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In my search for the answer to the question I asked myself on New Years Day, 2010, I was relieved to have discovered that The Oak Initiative’s definition is truly in line with what my spiritual and moral resolution will be…

Spiritual and Moral Resolutions

* The biblical mandate of The Oak Initiative is to be the “oaks of righteousness” described in Isaiah 61:3. A healthy oak tree has a root system as expansive below the ground as it has branches above the ground, and it is likewise our resolve to help promote Christian leadership with a corresponding depth and expanse.
* It is the resolve of The Oak Initiative to take up the mandate of Isaiah 61 which describes the purpose of the Spirit of the Lord. The principles of this chapter are the inspiration for the following resolutions.
* It is a basic Christian duty to consider and seek real and lasting relief to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed. Because charity is a basic Christian duty, when charity is institutionalized it becomes cold, inefficient, and ineffective, and therefore it is the responsibility of the church, not the government, to address this mandate.
* It is the devotion of The Oak Initiative to maintain and defend individual freedom based upon the eternal law that God is sovereign and grants all rights, and that all men are equal under the law, regardless of race, creed, culture, financial, or political affiliation.
* It is a basic devotion of The Oak Initiative to establish, maintain, and defend religious liberty in every place, and for all people, and to challenge all attempts to inhibit this basic liberty.
* It is the conviction of The Oak Initiative that the development of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States were guided by biblical principles and morality, and that these are the basis of legitimate government of the United States, and that any who seek to void or circumvent these must be opposed.
* It is the resolution of The Oak Initiative to seek solutions for healing moral offenses, racial prejudices, and basic justice for all.
* It is the resolution of The Oak Initiative to promote respect for and good stewardship of the creation as a basic biblical mandate.
* It is the conviction of The Oak Initiative that it is a basic responsibility of those on “the path of life,” to defend and protect life, which is a “womb to the tomb” mandate. It is also our conviction that because mankind was given stewardship of the earth that all life is sacred and includes all species, and our guardianship of the earth includes the stewardship of all life on it.
* Because it is a commandment from God found in both the Old and New Testaments, we must have a basic resolve to “honor our fathers and mothers.” Honoring them includes making every effort for them to live out their days with the dignity, peace, and comfort they deserve.
* Because the commandment to honor our fathers and mothers is the only commandment with a promise: that it would go well with us, and that we would dwell long upon the earth (see Deuteronomy 5:16), this is essential for national well-being and longevity, and that the poor treatment of our elders would be a basic shame and injustice.

Blessings beloved!

I came across the message of this post from my Christian neighbor and wanted to share it with all of you.

I think this post explains it better than any of the ways I would have explained it.

“The Ultimate Source Of Wisdom”

As you go through life you discover that there are many ways to gain wisdom, such as: (1) Writing down and reflecting on what you learned through experience. (2) Gleaning from the collective knowledge of others. “by pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well advised is wisdom” (Proverbs 13:10 NKJV). (3) Thinking outside the box. Statements like, “This is the way we do things around here” warrant scrutiny when they’re used to defend ways that no longer work. (4) Not rushing to closure. Growth is always a work in progress. Creativity is untidy and unnerving. The ability to stay focused and faith-filled in the midst of change is a hallmark of maturity.

But the ultimate source of wisdom is God! If you need wisdom, talk to God: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6 NKJV). “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally…and it will be given to him” (James 1:5 NKJV). “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (Jamse 3:17 NKJV). “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will guide you” (Psalm 32:8 NKJV).

Ask the Lord God Almighty for the spirit of wisdom as often as you need to!
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Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:20-21 NIV/NLT

ometimes God allows us to hit the bottom in order to discover that He’s the rock at the bottom. Gideon faced an army of 135,000 troops with just 32,000 of his own soldiers. And 22,000 of them left the battlefield and went home when he offered them the chance. Do the math. Gideon’s thinking, “there’s no way we can win!”

Then God explains: “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, “My own power has delivered me’” (Judges 7:2 NAS/NLT). There it is again, the age-old battle of ego that we all fight daily. It is why the Lord’s Prayer ends with: “Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13 KJV/NLT).

Where does our power come from? God! Who should the glory for our accomplishments go to? God! How long does this arrangement last? Forever!

God had to break Jacob of self-sufficiency so the “Israel” within him could come out. Sometimes God has to take you down before He can rise you up. Moses was called the meekest man on earth. But it took forty years of living like a shepherd in the wilderness to detox him of pride and get him submitted to God. Only then was he ready to stand before Pharaoh and perform miracles that demonstrated God’s power - and vindicated Moses!

Brokenness doesn’t mean being a wimp, suffering from an inferiority complex or having a case of low self-esteem. No, brokenness means praying, “Lord if this job is going to get done and done right, You’re going to have to do it through me, so my trust is in You.”

e don’t always know the reason for our trials, but God revealed to Paul the reason for his “thorn in the flesh.” It was to keep him from being “exalted” (see 2 Corinthians 12:7 KJV/NLT). success can be intoxicating, and intoxicated people aren’t known for being too bright or trustworthy!

What happens when you get a thorn in your flesh? It hurts and you’ll let everything else go while you focus on removing it. Three times Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn, but God had another plan. You see, God is at His strongest when we are at our weakest. When Paul discovered that God’s power in his life was tied to the thorn that afflicted him, he responded, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities… For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NRS/NLT). In other words, “If it’s for my good, bring it on, Lord!”

If you have a thorny person in your life from whom you’ve prayed to be delivered and it hasn’t happened, maybe God wants you to experience His grace and power through dealing with that person. But you won’t experience this until you move from pain to praise.

The Bible speaks about “the sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15 KJV/NLT). A sacrifice means that something has to die on somebody’s altar. So if you want to experience God’s grace and power in your life, you must be willing to die to self-interest, ego, and independence. There is nothing wrong with asking God to remove your thorn. But when your prayer for deliverance turns to praise, you’re on your way to receiving His power, because God is giving you grace.
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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
Psalm 51:17 (NIV/NLT)

One day a soldier, charged with fleeing from the enemy was brought before Alexander the Great. Alexander asked him, “What is your name?” Dropping his head, he replied, “Alexander.” Alexander the Great grabbed him by the shoulders and said, “Soldier, change your conduct or change your name! ” You have been called to live a life worthy of the One whose name you carry.

Regardless of whether the giant you face is addiction, resentment, fear, lust, pride, envy or anger, you must realize:
1. You are not unique. Your temptations “are no different from what others experience” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT). Goliath wasn’t always a giant; he was fed and nurtured until he became one.

Our giants are usually little sins we overlook and indulge in until they assume a life of their own and come back and haunt us.
2. You cannot do it alone. Your giant will defeat you anytime you try to tackle him in your own strength. David told Goliath, “This is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us” (1 Samuel 17:47 NLT). We need divine help if we are to overcome old habits and establish new habits of behavior.

So, declare with the Apostle Paul, “Christ…gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NLT).
3. You confront your giant head-on. The Bible says: “As Goliath moved to attack, David quickly ran…to meet him” (1 Samuel 17:48 NLT). Don’t run away, don’t try to negotiate, don’t compromise and don’t excuse.

Force your giant out into the light and don’t let him back into your life. Establish boundaries and make yourself accountable. Stay out of the wrong company. Above all, don’t look at God in the light of your giant, look at your giant in the light of God.

Can you defeat your own giant?
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“The Battle Is The Lord’s.”
1 Samuel 17:47 NKJV

n a world that celebrates success, we don’t see the value in broken things. But God brings beauty out of brokenness. For a plant to rise from the soil the seed must be broken. For a baby chick to experience larger life  the shell must be broken. Even a thoroughbred horse must be broken; it must learn to respond to the tug of the rein and the sound of the master’s voice. Getting the idea? After a humbling encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road, Paul reevaluates all the religious activity he once boasted about and calls it “garbage” (Philippians 3:8, NLT). And you don’t brag about garbage, your repulsed by it.

Brokeness is the work of God by which He strips us of self-sufficiency so that the character of Christ may shine through us. Now don’t miss understand; being broken doesn’t necessarily mean experiencing some tragedy. Many people suffer tragedy without drawing closer to God or even acknowledge Him. Indeed, the same sunshine that melts the butter hardens the clay. The issue in brokeness is not so much our circumstances, but our response. Take me for example, (About) when I was broken and at the depths of despair and not wanting to go on, I chose to get God in my heart again and to leave everything up to him. So what is God trying to teaching us? True brokeness is when he strips us of self-sufficiency to the extent that we have no strength left to fix ourselves. When God blocks every exit we try to take and we come to see that He alone is our answer, we make a life changing discovery. “And what’s that?” you ask. When God is all you have — God is all you need! Bottom line; God’s power is reserved for those who have given up trying to do it in their own strength or to accomplish it for their own means!

aul writes: “Now may…God…sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NAS/NLT). The word “sanctify” means to be “set apart,” to be used exclusively for God’s purposes. Paul describes it as “the high calling of God” (Philippians 3:14 KJV/NLT). And it happens from the inside out! Notice, our fleshly body comes last in order of transformation for a very simple reason. The problem with a thief isn’t his hands, it’s in his mind or spirit, which tells him stealing is okay. His mind tells his hands what to do. So if you transform his spirit his hands will follow suit. Otherwise you can handcuff him and haul him off to jail, but he’s still a thief inside. Too many of us want to get victory over bodily sins without being truly transformed within. But God starts with our spirit because that’s the part of our being that makes us conscious of God; that “connects” with Him. When God sets us free in our spirit, then our emotions and our body begin to fall in line.

If you’re a parent you know how differently your children respond to discipline. One child will collapse in tears, whereas another will stand up and defy you. God will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to break us of our self-sufficiency so that the life of Jesus can be demonstrated through us. And… we determine how long the process takes, by our submission or resistance.

Paul prayed, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6 NKJV/NLT). Make that your prayer today!

Are you broken inside?

What is a Cafeteria Christian you ask?…

I don’t know about you but I used to be one of these so called “Cafeteria Christians” and didn’t even realize it until I decided to get back to the laws of our Lord God.

I can tell you from my past that it is very exhausting to always be on the search for happiness with out knowing God.  Once I figured out that God really wants us to live unpretentiously, in a simple way and focus on Him, my life has never been easier.

Are U a Cafeteria Christian?
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The Bible says, “…those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life is begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT