You Need Help!

Happy Sunday!

"You Need Help!"  Yes, that's what Bishop Alexis Thomas preached about this morning. You need help!  I admit I do too.  We've been trying to do it on our own since preschool. Don't you remember learning to tie your shoes and really messing up.  But you ran to your mother or father and exclaimed, "I did it all by myself!"  We really want to believe that we don't need any help.  But God says you can't even pray without help from the Holy Spirit!  Read it for yourself. 

 Romans 8:5-8, 8:26 - Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before our God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Message Translation)

God never intended for us to try to live right on our own.  He provided assistance.  He sent the Spirit to strengthen, encourage, and teach us.  Even the Apostle Paul credited with writing two thirds of the New Testament admitted in Romans 7:7-20,  But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?


Whatever you need help with today, there's good news.  God sent his Spirit to help you. Maybe you need help loving your enemies, forgiving a family member, changing for the better.  Maybe you need motivation to move forward, help overcoming fear, maybe you just need help praying.  All you have to do is ask.  James 1:5-8, If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

Have a wonderful week!

Love Cynthia

Anointed

Happy  Sunday!

“Don’t Get It Twisted I Am Anointed!  Yes, that was Bishop’s sermon topic today!  He used Mark 3:31-35 and Luke 4:16-21.

He is so down to earth and funny.  You can watch the broadcast by going to the website.

Bishop talked about how people from your home town, your home church, and even your family can sometimes underestimate or doubt the assignment that GOD has given you.  They knew you “when”.  Sometimes people can’t or won’t get past what you used to do and who you used to be.  I love the rapper T.I.   I know, I know, I need prayer! Pray for me saints!  Anyway, he had a song called, “You Don’t Know Me”.  Basically, he was tired of people always assuming they knew who he was and what he was about.  There may be people in your life that think they know you.  They think you are nobody.  They think you can’t succeed.  They think you won’t survive.  They think you’ll do it again, or fail again, or never make anything of yourself.  But just like T.I. you need to say…You don’t know me!   Don’t get it twisted I’m anointed.

Jesus was preaching in his home town.   His mother and siblings came to see him. They sent word in to Jesus.  Jesus made a bold statement…he wasn’t disrespecting his family.  He was just saying sometimes spiritual relationships are stronger than blood.  Jesus wanted them to know that the relationship to GOD is the most important relationship.  When that vertical relationship is intact all our other relationships will flourish.

In the second scripture, Jesus went to the church.  The customs were different then.  The designated reader would read the selected passage.  Isn’t it ironic that the scripture to be read the day Jesus arrives is one of the most powerful passages in the New Testament. 

Jesus was proclaiming his identity.  He was letting them know what he came to do.  There’s a snappy song we sing in church that says…I don’t know what you came to do, but I come to praise the Lord!  Jesus was letting them know he was about business.  So what can I get from this message.  We are GOD’s ambassadors, we are the only Jesus some people will ever know.  We are anointed to do great things and the things we do will…

 How you do it is up to you!  Just do it!

Love and prayers for a beautiful week, Cynthia

What are you full of?

Happy Sunday!

"What are you full of?"  That was Bishop's text today.  He used Ephesians 5:18-21, ^"Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.  And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Everyone wants to be "Happy".  And we all seek happiness in different ways. Maybe you don't drink wine, or pomegranate Margaritas, or ice cold beer. Maybe you think the Apostle Paul was talking to someone else.  But we each have someone or something that will intoxicate us and cause us to do things we shouldn't do or wouldn't do without that influence.  Are you a workaholic?  Are you a gossiper? Are you a critic? Are you addicted to fudge dipped chocolate chip granola bars? Whatever your poison, we are encouraged today to be filled with the Spirit of God.  

Galatians 5:22 describes the results of Spiritual intoxication... ^'But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!" (New Living Translation)  True happiness is really joy.  Joy is simply...JESUS, OTHERS, and YOURSELF in that order.  Jesus said we would be known by the "fruit" we bear.

What are you full of?  Is it the good things described in Galatians 5:22 or is it the bad things described in Galatians 5:19-21?

^"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

I'm working on me!  It's a hard job, but I believe I will be full of good things very soon.  What are you full of?

Have a wonderful week, Love Cynthia

You Gotta Be Anointed

Happy Sunday!

 ”You Gotta Be Anointed!” was Bishop Alexis Thomas’ topic today.  He used Luke 24:49, and Ezekiel 37:1-9, as his scripture references.

 Bishop said,"When we endeavor to do GOD’s work in our own strength failure is guaranteed!” “God’s work is too much to handle without his strength!”  So what is GOD’s work?  Is it just preaching, teaching, and working in an auxiliary of the church?  Is it witnessing? Is it feeding the hungry and clothing the naked?  Yes, God’s work is all these things and more.  It’s parenting, it’s being in relationships, it’s marriage, it’s singleness, it’s being a good employee, and it’s being a good boss.  We can’t do any of the tasks set before us without God’s power and strength.  The old church ladies used to sing,” Father I stretch my hand to thee, no other help I know, if thou withdraw thyself from me whether shall I go?” We are helpless and hopeless without his love, power, and strength. 

Bishop used the familiar chapter in Ezekiel. Some of the most charismatic sermons I have ever heard were preached from that text.  The prophet is lead out to see a valley full of dry bones (Skeletons).  God ask him a question.  Note: God never asks a question to get the answer for him self, he’s omniscient.  He asks questions to help us learn something about him or ourselves.  He asked the prophet, “Can this situation change?  Can this dry lifeless circumstance turn around? Can I start over after a failure?  Can things ever change? Will my life ever get better? (I’m paraphrasing)  Well, Ezekiel was a smart man. He answered, “You know Lord”.  So GOD told Ezekiel, you do your part…speak.  Speak to this seemingly hopeless situation.  Read it for your self, all the parts came together and the bones stood up and came alive.

 What can we use from this today?  No matter how bad it looks, things can change!  Don’t give up even when the going gets rough.  One of my favorite poems is “Don’t Quit”.  One stanza is so appropriate for this topic: 

Success is failure turned inside out-- 

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Have wonderful week! Love Cynthia