I just wanted to list a few resources that may be beneficial for you. Everything I am going to list, I have personally used and has helped me in my walk. So here goes it:
- This youtube video of an awesome spoken word artist is a MUST see. Please, please check it out! http://youtu.be/-gb7n9B_8m8
- The Power of a Praying Woman by Stormie Omartian. This is an awesome read that definitely will convicted you and help you in your prayer life as a woman. She also has other books like that of a praying wife and mother. Check them out!
- http://www.biblestudytools.com/ Great website with a vast amount of resources. Personally, I receive daily bible readings and a question of the day. They both help me to first read the word and fill my spirit with it, but to understand what it means to be a Christian.
- Eastern University: http://www.eastern.edu/. I am currently enrolled in my master’s program there and God is definitely present in the classroom! “EASTERN UNIVERSITY is a comprehensive Christian University that integrates faith, reason and justice for its students in undergraduate, graduate, seminary, and non-traditional adult programs. This learning community consists of over 4,000 students who share a passion to make a difference in their lives, their communities, and the world”.
- Girlfriends Pray which can be located on Facebook by typing “Girlfriends Pray” in the search box or via their blog at http://www.girlfriendsprayblog.org/ . Great resource for women who wish to be connected to other women of God.
- Like Christian radio and gospel music? You can always listen live to Praise 103.9! I go to http://www.praisephilly.com/ while I am at work to listen to the music and get inspiration as well.
- Oh and there is this nice thing called the Holy Bible! There are different versions out there so find the one that suits your needs!
I hope you find those resources of benefit; they surely have helped me!
Be blessed,
Nadirah M.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
PURPOSE.
Over the past few weeks, I've really been reflecting on and praying about PURPOSE. God, what is my purpose? How can I use my purpose to really bless another and draw someone to Christ? Am I here simply just to do my purpose dutifully and smile? The devil really had started to try and creep in and make me start questioning the child of God that I KNOW I am. I finally got to a point and told the devil "Get thee behind me!" and really started to do some serious praying. And of course, in the most discreet but profound way that only He can do, God revealed HIS answers to me.
I have been blessed with the opportunity, the past four years, to be the head of the dance ministry at my church And I have a good relationship with the girls that I’m over. And God began to reveal this to me: I need to remember, who do the girls ask to pray with them? Who do they text daily? Who do they come to with their stories, their fears, their triumphs? They share with me. It’s like God nudges me each time I receive a message from one of the girls and says “here ya go.” I questioned my purpose; thinking I wasn't making an impact and here in the most simple way, I am able to use the God in ME and experiences I've had, to help another come closer and closer with our Father God.
Normally for ourselves, we see not just how much of an impact we have on the life of another. But in your prayer time, God reveals it to you. We constantly ask God to use us to bless another and yet we rarely see how instrumental we are because we are too busy downing ourselves about a past issue or a person. All that said, I'm recognizing more and more daily, the GOD in me and the light that He has placed inside of me. He's shown to me that that is what my girls see; they see my purpose and it's truly made me recognize it more for myself.
On top of those questions posed in my brain (I so love how God operates), I went to get rid of some papers as I was "spring cleaning", & came across a paper I had titled "Purpose" that just blew my socks off because it went right along with the things I had been praying about. So to end my post, I'm sharing with you all & I pray that it blesses you and encourages you'; just as it did with me!
Much Love & Blessings,
Nicole
(ok sidebar: the piece I wanted to post is here but it got kinda weird when I tried to post it so I apologize in advance!)
------
God meant it for Good..
by Jon Walker
"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result." (Genesis 50:20 NIV)Joseph's life was anything but peaceful. It was complicated by youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Sold into slavery by jealous brothers. Thrown into prison on false charges. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the "Great Engineer" behind even the worst of circumstances. In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, "You meant it for bad; God meant it for good."
The theology packed in that statement is astounding. "God meant it for good" means:
You can accept the past - No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle - or too big to be worked for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) Just ask Joseph! Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.You can embrace the present - There's no need to play the "what if" game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you're free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, "Wherever you are, be all there" - not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that's where His grace will flow.
You can look expectantly toward the future - Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned that you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.
--> So what? <--
No matter how bad things get - God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing - no disaster, no delay - is bigger than his ability to turn it into something good and godly.
Look for God's hand - Walking by faith means you see God's hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust His ability and His willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people's motives. In other words, it doesn't matter why someone hurt you, God still can transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for HIS good.
What will you allow God to change? - There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life that, as far as you can tell, was "meant for bad." How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what He wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When He answers, do it.
Thank God & LET GO: Thank God that He is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future. Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past. Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that He can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God's grace and redemption.
I have been blessed with the opportunity, the past four years, to be the head of the dance ministry at my church And I have a good relationship with the girls that I’m over. And God began to reveal this to me: I need to remember, who do the girls ask to pray with them? Who do they text daily? Who do they come to with their stories, their fears, their triumphs? They share with me. It’s like God nudges me each time I receive a message from one of the girls and says “here ya go.” I questioned my purpose; thinking I wasn't making an impact and here in the most simple way, I am able to use the God in ME and experiences I've had, to help another come closer and closer with our Father God.
Normally for ourselves, we see not just how much of an impact we have on the life of another. But in your prayer time, God reveals it to you. We constantly ask God to use us to bless another and yet we rarely see how instrumental we are because we are too busy downing ourselves about a past issue or a person. All that said, I'm recognizing more and more daily, the GOD in me and the light that He has placed inside of me. He's shown to me that that is what my girls see; they see my purpose and it's truly made me recognize it more for myself.
On top of those questions posed in my brain (I so love how God operates), I went to get rid of some papers as I was "spring cleaning", & came across a paper I had titled "Purpose" that just blew my socks off because it went right along with the things I had been praying about. So to end my post, I'm sharing with you all & I pray that it blesses you and encourages you'; just as it did with me!
Much Love & Blessings,
Nicole
(ok sidebar: the piece I wanted to post is here but it got kinda weird when I tried to post it so I apologize in advance!)
------
God meant it for Good..
by Jon Walker
"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result." (Genesis 50:20 NIV)Joseph's life was anything but peaceful. It was complicated by youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Sold into slavery by jealous brothers. Thrown into prison on false charges. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the "Great Engineer" behind even the worst of circumstances. In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, "You meant it for bad; God meant it for good."
The theology packed in that statement is astounding. "God meant it for good" means:
You can accept the past - No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle - or too big to be worked for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) Just ask Joseph! Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.You can embrace the present - There's no need to play the "what if" game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you're free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, "Wherever you are, be all there" - not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that's where His grace will flow.
You can look expectantly toward the future - Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned that you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.
--> So what? <--
No matter how bad things get - God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing - no disaster, no delay - is bigger than his ability to turn it into something good and godly.
Look for God's hand - Walking by faith means you see God's hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust His ability and His willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people's motives. In other words, it doesn't matter why someone hurt you, God still can transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for HIS good.
What will you allow God to change? - There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life that, as far as you can tell, was "meant for bad." How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what He wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When He answers, do it.
Thank God & LET GO: Thank God that He is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future. Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past. Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that He can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God's grace and redemption.
For the GLORY of God!
For the past two weeks or so, that statement, “For the Glory of God”, has had new meaning. At a point, for me, it was just a nice saying- catchy words that can capture the attention of a few “likes” or comments on Facebook (and that is only telling the truth). But I now have a deeper appreciation for what that statement actually says and mean. As written in Isaiah 43:7 “Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him”. We are created by God so that we can glorify Him; everything that we do serves a purpose under God and should glorify Him.
In reflecting on where I am in my life and the vision I have of establishing a neighborhood resource center, I realized that while being in grad school may look good, working full-time job is great, and having such an ambitious goal of creating that resource center may reflect greatly on me, everything that I am doing and everything I have is to be used to glorify God.
Sitting in class over the weekend, I thought to myself that God truly is using me and being in grad school is NOT about me. While God is the ultimate Source, He certainly leads us to resources for our benefit. God is creating me to be a resource for community members and more important His children. The beginning process of becoming that resource, is grad school. How awesome is that that God is using me for His Glory!
Remember, we were created to glorify Him. The skills, talents, and gifts are all to be used to glorify him. Oh indeed, For the Glory of God!
Be Blessed,
Nadirah M.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
I Have A Testimony!
In my own walk with Christ it hasn't been the most consistent. I have times where I was speaking as some dub "Christianese" and other times when I have a severe lack of faith. But your walk with Christ is your own because it is a personal and intimate relationship with the Father. However, you will be surprised as to how many people can relate to your story. Sometimes, especially in a storm, you feel alone, isolated, helpless not realizing that there are people who may be in a similar situation or have been in a similar place. Or on the flip side, you don't share the good things of Christ because you wonder who is going to listen, care or relate- as if that blessing is specific to you.
I say all that, to give a little bit of my story in the hopes that it can be a blessing to others who will read this.
Here goes it...
I had stopped going to church for over a year between end of 2008 and mid 2010. In that time, I truly lost my way or even more so, I turned my back from the only way- Christ. I recall back to August of 2010 where I was transitioning from over two years of employment with one organization to unemployment. I had opportunities to go other cities and to remain with the same organization but I felt a serious stirring in my spirit to come back to Christ. I felt that God, despite of myself, sins, and ways, was calling me back to Him.
I knew I could reach out to people to encourage me and to get back to a place where I was following God's will and not my own. Surprisingly, however, He chose a friend to introduce to me the 30 Day Prayer Challenge. She and her then boyfriend were going through the challenge that essentially challenges you for 30 days to pray, read the word, and overcome burdens that have you bond. Excitingly, I committed to the challenge with Nicole and to say the least it was a BLESSING! God really worked on me through the month of September. I felt restored, renewed and grateful. That same month amidst that challenge I also started going back to church.
But as the saying goes "the greater the level the greater the devil". I knew without a doubt that I was going to new levels in Christ but that offered greater enemies to attack me. While I was grateful to be back in church, to have been restored and renewed, the spirit of depression started to rear its' ugly face telling me that I'm hopeless because I was yet and still unemployed. I hid my depression putting on a happy face for the world and only letting a few close friends (like Nicole) in on what was really happening. I felt trapped! My bills and the pressure to pay were building but no incoming was coming in. Instead of giving it all to God as I know I should have, I wanted to give up. Ironically, what I kept so secretive I then shared with the Facebook world and posted a status as to how "I didn't want to be here anymore". What is so great about this is that God showed up and showed how GREAT HE IS! I did not think people would be able to read between my ambiguous statement but they did. Folks from church, friends, and family all were chiming in about how great God is, how He has a purpose for my life and that I must live and make a liar out of the devil. Though in that very moment of reading everything I didn't just say "okay, I'm not depressed anymore" I did however decide to give it all to God. That very Sunday at church God had a word prepared just for me! The message was simple Psalm 118:17 I share live and not die and declare the works of the Lord! How power and right on time that word was. Amidst thinking about taking my life God sought it fit to use one of His children to send forth that message. Needless to say, I was changed from that moment forth.
Now, you may be saying but you are still unemployed and the problems are still there. While that is true, I would add that the problem no longer was mine to handle (it really never was). I gave it to God and I rested on Philippians 4:6 which says Do not be anxious [do not worry] about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Need I say more? I did not worry because I made it known to God what my needs were and I knew He would work it out in His timing.
So at this point, I am restored/renewed, back into church (which should not be sold short- the assembling of the saints is important), and I have overcome the spirit of depression and suicide. God favored me because even in the mist of all of this I was accepted into Eastern University’s Master of Science in Nonprofit Management program. Isn't God just SO GOOD!?
The New Year came in and I just knew that this was my time! With grad school in the near future, having become more active in the church, I just saw a job in my future! And guess what, He proved Himself right again. In mid January, a former leader of the organization I had mentioned earlier sent me a job posting- a job just perfect for me. A job, only God could have sent my way. A job offering more and better than I would have had had I stayed with the other organization. Needless to say, I applied and went through the rigorous interview process. On February 15 2011, I started my new job!
I am now happily working and in grad school. While everything is not perfect I know where I am is exactly where God wants me to be. Even more important, when the next storm comes (because there will always be a storm to test your faith, challenge you, and strengthen you) I will be prepared and equipped to fight and endure.
If you are in a storm just know that God has His hand on you. He has not forgotten about you. If He can prove His self mighty in my life I know He can and WILL do it for you. Just trust in God and put all your faith in Him. Don't let the devil win! You are more than a conquer! The storm will be over and you will be better because of it. God loves you. So if you weeping now, look for the morning because that is when the JOY comes.
