AS we are about to enter into 2018, we reflect on our lives. The things we have accomplished, the things we have not, the time spent wisely and the time wasted and we vow in the new year to be different, to reach higher, to go further and to be better.

May I interject for just a moment with the thought: We cannot hope for a different outcome if we keep doing things the same way, having the same old mindsets and following the same routines.

In order for TRUE change to come, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves a few things.

1. Where do I want to be?
2. Who do I want to be?
3. When do I want to achieve this?

Where do I want to be?

Our greatest hindrance is ourselves! We are our greatest enemies from achieving our purposes in life. We falter before we even set out on the race. Where I want to be and where I am at this moment may be separated by a great chasm, but we have to be able to have CLARITY OF VISION to see over that hill to where we want to be. We have to have a vision. We have to envision the end goal. We cannot let ourselves and our shadows hide us from our destiny!

Who do I want to be?

We cannot be anyone else but whom GOD created us to be. We have to come to terms with who we are. No-one is responsible for me except me. We have to release those who may have said evil against us, who may have stood in our way to smash us down, who may have wounded us. We cannot carry that baggage and those old demons across the finish line. We must dump them. We must release them and it takes some doing but the key lies in the word – FORGIVENESS. We have to forgive ourselves first and then those around us.

When do I want to achieve this?

Remember- all things have a process of growth and we must never lose sight of the journey we are on. We cannot cloud our minds with the small things. The urgency of our destiny must be imprinted in our minds, our souls and our spirits so that we reach forward with purpose. Time lost is never regained. But never forget to take a few moments to enjoy the journey, always focusing on what is forward and forgetting the things behind.

As the new year dawns on us, let us release those who have hurt us, hindered us and have held us back. Release them to release yourself and move forward with new hope, re-invigorated by the Love of God and through that Love- see others and yourself.

Don’t take the old demons that torment you into the new year. Forgive and Love. Release and Breathe and Let God In. And with Him forge ahead to reach new heights, climb new mountains and achieve great things. AMEN!

Forgiveness is a most powerful weapon in God’s arsenal.

We all have had collisions with negative forces around us, the  impact of which have left many of us battered, bruised and broken. It is easy to slip into a prison of negative thoughts both about ourselves and others and to remain in that prison for years. It is easy for us to nurse our wounds and continually pick at scars over and over again. It is easy to rehearse pain and sorrow in our minds and to pierce ourselves daily with negative thinking.

When Jesus walked on the earth, there is a story of a man from the Gadarenes who lived among the tombs. Many times he could be heard screaming and cutting himself. It is a reflection of what happens to our souls when we allow ourselves to be poisoned by pain, hate and remorse- most of all unforgiveness both for ourselves and others.

But the first step in healing is to release- let it go.

Literally say to it out loud.

Let it go-

They owe you money- let it go- they will not pay you back

They owe you an apology- let it go- they will not apologize

They used both your talent and your resources without so much as a thank you- let it go- they will not thank you.

They gossiped about you and spread lies about you- let it go- you cannot stop the wind from blowing

They continue to spread lies- let it go and let GOD in- HE IS YOUR SHIELD

They cast you out- let it go- They cannot cast out what God has cast in.

And the list goes on.

The Lord gave us the key in the Lord’s prayer Matt 6:9-13

“Forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me”

Similarly in Matt 18:21-35, The Lord tells us a parable about the unforgiving steward. The truth in the parable being that God has forgiven our sins which is a great debt- likened to the first servant who owes 10,000 talents.

The second servant who owes 100 pence or denarii is like those men and women who daily sin against us, do us wrong and hurt us.

So now the servant with the larger debt, having been forgiven so much, should have been more merciful to the servant who owed less. But sometimes, we forget how much God has forgiven in us- that we fail to forgive ourselves and others.

The second step in this battle for forgiveness is to know who you are.

The poison of unforgiveness steals from you, locks you up in a joyless existence and a perpetual prisoner of the past.

It keeps you from being who you were meant to be. It is a destiny killer.

If you are locked up in a prison of pain and hurt you cannot grab hold of the things God has in store for you.

The key to your destiny lies in the Lord’s prayer. He has prayed for you and has shown you the way to escape from the prison.

Break the shackles and rise up. As the psalmist David spoke to himself in times of trouble- so too we need to speak to ourselves and shake off the oppression of unforgiveness and be released into the goodness of God’s love.

Lord- forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me- Let’s make it our daily prayer.

The Lord is my SHIELD AND MY BUCKLER.

He protects and helps me to stand.

He restores my soul if only I will be led to the still waters.

The still waters symbolizes the submission and release.

