Shouldn't Love Be?

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. I Cor.13:8

Personally, I love the 'love chapter' because it talks about something I love: love. It's not just any kind of love that is described here, not just the feeling of love, but this text talks about what love is and isn't. Love as a noun. Love's character. Who love is and exactly what it looks like. We may find in our scripture text for the day the most telling reason and most deeply rooted necessity we have for love in our lives.

We live in a day of self-gratification, not only outside of the church, but more disappointingly, inside the church. Saints of GOD in this dispensation want to live saved and do the things of GOD when it's comfortable and convenient. Because of fear, something not given to us by GOD(II Tim.1:7), greed and selfishness have reared their ugly heads within the Body of CHRIST, leaving those outside to not be able to see and experience the power that CHRISTians are supposed to yield on a daily basis because the CHRISTians have prioritized other things and thus are not walking in that power. This is not a statement of condemnation, but a revelation of sobriety that we need to return to. I heard someone define love, in contrast to lust, as the desire to please others at the expense of self. Hmm...shouldn't love be? Hold on if you will...

The Apostle Paul begins the eighth verse of this text, his final in defining love's attributes, by saying that charity never fails. Why is love referred to as charity in this passage of the Bible specifically and not another? GOD wanted us to know what HIS perfect love consists of. Charity is something that is given for the benefit of someone else. It's not sat upon. It's not kept quiet. It's not withheld. It's given away. Remember the Commissioned song, "Love Isn't Love", until it's what? Given away...that's charity: love that's given away. Now, if this type of love never fails, I mean for no reason does it ever fall short of completing it's task, a statement of absolution here, then shouldn't love be enough? Why isn't love our primary motive? Our absolute driving force? Doesn't it make sense? If love as our purpose, our motive, our root, our foundation (and not just any love, but love that's given away) never fails, ever, then why don't we do everything in love? Why aren't we operating more in love? Why aren't we ministering for love's sake(Mark 6:34)? Why aren't we giving and sowing for love's sake(II Cor.9:7)? Why aren't we seeking another man's wealth for love's sake(I Cor.10:24)? Why aren't we interceding for love's sake(Isa.59:16)? I mean, think about it, if I'm doing what I do out of love, then I won't stop or start when I feel like it or ultimately leave things undone or incomplete. Why not? Because love never fails; it doesn't fall down on the job or give up at the first sign of adversity or struggle, and it never operates solely based on how it feels or whether or not it's receiving in return. My gifting would be more effective in blessing others and being of use to the LORD and fulfilling the needs of the people when I'm not concerned about love offerings and honorariums or making a name for myself. Why? Love never fails.

If every purpose, goal, ambition, we set our heart's desire on was done out of love, how much more successful would we be? Now keep in mind, that when we speak of love and when we speak of success, we're talking about the love of GOD and success measured by the standard of GOD and not the world. I can;t and won't love the unconditional way GOD would have me to outside of the will of GOD; outside of relationship with HIM. Any good that I do would lack consistency and not be pure. But the love of GOD given away is the will of GOD and within that, how definite would be the manifested plans of GOD for my life(Jer.29:11), as my resume would read before GOD "giver of love to those who are in need."

GOD's plan for my life will be there, but it's up to me as to when or whether or not it's ever realized.

Charity never fails. When love is not our motive, the things we think we have and the gifts we like to place on display will wither away. Why? Love is an absolute spiritual entity and spiritual things are eternal. Everything that is not spiritual is temporal and lasts for only a short time(II Cor.4:18).

We know love is not the primary function or reason behind things that go on in and around our lives today, but shouldn't it be? We can't choose the motives of others, but we can choose for ourselves. Give love away today, and watch your life shift into another level of glory as you become more like GOD by modeling HIS flawless character.

With a fresh voice and sound, King David tha Vessel (or KD) blends skill, talent, the ability to minister to various groups and ages, and charisma with the two elements most essential for breakthrough ministry: Gods word and His anointing. The result is cutting edge music that bridges gaps, stirs, motivates, convicts and compels all while encouraging individuals to walk in Gods will for their lives.

Click here to learn more about King David.

HoW cAn I BE so STUPID?!?!?!?

I recently asked myself this question. I hadn’t done so in a long time. I know that usually individuals can be much harder on themselves that any other person could ever hope to be.

