Being Thankful!!

As I write this article, I can’t help but reflect and be thankful for my life and its personal impact on peoples lives. I also can admit that my heart does get frustrated at times for the lack of peoples appreciation for what others do for them. As Christians, how can we learn to be better communicators of our Thanksgiving towards others?

What is being thankful really about? I personally believe it starts when each of us can consciously be appreciative for the things we have or we have enjoyed. I have found this is only the first part to being thankful.

If we want to have a thankful heart and spirit, the second part requires us to choose the attitude that our thankfulness is greater than our disappointments, frustrations, or the negative events we are or have been experiencing.

This means that being thankful is a state of mind rather than a condition or set of circumstances. It is how we interpret the events that happen in our life, not what happens. I would like you to think of two individuals you have known in your life: one who—no matter what—is thankful for his or her situation and life and the other —no matter what—is never really thankful for much.

If given the choice, which individual would you want to do more to help? Obviously we would do more for the thankful person.

What about each of you reading this: would people observe a thankful spirit inside you?

Over the past few years, significant negative events have occurred in my ministry and personal life. Now I could choose to be unthankful, bitter, or upset about these experiences or I could look at the events with a thankful and discerning heart.

I have discovered that in every negative event, there is an equal or greater positive side.

Having the right people in your life is everything. Never compromise your values when finding friends or working with someone else.

We all have a choice to be thankful for the many blessings we already have; your attitude of thankfulness will actually attract more blessings. A friend once framed this for me that no matter what your life condition, there is almost always someone worse off. Complaining adds no value and does not resolve the situation anyway. I learned that from a message my momma preached about six years ago. THANKS YVETTE!!

On the opposite side of this article, I encourage you to have great dreams, visions, and goals. I believe those desires will be best achieved while appreciating and being thankful for what we already have while on the journey of greater success.

Will you accept that challenge? I believe in you!! Let's try this!!

I am thankful for . . .

• My wonderful Spiritual Parents, Pastors and friends Alan & Yvette Latta. They adore their children and embrace life with a passion. They're anchors, who have given a foundation to stand on. I LOVE YOU!
  
• My best friend Zane, who I have spent more time with, than any other friend, and a friend who has loved me more deeply than any other friend I have had. Thank You Zane...Your the greatest brother!
  
• The privilege to being an Interim Care Minister / Worship Facilitator with the vision and resources to transform individuals and help change the world, through healing, and Hope.
  
• The greatest Church team to work for, and with, NEW LIFE CHURCH of Sullivan and the gifts and talents they bring to fulfilling the vision of our Local Church.
  
• Being part of a free society that allows me to express my gifts, talents, purpose, and beliefs without fear of repercussion. Being allowed to share my faith, my hope and my love for the Absolute best Savior of the World.
  

Now it's your turn, what are thankful for?

Action Steps (what you can do)

1. What would your friends and family say about your thankful spirit?
2. Take some time throughout the next few days to become conscious of all the things you are thankful for.
3. Acknowledge and recognize all the areas of your life for which you are not currently thankful; reframe your attitude the best you can to embrace a thankful spirit even in these situations.
4. Share this gift: give it away. Tell others you appreciate them and are thankful for their contribution in your life.
5. Know that your life is a reflection of the friends you keep. If you have an individual or friend who is rarely thankful, maybe it’s time to rethink the amount of time you spend with that person.
6. Surround yourself with others who have a thankful spirit; it is contagious.
7. Know that I am personally thankful that you spend a portion of your valuable time with me every day. It has been an honor to serve you through my thoughts and words.

I love you deeply
dg

A Daddy's Blessing

In Preparation for Father's Day, I have been thinking about a "Daddy's Blessings". It's such a need amongst our youth today. Though my life wasn't surrounded always by the greatest dad, through the years of maturing in the Lord, my heart knows the true reward and treasure of a 'Daddy's Blessings.

