Transformation Christian Center Blog

Here’s the Word For The Day:

Psalm 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.  For You are with me.  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Have you ever been in a situation where the outcome was bleak?  It seemed that your enemies were all around you and at any time they would attack and take your life from you?  As a shepherd David experienced many of these moments.  Times when he had to fend off predators and thieves protecting his father’s sheep.  As a child of God we also have to go through different valleys from time to time but we are not instructed to go through as sheep without a shepherd and without hope.  On the contrary, Psalm 23:4 instructs us not to fear the valley and to be bold during times uncertainty.  The enemy wants us to cower when faced with great opposition.  He believes that if he throws enough at us than we will give up, fold up our tents and go home.  The devil is liar!  “As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:36-37).  Every saint is required to walk through the valley and it’s not an easy task.  The valley is low and dark and the shadows in the valley loom large and tall as if they are waiting for their chance to swallow you whole.  The thing we must always remember is that a shadow is only a shadow.  The shadow can’t harm us and the bark is worse than the bite.  The enemy will conspire to destroy us but “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.  And every tongue, which rises against you in judgment, You shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:17).  The enemy can form the weapon, he can fire the weapon, and the weapon might even harm you but the weapon can’t destroy you.  As long as the Lord is by our side we win!  Our faith is not in a god who is small and made by the hands of man.  Our faith is in the God who is bigger than any shadow and has the power to bring us out of any valley!  We proclaim to the enemy that if you knock me down my God will raise me up!  If he threatens us with death we should cry out, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).  As long as God is there and as long as He guides us with His rod of correction and staff of protection we are always victorious over the enemy.  The gates of Hell may press against us but they will never prevail over us.  I love you and may God bless you!

FOR THE LAMB IS WORTHY! 

Here’s the Word For The Day:

Psalm 23:3 “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”

Restoration.  Since the garden man has needed to be restored.  Adam sinned against God by eating forbidden fruit and instead of killing Adam and Eve God restored them by sacrificing an animal and covering the nakedness of His creation with its skin (Genesis 3:21).  The children of God are as prone to stray away as sheep are prone to stray away from their shepherd.  We all have and will make decisions that we know are contrary to the will of God.  James 1:14 explains it like this “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”    Paul explained our willingness to stray in Romans 7:18-20, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”  Now, let me say this before I go any further: This is not an excuse to sin!  For any born again child of God there is no longer an excuse because sin has now become a choice.  We choose to either live holy and practice holiness or to sin.  We have been commanded by God to be holy because our Father is holy.  “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)  God has not commanded us to live a holy life because He wants us to have a mediocre and sad existence full of rules and laws.  Jesus came so that we can have abundance in every part of our life (John 10:10).  God knows that every sin carries a consequence and although He is the God of mercy and grace who restores His children, He is also the God of justice and wrath who chastises His children as a loving father.  God didn’t destroy Adam and Eve but they along with the rest of mankind paid a heavy price because of their choice to stray.  The saints of God carry a great responsibility because we have been called to reconcile the world to God through Christ.  We are the investment of God in the Earth paid for by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.  I don’t know of anyone who wants his investment to look shabby and unprofitable, do you?  It’s God’s desire for us to follow His will and not our own because we reflect Him to the rest of the world.  He leads us in the path of righteousness for His namesake!  When we’re blessed and prosperous people take notice of how God blesses His children.  Likewise when we suffer the consequences of sin people also notice and point out the fact that we claim to be children of the living God!  The choice is simple; either we choose to satisfy our sinful nature or we choose that God is worthy of us choosing to honor Him by the way we live.  I love you and may God bless you.

Here’s the Word For The Day:

Psalm 23:2 “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.”

