WOW! I caanot even believe i am saying this outloud. I mean I have said to myself as I pass their room or see a hummer (long story) or anytime i see kids at the park with their dads, but dang it! I miss my boys!!!

One (Jah) is in Texas and the other (Tyler) is in Florida. Now I am sure they are having the time of their lives and I truly do expect them to come back with stories of all proportions. I just miss having them around. I can tell you what i dont miss though. I dont miss them waking me up at 5 or 6 in the morning hungry, when everything in me is saying if you were still sleeping you wouldnt be hungry.

So there I said it outloud and im cool. A month and a half or so and they will be back. We will begin again as if time somehow stopped before us. We will head to the park for some fun time, we will begin working on our future plans, dreaming about what we want and how we are going to get it… I cannot wait until they come back.

In the meantime I will enjoy my quiet time with the most beautiful woman in the world, my wife!!!

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I have struggled with something many of you may consider a non issue or something so minute that you wouldn’t believe that it has challenged me. I have not wanted to seem prideful or boastful or even simply above or better than anyone else. Afraid of my tone sending people reeling in a different direction, but I have finally reached a resolve and no longer need to pussyfoot around something as simple as OWNERSHIP!

Today, right here and right now I TAKE OWNERSHIP of the vision God has given me. I was born for such a time as this. He called me, plucked me out of darkness, He loved me when i was worthless, and shared this vision with me. It is the MOST HUMBLING THING IN THE WORLD TO KNOW THAT THE LIVING GOD, SOVEREIGN AND GLORIOUS CHOSE ME TO WORK FOR HIM.

Now let me explain where the problem came. I would share the vision God has given me, but to say He has given it to me, did something to me. I felt awkward, clumsy and unworthy. But, now I know (rather fully persuaded), i did not choose this vision, but He choose to give me the vision of planting a church in the heart of downtown Atlanta, a peculiarplace. He choose me to create a place where anyone far from Him could find Him, become intimate with Him, and share their new found love with others. He told me TO SET DOWNTOWN ON FIRE FOR JESUS!

The REVOLUTION has begun!

Have you taken ownership of what He has given you? Or has fear and guilt kept you feeling unworthy and inadequate?

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No this post is not going to refer to R. Kelly or his trial….

yet i want to share an idea with you. We often look outside and if you live here in GA or any other area recently hit by straightline winds or tornadoes then you like all of us believe in the wind. But why?

You can see it? You cannot smell it, unless of course you live near a waste dump or refinery or a bbq restaurant, but it is invisible to the naked eye, yet we KNOW and are fully persuaded that it exists.

BECAUSE WE CAN SEE IT BLOWING THE TOPS OF TALL TREES, WE CAN FEEL IT ON OUR FACE OR THE BACK OF OUR NECKS, BECAUSE WE CAN FLY KITES IN IT OR EVEN SIMPLY BECAUSE WE WATCH THE LEAVES FALL FROM A TREE AND DESCEND TO THE GROUND LANDING IN UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY YARDS FEET AND MAYBE MILES FROM WHERE IT FIRST FELL. WE BELIEVE!

Would we believe in the wind if none of these things existed. If there was no physical evidence or no sensory evidence that wind whether light or ferocious existed, would we BELIEVE?

Jesus? He lives! He is the Beginning and the End. The Author of our Faith. Our Healer. Redeemer. Lord of Lord and King of Kings. The Way. The Truth. The Light. Life, and Life more abundantly. He IS!

But pastor lloyd, I cannot see him. I cannot pick up my iphone and call him. I cannot go to His house and visit Him. So how do I know He is real. Or that He lives and was not some historical philosopher figure head who died as all men do and thats that?

The same trees who tops blow in the same wind you cannot see, He created them both. The kids who miraculously begins to walk after suffering most of his childhood feeble, broken, and his legs in braces, Jesus did that. The man who was a drunk, an abuser and a low life who woke up one morning and left all those things behind him and has created a new life, Jesus is responsible for that. Life change happens everyday around us. There is peace is a mothers heart as her kids leave to go to school every morning because she KNOWS that her kids are safe, Jesus is responsible for that.

