Your Spirtual Wolf Pack: One Another Christianity!

I saw the above photo on Facebook a little while back and thought 'You know...wolves may have it more together than humans do!'  LOL! No seriously though...I made sure to do more research and not rely on Facebook but reading about the formation of the pack's order really got me thinking about the community of people that we keep around us.  The protection of the pack, the inclusion of all members, everyone had a role and purpose, the leader having everyone's back and keeping eyes on the pack was simple but powerful.  You may have heard people refer to having a tribe or a village but whatever you would like to call it, we all need help in walking this journey called life!

Biblically, there are a ton of scriptures discussing 'One Another Christianity.'  What is 'One Another Christianity' you ask?  Well, plainly put it's Christianity interaction with other people.  I'll drop some scriptures:

~"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." Hebrews 10:25 NLT

~"Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself.  You are not that important." Galatians 6:2-3 NLT

~"And now I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35 NLT

~Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16 NIV

I could go on & on but as you can see, the Bible is clear that we are suppose to have godly relationships and there is an expectation as to how these relationships should function.

As I was sitting and reflecting over my life, I can say that I have always had friendships/relationships but it wasn't until I FULLY gave my life to Christ that I truly understood the importance of these interactions.  Melvin & I have wonderful people in the fight with us but we haven't always had this.  Our lives DRASTICALLY changed when we started building our relationships on Christ and not on the world.  I started thinking of attributes that have helped us when seeking and forming our Spiritual Wolf Pack and honestly, a single blog post wouldn't do it justice.  BUT, I do have a good overview of common things to consider when you yourself are on that journey as well:

1.  Diversify your group: Your wolf pack should include people from all walks of life.  Different generations, races, socioeconomic status, life stage...you get the point! Fresh out of college and newly married, we noticed that all we had around us were other black people that lived in the South and were freshly out of college and/or newly married as well.  Everyone looked like us, sounded like us, dressed like us, etc.  At first glance, you might ask why is this a problem?  Think about it...how can you grow in that environment?  Who will give you another perspective?  If all of your friends are like you, chances are you all have a lot of the same likes/dislikes and strengths/weaknesses...who's going to call you higher if your thought process is similar?  I'm not saying to throw those friendships away but start adding a variety of people and perspectives to your crew!

2.  Sit at someone's feet: We should never stop learning!  This could come as a mentor, a coach, a teacher.  This role should be clear to you and them....you learn, they teach!  There are many relationships in the bible that illustrate this...Elijah and Samuel, Jesus and the apostles, Paul and Timothy, Priscilla & Aquilla and Apollos, and so on!  Though I do recommend this person being someone older than you that has acquired wisdom through their years but it doesn't necessarily have to be.  It could simply be someone that has more experience than you do.  Again, you learn, they teach!

3.  Pour into someone: Now of course you have to pay it forward.  How is the next generation going to thrive if we don't show them?  Look for someone that is eager to be taught.  Again, think about the relationships listed above.  Their roles were clear.  You are the teacher and they are the student.  Of course, if you are going to be the teacher, make sure you know what you are talking about.  Ain't nothing worse than the blind leading the blind LOL!

4.  Peer relationships: So this would be your accountability partners.  They are walking beside you in life's journey...not leading you or being led by you!  This role is dynamic.  You are helping each other!

5.  Cancel the 'No New Friends' policy:  Let me be frank...I hate hearing people say 'No New Friends.'  That instantly lets me know that you are limited in life because think of ALL the knowledge and life that people can give you.  I'll give you an example:  a few years back I became great friends with a woman named Elizabeth.  Eli is from Mexico and through casual conversations I have learned so much about her culture and the struggles that they endure.  This is so important because being a black woman, I can get so caught up in my own struggles that I can forget that I ain't the only one out here with a struggle.  It has made me so much more culturally sensitive and it wouldn't have been possible without stepping out of my comfort zone and making a NEW FRIEND!

So there you have...I know this is a short list but I wanted to give you general overview.  Also, most importantly...PRAY!  Pray that God sends the right people your way and that your eyes and heart are open for them.  I say an open heart because relationships, no matter how great the person is, are hard!  They take commitment, investment, hard work, and LOVE!

Anywho, what attributes should be added to the list?  Let's keep the conversation going!

Tips for having a GREAT Quiet Time with God!

"Oh, how I love your law!  I meditate on it all day long"

Psalm 119:97 NIV

I truly love God's word!  I have gained so much perspective over the years from reading the Bible.  But I will have to admit that though my goal is to read the Bible everyday, that's not always what happens.  Life happens...I get busy...I get tired...Sometimes I just don't want to do it if I'm totally honest! As I have grown as a Christian, I've realized that spending time with God doesn't have to look a certain way and it's most definitely personal.  I've acquired habits that work for me and keep me consistent.  I like to think of it as seating down with God at a table and having a conversation with him, just like you do with a friend.  Once I think of it like that, it allows for me to be more free and organic with my quiet time.

Here recently, I have switched up my way of studying God's word.  I typically do this occasionally to bust up the the monotony of it all and to keep me motivated.  I actually got this idea from a Christian Instagramer that I follow, Amy Hale.  She suggested doing a brain dump of your thoughts and then a list of things that you are thankful for.  I've been doing this for about a week and a half and I can really tell a difference in my prayer & study time!  So here's a more in depth look at my current study flow with my daily Quiet Time:

1. Brain Dump list--for those not familiar with this, a brain dump is where you write down any and every thing on your mind.  For me this has been golden because my mind runs a mile a minute and often time when I am praying or reading, my mind drifts off and I start rambling in my prayers or I have to re-read passages because my mind is on something else.  This allows me to empty those things out of my mind so there are no distractions.

2. Gratitude list--I found a small gratitude journal at Marshall's randomly and use that for this part.  I list what I am grateful for in that moment...key phrase IN THE MOMENT!  I emphasize this because if you list everything that you are grateful, it could take a minute.  At that moment, I think of exactly what I'm grateful for and this also allows for variety which prevents redundancy and going through the motions.

3. PRAY--now for some, this should've happened first and honestly that's what I've been doing.  But like I said, I'm shaking it up.  Also like I stated earlier, at this point my mind is cleared to be able to truly focus on the prayer AND now I have two lists to pray over (brain dump & gratitude).  I find that most of the items on these lists are what I need to pray over anyway and there's not much more that I need to add.

4. Read the Bible--pretty straight to the point, right?  The only thing that I want to point our here that I am pleased with is I don't allow myself to get stuck on one passage of scripture.  If I find that I've been reading something that is not keeping me engaged, I go and read something else.  Now here is where the Holy Spirit gets to working...by the time I get to reading scripture, I have emptied my mind  of any distracting or heavy thoughts (brain dump list), thought about what I am thankful for (gratitude list), and prayed.  At this point, I typically have a scripture or passage I want to meditate over after all of that because it's made obvious through these previous things.

Extra Personal Habits:

-My best time for a quiet time is first thing in the morning.  I am NOT a morning person, I repeat, I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON, but I am my clearest and refreshed in the morning
-I have multiple bibles in different translations to cross reference words.  I'm currently reading NLT but I also have NIV, ESV, and NCV.
-GOOGLE is your BEST FRIEND! Look things up!
-I journal...again, I'm not a journaling person but it actually is effective.  I get my thoughts out and it allows me to go back and look at my growth and answered prayers.
-Though there are tons of devotionals, books, and resources out there...nothing can replace the word of God!

So there you have it!  I'm curious to hear about what you guys do.  Let's keep the conversation going!!!

Spiritual Gifts

So the other day, I was listening to Chrystal Evans Hurst's podcast and she was interviewing Nicole Walters from episode from June.  It was part of her Girl Boss Chat and Nicole referenced 1 Peter 4:10 as she was explaining her 'why' in her business.  Now this is a scripture that I have read before but I never looked at it from the perspective she used.  When you look at this scripture and actually think about....I visualize God holding a bag and he is pulling out different gifts and handing them to different people (kinda like Santa Clause LOL!)...but no seriously...we all have a hand picked gift given to us by God and this very thing is suppose to be for serving others which ultimately will glorify God!  That simple thought, that straight-forward scripture really blew my mind.  So I got to thinking, "What are your gifts, Kim?  No, really...what are they?"

I took some time to just park at this scripture and meditate over it.  Then I made a list of my gifts.  Now these gifts are not the obvious but more so the daily, practical talents that I possess.  Things that could get easily overlooked as if  'This is what everyone does!'  I would like to share my list with you all in hopes that it would inspire you to think of a list of your own AND to keep me accountable for serving others with gifts!  So here it goes:

1. Socially relatable--I can talk to the walls!  I believe I get this from my mother plus I have older parents so I tend to relate to the older generation as well as my generation.

2.  A feeler of people/ can read people--the best way I can put it is like this, I relate to the term of empath (keen ability to sense what people around them are thinking and feeling; experiences a great deal of empathy to the point of taking on the pain of others at their own expense)

3.  Generous--simply put...if I have, you have!

These are just a few from my list but I hope that you can see what I mean when I say these are things that can be easily overlooked or pushed aside.  So...now it's your turn...what's own your list of gifts?

In this episode we start out looking at Philippians 4:4-7 to set the stage for a conversation about anxiety.

How to Lose a Kingdom...a David study!

What's up y'all!  Today in church our evangelist, Mark, continued with part 2 of a study over David.  The sermon had my whole heart laid out so I felt led to share how the Spirit got me ALL the way together today!! 

First off, I woke up with a funky attitude today and actually had being feeling weird the past couple of days.  I've felt very critical, judgemental...just flat out contentious!  Well, this morning I was tired of it and asked Melvin if we could pray before church because I really needed that bad vibe off of me and for my heart to soften.  We prayed...the both of us and I felt the icebox where my heart use to be start to melt LOL but I wasn't quite where I needed to be.

Fast forward to service...honestly, seeing my brothers and sisters smiling faces and getting hugs from people chipped away at my heart.  The worship and fellowship was just good for my soul...period!  So Mark got up on stage to preach the message and like I mentioned earlier we are focusing on the life of David and on today we looked over the contrast between Saul and David.  If you are not familiar with that dynamic and the story of those two, I highly suggest going and reading that.  Within their story are soooo many life lessons that we can learn from and use for today and you will see why David was "a man after God's own heart" and how Saul was not.  So anywho, as we are examining the scriptures one couldn't help but see how King Saul got the kingdom of Israel torn from him.  Our focus passage was 1 Samuel 15:1-3,7-35 (please go read it) and 6 practicals were pulled from the passage.  I'll list them with what I got from them below:

1. Self-reliance cannot be hidden forever: Saul started out his reign as king humbly but over time the power started to change him and instead of relying on God, he relied on himself.  His heart wasn't repentant and he stopped being accountable.

2. Sacrifice is no substitute for obedience: The Lord gave Samuel the message for Saul to completely wipe out the Amalekites...every person and animal needed to die and everything needed to be destroyed.  Well, Saul didn't listen and spared the king of the Amalekites, Agag, and kept the good sheep and cattle and other plunder.  When confronted by Samuel, Saul passed the blame stating that his soldiers kept the animals for a sacrifice....in a nutshell, Samuel told him "that ain't what God told you to do, man!"  LOL no but real talk, the exact scripture says, "Listen!  Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams." 1 Sam 15:22b

3. Power, popularity, and position can become more important than the Glory of God:  I kept it simple here in my notes and wrote this illustration that Mark mentioned
           Saul began serving God
                            --> then served himself and God
                                                 --> then used God to serve him
                        *Kim, where are you on this timeline???*  Food for thought!!!

4. God will not be mocked: one thing that stood out during this point was the leadership of Saul.  Mark mentioned we can often wonder why God allows bad leadership to stay in power.  Two thoughts I wrote down was God was using Saul to purge the Saul out of David meaning that David could see how NOT to lead by observing Saul.  Secondly, how do I respond to the failure of leadership?  Do I just go along to get along even though I know something isn't right and if I do speak up on behalf of God, am I righteous with my response?  OUCH!!

5.  Always Check your Blind Spots:  now right here, he got a "Come on Somebody" from me!  I am HUGE on self awareness...positive and negative!  Knowing yourself in my opinion is half the battle.  You save so much time when you truly know your strengths and weaknesses.  You know where to put your energy to improve in weakened areas and you know what your go-to areas are so you can thrive.  I like how Mark put it...Satan knows you VERY well and is searching for a chink in your armor so you better be aware of it as well.

6. How we start, is not nearly as important as how we finish:  as mentioned earlier, Saul started out great but we know he didn't end that way.  He was riddled with envy and hate for David...even tried to kill him!  On the flip side though, that can flow the other way...if your start is not so good, you can always turn it around and finish up strong!

WHEW and I'm done...I know this post has been lengthy but the Holy Spirit made me do it LOL! No seriously, I needed today's lesson to refocus me.  By the end of it all, Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.  You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God" came to life for me and for that I am grateful!!!

I'll link the sermon series below!  Thanks guys!

http://www.buzzsprout.com/35035?client_source=large_player&iframe=true&limit=20&referrer=http://www.buzzsprout.com/35035.js?player=large&limit=20&tags=david&tags=david#

Quiet Time series: Self Worth pt. 3

Here's the last episode of the Quiet Time series: Self Worth pt. 3! We hope you have enjoyed the series. Let's keep the conversation going...what did you get out of the quiet time?

Quiet Time series: Self Worth pt. 2

Thanks for tuning in!