Keep the Faith Now

S.E.E.D. For Today_____ Together Scripture "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone the he falls and has not another to lift him up!" Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 ESV This week history was made, the United States of America has it's first female presidential nominee. But that's the exciting news, on the downside there are the spiraling levels of hate and discord that has occurred on both sides of the parties that serve to run this oh not so perfect union of this nation. It has drawn this ugly portion into the masterpiece of our country. Solomon's experience with the independent man caused him to consider the importance of friendship and value of people doing things together. There is a jewish proverb that says a friendless man is like a left hand bereft of the right. Two is definitely better than one, if this nation united we could get so m...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Imperfection Scripture "Indeed we all make many mistakes. For if we could also control our tongues we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." James 3:2 NLT James goes into detail about the importance of controlling our tongues. For many the art of holding back on words to express our emotions is challenging and distressing. It is so natural to gossip and criticize and slander for it is difficult not to sin with the tongue if we would all be honest. Most of us tend to talk to much, we don't know how to subdue or tame our tongues. During conversations although we outwardly control ourselves, inside we are mumbling all types of sayings and so and so's.  We sin with the tongue so easily and if we could control the tongue we could control everything else in our lives. Words give life to everything, they create good or bad. Being mindful to restrain from lashing out with our tongues is to...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Influence  Scripture "We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth." Ephesians 4:14c NLT As we research the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians we know that there were false prophets who were preaching another gospel and introducing various teachings that kept people tossed with doubts.  The enemy has taken the word of God in cunning and craftiness lying in wait to deceive as he did Eve. Don't get ripped by all the prophecies and messages that tantalize our flesh, as we throw our money at the feet of those who lure us by words that stroke our egos and declarations that feed our desires and predictions that validate our plans. The truth will set you free but at first it will indeed piss you off for it is for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. Example Influence is the capacity to have an effect on character development, power exerted over the minds or behavior of so...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Walk Scripture "See, then, exactly ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil;" Ephesians 5:15-16 Young's Literal Translation How do you roll? Are you an imitator of God or a procreator of the things of the world. In this letter to the Ephesians Paul stressed the need for the church to walk in love as Christ loved us. Get rid of all whoredom and all uncleanliness or covetousness, for you are saints. Get rid of all the filthiness and foolish talk. Be careful how you live and make the most of every opportunity in the evil days. Make good sense of the life given you and understand what the Lord's will is, carefully determine what pleases the Lord, and be careful how you live. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. Example Walk in the greek is peripateo in an ethical sense how I conduct my life. In full circle or in a complete circuit. Behave, or occupy, or to make one's way...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Wisdom Scripture "He who is wise wins souls." Proverbs 11:30 NASB Now the world has something else to draw their time and attention. The new craze pokemon go has people on an never ending hunt to achieve the rewards of this augmented reality game. The game brings people into a real world experience where they have to hunt for pokemon's by going to the actual landmarks. They are given training or what I would call discipleship classes which come with added privileges. The goal is to become gym leaders, pokemon won't come to you but you have to go after him. The game consist of  Incense : "Incense with a mysterious fragrance that lures wild Pokémon to your location for 30 minutes."  Lucky Egg : "A Lucky Egg that's filled with happiness! Earns double XP for 30 minutes."  Egg Incubator : "A device that incubates an Egg as you walk until it is ready to hatch. Breaks after three uses."  Lure Module ...

S.E.E.D. For Today__ Undivided Scripture " Any Kingdom divided by civil war will collapse." Mark 3:24  NLT The logic of the religious leaders and detractors in Jesus day was ridiculous. For the Savior of the world to be in cahoots with His enemy could only be the ignorance of those who did not believe in Christ. Jesus knew their thoughts and made it very plain that any kingdom against itself will fall and will not stand. No kingdom, no house, no army, no business, no team, no movement can survive an internal war, Jesus was letting them know it's impossible. The civil unrest in this country beginning with the 18th century, of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the anti-government protest by soldiers of the Continental Army against the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia, Pa., the Whiskey Rebellion and the Fries Rebellion in 1791 and 1799. The 19th century Cincinnati riots of 1829, the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia 1831, the Anti abolitionist riot in ...

S.E.E.D. For Today__ Solidarity Scripture " The time is near when all things will end. So think clearly and control yourselves so you will be able to pray. Most importantly, love each other deeply, because love will cause people to forgive each other for many sins." I Peter 4:7-8 NCV This is an appeal for all believers to come together in solidarity to usher in the redemptive plan of God for all mankind. This is a message to live a godly life and to show the world the love of God, by the love we have for one another and them. We have to snatch up every opportunity to help others. Prayer is crucial and love is even more crucial in this day. What's going on before our us is painful and stressful, but if we as believers will began to live right, think right and do right ourselves we can help bring healing to our land. The murder and violence in our world has reared it's ugly head in a terrible way and many children the next generation will grow up without father...

