The Christian charity is that of giving.  Giving of our resources, time and money.  God loves a “cheerful giver”.   How can we be cheerful when our resources are scarce, there is not enough time in the day to get done what we have to get done and money, well – will we ever have enough?  Giving is having compassion on the poor when many of us feel poor ourselves.  Poor not just financially but spiritually; the weak, those who are fighting a battle also.  We all fight battles, they are just different.  My weakness, may be your strong point.  Your strong point, your strengths, are what God gave you.  2 Corinthians 8:13-14 “For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want…”.   As Christians we give to show our sincerity.  We are not weak, we are humble.  We are humble because we know without God giving us His Son Jesus Christ, we would in fact be weak.  We are bold and courageous.  We now have authority over all that comes against us because of Jesus and the Cross.  As Christians, we have been given God’s Grace.  God’s grace is our strength.  God’s grace is not just given to us; it is for us to share with others.  We glorify God when we give to others.  Giving is grace, never hoard your grace.  – Donna Warren

LOVE – Love is hard to do sometimes.  It is hard to love someone who is driving 35 mph in a 50 mph zone and you are already late.  Even harder is loving someone who you know is wrong, be it lying, cheating, stealing or what ever the case may be.  Well, we must love them too.  Why?  The main reason is we are commanded by God “…That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another,” 1 John 3:23.  Although we do believe in Jesus, that loving one another part can still be tough.  Furthermore, we are to “…not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18.  So we can’t just say we love them?  Nope!  We have to love them in spite of.  We have to love them because they too are born of sin and are not yet made perfect.  We love them because God loves us in spite of our iniquities.  Just like we make conscious decisions everyday to do what is right, we have to choose love instead of anger.  Anger , frustration and fear is not a spirit of God, so why do we accept them and rebuke the “bigger and badder” spirits of the enemy?   The spirit of fear will invite his buddy, the spirit of frustration, who invites his buddy the spirit of anger and so on and so forth.  The Spirit of God, Truth, Love and Freedom – The Holy Spirit – is a gentleman.  The Holy Spirit only dwells where He is welcome.  He, the Holy Spirit, doesn’t hang out, do business with or deal with the spirits of the enemy.  If He doesn’t feel welcome, He will quietly leave.   Whatever spirit you allow to dwell in your soul is the spirit that will overflow into the world through you.  Rebuke the spirit of anger, believe in the name of Jesus and choose the Spirit of Love – the Spirit of God! – Donna Warren

Warfare:scary subject for this “child in Christ” but it pertains to everything we, as believers and non believers, deal with daily.  Our nation has sent many courageous men and women into war.  As a nation, our government has studied and invested in some of the highest, most complex strategies in order to obtain victory over the oppressors of this world.  The United States has been and is victorious in natural warfare.  The United States was founded as “one nation under God”. Then we have the separation of church and state.  The separation of church and state was meant to keep the government out of the church, not the church out of the government.  The spiritual warfare of our Forefather’s is what lead us through all the natural warfare.  Today, in our modern world, we hear much about the natural and absolutely nothing on the spiritual war that is going on all around us.  From the battlefields in Iraq to the battlefields in small town Alabama, we walk around defenseless in the matters of spiritual warfare when we are not steadfast, deliberate and absolute in our faith in Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross.  As Christians, we know and understand the authority we have over evil.  We don’t focus on evil, we focus on our faith in Jesus.  While we walk with our battalion of fellow Christians, we must also walk with our brethren in whom the enemy is devouring.  Every word in God’s Word is meant for all.  Walk in this world today on the winning side of the spiritual war and “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 5:16  – Donna Warren

CALL HEAVEN DOWN!! We must call Heaven down over our life, our family and our loved ones.  We don’t sit back and allow satan to defeat us and we don’t have to sit back and allow him to defeat our loved ones either.  Place the blood of Jesus over the lamp post of your household.  When adversity strikes pray for God to reveal Himself.  Use the authority God has given us through intercessory prayer and claim their souls. Take dominion over constant attacks on the weak with the boldness of righteous anger.  Many of us have heard the last part of Acts 20:35 “…It is more blessed to give than to receive”.  However, when studying the entire verse it reads “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”.  Giving is not always money.  Giving is also our time and our prayer for others; for the weak, downtrodden and broken.   Giving is our thankfulness for the strong, upright in the Lord and righteous.  Giving is being a gatekeeper by opening our mouth, releasing our faith and declaring the Word of God over all! – Donna Warren

