A Reconciled Child

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

A new year is upon us and we have safely said goodbye to 2007. It was a challenging year for me, but I remember oh so dearly the old school song I Made It.

I’ve been up and I’ve been down
Almost leveled to the ground
But IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I made it!

Ya’ll didn’t know I could blow like that…on paper! There are pains and experiences spiritually that I will never forget and there are some things that happen in 2007 that I don’t want to remember.

As we all know, we as Christians don’t or should not make/made any “new years resolutions”. These things are never kept by majority of the folk in our society. It starts off good but, always ends up disappointing…sometimes it ends before it has ever gotten started. The term we should use for this year is reconcile. Reconcile? Yes, reconcile with the One who is desiring to have us reconcile to Him…the Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. What is reconcile you might ask?

The Greek word for reconcile in Romans 5:10 is katallassō, which means to return into favor with, be reconciled to. Being reconciled with an individual means to cease being angry with an individual(s) and receive them into favor…either for the first time or again. When you have grudges towards any individual, no matter who it is, we suffer spiritually because it begins to rot (decompose or decay) our walk with Jesus, our mental state, our physical state and our spiritual state. There are some hurts and pains that we have carried for so long (well beyond 2007) that it is turning us into a monster that we cannot control (within ourselves). It’s time to let go of the damage packages (the sins, curses & habits) in 2008…allow the Lord to impact our lives without our interference.

Are there some folk that you need to reconcile with? Is there returned favor that needs to be restored to an individual or from an individual to you? Have we truly reconciled with the Lord about our shortcomings in 2007and the below years? Have we found and received that restored favor from the One who always desire to have all of us to Himself before we knew we were alive? I hear that 2008 is the year of new beginnings…well I have actually started seeing new beginnings in November of 2007. Haas your new beginning started yet? Or are you beginning on hold because of continued doubt of what God can do for your life. Maybe you’re mad at God for not coming through for you when you thought it was time. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one after giving all your prayers and hope that God was going to “deliver them from death”. God wants each and everyone one of us to hand over the anger, bitter, strife, homosexuality, lies, deceit, and selfish desires and straight out rebellion over to Him. It’s time to stop playing in the Christian walk and allow God to transform to impact this world with the Word of God.

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: Ephesians 2:16

God wants us back in the manifold and carry our His purpose He has for our lives. The true blessings do no lie in us or others. The true blessings lie in our faithfulness to God and from we apply all of His Word to our lives. Remember, if we have children, they’re watching us…and we don’t need to do things our lives that is against God that will cause our babies to stumble (Luke 9:42). This would include doing things on the down low thinking that what you do in secret will not affect them. There are spiritual consequences for everything we do in the physical. It is time to get rid of the “I’m going to make you pay” mentality. Folk stay mad and other because of something someone said or did to them 20 years ago. Now I’m not saying that if someone was raped, molested or something tragic happened to an individual that this is something that should totally thrown out of their minds. I am saying that folk should be ashamed of themselves if they are 45 years of age, holding a grudge because someone still owes them $20 since they were 15…come on now. Is easy to hold on to those continued grudges, but hard to unleash those feelings at the foot of King Jesus. James 5:9 strictly and plainly tells us not to -Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
If we hold these things against folk then judgment is brought upon us by God Himself. Jesus made things alright when He died on that cross, reconciliation took place then between God and man…once man confesses his faults/sins, confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as His Lord & Savior and turn 180 degree from his sinful lifestyle. It is powerful of the love and favor God & Christ had one us. And it’s a powerful thing knowing that the Holy Ghost is there to give us that power that we need to complete and defeat that challenges that lie ahead in our lives.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

Let’s not get hung up on the things that are material by putting them first (check out Matthew 6:20), lets make a commitment to give our all to the Lord. God knows our hearts desire and if we focus on Him and His ministry and GNL, the blessings and desires will come…in His will and His timing. Be blessed on this day and know that Jesus loves you and I love you all too. Until the Sequel of Jesus.

Deteriorating Leadership

30An appalling and horrible thing [bringing desolation and destruction] has come to pass in the land: 31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests exercise rule at their own hands and by means of the prophets. And My people love to have it so! But what will you do when the end comes? Jeremiah 5:30-31 (Amplified Bible)

I pray that you all are well in the will of the Lord on this beautiful day in the Lord. I truly have been blessed in my growth in the Lord, haven’t you? We’re in the middle of September and there’s a whole heap of stuff that has happened in the body of Christ. Before I go on let me just say that I don’t…I mean I do not condone any type of abuse on anyone. I do not believe that abuse is biblical, but there seems to be something that is not right and I have to ask questions.

Some events happened in 2007 that has shaken the foundations of the churches. Events leading up to the media making the Bible seem like an ordinary book. More questions arise about the validity of God’s Word based on the evidence(s) of the Bible and also the life of today’s Christian. There have been times that folk of high platform status has had the opportunity to make a statement for God, but has crumbled into some type of shut mouth shell when it comes to speaking out the truth. We have deteriorating leadership going on and it seems like few folk are saying something about it.

I’m not a person to gossip so I’ll just state what seems to be fact from the media and myspace pages. In August Pastors Thomas Weeks III and Juanita Bynum-Weeks took a nasty turn in their marriage. There was a physical altercation that ensued and sister Juanita suffered the most out of it…physically speaking. Stay with me cause I’m going somewhere with this. Here are two individuals who are high in the pastoral popular area, a couple that had a million dollar wedding on television, and a couple who was “ordained by God” to help “expand the kingdom”. This took a turn for the worse has Weeks beat the snot out of his wife. This is not a joking matter, this is what happened. How has leadership deteriorated from this experience?

Folk have been scared from the ministry of the Weeks…just because of what happened. I can guarantee that at least a couple of folk (a whole lot more but I’m only guaranteeing a couple) lost their faith in Christ because of this domestic violence. There were some folk who were looking for hope in the Weeks’ and their hearts have been crushed. See saints, let me just say this before I move on, GOD HATES DIVORCE!!! PERIOD!!! There’s no way around it. I’ll use this analogy I learned in August before the Weeks/White drama unfolded. God created the marriage for unity, growth with your spouse, display for kindly affection for your spouse and working together to build up the kingdom of God. Women are the backbone of the marriage; they are backbone of the church as well. The men are the covering of the bone, and we are to cover and protect that bone by any means necessary. Men are not supposed to be harming part of the bone if they are one body. But if the covering (skin/man) is injured and weak…then the bone slowly and surely begins to break. As a man begins to lose focus of protecting his wife by getting hooked on porn, thinking of himself, lusting at other women or men…he begins to slowly break down the character, and the backbone capabilities of the woman.

One of my questions during all of this is way has no one said anything about this to the point of, “Hey let’s get some counseling.” Our leadership in the church is depleting and no one asking why or holding up the standard for which we are called to do. Where are the elders of the Weeks’ and the Whites’ to step in and kindly counsel them about their trials and tribulations? And then their allowed to go into the pulpit and continue to preach lies unto the people…and the people still love it. We are at the stage where many ears are itching for the lies and are ditching the truth. Shall we continue to lead the world in divorces, children out of wedlock, fornication, etc? God forbid!

I’m just getting warmed up, but this has some church couples thinking that their marriage might not last because the Weeks’ didn’t or the White’s didn’t. I pray that the Spirit of God can reconcile their marriages and that people of God (some of them) stop looking at man and actually look towards the Lord in all that they do. Man will fell us, but God never will.

Again just getting warmed up here, pray with me. Be blessed on this day and know that Jesus loves you and I love you all too.

Until the Sequel of Jesus,

Jodie McGarity Jr.

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