A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
Happy JULYYYYY, folks!!!
It's the 7th month of the year! Time is making reservations for no one! Do you hear me? It's moving right along.
As I stated in a previous post, this is the month of the ANSWER. Consider this month to be like the last paragraph of a really interesting essay.
The months to follow will act as the preface of 2020. With the number 7 biblically meaning completion, expect some things to come to a head or to a complete close.
You may have thought that this would be something that would transpire in December.
NO.
The conclusion of matters have arrived. And it will come with some very strong reiterations and a powerful end statement.
What does this mean for you?
It all depends on where you stand and what you've been sowing.
If you've been doing your best to follow God's prompts and His leadings, you need not worry.
Those reiterations will serve as confirmations and the end statement will be like a boost of encouragement.
On the flipside if you've been defiant and stiffnecked, those reiterations will be rebukes and the end statement will be a humbling.
Needless to say, this is going to be a very intense, climatic month on every level.
Alright, I really pray that you were able to read my post from last week and was blessed. I extend my gratitude to you if you also listened to my message I preached 5 years ago. I really wanted you all to think about taking a different approach to longsuffering.
An approach that will endorse your character enhancement.
Because that's all longsuffering does.
It installs within you advancements that will suit you best for future seasons.
Just as you would give permission to your phone to install new updates, your approach to the fruit of longsuffering will give life permission to do the same.
The fruit of longsuffering is, as I mentioned in my message, the vehicle to get you to your predestined state.
Welcome it. Embrace it.
With that being said, let the fruit of kindness be pulled from the rest to be examined for today.
Kindness is another one of those fruits that is its most potent when one is under some pressure or encountered by something expressing the complete opposite.
Not that you have to go through anything to express it. Whether it is most impactful when one is challenged.
I'm sure you've heard at some point in your life the phrase,
"Kill them with kindness."
Is it true? Does kindness kills?
I think I first was introduced to this concept when I began working in the public service sector in the fast food industry. Then I transitioned into retail.
Wew, chile. When I tell y'all....
*Moment of silence*
____________________
Excuse me, I had to allot some time to lay to rest the last little piece of traumatization (<I just found out TODAY that that's a real word. Ha!) I had from my past experiences dealing with the public.
Real talk, people can be bullies and trolls for what it seems like no apparent reason at all.
My first job was at a KFC in the hood of Chicago.
Look here, I think I clapped back at some baby monsters on a few occasions during that stint and was written up too. I didn't care.
I would say I probably averaged out with a C- in kindness at that time. If I couldn't be kind I would be ruthlessly passive aggressive. Aka, petty. It wasn't until I got saved and started working at a bank and joined the choir at my church that I had to really learn how to effectively,
"kill people with kindness."
Because the trolls and bullies didn't go anywhere after I gave my life to Christ.
They just grew, in size and in number of encounters.
We're going to retire the phrase, "kill them with kindness," though. We don't want to kill nobody today or forever for that matter.
We want to love them with kindness.
Who are THEY?
Well, the UNKIND!
I've learned that if an unkind person starts the war, a kind person can settle the score.
Hey, I rhymed!
But it's a game of emotional chess, people.
Hear this, some of the most harsh and abusive tongued people usually are dealing with a war within, that they have yet to discover a way to control.
And so they declare war outside of themselves in hopes of silencing what's going on within.
If you ever meet a person who is trying to find a way to arouse you negatively in order to dominate your responses to him/her, know that he or she is only doing what they wish they had the power to do inwardly.
I had absolutely no idea until recently, that God would take every single last experience serving the public in the world to help me cultivate the fruit of kindness enough so that I could properly deal with HIS PEOPLE.
Especially in the church!
If you're reading this, you already know what I'm talking about.
Church folk, are unsurpassed in their brutality.
They are by far some of THEE most, discourteous, entitled, spoiled, arrogant, rude, crude, crass, and ornery, group of people I've ever met in my entire life!
I'm quite often reminded of my hatred for them that I gained at the tender age of 7 or 8. (Click here later)
The hatred has never left me. It's on probation.
When I joined the choir at my first church, I was this happy go lucky low-key hoodrat that only knew Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary songs.
