Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, Who keeps our soul among the living, And does not allow our feet to be moved. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.  Psalm 66:8-12

Can times of affliction be times to praise? Are trying times great times? Does God cause stress and struggle?  The answer to all of these questions is YES!  God is so awesome that He stretches us to grow us and He tests us to promote us. He is always working to bring us to the place He has created us to be in.

Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men. Psalm 66:5

Even when all seems crazy – BLESS HIS NAME, even when you can’t see your way through – BLESS HIS NAME, even when you feel all alone – BLESS HIS NAME and even when you don’t understand it -BLESS HIS NAME.
Don’t wait until the storm is over, don’t wait until the blessing comes, don’t wait until your debt is cleared, don’t wait until you have a spouse, don’t wait until the children are acting better, don’t wait until you have a job – PRAISE HIM NOW!
This is the time to bless the Lord with all your soul because He is worthy to be  praised – ALWAYS!  Whatever God does in your life is part of the process He has for you to walk into your purpose. Thank God for His plan and endure the process with praise. This is a GREAT time to BLESS THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR SOUL!
Join me this weekend with a joyful noise of praise!!

Have a praiseful weekend,
Minister Deidra Bibb

Then the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”  Numbers 23:16

I’m sure you have heard “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again” or even “nothing beats a failure but a try”, yet when something doesn’t go as you would have hoped it would, you feel the desire to quit. If you have tried something more than once you aren’t usually inclined to attempt it again. Why? Because the feeling of failure isn’t a good one. No one wants to endure the embarrassment of failing and everyone wants to remind you of the last time you tried and failed. God knew that we would feel like we feel about trying over and over again so He strategically placed people and situations throughout the Bible that tried and failed but eventually succeeded. He did not do it by accident, He wanted us to know success is possible, no matter how many times you have failed.

Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” Acts 15:36 

What is it that you have tried and failed at but you just can’t seem to stop thinking about? Who have you contacted for help before but still need now? Where have you been and didn’t seem to belong but still long to be? It’s time for you to try one more time. Call that person, go to that place and do what you have been dreaming of. When you tried before, you may not have been ready but now God has provided you with what you need to succeed. He didn’t want you to fail so He delayed your opportunity until you were ready. NOW IS THE TIME for you to accomplish that goal, write that book, start that business, get that job or become a wife/husband. It’s time for you to take another chance and TRY ONE MORE TIME!

You’re ready now,
Minister Deidra Bibb

Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and
Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of
hosts the holy mountain. – From Zechariah 8:1-8

The prophecy of Zechariah is very complex, yet very clear as the prophet dealt with the restored Jewish remnant which returned after 70 years of captivity. Jehovah God is reminding Israel of His never-changing purpose to
bless them in the Kingdom. The book of Zechariah is prophetic, Messianic in vision, but God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, has this same message for the Church – His promise of blessing in the Kingdom to come.
You’re probably saying to me – but will it ever happen? And my answer to you is an emphatic “Yes!” Matthew 24:27 says, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”
After Jesus was crucified and resurrected from the dead, His promise before He ascended to the Father was that He would “come again.” That promise has not changed. I know, things are getting progressively worse, and it
sometimes look hopeless for us. Life deals us some harsh blows and we
wonder, where is God in all of this?
Zechariah had a vision, not only concerning Israel, but of the streets of Birmingham. Not only of Birmingham, but of the streets in every city, every nation on Planet Earth. He saw neighborhoods of hungry and homeless people,
murders, and suicides. These are not just random occurrences. They happen every day. And we ask WHY? We wonder WHEN will it all end and WHEN will there be peace on this earth? WHEN will we stop looking into the face of our dead children? WHEN will we no longer have to bolt our doors at night and
have a peaceful rest?
Times have become perilous, especially now that the church, in its apostate state, has chosen to be silent; the Word of God is snubbed and disregarded; the preacher and his calling are disrespected; and sometimes the message is diluted. Ronald Reagan once said, “Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.” There is no better time to appropriate this theme. We have empowered evil by becoming afraid. Instead of getting a backbone, we have
become complacent and uninterested.
We have made ourselves a participant in the apostasy (the falling away from Truth).
We have become SILENT.
But take heart, you who love and serve the Lord! This eighth chapter of Zechariah is full of promise. Read it all! You have to love the verse that says, men and women and boys and girls will be in the streets. God, in his
Sovereignty, surely knew and Zechariah surely had a vision of what the streets of Birmingham would be like in the year 2013. But there is coming a day when boys and girls will play in the streets with no danger lurking from
any dark alley. Old men and old women will not worry about having their wallets or handbags snatched. There will be no killing, no hungry children.
We have that promise from the prophet Zechariah.
When Jesus said He would come again, He meant it. He knew what we would have to endure on this sinful, godless earth, and when He left this earth for heaven, He said “I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there ye shall be.” But He also said, “I will not leave you comfortless.” He gave us the Holy Spirit that day at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit, who indwells us, who teaches us all things, and who will be with us until we are at last with Jesus. Imagine what it would have been like if Jesus had left us alone.
But He didn’t.
Through eyes of faith, I see you; I see the pain on your face. This world’s system has dealt you a blow. This world’s system has dealt me a blow, and without the Lord Jesus Christ in my life, I shudder to think where I might
be. There was a time in my life when I was looking up through the bottom. I thought the whole world had abandoned me, left me to go it alone. My expectations ran high, and the world let me down. People let me down. I had to come to myself like the prodigal son and know that my hope is not in this world system; my hope is not in this world’s things; my hope is not in the people in my life- Songwriter, Edward Mote wrote, “My hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on JESUS’ NAME!” Hallelujah. When I came to that conclusion, He made a new person out of me.
Psalm 40:2 says, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.”
It could not have been said better! Only He can do that.
John the Revelator foresaw the things in store for us, and on Patmos he wrote about it and encouraged us with it. It should be on our lips night and day-the things God has prepared for us. Revelation 21:1 says, “And I saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. Now, if we stopped there and went no further, we can know that we have something incredible waiting for us. But that’s not all. He goes on to tell us all the “new things” we will have:
New People (verses 3-8)
New Capitol (the New Jerusalem verses 9-21) New Temple (verse 22) New Light
(the Lamb is the light! verse 23)

There will be: no more deceptions, no more murders, no more rich getting richer at the expense of the poor, no more homelessness, no more bullying, no more suicides, no more days of desolation, poverty, ruin, no more hunger.
And no more tears and heartache, which is the end result of all the above.
Listen to Revelation 7:17: “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them .” That’s from God’s hand to your mouth! God will feed you!
“and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters .” He’s going to quench
your eternal thirst! ” . and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Until that day,

Victor W. Baugh, Sr., Th.D., Ph.D.
Pastor, St. Luke AME Church
Havana, AL
http://www.thatgracemayabound.blogspot.com/

You are my friends, if you do what I command (John 15:14).
 
“’What a Friend We Have in Jesus,’ is my favorite hymn,” Billy Graham said when being asked by a reporter. In the Bible, Jesus is called by several names. He is called Christ, Saviour, Lord, and Master. I believe “friend” is the favorite among those who actively follow him.
Being a friend implies a close relationship. It means that He knows us and loves us, and we know Him and love Him. We love Him because He first loved us, and as the old hymn says, He bore our sins and grief.
Jesus was the best, kindest, and sweetest man ever to walk on the face of this earth, but He was treated like a thief or murderer. He was arrested, hauled off to jail, and tried several times. He was falsely accused, and witnesses lied about Him. He was beaten and tortured. A crown of large thorns was put on His head and beaten down until they pierced His flesh. Blood flowed down His face, making Him almost unrecognizable. In His bloody, weakened condition, He was forced to carry a heavy wooden cross to the top of a hill called Golgotha. The crowds along the way spit on Him, called Him names, and laughed at Him.
At Golgotha, they stripped Him of His clothes, and nailed Him to the cross, hammering large spikes through His hands and feet. They stood His cross up between two thieves. There, He suffered great thirst and pain for many hours before He died.
As the prophet said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Because he paid the price for our sins, we don’t have to.
Oh, what a friend!

Dr. Robert Wilkerson is a minister, writer, and founder of People for the Christian Way, an organization whose mission is to encourage all people to practice Christian principles in business, politics, and every area of life. drbobwilkerson@bellsouth.net, www.peopleforthechristianway.com.

