The saying is true “We all have a past and a story”. Some peoples past are not so bad, or it wasn’t too bad, while others past scream “You never should have made it”. My past story would be under the category of “Never should have made it”. I wasn’t always the Godly woman, let’s make that clear and my patience ran very thin. I didn’t always make the right decisions or say the right things. As a matter of fact, my mouth was foul and vicious. I loved hustlers and the street life and even sold a few drugs myself. Sex, was my coping mechanism along with the usage of cocaine, liquor, and weed. To make matters worse my first Husband was abusive and my sons Father is currently serving thirty years in a Federal Facility. See, I told you “We ALL have a past and a story….BUT there’s some GLORY to ALL of our stories.
Have you ever wondered why some people try to keep you hostage with your past? Or why no matter how much you’ve evolved, they choose to remember the “I remember when’s”. How many of us have miscarried our purpose and destiny because of others opinions of us? How many times have you become angry with self and with others because your past is haunting you? My last question to you is, when will you take back your power? The very moment you realize that everything that you were in the past is what help mode you for your today. That’s right, just think if you never had any affliction, trials, test, or tribulations. How would we know God to be everything He promised us He would be? He promised us that he would be our Healer (that includes your mindset, heart, & soul), Deliverer (that includes all areas of bondage), Savior (that includes your ENTIRE life), & He said that He would stick closer than any brother (that mean seven when you were at your worst).
There was a time when I allowed my past and others opinions of me to haunt my future. I’ve even been told by some people who attend church “People don’t need to know your business they can’t handle it” or “Why do you tell your business so people can talk about you”. Well, I believe that IT’S MY STORY to tell and I want it told right, with truth. Besides, nobody can tell your story like you can and no one knows the deepest darkest parts to your story. I promise you, the more you share your testimony with those who can benefit from being told how you made it over. The more power you’ve taken from the enemy, people, and your past. The enemy desires to keep you in bondage and God’s desires you to walk in liberty with no condemnation and live in abundance. This is why the enemy keeps whispering your past in your ear to fatally distract you from ALL the blessings that lay before you. Every blessing that has your name on it awaits you. Yet, you’re stuck and hurt because no matter what you do….People remind you of your past.
When we are reluctant to share our story, we allow God’s glory to be robbed because of shame and embarrassment. Then, we allow others who are going through what we have been through to suffer because of shame and embarrassment. How selfish is that and why are we so ashamed of what helped build us and couldn’t break us? From past experience this means one, two things, or it could mean both. Either you haven’t forgiven self and or you created a mental prison within self. Don’t be your worst enemy learn to speak life over yourself “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”….CELEBRATE your NEWNESS!
I am reminded of the story of Lot and his Wife. The Bible says “But Lot’s Wife looked back as she lingered behind him, and she became a pillar of salt”. STOP lingering and looking back before you miss the very breakthrough that you’ve been praying and fasting for. Besides, how will you know what’s ahead of you and you keep looking back at your past. FREE your mind and yourself and the rest will follow! It doesn’t matter what your past consist of or how bad it was because ‘Whom the Son sets free is truly free indeed”. Walk in your NOW and make no excuses about where you’ve been because all that matters is where you’re going. Stick your chest out because you are a SURVIVOR and MORE THEN A CONQUEROR. God has His hands on you, He’s not a man that can lie, and He promised to complete the work He started in you.
My prayers go out to Michael Vick, because he served his time and people are still trying to hold him hostage. But in the words of my girl Ms. Cicely from the “Color Purple” “The jail you build for me, is the jail you will rot in”. Own your past mistakes and let everyone know that redemption is possible. I love the fact that God has a way of making dirt look good and although WE ALL WAS filthy once upon a time. His BLOOD washed all of our sins away including our past. NOW WALK IN YOUR AUTHORITY, NEWNESS, & RIP YOUR RUNWAY!!
If you like this Blog please leave a comment and be sure to tune into The Tyra Hill Show Sundays 5pm EST www.wpbnetworks.com and Thursday’s 7pm EST & Saturday 2pm EST on www.praiseaustin.com. “If You’re Dealing With It, We’re Talking About It” on The Tyra Hill Show.
[twitter style=”vertical” float=”left”]
[fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”]
[fbshare type=”button”]
[linkedin_share style=”none”]
Normally I like to share fun, trendy post. But I really felt this should be shared. On a daily basis you pass by your coworkers, close friends and even close family that seem to live a regular life. But really when they are home, there truth faces them every day. Google has a made a cutting edge invention called “Google Glass” which allows you to text, get directions and much more from these glasses. There is a video that is trending that shows an average day in the life of a woman who wears these glasses, her day is normal until the end.
(WATCH VIDEO) http://www.upworthy.com/a-woman-shares-her-day-through-google-glass-it-seems-lovely-and-ordinary-until-the-end?g=2&c=ufb2
This really struck a chord within me. I encounter over 100 people daily just in an 8 hour span, and I can imagine how many of those women and men go home to abusive situations and they have a smile on their face but hurt and pain in their heart. Take the time to be nice, share a smile, you never know how that can impact someone.
