Tag: encouraging

SECRET PLACE

Psalm 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

We often think of being in the shadow of the Lord’s wings as a place of hiding. We hide from the storms. We hide from the enemy. These are things that would cause fear under normal circumstances. But God says, “Don’t worry about it; hide here under my wings and I will keep you safe. We have no reason to fear when the Lord is hiding us. No one would ever find us unless God allowed it to happen. So we can rejoice in the shadow of his wings. Because he is GOD ALMIGHTY and he is watching over us.

Psalm 91:1-2 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ²I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Not only is being under the shadow of his wings a place of protection but it is a place of intimacy. (The word intimacy has several synonyms: closeness, familiarity, close relationship, togetherness, mutual affection.) A place where you are alone with him. God desires us to spend quality time with him. This could be the place we go when we sit quietly, thinking about God’s goodness. We think the shadow of his wings is a place that we enter when there is a storm. Then we leave and do our own thing. But if we dwell in the secret place or we live in a place of being close to God, we will have a relationship. Getting to the place of intimacy with God will create trust.

It is important to find the time to sit quietly in worship and alone time with the Lord.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

CARE

1Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

As a servant of the Lord, it is up to us to show him love. When we show him love and serve his needs, we could be seen as showing care. This verse says to cast all your care, not cares. What better way to show we care for him than to serve him.

We love him because he first loved us. We love him because he showed us how much he cares for us. He died for us. This is why we are supposed to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

This verse is often quoted to mean that we can bring our cares to him because he cares for us. This is a true sentiment and statement to say that we can bring our worries and cares to him because he cares for us.

I apologize for the lateness of this blog. I was having internet issues yesterday evening. Have a great weekend.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

BEING INTENTIONAL

We need to have a grateful heart. There are a few simple things we can do to develop a grateful heart.

PAY ATTENTION FOR OPPORTUNITIES

One is to pay attention and look for opportunities to show people you care about and appreciate what they did for you. Simply meaning it when you say thank you. If you were raised right, your parents taught you to say thank you when someone helped you. This is often just an automatic reaction to say. It’s not that you don’t mean it when you say it. But think about the words when you say them, show sincerity.

Example: Have you ever gone through a drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant? The cashier hands you the bag with your order inside and says, with a tone like they don’t care, they mumble, “Thank you. Have a nice day.” You don’t feel like they meant it but were being coerced to say it.

But you go through another time and the person is friendly and smiles. When they say the words, they are intentional and act like they mean it. It makes you want to go back to that restaurant.

We need to pay attention to our attitude when we say thank you to God and be intentional with our words.

TALK TO GOD OUTSIDE OF PRAYER TIME

Make a habit, before your feet hit the floor each morning to focus and thank God for waking you up. Thank him for the blank slate ahead of you. Depending on your day, this could also be a good way to get your mind set ready for your devotional time and prayer time.

Some people get all legalistic that you should read your bible and do your study at the beginning of the day. But not everyone is wired to do that and not everyone’s life is structured so that can happen. I think God understands if we don’t spend two hours in devotions every morning. As long as we start our day with gratitude and with prayer. But we need to find time in our day to be intentional about our study of the word and devotions.

You don’t have to be knelt down at an altar or on the floor to pray. It is good to not be distracted by anything else.

I used to drive an hour each way to work and back. That was my time to talk to the Lord and reflect on the things that I needed to do. I always have worship music going anytime I am in my car. I would sing and worship the Lord. Many prayers have been said behind the wheel of my car.

Sometimes I have had to pull over when going through something that made me need to dig down and pray hard. There is nothing wrong with pulling over in a safe place and focusing on prayer and worship. I had days that I considered that to be enough. It is like I checked off my prayer box for the day. But I now know better. It is not an obligation, like the cashier saying thank you. But it is because we really want to talk with him.

Our walk with God is not a checklist. It is the way we live our lives. Prayer time should be about lifting up others and asking God what he wants in our lives. This should come before any request we have of our own.