I heard a story given about two years ago about a College Professor who had a student in his class who came to him one day and asked if he would give her a blessing. She had some important decisions to make and she needed the Lord’s guidance. This Bible College Professor knew her well and also her family. She came from a home where the dad was I guess "a less" active member in their local church....one who didn’t live the way he should I suppose. The College Professor knew he could give her a blessing but the Holy Spirit told him not to.

The College Professor told his student, "No, I don’t feel I should give you this blessing. You need to ask your father for the blessings". The student couldn’t believe what she had just heard! Her Professor and friend knew her dad, knew he wasn’t "worthy" and she left mad. However, later that week she decided she was going to ask her dad for the blessing. She gathered her courage, and that afternoon she walked into the living room where her dad sat in his favorite chair watching a ball game with a beer in his hand. She gathered her courage and said, "Dad, I need you to give me a blessing". Her father stared at her for a moment, didn’t say a word, got up and turned the television off, .....and walked out of the room and left the house. That was a Saturday afternoon. The family did not see their father for the rest of that day and not even the next day. Then in the evening when they had gathered together for their family devotional (the mother always made sure this happened) the door opened and in walked her dad, all dressed up and asked his daughter if she still wanted that blessing! The room became silent!!

She later said that he may not have given her the most profound blessing she’d ever heard but the spirit-inside him was so strong! That was only the beginning. Her dad from that point on, turned his life around and received Jesus in his heart. Years went by and He served many years as Pastor in that same church...all because one daughter had courage enough to say DAD WILL YOU GIVE ME A DAUGHTER'S BLESSING...he later died, and was considered an honorable man.

As a young man myself, we never know the influence we can have in our homes and in our family... whether we come from a christian, or even non-Christain home, whether dis-functional or functional. We need to be willing to let the spirit inside us touch the lives of those around us. We never know what one request or one word can do for a person, that including our parents.

When I think about this story, I'm reminded of how much I loved it when I heard it. I hope it will help or give you the inspiration to say the right things to your parents. As a leader and teacher in my local church, I have to be mindful of my role in the lives of the children, and younger listeners, even those older than me, for I know they too listen to the heart-spoken words I say.

We have to realize that no matter what age, what color or race we are, the Bible encourages us to always show honor and respect to our parents and leaders, so that our lives can become prosperous, and well-lived. We can help turn hearts to the unity-of-family as we follow the example of Christ's Holy Word. We have to maintain a level of Mature Positive Thinking, and engage our hearts to hear and know the voice of the Lord, to respond the way HE does. This College Professor was not self-righteous but instead humbled himself to listen to the Holy Spirit, which is essential for us as believers to do.

Think about a way you can BLESS YOUR FATHER on HIS CELEBRATING DAY!

To all the Dad's - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I love you deeply!
Dg

Hardship of Knowing who you are!

For days now, my heart has been burdened by a few things. Some in which include a few individuals I know that may be tampering with the homosexual idea, or even attempting to live in the lifestyle. The ache in my heart, troubles me, as I know the life way too well.

In deep thought, what is the answer to who we are? Theoretically speaking, it's hard enough trying to figure out what is my true, real identity. The question I get all the time is, why am I so different? How do I respond?

Well, for many of us the word "different" goes back to earliest childood. Translated, it always meant "inferior" or "less than." As we say over and over again, homosexuality is to a great extent an identity problem, and for most of us, one of the first identities we had was "different," and this grew into 'less than" and eventually into "homosexual."

"You are different." "You will never measure up." "You can't do what other men (women) do."

Most of us know that overcoming homosexuality involves our taking on a new identity, and that this encompasses more than that we stop identifying ourselves as gay. It means a much deeper change in how we see ourselves and how we feel about ourselves. It means a change at the core of our being that will eventually enable us to respond spontaneously to the world around us a man or woman, not as a homosexual.

This change in identity is also more than just grasping a spiritual truth -- although it is that. God did create me to be heterosexual, and through Jesus Christ my heterosexuality is restored. This is true, and for many overcomers the realization of this truth is a great milestone in the healing process. But we are not unreasonable to expect that a spiritual truth will eventually manifest itself in our experiences as living, breathing human beings. God created us as flesh and blood beings; in the act of redeeming us He became incarnate, taking on our form. Our redemption is not just a spiritual thing, it encompasses our bodies, and souls as well as as our spirit, and thus it encompasses our identities.

