Be The Difference

At some point we have asked ourselves how come I continue to find myself surrounded by people who treat me how I don't want to be treated?

Either with the words they say or the actions they do.

A thought that came to mind is“ If i’m kind towards them, how come they can’t be kind back?”

And there are so many answers we can give to that question, but then I thought about a different route.

Perhaps one, I’m not always kind either. Sometimes people are having a bad day and having some patience for them couldn't hurt.

And two maybe it's because God wants more from us. He wants us to be MORE kind and in order to be more kind we have to be around a lot of people who aren’t. How kind are we really if we can't show kindness to those who aren't kind towards us?

But look at what the word of God says about doing good.

Galatians 6:9 | AMP “Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in.”

There was a time when I had first started going to church, and in service my Pastor had asked everyone who they were. Then he started pointing at people asking for an answer, I sat there thinking to myself PLEASE don’t pick me and most importantly who am I? Someone had replied they were a servant and another that they were a child of God. Then I remember him saying some of you don't know who you are and you don't know your identity in Jesus. And let me tell you, that really stuck with me. I went home later that night and I brought it up to God asking Him who am I? So much so, I wrote down in my notebook “ WHO AM I?”. Well a little later, after that I was reading the Bible and I came across

2 Corinthians 5:20 | AMP “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ’s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.”

God answered my question, I finally knew who I was. I was so excited that I went and wrote it down in my notebook beside the question of who am I. I wrote down “ I am an ambassador of Jesus”. After that I felt ready to be asked “who are you” and I received this as the identity that God wanted me to have. The one He wants all of us to have! This isn't just for me but it’s for everyone who wants it. If you are an ambassador of something then you represent that very thing, people should be able to look at you and see what you represent. As Christians we want people to look at us and see Jesus.

I’ve learned as I’ve grown in the things of God that the answer He gave me carries weight. If you are gonna be an ambassador of Christ then your life has to show it. You have to bear His fruit and you have to be different. It's necessary or else you aren't representing Jesus in truth. So even if your’re surrounded by people who don't treat you how you would like to be treated bear His fruit anyways. Show them a new way even if it requires your feelings to be hurt for the moment. Because for some people all they have seen and known are toxic ways, and they think you're gonna give it right back. So imagine the shock they'll have to see you aren't like them.

But ALL of this is for a bigger cause, it’s about leading people back to the one who changed you. Back to the One who taught you a better way to live.

Your response will be simple yet powerful , Jesus. Amen.

You Don’t Have To Be Afraid Of…

Making the first step.

A good place to begin is acknowledging that God is the one and only God. Open your heart to Him and you will not be disappointed but you’re gonna find all the more reason to keep going. That start is just the beginning to a fulfilling life with God. Because once you know and experience the joy of the Lord, it's like no other. The freedom He gives is like no other, there isn't anything out there that is able to even compare to the presence of God. So don't be afraid to start following Jesus, you will learn as you go and through His love all things will fall into place. You don’t have to shape yourself into who you think you need to be but let it be the hand of God and His word that establishes you. As you learn you’ll keep His ways and not for the reasons the world says we keep it but because you choose to be a friend of God and not against Him. When you stand with God it can feel like it’s you against the world but remember before the world hated you it hated Him first.

John 15:18-20 | AMP

18 “If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember [and continue to remember] that I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

Your past.

God is more than willing to forgive you, if you are willing to go to Him. And if He is willing then your past doesn't have to scare you out of seeking God.

1 John 1:9 | KJV  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

God being able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness means that the past is the past. Once God takes it away you aren't that person anymore so you don't have to hold yourself to a judgement that was meant for your sin. God is merciful and you have access to that same mercy I have received and people before me, but you have to let yourself be forgiven. So don't be afraid of what was before you knew Jesus, because God is able to rebuild, He is able to restore, and He is able to heal anyone.

John 10:10 | KJV “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

You can have a life with Jesus that is filled, and when storms come against you, you'll have a hope that you can rest in. A hope that will strengthen you when you are weak. A hope that doesn't leave you. And A hope that you can confidently trust in. A hope that has already overcame the world and can never be defeated.

Faithful

Psalms 27:10 | KJV “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”

Isaiah 49:15 | KJV “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

I think it’s important to note that God used the people who we EXPECT to never abandon us, a father and a mother are the two figures in someones life that it’s just expected of and it’s not abnormal to expect highly of them.

So when God tells us that yes, even this person WHO should care, the one who carried the baby and birthed them and EVEN her she can forget that child is showing us that anyone is capable of forgetting you.

Expect: regard (something) as likely to happen.

We cannot expect from people. And I don't say this from a bad place because there will be people who show up for you how you need in that moment but it’s because they wanted to.

When you expect you can be let down when they aren't who you expected them to be.

But when God said “they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” He was not lying to you.

SO when everyone turns their back on you, or is unable, or simply doesn't care, God is never too busy for you. He is never uninterested in our lives but He is fully engaged.

He is the only one we should expect from.

People are what they want to be. BUT GOD is who He says He is and He never changes.

To protect your heart is to understand that they aren't God. Because when you go seeking after Him you will find Him! Amen!

Jeremiah 29:13 | KJV “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

a servant

There are moments where God will bring me back to His feet.

In those moments He reminds me of His heart.

He reminds me of the love that He has for His creation.

Just as much as God loves me, He loves you and the next.

Every single one of us, He considers and has thought of.

In the end we are only servants of God, not The Judge.

When Jonah felt that He could be angry with the decision that God made, God showed Him why He had no right to be.

God had shown mercy to a city that He said He was going to overthrow.

Jonah 3:10 | AMP

“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God [had compassion and] relented concerning the disaster which He had declared that He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

Jonah forgot that He isn’t the judge he was only the servant.

We aren't here to judge or here to decide who is worthy of what.

We are here to do the will of God, whatever that may look like in your life.

Jonah was used to relay a message but if God wants to change the message then He can.

Don't get so caught up in how you feel that you forget the character of the God you serve.

IF GOD can forgive HIS creation when they repent then we can too.

Jonah 4: 10-11 | AMP

“Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.

11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 [innocent] persons, who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [and are not yet accountable for sin], as well as many [blameless] animals?”

We have to care for Gods people like He does.

Not because the person is nice to you or because they benefit you but because if you want to serve then you have to love how God loves and show grace how He does.

Your emotions cannot go above obeying God.

Even if it makes no sense to you if God is giving you directions you do it.

An emotional decision maker will disobey God simply because of how they feel.

When I think of someone who obeyed despite how they felt I think of the man who prayed for Paul (at the time Saul), Ananias.

And THAT WAS THE PRAYER that caused the scales on Paul’s eyes to fall off.

To think that Ananias knew what kind of man Paul was but he obeyed the voice of God anyways.

When Ananias prayed that prayer he said Acts 9:17 | AMP “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came [to Damascus], has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit [in order to proclaim Christ to both Jews and Gentiles].”

He called him “brother”. He didn't continue to hold onto to what he knew about Paul but he held onto what God spoke over Paul.

He trusted God and the will of God over his feelings.

changes

Things that once were one kind of way are now another way.

I knew change was necessary but now i’m grateful for it.

I’m glad that the way it was, isn’t how it is now.

I’m visiting my hometown so of course i’m going to familiar places only to see how different I am than before.

But ONLY because of God!

He was and is who I need in my life.

You know, sometimes we don’t think we are ready for the things that God is requiring.

We don’t think we can handle it.

We don’t think we can.

But It really doesn’t depend on if we think we can, its your faith.

I see why now, more than ever why it's impossible to please God without faith.

Hebrews 11:6 KJV “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

When you go to God you have to believe that He is God. You have to believe and trust that He is faithful and that He will never lead you astray.

If you can’t trust Him then you can’t obey Him.

Because truthfully a lot of things are not gonna make sense. A lot is gonna depend on your faith.

Can you trust God even when the obstacle seems unmovable?

Can you trust God even when it still hasn’t happened?

So when it's required but it makes no sense can you still do it? Are you able to be obedient?

I don’t want to do anything for the approval of man.

But for the Glory of God.

So yes, there will be times i’m gonna stand out. There will also be times I’m gonna do it alone.

They’ll question me but again it’s for His glory. I wont do it because it makes me look good.

I’m gonna do it because its pleasing to God.

I will seek Him first and the rest will work itself out.

Natural instincts

I try everyday to fight my “natural instincts”.

The one where if I’m mad at you, i’ll just cut you off.

The one where if you’re rude to me, then i’m gonna be rude back.

The natural instincts i’ve known and grown to depend on as my coping mechanisms.

The day I decided to follow Jesus and began learning who He is , I learned that I am supposed to be more like Him. That was the day I learned I couldn’t do those very natural instincts anymore.

I had to forgive when they hurt me.

I had to be the bigger person even if it felt like they were walking all over me (don’t repay evil with evil).

Now here is something really interesting about this. I was writing this one day in my frustration and in my feelings trying to put it all down on paper, you know release some tension that was inside of me. Well as I was writing God filled my mind with a new thought….. I was trying to operate from an unhealed heart.

And that’s why it wasn’t natural for me to do it.

I was trying to do what a healed heart would naturally do.

So when it really comes down to it and things start getting heated. I get tired of trying to be and act how I know I should, and finally I crumble.

In those cracks , what’s underneath comes to the surface.

In that fiery heat I want to go back to what feels natural for me.

What the unhealed part of me knows best.

But if I was healed in that area, truly healed than there wouldn’t be anything to go back to.

So there I was faced with a problem. I was faced with my own self. You know sometimes it isn’t the devil doing anything, but it is us, we can be our own obstacle. We can be that very mountain we’ve been praying for to be moved, it takes a little self reflection and a lot of humbling to see that it can be our own fault.

God doesn’t place those walls in front of us to punish us.

