Hope for The Hopeless

We live in a day where marriages are hurting, couples are feeling hopeless, and children are wondering where is GOD in my family. To say that marriages are under attack is an understatement they are being assaulted with all the force that hell can muster. It seems that there has never been a time where the institution of marriage was so threatened and the word covenant taken so lightly. So in the midst of all this I hear the LORD saying "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. Jeremiah 17:7
In God is ALL of our hope because He IS our HOPE!!!

If this is for you, NOW is the time to take your spouse by the hand and proclaim, WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT IN JESUS NAME!!! Do you know how important your covenant is to GOD! Do you know that He didn't put you together, notice I said HE PUT YOU TOGETHER not just because you wanted companionship and sex and she wanted security and children. NO! God put you together so you could love and enjoy love throughout the rest of your days here on earth. He put you two together so you could enjoy Him and all His goodness TOGETHER. He joined you so you could reflect the deepness and richness of His covenant with us, His bride TOGETHER.

You maybe in a HARD PLACE.. and you are NOT ALONE! There isn't a married couple alive right now that hasn't gone through a hard storm, or isn't currently in a storm, just came out of one, or is going into a storm. Jesus calmed the storm, Jesus walked on the waters and the same God that calms the storms lives in us. Please don't give in, please don't walk away, please don't runaway. STAND and DREAM again! STAND and FIGHT! STAND and SEE the SALVATION of God! JESUS IS OUR HOPE! Make up your mind right now that you are NOT going to quit! You go to God and you pull on Him through His WORD, through prayer, through fasting, through worship and you ask your Heavenly Father,WHAT DO WE DO? SHOW US!! He promises to give us wisdom, but we've got to seek it out. We've got to be patient with one another and we've got to HOPE in GOD.

Romans 5:5
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us.

Romans 15:13
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Colossians 1:27
To them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

Love Songs, Fireproofing and Thanksgiving!

My Pastor taught that values drive a culture and that culture shows up in the music. I believe that. So maybe that would explain why there isn't a lot of love songs in wide circulation. Where are the songs celebrating Marriage? I know we are Christians but come on lets be REAL. Although I do not listen to secular music daily I do have my favorite "For Married People Only Music." I don't see anything wrong with listening to a little Sade as you dance with your husband or wife. But as my collection gets older I wonder where are the love songs that you can actually listen to without profanity, and without too much information, being sung? I want to encourage all you Christian artists and writers out there, ask God for some love songs. Songs like let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine. Isn't that beautiful that came straight out of the BIBLE!!! Song of Solomon 1:2.
Now that's some married worship music for sure! There are some occassions that songs like I'm Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain are not fit for!LOL!

What are some things we can and we have to make sure that we do all we can to keep our union Fire Proof and fun. First by understanding that our marriages are destined by God to do several things, mirror the relationship we have with God and produce Godly offspring. Well we know about natural children but what about spiritual children? What about all those couples and even single people that have been positively affected by your marriage and mine? What about those couples who are going through and are barely hanging on that are looking up to us to help them get through? What about the future marriages of our children and so on?
I love my Pastors! They are REAL! They talk to us and let us know about their failures and successes in marriage. They do all they can to make sure married people grow in their marriages and stay strong. We have monthly meetings, retreats, classes etc...They know that if marriages don't make it everybody is affected adversely, and they believe in "taking and keeping dominion" in every area of life, and their attitude and examples are infectious. Does it get hard sometimes sure! Does it take God to help you stay the course in this covenant breaking society yes, but remember a threefold cord is not easily broken. God IS for marriage no doubt about it.The fire is always gonna be making a cameo appearance but the water of the Word and God's Spirit will help always help us move forward in victory. Some good Marriage Covenant Keeper things to be mindful of is making it our business to respond and react like Christ to one another,take time to pray, read, and fast with one another, date, buy gifts, and encourage one another daily. Doing these things will help us to be able to stay on the good side of statistics...the winning side.

As we are only two days away from Thanksgiving let your spouse know just how thankful you are for him or her. Write a sweet little note explaining why you are thankful! Buy some flowers or a golf club for your mate, a Thanksgiving Gift! Don't just say you love...show you love.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and God bless your marriage richly and abundantly!

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

The Desert or the Promised Land Pt 3

Ok! So how have you been doing this week? Have you been YIELDING to your husband. Have you decided that you are going to be even more supportive and kind? Have you made up in your mind that regardless of how he acts, or the decisions he makes I'm going to yield to the Word of God in my behavior and attitude. Now let's make something clear. That doesn't mean you just smile politely without making your position known. It doesn't mean that you act like that princess in Coming to America either. Remember her? The prince upon meeting his future wife for the first time wanted to get acquainted with her. He asks her what do you like and she says "whatever you like" and that was her response to the next several questions. In some cultures that works really well for some couples, and I'm not knocking that. I Corinthians 11:3
But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. It's tight but it's right! COME BACK!!!! (-:
Since I'am an American and this is the culture that I've been raised up in, it is the culture that I will address. Ok so we talked last about yielding. Did you or do you understand how to yield or surrender to your husband. There are several ways, but let me take one from one of my favorite movies Fire Proof. In the movie the husband has decided to put away money for a boat and his wife isn't happy about it. They kind of get into it behind it as well. Now why did I choose to start off with an example of money? Well the statistics show that infidelity, stress, incompatibility, are NOT the number one cause of divorce,FINANCES are! So back to Fire Proof, Caleb the husband decides that he is going to keep his 24,000 for his boat while, his wife allows the enemy to use that as yet another nail to drive into the coffin of their failing marriage. Now if you saw the movie Caleb ends up yielding to God's leading by blessing his wife's mother with a new hospital bed. He's accepted Christ and now we can tell by his fruit of selflessness that he is really changed. Now everybody's situation is different. Some husbands are the only bread winner, some wives are the only bread winner, and in America there is a a high percentage of two income families. So with all that being said how do we yield and yet express our opinions to our husbands when we disagree with their financial decisions? Without getting real deep and spiritual the first step is "dying to self". Say what, say what?

Yes! We have to get to a point where we are more focused on "doing right" than being focused on "who's right." Marriage like Christianity is not Burger King!LOL! For either to be successful we cannot "have it our way".(-: Now I'm keepin this light so I'm not talking about financial irresponsibility on the part of a spouse like him taking the rent money and going to the casino or spending the grocery, or bill money on a new suit. Ummm nooooooo. I'm simply talking about him making a decision from his God given positional authority that you disagree with and you loosing your mind behind it!LOL! Now what do you do when that happens? Attack him and his character, attack his parents? If that is you- STOP! That's NOT the way to handle it. We don't attack the person we attack the ISSUE. After you get a grip on you..pray, put some worship music on, whatever you need to regroup you go to him and let him know how you feel about his decision, then you go to the Father and you pray. Pray for wisdom and understanding on your part. Meaning..this may be a good move but he has the revelation on it and you don't. Or maybe he is off and you are right. No matter what you SURRENDER TO GOD"S WAY of handling it. HOW? By letting your husband KNOW how you feel in a respectful and non threatening way then by LETTING IT GO! God will communicate either your error or his and then you go from there. Nagging and degrading him IS NOT God's way and neither should it be ours. We shouldn't be with holding sex or throwing tantrums either. I know it's hard sisters but if we are going to be successful in our marriages in these days of turmoil and covenant breaking sprees we have got to get a handle on ourselves and represent and respect our husbands no matter what. God is watching and so are our children...I'll touch on that next time.

