Verse of the Day

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

A few years ago I had the awesome opportunity to assist in teaching in children’s church. We had a very creative approach to ministry and getting the children to learn scripture. We would always try our best to get the children to sing the scriptures because we learned that they would have a better chance at learning it. This particular text the children were so successful at learning not because it was short but because of the way they learned it with hand claps and singing. I can still see their happy faces singing loud and proud because they knew the scripture and they knew how to apply the meaning of it in their lives.

The Apostle Paul introduced this text to us to paint a very clear picture for us all. First Paul shared with us in Philippians 4:11 that he was content in all circumstances. He was saying that he was satisfied with where he was in life and what he had. You may have heard people say that if God never blesses them with anything else they will be satisfied and this is what Paul was saying. So when we get to today’s text it makes sense for Paul, who is content in everything, to say give thanks in all circumstances.

Simply stated no matter where you are in life or what you have or want we should be thankful that we are here. If you stop and take a look at your life you will find that there is always going to be something that you still want to accomplish or some thing that you want either for you are your family. You may find that you are not where you want to be in your career or in life in general or you may even be at the lowest point of your life ever. Either way the truth is that God wants us all to be thankful in for the little things.

Our life could be so different right now no matter where you are and our circumstances could be so different. There are people in the world who are in far worse situations than we could ever imagine yet they are thankful just for the fact of having life. I haven’t accomplished all that I want to however I am so thankful that I am still able to provide for my family. I am thankful that even though my wife may not have everything that I want her to have, everything that we do have including our children we have together. I am so thankful that we have family and friends who care so much for us and pray for us consistently. I am so thankful that we serve a risen savior who sacrificed everything so that we could live abundantly by His grace and mercy.

I recently left the hospital visiting with a mother of an amazing High school Junior. She has been in and out of the hospital at least the last three years and now they have figured out what is going on. She shared with me heartbreak and disappointment that they are dealing with right now and how there is nothing that she can do it about it because she is sick. Not once did she complain neither is her son complaining about their circumstance. They are so thankful just to have life and each other that their circumstances have to take a number to get recognized. As I prayed with her I could feel that she was so grateful that she had God in her life, she still had her family and that I was there to visit her. Your current circumstances are only a comma in your life, it is not meant to be the end. God has the final say in everything so we just have to operate in His will and He will and the period in our lives as He see fit.

Be grateful for where you are and what you have and give thanks no matter what, your situation could be worse. If nothing else be thankful that you have the one and only true God in your life, I can’t imagine life without Him.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the day

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”- Psalm 100:4-5

Growing up I learned quickly how to approach people and as I got older and starting doing marketing I learned that people have so many different personality traits. How you handle people determines if they will be open to listen to you and what you say will determine if they buy in. The picture here is that we have to be careful how we handle people.

We are currently teaching our boys to be respectful and speak to everyone when they enter a room mostly because that is what we were taught. Even if we didn’t know everyone we were taught to look at people in their eyes, smile and speak. If nothing else it could brighten up their day show them respect. In business when you walk into a room it is some what the same approach except you greet people with a firm handshake as you look them into their eyes trying to remember their name as a sign of respect.

We were taught these things and much more because a first impression is a lasting one and we were to show respect and honor to those whose presence you were entering. These are all learned behaviors that over time become second nature. Every now and then I find myself having to remind a young person when I see them for the first time that they didn’t wake up with me so they better speak.

I don’t know if you have ever paid attention to it but how you enter plays a major role on how people receive you and their perception of you. The thing that is so interesting is that most people are so well versed with coming into others presences but make it such a difficult task to enter the presence of God. Being in church and being behind the scenes you get a totally different view of how people come into His presence. I have seen people come in like they just left the club all the way to the tailor-made suits yet when we go to work we follow the dress code to the letter. The Bible doesn’t say come as you are specifically however God did say to dress in modest apparel and that was specifically for women.

God is really looking at our heart when we enter His presence not our clothes because if He can get to our heart everything else will change anyway. He tells us here to enter into His presence with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise flowing out of our mouths. When I enter into true praise and worship I really don’t want to leave because there I am so free. Galatians 1:10 says that we should not seek to please man but God and if our goal is to please man then we should not consider ourselves servants of Christ.

Let us spend more time focusing on how we enter God’s presence and how to seek His approval just because He is God. When we show this kind of respect for people some of the time it is because we want something from them be it a raise, a connection to somebody or for something or it is out of fear of losing something. This is not saying that there aren’t genuinely nice people it is just not seen most of the time or they are overshadowed by the people stepping over them to get what they want. The only one truly worthy of our praise, honor, respect, humility and appreciation is God. We are His people so just like when you go to a family reunion or your grandparent’s house we should always be excited to be in the presence of God. He is the only one who is truly faithful to us and will love us always. Sometimes we are so concerned about making an impression on people instead focus all of that energy on pleasing God the one who will be faithful to you and many generations down the line.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the day
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”- Colossians 3:15

All Christians are called to a certain lifestyle and to live in peace is a major part of it. Here it starts by saying let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and as we know that out of the heart flows the issues of life. Here peace means not having division to join or bind together again that which has been separated. The peace of God gives us that sense of wholeness and we should allow it to be the decider of all things within our hearts.

The Bible is very clear that if we allow the peace of God to rule in our hearts we won’t have to worry about anything. It is also very clear that there is a level of God’s peace through Jesus Christ that we won’t understand. It gives you the ability to stay calm and composed even in the midst of a storm in your life when you normally would lose it. God’s peace ruling in our hearts here in the text is important because it is reminding us that we are a part of the body of Christ and we have been called to live in peace. If we allow His peace to rule in our lives then we will appreciate each other more and it will allow us all to live in harmony with each other.

Allowing His peace to rule would hopefully stop us from having a short fuse with others and we would be more understanding. Some people these days are so quick to lose their temper and just let others have it but if peace was in control you would be more open to trying to understand what is happening. When doing spoken word I have a piece titled “Rest in Peace” and it is a collage of scripture pulled together in a unique way expressing the peace that I have in Christ. Most people think about death when they hear rest in peace but I am talking about life in Christ and in His peace. It starts off like this:

“I rest in peace because the real peace is in me.
Before I had peace, my peace was in a piece,
This had me frustrated and uptight, sometimes staying up all night.
Though there was no danger in site, Man! I have to get my life right.
I tried with all my might to get the madness to cease
Accepted Christ now I have real peace”

We have to make sure that no matter what we diligently seek God’s peace and allow it to rule in our hearts. Even though sometimes we can’t comprehend it we can still depend on it to bring us through the ups and the downs. Most importantly we have been called to live in peace so let us except what is for us and be thankful.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr

Verse of the day

“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”- Acts 20:24

This scripture is the introduction of one of my favorite Lecrea tracks off of his “Real Talk” Cd. The track is called, “Sold Out” and it is about truly understanding who you are and why you are here. There are a lot of times we get so caught up in stuff and trying to get stuff as if it really defines who we are. There is nothing wrong with having nice things, house, car, clothes or what ever; the problem is when you allow it to define who you are. When you get so wrapped up in it you feel almost naked without your stuff.

Here Paul is saying at this point everything about him is nothing compared to the assignment that God gave him. He is saying that he is sold out for Christ no matter what until the end. The interesting thing about Paul is that he had to learn from experience. We all know that Paul, when he was Saul, was a murderer. He had Christians as his target and was relentless in his mission to wipe them out. So there was a time in his life when his agenda was more important, what he wanted was all that mattered. Now his passion and desire is to just finish what Jesus Christ started, to spread the Gospel all over the world and saving souls.

What is it in your life right now today that after you sit down and think about it is stopping you from your assignment. Don’t feel bad because we all get off task at some point and time, it is our response to getting off track that matters once we recognize it. Is it stuff that is stopping you, circumstances, and people, is it something that is self inflicted? Only you know and only you can change it. God gave us all free will to make those kinds of decisions on our own. Take time out of your busy schedule today and spend some time with God, ask Him to help you see what is blocking you from your assignment if anything. What is it that is stopping you from being “Sold Out” for the Lord?

God Bless

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the day
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”- John 17:17

Jesus was preparing to go Home and be with God and He took a moment here to stop and pray for His disciples. He prayed that they would be kept from evil and made good; made holy. He says that he has given them God’s word and they accepted it. Jesus told the disciples that He was from God and they believed that God sent Him. Jesus was saying to God that everything that He had came from God and He has done everything to protect them now He is giving them back to God.

To sanctify means to set aside for a Holy purpose. So Jesus was saying to God to set them apart from the world for Himself and His service. He had prepared them to be used by God to expose the world to the one and only Truth. So Jesus was saying set them aside by the word of God which is the truth that they should stand on. Jesus made it real clear that they are not of the world any more than He was which means that we who believe and obey His word are like aliens in a foreign land much like what was mentioned in Acts 7:6.

Jesus’ prayer covers us all. We have all been set aside for God and to be used by God in His service. If we are truly believers we have taken the same path as the disciples. We have heard the word, obeyed the word and accepted the word as truth. At some point in out life we surrendered our all to God believing that Jesus Christ was sent by God to save us and we chose to take up our cross and follow Him. Much like the disciples we need Jesus’ prayer so that we can make it in this world that don’t belong to us and we no longer belong to it. The only thing that can truly separate us for God’s purpose is His word and our willingness to be obedient to it.

Jesus was also being an example for us to make sure that we pray for God’s saving grace for our lives. There is no way we can make it in the world without our connection to God and without His word guiding our steps. Again we have all been set aside by God for His holy use. Except your rightful place in the Kingdom of God and fulfill your purpose so that the blood that Jesus shed was not spilled in vain.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the Day

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. Mark 9:43

There are many things in my life that I am sure that I can live without. However for me I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to adjust and live life without a limb. I know people who have adjusted really well and live normal lives without many restrictions at all. I am sure though if they had their way they would prefer to not have to adjust.
Here Jesus is not speaking in a literal sense of cutting off your hand; He is however making a clear point of how serious He is about how we live our lives. As Christians we have so much potential that we must do whatever it takes by God’s standards to ensure it. The thing that causes us all to fall is sin and here Jesus is saying that anything that causes us to sin we need to cut it off or cut it out of our lives. We have to abandon our worldly attachments, friendships and anything else that leads us to a life of sin. Perhaps you always find yourself doing something that you shouldn’t be doing with a particular friend or group. You have to find the strength to avoid them or just separate yourself from them at least until you get stronger spiritually and you can go back and become a positive influence.

Everybody has a weakness and we all know what that is; the hard part for us is choosing to let it go. When Jesus says cut it off he wants us to understand the stakes we are facing. It is far better to attain eternal life without enjoying the pleasures of sin than to enjoy life with no regard to what you are doing and be lost. It gets to a point where we have to be real with ourselves and decide how valuable life really is. Playing with sin is like playing Russian roulette you take a chance of losing your life every time you pull the trigger.

Some may feel like they are in to deep to come out and the Lord says that He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All it takes for you to be cleansed is for you to be willing and believe that God will do what He says he will do. In order for any of us to enjoy a little Heaven on earth we have to be willing to avoid sin and remove temptation at all cost. You want to put yourself in a position for when you go before the Judgment seat of Christ; He is willing to stand up for you Himself. No one wants to burn forever I know I don’t. As a matter of fact I don’t like the heat that much to even get close enough to it to get burned.

It may be a difficult process to separate yourself from whomever or whatever can cause you to fall but you have to do it. Eternity is determined by every step you take and every choice you make. The devil is relentless in his pursuit so you have to be relentless in yours.

God Bless,
Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the Day

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Luke 4:13 (read 1-13)

I have often times found myself asking God over and over could He get the enemy to just leave me alone. Sometimes I get to the point of saying look satan enough is enough I am not falling for that this time. I am sure that we have all had this moment and if not the closer you get to God and the more you do your best to live right by Him you will have this moment.
I have discovered that the enemy is a trickster as well as a deceiver. There is a show that was created by Ashton Kutcher called Punk’d. Punk’d is a hidden camera practical joke television series and being “punk’d” referred to being the victim of a prank like the old school television show Candid Camera. Kutcher would create real life situations for celebrities set up for what appears to be some disastrous ending and after they buy into it he lets them off the hook by letting them know that it was just a joke. For those of us watching the more the celebrities would feed into it the funnier the joke was.

The enemy is a practical joker too and he has his own version of punk’d everyday. He looks for an opportunity to catch us slipping and does his best to get the last laugh on us. The only thing is in his version he is the only one laughing unless we discover his plot and spoil it. The thing with us is that we are all aware of the enemies schemes we just don’t always recognize it at first. The Bible says that we have Christ in order that satan might not outwit us; we are not unaware of his schemes. The further we are from Jesus though the more we become a prime target for the enemy.

In this text we found Jesus being tempted by the enemy. The Bible says that Jesus was in the wilderness and He was fasting for 40 days; so here we find Jesus at what is considered His weakest point. The enemy always attacks us when we are the weakest hoping that we will lose faith and hope in the Lord. The word says that for forty days Jesus was tempted by the devil but here we get three accounts of that temptation. Our focus today is on verse 13 though. It says that after the devil made all of his attempts to trick Jesus into falling he failed but he only left Jesus alone until another opportune time.

Here we have Jesus Christ, the one who has never sinned and will never sin, being tempted. The devil knows more about Jesus Christ than we do so he knows that Jesus is relentless, committed and will never fall yet he is optimistic and willing to continue to try anyway. In 1 Corinthians 1:25 it says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” So if the enemy attempted to tempt Jesus at His weakest moment which is our strongest moment, what would make any of us think that the devil wouldn’t turn it up all the more with us. The truth of the matter is that the enemy is always trying to create a new episode of punk’d in our lives daily. He is not going to leave us alone instead he is going to take advantage of every opportunity we give him. It is on us to stay as close the Lord and in His word as possible so that we can be prepared for the attack. That is why we have to hide the word in our hearts so that we may not sin against the Lord because we don’t all carry our Bibles with us everywhere. My Bible is like American Express; I really don’t leave home without it.

The Lord provides all the protection we need from the enemy we just have to totally submit to Him and he will handle the rest. God will fight for us and expose the enemy every time for whom he really is. Jesus Christ is the only one who can turn our situation around and make the joke be on the enemy. Don’t get punk’d; get Jesus Christ and hide behind the Cross.

God Bless,
Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the Day

Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:18-19

There are many parables in the Bible and this one gives us some direction or helps to answer the question on how do you know for sure someone is a true believer. Upon reading this text on the surface one would probably find some humor in it. The way this is told is as if Jesus saw this tree from a distance and since He was hungry His mind, stomach and taste buds were ready for some fruit. Upon closer examination He discovered that the tree wasn’t producing fruit so one would think that Jesus got mad and decided to curse the tree then destroy it.

Well the truth is that Jesus did get angry but it wasn’t because he wanted that fruit so bad He could taste it. That tree had a purpose and its main purpose was to produce fruit. The only way to know if that tree was doing what it was created to do would have been to see evidence and my guess is that there wasn’t any fruit on the ground either.

You know parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings so here Jesus was showing anger at religion without circumstance. That tree looked good from a distance but up close it wasn’t serving its purpose. To know if a person is a true believer is by their actions. There are many people who appear to have faith but often times there is no real evidence showing this to be true. We have all heard that talk is cheap and there are many people who talk a good game but when the rubber meets the road they are all over the place because they have no traction.

To say that you have faith but not apply it in your life is an oxymoron a major contradiction and you are just like that fig tree. God wants us to move to action and that is the only way that we can bear more fruit. When people see your faith moving to action they are encouraged that they can have similar results if they just believe in God and move to action. Not only that it affirms for you what you already knew and therefore you become stronger in your faith and in your walk with the Lord.

We have all been created to trust in, believe in and serve God. God expects us to do what He created us to do. So when an opportunity presents itself we have to move to action proving to God that we are serving our purpose. We can’t just talk about it we really have to be about it or we can find ourselves in the same position as that fig tree.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the day

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,”- Colossians 1:9

Paul is the author and he is speaking to the Church at Colosse. He wanted to combat the evil trying to take down the church and show believers that they had everything that they needed in Christ. Even though Paul had never been to Colosse before; he knew that the church existed and it was being infiltrated by religious leaders to include paganism and secular philosophy with Christian doctrine. So again Paul’s mission here was to confront these false teachings and affirm the sufficiency of Christ.

There were people during that time that valued the accumulation of knowledge, they were called Gnostics. Their foundation of what they believe was based on the knowledge that they accumulated on their own. Paul’s emphasis was that just having knowledge in itself is empty. If the knowledge is going to be worth anything it must be life changing and cause you to live right. Paul had two prayers for them and for us as well. First, he wants us all to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and understand it spiritually. Second, he wants us to grow in the knowledge of God by bearing fruit in everything that we do.

We all acquire knowledge daily and what we pick up may help us in other areas of our life, but often times it is limited to what we are doing. The only way I can take something that I have learned from my job and apply it to my life is to relate it to the word of God and attach it to a Godly principle. Growing up many of us heard the phrase that “Knowledge is Power”. I have since learned that applied knowledge is power and the only way to measure its power is by the change in your life and seeing others lives change as a result of you sharing that applied knowledge. There is no theory known to man that will stand on its own unless it is tested and proven. So far from my research when it comes to this Spiritual walk the only thing that stands strong consistently is the Word of God.

There are a lot of people who believe so many different things and if we are not careful some of what people say will cause you to question what you believe. Some people are so easily influenced that is why it is so important for us to grow in the knowledge of God’s will for our lives and gain a full understanding of His word. The Bible says in all of our getting make sure that we get understanding. The only knowledge that we gain that will truly have lasting power is the knowledge of God. Upon us getting an understanding of His word we have to share it with others for it to be affirmed in us and for us to help others grow in that same knowledge. So in essence Paul has called us to be Spiritual tutors. Are you ready for your next session?

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.

Verse of the Day

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

Feeling enslaved or in bondage is not a good feeling for anyone. However there are so many people who want to be free but won’t allow themselves the privilege to be set free. There are so many people who are in emotional, spiritual and mental enslavement looking for a way out and refuse to accept the terms of the only one who can really loose them. I wrote a poem with the title “Life with no Parole” and it talks specifically to mental enslavement and how we tend to sentence ourselves being locked down for life because we don’t want to be free because we don’t like the Lord’s terms.

The Son here is of course the son of God who is the heir of all things. He is the one who is forever with God and therefore has unlimited power to liberate whoever He wants from their bondage. Those who find themselves trapped have a way out it is just a matter of making a decision. Jesus is the only one who can deliver you from bondage of sin. The word says you will be free indeed which would suggest that if you are seeking freedom then Jesus Christ is the way and freedom is guaranteed if you want it.

Jesus is willing to adopt you into the family and give you all the rights and privileges that come with it. All we have to do is accept His terms and we are family forever. No matter where we are in life there are some rules that we have to abide by. The difference here is that there is no guarantee with your willingness to follow the guidelines like there is with God. The text is talking about being a slave to sin and it say that a slave has no permanent place in a family but if you are considered a son by the Lord then you are family for good.

If a person who has been in jail gets released they are not really free because they are constantly being watched. Most times they have to check in with their parole officer to update their status and progress but they have a record that will never be erased. As a result of having a record it will follow them for the rest of their lives making it difficult for them to get ahead. With Jesus that is not the case. When he sets you free your past is erased and you have a fresh start whatever you have done can be used to help you grow and empower others as well, so your negative has the potential to become a positive. If you have to depend on your friends to bail you out when you are in trouble you will most likely have to pay them back. Jesus says that He has paid the price and you are debt free. When I was a slave to sin I went to the Lord and Jesus bailed me out and life has never been the same. I am a living testimony that whoever the Son sets free is truly free indeed. If you or someone you know is locked up in sin, I have Jesus’ contact information; just call Him you will be glad you did.

God Bless,

Jesse R. Watson Jr.