Encouraged by God's Word

Archive for 2009

Hello Friends,

A couple of weeks ago my supervisor and I were doing some work readiness training with some young adults and in this training we asked the young people to select a song that best describes them and to tell us why.

After some young people shared their songs with the group, they asked me and my supervisor what were our songs. I told them that I had a playlist of songs but at the top of the list is “I Won’t Complain” by Rev. Paul Jones. My reason for liking this song is that in spite of what I go through, there are others who are worse off than I am so I won’t complain.

Later in the training we asked the youth to think about one thing they would change in their life and how they would change it. After the exercise some of the participants got up to share with the group; and that’s when they confirmed what I had mentioned earlier.

One young lady talked about how her father was locked up and how her mother was a drug addict when she was a child. She talked about her mother stealing from her and how she had to sleep with her valuables under her pillow. She also talked about how her mother would vanish for days at a time and she had to take care of herself as a child.

Another young lady also had a drug addict mother but her mother decided she only wanted to raise 3 out of her 7 kids and the others had to live somewhere else. She talked about how she loved and appreciated her father but she yearned for her mother’s love and affection.

One young man talked about how his mother was in the streets and his father was a drug kingpin and neither one of them took care of him. And at the age of 6 he had to learn how to cook, clean and wash his own clothes. This young man just got out of prison and is now homeless.

One participant was physically abused by her mother. Another’s older brother was locked up for life and her younger brother is locked up also. And there were other stories but this one particular young lady shared something very personal.

This brave young girl got up and talked about how she was raped four times. She told the group that the first time was by her cousin and her mother didn’t do anything about it. She also talked about her attitude towards men and how she saw them as nothing but objects to get things from and how she had no feelings towards them.

Now when the group heard her story they wanted to stop sharing. It was too emotional and in spite of what they had gone through, they knew that their colleague had a worse situation. They knew it was hard for them to complain about anything after what she had gone through.

1 Thess. 5:18 says In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

If you think your condition is bad, just know that there is someone out there who would love to switch places with you immediately. They’ve gone through hell and back again so your situation is minor to them although you make it seem as if the world is coming to an end.

So from now on, when things seem rough, just say I won’t complain. Obey the will of God and in everything give thanks!

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

How early do you get up in the morning? What’s the first thing you do when you get out of the bed (after you use the bathroom)? Do you cut on the television? Do you turn on the radio or mp3 player? Or do you go to the kitchen and start that cup of morning brew? Do you select your outfit for the day?

Are you up and running and busy first thing in the morning? I don’t know about you but the devil surely is.

There is a liquor store I pass everyday on my way to work and it is open before 8:00am. I was curious to see how early they opened so I called them and the lady told my 6:00am. What in the world do people get from a liquor store at 6:00am? And on a weekday?

Do the sell breakfast sandwiches? Maybe you can get the early edition of the newspaper there. I don’t know but one thing I do know is that the devil is busy EARLY in the morning.

What about you? Are you busy for the Lord in the morning or do other things distract you?

Psalms 5:3 says My voice You shall hear in the morning, oh Lord in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.

Are you up early in the morning speaking to God about kingdom things or do you wait until the afternoon, evening or nighttime and give Him what’s left of your time?

Before we get caught up in our daily morning routines, we should have some quality time with God. The word is clear that the first thing we speak out of our mouths in the morning should be directed to God. We should be in prayer!

We should be giving God the first and best we have to offer as it relates to our time and what better time to do that then first thing in the morning. Those early morning minutes are minutes that are not bogged down with the worries of the day.

Before we start to think about our wardrobe, getting the kids ready for school, what assignments we have at work, what meetings we must attend, what errands we have to run, or what plans we need to make, we need to get in prayer and meditation with God and get connected with what He has planned for us for the day.

We need to use our early morning minutes to focus on God and communicate with Him without distractions.

He needs our undivided attention!

So if you don’t do it now, get up tomorrow morning, and every morning, and make plans to spend some quality time with the Lord before you do anything else. It is the best way to start your day.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

One day this week when I was sitting at a stop light, I noticed that this house had rainbow curtains in their front window. Now when I saw this I immediately thought that the person or people living there were gay.

This also reminded me of a time when my wife Pamela wanted to buy my daughter Alexandra a rainbow umbrella. It was a nice looking umbrella but we didn’t buy it because of what the rainbow now represents.

The rainbow is a symbol that the gay community uses to identify who they are. Although the umbrella looked nice, we didn’t want our daughter to go through the hassle of people questioning if she was gay or not and we definitely didn’t want her to experience any unwanted advancements from someone who is practicing that lifestyle.

But let’s be clear, long before the homosexual community adopted the rainbow as their symbol, it was, and still is, a symbol of promise that God used to let Noah know that He would not destroy the earth by flood again. (Genesis 9: 8-17)

The way I see it, the gay community has taken something that God created and perverted it.

What have you perverted in your life?

Galatians 1:6-8 says I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

For years people have perverted things that God created to be good.

Remember David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. This dude perverted the word of God and managed to manipulate people

to believe anything he wanted them to. And as a result, many of them lost there lives unnecessarily.

But he’s not the only one. We pervert things too.

A good example of this is sex. It is virtually impossible to mention the word sex without someone making a rude or inappropriate comment. That’s because sex is usually associated as something that is nasty and bad. Just say the word around any little kid and see how they react.

What about your talents? Are you using your God-given talents for His glory or for your own selfish desires? Some of us are natural born leaders and teachers but instead of leading and teaching people about Christ, we lead them in the wrong direction.

So the next time you make a decision to use something that God has blessed you with, make sure you are not perverting it and using it for your own selfish reasons. If so you may be accursed.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

My wife picks up my son from school everyday and takes him to her school until it’s time for her to leave. Since being there, Rodney has made a lot of friends, especially women friends. And not only does he have a lot of women friends, he has a favorite.

Every Monday he and his favorite friend talk about their weekend and on this past Monday, Rodney was telling his friend how the pastor at our church didn’t have any arms or legs.

Rodney’s friend questioned him and asked if he was saying Pastor Jenkins didn’t have any arms and legs which he replied, “No, Pastor Jenkins has arms and legs. There was another Pastor there who didn’t have any arms and legs”.

As the conversation went on, Rodney talked about what this guest preacher talked about and at the end of his conversation my son said that although this guy didn’t have any arms and legs, “God still used him”.

Not that was profound for a 7 year old because that was the essence of Nick Vujicic’s message. You see Nick was born without arms and legs but he has managed to travel the world preaching the gospel in spite of what most people would say is a disability.

God was still able to use him.

Are you allowing God to use you or do you come up with excuse after excuse as to why He can’t use you?

Are you putting limits on God?

1 Corinthians 27-29 says But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

You see a lot of times we look at our shortcomings and WE decide that we are not worthy of being used by God. We don’t think we’re good enough but in reality, that’s what God uses. He uses folks who have weaknesses or faults and through them, He shows Himself strong.

God can use the foolish, weak, base and those things which are despised. And if He can use those types of people, He certainly can use you too.

You may not be able to preach, quote a million bible verses, teach Sunday school, do prison ministry, street witness or prophecy like others but God can still use you.

You can befriend a kid who’s not that popular at school and eat lunch with him. You can help out elderly people in your neighborhood with task they can’t do. You can go to a homeless shelter and feed the hungry. You can assist a single parent by picking up her child and taking them to practice with your child. You can volunteer to tutor kids who are struggling in school. You can provide transportation to someone who needs a ride to church on Sunday mornings. You can encourage someone who has experienced tragedy in their lives and let them know that you have experienced the same thing and that they can make just as you have.

YOU CAN be used by God!

So the next time you feel you can’t be used by God, stop looking at what you can’t do and look at what you can do.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!

Hello Friends,

Today I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone on my mailing list. I want to thank you for allowing me to minister to you every week.

Now for some folks I used email etiquette and asked if you would like to be added to my list while some of you I added without your permission (Yeah, I spammed you). And then there were folks who were added to my list by another person but no matter how you got here, you stuck in there with me and didn’t ask to be removed.

I do appreciate all of the comments and responses I get every week and so I say with a resounding voice, THANK YOU!

Now I have a question for you. Have you taken the time to thank anyone lately? Just now I thanked you for doing something as simple as reading my emails and how did that make you feel? I’m assuming you felt appreciative.

But what about those people around you who put in a lot of effort to help you out. Have you said thank you to them lately? I’m sure they would appreciate it.

Go out and thank someone for their assistance to you regardless of what they said or did and regardless of how long ago it was. Show somebody some unexpected love.

And while you’re thanking others for all they have done for you, take some time to thank God for all He has done.

1 Chronicles 16: 8 says Oh, give thanks to the LORD!  Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!

That’s right, give thanks to the Creator for ALL that He has done for you.

And don’t just thank Him, make known His deeds to everyone. Yeah, it’s time to testify.

Let everyone know how good God is and how He has made a difference in your life. Let everyone know how He has made you a new person and redeemed you. Let everyone know how He has changed your heart so that you’re a person of compassion and not that mean, nasty person you used to be.

Let everyone know how He has delivered you from your habits. Let everyone know how He has set you free.

Thank Him for all that He has done!

And don’t forget to thank others who have supported and benefited you. You never know what a person may be going through and they may feel as though no one appreciates them.

Have an attitude of gratitude!

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!