KEEP TRYING

Song - Don't Give Up by: Island Inspirational Allstars (Hezekiah, Karen Clark, Donald, Kirk & Family)


It is so easy to judge someone whose shoes you have not been in.  You can hear people saying "If that were me I'd....." or "Why don't they just....".  Looking from the outside of people's lives one can only assume what they should do.

If you have told me 5 years ago that I would struggle with Fibromyalgia, I wouldn't believe you.  I never would have dreamed that I would loose my job, car and walk through some of the darkest times of my life.  I  got to the point that walking was so hard for me.  It hurt, and I couldn't hardly move without extreme pain.  Things have gotten alot better and I am slowly little by little regaining health, but from the outside I know it looked so differently.

I remember sitting in Church and looking over at someone that was going through a divorce and thinking...that is so sad.  I felt bad for them but had no idea what they were walking through or felt.  It wasn't until I went through my divorce that I found out what it was all about.  The pain and brokenness I had never felt before.  

That is why when we see our brother and sister fall, down, hurt, sick, lonely....don't even bother to think you can judge or know what they are walking through.  Just love them, pray with them, encourage them.

It isn't about so much advice as it is knowing that people care that you are walking through it.  That they are there to help you keep getting back up.

Many times I wanted to hang my hat and call it a day, but God placed people in my life to keep whispering...."It's gonna get better, try again". 

I pray that everyone facing something difficult today, will be surrounded by the Holy Spirit and that God will send people to encourage you.  People to hold your arms up when you are tired and worn.  

THE POTTER'S HAND

Song - The Potter's Hand by: Darlene Zschech


"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker-- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'? Isaiah 45:9

Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?

Isaiah 29:15-16

“O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8) 

“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message” (Jeremiah 18:2).

About Potters

Perhaps most famously are these words from the classic hymn, “Have Thine Own Way” which serves as a our message title....

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Here are four truths concerning the Master Potter:

1) The Master Potter is always in control.
2) The Master Potter is “hands on” (genuine pottery products are not mass-produced).
3) The Master Potter takes time and changes His work a number of times in ways that can be mysterious to the observer as he works on the finished product. As living pottery, changes in our lives can be mysterious to us also!
4) The Master Potter has the ultimate good in mind for His work.

Song -Have Thine Own Way by:Pastor E.Dewey Smith Jr

LEARNING

Song - Use me Lord by:Jotta A

Tonight I guess if there is anything I want to share it is that, just when you think you have gained knowledge, you realize you have so much to learn.  I don't regret this insight.  For it will make me seek after more.

I am a strong believer in "Never stop Learning".  As long as there is breath in your lungs you have the ability to learn something new every day.  It is only when we cease to believe that we need to learn or have the ability to learn that we no longer can.

Everyone is unique, and have different ways of learning.  Some it is by hearing.  Others, like myself, I learn greatly with visuals.  Some it takes both.  Others hands on.  However you learn best, your heavenly Father knows that.  He will put you in situations that will try you to the core.  You will wonder why in the world you had to walk through it, but in the end you will see what God was trying to teach you.

I can't say I would walk through everything I have walked through again, but I will say this....it has molded me and made me the Woman I am today.  It made me wiser, stronger, more caring, more forgiving, and much more aware of who God is in my life.

I love to learn things.  I love Encyclopedia's and Biographies and things that deal with self help and such.  I love reading.  Because I have opened my heart to learn, God pours things in me.  He places the right books and information I need to face whatever is ahead of me.  It is best to not wait till the storm comes to prepare for it.  You need to do things in advance.  So if you are wanting to date.  Then read about marriage, and good christian counseling books.  Prepare yourself for what is ahead.

Even though I have gained much knowledge of life's trials and tests, there is yet so much that is not tapped into. I hunger for more.  I long to have the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to help point people in trouble in the right direction.  I can't fix anyone, but I know who can and I have learned ways to find the keys to ones solutions.  I am believing God to unveil that part of me, and use me to guide people.  I am checking into online classes for Christian Counseling and Pastoral Care.  This will be a big step but I know it is the direction I need to go in.

Whatever you faced.  Whatever you have gone through....often these are things God will use to be a ministry to help others.  So you do have skill.  If you have suffered the loss of a loved one, divorce, break up.  Then you know grieving.  If you have done drugs, porn, alcoholic, then you about addiction.

I challenge you to pray and then sit done and write the things you have walked through and learned about it.  You will be surprised at how God can use that part of you to help someone else who is or has gone through it.  If you need to, do more research on it.  Study and prepare yourself to help someone else.

REAPING WHAT YOU SOW

Galations 6:8

⁷Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

⁸For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Song- The Harvest by: Anthony Brown & Maurette Brown-Clark

In this scripture God is saying that whatever you invest in, time, money, love, life, spiritual things, church....you'll get back in harvest.  

Most people use this scripture in talking about sin, but God isn't just talking about sin.  He is also talking about what you talk about, what you do, where you go.  Your every day life.  If you only talk carnal then they is what you will reap.  If you only deal in the natural and never invest in the spirit realm you will gain your earthly goods.  

So what God is saying...is to take time to pray, read his word, fast, worship him, love your neighbor, reach to people.  The greatest thing you can do for a great harvest is to love with God's love.

A farmer thinks, and plans what he wants to harvest.  He buys the seed and does what he needs to do to make it grow.  When it comes up, it is no surprise.

Just a farmer plans, daily when we get up, when need to plan, what do we want to sow in the future?  Because what we say and do, the attitudes, how we treat people, etc... will be planted.

When you look in the bible, the ones whose hearts sought after God, cried out for God, found favor and God answered them.

My prayer for all of us, is that we gain wisdom , knowledge and understanding.  That we take the time to think before we speak, we take the time to know where we want to plant and what we want to harvest.  Earthly things are ok, but they will fade and only God's word will stand.  Let's invest in God and his Kingdom.

YET HE LOVES ME

Song- Indescribable by: Kierra Sheard


It absolutely blows my mind, that God, in all his awesomeness, majesty....loves....ME!
The God that spoke and things formed from nothingness.  The God that created every creature, every plant, every flower.  The God that designed the Grand Canyon.  The  God that breathed into Adam and Eve....and life came forth.

The God that heals, restores, renews....knows me by my name.  He whispers my name in the wee hours.  He beckons me to meet with him.  How overwhelmed my heart feels.  That a God so powerful, so amazing, so loving and kind, yet just.....wants me in his presence.

I'll never understand, fully, the love that he feels for me.  I have failed him many times and yet he picks me up, speaks over me and says try again.

Why would I want to sin against him?  Why would I want to go against his word?  When you begin to know him, in intimacy, you long deeply to please him.  Not hurt him.  His vision for your life becomes your vision.  His word manifests in you.

I am reminded of David when he was on the run, and asked the Priest for a sword.  He had nothing to fight with.  The Priest unfolded a cloth which contained the very sword that he used to kill Goliath.  It had been Goliath's sword.  David had laid it down after the fight.

How often after a victory, or a new level, or getting caught up in our own agenda's, do we lay our swords down?  The very thing that God had anointed to conquer his enemy....he now needed.

My question  to you is this....
What have you laid down?  What have you given up that was called of God to help you conquer your enemies and fulfill your purpose?

I know for me, it has been his word.  I believe strongly in God's word, but I have not been praying his word like I know I need to.  God's word will accomplish what it says it will. So when you pray God's word, you are speaking God's words over the situation.

In so many situations God's word has helped walk through things.  Helped me know who I am in God.  Know what God's purpose is for my life. Knowledge empowers! Know God's word.

My prayer is that we all examine what we have laid down that never should have been laid down.
Help us Lord to hold fast to your word and to your promises. Give your people a deep desire to KNOW your word and obey.

YOU ARE A CONQUEROR

Song - Conqueror by: Vashawn Mitchell

The devil will always take his biggest blows at his biggest threats.  If a person is not causing threat to satan's purpose then he sees no need to waste his energy on them.  

That is why, you hear people who have great anointing, and blessing on their life, tell of all the hell, and trials they walked through.  There is a process of pushing, pressing and building your spiritual muscles up.  

It is really easy to preach, teach and tell someone about God's word, but when you wake up one day and you are faced with living it, and having the faith to walk it, that is when you grow the most.  Everything I walked through I know God has used to help me know HIS word deeper and learn a deeper trust in him.  That he was not out to crush me, but better me. 

The things that we feel will get the best of us, or take us down, is usually the thing that God is going to use to take us deeper in him, and raise us up higher in life.  

I'm sure that as Joseph sat in the pit, he had to feel totally forsaken.  It wasn't just people, but his family, his own brothers that through him there.  Then when he got sold to as a slave I imagine he wondered where God was.  But God had a plan through all Joseph walked through to set him up to be a blessing to a Nation.  He strategically placed him where he had the right access.  Placed the right people around him and declared favor over him.  When God declares favor....things start to happen.

Whatever you are facing today.  I pray God to let you know that he is setting you up for greatness.  That the Holy Spirit will surround you, walk with you through the journey and cause you to be an Conqueror.  Today's battle will be tomorrow's victory. 

I'd Rather have Jesus (Story behind the song)

Mrs. Rhea F. Miller-wrote poem




Mr. George Beverly Shea made it into a song    



Miller wrote a poem. In 1932, a copy of that poem was placed on the top of an organ in a family home in New York. Seated at the organ was a 23-year-old musician named George Beverly Shea.

Miller's poem caught young George's attention. The words on the paper rang true to the cry of his heart. And so, he set them to music. Upon hearing her son singing this testimony of commitment, George's mother came in from the kitchen, with tears in her eyes, and encouraged him to sing the new song in church the following Sunday.

As the congregants listened to George's deep voice sing out I'd Rather Have Jesus, than silver and gold, little did they know that the song was destined to become one of the most well-known of all contemporary Christian songs.
. 
A few years later, George joined forces with another young man - Evangelist Billy Graham. Together they traveled the world. Billy would preach and George would sing. His two favorite songs were How Great Thou Art, and his signature song, I'd Rather Have Jesus.

I'd Rather Have Jesus

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold,
I'd rather have His than have riches untold;
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
I'd rather be led by His nailpierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin's dread sway;
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause,
I'd rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame,
I'd rather be true to His holy name

Refrain

He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom,
He's sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He's all that my hungering spirit needs,
I'd rather have Jesus and let Him lead

Refrain

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:8).

*  The power that this song has had in influencing and changing lives for God will be fully evaluated only in eternity. There are countless testimonies by individuals whose lives have been changed by the singing of this one hymn:

A thousand grim marines sat on a South Pacific Island, during the days of World War II, listening to a 
gospel message punctuated with gunfire in the distance. When the chaplain sat down, a marine stood 
this feet to sing the closing hymn. As the shell-scarred palms swayed nearby, more than half of that 
company came forward to profess faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. The marine soloist, a former 
opera singer, had just concluded singing “I’d Rather Have Jesus...”