No lies.
I was rough. I knew nothing.
All I had was an unrelenting pinch in my heart to worship God through song.
This is where I would have to swap out my little girl drawls for the big ones, because....
the mean girl cliquish syndrome in this choir was REAL!
Thank God my bestfriend joined the choir shortly after. I had somebody to keep me sober. We balanced each other out during critical times. Yet, the temptation to go off would show up frequently. These grown women would do some of the most childish things like stop singing during rehearsal to leave the rest of us in the section hanging in order to prove that they were the strongest and better singers.
These little elementary games forced me to go home and learn the words to some of the most popular gospel songs my choir would sing, plus others I'd never heard before. I had to do what I had to do to keep from falling victim to my veteran choirmates' antics.
But that was an adventure in and of itself.
My hunger to learn these songs afforded me the space to know worship for real and to become acquainted with my gift of song.
Most importantly, through worship, the fruit of kindness in me was flipped over to expose the side that had the likelihood of turning rotten.
This exposure matured me quickly and I was able to operate in kindness in the face of the subtle bullying I would experience. So much so within a little over a year, I was made the section leader for the sopranos. (Not the HBO mob!)
Now, that definitely wasn't something I'd expected to happen. Nor was it something I asked for or volunteered for.
And of course, I was met with much defiance and disrespect. Part due to the fact that I was young and hadn't too long come off the street. It was terrible. My gangsta was being tested constantly.
The more I showed kindness the more I was given the impression that my kindness was being taken for a weakness. I would go home in tears sometimes because my hurt feelings was turning into a strong urge to slap God's people and pull out edges.
I literally had to suffer long through that experience in order to mature in my fruit of kindness.
Catch that please!
No matter how much I hurled up to God my frustrations and irritations, He would not neglect to consistently expose the areas of my heart that needed to change.
To examine my fruit, He would keep sending me back to that bullheaded section I was charged to lead. He was changing me as He was shifting the atmosphere surrounding that choir.
Eventually, key troublemakers transitioned out of the ministry and the culture of that section changed drastically. Check this out, I was chosen to teach Sunday school for the weetots during that time while all of this was happening, where I was able to use my fully functioning fruit of patience and kindness.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Needless to say, I've noticed that if love is the cure, kindness is the syringe . If love is the message, kindness is the envelope. If love is the wedding feast, kindness is the invitation.
You can't love on anybody without first showing some form of kindness.
The late great Dr. Maya Angelou put it this way,
"People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Showing kindness doesn't mean turning into a throw rug for people to step on but it means being impartial with your love. It's easy to love those who are loveable. The true test is loving those who are unloveable. Look at it this way, loveable people will never have a shortage of kindness shown toward them. But those who are hard to love and unkind are in severe lack.
Broken undelivered people need to be shown their reflection. How will they ever see themselves if everyone is matching their disposition? Somebody needs to be willing to show these people the complete opposite of what they are giving off in order for them to SEE what they are giving off.
Hey, let's pretend like we're making pancakes. Get a spatula for me and flip over this flapjack will ya?
If you yourself have faltered in your degree of kindness or you've somehow mistakenly assumed that to be a lover of Christ means that you can reserve the right to be STANK with people, you're wrong!
Since when did salvation come with stankitudes?
You can't complain about not having friends when you're not showing yourself friendly. Unfold your ashy arms, stop pouting, and talking about your lack of opportunities or chances you've not been given when you have not at all shown genuine kindness to strangers!
You're setting yourself up for continued lack and poverty because you're expecting people to just come bearing gifts when there's nothing about your countenance that is inviting.
Fix your face!
God has been sending people your way but since they haven't come from a place you've expected or were packaged in the way you would prefer, you've treated them like crap!
!True Story!
One Sunday morning at church, I was sitting next to this woman who did not look like she even wanted to be in the building. Her face basically said, "Don't say s!&$ to me." That air was so strong coming off her it was off the chain.
Every time my Apostle would have us say something to our neighbor, I would purposely turn to her. She would get stiff and mean mug the floor. I patted her on the shoulder and she jerked away.
Later on, my Apostle told us to hug our neighbors. When I reached over to hug her she pushed me away. A young lady in front of her tried to hug her and she rejected her as well. Then stomped off.
Me and the young lady looked at each other confused and then gave our hugs away to each other.
A lady behind me, saw the entire ordeal and embraced me from behind and then welcomed a hug from the other young lady.
What I want to point out is this, you hurt yourself when you throw silent tantrums and invisible protests for love and affection, only to push it away when it comes from a different angle. God answers prayers and petitions through the kindness of others. He used His son Jesus to spark the trend. In the bible the Pharisees and Sadducees missed out big time because they refused to believe that God chose Jesus to be the Messiah.
I'll close here, to those who's love walk is active, continue to show kindness. Continue to let your light so shine before men even if it is not received well or received at all. Know good and well that it may not be received in some cases. Your kindness however, will attract God's kindness which will unlock doors in your life. He promotes and elevates those whom He can trust will not get out of character when met with the harshness of men.
The next time you encounter a bully or a tormented soul, see them as an assignment. It does not mean that you accept abuse and people's murderous tirades. Kindness can quench the fire by asking a simple question as did God who asked Saul before he changed his name to Paul,
"Why do you persecute me?"
Kindness asks sharp questions that brings pride to its knees at pivotal moments.
To those whom are operating in a low grade form or a pronounced level of unkindness, you have an appointment coming up. God is going to put His hands in front of everything you've idolized as your source and send forth an Ananias to baptize you back to factory settings.
You've already been blinded by your own doing. You let disappointment and rejection break some blood vessels in your eyes and the blood has seeped into your pupils. Now you can't see how your meanness is your hinderance.
You don't want to be cursed like the fig tree that produced no fruit! Currently the soil of your soul is parched and your fruit is withering. Your unkindness is making a mockery of your witness.
So consider it an honor that God would even care to correct what's concerning you, by FIRST correcting what's concerning Him.
Until then let us all, bow together.
Happy JULYYYYY, folks!!!
It's the 7th month of the year! Time is making reservations for no one! Do you hear me? It's moving right along.
As I stated in a previous post, this is the month of the ANSWER. Consider this month to be like the last paragraph of a really interesting essay.
The months to follow will act as the preface of 2020. With the number 7 biblically meaning completion, expect some things to come to a head or to a complete close.
You may have thought that this would be something that would transpire in December.
NO.
The conclusion of matters have arrived. And it will come with some very strong reiterations and a powerful end statement.
What does this mean for you?
It all depends on where you stand and what you've been sowing.
If you've been doing your best to follow God's prompts and His leadings, you need not worry.
Those reiterations will serve as confirmations and the end statement will be like a boost of encouragement.
On the flipside if you've been defiant and stiffnecked, those reiterations will be rebukes and the end statement will be a humbling.
Needless to say, this is going to be a very intense, climatic month on every level.
Alright, I really pray that you were able to read my post from last week and was blessed. I extend my gratitude to you if you also listened to my message I preached 5 years ago. I really wanted you all to think about taking a different approach to longsuffering.
An approach that will endorse your character enhancement.
Because that's all longsuffering does.
It installs within you advancements that will suit you best for future seasons.
Just as you would give permission to your phone to install new updates, your approach to the fruit of longsuffering will give life permission to do the same.
The fruit of longsuffering is, as I mentioned in my message, the vehicle to get you to your predestined state.
Welcome it. Embrace it.
With that being said, let the fruit of kindness be pulled from the rest to be examined for today.
Kindness is another one of those fruits that is its most potent when one is under some pressure or encountered by something expressing the complete opposite.
Not that you have to go through anything to express it. Whether it is most impactful when one is challenged.
I'm sure you've heard at some point in your life the phrase,
"Kill them with kindness."
Is it true? Does kindness kills?
I think I first was introduced to this concept when I began working in the public service sector in the fast food industry. Then I transitioned into retail.
Wew, chile. When I tell y'all....
*Moment of silence*
____________________
Excuse me, I had to allot some time to lay to rest the last little piece of traumatization (<I just found out TODAY that that's a real word. Ha!) I had from my past experiences dealing with the public.
Real talk, people can be bullies and trolls for what it seems like no apparent reason at all.
My first job was at a KFC in the hood of Chicago.
Look here, I think I clapped back at some baby monsters on a few occasions during that stint and was written up too. I didn't care.
I would say I probably averaged out with a C- in kindness at that time. If I couldn't be kind I would be ruthlessly passive aggressive. Aka, petty. It wasn't until I got saved and started working at a bank and joined the choir at my church that I had to really learn how to effectively,
"kill people with kindness."
Because the trolls and bullies didn't go anywhere after I gave my life to Christ.
They just grew, in size and in number of encounters.
We're going to retire the phrase, "kill them with kindness," though. We don't want to kill nobody today or forever for that matter.
We want to love them with kindness.
Who are THEY?
Well, the UNKIND!
I've learned that if an unkind person starts the war, a kind person can settle the score.
Hey, I rhymed!
But it's a game of emotional chess, people.
Hear this, some of the most harsh and abusive tongued people usually are dealing with a war within, that they have yet to discover a way to control.
And so they declare war outside of themselves in hopes of silencing what's going on within.
If you ever meet a person who is trying to find a way to arouse you negatively in order to dominate your responses to him/her, know that he or she is only doing what they wish they had the power to do inwardly.
I had absolutely no idea until recently, that God would take every single last experience serving the public in the world to help me cultivate the fruit of kindness enough so that I could properly deal with HIS PEOPLE.
Especially in the church!
If you're reading this, you already know what I'm talking about.
Church folk, are unsurpassed in their brutality.
They are by far some of THEE most, discourteous, entitled, spoiled, arrogant, rude, crude, crass, and ornery, group of people I've ever met in my entire life!
I'm quite often reminded of my hatred for them that I gained at the tender age of 7 or 8. (Click here later)
The hatred has never left me. It's on probation.
When I joined the choir at my first church, I was this happy go lucky low-key hoodrat that only knew Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary songs.
No lies.
I was rough. I knew nothing.
All I had was an unrelenting pinch in my heart to worship God through song.
This is where I would have to swap out my little girl drawls for the big ones, because....
the mean girl cliquish syndrome in this choir was REAL!
Thank God my bestfriend joined the choir shortly after. I had somebody to keep me sober. We balanced each other out during critical times. Yet, the temptation to go off would show up frequently. These grown women would do some of the most childish things like stop singing during rehearsal to leave the rest of us in the section hanging in order to prove that they were the strongest and better singers.
These little elementary games forced me to go home and learn the words to some of the most popular gospel songs my choir would sing, plus others I'd never heard before. I had to do what I had to do to keep from falling victim to my veteran choirmates' antics.
But that was an adventure in and of itself.
My hunger to learn these songs afforded me the space to know worship for real and to become acquainted with my gift of song.
Most importantly, through worship, the fruit of kindness in me was flipped over to expose the side that had the likelihood of turning rotten.
This exposure matured me quickly and I was able to operate in kindness in the face of the subtle bullying I would experience. So much so within a little over a year, I was made the section leader for the sopranos. (Not the HBO mob!)
Now, that definitely wasn't something I'd expected to happen. Nor was it something I asked for or volunteered for.
And of course, I was met with much defiance and disrespect. Part due to the fact that I was young and hadn't too long come off the street. It was terrible. My gangsta was being tested constantly.
The more I showed kindness the more I was given the impression that my kindness was being taken for a weakness. I would go home in tears sometimes because my hurt feelings was turning into a strong urge to slap God's people and pull out edges.
I literally had to suffer long through that experience in order to mature in my fruit of kindness.
Catch that please!
No matter how much I hurled up to God my frustrations and irritations, He would not neglect to consistently expose the areas of my heart that needed to change.
To examine my fruit, He would keep sending me back to that bullheaded section I was charged to lead. He was changing me as He was shifting the atmosphere surrounding that choir.
Eventually, key troublemakers transitioned out of the ministry and the culture of that section changed drastically. Check this out, I was chosen to teach Sunday school for the weetots during that time while all of this was happening, where I was able to use my fully functioning fruit of patience and kindness.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Needless to say, I've noticed that if love is the cure, kindness is the syringe . If love is the message, kindness is the envelope. If love is the wedding feast, kindness is the invitation.