I thank you for reading my rather personal story. I hope it is a blessing to you all.
Grace and Peace,
Nadirah M.
I say all that, to give a little bit of my story in the hopes that it can be a blessing to others who will read this.
Here goes it...
I had stopped going to church for over a year between end of 2008 and mid 2010. In that time, I truly lost my way or even more so, I turned my back from the only way- Christ. I recall back to August of 2010 where I was transitioning from over two years of employment with one organization to unemployment. I had opportunities to go other cities and to remain with the same organization but I felt a serious stirring in my spirit to come back to Christ. I felt that God, despite of myself, sins, and ways, was calling me back to Him.
I knew I could reach out to people to encourage me and to get back to a place where I was following God's will and not my own. Surprisingly, however, He chose a friend to introduce to me the 30 Day Prayer Challenge. She and her then boyfriend were going through the challenge that essentially challenges you for 30 days to pray, read the word, and overcome burdens that have you bond. Excitingly, I committed to the challenge with Nicole and to say the least it was a BLESSING! God really worked on me through the month of September. I felt restored, renewed and grateful. That same month amidst that challenge I also started going back to church.
But as the saying goes "the greater the level the greater the devil". I knew without a doubt that I was going to new levels in Christ but that offered greater enemies to attack me. While I was grateful to be back in church, to have been restored and renewed, the spirit of depression started to rear its' ugly face telling me that I'm hopeless because I was yet and still unemployed. I hid my depression putting on a happy face for the world and only letting a few close friends (like Nicole) in on what was really happening. I felt trapped! My bills and the pressure to pay were building but no incoming was coming in. Instead of giving it all to God as I know I should have, I wanted to give up. Ironically, what I kept so secretive I then shared with the Facebook world and posted a status as to how "I didn't want to be here anymore". What is so great about this is that God showed up and showed how GREAT HE IS! I did not think people would be able to read between my ambiguous statement but they did. Folks from church, friends, and family all were chiming in about how great God is, how He has a purpose for my life and that I must live and make a liar out of the devil. Though in that very moment of reading everything I didn't just say "okay, I'm not depressed anymore" I did however decide to give it all to God. That very Sunday at church God had a word prepared just for me! The message was simple Psalm 118:17 I share live and not die and declare the works of the Lord! How power and right on time that word was. Amidst thinking about taking my life God sought it fit to use one of His children to send forth that message. Needless to say, I was changed from that moment forth.
Now, you may be saying but you are still unemployed and the problems are still there. While that is true, I would add that the problem no longer was mine to handle (it really never was). I gave it to God and I rested on Philippians 4:6 which says Do not be anxious [do not worry] about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Need I say more? I did not worry because I made it known to God what my needs were and I knew He would work it out in His timing.
So at this point, I am restored/renewed, back into church (which should not be sold short- the assembling of the saints is important), and I have overcome the spirit of depression and suicide. God favored me because even in the mist of all of this I was accepted into Eastern University’s Master of Science in Nonprofit Management program. Isn't God just SO GOOD!?
The New Year came in and I just knew that this was my time! With grad school in the near future, having become more active in the church, I just saw a job in my future! And guess what, He proved Himself right again. In mid January, a former leader of the organization I had mentioned earlier sent me a job posting- a job just perfect for me. A job, only God could have sent my way. A job offering more and better than I would have had had I stayed with the other organization. Needless to say, I applied and went through the rigorous interview process. On February 15 2011, I started my new job!
I am now happily working and in grad school. While everything is not perfect I know where I am is exactly where God wants me to be. Even more important, when the next storm comes (because there will always be a storm to test your faith, challenge you, and strengthen you) I will be prepared and equipped to fight and endure.
If you are in a storm just know that God has His hand on you. He has not forgotten about you. If He can prove His self mighty in my life I know He can and WILL do it for you. Just trust in God and put all your faith in Him. Don't let the devil win! You are more than a conquer! The storm will be over and you will be better because of it. God loves you. So if you weeping now, look for the morning because that is when the JOY comes.
I thank you for reading my rather personal story. I hope it is a blessing to you all.
Grace and Peace,
Nadirah M.
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