Did you Know that Jesus had a Job, too?!

This is a reminder for those who are somewhere they don't want to be forever. 

ENJOY IT ANYWAY!!! 

I work at Panera Bread. I don't always like my job. It irritates me as God uses it to grow my character. But it is super fun for the most part! Serving people and working with people who have become like family to me. 

I've worked at a number of restaurants and I've eaten at way more than I've worked at. Let me tell you something that gets on my last nerve about people who are offering any type of service as an occupation: people who look like they HATE their lives and treat you like YOU are the worst thing that ever happened to them!

You, Susie Christian, do you do that?

You may be in a place in your life where you're not at all where you want to be or where you're going to stay. God has plans to move you. However, I guarantee if you're constantly grumbling and complaining about where you are now you would take that nasty attitude with you into the next season!

So, please, do your job with joy. You can make a difference in someone's life whether you are assembling sandwiches at Subway or on the campaign trail for president. It's all about thinking about someone other than your self. Kind ofLike  Jesus does constantly. 

The first thing you should do is smile. Genuinely SMILE. Don't be so lame! We all know you don't like serving burgers and fries, but smile anyway cause it's not always about you. Find SOMETHING to smile about. It really goes a LONG way. 

Secondly, go above and beyond sometimes!!! Don't be in excess and get in trouble, but go the extra inch it takes to make someone's day! Ask how their day is and...MEAN IT! Remember a name. Step out of the box. Have fun for once!

Remember, as God's children our aim is to please Him. And it pleases Him when we work like He was writing out paycheck, because truthfully, He is the real provider not that little job anyway!  Work like Jesus did!

Now Jesus KNEW He was the Son of God. God in the flesh. The Living Word. He was IT! But it was a while before He walked in His ministry. What did He do until then? HE WORKED! Lol. He was the oldest in His family too? I'm sure He spent most of that time working with Joseph. You don't think Jesus dealt with some difficult customers from time to time? Maybe He even got frustrated because He knew He wasn't going to be a carpenter all His life. But I'm sure He didn't have a sour face and take it out on customers and coworkers. He worked as unto the Lord.

So let's work on this people. Help me! Lol. My number one thing is constantly complaining about work when I'm there. And always saying I'm ready to go! Lol. Pray for me as I ask the Holy Spirit to help me be thankful instead of complaining. When I complain I blend in with the the people who work there who are unbelievers. Is that how I need to be acting if I'm supposed to be set apart? Nope. You neither.

What are some of your weaknesses when it comes to working as unto the Lord?

We can do it! Let's get with God and learn to work like He is watching. Because guess what? He is. 

25 Year Old Virgin

 

  It’s been almost a year and a half now that I have been back home and serving in the church I grew up in. During it all God has been showing me some amazing things and giving me great opportunities for growth. One amazing thing He has done is connect me closely with two women who are passionate about Him and love me dearly. Through talking with them constantly, (literally, constantly. Lol.), and hearing how they speak about purity God has changed my perspective on a lot of things.

     A while back I shared my testimony about dealing with a sexual addiction. Every detail is true. I was that person. I was addicted to sexual activity and I allowed it lead to me into some dark places and unimaginable situations. Yet through all of that God preserved me. I am turning 25 in a month and I am a virgin.

     Some people know that I’ve never had sex. Too many applaud me in these efforts as though I somehow maintained my virginity on my own account. Since I did not make this vow of abstinence before or even after I got saved I have felt flat out guilty. Guilty. I have carried guilt with me every time someone tries to congratulate me or say they look up to me for not giving in to temptation. But here is the 100% truth: I gave in. I have a long history of giving in. Because of that long history God saw fit not to allow me into a situation where I would compromise the gift of my virginity.

