Street Minista's Blog
Well I think for the sake of keeping things fresh and not getting people burnt out, starting this week I am going to start posting bi-weekly. I will be posting on Wednesdays and Saturdays… Please make time in your schedule to come by and check it out every week, also once again I ask that you give me your feedback and thoughts… God Bless you all!!!
Street Minista
Separating the Sheep from the Goats.
Everyone go by and check out the above link. It is very inspiring and really gives insight on our daily walk!
God Bless,
Street Minista
I was sitting outside at my wife’s grandparents house yesterday at Thanksgiving and I heard the Lord say, “Why is it called Black Friday?” So the following is what I have found in my research.
Question: Why Is Black Friday Called Black Friday?
Later, the Black Friday name took on a different meaning. It was used to reflect that it was a profitable day for retailers. Accountants generally use black to signify profit, and red to signify loss when recording retailers’ books.
Question: What Is the History of Black Friday?
Black Friday has been the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season since the 1930s. In fact, President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week during the Great Depressionbecause retailers wanted an extra week of shopping revenue. This pleased retailers, but irritated shoppers, who had to change plans.
In 2008, Black Friday sales fell 3.4% from the year before, the first time since the National Retail Federation began tracking in 1992. The 2009 holiday shopping season was only up .4%, to $437.02 billion. The NRF predicts a 2.3% increase for the 2010 shopping season.
THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY!
Don’t let your holidays be ruined by
becoming the victim of a crime.
Unfortunately, not everyone out there
has a peace-on-earth-goodwill-toward-men
attitude at this time of year.
So what else is there to say? A Lot! This is some highlights of the last year’s Black Friday “Good Times”
The first known fatality occurred at a Wal-Mart in Secaucus, New Jersey, a woman repeatedly stabbed a man with a kitchen knife taken from the housewares section to prevent him from buying the last Xbox 360. Another sad incident transpired at a Tucker, Georgia Toys R Us. One woman bludgeoned another to death with a baseball bat over an American Girl doll. She was heard yelling at her victim, “hasta la vista, baby.” Cars were overturned and set on fire in Chicago, while a security guard was beaten to death by an angry mob in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The first of these incidents involved a DVD player priced at $17.95, and the second was touched off by the Xbox 360. In Columbus, Ohio a shortage of Star Wars toys had shoppers at wit’s end when someone yelled, “they’ve got some over here!” A stampede ensued. Four were left trampled. In Glendale, California, two men fighting over an electronic toy called a Roboraptor knocked over several shelves full of merchandise causing thousands of dollars in destruction.
There is something terribly wrong with this! This is only in one year think about all the horrible stuff that has happened in the years past! People are running out to the stores and spending all their money on JUNK and if they can’t get what they want they murder or injury other people for materialistic things! They stand in lines for HOURS no matter what the weather conditions to spend all their money, but yet you can’t pay them to come to a church where they can just walk in the doors and sit down, get spiritually fed, and not have to worry about being stabbed or trampled!
Here is a little something that the Bible says about this:
“Do not worship any other gods besides me.
And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?
As I mentioned earlier, you can’t even pay people to go to church and they are killing each other and getting killed over a $20.00 toy. That is what you call idolatry, which in common English is the worship of idols or false gods. Are these things worth losing your life over or your soul over? Of course not!
Dr. Janis Thayne of Brandine University, a noted psychology expert, was asked for her take on all this. “It is a product of our materialistic consumer society,” said Dr. Thayne. “We have been told by TV, radio, Hollywood and others around us that we must buy the love of our family and the esteem of our friends in the form of tangible gifts each December, or we risk finding ourselves unloved and abandoned in January. We feel doubly obliged to recreate a storybook holiday for children that we think we remember from our childhood, but never really existed outside of movies.
With all this said I pray that you had a safe Black Friday, and I pray that this post will give you a new perspective on this day next year. Remember God ALWAYS comes first, Jesus is the reason why we celebrate “CHRIST”mas, and no matter what you do BE SAFE!
In the world we live in today there is so many people who are hurt and lost. Many people don’t feel that anyone cares for them and that no one loves them (even that they don’t exist!)
Let’s take a look at the suicide statistics in 2001:
via Suicide Statistics at Suicide.org!
Let’s take a look at the suicide statistics in 2009:
It is estimated that suicide rates are on the rise for 2010 as well!
I too carried a suicidal spirit when I was growing up and I know how these people feel and I know what they are going through. It is a very difficult thing that is not easily dealt with, and to be honest the only true help for this problem is Jesus. But we can make a difference, we can help comfort, lead them, to Christ, and love them. I want you to take a look at some more statistics below.
“If only they would have showed me they cared. I always felt alone and could see any hope! Everywhere I looked it was like the world was closing in on me, and I just couldn’t breath I couldn’t take it anymore!”
1.3% of all deaths are from suicide.
On average, one suicide occurs every 17 minutes.
On average, an elderly person dies by suicide every 1 hour and 37 minutes.
On average, a young person (age 15-24) dies by suicide every 2 hours and 12 minutes.
Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death for all Americans.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24 year olds.
(1st = accidents, 2nd = homicide)
Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death for young people aged 5-14 year olds.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students.
Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for males.
Suicide is the nineteenth leading cause of death for females.
More males die from suicide than females.
(4 male deaths by suicide for each female death by suicide.)
More people die from suicide than from homicide.
(Suicide ranks as the 11th leading cause of death; Homicide ranks 13th.)
73% of all suicide deaths are white males.
80% of all firearm suicide deaths are white males.
Among the highest rates (when categorized by gender and race) are suicide deaths for white men over 85. (54 per 100,000)
There are approximately 750,000 suicide attempts each year.
An estimated 5 million living Americans have attempted suicide.
More females attempt suicide than males.
(3 female attempts for each male attempt.)
Please don’t neglect these facts! Stand up and help someone!
The next time that you are going to be really mean to someone or you just pass someone by who is in need, think about this post and think this, “If I don’t be nice or if I don’t help this person might commit suicide!” And you Christians out there it is your duty your obligation to help people in need and love everyone! Please don’t let another day pass that and another 90 people die today because you didn’t do anything! You can start by clicking on the app entitled “To write love on her arms.” By clicking on the app and following the prompts you will be helping raise money for suicide prevention!
If you are going through hard times right now and you are thinking about suicide please do not do it! God loves you and so do I! Please if you are considering suicide or you just need someone to talk to you have several options:
Well today is thanksgiving! Many people wait for this time of year and then they do things that they don’t normally do through the rest of the year, all the way up to the day before, and that is gather together, be thankful, and pray. We are with my wife’s family today eating good food and sharing in what we are thankful for and giving God honor and praise. Here is a couple of Scriptures about thanksgiving…
1 Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, 2 saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they are doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a day if they offer enough sacrifices? Look at those charred stones they are pulling out of the rubbish and using again!”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!” 4 Then I prayed, “Hear us, O our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! 5 Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in the presence of the builders.”
6 At last the wall was completed to half its original height around the entire city, for the people had worked very hard. 7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall were being repaired, they became furious.
8 They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and to bring about confusion there.
9 But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.
10 Then the people of Judah began to complain that the workers were becoming tired. There was so much rubble to be moved that we could never get it done by ourselves.
11 Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, “Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work.” 12 The Jews who lived near the enemy came and told us again and again, “They will come from all directions and attack us!”
13 So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows.
14 Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the leaders and the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your friends, your families, and your homes!”
15 When our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. 16 But from then on, only half my men worked while the other half stood guard with spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. The officers stationed themselves behind the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall.
The common laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon. 18 All the builders had a sword belted to their side.
The trumpeter stayed with me to sound the alarm. 19 Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people, “The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!”
21 We worked early and late, from sunrise to sunset. And half the men were always on guard. 22 I also told everyone living outside the walls to move into Jerusalem. That way they and their servants could go on guard duty at night as well as work during the day. 23 During this time, none of us — not I, nor my relatives, nor my servants, nor the guards who were with me — ever took off our clothes. We carried our weapons with us at all times, even when we went for water.
Our walk with Jesus is so much more important than anything else we could ever think of. We have to dedicate ourselves to the things of God if we expect to make it to Heaven and if we expect to be successful in this life! We can not come into this thing and walk it out hap-hazardly, if we joined a gang and conducted ourselves in that manner and got careless our set-king or someone from the opposing set would realize it and we would be dead! And in Christianity we are dealing with a lot more serious issues because we can’t hide from God and the enemy sure enough has our number! In the book of Revelation chapter 3 Jesus said, 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!” God is calling us to arise from our slumber and get on fire for Him! There is so many things that consume our time and we can become devoted to other than God if we allow them to distract us. Today make the decision to devote your life completely and totally to God, and see the difference that it will make!
Matthew 5:14 (NLT)
14 You are the light of the world — like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.
We are called to allow our lights to shine in this world of corruptness and darkness. When we allow Christ to shine through us, people begin to see truth, love, life, and deliverance! We are to take on the image of Christ in this life and foil the works of the darkness, we do this by allowing the Light to shine through us, which is Christ Jesus! There is so many people that try to hide that Light they try to conceal it and not let people know they are Christians. For whatever the reason may be this is not right we should not do this. Even if we think that it might mean our jobs or our lives we are not to hide the Gospel. Not only is this foolish but it is also dangerous for a few reasons, let us take a look at the scriptures.
This is the first reason why it is dangerous and foolish to try and hide the Light of Christ in our life.
Mark 8:38(NLT)
“Christ Speaking”
38 “If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels.”
After everything that Jesus did for us He plainly tells us that if you are ashamed of Me (try to hide My Light) I will be ashamed of you. That is a very scary thought if you are not allowing your light to shine to the world, because what that means is, “I will not profess that I know you in front of My Father” and you will hear “Depart from Me you worker of iniquity I never knew you.”
Secondly if you try to hide that light you can end up bringing physical harm to yourself and/or the ones around you.
Mark 4:21 (NLT)
Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed to shut out the light? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine.
You see just as if you placed a candle under a bed you would cause a fire and you and anyone around you would be harmed and/or killed, so is it with trying to hide the Light of Christ. You begin to go into a self destruct kind of mode when you do this and one thing leads to another and before you know it you are completely backslide and living in sin again and we all know that the wages or the pay of sin is death!
Please don’t try to hide the Light of Christ in your life! Here is what the Lord said to me about our Light.
The Spirit says, “I want to see My people shine, for so long they have hid their light. They have been afraid of what the world might do to them or think of them. I have wanted to bless My people, but I can’t because they won’t let me.”
We have all been through something in our lives. We have all faced hardships in one way or another. God has really placed in my spirit that there is a lot of hurting people out there that need help and need deliverance. Not only is people who are not living for God hurting, and have a void that needs to be filled but people that are in the Body of Christ that are hurting and need a void filled. The church as a whole has become very judgmental and high-minded, and they think that peoples issues are not for them to worry about and that it is just sin in the other person’s life, so we are left with a larger in hole in the already wounded soul. This is why we see suicides on the rise and why we see self-harm cases on the rise, because these people are crying out for help and no one is responding to the call! You see I have seen “Christians” turn their noses up at people for different reasons, I have seen “Christians” reject people for different reasons, I have heard of churches kicking people out because they found out that someone had different issues, e.g. cutting, porn, anger, and so on. It is in these vulnerable times that we need the church the most and they are turning their backs. The Bible says for you to take the Mote or Beam out of your eye so you can see to help get the speck of dust out of your brother’s eye, and what that means is when you are doing the same things you can not help someone else and you most definitely can’t condemn them. I feel the pain of these lost, lonely souls for I too once was a cutter and an addict, my heart goes out to each of you, and I ask that you please forgive me, on behalf of the church. Christians, DO NOT allow yourselves to a pawn of the enemy, do not place more hurt and pain on the “PEOPLE” for they are people as well… Remember what Christ said, “The well do not need a doctor, but the sick do.” And the next time that you are faced with a situation like this be the express image of Christ and love them and help them. If you are out there and reading this, and you’re going through a hard time, and you just need some help or prayer or someone to talk to, send me an email at streetminista1@gmail.com or give me a call at (850) 260-6309 and we will talk, and pray. Folks hear the call of God, stand up and come out from amongst the world and be different, LOVE SOMEBODY!!!
Check this video out!!!
Love is here
The Lord says, “My eyes truly do roam to and fro through the land to see who will be faithful, who I can send. For I declare, My yoke is light and My burden truly easy.”
God is searching for a good and faithful servant to go out and proclaim the Word of the Lord. Isaiah 6:1-8 says, “(1) In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. (2) Hovering around him were mighty seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with the remaining two they flew. (3) In a great chorus they sang, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” (4) The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. (5) Then I said, “My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!” (6) Then one of the seraphim flew over to the altar, and he picked up a burning coal with a pair of tongs. (7) He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” (8) Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?”And I said, “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”
The progression is that we have to understand that without the cleansing of God we are nothing, once we have been cleansed we can stand up and do the will of God, and then we must pursue after holiness. Today Jesus is calling you to stand up and receive the cleansing that only He can give and then for you to go for the Lord and be a faithful servant.
Look around you in society. Everywhere you look it is something to do with vampires or magic or just immorality. The saddest part of this growing trend is it’s not just the world but the church also, that is partaking in this. We have youth in the churches all over crazy about Twillight, Tru Blood, Vampire Diaries, Tinker Bell, Harry Potter, and the list goes on. The Bible tells us to shun the very appearance of evil not to embrace it. The Word also says to glorify God in everything you do. These kinds of things do not glorify God. There is so many pastors that are not telling their congregations that it is not right to do these things, and then even when they do a lot of people do not hear them because of the way they go about telling them. These kinds of things go against the Word of God, and many people believe they are true Born Again Christians while dabbling in the things of the world, but this is just not so. Jesus said you can’t serve two masters. Paul went on to say that whoever you loan your members to that is who you serve. So if you are partaking in these kinds of programs you are loaning your members to the world and so you are a slave to the world. I would like to close on this note, God says I would that you were hot or cold but since you are lukewarm I will spew you out of My mouth. Please hear the cry of God America and stop riding the fence!
I am a street preacher, I can tend to be straight forward and to the point sometimes! I am what most people would classify as a Fanatic or a Jesus Freak, and I am proud of this fact! Drop in regularly to see what we have going on!
~John 3:3~
Street Minista
NLT’s Bible Verse Of The Day Hart Ramsey’s Twitter Jesus Culture’s Twitter
Streetminista's Blog 