No Power, No Light

Courtesy of Commons.WikiMedia.org

I want to talk about a simple concept. What is the concept? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's look at a simple power circuit.

In a power circuit, there is a source of power and there is some resistance. The resistance can be a light, TV, radio, etc...I think you get the point. Well, in order for a circuit to work properly, you must have a complete circuit; meaning, all the wires must be connected to the light and the source. However, if you have a break in the circuit, then your appliance will not work and you begin to wonder what's wrong.

Let's look at another example: a home. In your house, as long as you pay the light bills, you will always go under the assumption that if you plug something in the socket, it will work! BUT, if you miss a light bill payment, you will quickly learn the concept of cause and effect. All your plugs are no longer hot (or work).  And that is a terrible thing when you are not connected to your source.  So, are you plugged into your Power Source? You do know that your source of power comes from the Lord, right?

1 Chronicles 29:11-12  “(11) Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. (12) Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.”

David recognized his source through his prayers as well as you should. See the problem isn't whether or not we paid our light bill because our debt has already been paid by the blood of Jesus. That means you have access to "Always On" or "Hot" power. Whenever you plug into the Him, you will always have the power so that your light can shine brightly.

Now that you know you have an "Always On" power source you have no reason not to have power. When you look around and realize that your light is out, find yourself a plug (prayer or the Word) and plug into it. I guarantee your lights will burn again. If it flickers, don't worry because the power is there. However, if your light goes out, it's not the Source's fault. It's your own.


Antoine E. Hall

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

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Submit Yourselves to God (James 4)

Today, I want to share with you James 4.  I am not providing any other commentary, but rather allowing James to speak for himself.

(1)What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? (2) You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. (3) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 

(4) You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (5) Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? (6) But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 

(7) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (8) Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (9) Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. (10) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

(11) Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. (12) There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? 

(13) Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” (14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (15) Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (16) As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. (17) If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Antoine E. Hall

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

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Cleansing: It's Only a Test

Today, we continue with a previous series called "Cleansing".  If you missed it, the previous post can be found here:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com/2013/07/cleansing-time-for-cleansing.html.

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Jul 12, 2006

Happy Wednesday gang....

Image Courtesy of Best Clip Art

Sorry for the delay, but I tell you I am truly happy to be able to share with you guys today. This week has been a trying week for sure. For that matter the entire month of July has been crazy and not by choice. I think in the past couple of weeks we have touched on the subject going cleansing periods. This thing has really been speaking to me and the theme of cleansing keeps reoccurring. Despite all that I'm going through, I keep being reminded that we (my family and I) are going through a cleansing period in our lives right now, each of us at different levels. With that, I want to give you guys a verse from the song, "It's Only A Test" by Bishop Larry Trotter & The Sweet Holy Spirit Choir.

"It's only a test that you're going through, it won't last always. Trials come just to make you strong, without a little bit of rain, it Just won't grow. Be strong, keep the faith, don't give up, and Realize it's only a test you're going through."

Really this is pretty much the whole song. Let's break this down a little. "It's only a test that you're going through, it won't last always..." - I know there are lots of tests in the bible, but I cannot help but to go back to my boy Job. Man, was he tested or what?

Job 2:7-10 - (7) Then the Adversary went out from the presence of Adonai and struck Iyov (Job) down with horrible infected sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. (8) He took a piece of a broken pot to scratch himself and sat down in the pile of ashes. (9) His wife asked him, “Why do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” (10) But he answered her, “You’re talking like a low-class woman! Are we to receive the good at God’s hands but reject the bad?” In all this Iyov did not say one sinful word..

If we recall, God allowed Satan to try Job but could not take his life. However, Job remained a humble and faithful servant through rough and easy times. "Trials come just to make you strong, without a little bit of rain, it Just won't grow." - Let's look at our good buddy Jonah and what he caused. When God told him to go to Ninevah and preach against the city what did he do? He ran. Come on bruh. You ran? God is everywhere. So what happened. While on a ship, God brought a great storm against the ship. Now granted the men on the ship had nothing to do with Jonah's running, but by his presence, God brought his wrath against the boat because He wanted Jonah and that's it.

