BTZ Blog

If you want to influence people by what you preach, preach with your life rather than just preaching with your mouth, because if you do not LIVE what you PREACH or TEACH people will IMPEACH you, and rightly so.

A REST time is GOOD. A PRAYER time is BETTER. A PRAISE time is BEST.

A life exhibiting PRAISE brings delight to God. God dwells in the praises of His people. If you desire to be aware of God’s presence, daily praise Him with you life daily not just with your mouth or actions in a Sunday-go-meeting

RELIGION (Latin relig ( are ) to tie, fasten ( re- + ligare to bind, obligate; + -ion) Man's Way Temples, Buildings and  meeting oriented External Cleansing Physical Observation External Motivation Institutional P erformance Oriented Doing for Christ Controlling Domineering Conforms Our position and appearance is important We choose Law living Rules that bind Joined onto Organized by man Membership by form signing United by doctrine and denomination Obligated meeting attendance Duty performance accepted Guilt and Shame condemnation Something you are part of Obligated participation Ruled Committed to Convert to Outward form Masquerade Positional Elder-ship Result oriented Size, appearance, recognition Uses and abuses Patronizing Hierarchy ruled Spiritual elite Security in doing what's "right" Expectations to perform Disillusionment Rely on leaders as teachers Hierarchy, clergy & laity Using natural abilities Knowledge the word Head base...

God’s peace does not abound because of the absence of struggles, being at peace is repose of the heart even in the midst of struggles. If we have peace of God in our heart we will have peace of God in our life through every circumstance. The thing about God’s peace is that it passes all misunderstanding as well as all understanding!

I would encourage you to take part in the this survey. Do the following points guarantee that the person or organization is a valid representation of Jesus Christ and His gospel? While the following points may look good, smell good, and seem right, are they a guarantee that Jesus Christ is represented, Is the name of Jesus Christ used profusely by all those who represent those issues indication they are genuine? Having a Christian television ministry? Title of pastor. Title of apostle. Title of prophet. Title of prophetess. Title of bishop Title of evangelist. Title of missionary. Head of a denomination. Owner of some Christian organization. Charismatic personality. Gifted public speaker. Multimillion dollar church building. Multimillion dollar ministry. Preacher who lives in a million dollar home. Preacher who owns a jet airplanes. Preacher who has camp meetings. Preacher who conducts "revivals". Preacher who lives on tithes and offerings and see...

The meaning of denomination is "to name." How would Jesus have responded if someone would have given "their name" to His Church during His time on earth? Jesus is alive today and He is not limited to one geographical area as He was during is physical presence on earth. How do you think He feels about the different names that people have attributed to buildings and call it His Church? We are named after the Father, how dare we be so conceded and selfishness to name what we say is "His Church" after men or some catchy phrase. Yet, it is done without a second thought. as though we have a mandate from Jesus Himself. We use such names as Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Episcopalian, and Church of Christ, New covenant, Calvary Chapel, Christian Life, Christian Fellowship, Faith Tabernacle, etc.. the naming is without an end…. and so are the divisions. Being a Believer makes us a member of the family of God, a child of God, a part of the Church of God. Th...

Independence, segregation, separation, self-sufficiency, and division are tools of the devil used by man to maintain the disposition to be exclusive in the acceptance of people according to denominational barriers of doctrinal beliefs. Do we honestly believe that this was in the plan of God in giving us Jesus as a sacrifice to bring us into relationship with Him and in the establishment of His Church? Is this the direction the Holy Spirit has taken to bring people into the kingdom of God? What Jesus did on the cross is a vital part of His testimony to His Church, and to the people of the world. He brought to naught the disintegrating effects of sin in a person's life and the devils interference with God’s creation, the body of Christ His Church. The direction of satanic activity is to separate, segregate, divide and to cause conflict, confusion, discontentment and strife, especially amongst the Body of Christ. God created the universe and His creation worked in perfect unit...

    Interest in judging others.   Interest in condemning others.   Interest in being condescending to others.   Interest in interpreting the actions of others.   Interest in argumentative doctrinal superiority.   Interest in pleasing religion.   Interest in segregated segregation in assembling.   Interest in performance base acceptance.   Interest in spiritual dominance.   Interest in titles and positions assigned to the man approved spiritual elite.   Interest in the ability of man to establish and control the Body of Christ.

