Expectations...

I am a person who will try one thing if it works until it doesn't work. When it doesnt work anymore I get rid of it and start again. I, used to , however, never transfer that to my christian walk. I see God move in different situations and in different ways. However, I expect soooooooooooooooooo much sometimes that I try to dictate how God moves in any given situation. I try my best to do everything 'right' so that eveything can happen just like that again. u know because it was oh so good. In my own little way i was putting God in a box. I enjoyed the previous experience so much that I wanted to head back into that direction instead of moving forward. Soon i learnt that God dosent want us to have the same experience all the time. We cant be at a stand still. We must move forward. We cannot dictate the way GOD CHOOSES to move. That is not our business. Our business is that when he's ready so are we. I choose not to try to "invoke" the Spirit of God. I no longer go expecting or in anticipation of how i believe God should move. I just go. Because we can do all we ant, pray all we want, sing all we want, live a holy life all we want. God does as he pleases and he sees fit. God moves when he chooses too. Now and Forever. Encouragement for today...trust that God knows best. God's timing is the right timing.

The Master Designer

Lets for a second think about the earth, out solar system and the many other put there. God designed a universe full of colour and artistry that is unbeknown to us. God knew exactly where to put the earth so that we are not destroyed by the sun's rays. He knew exactly where to place the earth so that we dont freeze from the sun. Just think about the colours of the earth. The lucious greens of plants and the deep blues of the seas. The yellow of the sun and the brown of the earth. Oh my gosh. I got a devine revelation today sitting in class. As we discussed creation and the solar system my mind runs to the Milky way and all the other things we have not yet discovered. God really is a master designer. I am creative but never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought up a plan like this. Can you imagine what we would have been like if we were created to stand on our feet. How hard would it be to eat with our feet? I can go on and on about Gods creativity. Woooooohoooooooooooooooooooo. A God of that creativity thought of me and knows me by name and is concerned about my being. He took his time to craft me. How I look. Tonight I admonish us to really stop and think and listen and look at creation. Look at what our God created for us to enjoy. The aesthetic of this world is amazing. Wow! Lets really pay attention to and thank God for taking the time to think of me.

Friends are Like Flowers

At school being away from family is super hard. However, I have learnt to 'adopt' family. I got alot of brothers and sisters oh and lots of parents. I have a 'little sister' who helps me so much I dont think she even knows. Last night I was at a point of depression and her encouragement came without me having to ask. She is a blessing and I never ever forget to let her know it.
I say all this to say, God places persons in our lives to encourage and help us. We sometimes confuse these friends with the person who should just be passing through. We have faith in these people and we put our trust in them and then they dissappoint us in the long run. These friends end up being leeches that suck life out of us and rather than pouring into your lives. My point is this. Appreciate the people around you who dont need to be prompted to encourage you. Persons who can look at you and 'sense' that there is a need to encourage you. Persons who will be quick to listen and slow to talk. Persons who God uses to bless and encourage you no matter what. Persons who are praying for you whether you know it or not. Appreciate and pray for them.

Who's Who's

This week as what at a point that I beleive as Christian we all get to. The point of feeling like we are not worthy to be used. We slip up, we dont read our word, we bearly pray yet we are pushed to minister when we believe we are not ready. I thank God for friends and mentors in my life who dont let me come down on myself for it sometimes. They share their experiences with me and I soon realise that it isnt only me. Everyone goes throuth this phase of feeling inadequate.
What suck out to me is that 'WE' feel we arent worthy/ready. But really lets think about it. The only person really who can let us know if we are ready or not is God. We dont operate by human standards of readiness or by what man things is to be ready or not. So my friends very short and very simple here it goes. It may seem as if we are not worthy or inadequate but it is not for us or man to dictate whether we are ready or not. Trust that God knows best. After all he does. ;-)

Circumstances.

God wants to use us. Believe it or not we are not here on earth for ourselves rather we are here for God and to do his work. Last year I was so consumed with that notion that I completely forgot about relationship. Our relationship with God is more important than any ministry you can think of. This year I have dedicated to many things. One of these things is chasing after God. I want to know God so much that the desire consumes me at times. Recently I have felt though that the more I seek after him is the further away he seems.
Not the best predicament to be in I must say. Never is. I have been praying and reading the Word and I felt like nothing was working. I did all that I can to 'feel' closer to God but nothing worked. I then spoke to one of my youth leaders and who reminded me of something I told him God had asked me to do. In doing introspection I realised that I had some unfinished business to handle. I never ever thought that this one situation, this one small t hing that I had to do would be the thing keeping me from catching up with God.
Sometimes we pay no attention to the little things that may be keeping us from God. We wonder why we feel so distant from him or why he isn't answering us. Sometimes its just the little things. I did what God asked and immediately began feeling better. My encouragement today is examine yourself and your lives. Is there anything keeping you from God? If so what are you going to do about it?

Sigh!!!!!!

We constantly hear the saying "we are living in the end times...God is soon coming" and I am of the opinion that we have heard it to often that we believe God is coming anytime soon. What we fail to realise is that the more time elapses the closer his coming. We always believe we have time. Time to party, Time to play around and according to my District Youth Leader Time to 'Palance'. But do we ever sit and think about it. We have been getting warnings for the past 2000 years and yet still we choose not to believe. Most of us grow up in church and christian homes yet still we feel the desire to 'live my life while I'm young. I have time.' Well my friends I'm here to tell you that there is no time. The end times are here it is no longer coming. No longer is it a figure of speech. You either shape up or ship out. What decision are you making.
As a young person I know its hard sometimes because the level that is calling us to surpass the ones of the 'older heads' at our churches.Because of the level we are being called to we will be asked to do things and say things that adults may have an issue with. Because of the level that God is calling us to we will be unable to settle for mediocrity and the form of godliness that we are taught. Because of the level that God is calling us to we may lose friends. Because God requires Holiness from us we may be persecuted. As young people who have decided to take that stand for Christ we cannot be wavered by such things. All we need to do is to be obedient to God's voice. God's voice and no other. At times it may be hard and we may wonder if what we are doing is what God requires of us. I say if what we are doing is not what God wants then he will find a way to kick you back in line. So my fellow young people don't be discouraged but be on guard. God is ready to use you. Are you ready to give yourself a way and surrender all???

Consistency!

What a word. Today I excercised. Yes I did! Woooooooooohooooooo. I'm not in pain but I am expecting that later. While excercising today i though about how effective just doing it for one day would be. If i did it once a month, or week if i would ever get the desired response. Of course not. I must be consistent. Then the song read your bible pray everyday came to mind. The song pro motes that of you read your bible and pray everyday that you will grow. Some of us read or bible once a month and once a week and expect results. Well i have some news for you justg like excersise it aint gonna work for you. Reading God's word and praying everyday is food to our spirit. Just like our natrual body needs food to grow so does our spirit man. How well are you feeding your spirit. Is it once a month or once a week. For some its even once or twice a year. Just like if you deprive your physical body of food you will starve to death so to can your spirit man starve to death. So people I encourage us today to remain in Gods word. Seek his face daily and a supernatrual transformation will follow. Love yall!

A Daily Planner

I'm a planner. That's what i do. I love to organize events, build flyers and promote them as well. It is there that if find myself most happy. when i am able to see the success of something i plan happen. I have planned everything from Beach limes to dinners in my already short life time. And I am proud of that. As a worship leader i plan what songs i feel lead by the Spirit to sing.
My planning has filtered in even into my daily lives. I plan what time i wake a schedule every hour of my day to make it as successful as it could possibly be. However, the plans that I make for myself everyday never seem to happen. I plan it down to a tee the night before and it never quite seems to happen. I often wonder why and one day it hit me like a ton of bricks. 'How much of your planning involves God? Is God consulted about what you have planned?' Some people would say that's mighty simple to be asking God about. Its just your day to day living. God doesn't really fuss about it much. I even use to think like that. For me God had too much to do and just asking him how he wanted my day to go was adding to his already busy schedule.
My friends, plans don't work if you don't have Jesus in them. If God doesn't have an input your day will never go as planned. Take it from someone who knows. God cares about EVERY detail of our lives. He wants to see us with maximum results at the end of the day and i want that to. It calls for absolute and complete submission to him. We need to forget about what we want to do and do what he says to do, God know best. We must trust and believe that God wont ask you to do anything that isn't best for you. So my friends, when we plan, whatever we plan, please consult God. From the smallest to the largest. God cares and we must Trust his judgement.

Valentines Day Special

So its Valentines Day and most likely and I'm just guessing here, your church dealt with some aspect of love today. So me being my normal self will try not to deviate from love to much. So in Trinidad we are in the height of the carnival season and for those non Trinbagonians its a season of revelry and partying in our country. Not a place for children of God. And as much as young people try to justify why they go and participate in these activities, they are still wrong. Nothing Luke warm about it.
Ending our Carnival season this year will be non other than international artiste Beyonce. Even though some young christian young people wont take part in the actual activities of carnival, they will be at that show. Reasons like its just music and it isn't a party come up. I am not even going into the demonic symbolism's that appear in her songs, pictures and music videos. I am simply going to deal with the facts.
A pastor at one of our chapel services said something that always stays with me. He said to test if what you are doing is right or wrong ask yourself this question. 'Can I pray before it, through it and after it'. Can we really go to a show like that with all the knowledge that we have and be comfortable. If so then you need to check yourself.
As a musician I respect her talent. Beyonce is an excellent musician, writer and performer. And many a times i reflect and think if she was doing for Jesus how many souls she would have won. And we may say this is just on thing we are doing for ourselves. We live as God would want us to all the time so why would he not want me to go enjoy myself. A good friend once told me that life is too short to do what you want to do. God is no longer playing young people. Its either you're sold out for him or you're in the world. And the bible says that we are in the world and not of the world. We are suppose to influence and not be influenced.
What really gets to me about this is that unbelievers know where we should and should not be. They also know what we as christian should and should not be doing. When they see us at these shows and parties they believe two things. The first is that the church is full of hypocrites. We preach one thing and do another. And the second is that if we can do it they can do it to. So they adapt a superficial Christianity because we believe that we can get away with what we do.
First Corinthians Chapter 8 verse 9 reads "But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak." (KJV)
The NIV says Be careful that the exercises of your freedom become a stumbling block to the weak. WOW! We are warned that even though you may see nothing wrong with a song you sing, or an outfit you wear, or the way you behave, It may become a stumbling block to the weak.
My encouragement today is simply that. Be careful of what you do, say and how you behave. I know You do not want to become a stumbling block to the weak.

The Power of God

Last night into this morning I shared an awesome experiences with God and some of my roommates. We sat at our kitchen table talking about the awesomeness of God and how at times its so hard to have your own experience with him. We spoke about longing to move to another level in God and really chasing after him. On reflecting on those things God's spirit began to move and one thing led to a next until some of us were on the floor, others were screaming and laughing uncontrollably. The awesomeness of God i tell you my friends there is nothing like it. God's spirit was in this place. Persons were convicted and ministered unto and it was amazing. It was almost as if God said "hey its time for your own experience. Its time you meet me face to face" It was so amazing.Never ever have I experienced something like that. JESUS!
I say all this to say, God wants to have a relationship with us. Its not about going through the motions or straddling the line. God wants all of us and the minute you completely surrender to God and hos will you will have your own experience. You will no longer have to live through the experiences of others. We can taste and see for ourselves that God is good.Please remember that my experience may not be how your experience will be. So my encouragement to you my friends is to seek God for yourselves and watch him move in your life.

Shyness Vs Obedience

I have always been the type of person who was embarrassed easily. If a cute guy would talk to me or i act clumsily i would always be super embarrassed. if i had a message to deliver to someone i didn't know or for some reason i had to speak to someone i had never met before, there was always this element of being shy. Even now meeting new people for me is not as easy as I make it appear. You must be thinking "does a shy person have a blog?" The thing is i can be so bold with friends and persons who know me and I am sure everyone WHO does know me and reads this would say "shy when?" The truth is though there is something really uncomfortable to me to have to walk up to someone and introduce myself. If u come speak to me that's great. I would always TRY to keep the conversation going. But that's another story.
As a christian i have realised that this was a habit i would soon have to break out of. God sometimes asks us to deliver messages to persons. Sometimes these are good messages and other tomes they are rebukes. No one wants to hear a rebuke and because of this they sometimes want to 'kill the messenger'. It is for this reason that i was afraid to do and say what i knew God wanted me to do and say. Reading this verse however, changed that instantly.Ezekiel chapter three verse eighteen says "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood."(NIV). Basically the verse is saying if i send a warning to someone via you (my servant) and you choose not to deliver it, that person will die in their sin and you will be held accountable.
I am sorry but i do not want any ones blood on my hands. I dint think i could live with that kind of guilt. Knowing that some one is going to hell because i didn't want to feel uncomfortable or because i did not want to be persecuted or even because i didn't want to hurt feelings or offend is not something i will accept lightly. A good friend of mind pointed out something to me recently. If a person is not offended when you point out a flaw then they will not feel obligated to change it. And it is true. Think back on a time you made a change in your life and then really think about why you made that change. You'd be surprised at what you would find.
My encouragement is similar to last night's. OBEDIENCE is the key. The truth offends. The bible says that Gods word is like a double edged sword and it should pierce us. Don't be afraid to do what God requires of you not matter how weird or bizarre it seems. God wont ask you to do anything that you cant do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your part! My friends trust in God and be obedient to his voice and you will see, it will all get easier.

Spirit of Excellence!

I wrote this couple of monthss ago...
Enjoy



In doing some reflection on my day yesterday I came to a realization. Our God is a God of excellence. It is always said. God is a God of decency and order. We always hear that to. But what does that mean to us as Christians? Well to us of course, it means that when we sing we give it our best and aesthetic sound as great as we can. It also means that when we preach we, preach as best as we can and deliver the timely word that God has laid on our hearts. Amen. The choir must sound great to minister effectively because God is a God of excellence. My mother would always pray for her four women of excellence (my sisters and I) and I wonder if we ever really grasped the concept.
But what about in our personal lives? Do our lives reflect excellence? In our school work at our workplace, do we put out excellent work? Or is that the excellence of God pertains only to ministry? Do we put out B+ work instead of A+ and if so why? While we should be doing our jobs are we wasting the day out on a certain social network which will remain unnamed? Or chatting on messenger with people we will see sometime this week?
God requires us to become like him. We are made in his image and in his likeness. We are to be like him. So then if God is a God of excellence in every area then shouldn’t we be. This year has been a major turning point in my life.Getting to know God even more and what he requires of me has been an awesome journey. But I have seen my grades, my job performance improve and my overall attitude change, especially this semester.
As children of God we must STAND OUT. We should not behave or perform like unbelievers. There is more that God requires of us and doing our best in everything that we do is good enough. Anything less isn’t what God wants. So my peeps I love ya’ll this was just something God laid on my heart to share. Whoever it’s for, I hope it was some encouragement. God is a God of excellence and we are his children. Therefore our lives are to reflect the one of our father. Be Blessed my friends!
Taki!

My First Post!

Today was an interesting day so far. Couple months ago God asked of me to wake at five thirty to spend time with him. It sounds easy enough right but that is so not the case. I am a college students who's classes are mostly at night and who studies at night. After my classes finish at nine and i get out of class mode, then to study a bit maybe work on a paper, my night fiinishes at 2 AM for the earliest. It was a good cycle to have. Sleep in the day and study at night and i was very cool with that. So you can understand my predicament.
I must say that this feat has not been an easy one. I have tried everything from alarm clocks to hjust plain staying up all night until five thirty. nothing seems to work. I may get up today but tomorow i sleep straight through. Its really difficult mainly because i feel like i'm a failure. I know that there is a reason why God requires that i wake up and even if i dont see it right now i know that there is a reason. SO since the semester has started on Monday i have managed to wake up on Tuesday and today and it has been working out well. i have managed to wake up and pray but most times i go back to bed. And u must be thinking, 'why wasnt she doing that all the time?' To tell you the truth i just dont know. My problem is not waking up but rather staying up. Seems silly u know but it is a real issue.
i guess i say this all to say, friends it is not abt you. Its not abt me. Its abt God and what he requires of us. Many times we dont understand why things happen the way they do or why God would ask us to do things that are hard for us. i wonder these things all the time.But then i'm reminded that its not abt me or what i want. Its not abt me being comfortable. Its not abt me being liked. Its not abt me at all. Its abt God and his work that we're doing. So my word of encouragement for today 10th February 2009 id always be obedient. No matter what God how uncomfortable of far fetched it seems. Obedience is better than sacrifice!