Location, Location, Location! A location is a placement or position in place and time. If you are in a location that you aren’t supposed to be in and you are around something you aren’t supposed to be around long enough, you might start doing the things that you aren’t supposed to do. God cares about us and is intimately involved in our daily lives. He cares about what we do and he cares about where we are. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God is with us in the fire and it is better to be with him in the fire than outside without him! Location, Location, Location!

Matthew 24:13 says “But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved.” God wants to use us for great things but we have to be willing to do what he asks of us. We want the glory and the glamour but we don’t want to do what it takes to get there. Many times, we feel as though we are not qualified for what God is asking of us. Even though we may not be qualified, God will instill in us the things we need to get it done. The devil might knock you down but you have to remind yourself that winners never quite. Stop doubting God and endure until the end.

At some point in our lives, we all ask the question “How do I get into heaven?” The bible tells us that you are to love the Lord our God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. On top of that, you are supposed to love your neighbor as you do yourself. Unfortunately, it is impossible for some of us to love our neighbors because we do not love ourselves. Many of the things that “feel good” to us can kill us. Self-destruction is not love! When you love yourself, you take care of yourself. The devil tries to throw all of these different smoke screens in the mix to deter us from the love of God but we need to focus in on God. When you love yourself, you can love God and love others.

We are now living in a time of grace instead of a time of law.  During the time of law, people where charged in order to be saved. Now our salvation is free! The very first relationship that was ever formed was between God and man when God created man. Jesus wants an intimate relationship with us.  Sin separated us from our creator but Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection reconnected us to Christ. Jesus said, my sheep will hear my voice. I know their names, they know my voice.

The imagination is a powerful thing! We are made up of three different parts; body, mind, and spirit. Each of these parts have 5 senses. A prime example is the woman with the issue of blood. After she touched the hem of Jesus’s garment, Jesus asked who touched him. They thought he was crazy for asking this because he was in a crowd of people, meaning there were many people touching him. Jesus was not talking about a physical tough. He was talking about a spiritual touch. You have to stand in touch with your spiritual senses because or enemy is not physical! These spiritual senses come through our imagination.

Christians tend to stay away from the concept of meditation because of its association with eastern religions, but our bibles tell us to meditate. The difference between meditation in eastern religions and the way Christians are to meditate is that we don’t meditate to clear our minds of everything. We meditate to retain the word of God. Think of meditation as spiritual chewing. We chew our food to make it easier for our bodies to take in the nourishment. Chewing is the first step of digestion. If we chew long enough we get full quicker. It takes 20 minutes for the mouth to send the message to the brain that you are full. We have to chew on the word of God long enough for our hearts and minds to retain what we are learning.

When life started stuff started moving. When we stop moving we get closer to death. Sometimes we hold on to our sadness for far too long. We have to keep moving and we need to be moving for Christ. The joy of the Lord is our strength and weeping may endure for a night but JOY comes in the morning! That kind of joy, that real joy, makes you want to dance. When we enter the house of the Lord it’s not to make us feel good but it is to make God feel good. God wants our worship. Use your body to worship. Don’t let anyone steal your joy and don’t let anyone steal your dance!

One of the first words that our children learn to say is no and that is because we are always telling them “No!” Even as early as grade school we learn to say no to things we shouldn’t do. The common phrase is “Just Say No!” The problem with this is that we are more likely to do something that we are continuously thinking about not doing. We have to figure out what the “yes” is going to be to replace the “no”. When it comes to God, your answer should always be yes no matter what his response is. This means that we need to say “yes” when God says “yes” and we need to say “yes” when God says “no”. It may sound illogical but sometimes we let our logical thinking mess us up. In the end nothing is impossible for God. So, have some faith in him and “Just Say Yes!”

A partnership is a cooperative relationship between people or groups who agree to share responsibility for achieving a specific goal. Without partnership we are incapable of being fruitful. There are times when we ask God for things and it seems like he does the opposite of what we are asking of him. Then we get down, but sometime we are not ready for our blessings. Instead of using that down time to throw a pity party we should use it as a time for preparation. If you have never used your weapons before you have no idea what they can really do. God is trying to partner with you by giving you what you need to get what you want.

Every relationship is not a good relationship. Some relationships may even kill you. On the spectrum off friendships you have your acquaintances, casual friends, close friends, intimate friends, and those who you think are your friends but are secretly, at times unbeknownst to them, seeking your demise. Those are called your “Frenemies”. You have to constantly be careful of who you allow to speak into your life. Frenemies can destroy you while smiling in your face. To differentiate between a friend and a frenemy you have to ask yourself “are they driving me away from Jesus or drawing me closer to him?”