Are We Hiding In The Church?

Last Sunday, God was dealing with me about people in congregations hiding inside the church so they can avoid persecution from the world. Truthfully, it's a slap in the face to Christian missionaries who are ministering outside our country and are dying by the dozens for their faith in Christ. And even worse, church leaders are advocating congregations to hide in the church or don't stray too far from the church. The underlying message is that we need you to witness to fund the local church. And if the church is under budget, it means that the congregation is not witnessing to bring bodies in to balance the budget.

Jesus said in Mathew 28:19-20: 19 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say to make church members of all nations, baptizing them in the name of your local church. He said, you are the salt of the earth, not the salt of the church. Now I'm not saying that everyone needs to leave their church and that there is no need for a local church. We need that and we need to fund local churches. The focus is on priorities - His mission and not funding the church due to a deficit. Sometimes we read passages in the New Testament as a way to get people to do missions for the benefit of the local church focusing on church membership and not on a person's salvation. 

The question I pose is how are we going to reach the world if we're hiding in our church? And how are we preaching the gospel if the emphasis is on church growth? It's sad when Christians are coming from places where they are being persecuted and ministering Christ to us in our own country. 

The reason so many are hiding in the church is because their respective social clique is there; they want their special seat in the church; it's comfortable and their family's salvation is secure; they can continually be spiritually fed and not have to share the Good News to others. And for the record, if you are witnessing to someone and the focus is inviting to church without being concerned about their salvation (of if salvation is hinged on them attending your particular church), you are technically hiding in your church. 

For many of us in our respective churches, He is calling us out into the world to reach them. You have gifts that need to touch the world. You can't do that hiding in your church (yes, God is calling some of you to use your gifts specifically for your respective church, and praise God for that). But for everyone to keep hiding in the church is a sad indictment on those dying for their faith. 

When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, they stayed in Jerusalem afterwards. It took Stephen's death for them to get out and scatter (as Christ told them to before He went back to heaven). Sadly, God has to allow things to happen to get our attention; I pray this would encourage us to be proactive. The world is more in need of us than ever before.

Blessings:

The Mayne Man

The Dream & The Process

Wherever you are at this moment, think about the time when you dreamed a dream that was beyond what you currently saw at the moment (but you knew it was achievable). Now think about the time when you actually achieved that dream when all odds were against you (to include family & friends). What were your emotions like? Did you feel like you could accomplish any challenge that you would face in the future? Did you feel like you were on top of the world?

The purpose of having you think on when you dreamed big is because many people have stopped dreaming (due to the current state of the economy, complacency, or having deadbeat friends and family trying to keep you inside their little box). I want you to be open to His Spirit to let Him speak to your spirit. He knows what you’re ordained to do and for many of you, it’s beyond what you currently see. Don’t let this world stop you (and it will throw anything it can to stop you).

Now, I need to qualify what I have been saying because there are people who ARE dreaming big, but then they want to penalize God because it’s not happening on their timetable (typically within 24 hours). Let’s be realistic for a moment, if you have goals (something simple such as getting out of debt, or losing weight), don’t think that you’ll reach your goal in 24 hours. It’s going to be a process (and of course, I can’t say how long the process will be) and I won’t promise you that it will be easy. But if you can find joy when you’re going through the process; that will determine how hard you’ll rejoice when you reach the end of your goal!

In summary: keep dreaming, and rejoice in the process. Many trials we will go through, but we will be delivered by Him in due time!

Blessings.

The Mayne Man

Why We Resist Change

One of my Twitter friends tweeted a question and it goes like this: why do we resist change so much? And who conditioned us to believe that we must remain constant, stagnant or risk the loyalty of one's community?

I told her that I would respond to it via a blog and she so graciously waited till now for me to type this up.

Why do we resist change? They say it’s harder to do what’s right versus what’s easy. Change is very uncomfortable. Think about this for a minute (this is an excerpt from my blogpost Complacency & Hebrew Slaves posted April 2011): In Exodus 1, Jacob & Joseph had died and there was a new Pharaoh in town (who disregarded God's chosen people). God's people were slaves in Egypt and were treated horribly. They were treated so bad that the Egyptians wanted the Hebrew women to kill the baby boys but let the girls live.

Now fast forward a few chapters into Exodus, after Moses gets the children of Israel over the Red Sea, the children of Israel do one thing that's interesting: complain and want to go back to Egypt and be Hebrew Slaves. They said that they got food to eat, notice they neglected to say they got beaten and cruel treatment. God was trying to test their faith and rely on Him but they failed horribly.

Of course the moral to that story is that because they didn’t walk by faith as God wanted them to, they would die in the wilderness.

Luke 14:28 talks about counting the cost before you build a tower. Sadly, not everybody is willing to pay the price. So this is why many resist change.

Who conditioned us to believe that we must remain constant, stagnant or risk the loyalty of one’s community? It’s the devil, hands down! He thrives on our complacency. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 days, all they did the whole time was complain. And after Joshua got them over into the Promised Land and he died, the children of Israel went back to their ritual of complacency and worshiping whom they chose. The devil didn’t have to do too much because they voluntary chose to do this. Same holds true today. After MLK got us over to the Promised Land and was killed, we remained complacent.

I’m going to close this blog with an excerpt from What Breaks The Heart of God (Part 3 – The Partial Commission). This was posted in March 2013. I want to close it like this because our resistance to change and taking action is no different in the church walls.

Jesus (when speaking to His disciples) said in Matthew 28:19-20: Go, then to all peoples EVERYWHERE and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.

To me, everywhere includes going to people in your backyard as well as different cities, states, regions, and countries! I remember when I was a young Christian; some of us men went door to door in the city we lived in. It wasn’t to ask them to come to church; the focus was sharing the gospel, and also asking them if we could pray for them for whatever they needed. You don’t hear much about that anymore.

What created this blog was a sermon a heard a few weeks ago about this, and I thought about a conversation I had with a very good friend of mine. My friend was sharing about how churches in the area where she lives think. She said that the churches have a fire for God and sharing the gospel of Christ, but it’s in other countries. What breaks my friend’s heart (and it broke mine when she told me) is that there is a huge mission field in her area (in fact, more than 55% deny the deity of Christ and are worshiping a dead prophet). It’s been said that the churches in that region burn out in their mission work to those who deny the deity of Christ in that area; however, I have to pose a question that must be answered by us Bible-believing Christians: are we sharing the gospel on our own strength? If we are sold out for Christ and we are constantly in prayer, constantly fasting, constantly interceding for anyone who is outside the body of Christ, there’s no limit to what God can do if we would simply be obedient to the Great Commission.

The AMCC (Part 2: The Found Sheep)

In Luke 15:1-7, we find Jesus telling Pharisees and the teachers of the Law a parable about the lost sheep. Notice by the title, I’m going to reverse the parable.

The summary of the parable in Luke 15:1-7 is that one who goes looking for the sheep that’s lost and that heaven rejoices over the one sheep that was lost is found. Those in the AMCC rejoice more over the found sheep than they do the lost sheep. Remember in Part 1 (using myself as the example for this): the AMCC would consist of me, my family in my clique. The AMCC focuses on ensuring the safety of the 99 sheep that are found and let the one sheep that’s lost stay lost and they don’t even get prayed for (unless it’s someone within their own circle, then they’ll call everyone to prayer cause it’s part of their clique). Tragically, the one who’s lost and on their way to hell, doesn’t even get prayed for, and then have the nerve to point a finger when they don’t even go to church. I experienced something like this in 2011 when I had a heart for someone, and many people who are plagued with the AMCC mentality told me to let that person that’s lost go, we care about ensuring you remain part of the found sheep. Again, if it was someone within their family, we pray. It’s easy to be in the AMCC because is structured and comfortable. And if a person has a leadership role within the AMCC, it’s definitely a place of comfort and a position of power (and everyone beneath must submit).

The AMCC is one that is focused on ensuring that the gifts and talents of members who attend this church, stay in the church (for some churches, it’s called the law of consecration). All of your times, gifts and talents must be used for the service of the local church, denomination, and for the building of the local church (to make the church and the pastoral team look good). If you dare to step outside that box, you are set apart because you’re making an impact not only in the local church and environment around you (and you’re not looking for attention). But the pastoral team and leaders within the community aren’t getting the glory that they want – and that’s typically the mentality of the AMCC. My former church was a great example of this: they were focused on the found sheep and if we did go and witness to someone, it was to bring them to church and let the pastor indoctrinate them to his teachings (of course, his prayers for people who wanted to know the Lord were along the lines of submitting to his teachings – that men be the lord over the house and slap their wives if they don’t submit to his teachings).

