Month: June 2017

CLIQUE-‘ISH’ IN THE CHURCH (YEP, ‘ISH’ IS A EUPHEMISM)…

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The enemy doesn’t mind you going to church as long as you take him with you. He wants to distract and infect your worship. One way he achieves this is through division in the local church. Division in the Body of Christ is strictly forbidden, and is sin…

Galations 5:19-20

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, FACTIONS

 

1 Corinthians 1:10

10 “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be NO DIVISIONS among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

We as people tend to want to be in groups of people with either common interests, or people who can benefit us. Sometimes these groups can form in the church with an unwillingness to let others in…that’s a CLIQUE (FACTION) .

Church can become like high school – The Cool Kids, The Jocks, The Nerds…

Church can become like the outside world – The Haves and The Have Nots…

Church can become like the secular (or Christian) music industry – Pastor, his Entourage, his Groupies and Fans…

Are you in one of these CLIQUES?

These are all distractions from the enemy to make our churches carnal, unfruitful and unproductive.

Don’t let your small group, your ministry group, your choir, your circle of friends be a CLIQUE in disguise.

Clique- ‘ISH’ even tried to creep into the early church…

1 Corinthians 11:18-22

18 “For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. 21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.”

The Body of Christ is one body with many members (1 Corinthians 12:12) and EVERYBODY IS SOMEBODY!

Even though we as people have a tendency to be CLIQUE-‘ISH’…. we need to keep that CLIQUE-‘ISH’ out of God’s church.!

FOR THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW

ish

1. Slang term often used to replace “s**t.” Derived from the process of editing the vocals of rap-songs by revershing the curse words so said song could be played on radio or television.

“That’s the dope ish”

 

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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PROOF THAT GOD DOESN’T FORBID ‘RACE MIXING’, BUT DOES FORBID FAITH MIXING…

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It’s one of the oldest and most contentious discussions, interracial marriages. Marrying outside of one’s own race angers some people to the point they would kill to protect the ‘purity’ of their own. Just as with other controversial issues, people either twist, misunderstand or cherry pick bible verses to suit their purpose, agenda or desires.

So when both or all sides of an issue are using the bible as their foundation, how do you know which is in harmony with God’s truth?

I’ve officiated several interracial weddings, and this information is a part of my premarital counseling sessions. I want to give ammunition to people to defend their relationships.

Let’s look at some verses used by those who WANT God to say interracial marriage  is forbidden…

Deuteronomy 7:1-5 (NKJV)

 When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

1 Kings 11:2 (KJV)

2 Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

 2 Corinthians 6:14  (NKJV)

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, allowed marriage to unbelievers to turn his heart from God and compromise his faith.

The New Testament verse in 2 Corinthians makes it perfectly clear that God’s concern wasn’t about RACE, but it was about FAITH.

God doesn’t want us to intermarry with someone who might allow our love for them to cause us to serve another God, or abandon God.

It has nothing to do with race.

Remember when God called Abraham in Genesis 12, he was from the land of Ur. He already had a ‘race’.

God wasn’t raising up a RACE of people, but a FAITH of people.

Now, I will give you some biblical examples to prove it…

First of all let’s look at what happened when Moses married an Ethiopian woman after his wife Zipphora died…

Numbers 12:1-9 (NKJV)

 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses wasvery humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.) 4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. 5 Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. 6 Then He said,“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream.
7 Not so with My servant Moses;
He is faithful in all My house.
8 I speak with him face to face,
Even plainly, and not in dark sayings;
And he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant Moses?” 9 So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. 10 And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow.

God was so angry at Moses brother and sister’s dissatisfaction and gossiping about Moses’ marriage (sound familiar?) that He struck Miriam with leprosy…

Notice that Ruth was a Moabite and Boaz was a Jew (King David’s great-great grandparents Ruth 1:1-5).

Notice that the apostle Timothy’s father was a Greek and his mother was a Jew.

Acts 16:1 (NKJV)

 Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

Above are just few both Old and New Testament examples making it very clear that God isn’t concerned with the race of who you marry, but He is VERY concerned about their faith.

So, back to my question how can you tell when both or all sided of an issue are using the bible to support their stance…it is the person most willing to abandon what they WANT to believe and be open to accepting God’s truth. The person who can harmonize the scriptures they are using for support with the entire bible.

Don’t find yourself making God angry as He was at Aaron and Miriam for disapproving of Moses’ marriage.

So to be clear, God does NOT forbid interracial marriage.

God accepts any marriage that accepts Him…

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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DOES GOD CONSIDER IT CHEATING WHEN MARRIED ACTORS DO LOVE SCENES?

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It is clear what the bible says about adultery and fornication, it is strictly forbidden. God expects those who are married to forsake all others and be intimate only with one another…

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 (NKJV)

It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 

Most of us also enjoy a good movie, television show or play, and appreciate a great performance from a talented actor or actress. Some of the movies, shows or plays have love scenes. It could range from a kiss…to partially clothed making out…to fully nude, erotic love scenes. I’m not talking about porn, I’m talking about the movies that are accepted and even awarded by the mainstream population.

Sometimes these actors and actresses are not only married, but profess to be Christians. Let me be clear that I AM NOT JUDGING THEIR FAITH OR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, but I do have a challenging question.

IS IT CONSIDERED CHEATING WHEN A MARRIED ACTOR OR ACTRESS DOES A LOVE SCENE?

The kisses are real.

The touching is real.

Sometimes, the nudity is real.

Even if they aren’t having intercourse, they are having sexual contact with someone other than their husband or wife.

If you aren’t an actor, how do feel about your spouse kissing or touching someone else? Most people say “No Way!”. Now, how do you feel about your spouse getting paid to have sexual contact with someone else…again a definite, “No!”

Now here’s the real challenging question for us as Christians. It their intimate contact is considered by God to be sin, does watching it and enjoying it make us partakers with them? Is it shameful for us to talk about the scenes in our daily conversation? Consider this…

Ephesians 5:5-10 (NKJV)

 5 For this you know,[a] that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit[b] is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 

Does God change the rules just because of our occupation? Does the fact that they are ‘acting’ mean it’s not real contact? And, if God considers it to be wrong, do we share in the sin when we watch, enjoy and share what we watched?

Has this become the ‘accepted’ open relationship?

Think about it. Pray about it. Feel free to reply and tell me what you think.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GODLY MARRIAGE: YOU CAN’T GET ROMANTIC WITH A HYMNAL…

This is the year of my 30th wedding anniversary. Yep! We’re 30 years strong! I give all glory to God that my wife and I are still going strong. Of course we’ve had our ups and downs, but we have discovered…

One of the keys to a healthy, Godly marriage is not that you have more laughs than tears, but that your laughs are more powerful than your tears.

I’m an ordained minister and my wife is a Gospel Jazz artist, but we realize that a healthy marriage has balance. Remember this…

There’s a time for WORSHIP and a time for ROMANCE, and you get ROMANTIC with a HYMNAL.

There’s nothing unholy about a good love song either. Even a suggestive love song can have it’s place when it pertains to your marriage. My wife and I love old school love songs. We encourage you to keep your love fresh with the same love songs that brought you together. Let them take you back to the times, places and even aromas of when your love was new. Experience new things together. Never forget to find joy in one another.

Song of Solomon confirms that romance and intimacy is not unholy when it comes to marriage.

Song of Solomon 1:2 (KJV)

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

Song of Solomon 7:1-3 (NKJV)

How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O prince’s daughter!
The curves of your thighs are like jewels,
The work of the hands of a skillful workman.
2 Your navel is a rounded goblet;
It lacks no blended beverage.
Your waist is a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle. 

If you’ve never read Song of Solomon, you’ve check out how it celebrates love and romance.

Also please check out our video above if you haven’t already. We love sharing our love for Old School Music while showing love for one another…while supporting the artists who created it.

We call them SONday Blessing videos, because we make them on SONday afternoons and share them on my wife’s fanpage (link at the bottom of my blog) and on her You Tube Channel (Mechelle Johnson).

I hope they inspire and bless your marriage.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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We are GOD’S, BUT NOT GODS (Watch the apostrophe)…

 

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We have to be very careful of people who either twist scriptures or don’t understand them. There are many people today who claim that WE ARE ALL gods because they misrepresent or misunderstand Psalm 82:6…

6 I said, “You are gods,[b]

And all of you are children of the Most High.

The word ‘gods’ here comes from the Hebrew name for God… Elohim, which is a plural noun. It is the word that implies God is one God with three authorities as indicated in Genesis 1:26a

 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”

But, it also denotes when God delegates authority to humans, such as judges and leaders. He demands righteousness and justice from those whom have been granted authority. He demands that they don’t show partiality, and defends those who are powerless.

It speaks of delegated authority and not deity. Yes we belong to God, but we are not gods

Don’t let anyone deceive you with clever words or cherry picking scripture. Every scripture must be harmonized with the entire word of God.

Yes, we are made in God’s image. Yes, we are sons and daughters of God when we accept Yeshua, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior…

But NO, we are not GODS. There is only one true and living God. The Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting.

Psalm 82(NKJV)

 

82 God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.[a]
2 How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.

5 They do not know, nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

6 I said, “You are gods,[b]
And all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”

8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
For You shall inherit all nations.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

 

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