Words of Worship

Words of Worship

Scriptures: Psalm 91 and 89

S.O.S. (Stand Out Scriptures): Psalm 89:6

“For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?”     

Revelation

This scripture puts me in the atmosphere of worship. Who can be compared unto the LORD? Absolutely no one! Who among the sons of men can be likened unto Him? Absolutely no one! Who is like our God? Absolutely no one! Who or what can we call on besides the LORD to save us? Absolutely no one!

The LORD is so amazing! How is it that His design is perfect?! He made us perfect. What we consider our flaws (in our looks), He considers us as His image. Why would we tamper with that?  Why is it that He allows flaws (in our character)? He wants to show us that we are not perfect so with our own imperfections we ought not judge anothers. Before He planted us in our mother’s womb He created us in the way we should be here on earth. He placed in us gifts, a calling, love and a yearning for Him always but He also knew that once we were birthed (out of the womb) we would enter into a falling world, full of sin. We left a place of perfection being made by a perfect God to be birthed into a less than perfect world. Just like Jesus, we have a job to do and he did the hardest part for us. All we have to do is look for the perfected gifts and calling that God placed in us and bring it out, causing it to manifest by allowing love to be the core value of it. I love the people who have taken their (what we call) imperfections or abnormal and didn’t allow it to limit them. They didn’t go to plastic surgery or use magic or spells to try and change it because of what society says isn’t acceptable, instead they use it to glorify God and to let people know that it’s okay and that God made you just the way he wanted you to be. How amazing is our God! Who is like Him! No one! Can His love be compared! Absolutely not!

Marriage: One on One

One on One

Ephesians 5:22-33

Building a relationship with our husbands is mirrored by the relationship we build with our Father. Where is your relationship with the Father? Where is your relationship with your husband? Can your God and your husband trust you with the intimate things or the things close to their heart? This isn’t to say that things are going this way due to it being your fault; it’s just to put things in alignment or perspective. 

As we read Eph 5:22-23, we see how the bride (the church) and the bridegroom (Christ) are supposed to be and Paul relates it to how our marriages are supposed to be. There are guidelines on how the husband is to behave and how the wife is supposed to behave. A lot of marriages are failing in this area; either the husband isn’t loving his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her or the wife is not submitting and reverencing her husband. 

There are some husbands loving every other female (who’s looking for commitment and don’t care how or who she hurts to get it) instead of the woman he married, treating them like they’re back in the cavemen days, or being mama’s boy. Then in the same lump you have some women who do not submit to their husbands at all because they don’t feel like they should have to because they aren’t saved, talking to them any kind of way in front of other people and in public, thinking they are his momma instead of his wife or running around on their husbands with other men (who don’t want the commitment by the way, just a screw). How does any marriage expect to make it if this is the gist of it? How are couples supposed to build their relationship with these actions (which I only listed a few)? 

It’s time to build our relationships with God FIRST then with our husbands. It’s time to deal with the dysfunction(s) in our marriages in a tasteful, respectful and orderly way. This is not the time to throw stones. It is a time to tell each other how we feel about the treatment we’ve been receiving. Time is out for throwing things under the rug. It’s time to deal with the skeletons in the closet so we can change the way our marriages are functioning. My husband and I often have these talks. We ask each other questions like these from time to time: 1) How are we doing (in our marriage)? 2) Is there anything I can be doing better? 3) Have I offended you or caused you offense? 4) How is our sex life? 5) What are some things I do that gets on your nerves?

After we ask these questions, it opens up a great dialogue. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes it hurts but in the end it’s better for the both of us. We apologize to each other (if and when it’s needed), we laugh about things we said and we handle it in a serious matter. We also have the discussions about our relationship with God. Just like we have to “get it right” with our husbands, we have to “get it right” with our Father. We can’t treat our husbands better than we treat God and they can’t treat us better than they treat God. IT DOES NOT WORK! Build your relationship with God and in turn He will tell you how to build a SUCCESSFUL relationship with your husband. I’ve seen Him to do it. Be blessed and ever increasing in your marriages through Christ.

-         - Keisha Lapsley

Marriage: Decide Today

I have a column in the Sistah, Sistah Newsletter where the editor-in-chief is Catherine Tukes. My column is called The Marriage Circle. I wanted to share this issue with you all. If you would like to subscribe to her newsletter, please leave your email address below and I will give it to her to add you to her email list. Enjoy!

The Marriage Circle

“Decide Today”

Eph 4:17-18

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;”

As I thought upon the newsletter’s theme for this month, the song we used to sing at my old church came to mind; “Where are you in Christ? Where are you in Christ?” I have to ask, where are you in Christ? Your marriage doesn’t have to be in “trouble” to do a self-examination but you can always make it better by doing one. Decide today to take your marriage to another level. 