We have the Word of God filled with evidence, physical and sensory, that attest to His existence then. We have CHANGED LIVES , men who never wanted to step foot in a church, but now you cannot keep them out, families reconciled healed and growing together, husbands and wives who love each other more today then ever before and kids who have left drugs and drinking behind them leaving to go do missionary work; that my friend is your evidence that He lives TODAY!

The funny thing is that the saying… “seeing is believing” does not apply here at all.

I challenge you to change your perspective! Change your outlook. The next time you see tall trees dancing in a summer breeze or kids flying kites know that the wind would exist whether you could see these things or not!

JUST AS JESUS LIVES AND IS ON THE THRONE, whether you can see him or not!!!!

Change, renew your mind and understand that…

“BELIEVING IS SEEING!!!!”

CAN YOU FLY?

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WHEW!!!!

I cannot believe it has already been five weeks and I’m still as committed today as I was when I started.

Let me explain, five weeks ago, i made a commitment to myself, to my wife and to God to take six months and get in the best physical shape of my life. I began a workout I found on leehaney.com, 8-time Mr. Olympia and changed the way I thought about food, the foods I eat and how often I ate.

And today makes it five weeks. I feel good!!!! I lost a couple of inches, i am stronger than I have been in a very long time, and i am losing weight.

The most important and amazing thing to me is that my wife looked at me yesterday and told me she was proud of me. Proud because i have stuck with it. Proud because it such a short time, this has become by lifestyle.

Now I of course being the pastor i am i have to relate this to the Kingdom.

How often have we committed to the works of God, to studying more, to praying more only to fall short. But let’s say we want to save some money for an outfit, or a new game, or a new set of golf clubs it is amazing how we can sacrifice and scrimp  (is that even a word) to reach that goal.

What i am saying is really simple if it is something you really WANT, NOTHING seems to be able to stand in our way, NOTHING.

Jesus isn’t asking for a sacrifice, He is asking for a lifestyle change. A complete mental, physical, spiritual and emotional makeover. All those things that compromise ones lifestyle… changed, patterned after His Word.

So what about your lifestyle would you change? I suggest starting in an area that is easiest and develop confidence in that area and then move on from there.

The Kingdom is more than a place, a church or an experience it is a lifestyle. Are you ready?

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OK, don’t get super spiritual on me and comment on the title without reading the content. Too often we shun or judge people, places and things from merely the first glance, or cover or in this case the title. Allow me to reach for a moment and tie something very important together for us…

Fellows and ladies this could apply to you as well. Imagine if you will middle of the day, or at your favorite coffee shop or even the club you attend regularly, an amazingly beautiful woman (or man) walks in and completely assumes control of all of your attention. You look, she/he looks… you exchanges smiles… and you cannot take your eyes off of her/him. She/he is all you think about as you fill your shopping cart with eggs and bread, pretend to be listening to your friends or sip your coffee. Finally you reach deep down inside of you and gather the strength and courage to MAKE YOUR MOVE. If you are at a club or bar, you probably grab a shot or two! You make your way over to them and it is as if she/he has been waiting on you all night, when you open your mouth and ask…

WILL YOU SLEEP WITH ME?

or

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

I know I know I know, Who in their right mind would do such a thing. Who would ask for something so intimate, so personal, so final, who would reach out to someone they dont know for a commitment, who would embarrass in such a foolish way, not to mention how the other person would feel… offended, angry, put off, and depending upon where you are and who that person is you might just hear a few choice words that i dare not mention here!

Yet, Christians ask these types of questions of perfect strangers every day. Christians have been asking perfect strangers to make life altering commitments of this nature without knowing a persons name for years. Allow me to explain, once again before you go all deep and get offended.

Jesus, was a relational God and Lord. God spent every day with Adam in the garden before “The Fall”. Jesus spent day and night with the disciples before instructing them to go out and teach the world about His Kingdom. Peter before his first sermon after Christ’s acension spent day and night praying with his congregation. Paul pitched in and made tents with the tent makers before he began to teach Christ and Christ crucified. Do you see a pattern developing here? I could go on if you need me to. There are countless examples throughout the bible of men and women of God, who developed relationships with people before they professed their love for God and His love for them.

All I’m saying is that we MUST, not try…  not see what we can do… not hope you can, but WE MUST DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE,  before we ask for any such commitment. We have to like Jesus, allow those around us to SEE the fruit of our FAITH before we pound their heads with the latest bible verse we memorized. Before we go and tell someone they are going to hell because they fornicate, or lie or steal or whatever they do, we must know them. To “know” them, is to become “intimate” with them.

Quick side note: Intimate or Intimacy has nothing to do with SEX. Get over it, open a dictionary. It is amazing how this word has become bastardized and misused to have anything to do with sex.

OK, back to where we were… I’m simply saying that we cannot afford to cause any more trepidation  concerning the Body of Christ. In case you have not noticed the attacks on the Church are doing fine without the Church going out and making it any worse.

Give it some thought.

Have you made friends with anyone outside of your circle lately? With someone who doesn’t look like you, or believe what you believe?

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Why Here?

Why Now?

WHY ME????????????????????????????????????????????

Have you ever been asked to do something larger than yourself? Larger than your current financial, physical, emotional, mental and intellectual stature. Have you been a gigantic ball of potential all of your life with no fruition of such potential seemingly insight? Do you know what it is to be haunted by dreams of life that seem out of your reach, by right in front of your face?

If not then maybe, just maybe you are not dreaming at all? Maybe you have decided at some low point in your life to believe that what you have right now, today is all you ever wanted and needed out of life. I could be wrong but there is the slim chance that tomorrow will look like today which looked like yesterday and the yesterday before that.

Before I go any further, please don’t get upset with me because the one thing that you and I alike thought about doing or becoming when we were kids has been placed in a box put up in a closet and forgotten about simply because someone said it would not work, or your life is perfect why would you mess it up, or maybe they said nothing at all and their silence was deafening and lastly they could have simply laughed in your face…. SO YOU QUIT, I QUIT.

OK, so now that you have totally insulted me, now what you ask?

I want you to know that there is NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING more satisfying in this Life or any other life than your passion(s) coming to LIFE. There is a secret, you must promise to share with anyone and everyone… YOU, YES YOU, ARE IN CONTROL OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU LIVE THIS, A PASSIONATE LIFE. Whether or not you pursue your passion, or whether or not you even pursue passion itself. THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

Nothing new right? SO, what are you waiting on?

It was brought to my attention, by a very very good friend of mine whom i love like my mother gave birth to him, that those who have simply realized, heard or know their purpose in life are fortunate beyond repair. I have found both my purpose and my passion in Jesus, in my wife, in my family, and in planting the church God has chosen me to plant in the heart of downtown Atlanta.

And let me tell you, my pursuit of passion has taken me some places i would have never dreamed i would go, some places I want to forget I have been and has seen me make mistakes that I would not wish on my worst enemy. I have lost friends and gained family. I have quit restarted and quit in the same day on several occasions. I have lost everything and found myself. I have danced in the rain with the love of my life, and almost blew it with the love of my life.

Yet, i would not change this ride, this pursuit, my purpose for nothing in the world.

HE CHOSE ME!

WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR?

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Just got off the phone with a very dear friend and big brother and shared with him something that I recently shared with my wife and that it would be good to share with you.

I am in no way PERFECT!!!!!!!

I make mistakes, take things for granted (forgive me Lord), can be selfish, and have forgotten myself.

How did i forget myself? That is the reason for this post.

I have joined the ranks of so many other preachers, teachers, ministers, pastors, evenagelist (most of whom may never admit what im about to admit) and I no longer want to be in or with this crowd!

I have gotten accustomed to only studying for Sunday or for my next “ASSIGNMENT”.