The second point under this category is at night after your day is done. After you’ve said your prayers. Take a moment to simply thank God for your day. If it was good, then thank God for a good day. If it was a hard day or what we would consider bad, Thank God for it. (In everything, give thanks) We can thank him for helping us through it. We can be grateful that it was not worse. Then say I release the stress of this day to you Lord. Because he is better able to deal with it than we are capable. I am thankful for a good night of rest ahead.

KNOW WE HAVE VICTORY

I COR 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have victory. There are times when we may not feel very victorious. Even in those times we have victory because of the blood of Jesus. We often don’t see things clearly because of our emotions. We can’t see the big picture of how things are going to work out. We feel like we are defeated, but that is the enemy’s way of distracting us from the goodness of God.

God is faithful to pull us through anything we face in life. When bad news hits us like a semi-truck, we don’t feel victorious. We feel pain that has flattened us and taken the wind from our lungs. God is right there making sure we have air in our lungs to just keep breathing.

He already sees the way we will rise from our ashes and hurt. He sees us victorious. Even when we cannot imagine ever being in a place of victory. The same thing goes for anyone struggling with an addiction. God sees them on the other side of that struggle. He sees them victorious. But they cannot imagine a time when they will have victory.

Job is the perfect example of this; he had the victory. God knew that he would not let his circumstances dictate his victory. Satan tried everything. To everyone things looked like Job would never have victory again. But he held onto God through the process. He came out the other side victorious. Victory was always there; they just couldn’t see it for the circumstances. (We walk by faith and not by sight)

We need to be intentional with our prayers and our Christian walk. We never know when we are being watched by someone. The way we live can be a light to the world if we are walking with integrity. Looking unto Jesus in all things.

Until next time, BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS.

GETTING RID OF POISON

2 Kgs 4:38-41 And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. 39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. 40 So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 41 But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

There was famine in the land. Elisha sent his servants to make a pot of stew for all the sons of the prophets. One of his servants found a wild vine and gathered wild gourds. He cut them up in the stew. When they poured out the stew and started eating, they realized that the gourds were poisonous. Elisha told his servants to bring meal and he threw it in the pot with the stew. He told them it was ok to eat.

America is known as the melting pot of the world. It is unique among all the nations. We became a nation because people came here for freedom of religion. Somewhere over time, we lost our sense of direction. We allowed the enemy to shred poisonous ideas into the mix. The church did not guard the stew and now we have a lot of mixed ideas and doctrines that are poison.

We didn’t uphold God’s standard and allowed the world to dictate what was right, instead of standing for truth. In order to get rid of the poison we have to come together and pray for direction. We need to pray down the strongholds of the enemy. The meal of the word of God will neutralize the poison.

Rev 18:1-4 18 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The above passage reminds me of the modern church. God is telling us to come out of the church that is plagued with sin, greed, lust and the list goes on. The body of Christ will not be effective in the harvest if we have poison in the message of what we are trying to show the lost.

God is telling us to come out from among her and not partake in her sin. He is coming after the bride who has made herself ready. He is not coming after a harlot that chases after the evil of the world. Each of us individually can change our local congregations by just being genuine. We need to walk in our integrity and be who God has created us to be. He will take care of the evil, at the top levels of our society.

He wants us to pray for the Babylon system to fall. Pray for evil to fall. Thank God for our freedom and ability to serve the Lord in the right way. We have to stand up to keep that freedom. God will do great things if we apply the word to the poison of what is being fed to us. The word of God will neutralize all the poison of the world.

I encourage every one of you to take a moment to dig deep and search your life for poison. Make sure the enemy is not talking to you, feeding you lies of temptation.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

NOT OUR UNDERSTANDING

I am thankful for my wonderful family. I am blessed to have many wonderful friends. I am not only thankful on Thanksgiving Day for them but every day. I hope each of you had a good day with those you love. Since I spent time with family, this blog will be short.