     Yes, gift. Why do you think men in the past and even in the present have had to pay a bride price? What do you think a dowry is? Oh, I know. You think it is slavery. You think fathers basically sold their daughters for money. You may be right. Some of them very well did. But, did you ever think it through, though? How valuable and precious a virgin has been over centuries that any man had to pay a price for her? Remember a time when marrying someone who was not a virgin was repugnant and a social injustice? In current times, women and men alike carry it like a curse when it is the most beautiful blessing of all. And I’m guilty of it first. I can’t tell you a day where I felt honored and anointed to be a virgin. I have mostly felt ashamed and naïve. I have felt I was seen as immature for not experiencing sex outside of marriage. I have felt left out on some things.

      I have also felt like people don’t understand the nature of sexuality. My sexuality was awakened at a very young age; and having not had sexual intercourse does not constitute me as pure, clean, or ignorant when it comes to sexual content. That’s why I know I was addicted even though I hadn’t had the sex; I was addicted to the idea and to all the beginning stages. Let me break it down to you like this, masturbation, mutual and otherwise, is sex. Oral sex, it sex, it actually has the word sex in it. All of you who have had Intercourse can combat me and debate me all you want, and it is true that you have experienced something that I have not, but please do not discredit my struggle because of the language of it. You weren’t there.

     Part of me still wants to scream and demand that people please stop calling me a virgin. Because there is so much more to purity than not have sex with another person. I want people to understand that. I want people to get it. I want people to stop assuming that I’m some perfect, pure, untouched angel because I’ve never gone all the way. The truth is I’ve gotten close. The truth is it didn’t take for me to go all the way to understand that sex took me to a dark place that suffocated me with lust until I couldn’t function without it.

     Another part of me wants people to understand that just because you don’t do the act of sexual intercourse doesn’t meant that you have not committed a sin against your own body. That’s why the Bible calls it sexual immortality and fornication instead of just sex. There is so much tied to it all and not just to the act of sex. Please hear me when I say this, you are living your life by a lie if you think you can do everything but penetrate and God is okay with that. That is a perverted version of the truth. Please come out from among that and be free.

     I, having never had sexual intercourse, was bound by lust until one day when I just knew I was over it. Over the struggle. Over the back and forth. Just over SIN and its DESTRUCTION. Sin was RUINING my life. Walking in defeat was overshadowing everything. I was drowning. It was keeping me from my purpose, so I repented, maybe for the very first time, and I told God I was done. I told Him I was done with sin and its stronghold on my life. I haven’t slipped since.

     It is still a struggle for me to accept that I’m a virgin. It really doesn’t make sense. It boggles my mind that I can carry such an honorable title with all the junk I’ve done, all the horrible things I’ve done. I asked God if I’m just supposed to forget it all. His response: “I did.”

He did. He forgot. My sins have already been paid for and are covered under the blood of His only Son. God did that. He covered me. He covered you. No matter what your situation, know that there is redemption in the cross. Don't wallow in your guilt any longer. Come out of it with me. Accept that the price was paid and stop trying to pay it yourself.

I finally, at 25 years old, can say I'm free of that guilt. I'm free!!! I am finally happy and glad to be a virgin because I know God kept me because He loves me. And even when I mess up I know and believe I am forgiven. 

     I’m asking that we pray together as we work towards forgiving ourselves for our trespasses towards God and some of his people. I’m asking that if you see me, remind me that my sin has been cast away as far as the east is from the west and I will do the same for you. Remind me of grace; because grace is the only thing keeping us from sin, it is the power to stay pure, it is the power to say no to ungodliness.

February Feature: Candice McGruder

First off, let me begin by stating that what I am about to say is alsohttps://www.blogger.com/null aimed at myself, along with the rest of the body of Christ. I, like every single believer, needs to really, really examine themselves to make sure that they are still in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5

So, around 5 o’clock this morning, The Holy Spirit beckoned me to the throne of grace to pray. Now, I love to pray, I really do. I do it all the time, in fact. I pray daily because the Word tells us to Ephesians 6:18, and, I find that when I don’t, I become a mean little… Grinch? Yeah, I will use that word, Grinch. I find that when I do not press into the presence of God daily, throughout that day, I act extremely Grinchy. 

