God Loves A Cheerful Giver

Posted on September 25, 2018 by daaorg1214

The parable in Luke 16 of Lazarus corresponds to the person who begs in our modern society, and there are far more of them today than in biblical times. If we’re honest, we have to admit that sometimes we’re uncomfortable looking them in the eyes. We avoid the exchange, because it forces us to grapple with how the person who begs will use the money we give them. Will they use it for its intended purpose, which is to help nourish their bodies with food, or are they lying for the benefit of whatever addiction or habit they might have? As followers of Christ, of course, we want to be compassionate individuals, but there’s a way to do it that is best for the person in need and for us as well.

Jesus tells us in Luke 16 that there was a certain rich man who fabulously adorned himself in the best of the best. Lazarus was a poor man who was covered with sores, and laid at the rich man’s gate begging for scraps from his table. In Luke 6:20, Jesus said that the poor are indeed blessed, because theirs is the Kingdom of God. No doubt God’s heart is moved by the humility of the poor, and His Word tells us that only those that are humble will enter His Kingdom. Lazarus must have been a person that pleased God, because when he died, he was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man died too. Luke 16:23 tells us that his soul went to the place of the dead, and there, his soul was in torment.

Luke 16:24-26(NLT) states, “24 The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’ 25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’” We would do well to remember that many people have material wealth, but are wicked in their hearts because they refuse to be generous. Jesus Christ reminds us of their peril in Luke 16, by telling us that the rich man had much, but shared little; greed dominated his heart, and that’s why he called hell his eternal home.

2Corinthians 9:7 tells us that God loves a cheerful giver, because this is a person whose love of sharing and giving is genuine from the heart. I considered myself such a person, someone who loves to give, but there came a time when I had to reexamine both my motives and attitudes about giving.

Frequently, I’m in an environment where I’m in regular contact with those in need, and sometimes their need is overwhelming. Over the years, I learned the hard way that the desire to be a good Christian and citizen can sometimes place us in harm’s way. This was not so much the case back in the day. It was not nearly as dangerous as it can be in modern times to lend a helping hand. I speak from personal experience as a not-so schooled giver, someone that gave money regularly to anyone that asked. I was sometimes targeted, and caught off guard when I was alone.

The times are very different than long ago, but we can’t use this as an excuse for not giving to those in need. That would be a humongous and detrimental error. As with just about every other facet of life, we have to be smarter about how we give of our resources. 1Samuel 16:7(KJV) tells us, “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” God is concerned with our heart’s motivation for giving, and this is a piece of wisdom we should bear in mind continually. He knows that we desire to please Him, and pleasing Him means that we try to be wise stewards of our resources. In other words, we need to be both wise and cheerful givers.

A good giving strategy is to pray first, hear secondly, and lastly, think it through. God knows those in need better than we do, and He also knows those individuals that will benefit most from our help. We must never forget that we’re in partnership with Him, but we are to follow His lead. Praying about opportunities to give and be a blessing, and then hearing from God, will prepare us best to be doers of His Will. As we think it through, the Holy Spirit will whisper messages of inspiration that will help us. The area of giving and sharing with those in need is no different than any other assignment of God; it must be done, and leaning on His divine guidance will help us do it with love and wisdom.■

An Energy Rub

Posted on September 18, 2018 by daaorg1214

The air was thick with tension in the court building downtown, and I felt it before I got off the elevator. For some, I could tell that this incredibly nervous energy was what they were used to. Their lives were always on the line in that way, and they were seemingly immune to the waiting game, legal jargon, and haggling of attorneys. I was there to support my dear friend who was trying desperately to untangle the last vestiges of a very abusive marriage. Her husband’s attorney was unfriendly and carried an aura of ruthlessness, and her husband was there beside him; he seemed unrecognizable to me. I stepped out of the courtroom briefly, and outside of it, I observed a young woman. My eyes immediately locked with hers, and I couldn’t take them off her. I tried not to stare, but found myself compelled to do so. Attempting to be a bit more inconspicuous, I came to my senses finally, and took a seat. Something was about to play out in front of me, and my spirit knew it before I did.

There are times in life where you rub up against the energy of a person that seems to match yours precisely. It’s serendipitously eerie. It’s not a match that equals where you are in your life at that moment, but perhaps at a time when you knew less—had less wisdom, but was trying with every fiber of your being to live your truest self. I saw this in the young woman, and my heart both ached and rejoiced for her.

A young man approached her, and there it was. It was the look that I knew so well—sheer terror. Outwardly, she was beautiful, and so was he; but I immediately saw right past the exteriors. Companions of fear, immaturity, obsession, chaos, and ignorance were attached to his person. I could tell they had been with him for quite some time. So much so that he no longer felt the pain of them clawing his soul unmercifully. He couldn’t see them, but finally she could, and was trying to get as far from them as possible. A restraining order had been the required method of her survival.

I ached for her because behind her beauty I saw battle wounds and extreme sadness. Like me at one time, she was in the throes of survival’s most crucial and uncomfortable phase. It is often necessary to go through it before confidence in God’s delivering power is fully entrenched in our hearts. It’s when the pull of going back to what you know is the strongest, and you have to fight hard for your life.

But I also saw hope in her. Romans 12:12(NLT) tells us, “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” No matter who you are, you can’t rejoice in something unless you’re confident that good is on the horizon. The mere fact that she was in that court building, fighting to let her light shine, speaks to the reality that darkness was being dispelled. Jesus Christ is our hope, because he loves us, and he IS the light! Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do everything through him, because He gives us strength. By ourselves, we can’t accomplish much, but through faith in him, we can see the pitiful weakness of darkness, and refuse it.

The trouble that God’s Word talks about in Romans 12:12 is the fight to get to the other side. It’s being patient with ourselves even though we’re tired…even though we don’t feel strong enough, and we’re scared of what the other side might look like. Christ will be our rest. He is our refuge, and he’ll be our strength so that we have the courage to make it through.

I walked away that day knowing I had been strategically positioned to pray for her continued strength. It reinforced my belief that our tribulations leave a trace of victory for someone else. Our troubles can deepen our reservoir of compassion and insight, so that we pray well for them. A brief energy rub that day with this young woman was a reminder of how far God has brought me, how He has empowered me through the Holy Spirit to stand in courage and fight for my life. He gave me the strength of Jesus Christ when I had no strength of my own, and He’ll do the same for you!■

The Biggest Cause of Emptiness

Posted on September 11, 2018 by daaorg1214

No one needs to tell me what it feels like to have a big hole in your soul. I have some personal experience with this, and I can’t think of anything more miserable. I was very young when I started to feel it, and as I got older, of course the hole seemed to get larger. I had an appetite for something I couldn’t name, and like many people, I started to look for love in all the wrong places. I wish someone had told me that growing up in an environment where domestic violence was common place can cause an individual to develop false beliefs about why he or she feels empty. We tend to think that it’s because we didn’t receive enough of something or that our lives are unfulfilling and boring as heck. Unfortunately, many people who feel this way try to address the symptoms and not the cause.

I walked around with this dark cloud until my mid-twenties. Then one day, I decided I had to put a stop to the way I was feeling, because I was becoming increasingly angry and disillusioned about my life. I was sick of that cloud, and I grew determined to help myself, because I really believed it when I learned that Jesus Christ suffered miserably so that we wouldn’t have to.

I don’t think I was ever an impatient person, and believe that this is one of the things that has helped me most; because I’ve given myself time to build my relationship with God, and have allowed Him to take the lead. I also must state that I’ve never been able to stomach the ‘pie in the sky’ stuff. I could always see right through folks who were power-hungry, cultish, or fake. So my approach to understanding the Gospel of Christ has always been based on finding real answers to real problems. It didn’t hurt that I met loving Christian people who I believed genuinely cared about my well-being, and took the time to help school me about the deep things of God.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus Christ instructs us to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first; when we do this, the bounty of His blessings will be ours. In my quest to fill up my empty places, the first clue that I discovered was that a spiritual transaction happens when we seek God first. Something that we need for our souls shows up.

