How will you walk today?

Will you walk toward your goals?
Will you walk in your strengths?
Will you walk away from God toward another god?

Be encouraged to walk in the gifting and strength given you by God. It’s where you were created to walk. Walking away from or out of that takes you toward selfishness and ultimately toward failure.

God is walking with you today. That’s the promise to His People…
He will never leave you nor forsake you.
He is with you.

Do not ask Him to step aside, take a seat, and wait outside while you
go off on your own toward something.

He is BOUND by HIS WORD.

He cannot leave you.

Walk in, with and toward Him always and everyday.

How comfortable are you? Has your life reached the level of comfort to where you do not worry about basic necessities. If you live in the America, that’s predominantly the case.

Most likely, you will eat three times today. You will sleep tonight without threat of cold, hunger or
harm.

Any desperation in your life?

I have said this several times and believe it fully…
As followers of Christ, we must have desperate hearts in the midst of the comfort we live in.

Desperate hearts pursue God daily with urgency.

A desperate heart knows it cannot exist without the Mercy and Grace which is given to us by The Father.

A desperate heart searches The Word
constantly to inquire of God, to discover all of what is there.

Comfort cushions us against the hardness and harshness of life.

Comfort can create softness and distance from need.

Desperate hearts see miracles.
Desperate hearts spend time on their knees and cry out to God.
Desperate hearts care about people who do not know Christ….and go after them.

Desperate hearts see desperation in others, not being blinded by the comfort of an achieved life, they know it when they see it…and reach out to lend help.

You have been desperate before.

Seek God as you did the solution to the desperation you felt.

Desperate hearts see miracles.

As I was growing up, I heard one song so many times that the words are in my mind forever. The song was sung at the the most important times of the get together. The song made people act and move. It might not have been the song in and of itself, but the song served as a catalyst to the movement of feet and minds.

Even now the words give rise to provocation and solemnity.

“Just as I am without one plea.
But that Thy Blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.”

These words draw us to The Savior, to Our God.

Our God continually bids us to come to Him…
for salvation, for renewal, for strength, for the needs of the day.

Answer the bidding.
It’s there daily.

How are you treating the people who bring you food in restaurants?
How do you treat the custodian in your building?

I heard once that the quality of a person could be seen in how they treat those who could do them no good.

Do you tip properly?

When have you paid for a meal for someone you see that is in a bad way?

JESUS told the parable of The Good Samaritan.
The wounded and hurt man would do the Samaritan no good.
In fact, the Samaritan knew it would cost him money, time and possibly future involvement to help this injured man.

But he did.

JESUS did.

And it was you He did it for.

Do the same for some who can do you no good….other than allowing you the blessing of service.

Other than your spouse and children…anyone on your mind or in your heart on constant basis?

When you see them, the thought arises…
“I need to speak to them.” or “I need to pray for them.”

If so, are you doing that?
If so, are you carrying out what your Spirit maybe telling you?
What The Holy Spirit may be promoting you to do??

If not, why?

JESUS spent His Ministry intervening in the lives of people He was calling, drawing, leading or correcting.

The Father prompted Him toward the disciples, prompted Him toward Saul and made him Paul, prompted Him toward Zaccheus and the Samaritan woman at the well.

JESUS obeyed the prompting and lives were changed.
That is why He was here.

When prompted…what are you doing??

Obeying ….or rationalizing away the move of God in your life toward someone He desires???

God may be using you to draw someone to Him.
It’s really not about you…you might be just “a tool”.

Or, it MAY be about you and an obedience issue.

As you read this you may be thinking of an instance in which God prompted you….,and a person who may respond only to you.

Allow it. Obey it.

Go speak what you were prompted to the person who is on your mind or heart.

Do that.

God will then do the heavy lifting.

Jeremiah 9:23 and 24
Read it.

As we enter a new year of days and new opportunities, consider these verses.

We are instructed to not glory in wisdom, might or riches. That covers most of life.

Wisdom is anything related to intelligence, knowledge, experience.
Might is anything related to strength, physical or otherwise, influence, power of any kind, individual or corporate.
Riches is money and anything it brings….earned or inherited.

We are to take no glory in any of these.

Why???

What do you have in any of these areas that God did not gift you the ability to get?
What talent did you develop that He did not give you the impetus or desire to grow?
Did you determine who your parents would be?
Did you set in place your genetic make-up?
Did you determine who your teachers would be?

A young athlete voiced this earlier in the year when asked
“What do you attribute your talent to?
He answered…”God”
He went on to say that his size and speed both came from God.

We do not possess what God has not gifted us.
Nor do we possess anything we have worked for ….because He placed in us the desire for it….and the desire and ability to work for it.

We are to be grateful, thankful and to take glory in that we know Him.

At this time of reflection on the past and of planning for the future….
I recommend we not glory in our past nor make the assumption we can plan our future.

Our past has come through Him.
Our future is in His Hands.

Determine to pursue, seek and know God more this year than in past years.
Set your mind, heart, and any strength He has given you to WALK with Him.

He executes kindness, judgement and righteousness.

Pursue and Abide in and with God.

In an old song,
“Sweet Hour of Prayer”…
a phrase states this…

“And as He bids me seek His Face, believe His Word and trust His Grace… I cast on Him my every care”

Glory not in wisdom, might or riches…..
Glory in the encouragement of that song.

That’s a profitable and permanent resolution.

Some days are  full of differing types of Joy…Thanksgiving and Fullness.

Earlier this year I attended and was a pallbearer at a friend’s funeral.

He is/was a great older friend. Very influential in my early business years, giving to me of his time, wisdom and experience.We shared many experiences….together.

We shared life.

A few days before the end of his life I sat with him, rehearsing our times together and had the opportunity to tell him how full he had enabled me to grow…and how he had planted into me so many things.

Last December, I attended the Christmas Program at a local church. I saw a young man sing, lead off the program and be a featured singer. God led this young man into my life years ago and I have had the great privilege to be involved with him, instruct him somewhat, encourage him….maybe plant some Light there.

I have not enhanced his singing ability…. but I have cheered him on led him and lifted him up over the years and it was a great experience that night to see him on the biggest stage at one of the fastest growing churches in America where he is now the lead worship singer.

Years ago we had talked about God having a stage for him, hoping for that. He is on a very large stage today.

Life juxtaposes these things.

I saw a great Man exit life and enter Heaven after influencing me for several years.
I see a young Man ascending in life and bringing a part of Heaven to earth through praise and worship….and he tells me I have been able to contribute to his encouragement, confidence and fulfillment of Gods Gift in him.

I will miss my friend and always remember those things he gave me.

I enjoy seeing my young friend grow and assert his ability…and am honored to hear him say…”you have blest me”.

In the arrangement of life, we receive blessings and give them.
We see people leave life who have given to us….
and we get to experience the success of those we have invested in.

Today I felt close to The Father on both sides of this juxtaposition.

A very full day.

Terry
July 2015

It’s what God calls us to be. It’s what The Word promotes in our daily lives. It’s the manner in which we can touch the world around us.

Salt influences flavor. Enhances it. It is a fundamental ingredient in food preparation and preservation. Every good cook uses it.

Light abolishes any darkness. When Light comes visibility and clarity are possible.
The color of life is seen when Light shines.

Catch my drift?

We are to influence the atmosphere and attitudes around us. We do whether we speak Gods Word….
SALT…LIGHT….
or not. We influence to the positive or to the negative. And choosing to remain neutral or silent….is having no influence.
A father would not remain silent or neutral if he saw an attack on his child.

But….there is a daily attack on your children…your wife…you.

Be SALT.
Be intentional.
Assert the influence God has placed within you.

Be Light.
Bring clarity and color to your world and to those in it.

GODS WORD is SALT and LIGHT.

Learn it. Speak it. Be intentional and purposed to use it in your speech. Even if you paraphrase it in your conversations….It’s Power is not depleted by using other words.

If you speak Gods Word it will bring SALT and LIGHT to any and all conversations and situations.

These are our instructions.

Terry
December 19, 2014

One night several years ago when we first moved into our house I woke up
to a tremendous storm.

Our great room is filled with floor to ceiling windows. As I walked out of the bedroom it was quite dark when…
lightning flashed seemingly right over the house. In the window- lined room, the light was immediate and overwhelming. I could see nothing. I was momentarily blinded.

Coming out of the dark, the light filled the enlarged pupils in my eyes and I had to stop walking and stand still.

My eyes adjusted after a moment….then the lightning flashed again,
just as bright. Without telling them my hands covered my eyes.

It was an electrical storm, low and right over our house. It continued for about 10 minutes.

When the lightning subsided I thought about that light. It was complete and absolute and overwhelmed all else in the house. And, it momentarily blinded me.

I thought of Saul on the road to Tarsus. I thought of the Light that might have come out of Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb on Easter morning.

JESUS comes into darkness and obliterates it the way the darkness was overwhelmed that night in my house.

Our pursuit of Christ is to have that same Light in our lives…to drive away darkness. To close the eyes of those to the darkness they are in and abide with them as their eyes and lives adjust to the Light which desires and draws them.

In John 14 the Word says if we keep His Word, He will manifest Himself to us….His Light will manifest His Life to us, In us and through us….
for those around us who He desires to draw out of darkness.

Allow It to illuminate all the rooms in your life.
It will blind, and then shine on all who need It.

Terry
December 14, 2014

Crown Ministry is all about knowing that your money is Gods, all you have and think you own is Gods…He has simply made you a custodian of it for a time.

It’s not just your money though. It’s your time, your affections, your thought life, your career.

With money we are given a guide to give, no real limits though. With our thoughts…there is no
statement from the Church or the charitable organization as to what we have given.

Because we are not being audited outwardly
Is no reason to skirt the issue.
In our thought life, in our behavior, in our conversations…
We ARE being audited by God and His Spirit.
No statement of value on your gift, but it is noticed.
And the Spirit or your conscience may tweak you when you are in deficiency.

Self govern.
You should not need an audit from an outside source on your thoughts, your conversations and your behavior. As a Christ-follower you have the ability to have the mind of Christ,
You can subject yourself to the inner governance of The Holy Spirit.

The “perfect” man does this…..the man-in-full
Is led by the unseen audit of The Spirit.

Pay attention.
Listen.
Do not skirt the issue.

Terry
December 2, 2014