Now, before you nominate me for sainthood, you should inquire about the content of my prayers. That information is very vital to the rest of this piece. The content of my prayers are less centered around what the bible says to pray about, and more around… well, me. I pray for myself, I pray for my family, I pray for my daily needs, I pray for my friends, I pray for my wants, I pray for my Pastor, I pray for my bills to be paid, I pray for my Sorority, I pray for what Myself will eat; you see the trend here?  I am, like many American believers, very concerned about MY wellbeing, MY family, MY friends. I am very concerned with MYself.  So, when God woke me up to pray at 5:00 AM, I went down my check list of things to pray for and wondered why God woke me up an hour and a half before I needed to be awake. I was concerned about MY lack of sleep for MY job that day.  Silly willy Candice.

While at work, I was listening to my Jonathan McReynolds Pandora station, and like always, it was bomb. However, I began to notice a trend with the songs that were playing. They were playing songs about praying. Like, I am so serious. Nearly every song that played, was a song about praying. But not just regular, Candice type praying, no, but interceding.

DEFINTION BREAK: For those who don’t know the correct definition of interceding, please allow me to enlighten you. To intercede means to act or interpose in behalf of someone in difficulty or trouble, as by pleading or petition. I got this definition straight from dictionary.com.

I mean left and right, songs about intercession. William Murphy’s song called “I Prayed for You” , Yolanda Adams “Be Blessed” (which talks about praying for another person to be blessed). But, the song that really spoke to me was not really a song at all, but a plead from William McDowell. It was the Interlude to his song “Intercession”, and boy did it speak to me. In it, he is pleading with believers to set aside ourselves and to pray for the nations. He mentions how it takes faith not worry about our needs, but the needs of others. Faith, the kind that the Lilies of the field have that allows them to neither toil nor spin over what they will wear, and yet are dressed better than Solomon. Matthew 6:28-34

That is so real, beloved. SO super real. We as believers know that God is everything we need. In many passages of scripture He implores us not to worry, that we will be just fine. I know I am not very old, I am actually very young, but I have been walking with The Lord for quite some time, and I have yet to go hungry, yet to not have any clothes on my back, and yet to not have a place to lay my head. God has taken care of me, before I even knew to ask Him to! So why beloved, why, do we stress out, and worry about those things? Why?

With all that poverty that was around me growing up, I still ate, even if it was peas that my granddad grew and deer that he shot. I was still able to have a place to lay my head, even though we did move around a lot when I was little and lived in government housing some of my life. I still had clothes. I was still well taken care of. In Psalms 37 verse 25, the Palmist declares this “ I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread”. God is faithful to His word, yall. We don’t know how we made it but bless God that we did. That is exactly what I am talking about. God has NEVER forsaken us, and HE NEVER will. Hebrews 13:5

So, if we know these things, why do we continue to stress out about the past due light bill, or the late rent, and continue to harp God about the things He has already promised us, when there are people literally dying and going to HELL every day? When there are people who have yet to be touched by the Love of the Gospel? When there are people who fail to realize the return of Christ? Priorities beloved, priorities. What are we really spending our time praying about?

Now, am I saying that we are not supposed to pray for the things we need? No, I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is this: examine what it is you are spending your time praying on, and line it up with the Word of God. I mean if you are going to pester God about something, pester Him about the condition of the sinner’s soul, not your car note, or the delay in your “prince charming” ( If you cant say amen, ouch will be accepted).

God calls us to be ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 He calls us to stand in the gap, to make a plea on His behalf!  Are we really standing? Are we really doing what God has for us to do? Are we praying for others? Are we implementing the same mind that Christ had in ourselves? Philippians 2:5

So, I’m not really sure about you, but I would like to have the  type of faith to pray for someone else, instead of myself. I would like to do what God actually called me to do, and that is to stand in the gap and intercede for others! I want to be that light that Christ talks about in Matthew 5:14-16. Beloved, I make my appeal to you, as the body of Christ, lets stand and do what He actually has us here to do. Intercede yall, intercede. 

