Teach Me

Yesterday I was sitting around thinking about some things and I got really upset. I got upset because there were certain things I really really wanted, but I knew good and well I couldn't have. I didn't want to talk to anyone at all and went into "hibernation" for a couple hours. During those hours, I prayed that God would teach me how to truly be patient and love others the way He loves me. I think that was a turning point in my life.

I was watching a video Jessica Reedy did the other day and she was saying how she was thinking about herself and how she was wrong, she was being selfish. That's how I felt yesterday. I felt like I was only thinking about myself and not worrying about why I had to wait. I never paid attention to the fact that I had to be prepared to get what I wanted but that was going to take some time.

Sometimes we get so caught up in ourselves and what we want that we forget the important things. Getting caught up in our desires can sometimes cause us to stray away from the will of God.

Wow...I love the way God works...I wasn't even going to bring this up but something was revealed to me.

While writing that, I was thinking about yesterday's sermon. Our Youth Minister, Jason Ford spoke about Jonah and how he, instead of going to Nineveh, fled to Tarshish. He was saying how we often ask ourselves, "How did I get here?" For those of you who really have no clue, you put yourself in a compromising situation where God couldn't protect you.

For Jonah, that compromising situation was fleeing to Tarshish. He ended up on a ferry and the Bible says that "the Lord sent out a great wind." All of the men on the ship started calling out to their gods to lighten up the storm but it never lightened up and they went to Jonah who was fast asleep. They said wake up and call on your God so that He may spare our lives. They asked him many questions like, what is your job? Where are you coming from? Where are you from? Who is your people?

Jonah told them he was a Hebrew, his God was the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land and what he had done. They became afraid and asked why did you do this? What should we do to you so the storm would calm down? Then it says that they cried out to the Lord. [Funny they cried out to their gods at first and nothing happened so they ended up crying out to the Almighty God.] They begged God to spare their lives and not punish them for Jonah's wrong doing and sent forth an offering and made vows unto God. They threw Jonah off the boat and the storm calmed.

As you can see, while Jonah was only thinking of himself and not what God wanted, others were suffering. It made me think about how trying to get what I wanted caused me to hurt some people. I didn't want to wait and I walked out of the will of God, so people were hurt, I was hurt and I had to wait even longer. Jonah's punishment was being swallowed by a "great fish" for three days and three nights.

While in the belly of that great fish, Jonah had some time to think; while at home, Jessica had some time to think; while in "hibernation", I had some time to think. We all prayed and cried out to God, we all came to a similar conclusion. Even though we all were being selfish and thinking about ourselves, God STILL showed us mercy. Minister Ford said "you should not get to a point where your depending on God's mercy." I said "wow...I was there...I was at a point where I had completely stepped out of the will and did as I pleased, then I came crying back for God to show mercy, and He did."

My prayer in "hibernation," or as I like to call it sometimes, "isolation," was for God to teach me how to be patient, walk in the purpose He has for me. Like God told Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5), before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you and ordained you." God teach me how to love like You love me. God teach me how to truly trust you like James Fortune mentioned, when I'm in my lowest of lows, in my deepest valley, God teach me... Save me from myself, my flesh wants certain things but my soul wants to please you. God teach me...God save me

This should be the prayer of all Christians. We all have things that we need to learn and I read something by Kirk Franklin in his latest book "The Blueprint", where he said that we try to learn from others and not from the Creator. We should not be looking for others to teach us how to live for Christ, we should be asking God to teach us. The only way for us to learn is by communication. We have to stay in prayer and in the Word. We have to truly love God. Jessica Reedy said it best, "how can you love a God you don't know?" Read your Word...

That's all I have to say

Later Loves!!!

Sista T

P.S. While reading this over, I was reminded of a blog my sis Nicole had written called "Have Patience While You're FAITHFULLY Waiting For God To Move" She mentioned a scripture where God said "sit still." I encourage you to stop for a moment, sit there, sit still, pray, read your Word, and sit there, sit still, wait for God to tell you to move. See where He takes you and continue to do that in your daily walk. You can't go wrong following God :-)

Are You In???

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" - 2 Timothy 2:15

Hey Hey Hey Loves!!!

I've been saying for a while that I need to get in my Word and stop playing around and a bunch of other stuff. I had a conversation last night with a friend of mine and they said "I really need to get into my Word this summer."

That statement had me thinking a lot last night, as well as all day today. I really need to get in my Word. We all do. I know I say it a lot, I don't know, I may have said it countless times on here and stressed the importance of reading the Bible.

