Think, Before You Speak or Act!

"The Girl you just called fat? She is overdosing on diet pills. The Girl you just called ugly? She spends hours putting makeup on just hoping people will like her. That man with the ugly scars? He fought for our country. The boy you just laughed at? He's already being abused at home.
This world tears down. This world promotes decay. This world cheats to get ahead. Jesus taught us to be different. To live different. To show compassion. To be salt and light."

We must be careful with how we talk about people, treat people, and the words we use! Every person has emotions and a heart that can feel love or pain. For us to be jerky and walk out of love is NOT being the image of Christ that we are called to be to this world! We are to exhibit God's love to BOTH sinners AND saints, not just the sinners. The Word tells us, "Those who hate other believers are in the dark and live in the dark. They don't know where they're going, because they can't see in the dark." (1 John 2:11 GWT), "Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them." (1 John 3:15 NLT). "Whoever says, "I love God," but hates another believer is a liar. People who don't love other believers, whom they have seen, can't love God, whom they have not seen." (1 John 4:20 GWT).

What is a TRUE Friend??

The older I get the more I realize how truly expressive the traditional wedding vows are of true friendship. "For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health."
Many who say these vows are doing so with the person they call their best friend, their love, their spouse. It wasn't until recently I realized just how powerful those vows are in relation to friendship.

A marriage is one of the highest forms of covenant between two individuals in our modern society, but not only that, a marriage is a true expression of a true friendship! As I began thinking about wedding vows that I heard in a movie recently and also thinking about "friendships" in my own life... I realized how much we have missed. So often we focus on the negative circumstances in those vows, the "when things get rough and your world is falling apart you can count on me" times. But, there's a flip side to that. It should be just as important to be there in the "I'm on top of the world" times! That's a successful relationship, whether it be marriage or friendship, when you are there and committed in EVERY season of life.

The Fear of Rejection

 A growing plague among young people is the fear of rejection. I speak both from my own personal experience and also from observation. I have seen so many fail to reach their full potential because they were crippled by fear. What causes such fear? I believe it is the result of societal lies and images of what is acceptable and beautiful that gives us a wrong view of ourselves.

Speaking from personal experience, I know the hardships of people rejecting you for who you are and the challenge of trying to fit the “mold” that society presents as normal. As a young person I was often rejected by people because of my strong faith and beliefs. I was even benched on an athletic team because the coach discovered I was one of those “Hagin-ites” and “tongue-talkers,” which, as a young and impressionable person, is very disheartening. I often lost friends because they wanted me to let loose on my standards and compromise a little here and there, and I wouldn’t. Guys didn’t want to date me because I talked too much (I am a big talker as any of you who know me well can attest, but I know my future husband will love that about me.) and my strong faith intimidated them because I was too mature in that area. This lead to some years of feeling slightly isolated, actually very isolated. I began to think something was wrong with me and just could never understand why people didn’t want me in their life, simply because I loved God and was passionate about His love and goodness. As a result I developed insecurity and fear of talking to people, when before nothing could stop me because I knew I was going to travel the world and preach the Gospel. Years passed and I began to tone down my Christianity and faith. Kept quiet about it and sadly, looking back, lost the opportunity to truly be a light to some people who were in dire need of truth. I allowed the fear of rejection to cripple me from being the person I was and the person God called me to be. I wouldn’t talk much, was known for being so sweet and quiet and accepting, and had lots of “friends” but now I couldn’t stand the person I had become. I began crying out to God and He began speaking to me and reminding me of the life I was born for, I remember so vividly hearing His voice one night, “I didn’t call you to be like them, I called you to make them like you…. SPOTLESS in my sight. You were created for more than this, Jessica.” That was a wakeup call to me and I got my fire back and began moving back to the boldness and faith that I had once had, which cost me those “friends” but looking back I see following God was worth the price to be able to reach the people He’s called me to reach. It took a long time, but I was able to trust God, listen to His voice and get back to being myself, the uniquely special person He created me to be.

And no, everything hasn’t been perfect since then, and I’ve had to deal with people coming in and out of my life because they don’t understand me or because I’m a stickler for preaching the UNcompromised Word, but I am becoming more and more confident in the person He created me to be and not allowing the fear of rejection to rule in my life. Even now that fear will try to creep in through circumstances, but that is when I remind myself of who I am in Christ and the call that is on my life and that words have been spoken over my life and I will have to go alone for a while, but in the end it will all be worth it! The path of following God and not compromising is usually one that not many walk on, and there will be times where you feel like you are the only one, but I’d rather walk on the right path alone than to follow the crowd on the path of mediocrity.

Now, why am I sharing all this? Is it to talk about myself? Most certainly not, but I needed to share some experience to build on and what God has been speaking to me about, through my own life on this topic. I have really been seeing this fear prevalent in young people lately, just go to the mall and you will see. At the mall and other public places I see young people who all dress and act alike and sometimes you’ll hear the group mock one girl or guy for expressing an idea that they think is stupid because it isn’t their social norm. It saddens me the pressure of perfection that is placed on young people; we’ve lost the freedom of individuality and uniqueness. And I know this breaks God’s heart, because He put such thought and care into creating each one of us unique and special, He didn’t create us to be clones! It seems, though, that this fear of rejection causes people to not truly be who they were called to be and to simply follow the crowd. I know it is a ploy of the enemy to keep us down and to cripple us from being all that God has destined us for.

