I BOUGHT A BAG

I BOUGHT A BAG

 During a period of my life in which I was transitioning from the military to civilian life I bought a bag. Not just any bag, but a high quality business brief case type of bag. It was expensive too. I suppose I bought it thinking that I was going to be this business guy and needed something to tote my papers in. For years I would kick myself in back-side wondering what pushed me into making such a stupid purchase. This bag was literally a dust magnet in the closet.
That was back in 2001, Now at 2015 this business bag contains my sermons, bible, laptop, and notes. I literally panic when I think about what would happen if I lost the bag. At this point in my life …..The bag matters and the purchase wasn’t so bad after all!
So what I am saying? Certainly I am not encouraging you all to go out and spend foolishly like I did. I am simply suggesting that there are pieces in your life that sometimes don’t make sense and seemingly may not belong at that time. If you are willing to endure, while preparing for tomorrow
today you may be blessed enough to see what God was setting you up for all along. Then you don’t look so crazy….You look like a person full of faith.

ANGER SOLVES LITTLE

I posted to our facebook yesterday and I would like to continue the conversation basically because I felt the need. As my daughter explained that they watched the streets of Baltimore burn, she grasped for straws to truly understand what the fuss was about. It occurred to me that as a parent, a marvelous job had been done at shielding and protecting her from how ugly the world can truly be. We talked extensively about the situation in Baltimore and how years of oppression and abuse can cause people to boil over. Now this isn’t at all an attempt to pardon the damages done. Or think that it was okay to tear up local shops. The main point that we both came to was that anger sparked the riots. There may have been some opportunist looking to get a free TV, but the incident in large can be attributed to the lack relationship between the police force and the community it was hired to protect.
As I explained that truthfully many African American adults would gladly share one or more stories of when we had a “run-in” with the police. I personally cannot think of one person African American male that hasn’t had a “run-in” with the police, but I digress. As I explained my memories I felt myself feeling the same feelings of anger, shame, and injustice that ended with a group of cops spitting on my car while telling me to have a “nice” night.
But even then I was calmed by the Holy Spirit and able to remind my daughter that in anger we have lost more than we could ever gain. Loosing our cool is what has caused us to say things that we can’t take back. Destroy relationships that we can’t recover. Was it not anger that caused Moses his ability to punch his ticket and enter the Promised Land he worked so hard to get to?  It goes to show us family…..We can work so hard to make progress and burn it all down in a matter of minutes. The bible tells us that we can be angry….But don’t act in anger. Instead use the additional energy to fuel positive change and give God the glory when that change happens!

GODS LOVE

An interesting topic that we came across last week was love. The bible teaches us in 1 John 4:8 That he who doesn't know love doesn't know God because God is love. We spent the later part of our session discussing as a Christian, how hard is it to love...."All the time" - Yes! All the time. Even in each of our best efforts to truly examine the quality of love, we discovered that human love isflawed. Human love is conditional. Human love can change. The good news is that God's is bigger than all of these things because his love is unconditional!!! While many attempt to replicate love that was taught of experienced through life, the goal of each Christian should be to experience God's way of love and implement it into our lives.

NEW YEAR ALREADY!!

It's a new year! Already a few days into the New year and I still cannot believe that we are in 2015. It becomes a true testament that time does not stand still for anyone and it is something that we all cannot help, but to lose. At church this was a main message we shared TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!! If you didn't get it together last year before you run and start making new resolutions let's work to close out things that we left unresolved in 2014. This going to be a big year for us family and whether you are ready or not it is here. Let's make the most out of what we have this year family because TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!