Confession:

I don't read as much as I should. I don't study as much as I should. I don't pray as much as I should.

Don't get me wrong, I do pray and read the Bible, just not as much as I know I should be. I should be studying certain things for Bible Study at my church, certain things for the Young Women's Fellowship, the Women's Fellowship, Sunday School, Praise Dance, and even things involving music.

I tend to say "I'll lay down for a minute, I'm bored, I'll get up later and read the Bible."

Realistically, I go to sleep (because I'm bored), I wake up, eat, talk to people online, get on the phone, then I wake up the next morning like "oh dag, I forgot to pray and read the Bible."

Today, not too long ago, I was watching this live video chat Trip Lee was doing for the release of his new cd "Between Two Worlds" (it releases tomorrow). There was a point where someone asked him the meaning behind a song and he said "hold on, give me a second." Then, he went and pulled out his Bible and read a passage from Colossians. I was also on skype talking to my sis and I said "he better bring out that Word!!!" But in the back of my mind I was thinking, dag, I need to get in my Word.

Then later on I found out Trip's age, he's my age!!! That added the topping on the cake.

I was sitting here like, dag man, this dude is my age and it's evident that he knows his Word, I know a little something but not as much as I want to know. I really want to learn more, but I need to stop playing around and get serious. Then I said again, "dag man, I need to get in my Word"

I'm going to tell myself what I tell a lot of other people. Don't just try/talk about it...just do it!!!

[As I'm writing this my alarm went off for me to pray at 9 :-)]

I'm getting in my Word.

Are you in???

Later Loves!!!

Sista T

It's Time NOW!!!

For the last few days I have been noticing that the music I hear, the statuses I see on various social networks, and things I talk to people about always point back to the fact that people are acting like this world will never come to an end.

On Sunday, my mom preached a sermon called "Follow Me First" and she spoke about how we have so many problems in our lives and wonder why. We always put our needs and wants ahead of everything and we "forget" about God. She used Luke 14:26-27 as her starting point; not discrediting the fact that the Bible says to honor you mother and father and love your enemies, but showing that God comes first. She used other scriptures such as Exodus 20:12 which is one of the 10 Commandments that states "Honor thy father and thy mother...", Luke 6:27 which says "...love your enemies, do good to them that hate you", and John 15:12 which states "this is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."

Then she used Matthew 10:37 which says "he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me," to show that God is to come first, before your spouse, family, friends, associates, cars, houses, everything, GOD COMES FIRST!!!

Sidebar:

I know it's a lot of scriptures, but I was taught that we should not go off what anyone says and that we should always go back to the scriptures. I'm making it easy on you, I'm giving you all of them lol.

Back to the blog:

My mom then, began to support that last statement made by using Matthew 6:33(I wrote it out below) and using the CHILD Jesus as an example. She used Luke 2:49 where Jesus had separated from Joseph and Mary and went into the synagogue to learn from the priests and speak with them. He was just a CHILD(you're not too young to start gaining wisdom...I believe I mentioned that in one of my previous blogs "YOUNG PEOPLE!!!"). In that verse, Jesus said "how is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Basically he asked his parents "why did you look for me? Don't you know that I have to handle this Kingdom business, my Father's business?"

Toward the end of the sermon she was saying how our parents may ask us to do something but we KNOW good and well that we have to do something for the Kingdom, we have to put our parents on the back burner for a moment. Not saying be rude and disrespectful to your parents, but let them know that you have to handle some business, whether it be a meeting for the church, a Bible study, a rehearsal for church or something, THEN do what they asked of you.

Yesterday, I put a status on Facebook and I really meant every word of it. Here's what it read:

Listening to Nobody Greater - VaShawn Mitchell makes me wonder why we still place people and things over God. We need to do better people. Matthew 6:33 says "But seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God, and all his righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you." Not, seek money/cars/jobs/etc. first and thank God later. Seek Him NOW!!! It's Time NOW... (It's Time Now - Tye Tribbett & GA)

But after writing that status, I went on youtube and listened to this anointed group of siblings who were singing a song their aunt wrote called "Don't Delay (The Invitation)." It fell right in to what I had said in my status. Watch the vid and you'll see what I mean. The songs mentioned above are at the bottom of the blog.

Songs about coming to Christ and handling our Kingdom business have been in my mind since Sunday. Songs like "Come to Jesus", "Kingdom Business", "It's Time Now", "I Surrender All", "Maybe God Is Trying To Tell You Something" and the song that really got me thinking, "Nobody Greater".

