“Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others” (Mother Teresa).

May this be your prayer. May it be mine. May it be the prayer of all who call on Jesus in faith. Whether or not it actually was a prayer of Mother Teresa’s or not (and I believe it was), it is still a beautiful prayer for every believer to start off the day. All I can really think to add is an Amen.

“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13, The Message).

The most notable feature of these disciples who were instrumental in turning the world upside down and seeing the early church explode in numbers wasn’t their intelligence or their charisma. It wasn’t their brand or their elevator speech. It wasn’t their strategy or plan or five-year goal.

It was the simple fact that people recognized that they had been with Jesus. For three years they had followed Him daily, eating when He ate, sleeping when He slept. For those three years they took in every single word He spoke, every miracle He performed, every place He went, every life He touched.

That’s what will transform your world. When people see and know that you have been with Jesus. More than knowing facts about Jesus and having all the correct doctrines about God the Son, what makes a world of difference to the people where you live, work, and play is that you know Jesus.

The only way to know Jesus is to spend time with Jesus. That comes through Scripture, prayer, meditation, and community. You learn Jesus in the community of believers because each will show you a facet of His character, like the different facets in a diamond.

That’s my prayer. I want to know Jesus that deeply and profoundly so that I can’t help but be transformed. In turn, I want people who know me to be transformed not by me or my words or acts, but by the Jesus they see in me.

May it be the desire of every believer to know Jesus a little more each and every day until we see Him face to face. Amen.

Brentwood Baptist Church (and all of its regional campuses) joined together with Mt. Zion Baptist Church for the 3rd annual Better Together event held at Hadley Park near the Tennessee State University campus.

It was a tangible demonstration of what happens when the Church truly acts like the Church, where we truly live out Christ’s command to seek the kind of unity that He shares with the Father.

In a divisive age, there’s nothing more attractive to the world than when believers from every ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic background can join together for the gospel.

We gave out countless backpacks for children just as another year of school is about to commence. It warmed my heart to see the look of joy on kid’s faces over something I would have taken for granted back in the day. School supplies might not seem like much, but they could be the catalyst that inspires a child to want to learn. That child could grow up to be the one to make a real difference in his or her community.

Plus, the two churches had a rousing game of kickball for bragging rights and for fun, but mostly for fun. I’m sure a good time was had by all. I’m also positive that many lives were blessed as a result of this event.

I hope to be back next year to see how God will show up in unexpected ways. I don’t know how it will happen, but I know it will.

Feel free to steal, borrow, and otherwise apply this in any social media post or conversation that you might have in the next 24-48 hours. I probably stole it from someone else’s post many moons ago.

You’re most blessed when you can learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously. You’re not as big a deal as you think you are, but you are more loved (by God) than you will ever know.

Most of all, if you’re reading these words, it most likely means that you woke up this morning, which is in itself a very underrated privilege not granted to just everyone. Yay you.

I wrote these words a few years back. I still believe them. I believe that neither liberalism nor conservatism captures the entire essence of the gospel. I believe that we’re not called to follow a political leader or platform or agenda but Jesus.

I still believe our utmost allegiance is not to a President– any President– or a flag but to a King and a Kingdom that will last forever. I believe one day Jesus will look at us for scars and if He doesn’t find any, He will ask, “Was there nothing worth fighting for?”

I believe that we can serve and bless Jesus in the way that we serve and bless the least of these and those who can never pay us back. I believe that sometimes the least of these will include you and me when we are the least lovable and deserving of grace.

“At the end of the day, Jesus will not ask us who we were against or how much we defended our free speech or how we let everybody know where we stand politically. He will ask, ‘Did you love the least of these? Did you love your enemies? Did you give to those who can’t ever pay you back?’ At the end of the day, all that matters is this: did we love well like Jesus loved us well?”

I woke up this morning feeling about the same as when I went to bed last night. I didn’t notice any monumental changes while I was showering or brushing my teeth or getting dressed. I didn’t radically transform on my morning commute to work.

It’s all about those 10,000 steps we take every day. They either lead us closer to or further away from who we want to be.

For the believer, it’s all about trusting the process. Better yet, it’s all about trusting the God who’s in charge of the process.

Every day, you change imperceptibly and unnoticeably. At every moment God is in work in you, making you more like Jesus. You probably don’t notice on a daily basis, but some event will bring into sharp relief how much you’ve changed.

Your reaction to a stresser won’t be the same as when you were stressed about the same thing last year. You won’t be quite as quick to rush to judgment on someone as you might have been 5 years ago.

Keep trusting God, even above your senses and feelings and intuition. All those things can mislead or deceive, but God never will. Trust God in the process. He is still working all things together for good.

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough” (Meister Eckhart).

This is a beautiful story that just about everyone reading can relate to at some point. Untangling someone, whether literally or metaphorically, can be a long and dangerous process, but in the end is always worth it.

“A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her…. a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. 

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. 

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. 

May you be so fortunate … To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. 

And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude”

“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (1 Peter 4:12-13, The Message).

It may be true that Monday’s just around the corner. But so is glory.

If you’re going through it and you feel at the end of your proverbial rope, hang on. Glory’s just around the corner.

If you feel as if it’s all you can do to exist from day to day, from hour to hour, from moment to moment, hang on. Glory’s just around the corner.

Whether your day’s been great or terrible, whether you’re riding high or down in the dumps, you know that in Jesus the best is yet to come.

Even in the mist of the worst that life can bring, you know that God is in the very midst of it with you. There’s nothing that can happen to you or anything you can do to lose the love He has for you.

Hang on. Glory’s just around the corner.

“…can you just feel held for a moment? Wherever you are?
The God of invincible reliability, of infinite resources, of insistent love, says, “Give me everything you are carrying — because I want to carry you.” 
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you” Ps. 55:22
Thank You, Lord, for being the pillowed rest —
into which we can sink real deep & find a Peace that passes all understanding.

#SharingPrayer #GodsGotYou
art credit: Kelli Murray”

I post this one because 1) I can relate on many levels, 2) it will speak to many people, and 3) I’m too tired to think of anything original.

Seriously, I’ve found many times over how faithful God is to those who keep trusting in Him. He’s faithful even when you run out of faith. He’s faithful. Period.