desire with an expectation of fulfillment. One acronym I recently read truly struck the nail on the proverbial head: H.old O.n P.ain E.nds! I don’t know what that just did for you, but when I read it—it sharply confirmed my contextual understanding of the faith chapter found in the book of Hebrews (11).

Adding to the above definition above, hope is a confident anticipation of good. It is not just wishful thinking or thinking positive. It is not the same as saying, “Well, I hope so.” Hope is as solid as a helmet, but no helmet will protect you from danger if you have laid it aside. When we lose hope we lose the battle.

Speaking of battles, when the spirt of the Lord fell upon Jahaziel son on Zechariah he said in 2 Chronicles 20:15, “He boldly said to the assembly, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

Essentially, hope recognizes who the battle belongs to and it doesn’t matter if all hell is wreaking havoc in your life or in the worl around you—God said the battle is mine!! No matter how big or small the giant your facing—nothing and I do mean nothing is more powerful than the God we serve! I John 4:4 confirms, “….greater is He (God) that is in you than he (Satan) who is in the world.”

I encourage you to stop thinking about the storm(s) and start speaking to your storm by simply saying, “Something good is about to happen.” I get it, I’ve been there and quite frankly oftentimes you really don’t feel like saying anything. In most cases, you may feel abandoned or lost because you have no clue if you’ll make it through the mess or succumb to it! However, despite the ambiguities you will to have muster up enough strength to personally reach the depths of God’s power, because no one person has enough reserves of their own to keep moving forward without it!

My brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to fully learn to hope again, you must go back to the ABCs—the foundation of hope. There are three foundational pillars that I believe structural support our hope in God: (1)God is good all the time; (2) “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28); and (3) God never ends on a negative, “what the enemy meant for evil God meant it for good (Gen 50:20).

You know what’s equally amazing? If you earnestly place your hope in the Author and Anchor of hope, He will take you on a journey to a place hope is no longer deferred but where fulfilled desire becomes a tree of life (Psalm 1:3). So, even if your going through hell right now, run and run quickly into the arms of God’s redemptive love, comfort, strength, and peace because only in God can all things be made new. Revelation 21:5 says, “And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I Am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

#TGBTG

#BeStrong

The year 2020 will go down in the history books as the year of the ‘twilight zone’. I recently read a couple tweets that said, “I think we should put 2020 in rice” and “I’d like to leave now, please and thank you!”

There is no doubt, you will find a plethora of memes, tweets, and post that humorously attempts to sum up the year 2020. However, it’s difficult to capsulate a year that has brought so much pain and devastation to so many people across the globe.

With that said, humor is one way we cope with pain, but these catastrophic and historic events shouldn’t drive us to complain, rather these unprecedented events should cause us to drop to our knees!

In Numbers 11:1 we learn the not so good fate of some of the people soon after they began to complain about their hardships. As some of you may know, complaining was second nature for Israel during the wilderness years. In context to the passage of text mentioned above, Israel was only three days into their wilderness journey when they started to complain. They complained about their hardships and the wilderness food. They wanted something different from the manna they had to eat, day in and day out. The food they had eaten in Egypt seemed so much better.

It’s acutely difficult for people to see the good because of all the bad, but we have to force ourselves to think and live positively because when we complain, we fall into the devil’s trap. When we complain, we tend to glamorize what we don’t have because we forget to recognize what we do have. Ask yourselves: Did Israel really have it better in Egypt? Unfortunately, somehow the children of Israel completely forgot the hardships they had endured there as slaves and the 10 plagues the Lord sent down from heaven that led to their exoneration them out of the heartless hands of the Pharoah.

My brothers and sisters, I get it! It’s easy to complain and in some cases it feels liberating when we do. However, when we complain, we tend to see life in a distorted way. Grumbling flows from people who think they deserve something better and Paul encouraged us in Philippians 2:14, “to do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

Contentment doesn’t come from people, money, or possessions. Contentment comes only from knowing God and delighting in His Fatherly care despite the opposition, consequence, or circumstance!

Perhaps, the events in 2020 may be one of God’s way to admonition the world to change their ways before it’s too late! Think about it, how else could one explain a health and a social pandemic? The collapse of economies? Environmental degradation that has led to dramatic heat waves and other disasters across the planet? Wildfires decimating our western forests? Powerful storms and floods?

This present day twilight zone maybe God’s way to highlight the need for us to truly embrace 2 Chronicles 7:14, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”

When I was a teenager, I vividly remember riding the Texas Cyclone at Astroworld. For the millennials reading this message, the Texas Cyclone was a wooden roller coaster at the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld in H-Town. This roller coaster stood approximately 93’ tall and its drop was a jaw-dropping 80’. Hands down, it was one of the most frightening rides on the park back-in-the day!!

Although it was a dreadfully scary roller coaster, the one thing that’s common about all thrill coasters despite their shape and size is they’re all designed to travel in a crazy circle!

Metaphorically our lives are very similar to a roller coaster. We go up, we go down. The higher we rise the further we seem to fall down. It becomes such a reliable pattern that people often learn to dread when things are going really well, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the fall.

The emotional falls do not even have to be based on actual falls, like being broken up with, suffering from a catastrophic illness, suddenly finding yourself unemployed, or facing some other impossibly scary and grief-filled situation. Even when the outside facts support that things are going well, we seem to still feel these stomach-churning, heart-breaking, life turned upside-down emotional lows after each big win in our lives.

I don’t know if you understand what I am trying to convey here, but as a son and daughter of God you should be so confident about God’s plan that you don’t even get upset anymore when things don’t go your way.

Life has taught me that God never ends on a negative and according to Philippians 1:6, “God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

My brothers and sisters, we need to trust God in ALL circumstances and abandon the idea that we can control it, or that we need to… maybe even that we would want to, even if we could. Because, as it turns out, screaming in terror and gripping tightly to the bar in front of you doesn’t actually change the trajectory of the ride.

Thankfully, God’s plan for our lives were victoriously pre-written before we were conceived in our mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and by now we should know that everything that God did and does is good, so even when things aren’t good, it’s just a matter of time before God will cause the ‘bad’ to work for our good because, He will never end on a negative!

The Lord is good and His mercy endures forever (Psalm 100:5), Hallelujah!! That’s our unstoppable God!! He is unquestionably awesome and nothing or no one will ever stop the will of God from manifesting greatest in our lives!!

TGBTG

BeStrong

Fear can be crippling, debilitating, and enfeebling. Fear by definition is an unpleasant feeling triggered by the perception of danger, real or imagined. How many times have you allowed this false emotion stop you from pursuing your dreams, hopes, and aspirations?

Let’s be honest, we’ve all had to face some fears in our lives and although we may not be proud to admit it; unfortunately we’ve allowed those false emotions to impede our progression in one way or another!

In God’s omniscience, He knew that fear would be one of the greatest challenges we would have to overcome; this is why one of the most oft-repeated commands in the Bible is ‘do not be afraid’. Of course, the Bible does more than issue the command; it gives us good reasons why we do not need to live in fear!

The more you focus your time and energy on fear, the bigger it becomes. Unbeknownst to most, fear grows when you give it too much attention. If you keep thinking on your fears, they will grow out of proportion and take over your life, since whatever you focus on grows, including your fears.

In lieu of focusing your attention on the various kinds of fears aka phobias (unknown, failure, death, etc), the Bible teaches us to fix or center our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. We “think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8, NLT). As Jairus the synagogue ruler was bringing Jesus home to save his daughter, he received news that his daughter had died (Mark 5:35). Immediately, Jesus told Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (verse 36). In other words, Jairus must forgo the natural focus on the tragedy and fear and focus instead on faith and the Lord’s nearness. In choosing to not be afraid, we remember that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Faith and praise is the antidote to fear, and gratitude negates worry. Habakkuk the prophet was fearful of the invasion of his country, and he described his fear vividly: “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled” (Habakkuk 3:16). But in the following verses, the prophet handles his fear in a godly manner: he “waited patiently” to see the Lord’s intervention (verse 16). He acknowledged that difficult times could be on the way (verse 17). He purposed to praise the Lord (verse 18). And he focused on the Lord’s power and promises (verse 19). In that focus, Habakkuk learned to not be afraid. And that’s how he ended his book, on a note of praise to the Lord.

Look at it this way, when David came against Goliath, he didn’t stand for hours starring at the giant wondering how to win the battle. The Bible says that he ran quickly (faithfully) to the battle line, all the time talking about the greatness of God and declaring his victory ahead of time (praise). David didn’t run away from his giant— he courageously ran toward him because he knew that the God in him was greater than the fear (giant) that wanted to consume him!

My brothers and sister, I don’t know who I am talking to today but I’m here to tell you that if you continue listening to your fears, you will leave this earth never fulfilling all that God had purposed for you to accomplish!

You might be wandering did David feel any fear as he approached Goliath? Well, David was 100% man so I would say of course he did. However, in David’s writings he never claimed to be free from the feelings of fear, but he chose to fight anyway, and God honored his faithful obedience! The battle between he and Goliath propelled David to a level of greatness he would have never accomplished had he not overcome his fear with faith and praise!!

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!