Reading Ephesians chapter four (and I suggest reading it all) reminded me of how I can apply these teachings to my own marriage. In verses one through six, I realized I was called (as we all are as wives) to walk worthy of the invocation of being a good wife to our husbands. I was called to Douglas Lapsley…LAWD have mercy and what a wonderful calling it is!!! Praise Jesus! Sorry, I had to take a praise break. You are called to yours, whether he is saved or not, whether he does everything right or not, or whether he has hurt you or not. Let’s be real for a moment anyway, all of us have hurt somebody and somebodies more than once in our lives. Let’s stop hanging onto the song, “He hurt me. He did this. He did that,” because so have you. You have spoken words that cut him to his bone and in the natural when a bone is broken sometimes it never heals the way it’s supposed to. 

When we hurt God, He doesn’t throw us away or sings the song we sing. I can’t even remember a time AT ALL that God brought back up something I did wrong and kept rehearsing how it hurt Him. He doesn’t even speak of it. That’s the kind of God we serve! We should serve our husbands in that same way. Our relationship with Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) should be so sound and secure in Him that we don’t rehearse with our husband how they hurt us. It just should not be. If it’s something that you have to keep rehearsing, then again I ask, “Where are you in Christ?”

Today, we have a choice to make and that is to decide to no longer walk as others walk in the vanity of their mind, a darkened understanding, being alienated from God through ignorance because of the blindness of their hearts concerning their marriage. No, YOU be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man in your marriage. You can do this by putting away: lying, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, malice and evil speaking, speak the truth (in love), be angry but do not sin, don’t give place to the devil, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit, be kind to him, tenderhearted, forgiving, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you (Eph 4:23-32).

Be blessed and cause your marriage to ever increase in Christ!

-          Keisha Lapsley

Wealth & Riches

The true meaning of wealth and riches is often misconstrued and wrongfully interpreted or is not fully expressed. Wealth means having enough, high value and an abundance of material possessions and resources. Riches means large amounts of money and possessions or good things that are available to use or choose.

As with many things in this world, we choose to see and gravitate to those things that will pleasure and please us and leave the most important things out. God is so good that He allows us the choice to choose. Nevertheless, we choose to overlook what will cause us to look inward to make the necessary changes for our lives. We have become so focused on the outside that we totally forget about the inside and still end up unhappy. What is it that we have to do? How do obtain wealth and riches and yet stay grounded?

In Psalm 112, it speaks of this very thing and the answer is easy to all of our questions in how to obtain wealth and riches and it starts in the very first verse. It says, "Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments." God doesn't want us to be afraid of Him. That is not what He is saying at all. What He is saying is that, He wants us to reverence Him. We spend all of our time trying to do better, to better ourselves and have a better life without following what His word says to do which in the end will hurt us more than we thought it was helping. We cannot forget that the Lord is the one who blesses us. Everything great that we are is because of Him. He designed us in such a fashion that it upsets the devil. He designed us to praise Him (which the devil wants). He designed us to worship Him (which the devil wants). He designed us to live the kingdom life here on earth (which the devil wants dominion). He designed us to live and not die (which the devil wants to take away from us). Let him that steals, steal no more. Let him that deceives, deceive no more. Take the time to learn God's commandments so you can become greatly delighted in them. Take the time to reverence the Lord in worship and in your living. When you do this, it is then true wealth and riches will be opened up to you.

I cannot talk about receiving wealth and riches and not mention motives. Do not think for one second that you think this is a "secret path" to gaining riches and wealth. As long as your motives to fear Him, to know Him and to delight greatly in His commandments are not pure, you will not prosper in whatever it is you seek. No, we have to do this, not to gain wealth and riches but to gain the ONE who is rich and wealthy. It's like the story says, "He who accepts the Son gets everything." Fall in love with the Lord. That is one thing I can promise and guarantee you; is if you take the time to invest in your relationship with the Lord and with a pure heart (no strings attached), you won't be able to help but to fall in love with Him and it will be the best thing you've ever done in your life.

I have come to realization that it's not always about having the most of everything but instead it's making the most of everything. It's not about having the abundance of possessions but instead possessing the abundance of who the Father is. There is nothing wrong with abundance or having nice things but it becomes wrong when it's all of who we are.He should be included in every area of our lives. That is the way we show Him honor. Delighting greatly in His commandments is rejoicing that He cares enough to give us directions and rules so we can live a fruitful life. His Word is full of life and to delight in it is to follow it. Take a minute to think about what or who you're following. If your life or delights are in something other than the LORD then it's time to make a change.

Fear the LORD. Delight in HIS commandments. Then watch true wealth and riches befall you. Blessings!

A Promise of Change

A Promise of Change

               

God said that he will take me out from among the heathen, give me a new heart and a new spirit, take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh, put a new spirit within me and cause me to walk in His ways, statutes and keep his judgments.

My heart rejoices because that is truly what I need and what I’ve been praying for because I cannot continue on in the way that I’ve been with the heart and spirit that I have now. I am His righteousness. I belong to the Lord my God. I refuse to go back and pick up all that God has caused to fall off of me. I want to touch heaven again. I want to move amongst the clouds. I want to sing again. I want to belong…to the Father. I’ve changed so much but don’t want to continue to sing that same old song. I can still sing; I just have to change the lyrics.

