C H O F Ministry

Tag: beloved

  • “Be a Faithful Servant”

    Be a Faithful Servant

    Praise the Lord Beloved. Happy Friday, and another weekend is here. it is cold and as I look outside there is snow on the ground.
     
    In 2 Chronicles 16:9 the Word tells us that God shows Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are “perfect” toward Him. Now, that word perfect doesn’t mean that we must do everything just right and live without making a mistake. Thank God, we don’t have to do that. It means “devoted”—a heart consecrated, dedicated, loyal and faithful to God. So, the mistakes we make won’t stop God from working in our lives. Only our lack of faithfulness can do that.
     
    Now, there may be someone out there asking: Bishop Houston who is faithful? “WELL I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!!!” 😀 The faithful are the ones who spends his/her time doing what God has called him/her to do. Or as Jesus put it, the one who takes up his cross and follows Him. The one who denies his/her fleshly desires and spends his/her life on the things God desires him/her to do.
     
    Beloved, this weekend, decide that you’re going to be the faithful and wise servant. Then, find out what is stealing your time from the Lord. Once you find out, remove it and start serving His interests instead of your own.
     
    For those of you (like me) that are in cold places please stay warm.
     
    Have a blessed Weekend Everyone. 😀

  • “Spiritual Words of Essence”

    Spiritual Words of Essence
    Praise the Lord Beloved!!! Happy Friday to you all.

     
    You know beloved, this morning I must confess to you that more than once I’ve seen God’s hand pick up the pieces of my broken heart and restore back to service my crushed feelings of sentiments by other people that literally caved-in my confidence. Many times, I’ve stood in awe as God has done so much with what others thought so little of.
     
    I have had the honor to preach in many places. But I’ve found that the greatest place to preach isn’t in our great meetings with massive crowds and supercilious recognitions. The greatest place to preach is in the ditches, in the sinner’s den, and the hog pens of life. If you want appreciative listeners take your message to the messy places of life and scrape the hog hairs off the prodigal sons and daughters of God who were locked away in the hog pens by the spiritual elite.
     
    Beloved, the time is here, “RIGHT NOW” to take the Spiritual Words of essence out to the people. People are not going to church like they use to back in the day. People are searching for a spiritual change. The people want to redirect their focus. They are searching for heroes of God amongst them. Spiritual preachers and teachers that can relate to them.
     
    So Beloved, this weekend, don’t allow the rejections or ridicules of others stand in your way or cripple you or your spiritual words of essence. Look to be used by the Spirit of God – let Him use you!!! Don’t forget, God purposely chooses to use misplaced and rejected people and this weekend He may be looking in your direction.
     
    Have a BLESSED Weekend Everyone.

  • “Fitting In”

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    Our spiritual topic this morning is entitled: “Fitting In”,and this morning’s verse is Isaiah 44:2. This morning’s verse is coming out of the New Living Translation Bible and it reads this way: The Lord who made you and helps you says: “Do not be afraid . . . my chosen one.”

     
    I’d been out late the night before, just as I was every Saturday night hanging out with my Transformer buddies. I was Just twenty something years old, and I was running from God as fast as I could. But suddenly, strangely, I felt compelled to attend the church my grandfather once pastored and the church my family has attended for many decades. I put on a pair of casual slacks, a shirt and tie, and some very worn dressed shoes and drove across town.

    I don’t recall the sermon the pastor preached that day, but I can’t forget how delighted my mother was to see me. With her arm under my arm, she introduced me to everyone she saw, many of them I already knew, after all I grew up in the neighborhood. “This is my oldest son!!!” She proudly declared. Her joy became a picture of God’s love that has stuck with me all these decades.
     
    Beloved, the imagery of God as a loving Father occurs throughout the Bible. In Isaiah 44, the prophet interrupts a series of warnings to proclaim God’s message of family love. “Dear Israel, my chosen one,” he says in verses 2-3: “I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children,” Isaiah noted how the response of those descendants would demonstrate family pride. Verse 5 says: “Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord,’” he wrote. “Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands.”
     
    Disobedient Israel belonged to God, just as I belonged to my mother. Nothing I could do would ever make her lose her love for me. That Sunday I was given a glimpse of our heavenly Father’s love for us.
     
    Prayer:
    Dear Heavenly Father, we all come from families that are broken in one way or another. Thank You for loving us in that brokenness and for showing us what real love looks like.
     
    Beloved, God’s love for us offers us the sense of fitting in and an identity we all crave.
     
