Tyrone Brackens
- Spiritual Living
- August 21, 2019
- 1 views
The Importance of Stillness: Silent Musings from God’s Holding Patterns
(To listen to this post, play below.) Do you feel the tension? Has the disillusioned process left you weary? Are you holding on for dear life to every prophetic promise that has been spoken in your life? Are you in a situation where you are targeted for your strength and prowess yet, it’s not your will but God’s will that prevails? Can you feel the sting of unrighteousness from a spouse, partner, friend, confidant, business associate or neighbor who doesn’t understand the position you have been called to heed in this moment in your life? Are you in a financial whirlwind with more bills than money presently to secure the debt? Did you ever feel like throwing in the towel and giving up? Well, you are not alone. Michael Jackson, Legendary Music Savant experienced the same trauma, drama, pain, upheavals, lies, deceit, aloneness, brokenness, and blindness and still was able create magic out of those insidious moments. Michael Jacksons’ hit song “You are not Alone” is a song from his ninth studio album History: Past, Present and Future, Book 1 (1995). If you can truly picture the irony of this song remember it was written by R.Kelly (R&B Sensation was wrote “Step in the name of Love”)who we all know has been in the media lately with tons of sexual misconduct allegations against minors. The important thing to note from R. Kelly and Michael Jackson as it relates to the holding patterns you may be experiencing at this moment is that you are not alone. There are thousands of individuals like you and me who has had difficult childhood experiences, near death experiences, abuse, neglect, betrayal, and just moments in time that has made us neglectful of the healing that needed to take place. Instead, we would keep trying to push past the pain as if it would just somehow go away. Many times, the shame that we created from our mistakes binds our hearts into a place, where we feel like a “Native Son” which Richard Wright explains as a black youth who lives in utter poverty. Although, we are bigger than our circumstances the weight of indifference and stagnation can make us feel like the mountain is too big to overcome. The embers of the psychedelic whirlwind want to speak to us in these moments, but we must settle in our hearts that its necessary to stay positioned for the turnaround. You might have been in the waiting room for the last 5, 10, 15, 20, years or longer. What’s important to understand is that God operates outside of time and may be a tough pill for your inner circle to swallow in this instant everything age. Overnight successes usually take in the ballpark of 15-20 years in some cases. Sometimes you will fly around and around until there are favorable conditions to land. Delay does not mean denial. Let nature take its course in your life and don’t try to change what seems uncomfortable and illogical to those in your inner circle. Approach the negativity head on in a logical and emotionally sound manner. Work on your…
Nelson Hawkins, Jr.
- Spiritual Living , Understanding Your Faith
- June 26, 2019
- 1 views
Why We Struggle With Identity….
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV) Before I get to the blog post proper, I almost never deal with NKJV. Not a knock on it, I just usually study from the ESV or the NRSV. <shrugs> About the Scripture itself though. Do y’all see this here? It’s kind of a big deal. Galatians 5:16-23 talks about the nature of the flesh, the nature of the Spirit, and how they do battle with each other, to literally prevent us from doing what we want (also see Romans 7:14-23). But why does this matter as it pertains to identity. Well, in the last entry, we talked about identity having four real elements to it: (1) Being made in God’s image and likeness, (2) purpose, (3) heritage, and (4) race/ethnicity. Well, most people don’t get authentically saved in their formative years (please don’t believe the statistics). Because most kids have a fundamental rebellion in their teen years (because they have to explore, more on that next time) and many don’t get to experience God for real until their 20s. This is when their heritage and race have been well established, and sometimes they are already pursuing (what they at least think) will be purpose. I can’t speak to everyone, but in my teen years, I knew there was a God and that He was supreme in the cosmos. But I didn’t know God. I went to church sometimes, and considered myself a Christian. And then when I was in college, a young lady did street evangelism ministry with me. Her: Where are you going when you die? Me: Heaven. Her: Why. Me: Because I’m a good person. God was like, “That’s adorable…” //imgur.com/ClQ956Q But why did I give the wrong answer? My identity didn’t line up, despite the fact that I thought I was a Christian. A few years later, I got saved, and got this answer right. (Although there were so many more to get wrong after) I would say that once we get saved and become that new creature, we have to switch all of our thinking over to that of Christ: mind, heart, nature…we even have to shift our gifting and talent to Christ…despite the fact that God put those in us to begin with. And that conversion is tough, because we know our heritage and our race (most times) our whole life, but most of the time we struggle with the “made in God’s image and likeness” part because we just weren’t wired that way. It takes a long walkthroughs in the Scripture, fervent prayer and supplication, and often years of long suffering to get to this point. Over the next couple of entries, we will juxtapose identity to our stages of life (natural growth), and our stages of spiritual growth. Join us then, okay?
Candace Paul
- Writing Tips
- May 24, 2019
- 0 views
Unpopular opinion: Your Friends and Family Aren’t Your Customers
A member of a Christian author’s group I joined expressed disappointment with the lack of overall support she’s gotten from her friends and family. She confessed to expecting much more from them and was somewhat blindsided by their disinterest in her book. While I understood her frustration, my feelings were a bit different. I offered the following advice to her – and to my surprise, it was very well received. I thought it would be best to turn it into a blog post for other writers. First, Understand the Magnitude of What You’re Writing – Not Everyone is Ready As a Christian writer your work carries a greater purpose. It’s not just for entertainment value. I imagine that there’s a deeper message you want the reader to understand about the importance of our faith. Truthfully, not everyone is ready to receive that message…at least not yet. It’s for this reason, I say, Christian books find the hands ready to receive them. I couldn’t tell you the number of faith-based and inspirational books I was given that I didn’t read until years later. They just collected dust on a shelf – mainly because I wasn’t interested at the time. However, when I was ready to read, and when my heart was open to learning more about my faith, I knew exactly where to go. Sometimes, it’s as simple as letting people know where to find your work when they’re ready for it. Not having the Initial Support of Your Friends and Family Helps Build a True Following Let’s face it, sometimes people will just buy your books because they know and love you (thanks, mom!). Don’t get me wrong – that’s great, but unless they’re actively reading and engaging with your material, it’s hard to know if they truly like your work – or just being the beautiful supportive family and friends that’s helped you with everything else in life. The silver lining to having a lack of support with your writing among those closest to you is the ability to gauge how others really feel about your work. If your following is primarily comprised of your family and friends, it’s hard to know for sure. In my case, my first book, “Spiritual Warfare” broke the top 100 on Amazon’s Bestsellers list multiple times – including holding the #3 or #4 spot for a few days. Since I have a rough estimate of who among my family and friends purchased my book and when, I know that their contribution alone did not make that possible. However, it was my community of followers on social media – over 13,000 people, that helped me hit that goal. I refer to those that support my work as a community, because that’s how I truly see them. It’s a two way street. We learn from each other. We help each other. I’ve chatted with many of them, prayed for many of them, and I make it a point to consistently share important news from around the world that mainstream media doesn’t talk about with them. So, when I receive unexpected praise from strangers like, “You’re one…