Wash me Lord and I shall be clean. Amen

Please note- I still adhere to the conviction that our society uses “forgiveness” in the wake of violence inflicted by mentally unstable people erroneously and firmly believe that we should instead seek out ways to prevent and minimize such acts. ALSO- there is a difference between forgiving someone and placing yourself in danger if someone threatens your life continually for the sake of forgiveness. If you are in a domestic abuse situation, or in a situation that habitually threatens your life, you will need to escape that first in order to heal. The world is filled with evil and there are those who intend to cause harm to to others physically, emotionally and every other way daily.  Let us be wise as serpents…..

In the Gospel of John, chapter 4- we read of Jesus waiting for the woman at the well in Samaria.

She came and found that He offered her something she was longing for all her life. While He was waiting to give her living waters, she was running around trying to satisfy her thirst. She was looking in all the wrong places.

In 12 days time, on September 28th, the 4th blood moon which started in 2014 is scheduled to show itself. The Christian community is looking for something big to happen.

I think in 20 days time- Oct 6th- something will happen in our government and it will be big. I could also be very wrong and nothing happens out of the ordinary.

Only time will tell if all the fuss is really “much ado about nothing” or if in fact the stars (or moons) have really predicted something catastrophic.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 7th 2015

Just wanted to update the blog.

20 days have come and gone and a lot has happened.

I saw the “blood moon”- It was amazing. So just to summarize the major events in the last few days

1. The Pope came to the US and has left
2. The Speaker of the House resigned
3. The US has seemingly abandoned Israel in the United Nations. When the Prime Minister spoke- the camera panned to the US delegation – the room appeared almost empty.
4. Russia started ground operations in Syria and appears to be the military power in charge in the middle east.
5. The US made an error in military strikes and have struck a “Doctors without Borders” facility killing at least 22 people.
6. Flood waters have devastated the coast lines of South Carolina
7. Massacre in Oregon- mentally ill shooter
8. 6,000 prisoners to be released at the end of the month.

The list goes on and on….

Everyday- the headlines seem to shock us.

Phil 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (KJV)

This is a powerful verse in the scriptures and if we truly analyze this – we see 3 things

1. The desire to Know Christ
2. The power of His resurrection
3. The fellowship of His suffering.

This scripture embodies the Pilgrim’s progress in a nutshell and within lies the answer to the question “why do bad things happen to good people” and the understanding that although you do good things with good intentions and in theory it has all the facets of being a good thing… yet it results in such pain and persecution that you sometimes doubt whether you should have done these things in the first place.

And then -even though you do 99 good things and 1 bad thing- it is the bad thing that people remember. We are quick to make outcasts of people and to judge them if they do not fit in with us.

This gets me to think about the parable in Luke 15:4. About the lost sheep. That sheep was lost and was an outcast.

We are so quick to judge others based on our understanding, our beliefs, our customs and traditions and our culture that sometimes we do not give the other person a chance or seek out the person who made a mistake. For this reason and in these situations, I ask myself the question…

“What would Jesus do”

It is a question we need to ask ourselves in our daily walk, in our daily life. When the opportunity for doing good arises…just do it.. in spite of the consequences. If you see a person in need… help them to the best of your ability.

For if indeed we want to know Christ and to walk in the power of His resurrection, we will suffer persecution, rejection, pain and a multitude of “bad things”.  But like Paul in Phil 3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” So too, for His glory..we ask ourselves the important question of “WWJD” and then we set our gaze towards Him. Phil 1:6 tells us ” Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”.

Christ came to cast us in… we who were once outcasts and destitute in spirit. He came to give us grace… CAST IN GRACE.

Have you ever considered why we appear to be magnets for negativity? It seems as if we pick up or attract the negative things around more than the positive- it seems by default.

Do we as human beings have a default setting? We try as much as possible to be the best we can but …. when things go wrong and mistakes happen, we default to believing the worst about ourselves. Perhaps this is a product of our environment, our circumstances and our culture …… and perhaps many other things too.

But these things appear to channel or program our default setting. What if we were to reprogram ourselves and the way we react to situations?

Sometimes- I really think it is only by the grace of God that we really exist on this planet- given the inhumanities and atrocities that are committed day after day.  And then there are the personal tragedies that enter into our lives ….

But truly – it is the Word of God that guides us and seeks to set us free from the prison of negativity that seems to be our default. Isn’t that why Christ came on the earth…. to set us free from ourselves…. And have you really wondered at the purpose of salvation and the magnitude of that work …. in the context of resetting our default setting.. to experience something greater than us and our way of thinking.

Just a thought—–