Recognizing the Hidden Lord
Rev. J.A. Reid

A preacher was an avid golfer. Every chance he got, he found himself on the golf course swinging away. It was an obsession. One Sunday was a picture perfect day for golfing. The sun was out, no clouds in the sky, and the temperature was just right. The preacher was in a quandary as to what to do, and shortly, the urge to play golf overcame him. He called an assistant to tell him that he was sick and could not do church, packed the car up, and drove three hours to a golf course where no one would recognize him. Happily, he began to play the course. An angel up above was watching the preacher and was quite perturbed. He went to God and said, “Look at the preacher. He should be punished for what he is doing.” God nodded in agreement. The preacher teed up on the first hole. He swung at the ball, and it sailed effortlessly through the air and landed right in the cup three hundred and fifty yards away, a picture perfect hole-in-one. He was amazed and excited. The angel was a little shocked. He turned to God and said, “Begging Your pardon, but I thought you were going to punish him?” God smiled. “Think about it – who can he tell?”
“No matter where we go or what we do God sees us but sometimes it’s hard to see God. We only see the impossible in life by recognizing the hidden Lord, and recognize Him by witnessing God in everything and discover Him within. The problem is many of us who claim to be following Jesus miss the Christ that can only be found within. If we don’t learn how to recognize the hidden Lord within we will go through life thinking and acting like we know God and miss Him.
An old man met a man coming from Detroit. They talked. The man from Detroit asked the old man, you are coming from Atlanta. Please tell me something about the people there: what manner of people are they, what are they like?” The old man asked the man, “First you tell me what type of people is there in Detroit.” The man said, “Very disgusting, nauseating, violent, quarrelsome.” And all these qualities flashed on the face of the man. The old man said, “I am sorry. You will find the people of Atlanta just the same.”
Later on, he met another man who was also from Detroit, and he also asked the same question: And the old man again asked, “First tell me what manner of men are there in Detroit and the man became aflame with nostalgia… a very loving memory of the people of Detroit. His face shone and he said, “Very pleasant, friendly, kind, and good neighbors.” The old man said, “I am happy to tell you that you will find the people of Atlanta just the same.” This story is beautiful. It tells a very basic truth about us: wherever we go, we will always find ourselves; wherever we look, we will always encounter ourselves. The whole world is nothing but a mirror, and all relationships are mirrors. Again and again we encounter ourselves – and again and again we misunderstand. We never realize the point, that it is our own face that we have looked at, that it is our own mood that we have come across. In life we meet no one but ourselves. God is hidden in these experiences because God is concealed our hearts! Our work in this life is to find Him.
There are two ways of recognizing the unseen Lord. One, we recognize the Hidden Lord in our life when we see ourselves in everything. We can recognize Jesus only if we have recognized something of the beyond in ourselves. We recognize Jesus only if a part of us has become like Jesus; otherwise we cannot recognize Him. We cannot recognize that which has not happened to us. If we are dark, only darkness can be recognized. If we are light, then we become capable of recognizing light. Our eyes can see light because they are part of the sun, because something within us has become the nature of light. A deep transformation has happened within you. We now are able to see the hidden Lord when we see God in all things.
Two, we recognize the Hidden Lord in our life when we discover God within. The Bible says, “And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Very significant words – try to understand them. Thou art the Christ. What does the word “Christ” means? The word means that which attracts. When we discover God within ourselves we become capable of attracting Christ, the Son of the Living God. It means a drop of the ocean has become capable of attracting the ocean. Christ is a meeting-point of the drop with the ocean, of the finite with the infinite, of the horizontal with the vertical. Where the horizontal and the vertical meet, that point of meeting is Christ. Here is the point, when Peter said, “Thou art the Christ,” he was saying in Jesus we witness the finite and the infinite coming together. In Jesus we perceive the Son of man and the Son of God. In Jesus we can make all boundaries dissolve and find ourselves. In Him we distinguish time and eternity meeting, life and death meeting.” This is the meaning of Christ: where the opposites meet and become one.
Today, we recognize the hidden Lord in ourselves as Christians! We are transformed by this acknowledgment into what God intended us to be.
John 8: 6-

FROM WHAT WELL ARE YOU DRINKING?
From what well are you drinking? Well, you see very many people absorb erroneous information from whosoever puts it out, and they never think to check it out to see whether it is true or not, nor what is the source.  I realize many people are looking for derogatory information, and it does not matter whether it is true or not. This is what you call drinking from un-reliable fountains. A reliable person does not want to speak that what is untrue, and especially if it is coming from a prolific hate pool. Christians must always be on guard in regards to their speaking, because the Lord looks on the believer with disappointment, because God knows what His Word tells you in Romans 13:12, and that is, “Everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.” Guard your motives. The Lord is looking and listening.
The believer must always be on guard, and analyze all they say and do, because we are suppose to be like a light on a hill that cannot be hidden; therefore, guard what you are saying, looking at, and listening to. Watch the company you keep; it will identify who you really are. God said in Isaiah 55:1, “All who are thirsty come to the water and he that has no money come buy and eat.” You are no doubt thinking how can I buy without money, and if you are thinking that, the exchange is the giving of self in exchange for eternal life, which the Holy Spirit through the Cross of Jesus makes a perfect and complete exchange. HALLELUJAH.
www.thealmightyeyes.com.