Say Something Good About Somebody

I was reading a sermon yesterday called "Question and Answers on the Holy Ghost", and something really stuck out to me that as really been a blessing.  QUESTIONS_AND_ANSWERS_ON_THE_HOLY_GHOST JEFF_IN 12-19-59 


8 The Syrophenician woman, Greek actually what she was, when she--when Jesus said to her, said, "It's not meet for Me to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." She said, "That's true, Lord; but the dogs under the table eats the children's crumbs." He said, "For this saying, the devil's left your daughter." Say good things then. Say something good about somebody. Talk about Jesus. Say something loyal, something real. That's the way to get rid of devils. He never said--He never prayed for the girl. He never said one thing about her being healed; He just said, "For this saying, for this saying..." Hattie Wright, the other day, she didn't ask for nothing. She was just setting there, but she said the right thing, which pleased the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit spoke back and said, "Hattie, ask anything that you will, whatever you got and you want. Find out whether this is real or not. Ask anything (the healing of her little crippled sister setting there all drawed up; ten thousand dollars to keep her from digging on them hills over there; the youth restored to her well run-down body); whatever you want to ask, you ask it right now. If It don't come and give it to you right now, then I'm a false prophet." That's--that's--that's something, isn't it? Jesus said, "Say to this mountain..." 

Words are powerful! The scripture reads that a man will speak from the abundance of his heart. One early morning last year, I was driving to work and was in a deep prayer with the Lord and He spoke something to me that I will never forget. He said, " You can tell what a man is surrendered to by what his conversation surrounds." I believe those words to be true. A tree is known by its fruit. My associate pastor, Bro Tony, spoke one time that a cat can try to act like a dog all he wants, but put his tail in a vice one time and you will know real quick that he is a cat. It is during the hard times that we see what we are made of. As I was saying a few moments ago, words are powerful! You can be having a hard day at work with nothing going right and your boss can walk by and pat you on the back and say you are doing a great job. All of a sudden you start feeling good again. What is it? Words! Good Words. You can be going through a checkout line at a grocery store and your checker may look like they are mad at the world. You could say what a terrible job they are doing and tell them they need to smile or you can change their day for the better. Tell them they are doing a good job and that you appreciate their good service. Watch how their countenance and attitude will change. If you are at a restaurant and your waitress isn't giving the best service, don't get angry for the bad service, but how can I make this person's day better? Let's be Christ to this dark world. Let's speak wholesome words that bring light rather than darkness. The same way good words can bring life bad words can bring death. Lets let our conversation be as it becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, Guide my conversations today that I can bring life to they that are around me. Amen.

When God Stepped In

     Today, I am going to share a testimony of one of the great things God has done in my life. This particular testimony happened after I had already given my life to the Lord and was married a short time. My wife and I had a baby boy we named Elijah. He had eczema all over his body from head to toe. The poor little baby would just cry all the time because of the pain. His face was all bloody and scabbed over and it was all over his body. We took him to several different specialists and each one said he would more than likely have it all of his life and all we could do is help with the pain. Everywhere we went, people would stare or ask what is wrong with our baby. My wife and I would seek for God to heal our baby. It just broke our heart to see him having such a horrible pain. The sores just kept getting worse and he was only around 7 months old. To make things worse, I got laid off of my job and was late on rent, I had an electric bill due, and didn't have gas in my vehicle. My wife and son then got really sick with the flu. It was a Wednesday night and my poor little baby's face was all bloody and it spread all the way down to his feet and on top of that he was sick. We were going to go ahead and go to the Emergency Room, but decided to wait until morning so Elijah could see his own Dr. because it was so late in the evening. I told my wife," I got to go to church." Our church was about 32 miles one way from our house and I had less than 1/4 tank of gas in our Jeep, so she said, you don't have enough gas. I told her I would just drive as far as I could and I'd walk the rest of the way if I needed to. I just knew I needed to go to church. My wife and baby stayed home in bed, because they were very ill. On my way to church, I began to cry and ask God why things were going so bad. I had always paid my tithes and offerings and did my best to live the Gospel, yet my whole world was falling apart. I finally made it to church and I sat in the back pew. I was so upset about my family being sick and the bills I struggled to focus on the service. I felt like I had no faith at all. My pastor ended the sermon and asked me to come up and close service in prayer. I didn't feel like I had any faith to pray for myself much less anyone else, but I walked up to the front to pray anyways. As I started to pray, I began to cry and faith came to my heart and I asked God to heal my boy and my wife and to help me with all that I was going through. I felt much better in my heart. I shouldn't of had gas to get to church, but I did and I shouldn't of had enough to get back home, but I did. When I pulled into the driveway, my wife met me at the door with my baby boy in her arms. His face was brand new and he and she were perfectly healed! We just cried and prayed most of the night thanking God for his mercy. Elijah's whole body had brand new skin and he was just a smiling. That night I couldn't sleep, because I was so excited about what had happened. My electric was going to be shut off the very next day at around noon. As I was on my knees, God spoke to me to hook my trailer up to the Jeep and go to such in such a place, because He had something for me. So, I hooked up my trailer and headed to the place He told me. I shouldn't of had gas to get there, but I did. I went to the place God told me to go and I couldn't believe my eyes. There were boxes of nice plates, cups, and lamps sitting in a field by some old dumpsters. God spoke to me and said, " This is for you, Go to your mother's house and have a yard sale and I will bless it. I loaded all the boxes and was on my way crying ever turn of the wheel. I made it all the way to my mom's house on the same tank of gas. We started the yard sale at a little before 8:00 and by 10:30 we made a little over $900.00. We made enough to pay the electric, pay rent, and put fuel in the Jeep. We were so happy! My wife and I went to our house and were on our knees praying and thanking God for His mercy when we had a knock at the door. It was my mom. We didn't have a home phone so her house was our message number. She had tears in her eyes and  told me I needed to come to her house right away, because my supervisor from my job I was layed off was waiting on my return phone call. We all loaded up and rushed to her house. When I called my supervisor, she said, Daniel, can you start back to work in the morning? I was crying and tried my best to make out the words Yes I Can! She said, I need a band saw operator so you are also getting a $1.20 raise if you are interested. God stepped in!! God is in control of our life. There is an old song I like that says, Only Trust Him, Only Trust Him, Only Trust Him Now.....

Taking Control

     There comes a time in a person's life, where they must decide to no longer be pushed against the wall and start taking control. Whether it be in the work place or at home, living in this high paced world, we as humans tend to allow our surroundings control us. We can become overburdened with the cares of this life and eventually lose sight of our goals and visions in this life. I heard a story one time about a slave trader looking to buy some slaves. As he looked across all the slaves, they all had their heads down and looked so depressed. They looked as if their was nothing to be prideful about or to look forward to. I mean, in a sense, who could blame them? They were in constant bondage and continuously being whipped for not working hard enough. However, in the midst of all these burdened down slaves, there was one slave who had his head up and his chest out. He walked with pride as he worked. The slave trader told the slave master, " I want that slave!" The slave master said, "Oh no! He's not for sale!" The trader then asked, well is he an overseer of the other slaves? The master said no, he is just a slave. Well, is he fed better than all the other slaves? No, he eats with all the other slaves. Then why is he so much more different than all the other slaves? The master then said, I always wondered the same thing until I found out. His father is the king of the tribe in his home country and because he is the son of a king, he acts like a son of a king even in this trial of a life. If, that man in the bondage of being another man's slave can walk like that over his father being a king of a tribe in his country, " How much more should be walk with pride in this world when our father is the King of Glory?" There are certain things in this life that we cannot change. Yet there is something this world cannot change about us this world. I will always be a Child of the King! I have 3 boys. I love them all with all my heart. In their flesh, they look like me and you can tell they are my sons. There will be times in this life when they will disappoint me. They will do something I didn't they would ever do, but do you know we can never disappoint God. He knows every mistake we will ever make and has already made provisions to get us back on track. Even though my boys may disappoint me, they will still be my sons. God spoke to Satan one time, and asked, Have your tried my servant Job? Satan said I would, but you have a hedge about him. Satan realized that he can't do anything unless God allows is. Pilate told Jesus, Don't you realize I have the power to crucify you or release you? Jesus said, you have no power, except it were given from above. God is in Control! That means we can stop stressing over the cares of this life and take pride in the fact that God not only cares about our life, but is in control of our life. There is one thing we must do to take control of our life. We must surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to be the lord of our life. If we will confess our            
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It will be Him cleansing us. However He is a gentleman. He will not force Himself upon us. We must welcome him.

