What are you filling?

Are you filling a seat or filling the atmosphere?

Are you filling a spot or filling a spirit?

Are you filling a position or filling a heart?

There are times I walk in my flesh and let the world and its circumstances get in the way of progress. It might even take me a day or two to survey the damage I have inflicted on myself or others. We are inevitably sinful. We are not perfect, but if 2020 doesn't start causing you to reflect I don't know what will.

I ain't gonna lie this year has been sucky. No other word for it. Like there have probably been so many memes and hashtags made about this year there has got to be a record broken. Yet have you seriously looked at the good things that have happened? Change your perspective. I refuse to not clearly see what God is doing in the midst of it all. We have to walk across the bridge to His promises. We have to know He will part the sea, provide bountiful provisions, move the mountains, defeat the giants and bring the walls down. But we will never see it happen though if we never cross the bridge. We will never see it if we stay stuck where we are.

I am not angry about our indifferences or disagreements about how we perceive the world and its issues. But I can honestly say I am sad that our differences cause divisions that have become so unrepairable without God in our lives.

My heart hurts for those that are not lifted in this time by:

His love despite our transgressions

His kindness despite our hatred

His patience despite our stubbornness

His faithfulness despite our loyalty

His gentleness despite our violence

His joy despite our disappointment

His goodness despite our evilness

See without Him none of it can make any sense. If we don't give Him the helm and let Him guide our ship into the correct harbor. We will dock ourselves in uncharted areas that will fill us with sin, hatred, stubbornness, idolization, violence, disappointment and evilness and our boat will rot in the harbor. We then are just filling a seat, filling a spot, filling a position that might not be ours to even take. We should be filling the atmosphere, filling a spirit and filling hearts.

Choose Love

Choose Kindness

Choose Patience

Choose Faithfulness

Choose Gentleness

Choose Joy

Choose Goodness

Choose Him

And it is gonna be hard trust me I battle with it every day. Yet It will be the path worth taking, because at the end of it is God's promises.

#crossthebridge

Taking back Thanksgiving

I pray some of y'all don't bring to Thanksgiving & Christmas what y'all been dishing out on Facebook. The only dishes I want to see are some casserole dishes. #takingbackthanksgiving #crammingmyfaceonchristmas

Word

Some of y'all need to start checking who you are idolizing and what are their platforms because I'm over here idolizing Christ and His platform.

#checkyourselfbeforeyouwreckyourself

#RealTalk

Lead by Example

Why do I feel like these protestors are going through a phase - oh yes maybe because it kind of looks like my kids when they were toddlers and went through their phases. (It could also be because phase is one of the top trending words on google).

If you need to protest or stand for something - do it where it counts. Lead by example and civilly speak to the proper people about your cause.

Matthew 18:15-17 says “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

Don't hurt innocent people, don't destroy businesses and also don't hurt yourself. What's the point? Anger only incites anger. Invite someone in for an actual discussion and BE THE REAL CHANGE in the world! America can always stand for an improvement. We could all stand to improve ourselves.

Philippians 1:6 says "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

He ain't done with any of us!

Share your love for your cause, not your hatred!

Just my two cents!

& grease!

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There has been ONE thing throughout all of this that has not been shut down, cancelled, postponed, changed, restrictions added or inconsistent. GOD

Nothing can shut down His love, nothing can cancel Jesus's sacrifice, nothing can postpone His grace, nothing can change His forgiveness, nothing can restrict His miracles and He is always there. We are the ones who have failed to reach out to Him. We have shut down our thoughts of Hope, we have cancelled our redemption, we have postponed our mercy on others, we have changed how we love others, we have put restrictions on what God can do and we have not put our hands out to Him. To serve Him and humbly ask Him to take the wheel and stop trying to figure this all out on our own like we somehow have some control. Instead we have divided ourselves with fear.

So I encourage you to turn to the God that you can trust knows best and stop - breathe - and pray! It will be okay someday and it might not be today, but God knows when it is time, when we are ready. So until then storm the world with prayer. Show Him how much you need Him and love Him.

The Other Side of the Mountain

As captivating as a mountain range can be, it can also be quite distressing, overwhelming and anxiety ridden depending on our perspective. At the top or from a distance, we can see the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset, nature at its finest or the accomplishment of climbing what seemed impossible. Yet from the bottom we might not see things quite as joyful.

If we never face the mountain head on and conquer it, we won't see what is on the other side of the mountain. All we see is what lies in front of us and in that we are left with pain, anguish and sorrow. If we stay there and let that guide our journey, we may never see the other side. In order to experience the other side, the light, we must experience the darkness.
Jesus understood this and knew he would have to suffer for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Yet, he still cried out to God and felt just as abandoned in that moment, but one thing remained - his faith!

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
Matthew 27:46

Jesus still cried out to Him, knowing He was still there somewhere. There should be encouragement in this part of the story of the resurrection, because even in his doubt and uncertainity, his faith remained. It isn't shameful for us to have doubts or ask God to take away the mountains you must climb for even Jesus did just that. God doesn't turn away when we cry out, He probably does the most painful thing - He looks directly at it - faces the mountain with us and encourages us to press on for He knows what is on the other side of the mountain, He knows the reward of it all and asks us to just keep climbing, giving more room for God to show up.
Over the week of Passover, I decided to paint mountains and in each is a representation of each scene from our church, Victory Life's play My Redeemer Lives. It is my gift to not only my church family, but also our community and anyone else that sees it. I hope it reminds you of not only the play, but the mountains Jesus faced and what was on the other side of His mountains. The journey He took to save us all.

Faith Can Move Mountains

How many times have you prayed to God to make something change in your life? Have you asked him to move an impossible mountain only to be disappointed when it wasn't.

Now I ask you did you believe that your circumstances could change or that the mountain could be moved? Or did you just give up? Did you look at that mountain and think it was going to take too long to climb, the process would be too vigorous, too difficult and full of despair?
When we look at what's in front of us, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the journey, we feel unprepared for the climb and can't see the reward of the destination on the other side.
But sometimes the mountain is not meant to be moved just yet and that obstacle is meant to protect us or teach us something as we climb it or wait for it be moved. We have to use Godly wisdom on when to act upon the authority God has given us to move those mountains and when to make the climb. We can get daily bombarded with reports of what the world says or we can hang our beliefs on what He says. If we believe the reports of the world we can be left with despair, fatigue, doubt and fear. But if we believe in the reports of our God, we can be left with hope, vigor, certainty, courage and strength. In His word you will see how faithful He is. And if you have the smallest amount of faith, nothing is impossible for you through Him. Faith is not a place of rainbows, hot fudge sundaes and unicorns either. Faith is noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort and being the light in the darkness. Letting God do His work, letting Him be in control and letting His will be done. "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20