My Crazy is Real

Today I will start the blog a little differently. I’m starting with the story. This story will show carelessness at its best. The story comes out of the book of Exodus 32. The children of Israel where the wilderness waiting on Moses who was at the top of Mount Sinai talking with God. Now God had shown his love for the children of Israel by delivering them out of the Egyptians. He did not allow the 10 plagues that he placed on Egyptians to affect his people (Exodus Chapters 7-12). He delivered them for the hand of Pharoah and his man as they were going to the land flowing with milk and honey by drowning them in the Red Sea (Exodus Chapter 13-14). Once in the wilderness, they cried out to him for food and he rained down manna from heaven (Exodus 16). God even gave them his  Ten Commandments as a law to govern his people  (Exodus 20). They had just received the Torah and  40 days out of Egypt with Moses taking too long to God that they made a request rather a demand on Aaron, Moses second in command and his brother. They wanted an image that they could follow. They became careless. Their carelessness will cost them their lives.

Their carelessness was forgotten that God loved them. They forgot that they cried out to God to be free from the Egyptians and he did it. They forgot that God kept them while the ten plagues hit the land. They forgot God walked them out of Egypt with gold, cattle and all the owned and even some Epygtians stuff and Pharoah did nothing but let them go. Even when Pharoah came for them God delivered a million people across the dry Red Sea and then drowned Pharoah and his men. Doesn’t that look like love? 

He did not finish there. He fed them with manna from heaven. God covered them with a cloud by and night. He kept his people when others could have killed them. So why did they think a Golden Calf would help them?

         WHAT IS YOUR GOLDEN CALF?

What is your golden calf? What is the thing or things that are taking the place of God’s love? Most of us would not look at it that way but that is what it is. If we are not fixed on God we are fixed on something. Often time this happens when we are going through a hardship. When things are not going the way we want them to and we mistakenly believe that God is not with us. That he has turned his back on.That he has left us alone and/or forsaken us.  This is not true. Actually, God is there watching everything. God is right there loving on you. He is right there directing you. He’s right there counseling you. He’s right there guiding you. We need to feel and see everything right now. We need God to show himself in a human way in every moment of our lives. That why we have a terrible tendency not trusting in his love for us.  That why I say carelessness kills.

Carelessness will kill us

 Carelessness leaves us in a place where we can’t comprehend, grow or see. Jesus spoke on this with the seed parable (Matthew 13). Then we will become resentful. We condemn God for not being there for us. We call God an absentee Father and then we acted like we are orphans. We go out looking for other things to replace God.   The Israelis used a golden calf. How many of us have a Golden calf in our lives? How many of us have replaced God with a thing? We replace God with your jobs, with money, or a house.  We replace God with social media likes and love. We want to be influencers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We have replaced God with people. We want people to like and love so bad that we will do anything and everything to get that temporary like or love. We replace God with places. We want to go here and go there and I want to do this and that in this new place. We’ve never contended or happy with where God has us. What God really wants us to be. What God desires for us.

As I finish this, My goal this year is teaching on being careful. You  know I got another acronym for you and here it is :

Caring

About

Real

Effective

Freeing

Unbelievable

Love   

.

The love of God is right there with you every day. Every moment of the day.  God cares for you (1 Peter 5:7) God is about his business which is you (Luke 2:49). He is a very real living God (Jeremiah 10:10). He is effective in freeing you (Joh 8:36).  He’s unbelievable  (Luke 1:37). Last but not least, he is love (1 John 4:8). He is looking out for you in ways you will not know until you reach heaven and see the reel of your life played back to you. God’s love surrounds you in such a way that even the devil has to ask permission to touch you. He loves was a lamb sacrificed on a cross so you can become his child (John 3:16). We are now heir with  Jesus (Roman 8:17) and we can go to the throne of grace and ask for help (Hebrews 4:16).

 My sisters in your pain you may have forgotten that God loved you and your carelessness may have led you down the wrong road. I ask you to turn around and come back home. He is waiting for you. Just like the prodigal son’s father ran to him God will come for you. He probably already has because you are reading this blog. My sisters be careful with your life. It was worth saving.

P-Persistent

A- Aggravating

I- Invited

N -Nature

As we go into February, some of us start the new year off with either resolutions or goals. You may have made or going to make a vision board to see the things you want to achieve this year. Maybe you work on a physical makeover. You either work out or make calls able going through a surgical procedure. Wherever you are on the journey, there will be a cost to move forward. One woman in the bible that moves forward with a cost is Esther. Her story is about when she went before the King on the behalf of the Jewish people. There have been conferences, movies, and sermons based on the famous saying “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). But there were steps that happen before that wonderful scene. Esther had to move forward.  