In seeking a change in identity, we are seeking one of the most profound changes a man or woman can experience. Our whole central point of reference changes. From the perspective how we see ourselves, we do truly become new creatures. How do we do this? How can we help the process along?

First, I think we need to look at where our identity as men and women comes from. Then, what reinforces and sustains that identity, and finally, if our identity is broken or distorted, how we can replace the old identity with a new one.

In discussing where our identity comes from we start, of course, with the great truth that we are who God says we are. He has told us that He created us male and female, in His image, and that at the beginning He pronounced us good. Our problem, however, is not that we don't already know this, but that we don't experience it. My point in this article is not to hammer in this truth, but to help you make it a reality by discussing what went wrong after our particular creation, and then getting into how we can come back to the point at which our creation as male and female seems real to us.

God assigned to our parents a primary responsibility and authority to give us our identity, in effect to define us. From our mothers we were to be given a sense of being, and from our fathers our identity as men and women. But for those of us who became homosexual, something went wrong -- in the message that was delivered to us, in the way we received it, or in there being static or confusion surrounding us that distorted the message.

Whatever the cause -- be it confusion or the wrong message having been sent or received -- many of us as adults still live under the power of these early messages. Spoken or demonstrated, real or only in the perceptions of the child, the voice of the parent inside us still declares our lack of worth or manhood or womanhood; our incompetence or inadequacies.

Having received a wrong or confused message from parents, we were off to a bad start. We were ripe to have our broken identity reinforced by others who would be a part of our world. Often most likely to reinforce the fact that we were different, because they were likely the most insensitive, were our peers. We perceived this recognition as rejection--and maybe it was. Often this was painful enough to cause us to withdraw from the world of other little boys or little girls, and so for many isolation set in.

All of us engage in self talk, so the next voice we heard was our own. "I'm different; I will never be able to..." Finally, sensing a weakness, the enemy knew he had a place to establish a foothold. His voice was added to the others. The great accuser joined the chorus to declare that, "You are not like other men (women)."

And so many of us grew up still listening to the voices that declared our brokenness. We continued to give authority to parents, to peers, and to the enemy himself to define who we are.

Some of us, confused and uncertain about our identity, give to others the authority to define who we are. Because of my father's inability to help impart his male identity to me and to help me eventually become my own person, I was who my mother said I was. When people marry that deal with this issue, it is easy to transfer that authority to their wife, and trust me, they won't grasp it; because they thrust it upon them. The husbands tend to give their wife the authority to define who they are and then the husbands live with fear and resentment towards her. Not a very good situation in which to develop one's manhood.

If we are to hear (in our deepest hearts) who God says we are, we are going to have to silence the other voices. I offer three ways of doing this.

First, we consciously and prayerfully, before God, declare that we are no longer who our parents or peers or others said we were. We revoke the authority we gave them to define us. Parents had this authority rightfully in our early childhood, but through normal growth and separation we should have cast that off. We need to do that now.

Second, we need to change our self talk. By this I don't mean we take on some sort of "positive confession" whereby I declare I am healed while I still have a temperature of one hundred and three. No, we carefully and objectively analyze our self talk and wherever it is factually false, we replace it with the truth. If I am the lead male dancer in the Washington ballet, yes I am different -- praise the Lord -- but that doesn't mean I don't measure up as a man. If I am a woman and I am not comfortable with a certain type of man, that's unfortunate and maybe I need to do something about it, but that doesn't mean I am not fully a woman. Don't spiritualize here; don't say what you don't really believe. Just declare the truth as you see it, and your true identity will start to emerge.

