By Sacrifice

I have discovered that some of my best dishes prepared for dinner were those meals that I honestly did not feel like cooking because I was either too tired or was not hungry.  I prepared the meals unwillingly, because I knew that my spouse or my children needed a meal before ending their day.  Surprisingly, those meals came out quite delicious.  I prepared those meals by sacrifice.  My mind was practically shut down from the cares of the day, my body physically exhausted because of work.  However  I knew that in spite of how I felt, those meals needed to be prepared.

This is the same kind of mindset we should have with our prayers, with our worship, with our praise unto Elohim.  Often times we are too tired to lift up our hands and radically praise God, but we must do so by sacrifice because we know that Elohim inhabits the praises of His people.  We should worship by sacrifice and boast on the goodness of our Supreme God in spite of our challenges and circumstances because we know that there is no greater God.  We must also possess this type of attitude and sacrificially attend the House of God for fellowship with the saints, simply because God has been faithful to give us soundness of mind and mobility of our limbs.

The same convictions that compels us to please our employers, our spouses, our friends and whomsoever  we esteem as important, must also compel us to push even harder to sacrifice to please our Saviour and Lord.  Elohim God loves sacrifices.  We no longer offer bullocks and lambs, we don't need to physically die on a cross but we must continuously offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable which is God's good and perfect and acceptable will for our lives and relationship with Him - Romans 12:1.  It must be by sacrifice....What have you given up for God that can be esteemed as a sacrifice to demonstrate how much you appreciate Elohim's faithfulness towards you?  Does your God deserve a greater sacrifice from you than that which you have given up for man?  It must be by sacrifice - "And the king said unto Araunah, nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing......" 2 Samuel 24:24.

Without Their Blessings

Over the years I have  experienced so many struggles in my life and witnessed it in the lives of others.  I often times wondered why life appeared to be so much simpler for others notwithstanding they were not wealthy.  There are so many who grew up in homes which did not have much spiritual standards but their lives were less complex than those who were raised with high spiritual standards.  This became a mystery to me because I was unable for years to put the missing pieces together. 

One thing I can truly say is that whenever there are questions in your soul that need to be answered, God will eventually  provide it.  I never stopped searching for the answer as to why so many persons like myself  had to struggle to provide for their welfare and the welfare of their children.  Praying and believing did not eliminate the struggle because I was praying in ignorance. It did provide some peace, but the struggles in my life remained.  When God answered me my struggles did not go away  immediately but that question in my soul ceased to exist. 

The struggles came as the result of so many persons like myself never receiving the blessings of their parent or their parents.  There are so many who are living their lives never being blessed by their father or mother or both parents.  Proverbs 13:22 - A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.  The best inheritance a parent can leave for their children is not material things or insurance benefits, but spiritual blessings or imparted blessings by spoken words.  When Jacob swindled Esau out of his parental blessing, Esau wept because he understood what he lost. 

Another example of a child not being blessed is Jabez.  The meaning of his name given to him by his mother means pain.  1 Chronicles 4:9,10 - Jabez understood the meaning of his name and he prayed to God that He would bless him indeed that he may not cause pain.  So many of us like Jabez found ourselves living our lives without our parents' blessings, and because of this we must do the same as he did.  We must pray to God that our circumstances change, that we, without our parents' blessings can end the struggles in our lives.  When our parents fail to bless us, we have a Heavenly Father who is ready and willing to bless our lives indeed.

They Will Return

Many families for the past few years have experienced tremendous struggles.  Many spouses notwithstanding their efforts to keep their family together have either found themselves living separate and apart, legally separated or divorced.  Such experience regardless of who was at fault hurt all parties involved i.e. the mother and wife, the father and husband and also the children.  

In the home both spouses contribute to the problems in their family. However, usually it is the mother who is left with care and control of the children of the marriage.  It is the norm for  the husband and father to move on to another relationship  and to provide whatever time he has at his convenience for their children. Mothers also leave or abandon their children but fathers have the highest rate of abandonment.  

What must you do as a single mother after you and your children have been abandoned by your husband and father?  How must you move on with your life when every day is now clustered with having to care for your children alone without any assistance from their father?  Indeed the challenge is great because you find that you now have to neglect your personal care to tend to your children's welfare.  The helpmate who was ordained by God and obligated by the marriage covenant has breached your spiritual contract. You are now overwhelmed mentally, emotionally and for most mothers also financially.  

My advice to you is to hold on just a while longer.  Malachi 4:6 - "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." According to the aforesaid scripture, the fathers will return to restore their relationship with their children and their children in spite of the hurt and abandonment will forgive and accept them.  The fathers will return. Jehovah God cannot lie and there is not a promise within the holy scriptures that He will not keep.

The prefix "re" means to do again. Therefore all those mothers and wives whose spouses were fathers to their children, notwithstanding him having strayed and forsaking his covenant and parental duties, will return to be help mates and fathers once again.  I will reiterate my advice given earlier........ just hold on for a while longer they shall return to their children.   

The Game of Life

For many of us life seems to be this big game and we are just caught in the middle of a battle between good and evil.  This thought might be true......... The good thing about  life is that if it is a game we all have the option to choose our team.  We are all afforded the opportunity to choose the good team or the bad team, the righteous team or the unrighteous team.  Regardless of which team we choose, one thing we will certainly  all experience is the battle over the control of our souls and its destiny.  

For every time an individual chooses to deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ in his/her life, the bad team gets a point.  If the game is basketball, for every time the unrighteous dies, that team scores a three pointer.  Every time an individual surrender's complete control of his/her life unto the Lordship of Jesus, the righteous or good team likewise scores a point, When the righteous dies, the good team also scores a three pointer.  

According to the holy scriptures the good team is far out numbered by the bad - "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" -Matthew 7:13, 14.  The aforementioned scriptures denotes a very important truth about the game of life. The truth is - following the crowd is not in one's best interest.  This pathway or this particular team, notwithstanding it possessing the majority in number, leads to destruction.  

Usually when a person chooses a team they opt for the team that appears to possess the ability to conquer or win.  It is a natural tendency for one to believe that there is more strength in numbers.  However this belief does not apply to the spiritual or supernatural and is destructive  for the individual's soul.  When your choice is for the crowd because you believe that the majority rule and will win, you've made the wrong choice and your option was for the losing team, notwithstanding the multitude of team members.  The Game of Life is not about following the crowd or choosing the team that has the most members.  This game is best played when you choose the team that has the GREATEST record of success in overcoming the challenges, trials, struggles and issues of life.  When you choose according to  this rating, the righteous team wins and far out numbers the record of the team that consists of the most members and likewise the most failures.  If life is nothing more than a game, I sincerely encourage you to pick the right team. 

Apostle Mrs. Tanya Garland-Munroe 

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Where Did He Go?

I believe that we have all experienced in our lives hearing the voice of Elohim telling us not to do something, say something or go somewhere.  We can remember hearing in our minds the voice that said 'no' or 'don't' and we ignored it.  Oftentimes we thought it was just our thoughts, but when the voice became louder, we realized that something greater than ourselves was giving us a WARNING.

Sometimes we took heed to the voice and we didn't go, we didn't say and we chose not to execute the act.  However there were also those times when we felt that we needed to do it, say it and go to that particular place.  A selfish part of us made us feel that it was necessary for those words to be uttered to justify our character.  A selfish part of us told us that in spite of the WARNING given, we were entitled to experience some pleasure, notwithstanding it being immoral and against Elohim's will for our lives.  There was a part of us that was so adamant about us going to that particular place, even though we knew that it was not in our best interest, we felt that we could afford the risk.

What usually happens after we take heed to the selfish part of us?  The voice fades.  The WARNINGS that we were accustomed to hearing, is not heard as often and as loud.  Where did He go?  We must come to the complete understanding that there are consequences for failing to adhere to spiritual counsel offered unto us by Elohim, God.  We cannot, by practice refuse to take heed to the WARNINGS of God and expect Him to continue to speak unto us, only to be rejected.  He will eventually leave us to be guided and governed by our deceitful thoughts and passions that only lures us  further away from His presence and voice.  Where did He go? Elohim went nowhere. We went away, being led by the lust of our eyes, the desires of our hearts and the selfishness of our flesh.  His voice of guidance never left us, we shut the door on the voice and adhered unto ourselves.  We chose to guide our own lives and such guidance led us further into sin, further into deceit, further into bondage and further away from the one we need in our lives the most ELOHIM.

It is our responsibility to control our thought life. It is also our responsibility to recognize the voice of God and further to adhere to His WARNINGS.  These WARNINGS are for the sole purpose of enabling us to establish and/or maintain an intimate relationship with our Creator, our Heavenly Father, and our Saviour.  When we fail to take heed to the voice or counsel of God, day  by day we drift away from His presence and His voice.  Where did He Go?  Nowhere, He promised that He will never leave nor forsake us. The question we must now ask ourselves is, "Where did we go?"   Our failure to control our minds has contributed to the distance between ourselves and our loving Saviour.  It is time to control our minds and maintain our relationship with Elohim, God.

Apostle Mrs. Tanya Garland-Munroe

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Maybe They Can't Come

Sometimes we become so attached to persons whom we want to accompany  us wherever we go and share our successes.  Probably for you that person is your childhood friend who stuck with you through thick and thin. As a sign of your gratefulness you want them to share  in your life experiences.  How about your spouse, the love of your life.....? This is your partner until death do you part and your heart's desire is to share all that you are with this special covenant person.  Some of us don't have the spouse to take on the journey or the childhood friend. It is our mother who raised her three children without the assistance of the father.  We want to give her the world because of all the struggles she conquered to provide for her children's welfare. 

Many of us have that special someone whom we want to do our best to make happy or carry on our journey of success in life.  So many have discovered that it is not the divine plan of Elohim, God for them to come along.  Their purpose and season in our lives  have ended.   We have precious memories, enjoyable moments, weathered many storms together, but their season in our lives have come to an end.  Too often we suffer unnecessarily because we want to cling to persons whom we should have released. They were there only for a season, to teach us something, to help us get  over or to strengthen us in a particular  area  of our lives.  We experienced  emotional pain and suffering,  and disappointments all because we ignored the signs that said unto us, it is no longer working, it is no longer pleasurable. The relationship/friendship has become a burden and the individual who we thought was suppose to accompany us or assist with us moving forward in life, have been contributing to our down fall and set back.  When this begins to happen, it is time to let that individual go and we all must come to the realization that "Maybe They Can't Come" because there is no room for them to accompany us during the rest of our life's journey. 

Tanya E. Munroe Apostolic Teacher Word Alive Ministries Intl.