Listening to understand is a quality that is needed as the first step to change! People are more noted for listening to respond to, and/or defend the status-quo than listening to understand the viewpoint they are listening to! This is one reason change is difficult, both in the secular world and the religious world.

Some people are consumed with attaining the big position, attaining recognition from big-shot people or attaining bigness in success and expend great energy attaining the same. It is much more profitable to work towards BETTER-NESS than striving for BIGNESS. You are the only person you are, don’t worry about achieving BIGGER success or being BETTER than someone else, be the BEST person you can be and you will be the BETTER person for it and much BETTER than people striving to be BIGGER and BETTER than anyone else!

Being a good information giver does not mean you are a good communication giver. A information giver is giving out information that may not be understood by the hearer. A communication giver is giving out information that is getting through in an understandable way to the hearers of the information that is communicated.

If you want to maximize human existence and human relationships, you must be a channel for the flowing of the life giving fluids of LOVE, COMPASSION and UNDERSTANDING!

The giving and sharing of love is loving, thrilling, exhilarating, liberating, comforting, satisfying, unifying and rewarding!  

To exhibit gratefulness , gracefulness and thankfulness when your circumstances are good is one thing. To exhibit gratefulness and gracefulness when your circumstances are adverse is more of a challenge. More often than not we wear our feelings on our face. React gratefully and gracefully in life no matter the circumstance and happy you will be. It is one thing to offer thanksgiving with the lips, it is another thing to live in thanks-living as an extension of your heart. Be graceful , grateful, and thankful. Live in thanksgiving no matter the circumstance!

The Island of Neutrality has the heart of many believers. Though more and more believers are leaving the island of Neutrality is still overpopulated. The call to believers is to vacate the island of Neutrality and leave it desolate. How can we determine if we are living on the island of Neutrality? 1, We are neither HOT nor COLD...we live in the comfort of lukewarmness. 2, We are complacent when it comes to living in the atmosphere of  Heaven on earth. We are more interested in bringing the atmosphere of earth to Heaven rather than bringing the atmosphere of Heaven to earth. 3, We want to walk in Heaven when we die, but we want to walk worldly while we live on earth. 4, We talk about the cross, we sing about the cross, we preach about the cross, but do not want to carry or die on the cross. 5, We just want the happy medium, live and let live, take stock of today with no thought of what our actions or inaction will have on tomorrow. 6, We want to be accepted and respected b...

If most of us would learn to smile and laugh at our mistakes and through our troubles,  we would never run out of things to laugh at! “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone”. LAUGHTER is a great ANTIDOTE for DISCOURAGEMENT and DESPAIR!

Love is the Divine miracle that works in us and through us. Love without limitations. Love without fear of loss. Love in the face of hatred. Love in the face of being misunderstood. Love in the face of accusations. Love is the greatest work of faith. Love reveals to all of creation what we are belong to God. Love makes Christ in our hearts known. Love allows us to participate in the divine work of God. To love is to light the earth with His Grace. Love can’t be boxed. Love can’t be enslaved. Love is free. Love is beautiful. Love is God. Love is our identity, for we are created in His image and He is Love. You are a star of Love. You are a child of Love. You’re lovely.”

People are a product of the environment they live in and the environment of their hearing and reading therefore, when people read what is written by a writer may be taken as positive to some and at the same time be negative to others. It just depends on what a person receives from their living environment, how they are influenced to believe and what they assimilate from their hearing and reading environment. I wonder, is that why religious people view writings that do not line up with the accepted religious view of God and His Church, as being written by a negative person in opposition to God and His Church, just because his view does not agree with the established religious view? Is a person who is pro-God, pro-fellowship, pro-relationship, pro-love, pro-people yet, anti-religious, really a negative person? Feel free to share your thoughts.

What WE PLAN to do for God in our assembling together is not important. What GOD PLANS to do in our assembling together is of utmost importance. Why not scrap OUR PLAN that we want God to bless for GOD’S PLAN that is blessed already because it is HIS PLAN. Though we may not believe it...the Holy Spirit is quite capable of leading GOD’S PLAN and it may surprise us as to how much GOD’S PLAN differs from OUR PLAN!

