True Leadership

I was having a conversation with a friend regarding leadership. My friend’s point of view was that because he was in a particular position, he would consult those “under” him, but that the last word would always be his. After all, that’s what his position entitled him to do.

The conversation was funny to me because humbling yourself through leadership is more than taking others into consideration. It’s about service. Being a leader it is about asking those who you are responsible for, as much as you are willing to do.

Leadership is not a title, accolades or a position. The truth is that the higher the position, the higher the responsibility.

Actually the Word of God tells us in

Matthew 23:11 “The greatest among you must be a servant.”

Leadership is not about being served but about serving others. The truth is that we have all been called for leadership. I know that doesn’t sound true to everyone, but it is true. As a believer, wherever you go you are to be salt of the earth. If you are light and salt, it means that others are looking or asking what you do to guide themselves to Christ. So know that even if you do not hold a particular position at work, church or your community, you are still called to be a leader.

So how do you know how to be the right kind of leader? The bible gives us a simple guide:

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” Philippians 2:5-8 MSG

A lot to think about. Until next time, be blessed

Tag for The Road Home

clip_image002 This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. Mary Anne Benedetto

With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. Cynthia

A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. Jersey Gina

Can you handle it?

I’m sure at some point or another we’ve heard this scripture:

1 Corinthians 10:13 (MSG)

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

 

 

The common saying for this scripture is that “God will never give us something we can’t handle.” I know that my friends and I joke around saying that God has quite an opinion of us, especially when we find ourselves in difficult moments.

That’s part of the issue when we go by popular word instead of the Word of God. It’s not that God’s expectation on us is quite high. Read that very last verse where it says “ he’ll always be there to help you come through it” That’s the key. God knows that we will be able to over come because he’s not trusting us to do it, he’s just wants us to have the faith and let HIM do it.

When we think God has called us to do it, (whatever it is) we get overwhelmed. We don’t know the answers to the questions. If we actually read what the scripture wanted us to do our lives would be much easier. He wants to do a work in us and through us. All we have to do is have the faith to allow him to do HIS job.

Until then, be blessed.

clip_image002 This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. Mary Anne Benedetto

With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. Cynthia

A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. Jersey Gina

Come Forth!

I was thinking about how we get complacent in our walk with Christ. It is very easy to live in the routine of Christian Living. You get up, if you are well disciplined you do your prayers and start your daily routine.

Once the day ends once again you do your daily prayers and you go to bed. Some come home tired and stay like zombies watching television for hours until they pass out or they drag themselves to bed and don’t even remember to reflect on the challenges and blessings of the day.

Once a week you go to church, and you pray that the preacher is not too inspired otherwise it’s going to take more time than usual. God forbid there’s a guest speaker, they usually talk even longer.

Have you lost your passion? Have you moved away from your first love, from Jesus?

Why do we lose that passion? We can blame it on many things; the routine, the extra work that your boss has put on your plate, the unruly children, that person at the church who annoys the ever living out of you. If you take a step back, aren’t those just excuses?

God woke you up today and gave you 24 hours out of love. What are you going to do with that time? Wasn’t the whole point of being “saved” and born again to get rid of religion and have a relationship with God?  What areas of your life are dead?

As I was thinking about this, I remember the scriptures regarding Lazarus’s resurrection.

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.[a] And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth! (John 11:40-43)

Who or what is your Lazarus? What is keeping you from being once again on fire for the love of Christ? It’s time to remove the stone, believe in the One that God sent and come forth!

Until then, be blessed

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In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

Striving for Excellence

Many times in my life I’ve been told that I like things done right and that my expectations are quite high. I have to admit that to be true. I’m not perfect. I can’t give out perfection therefore I do not expect perfection, but I do expect to give and to be given the best possible. That may be a high call. But guess what? That’s what we are called to do.

The reality is that we do expect Excellence from everyone around us, including God. When God doesn’t answer our prayers, or if the answer is not what we wanted it to be, we feel some kind of way about it. When we call a customer service line and the answer is not what we feel it should be we are less than pleased. However when someone asks us to step up to the plate and follow our own high  standards and we don’t, then the line of excuses begin. The first thing we say is that we are not perfect. We excuse ourselves saying that the expectations are too high.

Titus 3:8 this is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

We want quality, but we have a sense of entitlement where we “deserve” to be given what we have not worked for.

