The Things You Don't See

Happy Monday Folks.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I had a pretty good weekend myself, but I could not get all the rest I wanted.  Oh well, it was good to get the rest that I could though.  I had been working like crazy the past couple of weeks and even did an all-nighter last weekend.  Needless to say, I didn't make it to church on last Sunday, but I did this Sunday.

This Sunday, we have started a new series called Knowing the Holy Spirit and this was more of an introduction.  The message was very enlightening and informative, but one concept that stuck in my head was on the topic of sin.  Some how (via Holy Spirit), we ended up discussing sin. 

According to The Free Dictionary, sin means "to commit an offense or violation".   One the first thing which may come to mind is sinning against the Mosaic Laws. There are the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Then there are offenses that we can commit against God by disobeying his direct authority.  God may tell me to do something directly and it may be specifically for His will in my life.  If I choose to disobey, then I am sinning against Him.  Now, at the same time, what He specifically told me does not apply to you because God's command was not relayed to you!

This had me in a "wow" moment, because all along I've always thought everything was spelled out in the Good Book.  Not so.  For example, I was lead by the Holy Spirit to remain at home with my wife while she was sick.  I looked for jobs, but no passionately as my real desire was to be home with her.  Had I gone back to work before ahead of time, I would have been in direct violation of God. Now that is not in the bible, but just because you don't see it in there does not mean it does not apply to me.

I would like to challenge you to think over your life and see how the Holy Spirit has spoken to you.  If you are a true follower of Christ, it will help you to put things into perspective on how you decide to answer God's calling in the future.

Be blessed and have a good one.

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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


"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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Vision: From Beginning to End

Greetings folks,

I hope that you are enjoying your short week so far.  I just wanted to share some things that I have learned over the past few days.  Well actually it's more like I heard a sermon on Sunday and I heard a radio broadcast today and they kind of meshed around the topic of vision.

So, vision.  Just what is it? According to the Free Online Dictionary, vision can be defined as "[t]he manner in which one sees or conceives of something".  I would like to talk about vision in the sense of being able to conceive of something that you cannot physically see and what it could, might, or will be.  For example, I have the vision to get my family out of debt.  I can see it in the future, but I can visualize it as though I am debt free right now.  Without a vision, people will perish (see Proverbs 29:18). 

If you have some goals in your life, you will never reach them if you cannot see yourself there.  If you cannot visualize where you want to go, you will never have anything towards which to drive.  Also, if you choose not to have a vision, then do not complain about where you are.  It does you or anyone else any good to complain about a situation if you have no intentions on changing it.  Read Habakkuk 1-2 and you will find that Habakkuk makes two different complaints to the Lord.  Upon the second complaint the Lord told him to envision it, then write it down (see Habakkuk 2:2) so it can be seen.

Something just as important as the vision is the plan to reach the vision.  Having a good idea is nothing but a good idea until you come up with a plan to reach the end-game results.  I have good ideas all the time.  With some of my ideas, I have watched as others implemented them and be prosperous as I had a vision with no plan.  This is what happens when you do not have a way to get there. 

Lastly, you need to be willing to execute the plan.  If you have a vision and come up with a plan, I hope you are willing to execute it.  I have been in so many meetings where someone had a vision and we met to create a plan only to have the end result be to schedule the next meeting.  If you never get started with the execution, your vision is no closer than it was when you first thought about it.   If you can visualize it, plan it.  If you plan it, execute it. 

Has God given you a vision?  Are you sitting on that vision?  If you are, I encourage you to not perish, but to write it down, come up with a plan and get started.

Be Blessed folks and have a good one!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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A How-To on Choosing a Church

Hello Family,

It's been a while, but I hope you all are doing pretty good.  Last week was a trying week and the devil had an 800lb guerrilla on my back but I shook that monkey loose! Thank you to all those who continue to pray for me and my family and to those who continue to encourage me.  I will definitely return the same support!

One of the last times we spoke, I mentioned us being in the hunt for a church in the Milwaukee, WI area.  Well I think this weekend our search came to an end and THANK YOU JESUS!   Trying to look for a new church is stressful and if you aren't careful you could turn into the individual searching for a new spouse at the wrong time!  We had been there before, but we had kept looking so we went back.  It just so happens that in yesterday's sermon, the Pastor talked about 3 things that preaching should do to you (the individual sitting in the pew).  Preaching should stimulate your Intellect, Emotions, and Will.

