Page Nine

Minister Clyde Derrick

Bible Studies (this page are all Bible related stories)
Week 1: Law of Separation
Week 2: Present yourself as a living sacrifice
Week 3: Dress for Church like you respect God
Week 4: Why not curse them?

Sometimes we have arguments with our family and friends. Sometimes we make a decision not to talk to that family member or friend anymore. We cut them off, throw away their number, wipe them from our cell phone memory like the tide coming ashore washing away sand castles. Where did we learn to do that? Where did we learn it’s okay to love them today and act like you hate them tomorrow? Perhaps while we are children in grade school? If you are a parent, has your son or daughter come home upset because some other child said they didn’t want to be his or her friend any more? To take it a step further, children dangle friendship in other children’s face like an hypnotic pocket watch while repeating lines like, “if you don’t let me play with your toy I’m not going to be your friend.” Girls are the worst I think, because not only will they stop being Susy’s friend, they will also influence their friends to stop being Susy’s friend, no reason required. The bottom line is we seem to have this attitude of separating ourselves from the love of others ingrained in our minds from childhood.

This action breaks the rule of separation. The rule of separation states simply that you will never let anything separate you from the love of others. When you separate yourself from someone’s love you do harm to yourself as well as the other person. Here’s how it works: Tommy stops talking to Michael, Michael finds out about a job opening that pays good money, but they are only hiring today. Tommy is unemployed so Michael attempts to call Tommy, but Tommy isn’t answering Michaels calls. The result of Tommy’s actions is, Tommy doesn’t find out about the job opening, continues to live a broke life, gets dumped by his girlfriend because he can’t afford to take her anywhere, gets his car impounded because he didn’t pay the registration and or car insurance, and his mother whom he lives with gives him a thirty days notice to vacate the
premises for lack of financial contribution to the household. Now if Tommy had only answered that call he wouldn’t be sleeping in a tent under the freeway. Some people call that karma, but it’s simply the law of separation, common sense really. You can’t go through life cutting off people who want to love you, it’s self-destructive.

The principle of separation states, you are never allowed to separate yourself from anyone’s love, they may separate from yours but you cannot separate from them. You can’t have enemies, even if they see you as an enemy. You can’t hold a grudge, even if they hold a grudge against you and you can’t live with bitterness. To separate yourself from the love of others is to separate yourself from the love of God. The first law is Love the Lord thy God with all your mind and soul. The second law is to love your neighbor. This law of separation is found in Romans 8:35. “Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?” The answer: you, when you separate yourself from the love of others.

And the Lord God said, “it is not good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited for his needs.” Genesis 2:18. Some of you are wondering, where is my helper? Where’s that person suited for my needs? God said it’s not good to be alone, so where’s my mate? I wish I had an answer for you but I don’t. I can however point out some of the problems we have put in our way that don’t have to be.

I want a tall man. I want a light skinned man. I want a man with blue eyes. I want a man with money that will take care of all my needs. My all time favorite, the one that isn’t said by the lips but is expressed in action, I want a rough dude, a dog, a player, a selfish self-centered man who will do nothing for me other than give me sex. If he’s done time behind bars even better. Make him low down dirty and heartless. I want a man that won’t always answer my calls because he might be with another girl at the time. I want a man that I only get to see certain days of the week because the other days he’s tapping someone else. I want a man that will live off of me, contribute nothing but take whatever he can get from me. Oh yeah, that’s what I want and if you can just give me that oh Lord God then I would be so grateful and so happy, I promise I will never ask you for anything else. Yeah I went to the worst case, it makes for a better story.

Guys request that fine woman that is all about herself passing on the “average” looking woman that will probably look after them with love and gratitude. You pass on the woman that is just a little bit “out of shape” but is willing to work out if she could only get a little verbal support from her man. You want to run everything as if the woman can’t think, and you belittle that strong educated woman because of your insecurities. You chase other women because you don’t have control over your own body, so when some pretty little thing shakes her butt in your face you lose all control over reasoning. When the relationship started you prayed, “Lord God if you could see your way to send me a sweet supportive woman, I will love her with all my heart and I will never ask you for anything ever again.” Your lips ask for one thing but your eyes saught another.

Flash forward four years. Lord God please hear my cry. If you would be so kind as to get this trifling, lazy, good for nothing, cheating fool out of my house, I would be so grateful, I’ll never ask you for another thing ever again. I’ve tried everything Lord, for a while I got him/her to go to church with me but they stopped going. Do you know he/she had the nerve to say to me, “you’re not the right one for my life,” this after I gave them four good years of love and devotion?

This part of the story is assuming you are a Christian. I know you’ve heard this before, if you do something to get a man/woman, you have to keep doing that thing to keep them. If four years in you decide you want your man or woman to be Christ like and you didn’t start the relationship with that same requirement, you will not have a solid position in regards to living Christ like. They might point out that even though they haven’t read the bible, they are aware that there’s something in the Bible about having sex with someone who isn’t your husband or wife. They might remind you that you were suppose to be the light shinning the way.

