RKS Upclose: January 2011

The unmerciful servant learned a hard lesson that day….

Tis too bad he had failed to learn it before he failed to offer the same grace his master had extended him….

For he had been handed the gift of grace…

But failed to offer the same grace to another….

And to whom much has been forgiven much is always required….

John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

He used His grace on us so we would have some grace to use on others…..

He fills us with His grace so we will be full of that same grace…

Being filled with His grace mandates we be graceful

That means we are so full of grace that everywhere we go grace splashes out on others….

And such gracefulness produces in us the ability to be gracious….

Gracious when things are not comfortable…

Gracious when we are embarrassed….

Gracious in the midst of awkward circumstance….

Gracious when our prides would have us be otherwise…

I have been presented more than once the opportunity to be gracious when my flesh did not want to…

But how can one be covered and filled with His gracefulness and not be abundantly gracious

Therefore the sufficiency of His grace mandates my grace-filled graciousness

This thought brings me to this statement I tweeted a couple of days ago….

The most powerful words are those I choose to not say......

Such words can only be influenced by…

Gracefully Gracious Grace….

I took Bishop the Killer Guard Poodle to church tonight…

He taught the lesson…

OK, here is how it all went down…

I bought the advertisement hook, line and sinker…

Well rather I bought the dog food…..

During my morning time at the Y there was an ad talking about a particular dog food that had a scruffy happy doggy with tongue hangy outy and slobber drippy drippy while his tail was waggy waggy….

I think you get the picture….

So when Bishop the Killer Guard Poodle ran out of his food and when my eyes beheld the incredible looking bag at Kroger I was a bit surprised when my tail started going waggy waggy and my tongue did the hangy outy thingy ……

I bought it…

And Bishop loved it….

He always wanted more….

He came back early for more…

Sometimes at 4 a.m.

He couldn’t seem to get enough……

I even worked his love for his new dog food into a bible lesson….

I would laugh when Bishop was over by the cabinet trying to get more of the stuff…..

But then I noticed….

Noticed that though he wanted more; the waggy waggy, drippy drippy routine slowed down…..

His hair began to lose luster…..

And then he looked skinny…..

How could he start looking like this while eating that so very good looking dog food…..

It looked so good I talked about putting some water in bowl of it and microwaving it and trying it myself…

But Bishop was not the same Bishop from a month ago….

So I researched the nutritional ratings of the new dog food……

And was surprised to see the food rated with the lowest dog food rating available…

Not only was it rated very low…

But along with the rating was a rebuke from the rating agency for the marketing misrepresentation of the parent company….

For the commercial had a scruffy doggy, loving master cutting up big chunks of beef and real veggies…

But the reality was….

The food consisted of chicken fat and soy powder with some food coloring and taste enhancement…..

Twas junk…

And I had been feeding it to my Killer Guard Poodle….

Shame on me….

So today I went and got him some good stuff that was rated very highly by the doggy food rating people….

And after one meal the pup seems so content and is snoring right now across the room….

This is kinda like some churches….

Got the right marketing down….

But do not offer truth or righteousness or nutrition for the soul…

Rather some nice little sound bites and non nutritious coloring but nothing substantial……

And we wonder why folks become so carnal and spiritually malnourished….

Shame on us for buying into the slick marketing of the non nutritious insincere and shallow of pop culture church….

Felt needs have been substituted for cross bearing….

Praise teams for prayer warriors….

Illustrated sermons and video clips have replaced the anointing for some…

Shame on us….

Is it any wonder that the outward looks of so many are changing?

Is it any surprise that a single diluted service in the week does not satisfy the attendees and their lives are filled with the world?

Shame on us for buying the slick marketing of the religious profiteers who make millions on the ignorance and spiritual decline of others while making everybody feel so good about themselves…

Orphanages and feeding the poor will never replace the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost…..

There is absolutely no substitute for Apostolic Anointing……

Some have exchanged anointed church for created atmosphere…..

And a Word from God must be filtered through the Creative Team……

Shame on us….

I apologized to Bishop for feeding him the garbage food…..

And the saints of God that we have served low rated spiritual food deserve to have it replaced with substance….

Prayers and blessings….

rks