The Word of God is filled with so much, that is impossible to preach every sermon, teach every lesson, share every revelation embedded in the pages of this awesome conversation between God and US.

So today I make the committment to study not only for “SUNDAYS”, but to study for ME! To study, to learn, to share and to get to know God for myself, not just to teach other people about the latest greatest revelation i got. I want the promises, the phrophesy, the Word to be true and come to life in my life. I want the REALITY of the scriptures to be my reality!!!

Will you join me?

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This post stems from an email i was sending my wife about an amazing blog i read yesterday, Reverse Offering. I started simply by telling her about the story and lost myself in her, and could not hold back my feelings for her… just read for yourself…
Link to blog was here, but if you click on name of blog above it will take you to a different type of Love Story that led to this Love Story…

i know i am sending these to you like crazy but they are blessing me,
so i figured i better bless you too…

i love you more than life and i could not think of anyone i would
rather be walking this walk o faith with!!!!!

I can see as clear as the night sky our future, and it is EVERYTHING
God promised it would be.. i want you t close your eyes and see it for
yourself… not just the stuff, that is the least important, not just
being able to pay bills and take trips, but more importantly we, you
and i, us adding to the Kingdom of God, transforming lives ( we got
three families to thank God for now), building relationships,
restoring marriages, providing hope to hopeless, giving people a way
out of their personal prisons… these things are what matters most
and we, you and i, us are doing just that… I’m so glad we walk by
faith and not by sight, I’m so glad that we are forgiven and we
forgive, I’m honored that God chose me, and just as important I’m
humbled that He allowed you to be my wife!!!

You are so so so so beautiful… from the inside out, our TWINS, Zoe
and Zion (We are not pregnant yet, but we are doing as Jesus
instructed us to do, Mark 11:23-24) will be the most beautiful girls
in the world (yes I’m biased) our boys Tyler and Jah will be the Men
of God He has ordained them to be, using their gifts for the Kingdom
of God, and we, you and i, us will reach teach preach and transform
those assigned to us by God in ways that only He could have us to!!!
From the US to Haiti and beyond!!! We are Peculiar, called out of
darkness into His marvelous LIGHT!!!

this is my next blog… i love you!!!

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I get so frustrated at the thought of people being only given a portion of the truth, or given just enough of the truth to feel good. Let me explain.

I was reading a blog today, one that I frequently read and find highly informative, and helpful, but I read something in that blog that made me mad, not at the author of the blog, per say, but at a sentiment portrayed in a story told in the blog. Im getting there I promise.

The story was about a young man who was “GIVEN” a certain amount of time to live, by some highly certified, classified, specialist in his/her field no doubt. The story went on to tell how even until his death he never once complained, nor did he say anything negative, he simply continued to share his love of God with everyone who would listen. He loved God and would praise Him even in the midst of a life ending illness. I admire the young man for his faith, his strength, and more importantly for his courage. I am sure you are patiently waiting for the part that upset me. Well here it is.

When someone gives you something you don’t want, why would you keep it? Did he want to die? Did he only want the time “Given” to him? Was there more he could have done for the Kingdom had he had more time to LIVE?

I will make it even more plain for you. It’s your birthday, or anniversary, or Christmas and you are “GIVEN” a gift that does not fit, is the wrong color, or you simply do not like, what do you do with it? Do you keep it because you dont want to hurt the other persons feelings? Do you wear the tie that doesnt go with any suit you have? Do you pretend that you love the gift and get home and bang your head against the wall trying to figure out if the person hates you for “GIVING” you such an awful gift? Or do you take it to the store and return it for something you truly wanted? Be honest!

If you are like me, you smile, say thank you and dream of running to the store and returning what was “GIVEN” to you, however good the intention. YOU TAKE IT BACK! You ask for the receipt, and I love that today gifts usually come with a GIFT RECEIPT!

I could not help but think about this young man, who was “GIVEN” something he obviously did not want. Yet he settled, mind you he made the best of the gift, but he settled. Why didnt he ask for the receipt? Wht didnt he trade what was “GIVEN” to him in for something he wanted, like LIFE instead of death?

