Correction

Taking a dog by the ears

Hey there BCU Fam!

For this post, because of the informal format, please tune into the podcast recording (click here or on the BCU avatar below) and refer to the written post for the highlights. We pray the post blesses and encourages you. If so, please thumbs up AND leave a comment! Thank you and enjoy the post!

Podcast highlights:

After a productive day, we stopped to get ice cream at one of the local parlors.
This evening, the long was pretty long and moving super slowly.
One of the staff members was free to assist the line, but was distracted, talkative and disrespectful.
The staff member’s comments led to a very loud and embarrassing verbal altercation with a patron.
The Lord used this experience to remind and teach me a couple of lessons.

BlenCouragesU · BCU podcast | Taking a dog by the Ears | Ep 284

James 1:19-20

¹⁹Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

²⁰For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Proverbs 26:17

¹⁷He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

I Peter 4:15

¹⁵But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.

⁶For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Psalm 19:14

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

BCU Fam, as I thought about what happened, the manager was correct in waiting until she was unctioned to ask “Robin” to take a break. Manager quietly apologized for the wait and as we talked, we agreed Robin needed formal training on how to conduct themselves professionally with guests, and refraining for jumping into unrelated conversations.

I thank the Lord for helping me (unconsciously) to walk out Proverbs 26:17——I was not led to interfere and should not have anyway——-because it was NOT my strife. Unless the Lord tells us otherwise, when strife comes up, we should stay out of it and maintain a posture of prayer for the Lord to intervene. Now that’s where the Lord reminded me that I could have done better. I was so busy (now that I think about it, distracted is more like it) watching the events unfold, I did not have the presence of mind to pray. The distraction is likely a topic for another podcast, but, I will say this is why we need to have a consistent prayer life, so that God intervenes for us, even when we don’t think to pray in the moment. So, I received that correction and with His grace, will apply what He taught me. What a merciful God we serve! Let’s pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus, as many of us are peacemakers, as we should be, thank you for reminding us that our responsibility is to pursue peace and resolution with the strife and conflict in our own lives. We ask you to help us successfully manage the strife that belongs to us, and unless otherwise prompted, help is to stay out of “other men’s matters”, and to remain prayerful for the parties involved. Thank you for hearing our plea and blessing us to follow Your directions accordingly. In Jesus name, we pray and thank you! Amen!

As a reminder, if you have not subscribed to BlenCouragesU.com, please do so! It’s free and a good place to get the encouragement, inspiration and information based the Word of God! Additionally, you can also see what we are up to on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Also, if you so inclined, join us for our Thursday Night Bible Study––we are LIVE on YouTube 8:05EST/7:05CST. You can also listen in and subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform BCU is available on. Some of those platforms are Amazon Music, AnchorFm, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Stitcher Radio , and many more of your favorite podcast platforms!

Thank you SO much for stopping by! May God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU

28 Feb 2023

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Despise not the chastening of the Lord

Hey there BCU Fam!

Podcast highlights:

Recently, I had a conversation with my best friend, Kenya, who is a decorated nurse, and dedicated wife, mother, student, teacher, and minister of the gospel.
At work, an unintentional miscommunication came up between Kenya and a nursing student that initially strained the relationship.
The Lord used this circumstance as a teaching moment for Kenya, the student, the staff, and many others.
With permission, Kenya urged me to share the story and lesson with the BCUFam.

BlenCouragesU · BCU podcast | The Chastening of the Lord | Ep 283

Hebrews 12:5-11

⁵And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

⁷If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

⁸But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Romans 12:10

¹⁰Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

John 13:34-35

³⁴A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

³⁵By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Psalm 61:1-2

Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

²From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 63:1

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

Proverbs 16:3

³Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

Psalm 19:14

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

BCU Fam, this testimony was such a blessing on several levels. Many times, the people of God testify about the good things (money, cars, homes, et cetera), that God provides, and there is nothing wrong with that at all–He us a supplier of needs, will take care of His people and we NEED to hear that. What’s more valuable and less popular are these testimonies——-where we confess our faults to one another and share the lessons and correction without shame or concern about who will judge us.

