Sound The Alarm

The conference that changed my life!

April 29th and 30th of this year was the Sound the Alarm Conference put on by the Orlando House of Prayer. It was an amazing conference featuring Todd White and George Sotolongo. Interestingly, it wasa day after a Pinky Promise meeting and everything discussed on Friday night was just a more in depth version of Pinky Promise meeting. I knew that I was going to receive something great, I even wrote in my journal "God is going to use this conference to wipe out every feeling of pain and hopelessness that I've ever felt when He drowns me in His presence". I knew it was all going to be about being intentional and that if I really wanted to have a connection with the triune God I would have to be intentional about it.

For those of you who do not know Todd White I suggest you look him up, he looks like this:


He is a powerful speaker and He helps clarify some of the things God has been trying to tell you that maybe you didn't understand. On Friday he spoke about something we have all heard time and time again, being born again. But most of the time, people say being born again is where it ends, they just talk about how important it is. But he said, "Being born again is essential but it's to unlock your potential." We have to be born again but it just another step. Once we are born again, we can do more. We have a closer relationship with the Father, we can do everything and more that Jesus did. We have spiritual gifts waiting to be released on the inside of us and therefore we don't have to covet other people's spiritual gifts. We were all meant to do something different and that means we have different talents. If necessary, go take a spiritual gifts test, they actually do help.

The important thing is to not practice orphan prophecy- gaining identity in what you do instead of what God did for you. We are meant to use our gifts to terrorize the devil. Everyday. And don't believe that because you can perform miracles or do other things that you are right with God. God can work through anybody and everybody even those who aren't spiritually sound. Matthew 11:28 is just the beginning of a Christian life, it's not the end.

Todd mentioned hat we cannot be just without faith and that, like I've mentioned before in other posts that we should not do, we should be. Eternal life is knowing God and we as His chosen people, His children should love this one simple fact: we are loved by Him. And that means that we should manifest OUR Father wherever we go.

Manifesting God= Radical Forgiveness + Radical Mercy.

Forgive those we wrong you and show mercy to those who you believe do not deserve it. It'll be hard, how do you do it? Fill yourself with the truth of God's Word. Burn. Be on fire for Jesus. Obey your convictions because you are completely forgiven. All those sins? Gone.

This is just the beginning. One small part of one day of the conference. If you have questions ask, comments and social criticisms are also welcome.

Pinky Promise

Fellowship with the Sisters in Christ

Hey to all my females out there. This might sound like a public service announcement, but I want to talk about Pinky Promise really quick. For those who have not heard of it, which means most, it is a wonderful group of women from all over the US coming together to glorify God and uplift each other. 

I joined the group in the town where my college is from and I love it. I met wonderful women who loved God and give me wise counsel. Key word in that sentence is wise. Not all of your friends tell you what is best for you, as you can tell from some of my other posts. These girls will listen (without interrupting), give you encouragement, talk to you about their experiences and point you to others who may be able to help. They never try and force a decision on you, they become friends for life. Plus, there are tons of cool events that come along with joining, or starting, a group. You can have the Bible studies, go to the conference in July, have mixers and other things to encourage the bond between godly women. Last week, my group held a big hat luncheon, it was so much fun. 

There are also times where we go to the beach or bowling. My group even has the occasional karaoke session (yaasssss). We also just hang out because what started as a Bible study group formed friendships and bonds. One of my friends said that she met the Paul to her Timothy there which is AMAZING! For those of you who are not familiar with the Bible, Paul (fka Saul) was an apostle of Christ who led many people to Jesus Christ. However, one of his "sons in Christ' was named Timotheus or Timothy, whichever you prefer. Timothy was young and through Paul's help he got to know Jesus Christ for himself. Paul provided Timothy with wise counsel but also expected Timothy to help draw others to Christ. So I have two questions for you: who is your Paul? And who is your Timothy?

One perk that I haven't mentioned yet is that it draws women from all backgrounds. Photographers, artists, preachers, students, beauticians. And on the last one, if you are in Central Florida and need a beautician look up @FaithInCurls. You can probably assume by the cartoon I use for this blog, I'm a curly girl. She gives hair revelations! Lol. See for yourself below. Much love to all my sisters in Christ and to the brothers as well. If there is a male equivalent to Pinky Promise hit me up and I will definitely post about it.

Here is the link to the Pinky Promise website:

http://www.pinkypromisemovement.com/

And here is an amazing song by Travis Greene: Made A Way

Friends

How Many of Us Have Them?

And more importantly, how many of them are true friends? People we can count on no matter what, who love the good and bad aspects about us. Who will sit and eat tons of food with us when we just want to be lazy. Those are true friends. People you can geek out with about stuff like A Goofy Movie, or have deep conversations with about the future.

