Tag: bold

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A NEW SEASON

I live in Texas.  Rarely do we ever see a full season here with the exception of summer.  Even then, we have those crazy moments.  Like a few years ago, in the middle of July, we are outside in sweaters and coats because it is 40 degrees.  The next day, hot and steamy again.

I’ve recently turned 30.  That was one big birthday!  Kind of hit me a little hard.  But I’ve looked back over my last 29 years of my life and I saw that I’ve dealt with life like Texas handles it’s seasons.  Sporadic, crazy, chaotic.  For me, that is no more.

1 Corinthians 13:11 says: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Will you take this journey with me?  Will you decide to lay down the childish ways of your past and move into a new season of maturity?  Let’s start a new season.  Not just because it is a new year, but because we have only a small time on Earth.  Let’s make it count!

Be blessed everyone!  It’s a new season!  Step boldly into it.

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Greatest of these….

Bold love changes the world.  Love those who can’t love you back, give grace to those who don’t deserve it, and forgive those who won’t change.  

“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.””

‭‭I Peter‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

  

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Emotions

I have had a lot of days lately where I am stuck in my emotions.  Do you know what I am talking about?  The times when I just cannot shake the feelings this earthly, human, finite brain keeps rolling around as I try to go about my day.  It is sometimes maddening.  Maybe someone did something, something happened at work, or just life is crazy – regardless of why – it still knocks me off my game.

Being human and being a Child of God sometimes…often…conflicts with each other.  Philippians 4:6-7 says “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  And then, Galatians 5:22-23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.”

To be the light of the world, we do not get to always act out how we feel.  Our goal on this earth, as His children, is to show people His love.  I vow to do this more, regardless of how I feel today, tomorrow, 10 years from now – will you take this vow with me?

Live fearlessly in Him, dear friends.  Be blessed!

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Stand…

“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” Matthew 5:10 NLT

My heart hurts for the Middle East Christians who are being killed, tortured, hated, forgotten…may the Lord bless them and give them a great reward for staying strong in their belief in times like this.  They are truly my heroes.

We can learn a lot from them, especially those who have the freedom to worship however we like…people like me.  I hate a little conflict.  Even a tiny fight with a friend makes my world start to spin because there isn’t peace.  My fellow believers, we need to get over the ache of a little conflict and realize that persecution for doing RIGHT can be a good lesson to learn.

I know you are saying “What???  Has Brooke lost her MIND????”  But, think about this – when we are persecuted, we start to understand the plight of Christ in His last day.  He stood up, was spat upon, beaten, tortured, stripped naked, and hung on a cross to die.  If only Satan knew that instead of killing Him off, He just gave Him the rights to the Kingdom…

To our brothers and sisters in the Middle East who are continuing to stand up for what you believe – I applaud you.  May Christ reward you greatly.  May we, here in a world with much less persecution, learn from you and start standing up for what we know is RIGHT.

May all those who worry about making the person next to you mad so you don’t share the truth with them – remember that even just a little persecution brings us closer to who Christ is.  Stand up, speak up, and live a life without fear!

Prayer: Father, bless those who are being persecuted for your sake, especially those in the Middle East.  Give them great rewards and send them peace here on Earth.  Help us, those who live in a much easier situation, stand up with our brothers and sisters and not back down to just a little conflict.  Build up an army of believers that will do whatever we need to do to make sure your truth is known.  And make me one of your warriors in that army.  I love you.  I thank you for being you.  In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

Be blessed everyone!

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Credit: freeimages.com

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Chosen

We make choices every day.  I made a decision to get out of bed, make breakfast, run errands, and go to the gym.  I had the choice not to do any of those things and just stay in bed.  At first, I am sure it would feel good, but after a while, it would get really old.  Life is full of good and bad choices.

God created us to be able to make our own decisions and face their consequences.  All the way in the front of the Bible, we see this played out with Adam, Eve, and the serpent (see Genesis 3).  As a result, we have the ability to believe or reject just about everything.  As I am typing on this computer, I can believe that I am a billionaire.  I am not (yet), but I can still believe it.  That is my choice that I get to make.  If I spent money like I as a billionaire without being a billionaire, then I would be in very big trouble.

Due to the consequences of our personal choices, God will bring things to us and take things away.  If we decide to live by our wills and not His, then we will not be able to do what we are called to do.  God had a plan for each of us.  He created us with purpose.  This purpose is meant to glorify Him and be a blessing to those around us in some form or fashion.  This could be at our jobs, at our church, or in our families.  Our purpose is unique to us – therefore we are exceedingly important to this world.  Some of us, though, will make a choice not to do what God has called us to do.