1 John 2:11(NLT) says, “But anyone who hates another brother or sister is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.” Every spiritual person knows that what we focus on grows. For a very long time, I focused on my emptiness, and it kept growing. I was so consumed with being unhappy that darkness blinded me. The discipline of Christian love escaped me, because I thought that another person owed me something that I was without. This is the biggest cause of emptiness. It’s waiting for the hole to be filled, and letting anyone who talks a good game try to fill it.

Emptiness is caused and perpetuated by abandoning the person Heavenly Father created us to be. We are not weak. We are not empty. We are vessels meant to be continually filled with His love. 1John 4:16 tells us that God is love, and the person that dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells within him or her. We are His children, made from His love, and made in His image. 2Corinthians 3:5 tells us that He’s our Sufficiency. We were not designed to be sufficient unto ourselves. We were created to depend on His love, and when we open our eyes to this, we’ll step out of darkness. It may take a little while to see the light shine brightly, but if we’ll put our trust in Christ, Psalm 23:3 says that he’ll restore our souls, and lead us on the path to right living. ■

The Toad Doesn’t Always Turn into a Prince

Posted on September 4, 2018 by daaorg1214

Lachelle told me that she never loved a man as much as she loved Joe. I knew Joe before she met him. He is a handsome guy, but not overly so, and I found him to be kinda’ quiet. No one would accuse him of being too friendly, but he seemed nice enough. I had always heard that he has a bit of a mean streak, but was conscious of it and tried to hide it. My sister says that you have to watch out for the quiet ones because they always have something to hide, and you wouldn’t want to be the one to find out what it is. In my view, that’s a pretty accurate description of Joe.

I was also struck by how little affection I saw them display as a couple. Normally, this is no big deal. There are plenty of compassionate and kind people that aren’t that keen on public displays of affection, but Lachelle is a notorious hugger and is one of the most affectionate persons I know. At first, I didn’t understand the changes I noticed in her, but one day it all made sense. Joe had no doubt touched something in her soul that she responded to deeply, but he was also physically abusive. She excused it away as him loving her passionately, and not being able to control it sometimes.

Like a lot of abuse victims, Lachelle tried covering the bruises with too much make-up or refusing to meet up with us because her body (and soul) was too sore from the fight the night before. After around ten times or so of witnessing the aftermath of his anger, I stopped counting the times I suspected they had been fighting. They weren’t married, and sometimes she would swear to us that she would leave the relationship for sure, but time after time Lachelle went back to Joe. It wasn’t my first time seeing this kind of obsession play out in a relationship. You want so desperately to help, but the people involved have to want help.

Sometimes, we teach ourselves to have wrong beliefs about love. Too many romantic fairytales, movies, and myths cloud our heads, and we start to believe that we’re missing something that only a prince on a white horse can give us. We wait and wait for him to come to our rescue. And even though our discernment isn’t as sharp as it should be, and we can’t tell when a real toad is just playing the role of a prince, some of us latch on Mr. Toad anyway. We do so because the proverbial toad has been playing the role long enough to spot a particular yearning in the princess, and he knows exactly how to jump on it.

In John 8:32, Jesus Christ said that the truth will set us free. This is a razor-sharp piece of yumminess that will keep God’s children on the path of their destinies, but one thing is required, and it is that we understand what it means to be free. God created us out of His love. He created us to be children of light! 1Thessalonians 5:5(NLT) says, “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” In this verse, we can clearly see that God has made a distinct separation between light and darkness. From light, we get qualities synonymous with intelligence, liberty, confidence, love, joy, and peace. From darkness, we get the exact opposite; we get qualities that represent ignorance, bondage, fear, hate, sadness, and chaos. So, there can be no question that God’s Will for His children is that we be free, and not weighted down by bondage in any area of our lives. God’s standard for right living is one of liberty. That’s good news indeed!

