to those who have hurt me: Thank You

To those who have hurt me: Thank You. 

To the friends who have walked out of my life without a word, to the boys who have lost interest and broken my heart, to the family members who haven't spoken a word in months, to the strangers who have tried to put me down, Thank You.

In my late middle school years I lost my very best friend. She was just gone without a word. 

I felt like I was worthless. 

I didn't know what had happened, all I knew was that one moment we were best friends and the next moment she had moved on to someone else. 

As life went on it never got easier, in fact it got harder. 

The more people I became friends with the more I got hurt. 

It felt like everyone who called themselves my friend just up and left my life after a year, or a few months, whenever they found someone new to call their best friend. 

I was left wonder what I had done wrong. 

I felt betrayed. 

angry. 

confused. 

hurt. 

My worth was wrapped up in my social life. 

in my friends. 

in the way people thought of me. 

in how popular I was. 

but y'all,

Your worth is in Jesus!

It took me years of anger and hurt and bitterness to come to the realization that friends are always  going to leave you broken, and boys will wreck your life, and people will abandon you but that's not where your worth is found. 

popularity.

friends. 

wealth. 

That's not who you are! 

You're a child of the King, in Christ you are made worthy!

It wasn't until recently that I realized my worth is in Jesus Christ. 

Yes, people will still hurt you, and there are times when you will feel betrayed but there is freedom in knowing you are not defined by this world. 

To my haters out there, I hope you find where your true worth is.

Thank you for helping me find my worth in Jesus Christ. 

A Call To Action

As I watch the world continue to get worse by the hour I stand by in shock.

Not in shock of the sin our world has accepted as the new normal, but in shock of the reaction to the sin.

 Or lack of reaction.

Where are the Christians who are willing to fight for what we believe is right? Where are the men who are willing to stand up and protest against the way women are being treated?

Where are the people who will raise opposition to little boys who say they would rather be girls and their families who just accept it?

Who will defend biblical marriage when lesbian and gay marriages have just become legal?

Who will raise their voice in protest against abortion?

Christians where are you?

There is a battle to be fought and it’s time for action. It’s time to step up to the plate and show the world what it looks like when Christians join together and oppose what is going on in the world around us. How much longer will we sit silently watching the world decay at such a rapid pace.

Matthew 5 says Christians are to be salt.

What does salt do?

It stops decaying; it preserves things.

Christians are called to stop the decay in the world.

So why aren’t we doing that? Why aren’t we going out in strong opposition against society? What is holding us back?

I think Christians are afraid, afraid of what people might say, afraid of what people will think about them, afraid to make a mistake.

Christians, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES.

Christians are called to humility. We need to show the world that we aren’t,

 “pure and righteous”.

We are striving towards being pure and righteous but we will never achieve it. We will make mistakes just like unbelievers do. So many unbelievers think that Christians believe they’re perfect, but that’s far from the truth.

Making mistakes isn’t going to turn people away from Christ, but in fact it will often cause the reverse effect. When a non-believer sees a Christian who is humble enough to admit when they are wrong then it will make it obvious that anything we do that is “pure and righteous” has to come from the Lord and not ourselves.

It’s time to step up. It’s time to live out the calling the Lord gave us in Matthew 5 when He commanded us to be salt to the world and stop the decay. This isn’t the time when we should be sitting back in defeat saying the world is already too far down the path of sin. Now is the time to take action and preserve what is left of our society and bring our country back to Christ.

Christians, your calling is clear.

Will you sit back and watch or will take up arms and fight this battle which is before us?

"I Forgive You"

June 17^th, 2015 will not be a day any of us soon forget.

Many are asking the questions; Why did God sit silently and watch as Dylann Roof entered Emanuel AME Church and violently murdered 9 church members? Couldn’t He have stopped the 21-year-old man from opening fire on the Bible Study that Wednesday night?

The answer is Yes.