Peace, Love, and Joy

Candice Marie McGruder

-An Humble Servant of Christ

Some Kind of Wonderful???

There's a book out there called Lady in Waiting, a book on becoming a woman of God while waiting for Mr. Right.  One thing that stood out to me in this encouraging compilation was the subject of enabling.

en·abled en·abling

Full Definition of ENABLE

1

a :  to provide with the means or opportunity <training that enables people to earn a living>

b :  to make possible, practical, or easy <a deal that would enable passage of a new law>

c :  to cause to operate <software that enables the keyboard>

2

:  to give legal power, capacity, or sanction to <a law enabling admission of a state> 

What we are focusing on here is definition b: to make possible, practical or easy.

Why was this in a book about singleness? Well, watch this clip from the popular movie He's Just Not That Into You. The short haired woman is Gigi and the long haired woman is Janine.

Immediately after they hug Janine invites Gigi to look up places for a WEDDING! A stinking WEDDING! The guy has showed no interest in her besides these "signs" they claim to have seen.

Think about it. Do either of these women sound like someone you know? Maybe a close friend, family member or maybe even your mother?

Which one reminds you most of you?

And we Christian women are the WORST. Lol. Especially in this whole "that's my future husband" business. We are no less thirsty than we were beforehand except now we will dive into the covenant of marriage in our hearts quick because that's more "holy."

A lot of times in our walk with God we as single women are doing our very best to stay focused on pursuing and loving Jesus with all our hearts and that's when the enemy comes along with what we call a random. A random is someone who you KNOW God did not call you to be with but you date or "court" them anyway because of whatever reason. The enemy sends randoms to distract us, and sometimes he will even use our friend's harmless optimistic attitudes to aid in the process.

This harmless optimistic attitude would be that of your enabler. A friend of yours that you call when you meet a cute guy because you KNOW that whatever you say you saw, felt, or heard she will agree with you. She will encourage you to text him, talk with him. She will sit with you for hours and pick apart the conversation to look for clues that he is in fact madly in love with you. She will help you convince yourself that he is the one and the Lord will do it and to keep on praying and believing. And yes that dream means this and yes that look meant that. And I have to laugh because your sweet friend is just being herself: sweet, supportive, and on your team!

It's true she loves you! It's true she would do nothing to hurt you in a million years! And it's true that she has helped you into more trouble than anyone else because she upheld your emotions and not your God. And I've been there. I've been on both sides of this coin, and neither side is pretty. Most of my friends enabled me through life helping me believe that I would be next. Helping me believe that this is the one. Helping me see that he said one thing but really meant another. That is not cute!

I have learned my lesson! I'm not writing this post to dog your BFFL for enabling you. I'm writing this post for the enabler in all of us women who truly believe in love. I'm writing to remind us all to STOP dead in our tracks and PRAY before we agree to anything else, read anymore text messages, or listen to or participate in anymore over analyzing. Truth is, we don't know anything. Lol. Truth is, our friend wants someone to listen to her and we are so good at that. That's why we're friends. But at the end of the day she needs to be reminded that God is her source. That if this is the man for her God will give her clear direction.

So, please, be a good friend and a great sister in Christ and point your sister, lovingly, to Jesus and not to a man. As fun as it is as girls to gush about a guy with our friends, please save the gushing until it actually happens. Help your sister guard her heart and do not awaken love WAY before its time.

Try something different. When she calls or texts, say, let's pray! Cause girl you KNOW I'm no help in a situation like this; but God is help in all situations! If you know that man is not for her by prompting of the Holy Spirit tell her! Be led by God, not by the moment. Push her toward Jesus, not towards could be's and would be's. 

Let's stop enabling one another and stay FOCUSED.