Tag Archives: Christ

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Your Good Just Might Not be Good Enough

As people of God we want so much of God but we do and give so little for Him. Do you really know Him? Or maybe I should say do you really want to know Him?

Proverbs 21:2, 14:12, 16:25
Galatians 6:7-9, 1 Kings 18:21, Matthew 7:20-24

There’s a saying… “a little knowledge makes a person dangerous.” When most people gain a little knowledge about the Bible they believe that they are a Christian authority and their understanding is somewhat absolute even though they may not want to admit it. They fill that their understanding of the Bible gives them the right to speak for all
Christians, and from that they begin in corporate their own personal belief system into what ever the biblical topic being discuss is, according to the way they feel concerning what the Word of God is saying. They will begin to impose their understanding on everybody and thing. And a lot of times, this leads to a new belief system that contradicts the Bible all the time. Then that belief doctrine will begin to become infectious and nine time’s out of ten because there may be some kind of relationship or emotional attachment involved that people will begin to equate
this as being true words of Jesus.

People usually will follow after someone they care about when it comes to listening to the Word of Jesus instead of only listening to the the Word of Jesus Christ as to not hurt others feelings.

Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.

 

The word Ponder means ‘to think.”

Isaiah 5:18-23
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

For those who think they know Jesus will begin to justify what they do in His name with a surety! It’s the people who tend to believe they know what a Christian is supposed to be like, but never had a relationship with Jesus. They don’t love Him, they really only heard of Him have a lot of mouth service all because they read the Bible like a book as in a fairy tale and only to be taken as such. Not as the true inspirational words from Jesus and the only way to know this is to travel down the road of salvation, to find out first who Jesus is and what He means to world and personally to you.

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If…

Truth never feels good, even when its right. There was a movie that came out with a line “Do you want to know the truth?” And the people said yes. Then he said “You can’t handle the truth.” We can’t handle the truth, but the Bible says the truth is like a double edge sword. When it cuts, it cuts going in on one side, and cuts going out on the other side. The Word is like that. We want people to tell us the truth, but we don’t want people to tell us the truth.

Matthew 25:1-13

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

1 Peter 1:14-16

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Think of the following questions:

IF JESUS CAME YOUR WAY WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

IF JESUS CAME TODAY WHAT WOULD  YOU SAY OR WOULD YOU RUN AWAY AND SAY “NO WAY
NOT TO DAY?”

IF JESUS CAME YOUR WAY TODAY WOULD YOU CHEER AND JUMP AN SAY HALLELUJAH
HIP, HIP, HOORAY!

IF JESUS CAME TODAY WOULD YOU TELL HIM “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER SERVICE I’M
RUNNING LATE?”

IF JESUS CAME TO YOUR HOME TODAY WHAT WOULD HE HAVE TO TAKE A TICKET AND
WAIT IN LINE?

IF JESUS CALL YOU TODAY WHAT WOULD SAY, I HAVE TO GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING
SO I’LL CALL YOU LATER!

IF THE LORD JESUS CAME TO YOU WHEN YOU WHERE AT WORK WHAT WOULD HE SEE !

IF JESUS CAME WHEN YOU WHERE BETWEEN CHURCHES WHAT WOULD HE SAY?

IF THE LORD JESUS CALLED YOUR NAME, WOULD YOU HEAR HIM?

IF JESUS SAID ITS TIME TO GO HOME WOULD YOU DOUBT IT WAS HIM AND CALL A FRIEND?

IF CHRIST CAME TO SEE YOU AND YOUR FRIEND OR FAMILY WASN’T THERE WHAT WOULD YOU SAY OR DO?

IF JESUS CAME TO YOU TONIGHT WHAT HE FIND AND WHAT SITUATION WOULD HE SEE?

IF JESUS CAME AND PICKED UP YOUR CELL PHONE COULD YOU GIVE IT TO HIM WITH A
GOOD CLEAR CONSCIOUS?!

IF JESUS CAME TODAY WOULD YOU STAND UP AND RUN AWAY?

IF JESUS CAME WHILE YOU WERE TEXTING OR TAKING A SELFIE, YOU THINK HE WOULD
STAND NEXT TO YOU?

IF OUR LORD JESUS CAME TODAY WHILE YOU WHERE ANGRY, WHAT WOULD SAY?

IF JESUS CAME TO YOUR HOME, COULD HE GET IN?

I’m not talking about your physical address, but Your soul. Have you shut Jesus out? Does He have any of your life?If the Lord Jesus came while you were angry, lying, acting, what would He do?

Are you ready to go home today, if He comes your way? Because He says this place is not our home. Scientists are saying they are waiting for Christ’s return.

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What Do You Expect More Back than What You Are?

It’s amazing to me that most people tend to allow their flesh to get the best of them to the point where they begin to say “Why can’t I have that,” or “I don’t deserve this,” or “why am I not receiving of good things?” You ever thought that you might not be good, or that you cause a lot of mess? The Bible says we reap what we have sown, and that is a serious thing. When we do harm to other people, and we’re caught, we plead amnesty and mercy. Why do you expect a righteous judgement for yourself, but you don’t give righteous judgments. Hence comes in the old proverbial saying “I’m sorry.” Were you sorry when you committed the lie? We’ve changed the lie so now there are white lies. I didn’t know they came in colors; a red and yellow and blue one, with varying degrees. You remember when you told a half truth, you gave a long intricate story, to see that what were you saying got lost in the intricacies of the statements and the psychological statements. At the end of it, those paying close attention will say, “Ok what do you want me to do now?” People get before a judge and say “judge I’m a victim of my environment. I was raised by my mother, denied by my father, abused by my brother and neglected by my friend. Judge you have to understand I’m a victim of the circumstance.” Not realizing these questions: do you know what love is, or what harm is and not harming others? Then if you do, you don’t want others to hurt you because it hurts. So why are you hurting them? Why do we expect a liar to tell the truth? Why do we expect a crook to do good? We expect people to look at us and give us every benefit of a doubt, but we never look at them and give them a benefit of a doubt. How can you want people to pay attention to you when you don’t pay attention to others? If you want a leader to listen to you, then you have to listen to leadership. We want people to do what we want them to do and receive how we want to be received. Listen to this, we try our best to sway the opinion of others to see our side of life, so we can justify our existence and things we do. We want to sway people to our decisions. When you set your mind to do something, you think considerably about it. You just don’t go and do something by impulse. You justify before you lie, so you just-a-lie. When you get caught doing something you should not have been doing, why are there a lot of buts and things start smelling? When you think about justifications you can’t even come up with any. We want the best response when it is favorable for us. We ask for justification for our actions from everyone, wanting people to think the best of us. You remember being kids…you’d do something but get your brother or sister in trouble. But when you get caught, you start pleading for mercy. But your brother or sister you didn’t show mercy to. How can you plead for mercy when you can’t give it? We all want people to pay attention to us right? How can you expect people to pay attention to you when you don’t to them? Don’t ask something of someone you can’t give out.

You know what this shows? That that individual is aware of wrong doings or sin. What are you doing when you allow a lie to take place to cause someone else to get hurt? We don’t want to admit it but we know whats right and wrong. We all know what pain is right? We’ve all felt pain. Is pain a good thing to you? We don’t like our emotions, feelings, or bodies to be hurt. What do we consider that to be? Bad. So if you don’t want to be hurt, then other people too don’t want to be hurt. So what is sin? Causing someone else hurt. When you do something that causes another person pain, then you have sinned. We try to lie out of it because we are afraid of the repercussions of what will happen. We don’t want to receive the results of our pain, so we lie out of it, so no one will hurt us. If we can’t lie out of it, we’ll look at the other person and try to justify out of it. We know that to cause harm on someone the judgement of causing harm is even worse, so we lie out of it. We try to make amends with ourselves so when it comes to light that we’ve done something wrong, we won’t look bad. Every time we try to justify a lie in our lives, what do you think we commit toward Christ, in our Christian walk? I think the majority of people who are living their lives as a child of God don’t really understand what their walk is all about. It’s a systematic way of our trying to present ourself to make sure everyone is doing the same things. What do we do to get someone to do good back to us even though we’ve done bad to them?

1 Kings 3:15-25

And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

Today we’d just get a DNA test, but Solomon did not have those sorts of tests in those days. Look at the judgement the one woman wanted and look at the mindset of the other woman. One didn’t care about killing the child, and the other wanted the child to live. The point is, the Wisdom of God knew the heart of the woman who was the mother of the child. The woman who killed her child accidentally, was looking for a favorable judgement from the king concerning the child. She gave a long story about the dilemma. This is what we do when we’ve done wrong and want mercy. Why did Cain slay his brother? Jealousy. So was the other woman jealous that her child was dead and the other not? So is the spirit of Cain alive and well with us? Why do we do things against other people? “Oh you’re a favorite of so and so. You’re liked and loved better than me.” Now the other person is jealous. Oh the Lord of Lord’s and the King of King’s likes Able’s offering better than Cain’s best watermelon, stalk of celery or ear of corn. So Cain went away upset, while Able gave the Lord something living and not dead. The Bible said that Able’s blood cried out from the ground because life is in the blood, not in a fruit or vegetable, even though it may have been the best kumquat you may have had. That spirit is still in us today. People get jealous if another person in Church can pray better. Some of us may not have talent at all, and we get jealous and get like Cain. “You think you’re something don’t you?” that Cain spirit building up. The very first time we see that someone who has talent fail, we belittle them. That Cain spirit is running rampant in the Church today. Pastors getting jealous of pastors. You can’t allow the spirit of Cain to come in. Don’t look for anything and it’s not in you. You can’t allow the spirit of Cain to come in. Why do you expect more than what you are? Why do you expect God to give you more and you don’t have anything or do anything that deserves more? Why do you expect more from God than what you give to Him? Why do you expect more from Him when that little He gave you, you don’t even use that? Why do you must have, when you aren’t even faithful over the little things. What does a criminal usually say when you catch him? “I’m not guilty.”

There are things we do, and we tell people not to do. If we can’t be what we’re suppose to be, don’t ask someone else more of what you can’t do yourself. Don’t expect anything from someone else, that you can’t do yourself. As a leader anywhere you go, your word has to be final. If you are not submissive and humble, then you can’t be a good leader. If you can’t listen to your leader, don’t expect someone else to listen to you. If you can’t be submissive and humble, don’t expect it from others. If you can’t be passionate and compassionate to people, don’t expect it when they hear your concerns. Whatever we expect from others we need to do ourselves.

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How Bright is Your Bulb?

Be grateful for a giving heart, for a loving, giving, excited heart; exited about what God has for you. And what God has for you is His will for you. So we need to make sure that we allow God to be number 1 in our lives. At this time, we have to give honor to whom honor is due. Know this, how long halt you between two opinions? The Bible tells us to let your light so shine so that men will see you, but give God the glory for it. So let’s give God His due. My old Bishop use to say give the man his dough. This is God’s time, so take everything off your mind.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Shine. Shine. Let your light so shine. How are you shining? What do people see imminating out of you? Do they see the light of God? Do you represent Him, or is it what He represents in you? We need to understand one thing, we need to let Christ shine through us. Because if He doesn’t shine and we do shine, we will start leading people astray. Because its about the God in us.

The Greek words for shine is Lampo meaning shine like a torch. The word torch has been used so many times throughout history, even when they show men in a cave, they have a lit torch so they can see their way through the darkness. If you are light, then people can see the path that leads to righteousness through you. Let your light so shine. So you are that torch that will guide people to Christ. Now, the word torch is more often used in England, because they call a flashlight a torch. So we represent the flame of God. Its an awesome thing to be a representation of something that you believe in; that you love. If you love somebody, and you say, I’m coming in the name of the one I love, Jesus. In the natural sense you are always proud to represent your significant other. But think about it, how do you shine? Do you shine with that representation or are you shining of something else like mess or your burdens?

You’ve seen people loaded down, carrying the weight and burden of someone else. Then they come and say “Let me pray for you.” Then you should say “That’s ok, I prayed last night.” You don’t want them to lay hands on you. You don’t what them to pray for you because whatever is on them will transfer onto you. The Bible says lay hands on no man suddenly. If you are praying for someone on the other hand, you don’t pray for what they want, because you don’t know what they want. They may be going through, so don’t pray that they come out of it or that God delivers them from it because you know why? God wants them to go through, because you don’t know their life what they’ve been through, you don’t know what they need to go through so they can get through! So you pray that the Will of God will be done in their lives. When you aren’t around them you don’t know what they’re doing. People do mess, and try to get you to pray for them so their mess can go forward. Oh no! Its called validation of prayer. They need you to quantify what they’re doing. That is why the Bible says lay hands on no man suddenly. I will pray true enough, I will pray for you, and your family. You don’t have to pray out loud. The scribes and pharisees did it all the time. No, you pray “I pray the Will of God in your life.” They look at you like “but why aren’t you praying for my benefit?” The best way to help someone who is going through is to stand back and pray from a far. You get up on them and touch them and whatever is on them you may you go through. You lay hands on them, and then others on others, and then we’re all jacked up. How bright is your bulb? Could some of the things we’re going through be because of who we’ve been with? How bright is your bulb? You’re looking kind of dim.

A light designates some place of shelter or desire to be at. So when you are a light you are showing detail of everything. In the dark you can’t describe anybody. In the light you can tell what is what. For example, when you come to a crossing in a road, there are lights up there. What are the major colors? Red, green and yellow. We know what those mean. Stop, go and slow down. Some of you see a green light, that means to go as fast as you can, and yellow is go faster so you can beat the yellow light. When you come to a railroad crossing and the gate goes down, and the lights are flashing what do you do? Its not for you the snake through the gates and try to go through. It means stop and wait for the train to come. We have to pay attention because we know that those things are there for us to be cautious.

Can you use a black bulb to get through the dark? There are black bulbs, that are ultraviolet, but you can’t look in the dark. Can you look in the dark with a black bulb? No. You need something bright to light your path. The blind can’t lead the blind. You don’t know anything about anything but you’ll try to tell me how. Understand this, we can’t come to conclusions in our lives that we want to follow the correct path and the thing that illuminates in our hearts and minds we need to follow because it looks bright to us. Not every light leads to the right destination. If you wear the light of Christ, when you’re going through is your light bright? No. How can it be? Its just like a flash light. How many walk around the house at night with a weak flash light? Do you still use it? No because its dim. Associate that with your Christian walk. Now the world can see when there are things that are on you, and you want to pray for whom? You don’t want someone coming to you with a weak light, and you don’t want your light to be weak. What happens to a remote with a weak battery? How long does it take you to realize your bulb and battery are low? That means you’re not charged up by the Holy Ghost. “I’m strong, I understand, I have Christ in me. He’s all I need,” you say. Is He really all you need? If He is, then why is your battery so weak? How did it get that way? You got that mindset that “I’m going to ‘Jesus’ until I drop.” Then you go to Him and say Jesus why am I like this? He’ll say “Did you take a look at your battery?” But you say “Lord, You are the supercharge of batteries.” He’ll say “But didn’t I tell you to rest?” Jesus even got away from the crowd to pray, in one piece, not in bits and pieces. We don’t understand that our batteries need to be recharged as a Child of God because if you don’t you get the wrong information. How bright is your bulb? Just like the old scary movie. Someone walks in with a torch, and the wind is blowing, and just before it goes out something strange passes your way, and then the torch blows out.

People will drain you until there is nothing left but a spark and then there are those who try to take the spark! People plug into you and their meter goes up, but then your meter goes down. Then they get mad at you when you don’t have enough juice to power them up. Then they ask what’s wrong with you? Your bulb doesn’t look very bright. Well because you drained me! 10 wise and 10 foolish brides in Matthew 10, the 10 foolish immediately asked, can I used your battery back up!? And the wise said, well you could have bought one of these, just go down to the store and buy one. Well you have enough to give me some the foolish said. You saw that your meter was low, how is that going to help you?

When your fishing around to look for power, and you don’t get on your knees and plug it in the wall, if you’re there just the drain something and don’t recharge it back. Its just like the person who doesn’t understand the Word of God and goes out and tries to get a quick word and tries to explain it to someone else based on their skewed understanding. How bright is your bulb? Are you exuding Christ or exuding you? People who don’t have a clue and don’t have the light in them will always want to be around those that do, but they are like leeches.

You know what leeches do? Suck the blood out of you, because there is life in the blood, and they won’t let go until they are full. So we have spiritual leeches who don’t know anything about Christians and don’t have a clue about what a christian really is. They don’t know about humility, long suffering, but they know about complaining and whining. They don’t know the Word, but they look to you. They go to you for the word, prayer, and everything, because they can’t go for themselves. Can you get a letter through to Christ, my phone is being blocked. Why does a person get blocked? Because they don’t want to hear from you. Folks will use that to drain you, they’ll go to other people to hear from you because they can’t hear from you. Spiritual leeches need someone to latch onto to get to where they need to get to. They look for life in something because they’re dead, and can’t communicate with the One who give us power. I can’t get the Holy Ghost, but I know its in you and I know what it looks like. You are carrying Duracell, not those dollar store batteries that last long enough for you to get the product home and then go out. When everything else dies, Duracell endures. When everything else fails the Holy Ghost endures. People know that. That is why people mimic the Holy Ghost, they mimic tounges, because they want people to see that they have power, because as a Christina you can’t walk without power. I need to tap into that power. Even though you mimic and look the part, everyone can see that your bulb isn’t even bright, but its off. You have to be aware of these spiritual leeches.

To keep your energy up and the Holy Ghost up inside you, you need to take time in prayer. Those quick fixes “Jesus give me strength, you know and understand me. Amen.” How would you like if someone you love just said I love you and then quickly leaves? You wouldn’t, so does Christ want that? Now, where is quality time you spend with Christ? On the go? On the TV? Online? Why? Don’t have to give an offering. I can get the Word for free because I’m one of those spiritual leeches. How can you hear if you don’t have a preacher and how can he hear unless he’s been sent?

How many have battery back ups? Your battery back up should be your Bible. How many have phones? You are the phone. Getting on your knees makes the connection. Everything you need to live according to holiness and godliness is the Bible. Is the anointing enough in your life that you can hear from God and activate in God? Or do you have to go get one of those generators to activate in God? Picture this, all Christians are trying to get started in the morning, and you look over the horizon and see them all trying to crank a generator? The whole point is let your light so shine, the Holy Ghost shine. How can it shine if you haven’t feed it lately? Can your car get somewhere if it has no gas? No. So if you don’t have the anointing and Holy Ghost in your life, you can’t go anywhere. You may sound good and look good, that car may be beautiful and nice looking, but will it go anywhere? There may be some gorgeous and fine looking saints, who look presentable, but they aren’t going anywhere. Have you ever gone to a church and left there more depleted than when you came in? No power left in the house. The problem is we’re always trying to leech and latch onto others, when we should get it for ourselves. Maintain your bulb by being around people who will fill you up, not those who will drain you.

 

Matthew 25:1-12

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

 

The Lord may need to take something away from you, to break something in your life, because He needs to lead you, because you aren’t listening to Him. So He has to break things in your life that you thought were secure. When God is getting ready to do something awesome in your life, watch how many old people and situations Satan throws up in your life again. Stay away from people that steal your light and your life. Make sure you stay around people who will encourage and inspire you; people who are blessed, who really genuinely care about you. Not people who are validated by your presence. You need to get away from them, because they can’t stand on their own 2 feet, and don’t look back. They are leeches in your life and when they drain your for themselves, they don’t care about you. Its time to let go. If they are draining you, they don’t love or care about you. The Lord said in the last days it would be husband against wife, sister against brother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law; I know you love them and care about them, but love them from a far, let them go. Its either the Lord or you. The Lord doesn’t drain you so let the other person go. Remember the Bible tells us to love one another. The people of God are your friends but you still have to love them, because you have the same goals in mind, and that is to be with the Lord, and we get there being of one mind, conversation and thought. Support each other, love each other, and care about each other.

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Humility Under Fire

Have you ever been under fire? There is a gun ship in the military that “brings the rain,” to those on the ground. This is what is happening in your life. You are attacked non stop until you look like Swiss Cheese. Even though its unwarranted, when it goes and comes through your life you’re left devastated, but it makes you reflect over your life. It makes you think about what you have done. Things happen in our life, and the first person we blame is God. “Lord why did you allow this to happen to me? Am I not Your child? Lord why me? I can think of quite a few people on my list who need this, but I don’t need this.” We come out and we have issues. But can you be humble? Can you be humble when someone is sticking you with a pitch fork, or talking about your mother?

The Word of God tells us about humility while under fire. Its hard to love someone when they’re choking your neck. Then you have to look at them an say “I love you in spite of yourself.” But humility, when you’re going through a process in your life of growth, can you be humble, submissive, genuinely honest with yourself and say ‘I understand I will be humble”? Humble and fire; you just can’t put those two together; they are like oil and water, they just don’t mix. Can you remove yourself out of the picture and be understanding to someone else and be humble? Most of the time we can’t because we’re looking at the way they are hurting us. You remember the old saying about sticks and stones? Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

Hurting on the outside on your flesh is temporary, its for a moment for the physical pain. Take an aspirin or midol and the pain is over. But when you hurt me with words, they cut and leave scars you can’t see on the inside. These scars don’t heal. They don’t heal do they? No they don’t. When you cut on the inside, you leave a mark that only I can see. A lot of times people they leave a mark that only you know about. They say one thing, but do another and you say, “I thought you cared, I thought you loved me, I was under the impression. When you said it before it meant something else. Do you care about how I feel. No, because if you did, you would never have put that scare within me. So all of this time you lied?” Its amazing to me that people allow their lives to be controlled by a lie from youth to now and never got over it. Just because someone calls you something doesn’t make it so, you make it so because you begin to act as so. We look at our lives and say “I am not what so and so said I am.” Then we question ourselves and and ask “am I?”

We justify that scar within us. We do just what a clam does. What does it do when it gets a spec of sand within? It builds up a shield over it, a slimy shield that gets hard over and over until it rises up, so when they go over it, they won’ t feel the pain of a little grain, but now they have the pain of a pea. This is what we do on the inside, covering it up over and over, thinking that this will justify and make us worthy. You don’t need anyone to validate you. You, are you. Validation only brings accreditation to the person giving it. But if the accreditation isn’t good, neither is the validation. You say, I’ll drown myself in alcohol. I’ll takes drugs that will help me forget. It never helps you forget, it makes a bad situation worse. Now you have drug addiction added to the bunch. Every layer you’ve covered that scar tissue up with, you have to pay for it, and go over it.

Humility under fire, that moment when you thought you’d fight back and say, ok. So what is taking place in your life? God is watching every move you make and trial your take. He’s seeing you in that trial. When people go through grief recovery or anything like that, they have to talk it out or write it out and say if they have a problem with someone. Then what are you going to do with it? But I just gave you all my problems, now you have them. You’re wondering why you got on his nerve? Can you look at someone and say “I’m sorry for the way I treated you?” Nothing can come at you unless you allow it to come at you. Nothing can get on your nerves unless it gets on your nerves. Things only bother you because you allow them to. Some people set time bombs in your soul then leave because at a certain time it will explode. They’ve been gone for a whole week and your suffering and they aren’t even around. You’re sitting there struggling, getting mad with yourself for getting mad at them. People set things in your soul to distract you from your course. If I keep you lingering and wondering and wondering and lingering over things guess what? How many hours in a day? 24? So if I get you to spend 15 of your hours thinking about what I just did to you and i’m not in the picture, whose life am I wasting? They aren’t there, and you are struggling. Satan does it all the time to us and we love it. He gives us things to muddle over in our brain. One person comes through and says I don’t like you?  You’re struggling on that, at home, on your job, everywhere you go you’re struggling on that. Meanwhile your soul is getting beat up. Who’s beating up your soul? You are! That is a time bomb they set in your soul.

People have ways of doing things to you that you don’t want to see or know. People drop stuff in your life to destroy you to make you think less of yourself. They make you unsure of yourself, they don’t give you the opportunity or growth to grow. They stunt your growth at an early age. Parents do that with kids at an early age saying “you’ll never amount to nothing.” So your pursuit is to amount to make them wrong, but it hurts you to your core. We all know what nothing is right? If they say you’ll amount to nothing, then where is all the love they gave to you going? To nothing? You don’t wast love on nothing. “So who am I,” the little kid thinks? So the little kid grows up to be nothing. You know how many people are in prison because their parents put them in there? Some people spend all of their life trying to prove to their parents they were wrong about them being nothing. So what do they wind up doing? Theft, mugging, violence; and its all because of their parents. He gets his parents attention, and is now in prison, but the parents say I love my child, I love I love.

Can you still have humility under fire? Humble: to have less pride, or none at all. Low; down to the earth low. To be subdued. To be submissive.

Does that mean let people walk over you? No. Not wanting to have the last word out of everything. Not wanting to have the last word. What does that mean? Do you want to have the last word? Because if I give you the last word, you have to think about it. They got the last word. How often do you have the last word? Then the word comes, the one we don’t want to hear “you no good…” We brought that on ourselves, we chased it down. There is no humility in the person who wants the last word. You argue, you argue, you argue, you argue…arguing is someone trying to get the last word. Not just the last word, but the last hurting word. How many can be big enough to say “alright you can have the last word,” and then turn around and say I love you? It hurts the other person. Christ did it for me. So we can do it too. We bring a lot of undue fire in our walk with Christ because we want to get the last word. Do you try to have the last word with Christ? How many can just apologize to that person and say I still love you? We can’t do that, we have to bring out the big guns and fire, emptying the first magazine, then when all the clips are emptied, we bring out another set of guns!

Jonah – Lets go back to that wonderful hot summer when Jonah was sitting under a gourd tree. The Lord told him to go down to Nineveh and tell them to repent. But Jonah said, but Lord those people are evil and bad. God could have continued on with the conversation, but He let Jonah go on. How many are big enough to say “but” to God? You tell God, “but,” and He’s the one who made you! Everything that is He made. But then you tell Him no! This is the same God who put a big ball of fire in space, and have planets orbiting around it. When is the last time you put up a couple planets up in space, and you give Him a but? He is so humble and says “Have it your way.” Now when He has a purpose for you to do, then He will be after you. Like Jonah. Jonah just went and waited thinking the Lord would destroy the Ninevites. You have to be humble in your walk, even when people dislike you and treat you bad, look at them with an eye of love. That’s humble, and by you doing that you win their heart and soul back. One major thing we look for, we look for things to happen instantaneously. We say to the Lord, “You said that You would curse those I curse.” While the Lord is thinking, “why can’t you say something like bless them to help them see what you see?” Everyone is going through their own test to different degrees. You have to realize this, don’t judge another man’s test with yours. When you fail a test, you go through it again, and it becomes harder because you knew better. When you see someone go through their own walk and trail, don’t judge them. If you make fun of them, then you get home and wonder why you feel bad.

1 Peter 4:12-19

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Don’t think it strange that you go through because if you’re trying to find out who God is, you’ll go through! If you know who God is, you’ll go through. You’ll always go through. You know what’s important about the test? Its not so much getting through the test that matters, but its your attitude during it. Are you complaining about the test, like the Children of Israel on their 40 year journey that could have been a 2 day journey? How soon we forget when we were in a situation how Christ delivered us from it. Being out of it we’re complaining. When you were in it you loved God going through your motions. When you got done with the test you say “Jesus? Jesus who, Jesus what?” As soon as we go back into another test what do we do? We cry out to Him. We don’t feel close to Him unless we’re going through something. When you were going through, you were all on the floor, you were foaming at the mouth seeking God. When you go through tests, you know you makes vows to the Lord, then when the test is over you go back to your old ways. Why because you have no humility. Going through a trial when you’re under fire, knowing that there is purpose in the trial for God to take a bad quality out of you.

The biggest thing we don’t know how to do is forgive other people. You have to forgive totally, not a surface forgive, forgive totally. Its a hard thing to walk in your own self righteousness. Do you have a heaven or hell to put people in? We need to look in the mirror and talk to ourselves. Healing starts. How can you be healed when you still have something inside against someone else? You ask “Lord restore me.” How can He when you don’t have enough love to restore your brother or sister? You are your brother’s keeper. Can you be the bigger person and say I apologize, I should have thought of you more than that, forgive me? Guess what? That bridge is repaired and that connection is repaired. If you are claiming the blame, the whom do they have left to blame? Now if they’re still arguing then they’re arguing with themselves.

While you’re walking through a trial, its your attitude during the trail. If you’re attitude is to get back at a person while you’re in a trial, you’ll repeat it. That could determine whether you go to heaven on hell. If you haven’t gotten salvation the right way, you have to get it right.

Matthew 18:3-4

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

You may have to eat crow sometimes to be humble, eat it with a smile and with dignity. You can be humble with dignity.