All posts tagged: encouragement

The Secret of the Stars: Reaching For Your Dream

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“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new discovery for the human spirit.” ~HELEN KELLER The only ingredients that you need to fail in this life are Fear, Doubt, and Pessimism. All three of these are the poison that saps out our creative power and imagination. When Christ Jesus created the heavens and the earth, He did so by speaking. He spoke from His imagination. Proverbs 23:7 says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs further goes on to warn us that we will live by the fruit of our lips and above all else, to guard our hearts for out of it flows the source of our lives. (PROVERBS 12:14, PROVERBS 18:21, PROVERBS 4:23) When our hearts are filled with pessimism and doubt, we speak with negativity and bring forth the fruits of failure. But when we speak with faith, when we allow ourselves to dream, imagine, and do by faith, we are giving life to victory. We are …

Plan BIG!: A Word on Vision Casting

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“When God is your partner, make your plans big!” ~ D.L MOODY Plan BIG! You’d think that that exhortation would make every person who heard it celebrate with a motivated fire for action when in reality it makes a lot of people shrink back in fear and hide under the heavy blankets of safety and mediocrity. Dreaming is not so much of an issue for most of us. But dreaming big . . . well, that has the power to not only knock the wind out of many of our sails but sink our boats completely. Like me, I suppose you are wondering why that is. If we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that insecurity and the scrutiny of others are what holds us back. The old ‘what will people think?’ phrase acts as the perfect glitch in our plans of action. The very thought of failing in front of others, especially those who’ve minimalized our former dreams with the constant song of ‘you can’t,’ strikes us immobile. Them witnessing our …

Cherishing Every Minute

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Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the only thing he can’t afford to lose. ~ Thomas Edison The Prophet Moses wrote in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom.” The year of 2019 has come to a close bring forth the complete end of not only a year but a decade. No matter the challenges, the victories, or the many detours that we have had to face, the very fact that we have been blessed with favor to step into this new season is evidence that Christ Jesus is not done with us yet! My prayer for this new year and decade of 2020,  is that each of us would take to heart what we still have left to sow during this time and all of the blessings that are ahead. Let us make good use of the time we have, numbering each day, loving the ones around us, and creating like the world’s existence depends on it! Let us …

Get Out Of The Box!: A Challenge To Be Creative

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“You’ll never think outside the box if you are constantly looking inside someone else’s…Sometimes the most incredible imagination sparks from nothing.” ~CANDICE COATES We are all inspired by something or someone. This is the chain of life and it is a good thing. As King Solomon put it, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (ECCLESIASTES 1:9) The beauty of life is that with each passing of generation to generation, what was once ‘usual’ to the person stepping into eternity, becomes something ‘unique’ for the person who experiences it for the first time. The old and forgotten becomes new again. It is a beautiful thing to glean from the creative wisdom of others, but when we no longer allow our own imaginations to spark with new creative fire, because of the shackles of fear which tell us to play it safe, we are doing nothing more than regurgitating ideas. Our Lord Jesus spoke and created from nothing (HEBREWS 11:3) and in His goodness, He gave us the DNA to do the same. Creativity takes chances. Imagination …

Choose Your Own Adventure: Learning to Choose Christ’s Narrative Series Intro

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The Lord has given you a mission…a vision…a call…an impossible dream. You set out with courage to conquer the goal, but you are met with great resistance. Mountains stand in your way even though He has said He would make your pathway straight. Weapons form, drought consumes valleys in the place where He promised there would be rain. But He promised victory. So, now what? Do you walk by faith or do you rely on your sight? You are now faced with choosing your own adventure. Will you read the pages that the liar and enemy of your soul has penned or will you turn to the pages of Christ’s Truth written for you? Whose story will you make your own? CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE is a series dedicated to helping the Children of God trust Christ’s narrative for their lives, circumstances, and situations no matter how tempting it is to speak out and cling to the enemy’s. The challenge is real but the adventure is worth it! We just have to focus on the …

Start with Confidence: Start Here pt 3

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Several years ago, I had the pleasure of reading an article that introduced the concept of ‘dual idealism.’ Now, because it was so long ago I can’t quite remember which publication it was that I read nor if the phrase they used was ‘idea-ism’ or ‘idealism’, but for the sake of this moment, I am going to fly with ‘idealism.’ What the author of the article was addressing was the anxiety that many authors of fiction face when they have come up with a completely organic and original idea for a story plot, only to find out that someone else, on the other side of the world has been working on a project that sounds similar if not exact! What the author of the article wanted to drive home was that even though there may be similarity in thought that personal design makes each interpretation solely unique. When we are given an idea or vision from God and we embark on our faith journey to see it made manifest we too can find ourselves facing …

What It Takes: A Message For Success

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“It takes time to be a success, but time is all it takes.” ~UNKNOWN What we desire in this life, what we aim to achieve if it is truly a worthy and honest endeavor it is worth the time it will take to make it manifest. Don’t allow the progress of others to discourage you in your journey. You are in a race against only one person; yourself. The prize at the end of this race is having achieved your highest potential. This crown only fits your head. The choice is yours. Time is in your hands. Determine to take one step at a time. *Revised from November 6, 2015 *Photo by Leon Macapagal on Unsplash

Start with Fire: Start Here pt 2

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“We are on fire. Act now.” ~UKNOWN I saw an image of an activist with a sign that read, “We are on fire. Act now.” Instantly, the thought of the words of the Savior flickered into a flame in my heart. The scripture is Mark 9:35-38, which reads: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” What the Lord began to reveal to my heart in light of the sign and then the reminder of the scripture was twofold. ONE: The Lord was saying and is saying to all of us who know Him, that the people in the world are ready, right now, to hear about Him. They are thirsty for the …

Dare to Dream with God by Briana Lassiter

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“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” JEREMIAH 29:11 A few months ago I had an experience with God where He showed me a picture of Himself as a daydreamer and Author quietly sitting in His comfy chair, daydreaming about my character in His story He’s writing. The picture really changed my perception of God and challenged me to stop diminishing my own good daydreams and hopes and start recognizing them as unique desires He has placed within me for a purpose. Sometimes it’s very easy to ignore our dreams and hopes for ourselves based on our own disappointments or expectations not being met in the past, but God doesn’t want that for us, and in fact, says of Himself that He is the One who hopes and dreams up good things for His children! (JEREMIAH 29:11) I challenge you today to stop throwing away your whole dreams and hopes based on past disappointments and …

It’s Worth the Mess: 3 Reasons to Keep Creating

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Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly . . . until you can learn to do it well.” ~Zig Ziglar I have always been a believer that anything worth having is definitely worth fighting for. Having healthy relationships? Worth fighting for. Having security? Worth fighting for. Having victory in maintaining faith? Worth fighting for. I could go on and I am sure that you could add several things to the ‘worth fighting for’ list. But one thing I have often lost the fight in (because I didn’t show up) was in learning new avenues of creating. Why? Because more times than not I was afraid of failure. I wonder if you can relate. The thing about being a creative person–the thing about being human–is that the beginnings of all of our successes begin in a mess. We don’t begin walking with elegant or confident gaits. We fall and we scuff our hands and knees. The same is true for each and every creative venture that we embark upon. Our first drafts will likely be, well, garbage …