You're In The Will If - You're Doing Good in the World

1Peter 2:13: Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God's emissaries for keeping order. It is God's will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you're a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.

So it's FRIDAY!!!!!!!YAAAAAAAY this is the day many of you have been waiting for and it's at the end of what may have been a long, or challenging week, and it's so easy to now slip into auto pilot and coast the day away until we clock out of our jobs then the "fun begins"? Really? I do mean REALLY? Today's scripture says Let's make the Master proud...and slipping into autopilot is not the way. NO, we have to be intentional just so that we won't slip into autopilot. It's layed out in this scripture HOW we can make GOD proud! So let me go over them BE A GOOD CITZEN by: 1 Respecting the people in authority; the PRESIDENT ( I don't care what country you live in - uh I got friends in Africa....so their too) so this would mean...don't post crap about "he/she sucks, or patronizing their decisions, or you'd wish they'd die or can't wait for them to leave office....get the point!), Your Bosses and even YOUR PARENTS they ARE GOD SELECTED they didn't accidently end up in authority over you! Tell me where Christ slammed Caesar, GOD his Father or even Mary & Joseph....you can't.

2) God's glory comes from you doing good! HELLO....not you expressing your feelings on FB, BLOGS, or telling folks off in a "nice nasty" way. He did say......YOUR GOOD MIGHT CURE IGNORANCE of those who think your Christian beliefs are a threat....(ref. Gal. 5:23)

3) Excercise your freedom by (protesting, sending hate mail, posting negativity......NOT) SERVING GOD. Focus on how does your actions and words serve GOD in promoting the advancement of His Kingdom....if they don't align with His Will, then you're trying to build your own Kingdom.

4)Treat everyone you meet with dignity (respect) Just because they support this party, or live there, or like cats/dogs or eat meat, or talk like. (In the movie "Hotel Ruwanda" the tribes were killing and promoting hatred between each other based on the sizes of their noses.....THIS IS A TRUE STORY of our ignorance toward humanity....) .........I mean for real people....He meant it when He said...LOVE PEOPLE! I don't care if you like them........LOVE PEOPLE! TODAY.

5)Love your spiritual family! Uh....church hopping is for RABBITS...Trix are for.....you know what I'm saying. So what they won't sing your song....ITS GOD's CHURCH. Ok so they didn't talk to you again.......WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO GLORIFY HIM in the situation. They let him preach again......AND UNTIL GOD FEELS DIFFERENTLY HE'LL PREACH THIS SUNDAY TOO! Stop complaining about the people GOD has placed in what supposed to be a loving community, but one of the problems is you're not committed to loving them, like HE LOVES YOU!

6) Revere GOD........if you have profound respect and hold AWE for GOD....1-5 is a breeze for you!

7) HE HAD TO MENTION AGAIN RESPECT THE GOV'T apparently because HE knew we'd be disrepectful.

The picture above is of a recreational/cafeteria that was being built 2 years ago at African Bible College in Malawi, Africa. If you really look hard.....you'll see a guy on the roof taking a rest from what looks like A LOT OF WORK. But the amount of work didn't overwhelm him to the point of quitting. I will tell you when we arrived there was no roof, but by the time we left 8 days later there was a full roof....because he didn't quit, and others joined him. I said that to say.....don't quit doing GOOD PEOPLE! I know 1-7 might be hard or a lot of work, but I guarantee I will be one of the ones helping, and so will a few others that hearts are bent towards LOVING GOD and LOVING PEOPLE! Have a great FRIDAY and WEEKEND!

Are You Thankful? REALLY?

1 Thessalonians 5:18: 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

THANKFULNESS (adj) - feeling or expressing gratitude or appreciation towards. Is this how people would describe you? When you talk about your relationship with your kids, church family, or spouse, does thankfulness, would people say it is evident in your conversation? Ok, maybe they'd say it about your feelings toward work or school? Do people around you come to you for encourage re: _______________________ because you have a thankful heart? The bottom line is this.....GOD's will is that we'd be thankful in all circumstances ( promotions, reductions in force, births, deaths, prosperity, recessions, sickness, health, etc) like Joseph.....read where he complained about being locked up for being falsley accused. You won't. Read where he cursed & blamed God for being sold intot slavery by his own brothers. You won't. Your situations should cause you to trust GOD, not complain about what you don't have or what aint the way you want it.....God is in the business of getting your heart to beat as His does, and they only way to do that is get into His will. This video is of the people of Katskatera, Africa....some of them walked 12.5 miles up a mountain to meet with us, and if you don't see their thankfulness for us, for our visit with them......then you're blind. Is this what your thankfulness looks like when you go to work, to church, to complete strangers.......?

