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HONEST 2 GOD

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SELAH Daily Devotions!

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10

O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure. Psalm 7:9

Sorry Father Adam, but once again this is on you! Because of our original progenitor’s high treason against the Righteous instructions given by The Creator of Life, we are all born naughty by nature! Thus, every human born into the earth since our fore-parents’ willful rebellion is corrupted by an innate disorder called iniquity! Now, don’t look at me with that self-righteous attitude! (Ref. Ps. 51:5) But, it goes deeper! Like Adam, the Glory of innocence that once covered us had now been disrupted by sin, exposing us to evil, guilt, shame and fear!

The precious intimacy with God that man once enjoyed in Paradise was violently yanked from him plunging all of creation into gross darkness and utter chaos!

Hence, there’s an inbred-inclination to cover ourselves with fig leaves attempting to hide from the Only True Source of Hope for deliverance and restoration!  The moment we allow our desire to satisfy the wickedness of self’s lust to take precedence over our desire to please God, the hedge comes down and all hell breaks out! And as they say, the rest is history, huh?

That’s why God hates sin! Don’t get it twisted like Eve and fall for the deception of the Tempter! Not because He’s trying to control us! Not because He’s arrogantly trying to keep us down! Not because He wants to keep us from enjoying ourselves! Not even because He’s Sovereign Lord! And He is! But God hates sin because it robs us of the freedom, peace and pure delight to openly commune with The Lover of our souls!

You do realize that God knew exactly where and what Adam had done when His Voice came walking through the Garden asking, “Adam, where are you?” God IS The All-Consuming Presence over space and time! There’s NO spot where GOD IS NOT! Someone once said, IF GOD MOVED TO THE LEFT OR RIGHT, HE’D BUMP STRAIGHT INTO GODSELF!

But do we also hear the pain of God’s Heart, knowing that He would have to evict His Family out of their home to keep them  away from certain eternal death and destruction...until JESUS came to our rescue? Do we realize that there’s no such thing as a little sin? SALVATION IS FREE BUT IT WASN’T CHEAP! #WOW! HONESTLY!

Yet, like David, sin perverts our mind and we foolishly assume that if we don’t tell God, He won’t figure it out!

Do you realize that confession benefits us more than it does God? “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” Psalm 119:67 You do know that we don’t pray to inform God, but we pray to invite Him to step into our misery and fix our mess!

When we confess our faults (sin) to God, He’s able to heal our broken and contrite spirit, revive the brittleness of our bones and clear our hearts, minds and souls of the debris that’s left behind by sin’s breach! It was a good thing that God revealed that He knew David’s sin, sending His servant Nathan allowed David to repent honestly before God, liberating him from the burden, torment, tragedy, grief and condemnation that resulted from harboring secret sin in his heart and hindering him from enjoying the fellowship of God’s Presence!

If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 #Didjaheardat?

Jus wondering? When was the last time you had some REAL face2face time with God? THAT LONG, HUH? Well, last time I checked, JESUS WAS STILL SEATED ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FATHER, WAITING AND WILLING TO INTERCEDE ON YOUR BEHALF! SOOO, WHACHA WAITING 4? HONEST2GOD!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

SLAVE 2 HOPE!

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African black hands in chains on white

SELAH Daily Devotions!

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”…being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Romans 4:18, 21

 

Do you remember, as a child, ever being warned by your parents (supposing to avoid the pain of disappointment),“Don’t get your hopes up”? For many of us, the devil was laying a foundation for years of pessimism, doubt, unbelief, hopelessness, low self-esteem, depression and despair! WOW! Who Knu?

Ever wonder why God told us not to walk by our feelings? Well, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably accumulated enough regrets, resulting from poor choices you’ve made listening to your fickle-feelings, to realize how irrational flesh can be, huh?

Let’s set the record straight! Sometimes, it’s difficult to ascribe a tag to feelings; feelings jus are! Directed by proper motivation, feelings are good! That’s why we need the Spirit of Discernment! Remember, when out of no where, you felt that bleep that kept on bleeping up  out of your spirit and something told you…‘don’t go that way, stop right now and turn around or call so-and-so, pray for him now?

Unfortunately, more often than not, we’re tempted to dismiss things if it doesn’t fit within the realm of our logic. Kinda like Abram’s first response to the burning bush! Yet, something pricked his curiosity to closely investigate and ultimately leading him into a personal encounter with The Supernatural Almighty God!

Abram over-ruling emotions and human reasoning, choosing to consider not what he could see (circumstantial evidence) but rather believed and reached for what was not seen! That was faith, yall!

Now, the world looks at this and calls it foolishness, weakness and denial! However, the scriptures reveal that Abram was clearly aware that except by Divine Intervention, it was impossible for a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman to conceive and birth a child! Because God does nothing in the earth until He gets a man to come into agreement with Him, have you ever wondered what if Abram and Sarai had continued to jus laugh off the promised as an impossible pipe-dream, if perhaps…???

No doubt over the next 25 loonnng years, Abram faced many demonic challenges tempting him to give up his hope of  living to see the manifestation of such a miraculous feat. Yet, against all hope, Abraham hope on! Oooh Glorraa2GAWD! God testified that because Abram believed that His God had the power to shift nature and call those things that be not as though they were, Abraham received the Promise and thus became the Father of our faith!

Howeverrr, how often have we insisted upon ignoring that still small voice of conscience to satisfy feelings of our own lusting, self-centered emotions driven by fear of ‘What if and What’s in it for me’? Even if it means forfeiting our Hope and God’s Peace?  OMG! The next time, perhaps we need to re-think before we act on them, huh? #ijs

Beloved, HONESTLY! This walk of faith that GOD EXPECTS is NOT REALLY all that unreasonable when your HOPE is firmly rooted and ground in Jesus Alone, consistently trusting, wholly relying upon HIS Supernatural Grace to strengthened us to walk out our faith, looking unto JESUS, obeying HIS teachings and patiently awaiting HIM to fulfill every Promise that HE has ever spoken over our lives! #Didjaheardat? SLAVE2HOPE!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

BACK 2 THE FUTURE

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BACK2 DA FUTURE2

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls, But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16

 

Okay! I gotta confess, our family might be a bit eccentric! But, c’mon, ever met anyone’s clan who wasn’t, huh?  YEAH, RIGHT! 

One of the personal proclivities of our household is the weekly (or daily for the patriarch) excursions to every thrift store within a 20 mile radius of our home. Overtime, the quest to recruit followers has been somewhat successful, amongst the older members of the family. However, the considerable efforts to pass down this soul rewarding heritage to future generations, have most often been met with extreme resistance! Obviously, the young’ns have yet to developed the palate necessary to distinguish (#appreciatethevalue) old from vintage!

Hence, may I submit for your consideration, that these same sentiments can  perhaps be attributed, spiritually, to the world at large! Don’t shout me down, now? Seriously! Given the spirit of this 21st Century Age of comtemporarized, unconventional, ambiguity, tolerance and self-motivated righteousness, apparently there’s little need and even less desire to conform to the irrelevant, antiquated dictatorship of The Holy Bible! After all, look what we’ve already done! Jus check out the mind-blowing accomplishments that we’ve attained just in the past 100 years, right?

To be honest, in a high-tech synthetic world of rockets, jets, cruiseliners, skycrapers and paved roadways, voice activated iphones and ipads…one might easily get caught up in a world where nature is generally overlooked! It’s no wonder that we tend to ignore The Creator and glorify creation! I mean, it’s kinda foolish to serve a God that you can’t even explain, when our sophisticated intellectual contemporary world appears to offer every kind of solutions to any problems that we face, right?

I’m sure you know by now that there’s always going to be plenty of folk around you who will tell you that ‘all you gotta do’ is keep on trying; pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and remember you da man 2 make it happen, right? But as good as that sounds, what do you do when you ain’t got no boots?

Life has a way of suddenly intruding upon, unannounced and uninvited, and dismantling the perfect 5-year plan that we’ve conjured up, leaving you at the crossroads of clueless, helpless and worse yet hopeless as how to recover and reconnect the broken pieces! It’s  usually at this point, that our Heavenly Father, reaches down into the pits of our vanity and depravity and draws us into a personal encounter with the Creator of Life, Love, Faith for Peace and Joy! It’s in this state that we discover that the true meaning and purpose for our being is to praise and glorify HIM!

As Holy Spirit begins to reveal Godself to you through The Word and intimate communion (prayer) the eyes of your understanding is enlighten and you recognize that the path for right living has already been marked out by God before the foundation of the world!

Unfortunately, even today, so few will choose to leave the glitz and glamour of the wide road, going their own way, and venture off to the old narrow pathways to follow in the footsteps of The OneTrue Shepherd! Those who have lost (or were never privvy to) God’s Perspective of their lives, tend to minimize the benefits of being set apart to manifest the Glory of God’s Mercy and Grace to a people living in a world filled with the emptiness of gross darkness, lost yet consumed with persuing a hell-bound life of eternal devastation and destruction!