Intellect -  If you are sitting in a pew at a church you should be challenged to think.  You should have an "a-ha" or "aaaaah" moment.  It should be something that makes you look at things in a different perspective.  We should all be thinking and learning new things every day and this should not exclude the church. If your intellect is not being tapped into then how can you grow it?

Emotions - I have been to many emotion-filled church services.  If you have ever graced a church where shouting is prevalent on a common basis, then you know what I mean. I have been to churches where the music is uplifting, the spirit is high, people are crying and you can feel a great move of God and this is a good thing.  The preaching should stir our emotions and cause us to feel something because the Word now has penetrated our hearts.

Will - Now this one is a tough one and I think we as Christians tend to fall off the bandwagon. The preaching of the Gospel should make you want to do something about what stimulated your intellect and stirred your emotions.  You should feel an obligation to better yourself and others. You should feel like you have the responsibility to NOT let what you've learned go a different direction than you when you leave the walls of the church.  You should now have more WILL-power because of the preaching and service.

There are many times where I have seen lots of emotions in the church, but not much intellect stirring.  Granted, we all learn at different paces and we are at different stages in our walk with Christ, therefore, what works for me may not work for you.  Whatever ever it may be, you should look for all 3 attributes from a church.  If you don't get them from where you are then you are probably in the wrong place.

Be easy family and have a great one!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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Silence from God

Hello all and happy hump day to everyone.  Today, I do not have an original, but rather a link to a topic that I think we all have wondered.  Silence.  Not just any silence, but silence by God.  Have you ever been through a time in your life where you heard God every where you turned and then all of a sudden it was like drop dead silence?  I have and I am not afraid to admit that I am there right now, but I am happy to know that He has not left me.  It is funny through all the noise in life we crave just peace and silence, but when it is God who goes silent, we freak out! 

The sermon below is one that best sums up this subject and rather than re-inventing the wheel, we'll use the one we have.

Delivered by:  Dr. Ronald W. Scates
Sermon:  When God Is Silent
Link:  http://www.centralpc.org/sermons/1999/s990704.htm

Be easy folks and have a good rest of the week!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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What Killed Jesus?

Good Friday to you all.  Seeing how this is Good Friday, I figured what better time than now to bring up the subject of "What Killed Jesus?".  I first would like to preference this with the point that I did not figure this out on my own, but I did put this together myself *lol*.  I was listening to a Pastor on the AM radio again and of course I like to share with all of you as usual.

By now, we all should know that on this day, Jesus was crucified by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.  Over the years, people have analyzed what really killed Jesus.  When someone was crucified, nails were placed in both of their hands and feet.  Typically, the individual's legs were broken so that they could not stand up.  Each hand nailed to either side of the cross coupled with the broken legs would cause the body to slump down cutting off oxygen supply to the lungs -- the result equaled suffocation.

Jesus' legs were not broken, but he was flogged and stabbed in the side by a spear. He also had the infamous crown of thorns pressed into his head. If you are unfamiliar with the term flog, it is a method of being beaten/whipped.  The end of this whip would have multiple straps with sharp objects infused in the ends.  This meant that every time you were whipped, the flesh was torn and ripped away.  As you could imagine this could probably cause lots of bleeding and probable infection later on down the road.

This brings us back to the question.  What killed Jesus?  Did He die from...

1. ...bleeding out from the flogging? 
2. ...bleeding out from the spear being stuck in this side?
3. ...suffocating from being tired of just hanging there?
4. ...the shear pain, shock, & agony
5. .....

The list and speculation could go on and on however, all of them of wrong.  Remember, Jesus was born a man, but is still God which means He was not born into sin like the rest of us.  Can we kill God?  Nope, don't think so.  This means that anything the Roman soldiers and the unruly crowd did could not have killed Jesus.  He did not suffocate.  He did not bleed to death.  Jesus did not die until He chose to die for our sins.  He could have chosen to stay up there for an eternity, but He didn't.  John 19:30 says, "When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit". 