That song says "I searched all over/ Couldn't find nobody/ I looked high and low/ Still couldn't find nobody/ Nobody greater/ Nobody greater/ Nobody great than You" It really made me wonder, how in the world can we say there is nobody greater than God but we put a lot before Him. We look at the things we want and think we need, our "id" takes over and we want that instant gratification, we complain about what we don't have, YET we forget that we placed God on the back burner and that's probably what He did with our blessings.

Let's be real for a second, God is merciful and kind but we all take His kindness for weakness sometimes. We are ALL guilty of it at some point in our lives. God is a jealous God, so when we put things before Him, He gets angry. I know if I were Him, I would NOT be trying to bless someone who continues to use me, but He's not like that. We need to stop taking advantage of Him, we need to get our lives on the right track, we need to stop playing around. I always say tomorrow is not promised, the next 5 seconds are not promised, and earlier I was walking home and thought, dag, my next breath isn't even promised.

Like Tye and GA said "It's time now for you to turn back to God," the question now is............

Will you???

Later Loves

Sista T

Watch What You Say

Everything started on May 30th when I decided that I would go and visit my former church. I didn't know that it was family and friends day, or that Minister Joe Dingle would be speaking, I thought the Pastor would be speaking. But, the Word he brought forth had me thinking about some things, so I came on the right day. He used the scripture Proverbs 18:21 and the title "Speak Those Things."

Proverbs 18:21 states:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

He began to talk about how what we say can make or break a situation, it can be the life or death of us. I won't go into the whole sermon because this is what I really want to focus on.

Sidebar:

I was as work and this organization was having a luncheon. They were presenting the different classes they were offering through my school. One guy stood out to me because he said "I know a lot of you remember stories in the Bible from Sunday School. Well, I'm teaching a class on the conspiracies of the Bible." This man went on to say how God contradicted himself in the Bible. He used Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 6:6 as an example. He went on to say how in Genesis 1:31, God looked at His creation and thought it was good, but then he got to Genesis 6:6 and said that it grieved Him that He had made man on this earth." He never mentioned all of the mess going on between those two verses. He never mentioned the fall of man, the first murder, or anything. He just pointed out those two verses, so anyone NOT knowing the Bible would believe what he says.

Funny how things work out. I read a story about a "Shooting Panda" in today's entry for "Our Daily Bread". It was about a panda bear who came to a restaurant to eat. He ordered a sandwich and ate it. After eating, the panda pulled out a gun and started shooting. A waiter asked why he did that and he responded by "handing him a POORLY PUNCTUATED wildlife guide and asks him to look up the description of a panda." This is what the description said, and pay close attention.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Notice how things come together. In the last sentence of my sidebar, I said "He just pointed out those two verses, so anyone NOT knowing the Bible would believe what he says. Min. Dingle said in his sermon that Satan will try to use the Word against us so we must hide the Word in our hearts(I'm going to use Deuteronomy 11:18). If we don't know what the Word says and what's really true, we will easily be tripped up like the "Shooting Panda" who really thought it meant eat, shoot(with a gun) and be out.

This is where the reading from "Our Daily Bread" comes in. The reading is from 2 Timothy 2:1-15. The last verse (v.15) reads, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

We need to read to Word, seriously. If not anyone can come in and tell us different things that are so wrong and if we don't know, we can be so gullible sometimes. I just saw, last week, someone asked about the rapture and how people felt about it. A PASTOR!!! Yes, I said a Pastor, got on there and said there is no rapture. Then he went on to say that the Bible was his source. If I didn't know that 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says that Christ will descend from Heaven, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those that are alive and remain will be caught up to meet Him in the air, I could have been dumb enough to believe him.

There are people everywhere writing and saying things that sound nice, things that make you think. They will have you second guessing your relationship and whether it's valid or not. You have to STUDY and hide that Word in your heart. Otherwise you can easily be fed by that mess.

What am I saying???

Find you a GOOD Bible teaching church. Join the church, attend on Sundays, go to Bible Study and do you OWN PERSONAL Bible Studies. Do whatever you have to do, but PLEASE, I'm begging you all, PLEASE learn the Word. Hide it in your heart, and share it. There are so many false prophets, false teachers and other stuff out there(that's a lesson series in itself). Be careful of what you feed your soul. Be careful what you say and how you say it. You never know who is listening and you can cause someone their life if they don't know any better.

I keep saying I love the way God works. This is exactly why, He puts me in certain situations to see and hear certain things and they all come together to benefit me and others.

That's all I have for now...

Later loves!!!