Modern day preachers are gifted at giving metaphorical expressions as to their role in the “church”, but their role according to Ephesians 4:12 is to equip God’s people so God can do His work through them, encourage and uplift His church, the body of Christ. Pastor’s chief responsibility is to point believers to Christ as their spiritual growth source not to themselves or to their particular religious affiliation. In reading Ephesians and Timothy,  I understand the premise to be that Paul is letting the “Church” know that it’s OK to be a leader within the Body of Christ. However, religion has made being a pastor a coveted position of the seminary graduate appointed by man, rather than a spiritual function of believers, appointed by God.  Being gifted to preach is like winning the lotto.  Some leave promising careers to become preachers with the hope that they will reach the status of being a superstar pastor.  Celebrity status begets influence and influence breeds ...

Misconceptions, of God, misinterpretation of scripture, lifting scriptures out of context  to validate a way of belief is a very misleading and defeating practice. This practice is nothing other than the “blind being leaders of the blind causing both to fall in the ditch” of confusion  causing the water of confusion to confuse many. Not only that, there are some quotes, such as, ”God helps those who help themselves” or “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, if I asked you to find the bible passage most people would search the scriptures trying to find it! Because we have heard the phrases from the pulpit and in the “church” context, most people think it is in the bible, yet it is not biblical phrases. The first phrase has been abused by people thinking, “unless I do then God don’t”, it advocates that a person can work their way into receiving from God and gain entrance to heaven. This misrepresents the fact that salvation is by Grace and Grace alone. What about the well meani...

God’s Love is like the ocean. You can swim in it, but you can’t swim its length, breath and you can never swim to the bottom of it. His Love is beyond our abilities to reach its limits. What good news! God is love, and He loves us unreservedly, unconditionally, unbiasedly and completely. Live in His Love!

In today's world of satellite-churches, mega-churches, TV pastor-performers and the internet the man ascribed power to pastors has grown in a the wrong direction. Now pastors have the ability to become celebrities and many of them think they are. Even pastors of smaller churches are treated as being on a higher spiritual plane than the congregations by the hierarchy, as well as the people in the pews. This gives pastors a unique power of influencing people and the media at the same time.  Maybe you think this is a positive.  But, with pastors acting as founders...producers...writers...motivators...the single source pipeline from God to the people...you name it, the functions (mistaken by men-of-the-cloth as a position or office) in Ephesians 4:11 are misrepresented.  God’s people, His Church are gifted to operate in those functions but, that would mean officiating positioned, pastors teachers, evangelists etc. would no longer have a one-man-show to create their celebrit...

LOVE does not keep a record of the wrongs done. LOVE is not love if it does not forgive. God is LOVE, He does not keep a record of your wrongs, He forgives your wrongs. We are taught that God keeps a list of the wrongs people have done, this up-side-down thinking has caused people to become sin-focused, believing that God associates our past with our future, rather than forgiven-focused where the wrongs in our past are cast into the sea of His forgetfulness not to be remembered against us anymore.

Don’t compare yourself with other people. God made you unique, one-of-a-kind, you are an original...don’t settle for being a copy. Be the original God created you to be by focusing on your God given potential instead of the limitations people put on you. Remember the Greater One lives in you.

The MALPRACTICE of the church in ACTION in their Sunday meeting PARTICIPATION may be the reason for the spiritual FACTION among people in different DENOMINATIONS who accept their particular INTERPRETATION of God being which causes them to be at odds with each other, while all DENOMINATIONS are at odds with people who want to know, love and be in relationship with the one TRUE God void of organizational structure of ORGANIZATIONS.

God is OK with our weaknesses; in fact, he’s probably the only one who doesn’t judge us for having them. In a world that demands we be stronger than we are, thank God he accepts us just as we are. Going so far as encouraging us by saying “my power is made perfect in weakness.” We grow stronger because we can stand with him, even in our weaknesses, without fear or condemnation. God understands. God cares. God loves.

Could there be such a thing as Bible-Idolatry? Is it possible to make an idol of the Bible? Before you conclude that I am an heretic please hear me through, then call me one, if you must. I am not talking about placing the Bible on the communion table or your coffee table and praying to it as if it is a God as most people do with idols. Bible Idolatry does not take that form. Is more subtle and damaging than that! When we promote, uphold and and demonstrate that the power for living as a believer comes from following biblical principles we are in idolatry. We are to have no other gods before God, that has a deeper meaning then some object to pray to as a god. In living by biblical principles as our guide as a believer we usurp the role that belongs only to Jesus, the living WORD, whom the written word points to. The power is in the WORD of God, the LIVING WORD, not the written word! There are many people who live by their interpretation of principles in the word that is opp...

