Monday Morning Motivations

“...Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told."...

"... and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey”

We enter the story with God telling Moses about the land of Canaan… the land flowing with milk and honey… 

But as we continue through the story in their journey to the promised land, we see a common theme, “Moses, we are over it out here in the wilderness, ...

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

One thing I’ve learned is that imagination is a beautiful gift which can be very dangerous when not kept in check.

When submitted to God, it can bring forth the most amazing and wonderful ideas… but when combined with our oftentimes controlling nature, it can create anxiety and worry in us.

Because I can im...

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven 
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

So many times I’ve wondered why I haven’t turned a ...

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. “

What follows is one of the more well known stories of moral failure for David.
A story that, at least for us, will always be burned into our memories when reading about the kingship of David.

But the ...

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

I was watching a video the other day about how much money one should save for retirement to be considered “successful” and I found myself on edge just listening to the numbers.

How do we NOT be anxious when anxiety is being normalized?
And not just with our wants, but with those thi...

“...And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.”

If we aren’t careful, we can look at this story and say
… That’ll NEVER be me. I’ll never be like the prodigal son…<...

"... So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.”

As I was working out one morning, I was listening to one of my favorite gospel artists, Hezekiah Walker, and I came across a song called “99 and a Half”, and in this  song he sings, “Lord...

“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’
He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’ “

Complicated Situations.
When I said that, almost immediately something came to your mind.
For some it’s a job.
For others it might be a person… an entanglement  or situationship… whatever your word o...

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first...”

What a...

"Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 
When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’

The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your...

“Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, 'Why stay here until we die?
If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.' ”

Transitions. 
Sometimes as we go through seasons, we b...

“A man’s gift will make room for him, And bring him before great men.”

When reading this verse, what comes to mind?
Does this verse excite you because of the opportunity to glorify God with your gift before great men… or do you feel this verse doesn’t apply to you because you feel that either:

• You don’t have gifts like that, or
• There is no way your gifts will bring you before great men.

Many times we fear the gif...

In Psalm 46. the psalmist speaks of the world falling down around him.
In verse 2… the mountains fall into the sea… the waters roar and foam so hard that the mountains quake. 
In verse 6, the nations are in an uproar and kingdoms fall.
… and in the midst of all this, the command that God gives in verse 10 is… “Be still and know…”

He says this because He knows that when things get hectic… the last thing we want ...

How do I reconcile my faith and my race?
One I was born into
… the other I was “born again” into.
Neither, in my mind, can I live without.
Both drive every decision I make
… but only one seems to drive every decision made towards me.

The world doesn’t see me as a Christian first.
They only see me as a black man.
And that one filter drives all of their subsequent actions.

So how do I rec...

Plan B… or our "Backup Plan(s)".
We know these very intimately.

We are told that we are foolish if we don’t have one when it pertains to every area of our earthly lives.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
“Don’t put all your hopes in a person… People always let you down.”

It’s no wonder that we find it hard in our spiritual lives to “put all our eggs in one basket”.

In toda...

What are you focused on?

In your battle with whatever sin that may entangle you, what is it that you set your eyes on?

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “The pursuit of purity is not about the suppression of lust, but about the reorientation of one’s life to a larger goal.”

Even if your entanglement isn't lust, in today's episode I want to take the time to examine why his sentiments of, &quo...

What place are you operating from?
Are you operating from a place of need?

I need affirmation. I need validation. I need reassurance

Or are you operating from a place of purpose because your needs are already met in Christ?

No matter what context we find ourselves in (business, ministry, volunteering, etc), to allow ourselves to operate from our “place of need” can put us at odds with God.

In today's episod...

Are you ready for your next steps?

Many times we can become so focused on our “next season” and getting out of our current season that we rarely ask ourselves are we even ready for what’s next?

What does Ready even look like?
How do you know if you’re ready?

In today's episode I want to walk through the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan  to see what we can learn about “readiness” for the Promise...