Like an Olive Tree

History tells us that all of the trees in and around Jerusalem were cut down when the Romans conquered the city in 70 AD. Yet there are olive trees there today. They could even be off-shoots of the trees that were growing in the days that Jesus walked the Earth. It has been said that olive trees can regenerate from their roots. This means they can be cut completely down and sometime later sprout, flourish, and bear fruit again.

"For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep." Job 14:7-12 ESV

As long as there is breath in a man, there is hope. Hope for salvation. Hope for regeneration. Hope for an eternal life with Jesus Christ. We must never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit. He searches the depths of man’s soul. He is the one who pricks the conscience of man. He is the One who draws the man to the Father. He is the one understands the non-verbal communications of man.
God created man in His image. He put within man a place that can only be filled with Him. Many search the world over for something to satisfy. Drugs, alcohol, sex, and plastic surgery are a few things that have been sought to stop the gnawing of emptiness. Oftentimes a person will have to hit rock bottom before they realize that Jesus is the answer to their woes. But some only need to witness a life that is vibrant with the love of Jesus.

Our mandate is to go and tell. To that I add; and live well. So what if you have been battered and cut down? Let the Holy Spirit water you soul today and you will begin to sprout again. As long as you have breath, there is hope.

I originally posted this on another site . Copyright 2008

Greetings Beloved

Today I want to examine the first sixteen verses of Romans chapter sixteen. The text is lengthy but the observations brief. Here the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Rome. He begins with a recommendation of Phoebe, a sister in the Lord.

He speaks of her as being a helper to the multitudes. He refers to her as a servant of the church.
Although the word that he uses for servant is the same one that can be rendered as deaconess; we can gather from verse two that he means to accentuate her servanthood rather than an office.

All but one of the following 14 verses, begin with the word, "Greet" followed by a name of a brother or sister in the Roman church. What is interesting to me is the descriptive words that he adds about each person. These descriptions range from extended compliments to just stating his relationship with them. And a few greetings are extended to nameless groups of folks.

How would he have qualified his greetings had he been writing to your pastor? Would you be considered his fellow-worker? Would he have recognized you as the first convert in your area? Would he have expounded on your faithfulness and maturity in Christ? Would he have labeled you a hard worker or just a relative?

Would you be miffed if he greeted you only as mother or sister? Or would you swell with pride at the suffix "chosen of the Lord"? And what if he openly stated his love for you?

It is a lot to think about. There may have been one listening to the letter and wondering if their name would be mentioned and what glowing remarks would be added. Still others may have gotten their feelings hurt when their names were not called. Perhaps some were tempted to be jealous or resentful. It is impossible to know for sure.

One thing is certain, Paul knew his flock. How else would he have had the confidence to instruct them to greet one another with a holy kiss? I'm afraid to contemplate the repercussions of such an act in today's churches. Holiness is considered old-fashioned by today's standards and is near obsolete in many congregations. And kissing in church? I think that there's a lot more than that going on behind some church doors. God have mercy!

I didn't mean to slide into the rants of moral decay, it just somehow came to my mind. Nevertheless, I want my name to have some goodness attached. I want to be remembered as a fellow-laborer in the Kingdom. I want to be able to give and receive holy greetings, salutations, and kisses.

The Ministry Part of Suffering

It is the second day in a new year. Great time for me to make a second start on a new blog post. It has been some months since I have blogged and years since I did it faithfully. Seasons change. Jobs change. People change. Priorities change. Yet my core values remain intact, my calling as real as it has ever been, and my hunger for God greater than it was yesterday. 

Resolutions are not my thing. Most are inflated ideas, fueled by good intentions, and destined to fail without discipline and prayer. But I will say that I have been stirred to return to writing this blog. Perhaps out of my need for discipline or structure, but most definitely to focus on the goodness of the Lord & to share the Good News.

Recently I took another look at one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I say, "another look", what I mean to say is this; I read it from the KJV, I read it from the NIV, I read it from the NLT, in all I read it from ten different translations.  The essence of each translation was the same, yet when I read it from the J B Phillips version, the word "ministry" came to mind.

"This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar—to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. Yes, we who are living are always being exposed to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in our mortal lives. We are always facing death, but this means that you know more and more of life. Our faith is like that mentioned in the scripture: ‘I believed and therefore I spoke’." II Corinthians 4:7-13 Phillips

Our perseverance testifies of the power of the TREASURE within us. When others see our troubles overshadowed by the light of His strength shining through us, they are in fact receiving the Good News of Christ. That my friend is the ministry we do when we are "going through".

My prayer today is that I will persevere through aches, pains, ailments, hardships, & loss and that all attention will be drawn to His light within me and not to my condition or circumstance. 

Dine In or Carry Out?

My pastor often says that it is not good to eat at every one's table. I agree; yet how do we decide which buffets are best for us?

There are many voices in the world. Which ones will you hear?

There are two requirements that are non-negotiable for me. First, the message must be founded in the Bible. It makes no difference how great the service is, if the food is a poor quality, it is not a place that I want to eat.
Second, the messenger must have clean hands and a pure heart. It does not matter how great the food is, if the waiter is filthy, I want no part of the meal.

In my sidebar you will find some of my favorite reads. Each of them I have found over time, to be consistent in biblical content and relevant to Christian living. It has been a very long time since I have blogged or even read from my own sidebar. I am slowly cleaning up the list, so I ask your forgiveness if you happen across a broken link or discontinued blog.