Be honest with yourself today, are you giving your best in every area? I know I’m not. Are you even attempting to do your best or are you coasting through life? Sometimes I do.

Do you expect what you don’t give? Sometimes I do.

Today I invite you to search your heart and see where your expectations are. Are they realistic? What are you willing to do or stop doing to strive for excellent for the kingdom?

1 Corinthians 12:30-31 (NIV) do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

Thank you God for giving us your best every day. Even when we don’t deserve it and when we don’t give even a portion of our best to you who are deserving of it all.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Until next time, be blessed…

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In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

My Greatest Fear

I had the opportunity to meet the bravest 11-year-old. She has gone through a real terrible experience. She went through one of a little girls worse nightmare and a parent’s worse nightmare, she had been sexually abused by her grandfather. This brave girl now speaks up against trying to encourage other children to speak up. Let’s hear from Breann herself.

“My greatest fear happened last year, in 2012, over Spring Break. We went to Michigan to visit my grandparents. While we were there, on Saturday night, my grandfather sexually assaulted me.

On Sunday, while my grandfather was giving a speech in church, I was wondering if what happened to me was a dream. I found out later, that it was real when it happened a second time on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, my mom came and sat down next to me. I told her, ‘I think someone touched me inappropriately.’ My dad confronted my grandfather, and my grandfather confessed and said he did sexually assault me.

We left immediately because of what happened. My father told me, ‘Breann, you’re my hero. If you hadn’t told us what had happened, it could’ve happened to Brooklyn or Morgan or Alexis. You saved your sisters.’

I told my dad, ‘You’re my hero, too.’ My greatest fear was telling my parents about what happened, but when I did, it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so bad because, at first I was scared to tell my parents but I felt I needed to trust my parents and tell someone so they could help me.

It was my greatest fear because I didn’t want to get my grandfather in trouble, but I knew that he needed to be held responsible for his actions. I hope this encourages other children to tell your parents or an adult they trust about something that happened, no matter how bad the situation may be.”

Thank you Breann for being so brave. Now, as hard as being able to tell her parents and confront her abuser, Breann was brave enough to speak up. It is quite empowering when victims of abuse of all ages are afraid to do what this 11-year-old has done. If you are a victim of abuse or know of someone who is, follow Breann’s example and speak up.

You can support Breann by sharing her cause on the link bellow

http://www.causes.com/actions/1746131-help-breann-and-voice-today-end-csa

You can also support this organization who is creating awareness about child abuse by supporting the event Volley for Voice.Www.voicetoday.org/volley

Always remember

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

clip_image002 This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. Mary Anne Benedetto

With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. Cynthia

A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. Jersey Gina

CRASH

I decided to watch a movie the other night, something I had not done in a while. After my 9-5 I needed a change of scenery. I was too tired to write. I didn’t want to watch any of my regular programs, so decided to watch one of the movies I had in my playlist that I had on hold.

Let me start by saying that this movie’s description is not accurate. The description stated that it was related to the lives of some people after 911 and that’s why I had placed it on my playlist. Unless I fell asleep at some point, there’s not a single mention of the events of 911 throughout the movie.

The other thing that caught my attention was that the movie’s quality seems like a low budget movie. However after looking at the cast, I don’t think that’s the truth. This movie includes stars like: Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Brendan Fraser and those are the ones whose names I could remember.

Aside from the warning to my readers that this is an R rated movie and that it does contain some foul language, the storyline is really good. The movie summarizes the society in which we are living. I can say that it goes beyond racial boundaries,although that’s a heavy topic of the movie. It’s the fact of how our life perceptions and experiences have transformed society into a place of distrust, where we see things beyond reality. A society where our stereotypes limit us from getting to know each other, because we already have formed judgment based on our differences instead of our similarities.

This movie definitely shows us how we are living our lives today without God. It shows the humanity of our prejudices and how in a moment of pressure we can realize the weakness of our flesh, but also how a moment of decision can change our lives. It was quite a good message if you ask me.  Let’s learn to see each other through the eyes of God, instead of the eyes of our flesh.

“ For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” -1 Samuel 16: 7

Until next time, be blessed

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“This book is in a class by itself, you will not be able to put it down! The characters pull you in and you begin to feel their emotions. Excellently written. The title fooled me, the saying goes” never judge a book by the cover “and this is one of those books.” By Duezette

WF: What if

On my post on Wednesday titled Back to the Future, I talked about living in the land of what if. But the Land of What if is more than holding on to the past or to negativity.