Some are waiting to be chosen, some are wanting to do their own thing, some are just too busy with other things to do what they need to do.  I used to be someone who believed that the opportunities would just fall into my lap.  If I go to church and do good, I will get all that God promised me.  Then, I realized that if I am not doing my end of the bargain – if I did not put myself in the right place and learn the things I need to learn, then I will not achieve what I was meant to achieve in the time I was supposed to achieve it.  Will there be other chances?  Yes, I think there will be – because God is good like that.  His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Let’s look at this Parable:

Again Jesus spoke to them in picture-stories. He said,  “The holy nation of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding supper for his son.  He sent his servants to tell the people, who had been asked, to come to the supper. But the people did not want to come.

“He sent other servants, saying to them, ‘Tell those who have been asked to come, “See! My supper is ready. My cows and fat calves are killed. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding supper!”’  But they did not listen and went on working. One went to his farm. Another went to his store.  The others took hold of his servants, and hurt them and killed them.

 “When the king heard this, he was very angry. He sent his soldiers to put those to death who had killed his servants. He burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding supper is ready. Those who were asked to come to the supper were not good enough. Go out into the roads and as many people as you can find, ask them to come to the wedding supper.’

 “The servants went out into the roads and brought all they could find, both bad and good. The wedding supper room was full of people.  The king came in to see those who had come. He saw one man who did not have on wedding supper clothes.  He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding supper clothes?’ The man could not speak!  Then the king said to his servants, ‘Tie his hands and feet, and throw him out into the darkness. In that place there will be loud crying and grinding of teeth.’ For many are called but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:1-14

I want to be among those who are chosen!  I want to make sure that whatever I do, I do unto God.  Because just going about doing my own thing, even if it is good, isn’t going to cut it.  I need to do exactly what God wants me to do.  I don’t want to disappoint Him.

What about you?  Do you want to live a life on purpose – that life that God meant you to live?  Are you willing to be bold about it?

Let’s do it together, y’all!  Let’s walk out this life just as God intended us to live it.

Pray this with me:  Father, thank you for making me who I am.  You put me on this earth for a reason and there is something that I can do that no one else will ever be able to do.  Help me learn exactly what you want from me and give me the boldness to walk it out.  Show me who I am in you and where you need me right at this moment and how I can get there, if I am not already there. And, finally, as I walk this life out, let me listen to your voice – only your voice – so that I remain on the road you meant for me.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Be blessed everyone!

Choose

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While You Are Waiting: Being Bold Volume 2

Waiting is a hard thing to do. There are times we may wait for years before we see the things God has laid out for us. In this interim, we must deal with our surroundings in a way that it doesn’t detract from our future. In other words, we must not become stagnant, bitter and angry. How do we do that? We stay humble. The definition of being humble is “not proud; not thinking of (or showing) yourself as better than other people.” Humility is a subject that is talked about a lot in churches. It also is mentioned many times in the Bible – 3751 to be exact. I know that this subject has been spoken on a lot, but because it is so important and, dare I say, because it is one of the hardest things for us to master, let’s dig into it and find out how we can remain humble in a season of waiting.

Being bold is not just about waiting – it is about everything that we do. Thus, we must let it permeate every part of us- which includes how we treat others around us. Training oneself to put yourself last takes some conscious decisions. It is not easy. There are some key people in our lives that we need to deliberately be humble to. Some, it will be easy to put them first, but others, not so much. God does care about our feelings. He knows our heart (Psalm 139:1-4) and understands why, when we interact with some people, humility is not our first thought. He does not want us to hurt, but He wants us to live our lives for Him, thus loving others (1 John 3:16). In doing so, we will see His hand and know His victory (Deut. 20:4; 1 Peter 5:5).

The first in the group of people we must humble ourselves to is those who lead us. Whether you are someone who volunteers here and there at your church or someone who sits on the Pastoral staff, we all have leaders. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 says that we must show respect and wholehearted love to our leaders because of their work. We must show those who have to make the hard decisions honor. King David showed King Saul great respect despite the fact that David was the anointed King and Saul was not doing a good job ruling the kingdom. It didn’t matter – the man that was after God’s own heart knew that he needed to honor the man in power as long as he held that position (1 Sam. 24).

In turn, the next group of people who we must show honor and humility to are those who serve us in our ministries. Whether you are a top ministry leader or a lower tier leader in a church, you have people who work for your cause. In any of these cases, consider yourself blessed. Why? 1 Peter 5:2-4 talks about how we need to care for the flock that God entrusted to us – not to get anything out of it, but because we are serving others. In doing this, our reward will be great in Heaven. So we should be just like Jesus in John 13 and kneel before our people and be the example for those who are watching us. Thus, we are planting seeds and building other ministries with even minute acts of kindness.