Sista T

Da'Lux Blaze

If you haven't noticed, I'm constantly sharing music on this blog. A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a young Christian rapper by the name of Denzel Cadet aka Da'Lux Blaze. To give you a little background on him, I'll post the bio he provided on Reverbnation.

I was born in Philly to a single mother, a college student at the time, who had me despite the advice of many to have an abortion. Instead of listening to the naysayers, my mom prayed: "Dear God I'll have this baby, but if I have this baby, you're gonna have to take care of us." God answered my mom's prayer beyond what she could have imagined, providing for us in so many ways. Not only did my mom graduate college, but she now has the blessing of seeing that same kid who should have been aborted in college himself. That was only one of many things that God has done for me. He gave me a love and talent for words and music that were clear from a young age. I've been writing songs ever since I could talk, and I started rapping when I was thirteen. "Lux" is Latin for light (yessir break out the latin on 'em) so my name literally means "The Light." My goal is to shine in whatever context I find myself. I don't merely want my talents, my skills, my passion to come out - I want all of those things to come together to glorify God.

Just a little update, Denzel is now a graduate of Princeton University. Yes, I said Princeton lol. I was told that the video for "Foreign Language" will be released within the next few weeks. He's also working on his new album called "Turn The Lights On" so look out for that.

I put a widget on the side bar, over there, with some of his music ---------->

If you want this widget, go to his page on Reverbnation.

Join his group on Facebook :-)

Follow him on Twitter

His official website is on Myspace.

This is all I have for now...new updates will come as I get them

Later Loves!!!

Sista T

Challenge: Job

Hola!!!

I was sitting here thinking a lot about some things that were really bothering me. I prayed last night about it and again when I woke up this morning. I asked God to speak to me through the Word and He did. He took me to Job chapter 1.

In that chapter, it showed that Job was, as the Word describes, "perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." (v.1) Job had 7 sons and 3 daughters, and he was real wealthy. My study Bible says about v. 5 that "Job was a spiritual man as clearly revealed by his sensitivity to sin and its consequent need for sacrifice."

Now Satan had his eye on Job. He asked God, "Doth Job fear God for nought(nothing)?" He was questioning why Job feared God. I can only imagine what Satan was thinking, maybe something like "Job only fears that God will take away all of his possessions."

So what did Satan do? He got permission from God to tempt Job. (Now remember what I said in a previous blog Inspired By Temptation By GI, God will not tempt you, he will allow you to be tempted. It is a test of your faith.) Job was approached by four different messengers, one after another, with a different problem. The first messenger came to tell him that the Sabeans came and killed all the oxen and donkeys and servants tending them, only he survived. A second messenger came, while they were speaking, to say that "The fire of God" destroyed the sheep and some more servants, only he survived. A third servant came, again while they were speaking, to say that the Chaldeans came and killed the camel and more servants, he was the only to survive. Yet again, while they were speaking, the fourth and last messenger came and said that a "great wind from the wilderness" came and knocked down the four walls of his eldest son's house. All of his children were there feasting and all were dead except that one servant.

To us it seems as though Job's life is falling apart and we would probably say "God why me?" He lost ALL of his livestock, ALL of his servants except the four messengers, and ALL of his children. Job didn't do what we would, he didn't question God. Nah.........not Job, not the perfect and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. Nah...........

What did he do then???

I'll tell you.............

He tore his robe, shaved his head, got down on his face and worshipped God. The Bible says that he "BLESSED the name of the Lord." These were the words of Job, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Now honestly, how many of us would do that? Not I..........

I'm not even going to lie, I lose money and I'm like dag man I don't have ANY money...I'm tired of this, I need another job. I still have a roof over my head, I still have clothes on my back. I'm being ungrateful. Not Job, this guy TORE his clothes, shaved his head and bowed down to worship God. Meanwhile, Satan's in the background looking STUPID!!! He really thought Job was going to curse God for taking basically all he had. NOT!!! This is one of those times where I just laugh at Satan, like you goof, you really thought he was materialistic and fearing God so he wouldn't lose his possessions??? HA!!!

I said all of this to challenge everyone. No, I'm lying.

But on a serious note, after thinking about all of this, I really want to challenge you all to, instead of questioning God when you're at your lowest moments, bless Him, thank Him, tell Him that it was in His will that whatever happened, happened because He knew what was best for your life. Let Him know that you STILL trust Him, even though you have nothing left, you STILL trust God with all of your heart. This is a challenge for me also so PLEASE don't feel like you're alone on this.

I know this was type lengthy but it was laid on my heart literally as I was writing it. I'm about to go back and re-read what God wants us all to know.

Later Loves!!!

Sista T