Most of us have read the story about the woman with the issue of blood. She had an illness (possibly hemorrhaging) for 12 years. She spent all she had on doctors and physicians, and still didn’t get better. I’m sure she felt hopeless. But then one day, she heard a commotion and realized Jesus was passing by. As the scripture states in Mark 5:27 “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.” And in that very instant she was healed. The interesting thing about this miracle is that this passage also talks about how many people were surrounding Jesus and pushing up against him. But whenever this woman touched his garment, he felt virtue leave his body. Jesus turned and said, “Who touched my clothes (Mark 5:30)?” Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me (Mark 5:31)?” What was so special about this woman compared to everyone else? One thing I realized about this scripture is the intent of the woman compared to the crowd. She was intentional in her pursuit of Jesus. In fact, I think it’s very fair to say that her faith and intentionality is what turned Jesus’ attention to her. When He looked upon her, He told her to go in peace for her faith made her whole (Mark 5:34). Why is this such a significant story for us as believers in Jesus Christ? If we truly desire to be like Christ, we have to emulate Him. God is intentional, which means, He does everything on purpose and with a purpose. We should be the same. God loves us intentionally. He blesses intentionally. He cares and comforts us intentionally. We should love the Lord the way He loves us – intentionally. Think about it like this: When a man is getting to know a woman, the woman will feel more secure and trusting of the guy she’s dating, if she knows his intentions with her are pure. If the goal is marriage, he will show her through actions. As it is in the natural, so it is in the spirit. God’s love for us is intentional. He shows us each and every day through His actions toward us. As a Christian, the relationship cannot be one-sided though. We have to show the Lord that we love Him, not just with words, but with faith and action. We have to be intentional with the Lord. How much do you love Him? Do you spend intimate time with him? Do you pray, fast, and remove distractions so that you can clearly hear from Him? If you’re asking the Lord for something, be intentional with Him. Intention is coupled with faith. As you saw from the example of the woman with the issue of blood, she was intentional about reaching Jesus and her faith made her whole. Love the Lord out loud and with purpose. Show Him that you care about developing your relationship with Him. One other thing: she didn’t care about the distractions around her. She only saw Jesus. She didn’t care about what people thought. She didn’t care about possibly getting trampled by the huge crowd surrounding Jesus. And, most importantly, she was desperate for Him. Let her life be an example for you. Remove all distractions. Forget about what people may think about you in your pursuit of Jesus. Jesus has everything you need. Healing, peace, deliverance, joy, and love will be found in Him if you are in need. If you pursue the Lord with purpose and intention, you are guaranteed to get His attention. Pray this simple prayer with me: Lord, I humbly come before your throne of grace knowing that I am in need of you. I thank you for being my Father and my friend. I ask You to forgive me of all my trespasses and ask that You enrich me with Your love, joy, and peace. I am desperate for You. I know that everything I need is found in You. I believe by faith that You know of what I need before I even ask or think it. Surround me with Your love and strengthen me with Your Spirit in my inner man. Everything you do is intentional, so help me to be more like You. Help me to be intentional in my walk with You. Just like with your servant Moses, allow me to be so close to you that experience your glory. Allow Your presence to overtake me. It’s an honor to be Your servant. This is my short love letter to You, Lord. Thank you again for loving me beyond measure. I pray this prayer in Jesus’ mighty and matchless Name Amen!
