Monthly Archives: November 2016

ARE WE THERE, YET?

R WE THERE YET

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. Deuteronomy 2:3

 

You’ve probably heard or seen the movie entitled “ARE WE THERE YET?”

Many of my fellow kinsmen in Christ have found ourselves trapped in this dilemma (whether or not we’re willing to acknowledge it publically or even privately). What am I talking about? In a hurry, but going nowhere fast! While many who  has professed a sincere desire to obediently follow after the heart of God, life has a way of teaching us that it’s not a ‘one and done’ phenomena but more like ‘a little by little’ process, huh?

Two of the greatest deterrents to successfully reaching our goals are contentment and indulgence! I’m not trying to negate the validity of The Apostle Paul’s revelation “Not that I speak in respect to want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11) GOD FORBID! However, if we linger here too long, our contentment becomes a comfort zone that could potentially diminish our hope, dreams and drive for attaining better…there!

God promised to bring His Chosen people into their good land, flowing with milk and honey! But they got so comfortable going around Mount Horeb that they were willing to settle for a piece of God’s Promise! This was unacceptable! So God intervened reminding them that not only is partial obedience is disobedience but it also robs Him of the opportunity to fully express His Glory!

Oh yeah, the Israelites were free from Egyptian slavery. They’d seen with their own eyes Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea! That’s all good, right? But God had told them GREATER WAS COMING! Now,  we can’t keep pointing our fingers at them Israelites without looking back over our own lives and recognizing how many times we settled for less than God was offering. Remember when they said, ‘a piece of a man is better than NO MAN at all’, huh? How did that work out for ya? Okay?

Have you noticed how the New Millennium church has gotten away from praying for deliverance these day?  Don’t shout me down, yall! #ijs! Perhaps, it’s because true deliverance requires discipline! And we all know, ain’t nobody got time for dat! We want everything now! So to appease our conscience we settle for indulgence, ‘I ain’t what God wants me to be, BUT…at least I ain’t where I used to be’! Huh? Don’t  you look at me with dat tone of voice!

But Thanks Be To God Who is still able to redeem the time! God said, “It’s time to head northward! Shake the dust of compromise off your feet and keep it moving—FORWARD”!

Didjaheardat? God IS reminding us that “the race is not given to the swift neither to the strong, But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”Matthew 24:13  Hence, as long as you have breath in your body,  you have a chance to possess everything GOD Promised, as long as you don’t give up. Oohhh Glorraa!!!

Beloved, today God is inviting you to exhale the fear and doubt and inhale the Breath of His GRACE and getta steppin!

It’s timeout for just singing about it! Pull yourself up out of the pit of complacency, procrastination and stagnation and GO GET UR BLESSING!

Why settle for little when God’s promised you BIG! ARE YOU ‘THERE’ YET? SERIOUSLY?

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Cafee

REMEMBER GOD

SELAH Daily Devotions

remember-god-4

SELAH Daily Devotions!

I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. Psalm 77:6-10

That’s Life! The ol’ skool church used to tell us, “everyday ain’t the same baby!” That was their way of warning us to expect some days when your heart is overflowing with the Joy of the Lord and your mind so consumed with the Peace of God that you can hardly restrain yourself from bum-rushing unsuspecting strangers who happen across…

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DRIFTERS?

SELAH Daily Devotions

drifters-2

SELAH Daily Devotions!

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at anytime we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” Hebrews 2:1-3

One morning during my devotion, the Lord began speaking to me about The Millennium Church Age. At this point in my walk with Jesus, needless to say, I’ve heard many a message preached about the Church of God down through the years! Gratefully, much has been pontification of the Glorious and Victorious Church as well as those that admonish the people of God concerning the goats and the sheep and the wheat and the…

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THE LORD’S PLANTING!

SELAH Daily Devotions

the-planting-of-the-lord

SELAH Daily Devotions!