I am reminded of the story of Esther. Esther was a Jew living in Persia and hid her true identity to find favor with the king. So, she hid the fact that she was a Jew and even changed her name from Hadassah to a Persian name, Esther, and ended up winning the king’s favor, winning his heart, and was crowned his queen, sort of a fairytale if I may say. But the story tells much more, it is truly a story of destiny, as God didn’t call Esther to simply live the rest of her life enjoying the comforts of the palace while her people were slaughtered. Esther had to face the fear of rejection, but this rejection had a much great price than losing a friendship or acquaintance.  If the king rejected her, she could be executed. Now, that is what I call fear of rejection, but Esther faced that fear and overcame it. She marched right into the throne room uninvited and waited to see if he would reject her or accept her. As many know, he raised his scepter and allowed her to approach, but the story doesn’t end there. She had to reveal her true personality to him, the fact that she was a Jew, not Persian, and again face the fear of rejection wondering if he would banish her or even execute her with her people. She eventually told him the truth and because she overcame the fear of rejection and looked to the fact that God had a destiny and divine purpose and plan for her life she was able to save her people from Haman’s noose.

If Queen Esther could overcome the fear of rejection, that came with the threat of death, and go on to fulfill the destiny God had laid out for her life, I believe we can too. We just have to trust God and know that he made us and our personalities uniquely different for a reason, even though we may not fully see “why” at this stage in our life. I know that He has a great and divine plan for each of us and when we live free from the fear of rejection we are able to walk fully in ALL that God has for us! In this freedom you will be able to go anywhere in life that God has promised you!

Let His voice reign supreme in your life and let the voice and criticism of others just roll off you back, like water off a duck’s back!

You were born for glory!

A Voice of Boldness,

JRT

Are You a Bridge-Builder or Bridge-Burner?

Tonight, while having a conversation with my mother, I began really thinking along the lines of burning bridges. So many in the church world want to burn bridges with other people and develop “spiritualized” reasons for why they burned the bridge to make it sound good – “They weren’t walking in love with ME!”, “I tried to have relationship with them, but they just did me wrong too many times.”, or my favorite, “God told me …blah, blah.” It seems to be a common and acceptable behavior by many, but I tend to think our biblical example is the exact opposite of this behavior.

Rejected Love

        

I have noticed that one of the primary areas the devil targets us is in our love walk. He always seems to find the right person, to push the right buttons that push you away from them, while the whole while you are trying your best to walk in love. Often he send the people closest to us to break our heart and make us never what to extend the unconditional love we had given that person to another, in an effort to protect ourselves. Many times love is the key factor to many people’s problems. A depletion of love, being denied love, false love… and so on. More often than not, it is these people you invested your heart into, the people you freely gave to, who the devil uses to turn on you.

It is so hard to live in this world and truly show agape, the God-kind of love, to other human beings. And often, this is where we fail. We become hardened because we never want to hurt like that again. I am one who is guilty of that, having experienced past and recent hurts that push you to the edge to where you just want to shut your heart to people completely, never to be hurt again. And why is it that some of us seem to be gluttons for punishment and still keep loving people who “despitefully use us,” who speak wickedly of us, who rip our heart out of our chest and stomp it into a million pieces? Is it because we are weak cowards with no backbone to defend ourselves? Is it? I chose to believe that is the exact opposite of that and that believing the previous is a worldly view.

The Woman Who Said — 'I Hate My Mother-in-Law'

I did not write the following, but I wanted to share it. It gives a more in depth discussion of what I wrote about in my blogpost Do You Hate Your Brother?, please read! :) 

The Woman Who Said — 'I Hate My Mother-in-Law'

Kenneth E. Hagin

 

My wife and I once held a meeting in the western part of the United States. A young couple who were in the ministry went out to eat with us after the service.

The woman said to me, "Brother Hagin, tonight you quoted the Scripture from First John 3:15: Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.'"

I said, "I sure did. I plead guilty." When I quoted that verse, the Spirit of God inspired me to add, "That means mother-in-law too."

She said, "But I hate my mother-in-law." Here she was an ordained minister, and she said that she hated her mother-in-law!

I said, "If you do, the Bible says you're a murderer, and you don't have eternal life abiding in you. God wouldn't tell you to love your brother — that means mother-in-law too — if it were impossible to do so."

I knew she didn't really hate her mother-in-law, but I wanted to get her located so she could see herself in the light of God's Word. You see, just because 7 realized that she didn't really hate her mother-in-law, that wouldn't help her; I had to get her to see it.

Do You Hate Your Brother?

I was reading Love is the Way to Victory by Kenneth E. Hagin and came across 1 John 3:15 and went on to look up the whole chapter and read the passage in its entirety. Anyway it caused me to really think about some things....


Have you ever harbored feelings of hatred towards someone, because of something they did to you OR because of something you perceived they did to you? This seems to happen more often than it should in the church! 


I know we are probably all guilty of "hating" someone at some point in our christian walk, I mean we are human after all and completely capable of tripping and falling every now and then. But, do you know what the Word says about hating someone? It equates hating someone to MURDER! Yep, you heard me right, murder! You may say, "Oh, but Jess, you don't know what they've done to me! You have no idea how bad it is! They did...." Maybe so, maybe I don't know what they did to you because my experiences are different, and maybe what they did to you is worse than anything that has ever happened to me, BUT the God's love is UNCONDITIONAL! And we are supposed to exemplify God's love to humanity (Psst, even the people we don't like!). Love is something you just decide to do because you feel like it, it is a daily decision you make because it is what God wants you to do!