life

The attitude of an advocate

Posted on by therealra3

    Which best describes you, an advocate or an accuser? I guess in order to choose one we need to look deeper into their meaning. An accuser is simply what it is, someone who accuses another in fault. Accusers tend to point a finger at a fellow brother, judging out of sight of what is seen. An advocate is one that pleads for on behalf of another, in support of defense for a person. Most likely all of us are guilty at one point in life of having an attitude of an accuser, we can tend to be so quick to point a finger. When we are aware of others in sin a lot of times we can become judgmental toward them, rather than approaching them with love. I mean lets face facts here we’re all sinners not one of us are perfect, we strive to be like Christ yes but in reality we fail to measure up. In my opinion being an accuser is more of a defense to cover up our hidden sins to shed light on another, and a way to keep the attention off our own wrong doing. First we must understand the life Jesus lived, in order for us to ever come to a place of walking in his ways. Who was Jesus? What kind of attitude did Jesus obtain, an accuser? Or and advocate? John 8:2-11 this story is centered around Jesus and the women caught in adultery, who is about to be stoned for her sins. The pharisees are accusers and Jesus is the advocate, the advocates nature here shows us that he is slow to speak. He doesn’t jump right in ready to fight or exchange words. The bible even states that they continued to question him about this women, until he finally stands up and speaks. Jesus begins to defend this women by reminding the accusers of their own short comings, he says: Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. The advocate also isn’t standing before this women in an intimidating way, he is kneeling down in the dirt. Jesus always meets us right where we are, even in the midst of our messes. This is what each and every one of us is called to be, it’s not about being the best pastor,  the most anointed worship leader or who can travel to the most places and save the most people. All those things are great in the will of God, but we are called to live with this attitude of an advocate. We’re to serve Gods people no matter what level they may be on, in the social status of the world. How can we live this way? One: Study the behavior of our savior, then apply it to our life. Two: Understand the power of unconditional love, so often the world spreads a love with limits, God’s love knows no limits or conditions. Third: Look for ways to serve whether it be with your church, in your family or even a stranger, there are always ways to bring Gods service in your everyday life. God spoke this into my spirit a few months back, it reminded me that we all have one purpose and that’s to love. I’ll admit as christian women i haven’t always been an advocate when I should have, some of the time my life has looked more like an accuser. Does this make me a horrible person because I have failed at being an advocate for Christ? No, this just makes me human. What matters now is recognizing  the fault and changing the future attitude, so that my life will look more like Christ and less like the world.

TheRealRa3

Resurrection Power!

Posted on by therealra3

   Today my pastor was speaking on the resurrection, the resurrection is a symbolic piece of history that changed everything. In today’s society we don’t view the resurrection as a power that can operate in our lives. I began to ponder about the power of the resurrection and how it can be applied in my life. Philippians 3:10-11, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” This verse is pointing to how we can operate in the resurrection power that rose Christ from the dead. First this verse is stating that we need to know him in his resurrection, so we must understand as christians just how important this moment was in history. That Christ literally in every way gave up his life taking upon death for all humanity, to rise up from the grave three days later. This isn’t just a story that makes you feel good then you move on and forget about it, this is the power that changed yours and my destiny forever. He conquered the death that we could never face up too, he took the punishments that we deserve. The resurrection is the piece that molded the entire package of salvation for us all. So first we must grasp onto this very moment in time that paved the way or us today. The second piece to this scripture states “we must know the fellowship of his suffering” what does this mean? Fellowship means to be in union with one another, sharing interest or problems. We all have our share of problems and pressures that we deal with in daily life, making life extremely overwhelming at times. The word “know” in biblical terms always means more than the abstract knowledge, its to personally and intimately know basically to know by experience. There is a degree of intimacy in our relationship with Christ that only comes by experiencing in fellowship with his sufferings. This is a personal encounter with Christ, that we are conformed to his death. The word conformed means to be similar in type or form, so that we can die to our sins and be resurrected into a new nature, placing on the power that rose Christ from the grave. Once we break down the scripture the answer is clear, to know and have access to this power it to know Christ in his suffering and to die to our sins, taking on the resurrection power. Could you imagine christians today truly taking off the old and allowing Christ to place on the new nature? This rebirth that we experience as sinners coming into righteousness is powerful in itself, but without the conforming of our nature we then are just lukewarm in the approach to the gospel. I have found today as my pastor spoke about the resurrection and the keys it holds to our future, that we can take the fire that burns deep and allow it to ignite. Fire that doesn’t burn out is one that has come from a place of an encounter, In knowing and relating with Christ in his resurrection. This will empower us to cause a rapid wild-fire that will not fail in the mission of saving souls, after all the purpose of life is to spread the good news. The good news is that Christ came, died and rose again for all of humanity, so that we can now have access to the righteousness of his nature. With that power nothing can stop us, so today I encourage all the fellow believers our there to not forget about the amazing power that lives within us. We tend to limit God and this power, there are no barriers to what God can do through me and through you. Christ diminished sin and the assignment of the enemy, We are not victims we’re warriors filled with the power of Christ. 

