Category: Spiritual Walk

This is a repost, peeps.

(This is Part 2 of our “Breathe In – Breathe Out” devotional series.)

Good morning, peeps!

“Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” 2 Timothy 3:16

If you’ve ever witnessed the birth of a baby, you undoubtedly held your breath as you waited for the baby to take their first one.  After hearing that affirming “WAAAAH!”, you exhaled.   Whew!  Oh, Alex – my firstborn.  Poor thing.  I used to stand still at her crib and watch her chest rise and fall with every breath.  I would put her face up to mine just so I could smell it.  It was so sweet.  I lie.  It smelled like old milk and gastric juices, but she was my angel so it was perfect.  And I was so protective of those funky breaths.  No one could breathe around her.  I’m surprised I didn’t place her inside of a bubble or teach her how to push down the button on a can of Lysol Disinfectant Spray when she was two days old.

In case her siblings are reading this, Mama was just as careful with you.

You couldn’t cough or sneeze within the same 2,400 square-foot space as Alex.  And don’t let me see a cigarette.  Are you kidding me?  It didn’t even have to be lit for me to go off.  I remember one time her father came into the house after having smoked a cigarette.  You would’ve thought he’d actually lit one up and blew smoke at the head of her crib.  Oh my goodness.  I tore him several new ones as I shoved him towards the front door.  “It’s in your clothes!  She’ll breathe it in!  OH MY GOD!  What’s wrong with you??”  Y’all probably think that was too much, huh?  Secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33,950 deaths from heart disease each year.  Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.²    The only way to fully protect yourself from exposure is to eliminate smoking.  There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure.

(Don’t concern yourself with that ‘2’. I straight copy/pasted those four sentences from the CDC site. I have no additional references.) 

According to the above verse, Scripture is God-breathed.  When we take the time to study the Word, we essentially inhale what He exhales.  Let me say that again: we inhale what He exhales.  He is the air we breathe.  Well, He should be.  As I looked up that verse, I asked myself how often I’m inhaling what He’s exhaling and how protective I am of those breaths.  The word “not” was in both answers.   I breathe in hundreds of “toxins” every day from the internet, TV, and billboards.  Some of my conversations are full of toxins.  There’s no way I’m not going to be exposed to them.  To be honest, I like most of them.  Not sure if I’m ready to completely eliminate them…maybe I can limit my exposure.  Hmm.

I was about to end this devotional with that line when my eye caught the last sentence I copied: there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure.  Really?  Man.  I need a bubble.  We’ll dig into this tomorrow. Have a great day.

–d.

(This is Part 1 of our 3-part devotional series “go sit: the art of being”.)

Good morning, peeps!

I could just stay right where I am and hope to feel You ~ hope to feel something again ~ but You have called me higher ~ You have called me deeper” – from “Called Me Higher” by All Sons And Daughters

I want to clarify something: to be doesn’t mean to stop living. Oh, I know I gave examples during the Press series about God halting my routine, telling me to sit my butt down and stop just doing. I want you to understand that it doesn’t mean I stop living. That I stop ministering. That I stop praying. That I stop singing. That I stop doing. I’m not sitting on my couch with my feet propped up chillaxin’ and acting like I don’t have a call on my life. No ma’am, no sir.

“Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.” – Acts 16:24-26 KJV

You have no choice but to be when you’re locked up in prison, especially if your feet are in stocks. Where you gonna go, friend? No where. You can’t help but to sit down and be. Look at the above passage from Acts 16. Paul and Silas were some active folks. The two of them were going everywhere, preaching, teaching, and casting out spirits. As a matter of fact, if you read the few verses prior to that excerpt you will find that doing that very thing is what got them locked up in the first place. They cast a spirit out of a woman whose possession was making folks money. In the scripture, they were called her “masters”. Funny how people will see something in you and try to control it for their gain…like they own you. That’s a whole ‘nother blog. When Paul and Silas called the spirit out of her and she was released, her masters became enraged and made a false report to the authorities, causing Paul and Silas to be cast into prison. That’s messed up.

So here’s three things that came to me this morning and are the reason we have a new series. I can’t do them all in one day.

1. One, sometimes God will allow things to happen just to get you to be…just to get you to sit down.
2. Two, being does not mean not being. Does that make sense? No? Good. That means I get to explain it. Yay!
3. Three, being actually positions you for what God wants to do.

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord ~ open the eyes of my heart ~ I want to see You ~ I want to see You” – from Open The Eyes Of My Heart (cover) by Trey McLaughlin

(Author’s note: if you listen to this version of the song and you aren’t rockin’ smooth-like with it, listen to it again.)

Part 1…sometimes God will allow things to happen just to get you to be…just to get you to sit down.

God doesn’t want you operating off of fumes. Remember that I said “Paul and Silas were some active folks…going everywhere, preaching, teaching, and casting out spirits.” I just did a copy/paste on my own words. Yeah-uh! I don’t remember reading about Paul and Silas (known henceforth as P/S) ever taking a break. Do you? If you look through the Gospels, though, you will see several accounts of Jesus going off by himself and sometimes He took the disciples with Him. God appreciates and honors the ministry we do for the Kingdom, but goll-leeeee! Sometimes He wants you to just sit down! You need to just be sometimes so that God can minister to you. And truthfully, that is the only way God can “open the eyes of your heart”. For real. How else are you going to see Him “high and lifted up” if you’re so focused on doing and not being? I used to go and go and people would ask me how I had the energy to do so much and I would reply “I’m just functioning off of fumes.” That is not good.

And that is not God.

God doesn’t want us to serve Him out of exhaustion. I know Scripture says “present your bodies a living sacrifice”, but please take note of the “living” part. Good grief. How alive are you if you’re just functioning off of fumes? What kind of sacrifice are you presenting? Man! Even the dead sacrifices back in the day were about sumthin’! No one brought some old dried up or shriveled side of beef to the altar. Naw, baby. They brought the best and juiciest…as a matter of fact, it was killed right there at the altar. Some of us…never mind. Again, that’s a whole ‘nother blog. Matthew 26:41 is often used as an admission of weariness: “…the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Okay, I get it, but where are my church folks who will admit that sometimes it’s their spirit that is weak and I don’t mean in regards to temptation. You have no umph left. You are dry. Oh! I see some hands! Here’s my message to you: SIT DOWN.

I am smiling right now because I imagine that had not the feet of P/S been locked in stocks, they would’ve been walking around the prison ministering. When God wants you to be still, oh, He makes sure that’s all you can do.

Have good one, peeps.

–d.

Good morning, peeps!

(This is a repeat.  A very special man in my life passed away this time of year in 2006 and he’s been on my mind a lot lately.  Like, a lot.  I revisited this post this morning and I thought I’d share it with my friends.  I hope you all have a great weekend.)

–d.

This post is inspired by my late stepdad, Curt.  I miss you…

Curt’s denim jacket has been hanging in the laundry room since he died in ’06.  I have looked at it every day, but for some reason I felt particularly drawn to it today.  I took the jacket off of the hanger, running my hand up and down the sleeves, fingering the collar as I remembered how he looked wearing it.  While most of his things had been sent to the professional cleaners, this jacket was washed at home with his jeans and still smelled of Tide and Downy.  I put my nose to it and sniffed – hey, we’ve already established that I am a little weird – and was surprised that I could also smell hints of the cigarettes he used to smoke.

You can stop doing worldly things, spruce yourself up as best you can, even go to church for years, but if you haven’t let God “clean” you, the stench of sin is still in every fiber of your being. You’d be like that jacket: look clean, in a place of cleaning, and still reek. There are some things that only God can do.  Ask Him to cleanse you today.