Good Morning Peeps! How are you doing this Tuesday morning, good I hope? Are you having a good work week so far, I sure hope so? Have a good and very Blessed day today and rest of your work week too! - May God Bless You and Yours In 2018 and Beyond!!! - “Are YOU 100% sure, that you are Saved and headed to Heaven when you die? Are you sure YOUR name IS written in the Heavenly “Book of Life?” Is there absolutely not a shadow of a doubt in your mind, that your Salvation is already secured and you’re just waiting on the good Lord to call you home to be with Him? If the answer is “No, Not Sure, I Think So, Maybe, or Probably, then you need to get busy right now working on fixing that. You need to be totally sure where your Soul will spend eternity!” And AMEN goes right here….
***Remember, if you haven’t purchased it already, my newly published book “The Third Eye Perspective” book of Devotionals is available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Xulon Press in Paperback, Hardback, also on EBook. You can also follow me on Twitter (CCBrown67) and Instagram (Doubletuff99)! Thank you!
#SalvationIsOnlyThruJesusChrist
“This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
The Third Eye Perspective:
By Carlos C. Brown
Thought For Today – “A True Friend Is Just As Good As A Blood Relative.”
Good Morning again! By a show of raised virtual hands, how many of you have heard the old saying, “Blood is thicker than water,” implying that family will always be closer than anyone else in your life? Now, also by a show of hands, how many of you can say you have at least one “ride or die” friend in your life? I’m talking about the type that you can all them at 1:00-2:00 am just because you had something on your mind and needed someone to talk to about it, even if for no other reason than just listen and not even speak a word? Man, look at all the hands shoot up! Okay, okay, now how many of you can say you have more than one of those true “ride or die” friends in your life? I am pleasantly surprised to see almost as many hands shoot up as did the first time! However, I am very concerned in that I saw a significant number of people who didn’t raise their hands to either question. And if that is indeed due to you not having any “ride or die” type of friends in your life, then that is something that needs to be rectified. Why you ask? Because a true “R.O.D.” (ride or die) type of friend can be just as close if not closer than even a blood relative. You will trust them with even your worst deepest darkest secrets, that you might not feel comfortable telling your family members or anyone else out of the fear of being judged, ridiculed, even held over your head everytime they feel the need to throw it up nomatter who is present when they do it. A true “R.O.D.” friend would never do that………EVER! It is with this train of thought, or line of thinking, that it was placed on my heart this morning to talk about, “A True Friend Is Just As Good As A Blood Relative.” And AMEN goes right here! I don’t know who or when God made the thought or idea of people having true friends that would “ride or die” for their friend(s), but I am glad He did. I can tell you about an example of this in the Bible. If you would, turn with me to the book of 1 Samuel starting around the 18th chapter. In this particular grouping of Biblical verses, we learn that young David, the son of Jesse has just been anointed as the next King of Israel at a very early age. However, there are a couple of things that transpired after this. #1. King Saul was already the King of Israel, and #2. King Saul had a son. As you may or may not know, the way royalty works, is that when a King dies, if he has sons they are normally the next in line to become King. Imagine how you would feel if a prophet was sent by of all people, “God” to tell a person outside of your family that they, not your own seed will succeed in ruling the land after you die?
In this story, King Saul does everything he could to try and kill David at first. “But God, but God, BUT GOD! Here’s why God is God and God ALL BY HIMSELF! He allowed young David to become what I would call “ride or die” friends with Saul’s son Jonathan. And as the story would go, Jonathan protected his friend David from his father’s attempts to kill him. Pause……this very act on Jonathan’s part could have actually cost him his life. But Jonathan’s love and admiration for his friend David outweighed becoming the next king of Israel and all the spoils that comes with that title. In my “Third Eye Perspective” way of seeing things, that is literally the definition of a “ride or die” friend, is it not? The story would continue on, and King Saul, Jonathan, and all of Jonathan’s brothers were killed by the Philistines in a battle at Mt. Gilboa. This tragic occurrence would result in young David becoming king over Israel shortly after. Now watch this, if you were to read on in the Bible, you would find that David did something that was totally unheard of, he called out to his servants and asked them if there was any of King Saul’s family left alive that he could show mercy to, because of the mercy shown to him by his good friend Jonathan. It just so happened, that Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth, who was only five years old when King Saul, Jonathan and his brothers were killed. His nurse took him as the rumors of an attack spread rampant and in her haste, she dropped him, paralyzing him for life. Long story short, after learning of Mephibosheth’s existence King David sent for him. Imagine the fear in Mephibosheth, because it was common that the new King that had just come into power would have all of the existing members of the former family of royalty that was left, executed. Once at the palace, King David informed Mephibosheth that he was going to show him mercy, and also restore everything that was taken from his father Jonathan. He then told him that he was welcome to break bread at his table from now on, “what I eat you too shall eat.” And if that wasn’t enough, David also gave back his land and other treasures that had been taken from his father, that had belonged to his father and commanded that some of his own servants go and work his fields so that there would be crops for food and to sell for profit. It takes a heckuva goodhearted and loyal friend, that after you are killed will go and take care of your children as if they were his or her own and treat them like they are still royalty. Most people would be selfish and not think twice about trying to avenge (in a good way) the kind acts shown against them for a dead friends’ children. But a “ride or die” friend would. And AMEN goes right here!
Now, I can honestly say that I have a couple of those in my life right now. They know who they are so there is no need for me to name them. And I would do the same for them if something happened to them. Of course people in your family should do it if something happens to you due to being bound by blood, but that isn’t always the case. However, this is nothing to bind just a friend of yours to doing something of this sort unless it is just in their heart and character to do so. Here’s another important fact of having a “ride or die” friend in your life. People are more likely to take harsh “constructive” criticism from that “ride or die” friend even before they would say their own family members. That is because, they know that the “R.O.D.” friend is doing it without judgment, nor out of anytype of hidden agendas. A true “R.O.D.” friend will have the conviction to tell you when you are wrong, and also compliment you when you are right even if the world it trying to make you believe that you are wrong. Any friend who tried to enable their so-called friend when there is plenty of evidence of them being in the wrong, you are part of the problem. Any family member who only likes to point out your faults/mistakes and never your good accomplishments can do more damage than they realize. Think about this fact, Jesus Christ could have easily prevented His Disciples from betraying Him, but He didn’t. That may be for a number of reasons, like it was part of God’s plan that it happened that way in order to accomplish His will? Whatever the reason, imagine how much it did hurt Christ to learn that they would deny ever knowing or being intimately associated with Him when put on the spot? If you know that you are enabling one of your friends who is constantly making the wrong choices for whatever reasons, stop it right now! Whether or not you realize it, you are setting them up to fail a little further down the road. Be willing to call them out on their mistakes and make them own up to those mistakes. They will thank you if not at first, but at some point in time after they come to realize you did it out of love. If you aren’t willing to get down in the trenches with them and pick them up and put them back on the right path, then what kind of friend are you really to them? They might act like they hate you for a while, but trust me when I tell you they are even at that very moment in time appreciating you caring enough to “hurt them a little on the front end, to keep them from destroying themselves a lot on the back end.” I will take my “ride or die” friends over even some of my family members, they have earned that much respect with their consistency in their actions. Can I leave you with a question to ponder today?
“What kind of friend are you really? Would the person(s) you call “friend” consider you to be a true “RIDE or DIE” friend?”
“Today, choose to “Ride or Die” with Jesus Christ! Afterall, isn’t that EXACTLY what HE did for US on the Cross?”
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