Month: December 2016

Do you ever talk to your soul? Have you ever wondered what to say to your soul? Talking to our soul is one of the most important ways to embrace the joy of life. What we say to our souls can mean a lot. Just to be clear, our spirit talks to us often. We hear good things from the spirit such as making the right decisions and choices most of the time. The spirit is of God. The spirit is God. But our soul is within us and a part of us forever until we leave this earth. And what we feed the soul helps us to listen better to the spirit. If we talk or feed the soul with bad words, our spirit-talk will not matter. We will ignore the words of the spirit. But, when we feed or talk to our souls about good things, then we are open to hear the joy and love of the spirit, which creates joy around us. I love the word ‘joy’. I love what joy feels like. We can create peace and joy around us even in a world of chaos when we practices good talk to the soul.

When we talk to the soul we must use good words. The soul is always hungry for whatever you feed it. If your soul is filled with negative words, then your life will be negative. You will walk in your own hell and everybody you meet will be invited to participate in your own hell. It is our fault when we create hell around us. One way we create a world of negativity and hell is through the poison of words. Sometimes these poisoned words come in the form of people, places and things.

Our mind is always on even in our dreams. If you lay down at night with words such as: ‘you are ugly, you are nothing and you always make mistakes’. You will get up in the morning with an ugly attitude. You will feel worthless and nothing you do that day will make sense or be right. These are words of poison that you either tell your soul(self) or you have allowed someone to say these things to you. The old saying that “sticks and stones can hurt but words will never hurt” is a big lie. A complete lie. Words of poison will cast doubt and create an individual hell for anyone who sows the seeds of poisoned words and reaps those same seeds. One poison word can change your entire life forever.

When we listen to words of poison from others it creates barriers of rejection and judgments of others and ourselves. It is not good to hear gossip about people. Especially, people you do not know. I know you may say that you do not participate in the the gossip, that you only listen. But listening to the gossip somehow seeps into your soul(self) and therefore your soul hears the message and repeats the poison through your actions with the person being talked about. Remember, the soul is always yearning for something!. As a result, when you interact with the person, you act and feel a certain kind of way. You do not mean to to this, but your soul(self) is directing the unconscious messages. Not long after that, you begin to feel about the person the same way the gossiper feels about the person. Our souls are like computers generating information. We must learn to guard our souls from this invasion of the soul. We must learn to protect our soul(self) from hackers whose only challenge is to infect us with words of poison that will change our life forever. The Bible says ‘life and death is in the power of the tongue’. We have the power to speak. We have the power to speak and change the world.  Hitler was a perfect example of how one word can change the world and affect an entire nation. Thank God we have a Savior in Christ that also has words that can change the face of this nation and it is by His example that we should foster the soul with good words.

When we speak good to our soul(self) good follows. When we say to ourselves that we are beautiful, we see beauty staring back at us in the mirror. What we say to our soul is what we act out. I encourage you beloved to speak good to yourself. Never let anyone speak bad around you. Never let anyone’s prejudgements of another person poison your outlook on that same person. See for yourself, listen for yourself. And when words of poison come your way to try and infect your soul, counteract with the antivirus of positivity. Load your soul with antispam filters of love, confidence, happiness, gratitude and leadership. Leadership that will help you break bad habits and step up to the plate and say: ‘no more hate will come my way’. Saturate your soul(self) with life changing thoughts and affirmations to practice every minute of the day and your soul will be well. Your soul(self) will be delighted and joy will follow!

Beloved, purposely feel joy today. 

 

Thank you for this day! I am back to writing my blog! There may be some days that I will not write. Perhaps it may be that I do not have anything to say. I cannot believe I am saying this, but it is true. Sometimes I do not have the right words to say. So, I will write when the spirit says write. Thank you for your patience with me. Praise God!

 

New mercies! We are about to end this year, 2016 and many of us will be making resolutions. I desire new mercies. I am asking my heavenly Father to show his tender heart and loving compassion towards me. As for my soul, I want to be transformed to a new person. Do new things that are pleasing to God. I want to experience new adventures that include other people. I want to reach out to new people and not be silent with his word. Romans 12:1-2 says…”present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. What new mercies are you willing to experience today?

Our soul is a living being. We should present our souls to the people around us with gladness. We too often try to hide from the world. We try to keep everything to ourselves. We tell people we are just being shy. You may be shy, but your soul desires to be seen and heard. New mercies will guide your soul to experience the joy of life. That joy of life will become a part of your countenance and you will spread this same joy among the people around you. Ask for new mercies of joy for your soul and spread the joy.

Spreading joy around us everyday and all day is our spiritual worship! This is holy and acceptable to God. We all have unique souls. We are unique in the fact that my soul’s desire is different from your soul’s desire. My purpose is different from your purpose. But we all have to experience joy to find the purpose. We all must experience a transformation that is not like no other that will help us to discern truth and purpose. Transformation requires us to have a renewed mind and spirit. And when my mind is renewed I am able to think clearly. When my spirit is renewed I am able to hear the spirit of the Lord and through obedience, walk in the purpose that He has for me. That’s new mercies! I invite you to drink the spirit of new mercies today and be blessed with a purpose.

Have a wonderful day today, on purpose.

 

The reason for the season. Here’s part 2 of my homemade gift giving inspiration. Enjoy!

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38

Today’s Truth: The reason for the season

Have you discovered the truth that we simply cannot “out-give” God? The more we give, the more we receive. And that truth does not just apply to financial giving. It is really all about the attitude behind the gift. Do you remember the Christmas gifts you received last year? How about the Christmas gifts you gave? What about the gift you gave Jesus? Yesterday we talked about several meaningful gifts you can give. Here are a few more for you to consider.

A gift of care   

Galatians 6:2 (RSV) “Bear one another’s burdens.” Christmas is a time of empty hopes and fierce loneliness for many people. In fact, the holidays can be nothing more than a season riddled with pain. Every loss is magnified. Every wound is deepened. Pray that the Father will give you His eyes to see the broken lambs, crying out for help. This year, do something for someone who is hurting:

• Invite them over for a meal.
• Listen to them.
• Meet one need in their life.
• Include them in your celebration.
• Take them shopping with you.

Christmas is hard for some of my friends because it is a time when they especially miss their loved ones. One Christmas I was at church and I sensed someone struggling and I decided to meet a need in their life. I filled their email box with words of encouragement. And every time I saw her I would give her a big hug and I told her how much she was loved. She invited me over to her home for Christmas dinner one year and I met her son and family. She died this year, but I will never forget her generosity and she treated me like a daughter.

A secret gift

Matthew 6:3-4 (TLB) “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Give a secret gift to someone you know – with no hidden motive and no apparent benefit to you. When I pastored a church in Columbus, Georgia, the members were very caring. I love plants and flowers and I bought a few plants for my office at the church. The church was so hot that the plants began to loose their leaves and die. One of the members felt sorry for me and when I came home one day, I had several plants on my porch! Oh my it was a site to see. I was delighted, grateful and amazed! I knew who had done the task, but I was grateful that it was a surprise that delighted my heart.

A gift of teaching   

Romans 12:7 (NLT) “If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.” What skill, ability or talent has God given you? Each one is from His hand and meant to be given away in service to others. Is there a young believer in your life you can mentor? That better time to share your gifts and abilities than at Christmas? You may be able to sew or play the piano, cook gourmet meals, or beautifully decorate your home. Each talent and ability is a potential gift. In high school, my choral director gave me a free voice lesson each week. Consequently, when I attended college I was able to audition for the choir and I made it on the first tryouts all because one woman chose to share her gift of teaching with me. Get creative! Give a gift from the heart this year. May this be a Christmas filled with the joy of the Lord as you celebrate His birth and life.

Now You Try It

Grab your Christmas list and set aside some time to pray for each person on that list this week. Do you need to rethink some of the gifts you are giving this year? It is not too late! Ask God how you can best honor His birth by the gifts you give to others.

Have a wonderful day on purpose!

 

 

During the season of Christmas I have been expressing messages of faith through a teleconference. I will share one today. Enjoy!

If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you. Luke 6:38

Luke 6:38

Today’s Truth: Homemade Gifts 

The world would like us to believe that the success of Christmas depends upon how much we spend, how many presents we give, or how many presents we receive. Christmas is about giving, but price tags do not determine the success of our giving. Giving is not dependent on the condition of our checkbook. Giving is dependent on the condition of our heart. For that, I am so glad! Like you, we have to plan carefully what we buy and how much we spend on each gift. As a result, we have discovered some creative ways to give gifts from the heart, meaningful gifts that cost very little.

A homemade gift 

In 1 Corinthians 4:12 Paul teaches that we should “work hard with our own hands.” This principle can easily be applied to Christmas gifts. Giving a homemade gift represents time, thought, and is a part of you. One year, when my children were small, as a favorite Christmas tradition we decided to create and deliver a homemade hot chocolate mix in decorated mason jars to our neighbors. We placed the jars just to the left of each neighbor’s front door, rang their doorbell and ran like crazy! I am not certain who had the most fun … our neighbors or us. But every year, we were amazed by how much the neighbors enjoyed our homemade gift.

A possession gift In Matthew 6:40 Jesus spoke about giving away the shirt and coat on our backs. Giving something we already own can be a wonderful Christmas gift if it is something of special value to us. In other words, it is not the idea of getting rid of junk, but of sharing our treasure. Do not ask the question, “What can I buy for Bobby?” Ask the question, “What do I have that would mean a lot to Bobby?” I use to collect humming birds. And I mentioned this one day in a sermon. The next Sunday, one of my church members came to church with a ceramic humming bird that she had had for many years. I was grateful that she passed it to me and entrusted me with its care. It was and still is one of my most precious possessions. As I matter of fact I left the hummingbird in the bathroom in Columbus, Georgia. SMH!

A gift of time

Time is a valuable gift, a precious commodity. The apostle Paul wrote, “Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity” (Ephesians 5:15-16, NIV). When we give someone 30 minutes of our time, we are giving them 30 minutes of our life. While in seminary, I rarely had a spare minute or extra dollar between school and work. I was working myself to near death and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. And even though I was ill, the gift of time was afforded me through my friends and family in Columbus, Georgia. They visited me everyday I was in the hospital. I was afforded the time to rest and the time to spend with my friends and family. I will always remember that unusual wonderful gift of time.

A gift of prayer

The greatest gift we can give someone is the commitment to pray for them consistently. James writes, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (James 5:16, NLT). Following our traditional Christmas Eve service last year in Richmond, VA, an elderly lady approached me and said, “I don’t have anything to give you, Pastor. But I want you to know that I will pray for you, your mother and your family every morning this year at 6:00 a.m.” And she did! What a priceless gift! Every time she saw me, this sweet lady asked what I needed and how she should pray. Only Heaven knows all that God accomplished in my life through the prayers of this godly woman.

A gift of encouragement 

As the writer of Proverbs says, encouragement is a powerful gift. “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up” (Proverbs 12:25, NIV). We assume the people in our lives know how much they mean to us. They rarely do. This Christmas, write a letter to someone you love and appreciate, telling them how important they are to you. Be specific. A written note or letter requires time, careful thought and allows that person to read your words of encouragement again and again. One of my best of best girlfriends used to put messages of encouragement in my lunch bag. In that bag, was a stored message on a small stickie note with words of affirmations so that even on those “blue” days, I could pull out a dose of encouragement. I still have some of those notes to this day. One year, we were instructed to write a letter of encouragement to ourselves, put it in a envelope and label it with our address. The letters were placed in the Human Resource department. This year when I had surgery on my knee, I received my letter I wrote to myself and it encouraged my soul. That’s the power of gifts from the heart! Tomorrow I will share five more gifts from the heart. I pray this holiday season will lead us once again to the manger, where we will worship the Christ child and experience a Christmas holiday filled with love, peace and joy.

Now It’s on You

Read and memorize Luke 6:38 that says, “If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.”

1. How does this verse reflect the importance of giving?
2. What does this verse say about the attitude of giving?
3. Write God’s promise to you when you give from the heart?

Have a wonderful day on purpose!

 

 

When I look in the mirror and see someone other than the beautiful person I am. When I am having blue days and black days as if heavy clouds are hanging over me everywhere I walk. When someone says hello and I don’t say a mumbling word. When I walk with my head down and not up and when I drag my feet across the terrain, I discover that my soul is crying out. My soul is crying for some attention. My soul is yelling for help!

My soul reaches out to me to pull the reins back and take cover. I have allowed the spirit around me to become negative. And the negativity has been deposited into my soul. MY SOUL CRIES OUT! The negative energy is now draining me of any possibilities of light and energy………………. It is these times I remember the Psalmist that says: “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)………………. I consciously say to myself: BACK UP! ………FLASHBACK!

I MUST remember how God helped me through tougher times than today! The word of God says, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or begging for bread”. It is so true. I have yet to beg for bread. I have not been forsaken.

So, today I will count my blessings one by one until I feel safe enough to take another look into the same mirror and see my beauty. I will witness God’s creation. I am fearfully and wonderfully made for a purpose. I am worthy of love and I am worthy of joy. It is my duty to create my own space with joy, peace and understanding on the level that I know best. It is the space for me that makes me feel comfortable, yet yearning for more of God’s love. I can walk tall in this space of spirit and truth. My feet are stepping high like gazelles in the wild, because I am magnificent in God’s eyes. NOW, my soul cries out the spirit of joy! My soul and my spirit are united in peace and love. This day is a good day and I will share the goodness with others.