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. Isaiah 61:3

How many times have you gone on a job interview and the prospective employer asked “Have you cheated on your spouse; are your child support payments current?  Have you ever lied, stolen, or gossiped in your life “? I hear a overwhelming,’NOT EVERRRR!’ Of course not! In fact, we have laws to protect us from these kinds of civil infractions, right?

Quite frankly in this 21st Century New Millennium Age, it’s all about your gifts and talents; and generally, people no longer give a whole lot of credence to a man’s character. #ijs! It’s all…

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LOST & FOUND

lost-and-found

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Luke 15:20-24
The Gospels record 35 times that Jesus uses parables as a teaching aid. Literally, a parable is a story “cast alongside” a truth in order to illustrate that truth. In today’s vernacular a parable is as an inspired comparisons, or simply put an earthly story with a heavenly meaning!

Unlike like so many 21st Century preachers,  Jesus wasn’t just trying to spice up the message to keep the crowds entertained. His parables had a two-fold purpose. First, to reveal the truth to those who wanted to know it and to conceal the truth from those who were indifferent! You see, Jesus already knew that everybody who followed Him didn’t do so for the same reason. People are still people, huh?

You do know that everybody who comes into the church building doesn’t come looking to know Jesus, right? Some come just for a ‘kidz-size happy meal and a prize’! While others, like the Pharisee and the scribes, only come to pick up a few stones to throw at Jesus. Notice how they accused Jesus, “Look at Him, This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Spiritually blinded by their preconceived biases, Jesus already knew that they would dismiss His parables as irrelevant nonsense.  Yet, there were also a few sincere seekers of Truth who would eventually receive insight and reap the benefit and comfort of His Words!

Anything that you respect and honor you will pursue! Perhaps, that’s why the Pharisees could not understand why Jesus cared about ‘tax collectors and sinners’. Yall know how you go off when you can’t find your keys or the remote control. You put out an all-points-bulletin and nobody in the house can get any relief until it’s found! When you really desire something with all of your heart, mind, spirit and soul, whatever it takes to get it, is worth it all!

The text says that The Shepherd is so excited that He’s found the sheep that He throws a party to celebrate the safe return and everyone around Him is rejoicing with Him! (Ref. Luke 15:6-7)  Imagine that! I know we don’t get excited when folk get saved anymore, huh? But that’s exactly what happened back-n-da-day!

The next story is about a woman who loses a coin and refusing to give up, she searches until nightfall. Desperately she’s turning every piece of furniture upside-down, looking between the cushions on the sofa, behind the refrigerator, until she found it. You can imagine the joy and the relief she experience when she found it! (Ref. Luke 15:8-9)

This chapter ends with a the more familiar parable of the Prodigal Son! Sometimes we can get so caught up in the drama of the son’s partaayin so hard until he ended up in the pigs pen, that we miss the intensity of The Father’s Love and Compassion for his lost child. This is a picture of The Heavenly Father’s response to those who have yet to accept the glorious gift of Salvation purchased by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ! This is why God pursues sinners and why everyone of us should rejoice when a repented sinner returns to the sheepfold.

Recovering a lost sinner requires effort and patience! However, often times we develop an acute case of selective spiritual amnesia and forget what it took for us to get our testimony, huh? Do you know that most sinners have no idea that God is looking for them and even fewer believe that He loves them?  When you look at what Jesus gave up to save us, how should those of us, who call ourselves His disciples, be any less engaged in searching for the poor souls who have yet to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord! #ijs! No, it’s not always easy but  gratefully JESUS believed the reward  well worth the effort!

Shamefully, too many Believers still think that soul winning is the Pastors and Evangelist job! But that’s not what The Bible says! ‘And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation’ 2 Cor. 5:18

Jus wondering, what are you doing to bring the lost to Jesus? Are you content to enjoy the privileges of being saved? Is your heart burdened for those who are still lost? Are you willing to get up off the padded pew of do nothing and go into the field and hunt for those who are still outside of the house? (Ref. Matthew 9:37) If Jesus still associates with sinners, why don’t you? WOW! LOST & FOUND!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

 

IT’S THE GOODNESS OF GOD!

SELAH Daily Devotions

ITZ THE GOODNESS OF GOD

SELAH Daily Devotions!

And thinkest thou this O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgement of God? Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forebearance and long-suffering; not kowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Romans 2:3-4
A while ago, I heard a preacher confessing  that at one time he was an avid believer and willing partaker of one of the greatest lies that Satan has perpetrated. As he went on to talk about his early perception of God, I began reflecting back on the B.C. (Before Christ) in my own life, I humbly concluded, “You ain’t by yourself preacha!” If we would be honest, for real, a whole lot of us would have to raise our hands and say Amen 3X, Preacha!

How many of you once believed that somewhere, way out there, there was…

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1 WORD

ONE WORD

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
Lamentations 3:57

Some saints would have you to believe that since they’ve been saved, they’ve never experienced a moment of fear, grief or despair. Oh, yall know what I mean! Listening to their church testimony, you’d think that all their days were ‘goody, goody and howdy, howdy, cascading down tulip filled pathways’!  Okay, well Bless God, let me be the first to raise both my hands and confess, I not there yet. I guess I’m still a work in progress! But perhaps, I am not the only one, huh?

According to our text, Jeremiah, aka The Weeping Prophet, came to realize that neither his great love for nor his faithful obedience to God exempted him from suffering depression, sorrow and fear. Ironically, Jeremiah’s tears didn’t stem from personal defiance but rather the insolence of his fellow-countrymen. The prophet’s heart was broken and burdened because his beloved nation was facing imminent destruction due to their continuous rebellion against God.

Instead of God’s chosen people gratefully heeding Jeremiah’s warnings, the Prophet’s concern was repeatedly met with murderous bitter resentment. Jeremiah was beaten severely, thrown into an empty cistern, and left to die for daring to tell the people the Truth. According to the scriptures, there Jeremiah called out to God and God responded with  A GRACE WORD … ‘fear not!’

While there’s some degree of solace in knowing we, the Elect of God, are in this world, BUT we’re not of this world, nonetheless we, like Jeremiah, will also endure times of suffering due to the ungodliness of others. The degradation of morality and diminishing respect for life in general, often lead us down into pits of muck and miry clay. Relationships drive us to the edge and end of ourselves, through valleys of ‘don’t know what else we can do’ and onto the intersection of ‘helpless to change our condition’—yet we are never without this Hope—our deliverance is always just a prayer away! One short faith-filled “HELP ME, LORD JESUS!” releases The Power and The Glory of God—right on time, every time!

In the midst of your turmoil, has God ever whispered a Rhema Word  into your belly that instantly checked your spirit, jump started your hope and restored your peace, right?  Just One Word can flip the script, strengthen your heart, renew your mind, quicken your faith, stir up the Holy Ghost, Who empowers you with that second wind that catapults you to run on, convinced that, ‘Yeah Baby! WE GOT THIS!’ (Ref. Isaiah 40: 30-31)

Don’t be scarred! God’s near! Let Hell know WHO YOU KNOW, WHOSE YOU ARE AND WHOM YOU SERVE!

Oh yeah! ONE WORD FROM GOD CHANGES EVERYTHING!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

 

THURSDAYS’ PRAYERS!

prayn-and-fasting-pic

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

Good Morning Family, GOT A MOMENT? AWEMAZING!

Once again, we’re excited that you have joined us today in our Weekly Day of Corporate Prayer and Fasting. As we approach The Throne Room of our King, with up stretched arms and open hearts, we’re eternally grateful for the privilege that He has afforded every believer to enter into His Presence, casting all of our care upon Him and finding Mercy, Grace and Very Present Help in these vexing times!

WE TURN OUR HEARTS AND MINDS AWAY FROM ALL THE NOISE, ALONE WITH YOU, WE WAIT TO HEAR YOUR VOICE…NOTHING ELSE MATTERS… BUT TO WORSHIP YOU, I LIVE…TO WORSHIP I LIVE, I LIVE TO WORSHIP YOU..JESUS…OOOHHH…OOOHHH…With up stretched arms, empty hands and open hearts, SHALL WE PRAY?