There are three steps to moving forward. They are: 

1. Let go of your past 

2. Embrace your present 

3. Get prepared for your future  

1. Let go of your past  

The story of Esther begins with a young girl living with her Uncle Morcedai during the time of Jerusalem captivity (Esther 2:5-7) in the provinces of Persia. The king Ahasuerus was angry because the Queen Vashi did not obey him when he requested her. (1:10-12) He sent out a decree looking for a new queen among the maidens of the land. (2:1-4). When the king's commandment went out to find maidens they chose Esther. Her uncle sent her two things a goodbye and a statement Don't show who you are (2:10).  

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA 

When you are going to the next level of your destiny,  people will let you go or stop you. When God is moving you there’s a cost. God will take people, places and things out of the immediate circle. We may leave behind family and friends. Your hometown may not be the city of growth for you. The things you value the most will be the first thing to go.  This is necessary to further you in your purpose. It’s costly to walk in purpose. 

2. Embrace Your Present 

They took Esther into the palace and she finds favor with Hegai the keeper of the women (2:9). They gave her other maiden to help her. She now has to go through her purification. This will last 12 months. Yes, a year. She needs to get clean. The maidens could not go before the king in their own clothes.  They are to be cleaned in myrrh and sweet odors. They need transformation. 

Embracing your present requires change. You are now going through a process of renewal. This will be the most difficult part. It will not take place overnight.  It will be weeks, months or in Esther time a year. Yes, a year. To embrace your present, you must change from a caterpillar into a butterfly. In order for that to happen, you must go into yourself and begin the purging away of things that are keeping you in on the hamster wheel. You will need help as Esther did with Hegai. You need someone to assist you in the process because if you don‘t you will stay where you are out of fear or procrastination. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be a comforter to us as we go through the process (John 14:26 / 15:26). The Holy Spirit wants to lead us into the truth of God and the relationship the King wants to have with you but if we don’t allow him, he will not push you. The Holy Spirit is God, and he is a gentleman.  It's your choice move forward or still stuck. 

Esther was on her way to becoming a queen. She was going through the purification (process).  She was around new people and places. She was learning new things. Her past could not go with her because it would have hindered her.  

3. Get prepared for your future 

Well, as the story goes Esther gets her time with King and wins his heart (2:15-17). We now have Queen Esther. A young captive Jewish girl is now the Queen of Persia. Yes, God will do it. It puts Esther to the test not too long after becoming Queen. She faced with a dilemma. There has been a decree that would put the Jewish people (her people) in danger of existence(3:8-13). Mordecai learns of the decree he went into mourning (4:1). He knows he needed to inform the  Queen. He tells her they are in danger and she has to do something. She was in this palace for a reason and it is now up to her to save them (4:14).  She told the people to go on a three-day fast with her and her maidens.   Queen Esther had to get a before the face of the King. She had to get a plan that would save her people (4:15-17).  

When we are moving forward, we need to be prepared for the obstacles that will come our way. Some will come fast and some will come later. We will need to have a relationship with God that will allow us to get before his face and ask for direction. They have crowned Esther the Queen of 

Persia but she was a Queen in the Kingdom of God. She was going before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords for an answer. She knows this would require a total devotion to God. No food, No drink, just prayer, and supplication. How can you be a Queen and not know how the kingdom is run? Jesus told us that some things only can forth with prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). Know how to get before the King for yourself. Yes, Esther had the support of the Jewish people but she herself would pray for the answer on how to save them. You may be the one to save your family. Get prepared on how to pray for them, talk to them, and stand in the gap on their behalf. Show up as a Queen and not a maiden.  

Conclusion, 

We all know the end of the story. Queen Esther saves her people and the enemies of the people were killed by their own devices. My sisters, as you go through-out this year please prepare for your purpose. Know that your past cannot come. It is your testimony, not your life. Embrace your present. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Change is painful but necessary. Prepare for your future. Learn the scriptures, be ready for all the enemies arrows. If you are not prepared, you are going to get knocked down a lot.  

To move forward is going to cost but, it is well worth it.  

The month of October stands for  OPPORTUNITY. Yes, I put it in capital letters because it is huge. There is so much we can do with opportunity. We can start an opportunity, be part of or end one.  Something will happen when we give an opportunity for a try.