1Corinthians 13:5(NLT) tells us that love “does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.” If we are going to live with authenticity, with the conviction of purpose and gratitude, we can’t do it by gobbling up myths and lies about what life is and how it’s supposed to be lived. Nor do we have time to label something ‘LOVE’ when it’s not love at all, but a plot sent from hell to manipulate us out of our destinies. Those unable to acknowledge that they are being used for darkness, and not light, will operate in darkness through the wickedness of the abuse they inflict, but ultimately, they will be exposed. When they are, those that have suffered their wrath must have the courage to see them for what they are.

A prince is a gallant individual that helps you shine, and will never do anything to hinder or cause you to hide your light. This is the kind of person you deserve. An abuser is often a toad that will never transform into a prince. He can’t even rescue himself from darkness, so it would be a mistake to assume that he can help rescue you. Be rescued by the light of Christ, and be willing to wait for the prince God will bring across your path. He may not have a white horse, but he knows the light and will help to preserve it in you. ■

Hard to Breathe

Posted on August 28, 2018 by daaorg1214

When a serious relationship ends, it can cause some of the most devastating feelings of sadness. We have no choice but to confront this molasses of heartache and wade through it the best way we can. Struggling with thoughts of facing life alone deepens the pain. You remember what it was like before you were booed-up, and you don’t want to go down that lonely road again. It’s painful to totally invest your hopes for the future in a person that no longer loves you the way you need to be loved. And on top of everything else you’ve gone through, you’re confused, because you gave it your all, and can’t understand why it wasn’t enough to build the relationship you’ve always wanted.

Dealing with emotional issues is challenging, because from a very young age, a lot of us are taught to hide our pain, as if it’s something to be ashamed of. There are so many individuals that are suffering in silence because they don’t believe anyone will understand what they’re going through. For some, the hurt cuts so deeply that it’s difficult to trust there’s anyone who CAN help or offer comfort. The one thing we can’t afford to do is crawl under that rock that seems to be calling our names. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve experienced in the past, when something shakes you to your core, it presents you with an opportunity to see something within that you haven’t seen before.

Spirit isn’t just what we have, it’s who we are. We are spiritual beings having an earthly experience. Genesis 2:7(NLT) tells us, “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” We experience the earth in an earth-suit that was made of dust. When our life transitions to the next, and our existence on earth is over, the earth-suit that we’ve been blessed to inhabit for a season will return to that of which it was made. It will return to dust, but 1Peter 1:23 tells us the spirit that has been born-again of incorruptible seed is eternal.

Our pain reminds us of the mortal side, the part of us that is only here on earth temporarily. When we’re cut deep, it’s also a reminder that we need to pay attention to our spirits. The born-again experience through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the recreation of our human-spirit. Before we accepted Christ, our human-spirit was dead to God, but when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, our human-spirit comes alive to God. Because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, 2Corinthians 5:17(NKJV) says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” In other words, our human-spirits become new creations, and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside them. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) cosigns this and tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

The Holy Spirit lives inside of our human-spirits. Our spirit and the Holy Spirit are not the same, and it’s so important for us to make this distinction. Romans 8:16(NLT) tells us, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” From the deepest place within, the Holy Spirit reminds us of who we are. Your spirit is the ‘YOU’ you will always be. It is your authentic self, and contrary to how you might feel at any given time, your spirit is always magnificent!

When we lose someone, and the pain of loss makes us feel as though it’s hard to breathe, it’s sometimes an indication that for too long we relied on oxygen from the wrong source. Real love, the kind that comes from Heavenly Father, never stops loving. It isn’t deterred because someone lacked the capability to return it. God breathed our spirits into our bodies, and we became a living person. No one can take what God has given us, UNLESS we allow it. We are our Father’s children. We are love because He is Love. This should forever be the joy of our rejoicing.