Conclusion is this, a good man or woman won’t turn you into a booty call and don't need to sample it for a year or two before making a decision to marry. The other way to look at it, if you don’t want to be a booty call act like a Christian and present your body as a living sacfice holy and acceptable. Romans 12:1 and 1 Corinthians 6:15

A girl at work, after hearing me talk about people coming to church dressed like they just don’t care said, and I quote her, “people should be able to go to church the way they feel comfortable. I hate people who judge.” My answer to her is this: judge, I don’t have to judge, there’s nothing to judge, only an observation to be made. You know a worker by the uniform they are wearing. Police officers and firemen are recognized by their uniform. Prostitutes and pimps are known by their uniform, so if you come to church dressed like you really don’t care, you send the message that, well, you really just don’t care. If you have enough belief in the possible existence of God to get up and go to church then you should have enough respect for God to at least dress no worst for church than you do on the job.

You can’t go on your job dressed any way. People will say, “maybe they don’t know better.” No one goes on a job interview with your jeans hanging down, wearing a kango hat, not if they want the job they don’t. People know how to dress for an interview to present the right image but for God you come as you want to. I sometimes see people in church that would have to dress up in order to get in to a club. The guy at the club door would say to them, “you might go to church like that but this night club has standards.” If you didn’t catch it, that’s a hit at pastors who don’t hold their members to any standards. Sad that a club door man would hold people to a higher standard than a pastor of a church.

When you first go to church, you might not know God so your lack of respect for what you don’t know is understood, but after you know Jesus, you should see the standard that is held up in the church and make the adjustment out of respect. If you can’t afford dress clothes, it’s the function of the mothers board and church to donate appropriate clothing. It doesn’t have to be up to your fashion taste, just decent. I’m not saying wear suites and ties, I hate suits and ties myself, but you can still wear some dress casual pants, shoes and a collard T-shirt. No sagging pants). We can say this as a bottom line, if it’s all about you great, as a Christian you will want to show God some respect by dressing no worst than you would in a business environment.

Do I really need a scripture for this? Okay how about this. Matthew 10:25 (you should fear God.) You read of a fear of God all thru the old testaments. You neither fear God or reverence.

The definistion of reverence is: A feeling of respect tinged with awe. How great can he be in your eyes if you show no respect through your dress? I know deep right? Your life just changed right there didn't it. Praise God for the new you.

Recently a young lady, a co-worker, took a joke I said and reported it to corporate. They, corporate, came to interview me on the issue. I survived, thank you God, but I had to figure out in my head how to handle this. You see, less than a year ago I went to this girls (down graded to girl because of her actions) apartment and met with the manager and got her out of a lease. She and her husband had already put money down and signed a lease on a new apartment but the place where she was living wouldn't let her out of the lease that left her stuck in two leases. The apartment managers told her the lease automatically turned into a second year lease. I was able to point out how a box that should have been checked in order to make it a automatic second year lease was not checked and therefore their (the girls) sixty days notice was good enough to be released from the apartment.

The next day when I got to work everyone already knew about what I did for her and for the first and only time the rest of the girls, because I worked with all women, acted like they liked me and gave me verbal love for what I did for their fellow female co-worker. Flash forward to May of 2012, not even a full year passed, and this same girl is going after my job over a joke. She had been around me for over a year joking and laughing with me but now she's attempting to take money out of my pocket, food off my table, gas out of my car over a joke. Did she forget I save her financial butt just months ago? Clearly she did or in her mind it really didn't matter. She had options, other ways to address the issue in consideration that I saved her family from grate harship. I don't understand how a person can hurt someone that helped them, I don't get it.

How do I deal with this. I live like a Christian should and as such I have rights. My first thought was to exercise my right and curse the girl. Not a verbal tongue lashing but a request to God to punish her for trying to destroy my family even after I had kept her family from financial destruction. Well here was the answer the spirit gave me and it's going to blow your mind, I know it blew mine.

I could make that request but it would be pointless. You see she had benefited from her giving love when I helped her, you see, the only reason, and I told her this, I helped her is because unlike the rest of the girls I work with, she had shown me respect (which translates into love). I told her you get back what you put out. Now that she was putting out destruction on my finances she could be sure that financial destruction was headed her way.

I know you don't think so. Let me show you this. I'm a generous giver but I don't have much money. If I'm a generous giver now what will I be when I have money? If I was willing to help her because she showed me respect what might I have done for her in the future when I have lots of money? Would I not, upon hearing of her need give generously in memory of the good treatment I received from her during the time we worked together? If I'm giving to strangers how much more would I have given to her? Now what can she ever respect from me in the future?

If she needs food I will help. If she needs cloths I will help. The basic things must always be given, however there's nothing in the bible that says you have to buy a car for others or pay their rent. What I'm saying is I will help her from God's love and that is all I'm required to do, other than that she will get from me what she put out. Let me clear that up. I'm not saying I will do evil for evil because I won't, what I'm saying is she did not invest love so she can not expect love to come to her.

Here's how it works. She can read this story and it won't mean a thing to her unless I'm wealthy, and then it's going to click. When she hears how I give generously to others, to strangers it's going to click the first time we bump into each other, at that moment she's going to realize she took away a blessing on her life when she tried to take mine some years earlier when we worked together. The spirit showed me this and I realized, I didn't need to ask for a curse on her life, she had already cursed herself if with no other human on this earth, she had cursed herself in regards to me. Her curse becomes fulfilled in my success. I know I just tied in to the first story which is never separate yourself from the love others in doing so you also separate yourself from the love of God.

If you mind isn't blown then you just aren't getting it yet. I pray that you hears are opened so you can hear what the spirit is saying.

Romans 12:14 and Romans 12:17-21