In my current church, we had a guest preacher from New Orleans around November of 2012 and he talked about what I’m talking about since the last part of 2011 (I will focus on what he said in Part 3). The tragedy is that no one really wanted to talk about the lesson after the service after church; they were focused on ensuring that a seat was occupied, they had favor with the pastoral team and that they were on the role of attendance.

I will close Part 2 with something Joyce Meyer said (I don’t agree with everything she says, but she hit this on the nail). She said this, in quote: “there’s someone around you that you’re giving up on, don’t give up on them because it’s the most comfortable thing for you. Make sure you go to God and ask Him if He wants you to give up on them. Are you ready for me to turn my back on this person and walk away? We say we want to be used by God, but do we really? Do you really want a ministry? We beg God to use us for His glory, to show us our calling and our ministry; but we don’t want to be around sinners or anyone that makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to stick with people that don’t just make us feel icky and give us goosebumps all the time! We have to get to the point where we say, I’m not here just to make myself happy. And you’re just going to have to be uncomfortable at times.”

She just told us how to break free from the AMCC mentality. Stay tuned for Part 3.

The AMCC (Part 1: Its Origins)

Around November 2011, when my life was going down the toilet, God was speaking to me about many churches today. Yes, I’m in church, but I noticed a common trend occurring (and it tied into the state of the economy). Many people have asked me, what does the AMCC stand for? It simply stands for the American Middle Class Church. I took some heat from those in my current church, and I’m sure I’ll take some heat for this now. It doesn’t concern me in the least. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the AMCC per se, when the mentality overrides the Bible, then there’s a serious problem (and I believe on some level, it has).

So, where does their origin begin? Well, in life, there are three classes of people and their economic state. You have the rich, the middle-class and the poor. I work in a system where the majority (if not all) would be classified as middle-class. There’s nothing wrong with that. Because of the pressures of the economy, what you find is that attitudes are based on what the economy is doing and not based on the word of God. The attitude I found to be true (especially in 2011) was this: I will do what I can to protect me, my family and my clique within my place of employment. You could call that the dog-eat-dog syndrome also. What you have here is nothing more than a middle-class fight. If you’ve been around me long enough, you would hear me say that the middle-class fight is going to get worse as the years progress.

What is sad is that we carry that same mentality over into the church world. If you have wealth, you’re frowned upon, and if you’re poor, you’re frowned upon as well. In the church world, you have many churches that you would probably call a middle class church. But because most of our demeanor has been protecting me, my family and my clique, that mentality carries over and we use that same principle when it comes to prayer, and if someone is in need. If you’re outside the circle, you’ll get help, but also be snickered behind your back (or they’ll internally gloat knowing that you need them). Heaven forbid someone outside a person’s circle is thinking about ending their life. The simple words “get over it” would be used. If they’re part of the clique, they’ll be showered with prayer and anything else that would show favoritism. If you speak out of this mentality or the schisms within the church that even look like this mentality, you’ll be called out as being cynical. Most people who cry “you are being cynical” are simply immune to it and are comfortable in this mentality. In this mentality, it’s real easy to become complacent and have your head stuck in the sand. It’s easy to identify someone in this church – example: you may have some that want to help others outside their AMCC wall (and that’s a good thing), but because they may feel trapped in the wall, they remain there and end up losing effectiveness because they don’t go down to their level. They’ll stay within those walls, and talk down to you when you don’t measure up to them. That’s not getting a full picture of where others outside your AMCC circle are.

Part 2 will discuss a parable of Jesus and how this ties into the AMCC. Stay tuned.

The Spirit of Indecision

Indecision - the feeling that you are unable to make a decision. As I look at the definition, indecision can be a good thing or a bad thing. It can be a good thing especially if we're yielding to the will of God. It can be a bad thing if we're indecisive and decide to take matters into our hands.