Here is where the half truth comes in. Did he even know he could return or exchange what he was “GIVEN”? Did he even know to ask or look for the receipt? If you didn’t know now you know. If ever anyone, and I mean anyone, I dont care how many TV stations they are on, who respects them or what their title is, if they GIVE you something you don’t want, politely say thank you, smile (because we are to walk in love) and ask for the receipt!!!

Negative reports about your health, negative words about who you are, or casting doubt about something you are believing God for, something you need God to do for you, calling you out of your name, I could go on forever; but the bottom line is you dont have to take it. I wish I could have been around to tell that young man that Jesus came that we might have LIFE, not just any kind of life but LIFE. A life that is not governed by what we see, hear, or even are Given, but is governed by the Word of God.It is in that very Word that says that Jesus bore our sickness and disease and by His stripes (each lash that went across his back and side) WE ARE HEALED! Now, there are some who say, “It was God’s Will”, Frankly anyone who would say that does not and cannot know the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob. Because His will is Life, and Life more abundantly. Does that mean you wont have troubles, or situations or circumstances, no not at all, but what it means is that even in the midst of those situations and circumstance YOU WIN!

I tell you what, if you wanna GIVE me a gift, GIVE me a gift card so that I can get what I want… JESUS!

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WHEW!!!!

Today, or rather yesterday, had me running the obstacle course from you know where! I left the house around 12:30 to buy a pair of sneakers for my oldest son for school. Well after 2 hours and six stores, NOTHING!!!!

I love to shop, grew up shopping, and KNOW how to find a bargain, so if you share the feeling, then you know my frustration. I was outdone, I couldn’t fathom not being able to find an all white pair of sneakers in a size four. What I found was the right shoe the wrong price, or the right price the wrong shoe, or worse the right shoe, the right price, but no size fours. So I headed home defeated, whipped and out of my wits. I shared with my wife that I was at a lost, and would come home, rest play with my other son, and take my mind off of a day that i could not forget fast enough. I had made up my mind that I would come out later on and take my needs to another part of town.

I left at 7pm that evening, Atlanta traffic is not pleasant, so timing that was crucial. I predetermined my route, the order of stores, and that when i got to the last store I would buy something, anything, just so that this torture would be over. Got to the first store, again I am telling you someone somewhere was playing a trick with my head, the perfect show, the very perfect price, and of course NO SIZE FOUR! I walk over to the next store, nothing, it looked like there was a clearance sale and everyone in the city knew about it but me. So I gathered myself, got my thoughts under control, and made my way to the ninth and final store. I walked in the store, already defeated, already prepared to give up or better yet, give in. I made my way to the shoe department. I stood there, I am sure I looked puzzled and out of place, but I stood there believing to find something that fit, something that would be the answer to my prayers, something that would allow me to go home and rest assured that I had found the one thing that would make me and my family happy. (I know a little too deep, but trust me you will get it in a minute) I was about to walk away when I heard something (hint, hint) that said look down, go now. I walked over looked over the rows of shoes on the wall, and i saw a tag as big as Texas that read “4″!!!! 

I almost turned a cartwheel, finally after such a long, frustrating, and defeating day I found the perfect shoe, the perfect price, the perfect fit. I was done! Mission Accomplished!

Now take a moment to reflect on this story and think about what it must have been like to find the church home you now attend, more importantly think about others who have never been to church or who are in dire need of a church home, but just cannot seem to find “the perfect fit”. To them I say don’t give up, you are not defeated. Just when you want to quit, or stay somewhere you really don’t like, or you know you cant get what you need, but the music is good, or the women are pretty, or well you get my point.

To those of you who have found “the perfect fit”, try being a little more considerate and remember what it was like when you too, did not know whether you were going or coming. Try being a lot more open and loving to those in need of assistance. In all of the store I visited today, not one person, and there was at least one person in every store who saw me losing it, ever asked if they could find something for me. Does this sound familiar?

Have you found your size four?

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