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

The Desert or the Promised Land Pt 4

Ok so we're learning how to yield right? We're learning how to yield our vessels first unto the LORD and only then will we able to be the supportive and respectful helpmates to our husbands .There are many, many, benefits to be derived from that alone but now let's talk about leaving a legacy to our children. What does legacy mean to you?
Legacy- a gift of property, esp. personal property, as money, by will; anything handed down from the past.
So as we are walking through life with our husband we want to make it our business to leave them a legacy of Godliness in Marriage. Remember the verses to that children's song? Oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above He is looking down in love oh be careful little eyes what you see. It then goes on to the next verse, Oh be careful little ears what you hear...You get the point right? What our children expose their eyes and ears too will affect them and the Father is watching. So what about the stuff that they don't intentionally try to see or hear?
What about the things that they have to see and hear in our homes? There is no way to block out the " For Real Home Channel" where Mommy and Daddy are the STARS!

Now we all know that we all go through different things in marriage. Some good, some great, some bad, some really bad. The point I want to make is that God is speaking to you RIGHT NOW! He's saying I know that it's been hard for you to reel yourself in and the situation is hard, but NOW is the time for you to take my WORD and WALK IT OUT! These are times of stress and pressure like never before, and should the LORD tarry our children are going to be growing up in times a lot more stressful and challenging than the present, so we have to equip them NOW! What are you saying Marva? I'm saying we as mothers have to make very intentional, and conscious efforts to show our children what being a Christian is about and how Godly women behave when the pressure is on. Now I can hear you thinking what? Girl, I have Bible study with my kids, we have a time of praise and worship everyday, we memorize Scripture, we feed the poor together and so on. That's AWESOME!!! So when there is conflict in your home what do they see then? It's easy to be cheesy when all is well...but it's when the pressure hits, that's when the REAL you and me comes out and we have a captive audience too...our kids. I heard somebody say once I can praise God better when I've got money in my pocket, or when you see somebody preach or do something that is when they are at their best. I can't say I agree with those statements. One thing I do agree with is when you and I CHOOSE to keep a cool head and honor God and our husbands in the heat of the moment, our kids will have a good foundation from which to draw from in the future when they find themselves in the middle of "heated fellowhip". Notice I said CHOOSE. We have a choice, the devil can't make us act crazy. Now we may act crazy for many reasons because we have a learned behavior pattern that we're pulling from or we're just really selfish, we've been abused, or we have poor coping skills etc...No matter what God's has given us the victory from the damaging effects of all of it.

Ok so back to our little offspring. Garbage in ,Garbage out. What kind of things are we feeding our children where marriage is concerned. Do we want to show them the Stepford Wives.. no! We are going to strain every muscle in us to show them what a Godly woman "in conflict" looks like. That's what we want to leave our kids, especially our daughters. We want to show them NOW how to handle stressful situations, storms, trials and tribulations that come up in marriage. We want to show them how to yield to God so they can yield to their husbands and leave a legacy of success to their kids and so on and so on. We affect everyone around us, especially those close to us. Ask God right now to show you how to better handle the pressure that comes up between you and your husband from time to time. Look at and study how Jesus handled stressful situations. He never retaliated, never lifted up His voice but entrusted Himself to His Father. That's the legacy we want to leave behind to our children..Next stop trusting God in your desert as you begin your journey into the promised land.

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

The Desert or the Promised Land Pt 2

I can hear you now, I don't care how good it gets! I'm not going to call my husband master! It's ok...I'm with you because I'm not quite there myself BUT although I'm not feelin the calling him master part. My attitude IS. We've all heard it said that your Attitude Determines Your Altitude. That is the truth! It will also determine your DECREASE in altitude. So let's look at this verse again.

I Peter 3:1-6
1 In the same way, you wives should yield to your husbands. Then, if some husbands do not obey God's teaching, they will be persuaded to believe without anyone's saying a word to them. They will be persuaded by the way their wives live.2 Your husbands will see the pure lives you live with your respect for God.3 It is not fancy hair, gold jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful.4 No, your beauty should come from within you—the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that will never be destroyed and is very precious to God.5 In this same way the holy women who lived long ago and followed God made themselves beautiful, yielding to their own husbands.6 Sarah obeyed Abraham, her husband, and called him her master. And you women are true children of Sarah if you always do what is right and are not afraid.