The focus of this blog is about the spirit of indecision and we taking matters into our own hands. Using the economy as a perfect example, many people are being attacked in so many ways, that indecision smacks them right in the face. Normally you hear, job cuts, pay cuts, healthcare costs rising, entitlements are being taken, no pay raises. That causes immediate indecision for some people.  

Being in the workforce, I find the typical traits. People come and go at a job in a quest for promotions and/or more income, but not really growing - just coasting where they are (hoping to reach retirement without a break in my service to my company). Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It wouldn't come as a surprise that on some level, there's a bit of unhappiness because there's you don't feel fulfilled in life. What eventually happens is having more money becomes a curse because there's no peace and increased stress (especially when you add the pressures of layoffs, and entitlement plans getting cut).  I know for me, having more money does me no good if I don't have my any peace in my body and spirit. I will even add that it doesn't do me any good if my health is deteriorating. It makes no sense to acquire additional money and it compromises everything you believe just so you can temporarily get ahead financially.

This is an excerpt from a blogpost I did April 25, 2011 entitled Complacency & Hebrew Slaves (you can find the entire article in the 2011 archive under the week of 4/25/11: has complacency gotten you to the point where you have amnesia? If so, what do you intend to do about it? Also, why is it that people who are truly complacent remember the insignificant things but ignore the hardships endured to acquire the insignificant things? Think about it, the children of Israel had their backbones beaten just for food. What they should have been thinking about was stepping out on faith to have freedom as well as freedom from the horrible treatment endured by the Egyptians. Now, let's bring it to us: are we being told to love your job and being fed from our employer that we should be thankful that we are working for them? Are you afraid to take a leap of faith and pursue the freedom and talent that God is calling you to because your employer is telling you that nobody is going to take care of you like we do? Remember, misery loves company. Now, those things (benefits and paychecks) are really insignificant; however, we ignore having our jobs threatened, having no raise and/or bonus, having our salaries reduced, and having our retirement funding be reduced in order to have the insignificant things. If we're smart enough, we should remember the horrible treatment more than the insignificant things given to us (which aren't even guarantees). That should in itself cause you to want to break free from complacency.

So, in closing: After you tire yourself from thinking money will make you happy, moving from job to job, seeking contentment in your job (or in your life for that matter), trying to make your OWN plans or solve your OWN problems; rest in the arms of the Father, who loves you, who wants to communicate with you every moment of your life and will cure you from the spirit of indecision by giving you His action plan for your life, and yes, even in these hard economic times. Don't worry if you don't have all of His action plan at this moment, just know that as long as you're in Him, your steps are ordered by Him.

Complacency & Talents (Round 2)

In fairness to those who didn’t read my blog post Complacency & Talents last year, here’s an excerpt of what I wrote. You can read the entire post filed under the 2011 archives (week of April 18, 2011)

(From April 18, 2011): What talent have you buried? I know a lot of people and many of you have made your talents known to me. And I must ask, what are you doing with them? I beg you not to let them go to waste, because your talent is NOT just for you. Only you can do what you do with the talents that have been bestowed upon you. Now you might think your talent is small, but in God's eyes, it's important! No matter how big or small your talent is it's the ticket to put you where you need to be in your life.

(July 2012)

Matthew 25:14-30 was the focus for that post and it will be the focus for this post. It’s been said that you can learn from people who succeed and from people who fail. Successful people can teach us things; and people who fail can teach us what not to do. I’m going to focus on people who fail for this post. You probably know people who have gone through life “I woulda, shoulda, coulda done this.” They stop there because they don’t want to add this after the phrase, “because I was complacent or I was told to consecrate myself, time and talents and everything which the Lord has blessed me with or which He may bless me to my local church, denomination, or religion.” No legacy is left, no lives were impacted, and the closing chapter of some people’s lives become full of resentment, disappointment, and their attitudes become bitter and mean.

If we are wise, we should learn from them. We know many people around us who have talents or are gifted in a specific area, but they don’t do anything due to fear, negative friends and family, or just downright complacency. I said I was going to reference the scripture in Matthew, let’s go there. A master had servants and gave one servant 5 talents, another 2 and another 1. The first two doubled their talents, and the last one sat on it. Many people stop after verse 26 where the master called the servant who sat on his talent a “wicked and slothful servant!” Verses 28 through 30 are crucial points that we can learn from. The master went on to say this to the slothful servant, take his talent and give it to him who has 10 talents. To everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

We all have been blessed with a specific talent (some may have more) or a specific ministry that is uniquely different (some of us need to stop trying to be carbon copies of others – that could be a lesson all by itself). Sometimes God will call you to a ministry or to use your talent that may not be lucrative in the natural or appear to minister to people while you're alive; however, that ministry or you using your talent to the fullest while you were alive will leave a legacy after you pass onto life eternal. I beg you my brothers and my sisters to be free from the spirit of complacency.

Sitting on Talents

This blog post might reflect back to a prior blog I wrote entitled “Complacency & Talents"; however, I want to focus this specifically on those who are sitting on talents because of pressure around you. Sometimes the church you attend, your family, your place of employment can cause you to sit on the talents that have been bestowed upon you.

There will be little minds around you (even in your church, etc.) that will tell you that you’re not gifted in this or that because they’re not doing anything except complaining that they can’t get ahead. The local church can be a hindrance to your true talents due to politics and favoritism. Don’t kick too hard against the local church, and don’t try to change it; however, don’t let the collective talents bury your individual talents. Also keep this in mind, I’m not saying that every church has a selfish motive (and there are some good churches in your respective areas).

I also need to be a bit sensitive when I talk about this: When you deal with churches, sometimes individual talents are sacrificed for the church's agenda (and it comes from leadership). Some leaders will say that your talents are to be used ONLY for the local church and its mission (the question I would raise is: who else other than the church is going to reap the benefits)? When a leader says that, then people will sit on their talents, become complacent, individual talents are buried and the end result is not only does the local church miss out, the body of Christ at large and the world misses out. Local churches should be able to back those who have individual talents (especially when it's part of God's agenda - where it ministers to the local church and to the body of Christ at large). What I see that's very common is that churches back up those who have talents that benefit the leadership of the church or makes the image of the church look good (or they can only glorify the talents of the leadership). Some leaders might be aware and some may not be aware that everyone has gifts and talents for the local church and for the body of Christ at large. This is where people need to know the Lord and the Word for themselves, stay in constant prayer (and fast if necessary). Now here's the other side, some people in the congregation will intentionally sit on their talents for selfish reasons (or they aren't seeing instant gratification). They want all the glory for themselves and want those around, inside and outside the church as a whole, to recognize them.

A little side note: I deal with churches that are selfish a little bit in my third poetry book (on the verge of release). I made up a fictional church where the pastor is controlling, he feels the talents belong to the church, he supports alternative lifestyles, and because the congregation is so naive, they sit and their talents go to a total waste.

I mentioned little minds earlier, let’s deal with them specifically. Some of those little minds can be your family & friends, but because you chose to fulfill your talents, they are now jealous. But they’re rejoicing when you’re not fulfilling your talents because they love the company. Misery loves company. If you fall for that feeling, your sitting on your talents and you’ll give an account for that. Here’s the other side of that: people around you are fulfilling their talents and you’re jealous, griping and complaining. I ask you, why aren’t you fulfilling your talents? There’s a saying that goes (the scripture reference being 1 Corinthians 15:33): you show me your friends and I’ll tell you what you think of yourself and what you’re capable of accomplishing. If you hang with people who are complacent and complain, you’ll be one of those people. If you hang with people who want to change the world and fulfill their talents, you’ll be motivated to do the same (hopefully that's the case, unless the root of complacency is planted deep into your spirit). If you hang with people who sit on their talents because you're allowing other people are controlling them, you will be miserable and complain why others are succeeding and you aren’t. You might need to change your friends (not kick them to curb, or maybe you might have to), but you don’t have to let their actions and especially words deter you from where you’re going - this sentence is mandatory if you really want to fulfill your talents.

Don’t be discouraged, because you have a lot to offer to someone. Here’s the other side of the coin. Sometimes churches and families will thrust you into roles that you know are not your calling. The reason why that sometimes happens is because the church or family is just selfish and looking out for themselves. Example, a single mother has multiple children and thrusts them all into athletics with the belief that at least one of them will go pro and I’ll let them take care of me. I’ll be able to live the rich & famous life.