Psalm 30:5(NKJV) tells us, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Give yourself a small window to feel sad, and for that brief time, feel it as much and as deeply as you can. IT IS a temporary state, one that does not come close to the joy that is before you. Grieve well for the loss of what you thought could have been. Then, turn to Jesus, your Source of light, love, and joy. You gave pain its due, Give God His. Practice patience and faith as you let the Holy Spirit heal you from within. Open your heart to God, and breathe in the joy that only His love can give. ■

A Sealed Deal

Posted on August 14, 2018 by daaorg1214

The word of the day is, and will forever be, ‘TRANSFORMATION!’ It’s one of my favorite words, and I absolutely love that it’s one of the Father’s favs as well. In Romans 12:2(NKJV), He tells us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” In this verse, we learn what NOT to do, and we also learn exactly what we should be doing. The Lord tells us not to be conformed to this world. What does it mean to be conformed? To be conformed to something is to behave, comply, and/or follow the standards that most everyone else in society is following. It’s to adopt society’s culture as your own. Heavenly Father said ‘don’t do it!’

When we talk about culture, we’re not talking about aspects of unique and rich heritages that are passed down through generations and add flavor to our lives. We’re talking about the culture of unbelief and denial when it comes to the truth of God’s Word. The world has turned its back on the righteousness of God and adopted its own standard. We can see all around us that this isn’t working out well at all. God is our Creator, and His Word sets the standard for humanity. It’s a beautiful standard, and it incorporates the best of the best.

In John 8:32(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Only the truth will make us free; we cannot be free by believing a lie. Most of us are taught to conform to everyone else’s thinking, but the Christian is called by Christ to break the chains of conformity and walk in the truth. This is how to be free. Jesus Christ IS the truth! He said in John 14:6(NLT), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” A lot of us have got some serious negativity going on. We’re down on ourselves, and down on others. That’s not a Christ mindset. We’ve got to let the truth into those negative places in our minds, then we can walk in the extraordinary liberty that Christ extends.

In Romans 12:2, Heavenly Father not only told us what to do, but how to get it done. He said be transformed by the renewing of our minds. To renew is to make new again. This is what we have to do in terms of the way we think. Jesus Christ is Lord because he encompasses every wonderful thing God desires for humanity; it’s all summed up in Christ. And guess what? He gave his life on Calvary so that you and I can know our identity in him, receive the gift of eternal life, and then become ambassadors of his enormous love. Talk about a transformation, this is it!

Jesus was not a head-hanging low, pitiful sounding and looking individual. When he walked the face of this earth, he was the BUSINESS!!! So dynamic, so loving and charismatic; people flocked to him wherever he went. This is the effect love has. It’s magnetic. It’s contagious. Every person that is of love will quite naturally gravitate towards it. You and I are destined to walk in a Christ-kind of confidence; the kind that is full of God’s love.

Confidence and faith begin in the mind, and it’s important to think like Christ to keep our motives pure, with no hint of arrogance or pride. The mind of Christ is pure excellence. His thoughts are those of making life better for everyone. This is the mindset that God expects us to emulate. 2Corinthains 10:5 tells us to capture every rebellious thought and teach them to obey Christ. We can do this because God has equipped every thinking individual with the capacity to examine their thoughts. We can look at them from every angle, and then decide whether to keep them, straighten them out, or throw them away.

We have it on God’s authority that transformation begins in the mind. It’s where the spiritual war is waged, and we must be relentless to stand our ground on the truth of who and what we are. 1Thessalonians 5:5(NLT) tells us, “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” We’re not defeated, powerless creatures who are meant to be sad all our lives. Christ declared that through him we’re more than conquerors, and God has given us a spirit of love, power, and self-control to seal the deal. Be about the business of renewing your mind to your Christ identity. Philippians 1:6(NIV) tells us “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” You’re a masterpiece in the works! Study the truth, let it permeate your entire existence so that the love of Christ can continue the transformation in you that he has begun.■

