Doggy decides the case

I came across a video of one of Judge Judy’s cases that reminded me of the wisdom of King Solomon. In this particular case a man’s lost dog had been sold told a woman for $50. The man was in court trying to prove that the dog belonged to him. I did not see the case but only the video clip when Judge Judy tells the woman’s daughter to go get the dog. As soon as the dog comes in and picks up the scent of his owner, he began to get excited and raised his head. When the man started greeting the dog, the dog became even more excited. Judge Judy tells the woman to put the dog down. As soon as she places the dog on the floor he ran to his owner and was trying to jump on him and was wagging his tail. The dog clearly belonged to the man.

It was truly amazing to me watching this video. In this case, the dog couldn’t talk to say who his real owner was. His actions gave the answer. Immediately after watching the video I thought about King Solomon judging the case between the two prostitutes who came before him about a baby. The women lived together and both had recently given birth. One of the babies had apparently died and the two women were fighting over who the living baby belonged to. 

The two women were living together and one night one of the mothers rolled over onto her baby. After discovering that her baby had died during the night, she placed the dead baby in the other woman’s bed and took the live baby and placed it in her bed. When the other woman woke up the next day she saw that the baby in her bed was not only dead, but also not her child and that is how they ended up in Judge Solomon’s court room. 

King Solomon decided to call for a sword to split the baby in two and give each mother one half of the baby. The fake mother was okay with that but the real mother begged him not to do such a horrible thing. She asked the judge to allow the woman to keep the baby to avoid killing it. King Solomon knew that the real mother was the one that was willing to give the baby up to keep it alive. 

God gave King Solomon more wisdom than anyone has ever had or ever will have. What an amazing gift to be able to solve the hardest situations that manifest in life. We may not have the wisdom of Solomon but if we ask God for wisdom, He will give it to us. When we have the Holy Spirit at work in our lives we have access to the Spirit of Wisdom. If you are facing great challenges in your life right now, seek God to show you how to navigate them. Don't carry unnecessary burdens and pain when we can give them over to God. Even if the situation involves circumstances that can’t go back to the way it was previously, like a death occurring in your family, God can still help you live through that hard situation. His grace is sufficient. Sufficient means that its just enough to keep you from caving in to heart ache. Merriam-Webster defines it as ‘enough to meet the needs of a situation or a proposed end’. Take life day by day. 

You can read more about how King Solomon judged this case in 1 Kings 3:16-28. Here is the video of the Judge Judy case that I saw that prompted this post:

Prayer for 2012

This song is my prayer for 2012. There is a lot that I have to get done this year. I'm depending on the Lord to guide me in achieving those things.

Seasons Greetings!

This is a simple animation that I did with Adobe CS4 Flash.

Happy Born Again Birthday To Me!

Thirteen years ago on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I gave my life to the Lord. I was in my college dorm room lying across my bed feeling rejected and hurt. Sometimes people don’t accept God until all hell has broken loose in their life. I wish I could say that wasn’t the case for me but it was. I needed God really bad then, but you know what, I STILL need God really bad now.  That was the best decision of my life: one that I don’t regret making during my college years.

The past few years have been hard for me. They left a lot to be desired but thank God that He brought me through those trials. I remember thinking that it seemed like my best days were behind me. I was making more money back then. I had money left over from paycheck to paycheck. But the Lord assured me that my best days are still before me. God has been excellent. I have to praise Him for his continuous support. I was facing foreclosure this year but God kept me in my house. My little cousin was killed in a hit and run accident but God’s grace has sustained our family. Another cousin needed a heart transplant and received one through the grace of God. There were a few other emergency situations that took place in my family this year but God kept us through those times.  He’s been covering us under the shadow of HIS wings and I’m not moving from that place. I have so much to be thankful for! God is TOO good! I give HIM all the glory & praise for blessing my life. 

Lusting After God

Lust is one of those words that is instantly thought of as negative because it is associated with a strong desire for something, often sexual. It is wanting something to gratify or please our flesh. When we turn those strong desires toward God they can be beneficial to our walk with Christ. It’s a prerequisite to living a life full of worship. God should be the object of our affections. Lusting after God means that we long for, crave for, and thirst for Him. I love the way David illustrated this point in Psalms 63:1, O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. His desire for God was vital to his life. God is the fulfillment in all that we need, want or desire.

Running to God

It was 5:30AM and my alarm had just gone off. Instead of sleepily hitting the snooze button and rolling over to go back to sleep, I grab my phone to call my sister.  As soon as my eyes had opened, I heard the words to that beautiful song Whitney Houston sung in the Preacher’s Wife, ‘I’ll hasten to His throne.’  What made that song come to my heart I don’t know but I was super excited. I felt like God was excited about my sister & I meeting Him in prayer. My sister couldn’t recall the song at the time and I definitely couldn’t sing it to her, especially with my ‘frog lady voice’ that I have most early mornings. The name of the song is “I Love the Lord” featuring the Georgia Mass Choir. It is basically about hastening or running to the throne of God when we are facing trouble and trials. We don’t have to run to His throne only when situations are bad, though.  We can run to His throne just because…. Just to worship Him. Like children who rush outside when they’ve been waiting for their parents to come home; they just miss seeing their mom and dad and are glad to be in their presence again.

My Heart is Inditing a Lovely Matter.

My heart is inditing a good matter. Those words kept coming to my mind as I listened and sang along with Israel Houghton’s My Tribute Medley.

How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me. Things so undeserved yet you gave to prove your love for me. And the voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude. All that I am and ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee.

Chorus: To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things He has done. He has done.

Just let me live my life. Let it be pleasing Lord to thee. Should I get any praise, let it go to Calvary.

How great is our God. How great is our God. How great is our God….

As I sang the lyrics to this beautiful song I realized how much it made me want to love God more. Can a song make you love God more? Its weird but that is what I was feeling. I was loving God ‘hard.’ My grandmother used to refer to people loving hard, as in ‘giving it all, holding nothing back.’ All I could say was “I love you so much, God.” My heart felt like it was literally throbbing for God. I know people have used the term ‘heart throb’ often, but I’m not using it as a cliché. My heart was pulsating as I worshipped God. I thought, ‘Wow, Israel is so talented. His song makes me want to love God more.’ My heart is inditing a good matter, continued coming to my mind. It was Psalm 45:1. As I continued to sing about how great God is, I read the scripture and wondered on how it applied to me. So much revelation came forth after I read a few commentaries.

This scripture was the beginning of a poem that someone was writing about the King. The writer’s heart was engaged and it was bubbling over. The writer had so much love towards the king that he couldn’t really speak to express the emotions coming from his heart. He felt that by writing what he was feeling it would give greater clarity to what he was trying to say. This is understandable for me. I am a much better writer than I am a speaker.

The psalmist was describing exactly how I felt. My heart was overflowing with love for God as I repeated, “I love you so much”, over and over again.

We can all experience what the writer was expressing. God wants our hearts, our undivided attention. He wants us to crave him and be in love with Him. David said as the deer pants after the water brooks so pants my soul after God. God is so wonderful. I know that it is His love that I was feeling because His love is ‘poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’. Isn’t it wonderful to know that He pours His love into our hearts so we can have a glimpse of how much He loves us?

I forgot about the bad report that I had received regarding my car and the repairs that I needed. It was just me lying on my bed telling God how much I love Him.