Hearing in my spirit the very familiar scripture, “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord” – I immediately thought of all the benefits you receive when you really make God your LORD.  As I was meditating on this, I thought of the difference between nominal Christians who think just going to church, possibly giving an offering, and maybe serving on a committee constitute the makings of what it means to be a Christian. When troubles come, or otherwise things happen outside of the parameters of their thinking, they immediately blame God and determine that He is unjust. Unfortunately, in our country this constitutes too great of a percentage of “Christians”. Then there are those Christians who realize that just making a confession of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who forgives sins is not enough. They begin to “search the scriptures” and find out who He really is, and discover that by His own admission, it is going to require more… read more...

I grew in my faith in a church, although Methodist in denomination and format – was on occasion quite a hand-clapping, foot-stompin’, feet got light kind of house! My pastor, the late Rev. Hiram Crawford had pursued a formal educatinon in ministry by going to Theology school and thought that he would pastor a church that was educated both formally and spiritually – there would no emotional outbreaks under his ministry.  As we all know, many times those things we resist the hardest often become crossroads in our life where we are forced to look at them more closely. Such was the case with Rev. Crawford when two “women evangelists” (to add insult to injury) challenged whether he was “saved”.  Not one to run from a challenge – he agreed to put their doctrine to the test. The result – he found out more about God than he knew before – he experienced a God who could give him “joy unspeakable and full of glory” – to the extent that his feet got light as his heart was filled to overflowing with the power of a living God! read more...

I searched for it and I couldn’t find it – I don’t know when and where the term “breakthrough” became a common word used in the church, but I know it’s been around a long time. Going to the onliine Merriam-Webster dictionary, this is the definition they give: read more...

I-Pass read more...

One of the most beautiful scriptures in the Bible is found in Psalm 139, and even though it is beautiful in every version, today I chose The Message: read more...

This is my time of the year. As Tom Hanks said in “You’ve Got Mail” – I want to give out bouquets of fresh sharpened pencils! For many years, I didn’t begin my year in January, but in September – going back to school was the highlight of my year!  No matter if it’s the first day as a kindergartner as it was for my granddaughter Kirsten on yesterday, or if it is the first day of your senior year in college as it is for my granddaughter Kristen – each day of every year is the beginning of what can  be a milestone in our lives! read more...

Forgiveness is one of the keys to living a healthy, wealthy life! Holding on to anger, resentment, and hurt can carry far greater burdens than the cause of the conflict and can prevent us from receiving God’s best. I have learned this on the crucible of experience. This week Ihave been listening to an album by CeCe Winans called “Songs of Emotional Healing”. Today I would like to post one of her songs that speaks to forgiveness – be blessed! read more...

Yesterday we wrote about a testimony that blessed us so  when we heard it. The young woman, who said the Holy Spirit told her NOT TO PAY HER LIGHT BILL – went on to explain why. She spoke of her husband being out of work for some time, but more than out of work, he seemed to be out of touch with the dilemma that the family, which included children, were in. He seemed to be somewhat oblivious to just how serious things were. What struck me the most was her conclusion – when all was said and done – she had to let the light bill go and with it the house! Everything got to the point that there was no denying that there was a crisis! read more...

Most of us are working to become more like Jesus every day of our lives. What we do however, is pick and choose those things that about Him that we can deal with – and we carefully avoid any discussion of things we feel are not part of the “benefit package”. For example, how many want to be like Jesus here? read more...

At this stage of my life I have acquired somewhat of an arsenal of “life lessons”.  In this arsenal are experiences that I bought and paid for with days, months, years of my life – some which have pleasant memories attached to them, many which don’t. Whether they were good or bad, they are the pages of my life – the result of choices that I made – even when it didn’t seem like I had a choice! read more...