The Church that Jesus is building, has only one Builder and it has only one High Priest. The members of His Church have only one Father, these sheep have only one Shepherd and they hear and know His voice and follow only Him. And this Body has only one Head which directs, governs and controls it and if we are one with the Head, we are one with the Body, even if when not gathered together in buildings, this is the reason Church is life living seven days a week and not relegated to Sundays or event-driven-meetings. But, if we are not one with the Head, we are not one with the Body, even if we are gathered together in buildings we call church where living life is not what happens. We ARE the temple of the Holy Spirit no matter where we are or who we are with. We are a part of the Body regardless of where our Head takes us! We are the children of God, born from above, members of God's Family. Our life source is not in rules, regulations or the rituals of religion, but from a vital re...

How high we climb up the religious ladder of success on this journey through life, is of far less importance than how we treat and love the people we meet on this journey of life. Church is living life daily under the headship of Jesus while loving people, it is not religious Sunday-event-driven meetings under the headship of men who have climbed the religious ladder of success to help run and control organizations!

Much of the deception used to deceive the deceived comes from people who know not that they are deceived themselves. Once the deceived are deceived they know not the deception of the deceived is deception and accept the deception as truth!

In our preoccupation with heaven and hell and the hereafter, have we missed the essence of the gospel of Christ? Are we so taken up with arguing theology and evangelizing to get people to heaven and avoid hell that we have missed out on what the gospel is about for the here and now? Conforming to His image is not left to attain in heaven, it is for the here and now. He invites us to a mature relationship with Him where He accomplishes His work though us. Church is about reflecting God in daily living and not relegated to event-driven-meeting performances. Christ is relevant in daily living by believers being the Church in living life while loving people on the outside of the building loving them into His Kingdom, with love that flows from Him.

I am not overly anxious, upset or concerned what people think about me because I do not conform to, or support a particular religious denominational viewpoint…chances are they seldom if ever think about me anyway, so why should I worry about what they may think!  Being a thinker, I think it maters not what they think  near as much as they think what they think maters.

Church, don’t be deceived into believing preachers who are preaching their philosophized religious messages and saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” They speak with a forked tongue because the source of their messages are from their own vain imagination and they are trying to manipulate and control you. Hear the word of the Lord! “Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!”                                                                                                                     Preachers who propagate man-oriented ideas including money raising schemes, regarding their interpretations of scripture are preaching a lie, why? Because they say, "The LORD told me", o...

The callings of God, the appointments by God, the equipping of God, the blessings of God and the strength of God are given to the Church for SERVICE to people, not to elevate the SPIRITUAL STATUS of, or provide a OFFICE POSITION in His Church to men or ascribe His callings as TITLES on leaders who are then looked up to as being super-spiritual!

Fellowship is a fact, it should not be included in doctrines or creeds or institutions or rituals, it is to be experienced. As we make fellowship the center of Christian faith, creeds and institutions or the like will not be essential or the central element of our unity, our unity is to be under girded by love. We are united in His love which we are to express towards people. This may seem very vague and uncertain to those who want some outward sign as the proof of ones being a Believers in unity or the outward conformity of agreement; but all who have any real degree of experience know that in the daily life of a believer it is the love of God that makes unity very real and practical. At present there are all the sects and denominations standing side by side. Each thinks that theirs is the only true faith, or at least the most correct expression of it. Each believes it is their duty to convert others to their faith. They put large "labels" on themselves, showing the...

If foresight was as readable as hindsight we would not make as many blunders as we do. I wonder if we used KIND-SIGHT and LOVE-SIGHT to validate our FORESIGHT would we have less need of HINDSIGHT to help us make a correction in the journey of life because of following an incorrect FORESIGHT.

While "Christians" debate and argue over dogma, and doctrine, criticize and segregate from one another because of their theological difference, there is a world of people who need to be shown the LOVE of God. Your doctrines tend to separate, stagnate and perpetrate segregation. Is that the Jesus way?  The LOVE of God is the unifying factor that people will know you LOVE God...NOT your DOCTRINE!