Jonah 1:13-16 - (13) Nevertheless, the men rowed hard, trying to reach the shore. But they couldn’t, because the sea kept growing wilder against them. (14) Finally they cried to Adonai, “Please, Adonai, please! Don’t let us perish for causing the death of this man, and don’t hold us to account for shedding innocent blood; because you, Adonai, have done what you saw fit.” (15) Then they picked up Yonah (Jonah) and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. (16) Seized with great fear of Adonai, they offered a sacrifice to Adonai and made vows.

Now, because they did as Jonah asked and threw him overboard, the seas died down. Now for the other people on the ship, if that isn't a trial I don't know what is. Just by Jonah's presence alone, these other men were caused to fear the Lord. Sometimes it takes a rocking of your ship for you to fear the Lord and recognize that He is the Alpha and the Omega......the beginning and the end. "Be strong, keep the faith, don't give up, and Realize it's only a test you're going through." - No one ever said that being a Christian was going to be a bed of Roses and that it didn't need attending. The reality is that we are in a spiritual war of good versus evil whether you want to admit and/or accept it or not. The faith is the foundation. If we have that then being strong and being able to realize what is happening will make sense to you.

Luke 17:5-6 - (5) The emissaries said to the Lord, “Increase our trust.” (6) The Lord replied, “If you had trust as tiny as a mustard seed, you could say to this fig tree, ‘Be uprooted and replanted in the sea!’ and it would obey you.

That's all the faith you need. I am not one that is afraid to admit, I still need work in this area, however, I have seen a LOT of progress from BJ (Before Jesus) to AJ (After Jesus). So because things look bad, don't assume God has thrown the towel in on you. He never does that to his children. You just have to be patient while you are going through your test and you will be blessed in the end. Have a great hump day yall!
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Antoine E. Hall

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

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Cleansing: A Time for Cleansing

Image Courtesy of  Commons.WikiMedia.org

This entry comes from a small series that I wrote on Cleansing back in 2006.  Also, there is another from this series that I shared a while ago called, "Cleansing: It's OK to Slow Down".  Without out further delay here we go:

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June 28, 2006

You know these past couple of weeks have been tough......one of my dogs had to spend the night in the Vet Hospital this past weekend (he's ok now though), my daughter has been sick....my wife hasn't been feeling well....I have been sick (getting better though)....the checking account has dwindled down to little of nothing, but the bills are still arriving in the mail like clock work.....BUT, we haven't starved or missed a bill yet, so I know that all will be well. I honestly believe, my family is going through a cleansing period right now though. During cleaning time, a little dust may fly while getting it out the way.

With that said, that's what I want to talk about today. Cleansing. Let's get a working definition.

To cleanse is to "clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing; purge of an ideology, bad thoughts, or sins;"

Well, we have that in place, now let's get to some scripture.

II Corinthians 6:14-18 (CJB) - (14) Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? (15) What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya‘al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (16) What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God — as God said, “I will house myself in them, . . .and I will walk among you. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (17) Therefore Adonai says, “‘Go out from their midst; separate yourselves; don’t even touch what is unclean. Then I myself will receive you. (18) In fact, I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters.’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”

II Corinthians 7:1 (CJB) -  Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.

...The thing is that in this world we are surrounded by more unbelievers than believers in our daily lives except on Sundays. Then again, just because someone is in church doesn't guarantee they are a believer. In God's Word, it says that as long as you are not yoked (joined together or form a connection) with an unbeliever, He will receive you and will be a Father unto you and we shall be his sons and daughters. But, before we can do this we must first cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. In addition we are to work towards perfecting holiness all while in the fear of God.

I said all this to say that do not dwell on what is happening in your life right now on the surface. As bad as it may seem, there is probably a good reason for it all. Look at your life spiritually and you may find that some simple house cleaning needed to be done.
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Antoine E. Hall

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

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A Good Definition of Evil

“...when good that should be there is missing from something, that is evil....Evil is, in reality, a parasite that cannot exist except as a hole in something that should be solid.  In some cases, though, evil is more easily explained as a case of bad relationships” 

Geisler, Norman and Brooks, Ron.  When Skeptics Ask.  Copyright 1990.  p. 61

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Getting Into a Rod Bending Match With God

Courtesy of WikiHow.com

I know what you're thinking.  That is a really weird title.  Besides, how could I possible get into a rod bending match with God.  He is all powerful and we all would lose every time.  Well, that is exactly the point.  We cannot and will never win a contest with the Triune God!

The phrase "rod bending match" is something I came up with a few years back (it may not be original, but hey it was new to me)  It is when we, wrestle with and against the will of God when directed by the Holy Spirit.  We are like the rod, where we try to resist bending at all cost, but being omnipotent, not only do we lose, but we can be broken.  Our will is not stronger than God's will no matter how much we resist. When I think about this analogy two individuals in the Bible come to mind.  They are Jeremiah and Jonah (Moses resisted the Lord at first, but you can read on that in Exodus 3 & 4).

As humans, you will find that we are all in agreement with getting things done until the responsibility falls onto your shoulders.  This is no difference with Jeremiah.  In Jeremiah 1, we are introduced to Jeremiah and we are told that this is where the Lord calls him and give him his first visions.  In the first message the Lord tells him, "I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5).  In the very next verse, Jeremiah says, "'O Sovereign Lord', I said, 'I can't speak for you! I’m too young!'" (Jeremiah 1:6).  In his one answer, Jeremiah makes two excuses.  First, he claims that he is too young.  Secondly, he said that he could not speak for the Lord because he was too young.

As you might know, you cannot out wit or excuse your way out from the all-knowing God. You can only allow Him to show you the strengths you already have or what He can give to you.  In a very parent like manner, the Lord tells him not to make the excuse that he is too young.  He then tells Jeremiah that he would say whatever He told him to say!  I could only chuckle at that because as parent I can relate!  The beautiful thing about this correction is that the Lord also assures Jeremiah not to be afraid of the people and that He would protect him (just like a parent).  At that point, the Lord touched his mouth and put words in it (Jeremiah 10).

Problem solved.  Jeremiah only made excuses as to why he could not do the Lord's will.  However, Jonah is a completely different story.   Let's have a look at Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-3 says:

(1) The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: (2) "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are."  (3) But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Jonah had a direct order from the Lord to go announce His judgement against the city of Nineveh, but he chose to run.  Where did he think he was going to go, I have no idea, but he tried to run.  Jonah, then buys a ticket aboard a ship, but as the ship traveled over the sea, "(4)...the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.  (5) Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.  But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. (6) So the captain went down after him. 'How can you sleep at a time like this?' he shouted. 'Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.'  (7) Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. (8) 'Why has this awful storm come down on us?' they demanded. 'Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?'  (9) Jonah answered, 'I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.'  (10) The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. 'Oh, why did you do it?' they groaned. (11) And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, 'What should we do to you to stop this storm?'  (12) 'Throw me into the sea," Jonah said, "and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.'" (Jonah 1:4-12).

Even the sailors knew that running from "Jonah's God" was a bad thing.  They wondered how could Jonah do such a thing and now they were caught up in his disobedience.  After trying to continue through the storm, the sailors gave in and threw Jonah overboard.  In Jonah 2, we see that he is then swallowed by a fish (not a whale as some are taught.  The Bible just says a fish.) and there he stayed for three days and three nights. At that point, Jonah had finally quit running, prayed, and agreed to be obedient as to what the Lord had set out for him to do.  "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach." (Jonah 2:10).

In both scenarios, the Lord's will prevailed.  You cannot make excuses.  You cannot run.  You cannot hide.  Even your own resistance can make you feel like a fugitive on the run from the police.  You're constantly looking over your shoulders.  You are on edge about every thing.  You see everyone as a potential enemy and then wonder why things are happening in your life they way that they are.  Only if you circle back to the original issue, it could be that you are running from God's mandate on your life.  Stop running and surrender.  It will only make things a little easier for you.

So what has He called you to do?

Be Blessed.

Antoine E. Hall

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