We are approaching the end of another year at what seems like a lightening fast speed. It truly seems like yesterday that it was just January.
One thing I can definitely say is that God has been faithful to be with me throughout the year. Every day, I have felt God’s love surrounding me and keeping me. Has every day been perfect? Of course NOT. Perfection was never the promise. The promise was that God would be with us, even to the furthest ends of the earth.
Scriptures of Promise
Deuteronomy 31:8
New International Version
8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Worship Songs With a Promise
Today’s worship video is dedicated to Rev. Carlton Pearson. His heart was always in the right place. He just wanted people to know how much God loves each and one of us, as demonstrated by Jesus’ shed blood on Calvary.
Family, I pray that each of you knows that you are a part of a great family. As believers in the Finished Work of the Cross, we stand hand in hand on this journey we call life. May we learn and hold onto the secret things of God.
I love each of you with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
I pray this week’s post finds you in a place of peace. As we walk with our Lord, we walk knowing that we are never alone. I know that we have all gone through seasons in our lives where we may feel as though God has abandoned us.
One thing my mother would always say, when I felt that God’s presence was gone from my life, is that God never walks away from us, but instead it is us who have knowingly or unknowingly walk away.
In those times, it is we who must humbly cry out to God and ask Him to pull us from the place we have found ourselves. We may have fast, pray, and consecrate our lives back to God, just as the Prophet Joel spoke about in the Old Testament. Without fail, God will hear the sincerity in our cry.
Scriptures of Consecration
Joel 1:13-20
New International Version
A Call to Lamentation
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[a]
16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods.[b] The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. 18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 To you, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. 20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
Song of Consecration
Ron Winans
Family, may we all be in a place that we are so close to God’s heart that we can hear in the whisper.
I love you all with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.
I pray that this week’s devotional finds you in a place of peace and joy in the Lord. As the old song lyrics say, “This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away!” I believe Reverend Shirley Ceasar wrote that song, as I can only find her name as the author and composer.
We are right in the middle of the last quarter of the year for 2023. The world’s focus will slowly begin turning to the Christmas season. The birth of the only begotten of God is approaching. The perfect little lamb without spot, blemish, or sin has willingly taken off his godly robe to become a human being, but at the same time still continuing to be King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s.
As we approach the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, may we meditate on the never-ending love that Jesus had and still has for us. We can sing with confidence, Oh Lord, Our Lord, how EXCELLENT is your name in all the earth. Hallelujah!!!
Scriptures of Adoration
Psalm 8
New International Version
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens. 2 Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e] and crowned them[f] with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their[g] feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Song of Adoration and Praise
Walt Whitman
I love you, Family, with the never-ending perfect love of our Lord and Savior Jesus. The Christ.
I pray that this week’s devotional finds you in a place of peace in the Lord. Not peace as the world gives, but the peace that passes ALL UNDERSTANDING through the Christ Mind.
There are times in our lives when we must stop our race and become still. Even though we have the authority to speak to the mountains and they must obey, we sometimes need to stop and go back to our charging station.
Our charging station is any place that helps us reconnect with the Living God. We may arrive at the charging station with a low battery life indicated, but once we plug in and spend time worshipping and loving on God, we are renewed and ready to face anything that comes our way.
Scriptures of Refreshing
Isaiah 40:31
King James Version
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Refreshing Through Worship
Tasha Cobbs Leonard
Family, no matter what you are going through, please remember that you are never alone. There are more with you than are against. Walk knowing that you are waking with the unseen Army of the Lord.
I love you with the amazing and everlasting love of Christ Jesus, our Lord, Redeemer, and Wayshower. It is in His name that I lift this prayer to the Great, I Am.
I pray that this week’s devotional finds you in a place of peace through Christ Jesus. Jesus is indeed our peace. The very one who leads and guides us with His spirit is the very same one that calmed the storm with the words, “Peace, be still. (Mark 4:39).”
In the midst of some of our most toughest moments there can also reside our greatest times of worship. There is something about being pressed on every side that brings forth the most precious oil. Unfortunately, not everyone will understand the purpose or use of the oil that is being poured out.
Once the precious oil is ready to be used for its intended purpose, it is at that point that many folks want to get their hands on it. The oil from your life is set apart for a special purpose.
Just ask Mary, sister of Martha, how precious the alabaster box of oil was that she anointed our Savior’s feet with. She paid a lot of money for this very expensive fragrance. She knew that as she poured the oil in her hair and began to wipe the feet of Jesus with it that He was also set apart for a special purpose. He would soon be the anointed Fragrant sacrificial offering without spot or blemish.
Scriptures of Worship
John 12:1-8
English Standard Version
Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
3 Mary therefore took a pound[a] of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it[c] for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Songs of Worship
Family, I know there will be times when we ask God, “Why?” or “Why me, God?” Only God knows the purpose for which we were set apart. Part of the journey of following Christ is to walk by faith and not by sight. If we love our Lord, then we must follow, Amen.
I love you, All, with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer Jesus Christ. May his love surround and enfold you at every moment of every day.
The song lyrics to “Softly and Tenderly” are lyrics that hold a special place in my heart. The heart of God is that no one, not one soul, would be lost.
The heart of God holds more love than many of us can really fathom or imagine. I have had the pleasure and grace to have experienced the sweet and tender love of Jesus through a personal encounter after a time of fasting and prayer several years ago.
I was in a season of seeking God because it felt like I was just “going through the motions” of church. I dont know where or at what point I began to fill distant from God. I just knew that I had to find a way back to my first love. My pastor at the time suggested that I go into a season of fasting and prayer. On the 30th and final day of my fast, something amazing happened.
Instead of reading scripture that day, I felt led to worship and sing a new song to God. While I was singing, it felt like I was going into some type of trance, but at the same time, I knew that I was at home and sitting on my bed.
The whole story would take too long to tell here, but the love that wrapped its arms around me that day was a love that I had never experienced before or since. The love that radiated through me instantly disintegrated any darkness, shortcomings, or fear. I experienced true, pure, unfiltered love. I knew in that instant what it meant to be born again.
It is my prayer that everyone would have that same encounter with God so that they would know what is waiting for them in heaven…and here on earth, as the Kingdom of God is within us.
The encounter I had birthed my desire to teach the Word of God. My worship from that day was never the same. Every song I sing to God is full of gratitude and thanksgiving.
Scriptures of Hope
1 Peter 1:3-5
English Standard Version
Born Again to a Living Hope
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Invitation to Worship
Family, I love you all with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer Jesus Christ.
As always, I pray that this week’s devotional finds you in a place of peace and stillness in the Lord. I pray that the cares of this world do not have you carrying a heavy load in your mind, body, or spirit.
This week, the song that the Holy Spirit put on my heart is the Negro spiritual Wade in the Water. I love the version and verses sung by the acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Song of Praise and Faith
Credit to Riddlefilms.com
The song encourages the listener to wade into the water because God is troubling and doing a special work in the water. The song reminds most people of the lame man waiting for someone to place him in in the pool at Bethesda, as told in John 5. The angel of the Lord was said to come and stir, or trouble, the water and the first person in would be healed. (I did a devotional on this passage a few weeks ago).
I want to propose a different passage with the song Wade In The Water. I want to offer the passage from John 4, specifically verses 10-14. This passage is of Jesus asking the Samaritan woman for something to drink from the well.
Scripture of Invitation…
John 4:10-14
New International Version
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Family, in the passage above, the Samaritan woman notices that Jesus has nothing to draw the water. Jesus reveals himself to be the Living Water. We have to understand that when we accept the invitation of Salvation, we are accepting the Living Water.
As we make the decision to walk to God, we are, like Peter, asking Jesus to bid us to come. Please know that the invitation to come to Christ is always open. Whether you are someone new to Christianity or someone who needs to come back home, the arms of Jesus are always open, with no guilt or shame. The Living Water is calling you to come.
The Prayer of Salvation is a simple one:
Jesus, I believe that you are the only begotten Son of God. I believe that you are the Messiah and that you willingly died, conquered death, and the grave, and after three days, you got up with all power in your hand to be the perfect sacrifice for my sins. I invite you to come into my heart and my life, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, I joyfully welcome you to the Family of Christ. If you are coming back home, I am so glad to see you, and I love you ALL with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
I pray that you are in a place of peace and joy in the Lord. Family, no matter what we may go through, God is always with us. May we continually place our trust and hope in the Lord.