S.E.E.D. For Today____ Time Scripture "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV There is a time for everything, a time to be born a time to die, a time to plant and time to harvest, a time to kill and a time to heal. In our world it is the time to heal and plant seeds of love. With all that we experience with racism, terrorism, broken families, rebellion and lawlessness it's the time to mend, to embrace, to laugh, to dance. Enough crying together, enough killing each other, enough grieving, enough tearing down, enough fighting, enough! Redeem the time and sow peace instead of discord. Solomon said this about the injustices of life in 3:16 "there is evil in the courtroom. Yes even the courts of the law are corrupt! 18:"I also thought about the human condition, how God proves to people that they are like animals. 17:"But when it's time God will judge everyone both good ...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Equality Scripture " Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster and their reign of terror will come to an end." Psalms 22:8 NLT In our beloved land the United States of America the place where people lose their lives in order to step foot on our soil must now repent for we have given an appearance of freedom and equality. The constitution We The People states that in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings and Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity ( Our future generations of people ), do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The country cannot forget that we reap what we sow, we have formed a very imperfect Union, we have established much Injustice, not everyone are sure of domestic Tranquility, where is the common defense for everyone?, we have not promoted the ...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Harmony Scripture "See how good and pleasant it is for brothers to be living together in harmony!" Psalms 133:1 Bible in Basic English Since the disobedience of Adam mankind has struggled to live harmoniously in the earth together. Race has always been an issue since the days of Pharaoh. Many of us because we don't understand our differences, use those differences to equate whether a man is valuable or human enough. God made us all in His image by His hand He created man. It was His original plan that man live a good and pleasant life in the earth together, but the harmony of man was destroyed by sin. In music harmony is the simultaneously combination of tones, especially when blended are pleasing to the ear. We are God's song His music and He created the world with a combination of skin tones, to praise and glorify Him that as mankind we would produce a sound that would have a pleasing effect in His ear. A sound that pe...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Publicity Scripture "But Paul said to the officers: They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out." Acts 16:37 NIV Those who are in authority must be aware of being to hasty in their positions. The constant public crucifixion of human life is on the front page around the world. Wrongful death and wrongful punishment of innocent men, women and children. Paul in this situation understood the value of publicity. They were treated unlawfully by Roman Officers, being oppressed and wrongly imprisoned in a country of which they were citizens. Paul knew that the wrong done to them could not be changed but it could be acknowledged. In order to exhibit the wrongs done to himself and Silas, he insisted that those who had imprisoned him be the ones publicly release him proving their unlawful and...

S.E.E.D. For Today__ Humanity Scripture "So God created human beings in His image. In the image of God He created them. Genesis  1:27 NLT In light of everything that we are facing in our society today, police brutality and the horrific and senseless crimes that we commit against one another mankind must remember that we are destroying God's masterpiece. Ephesians 2:10 tells us;  "For we are God's masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago." This was never God's plan He knew that after Adam sinned that all mankind would no longer have His nature so He sent His Son into the world that we would again be like Him. He knows the heart of men, and His message to us is to love one another as you love yourself. Love and hate are at war, this is not about race, this is a matter of human dignity. Example Humanity is the human race the action of humanity is humanness, benevolence, compassi...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ End the   Extermination Scripture "You must not murder." Exodus 20:13 NLT With heavy hearts we write this seed on today. Once again in our nation we witness the unlawful killing of human beings. We have watched the hate and the terrible attacks against mankind. The dehumanizing manner in which we are all horrified of is getting worse and worse. Thou shalt not kill is a commandment given by God, one of the ten commandments, which in this nation we have seen  removed from the places they were posted. They were put in place as reminders of Godly ethics and morals, how we were to honor one another as a nation under God. The unjust taking of innocent lives have increased by authorities and now the authorities in our nation are being murdered as well. This is not the way for mankind to exist, if I diminish you, I diminish myself. War is horrible, shall we continue until all humanity have annihilated themselves? God forbid. This commandment...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Justice Scripture "The Lord demands accurate scales and balances; He sets the standards for fairness." Proverbs 16:11 NLT God is a God of justice as much as He is a God of love. This scripture using the concrete image of scales and measures teaches the principle of justice. The quality of being fair and impartial is not a human invention, and those in authority do not have the authority to suspend or violate such principles. Fairness and justice are the Lord's work and should be observed by all men, but we do not see that occurring in this day. Proverbs 11:1 says that "the Lord detest the use of dishonest scales, but He delights in accurate weights," the equality and fair treatment of all mankind. The continual senseless shedding of human blood is a disgrace to every man, woman and child. The world has become an animal kingdom and the beast that lives in us has taken over the souls of many. Those in authority should h...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Relinquish Scripture "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me." Luke 18:22b NCV Luke describes for us the heart of what it means to truly receive God's Kingdom. This rich ruler so confident in his religious practices boldly steps to Jesus hoping he would impress the Lord with his piety and devotion of the law and his good moral habits unlike other sinners. What the ruler failed to see in the story is that Jesus was seeking for those who would relinquish, abandon all that they held of any value in exchange of the new. In order to receive this new message of the Kingdom of God he had to relinquish the symbols of the old. For many of us we believe that we are good that morally we follow Jesus but there are things in our hearts that we have not relinquished to God. We find that out when crisis occurs what comes first in our lives. It is impossible for us as believ...

S.E.E.D. For Today____ Thought Life Scripture "And now dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise." Philippians 4:8 NLT The mind is made up of a mass per se of matter. It is the heart and soul of human beings. It's the central station that operates the body, it's like a head quarters that sends messages to it's constituents on what they should be doing. Its the part of us that thinks, reasons, remembers, our understanding and feelings. The aspects of how we perform are synchronized into this one element of the body in the compartment called the brain. What occupies your mind, many of us daily release our thought life on social media. We wake up turn on the phone and facebook asks you what's on your mind. Paul was listing things in this letter to the Philippians of the things th...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Nevertheless Scripture "Do Not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 New Century Version Life definitely has everyone living basically on the edge of every day. People go to sleep worrying about their love ones, their needs, their future, etc.. wake up with the same cares. Many believers know your word that we are to cast all cares on You but it's difficult for many to rest in what we hear oppose to what we experience. All of us are going to experience excruciating stresses, but we are instructed to be worry free. How so? We must press close to the foundation of the joy of our salvation. In the world of so much trouble we have a worry free zone because of what Christ has done. We must embrace a defiant nevertheless . In the worry free zone we have an ...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Restore Scripture "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." Psalms 51:12 NIV David was a man who definitely journaled and talked to God this is why we have the psalms today. In his brokenness of admitting his sin he pens these words unto to the Lord. He starts out by crying out to God to have mercy upon, according to His unfailing love and great compassion, with that to please blot out his transgressions to wash away all of his iniquity and cleanse him from his sin. Sin leaves us ripped and broken. Ripped and torn in our wants, pleasure vs. God's will. Broken when we fail to choose the latter and needing His grace to bring us back into the previous state we were in our hearts and minds wth Him. Sin interrupts experiencing the joy we had in receiving salvation how special it was, how excited we were the joy was so great it was hard to contain, but in our walk we fall and during those ...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Reconcile Scripture "and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by mean's of Christ blood on the cross." Colossians 1:20 NLT We were God's enemies separated from Him by our evil thoughts and actions. Yet He reconciled us to Himself with the physical death of His Son Jesus Christ, as a result of this, He brought us into His presence to clear the record make us holy, blameless, cleared of all charges, without a single fault. God's justice requires full settlement of the debt, instead of being a debt collector, He forgave the debt in His Son's blood. It pleased God to reconcile us, for while in sin without any admittance of wrong doing towards God He was already making peace with everything. To reconcile us was a deal already established in heaven by the Father and Son, this arrangement was pre-planned to bring the world back into harmony and unity with ...

S. E.E.D. For Today___ Grace Scripture "Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift." Romans 3:23-24a New Century Vision This is the gift from God that through Jesus Christ men are made free from sin. God sent Him to die in our place to take away our sins, to receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus death. "But the scripture declares that whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe." (Gal.3:22) Grace is the gift of God, we were all doomed but God grants us this unmerited favor and bestow us with His great love and justifies us with the life of His only begotten Son. When we think of this it is rather hard to fathom because of how we are and the world in which we live but it's true. While in sin God gave Jesus to take on our debt and gave us grac...

S E.E.D. For Today___ Grace Scripture "Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift." Romans 3:23-24a New Century Vision This is the gift from God that through Jesus Christ men are made free from sin. God sent Him to die in our place to take away our sins, to receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus death. "But the scripture declares that whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe." (Gal.3:22) Grace is the gift of God, we were all doomed but God grants us this unmerited favor and bestow us with His great love and justifies us with the life of His only begotten Son. When we think of this it is rather hard to fathom because of how we are and the world in which we live but it's true. While in sin God gave Jesus to take on our deb...

S.E.E.D. For Today___ Glory Scripture "Arise shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you." Isaiah 60:1 NIV Light is the metaphor for salvation and spiritual awakening, it appears that right now the world is a dark, evil and gloomy place, full of distress and confusion. We need God to shine His light which He will and send revival to our worn torn land. Sin will not hinder God's ability to shine on us, He has already through Christ overcome sin and we are depending on God's transforming glory to rise upon every nation. God is the initiator in relationship with His people and without that God's will would never be accomplished. Right now we are suffocating amongst the darkness and unbelief that covers our world but God will arise for His glory will be seen upon His people. It's time for us to wake up for our light has come. God let Your glory reign upon Your people and send us a sign of Your favor upon us, let u...