The Salt in Your Salt-Shaker

Posted on April 24, 2018 by daaorg1214

I remember the first time that I heard Colossians 2:10(NLT), an indescribable feeling came over me. This verse says “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” The Holy Spirit did a work in my heart as soon as I heard those words. I have no doubt that it was because I had always felt so incomplete as a person; like no matter what I set out to do, I was doomed to fail. It got to a point where I felt that the safest thing for me to do was to just expect to fail at whatever I attempted. That way the disappointment would not come as such a surprise.

This was no way to live, but it was my reality for longer than I wanted, and my relationships with men followed suit; they were almost always disasters. God’s Word sparked hope in my heart, and I have to say that it was a scary place at first. The hands of my heart had been firmly clinched around a glass-half-empty existence. Part of the problem is that I grew up struggling with an image of God that I didn’t understand. I was trying to believe that He loved me, but couldn’t reconcile it with what others were saying and teaching about Him.

I had extraordinarily loving people in my life that were supportive and nurturing, but I also had individuals that were supposed to love and protect me, but didn’t. I saw and experienced things that no child should, and I always wondered why I was being punished. Why did God allow me to suffer? I could never enjoy my present for the dread of what might happen in the future. This created a dark cloud, and it lingered over my life for the longest time. I didn’t know how to identify it. I thought it was God punishing me, but as I matured spiritually, I came to understand that this dark cloud was the residuals of not knowing who God is, who I am, or why I’m here. It was the entrapment of fear.

God tells us in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge. Ignorance destroys. It can destroy the lives of those who never learned to love with Christ in their hearts, and it can also destroy the lives of those under their span of influence and care.

Jesus Christ cleared up my confusion. He said in Matthew 5:13 The Message (MSG), “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” In the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, saltiness is the flavor of love, power, and goodness; God’s people should bring this seasoning to the earth. Without knowing that we’ve been empowered by God to bring the salt and to flavor the lives of all who know us, we might start to feel like garbage, but when we know better, we can do and FEEL better!

Understanding God’s love has planted a seed of light in my spirit. It has created a hunger and thirst in me for righteousness. It fed me in a way that fueled hope, despite my pattern of self-punishment. The bond between me and disappointment began to crack. I became confident in this person called Christ, and it led me to speak his truth to the one that had oppressed me. In that moment, I thought to myself, “Where did that come from? Is that my voice? Who said that?” This moment was a building block upon which my new future would rest.

1 John 4:18(NKJV) tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” God does not punish. Embracing the truth that He’s on your side, that He will never leave or forsake you, and that He has a wonderful plan for your life; trust, this is the salt in your salt-shaker. Sprinkle it everywhere you go! ■

A Treasure to Love

Posted on April 17, 2018 by daaorg1214

I recently heard about a man, a friend of a friend, who’s engaged to be married, and is having a really difficult time getting along with his fiancée. They’ve been together a while, and their rocky relationship is no huge secret. That’s why it’s surprising to everyone who knows them that they’re considering this very serious step. They’ve clashed on just about every decision, and his fiancée has thrown a few notorious tantrums. She calms down after the ‘crisis’ is either handled or averted, but he’s exhausted and said that if she loses it one more time, he’s going to call the whole thing off.

If you don’t know much about the Father’s love, then you might look at these two and say something like, “They love each other, and you can’t help who you love.” Here’s another one, “the heart wants what the heart wants.” These are two very different people, one incredibly outspoken and the other seemingly calm and even-tempered. So, one could even say, “Opposites attract.” We have all these rationales for falling IN love with someone, but some of these reasons fail the test when it comes to sustaining that love and making sure we don’t fall out of it.

Romans 8:38 tells us that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. This gives us a basis for comprehending the depth and expanse of His heart towards us. God’s love is unyielding and unfailing, and trusting this is more important than any of us can imagine. Because the truth is that ultimately you and I will love others to the degree to which we believe WE are loved.

There’s a saying, “Don’t just talk about it, BE about it!” Commitment and action should back up our words so that our love investment is believed. John 3:16 (NLT) tells us, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” God didn’t just tell us He loves us, He demonstrated His love by sparing not His only begotten Son. He gave us the most precious gift that could be given. He, who is the best, gave the best to us, so that we could make good on His investment.

God is teaching us through our earth experience to love like He loves, give like He gives, and live like Christ lives. In Ephesians 5:25(NLT), Heavenly Father delivers another benchmark for love, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.” God’s letting us know the human heart’s tremendous love capacity through Jesus Christ. He wouldn’t tell us to love this way if we weren’t capable of it. The truth is that we were created out of His love for the purpose of His love. If we’re not well-formed in God’s love, we need to allow Him room to help us to grow and mature, so that we learn to love through Him.

When someone just adores you, and it’s from a place of light, humility, strength, and honesty, it will plant a seed within you that influences your life in the most spectacular way. You won’t become emotionally exhausted, but continually inspired by God’s goodness, because He’s given you a person that is a treasure to love. This is what God wants for all of us. It’s available, and we should want it for ourselves. ■

“If You Feeling Froggy, Jump!”

Posted on April 10, 2018 by daaorg1214

“If you feeling froggy, jump!” Back in the day, you wouldn’t say those words to someone unless you were confident in your ability to back them up. It was a dare—a challenge—an invitation to sho’nuff throw-down on the playground. And after you duked it out (if it came to that), you would have solidified your reputation. If you were a smaller kid with glasses, like my cousin, Steve, and you were looking to make your mark, a lot of mileage could be gleaned from making a dare like this. The thing is, it only worked if you were serious. The other kids could smell your bluff if you weren’t prepared to do battle during recess and back up all that talk.

Faith can sniff out a bluff talker in less time than it takes to blink an eye. Lots of folks will tell you they’re believing God to receive one thing or another. Maybe it’s a single sister or brother praying to cross paths with the quality person they will ultimately call hubby or wifey. Many of us are praying about our finances. We’re on the grind every day, but the 9 to 5 just ain’t cuttin’ it; and some of us are facing circumstances that are much more serious. We need the intervention of God’s miraculous power in a major way. Whatever the need, whether it’s finances, good relationships, better health, or an improved well-being in every area of our existence; faith is required. We need it to move us from point A to point B, and its necessary to go higher and progress further in every aspect of our lives.

James 2:24 says that just as the body without the spirit is dead, faith without works is dead as well. This tells us something extremely important about faith, it doesn’t respond to our whims. Faith responds to authority. Hebrews 11:1(NKJV) gives us the definition of faith. It says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is a substance. We can’t see it, but it’s a heavyweight. God has given it to us to get some things done in the earth. Faith is the title deed to what we’ve prayed to receive even before it has arrived on the scene. In other words, a bluff just ain’t going to cut it. We have to believe in the Father’s love so much that we don’t doubt for one second that He loves us, wants to see us blessed, and is willing and able to do just that…to bless us!

If you felt froggy enough to jump, it meant that not only were you willing to go toe to toe, but you most likely would dive in first. If you got caught brawling it out, you’d take the blame in the principal’s office for instigating things. My cousin, Steve, was never in trouble and was the last person you’d ever expect to see in front of the principal, but he was tired of this one kid who’d snatch his glasses, and then hide them. He got to a point where he was no longer going to be afraid to fight. He was ready to put it all on the line.

For those seeking to stand with the spiritual armor that God has provided through Christ, we put it all on the line every day, but we brawl with faith! Challenges are unavoidable in life, and we can’t bluff our way to victory; we have to get froggy when it comes to anything that seeks to separate us from the life God desires us to have. James 1:2-4 The Message (MSG) tells us exactly how to do it, “2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”

Trying to get out of something prematurely is the same as trying to meet a challenge with undeveloped confidence. It’s shaky ground, where a person doesn’t really believe that God will back their steps. It’s when your mouth is trying to write a check that your heart isn’t prepared to cash. Deep down, this person isn’t in the faith for the long haul, and the devil can smell it. Best not to play that game. Instead, get cemented in the real deal—the all-in commitment to God. That’s when you get froggy with any challenge the enemy throws your way. You’ll fight the good fight of faith, and Jesus will make sure you always win. ■

“Jesus, Take the Wheel”

Posted on April 3, 2018 by daaorg1214

The revelation that Jesus Christ spoke in John 8:32(NLT) is more than revolutionary. It is the foundation upon which our healing and restoration rests. In this verse, Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As truth speakers and truth seekers, we cannot let the splendiferous opportunity to dissect and digest this yumminess slip by us. It is my personal belief that throughout humanity’s history, God has been very patient with us as our minds and hearts expand, for they must do so to accommodate the heft of His truth, as well as the infinite treasure of His provision and goodness. He doesn’t force us to accept or assume it all in one fell swoop. We can only handle the truth in small doses.

There can be no question that the knowledge of Jesus Christ expands our minds monumentally, and walking in his example swells the expanse of our hearts exponentially. This increase in our spiritual and internal landscape is what creates a landing strip for blessings. As Ephesians 3:20(NLT) tells us, it allows God’s mighty power to be “at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” It is therefore logical to deduce that if we have a little biddy piece of truth, we cannot live above that which we know.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing—perceiving—trusting the Word of God. In order to build our faith—the faith that is necessary to become all that we are meant to be—it is essential that we know more than we know right now. The Word of God is not a little biddy piece of truth. It is THE truth! And God’s truth helps us make leaps in our minds and hearts that we would not otherwise make. God demands that through faith we trust in what we cannot see. And not only this, we must accept the truth that those things that are unseen are more real than those that can be seen. This is most definitely a release-the-wheel way of living.

To live out our destinies, Jesus Christ must be in the driver’s seat. Why? Because in John 14:6(NLT) he declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

There’s pressure all around us. It feels as if it’s coming from every direction, and some of us are losing it big time. We can’t make sense of things, and we have to ask ourselves if it is because something is missing? Is there some piece of truth that’s not in your arsenal? Is this truth the piece of the puzzle that will bring clarity, purpose, and peace to your life?

Jesus knows the answers to these questions, and they are found in him. In Matthew 7:7(NKJV), he tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” James 4:2 also tells us that we have not because we ask not. Sometimes we don’t ask Jesus for answers because we know on some level that they will take us to places we’ve never been before. They will cause us to have to function on a higher spiritual level, and this scares us. We shouldn’t have fear. We were created for this.

In John 16:12(NLT), Jesus told the disciples, “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.” Jesus Christ IS the TRUTH! He could have given the disciples knowledge that would have blown their socks off, but he didn’t, because they had not cultivated the head-and-heart space to deal with it. Let it not be said of us.

We hold so tightly to the familiar and comfortable, because we believe them to anchor the journey we call life. Hebrews 6:19 tells us that our hope in Christ is the strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. When we loosen our grasp, and let Jesus take the wheel of our lives, he will lead us to the place that God has destined us to be. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we can know, handle, and walk in the truth!■

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Monthly Archives: April 2018

The Salt in Your Salt-Shaker

A Treasure to Love

“If You Feeling Froggy, Jump!”

“Jesus, Take the Wheel”