God could have stopped Dylann Roof from entering that church and He could have spared the lives of every single person in that building on Calhoun Street. He could have spared Charleston, South Carolina from the worst heartbreak our city has ever experienced.

But He didn’t.

In the Lord’s divine providence He allowed a church to undergo persecution in a horrific and unexplainable way in which we will never be able to fully understand.

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Matthew 5:44

Perhaps the Lord allowed tragedy to fall on Emanuel AME in order for the nation to see how Christians respond when enemies persecute us. Maybe this is the Lord’s way of giving Christians a podium to boldly proclaim to the watching world the love we can show, even to our persecutors, when Christ is at the center of all we do and say. At a time when our nation is undergoing racial tension, threats from terrorists, increased levels of hatred towards one another and a growing rate of violence, could this be the Lord's way of showing the world how Christians will respond differently?

Baltimore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri have both recently experienced and are still experiencing brutal and violent responses from recent hate crimes. When Emanuel AME faced persecution, they faced it with strength and dignity that only the Lord could give a congregation. Their unwavering faith in the midst of such a horrific trial was a spark, which set the Holy City on fire. As a result, millions and millions of people around the world are witnessing what happens when love overcomes violence.

The amount of faith shown by the congregation of Emanuel AME has left the world literally speechless. When most people would have collapsed in defeat the congregants of this church had the faith and strength to look Dylann Roof in the eyes on Friday morning and say

“I forgive you”.

He robbed them of their family, their friends, their co-workers, their teachers, but yet they forgave him. They showed not an ounce of hatred towards the man who walked into their Bible study and snuffed out nine lives.

They only showed love.

Love which the Lord put into their hearts so they could show the world that the love of Christ will always prevail over the world’s persecution.

So let us bow before the Throne and ask the Lord to give us the boldness and courage to look our enemies in the eye and say with a heart full of faith;

"I forgive you"

PC: Inspired Photography

"Why Are You Here?"

When people ask me why I’m spending my summer in a country 1,500 miles away from home, I honestly don’t have an answer. Maybe I’m just crazy or maybe it’s the part of me that loves to travel and see new things, regardless on July 5^th I set out on a month long journey to Central America.

The first day of every trip with SOS, the team sits down and is asked one question.

 “Why are you here?”

People scramble to come up with answers, but the most common one is;

“The Lord called me to come here”

The Lord does call people to go places, I have no doubt about that, but the Lord calls every believer to spread his name throughout the world. So no matter where you go or what you do, as long as you are spreading Christ you are doing what the Lord calls you to do. 

When I am asked on July 5^th, why I am in Central America, I can honestly say I have no idea, but the Lord has called each one of us to spread His love and wherever I go I will be doing that. Whether I’m in the mountains of Honduras or the beaches of Charleston, South Carolina, my calling has been set by my God. The great Commission is not something we should merely consider, but a command. Christ’s name will be spread among the nations when ordinary people who have been transformed by the power of Christ decide to take the Great Commission seriously.  We have become so complacent as a country to be happy with where we are, when in reality we should be uncomfortable when we sit at home and pass by unsaved people without sharing the Hope we have in our hearts, with them.

So let us be the ones to take the Commission of the Lord seriously and live lives that proclaim the  goodness of Christ wherever the Lord may take us, at home or abroad.

We will Go

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Matthew 28:19

Go. 

It's such a simple two letter word but it's such a hard word to act upon. 

The Bible says we are to go out and make disciples, but how are we to do that if we don't make a change. The verb go means to leave or depart and the verb make means to cause something to come about.

So essentially Matthew 28:19 says "get up and make something happen" 

You have to make changes in your life if you want to become the person the Lord has called you to be. He hasn't called us to sit around and live an average life. He has called us to live extraordinary lives that sometimes may require us to give up things we love, but it's what we have been called to do. 

And so we do it. 

humbly. quietly. and thankfully [Eucharisteo] with hearts rejoicing