Bon Appetit my friends.

Resource Material

I was just doing a little research and decided to consult the Assemblies of God website for additional information. That is exactly what I found there; loads of good information and resources. This link will take you directly to a number of pdf printable position papers. "Worship in the New Testament", "The Security of the Believer", and "Can Born-Again Believers be demon possessed?" are just a few of the offerings there. If you have never visited there, I encourage you to do so.

The Wiles of the Web

Hello, my name is Sista Cala and I am an Internet junkie. I just don't know how I got so out of control. It all started with needing an email account at work. Then my job made it mandatory to complete on-line continuing education. Various committees decided to use email instead of actually having meetings. This was to cut down on wasted time. ha, ha.

Somewhere along the way, my sister Cyn encouraged me to start a blog. I pondered for days about what to name it, what I wanted to post, and how to get my thoughts from paper to screen. Blogger made that easy for me; and the rest is history.

From blogspot to bloglines, I needed a streamlined way to manage all of the blogs I wanted to read. Bloglines has a function called "clip blog" that made it so easy to save little snippets that I thought might be useful later on. Soon I had a mountain of snippets and little way to catalog them.

One day while teaching Sunday School, I made reference to something that I had read in a blog somewhere around here. Opened a can of worms indeed. My pastor decided that I must be a computer guru or something, so he put me to work on the church website. It started simple with a couple of pages and now it is about a dozen.

Requests came pouring in for info about our ministry. How could we get some samples out to the masses. Eureka........YouTube, GodTube, e-zekiel.tv, ShoutLife. Being the 'net-queen began to consume more and more time. Then the teens asked why we didn't have a MySpace. I said that I had no time to work it. Oh some of them could have set it up for Pastor, but they couldn't be trusted to keep it squeaky clean.....you know what I mean? Long story short; we now have a MySpace page. I tinker with it some, but get this......it has worked its magic on my pastor and I think he's got a hundred friends or more.

It is not enough that I've got all these sites setup and running for the church, I have my own personal pages too. Actually mine came first. I used them as beta-sites for me to learn the ropes. So much work, seems like a waste to terminate them as I plod the steps of sobriety. Alas, I have all but stopped posting here, have given a notice on ShoutLife, doing very little on MySpace, e-zekiel.tv, and GodTube (now tangle.com) but still keeping both YouTube accounts renewed weekly.

God is so good. He has spared me from withdrawal symptoms. So far. But then again, I didn't/haven't quit cold turkey. Actually, I have found the methadone of the 'net world.....Facebook. It is a little user un-friendly at times, but it offers means of blogging, networking, and IM all rolled up together. It has become my latest hangout. I can't barely go a day without logging in to see what long lost friend has found me.

It is going to take more than a 12 step program to free me from that one. Perhaps down the line I will get back to some serious posting. I still have tons of material that I could post; but for now you can catch up with my archives all over the 'net ( if all of these links are intact). See you around. If you're ever in the Facebook neighborhood, look me up (enter sistacala@juno.com )in the friend-finder box and we'll have a little chat.

The Reggie Dabbs Story

In my neck of the woods it is common to hear folks say, "The Lord brought me a mighty long way." In today's post I want to introduce you to a young man that I met some 30 years ago.

We met while attending Camp Ambassador (TN Assemblies of God church camp now called Jackson Conference Center). While we were from different parts of the state, and being different in gender and ethnicity, we found common ground in worshipping our Savior. Little did I know that he would mature into a mighty warrior in/for the Kingdom. I hope you will take the opportunity to visit his website and perhaps invite him to speak in your area. I know that he will be a blessing to you and your community.

The following is an excerpt of Reggie's story taken directly from the press kit posted on his site.

Born to an unwed teenager who at one time considered abortion as a viable option for solving her "problem," Reggie Dabbs considers himself fortunate to be alive. With no place to go, the pregnant teenager ended up living in a chicken coop in Louisiana. It was there she remembered a former school teacher, Mrs. Dabbs, who had said to her students, "If you ever need anything, call me," and gave the students her home phone number. The girl called.

Mrs. Dabbs went to Louisiana, picked up the girl, and took her back to Tennessee where she and her husband, whose six children were adults by this time, took the girl into their home and cared for her until after the baby was born. They continued to care for little Reggie as foster parents until he was in the fourth grade, and then they officially adopted him and gave him the Dabbs name.

As the Dabbs' reared Reggie, they instilled in him strong moral values, for which he is genuinely grateful. They also ingrained in him the fact that in every situation he faced, he had a choice. What he did with those choices was entirely up to him.

When addressing a school assembly, Reggie talks to the kids in a humorous style about choices each of them has when faced with drugs, alcohol, suicide, etc. Reggie gets in kids faces and tells them that he never smoked a cigarette, never did drugs, never drank alcohol, because he chose not to. He assures them that they can make the same kinds of choices.

Reggie talks to kids about family and how thankful they should be that they have families. He talks to them about dating relationships and emphasizes that virginity is the most honorable choice. Most of all, Reggie drives home the fact that "You can never change your past, but you can change your future.

From being a "Problem" to an unwed teenager, Reggie is fast becoming one of the most in-demand speakers who helps teenagers meet their problems head-on and overcome them.