TheRealRa3

Slam Poem- Words

Posted on by therealra3

How can I form words to be words to you, How can I seek you to find you in truth?  What is life without life it is dead, but you came to life; died but you didn’t stay dead. He arose  from the grave taking away the sin that kills us today. You fought for man but man spit in your face, They shouted free Barabbas A rebellious murder and crucify the perfect savior. How  can I express with words that don’t touch? How can my lips find words of praise not just words That satisfy my own graves. I want to engage a praise that brings life to dry bones, awaking  the power the lives by love not by stone. My mind explodes in the thoughts of  your grace, taking my broken being and allowing it to breathe. You take my shattered lungs repairing them to sing, with a new tongue that doesn’t lie dormant between my teeth. Every beat in me that beats broken you reset the rhythm, now I have a new vision and new mission.To be free in freedom not held down by the weight of the apple in Eden. Change has come  not in the form of a helpless victim, our courageous savior has given us a new reason. Reasons to search for words that capture his goodness, his mercy that spoke it is finished, his unwavering love that took sin and diminished it. Words that define his creation in full force, that we were made to thirst after the source. Though man made words don’t come close to his unmeasurable greatness towards humanity, i’d rather exhaust every word in praise then to be passive that would be a tragedy.

Our God is so amazing that I find my words don’t compare to the wonder and majesty of everything he is. I find it to be an on going expression to search the depths of words and in there meaning, just to capture his true essences. Even though man made words will never be enough, God still counts our praise as holy and honorable. He loves to hear our expressions of true praise!

TheRealRa3

Today in paradise!

Posted on by therealra3

Whats worse openly sinning to the point of glorifying your sin before Gods very face, or Covering up all your wrong doings? As humans we tend to do one of those two no matter who we are or what we stand for, Sin at some point in our lives has conquered us, leaving us to a place where we either sin without limit or we sin but cover our tracks as if we are hiding the truth from God. In a previous blog I wrote about the two criminals hanging on the cross with Jesus. You’ve got the first criminal  who still can’t grasp that he deserve the punishment for his sins. He’s up on the cross almost outwardly challenging Jesus, Like hey if your God then why can’t you get us out of here? Come on God use your powers, better yet prove to me that You are who you claim to be. Openly sinning,testing and challenging God right before his very face. There is no repentance in this man, he wants out of his punishment but doesn’t wanna own up to his mess. How many of us can relate to this? We want out of the mess we want out of the chaos but I’m too prideful to admit that this was my fault. We go back to the old habits the old ways and we say come on God, if your God then fix this! I don’t want this anymore. New flash you deserve this, but we act as if God owes us. What as any of us ever done to cause God to owe us? We’ve all been there, we’ve all tried this route to getting our way without the realness of reality, But see Jesus is silent he doesn’t answer to this man. I believe Jesus didn’t respond because everything the man wanted and was asking of him, Jesus was in pursuit of doing. He didn’t owe this man anything but he was laying down his life for him and all of humanity. You see even though this man never repented or even believed, Jesus still shed his blood for him. My favorite part to this story is when the other criminal begins to speak He says, ” We are getting what we deserve.” This man has just realized that everything he has done has lead to this punishment and he deserve it! He has tapped into a supernatural understanding that this is my fault, I am to blame. He understands that this is justice, and all the bad that is coming his way he deserves. What comes next is a beautiful picture of grace, the criminal says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom?” There is no assurance in his question, He isn’t asking as if he knows the answer because what he knows is that he deserves rejection. So he saying could you? Like would you even remember me?  He’s in such a hopeless place in this moment he knows he has nothing to offer, nothing to bring to the table but a question (Repentances.) Jesus answers so beautifully,  “Today you will be with me in paradise.” NOT when you get you get yourself together, Jesus doesn’t say when you’ve prayed a few times and can resite scripture then you can come into my kingdom. He says TODAY just as you are right now, you will be with me in paradise! Folks it doesn’t get any better than that, you won’t find love like that anywhere or any other religion or form of gods. Jesus is the price paid in full for our punishment. Yet we continue to run back to the cross and nail ourselves to the punishments, allowing our sins to be the factor of definitions. Jesus already said it is finished, so quit trying to be the saving grace of your life. We don’t need to keep being saved over and over again. It is finished we ARE saved. So I encourage you today to walk in paradise that has been so freely given to us.