God, we apologize for our ungrateful attitudes and may our hearts be filled with thankfulness for all that you have done & provided for us. Let us begin with saying thanks for the multitude of things you've already done for us starting with _________________ and let our life today be a reflection of our appreciation towards You.

To Be in the WILL You have to BE in the WORD

John 7:17-20 NLT -: 17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. 19 Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.”

Here Christ is informing his audience if any of us wants to do the will of GOD, will be those who know His word and feed people from it. He goes so far to say a person who seeks to honor Him speaks truth, not lies then talks about the law.....and then says but none of you obey it. He even points out that they are trying to kill Him. Is that you? Are you trying to re-crucify Christ? When people come to you for advice how quick are you in your answer to their problem or question? I ask how quick because, if you are cautious you'd lead them to what the WORD has to say, instead of what you think or feel. You know when you give people YOUR ADVICE instead of GOD's WORD who get's credited for that advice? WE are killing Him when we fail to point people to Him. We are killing Him when we seek to take glory for ourselves instead of GLORIFYING Him.

Today is Wednesday and many of us refer to it as hump day, where we figure we are half way there....halfway where???? Look back since church on Sunday or wherever you began......have you spent ample time in GOD's WORD? How are you doing in your devotion? Is HE worth 15min of your Lunch Time to get into your journal your heart's concerns?

Father, forgive us for attempting to advise YOUR people, without YOUR WORD. Help us to be truly quick to listen and slower to speak, taking the time given to give them true GODLY council. AMEN

Are You In The Will @ WORK?

Ephesians 6:5-7 NLT : 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.


TODAY is TUESDAY, and the question is did you do it? Yesterday? Did you serve your superiors sincerely as you would serve Christ? Ok now that you've actually spent som time this morning repenting of your attitude and actions yesterday, let's now move forward. Why is it important you have this type of attitudinal approach to your boss, your job, the people you work with.......well simply because if you do it GLORIFIES GOD and it places CHRIST in your workplace. I mean really if you don't bring CHRIST to the workplace, how else does He get there, or are you depending on someone else to do what you were called to do when you accepted Him as your personal savior? So before you run out of the door, let's check and make sure we are really READY TO GO TO WORK today:


1) How is your heart? Is it a thankful and appreciative heart for your job? Is it...." I gotta go to work," or is it " I get to go to work today?" one is a thankful expression unto GOD.


2) Are you excited or enthusiastic about going to work? (Ok think about it like this, when you tell your kids to do the kitchen....isn't their attitude EVERYTHING, or you don't care that they slam the dishes around and mumble under their breath?

3) Do you purpose yourself to try to please your boss, not just when their are guest or during appraisal times, but even when they're off? Or do you talk about them, and do what you want when you want?

4) Do you realize that it was He who blessed you with the job, and you're ultimate attitude should be that I am working for SSM, Cardinal Health, Calvary Church, Samsung, etc. as if GOD is my boss, so my desire is that HE IS GLORIFIED in what I get to do.


So the only way to truly know if you are in God's will @ your JOB is to ask yourself is GOD BEING GLORIFIED on the job? Are people coming to know the love of Christ because of my employment at___________________?





GOD, you are a creator, and I pray you create in me a fresh perspective regarding the blessing of a job you've given me. I repent of my attitude, my murmuring in times past about my boss, my co-workers, and or even the job itself fully recognizing the shame I may have brought to you by my attitude. I invite you to ride with me so that your sheer presence will transform my outlook and attitude regarding this blessing of a job. Thank you, for your grace in allowing me to come to this point without having to learn this lesson through unemployment. AMEN

WHO HAVE I LOST

John 6:39 NIV : And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me,

In this excerpt Jesus is explaining what is God's will for His being here, He's been given the task of caring for those whom GOD has given unto Him. You too, have been saved by graced to do so, have been given children, family members, co-workers, a neighborhood and need I go on? All of these people have been divinely placed in your life's path, and the question is "What Are You Doing with them?" Have you lost from friends, family, co-workers..etc because you were so busy loving GOD/JESUS that you really didn't love them where they were? Do you care for, or about any of these people in such a way that you've loved them to Christ? Jesus' desire was that he lose none of them, is this your desire for the people he's blessed to be in your life? Jesus told the disciples when they were trying to discover which commandments were the greatest, and He told them to simply love God, and love people. Love is an action word, not just a adjective....to begin our week of discovering "Are You In The Will" ask yourself who have you lost, and make it today's purpose to lovingly locate them, and love on them.

FATHER give us eyes to see, and ears to hear the cries of those whom you've blessed to be characters in our lives stories so that we may play the role you designed for us, to love them back to you. Amen