Ok let's go line by line together...it's ok you can stop gnashing your teeth now!LOL!! Yield to your husbands. Not your girlfriends husbands or God forbid somebody else's husband, but YOUR husband. What does yield mean. Well I looked it up and it has a lot of definitions but these will suffice. Check this out! READY! OK (-:
1.To give up or surrender (oneself)
2.To give up or over; relinquish or resign
3.To give as due or required
WHEW! This is a Selah moment! Pause and calmly think about that! So we can see that God wants us to give up or surrender, relinquish or resign, give as due or required.
COME BACK!!!!! You can do it!!

Unfortunately we have been bombarded by a culture that has women chanting "Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you!!! What's the next line..the men sing no you can't and she sings YES I CAN and back and forth they go. Back and forth in front of their children, neighbors, family, coworkers, friends, and on and on. These things ought not be so. Why? Because that type of behavior doesn't bring glory to God and because it's OUT OF ORDER! Now I know some of you are very strong willed and independent. Maybe you were hurt and vowed to NEVER give that kind of surrender to any man ever again in life. Maybe you grew up without a dad like me, and all you've been exposed to is strong women handling their business. Maybe you've bought into the lie that women are far more superior than man. I hear you BUT that's not what God's Word says. We are God's daughters right? We are vessels for His glory to manifest in and through right? Then let me encourage you in this. We have to move past our corrupted and false views of womanhood and embrace the truth as women of God, striving to be all that God wants us to be. We are to be loving, yielding, supportive, gentle, kind, women of God. With the divorce statistics at ridiculous and extremely high rates we have to make sure that we as wives are doing everything to keep our marriages strong, healthy, and glory filled. Yes, I hear you ..men have to do their part too! Agreed! But how about, when we stand before God one day He's going to judge us on how we treated us our husbands, His son and vice versa. I can't control my husbands attitude but I can control mine. I want to be all that God wants me to be as a wife to His son don't you? I know you do, and yielding to our husbands more and more will bless our families, our sphere's of influence, and bring God glory.

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

Marriage - The Desert or the Promised Land?

So I've been meditating on Sarah. She was quite a woman and she married a man that God spoke to, God walked among, and a man that God made a covenant with that would eventually bless her and the world. She had to be a pretty tough sister to be hooked up to a brother like that. Yes, they had their ups and downs, ins and outs, but being married to Abraham got so good to Sarah that she called him lord( master).

I Peter 3:1-6
1 In the same way, you wives should yield to your husbands. Then, if some husbands do not obey God's teaching, they will be persuaded to believe without anyone's saying a word to them. They will be persuaded by the way their wives live.2 Your husbands will see the pure lives you live with your respect for God.3 It is not fancy hair, gold jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful.4 No, your beauty should come from within you—the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that will never be destroyed and is very precious to God.5 In this same way the holy women who lived long ago and followed God made themselves beautiful, yielding to their own husbands.6 Sarah obeyed Abraham, her husband, and called him her master. And you women are true children of Sarah if you always do what is right and are not afraid.
COME BACK, COME BACK!!! I know I just lost half of you right there.LOL!!!

If you are like me you were raised that you were woman and the world should hear you ROAR!!!! You didn't need a man to do anything for you and you definitely didn't need a man to make you feel important. You KNEW you had it going on and that's all the mattered. Well....as a single woman that mentality will keep you from a lot of foolishness but as a married woman.... Now I'm not saying that you can't be an independent gotta it going on type of woman. I'm just saying that you don't need to announce it or ROARRRRR it, every time you feel the need to take control. Now I'm preaching to me too because this is the desert that I'm leaving right now as I begin my walk into the promised land! God has shown me that He has given men positional authority, whether they(men) like it, or we like it, whether they walk in it or we walk in it with them as submissive helpmates...it is what it is!! Can I be REAL! The world has and is attempting to pervert the order that God has ordained for the family! Too many of God's daughters have fallen or is currently falling for that lie and it's time to walk in the truth.

God knows that we are intelligent, beautiful, giving, compassionate, nurturing beings He made us that way, BUT He still made man FIRST, and even though Adam messed up by following Eve's act of disobedience, God did not take that positional authority away from Adam. We all know that Adam could've said bye Boo, I'll see ya around. No instead Adam got in on it, and landed on the other side of the Garden..man that's messed up to this day!LOL!! What am I saying sisters and brothers. God has given man the responsibility of being in charge regardless and He's given us as women the responsibility to help them. No matter what God expects us to respect that authority at ALL TIMES, I'll have more on Thursday. For now pray and ask the LORD if you are honoring your husband's God given positional authority the way that God wants you to..in a way that brings glory to God and blessing to you!

Pray about it!!!

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Thank You For Coming By Today
and God Bless You
♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥

We Are Humbled Brothers & Passionate Sisters in Christ

Before You Say I Do

So he finally popped the question after months and months of courting. Your heart is racing, your ring finger has a beautiful diamond on it and you've posted it on Face Book, now what? You start planning the wedding! He doesn't care about all that you say..so you'll just handle it yourself right?! Ok, so now you are off to theKnot.com where you can set up your own wedding page and everything you need is at your fingertips! What are you going to do first? You are going to find a dress that will make him melt!! Next the cake, flowers, bridesmaid dresses, and location. Around and around we spin around on that wonderful ride of "I'm Getting Married" YAY ME!

This is YOUR special day you are planning for! You've only played this scene in your head like a million times since you were a little girl right? I imagined myself walking down that aisle looking fabulous, friends and family looking on as I walk towards the man of my dreams. So...did you ever imagine yourself having problems? Did you ever imagine how you would handle conflict? What would you do if he lost his job. What would you do if he got sick? Who would lead devotions in the home? Would you cook every night? Well if you are like me, you aren't even thinking about that!LOL! Why think about conflict anyway? We had a drama free 8 month courtship. We fasted, we prayed, we read the Bible, we worshiped together and we NEVER touched!!!
He told me I will never defile you, or cause you to sin against the Father. This was a match made in Heaven for real!!! We talked about what we wanted in marriage, what we wanted to accomplish while married, and how wonderful our marriage was going to be! We didn't need marriage counseling we had the Holy Ghost!!! He will guide us into all truth right? Yep and and um the truth will make and keep you free too!LOL Well when conflict came I was of the impression that he knew my way of communicating. Quick and loud. His way to solve conflict quietly and with lengthy discussions. Uhhh ohhh!!! You know where I'm going with this right?!

Pre-marriage counseling would have spared us some "rude awakenings" that we've had throughout the years for sure. In counseling they make you come out of your "love trance" and consider some things, that for the most part I can say never even crossed my mind! Why do I care how he handles conflict? We'll never have conflict! This is no ordinary love... Yes Sade was on my honeymoon. (-: Why does it matter if I think a man should always take out the trash. Or this was my favorite one..a budget are you kidding me. We'll live off of our love and the joy released will pay our bills!LOL!!! I know right? I have to laugh at that one myself. The truth of the matter is before you say "I do" let me encourage you that no matter how saved you is, or you ain't pre-marriage counseling will benefit you greatly. Now you can be grown and graduate from the school of hard knocks if you want to, you'll make it, we did. But WHY go that route? There is so much information in those sessions that can actually increase your ability to live happily ever after, by equipping you with sound Biblical wisdom and common sense understanding. So before you "jump the broom" sign up for some pre-marriage classes, you will be glad you did!(-:

Just a kind reminder, please feel free to submit your prayer requests for today.

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Thank You For Stopping By
God Bless You
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We Are Passionate Sisters in Christ
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