I'm going to do a campaign. On my Google+ and just with some of my friends, please post on here as well. What is something you think is necessary for someone to be a true friend?

What About Your Friends by TLC

In The Hurt, There's Healing

It seems like someone is always saying something like that doesn't it? It's like a maxim that every church member knows, or at least pretends to know. But in all honesty it's very real. Some people who are reading this, have read my posts before and some people haven't. For some reason they stumbled along this completely random blog created by the weirdo that I am. I accept that. And I accept the fact that no matter how cliche this saying is, it's truth. I have a friend who is going through a lot of things and this is what I am trying to do to encourage him, tell him my experiences and help him pick himself back off the ground. I can only pray it works because, no matter how much you want to help someone, if they don't want it, they're not going to get it. And even though you don't want to the best thing you can do for some people is to let them fall, let them hit rock bottom because the only person that can truly pick themselves up from that is them. God makes it plain in His Word that we, as Christians, will suffer but that suffering will be nothing in comparison to the wonder coming after. He also says that if we want out we have to cry out. Some people think that pouting is going to change the situation, that won't do. You have to come to God broken, contrite, and willing to truly hear and do what He tells you to do.

Romans 8:18 (KJV)

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Psalm 34:6 (KJV)

"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."

No matter what we are going through we have to be willing to cry out to God with the authority He gave is, the authority we should be walking in every day and ask Him to save us.

Here are two songs that I love for some inspiration:

Drowning by KB and Save Me by Derek Minor

Shout out to "Knights for Christ" for letting me use their shirt as my image for this post.

Let's Get Real

So, I know that it seems like my blog never really gets  to personal issues. There's a reason for that. I didn't want it to. I had hoped to touch people without ever getting too in depth into my own personal life, but now I know that testimony's can help. Stories can reach more than just preaching the Word can. And so, I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She lived in a town in a far away land and things were far from perfect. But, in all serious things were tough. Some people might think of my problems as pointless or as first world problems, but to me. It was serious. It was hurt. Let's talk about my middle school life. My mom wanted me and my brother to go to a good school. The schools in my town were awful, there were no books and the neighborhood was not the greatest. Because of this, my mom lied about our address so that we could be zoned in another school. A "white" school with books and ratings. We were technically  homeless, living with different relatives off and on. Finally,  we for an apartment in the school district that we were going to. But a nice apartment doesn't mean much when you can't afford to put things in the refrigerator.

People always judging others because of what they think they know when in reality they may not know anything about it whatsoever. And being Black, I was raised under the rule of "Don't you tell nobody what happens in this house. " and I am quite sure I'm not the only one. So, I started going to this school, I  got involved a little bit more but I never fit in. I wasn't pretty enough to be populat, I wasn't athletic and I felt like I had no place to go. I felt like I would never for in because no matter how many people I knew no one really knew me. It was draining so I lost myself and I'm still trying to figure out who I am. I'm still trying to determine what my purpose in this world is, and God is slowly showing me. 

But, back to the story....no one knew me but I was everyone's "friend". I tried to stay neutral but I hated the pettiness of high-school. White people thought that all everyone who was Black was either in a gang or a soon to be baby momma and everyone talked about everyone to anyone who would listen. That's why I started reading more and more fantasy. I had always read but now I read to escape my life. I wanted a better life, one where I felt like my family cared, one where my brother didn't hit me and that could only be found between the pages of a novel. I stopped eating regularly and when I did eat, it wasn't for nourishment it was to heal all the brokenness I felt. But it never worked and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't throw it back up so I gained weight. Weight everyone in my family criticized me for. I wanted to die, but them funeral costs would be another burden on my family so instead I wished to disappear. I wished that I had never existed and I dreamed of how wonderful the world would be if I  wasn't in it. I felt like a mistake and so, I  acted like one. I believed every awful thing anyone said about me because it had to be true for them to say it. No matter what it was, everything that went wrong was my fault  even I didn't know what was going on. 

I took the blame.

I came out of a dark place and I lived with that situation for a long time but I can honestly say that I am using my past to help others through their current situation and the fact that I can do that proves that it was worth it, even though I didn't think so back then. So please, share this story with your friends and write your own testimony in the comments. You can choose to be anonymous, but never forget that people always learn from hearing about what someone else had to go through. Be blessed.

Christianity Not Perfection

We were never meant to be perfect.