PROV 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

God wants our whole heart. He wants us to trust in him. It doesn’t matter what is going on he wants us to trust in Him. It is easy for us to lean on our own understanding. Sometimes we get in God’s way because we lean on our understanding instead of waiting for Him. Our understanding can be tainted with our flesh. We may feel like something is not that bad. If God’s word doesn’t line up with our understanding, we are wrong.

This is why the word says to not be wise in our own eyes. We need to see things the way God does; through His eyes. Our wisdom can be tainted with many things like our experiences, our hurts and our influence from the world.

If we acknowledge the Lord in everything we do, he will guide us. He will make everything fine. The word tells us to fear the Lord and depart from evil. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We can be wise by fearing the Lord and walking in his path. It will be life and health to us.

Take a couple of moments to think about your life, is there anything that seems right in your eyes that you know is not according to God’s word. If so walk away from it. Ask God for help. In all your ways acknowledge him he will direct your path.

Have a good and safe holiday weekend!

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

WHAT IS INSIDE?

If I have a pitcher full of tea, it is impossible to pour out fruit juice. Just like our spiritual life. If our heart is full of good, then we can only pour out good to others. The opposite is true also; if our heart is full of evil, we will be able to pour out evil on others.

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit; you don’t go to an apple grove and get oranges. The type of fruit is determined by the type of tree. What kind of tree do you want to be?

Mat 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

We are judged by our fruit, our kindness, our love, and our compassion. We are also judged very harshly when we fall down. It may not be fair, but it is how the world sees us.

Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

This says once again what I said before: It has to be in our hearts before it can come out. I want you to notice out of the abundance or fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. If our heart is full of evil. We will speak evil. If our heart is full of love, we will speak with love.

Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Hiding the word in our hearts will always give us a stored-up treasure to draw from when needed. Like a savings account. I cannot tell you the times I came up against a situation, and God would bring just the right scripture to mind. If it had not been in my heart already, I could not have drawn from it.

If we take a coffee cup and fill it as full as it can get, what happens when we add a drop. At least a drop of water will splash out because it is to capacity. If our heart is full, we will only have love to give.

Every treasure needs a treasure map. In the old cliché pirate movies, X marks the spot. The pirate even hides his map to keep someone from searching for his treasure. This is where we differ from pirates. We want to share our treasure map (our bible). There is plenty of treasure for everyone. Our treasure map is the bible. It is God’s word that will lead us to the ultimate destination where there are treasures beyond our imagination.

1Cor 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

The word talks about heaven having a street paved with gold. Walls of jasper and gates of pearl. There is plenty of treasure for everyone.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

LESSONS FROM DAVID

Part of our daily walk is to make sure we keep our focus fully on God. In a world that is fighting every second for our attention, it is harder than ever to stay focused. David is one of my favorite people in the bible. His heart that is revealed in the Psalms is inspiring. He understood most of the time how to keep his focus.

He talks to God about his worries and the fears of his enemy’s coming against him. Like we often tell God when we have troubles and feel like everyone is against us. Life can press in causing tremendous pressure.

David also understood the difference between thanksgiving and praise. Thanksgiving is thanking God for what he has done. We praise Him simply because He is God.

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

David’s life as a shepherd prepared him to be king. The shepherd provides for the sheep in many ways. They make sure they are on land that has food and water. Shepherds protect them from predators. They anoint them with oil to keep away harmful flies that can lay eggs in their noses.

God is our protector. He protects us from the smallest microscopic thing to something huge that could destroy us. He is our provider; our source for all we need. Because He is our shepherd and He loves us.

God gives us times that he isolates us and gives us peaceful time to reflect. In the isolated times he is helping us to grow and prepare us for a new level. We don’t always understand the isolation, but God doesn’t do anything without a reason. We have to trust His plan.