It’s not to keep us from going forward, if we could just look past ourselves. We could see that He does it so we CAN move forward.

You know them by what?

By their fruits. Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

So how much does God love and care for me that He wants to remove what isn’t of Him. How much more does He want for me to be more like Him. He shows me where i’m short and wants to not only take it from me but replace what was there with Him (good fruit).

What He takes away He replaces with something so much better.

Because when those walls show up there is no where to go but to face it.

We cant hide from our unhealed parts forever, eventually we have to mature.

Thank you Jesus.

Thankfulness

The unnamed woman in Luke 7 showed a level of thankfulness that felt familiar. The word say’s the city knew her as a sinner so we can conclude that she had a reputation that followed her. We don’t learn anything about her or what was the reason the whole city knew her in that way. But how familiar it felt to have also had a past before Jesus, to have people who knew me before I truly knew my Savior. Those who knew me, before I knew there was a better way to live. Well this woman heard that Jesus would be at the house of a Pharisee and decided she would go there and meet Him. Two things came to mind when I read that. One, is she allowed to just show up? And two what made her want to go? So I learned that during that time if a rabbi (teacher) was staying somewhere you were allowed with no invite to go and hear them speak. So with my first thought being answered I then dug in deeper “ what did she hear about Jesus?”.

Well verses 14-17 talk about when Jesus had reached a city called Nain, there was a man who was dead. That man was the child of a widow and it was her only son. Jesus having compassion on the woman performed a miracle and raised the boy to life.

14 And He came up and touched the bier [on which the body rested], and the pallbearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise [from death]!” 15 The man who was dead sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Fear and profound awe gripped them all, and they began glorifying and honoring and praising God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people [to help and care for and provide for them]!” 17 This news about Him spread through all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside.

Okay so at this point the miracle had spread, so that must’ve been how the woman heard about Him I thought to myself. She shows up with an alabaster vial of perfume and it says that she wept at His feet. She was crying so much that her tears began to wet His feet so she wiped them with her hair. All of this while also kissing His feet and anointing them with her perfume.

Every action this woman has made leading up to now shows how SHE saw Jesus. She saw Him as worthy to give Him of the best that she had since we learn that her oil wasn’t just ordinary oil but expensive oil. We also know that there were other people in the room but she didn’t care about how she was being perceived she still wept at His feet anyways. Really take that in for a second and just Imagine what that may have looked like. Now I’m really starting to wonder “what did this woman know that she cried at His feet with such thankfulness? And what was she thankful for?” I thought surely she had an understanding that the others didn’t. When Simon the Pharisee saw her kissing His feet he thought to himself “ if this man were a prophet he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him”.

Jesus responds back to him with a parable of two debtors. Luke 7:40-43

40 Jesus, answering, said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Teacher, say it.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors: one owed him five hundred [h]denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they had no means of repaying [the debts], he freely forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I take it, for whom he forgave more.” Jesus said to him, “You have decided correctly.”

I believe that this woman had an understanding that Jesus was the Messiah they heard about. The one who would come and give them salvation for the remission of their sins. So now i’m understanding her more, I see why she was so thankful and what she was thankful about. From my own experience with repentance and believing that Jesus gave Himself in place of my sins it's a different kind of thankful worship I offer to Him. Because I know ALL OF what He is forgiving me for. So I can imagine that for so long she felt the weight of her sins and carried the guilt and shame that came with it. But to her surprise the one who would take it all was in front of her! How could she not weep at His feet?!

Luke 7:44-46

44 Then turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house [but you failed to extend to Me the usual courtesies shown to a guest]; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair [demonstrating her love]. 45 You gave Me no [welcoming] kiss, but from the moment I came in, she has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46 You did not [even] anoint My head with [ordinary] oil, but she has anointed My feet with [costly and rare] perfume.

Luke 7:47-50

47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Those who were reclining at the table with Him began saying among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith [in Me] has saved you; go in peace [free from the distress experienced because of sin].”

Just a little more reasoning to back up my thoughts, is the people at the table said “who is this who even forgives sins?”. That shows that they saw Him as a Teacher and not as the Messiah. So when Jesus said “your faith has saved you” I thought to myself what was her faith? Well it seems like her faith was that she believed in Jesus. She believed , acknowledged and trusted that He was the one they had been waiting for.

Don’t let your past stop you from going to the one who gave His life for you. We read that the one who has more debts will love the one who forgave them more. So with whatever your past looks like and no matter who knows what about you, all that this means for you is you have more to be thankful for! And you have more reasons to praise Him

Because although the woman had people around her who felt like she wasn’t worthy to be at His feet, Jesus welcomed her. He knew exactly who she was and yet He didn’t push her away, He instead corrected the one who was watching. You see people are going to watch and they will comment but it all goes back to just you and God. Look at how Jesus brought Simon right back to himself!

I pray that this blesses you as much as it has blessed me! Our God is worthy of all of the praise and of all of the honor! Hallelujah !!