The first time I tried marijuana I was 12 years old.  Like most people who try drugs or alcohol for the first time I did it to fit in and be part of the group.  There was no physical need attached to the marijuana and as I recall that first time I remember that I didn’t even get high because I didn’t know what I was doing.  Unfortunately, I learned how to inhale the drug and to enjoy the marijuana high.  What started as a ritual of friendship became a chemical dependence and by the time I was 16, marijuana was a daily need for my system.  Every opportunity I had to get high I did and it didn’t matter where I was.  I was high at school, I was high at a cookout, I was high with my cousins, and I was high with my accomplices.  I became a professional at getting high and I tried as many forms of getting high as I could just to make sure that I was high enough.  I even convinced myself that marijuana wasn’t a drug like cocaine and heroine because it grew out of the earth, and God put whatever came out of the earth there so it must be fine to smoke it.  Eventually, like most addicts do, I realized I had a problem but I needed this drug to survive.  You see by the time I was 17 my life had begun to spiral out of control and I was living a lifestyle that many don’t escape.  I had a ton of regrets and the spirit of despair had a firm hold on my life and I needed to get high to experience much needed peace.  Many people are experiencing exactly what I’m talking about.  Maybe for them it isn’t an addiction to drugs or alcohol but maybe something else that causes them to feel an emptiness that can’t be filled.  So, instead of always being high they feed that emptiness with something else.  For some it’s a sexual addiction, some an addiction to work, and others an addiction to material things.  Whatever the addiction, it is born from the need to be filled and just like I convinced myself that I wasn’t an addict many do the same thing.  I overcame my addiction by the power of the Holy Spirit but it wasn’t easy.  The morning I accepted Christ as my Savior and gave my life to Him I felt a feeling of peace and release that I had not felt in years but on the same night I gave my life to Christ I went home and got high, and that night I heard the Lord for the first time in my life.  He spoke to me and said, “If you don’t stop you will be in a worse condition than you were when you came to Me this morning.”  Peace in life is a basic need for every human being and the need to be filled with the peace of God can’t be satisfied with things or people.  It can only be satisfied with a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)  I love you and may God bless you.

Here’s the Word For The Day:

Long before David became king of Israel he shepherded his father’s flock and during this time he learned important lessons about sheep.  He came to an understanding that sheep need a shepherd to survive.  It was his responsibility to care for the sheep and make sure the sheep received what they needed to be healthy and strong.  While shepherding the flock David also had time to cultivate his relationship with God, and while he was out in the fields he came to a realization that people are a lot like sheep and need a shepherd.  I’m sure that while David was in the fields he was confronted with some pretty serious situations.  As a matter fact he told Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.” (1 Samuel 17:34-35)  I’m sure while out in the fields away from the security of the shelter of his home and spending hours with just the sheep, the Lord, and himself David needed things.  Maybe he got hungry or maybe when loneliness started to set in David needed a friend to talk to.  It was during this time of need that David learned of his Shepherd.  It was during times of hunger that David went to his Shepherd and sustenance was provided.  It was during times of loneliness that David went to his Shepherd and realized he could talk about anything that was on his mind.  We have to remember that when David tended his father’s sheep he was a young boy and tending the sheep wasn’t the easiest of jobs.  Tending the sheep required that you be responsible for every sheep in the flock.  You had to protect the sheep and care for them ensuring that they remained healthy because a flock of sheep was worth a lot during David’s time.  So, David’s father must have recognized that David had what it took to place him over a flock.  David must have been good at his job but David realized that the Lord was an even better shepherd then he was.  David knew better than to take the credit so he penned, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want”.  Paul later wrote in Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  Do you have a need?  Are you lacking something?  If you are turn to your Shepherd!  Or maybe your problem is you don’t see yourself as a sheep?  Maybe you believe that you don’t need a shepherd because you’re all of that and a bag of chips?  Maybe you think you’re too good to be a sheep?  I mean sheep are not considered the smartest of animals and they stink.  Well let’s think about it for a moment.  Can you keep yourself?  Can you overcome by your own power?  Don’t you stink every now and then (I’m speaking of sin)?  Consider it an honor to be called a sheep because only those who God considers his sheep will enter the Kingdom.  “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:32-34, 25:41)  Jehovah Jirah- The Lord our Provider-is our shepherd and whatever we need He has.  I love you and may God continue to bless you.