Loosed

Happy Sunday!
Bishop Alexis A. Thomas preached from Luke 19:29-32. His message was entitled "I Feel Like I'm Getting Loosed!"

This scripture is generally used around Easter. It's the story of Jesus getting his transportation for his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. You remember, he tells his disciples to go into the town and they would find a colt tied up. They were commanded to take the colt and if anyone asked what they were doing they were to tell them the Lord needed it.

Bishop asked us to look at this a different way. Our enemy desires to keep us bound up. He wants us bound by fear, poverty, and ignorance. He wants to keep us from reaching our divine purpose and our ultimate potential. The enemy wants us tied down, locked up, impeded, immobilized, and restricted spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially.

Think of humanity as the colt. Minding his own business. He had no idea that there was a prophecy over his life. Zechariah 9:9 spoke about the colt hundreds of years before the diciples came to get him; "Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem!
Your king is coming! A good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey." (Message Translation) The colt had destiny, purpose, and potential. He just needed someone to "loose" him and allow him to be all he could be. We have to truly be disciples and do our part to set our brothers and sisters free. Think about it..."Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20 (Message Translation)

My mother loved the song, "A Charge to Keep". It was written by Charles Wesley in 1762. It reminds us that we have a job to do. We are our brother's keeper. The world is waiting for what you and only you have to offer.

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!

Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall for ever die.

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Love

Happy Sunday! I've been hearing this song in my head today. Let me tell you why.
When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory! - Eliza E. Hewitt

I had the priviledge to attend a beautiful wedding last evening. I know, I know...you think all weddings are beautiful. But this wedding was unique. The Best Man described it as a meeting of the United Nations. The Groom is originally from London, England. The Bride is from Ivory Coast. The family and friends came from France, Great Britain, several provinces of Canada, several countries in Africa, Asia, and all over the United States. I sat at a table with a family friend from Cambodia and her husband from the Netherlands.

It was as if we had known everyone for years. No one was quiet, sullen, or removed. We laughed, hugged, and rejoiced together. Do you realize that this is what heaven will be like? We will be so happy to be there! We won't have time to worry about skin color, nationalities, or anything that separates us. We won't be concerned with politics or waging war. As Eliza E. Hewitt wrote, " We'll sing and shout the victory!"

James 4:1-6 says, "Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don't have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn't yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn't think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you'd be asking for what you have no right to. You're spoiled children, each wanting your own way. You're cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn't care? The proverb has it that "he's a fiercely jealous lover." And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you'll find. It's common knowledge that "God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble." (Message Translation)

Have a wonderful, peaceful week!

Love and prayers, Cynthia

P.S. - I like to quote the great prophets! :)

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix

Serve With Passion

Happy Sunday!
Bishop Alexis A. Thomas continued his series, "Serving With Passion and Gladness". He used Isaiah 6:1-8 as his reference scripture.

It may be a cultural thing but I believe that I have heard this scripture preached in every church I've ever attended. Many of the members sitting near us were quoting the passage word for word. "In the year that king Uzziah died"...sound familiar? Even if we hear it again next Sunday it still has relevant and necessary information for us. The Word is alive! It ministers in the past, in the present, and in the future.

Isaiah loved and admired King Uzziah. Perhaps you know how it feels to lose someone you love. You remember the day, the hour, the weather, and the circumstance for the rest of your life. For Isaiah the death of Uzziah marked an important occurance in his life. He saw the Lord. "Really seeing the Lord begins with brokenness!" - Bishop Alexis A. Thomas

Perhaps Isaiah was still greiving over King Uzziah, but where ever he was emotionally became the perfect place for him to "see" God. He saw God "High and Lifted Up" and "Sitting on a throne". He saw God the way we should see him. God is Exalted. He is higher than our little world! He is bigger than our little problems. Isaiah saw him "seated" in bible terms people sit only when their work is completed! God as done everything he had to do. He's not worried! He's not wringing his hands trying to figure out how to pay your water bill. Genesis 2:2-3 says, "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. On the seventh day he stopped the work he had been doing. Then God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he stopped all his work of creation. - God's Word Translation

Isaiah gained perspective. He realized that he was so sinful when compared to a Holy God. He was terrified and cried, "Doom! It's Doomsday!
I'm as good as dead! Every word I've ever spoken is tainted— blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here I've looked God in the face!" (Message Translation) But, GOD had a plan! He had plan to redeem Isaiah and he has plan to redeem us. 2 Peter 3:8-9 says, "Don't overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change".

Romans 8:3-6 says, "God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. 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. (Message Translation)

Have a sensational, successful, and Spirit- Filled week!
Cynthia

20/20

Happy Sunday!

I hope this week was positive, powerful and productive for you!

I really enjoyed the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. I'm a natural cry baby. I was welling up with tears as the children's choirs from all over Great Britain sang the hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah". It was so fitting that Christ Jesus would receive Glory because he gives us the strength and ability to everything we do. (Philippians 4:13)

The Olympics are so inspiring! Everything I've watched has encouraged me. There are so many personal stories about how the athletes have had to struggle and push forward even through adversity. There is an athlete in the Archery competition who is legally blind. He's doing things that individuals with 20/20 vision can't do. In Mark 8:22-25, Jesus healed a blind man. He asked the man what he saw. The man said he saw men as trees walking. Jesus touched him again and he saw clearly. Seeing is one thing, seeing clearly is everything. Things like this challenge me. I ask myself, "What's your excuse?"

There are runners with no legs! "What's your excuse?" There are athletes from war torn countries. They are able to put their problems aside and focus on the games. Athletes whose families may not even have electricity or a television to watch the games. It reminds me of all that I have to be thankful and grateful for.

I'm grateful for you! I appreciate you and thank you for communicating with me every week. You are always in my prayers.

Love and prayers, Cynthia

What a Friend

Happy Sunday!

In Praise and Worship today we sang, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". It's an oldy but goody! It says what many are feeling right now after yet another senseless shooting. We ask ourselves why?

We may never know why bad things happen, but God knows! He created us and declared that, "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be." - Jeremiah 17:9 (Message Translation)

That may be why God designed a plan to give us new hearts! No, not like the Tin Man in the Wizard of OZ. He said in Ezekiel 36:26, "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart". - (New Living Translation) Even David knew something was missing and he begged God to, "Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a faithful spirit within me". - Psalm 51:10 (God's Word Translation)

The word, "Lament" means a cry of grief or sorrow or a dirge: a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. There's a whole book in the bible called, Lamentations. Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “The reason I can still find hope is that I keep this one thing in mind: the Lord’s mercy. We were not completely wiped out. His compassion is never limited. It is new every morning. His faithfulness is great".

Even during this horrible tragedy, the Love of God is being shown! Several individuals sacrificed their lives for others. That's what Jesus did for us! There are testimonies of strangers of different races laying aside selfishness and acting heroically for the community. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.


Love and prayers, Cynthia

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Message Translation)

Happy Sunday!
So we're not giving up. How could we!

Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.

These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.

There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Message Translation)

Love and prayers, Cynthia

You Are the Person

Happy Sunday!

I hope you had a wonderful week! I'm praying that you enjoy the upcoming holiday!

You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside; You are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you'll lead or will linger behind. Whether you'll try for the goal that's afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are.” - Edgar A. Guest Have a positive, powerful, and prosperous week! Love and prayers, Cynthia