The third group of people that every Christian should be humble to is those who look up to us in our journey. We all have a story and we all have a past. Anyone in ministry has a story that will reach someone. As you walk your journey, there will be people who look up to you – who admire where you have come from and want to see themselves in that stage of journey at some point in their own future. Philippians 2:3 states “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.” In the business of life, we forget that we need to make time for those around us. Remember to take time for those who may really need us in our lives.

Alongside the ones above, we now move onto the more unpleasant people in our lives. There are a group of people who, in our season of waiting, we will see get the chances that we so desire. Regardless of how upset this may make us, we must still be humble. If it is God who did this, then there is an opportunity in the future that He has planned that we cannot yet see (Prov. 3:5-, Jer. 29:11). If it is the evil one who is orchestrating this, then we need to get angry with him – for trying to hurt us and for using those in our lives to try to destroy us. To truly get back at him, celebrate those around us in their success. This way God wins!

Finally, we must be humble to those who try to purposely, even deviously take us out. This is the hardest type of humility by far. When we are waiting to be elevated, knowing that there is more to this life and then we encounter someone who is making this climb even so much harder. It Is our first instinct to try to do the same to them – take them out before they do us. We must remember that God is always faithful (Psalm 36:5) so we should trust that His plan will go forth regardless. It is our duty to not retaliate. Romans 12:17-19 says to never take revenge and never try to pay back evil with evil. We must live in honor and in peace. Let the Lord fight our battles. How bold do you say that is?

Being bold is not easy. There are many things on this journey that could trip us up, but there is one thing we all need to remember: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” John 3:30.

Blessings.

This is a statue at my university, Dallas Baptist University. It captures Jesus washing a disciple's feet.
This is a statue at my university, Dallas Baptist University. It captures Jesus washing a disciple’s feet.
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Be Bold

 

Mr. Webster defines boldness as “not afraid of danger or difficult situations; very confident in a way that may seem rude or foolish.” Being bold in a world that is ever changing seems to be politically correct right now. We are told that You Only Live Once, so why not eat the 1,000 calorie cookie, date the bad boy, or party all night long? Well, what if, instead of being bold for the approval of others, we were bold for the approval of God. Is that as easy or as politically correct as living a life per the YOLO philosophy?

 

Can I share with you what I think the boldest thing we can do in our world today as a Christian? Is it the Christian that constantly promotes themselves on social media as “Apostle” or “Prophet” or posting pictures of themselves on the same social media describing how amazing they are when they are ministering? I personally believe that there is a place and a need for self-promotion in our world today, but most certainly do not believe that this is truly the boldest thing a Christian can do.  No, the boldest thing a Christian can do is wait…wait for the Lord to do what He wants done in our lives. It is also one of the hardest things to do.

 

I am not speaking of waiting as a form of being passive or to “decide without trying to change anything” according to Mr. Webster. Waiting in the sense that you know there is a destiny for your life, you know that God has plans for you, but you are allowing Him to form those things in your life within the element of time. Praying, reading the Bible, serving in a ministry – knowing that this is not what you are destined to always do, but allowing God to get you ready. The people around you may call you foolish or in danger of not doing anything with your life, but you KNOW that there is more. There might even be a time when you feel like it will never happen, like if you wait another moment that your chance will slip through your hands, but you hear the Holy Spirit telling you to keep on waiting, that He has it all under control. This is the boldest thing I think we as Christians can do. It is also a sign of humility, showing God that we know He is greater than us or our will.

 

Let’s look at the life of Jesus Christ. Luke 3:23 states that Jesus began His ministry at the age of 30 – speaking from someone who is yet to turn 30 (I have 1.5 years left), that is a long time to wait to achieve your destiny. We all know that Jesus is the Son of God, who can do all things and, right this very moment, is sitting at the right hand of God. That is a far greater achievement that we can ever boast about. Why did He have to wait so long?

 

Let’s look at Luke 2:39-52. Jesus, the Messiah, at age 12, was found by his worried parents after 3 days of looking for him in the temple among the teachers – listening and asking questions. He in fact amazed those teachers by His answers and understanding. When He told His parents that He was going about His father’s business, they in fact, didn’t understand what He meant. Why? Because He was just 12 years old.  Was the Christ capable of starting His 3 year teaching journey at that time? Yes, I do believe He was ready, but no one else was ready to hear Him – Jesus did not have credibility as such a young man. At that time and in that culture, manhood began at age 30. I also know that there is a vast difference between a 15 year old giving his life up and a 33 year old giving his life up. Jesus needed to wait that time, not for Him, but for those whom He was reaching. Maybe God is not asking us to wait for us, but asking us to wait for those who need us.

Trusting God is why we wait. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” Don’t get caught up in this world and how fast things are going, thinking that you should be doing the same. Just remember that God has a perfect plan and He knows what He is doing. Follow Him and your life will be prosperous!

Blessings.

 

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