The Importance of "Good Form"

Coming from a background of weight lifting, I learned the importance of having good form. A person can do 100 pushups, but if they aren't doing them correctly, regardless of the quantity, they aren't really gaining anything. The purpose of having good form while doing the pushup is to strengthen the muscles you are aiming at. The human body is created in such a way that when one muscle begins to struggle, another muscle will be ready to compensate to the need of that muscle. That is why your body will try to not keep the "good form" you are seeking for to strengthen certain muscles. Our life is like those muscles that would rather go the road of least resistance rather than take good form. Have you ever noticed that by taking the "easy way" in life you get through life, but that is about all. An athlete that just goes with the flow can be on the team perhaps, yet in order for him to make a great accomplishments as a player, he must work at it. He must have a goal set in his mind and commit himself to that goal. I learned to play the piano when I was a young boy. The teacher didn't try to teach me to be the fastest player when she began to teach me. Actually, she told me to not even think about being fast, but to think of being accurate. What good would it do me to be the fasted at pushing the keys if they didn't bring out harmony in the music. I learned that once one learned the accuracy while pushing the keys, the speed came automatically afterward. When Michaelangelo made his masterpiece of Moses, he found a pattern and stuck with that pattern until the masterpiece was finished. Think of it. If he changed his pattern from one day to another, how much would he confuse himself? When a family sets a budget for their income, they have to stick with that budget. That is if they want good results.To have the best accomplishment in the goal we are setting, the first thing we must do is be honest with ourself. If its financially, how in debt am I really and what can I really afford? If its getting in shape, where am I honestly health wise. In order conquer something, we must first know where we are, honestly. Once we see where we are honestly weather it be financially, physically, or spiritually we can then set the goal of where we want to be. We then will begin to set form of how we are going to get there. This is all I will be writing today, but I will be posting the next thought of Overcoming Life's Obstacles very soon.  Thanks for reading.

Overcoming Life's Obstacles

How to overcome life's obstacles!   One thing I've come to understand on my journey is, life is filled with obstacles. There are plenty of precious moments we will always remember and cherish, yet there are times when we wonder how we will make it through the next day. It is through the things we endure in this life that make us who we are. We are born with eyes, hair, hands, and feet, yet one thing we aren't born with... That is Character! Character is not a gift we are born with or something you can buy at a store somewhere. It is a victory one will gain as they overcome life's obstacles. I have noticed that it is through trials in this life that will reveal the character a person has and it will build more character to who they are. One thing that a person must really have to achieve great accomplishments and endure hard trials is a vision. Without a vision the people will perish. Any successful athlete, businessman, or everyday mom or dad must have a vision. Without a vision, we will go through this life aimlessly. I heard a story one time of a little boy with a junky bicycle that was all rusty. He entered a race against some boys with fine bicycles with new paint and looked like much more accomplished riders. They mocked at the boy with the old junky bicycle for even daring to enter the race with them, but the boy just ducked his head and continued to that starting line. When the race started, the little poor boy was left behind in the dust of all the other boys. At the end of the race, they had to ride down this long 2x4 ramp to reach the finish line. When the little poor boy got to the finish line to his surprise, there was a big pile of bikes under the 2x4 along with angry riders. The little boy just tugged along all the way down the 2x4 across the finish line to win the race. He was confronted by the other boys and some others with the question, ''How did you make it all he way down the board without falling off?" He just smiled as he said, " I just kept my eyes on the finish line!" That's what we must do. We got to keep our eyes on the finish line. What is our vision? What do we want to accomplish from this life? I will be bringing some powerful thoughts in some upcoming post that will be expressing how to overcome obstacles, whether it be work, sports, or every day life.