May 9, 2023

As a black community, I believe our first objective should be that…

Originally posted on Facebook on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.

As a black community, I believe our first objective should be that which is currently within our power to do and universally that is stopping self harm.

As an example, our family has reached out to Dr. Brian Pugh to train us on financial stewardship and building wealth. His advice?

Before you get into conversations about stocks, forex trading, cryptocurrency or finding investments that earn high interest, he said, stop paying high interest!

While you may not have a lot of extra money to invest right now, you can increase your financial capacity by flushing less of it down the toilet to high interest debt.

In other words, stop self harm.

And, one of the very first places we need to stop self harm, is the relationship between the black man and the black woman.

We need to stop everything that is causing self harm in that area. And #1 for me is to affirm the value of black women and to stop the self harm of premarital sex.

As I've written before,"To guide on a way especially by going in advance" is the definition of leadership.

So, black men, #lead which means #youfirst.

We must commit to not tearing down black women in any way, including through premarital sex.

Let this be the start of a campaign to heal and grow the black community beginning with stopping self harm.

We may not have the capacity to do a lot of what we'd like to do yet, but we can stop doing things that harm ourselves right now, putting us in a better position to build it.

#stopselfharm #black #leadership #heal #grow #youfirst

May 9, 2023

Victory In The Lord’s Communion

Something that’s still rippling through my heart is a word imparted by Alan Hawkins that I heard at New Horizons,

“The way of escape is the Lord’s communion.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-21

This coincides with something else burning on my heart: we NEED each other.

It is not enough to have weapons or to even know how to use them, I need HELP!

I need my fellow soldiers because the war we fight is multifaceted and I wasn’t given all the gifts.

I was intentionally given a subset of the gifts; 1. for specialization and 2. so I’d have to depend on my fellow beloved to avert pride -one of the deadliest of Satan’s weapons!

To go into this war alone is unwise.

“A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.”
— Proverbs 18:1

It doesn’t take many but it definitely takes more than me.

“Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;
your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.”
— Leviticus 26:8

There are many challenges on this battlefield that different members of the body are especially equipped to handle. Despite personality differences or how I might feel about them, I cannot afford to be separated from these resources.

Did you know that disruption of logistics is a common military tactic?

The way to victory is the Lord’s communion!

But we’ve been disrupted!

Our primary objective as believers today should overcoming the divisions that have cut us off from each other.

We should be laying aside anything that separates us and fight toward each other!

Victory is in the Lord’s communion!

When we are together in Christ, then we can bind the strong man and plunder his goods, taking back from Satan all that he’s taken in deceit. (Mark 3:24-27)

Wake up church! We can win: our marriages, families, communities and the redemption of all things!

God has given us victory in the Lord’s communion.

We need each other.

Love.

#spiritualwarfare #perfectourlove

May 8, 2023

And, if Strength is the goal (God is our strength), we should not…

Originally posted on Facebook on Monday, May 8, 2023.

And, if Strength is the goal (God is our strength), we should not be doing anything to make any one else weaker.

"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." — Ephesians 4:29

"but, speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." — Ephesians 4:15-16

We'd be many times more effective as a church if we get our minds right about our approach to it. There's a lot we can learn from the gym. Let's help each other get stronger!

May 6, 2023

The Discipline Of Looking For Life In Others

It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong or where I believe a person is falling short and completely overlook the areas where they’re growing and making an effort.

To ignore or deny where a person is trying is discouraging and destructive.

I realize how I’ve been guilty of this and I repent.

Very often, we kill the grape vine we’re given because we’re looking for an apple tree (and it might not even be the season for whatever we’re looking for).

I must learn to work patiently with the Holy Spirit within His appointed seasons, to sow what I want (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) and faithfully attend to what I get, to nurture and cultivate what is rather than railing against what isn’t.

God has placed me in a garden. I have been entrusted with many fields. The goal is that there would be life in those fields and to help them be fruitful.

I must remember that the goal is not to get what I want, but to seek what God wants -fruit: to be co-laborers with God in conforming each person, all the fields He’s given me the great privilege of working with Him in, to the glorious image of Christ.

So, a good question to ask in my frustration about what I’m not seeing is, where else are they trying, where else are they budding, what is needful for Christ to be further formed in them?

Then I can turn that budding seed toward the Son, nurture it, and lean into what God is doing -in them and me.

“[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.” –1 Corinthians 13:7-8

#perfectourlove

May 3, 2023

Just this morning, I was in Leviticus 26 where God is making a…

Originally posted on Facebook on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Just this morning, I was in Leviticus 26 where God is making a promise to the people He's bringing into the promised land and says,

‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,

You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.

Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.'
Leviticus 26:3, 7-8

What struck me was that even though God promised, they still had to fight.

"He didn't promise easy, He promised power," is an excellent summation.

Thank you, dear brother!

April 28, 2023

Here is Pastor Gregory Jones at two different ribbon cuttings with…

Originally posted on Facebook on Friday, April 28, 2023.

Here is Pastor Gregory Jones at two different ribbon cuttings with me along my entrepreneurial journey.

As I prepare to open a third location, he immediately comes to mind. It reminds me that Pastor Jones was so much more to me than someone I would just consult regarding spiritual matters, he was a part of every part of my life.

So, on week 17 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for so much more than a pastor. Pastor Gregory Jones was my friend and the kind of pastor and person I hope to be.

I miss you.

I'm grateful.

#52WoG

April 25, 2023

Feeling Overwhelmed? Don’t Break Down, Break It Down

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Think Tasks vs Projects

Such as simple thing, but I often get stuck here.

This simple concept is the difference between me procrastinating or getting things done.

Part of getting things done, is breaking it down into tasks that can be done in reasonable and readily available blocks of time.

And, when possible, don’t worry about all the things to be done but the *next* thing to be done.

Projects do not belong on to-do lists. Only doable tasks belong there.

The key is to get started, then the momentum of progress will carry you.

This reminder to break things down helps me overcome feelings of being overwhelmed.

#goals #planning #projectmanagement #thriveday

April 24, 2023

How God’s Love Is Different

One of many ways the love of God is different:

God’s love is not transactional, it’s relational.

When I love you with God’s love, I love you, not on the basis of what you do or even who you are, or not even because of my relationship to you, but I love you based on my relationship to God.

The beginning of love is not the appreciation of some virtue in the subject.

Love is like light. There is no virtue in the darkness that activates light. Light shines simply because that’s what light does.

The beginning of love is God. Loves does what love is. Said another way, Love does who God is.

The question is, do I have Him [love], or perhaps better said, does love [God] have me?

If so, love is just going to do what it do and there should be nothing the subject can do to stop that.

The principal thing then, is to know Love, to have Him and Him have me.

Abide.

Only then am I in a position to love.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
-John 15:9

#perfectourlove

April 24, 2023

Bad Love

Hardly anything is more destructive than a bad definition of love.

We do more harm to each other in the name of what we think is love than we do with hate.

At least with outright hate, it’s clear who the enemy is so you can avoid them or defend yourself.

But, I find that most of the harm that people suffer, and the most devastating came at the hands of people we thought were for us and who were actually well meaning (to the extent of their ability), sincerely thinking they were loving when they were doing the opposite.

Examples:
A guy who claims he loves a girl but is defiling her.

A parent who thinks they’re loving a child but is actually teaching them to hate themselves.

A person who think they’re helping the disadvantaged but is only further setting them back.

Me doing something that feels good or seems good that makes me worse off.

Etc.

But, Jesus came so we’d have an accurate definition, to teach us Love that “does no harm”.

If you want to know how to truly love: yourself, your spouse, your child, your family, your friends, your neighbor, God, look to Christ.

“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Matthew 6:23

#perfectourlove

April 23, 2023

Just today I enjoyed fellowshipping with New Horizons Christian…

Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, April 23, 2023.

Just today I enjoyed fellowshipping with New Horizons Christian Fellowship and received a powerful equipping message.

Guest Pastor Alan Hawkins preached that the church is not as effective as it should be in its mission.

He remarks that we "need to get saved enough" to fulfill the mission of making disciples (Yes, I hear this sermon almost immediately **after** my post this morning about discipleship. Coincidence?)

Pastor Hawkins then starts to draw this out from 1 Corinthians 10. He opens boldly, "I promise you this will blow your minds." Pretty cliche, right?

Has anybody revealed or explained something and afterward you're left wondering what just happened?

A taste:

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
-1 Corinthians 10:13

"How do you escape temptation?"

"Flee". See 1 Corinthians 10:13.

"To the Lord's communion." See 1 Corinthians 10:14-22

We must push back from the table of the demons of our idolatry and perversions, Pastor Hawkins argues. He continues, it is in communion with Christ that we are able to find "the way of escape" from temptation, and through taking on His life by consuming Him that we are equipped to fulfill our mission of making disciples.

Tip of the iceberg.

Mind indeed blown.

Thank you, Pastor Alan Hawkins.