When ‘Not Enough’ Is Too Much

Posted on August 7, 2018 by daaorg1214

An acquaintance broke up with a man she had been seeing for five years. She thought the relationship would end with a proposal. Even though he told her many times that he wasn’t the marrying type and didn’t see a family in his future, she kept hoping. Sometimes, we trip this way. We stroll on the sidelines of arrogance without realizing it. Somewhere in the back of our minds is the notion that our love is so awesome and we’ve got it going on to such a degree, that not only will we make a person totally change their minds, we’re going to make them change their hearts. It seems like a noble cause, but one that can easily undermine our faith and do a serious number on our self-esteem.

Love is a spiritual thing. You can’t hold it in your hands. You can’t touch it or mold it like clay into anything you want it to be. Yet, it is the most dynamic and powerful reality that any of us can ever be blessed to experience. 1John 4:8(NLT) very simply tells us, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Our Heavenly Father is the embodiment of love. It’s not only what He does, it is who He is. Everything about Him oozes it and slathers us in His warm and powerful yumminess. He loves us with an everlasting love, the kind that only He can give; and through His unyielding love, He attaches Himself to us through Christ.

Jesus Christ said in John 3:16(NLT), “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.” Heavenly Father has demonstrated the depth of His love by giving His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us on the Cross of Calvary. He gave the gift of His Son’s life so that we would have the opportunity to live an eternity with Him. It will take an eternity for God to show us how much He loves us. Yet, it cannot be lost on any individual that with this enormous love that God bestows on each of us, He will never make us love Him back.

Our Heavenly Father shows us by example how love behaves. It doesn’t force, coerce, manipulate, shove, or push. Love is a magnet that ultimately attracts its match. This is one of the reasons that God wants us to be patient as we grow in a fully mature, Christ-kind of love. He knows that when we put this high-quality goodness out there, it’s coming back to us in greater quantity and quality. Jesus Christ cosigned this in Luke 6:38 when he said that what we put out there determines what we get back.

The woman who remained in a relationship for five years, snatching crumbs, knew deep down that this man was incapable of providing a feast. He was not able at that time in his life to love her the way God desires her to be loved. It’s sad to say, but there are some people that have made a commitment to selfishness, and they’ve mastered emotional unavailability. They know how to manipulate ‘not enough’ in such a way that you cast all your hope on it. This is when ‘not enough’ is too much.

All of us are on a journey, searching for something. Sometimes we meet individuals that give us a hint of what we’re searching for, and we convince ourselves that the good part will come later. Spiritual maturity will lead you to discover that what you’re searching for is the love of God. It needs to go deep within you so that you’re never starving from or feasting on emptiness. Only the love of Christ can give you the wisdom to discern well, so that you don’t expend energy and make emotional investments that subtract from your destiny.

2 Peter 1:5-9 The Message (MSG) says, “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.”

Grow in the love of Christ. That’s the goal! That’s where you’ll find the rich treasure of love that fills your cup. Let God have His way with your heart. Spend time allowing Him to develop His love in you. Study His Word, and talk with Him often. In due season, He will reward you with the person who matches your capacity to love, and you’ll feast from the Father’s table together. ■

Bloom Where You’re Planted

Posted on July 31, 2018 by daaorg1214

The dictionary defines happiness as the state of being happy. It then goes on to list synonyms like pleasure, satisfaction, joy, delight, and contentment. The most definitive aspect of happiness is that it motivates every human being to seek it out. This gives us a clue about the value of this state of being, and how important it is to having a positive human condition. It’s true that happiness can have meanings as varied as each individual, but the commonality is found in the reality that it is indeed a journey that all of us will undertake. We all want to be happy, and it matters greatly to God how we seek it out.

Everything has a root, a beginning from where it derives its purpose and reason for existing. Our Heavenly Father created human beings with enormous capacity, and one of our most profound elements is the ability to experience joy. God is the Source of everything, and most of us understand this. We should also understand that happiness is rooted in joy; it’s not the other way around.

