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Where Your Focus Goes, Your Energy Flows

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Philippians 4:8 Today we are thankful for the national holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King. We acknowledge and celebrate his accomplishments as a humanitarian, a global bridge builder, a dynamic minister, and a peacemaker. I remember many years ago when world-renowned motivational speaker Les Brown preached at the Crystal Cathedral. He shared some of his hardships growing up as an African American, including a learning disability in school and growing up poor. Yet, he had this dream to buy his mom a house. As a youngster, he would go with her to these big beautiful houses where she would clean and cook for the families. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t live in a big beautiful house, too. And

January 16, 2023 2 Comments

Changing the Skylight

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” – Matthew 6:22,23 Jesus tells us, “The eye is the lamp of the body.” It is our eyes that perceive light! Then He states, and I paraphrase, “If your eyes are bad, your body will be full of darkness.” What is Jesus emphasizing in this story? Picture yourself sitting in a house with friends. The house is full of light, but the electricity is not on. The light that fills the room is generated by a skylight powered by nature and is usually made of transparent or translucent glass. Jesus is saying that your eyes are almost like a skylight to the

January 8, 2023 No Comments

Celebrating Jesus’ Birth

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).“ – Matthew 1:21-23 Merry Christmas, friend. This is the day to celebrate the birth of Immanuel, God with us, and to rejoice in Jesus, our Lord, and Savior! It’s interesting that when we think of the nativity, we remember those who came — the shepherds, who were probably teenage girls, and the magi or wise men. Though Jesus was born in a water trough in a barn (definitely not a proper setting for a king), He broke down barriers and accomplished more than any other leader before or after Him

December 25, 2022 No Comments

Your Pilot Light

“You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.” – Psalm 18:28 A friend once asked me, “what does it mean to live in the Spirit or to have the Spirit inside of you?” I can understand him seeking guidance on this concept, because it perplexes people all the time. As we walk through life, we don’t always feel the Spirit of God on the inside. In response to this, the Lord gave me this revelation when I was contemplating how to answer my friend. When you’re baptized, God puts a “pilot light” inside of you. You know what a pilot light is, it’s in your fireplace or your stove. It’s a little blue, almost invisible light that provides the flame needed to light the gas coming out of the main burner. At times you almost need a flashlight to find it. It hardly gives off

July 4, 2022 No Comments

Knowing the Unsearchable Mind of the Lord

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ” – Romans 11:33,34 In his famous essay “As a Man Thinketh,” James Allen made an incredible statement that has become familiar to many of us. He said, “Men imagine that a thought can be kept secret, but it cannot. It rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.” You see, if you nurture a certain type of thinking, it will not remain hidden; the more you dwell on something, the more it will make itself apparent in every aspect of your life. If your thoughts are negative and filled with unforgiveness, bitterness, putting yourself down and feeling shame, your relationships will have negative outcomes. Thankfully, positive change is entirely possible and

June 17, 2022 No Comments

Run to God and Wait

“The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1 When I am aware of thoughts that are causing me to lose sleep or I have feelings of discomfort in my body — I am learning to just run to God. It is easy to blame others, like your spouse, a political party, or the government for your frustrations. I am thankful that as I run to God, I can just say, “Lord, this is what is on my mind and my heart. God, what is your answer to my frustration? How can I align with you in this situation?” I can then wait for God’s answer. God has victory in store for your life, and half of that victory is just believing that it is so. Looking at the life

May 8, 2022 No Comments

Enduring Injustice

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” – Colossians 3:22 Throughout the course of history, many people have read the verse above and taken it out of context. It’s horrifying to think that before the Civil War, pastors were using this passage in Colossians to teach that God condones slavery. However, nothing could be further from the truth! Satan loves to take the Word of the Lord and twist it into something evil, after all, what better way to deceive than to cloak darkness in light? The reality of these verses is that the Apostle Paul is teaching us how to endure a bad lot in life, even if what is being done to us goes against the heart of Jesus. Slavery is not

April 11, 2022 No Comments

Winter from Two Perspectives

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.” – Genesis 8:22 After the holidays, many of us are disappointed. We pack up the Christmas decorations, our hearts heavy with the knowledge that the festivities and celebrations are done. January, on the other hand, is brimming with potential and the promise of new beginnings. This is why I think winter is only a matter of perspective. I relocated to Oklahoma from California when I was a teenager, as I’ve already mentioned. It was a difficult adjustment for me, especially since it was my first time dealing with the brutal and piercing cold of winter. Then there was a snow day, and I got to skip school. I had never experienced a snow day before, and I recall thinking to myself at the time, “well, maybe this isn’t so

January 15, 2022 5 Comments

Claiming Victory

“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” – 1 John 3:4,5 The Bible is not ignorant of the world’s suffering. When you study the Jewish Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, you’ll see that the authors grappled with this question: why do good people suffer? Job, one of the first books of the Bible, is devoted entirely to the subject. Moreover, the majority of the minor prophets and the Psalms are lamentations: Oh Lord, how long will you forget the poor?, How long will you forget the downcast, oh Lord?, How long must we sing this song? In fact, Jesus Christ’s words on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are a Psalms quote. The

December 18, 2021 No Comments

God Has the Final Say

“Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, ‘I will be king.’ So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. (His father had never rebuked him by asking, ‘Why do you behave as you do?’ He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)” – 1 Kings 1:5,6 When David was a very old man and close to death, his son Adonijah thought that he should be Israel’s next leader and take his father’s place. However, the king had already decided that Solomon, his tenth son and the child of Bathsheba, would be his successor. Nevertheless, Adonijah usurped the throne and quickly gathered a group of officials around him to crown him king and throw him a coronation party. Hearing of this, Bathsheba alerted the prophet Nathan, and the two of them went to the ailing David and

September 7, 2021 1 Comment

Where Your Focus Goes, Your Energy Flows

Changing the Skylight

Celebrating Jesus’ Birth

Your Pilot Light

Knowing the Unsearchable Mind of the Lord

Run to God and Wait

Enduring Injustice

Winter from Two Perspectives

Claiming Victory

God Has the Final Say

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