 

Abba Father, we come before You today, In the Magnificent, All Powerful Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, rejoicing, praising and thanking You for blessing us to see this brand new day. Acknowledging that it was not because of any goodness of our own that we live, move and have our being, we quickly thank You, Heavenly Father, for another opportunity to embrace and enjoy the abundance of Your Mercy, Your Grace, Your Power and Your Peace!

Heavenly Father, it is with unspeakable joy that we thank You for being The God of our Salvation, Deliverance, Breakthrough and Provision. With heartfelt humility and sincere gratitude, we recognize that it’s only Your Grace, Compassion and Faithfulness that allows You, knowing our frame, to continue to look beyond our human frailties, faults and iniquities. forgiving us and minister to all of our need!

From our hearts open, depending and relying solely upon You, we offer up our thanksgiving laced with precious praises to You today, for we revere and extol You as The Only Wise Savor and Lord of Life!

Father, we come this morning thanking You for choosing us to be Your very own children! Because of Your Lovingkindness towards us, we can now declare and unashamedly decree that we are joint-heirs to Your Kingdom and You are Our God, our Salvation, our Deliverance, Breakthrough and Provision. While our future remains a mystery, we have the confidence that by Your Grace, You have restored our strength, understanding and power, equipping us with everything that we need to carry us through one more day.

Lord Jesus, because we know that You already know everything that’s happening in each of our lives, our families, our communities, our nation, we’re so grateful that You are yet in absolute control of all things! Father while we slept safely in our homes last night, we know that there will be reports of shootings, robberies, accidents and all manner of maladies, and we will not fail to thank You, for it was only You who kept us alive! We’re so very thankful that even amidst these days of impending chaos, threats, hatred, anxiety, fear, confusion, deception and destruction, the safest place in this whole world is still in YOUR PERFECT WILL! 

Precious Lord, we ‘re believing that while we’re experiencing an unexpected shaking of this nation that You are setting up a massive exodus and deliverance! We’re trusting that a Spirit of Godly-repentance is is swelling up all over this world and that the end result will be multitudes of lost souls shall be saved and those who have walked away from You shall be re-claimed! Father, we’re trusting that Holy Spirit is imparting a ‘COMMITED YES’ into their heart and in their mind that provokes those who are outside of The Ark of Covenent Grace, will come to you today and receive You as their  personal Lord and Savior. We thank You now for blessing them, directing and settling them into a local church home today, where they will be embraced with Love, encouraged, nurtured, taught so that their lives are transformed by The Glory of The Lord!

Lord, we pray for every soul who is going thru a season of grief because of the lost of a loved one, those whose lives have been victimized and bankrupted by divorce, lost of employment, disappointment, hopelessness and despair! We plead The BLOOD OF JESUS over every demonic thought, Spirits of anxiety, oppression, depression and confusion, because we know that You are not the author of these confusing demonic thoughts and feelings, but You have given us who have put our personal trust in Your Son Jesus, Your Righteousness, Love and Joy in The Holy Ghost!

Abba Father, as we entreat Your Presence, we lift up every believer who is yet holding on to your Hand by faith today, that You will release a double anointing of Your Divine Peace, Power, Supernatural strength, provision, prosperity and protection!

Sweet Jesus, we’re believing that while we’re yet praying, You will strengthen us to persevere thru every test that You have allowed, confidently assured that You will bring us out restored, renewed, refreshed and with the reward us as You have promised in your Word! Lord, as we walk through the valleys, we ask that You anoint us for such a time with supernatural confidence, courage empowering us with an overwhelming consciousness of Your Abiding Presence and the immutability of Your Word!

Almighty Father, we pray, according to Your Will, for the leaders of our nation, be that goverment, corporate, judicial, education and financial institutions! We’re believing that You will touch their minds and break up the fallow hearts, speak to them in dreams and visions, let them know that You Who Sit Enthroned Above the Heavens is keeping record of the deeds of every man’s heart and will reward accordingly!

Father, as we lift up our spiritual leaders, we’re asking a special blessing upon each and every one of them who are yet standing on the wall proclaiming Your Word under the conviction and anointing of Holy Spirit. We pray that you will Grace them to be the examples in their homes, churches and community that will cause everyone who comes into contact with them to fall in love, trust wholly in and to live their lives serving You, Our Heavenly Father.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that You will stir up the hearts and minds of those who are professing Your Name! We believe that You  are increasing their desire to make our election sure, walking circumspectly in pursuit of an even greater personal, intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father through fellowship of Holy Spirit that we might prove what is the perfect and acceptable Will of The Lord Jesus for our lives!

Father, as we pray, touch our brother, touch our sister whose body has been afflicted by all manner of sickness and disease, especially the Spirit of cancer, dementia, Alzheimer, stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, arthritis, bi-polar depression and glaucoma! Lord,  rebuke and cast it out at the root, for Your Name Sake. Heavenly Father, You are Alpha and Omega, the same yesterday, today and forever! Even as you walked in this earth healing all who were sick, feeble, lame we know that You’re Well Able and Willing to do the same right now! Lord Jesus, Your Word declares that Your stripes have redeemed us from our sin, but has also healed us and we’re yet standing on your promises that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and raise them up, In Jesus Name! Amen 3x!

Lord, we declare and decree that every demonic-induced spirit of temptation, anxiety, addiction and fear be defeated by Your Burden Removing Yoke Destroying Anointing and that the Spirit of Love, Power and a Sound-mind is being released now into the lives of all those who are calling on You, in Jesus Name!

Father we wait in confident quietness, rejoicing in hope and trusting wholly that all workers of iniquity are trembling, suddenly departing in shame and disgust, is now retreating in defeat because You have heard the voice of our weeping, our supplications and received our prayer as a sweet savor coming up before Your Sovereign Throne of Grace and Mercy!

Abba Father, we stand in agreement with You, Who hears ours prayers and forgives our transgressions! Holy Father, because You have personally chosen us and brought us near to live in Your House, we shout with joy unto The One to Whom all men will come! We yield all that we have, all that we have and all that we hope to be, in obedient reverence before The Hope of all the earth, believing that as Your face shines upon us that, You are making Your ways and salvation known among all nations for You Guide and Rule justly!

Heavenly Father, we thank You NOW, for WE believe that IT IS DONE! In The Exalted Name of Jesus. Amen 3X and It Is So!

Now every child of God who is standing in agreement with this prayer, GO TELL SOMEBODY THAT JESUS STILL CARES!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

THE LONGING!

SELAH Daily Devotions

the-longing-2

SELAH Daily Devotions!

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Philippians 3:10

One of the most intriguing topical discussions amongst expectant mothers and women who have become mothers (besides swapping labor stories) is the abnormally-intensified cravings that we experience during pregnancy awaiting the birth of their bundle of joy!

While, at this writing, my eldest is 47 years old, yet, I can still summon up that daily occurrence of overwhelming intensity, provoking me to walk my big-belly-self five city blocks up to MLK Avenue to get my hands around a 6 in., lettuce and tomatoes, fried onions, mayo and mustard, salt and pepper, heavily-loaded with pickles steak and cheese sandwich. This became such a ritual that the moment I wobbled through the threshold of the deli, the cashier would holla to the cook “Steak and Cheese…

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YES LORD!

SELAH Daily Devotions

YES LORD!

SELAH Daily Devotions!

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 2 Corinthians 1:20

For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Hebrews 4:2

WOW! Just thinking about backndaday, when the Saints gathered on Sunday afternoon for Holy Convocation! Talkin’ about The Grand Ole Church of God In Christ. I’m here to tell ya, did we ever have some sho nuff churrch huh?  I remember how I felt when the Elder would approach the pulpit and begin bellowing out our International COGIC Anthem, “YES LORD!”  Still not sure whether it was meant to call the church to order, calm the shoutin saints down, to take up the offering or…

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