Frankly, we should be more concerned with the Lord judging us. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 tells us, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. In other words, the Lord lets us know where we missed the mark, so we can correct ourselves NOW (with His help), so we don’t have to be condemned LATER. Kenya was tender to the Holy Spirit’s correction and obeyed what He said, so she’s all set. And she shared this story with us as a reminder for us to do the same thing. Let’s pray!

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for our sister Kenya sharing her testimony and experience with us freely. Thank You for the correction and chastening that You give us here, Lord, so we can see You in peace when we leave this present world and hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.”

Bless us to be without spot, wrinkle or blemish in all interactions with people, so that You are glorified, honored and praised every time. Help us to see when we are not honoring You in our communication and blessing us to correct our behavior going forward without justification, but rather in humility and gratefulness. Thank You for the mind to want to please You in all of our ways. We thank You for hearing our plea, for Your patience and unfailing love towards us. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen!

Thank you SO much for stopping by! May God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU

21 Feb 2023

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When getting disciplined feels unfair.

Hey 👋🏾 there BCU Family!

Typically, you have the option of listening to our podcast, reading the notes or both. For this post, because of the conversational story, please tune into the podcast recording and refer to the written post for the highlights and corresponding Scriptures. We pray the post blesses and encourages you. If so, please thumbs up AND leave a comment! Thank you and enjoy the post!

If discipline was a part of your childhood, what were your thoughts after that lecture, being yelled at, the tears after that sore bottom, or being grounded? I can recall commiserating with my brothers and the neighborhood kids/school mates about how “unfair” my consequences were. I walked in on a similar conversation between Jaz (8) and Peanut (7), and as I reflected on our talk about WHY they were being corrected, this podcast was born soon after! 🙂

Podcast highlights:

Correction is a part of the walk with Christ.
Proper chastening is needed to help us become more Christ-like.
The lesson learned and consistent application far outweighs the “pain” of the discipline.

Scripture references

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (Proverbs 22:15).

Hebrews 12:5-13

5And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6For whom the Lord loveth he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.

7If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?

8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.

11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Listen, BCU Fam, I am NOT a fan of being on the receiving end of correction, so with God’s grace I do what I can to stay OUT of trouble by following what God says, rather than willfully doing things my way, intentionally ignoring His voice, or repeating the same lesson over and over. When the discipline does come though, I thank God for it, because while it doesn’t feel good, it’s for MY good–being more Christ-like and making it to the Kingdom of Heaven! Besides, once we make it in, we will not remember a THING about what we went through to get there–we’ll just be glad TO be there, amen? Amen!

What are your thoughts about getting disciplined, BCUFam? There’s a comment section here on the BCU site, just ripe for us to continue our conversation!

In the meantime, if you have not subscribed to BlenCouragesU.com, please do so! It’s free and a good place to get the encouragement, inspiration and information based the Word of God! Additionally, you can also see what we are up to on Facebook, Twitter , Instagram, and YouTube! You can also listen in and subscribe to the podcast on Stitcher Radio , Google Play, and iTunes!

Thank you SO much for stopping by. God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU

27 Nov 2017

BlenCouragesU2 Comments

The GREAT assembly.

Hey 👋🏾 there BCU Family!

As usual, you have the option of listening to our podcast (click the BCU avatar below to listen), reading the notes or BOTH. In any case, we pray the post blesses you. If so, please thumbs up or leave a comment! Thank you and enjoy the post!

We’re back with our Nehemiah series where we’ve chatted about overcoming people approval , the importance of gates , what do do when attacked, when you are weary on the wall, getting back to work on the wall and last time we were together, we started chapter 5, where we talked about the enemy within. That’s where we pick up this time, so let’s dig in!