Isaiah 55:8-9 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Other times, He gently nudges us to the outside world where we are supposed to make a difference. We are supposed to all be a light to those who are in darkness. It doesn’t matter what we are dealing with or what phase of life we are in we need to look to Him.

I Chr. 16:11 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

Notice this says continually, not when things are bad. Not when we slow down or our lives are falling apart. It says continually. We need him at all times, not just when things look bad. It doesn’t matter the phase of life we find ourselves in, as His sheep, we know he will take care of it all. We just have to be strong and follow where He leads. He gives us light to shine into the darkness of this world.

Psalm 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

As we start a new work week, take your light and go light your part of the world. It is needed now more than ever before in history.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

YouTube Channel Announcement

Good Evening, my friends. I am excited to share news of my new adventure with you. For the longest time, I talked about doing a podcast. I may still do that sometime in the future. But for now, God has led me in the direction of a YouTube Channel.

My plan is to start posting short devotional videos, Mon to Fri. I should be able to start posting them in early November 2023. I feel God has given me a ministry to enlighten and encourage the body of Christ to fully focus on him. My blog is called God Focus. The YouTube devotionals will be called God Focus This Morning. I will be sharing longer videos containing bible studies, testimonies and encouraging words as God leads.

You can watch my first video by clicking on the picture above. Like, Share and Subscribe to my channel so you do not miss what the Lord is doing in and through my life. I will keep you updated. Until next time, BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS.

FOCUS ABOVE

Col. 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Now more than ever before, we need to set our minds and our attention on heavenly things. The things of this earth will soon pass away. In fifty years, if the Lord tarries, most of the things we have focused on will not even matter. If we are young enough to still be alive.

The things we do for God are forever, eternal, never-ending. They will matter in fifty years, a hundred, five hundred for all eternity. Every soul we win for Christ will have a lasting impact on growing the family of God.

There is a saying that I don’t know who said it, but it comes to mind as I write. “Only one life will soon be passed, and only what was done for Christ will last.” Our status on earth, how much money we had, what kind of car we drove, none of it matters.

Every lesson we taught in Sunday school to a group of five-year-olds. They have made an impact on eternity. Every prayer prayed, and every time we invest time to worship, all of it impacts the eternal. It stands to reason that we should spend more time listening to God’s direction.

Worship will help us to set our affections on the things above. Worship is a powerful thing. It can get our minds and hearts to focus. As we try to become more like Christ, we can remember the above verse and be devoted to keeping our minds on things above.

Have a good weekend!

Until next time, BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

REAL MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

II Tim 4:3-5 (3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (5) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

We are in these times right now. People don’t want to hear the gospel. They want preachers to be motivational speakers. They want them to tell them how great they are and how God is going to bless them, even though many of them are full of sin.

I believe in motivational speakers, the REAL ones of generations gone by; they preached hell so hot that it motivated you to live a pure life. The sermons were so hot they purified like gold tried in a fire. I want a preacher to be honest and not tell me it’s all wonderful. I need the toe-stomping gospel that makes me want to be better.

If we are okay and everything is wonderful, we have no motivation to change and grow. Fruit will not be produced in our lives if we are convinced that we are wonderful. Paul warned Timothy to watch in all things. In other words, be careful what you do.

Paul also told Timothy to endure afflictions. He didn’t tell him that life was wonderful and everything was perfect. He told him to endure afflictions. Things in this life will often shake us and cause us pain. As children of God, we have to deal with the pressures of life, like everyone. But God is there to help us carry our burdens and will help us through our situations.

Bring back the days of the truth; it is time the church grew up and got rid of the fables. We need to be ever-vigilant to keep our feet on the correct path. God has some preachers that are true and right. Find them and support them in any way you can, because they are under tremendous pressure.

Study the word and know who is preaching to you. Not every one that carries a bible and gets behind the pulpit is sent by God. Satan also sends preachers to destroy, divide and confuse the truth. We have to know the word for ourselves so we can judge within our hearts if what they are speaking is the truth.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS