Psalm 150:6 says,”Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Before we start lifting holy hands and shouting, let’s review a few Hebrew translations for the word praise. One Hebrew word for “praise” is yadah, meaning “praise, give thanks, or confess.” A second word often translated “praise” in the Old Testament is zamar, “sing praise.” A third word translated “praise” is halal (the root of hallelujah), meaning “to praise, honor, or commend.” All three terms contain the idea of giving thanks and honor to one who is worthy of praise.

In Psalm 150 praise is used 13 times in 6 verses. The first verse provides the “where” of praise—everywhere! “Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. The second verse teaches “why” to praise the Lord: “Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.” In verses 3-6 we discover “how” to praise the Lord-with a sound: a variety of instruments, dance, and everything that has breath.

After reading these six verse we are able extract the “Who”, “what”, “where”, and “how” to praise, but “when” is it the best time to praise God?

For some of you, praise is an everyday thing, but for most people praising God doesn’t come easy especially when things aren’t going well.

I want to help those that falsely believe praise is contingent on their circumstances. I want to help encourage those believers that recognizes the “Who”, “what”, “where”, and “how”, but struggle with the “when”.

If this message is speaking to you, I want you to know that the deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of the pain, thanking God during trials, trusting Him when you are tempted to lose hope and choosing to love Him when He seems distant. Praising God is incessant and not contingent on your circumstances.

Remember this: When you are at your lowest-God is your Hope, when you are at your darkest-God is your light, when you are at your weakest-God is your strength, when you are at your saddest-God is your comforter, and when your pain is too much handle, God is your burden-bearer!

Brothers and sisters, it’s our duty and ‘response’(ibility) to praise God. Our praises to Him should never be contingent on our circumstances. We praise God because that’s what we’re created to do in the first place!! Psalm 100:3-4, says,“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

Fortunately, at the end of time, all of God’s people will join in eternal praise of God. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship Him” (Revelation 22:3).

“The LORD made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.” Jeremiah 51:15

When we appraise Joseph’s latter life we find a man living large and in charge. He rose to be the 2nd highest authority figure in all of Egypt (Genesis 41:37-40). However, when we review the full abstract of his life we find that he was the first biblical character to be human-trafficked by his own brothers and even falsely imprisoned.

If you’ve read his story then you know that his latter was much better than his former. As mentioned above, he ended up the number two guy in all of Egypt, saving millions from a devastating famine, and his own family, including the brothers that betrayed him.

Again, when you review the abstract of Joseph’s life how good do you think God’s favor and call upon Joseph’s life felt….good? Heck no, it probably felt horrible when he was in the pit, betrayed by his own flesh and blood brothers. I bet it wasn’t very comfortable when Potiphar’s wife lied about him making an advance on her, and then later thrown in jail for a crime he didn’t commit!

Bothers and Sister, the point of my message is that we should not equate God’s favor with a trouble-free life. Victory at the end of storm always looks and feels better after the storm passes! However, God’s call during the storm often requires discomfort because it’s really not about comfort, but more about Christ’s mission to save people of every tribe, nation, and tongue while He transforms you into His perfect imagine!!

It’s not uncommon for God to use your testimony as beacon of light to help guide the lost and backslidden back to Him. The Apostle Paul was called and favored by God, but he was also stoned, shipwrecked, bitten by a snake, mocked, beaten, imprisoned, and experienced all kinds of persecution for his radical conversion. Not to mention the Old Testament prophets. Ezekiel had to lay on his sides for over a year (Ezekiel 4) and according to tradition, Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own countrymen.

Case and point, God’s call and favor aren’t always easy, but they’re are always good. We can look to Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection as our greatest example of this biblical truth.

We should always find solace in the fact we are messengers of the Great King, once crucified, now glorified. Our King calls us onto the front lines of a battle with eternal stakes. While we face the gates of Hell themselves, they will not prevail against us (Matthew 16:18). While God’s call and favor is inexhaustible, indefatigable, and immeasurable, they also pack a big punch that reflects the tapestry of God’s glory, goodness, and love for His creation!

High Noon Prayer (a little late😇):

Dear Heavenly Father, when we trace the course of our life, we see that the line isn’t straight and that the pattern is much like a bee’s line, where there are turns and loops, not to mention crossovers. For some, this may seem confusing because the pathway to salvation is fairly linear while the course to sainthood isn’t. Let us not rest on our laurels but avail ourselves (mind, body,and soul) at a moment’s notice to fulfill the plans that You have for us.

O’God, we understand that we can’t completely fathom the empirical truth of the Gospel but we look with great expectations to the Holy Spirit to take intercession on our behalves, expressing the groaning in our hearts that are too difficult to articulate into words.

Lord Jesus, thank You for granting us undivided hearts, that way we will rely on the stability of You faithfulness and not the instability of our trivial craftiness. Let us be as the jelly fish, who neither swim nor control the direction of their journey but relies on the flow of the currents and drifts wherever they take it.

Abba Father, as the hearts of Your children are in the hands of the Lord and like the waters, You take us where You want us to go. We surrender to Your mighty hands. With that said, help us to break the pattern of running in the hamster wheel of life, being filled with anxious thoughts and fickle man-made solutions. We have been equipped with time, talents, and treasures to advance Your kingdom’s agenda forward, and we will not be apprehended or compromised by the silent bigotries of low expectations. HALLELUJAH, we rejoice because we serve the MOST HIGH GOD and though our dreams and blessings may tarry, we choose to stand patiently because as Your word says in Hebrews 10:38, “The just shall live by faith alone, through Christ alone” and there is nothing else needs to be said! So Father, we close this petition with praise and we shout THANK YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND WHOSE WE WE ARE IN YOU!! In Jesus’ life preserving and elevating name…amen and amen!

I had someone recently ask me in response to one of my Be Strong FB campaigns, “What can an invisible and imaginary god do?? If god could help us we surely would not be controlled, divided and deluded… wake up and face reality.”

My unapologetic response to this individual was that my reality is my God and my God is my reality. Furthermore, the goal of a Christian isn’t to strive for a trouble-free existence, but to better handle the ongoing nature of unexpected trials and unwanted circumstances. The basing of our goal on the solutions to our problems keeps us continually tied to their outcome. Christ came to teach us that our solution rest only to our salvation in Him. (Read I Peter 4:12-19)

Brothers and sisters, too often we go to God in efforts for Him to fix our problem(s) when all He wants to do is fix us first! When we learn from Him how to have peace regardless of our circumstances, then we can break-free from our sufferings in spite of what is going on around us! Our relief and/or victory is not contingent on resolutions or rescues but on Christ alone!

The good news is when we experience trials and sufferings James reminds us to count it all joy (James 1:2-4), Paul reminds us that Christ’s power rest on us (2 Corinthians 12:9), and Peter reminds us the Spirit of God rests on us during trials (I Peter 4:14).

At the end of the day, we all want peace and tranquillity, but while evil is still prevalent in our world we will have to take heart (courage) and continue to be strong (Joshua 1:9)! Which is why God inspired me to create the BE STRONG yard sign. GOD unequivocally knows that with Him on our side and as long as we stay connected to each other we will get through this TOGETHER.

The late and beloved Apologist R.C. Sproul said, “Jesus suffered for us. Yet we are called to participate in His suffering. Though He was uniquely the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, there is still an application of this vocation for us. We are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ.”

A competition is an event where people get together to see who is the best at something. Someone who takes part in a competition enters in as a competitor and each competitor competes against each other! With that said, why do so many churches feel the need to compete against each other and to take it one step deeper; why do so many church folk (partitioners and ministry leaders included) compete each against each other within the same walls of their own church of body!

Some of you don’t think this is a prevalent issue in the body, but it is and trust me this has been an ongoing issue since the birth of Cain and Able!

We can choose to dub it as competition, but when you peel that mask off it’s nothing more than jealously and envy!

Paul addressed this spirit in I Corinthians 12:25-27 and the Message paraphrase nailed his disposition spot on:

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”: apostles prophets teachers miracle workers healers helpers organizers those who pray in tongues. But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.”

While the Bible does not forbid competition, it does forbid the heart and attitudes that so many have when they do compete. The Scripture is clear that we are to do all things for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The church need less competition and more collaboration. The church needs teamwork not teams that work against each other! Attracting Christians from other churches and not reaching people who far from God is like a farmer moving grain from one silo to another. The farmer may think he’s getting something done, but he’s only wasting energy instead of using it to harvest more crops (Matthew 9:35-38). As it stands the church has never been about us versus us, rather it has always been about us versus ‘principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Ephesians 6:12).

The best way for the ‘global’ Church to grow is to work together to reach people far from God and teach them to follow Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).

According to TopVerses.com out of more than 100 bible verses, Romans 8:28 ranked number 14 and just so you know the ranking is based on how many times each verse is cited on the web. Now, don’t ask me how they calculated the results from that algorithm, but based on my personal observation, I believe their ranking estimations are accurate and they might even be spot on.

So, what’s all the hype about this top 20 verse? Paul said, “And we know that God causes All things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” If this bible verse don’t awaken something in your spirit, I suggest you re-reading until you have committed it to memory. There is so much meat to this verse and Paul did an exactly job of simplistically granulizing the power in it’s declaratory promise!

With that said, the Message Bible’s transliteration gives us an expanded paraphrase as to what the ‘how’ God causes everything to move on the ‘good’ side of the equation and it reads as follows: “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Boom!! Did you catch that? The good that God causes to work together is being accomplished by way of His Holy Spirit! If you didn’t know, the works or gifts of the Holy Spirit are enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3 and they are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

These gifts/works are very similar to the 9 fruits of the Spirit recorded in Galatians 5:22-23. However, I’ve learned the the gift/works of wisdom corresponds to the virtue of charity. The gift/work of understanding corresponds to the virtue of faith. The gift/work of counsel (right judgement) corresponds to the virtue of prudence. The gift/work of courage corresponds to the virtue of fortitude. The gift/work of knowledge corresponds to the virtue of hope. The gift/work of Reverence corresponds to the virtue of justice. The gifts/works of Wonder and Awe corresponds to the virtue of temperance.