Religious christianized people are good at signaling out the “unbeliever” who doesn’t fluently speak the Christianized language of religiosity. They can easily identify the people from weak doctrinal backgrounds because they keep cutting themselves and others, as they try to saturate the  weak doctrinal minds with their sharp forked tongue as it speaks forth their brand of theology soaked doctrine, trying to impress people with their theological knowledge. But, are these types of people conducive to being the building blocks in the Church that Jesus is building? Can Jesus fit them in His Church when they believe they are the group with the right doctrines, believing they have the mind of Jesus because they deem their theology correct? Will Jesus jointly fit these squares into a round hole where He may desire to fit them? That kind of know-it-all dogmatic attitude is a danger to the Church of Jesus Christ because of its perceived rightness therefore, making themselves unteachable by...

If you are going to be a Dealer: Be a Dealer of HOPE Be a Dealer of SMILES Be a Dealer of LAUGHTER Be a Dealer of FORGIVENESS Be a Dealer of COMPASSION Be a Dealer of UNDERSTANDING Be a Dealer of KINDNESS Be a Dealer of COMFORT Be a Dealer of HUGS Be a Dealer of LOVE Be the REAL DEAL by making people better FEEL!

Attending “church”, Sunday-go-programmed-meetings, sermon-listening, sermon preaching, song-singing, hand-clapping, shouting praises and all the other activities that "Christians" are expected to perform, is attributed as being spiritual yet, is so little like what Christ did Himself while on earth to show us what a spiritual relationship is about. Are we completely off base as to what a genuine spiritual relationship really is. This is not a rejection of gathering in buildings or expressions of what is called worship, but an indictment as to how few relationships with God and with people are developed in the process of event-driven-meetings and the programmed worship time. The gathering is more under a denominational banner rather that in the simplicity of meeting in the name of Jesus. Some "church” people are some of loneliest, saddest, most depressed dysfunctional people in society.  What is it about the way we do church that produces those results in the lives of...

Boasting: “to talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.” Does this meaning not fit some of the GOD-TOLD-ME people of today? Are these people truly hearing from God or is that tacit a way of wanting us to believe they are God’s channel to the pew-sitters? Boasting has the effect of diminishing a hearer’s self-esteem and reduces their spiritual confidence. It as a relationship hindering effect and causes emotional and spiritual seclusion as they question why God never talks to them!

What strange phenomena causes people to be different as a SUNDAY-PERSON in a Sunday-event-driven meeting than a MONDAY to SATURDAY-PERSON in their daily community living?

Instead of the forced and fruitless “turn and greet your neighbor” time, there was actually time for you to share with and befriend your neighbors in a relational way. Instead of always hearing the one-man-pipeline from God to the people, people shared their experience with God as encouragement for each other, it may be in a song, a word, a psalm, a hymn or praying with them. The people, including the leaders actually spent time with people during their daily living outside of the programmed-event-driven meeting and and with people outside of their own denomination, sharing the love of God by being hospitable. The volume was was turned down on the music and the “worship leaders”, so that the voices of the flock could be heard, I wonder sometimes if God even hears the voices of His people...maybe His ears are not tuned to the overbearing music and voices of the leaders but to the voices of His flock. There was dialogue rather than monolog by the sharing of questions and answers ...

If you are facing choices and decisions in life, consider the feelings of people and choose the path of kindness and love, it will lead you in the right direction and you will know where you are going and you will end up in the right place.

Divinely CHOSEN Divinely INSPIRED Divinely BUILT Divinely APPOINTED Divinely CONTROLLED Divinely LED, Divinely ENABLED Divinely LOVED Divinely LOVES That’s what makes His “Church” an ORGANISM! His “Church” is not a man-made ORGANIZATION of INSTITUTIONS full of FRUSTRATION and CONFUSION led by men of DELUSION who think their INTERPRETATION of the scripture allows for a man-made CONSTITUTION to set the rules for INCLUSION or EXCLUSION and allowing SEGREGATION by their DENOMINATION! Church, it is time to wake up to the REALIZATION that such a CONGLOMERATION is an ABOMINATION!

Why are so many people overly concerned what other people think of them because they may be different or do not see things the way the "in" group does. It is time to break the yoke of bondage upon you because of opinionated people and be free in Christ to be yourself in Him! OPINIONS are only OPINIONS of OPINIONATED people, OPINIONS may be based on perceived truth therefore, may be wrong OPINIONS!

