He Deals With Each of us Differently (Replay)

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January 29, 2008

Good afternoon fam,

I hope that everyone is doing well this nice Tuesday. I want to apologize for my recent leave of absence from the list, but I'm back in the saddle so lets get things rolling. Also, I want to wish my boy Ryan (who is the brain-child of WFTD) a Happy Birthday today. Keep on living your life in a Godly manner broham and do not let anything separate you from that. Alright, so now to some word.

Scripture please: 

Hebrews 12:6-8 "(6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." 

Isn't it amazing that as of 2005, "2.14 billion people made up the world's Christian population" (for more information click here)?! What's even more amazing is that God knows how to handle all of us, even though we are all unique. I mean there are some identical siblings out there, but we are still unique. As verse 7 above states, God deals with us as we are sons (or children) and if there are any parents on the list, we know not all children behave the same. Some you can speak to one time and that's all it takes for them to get the message. Some you have to nearly lose your mind, before they get the idea that you aren't playing with them and they should obey. This is the same thing that God has to do to us Christians.

Johnny, may be the most obedient person to God you know so when God chastises him, He gets the message immediately. However, Billy might here God's message but chose to go right instead of going left like he was suppose too. Again it takes a different tactic to get the message across that Billy should have turned left! You may be asking what does all this mean and why should I care? Well, here you go. You cannot look at other people's situations and wonder how God made it look so simple for them. You may be experienceing something in your life that you know other people have gone through, but for some reason your experience does not seem to be the same. No matter how much advice you receive your situation seems to be unique. Well, we have to first look at the individuals involved and understand what God is trying to show and/or do to them. The testimony that you will have at the end of your journey cannot possibly be the same as someone else because your experience is unique between you and the Lord.

Here's another example. I may have mentioned before that when my wife wanted to leave her job in July/August 2006, the Lord knew that I looked at my Excel spreadsheets as was like, "uhm no, you can't leave". According to the numbers things didn't add up. However, after crunching some numbers and going on some assumptions, I was like ok we can do this. So, what happens, God threw in a monkey wrench. Guess what, we were pregnant with our second child (SURPISE!) AND some monies that I had counted on wasn't coming. To make a long story short, the Lord had to deal with me differently to get us moving into the direction He would have us go. In the end we were just fine.

Keep your eyes on the Lord and follow his Word closely. He may have been getting you to take some steps (that you thought were the final answers you were asking for) to prepare you for a larger move that He has for you.

Be blessed gang and have a great one. 

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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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Clean Surface Before Applying (Replay)

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January 9, 2008

Happy Hump Day family,

I hope all is well with everyone this morning. Today is another great day in the Lord and I thank God for waking me up this morning to be able to see another day. It is truly a blessing because the Lord has really been working on me. The Lord and I have been in some serious dialog lately, so He has His hands on me, reshaping and remolding me. If I sound a little un-Antoineish sometimes, it's because I'm in God's garage getting a tune up (speaking of which, sorry Deidra, I know I have unfinished business) and trying to understand what is happening to me right now.

So with that said, let's go into the WFTD. You know whenever you take something apart to put on a new part, or to simply add some adhesive to something the instructions clearly state: "thoroughly clean surface and dry before applying". A good example of this is for Auto Mechanics. When they take parts off your motor for repair, a lot of the times they have to scrape off old adhesive from the place in order to apply the new adhesive and part. Why do they do this? Well the adhesive and new part will not hold as well if the surface applying it to is dirty. Another example is your rear view mirror. For those of you who have had to replace your review mirror, you know that the instructions say to take a razor blade and scrape off the old glue, clean thoroughly and dry the surface before applying the new adhesive (and ultimately the mirror). If you don't you won't make it out the driveway before the mirror is sitting in your lap.

This is how God has to do us a lot of the times. God has to clean off old adhesive where junk or old parts once hung in order to apply new adhesive and new parts. Sometimes, it may not be a replacement part, it could simply be an addition for you, but still God has to clean the surface before adding to you. If you've ever gotten glue, paint, oil, etc. on your arm or hands, you know that sometimes require some serious scrubbing and washing to get it off. Sometimes depending on how soiled you were, you may have to scrape, and that didn't always feel nice. Some scripture if you will:

2 Corinthians 5:17 "(17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. " 

Old things are suppose to be passed away, but how many of you know that some things, God has to bring you back into his shop for subsequent repair and updates? Just like a car repair or maintenance though, no one ever said it would be a pleasant experience always. Sometimes you are without your car for a few days because of the magnitude of the auto repair. For children in Christ, sometimes its like we don't know what is happening in our lives until God is through with the maintenance/repair work.

Proverbs 3:11, says "My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:". Again, simply put, God has to work on us and not every work will feel pleasant to you, but just know that all that God will and can do is Good. If you experienced this part in your life, then this may be all familiar to you. If you have not, I pray that this word will help you when (NOT IF) you reach a point such as this in your life. God works in many ways that we do not understand, but we must know and accept that whatever it is He does to us, it is for our own good.

Be Blessed Gang and have a Happy Hump Day. 

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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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If...Then....(Replay)

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December 11, 2007

Good morning family, 

I pray that all is well with everyone. I don't know about where you are, but in Raleigh, the weather has been absolutely awesome. It's mid December and we are sitting at 80 degree weather, while the majority of the country has ice storms. It will not last long, but lets enjoy what God has provided while it lasts instead of missing it when it's gone. 

A lot of the times we tend to fall into a situation of missing something when it's gone. Then we find ourselves saying statements like, “if only I had......then......” With family members, when one passes away, we sometimes regret that we didn't do something and wish we had the chance to do it all over again. We are reactive people in stead of proactive people. To take it a step further, we like to put conditions on why we haven't done/didn't do something or when we will do something. This even trickles over to our relationship with the God. 

There are many times you here people say things like: 

• “If I can just get myself together, then I'll come to church and serve God.”
• “If only I had not done XYZ, then I would come to church and serve God.”
• “If I could just finish this work, then I would do more for the Lord.”
• “If I had money left over after bills, then I would tithe.”

See the problem here? In these examples, serving God is secondary and dependent upon the completion of another task. Well without any more hesitation, lets hop to some scripture: 

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;”

Malachi 3:8 “"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'"In tithes and offerings.” (see Exodus 23:16, where God commands that the people were to bring the 1^st fruits of their labor to him) 

God should not be secondary in our lives but first in our lives. If you place God first, your statements would change from “If..Then” to “God did”. Let's look at how placing God first changes the first statements: 

• “I came to church to serve God, and He put my life back together.”
• “I came to church to serve God, and He forgave my sins.”
• “Now I do more for the Lord and He gives me all the time and ability I need to finish my work.”
• “I tithe and I have money to pay my bills and some left over for my wants.”

God can turn your whole life around if you let, Him, but you have to learn to let go. Let go and let God have His way in your life. Until you learn to do this, your life will always be filled with a bunch of “If's” followed by a number of “thens”. Remember, God did do/is doing/and will do anything in your life. 

Be blessed gang and have a good Tuesday. 
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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The Disintegrating Family (Replay)

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October 30, 2007

Good afternoon family.

Sorry to get WFTD out so late. Today is a little different and rather a reflection on how things use to be and where I see them headed. This past Thursday thru Sunday (10/25 – 10/28), my household and sister (Deidra's sister) traveled to Hattiesburg, MS to funeralize (is this a word?) her grandmother.

Despite the occasion, it was a time that the entire family got together. It is a large family and I enjoyed meeting another side of my wife's family whom I've never had the opportunity to meet. The kids played their hearts out, the family enjoyed each other's company, and there was much eating going on down there! All of this made me reflect back on when I was growing up and how my father's side of the family got together all the time. You know, the family reunions, family trips, kids racing barefoot down dirt roads (some of yall might not know about that LOL), etc. It was all a great time.

However, I said all that to say, the family of today has transformed and is no longer the family of old. As older family members pass away, who were patriarchs or matriarchs of the family, it tends to splinter and smaller families of the family tend to stick to themselves – no longer "doing the big family" thing any more. I realized this after I looked at my kids and saw that my Daughter & Son don't know cousins like we did. As children, we seem to have known tons of cousins and remembered their names even if it were nicknames. But children of this generation, do good to know one or two cousins.

Why? The family is disintegrating. Many of us are so busy with our household lives that we tend to forget about the extended family. Not even family reunions hold as much meaning any more. Not until we lose someone does the family bind together for the one occasion and then back onto our merry ways.

People change and times change. There is no longer the mother with 9 children and each of them having children. You're lucky today if household has one child. The solution you might ask? Well I don't have a global one, but I do have a suggestion: enjoy your family while they're here. Your kids will never really know what a family is like until you teach them what a family is – so if that means the change has to start with you....then let it start with you.

Be Blessed folks.
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

Read More