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It is been almost 3 years since my last blog post. You may ask, “Why so long?” What I will tell you is that even though I haven’t written anything down to share with you all, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t productive. In those three years, I’ve seen some sharp peaks and very deep valleys. However, God brought me through them all. There have been many lessons I’ve learned and many more I’m still learning. One thing I’ve learned is the act of sitting before the Lord. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we need to do something grand or monumental to get the Lord’s attention. This can be further from the truth. God is not impressed with our works alone. What God does honor, however, is our faith coupled with good works. The bible does indeed say that, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). We have to remember it’s about the posture of our heart. When we do something in the name of the Lord, are we doing it for our own gratification? Or are we doing it for the purpose of giving God glory? So, how does this all relate to sitting before the Lord? Sitting in general is not a great physical act. In fact, it requires hardly any energy at all. So, how can something so simple gain God’s attention? Sitting before the Lord is an act of humility, faith, and meekness and requires prayer. To further explain, let’s take a look at a person in the bible most of us are familiar with, David. After many wars, David finally had peace. One day, as he was sitting in his house, David purposed in his heart to build the Lord a temple. He looked around at his beautiful palace and remembered that the Lord was the one to give him all of this. He told the Lord, that he wanted to do something grand, something special, something that had never been done before: build the Lord a temple. However, the Lord said no. The Lord told him that the temple would be built by his son, Solomon. David’s intentions were pure and I’m sure God loved the fact that David had a desire to do this great thing. But God had other plans. Check out David’s response to the Lord: “Then went king David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, ‘Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that thou has brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord GOD; but thou has spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? (2 Samuel 7:18-19)’” David trusted God’s wisdom. As mighty as David was, he still had enough humility to sit before the Lord and acknowledge God’s sovereignty and the frailty of man. So, you see, sitting before the Lord allows us to stop what we are doing and give God full reign to search our hearts. It’s not just a physical act, but it is also a spiritual one. When we humble ourselves and repent, God is pleased. Sitting involves rest. The word rest means to stop, be still, and be silent. It also involves prayer. Prayer is two-way communication to the Lord. David, in the scripture we just read, prayed to the Lord and the Lord heard him. When we sit before the Lord, we have to quiet ourselves so that we can hear the Lord clearly. So, I would like to pose a few questions to all my readers. When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Do you check your phone? When you get home from work, do you lay down, turn on the tv, or do you get on social media? Do you cook right after work or work out in the gym? Or do you do all these things? When you are done, do you leave time to sit before the Lord? I challenge you today and for the rest of your individual lives (I’m speaking to myself also!) to sit before the Lord every day before you get ready for work and right after you get home. Don’t let this be a religious act, but make your relationship with the Lord priority. Spend time with Him. We should let the Lord know we are nothing without Him. David knew this. So should we. -Blake
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Music is a huge part of our lives. We listen to it when we are sad and want to reverse the effect of sadness. We listen to it when we are want to get hype when we are working out. We listen to it when we want to feel God’s presence. Whatever the reason, music is a major part of who we are. No human being (past, present, or future) has gone at least one day without listening to music. Music, depending on the type, can affect our mood but it does much more than that. Music can affect our spirit also. How can this be? Music can and will change our personality gradually if we allow it to. We hear excuses like, “I’m must enjoying the beat.” Or you may hear someone say, “It’s just music.” Well, I’m going to explain to you how important it is to monitor what you listen to and be careful what we allow to go into our spirit. Music undoubtedly has addictive qualities. Picture this: you and your friend are having a conversation about a new Beyoncé album that has just come out. Your friend tells you that they enjoy the entire album and can’t wait for her to come to your respective city. You, however feel indifferent about the album, stating that it wasn’t her best. Your friend becomes defensive and calls you crazy because of your opinion and then tries earnestly to make a case for why the album is the best album she’s ever made and quite possibly, the best album of all time. I’m sure all who are reading this has had that conversation before about music and possibly have received that kind response. People will defend what they like but also will defend something that they feel they need. Music affects the brain like no other thing can. It can hit the area of the brain that produces dopamine and oxytocin. These two molecules work together to cause habits and in worst cases addictions. The worst examples of these two molecules working together can be seen with drug and alcohol addicts. Music may not work as diabolically as drugs and alcohol but it does affect the same area of the brain. Saul was the first king of Israel. He was handsome, tall, and charismatic. He seemed to be the perfect fit to lead Israel to victory against their enemies the Philistines. However, everything that glitters isn’t always gold. He was a foolish, disobedient, and jealous man. Because of his great sin against God, the Lord took His Spirit away from Saul which left him vulnerable to demonic attacks. To counter this, Saul had David, a gifted harp player, to come in and “play” the demons away. In fact, the bible states that “…when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Here’s my hypothesis: David was able to chase evil spirits away by playing music that gave glory and honor to God. Is it possible that certain music can be used to invite evil spirits as well? I’m not going to get into naming all the artists because a lot of that is subjective. But what I am going to do is invoke thought. I know a lot of people some of which I know to be Christians. In talking to or hanging out with them, I’ve learned that most listen to not only gospel or Christian hip hop, but also secular music such as R&B, and hip hop (trap included). I’m not saying any of this music is bad but I do know that a lot of the lyrics of the songs in those particular genre tend to be very suggestive and vulgar. Why do we have a tendency to listen to that type of music? There is music that appeals to our spirit but there is also music that appeals to our flesh. One of my acquaintances would say every time he wanted to get high, he would listen to Wiz Khalifa. I know a lot of people who felt like thugs (oh boy) when they listened to NWA. Music changes mood and if allowed, will eventually alter personality. Nowadays, most music outside of gospel and contemporary Christian, contains sexually explicit lyrics and it can invoke thoughts of a sexual manner. At some point in our lives, we have to be honest with ourselves. Do we really want to give glory to God in all that we do? If so, why do we listen to things that don’t give Him glory and basically honors the flesh? Why is it so hard for us to shake things that can harm us in the long run? We have to make the conclusion that if there is good music that is used to glorify God, then there has to be music that can be used to glorify the devil. The latter should be avoided at all cost.
