Aint No Such Thing As Halfway Crooks

"Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God's sight." Romans 5:19 NLT

Could you imagine being the one person responsible for the multitudes of sinners that follow you? More so the one person who OBEYED God yet still had to give life for us to be free. That is a weight to bear. What I get from Romans 5:19 is that God has given us the power to be a light in this dark world. It is up to us how that light is used, in any event we will be followed by others. A positive light will bring in positive people, a negative light will lead people to the more negative side. That means YOU posses the light, so do I.  Mobb Deep taught us that, " Aint't no such thing as halfway crooks!" meaning that you are all in or you all out. We can't serve two masters right? Personally I need to be all in, I know that God gave Jason Davis(FYI normally people who speak in third person freak me out, but it works here) the light to effect others and I have to shine that in a positive way. Let us take the power God has given us and move forward to sow great seed. Stay thirsty my friends.

Do unto Others....

"Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together in peace." Ephesians 4:3 NLT

What does this mean to us? How can we live By this rather than fit it into the way We want to live our lives? Growing up I could never understand why my father would get so angry when my older brother and I would fight one another. I thought because my brother bore my fathers name, he favored him and did not want to see me thrash his name sake in hand to hand combat. That was the a far cry from the truth. For starters at that age I was not mature enough physically to beat my older brother, and lastly my father knew the importance of siblings getting along with one another. He frowned on treating people outside the house better than we treated each other. He and my mother alike stressed over and over the importance of agape love for their children. They also knew to an degree, if we treated our own blood in a negative fashion it would lead to us going through life with no regard for our fellow human beings. The Word tells us to love each other as brother and sister and remain humble. Those are words coming from the Most High and we all should heed them. Tony and Julie new that it started at home. They knew by forcing us to love and respect one another we would be able to carry that into our walks. We are all parts of the same body so we should all start living according to that principle. Stay thirsty my friends.

Where will you be?

"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." I Peter 1:6,7 NLT

We all know that Jesus was crucified for our sins. Put to death only to rise days later. Jesus ascended to heaven with the promise to return. What will you be doing when He returns? We have to stay the course and not let the ills of this world corrupt our ultimate goal, and that is to be welcomed into heaven by The Most High. Life is full of circumstances that will test our faith in Jesus. We must take them as life lessons and use that adversity to build our faith to a level the world cannot penetrate. I believe Jesus is coming back, so in self I try to get better at something everyday. If I shoot for the moon and miss, I'm still amongst the stars. Last time I looked up the stars are above the earth, thus they are above the trails and tribulations this world offers believers to trip is up. Take pride in your faith, learn how to deal with adverse tests of that faith, and prepare for the day Jesus returns. Stay thirsty my friends.....

Do You Know Me, or Know About Me

"But those who obey God's Word really do love Him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in Him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did." 1 John:5,6 NLT

Athletes are either religious, superstitious, or both. I've seen guys wear the same game socks for a whole season because they felt it would make them play better. I've also seen guys pray the prayer of the anointing oil and spread it over their injuries before a game. We often say the Lords prayer before games, but how many of the men who recite that prayer really buy into it? We are quick to praise the Lord in victory, some even in defeat. My question is, that when the lights are turned off, the bleachers are empty as well, do we walk the walk our talk suggests. I know things tend to get tough for believers, I mean even Peter denied Jesus in public. With that said we have to do less talking about our faith and lead by example. Our true measure of faith is not to confess openly then deny Him in private. Let us strive to garner enough integrity to be as steadfast in the Lord in private as we are in public! Stay thirsty my friends...

Executive Decsions

I was recently at a powerful conference called PAO that touched on so many key factors in raising children and marriages up in a God fearing household. The tips and speeches touched something inside of me that made me thankful for my father. Dr. Tony Curtis stressed how the father has to raise the children up around the table. He is to take the child rearing reins while the mother helps in a support capacity. After the sound of every woman in the conference hall gasping had subdued, he elaborated what he meant. Dr. Curtis said this to stress to the fathers that with them taking the lead with a hands on approach with their children, they will be raised in such a way that God would bless him to see generations of fruitful off spring from his loins. His kids, kids, kids! That touched me with my father because Dewey Davis made it a point to take his daughter Yolanda to Mt. Olive Baptist Church. In turn Yolanda had a son, Anthony Dewey Davis. Now Anthony's father was absent, so as with Yolanda, Dewey made sure Anthony went to church. Anthony had Anthony II and Jason who he raised in the church. Reluctantly we went. Lil Tony now has his own children who attend church, and Christian rooted schools. So now Anthony Dewey Davis III or Trey as we call him(Lil Tunchi as he likes to be called but that's a whole other blog post) along with his brother Jaylen and sister Brooklyn are being raised in the church. It all started with Dewey making the decision that his daughter is going to church, his daughter's son was taking under his wing in the absence of his biological father and also raised in church. That grandson follows the example of his father figure and takes his two sons. Those sons grow up in the church, and when the eldest has his own children he doesn't hesitate to put them in church! The little brother then is eager to have children so he can do the same. A cycle has been started in which one man made a decision that forever shaped his life. God allowed Dewey Davis to not only see his grandson but his grandson's sons! My father chose to put us in church so now God has allowed him to run around with Lil Tunchi! God is amazing man. We are olive branches of Dewey's decisions.

Do you ever get nervous?

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I first came in contact with 2nd Timothy 1:7 back in 2006 as a rookie in Wendsday bible study with the Philadelphia Eagles. I was fascinated by Brian Dawkins, our all-pro veteran strong saftey, and leader of our team if you don't know who he is.....duh. The thing that drew me to B-Dawk as a fan from afar first then later as a fan and a teammate was his tenacity for defense and the game of football. He was/is a warrior on the field. His unyielding pursuit of the ball carrier, and what seem to be a fearless and reckless abandonment for his body and the poor guy he was trying to desrtoy. After Dawkins closed another great bible study in prayer I pulled him to the side to ask how can someone that is so humble, reserved during the week, be so fearless on Sundays? He told me in that low but business like voice that only he and Ray Lewis seem to have, that he reads 2 Timothy 1:7 before every game. The words in that verse are strong and to the point like B-Dawk, but they gave him what he needed to transform from mild mannered Brain Dawkins to one of the most feared safties patrolling the middle of the field; Weapon X! Fear is something the devil uses to control us, attemping to cripple us with fear in order to keep us from reaching our full potentials. We have to understand how much power God has given us. God wants us to hold our heads high and obtain whatever it is we have set our minds to. If we stay in faith, erase the spirit of fear from our lives, we will reap harvest beyond anything we ever could imagine. We are powerful, we are the sons and daughters of the Lord.Let us today put fear behind us and excel to the great heights our Father has for us. Stay thirsty my friends.......

Guiding Light

"...Do not let me be disgraced, for I trust in you. May integrity and honestly protect me, for I put my hope in you. " Psalm 25:20-21 NLT

Guiding light is not the name of the soap oprea my grandmother Maple use to make my brother and I pain stakenly watch while she baby sat us. No, this is the promise that our Father has given to us when we decide as the scirpture says, to put our hope in him. How do we put our hope in God? We have to be upstanding and on accord with the word of God. We have to be men and women of valor, pocess the type of intergerty that is pleasing to God. The scripture above says that along with honesty, God will protect us in our lives. If we truly trust in God, we must first establish a trust with Him he can be proud of. This is not a one way street, what we do when no one is around us is who we are. Who do you want to be known as to God? We have to build up a repore with God so that the enemies of the world cannot run our names through the mud, we will not be disgraced by them, God will guide our path so through him, and him alone we be able to continue to walk with our shoulders back and heads high. Stay thirsty my friends.......

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

"And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts (deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds). For as members of Christ's one body you are called to live in peace. And be thankful (appreciative),  (giving praise to God always)." Colossians 3:15 NLT/AMP

For some reason unknown to me I devopled an affintany for the soul singer Booby Womack.I dont't know if it is how he often narrarates the song for minutes on minutes before he sings one note, or the tone of his voice, but he is my guy. Mr. Womack started one particular song talking to a women he was about to end an realatinship with saying, " you always worrying what yo girlfriend got, what you AINT got..." We can fall in the same trap stated in this iconic song. We allow our minds to lose focus on God and start looking around for things that are not in or apart of our lives. We must trust in Him and His plan for us instead of looking at every Tom, Dick, and Harry for examples of what we think our lives should be similar to. Your mind will tell you that you are not good enough, or no one belives in you. That is simply not true, The Most High belives in you when we are too weak minded to do so for ourselves. Talk to your Heavenly father and be in a mind space so you can hear him. The instructions that He has for us we lead our paths and calm our eager minds.