Category Archives: Blogroll

Blogroll, Discipleship, Enlightenment, God

Pay Attention Or You Might Miss Something!

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit…” -Ephesians 5:18

Would you agree this is a command?

I asked this question on Social Media, because I wanted to see if the responses were what I thought they might be and they did not disappoint. We folks that like to call ourselves good Christians are quick to jump on the first part of the verse: “And be not drunk with wine”, which I agree is a command and one that I follow.

We tend to miss that second part of the verse which is also a command: “Be filled with the Spirit!” Kinda crazy how many of us tend to miss the obvious?

There are all kinds of sins, but for our conversation today, I want to challenge you to think about sin in two categories: Sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of comission is when we do something we are not supposed to do and sins of omission is when we fail to do something we are supposed to do.

Often, church folks like to focus on a certain list of commission sins, while neglecting some commission and a lot of omission sins, all of which can be doing some real damage to the spiritual body.

If we have the strength, power and resolve to obey the first command, then what about the second command? Is one command more important than the other? Does one matter less?

I would like to suggest that if we get the second command right to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then we are empowered to find success in all kinds of commands and victory in both the sins of commission and sins of omission.

The Holy Spirit is God! What this verse is saying is: Be filled with God! To be filled with God, we have to be empty ourself of self and this is perhaps why we have such a big battle. Our ego gets in the way and encourages to Edge God Out.

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? I don’t think it means that we are always on a spiritual high, completely perfect with no challenges or struggles. I think it means working to have my spiritual, mental and physical self yielded to my Creator, so that He might flow to and through me. God flowing to and through me empowers me to live the life of blessing I was created for.

So back to the original question: Would you agree this is a command???

Blogroll, Discipleship, Enlightenment, grace, Growing

When Life Squeezes!

Back when I was working with youth, one of the illustrations I loved to share with them was to take three tubes of tooth paste and challenge three of the teens to have a little race with the tubes of tooth paste, all they had to do was very carefully follow the directions as I gave them and the first one finished with all the tasks would be the winner. Task number one was to sqeeze as much of the tooth paste out of the tube as fast as possible. They immediatly went crazy, squeezing, grabbing, pushing, pulling, rolling, whatever they could come up with to try to gett every bit of the paste out of the tube.

Now for the second part of the challenge and the one that finishes first, will be considered the Grand Champion. Then I would instruct them to put all of the tooth paste back into the tube and immediatly they look at me as if I have lost my mind. Of course I have not lost my mind, I know they cannot put it back easily and that is the point.

I go onto explain that life has a tendency to apply pressure and it will untimately squeeze out of us, whatever we have inside of us and no matter how bad we may want to, it is almost impossible to get it put back inside, out of site and out of mind.

Luke 6:45 teaches us that: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

This is why protecting our heart from evil influence is so important. Life will squeeze you and whatever you have in you is going to come out, so it is best to make sure that we have the right stuff inside of us.

The Bottom Line: When we get our heart right, then we get our life right. A great way to start is by spending time with the Master, learning to think His thoughts and be empowered by His Spirit.

Ask yourself this question and ask God to help you to be honest with yourself and Him abouth the answere: “What’s in your heart???” 🙏🏻

Blogroll, Control, Creativity, emotions, Enlightenment, faith, God, Growing, mindfulness

Transition Is About Transformation!

Here I come back to this page to share a little bit of the mystery of life, I am continuing to unravel as I live and breathe. Life is a funny thing, just when we finally seem to get it where we want it, when we seem to be happy and satisfied, when change is the last thing we have on our minds, it seems that out of nowhere, life presents us with the gift of transition.

Transition is about change and like it or not, change is a part of life. We may be able to dely it or redirect it temporarily, but we cannot stop it. The best thing to do, is to learn to embrace it and grow through it, because it is ultimatley about taking us to a better place in life. Life lived in the right direction is an incredible journey that takes us to amazing destinations.

Life is stressful, but it does not have to be as stressful as we often make it. A lot of life is about having and keeping the right mind set. Some times transitions are predictiable and at other times they are toally random. Either way, if we can learn to roll with it, then life will be a lot less stressful.

Looking back on life, we can see where we have gone through transitions we thought were going to kill us, but we survived and in many cases, we actually thrived. We can learn so much from our past about transitions, if we will take the time to pay attention and remember what really matters.

I currently find myself in the midst of many different transitions and I am learning to embrace them and enjoy the journey. Transitions hold a special place in our lives and often mark very special before and after moments. The older we get, the more we can see the benefits of transtions and so, it actually becomes a little bit easier pill to swallow.

Transitions can be stressful if we look at them the wrong way, but if we learn to look at them in the right way, they can serve as motivational and actually challenge us to rise above by spreading our wings to fly.

The truth is, life would be very boring without the transitions. Transitions keep us from becoming stagnant, they help to heal us from our becoming sick and and keep us from dying, so that we might live to fight another day. Transitions help us to stay focused on what really matters and encourage us to stay fresh and ready for whatever???

I have also found that transitions are great for reflection. They make me think about where I have been and where I am going. They make me think about what has worked and what is not working. They cause me not only reflect, but often to re-evaluate what is really important in the grand scheme of life.

In almost every transition we face in life, there will be positives and negatives. We have to learn from them both, while not allowing the negatives to distract us from what really matters.

Transition is not just a part of life, it is life, so open yourself to wherever and whatever your next transition is taking you to and enjoy the gift of life that keeps on giving, because at the end of the day, it is really about your transformation into the something better and more beautiful that your Creator has created you to be…