Greetings Everyone,
All honor and glory to God! I'm so disappointed in
myself. I called myself taking a meal-break and watching my favorite show last
night, America's Most Wanted, and ended up passing out on the couch in the
middle of the show. I woke up and went to my bed at like 3am, and forgot to set
my alarm clock for my weekend schedule. So, I ended up missing church as well,
and running way behind my desired schedule today. I decided however, to send a
weekend SOD since I missed Friday. Also, following my signature is a story that
I thin you may find to be a good read. Please be responsible this weekend and
prioritize your obligations at the top of your list of things to
do. Continue to keep one another in prayer, thanking God for the victory,
and refraining from claiming defeat from the enemy; ALWAYS pray for
your desired result, NOT the unfavorable outcome. Do
NOT lose sight of God in the midst of adversity, God Bless!
Passage James 3:5-8 (NLT):
"In the same way, the tongue is a small thing
that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And
the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting
your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by
hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish,
but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of
deadly poison."
To continue with our series on the "seven
woes," we'll move on to the second woe described in Matthew 23:15 (NIV). But first, let's recap on the
1st woe which affects others as well as ourselves; in pursuit of
our greedy desires, we will keep ourselves from entering the Kingdom of Heaven
and furthermore, prevent those whom follow our lead from entering Heaven as
well. Today's passage says, "Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea
to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a
son of hell as you are." Back in those days, the Pharisees'
converts (new believers, or followers) were more attracted to Pharisaism than
God. We can apply this to our world today too. Many people are followers of
trends, fads, and the celebrity happenings. They'd rather transform themselves
into another individual by emulating that person's style, and/or demeanor,
rather than divert their secular lifestyle and adopt one that follows the will
of God. Thus, if we aren't more careful, the consistency in our
hypocritical ways will convert God's neophytes, and continue to brainwash the
lost, into living a lifestyle that is founded by secular principles.
Prayer of the Day:
Father God we thank you for your
everlasting love and grace. We thank you for filling us with your Spirit that
our tongue may be tamed, and we may be changed by the renewing of our mind.
Lord we thank you for being our refuge when we have no where else to take
cover, for being our ear when no one else wants to hear, and for being the
shoulder we need to cry on. Lord we thank you for your wrath; we know that
those who have wronged us will reap what they have sown. We thank you for
allowing us to be strong enough to endure the drama in our professional and
personal lives, knowing that the victory is already won, and vengeance is
yours. Lord we thank you for the discernment to know when we need to take a
moment to readjust our way of speaking and/or our reactions, and for the
ability to turn away from vulgarity, gossip, and anything else that is not
pleasing in your sight; may we emulate your Son Jesus, and convert others
rightly toward your righteousness. We thank you for your continued protection
and safe travels. We submit our affirmation of faith to you, in the name of
Jesus, Amen!
~~ Tylesha ~~
"It is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man." (Psalm 118:8)
Website: http://fmbs-inc-bytye.org/
-----Original Message-----
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren
has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book
sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in
California .
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick
Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation
for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him
in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of
my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but
I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the
dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in
eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life
isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in
one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into
another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your
character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life
holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on
earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in
Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my
life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to
think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go
to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather
than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails
on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad
in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always
something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in
your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can
focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your
problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues,
my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus
off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers
of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it
easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened
her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal
with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to
deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden,
when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It
also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I
don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to
live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this
money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped
me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we
would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases. Second,
about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to
plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate
the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the
24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating
to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live
for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my
life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of
my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know
You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a
to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're
called human beings, not human doings. Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult
moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD. If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it
will just be nice to pass it on to a friend... just like I have done. God
Bless!
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