Scene: Nehemiah was informed that the nobles and rulers were unfairly charging their brethren for food, which obviously was effecting the families, morale and well-being of the workers. Moreover, this was a public sin and was caustic to the work of the Lord. Nehemiah was a leader who was able to discern and work through issues, so it was apropos to get everyone together.

v6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

Part of the reason Nehemiah was angry was because the Israelites were forbidden from charging “usury,” or interest, on loans to one another (see Deuteronomy 23:19). Having to pay back the loan interest would only put them further into debt and was not beneficial for either party. This law served as a reminder to the Jews that helping those in need is something that should be done without expecting anything in return. In essence both the law and the people were being broken.

v7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.

We talked about confrontation last time and we also talked about it in our forgiveness series. Confrontation is biblical and needs to be done the way GOD instructs us to do, according to Matthew 18. In this situation, Nehemiah had to address a group of leaders who were fleecing the people, so this had to be done publicly. A similar situation happened in the book of Joshua.

Joshua (chapter 7) was losing this battle and the Lord told him there was an “accursed” thing in the midst and Joshua could not stand before his enemies (or get the victory) until this was dealt with–the accursed thing was taken away (v 13). It turned out there was sin in the camp, as someone named Achan had stolen some spoils from a battle in Ai–he was NOT supposed to have done that! Because of Achan’s foolish decision was effecting everyone, Joshua sought him out and confronted him in front of everyone (verses 21-23).

v8 And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.

He reminded ALL the people that their own folks (and maybe many of them) had been sold to their enemies and finally bought back with their own ability or money, and here they are doing the same thing. The truth was so evident, the people could not even answer. back. Whenever we confront someone, we want to be sure our facts are based in evidence versus emotion.

v9 Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?

Nehemiah is asking:

We we NOT JUST released from Babylon (the enemy) and you charging this usury–is that GOOD?

Don’t you fear God at all?

What type of examples are we to our enemies about the God we serve?

God is asking:
That meme you posted or status you liked..did I get any glory out of that?

The way you cut your eyes or “cussed” someone out…was that a good example to the unsaved?

Do you want your enemies to make fun of you/mock God? (in the sense that we are no different than them)?

Do we care how our actions will look to those who do not know Christ?

v10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

If you want to charge—yes, I am charging, too! We’re in business supporting one another–that’s fine. Just stop all this excessive interest.

v11 Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive yards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

Be merciful and given them their stuff back–this was the proper thing to do.

v12Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.

Your word was your bond. Once you promised to do something, you did it. Psalm 15 reminds us in a form of a question and then answer. Lord, who shall abide in Your tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Your holy hill… He that swears to his own hurt and does not change (Psalm 15:1,4).

v13 Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise.

Shaking your lap was like shaking out the outer parts of a garment, something like you shaking crumbs off your clothes, but this was MUCH more serious. It represented that if you failed to keep your words, just like those crumbs are scattered asunder, God would scatter YOU asunder. It was better to keep your promise.

Also, notice that these folks readily received the Word–they had a teachable spirit. There was no arguing or justification, they were wrong, were called on it, agreed to that fact, terms and conditions of restoration. And on TOP of that, rather than sulk, they praised God after the correction. That’s an example we should all learn to follow, especially when we know the rebuke comes from a place of love. And even if it doesn’t, we can still give God praise.

This also speaks highly of Nehemiah’s leadership. He had to rebuke the people, yes but did it in a way that was effective and impactful. Obviously, he had a relationship with God so he knew how to pray to know what to say, when to say it, and how to express it so God got the glory out of it. Whether you are correcting someone or being corrected whenever we go to God and ask for/follow His directions, things always come out perfectly. Amen? Amen!

Next time, we’ll finish up chapter 5–where we discover more about Nehemiah’s character and how we can apply those characteristics to our lives. In the meantime, we’d love to dialogue with you so, please post your thoughts in the comment section below!

Thank you SO much for stopping by. God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU