Encouraged by God's Word

Archive for July, 2010

Hello Family,

As you know I FINALLY launched this website encouragedbygodsword.com. It has been in the making for some time so I went for it and pushed the “Go” button.

Now the site is not complete. There are still some pages I’m working on but I knew that if I waited for everything to be perfect, it probably would never be ready.

When some of you went to the site and entered your name and email address you encountered an error.

An “Error 404” error to be exact. Now I don’t know what happened because I tested the site plenty of times and I didn’t experience any problems at all. But as soon as I sent the invite to everyone to check out the site, the first person to do it had problems. Then the next person, then the next and so on.

I went into my WordPress back office and checked things out. Then I went to my web hosting to see what was happening and everything looked cool. Then I ran a few more test and EVERYTHING WORKED.

I was confused. Some of you had problems but I had none.

Now I had two choices to make: I can get upset, frustrated and complain OR I can keep pressin’ on and work hard to continue to bless others.

I chose the latter.

The way I see it, these errors are just a distraction to see if I get off track. It’s a way for the devil to try to frustrate me and keep me from moving forward but I was determined to keep pressin’ on.

Philippians 3:14 says I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I’m pressin’ on because I’m passionate about what I do. I love to write and I love to encourage others and what better way to do that than through the word of God. I feel rewarded when I encourage others. It’s in the email replies you send me every week.

What are you passionate about? Just think about what you make time for. Think about the things that occupy you more than anything else. Be honest with yourself and you will know without a doubt what you’re passionate about.

If it’s something worthwhile, great. Keep on doing what you’re doing and make sure it benefits others. Don’t let obstacles get you down. Look at them as confirmation that you are moving in the right direction and work harder to move toward the goal.

If you find that your passions are revolved around something that’s foolish and time consuming, you may want to rethink how you spend your time. You don’t want to waste your time, resources or your God-given talents.

Be Encouraged and Have a Passion-Filled Weekend!

P.S. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you’re passionate about.

Hello Family,

I remember a long time ago one summer when I was down North Carolina, me and one of my cousins were outside playing around and we decided to hitchhike.  Now we weren’t going anywhere, we just decided to do something stupid.

You see my grandmother owns a house that sits on a busy road and because we were knuckleheads, we thought it would be funny to throw up the thumb and see if anyone would stop.

Because people were friendly it didn’t take too long for someone to pull over on the side of the road and offer to give us a ride. Before the person could get a good look at us, we ran away.

Do you ever wonder why it seems as if the devil is always with you? Does it seem as if trouble is with you 24 hours a day/7 days a week? Regardless of what you do, there is always mayhem in your life. Maybe it seems that way because it IS that way.

Ephesians 4:26-27 says “Be angry, and do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

The reason the devil is always with you is because he is a hitchhiker! He can’t go anywhere unless you take him with you. By your actions you give him a place in your life.

If you are a born again Christian, the devil has no place in your life and you shouldn’t be making provisions for him.

A lot of us carry around the “woe is me” mentality and “I’m no good” syndrome and all we do is provide the devil with an opening into our lives.

Or we put ourselves into situations we know are not good for us and we get in trouble.

We need to stop entertaining these thoughts and actions and prevent the devil from hanging out with us.

He only has power over us when we give it to him so stop leaving an open invitation into your life with his name on it. Cancel that sucker out and move on and let him know he can’t ride shotgun with you anymore.

Don’t send him any invite, evite, text message, email, skype message, oovoo message, yahoo instant message, Blackberry chat, telegram, video message or any other type of communication that encourages him to hang out with you.

If you are a Christian celebrate and know that God is with you and know that you have been given power over the devil. Execute your godly authority and have faith that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Be Encouraged and Have a Devil-free Weekend!

Hello Family,

Yes it is July and its beach season. It is time to go out and enjoy the sun, sand and the waves crashing against your bodies. The beach is fun for a lot of people but for some it’s not their favorite place to be in the summer. There are a lot of people who don’t want to go to the beach because they do not want to deal with jellyfish.

Jellyfish are those slimy things that are composed of more than 90% water and their body mass is a gelatinous material; they have no backbone. They don’t have a brain and they have limited control over movement. They are weak!

Have you encountered any jellyfish lately? Whenever I go to the beach I look for jellyfish and do my best to avoid them because I don’t want to get stung by them. I don’t want them to have any effect on me at all. Being stung by a jellyfish can be as minor as an irritating pain or it can lead to death.

Besides the jellyfish you see at the beach, there are other types of jellyfish out there. I’m talking about people.

You know the spineless, weak, flimsy type. They’re all over the place.

They’re at the job, in the stores, on your street, in your communities, in your home or maybe in your mirror.

Joshua 1:9 says Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The jellyfish type of people I’m talking about are spineless, weak individuals. They have no guts, no boldness, no bravado, no self-confidence and no assurance and when you hang out with them, they slowly destroy you.

The Lord wants us to be STRONG and of GOOD COURAGE, NOT AFRAID or DISMAYED. He not only wants this for us, He lets us know that He will be with us wherever we go to assure that we can accomplish these things.

Truth be told, every week when I hit the send button a small part of me wonders will people talk about me and the messages that I send out. I’m not always confident that what I write makes sense. Sometimes there’s doubt but I don’t let that fear hold me back. If people don’t like it or if they think there’s something wrong with me, that’s their issue, not mine. I try to do what God tells me to do.

I send these emails out to a lot of people and some are licensed, trained ministers and reverends who have so much more training and credentials that I have and I can easily let that intimidate me but I can’t live in fear. I have to do what God is telling me to do and not be weak.

I have to be courageous and let God lead me wherever he wants to take me.

I encourage you to not be a jellyfish type of individual who is spineless, who is always scared and living in shame and defeat? I encourage you to get rid of the negative speech such as “I can’t do”, “I’m not good enough” or “that’s too hard”. Speak triumph into your situations and live a life of not being afraid.

Get rid of that jellyfish mentality!

Be Encouraged and Have a Fearless Weekend!

Hello Family,

Here’s a test for you. Do you always do what you say you’re going to do or are you just talk? Is your word bond or is it just as flaky and always changing just like the weather?

There are so many people out there we know that we can’t depend on and that’s because they always say one thing and do something different. Or should I say they don’t do anything.

They say they’re going to be there or they’re going to help out or they’re going to follow through but when the time comes, they are nowhere to be found.

These people really irk me. I can’t stand it when someone agrees to do something and then doesn’t do it or even attempt to do it. They say all of the right things but when it comes to follow through, you get NOTHING.

As far as I’m concerned don’t say you’re going to do something when you have no intention on doing it because saying it may sound good to you, but it doesn’t help me out if I need you. Just saying “Okay, I’ll do it.” is not good enough.

Proverbs 20:11 says Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.

You see you can say whatever you want but your deeds or actions will speak the truth loud and clear. It doesn’t matter if you mean what you say or not, your works will never lie.

A man’s conduct proves who he really is!

Is your word bond or is it flaky? It’s not that easy to figure out. If you’re speaking to someone who knows you and you say something along the lines of “I’ll do it.” and they come back with a resounding “Are you sure, because the last time…” you may want to work on being more reliable.

When your words don’t line up with your lifestyle, hypocrisy is what you are all about.

Just imagine if God wasn’t reliable. What if His word wasn’t bond, a binding covenant or the rock which we couldn’t stand on? How would we survive? We wouldn’t because we couldn’t depend on Him and we would be hopeless.

God’s word will never return void. What He says He’s going to do, He does. We can rest assured that God will be there when He says He will. His actions are just as loud as His word.

Be Encouraged and Have an Action Filled Weekend!