Despite what science or any graphical sermon may say, let the speculation end.  No physical or emotional condition could kill Jesus.  He had to make the choice to die.......and that He did for you and I.

I hope this helps someone on this Good Friday.  Be blessed fam!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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Belief vs Faith

Hello Everyones, Everyones.

I hope that you all are doing well this fine Monday.  The weekend went by way too fast for me, however, I am happy to see another day and blessed to have a job in which to go.  Being out of work for just over 8 months changes your whole perspective on griping about having to get up to go to work!

Even though the weekend went by fast, I caught several televised sermons on Sunday.  One of the people I watched was Dr. Fred K.C. Price from Crenshaw Christian Faith Center.  I caught the second half of the sermon, however, in it he talked about faith and how we synonymously use it with the word belief. At this point, he had my attention, because I thought believing and having faith was one in the same.  Dr. Price went through a couple of examples to illustrate his point and I will try to recall them here for you.

In his first point, he told those who drove to church that upon leaving to take their keys in their right hand.  Next, he told them to stand on the hold of their car and scream to the top of the lungs, "THIS IS MY CAR! I BELIEVE THAT I AM GOING TO PUT MY KEY IN THE IGNITION, START THE CAR AND DRIVE HOME" (this may not be exact, but I have captured the point).  The problem with this is that it is very true, however, you can stand on top of your car screaming until the cows come home.  Until you get off your hood and physically get into your car, start it up and go home, all you have done is believed.  The act of getting into the car and doing what you said you believe is faith (hence, James 2:20)!

The difference is so subtle that you miss it, however, the fact that we miss it can convolute our understanding of both belief and faith.  The two work hand-in-hand and cannot be separated, but at the same time they are different.  This leads to Dr. Price's next illustration.  He said look at a US coin.  On one side you have heads.  On the other side you have tails.  In order for it to be considered legal tender in this country it must have both the heads and tails.  If either one of the sides were to be rubbed off, anyone has the right to refuse the coin as legal tender.  After all, it is not complete with a heads and tails.  This is the same with faith and belief.  God put them both together and in us we have a coin with faith on one side and belief on the other.  Neither can co-exist without the other and thus gives us the "legal-tender" to do "business" with the Lord!

Now, I wish I could have read that in scripture and came up with this all by myself, however, I did not LOL.  What I do feel though is that this was too good of information not to share with you all, so I hope this has helped you as much as it has myself.

Be blessed and have a good one folks!

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

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

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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Weathering the Storm

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I hope that you all are doing well this fine Tuesday.  Today, I wanted to share with you notes from this past Sunday's sermon at our church (Celebration Family Church).  The topic was "Weathering the Storm" and it came from Mark 4:35-41.  There you will find the story of the Jesus and the disciples as they are in a boat and a great storm came about.  Jesus was sleep only to be awaken by scared disciples.  Jesus gets up in a calm manner and tells the storm "Peace. Be Still". 

Now this is where my notes pick up.  I hope they aren't too choppy and that they make sense.  Any church members, feel free to correct any errors or send me additions.

• There is always a challenge when you're going from one place to another
  
  
• The disciples had Jesus in their boat
• Even with Jesus in the boat their is no guarantee that there will be no storms (this speaks to the fact that although we have Jesus at our side, we still can have problems/issues/tests in our life)
  
  
• The effectiveness of your assignment will be determined by the quality of your alignments
• if you align yourself with Jesus & positive people, then you will be effective in what you do;
• however, if you have folks who are negative and you are not turning to Christ yourself, you can expect a bad outcome.
  
  
• How did Jesus Weather His Storm

1. He found rest in His Father's purpose - You have to understand the sense and purpose of your life.  Storms are just temporary and you cannot allow them to cloud your overall purpose or you could be stuck there forever (see Jerimiah 29:11).
   
2. He spoke with authority to the problem (see Isaiah 54:17).
   
3. He spoke peace to the storm - you can only speak peace when you are already in peace yourself.  If cannot speak peace when on the inside, you are really scared and unsure.

• 2 Things that we Deal With the Most

1. An Abundance of Fear - if we do not check our fears they will eventually become reality.
   
2. Lack of Faith (see Heb 10:35-36)
   

I hope this helps someone as I thought it was a excellent and different view on some versus we've heard quite a few times.

Be easy fam!

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