Thanks, Pastor Godbolt. Something else to ponder during my workday.

Blessings,

Love

“Dear Love, Use the knife on yourself.GEN 17:11″

It may concern anyone who sees my cell phone lying around…lol. But hey, I’ll know what it means.

Right on Time…as always.

Love

I called myself balanced for a really long time because I worked hard and played hard. But I didn’t rest. I didn’t rest in the communion with God. Having recently realigned my priorities to make the alone time with God essential, I do find that I long for those opportunities. I don’t like anything to intrude, and I regret when I haven’t done my best to make that meeting place a priority.

No, God isn’t on a “schedule,” but like anything, we have to make a decision up front about the QUALITY of the time that we wish to spend with Him. In some situations, you’ve gotta go for quality.

Nice, Pastor Godbolt. Keep’em comin’. Let Him use you. Gets me through the day…lol.

This blog reminds me that not only does God give another chance, but if you’re willing to open your eyes and see, He also gives a fresh example of what the right thing vs. the wrong thing looks like. We have to be willing to examine and live the right thing. Hence, a grace period.

Nice one, Pastor Godbolt.

I haven’t lived there, but I’ve vacationed there a time or two, and it isn’t pretty. It’s nerve-wrecking to count solely on yourself. We’re way too imperfect for that.

Thank God for this blog. A nice remender that He thinks well of us:-).

But first love is always simple, innocent, uncomplicated. We don’t know how to react to that. We have to learn all over again, how to stop, and reconnect with persitent quiet, peace, tranquility, and simplicty of Christ’s love.

It is similar to what you stated in last weeks message when you used the example of seeing Sis Godbolt for the very first time whenever you look at her. It is a sweet simple moment, but you have to WORK to clear your mind of all the busy-ness of the day for that moment of reflection to be worthwhile.

So it is the same with Christ. I’ve recently challenged myself to have real, stopping points with the world around me for God. I’ve done it in time’s past, but its a renewed commitment each day, month, year even to say, “Wait, I have stopped to spend time with Him…to learn something else about who He is, and embrace the uniqueness of our relationthip.” It takes work, but its the “toughest job I’ve ever loved.”

Well said, Pastor.

But that’s just it, very often, when we think of “repenting for wrong,” we think of it in terms of the wrong that affects some human “other.” So we assume that if what we’re into, our “wrong,” doesn’t affect other people (which it usually does even if we can’t see how), then “no play,no foul.”

But God is the ultimate “other.” Everything that we do wrong affects Him…hurts Him. And if we could learn to see it that way, there would never be any question about the need to seek comfort of repenting, and praying to improve.

#workonmeLord

Thanks, Pastor Godbolt.

For example, I saw on a talk show the other night, that a famous hip-hop icon, made sandwiches our of her home on a regular basis, and passed them out in the street to the homeless. The host kept saying, “Now I want folks to HEAR THIS…now you say you MADE the sandwiches? With your OWN TWO HANDS?” And the entire audience clapped in awe. I saw it as an admirable deed, but the praise for the star also highlighted something I see as the critical challenge to living out humility. And that is…

Pride…is…normalized. We live by the montra, “I can’t go for that,” or, “Me? Are you serious?” and as a human race, we don’t flinch. We’re not uncomfortable when people go down their list of “Won’t dos.” We nod our heads in agreement when we hear others say, “I mean, they’re gon’ have to find somebody else to do that.”

Moreover, we join in. I know that I have over a million times. We are quick to give our contribution to an already prideful conversation inserting, “I wouldn’t take that off her/him, either. Don’t get it twisted.”

We are conditioned to raise our brows at the humble, saying to ourselves, “Huh? You’re just gon’ take that? I wouldn’t if I were you.” We don’t rally behind the humble. We don’t affirm other’s decisions to be lowly.

Perhaps the next time that we wish to become the antagonist on someone else’s journey to humility, we should look back…recall how lonely it was the last time we tried to do that right, humbly right, thing.

Had Joseph let others tell him, “Man, please, I wouldn’t take that off them,” he wouldn’t have been appointed or anointed.

Humility takes strength, and the courage to stand alone against the popularity of pride.

Thanks, Pastor Godbolt.

And yes, I’m not just answering blogs, I’m actually working at my job .

He asserted that in order to wear the God-tailored garment, we had to see pain as a necessary part of the intricate interweaving of the fabric (of each of our garments)for His glory.

We, in our current time, fail to celebrate “The Road Not Taken,” eagerly pursuing the path of least resistence. If we encounter discomfort, even as Christians, we say, “God must not be here. It wouldn’t be this hard.”

But if victory cannot exist with discomfort, and we all believe that victory is a necessity, then so must be….discomfort. Therefore, it isn’t a risk, it as essential part of the agreement for relationship with God and others.

I am guilty of poor thinking on this matter…very. But after reading this, I am enlightened.

Thank you,

Love

P.S. The other issue is that we have to stop spending our energy on the things that are not neccesity. If we do that, we’ll have enough energy for the things that are….just a thought.

Whatever is NECESSARY is never a risk…I like it.