TheRealRa3

Keep your eyes on the truth

Posted on by therealra3

  Have you ever been at a place in your walk with God where you have stepped out in faith, but it didn’t go according to plan? Leaving you to wonder and doubt your capability? I know for me when I have stepped out in my faith in the past and it didn’t happen like I thought, there was something within me that caved to doubt every time. I would begin to focus more on how and why I failed, rather than just picking up and moving forward. It’s not an easy thing to admit failure or better yet admit that maybe I moved before God really called me. Lets all be honest here we’re humans we are going to fail, we’re going to step out before we’re ready and more honestly we’re going to have set backs in life. It’s just the way it is. So how can we become effective christians even in our failures? It seems almost impossible in the moment, especially when the struggle is right in our face. I have come across a scripture that portrays a perfect example of this very topic. 

  Peter and the disciples were out upon the water in Matthew 14:22-33. Jesus had sent the disciples on ahead of him as he went up on the mountain side to pray. The boat had already gone a great distance from the shore as it was being buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it (I imagine a pretty decent size storm had approach them). Later that night Jesus begins to walk toward them on the water, of course the disciples first reaction is terror! They cried out in utter fear. Jesus then says to them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid”. Peter takes this moment to almost challenge Jesus ( in my opinion as if he still wasn’t convinced it was him) and he says Lord if its you then tell me to come. The Lord tells Peter to come, so Peter begins to get out of the boat onto the water and walks toward the Lord. That right there takes incredible faith, he is walking on the water with Jesus in the midst of a storm, that is amazing. But what happens next is Peter becomes human he snaps back into this-worldly reality of I can’t walk on water! The wind starts to blow and Peter panics and begins to sink immediately  He took his eyes off Jesus for a second, had doubt for a second and instantly sank. Peter is an example of us today in our walks with Jesus, we step out in faith walking the purpose and calling of God and then in one moment, we take our eyes off the truth and we sink! 

  The difference in this story compared to our walks is the attitude after the failure that Peter has. It goes onto to say Jesus pulls Peter out of the water saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Then they return to the boat, the wind ceases and they begin to worship Jesus! They begin to declare “truly you are the son of God”. There was no pity party here, Peter wasn’t in the back of the boat crying or focused on his failures! The disciples didn’t surround Peter and say hey man I’m really sorry about what happened here, I am sure your embarrassed we won’t say anything. They didn’t make a big deal of the situation that just went down. How often do we pity ourselves for our failures and then get surrounded in the pity from our fellow friends and family ( I’m not downing sympathy or even loving nature from friends and family, but when we are so wrapped up in the bad that we can’t even see the good. That is when we demolish the mission created for us). You start putting your focus on things that have failed rather than things that God can do! 

   My favorite part to this story is they get to shore finally after this intense moment, Peter gets off the boat and He starts ministry to long lines of people! I mean…. was Peter even dry from his near drowning experience?  Peter was worshiping wet and now he is ministering wet, how amazing is this!  How can Peter snap back so quickly? Because Peter knew the mission was more important than his short comings, he knew that even though he was soaking wet after doubting God that there was a bigger purpose here and he was going to keep moving forward! Peter kept his eyes on the truth even in the midst of doubt, of failure and of fear. Christians we’re called to a mission that holds more importance than our messes. I encourage you to worship wet, pray wet, preach wet whatever it takes but don’t let the wet rob you from his purpose. Keep your eyes on the truth.

TheRealRa3

Keep yourself in love

Posted on by therealra3

Keep yourself in love, is a message I preached to the youth at my church. I did a level comparison on our walks with God. By level comparison I mean this: Level ten, level six and level one, three stages that we can fall into as christians. Level tens, I like to call them “The Committers” devoted to God like no other. Committers have successful traits to their walk with God starting with these: Flamboyant values, willingness, boldness, desire, dreams and etc. Level six is called “Life Hits” this is where things can take a turn for the worst, we can either stay focused and devoted on God or we rely on our own resources and strengths to get us through. Lets face it life is going to hit whether we are Christians or not. The key is to stay in Gods perfect love allowing him to take on all our anxieties and fears, because he cares for us. Level six is summed up in these traits, Focuses on the struggle rather than on God, doubting, uncomfortable, insecure and etc. If we continue to allow this spiral effect of distraction go out of control, we will end up on a level one. Level one is called “square one” meaning this: we’re right back were we started before we we’re saved. The traits here are plain and simple: Fully operating in our sins, a part of the world, no longer after the heart of God and etc. So whats my point to all this level talk? My point is I see this happen more often than not with the fellow christian. We’re so on fire for God and things are great, but then life takes a turn and everything we ever stood for goes out the window, why? Because as humans we want to control we want the results on our favor immediately, resulting in us taking our eyes of Jesus and placing them on our struggle. If we focus on the struggle for too long we make room for the enemy to distract us enough till we’re eventually right back where we started.*Proverbs 26:11- As a dog returns to his vomit so a fool returns to his folly.
Once you were on that level 10 or had an encounter with God he took off your old nature and place on you a new nature of righteousness a new beginning out of the vomit and into the purity of the Lord. So when you go from a level 10 to a level 1 you are literally taking off the new nature of God and deliberately putting on your old nature and returning to your vomit. Now how can we avoid this from happening in our lives? I have two disciples that are perfect examples for the above levels. * Peter is first, in his biblical story of how he went from a level 10 to a level 1— Luke 22:33-34——— Luke 22:54-62… You see Peter was so outwardly loud about his devotion to Jesus, Jesus I would die for you! I love you! I like to think of this as he was getting all the Facebook likes and retweets on his devotion. He was a value guy. But what happens to peter? He ends up denying Jesus not once but three times, how does a guy go from I’ll die for Jesus to I don’t even know this man. I’ll tell you, Peter was way to focused on what he could bring and what he could offer Jesus rather than who Jesus is. Peter was an active guy like let’s get this done, list chorus he wanted results now! He was a control guy ( doesn’t make him bad, just makes him human). He didn’t understand resting in Jesus, he wanted to create to the rest by “doing”. Then we have John, I believe there is something that we can learn from disciple John, He was the only recorded disciple that was at the cross when Jesus was hung, He was also the called the one Jesus loved his beloved. He was definitely in the inner circle of one that Jesus had trusted. At the last supper Jesus was bringing some very heavy news that pierces the hearts of the disciples, they were outraged and wanted something to be done! Here is John  in the midst of this heavy new and what is he doing? He is using Jesus as his pillow, some might call him lazy or emotionless to whats happening. But who was at the foot of the cross? Only John, Peter was painfully absent. Here’s my point John understood what it meant to live in the love of Jesus. He knew how to rest his head on Jesus’ heart even when chaos and uncertainty and fear were the order of the day. The love of Jesus was his identity, his focus, his priority. Love was how he started and how he lived his life, and love led him to finish well. Not downing Peter here because he loved Jesus just as much, but he more often relied on his own bravery and strength then he did on Jesus. Which as we all do at times and that ultimately caused him to deny Jesus three times under the pressure. As where John knew that true security and strength were found not in frantic human effort, but in resting in Jesus’ love. The message is plain to staying on a level ten we must keep ourselves in the love of God. I will end this blog with one of my favorite scriptures: Jude 1:21- keep yourself in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our lord jesus christ to eternal life.

Our supreme Christ

Posted on by therealra3

 

   What does it mean when we say the supremacy of Christ? First lets look at the definition of supremacy The state or condition of being superior to all other leaders, powers and authority. So when we say Christ reigns supreme in our lives. We aren’t saying he can only handle this little bit of mess I am in, we’re saying he can handle all my messes today, tomorrow and forever. He reigns supreme from the furthest corners of the earth to the top of the highest mountains. To lowest trenches of the sea He reigns over every planet that spins in orbit, along with the perfect placement of every star. God is reigning supreme in every detail of creation that he so beautifully made. One might say well if God has such supreme power, why would he care for me? something so small compared to creation in itself? I found a scripture that really stands out to me, ” Psalms 135:6- Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all the deeps.” Notices the word used in this text “pleases” This doesn’t grieve or aggregate God it pleases him. There are several scriptures on Gods supremacy all using and referring to the word pleased. Leading me to Ephesians 3:20- Now to him who is ABLE to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. You see this verse is pointing to Gods sovereignty, his working power over all things. In that this scripture is saying it pleases God to be sovereign in your life, Because he is able to do far more than you could imagine. So if your out there feeling unqualified or insignificant to God, Know that it pleases the Lord to reign in your life. To have power over every detail good or bad. With that being said he can take all your bad and turn it into good. that’s how big and mighty our God is. This is the God we serve, a God who takes the unqualified and makes them qualified. The question “How can a God so big, care for me who is so small?” I believe is answered throughout scripture. All pointing to his supreme nature, that we have full access too. It pleases the Lord to take hold of your every moment. So Stop allowing the enemy to hinder the path the Lord has paved, and start walking in his supreme power. If we has believers could grasp his sovereignty over our lives, nothing would be impossible.

Therealra3