Joy is an inside job. There are individuals that walk into a room and light it up simply with their presence. You might find yourself envious of people like this because you think they have something you don’t. The thing that these people possess is the knowledge about the wealth that God has planted within them through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He has made it possible for us to experience a joy that is everlasting, and this produces a happiness that isn’t dependent on conditions or circumstances.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) tells us, “22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Joy is one of the yummies that God gives us by way of Holy Spirit. This is an incredibly important truth, because many of us spend the spiritual journey of life searching for happiness in all the wrong places. Some of us try to force ourselves to be happy because we think that’s the right approach, but our Heavenly Father has clued us in on the truth. Joy is a spiritual fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit. Looking outside of ourselves for something that can only be found within will not help us to reach our destination.

Being happy will also require us to accept another important truth. It is the reality that you and I are in the fruit producing business. Anything that does not grow will die, and in order to grow, we have to sow. Jesus Christ taught us this in Luke 6:38(NLT), where he gave us production instruction. He said, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” He’s teaching us here how to bloom where we’re planted.

Our happiness must be cultivated from within. Not only do we have the privilege and ability to sow it into the lives of others, but we can have an earnest expectation that when we do, it will be returned to us. It will be poured into our laps with the same loving, abundant heart of which we sowed. When you understand the magnitude of the gift that God has given you through Christ, and the empowerment that is attached to it, you will see yourself in a whole different light.

You don’t have to travel the world or move to a different town to change your life. Colossians 1:10(NLT) says that if we put on the knowledge of Christ in our minds and allow it to sink into our hearts, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” You’ve been empowered by God to bloom right where you are, so see yourself as someone who is blossoming into the fullness of all you’re destined to be. Happiness is anchored in the inner sanctum of your being! You can plant ‘happy’ seeds because through Christ the root of JOY is within you! Choose to sow seeds of happiness. Our Master guarantees they will grow!■

Trying to Jump Double Dutch with Chains

Posted on July 24, 2018 by daaorg1214

My cousin, Malaysia, is a New Yorker to her core. Born and bred there, she visited her southern relatives only during the summer months, on school vacations. It was on one of her southbound excursions that she introduced Double Dutch Jump Rope to her young cousins. My sisters and I were giddy as all get out. We couldn’t wait to show our neighborhood friends this new city-slick trick. I’m a small-town girl from the backwoods of Georgia, and I’m both humbled and honored by my roots, but we were a little slow back then when it came to being up to snuff on the latest. Cable television was virtually nonexistent (I’m dating myself), and the internet was for us an unexplored frontier. In our huge backyard, we jumped rope; played hopscotch, dodgeball, and kickball, but Double Dutch was a whole other level of fun. It took skill, and my cousin was oh so sassy with it. I had as much rhythm as she did, but those egg-beating ropes were too much for me to maneuver. I couldn’t get the swing of jumping in at the right time. Suffice it to say, I never quite got the hang of Double Dutch.

Watching the double ropes twist and turn, I was captivated by the dare to jump in and immediately synchronize my jumps with the swing of those ropes. The thing with most of us is that even after we grow into adults, we never stop wanting to jump in. Our Heavenly Father designed life to be an ever moving dynamic. It neither slows down or speeds up according to our schedules. If we lack the agility to keep up with its pace, it will pass us by; and if we try to move ahead of it, life has a way of slowing us down. And sometimes that’s not so pretty.

All of us are trying to achieve a rhythm in life that moves harmoniously with its flow. Like Double Dutch, we jump in it, not thinking for a moment about who’s actually turning those ropes. We can be easily tricked this way. In 2Samuel 22:6 (NLT), David sang a song about how God rescued him from his enemies. He said, “The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path.” We can become so entangled with troublesome relationships and situations that ropes feel like chains, trapping us with such emotional turmoil that we feel powerless. We want to love and be loved, but the person turning our ropes is toxic, and we don’t know how to jump out.

Double Dutch is fun, no question about that, and those that are good at it make it look effortless. They make the dare seem well worth it, but life isn’t always easy. Even though it is often filled with fun and excitement, it can be wrought with entanglements.

My cousin did her best to teach me the ropes, but I couldn’t synchronize my moves with the pace of the person doing the turning. Many of us need to recognize when this happens in life. Whenever we are out of synch with God’s timing, peace, and love, it’s because we’ve given the wrong person the ropes; and they will most assuredly turn into chains.

We don’t have to be experts at jumping in order to master life, but it is unequivocally and resoundingly true that life requires a Master. As men and women who dare to live the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ made available, we desperately need him at the helm. Psalm 129:4 says that the Lord will cut us free from the ropes of the ungodly. He will guide us in our lives and help us keep pace with all that God has in store for us. I suppose jumping Double Dutch with chains is possible, but where’s the fun in that? It’s not the way God intends life to be lived. If we will just give Him the ropes, we can jump in synch with His love, and never have to worry about jumping out. ■

Wait on God’s Green Light

Posted on July 17, 2018 by daaorg1214

We live in a society that is increasingly poopooing the notion of winning a competition or being competitive. This is not going to be an opinion on whether that is an appropriate attitude, but this is most certainly a stand on the truth according to God’s Word. The gray area that everyone loves so much makes people feel comfortable, but it doesn’t cut it when it comes to living according to God’s standard. We either believe His Word and live it or we don’t. He has charged every human being with the responsibility of discerning right from wrong, light from darkness, and good from evil. Jesus Christ contrasts it best in John 10:10(NLT), where he tells us, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” Contrary to what many people would have us to believe, there is a devil; he’s Heavenly Father’s archenemy. His number one mission is to steal, kill, and destroy lives. If we don’t know how to properly discern, we might attribute the destruction that comes from the pit of hell as acts of God, and the loving kindness that comes from heaven as a plot from the devil.

When it comes to competition, there’s a level of compassion and caring in not wanting anyone to feel left out or that their efforts are substandard, but when it comes to the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ has made available, distinction and discernment is a must. God gives us a very important piece of wisdom regarding His Word. In Hebrews 4:12, He tells us that His Word is alive and active, that it’s sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel. It can divide the soul from the spirit and joints from marrow. His Word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. This is beyond razor sharp, and Heavenly Father has given us such a precise and on-point tool because we need it.

We need it because we have an adversary that tries on every hand to rob us of the life that God desires us to have. Heavenly Father will always dream a bigger dream for us than the one we dream for ourselves. He’s rooting for us to live the best life of which we’re capable, but it is important for us to discern the difference between the world’s definition of the best and God’s definition of the best. In many, many cases, these are two very different things.

Proverbs 14:12(NLT) tells us, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Sometimes, we’re all over the map because we’re not clear regarding our purpose or who God wants us to be; we’re not clear about the direction to take in life. This is a vulnerability that the enemy can use against us. One of the ways he does this is by sending situations and people into our lives that look like the blessing we desire, but they aren’t. We are sometimes tricked this way because we haven’t learned to discern, or because we don’t wait for God’s green light.

Jesus Christ told us in Matthew 6:33 to seek God and His righteousness before we do anything else. Before we take that first step, we need to consult with the Father for guidance and direction. The answer from Him isn’t always on the double. Our patience and endurance to wait on the Father is absolutely essential, because He will never lead us astray. His blessings bring peace, wholeness, love, and rest for our souls. Whenever any of His yummies are missing, the light is still red.

As we sharpen the tool of discernment, we need to be patient, because God will show us what is best for our individual journeys. Romans 8:28 says that He causes all things to work together for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. There’s a synchronization to our lives when our hearts are set on pleasing God and doing what He asks. Don’t make the mistake of veering off the path He’s laid before you. Ask for God’s help and wait for His green light before you act on decisions and choices. He loves you, and will direct you on the best path for your life if you’ll allow Him. ■

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