That’s My Child
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, February 1st 2016 Share the goods! This is the story of a mother who lost her daughter in a house fire…or so she thought. One day a woman was told that her house had burned down and her young daughter had died, but she was never fully satisfied with the explanation that the police gave her because she never saw the remains to positively identify her daughter. Mothers have a certain sense about their children; they’re super sensitive, observant and insightful and know every detail of a child’s body right down to the dimples. When God looks at you He knows, “that’s My child! Click To Tweet Several years later the mother went to a children’s birthday party and saw a young girl who had a dimple in her cheek that was identical to the one her daughter had. After studying the girl she quickly concluded, “That’s my child!” The authorities investigated, and discovered that a woman had indeed kidnapped the child and burned down the house to cover her tracks. The kidnapper was arrested and the child was returned to her mother. What’s the point of this story? No matter how long satan may have had his hands on your life, when God looks at you He knows, “that’s My child!” MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others!...
Plantation Mindset
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, but Texas didn’t find out about it until June 19, 1865, which means there was a two-year gap between the time when the slaves were granted liberty and when they experienced liberty. Nobody told the slaves in Texas they were free. Even though they were legally free, they were not experientially free, so in 1865, blacks in Texas were still walking around behaving like slaves.
The Fortune of Mr. Yates
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, November 2nd 2015 Share the goods! During the Great Depression, there was a man named Mr. Yates who owned a farm and was doing everything he could not to lose it. But his best efforts appeared not to be good enough. The mortgage company eventually let Mr. Yates know that his farm would soon be foreclosed. Discouragement set in and Mr. Yates and his family were resigned to losing what they had so diligently desired to keep. One day, a man from an oil company knocked on Mr. Yates’ door, and asked for permission to drill on his land. Mr. Yates said, “Go ahead, I am going to lose the property anyway.” Almost instantly, the oil company hit a gusher, and oil started to pour forth. In fact, 82,000 barrels a day started to pour forth, making Mr. Yates an instant millionaire. Don't succumb to giving up: throw in the towel and experience spiritual foreclosure! Click To Tweet Here’s the question: When did Mr. Yates become a millionaire? Did he become a millionaire when the oil company discovered oil on his property? Or did he become a millionaire the day he purchased the property? There was a gap between the time that Mr. Yates bought the property and the discovery of the oil. Similarly there are Christians who entered into a relationship with Christ years ago, but aren’t experiencing or walking in their full inheritance. They don’t know that they’re spiritual millionaires! Many Christians are willing to just give up and throw in the towel and experience spiritual foreclosure. If you...
Forming Pearls
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, October 26th 2015 Share the goods! What are pearls? Pearls are formed from irritations inside a clam. A grain of sand lodges in the flesh of a clam and begins to form an irritation. The body of the clam begins to fight the sand by building up calcium. As it builds up calcium it starts to form a pearl. As we fight against the irritations in our lives we, too form pearls. The things that we’ve endured, the things that have hurt us cause us to build up a defense, just as the clam forms a pearl by fighting against the sand trapped in its flesh. The pearls in our lives are formed by the irritations in our lives. Pearls are beautiful. They are wonderful. They look good. But those pearls were built up by the pain in our life. Those pearls were built up by pressing on. Those pearls were created by enduring hardship like a good soldier. Don't throw your pearls before swine. Click To Tweet Your pearl will take a while to build up. You cannot build a pearl in just one minute. You cannot build a pearl in just a second. To build a pearl you may have to live with some pain for awhile; you may have to go through some irritation and suffering for awhile. But you have to find people who share a similar vision. You have to talk to people who have not given up on God. You have to talk to people who think God can do big and great things, and...
Beauty for Ashes
When we hang onto past hurts and wrongs, it causes us to have a victim’s mindset and it keeps us from getting the best that God has for us.
Frazier’s Support
Joe Frazier’s son Marvis decided that he wanted to keep championship boxing in the Frazier family line. So he started boxing in the heavyweight division, and finally got his shot against Larry Holmes.
The Grace Cart
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, April 10th 2017 Share the goods! There was a married couple who were in the airport and as they were walking, they approached one of those moving sidewalks. So the husband got on but his wife decided to walk. Now his journey was easy because he was resting on an external source to get him where he needed to be. His wife was breathing hard because she was relying on herself. As the husband watched her, he turned away. He got to the end of the sidewalk and was looking back to see how long it would take his wife to get to him. As he was waiting, he heard his wife call his name. She had been waiting for him. You know why? Because all of a sudden, it dawned on her that this was too much work, so she hopped aboard one of the golf carts and caught a ride. This is called grace!!! You see if you stop trying to do things your way and submit to God, then He will meet you where you are and help you make up the time! God will meet you where you are and help you make up the time. Click To Tweet MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others! DONATE TODAY Share the goods! Monday, April 10th 2017...