The issue with denominations is that they build a faith community based on DOCTRINES, therefore, denominates and segregates the Body of Christ, (His Church) and replaces it with their “church” under their doctrinal banner.                                                                                                           However, His Church is about building a faith community based on RELATIONSHIP! Relationship is the uniting factor in building the faith community ...

Relationship Destroyers: Defensiveness. Jealousy. UN-forgiveness. Revenge. Fearfulness. Favoritism. Ungratefulness. Small-Mindedness. Pride-fulness. Rigidity. Unresponsiveness. Dishonesty. Loveless. Compassion-Less. Condemnation. Accusation. Devotion-Less. Superior-Attitude. Greediness, Selfishness.

Believers, the heart of the Gospel is to love the MESSENGER more that you love the message and to love the people for whom the message is meant far more than you love to tell the message. Telling the message is not the same as living the message! Not living the message nullifies the telling of the message! Telling the message without loving the message is not convincing! Living the message speaks louder than telling the message!

When you keep the “Church” confined within the four walls of a building it becomes ineffective and selfish! When the “church” gets out where Jesus intended it to be, “CHURCH” happens, because everywhere YOU go CHURCH is! “Church” is not really about what happens inside of the building made with hands. “Church” is about what happens when you leave the building, “Church” happens through you as the temple that Jesus lives in.

Law based giving is forced giving by rules and regulations. The mandatory tithe of the OT transferred to today’s religious way of giving! Practiced by a lot of modern “churches” today. Manipulative based giving is giving out of guilt brought on by preachers using scripture to coerce people into giving. Practiced by most modern “churches”  and media preachers today. Grace based giving is giving freely from a heart of love for God and for people. This was the NT way of giving which also is the scripture way of giving for today. Not practiced by many “churches” today.

Don’t let the should-haves, the could-haves and the would-haves of your past cause you regrets in the present. Be faithful in doing what you need to do in the present and the should-haves will take care of themselves! Let the could-haves and the would-haves of the past fuel your determination to accomplish some of the could-haves and would-haves that may prop up in your future!

So many people leave the validity of their belief system entirely in the hands of degreed people from theological seminaries without questioning whether the scripture validates such a belief system! This begs the question to be answered; Does the scripture validate all the different “christian” belief systems that are out there? If so, can the scripture be trusted as to the truth of our belief system? Is it possible we have trusted the degreed theological robots that have been programed with the software of their particular belief system by a theological programer whose software was developed by the hierarchy of developers to suit their particular belief system? Have we become worshipers of DEGREE-ERS and trust their Worldly Degrees...MORE...than we trust in the Word of God, Jesus Christ whose doctrine is summed up in two words “I AM”!

Let’s approach the question from a view as to who we keep company with? Are they all believers? The impact on people that don’t have a relationship with God through Jesus will be little if we are not personally building relationships with people that don’t know Jesus. If our friends are only church people of our own religious persuasion  what are non-believers concluding by our selectivity in friends? Are we demonstrating a “we are better than they attitude”? Are we showing them a warped view of the reality of God’s love? Do they conclude that God only loves Jesus people because we only have Jesus people as our friends? Do we personally interact with across our path people on a daily basis that has no connection with our religion.? If our interaction is resigned to our church, our group, is that really a ministry? When looking at the ministry of Jesus is that the ministry that He practiced? If we are not making relationships and availing of opportunities when they arise in our fa...

Hate is poison, dump it. Anger destroys relationship, kill it. Fear is paralyzing, face it. Un-forgiveness is bondage, break free from it. Life is short, live it. Love is valuable, so love. Forgiveness is freedom, forgive. Compassion is Godly, demonstrate it. Friendship creates friends, be friendly. Smiles create smiles, smile. Laughter is a healing balm, laugh. Memories are precious, cherish them.

Why do most of us who go to church, go to church? Is it to meet with God or is it more to meet with a group of people to be told about God and what to do to please God by the professional spiritual elite? Do we attend because of the sense of belonging to the body of Christ, or the activities within that makes us feel a part of something? Is it because we like being directed by the hierarchy as how to perform and receive their approval and the congregation's applause? Is it because we don't want the responsibility of having to decide what to think and do for ourselves by searching scripture because it is easier to be told what to think and do by the religious professional? Anyone who relieves us of hearing from God through His word, to them we have given control of our hearts and minds. If there was no one other than God to depend on would we remain believers?  