Finally, we need to silence the voice of the accuser of the faithful. His message is often disguised as he somehow gains access to our minds and changes the message from, "You are not a man." to "I am not a man." I often have difficulty discerning whether the negative message I receive comes from the devil or from the remnants of my own brokenness. I find, however, it isn't necessary to differentiate. I simply state, "I reject that message in the name of Jesus, I command the voice of the enemy to be silent, and I declare that I am who Jesus says I am." That does it.

These efforts to take authority away from those who no longer have the right to define who we are can really work, but they are going to come up against two obstacles that need to be addressed.

The first obstacle is that we all experience a lag between our intellectual acceptance of a truth and our knowing that truth in a deeper sense; knowing it in a way that will change our emotional responses. Thus the wife who had a hyper-critical husband for many years, after he has repented and turned completely from his criticism, is likely to continue seeing him as critical for months -- even years -- after the change has taken place. Our perception of change always lags behind reality. Thus we will need patience as our perception of ourselves lags behind the intellectual truth that we recognize when we revoke the authority of others to define us and as we silence the negative messages.

A second obstacle may lie in low self-esteem; especially if that low self-esteem is rooted in infancy or earlier. Low self- esteem is a common root of homosexuality, and it may provide a filter through which we view all reality. It may fight every effort to silence the old voices and to tune into the voice of Jesus, and it may be beyond our strength to do any thing about it. If so, this is an area for prayer and healing. This may be one of the obstacles that each of us confronts on our way out of homosexuality that Jesus will have to lift us over. He will do it.

So in summary, we come into our new identity by silencing the old voices so that we can hear the voice of the One who created us and who has the rightful authority to define who we are. The three elements of this process are our efforts, the healing power of Jesus Christ, and patience. He will bring to completion the work He has started.


Maybe this can help! Consider Please. For more information, please email or message me anytime.

I love you deeply
Dg

Inner Peace

You know, as time passes by, the disturbing thought of my heart aches in all that is happening. With tragic news of a family from our church being killed, makes my mind go crazy. However the inner peace and assurance of a wonderful Savior gives me hope to stand. The word says:

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." (John 14:27 NASB)

It's all over the news today. To be honest, It is not a pretty world out there. Frankly I think earth has not been pretty since Adam and Eve forfeited their right to Eden. Read the headlines today all sort of crises are occurring:

Husband convicted of Murdering his Wife and Two Sons.

Centenarian financial institutions going bankrupt

North Korea may already have nuclear warheads

Russia orders upgrade of its nuclear deterrent

Tainted milk scare spreading from China to Japan

US bailout plan for economy

Looking at these few headlines we have, Christianity in Crises, financial, war, and health crises occurring simultaneously around us. How can anyone maintain any level of peace and harmony in such a chaotic world?

It makes me realize we have a promise of peace that Jesus gave His disciples and to all of us who believe. (John 14:27). The peace Jesus was speaking of comes from the Holy Spirit that each believer should have within them. The Holy Spirit or The Comforter, as Jesus calls it, brings us the peace we need to withstand this world of chaos.

As you can see this peace is a spiritual peace and once within us it shows through our lives. When it is within us, it shows outwardly in our lives. We become that light on the hill, a beacon that others are drawn to. Others are drawn to us because the peace within us pours out on others around us when we let it shine and share it. When we share it we are bringing harmony amidst the chaos of the world around us.

Just think of the times, when we have either given solace to a co-worker, gave someone food to eat, shared our personal testimonies, or shared the message of God's Word to others. All of those things and quite a few others bring comfort, hope, and sometimes unity to others who feel the bleakness of the world around them. We are to use the peace Jesus gives us to light up the world where we go bringing a little harmony to the lives of those we minister to in our walk in Jesus.

"I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me Get up, let us go from here." - John 14:30-31 NASB

Jesus told us that the ruler of the world is coming, some may say that he is already here, Satan. Satan has nothing in Jesus, therefore we are to bring to the world what it is lacking. Harmony amidst chaos. Bring Jesus to the World.

Just sharing my heart, as I am burdened about a few things!

I love you friends. We are in this together! Let's keep up the good work of the Lord. Living to be a Light, an Influence to a broken and hurting world!

I love you deeply!
Dg