We all have had a crisis of faith, when we don’t know what to believe. Why does God allow certain things to happen?  What if God is not listening to me? What if my sin is unforgivable? What if it’s not God telling me to do this? What if God is not even there?

Even Jesus had a moment where he felt that God was not there.

Matthew 27:45-46 From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

And there was also a time when Jesus wanted to see if there was another way around God’s plan.

Matthew26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done

But see that at the end he still obeyed and allowed God’s will to be done. Although I’m sure it was not easy for him to die on that cross being that he was  innocent, he not only got through it but achieved Victory!

Join me in worshipping the Lord and may he help you with any struggles of your heart.

WF: Worship Friday

Until then, be blessed

clip_image002

In Growth Lessons, I was reminded of this beautiful truth: Our walk with the Lord is a process of growing up into the image of Christ. P. Yates

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like some common sense and light added to their life. C. Cunningham

Great for meditations and daily devotions. N. Thames

Back to the Future

Do you remember the series of Movies “Back to the future” with Michael J. Fox? Maybe I’m revealing my age here. LOL! For those who have not seen this movie, it was the story of a crazy scientist and a teenager. They had created a time machine. Marty (the name of Michael J. Fox’s character) is the teenager. He’s living an unhappy life at home. He goes back in time to his parent’s senior year of high school, witnesses the time where they met and understands the reason why things came out to be the way they were in the present.

He interferes with the past, but when he comes back to the future realizes that his interference has affected the outcome to the point where he now doesn’t even exist. He now has to go back to the past to fix what he has done, but still had to interfere because he wasn’t able to go back to the exact same moment in the past.

There are many times when we wish we had a time machine. We live in the land of if’s. If I had not done this, I had not said that, I had not met this person, the list can be endless. I admit sometimes I can actually pinpoint the exact moment when my decisions led me through the wrong path and I wish I could take them back.

But recently I have changed that perspective. I’ve learned that even the worst events in my life and the worst decisions I have made has taught me lessons that has made my life better. How is that possible? Well , that’s just a fulfillment of a promise from God.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Are you not wiser, more mature for those life challenges that we’ve had? Let’s stop living in the past and the Land of If’s. Let’s use the present with is all we have.

When you feel like the burden of this day is taking a toll on you, stand on these scriptures:

Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

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“This book is in a class by itself, you will not be able to put it down! The characters pull you in and you begin to feel their emotions. Excellently written. The title fooled me, the saying goes” never judge a book by the cover “and this is one of those books.” By Duezette

WF: All things are possible

As part of returning to blog, we are also back with our Worship Fridays. Like I said at the beginning of this week, sometimes life gets in our way. We can find ourselves in a place where we feel limited to what we are able to do. Let’s not forget that those can be distractions from our purpose. As humans we can allow ourselves to stumble but let’s not allow ourselves to fall .

Let’s live by the words we read in Matthew 19:26

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

WF: Worship Friday

 

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“This book is in a class by itself, you will not be able to put it down! The characters pull you in and you begin to feel their emotions. Excellently written. The title fooled me, the saying goes” never judge a book by the cover “and this is one of those books.” By Duezette

Competing Faith

Have you ever been in a competition where Christians discuss their denominational differences almost like football fans? I think what we miss as believers is that our differences are really as the many ways  of making white rice. What do I mean?

Growing up I learned that to make white rice I had to place oil, water and salt, bring it to a boil then pour the rice. Some people use butter instead of oil, some add garlic powder. At the end of the day you get in your plate the same thing: white rice

The Word of God tells us in John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I believe that our particular rituals work for us in our humanity. Just like music is a matter of taste, but at the end of the day is the message of the Word of God that we are called to live by. I also believe that our discrepancies are used by the enemy to distract us from our real purpose which is to spread the Good News to others. So when you find yourself and those around you that we are ALL here to do the work of the kingdom and not for our purposes. I also invite you to use that opportunity to come together and do something for the kingdom that all of those in the conversation can agree. You will see that you have way more in common than you imagine.

Until next time, be blessed!

clip_image002 This book certainly held my interest straight through to the very emotional ending. Mary Anne Benedetto

With the ever-constant presence of her closest friend, Aimee, Desiree slowly makes her way to God and learns the greatness of His power and love. Cynthia

A very engaging story about faith, love, and friendship, and the trials and tribulations that life can bring you. Jersey Gina