We know that no one is perfect. Many of us may have stories to tell about what we did or didn’t have growing up. Our parents, or those assigned to be our caregivers (grandparents, aunt, uncle, foster parents, etc.) are not perfect. For the most part, they each gave according to what they had inside. We are human and we are fallible.
I can say that it has been my truth that God has been so much more than just a parent. God has been, at times, a mother, sister, brother, best friend, pastor, preacher, and friend. God is omnipotent, eternal, and all-powerful. The same God that hung the moon, sun, stars, and galaxies is the same God that created you and me.
Scriptures of Hope and Declaration
Romans 8:12-17
New King James Version
Sonship Through the Spirit
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba,[a] Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Song of Worship and Adoration
#Marizu #Abba #HFPMusic
Family, may I encourage you to keep this song and scripture passage in your heart. For three days this week, the Holy Spirit woke me up with the song Abba by Marizu. The song encompasses all we need to know in terms of our priorities.
May you find peace in knowing that God already has it under control. I love you with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord, Savior, and RedeemerJesus Christ.
I pray all is well and you are in a place of perfect peace in the Lord. I was grounded the last couple of weeks due to COVID hitting me and my husband hard. I am still healing and getting stronger. Thanks be to God, that my praise and worship of the Most High God did not shake or waiver.
When everything is said and done, nothing else matters except our relationship with the Triune God, consisting of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If our spiritual life is out of synch, every other area of our lives will be out of synch.
Scriptures of Decision
Joshua 24:14-15
New King James Version
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of [a]the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of [b]the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Songs of Worship and Praise
Family, please search your heart today. If there is anything that is blocking the path to God in your life, I pray that you lay it before God and repent. Open up your heart to God and allow the amazing, pure, and holy love of God to overtake every cell, atom, and molecule of your body.
Open your mouth and communicate with God. Go back to the heart of worship and stay there. I love you all with the amazing and everlasting love of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, in whom we live, move, and have our being. Amen and Amen.
I pray you are living boldly in the peace and joy of our Lord, Jesus the Christ. Life may not always be perfect, and circumstances may change from day to day, but because our strength and identity are in the Lord, we are not easily shaken.
Last week and this week, my husband and I were both so sick. We are on the mend, but everything we did felt like so much work because our immune systems, respectively, were using all our energy trying to heal us.
Sometimes, we may feel in our spirit that we have nothing left to give and it’s just not worth the energy and work it takes to go on any further. It is in those times that we must remember to call on our Help.
In our scripture passage this week, the Lord led me to the story of the prophet Elijah and the widow woman and son who were starving to death. She was ready to die, but God spoke to her. In this passage, the most important verses are 8 and 9. None of the rest of this passage would have been possible if the widow had not been obedient to the instructions given by the Lord.
God may ask us to do some of the strangest things when we are in our darkest hour. If we would only trust God and be sensitive to His voice, a day of darkness can quickly turn into our greatest testimony.
Scriptures of Hope
1 Kings 17:8-16
Living Bible
8-9 Then the Lord said to him, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions.”
10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the city he saw a widow gathering sticks; and he asked her for a cup of water.
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread too.”
12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I haven’t a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jar. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I must die of starvation.”
13 But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and cook that ‘last meal,’ but bake me a little loaf of bread first; and afterwards there will still be enough food for you and your son. 14 For the Lord God of Israel says that there will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”
15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil as long as it was needed. 16 For no matter how much they used, there was always plenty left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah!
Song of Faith
Bishop Marvin L Winans
Family, can’t you just hear the widow singing this song as she was gathering sticks to cook what she thought was her and her son’s last meal? With tears in her eyes, she listened to the Lord, even though she didn’t know that her greatest blessing was on the other side of her obedience.
Hold fast, Family. We may not always have the full picture of what is about to happen, but we must trust God’s voice. Family, I pray your strength in the Lord. Keep pressing on…
