From the desk of Asst. Pastor Anthony Hurst

Photo by careerattraction.com

Transition is a process in which God moves you from one situation to another. The key to the process is that you can’t go into a new situation without transformation. In other words, you can’t go to a new level in God with your old way of thinking.

Transition often times is very uncomfortable. You leave a situation in which you are familiar (not necessarily a good one), and enter a new realm in which you start over. You go back to an infant stage (beginning). Metaphorically speaking, it is like being born again. It is that time in which God takes you through the wilderness to wean you from the old so you can survive in the new. You know the cliché “you can take the man out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of the man.” God had to take the children of Israel through the wilderness to renew their minds from the old mentality of 400 years of slavery. All of them, except for two, died in the wilderness because of their fear and unbelief. What was supposed to be an 11 day journey, took 40 years for them to trust and rely on God. How long will it take us?

One more thing. Transition also involves cleansing. When a baby is conceived, it begins to grow in the mother’s womb. After three trimesters, it becomes uncomfortable in the womb (situation & dimensions) and the birthing process begins. When the baby is born, he or she is covered with blood and fluids and has to be cleaned. The Bible says that when you clean your house, the enemy leaves. When he can’t find rest, he returns with seven more demons (Matt. 12: 43-45). Some of us wonder why sometimes a person’s condition worsens when they come to Christ. They don’t fill their houses after cleaning them. How do I fill my house Brother Dudley? With God’s word and worship (John 15:3-8; John 4: 23-24).

Just like that newborn can’t clean himself, we have to trust (by faith) that Jesus dying on the cross has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. As we repent and transition from sinner to saved, we must fill our house (heart and mind) with God’s word to survive in the newness of life that God is leading us to.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving us you son, Jesus, to die for our sins. I pray that as we transition to your kingdom, you create in us a clean heart and renew the right spirit in us to become sons and daughters through faith in Jesus. Thank you God for the grace and mercy you’ve shown to us. In Jesus name! Amen!

From the desk of Assistant Pastor Anthony Hurst

photo by mosaicmaryland.com

ROMANS 12:1-2

One of the greatest challenges of our walk with God is to resist the temptation that allows what happened in the past determine who we are today. We each must begin to understand and declare “I am not what happened yesterday. I endured what happened. I survived what happened. I forgive what happened! But I am not what happened yesterday! I may have done what you said I did, but I am not who you say I am!”

We allow our minds to plague us with past hurts of failed marriages, broken promises, personal violations, and calamities that haunt our memories throughout our lives. It eats at us like cancer, trying to defy any medical technology and continuing to destroy it’s victims in areas the doctors can’t find. You know modern medicine can heal many afflictions of the body and can even treat the tumors that sometimes attach themselves to the brain….BUT ONLY GOD CAN HEAL THE MIND!!!

Where the mind goes the body will follow. You are not what you feel. You are what you believe. (Phil. 2:5-11) You’re going to have to think like God thinks and learn to say what God says in order for you to have what God desires and has predestined you to have.

Father God we pray that You teach us to forgive others as You have forgiven us. Help us to forgive and heal every hurt of our past and to begin to submit and stay obedient to Your will. Thank You for renewing my mind in Jesus mighty name. AMEN.