    CHOF Ministry is here to help you feed your spiritual cravings.
    Have a Blessed Sunday Everyone. 😀

  • “A Confident Message”

    Border Preaching and teaching
    Praise the Lord Beloved!!! Welcome to Wednesday’s CHOF Bible Fellowship Bible Study.
    Our focal CHOF Bible Fellowship verse this morning comes from 1 Kings 17:1 (NLT)
     
    Our focal verse reads this way:
    (17) Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”
     
    Beloved, we find King Ahab’s first thought after encountering the prophet Elijah may well have been: “WHAT!!! This dude got some kind of nerve!!! Just who does this dude think he is? Blasting onto the scene out of nowhere, Elijah challenged Israel’s evil king with a message that would soon disturb life throughout the whole region.
     
    To read the rest of today’s Morning Bible Study
    click the link below.
     

  • “God Changes Conditions

    Bishop Houston's Monday Morning Blog New Poster
    Praise the Lord Beloved!!! Happy Monday to you all. I hope you had a marvelous Sunday.

     
    You know Beloved, God takes His time developing us. You see, a small or slow beginning is just the introduction to a marvelous climax at the end!!! You’ll find that many of God’s work of genius were developed in small, slow incomprehensible conditions.Take for instance Moses. Moses was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. He was trained in leadership while shoveling sheep manure on the backside of the desert. Now granted his discipline was developed in the royal courts of Pharaoh’s house, but his disposition was shaped through failure and a desert kingdom with no one to lead but flies, gnats and sheep.
     
    Beloved, who would have thought, looking at Moses’ church of goat deacons and gnats for choir members, that later he would lead the greatest movement in the history of the Old Testament theology?
     
    So, Beloved, you or anyone else can’t tell what’s in you by looking at you. God is in the love, blessings and salvation business!!! God is establishing patience, character, and concentration in the school of “nothing seems to be happening.” Just because God promises to move in your life and anoints you to do a particular function doesn’t mean that your foundation will be immediately built, nor does it mean because you may have turned down ministry or slow to develop correct morals doesn’t mean God won’t create and develop a spiritual foundation that’s fit just for you. 😀
     
    Have a blessed Monday and an awesome rest of your week.

  • “Stop Deceptive, Maliciousness”

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    Praise the Lord Beloved!!! 😀
     
    Well, it’s Friday, and what an honor it is to start the day with all of you. May we all continue to praise Him from whom all blessings flow!!! 😀
     
    You know Beloved, when proper direction is in position, deceptive maliciousness is customarily kept in check and respectable morals will flourish. This takes effect when you make the conscience decision to keep deceptive maliciousness outside when it shows up on your doorstep, on your job, calling you on your phone, your church or ministry or at the grocery store. Keeping deceptive maliciousness outside means keeping toxic people from trashing your personal zone, infecting your air space or ear-wave.
     
    Beloved, you’re the administrator in your life. So, you have the authority to restrict the flow of deceptive maliciousness while simultaneously and intentionally seeking to expand the flow of your respectable morals.
     
    Beloved, this weekend, if you’re approached by anyone with deceptive maliciousness, remember, it only come to steal, kill, and destroy. Your primary goal is to keep a reputable mine.
     
    Have wonderful weekend Everyone. 😀

  • “God Is Always Close”

    God Is Always Close Personal FB Page Sunday.png
    Psalm 13:1 (NLT)
    (1) O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
    How long will you look the other way?

    Praise the Lord Beloved.
    Happy Sunday to you. You know Beloved, the worse feeling a person can have is feeling distance from God. When we cry out in prayer, we need to feel His presence with us. When that feeling is absent, desperateness and misery set in. But, I’m here to tell you this morning, that the Lord hasn’t really gone far from us, ‘BUT” we have pushed Him from ourselves. That’s Right Beloved!!! The Lord is always as close as a prayer, all we need to do is open our hearts to Him, and His presence will be felt once again.

    Beloved, the Lord NEVER” hides His face from us. But, many times He will wait. He’ll step back like the loving Father that He is, to see whether or not we can fight through a problem on our own. God wants to see us grow, and He often have to let us struggle a bit in order to allow that growth to occur. Even in those times of trial. But just because we can’t see of feel His presence, the Lord is never far away, and “He WILL NOT” allow us to be tried beyond our endurance. 😀

    Let US Pray:
    Dear Heavenly Father, this morning I come asking you to help me to know that You’re with me in every situation at every moment of the day. Lord God, I need Your comforting presence in my life!!! Without it, I cannot go on.

    In Jesus’ Mighty Name I pray. Amen and Amen.
    Beloved, please be careful going to your Sunday edifice.
    I Love You All!!! And Have a Blessed Sunday!!! 😀

  • “Do Your Homework!!!”

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    Praise the Lord Beloved!!! 😀
    We have reached another weekend. Let us all say Thank you Jesus!!! 😀

    This weekend, I’m giving you a certain word to think about. And that word is “HOMEWORK”.

    Beloved, when it comes to aggressive spiritual encounters, that’s a word you’d do well to remember. Most believers don’t pay much attention to it. They don’t prepare themselves in advance. They mess around until the devil makes his move, then they jump up and try to fight him with the Word!!! And they usually lose. 😀

    I was in that number myself. I used to do the same thing until the Lord educated me differently. I used to wait until I would get ready to speak at a conference, bring the word to an assembly or lecture at a seminar to pray for a successful outcome. Satan would engage his battle against them from one direction, I’d fight him there. Then he’d move around and attack them in another area, and I’d fight him there.

    So, one day the Lord showed me that by waiting until the last minute to take my stand, I was giving Satan to much time to build up his forces against me. And consequently, I was losing many of my battles. Then the Lord said something to me I’ll never forget. He said, if they had stopped Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Pablo Escobar and Al Capone when they were just small-time operators, they wouldn’t have been so hard to handle. But, they waited until they became first-class criminals with their forces built up around them. Then it took an army to bring him down.

     

    Let me tell you Beloved, when I processed what the spirit of the Lord was saying to me, I made up my mind never to be caught unprepared or make spontaneous decisions again. I started praying about my Special events and meetings weeks in advance, getting the stage set spiritually before they ever began. Instead of letting Satan get his forces deep-seated, I started throwing him out before he had a chance to set up and embed his opposing position. When I did that, I saw more victories than I ever had before.

    Beloved, this weekend, don’t allow the devil to capture you off guard or with a sneak attack. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! Start praying and speaking the Word of faith now over your family, your business, your church/ministry. Get your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Then if Satan causes trouble, you’ll be well-equipped to run him out of your municipality.

    Have a Blessed Weekend Everyone!!! 😀

  • “A Compliant Lifestyle”

    A compliant LifestylePraise the Lord Beloved!!!
    Happy Sunday to each of you.

    Focal Scripture: Genesis 6:9-22

    Beloved, we all should live a compliant lifestyle. A compliant lifestyle involves responsibility and determination. Noah needed both as he obeyed the Lord’s instructions to build a large boat with a roof, doors, and three decks. Beloved, God spelled out the meticulous dimensions, the kind of wood to use, and the way to make the vessel waterproof. It was essential that Noah followed every detail if the ark was to house all the animals and not sink.

    Now, the scripture doesn’t go into detail on the reactions to the project, but knowing human nature, we can imagine the disbelief and rejection Noah probably experienced. Yet he worked his butt off faithfully to the end and as it says in Genesis 6:22 “did everything just as God commanded him”.

    Beloved, the Lord wants us to follow His directions precisely. Unfortunately, we like to add some of our desires to His plan. We’re like a child whose parent assigns three chores. The first child does it satisfactorily, the second child set it aside until another day, and the third child is skipped because the child thinks it’s unnecessary. Beloved, “THIS IS NOT OBEDIENCE!!!”

    As believers, we recognize we’re called to show sympathy and compassion, forgiving others as the Lord forgave us.

    Colossians 3:13 (NLT) says: “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”
    Yet, our human nature wants to pick and choose which parts of Scripture we’ll obey.
    But according to Proverbs 11:25 in our Bible the Word says: (25) The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

    Beloved, there were many people in the Bible that allowed compliance to God be the cornerstone of their spiritual building. Abraham was determined to go wherever God led. Moses felt inadequate but still carried out the Lord’s plan. Paul did an about-face to become Christ’s disciple.

    A lifestyle that’s lived in compliance with the instructions of God will deliver an effect life.

    Beloved, so today, ask the Holy Spirit to permit you to follow the path of righteousness
    so you too, can live a compliant lifestyle.

    Have a blessed Sunday Everyone. 😀

  • Dig The Correct Ditch

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    Praise the Lord Beloved!!!
    It’s Friday and another weekend is upon us.
     
    Beloved, this weekend let us be very thoughtful of others and not decisively vindictive.
     
    In Proverbs 26:27 the Book of Wisdoms says: “If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.”
     
    I also like what the Late Mahalia Jackson said: “If you dig one ditch you better dig two cause the trap you set just may be for you.”
     
    You know Beloved, the ditch digging I’m speaking about here, is what one person does to another person to embarrass, or degrade. There have been many people who have dug a ditch, or laid a trap to humiliate, hurt or make that person look bad in some way to others, only to find they themselves were trapped by the ungodly plans they designed.
     
    Beloved, when we have wisdom we gain understanding. So, through wisdom we understand that whether its descriptive, symbolic, or physical, when we dig a ditch for others we too are in a very dangerous position to fall into our deceptive mechanism. It amazes me how many seasoned aged people are still digging ditches for others after falling victim many times to their own abstracted diabolical schematics.
     
    Now, don’t get me wrong here. God does allow us to dig ditches to create space or create security, but never to harm or destroy anyone!!!
     
    Beloved this weekend if you desire to dig a ditch, dig it with the words of God as your shovel.
     
    Have a blessed weekend Everyone!!! 😀