Life Forever Changed Roundtable

Click below to see the pics from our first roundtable for our upcoming play "Life Forever Changed". We are currently working to finalize a date for the play for sometime in early Fall. Stay tuned for more info!

God Smells You

During our morning devotion, my children and I discussed the story of Cain and Abel. As you all know, Cain became jealous of Abel after God accepted Abel's offering but not his. I continued to explain to my children that because Cain did not give from the heart, his offering was not accepted. Simply put, God turned his face from Cain's offering because it smelled bad.

 

Put Yourself in God's Shoes

 

Have you ever been talking to someone whose breath stank horribly? While they were speaking, you probably held your breath, look to the side, made an excuse to leave or even prayed to God for them to please stop talking. You were no longer interested in what they had to to say. God is the same way.

When a baby is born, it smells sweet, soft and innocent. As the baby grows older and begins to change, so does its body odor. II Corinthians 2:15 (NLT) says, "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are saved and those who are perishing." When we are babes in Christ, we smell sweet but then we grow. It's important to maintain a sweet smell in the nostrils of God by consistently studying and obeying his word and maintaining a healthy prayer life. By doing this, we keep ourselves clean spiritually and in God's constant favor.

I was once told by someone that God accepts all praise no matter who it is from. At the time, we were talking about the BET awards and what seemed to be hypocrisy whenever an artist known for music and videos filled with profanity and promiscuity would thank God for blessing them with the win. As I'm sure you have already guessed, I STRONGLY disagreed  with this person. Yes,it is God's grace and mercy that keeps us all. And yes, I do believe God hears a sinner's prayers. HOWEVER, God does not condone nor grant prayer requests for anything that will fuel a life of sin.

Put Yourself in God's Shoes

 

How would you feel if one of your children grew up to live a life that displayed total disregard to the principles you imparted while raising them? How would you feel if they turned around and thanked you before millions of people, as if you condoned all of the wrong they had done?

Honestly, if my kids did that.....I would go off. My words would be "The devil is a lie! Sit yo tail down somewhere.You know I raised you better than that!" AND I would do it right there on nationally TV. Don't think I would? You'd better ask somebody. "I'm Bama Ole School God Don't Need No Matches" all the way baby.

.....ehem...excuse me...Bring it in Bridgett..

God not only sees sins but he can smell it. God can smell a rotting heart, evil thoughts, deception and manipulation. He can't be fooled. No matter how good it looks or sounds on the outside, God smells what's going on on the inside. So as I preach to my kids AND myself, I encourage you to always remember to give God the best and purest of you in everything that you do remember, God smells you.

The Copycat Christian

As most of you know, I grew up Pentecostal. I learned at an early age to accept being different. My schoolmates wore pants, I wore long dresses. On Friday nights when they were at the game, I was at a youth rally. Different was my norm and became the root cause of why one of my biggest peeves is copycatting. Growing up, we could pin point a child of God at the drop of a hat and not only because of the way they dressed, but by the way they walked, talked and the company they kept. That’s not the case these days. Somewhere along the line, somebody decided they knew better than the Preachers and Teachers before them. They decided that “it didn’t take all that”.

And so they got rid of testimony service and began to allow secular music to ring from the pulpits and sermons. Churches stopped fellowshipping with each other and began collaborations with the secular world. They put a cease to “hell, fire and brimstone” sermons and discovered the art of prosperity preaching. What was the end result? The number of school shootings, gay marriages, fornicating and or pedophile church leaders, murder suicides and blasphemous acts continue to increase.

Today’s youth shows little to no reverence for our older men and women of the Gospel; citing they are too old fashioned and judgmental. Instead rebuking their teachings and sowing seeds of discord against them. I was listening to “gospel” Hip Hop artist Lecrae do a “teaching” on YouTube where he was defending tattoos stating that if tattoos aren’t permissible then men shouldn’t shave their beards or eat red meat. I don’t think Lecrae realizes that by making light of these scriptures, he was also doing it for the entire Old Testament. You can’t rebuke one scripture and obey another. Even Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, I come not to change the law but to fulfill it.
 

I grew up during a time where you had to become seasoned in the word but you jumped and began a ministry. In today’s generation, a person can get saved and start a ministry by the end of service. And if there is something in the bible they don’t understand or agree with, they ignore or try to change it. The bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. As a matter of fact, everything God created began as pure in his eyes. Things changed once Adam and Eve sinned. So satan, being the wickedly clever devise that he is, decided to continue in his manipulation of the mind by presenting his evil as bountiful blessings. As God directed the writing of the bible, he gave clear and concise instruction on what we as his children were to refrain from. Warning us time and time again to stay away from the ways of the world; but being the hardheaded people that we are, we turned a deaf ear and we allowed satan in. Our excuse was “Well, I am going to take this from the world and add Jesus to it.”

My husband reminded me of scripture in Titus 1:15 where it says “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is NOTHING pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” So many times, I have heard people say “I can listen to this type of music because they are talking about marriage.” Still, the word, not Bridgett, says NOTHING the nonbeliever (unsaved) is pure. This new age generation of Christians feels like the “old school church” was too strict and extreme. I’m like this, at least their “strict and extreme” way of believing resulted in miracles, healings, blessings, spiritual growth and a church united. I know the bible has to fulfill itself but I refuse to be a part of the church’s decline when it comes to holding up the standard of God. There is nothing of this world that I want to be a part of or mimic in ministry. There is a fine line between hot and cold and I pray to God daily to lead and guide our family on what is of him and not of him. I know that I have not arrived. I know that it’s easy to become naive and seduced by the carnal pleasures of this earth. All it takes is a little of satan's poison to contaminate a soul.

I mean no disrespect to anyone when I say this, but I strongly disagree with two of the latest cliché’s we hear in Christianity. The first one: God hates religion. There is no scripture to back this up. The bible speaks against the traditions of men and those who SEEM to be religious but doesn’t bridle their tongue. God is not the author of confusion so I find it hard to believe that he would hate something and then define it in his word (James 1:27). IF God hates anything, I would think that it’s the many different denominations man created which resulted in a plethora of traditions that cause division among the church as a whole. Webster defines religion as the service and worship of God or the supernatural. Now if someone decides to serve another god and then steal the word “religion” from God’s word to create their own belief, then that’s on them. Identity theft is nothing new in the Kingdom of God. Satan has been doing it for years.

 

The second one: Favor ain’t fair. It’s fun to say and even lookes cutes on a tshirt but still…If God is fair and just, how can his favor be unfair? We might feel like its unfair when others get blessings in a split second after we’ve been praying for that same thing for years. But we can’t forget that God blesses us all in due season. If you eat a fruit before it’s ripe, it will be bitter and hard to chew. God knows if he gives us our blessing before time, it won’t be as sweet and enjoyable so he waits until the precise moment when the blessing is at its perfect peak.

I’ve got to summarize here because I could write a book on this. I’ll end with this. We need to flip the script back to where God intended and return to God’s pure and Holy standard. The world should be pursuing what we have as a body of Christ. Let us not be enticed by their false sense of beauty, pleasure and prosperity but instead see the rotting decay that’s hiding underneath. Will we be persecuted? Of course. Will God avenge? Definitely! If you are out of ideas in ministry, seek God for new ones. Stop trying to perfume the acts of the world with a little Jesus on top. That’s kind of like trying to put perfume on a skunk. No matter how much you spray, it will still be a bad aroma in the nostrils of God.

 

NOW THAT'S STINKING THINKING!