Now many people are saying, “You’re advocating people should start a business, but not everybody should start a business.” I agree with that, if that’s not your calling, then don’t start one. Don’t let your job overshadow your talent. Some people will use that as a crutch (my job is enslaving me and I’m always tired) as to why they’re not putting their talent to use. I believe God gave you a brain to put to use and to not sit and complain. Several months back, I posted this quote on Facebook, if we spent more time working our talents as we do complaining & blaming, we can make a difference in this world. If you don’t fight for your talent, you’ll lose it (as mentioned in one of my prior blogs). I'll say this again (from "Complacency & Talents"), you're an adult, GROW UP & GO FOR IT!

I want to encourage you to not let others dictate what your talents are (especially if you know what they are and not what they say they are). Remember, you will give an account for your individual talents that you don’t utilize. I’d hate to see you forfeit your talent and stay complacent in your comfort zone. A little reflective of the children of Israel where they didn’t want to go to the Promised Land, instead they wanted the complacent life.

In conclusion: I believe the majority sit on their talents because they either want instant gratification or they didn't realize how much work is involved. Once you count the cost as to how much work is involved and make the decision to go for it and put in the work; you will have adversity and trials, but the Lord will sustain you!

Complacency & Hebrew Slaves

Complacency: the thief that robs us of our identity and causes us to stay in bondage.

In Exodus 1, Jacob & Joseph had died and there was a new Pharaoh in town (who disregarded God's chosen people). God's people were slaves in Egypt and were treated horribly. They were treated so bad that the Egyptians wanted the Hebrew women to kill the baby boys but let the girls live.

Now fast forward a few chapters into Exodus, after Moses gets the children of Israel over the Red Sea, the children of Israel do one thing that's interesting: complain and want to go back to Egypt and be Hebrew Slaves. They said that they got food to eat, notice they neglected to say they got beaten and cruel treatment. God was trying to test their faith and rely on Him but they failed horribly.

Now, there's a better life for us, are we longing for someone to tell us what to do and be cruel to us? Are you willing to step out on faith or do you want an easy way out? The easy way out is simply complacency and your life withers away.

In my prior blogpost, I briefly mentioned about people on jobs and they are so complacent because it's easy even though their working hard like a Hebrew Slave. But when things go wrong, such as insurance costs go up, retirement is getting cut, salaries are getting cut, everybody wants to complain, but won't step out and cross over to their own Promised Land. They'll still endure the Hebrew Slave treatment and remain complacent.

Think about this: has complacency gotten you to the point where you have amnesia? If so, what do you intend to do about it? Also, why is it that people who are truly complacent remember the insignificant things but ignore the hardships endured to acquire the insignificant things? Think about it, the children of Israel had their backbones beaten just for food. What they should have been thinking about was stepping out on faith to have freedom as well as the horrible treatment endured by the Egyptians. Now, let's bring it to us: are we being told to love your job and being fed from our employer that we should be thankful that we are working for them (just to ensure an ESP - I call that an Economic Stimulus Paycheck, or to ensure insurance, retirements - which for many people those are now in jeopardy)? Are you afraid to take a leap of faith and pursue the freedom and talent that God is calling you to because your employer is telling you that nobody is going to take care of you like we do? Remember, misery loves company. Now, those things (ESP, benefits and paychecks) are really insignificant; however, we ignore having our jobs threatened, having no raise and/or bonus, having our salaries reduced, and having our retirement funding be reduced in order to have the insignificant things. If we're smart enough, we should remember the horrible treatment more than the insignificant things given to us (which aren't even guarantees). That should in itself cause you to want to break free from complacency.

Another thought, remember when I mentioned above that misery loves company? Think about people on your job, and how bitter some of them are because of their complacency and want you to be bitter as well. I’m sure there are people who you work with will complain about you (especially if you refuse to give in to complacency) and then they run to their supervisor and say, “he or she is not conforming to your rules of complacency.” The moral is simply, the subordinate is getting beaten (by threat of loss of job security through termination or demotion, etc.). Again, that should in itself cause you to want to break free from complacency.

When you decide to step out from complacency and you're breaking the chains of Hebrew slaves, I promise you it won't be an easy road. You will have death staring at you (cause the enemy wants you killed). In fact (a little side note), on April 10th, on my way home from church, the light turns green and I'm preparing to make a left turn, a car jumps the divided median and if I hadn't slammed on my brakes, the car would've hit me directly on the driver's side. But the Lord said, not this day, I've got work for you to do here.