So, if you are in a situation like many of our brothers and sisters adversely impacted by the aftermath stemming hurricane Laura, don’t forget that God will turn it around for your good. I know it’s easier said than done, but in times of adversity and uncertainty it behooves us to focus on the promise and not the problem! We should recall what Joseph said to his trifling brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You meant evil against me, but God used it for good.”

Brothers and Sisters, when we choose to operate and flow in the 7 gifts/works and the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, God will always post ice Lyn respond to our faithfulness. He and He alone will turn that negative into a positive because He will never end on a negative and trust me this is a spiritual algorithm no-one on this planet could ever articulate into human sense!

#Periodt #BeStrong

I am going to keep this short because our brothers and sisters are still in harm’s way, but I’m extremely grateful for God’s response to our prayers in diverting and minimize/mitigating the intensity and damage stemming from this historic category 4 hurricane. As we continue to pray for Laura to completely dissipate, I wanted to remind you that all it takes is one prayer to change everything!

It’s no secret nor surprise that prayer reminds us that God can handle our doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, and questions. We can literally bring everything (big or small) to God in prayer. James 5:16 confirms, “The effectual (specific)fervent (earnest) prayer of a righteous (only righteous in Christ) man availeth much.”

With that said, praying to God should be similar to breathing His air; it’s easier to do than to not do! When we come to God with our specific requests, we have God’s promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for (Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27). God promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15). Therefore, let’s us be found incessantly before God’s throne room of grace and mercy and let’s take up permanent residence at the foot of Cross. We should be immensely grateful to have a high Priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through (Hebrews 4:15-16). The good news is we have God’s promise that He will respond to our petitions (Psalm 91:15).

As our brothers and sisters to the North and East begin to make damage assessments and prepare for damage recovery my prayer for them is people will help in anyway they can as they begin to rebuild and restore their lives and their property!

All it takes is one prayer to change everything!

Why do people give up on God? Why have you given up on God? Well, I don’t believe this is a difficult question to answer because most people typically give-up when God’s response time to their personal prayer or petition take too long!

While hanging in the balance, in lieu of staying in God’s presence (prayer, praise, and worship) people way too often choose to believe that God is absent (fear, doubt, and worry). We’ve all heard it said that, “God’s timing is perfect” and for the most part people accept that, but what they really want to know is which time zone is He using (CST, EST, GMT)?! Fact is, God doesn’t reside in time, rather time resides in God!

Let’s be honest, we want what we want when we want it and time is always of the essence! The undetected paradox in fostering this kind of mindset is that God already knows what we need even before we ask! Jesus told His disciples not to be like the babbling pagans of their time because God knows exactly what they need even before they ask (Matthew 6:7-8).

If you’re presently in a holding pattern my first suggestion is to make sure God isn’t waiting on you. If that’s not the case, I challenge you to recognize that God’s timing does two things: It grows your faith as you are forced to wait and trust in God and it makes certain that He, and He alone, gets the glory and praise for pulling you through. In Psalm 31:15, David said “My times are in Your hands …”

Maybe you haven’t given up on God, but perhaps you know somebody who has. If that’s you please remind them not to give up until God answers their prayers. Since time exists in God and God’s timing is perfect, it often takes a little longer for the Master to complete His masterpiece. God will always answer our prayers with either a “yes” or a “no” that’s intrinsically clear; all we need is to patiently wait until the right time for the answers, miracles, and breakthroughs to come.

In closing, when you feel like God is absent and/or deaf, He may actually be saving you from yourself. Saving you from your own desires that will lead you astray and potentially not turn out well. When you get into those moments where you feel like God isn’t listening that’s an indicator for you to trust Him even more. Therefore, take rest in knowing that God is in control! God knows, God sees, and God cares about you and everything your going through!

Father God, all the elements of nature obey Your voice at Your command. Therefore, today we stand as a community of believers requesting that You calm the hurricanes that are presently threatening our well being!

Holy Spirit turn our fears into faith as we walk in the power of our praise and in the light of Your grace, mercy, and goodness.

Lord Jesus, build a spiritual fence and protect our homes from the inside-out from all potential disasters of nature.

Father God, as You know we have gone through a lot in 2020 and this impending tropical burden is way too much and our cups are running over! Help us O’God weather all of these things we have endured. Help us O’God not to quit and to be steadfast, immovable and strong!

Father God, we surrender and holdfast to Your word written in Psalm 57:2 where it is written, “Have mercy on me, God, have mercy, for in you my soul is taking refuge. In the shadow of your wings I take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”

Father God, as I move from prayer to praise, we want to thank You in advance for Your hand moving favorably on behalf. Thank You for reducing and dismantling each every corner of Hurricane Laura and other potential system lurking and/or brewing in Your waters. Thank You for accepting this declaratory petition and for granting us unity and strength to get through this together! We pray all these things in our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen and Amen!!

BeStrong