Not in The Shell
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, March 20th 2017 Share the goods! If you want a big tree, you don’t plant a big tree. No, you must plant a seed. This happens in the spring. When you look at the picture on the outside of the package, and you compare it to the contents, the two do not look the same. This is how nature works. You plant a seed, and then the plant comes up, but it does not look like the seed. When you have a bunch of seeds together, it could be apple, tomato, etc. If you place them together, you don’t know the difference until you plant them. But when they grow up they all look different. When you plant a seed and it dies, what really dies? The shell of the seed dies not the heart of the seed. Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Matthew 16:24 Click To Tweet Now, this is critical because the life does not come from the shell, it originates from the inside, but that life cannot come forth until the outside of it dies away. This is what dying to self is. Then something new comes. Think about it, in the fall you will have acorns all over the place, but the acorns are what cause oak trees to come forth. So the acorn’s shell dies and dissolves, and the inside of the acorn produces the tree. The trunk of the tree, the leaves, the tree itself, the acorns produced on the tree did not come from the shell rather...
The Summer House
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, February 13th 2017 Share the goods! A woman who was going through a bad time was trying to find rest for her soul. She had lost her husband and felt alone. She was spending time in a summerhouse trying to put her life back together. She was sitting in the middle of a big open room with high arching windows when a bird flew in. It flew up to the ceiling and was trapped. Trying to get out it flew to every window but nothing happened. It flew to where the light was coming in, but it couldn’t get out. It flew window after window, but it would only bang against the window and fall back. It would try to force its way out of the house through every little crack or crevice. She thought in her heart, “Poor bird, why do you not come down lower see this open door and fly out easily?” Tell God how you feel. Let Him bring the strength that is available to you through His Word. Click To Tweet But the bird insisted on wounding itself, flying against all of these clear windows. At last its wings grew tired. It flew lower and lower until finally, it was on the level with the open door. Then, seeing the way of escape the bird finally found freedom. Just then the woman thought, “I am like that bird. Through my pride and self-sufficiency, I have been flying so high to see the window up there, and God has been trying to humble me so that I...
Antiquated Maps
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, February 6th 2017 Share the goods! I heard a story of a group of people who found a 4-month old abandoned German shepherd who was suffering from dehydration. The puppy also suffered from bruises all over its body. The people said that the puppy avoided them and for the first month, whenever they came near it, it would shrink and tremble. When they tried to reach out their hand to pet it, it would cower in the corner because it had learned to expect abuse from the hands of humans. It feared the world that it had come to know. It is the same way with children who develop their perception of the world based on how their first caretakers care for them. If they had good parents then they develop strong trust muscles. If they had bad parents then they develop weak trust muscles and their ability to bond is hindered. It is through these experiences that we draw a mental map of the world and then we order our journey around it. Am I using an old map to live, govern, or dictate my life? Click To Tweet This is not something we do consciously. It is kind of like touching a hot stove and the brain warning us not to do that again. The puppy, however, had not been warned not to touch a hot stove but not to connect with humans. The only problem is that the puppy’s mental map was now outdated. When we are older and are removed from a painful setting, our brain does...
Pain that Fuel Your Dream
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, December 5th 2016 Share the goods! For many Christians, we want God’s training program to be a microwave, but more often than not it is a crockpot or slow cooker. Glen Cunningham was born on a farm in Kansas. He attended school in a rural community in the one-room school house so many of us have seen in our travels around the country. He and his brother were given an assignment to stoke and light the fire in the big pot belly furnace in the middle of the classroom. On one particular morning, they were a bit late arriving at the school house and in order to speed up the process they poured kerosene over the fuel supply before they lit it. Unbeknownst to them there were still some live coals from the previous day’s fire. When they poured the kerosene over the fuel supply there was an explosion and a great fire, which caused both of the young men to be seriously injured. As Glen Cunningham was running from the building he looked back and he saw his brother lying on the floor next to the furnace and he instinctively ran back to grab his brother from the fire. Tragically, a few days later his brother died from the burns and Glen Cunningham was burned so badly around his legs that the doctor said he would never walk again. With God, we can turn tragedies into victories. Click To Tweet Certainly no one ever dared to believe that he would run again and that he would run again to break...
Metabolize Your Life
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, May 2nd 2016 Share the goods! When we do not metabolize or process the events in our lives we prevent ourselves from being able to embrace the new that God has for us. We’re like a computer that has a very small hard drive, say 3GB, and every time we try to upload a new program to our computer it slows down. I once had a computer that took 15 minutes to “boot up.” I would turn on my computer in the morning and then I would take a shower or eat breakfast, or do a whole bunch of other things. I finally realized that my computer was slow because there was no room on my hard drive for anything new. Get ready for the new things God has for you! Click To Tweet In other words, I had to remove some old programs to make room for the new programs. This is how life is for many people. God has some new software that He wants to load onto the hard drive of our life. But because we haven’t metabolized, or processed previous experiences we are unable to embrace what God is trying to do. It could be said that some people spend their whole lives “booting up.” In other words, they never get to run the program of life that God has for them because they are always “booting up.” They never get to the application of the things that God has for them because of unresolved issues that keep them in perpetual “boot up” mode. The goal of...
Break The Cycle
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, March 28th 2016 Share the goods! There’s a term called “transference” that’s used in psychology. Transference occurs when a person experiences something in a previous relationship and the person projects that experience onto others. What makes this dangerous is that “transference” will often make the person unconsciously engage in behavior that causes them to create experiences they fear. For instance, a person who had a tough and controlling father grows up to resent, or fear authority figures. What can happen is that when that person gets a job and their boss gives them some constructive criticism at a 5 level, the person, who is extra sensitive, and expecting the same treatment from his boss that he received from his father hears the criticism at level 9. What’s tricky is that the person will unconsciously engage in behavior that leads to the very situation they fear or were trying to avoid. Don't let your past determine your future! Click To Tweet Suppose that same person’s boss asks them to make a copy. The person making the copy is so nervous that he rushes to make it, but in his haste he makes a poor quality copy. The person then rushes and hands the copy to his boss. The boss looks at it and thinks to himself, “Why would they make such a poor quality copy?” The vicious cycle swings into motion, because the boss then tells them to make the copy quality a little better the next time. The boss’s level 5 comment is interpreted at a level 10 and instead of...
Call Me Joseph
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, March 21st 2016 Share the goods! There was a couple that had five miscarriages in nine years, and as you can imagine, they were devastated. The husband’s name was Joe, and he and his wife were grossly discouraged. One day as he was having a Bible study, he stumbled upon the Bible character named Joseph in Genesis. The name Joseph means “God will add”. All of a sudden Joe started telling all his friends to stop calling him “Joe” and to start calling him “Joseph”. Every time he heard his full name, it was a reminder that God will add. And do you know, it was not long before his wife became pregnant and after ten years they have a child, and the child is doing well. This is an excellent testimony to the power of words in our lives. (Joel Osteen shared this story on February 5, 2005) Life and death are in the power of the tongue ~ Proverbs 18.21 Click To Tweet MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others! DONATE TODAY Share the goods! Monday, March 21st 2016 RELATED VERSES Genesis 39:2-3 (NKJV) The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and...
The War is Over
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, February 22nd 2016 Share the goods! Years ago a report was released about some Americans who went to a remote area in the Pacific islands, and discovered people still fighting fifteen to twenty years after World War II had ended. The people on the island had not heard the news that bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that a peace treaty had been signed, and the war was over. When the Americans arrived and told them that the war was over, the islanders initially didn’t believe them and thought the Americans were trying to kill them. Are you fighting a war that has been over since Christ died for your sins? Click To Tweet Later they discovered how ignorant they’d been—fighting for two decades after the war was over. This is what the sinner discovers after he gets born again. He realizes that he’s been fighting a war that has been over since Christ died for his sins. And when the sinner finally has a revelation of this, he says to himself, “Peace has been won, and I no longer have to go around fighting for myself living with all of this tension on the inside of me! The war is over and I am free!” MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others! DONATE TODAY Share...
The Pocket Knife
A young mountain climber named Aron Ralston was hiking in a remote section of Utah when an eight hundred pound boulder shifted and trapped his arm. For five days, he tried to do everything he could to free himself.
The Game is Half Over
Roy Riegels was a football player at the University of California who played a close game against Georgia Tech in the 1929 Rose Bowl. Playing defense, Roy Riegels tried to tackle a Georgia Tech player and was shoved against another player and got turned around and he started running down the sideline, probably thinking, “This is great!