But all of that momentarily slipped my mind. I trusted someone who purported to be a man of God and allowed him to opportunity to sponsor one of my charity events. I thought of him as a kind person who wanted to do something good in the community and let down my usual guards. I believed every excuse he gave about why he hadn’t sent the money for the sponsorship even after my organization had committed itself to other companies that were demanding payment. To make a long story short, he is nothing of what he said that he was. To be even more to the point – he is a con artist.

At first, I believed it was an isolated incident. That maybe the economy had been hard on him and his business and he was experiencing a monetary cash flow. Then out of the blue – I begin receiving a barrage of emails about other people he had conned.

That’s when I asked myself the dreaded question, “How could I have been so stupid?”

It was almost in the same instant that I had a moment of clarity. Taking responsibility for making a mistake is one thing – berating yourself for it, is something entirely different.

Think about it.

Do we yell at children when they fall down and bump their heads or bust their lips? No. Do we punch guest who break glasses or spill drinks? No. Do we lash out at plants that die or flowers that don’t bloom? No. Somehow we find compassion in our hearts to forgive and excuse the mishaps and errors of others. Yet we have little if any compassion for ourselves. For some reason, we tend to forge we are growing and learning, and that we will fall down and sometimes make a mess.

You may not always know what to do. It’s okay! You will not always be able to find the right words at the moment at the moment you need them. It’s okay. You may swear you won’t, then do it anyway. It really is okay! It’s okay if you do, or say, or forget to do or say the “right” thing at the “right” time. The challenge is to learn not to beat yourself up about it. Even better – pretend you’re five again, give yourself a big hug and whisper, “It’s okay!”

Because guess what .... it really is.

THE POWER WITHIN

Would you like to improve your life instantly?

Would you like to change your life, make millions of dollars, meet the right person or start experiencing happiness right away?

Now imagine that you have the ability to turn things around right away by working with special powers.

But What would happen if you actually had those powers and didn't know how to use them?

Think about it.

You do have special powers - the only reason why you're not living the life you want is because you don't know how to use those special powers.

I call it the Power Within - and if you know how to apply the awesome power that you have within - you will be able to dramatically change or improve your life faster than you thought possible.

And now that you know you are a Super Hero with magical inner power. Let's get started.

To access your awesome Power Within, you first have to learn how to direct your subconscious mind to attract the people, situations and circumstances that will help you create the changes or improvements you want.

Then you have to begin changing how you see things and how you see yourself.

What do I mean by that?

Well, if you want to be successful then you have to see yourself as someone who is capable of being successful.

If you want to be in a healthy, loving and caring relationship - then you have to see yourself as someone who is capable of being in a loving, caring relationship.

It also means that you can no longer accept any limiting or negative thoughts and beliefs that prevent you from accomplishing your goals.

For example: If you want to be successful you can no longer say, think or believe that "it's too difficult to be successful, I don't know what to do. I never get any great opportunities. My parents never encouraged me. My friends don't support me. Everybody around me is too negative. I don't get any positive feedback."

These are all negative statements, thoughts and beliefs that prevent you from achieving your goals. Now it's time to eliminate them and change them into statements that do help you achieve your goals.

If you keep the negative statements you have your Power Within working against you.

Now that you know your a Super Hero is't time to start using your Power Within for good not evil!

'Cause when it comes right down to it - only you can determine your own success. It doesn't matter if people around you are negative. You don't need encouragement and support from friends or family. You only need to believe and see yourself as someone who is capable of being successful.

Once you do that - once you raise the bar a little higher - once you see yourself as fully capable of achieving your goals you can then begin to direct your subconscious mind so that it begins attracting opportunities for you to be successful.

So don't believe the excuses or reasons that your mind gives you.

Take a look at where you are today and decide what kind of life you want to live. Start seeing yourself as successful in every aspect of your life. Once you see yourself as successful you will be able to direct your mind and subconscious mind and start using your power within to help you achieve your goals.

Once you've decided to raise the bar and you've decided you're no longer going to put up with the excuses that have limited your success - your next step is to develop a higher level of self-awareness.

Let's face it most people are not aware of the incredible Power Within that they posses. Most people aren't aware of why they do the things they do - they just do them.

Most people don't know why things happen the way they do - they simply accept that they happened and that's the end of it. They miss out on the opportunity to work with their Power Within.

I'm not suggesting that you analyze every little detail in your life - I just want you to become more self-aware so that you realize what you want, where you are heading and how you plan to get there. It's like giving your Power Within a set of instructions to follow.