My Testimony The Reason I Am The Way I Am By BLAKE LEWIS I have met a lot of people over the course of my life so far. God has graced and blessed me to encourage and help those that I’ve come in contact with. Most people that I meet have told me that they feel like I’ve got it all together. Those people are sadly mistaken. Many of them don’t really know my story and the process it took to get to my level of faith. The saying that a lot of preachers say in the black church, “You may see me in my glory but you don’t know my story” is definitely true in my case. I tell people all the time that I’m just a regular, normal, guy. So for those who are reading, please allow me to share a bit of my testimony. Interaction with people is something I love. I would consider myself an extrovert. Sometimes I joke that I’m an “omnivert” with my close friends because I have my shy moments, but for the most part I’m not particularly shy. I enjoy sharing my faith with those I’m close to but more so with those who don’t know the Lord Jesus. But what most don’t understand is why I am the way that I am. It’s been a long hard road for me. I’m twenty-eight years of age and I’ve seen and experienced so many things in my life so far. When I recall my past, I realize how grateful I am to have made it this far. But at the same time, I also acknowledge how frustrated I was during that time. I accepted Christ when I was six years old. My mom would always bring me to church with her when she directed the children’s choir and would minister to them after every practice. I was only four at the time but I remember everything that transpired in those practices and wanted to learn more of what she talked about. God always intrigued me and even though I really didn’t know Him that well at the time, I knew I wanted to learn more. My mom subtly would minister me throughout the day and even before I went to bed. I learned how to say my prayers and even learned how to read the bible. The amazing thing is that the bible was one of the first books I learned to read (not the King James Version but a children’s bible of course. But I digress). Just like any kid that age, I enjoyed seeing the pictures and as I read. This made the words come to life and made my imagination run wild. I wanted to know if God and Jesus really were as loving as in my bible. I accepted Christ July 12, 1995. I got baptized the very next Wednesday. Unlike most kids at that age, I knew exactly what I was doing mainly because of my support system. My parents instilled in me godly values and encouraged me to have integrity even when no one else had it. Middle school and high school were both very hard for me. I struggled with my self-esteem, which stemmed mainly from me not having a lot of friends and no one to talk to. I had a few friends but they couldn’t relate to my spiritual obstacles. The only people who could were my parents. In middle school, I realized how different I was from everyone else because of my walk with Christ. Everyone knew I was a Christian even though I rarely said anything to anyone due to my shyness. It was the way I carried myself which made me stand out. I would carry my bible along with my books to each class. I would speak about Jesus to all who would listen. This in turn, made me a social outcast. In high school, I tried to “fit in” without actually crossing my moral guidelines. I wanted to “hang with the fellas” but I wasn’t willing to do what they did. I had no desire to smoke, drink, or divulge in negative and uncomfortable conversations about sex. On the basketball team, my teammates made fun of me, and so did the coaches, which gave my teammates the green light to torture and ridicule me. In their minds, if the coach did it, so could they. I couldn’t get a girlfriend mainly because most of the girls wanted someone who was popular. I wasn’t trying to get anyone pregnant and develop unwanted soul ties. Even the ones that did approach me thought I was a square because I wouldn’t sleep with them. Unfortunately in church, the one place where I could escape turned out to be worse at times. During that time, I discovered the difference between “church folk” and real Christians. The saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” didn’t apply to me. In fact, words did hurt a lot (Proverbs 18:21). They can pierce the heart without even breaking the skin. I was called everything but a child of God. Holy roller, goody-two-shoes, uppity, virgin boy, Urkel, nerd boy, were just some of the names I was called. I would go home everyday after school and church just cry. I wondered why God was allowing this constant and incessant torture. Besides having my parents to encourage me, the other constant I had was my bible. I would read for hours and get lost in the word. After graduation, the Lord ministered to me through various people why He allowed me to go through what I went through. After all those years, I finally got my answer. It was to prepare me for ministry. At a young age, I knew my calling. God wasn’t going to allow me to quit or reject Him. He chose me to help and encourage others like me. He wanted young children and adults