Hope is built on what?!! BY: KB © 2.5.15

Ok people once again I woke up just full of the spirit and as I read my devotionals…one thought led into another. Question and comments flew at a fast and furious pace. After I read my devotional…I hit up a bit of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. I had even more thoughts and comments… so here’s today’s share;

Psalms 1:1-2  1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.…

Who do you listen to? What is your hope rooted in?

I know people who go above and beyond to conjure and curry luck. Consult “fortune tellers, dream books and the stars.”

Well folks, I got news for you…. [grabbing pin to burst bubble] Fate, like the tides, shifts; Stars can explode or burn out and the majority of the people you are trusting for lifesaving advice, are just as raggedy as you! What do you do when all of the aforementioned fail to regulate and soothe your heart and mind?

People tend to lose faith and hope because they have placed their hopes in something temporal and transient…. Trust the “I AM”  (Exodus 3:14)  He doesn't change

How ya livin"?!!!

He saw the best in me BY: KB © 2.4.15

REAL TALK from KB: Excuse me y’all, I have a lot to say and share today…I just woke up “pregnant” with praise and gratitude….some of y’all know what I’m talking about.

First I want to take the opportunity to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His unending grace and mercy. 

I praise Him for my gift and ability to string words together, if you spent any time with me, you would say that girl is a fool who is really writing this stuff….I can tell you it’s God and it’s by the grace that I can share the word.

I need to say I am not preaching my life….so stop looking at me,  what I’m doing and how I’m doing it….none of that matters. I’m preaching the word using my life as an example as to what God can do and who HE can and will use when we walk in obedience to His word. My way may not be the only way…and I am not going to shame and condemn anyone for their beliefs….

Philippians 2:  12-13   12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

(READ ALL OF PHILIPPIANS 2)

I am who I am and do what I do because of the Christ in me…..

Like the song says “ He is mine and I am His, it doesn't matter what I did….He saw the best in me!”

O! Taste and see that the Lord is good!!!

How ya’ livin’?!!!

Truth and Liberty….. BY:KB © 2.4.15

We’re so used to being lied to or lying to ourselves that we now get angry when we hear the truth.

True story from my life: I was supposed to do something BIG this past weekend. I had been in on the planning and development stages up until Friday night. One of the people, new to my circle, was very excited and looking forward to finally meeting in person, as was I. Come Saturday morning…in the wee hours…I’m wide awake, up and sick as a dog. I’m trying to push past whatever it was that was holding my body hostage. I’m up and ironing my outfit at 5 am when out of nowhere I’m hit by volcanic stomach eruptions from the pit of hell; I’m throwing up while on the pot (sorry for the graphic imagery but it lends to the story). I call and text everyone involved in the meet and greet to tell them I can’t be there….the one person that was most eager has not spoken to me since!

I learned two things from the situation 1) The individual had an agenda 2) the person had been lied to and hurt in the past and my inability to follow through triggered something and I became suspect.

I have since spoken to a nurse practitioner that explained that I most likely had a mild case of food poisoning. I thought it was something else because of the time frame involved…but she clarified a few things for me.

At any rate I had to look at the situation for what it was…..I’m sorry for the disappointment but I am not the person responsible….time to look back and do some work.

Proverbs 2:20-21 - So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it …

2 Corinthians 4:2    but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Saul or Jonathan – you choose BY: KB © 2.3.15

I left for work extra early this morning…I had a lot on my mind and driving in the still of the morning seems to ground my thoughts. I had a revelation about my readings while I was driving….some of you may get it right away and some of you may have to take to your Bibles or the book Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado in order to get this message; all I know is that the passage that I read is the perfect summation of my spiritual awakening.

Max Lucado posed the question…Do you focus on your Saul’s (persecution, trials, tests, negative influences) or do you see and feel you Jonathan’s (comfort, covering, protection and care)?

I spent so much of my life trudging through my “woe is me’s.”  I was accomplished but I never stopped to sit in the moment. I was driven and constantly throwing myself into the next drama looking at the problems and never the praise…..

Funny thing is that I never got the fact that the purpose of the problem was to extract the praise. I was trying to avoid the situation; priding myself in preemptive strikes. The question is  (My Utmost for His Highest)

 “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you…” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.” And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel….” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am treated like ‘the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:16).

How was I living this out?

How ya livin”?

ASK and it shall be given BY: KB © 2.2.15

You have not because you ask not….or the thing that you ask for is outside of the will of God for your life or an impure desire (James 4:2-4). 

Do you ever listen to what you’re asking of God?

How ya livin’?!!!

Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. 

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful [NKJV: anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Philippians 4:19 But [NKJV: And] my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

1 John 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

No "Mo- nies" By: KB © 2.1.15

REAL TALK from KB: Man!!!! every morning during my devotions I get to see and hear some amazing things. I just heard Joyce Meyers say  (I'm paraphrasing) God wants us to grow and mature in trials and tests. Testimonies are supposed to be edifying. Some of us go through something and the only thing we get out of it is the "moanies" .....whining and crying about the difficulty but never learning the lesson or understanding the purpose of the test.

I am not that far removed from living the life of the "moanies." I have been guilty of trying to convince people that I got the lesson and on some levels I had but I was still whining about how hard it was. I was trying to incorporate my old with my new....then one day it dawned on me ....you never see a butterfly dragging around its cocoon. A worm crawled in and a beautiful, colorful creature broke free....it's here for a short period of time and people enjoy the beauty. How can people enjoy my beauty if I'm 1) If I'm dragging a dusty cocoon around 2) If I am constantly complaining

How ya livin'?!!!!

Changes BY: KB © 2.1.15

If you were to leave today, God forbid, how would your eulogy go? How will you be remembered? We spend a great deal of our lives trying to convince people that we're OK based on what we need from them or what they want from us.. We create many tenuous and fragile relationships based on our disingenuous presentations.

Romans 15: 1 - 2    We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.

Psalm 1:1-6      Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; ...

Matthew 7:1-29    “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ...

What am I saying? Many of us are far too comfortable "preaching" but not leading by example...yes, we're human; yes, we all make mistakes but we need to stop measuring people and situations based on what WE would and would not do.........

THE WORLD IS CHANGED BY OUR EXAMPLE....NOT OUR OPINION!!!!!