There's one more thing I need to bring up. There could be another group that's complacent because they stepped out and faced a setback in the way (whether it be minor or major). To this group, did you forget that setbacks are inevitable? Why did you throw in the towel and willingly go back to the life of complacency and Hebrew Slave treatment? You'll hear some people say when they're in their promised land, "Yes, when I was working for someone, I had a steady paycheck, had a little free time, not too much work to do at times. Why is it so difficult here in the Promised Land? I have to work harder now than I did when I was complacent. Nothing is given to me like before!" How many of you know what I'm talking about? One of my good friends would say, "You're already in your promised land! Yes, you're not going to be eating the same food as you did when you were complacent. Now is not the time to complain and quit (saying, I like having things handed to me)! You have more peace in your spirit and you have freedom!" Another good friend would say this, "you are in your harvest, but most people don't reap the harvest because everybody doesn't put in the necessary work to reap it!" As I think about it, some people quit because they are trying to get rich quick (or they want that instant gratification). No! You are going to have to work, give up some sleep. But it's all worth it. Think about it, most millionaires/billionaires got rich because they made sacrifices, went through discomforts, and a lot of failures. And we have the nerve to sit up and complain they need to give us their money, when we could have the same thing. My brother Darrell would say, "God can bless you with harvesting ideas (to make you a millionaire)." Now what's so difficult about that?

Are the chains of complacency worth breaking? Absolutely. You will feel so free that people will want to experience it also. Let's go to the Promised Land together and let those who want to remain complacent and be treated as Hebrew Slaves stay in the wilderness.

Complacency & Talents

Complacency, it's the thief that steals our true purpose & destiny.  It can happen to the best of us.  Look at your current job, have you become extremely bitter especially if you've been there a long time and have you noticed the people around you extremely bitter (if they've been there a long time)? Let me add to this, how many of you have heard people complain over and over and still remain complacent with their lives? You've probably heard numerous complaints. 

I hope this blogpost will cause you to rise up from your complacency (or should I say your comfort zone) and you can start fulfilling your purpose before you move to the next phase of life.

In Matthew 25:14-30, there's a parable of the talents. One received 5, one received 2 and one received 1. God gave them a specific number of talents based on their hearts (one thing that must be said, God knows the beginning & end. He knows our hearts and what we're going to do with the talents He's blessed us with. Our responsibility is to be faithful with what He's blessed us with). The one who received 5 acquired 10, the one who received 2 acquired 4 and the one who received 1 buried it and acquired 0. When the giver of the talents had them check-in, the giver was pleased with the first two, but for the one who buried the 1 talent, he was angry and told him to give it to one who acquired 10. Now here's a thought-provoking question, why did he have him do that? Also think about this, if you waste your talent, it will be taken from you. And then you'll end up living a life of regrets. A little side note: there will be some people who will love you when you're not using your talents, and will turn around and hate you when you decide to step out and use your talents. Here's another side note: not everybody will want to break free from the complacency syndrome, because they feel the complacency syndrome is convenient (notice I didn't say comfortable, because they're downright miserable inside).

Let's now talk about you, what talent have you buried? I know a lot of people and many of you have made your talents known to me. And I must ask, what are you doing with them? I beg you not to let them go to waste, because your talent is NOT just for you. Only you can do what you do with the talents that have been bestowed upon you. Now you might think your talent is small, but in God's eyes, it's important! No matter how big or small your talent is it's the ticket to put you where you need to be in your life.

If you were to look at the talents from a monetary standpoint and you bury the talents, you're setting yourself up for disappointment and anger against others, God and yourself. I believe your talents are designed by God for you. Some people say "it takes money to make money," that's not true. I agree with my brother Darrell Kelly when he says this, "it takes creativity to make money," considering that your talents are from God and He's the creator of all things. With that said, are you afraid of stepping out in that talent? Are you afraid that you're going to be rejected? Cast your fears aside or else, you'll land in the complacency cycle (where you start complaining and we have to hear comments like this, "the president or government is not taking care of me, my parents are hindering me" and your life withers away). I simply say to that, you're an adult, please GROW UP and GO FOR IT!

God bless.