Are You Alone & Why?


Your never alone...
 At some point in time we have all felt as if we have been forgotten and no one cares about us. There is a story I read about a guy in the bible who had leprosy. Leprosy is a disease that causes your nervous system to shut down and eventually causes your nervous system to shut down causing you to lose your ability to feel. Back in those days those who had lepers were forced to wear clothing that was torn and had to reside outside the town.These people weren't allowed to have contact with anyone including their family or friends because these people considered the "living dead" were constantly being rejected and left with thoughts of suicide.

Much like this story we all at some point in our lives have felt despised, forsaken, forgotten, ignored and judged. The good news is we don't have to stay depressed. In the story Luke 5 12-16 Jesus came along and healed the man from his condition. But the man first asked Jesus if he was willing to heal him. So many times we don't open up our mouth and ask Jesus to meet us at our needs and then wonder why we still are going through the same problems.

"Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him." Luke 5;13


Just because things are bad today and you seem like there is no hope always keep your faith and understand who is in control of your life. We forget this when things get hard and we trust ourselves don't let this be you. First we have to know that problems come and go and what doesn't kill us will make us strong. God will never put you in things that are to big for you because he promised not to put more on you than you can bear. The moment it becomes unbearable is the moment you must realize he didn't put it on you.

Why Small Groups Work

More churches need small groups
I can no longer count how many times people have questioned me about the purpose of me starting my small group and why I chose to plant a small group before launching a church. For over a year I have been doing small groups in North Carolina and Virginia and what I have noticed is mind blowing. It's crazy people don't have a problem with God or learning about the bible. People simply have a problem with church and all of its traditions. Don't get me wrong I personally do not have a problem with church. My problem is with people in the church who try and turn others away from it. So many unhealthy churches meet Sunday after Sunday and it's sad that more people are leaving the church than joining the church, but why is that? Well I can tell you my opinion why. It is because the church fails to meet the needs of people and often fail to preach things that are biblically sound. When I officially start a church it's going to be on a strong foundation and centred around the whole truth.


Statistics have proven that small groups work. I personally suggest that any pastor that intends to plant a church first begin with a small group bible study. In most cases specifically in medium to larger size ministries it is very easy to get lost in the crowd. Because of this many are never given the opportunity to build personal relationships with others. That's why small groups are so powerful, they allow small group members to come together in a laid back environment and speak candidly with one another.

The vision for my ministry is to always be centered around small groups because I recognize it's effectiveness and the potential these groups have in changing lives.People so quickly disregard small groups because it is not an idea centered around traditionalism; however, I am sorry to inform you that tradition isn't going to get anyone to Jesus or leave people encouraged to live their life.

Learn To Lean

This month I did a series titled "Why you can't let your faith fail you" all I did was talk about faith! And doing this series my faith went to another level. And I learned to not lean on my own understanding of how things should be in my life but I completely learned to trust God even when things didn't look good or feel great. Having faith is when you can look past where you currently are and can focus on what's ahead. We get so caught up in what is in front of us that we can't even think what is ahead or what is in our future. God wants us to trust him and lean on him! The bible helps us and shows us why we can't trust in ourselves and why we must trust God.

Proverbs 3; 5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight."

Is your path straight?
To many times we try and make our own path then try and figure out why it's not the right way. God has laid out a plan for your life but the plan isn't always what we want or the direction we want to go. Trusting Jesus isn't always easy and it wont make sense all the time but I have learned it's not suppose to!

Life Is Short

What are you doing with your life?
If you didn't know in life you only get one chance! One opportunity to do something great one chance to impact a life. Have you ever thought if my life ended today how would I be judged? Or what did I leave behind for people to carry on. Does anyone other then my husband, wife, kids, family or a few friends really care that I'm no longer around? It's something you can't help but think about and wonder because your human. Since we all have one chance at this thing called life let's make it count.

We all have gifts and dreams and God has given us all purpose. Don't be afraid to go after things in life. Leave your mark in the world life should mean more then how much money you can make or how many people you know. Life should be about blessing people and giving people things and a chance no one ever gave you. Another thing you might didn't know is that when you leave this world you can't take anything with you. So share what God has blessed you with be about the will of God for your life do something that's going to change your community! I encourage you today to be all you can be and use this thing we call life to make a difference in someone's life! Don't be selfish walk as Jesus did with love and a heart to serve and watch how God will bless your life.

Why Facebook & Twitter In Church?

Social media or "social networking" has changed how people communicate and get there daily news. The world is changing and it is changing at a very intense pace. Nobody these days can say that our society of today’s world is the same as it was 20 years ago. New Media created new ways of communication, entertainment, advertising, education, etc. Social Networking enables us to communicate with anyone and anywhere. People of all ages, races and classes, which have access to new media technology, are empowered to communicate with anyone they want. This instant and low cost communication also changed our society by simply making it global. Understanding this ask yourself is your pastor using social media to connect with his congregation? Better yet is your church using this powerful tool to reach the lost??

Connected?

With tools such as Facebook & Twitter the church should be growing and the gospel of Jesus should be going forth. I'm not writing this to put anyone down but I am challenging the church & pastors to use social media as a tool for outreach today's generation won't get with old traditional methods used back in the day try a new approach. Find young leaders who understand social media and use them to your advantage to reach this generation. Jesus never changed his message just his methods he did what he needed to reach people..

Don't Give Up!

I love the text from Hebrews 11:6 that say's "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." The word faith means to put complete trust or confidence in someone or something. We all have faith but we all don't have faith in God. Often we expected God to do things in our life because we are upset or having a bad day. I read a pastor say somewhere that "When we shed a tear, God sheds a tear." That is so far from the truth!! God is not moved by our emotions but by our faith!

Why give up now?

We can't let our faith fail because when we do we will start to depend on our emotions which is a very dangerous thing. God needs for us to depend on our faith in him and not give up on him when things get hard. Faith is something that cant be seen but something we must keep! Don't give up on God because he wont give up on you.

Who Are You Following

We all choose what we want to follow in life. Many times we get caught up in following things and we don't realize it until later. Following the wrong things continues to impact each of our lives. The dictionary defines "following" as to come or go after; proceed behind. What are you going after? That is a question that we all must ask ourselves from time to time because we can get so caught up in life that we forget to follow and go after God. Many times we get frustrated with following God because we feel like there is no reward. But Peter asked the question many of us want to ask God:


Then Peter said to him, "We've given up everything to follow you. What will we get?" Matthew 19;27

Who are you following?

A question I know many of us want to ask Jesus, right? Jesus tells him in verse 29 anyone who has left behind things for my name sake they will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. We must follow Jesus and not people or things to get eternal life. How? We must have faith and believe. We can't always see the things God wants to give us but we have to believe he is going to give it to us. God will never lie but people do. Put your trust in him.