[twitter style=”vertical” float=”left”]
[fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”]
[fbshare type=”button”]
[linkedin_share style=”none”]
[google_plusone size=”standard”]
Every place I go I see homosexuality; whether it’s on television, being displayed in society, within my circle or within my family. When I’m in society every corner I turn no matter what city or state I’m in, I see a Church. Whether it’s Baptist, Catholic, COGIC, Apostolic, Non Denominational, Southern Baptist, Jewish Synagogues or simply A place of Worship….they’re on every corner. One would think that the terms “Homosexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender” wouldn’t dare be said in the same paragraph that the word “Church” was used in. How do we wrap our minds around the fact we are living in a society where alternative life styles have become the “New Norm”? How do we live in a world with people that don’t live like us or the way we think they should live, or look like us and dress the way we want them to dress, and refuse to believe what it is that we believe? Have you ever heard the saying “Same old stuff just a different day”? I mean really this isn’t anything new; it just came in a different form called same sex relationships. I’ve been asked many times “How are we as Christians suppose to raise our children and live in a world that is allowing same sex marriages, open gay relationships, men dress like women, women dressing like men, and be okay with it”? Then, I’ve been asked by the Gay community “Why can’t God love me like He loves you and why can’t I attend Church without being judged & ridiculed?” Someone just shared their story with me; he told me that his church excommunicated him on a Social Media Site. I was speechless, my heart ached, and grieved because that is NOT the type of God I/We serve. I refuse to believe that any church that is opened in God’s name and any Christian who claims to love God would treat anyone like this. It’s time to TALK about it, it’s time to ask questions and seek God for answers on how we as Christians are to respond to the “New Norm”.
Let’s start with my questions…. 1. When did homosexuality become the #1 sin on the list, because the Bible calls it “Sexual Immorality”? That also includes fornication, adultery, lusting, masturbation, and covetousness of one’s spouse. 2. If the Bible states in James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all” why aren’t we as Christians addressing SIN as a WHOLE meaning the immorality of sin itself? Because SIN IS SIN which includes lying, backbiting, gossiping, (stealing) cheating on taxes, envy, jealousy, hatred in the heart, malice, drunkenness, gluttony, wickedness, and the list goes on. Especially when scripture tells us in 1st Corinthians 6; 9-10 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (man acting feminine), nor abusers of themselves with mankind. V.10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers (to use abusive language), nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Now, I would be lying if I said not guilty because I’ve been guilty of many sins and GOD just happened to say “NOT GUILTY”. I stand on and believe the Word of God and I agree that sexual immorality, the works of the flesh, and anything else God forbids in His holy Word is a Sin. That means even when I did those things listed above I was a sinner. Now, I’m a sinner saved by grace trying to live a life pleasing unto God. Does that make me sinless, no I just (sin) less because I must crucify flesh (anything not of God) daily! Does that give me the right to put my mouth on someone else who sins differently from me? No, that would make me judgmental, which is also a sin according to Matthew 7:2 “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you”.
Here’s the moral of this Blog, GOD is looking at the church (You & I) the City on a Hill. He’s not looking at the world nor is He coming back for the world. The enemy has sown seeds of division amongst the people of God, within God’s House of Prayer, Our Families, & Our Communities. We have become so FATALLY DISTRACTED on whose right and who’s wrong on this issue. Nobody is paying attention to the blood we have on our hands, because we’ve murdered people with our mouths and we’ve wounded souls with our judgmental outburst. As people of God, we have the audacity to use words like faggot, dikes, homo, studs, queers, butch, & so on and think its okay. We’ve somehow LOST our focus and commission from God and the 2nd Greatest Commandment, which is to LOVE thy neighbor as thyself. His love never fails and it covers a multitude of sin even if the sin is different from yours. We must get back to that place of SOUND DOCTRINE which is hate the sin, yet LOVE the sinner. We have no right to tell people that they can’t worship with us because of their lifestyle. Jesus came to set the captives free, he didn’t come for the people who weren’t sinners. It’s our job as Christians to embrace people of all backgrounds and lead them to God by being a living example and testament that God is I AM. We must set aside our bickering and return back to our Father’s business of winning souls.
We can’t keep acting like the modern day Pharisees and Sadducees who knew the law, but didn’t want to accept or embrace the One who came to fulfill the law. How can we say that we have the mind of Christ, when some of us have taken on the mindset of bigotry? That’s not Kingdom, NOR is it what the GODHEAD stands for. Then there are those like me who have been delivered from sexual immorality. Yet the very people we worship with, who may know or think they know our past. Try to keep us hostage and in bondage with our past as if GODS Word isn’t true or as if He’s a liar. As a matter of fact I am reminded of this passage of scripture “He Without Sin Cast The First Stone”. This is how Jesus responded when the “Pharisees” and others surrounded the adulterous woman to stone her to death according to John 8:7. How many of us have thrown stones or shade at people whose lifestyles don’t line up with ours? Is the Father pleased with our actions and the way we treat people in His name? Let’s not forget to examine self; especially when some of us faithfully watch television shows full of sexual immorality and violence. Yes, I went there because we must acknowledge our own shortcomings and sinful nature.
We must address these issues that are causing havoc within our families, communities, and the household of faith…The time is NOW! My prayer is that we begin to look at others, not where they are but where GOD sees them. We sing that good ole hymn “Amazing Grace shall always be my song of praise, for it was grace that brought my liberty, I do not know just how He came to love me so, He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs. I shall forever lift mine eyes to Calvary, to view the cross, where Jesus died for me how marvelous, His grace that caught my falling soul ,He Looked beyond my faults and saw my need.” If God looked beyond ALL your faults, surely He’s looking past everyone’s faults and He sees their needs. As I close another song just came to mind, the song simply says “Holy Spirit deal with me, I give you authority, take what’s wrong and make it right, Spirit deal throughout the night, Holy Spirit Deal with me I give you authority , until ALL in my life becomes Yours”. Truth be told, Tyra got some stuff in her life that she’s trying to rid herself of which makes it hard for her to judge anyone. Yet, I pray for EVERYONE to repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand. Join me Sunday as we discuss this issue and create this much needed forum. Bishop Anthony Claxton, Myself & Others will be discussing this very issue and we’re taking phone calls. Be SURE to tune in Sundays 5 pm EST on www.wpbnetworks.com (Download App to Your I phone or Smartphone). Or catch us on Thursdays 7 pm EST & Saturdays 2 pm EST on www.praiseaustin.com. “If You’re Dealing With It, Let’s Talk About It” On The Tyra Hill Show. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think about this article~Tyra
[twitter style=”vertical” float=”left”] [fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”] [fbshare type=”button”] [linkedin_share style=”none”] [google_plusone size=”standard”]
The wedding season is upon us, and you know I have all the latest wedding gown fashions and trends for Spring/Summer 2014. Just the other the day Samuel (my love bug) and I attended the first of many weddings that is on our schedule for the year. This bride was very Rocker Chic, with off the shoulder diamond chain, High Low Chiffon dress with a Madonna inspired 80’s veil. I myself have been scrolling Pinterest , wedding blogs and websites for my special day (stay tuned) and there are so many to choose from. Here is my list of the Top 5 wedding dresses that is guaranteed to make you look beautiful on your special day.
1. Lace: Monique L Huillier caused a buzz with this gown reminiscent of the wedding dress Catherine Middleton Duchess of Cambridge, wore on her special day. Lace sleeves are A glamorous addition to this A-line wedding dress.
2. Knee length dresses: Knee Length dresses were a must on the runway this year. If you are a shorter bride and don’t want your dress to swallow you up. Consider a knee length dress. Carolina Herrera crafted this above-the-knee gown from organza. Apart from the sweetheart neckline showing off intricate pleating,
3. Detailed Backs: Detailed backs were a huge trend this year with designers looking to open-back keyholes, architectural pleating and contemporary trains.
There were many more styles that would be sure to make you look absolutely beautiful on your day. But stay tuned I am going to teach all my “Brides to Be” how to get this look on a budget.
[twitter style=”vertical” float=”left”] [fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”] [linkedin_share style=”none”] [google_plusone size=”standard”]
[fbshare type=”button”]
Hey family my name is Samuel “The Bridge” Jones. I am a hip hop artist from the Midwest and I absolutely have your best interest at heart with news from the hip hop world. Recently, there was a documentary on the evolution of the hip hop; “Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip Hop” on VH1. I absolutely loved getting an intensive view on the history of pop culture’s most famous genre.
When watching the documentary, it felt like I was taking an introductory course, hip hop 101. It was hard to believe, that over a course of 40 plus years, hip hop would influence fashion, politics, the media, television, publications, and social norms. To hear that even the Jewish culture had so much to do with its evolution was amazing. Can you imagine that popular outputs like The Source and Def Jam had founders that were not African American? Well it’s true! Even fashion moguls such as Tommy Hilfiger caught on to the firestorm created by people like Snoop Dogg, wearing his clothing. It inspired a generation of rappers such as LL Cool J, Sean Puffy Combs, and Jay-Z to represent their lines.
Hip Hop encouraged the idea of cross-platform merchandising and the parental explicit label. It made jewelers like Jacob the Jeweler a commodity destination instead of a rarity to visit. It became the outsource for political messages and gave way to a cool view of an African American leader in the white house, who used urban language and quotations from popular rappers. This tanning of America led music’s upper echelon to become acceptable of hip hop at the Grammys when it was not included in its original broadcast as an award. It led to the creation of Yo! MTV raps and In Living Color as competitors against the likes of Saturday Night Live.
Hip Hop is more than just music that tells stories of drugs, women, money, and street horrors. It is the music that essentially changed a nation to gradually accept African American cultural and social norms as their own. So it was not just a music, genre, or trend, it became a lasting impact on Americans from all nationalities, religions, and creeds.
Friend Me on Facebook: Samuel Jones or purchase my music on itunes and cd baby: The Bridge. Be Sure To Leave A Comment!
[twitter style=”vertical” float=”left”]
[fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”]
[fbshare type=”button”]
[linkedin_share style=”none”]
[google_plusone size=”standard”]