In order to receive a new heart and spirit, you have to first admit and repent that the heart you have now is no good. Go to the Surgeon and tell him you need a heart transplant. This heart is old and no good. It has calluses. Things have been engrained that shouldn’t be. It’s not pumping the blood to the arteries correctly. The blood is not reaching who it ought to be reaching. The blood is tainted because there is something in the heart that isn’t right. I need a cleansing of my heart, my mind and my soul. Wipe away my very being and make me anew. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

Prayer: Father, help me to change and let You do the surgery. I don’t like the way I am now. It doesn’t feel good. I don’t like it! Be my new heart and my new spirit. Let Jesus’ blood be what flows through my veins. I’m ready for my new heart and new spirit, in Jesus name I ask and pray. Amen.

Tour de Pastries

The Beginning of a Chef's Life Pt 3

"Add-On"

It's no secret, I'm still on salad bar prep but just like the Yahoo Bar...I have been given "Add-Ons". Oh Lawd...I have to make ranch dressing! Apparently, this is a part of the salad bar prep. I don't know nothin' bout makin' no ranch dressing man (in my Gina voice from Martin)! I dreaded getting the ingredients. It seems like everyone is watching. I'm confident in baking more so than I am in savory. I must admit, I get a little nervous. Nevertheless, I made it and it wasn't that bad. You should have seen me though; I had to drag this big container of mayonnaise to my station. I could promise this thing weighs more than me. Then I had to pick up and drag the big mixing bowl to the big machine with the big whisk. I'm sure it was a sight to see. All in all the ranch dressing turned out pretty good.

Everyone seems to be pretty cool. They speak as they enter the building when their shift starts, pretty much keep to themselves unless they have to communicate about the dishes being served, does their part to contribute to the success of the kitchen and there is a lot of singing. I can't complain.

The salad bar prep is more of the same, day in, day out. Nothing more to this except making sure the salad bar is properly prepared and constantly stayed on top of in order to offer the members a presentable spread.

The Beginning of a Chef's Life Pt 2

OMGoodness!!! Today just about caused me to drop to my knees. Apparently, Tuesday is the busiest day for them and I was left out the loop. I had to add some things on top of my learned repertoire.

I had to make biscuits and muffins (thank God it was already premixed), then I had to fix up the salad bar (which was a doosie but I had some help). Next, I had to make croutons. It was pretty easy and not really time consuming either.

Once the salad bar was fixed up with (lettuce, spring mix, tomatoes, shredded cheese, cucumbers, mushrooms, olives, fruit, egg/tuna/chicken salads, beets, Italian/Caesar/Blue Cheese/Ranch, Balsamic/Raspberry Vinaigrettes and dressings, onions, capers, Parmesan cheese and garbanzo beans), I had to find out the soup of the day and put it out on the salad bar as well, along with the chili and hot foods. There is even a particular way to dress the hot foods. The lids have a folded linen in them and spread in the shape of a fan. You have to place the tongs and spoon on a plate while the soup and chili has ladles in them with a lid.

All the while keeping up with the "cooking Jone's" you have to maintain a cleaned area environment. I would clean up my area while trying to figure out what goes where, who does what and where can I grab me something to eat because by this time, I'm famished. They have what's called an "employee meal" and you have but a few minutes to gulf it down then back to work you go. They don't work you like a slave, it's just that busy in the kitchen and especially on this day.

Once 2:30 pm hits, the salad bar has to be changed over. All of the combined salads have to be taken off the bar and the evening items such as: artichoke hearts, banana peppers, fruit and sometimes any other item of your choosing has to replace them. The hot items of the day has to be taken back to the kitchen too. For the night salad bar, one soup stays out.

One thing, I'm learning is that no one gets out of there at the time they are scheduled to leave. I don't think I've left on time yet lol.

The Beginning of the Chef's Life

A chef's life is one not to be taken lightly. You can make or break yourself with just one meal. That is what would seem to cause the most stress but for me right now it isn't. What is stressful is barking on a new journey as a chef. It can be kind of intimidating being around everyone who has the chef experience.

My first day of externship was pretty okay. I don't have a lot of negativity to say about it. The Executive Sous Chef was very informative and patient. I walked in with a kitchen full of experienced people, some with degrees and some with none. They knew what to do and how to run the kitchen. I was under the leadership of the line cook for the day. She had to teach me while keeping up on her main tasks. They started me out on Prep; which for those who do not know is prepping the salad bar (making the cuts, prepping back up, making the dressings and sauces). There is more but I wasn't doing that at this time.

I didn't have to worry about the uniformed cuts I learned in school (as of now). They had a particular way of doing things. I was cutting cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms. The Exec Chef gave me a tour of the facility, introduced me to everyone and had me to follow him around when the Sous Chef clocked out.

He then put me on the scariest task that you could put a person on their first day. I was on "expo" which is making sure the orders that were placed were presented correctly, in a timely manner, had everything that the dish came with and placed with the right ticket. Oh it was crazy and he had to run off and handle some thing important. I was all by my lonesome and just about freaked out. I got some of the orders out but I wasn't familiar with the menu and what it was supposed to come with so it didn't happen as quickly as they would have liked. However, all in all it was a good day and thankful for the experience.