They define the word opportunity as a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something:  This is such a powerful and important statement. There are things that will or must make something possible. That means that opportunity doesn’t just happen. There is a thought, a message, and action that brings it into being. Without that, opportunity turns into failure.

The above phrase is so true. An opportunity most of the time shows up as adversity. Think about it when an opportunity comes where were you? In pain, in a bad situation (loss of job, husband or wife) no money, battling an illness.  In the situation, something has to give. A circumstance will make you shift. You stop looking at the problem and see an opportunity. My example of this is the widow with a little oil. 

In the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4 verses 1-7 there is a story about a widow that came to the Prophet Elisha with a problem. Her husband passes leaving her and their children in debt. The creditors want her children as payment because she had nothing. He said to her what do you have in your house. She said a little oil. He told her to go get every vessel for your neighbors and not a few and then go into your house with your sons. When she went into her home, she pours the oil. When she did, it filled every vessel she had. She realizes that she still oil she told her son to get more vessel but there was no more. The next day she told the Prophet what happen, and he told her to sell the oil and pay off her debt. Opportunity.

Opportunity doesn‘t come as a “Yeah what a blessing” all the time. Sometimes it shows up as a” What is this new hell ". We have to learn to trust the message and not your eyes. Sometimes they can’t see the truth of a matter. God does not always reveal the outcome. He will see you through even when it does not look that way. The widow could have said, “You crazy I will find another way to take care of my debt”. She knows she only has a little oil in her house but she trusted in the man of God message. Her trust and action brought a miracle beyond measure and sent her into the overflow. What has God said to you your need to trust him about? That new house, job or relationship. Whatever God opportunity is for you trust the message and then work it out.

The month of Septemeber will be the first month where I will deal with more that one subject. I will talk about strength and showing up. I believe they go together. Your strength comes from three places, God, you and others. This is like the accountability circle I talked about in August. God will always come first but this time you are second and others are last. The Bible has many scriptures that refer going to God for strength or he is our strength. I will use the scripture from Isaiah 40.29.  

They define strength as the capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure:. This is a what we go through daily.   Pressures that come in the form of marital issues, teen peer pressure, a bad health diagnosis, loss of a loved one, loss of a job you have worked at for years and the list could go on and on. The great force or pressures in our lives would take over us if it wasn't for God's strength,  We would give up and check out. We wouldn't get up in the morning, go to work or be there for our families. In verse 29 it says He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. God shows up to be a support system when it would seem we do not have one. He will assist us when we are faint. When we are drained of all of our strength. He gives us power. The ability to move forward even when we don't want to. He allows us to move little by little. Grace and mercy are there following us so no one gets to close behind us to push us over the edge. Your might have left you but he will increase you. 

God will give the words, people and rest to make it through. 

When my son passed I don't know how I could handle that trauma. I was 20  and my son died at 2 years old on Thanksgiving day. I need God more than ever but instead; I rejected him. He hurt me.  How could a  loving God take my baby away?  God didn't get mad at me but strengthened me. He was keeping me when I did not want to be kept. He was directing my footsteps to my strong tower even when I did not know where I was going. I can say sometimes I lost my mind and if God had not place people where he did I would not have made it. 

His strength goes beyond our weakness and deals with pain. He is there saying "I got it let it go". "I can heal it if you just let it go"." I'm here". "Rest my child".  2 Corinthians 12:9  states  "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  God let Apostle Paul know that no matter the situations he was there with him. His strength is made perfect in weakness. My son death could have stopped me from living. I could have relived his death daily but God strengthened me. At my weak point, God's grace was enough. Every second until I could make a minute he was there. Then the minute turned into minutes. The minutes turned until 5 minutes. From faith to faith. I wasn't perfect but his strength was. 

Trust in the strength of God. It will get you through even when you don't know how you are going to make it.

As the month of August ends, I want to put a thought in your mind. There is only one person approval you need, and that is God's. He knows what you are this earth to do and the plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). The plan is not up for debate. You will accomplish what God has set before you. You may like the plan or not. We spend too much energy trying to figure out how the plan will work. We will tell others (family, friends and even an enemy) what God has told us.  Most will seem happy for us and pray that everything we believe works out. Someone will tell us we need to rethink the plan because it does not seem right for us. Others will flat out say "You are crazy God did not talk to you, are you, Jesus, now" The approval of others isn't required to complete the plan. There are three types of people that will be in our lives and watch our assignment. I want to know them and what they bring to the table to help you complete your plan.