DON’T SETTLE!  Don’t settle for less than what God has for you.  To settle for something is to agree with.  Our life is not meant to be on the sidelines watching everyone else who refused to settle.  Our life is meant to be a reflection of God’s righteousness.  As a Christian, the Lord has declared us righteous.  To be declared righteous in the eyes of the Lord means we are justified because of Jesus and the Cross.  To be declared righteous means that the Kingdom of God is yours, that God’s eyes are upon you, that you are known, blessed and upheld by God.    To be declared righteous by the Lord means that your enemies will not move you off of the rock.  Psalms 55:22 “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”  This is promised to us in God’s Word.  We must decide who we agree with, whose plan we will settle for – the promise of the Lord or the lie of the devil.  Arguing, reasoning and debating God’s righteousness with the enemy is what keeps us on the sidelines;  DECLARE His righteousness in your life, get in centerfield and let the Lord make His face shine upon you!!  – Donna Warren

THERE’S MORE?  Haven’t we all wondered if there is really more out there? Is there really more than just getting up, going to work, struggling to get by then going and sit in the church pew for an hour on Sunday morning?  Yes, even us Christians wonder this sometimes.  Even as Christians we are not perfect.  However, as Christians we believe.  We believe in the power of God and what Jesus did for us on the Cross.  We, as Christians, have faith in His healing powers.  BUT, do we understand, comprehend and know how to receive all of the Lord’s blessings?   We realize in our mind how God has blessed us.  We read and hear about the Lord’s grace and mercy but if He is not in our heart, we don’t feel His grace and mercy.  As humans we build walls around our heart.  We guard our heart because it is what can hurt us the most; it is where we feel.  We allow our mind to control our heart so it doesn’t feel the pain.    To actually receive, to know and understand God’s mercy and grace on our lives, we have to let Him in our hearts.  We have to allow Him to tear down the walls.  It can be scary if we let our mind in on what’s happening.  Once the walls are down and our hearts are filled with the love of God, His love overflows into our mind, our lives and others lives.   This then becomes your testimony.  Your testimony will show the world THERE IS MORE!  “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  Prov. 3: 5-6   The enemy wants to keep your testimony a secret.  Go show the world how much “MORE” there really is when God is in your heart!!  – Donna Warren

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  In other words, when the enemy is acting up, praise God because your blessing is at hand!!  The enemy wants us to believe we’re under the Law of the Old Testament and God is punishing us.  He’s blaming God for his dirty work.  No!!  We live under Grace thanks to Jesus and the Cross.    We’re not being punished, God wants to bless us.  Don’t give up on your blessing.  Dig in and hang on because this battle has already been won! God just needs us to do our part.  Our part is throwing our hands in the air, praising God and believing in Him.  When we praise God in the face of the enemy, we’re getting out of the way of God and allowing Him to show His power and His grace.  Don’t let the enemy allow you to get in the way of your own blessing.  Show off your Jesus, tell everyone who you belong to and be a reflection of God’s glory!  –  Donna Warren

“Put on the WHOLE armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11  The devil knows the whole armour of God.  He even knows the very Word of God of which we declare.  But most importantly, he understands when we have on the full armour of God we have power and dominion over him and he must bow down and flee.  While battles rage around us, we as Christians must put on the whole armour of God.  Our weapon, the sword of the Spirit, is the Word of God.  Our defense is truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation.  Step out and protect what is rightfully yours through the blood of Jesus and be bold in declaring His Word over your and your family’s life by putting on the whole armour.  The enemy may know the armour of God but only we can wear the armour of God.   Praise God for his protective armour in our lives!  – Donna Warren

Faith vs. presumption – both words mean to believe in something but it is the who and what we believe in that differentiates the two.  We presume when we get to work this morning the doors will be open.  We presume our loved ones will make it home safe.  God does not respond to presumption.  He responds to faith in Jesus and the Cross that is exercised through belief in His promise.  Then, when we turn it around and speak of God always being faithful to us, meaning He has always believed in us we come to understand His mercy.  The Lord did not presume we would be faithful to Him, yet He has faith in us anyway.  It is impossible to believe in the promise of salvation without faith in what Jesus did for us on the Cross because of His faith in us.  Even as sinners the Lord is still faithful that we will accept His sacrifice and receive Him as our Saviour.  All He is asking in return is faith in Him as well and belief in His promise – He will do the rest.   – Donna Warren

God will not be God when we are in the way. So often we unwittingly try to do God’s work for Him. We see a way to accomplish our goal, many times its the only way we see to get from point A to point B, and we jump in and help God to accomplish our goal.  When our goal is “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:33 we are doing our job and we, in return, allow God to do His.  But what about when we feel God isn’t working toward our goal?  What about when we don’t hear from God?  Again – “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness…”, don’t try to do it for Him.  As soon as we step out and “this one time” go ahead and seek to accomplish our goal, we have lost faith in His ability and His wisdom.  We have tried to do His job.  God does not need our help and He is eternally faithful.  He is still there, He is still God and He is still full of mercy and grace.  Don’t let the world move you off of the rock which is the Word of God, but let the rock move you and your world out of God’s way. – Donna Warren