This is something that few people do - and those who do it become tremendously successful like Russell Simmons, Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson just to name a few. All three had a HUGE dream that was only realized by harnessing their Power Within.

I suggest you take a look at someone you consider successful - see if they followed the above formula on some level and you'll find that a lot of them did - often without knowing that they did.

At the end of the day - you have to live with your life and you have to live with the excuses - not me. But if you want to get results - if you want to properly work with your Power Within then you have to change the way you do things.

This means no more complaining or whining. Man up! Because you only attract what you focus on. If you constantly complain you are focusing on what is wrong and guess what? You'll only attract more what you complain about. You'll also attract people who complain and together you'll all get exactly what you complain about. This creates the negative cycle and you actually end up using your Power Within to get more of what you don't want. So stop complaining and stop focusing on all that is wrong in your life.

When you do this you get your mind moving in a new direction - you start to utilize the power of your mind because now you're giving it something new to do - issuing a new challenge one that it is more than capable of meeting.

You also start utilizing the power of your subconscious mind in a positive way. Instead of attracting more of what you don't want - you begin concentrating the energy and power of your subconscious to create the situations that will help you achieve your goals. This is how the power within begins to work for you and gets you results.

The best part is that you'll begin attracting the people that will help you achieve those goals and the people that believe in you - and more importantly you'll repel those people who used to enjoy complaining and whining about the same things over and over. Why? Because now you're taking action and you intend to achieve your goals - so you will naturally attract the people and situations that will help you, while those that can no longer help you will have less of an impact on your life and ambitions.

Now there is a lot more that can be done - but I've outlined the basic starting points for you to begin working with your Power Within. Now it's up to you start doing what I've outlined. You may say: "Oh yeah, I know this stuff - I've heard it before." But do you practice it - I mean really practice it every day!

If you don't practice the above exercises everyday so that you instill a discipline that leads to greater success - nothing will change. It's really that simple. The life you live tomorrow is based on the thoughts, actions and beliefs you hold today. Change those - and you change your life.

So Super Hero (yeah - I'm talking to you) grab your cape! It's your turn to launch your Power Within!

And We Call Him Martin ......

Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy is being celebrated today - January 15th, on what would have been his 80th birthday.

It took nearly two decades to make King's birthday the legal holiday that Americans celebrate on Monday (January 21st). Legislation to declare King's birthday a national holiday was introduced in Congress every year after his assassination on April 4, 1968, but throughout the '70s the bills were rejected time and time again. President Ronald Reagan finally signed legislation creating the holiday in November 1983, after a persistent15-year lobbying effort. It was the first new federal holiday created since Memorial Day was established in 1948.

The holiday's first official year was 1986, but many states -- most notably Arizona and New Hampshire -- were slow to adopt the holiday. In 1999, New Hampshire became the last state to honor Dr. King with a holiday when the state's Governor Jeanne Shaheen signed a bill setting aside the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Day.

King is the only American besides George Washington to have a national holiday designated for his birthday. The birth dates of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, and others have been celebrated in some states but not nationwide.

Internationally, King is one of the few social leaders of any country to be honored with a holiday (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday is observed in India). Countries usually only honor military or religious figures. Given such obstacles, the holiday is a powerful tribute to King's philosophy and stature.

We can never forget those who have come before to pave the way. Especially a man named Martin who had a dream. Click here to see King's speech, "I Have A Dream."

ON NONVIOLENCE (From Birmingham jail, 1963): "In your statement, you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of the Crucifixion?"


ON BLACKS IN AMERICA (From Birmingham jail, 1963): "Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands."


ON NONCOMFORMITY (1963): "This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless Calvaries. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."


ON BLACK POWER (1967): "Today's despair is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow's justice. Black Power is an implicit and often explicit belief in black separatism. Yet behind Black Power's legitimate and necessary concern for group unity and black identity lies the belief that there can be a separate black road to power and fulfillment. Few ideas are more unrealistic. There is no salvation for the Negro through isolation."


ON MARCHING FOR CIVIL RIGHTS (Selma to Montgomery, 1965): "Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom. Let us march to the realization of the American dream. Let us march on segregated housing. Let us march on segregated schools. Let us march on poverty. Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race baiters disappear from the political arena, until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence."


ON PEACE (1964): "Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."


ON THE DREAM OF FREEDOM (1963): "So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed . . . that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true."


ON FREEDOM (1963): "So let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. And when this happens, when we let it ring, we will speed that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last, free at last/Thank God Almighty, we're free at last."


ON HIS OWN FUTURE (April 3, 1968): "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. I won't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."


There will be a lot of talk today about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the impact his dream continues to have on African Americans and people of color around the world. I am sure forums will be held and panels assembled, bread will be broken at luncheons around the country and candlelight vigils will be held in his honor. Sometimes we as Black Americans talk too much about our fallen heroes as we celebrate them on some appointed day or holiday. Dr. Martin Luther King deserves to be honored for the great man that he was and all that he accomplished in his relatively short lifetime. But Martin deserves to be remembered on the other 364 days of the year. Because Martin was a simple man with a dream who made all the difference in the world.

What Kind Of Game Are You Playing?

And how does it manifest in your life. Chances are if you play the blame game then your circumstances may not be what you want them to be. But how do we change them if we point the finger at everyone and everything else as the reason for the bad things that happen to us?

Well, the first step to changing your circumstances is to stop blaming somebody or some events for where you are today.

Sure other people and events had an influence - but it's time to accept some responsibility and admit that you may have had a role in how things turned out.

If you look carefully at the events of the past you'll find that a single decision or a series of decisions that you made played a major role in creating your own circumstances.

When you accept some responsibility you begin to give yourself the power to change things.

If you continue to blame somebody or an event - you give them power and you will continue to live life on their terms.

You can live life on somebody else's terms and change your situation. It simply won't happen.

If you still don't feel that you played a role - then take a look at your thoughts. Are they predominantly negative? Are they filled with anger? Resentment? If they are then you will only attract more negative situations to you and this will lead to more negative circumstances.

If your circumstances are negative or if you feel you are not living the life you want then in order to change this you have to accept that on some level you manifested the life that you have.

You may not want to admit to that - but work with this idea for and you'll begin to understand how you can create change.

For example: if you are currently unemployed - what decision or choices did you make that may have played a role in you being unemployed? Did the job you selected that you eventually lost lead to your current situation? Had you made a different choice would you still be unemployed?

If you recently got divorced or broke up with your spouse - what choices or actions did you take that may have played a role in your current situation? Could you have made a better choice?

Chances are we all could have made different choices that would have changed our circumstances. And this is the process of accepting responsibility. Because now you can focus on making better choices, attracting better situations and creating the changes that you want.

How can you make better choices?

Change the way you think. Instruct your subconscious mind to help you make better choices. Attract better situations into your life by changing the way you think and live.

So think about your current situation. Accept some responsibility for what happened - when you accept responsibility you give yourself the power to create the changes that you want. Look back at some of the decisions that you made that may have influenced the way your life turned out. Track your thoughts - are they predominantly negative or positive?

Start making better choices. Get your mind and subconscious mind working for you so that you begin improving your situation.

Change Your Attitude.

Now that you have accepted some responsibility it's time to begin attracting positive situations and people into your life. To do this first start with your attitude. This means instead of looking at what is wrong in your situation and other situations - look for what is positive and find ways to correct what is wrong.

How do you change your attitude?

Change what you regularly think about. Instead of filling your mind with negative thoughts - fill them with positive thoughts.

Instead of looking at why things won't work out - force yourself to find solutions and think of how things can work out.

Open yourself up to all possibilities.

Think of your mind as garden, you can cultivate it, or you can let it run wild. You can fill it with the weeds of negative thinking, thoughts of lack, limitation and worry. If you don't control your mind and cultivate it with positive thoughts regularly - the weeds of negative thinking will take over and destroy your life - just like weeds can
destroy your garden.

It's your mind and how you think, live and see things will have a direct impact on your current situation.

Why?

Every thought you have is picked up by your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind then considers your regular thoughts as an instruction - telling it to create what you regularly think. So if you are constantly negative and have a negative attitude you will continue to create your own negative circumstances.

This constant negative thought process could lead to you losing your job, breaking up with a spouse, losing your home, making bad investment choices, losing on a business venture, etc.

A negative attitude leads to a negative life and negative circumstances.

So start changing your thoughts and attitude today. Regularly think about the positive situations in your life.

Search for good and positive things everyday. Look for solutions instead of constantly looking at the problem.

And start playing a different game - one that you control not one that controls you.