For people out there who draw conclusions from what they read things they want to without seeking clarification as to their understanding of the content, are assuming they know the way the person's mind processes what is written. Their understanding of what is written is somewhat based on the ideology that was taught and programmed into them by teachers of their own persuasion. Before you judge and condemn the writer you need to see what they see, hear what they hear, feel what they feel, then you may understand something of why they think the way they think, write the way they write, and stand for what they stand for before judging and sentencing them.  Besides...Even I have a difficult time understanding the way I think on times...LOL

We are living in  a day when we need to pray much more with our lives than with our mouths. While most lip service prayers are an escape from having to get intimate with people who hurt, heart born prayers results in life lived prayers of faith living involvement with people who are hurting.

You are special, unique and important. Don’t ever let the voices around you convince you otherwise. The one voice worth listening to is the voice within you. The voice that calls you His loved child. The voice that cheers and comforts you. The voice that reminds you that you are His masterpiece. The voice you know and trust. The voice you love to hear. The voice of your loving Lord, the good Shepard. You’re a bright shinning star. You are a picture painted by the Divine Himself. You make God smile and you make heaven dance. When you breathe God is overwhelmed by his love for you. Every breath you take should remind you of God’s unfailing love for you. Relax, smile, take a deep breathe and let God rejoice over you. Yes...I am talking about YOU!

Theologians describe God with big doctrinal words, complicated phrases and use a multitude of footnotes to explain their description of God; God explains Himself with just two simple words that we all can understand: “I AM.” As “I Am” He is all inclusive and in His inclusiveness is every possible blessing we will ever need. AS the “I AM” He is; our Healer, our Provider, our Helper, our Deliverer, our Provider, our Sanctifier, our Shepherd, our Lover...etc.

Religion points people to doing great deeds, or performing something great in the public eye as a measure of spirituality. I for one, question if that is even Christian servitude, I deem it to be egotistical self servitude that enhances public figures popularity and publicity and elevates them to celebrity status with the expectation to have available to them the same as the celebrity figures in Hollywood has...the outrages income, multiple grander homes, body guards, airplanes, etc. Here is what some of these celebrity preaches live like: One is known around the world for his large healing crusades. His television show airs in more than 200 countries. While building his following, he has earned quite a bit of money along the way. His ministry collects more than $200 million a year, and he’s admitted to his salary being over half a million. He owns a private jet, lives in a $10 million house near the Pacific Ocean, stays in hotel rooms that cost thousands each night, and owns luxur...

The grace of God and the powerful presence of the Spirit has maintained within the entanglements of ecumenical unification of religious institutions, a "peculiar people" whom the New Testament calls the Ekklesia. This simple, living  relational fellowship was replaced by (not produced by, as many would think) the "religious churches", which have attempted to express spiritual life in institutional, creedal and ceremonial form. THE ECUMENICAL CHURCH movement has become an important element in the Christian community for unity, but insofar as it tries to create unity through creeds, institutions and organizations. It is all too probable, because to some degree the popularity of this movement the acceptance of another new sect with new dogmas and institutions that has little commonality with Jesus already has made inroads by new religion known as “Chrislam”. It is very difficult to unify the creeds and institutions of many hundreds of denominations or churches. Indee...

C ame across this article by Andrew Farley, care to share your thoughts on it? Billboards, Slot Machines, and Robbing God. We’ve all seen the billboards – “Are you robbing God?” I cringe as I pass by. Is God really up in heaven demanding our money? Is he like a Divine Slot Machine that you pour the quarters into, pull the handle down, and out come the blessings? Some of us Christians are growing wise to the pressure and manipulation that have been out there far too long. Looking back to Old Testament book of Malachi and demanding 10% from your church is a move no pastors should be making, even worse if it’s accompanied by the promise of “payback” from God. Some of the larger churches in America have begun offering a “money back guarantee” on what they call a Three-Month Tithing Challenge. If you don’t get your money back (in cash or equivalent blessings) from God within three months, you get a full refund. Hmm…now who wants to be the guy that approaches the chur...