Only God is perfect. In the Bible it says that God made Adam in His image. Adam was a shadow, a reflection of God here on Earth. We've all looked in the mirror and we know that even though it's a pretty good representation,  it is not us. No matter what Mulan thinks! ( If you got that reference I am so proud of you! ) We were meant to be close to perfection,  we are called to be a light on the world. Salt of the earth,  representing God. I know that not all of my readers are Christian but I hope you still get something out of this post. We're not perfect, so how are we supposed to represent our Father?

1 Timothy 4:12

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith in purity."

We are examples of Christ so, even though I've beaten this idea over the head with an ugly stick. God tests us a lot and these tests are to make sure that we can show up and show out as Christians even when nothing seems to be going our way. Last night, I was at a conference. It was a pretty fun conference but as a volunteer I know that nothing was seeming to go as planned. People were late, people were getting lost and we were all pretty worried about attendance BUT God made a way. We started almost an hour late than scheduled but somehow managed to end on time even though we went through the schedule in its entirety. It's like when God made time stop in the Old Testament. That's how it felt. And we could have yelled, gotten frustrated or even left but we didn't. We all stayed and got to know someone knew and fellowship and worship in a way that would have been different if there were hundreds of people like there were last year. Through that stress and headache we all wore smiles and people's hearts were touched by the power of Jesus Christ. We were an example to those around us. We had the faith to keep going.

I know that's not a great example but still. Real life happens to everybody. Young, old, beautiful, ugly, perky or rude. We all come across situations that we can't handle but we have to stand up tall. And like the verse says, it doesn't matter if we're young. We are the light of this world, so shine like the tub after using Ajax!

You can be a good person without being a Christian.

Every one has the potential to be a good person. But as a Christian, it is our job to represent God's unconditional love by being kind, gentle, loving and understanding. Why? Because that is what God would want us to do. This ties into my post about being a witness. We are living, and while we are living we should the living for Christ. We should show the world that Christianity doesn't mean perfection. We still are tempted, sometimes we fall, sometimes it seems like nothing is ever going to change. Sidebar: Christianity does NOT mean the end of your problems. In fact, your problems will most likely get a whole lot worse because the enemy wants to wear you down, but we can't be defeated. We walk in the authority. I have some other things to do, but I suggest listening to some songs such as Never Quit by Benjah and Young by Andy Mineo.

Here's another by Dee-1 I'm Not Perfect

Be A Witness

We are not called to witness. We are called to be witnesses.

We are living epistles read of all men. We are both the light and the salt on the earth. And we will always have people watching us hoping to criticize us for that one mistake. It is all a part of being a Christian. That;s not the issue, the issue comes in when we claim to be followers of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, but we don't live like him at all. That's just plain hypocritical ad we all know how much Jesus disliked the actions of the hypocritical Pharisees (throwing tables and all that).

What makes a witness? It isn't as hard as one may think. We have to help people and even if we never go out and evangelize all over the globe, there are people we can minister in our own towns. Not everybody has been given the gift of being a people person, trust me. God did NOT give me that gift. However, I can still show people the glory of God without taking the fist step and walking up to a stranger like, "Do you know my Lord, Jesus Christ?". For those of you who are like me we must make sure that people see God's glory through us. We are His temple are we not?

As tough as it is we have to try and inspire people to get to know God through our lifestyle. That doesn't mean we have to be perfect but it does mean that we pray, read His Word, love our neighbors and show mercy to our enemies. I know it's hard. I was so angry at a coworker this past Friday that it made me physically sick and I had to leave. Luckily, I didn't punch her in the face like I wanted to. Sometimes we have to walk away when it gets tough so that we don't make the wrong decision. I learned recently though that I should never let someone else have that much control over my emotions so I am still working on that. Anyway, back to witnessing. Everyone loves a friend but how many people can show the same affection for an enemy? It gets easier and when we start doing that people are going to notice the change and get a little curious. 

Once this happens don't be all extra-Christian. We are trying to win people to the kingdom, not creep them out. Talk to them about God and if you need to read up on apologetics. People usually ask why there is evil in the world. My answer to this question is free will. There would be no such thing as evil if God hadn't given us the choice and if Adam and Eve had never chosen to eat the apple but they did.

Even if there are those who never outright ask you about your faith, they are watching everything you do and they should be able to tell if you are a Christian. If someone asks why you are dressed up on a Sunday and you respond that it's because of church you should get offended if they say, "I didn't know you were a Christian". I mean, how can we be an example like in 1 Timothy 4:12 if we are out here doing the exact same thing the world is doing. Think about it ans share your comments below. If you have any examples about being a witness or ways people can witness in their everyday life I would love to know. Post it below.

And since we are called to act Christ-like, here is a little song for inspiration.

Witness by God's Servant