You can't love on anybody without first showing some form of kindness.
The late great Dr. Maya Angelou put it this way,
"People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Showing kindness doesn't mean turning into a throw rug for people to step on but it means being impartial with your love. It's easy to love those who are loveable. The true test is loving those who are unloveable. Look at it this way, loveable people will never have a shortage of kindness shown toward them. But those who are hard to love and unkind are in severe lack.
Broken undelivered people need to be shown their reflection. How will they ever see themselves if everyone is matching their disposition? Somebody needs to be willing to show these people the complete opposite of what they are giving off in order for them to SEE what they are giving off.
Hey, let's pretend like we're making pancakes. Get a spatula for me and flip over this flapjack will ya?
If you yourself have faltered in your degree of kindness or you've somehow mistakenly assumed that to be a lover of Christ means that you can reserve the right to be STANK with people, you're wrong!
Since when did salvation come with stankitudes?
You can't complain about not having friends when you're not showing yourself friendly. Unfold your ashy arms, stop pouting, and talking about your lack of opportunities or chances you've not been given when you have not at all shown genuine kindness to strangers!
You're setting yourself up for continued lack and poverty because you're expecting people to just come bearing gifts when there's nothing about your countenance that is inviting.
Fix your face!
God has been sending people your way but since they haven't come from a place you've expected or were packaged in the way you would prefer, you've treated them like crap!
!True Story!
One Sunday morning at church, I was sitting next to this woman who did not look like she even wanted to be in the building. Her face basically said, "Don't say s!&$ to me." That air was so strong coming off her it was off the chain.
Every time my Apostle would have us say something to our neighbor, I would purposely turn to her. She would get stiff and mean mug the floor. I patted her on the shoulder and she jerked away.
Later on, my Apostle told us to hug our neighbors. When I reached over to hug her she pushed me away. A young lady in front of her tried to hug her and she rejected her as well. Then stomped off.
Me and the young lady looked at each other confused and then gave our hugs away to each other.
A lady behind me, saw the entire ordeal and embraced me from behind and then welcomed a hug from the other young lady.
You may be thinking, "She probably was having a bad day. Or maybe she's an introvert." And I'm going to tell you, we're NOT going to do this. We're going stop making excuses for people's behavioral issues. If you make an executive choice to lug your bad attitude into an environment you were not forced to be a part of, full of charged up people, you can't expect these same people to yield to your dimmed light. This type of behavior is the same thing that fuels these social media rants about not being received or accepted in the church. When the whole objective of forsaking not the assembling of the saints is to be changed by the environment for the better. Not to be encouraged to stew in your mess only to walk away worse off!
We've got to do better!
*Sidebar*
I saw this woman again a few Sundays later and she was giving off this same air. It was not a bad day OR introversion.
Ok, let's turn the eye on the stove down. It's getting hot.
I'll close here, to those who's love walk is active, continue to show kindness. Continue to let your light so shine before men even if it is not received well or received at all. Know good and well that it may not be received in some cases. Your kindness however, will attract God's kindness which will unlock doors in your life. He promotes and elevates those whom He can trust will not get out of character when met with the harshness of men.
The next time you encounter a bully or a tormented soul, see them as an assignment. It does not mean that you accept abuse and people's murderous tirades. Kindness can quench the fire by asking a simple question as did God who asked Saul before he changed his name to Paul,
"Why do you persecute me?"
Kindness asks sharp questions that brings pride to its knees at pivotal moments.
To those whom are operating in a low grade form or a pronounced level of unkindness, you have an appointment coming up. God is going to put His hands in front of everything you've idolized as your source and send forth an Ananias to baptize you back to factory settings.
You've already been blinded by your own doing. You let disappointment and rejection break some blood vessels in your eyes and the blood has seeped into your pupils. Now you can't see how your meanness is your hinderance.
You don't want to be cursed like the fig tree that produced no fruit! Currently the soil of your soul is parched and your fruit is withering. Your unkindness is making a mockery of your witness.
So consider it an honor that God would even care to correct what's concerning you, by FIRST correcting what's concerning Him.
Until then let us all, bow together.
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