Everyday, we’re forced to make numerous decisions, however there’re those which have eternal consequences. Are you going to choose the old ways (God’s) or will you continue forging on new paths of your own way?

Don’t get it twisted, JESUS is STILL the ONLY WAY LEADING TO PEACE AND REST FOR YOUR SOUL! #BACK2DAFUTURE!!!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

 

COME BACK 2 THE TABLE

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COME BACK 2 THE TABLE

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 1 Corinthians 11:24-25

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 1 Corinthians 11:29

 

At our church, it’s every 1st Sunday! The table has been prepared by Deac, anticipating the moment when the scripture will be read and Pastor will extend the invitation to the congregation to come to the table and partake of the bread (wafer) and the wine (grape juice). The charge is given, to let every man examine his/her self and let them eat of that bread and drink of that cup, lest you bring a curse upon yourself by mocking the Body and The Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! #heartpounding, huh?

Unfortunately, since we don’t know what’s residing in the hearts of our brothers and sistas, how many folk refrain because their own hearts have condemned them or not just because they don’t want others to think that they’re not in right-standing with Christ? Anyway, it’s not my business, right? #juswondering

Chances are even some God-fearing-sanctified-baptised-holy-walking-tongue-talking believers don’t really understand the significance of The Communion Table and wrongfully approach this feast as a religious traditon ritual. Hence, this is just something we do 1st Sunday! Oh, Precious Ones, there’s so much more taking place that meets the eye! Journey with me as the Holy Spirit lluminates the spiritual reality, intimacy and implications of this sacred fellowship with The Risen Savior!

The Communion Table is Divinely instituted to take us back to The Cross of Calvary and The Blood that was shed for the remission of our sin. When we come to The Table, we’re revisiting remembering the whipping posts where The Lamb of God was beaten with 39 stripes + 1  before He was nailed to an ol’ rugged Cross atop Calvary! While many who watched self-righteously believing that they were doing God a favor,  there were a remnant of others who knew that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the stripes that He bore in His flesh were for our healing!

When we come to the Communion Table, remembering the Cross, you gotta come correct! Not in pride nor condemnation; but in joy-filled anticipation, humbled by Jesus’ humiliation! Come, humbled by Jesus’ Holiness, His Faithful submission to death, hell, the grave and to His Father’s Will–in order that we could have a right to eat the fruit of Eternal Life!

Come to the table, remembering the falability of your humanity and the infallability of His Divinity, acknowledging that not only do I need The Atoning Blood to get saved, but to stay saved!

The Word of God reminds us that there’s a devil who’s constantly plotting against us, determined to stop us from living holy and righteous before God. He’s always lurking about us, awaiting the opportunity to sneak up, entrapping you with that sin that so easily besets you, drapping your heart with burdens of guilt, shame and condemnation destroying your peace! He’s strategically scheming to flood your mind with fear,worry and doubt, drainining your spirit of the Jesus’ joy, strength and hope! But the Communion Table, reminds you that just One Drop of The sanctifying Blood applied to the door post of your heart and mind is enough to shake off temptation, depression, gloom and doom and lift you up out of the pit of hopelessness and dispair!

When you drink of The cup of Redemption, your strength is refreshed, renewed and your holy boldness is restored, empowering you to repel the firey darts of Satan. When you eat The Body, remember you now stand clad in The Full Armor of God, declaring to the kingdom of darkness, ‘I refuse to deny the Testimony of Jesus on The Cross – I gotcha covered, IT IS FINISHED!

Beloved, the next time you partake of the Communion Table, let the Blood cleanse your heart of the guilt by acknowledging that it was your sin that betrayed Jesus, even since you’ve been saved. The devil will choke on that, because you know He certainly was planning to throw that back in your face, k?

But be of good courage, that’s why Jesus suffered The Cross, once and for all who will receive Him as the propitiation of their sin. As you eat His Body and drink His Blood, remember, Jesus prayed, knowing you’d fail Him again before you leave this world. That’s why He asked The Father to send you The Helper to live on the inside of you to empower you to live faithfully and obedient to His commandments!

As you fellowship with The Savior, hear His plea, ‘All I want you to do, when you are converted is go strengthen your brother! Go tell them how much I still LOVE them! Go tell them about My Blood that frees them from sin! Go tell somebody how I saved, healed and delivered you! Go tell one somebody that if Jesus was able to saved me, a wretch undone, He can saved anybody! WOW! #didjaheardat?

Maybe you need to come back to the table? C’mon, THE BLOOD STILL WORKS!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee