J Scott Sermon - "Love Never Ends!"

                                            Preaching at Untitled Lounge on Good Friday!

Abusing Grace

Romans 6:1-2 “ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!”

Grace is a gift from God. We do not deserve grace. For some reason God grants us grace and extends His love towards us. Grace is unmerited favor. Having favor from God is a blessing. Think about the favor extended towards you from a person who is an authoritive figure in your life. I am sure there are times where you know you do not deserve something or may have not earned a reward but yet someone grants you. This is how grace works.

Paul the writer of Hebrews brings to our attention potentially continuing in sin now that we have received the grace of God. This is something we should not do. We should not willingly continue in sin after we have been reconciled to God. How many of us have accepted the personal invite to live for God and still continued doing certain things we knew we shouldn’t be doing? I believe all are guilty of this at some point. Once you know something is wrong and you chose to give in and do it, this is taking advantage of grace.

I do not know where you are at in your faith walk with God but for me I am in a place of recognizing I need to do better in this area of handling God’s grace. My problem I am having is this; knowing God’s grace has been extended to me, I consciously make a decision at times based off the simple fact I am in the will of God. In other words, I know God is on my side, and He will forgive me at some point, so in the end I will be good. What a terrible way to think.

Where do we go from here? – Let’s go to prayer!

Father, first I want to praise and thank you for extended grace towards me. You didn’t have to grant it but God, because of your love for me, you knew that I needed it. Father, I want to apologize and seek forgiveness for abusing your grace. I have been taking advantage of you and I recognize this is not who I want to be. Through the Holy Spirit, I know right from wrong, so my cry on today is to change the way I operate in your grace. From this moment forward I want make my wrongs right. I want to let my past wrongs go and I want to move forward with a renewed mind to do what’s right. So Father, I thank you for keeping me. I am grateful to be apart of your Kingdom. Into your arms I commit my spirit to do what is right in Your sight. Have your way with me Lord!

In Jesus Name,

Amen!

Pressing Place

Philippians 3:13-14 - “One thing I do brethern; I forget those things which are behind, and look forward to those things which are ahead. I PRESS toward the mark for the prize of the High calling in Christ Jesus.”

There are certain times in life where we find ourselves in some rough places. For days, weeks, months and even years we hide, fake and put aside what is going on inside of us. It seems the longer we hide what’s going on internally; externally we become numb to who we really are. The external persona gives us a role to play whenever we are out in society amongst peers. We become vocally systematic in our responses. Our gestures become mastered so others cannot see what is truly going on inside of us. We hide the brokenness, the pain and hurt so well.

There is what I like to call, a “pressing place.” A pressing place is a place where you are being so suppress you cannot hide and hold in what’s going on internally. A pressing place presses against your pain and it forces you to say enough is enough. Too many times in our lives we run from our pressing place.

In order to overcome we must go through. In order to go through we must release. In order to release we must confront. In order to confront, we must be real. In order to be real, we must be transparent.

Someone once said, “Don’t fake it until you make it, faith it until you make it.” In our pressing place we have to find faith. In Matthew chapter 17 verse 20 the text says, “If you can have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to that mountain, move, and the mountain will move!” Faith, no matter the size, small or great can move the mountains in your life. In case you haven’t heard, small faith can get you to the right place!

I don’t know what your pressing place is today but I pray whatever it is that it forces you to let go of all of the things hurting on the inside of you. You do not have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You don’t have to put a fake smile with your face. You can be real and transparent about what is going on with you. In order to grow you must let go!

My friend, my prayer for you today is... God will suppress you in your pressing place to get you to release the brokenness of your soul so that He can make you whole!

God bless you,

J Scott Samarco

This Love Is It..

Each breath, each moment, every touch, every thought of it you come to mind. Is it true that there is a love that lives inside but is express on the outside. This type of emotion cannot be held back. This cord, this strand, this connection is never meant to be broken. It is self less.. It surpasses all of what eyes have seen. It sings sweet melodies to your ears. It floats your soul pass the moon. A limitation is unheard of. Pages can be filled for days about every characteristic of what this love is.

So effortlessly, so gracefully, so peacefully and always happily it lives on. It pours out. It goes for long walks. Every sun rise there sits two with long talks. Throughout the day, memories, pictures created with no words on them but they speak for themselves. There is no way such a thing as this can be captivated. At times when there is nothing to say it still speaks. In the breathless times the warmth of it calms. Thinking about it alone makes ones stomach confirm that there's something special.

Healing, singing, moving.. There is no way one can keep still. The music plays love cords. The hands write love notes. The table gets set, the candles are being lit, the stove is steaming. Nothing is rushed because each scene is like for ever. Never wanting to sleep unless the dream is about it. The bond that's been created strengthens. Never remembering what a broken heart ever felt like. This love pumps. The blood always remain warm. Holding each other to each arm becomes numb. Not wanting to move a spot.

This love is it.

Truth Telling

No child left behind. The people are trying to integrate but don't know how so we see another form of how to segregate. The great lost hope. The clear specimens are throwing out, pushing away, while the blurry pray for a different day. This nation was never built off of love. It's been a get out of my way, I'm taking whatever I want attitude ever since the Europeans crossed the latitudes. So why keep trying?? The government was built off of lying. So much pain, so much wrong. Is it worth it? To try and create a new song.. How can something be for all people when all people wants to be amongst their same people?? Contradictive suicides, parallel with wrong actions on both sides, I call that a double homicide.

The blind leading the blind so they keep on building. The foundation is the people. It's the stories! But its the high tower people covering up what needs to be heard. Hate conquering hate over and over. It is no longer a cycling mess but a pyramid chest. The heart beat of the triangle is the evil of the spirit of power. Nothing really matters. We are still under control. Being washed away by the World Wide Web better know as WW3. These intellects have every piece of your information, all of your photos, genealogy, family history, know your every move but yet we still think its cool websites.

We are such a dumbed down generation! Foolish and blind to what is going on. Our minds are so closed that we cant open the curtains to see if it is night or day. We have given away our identity, put away the Holy Trinity and simply said, "It's all about me!!" Money, pleasure, cars, homes and success should all be laid to rest. The wealthiest person is the humblest person that cannot be defined by the world's standards. The platform is left wide open. There is a stage that only a few people will be on. Only the wise and the humble that have taken off the blinders will be able to change the world. From house, to community, to state, to nation, to world, to reaching every boy and girl. There is so much skin to peel off. So many layers to scratch.

God of the Universe the people are so off from what you've started. You once destroyed us because our ignorance. One can only imagine what's in store for making the same mistake as the ones before. But wait.. There lies a knocking at the door.. The door knob turns.. It opens.. The question is.. "What will it take for you to see that YOU need to do better??

Here's My God Letter

"Miss Proverbs 31"

Miss Proverbs 31.. you are the only one! You're my missing rib. I know with you I'll have more life. Breath easy.. Proverbs 31, please believe me.. I notice the dirt you been through. I see the scars. This is why you shine so bright. Miss Proverbs.. you are my light! You precious jewel you.. your ex he was a fool. Now I know why I didn't workout with anyone. It was you God said.. "My son here comes the one!" Im not going to lie Miss Proverbs I was getting restless. Can you believe I even stopped praying for you. Ha.. what a fool I was. You want to know something Miss Proverbs. You will be proud of me. I took time to truly work on myself. I read love books, worked on my communication and most importantly got my relationship with God back the way its suppose to be! Miss Proverbs I knew I had to get myself right for you or God would of been like "Nope, son you're still not ready!" So you see Miss Proverbs I cut the randoms off, I stopped the random dating. I knew I wasn't going to marry them so I had to come to a realization and cut off false hope. Plus it was getting me into too much trouble. Kissing, cuddling spending time.. yeah I did all of that and it got me no where. This season before you came I dedicated it to my "Future Wife!" Miss Proverbs.. I put my all in and God said.. "Son because you have kept the course, obeyed, sacrifice and dedicated yourself to me, I shall reward you! Now treat my daughter right or I'll be coming back for her!" I said "God.. do you know how hard I worked for her!!!"