Christina Speaks

Yesterday at church, my friend read scripture I had read before, but she read the Message version and it really struck me in a different way. What she read, described a person I truly desire to be.  “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in  Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭9:19-23‬ MSG I don’t care who you are, what you’ve done, or where you come from, Jesus died and covered your sins. He loves you so much He shed Hi

As I was getting ready for work yesterday I heard a song by Kirk Franklin. One of the lines in the song was “Everybody’s got a title, but do you know your name? I thought about that for a while. How many of us live by our titles instead of the names the Lord has given us? My titles are wife, mother, daughter, sister friend, author, teacher, photographer, speaker, and a ton more. What are yours? Titles often become masks. Having a title generally means that we have to act out a position or a role. If we live by our titles then it can become easy to believe the "accuser" when he tells us we are failures. We miss a deadline, don't meet our goals, don't rate high enough, let a coworker, friend, or family member down... When we believe we are failures or may fail at some point, we often live in a place of defeat. When we live in that place, it’s easy to forget who we are. I know that I am often weighed down by my various titles and the burdens they come with. But what if w

Yesterday, I went to the post office to mail some books. The woman working behind the counter said, “Hey! After you were here the last time, I Googled you. Can you tell me in a nutshell what happened to your son? I explained what happened, then she shared some things with me concerning her son. I told her that I had some books in my car, and asked if she wanted one. She told me to bring it with me the next time so she could make sure she had money. As I headed toward the exit door, a man who had just finished mailing something asked me, “What are you trying to sell?” “A book!”  The woman said, “She wrote a book.”  “Let me buy one of those,” he said. “But you don’t even know what it’s about. What if I wrote about women stuff?”  “I don’t give a s***! If you are trying to make some money, I’m going to support you.” Mind you, I donot know this man. “Go ahead and get it out of your car, give me your Venmo, and I’ll send you money.” He met me in the parking lot where I handed him a book and

Last Saturday night I officially launched my book “When God Changed His Mind.” I wish there were an adequate number of words to express my gratitude for everything that happened The Lord is in every detail. We can even start way back early in my life when I begged my parents and God for a baby sister. The Lord answered, and when I was 14 my sister Victoria was born. More recently, in fact, in the last year, I petitioned God for someone to help manage my life. Hey, God told us to make our requests known so I did. My sister and I haven’t lived in the same city for close to 12 years. Well just in the last few months, she and her husband moved to Greenville. Once again, she was my answered prayer. She planned my book launch party, and it was amazing. The night was beautiful. My whole family was involved. My husband Ozzy ran the sound, my oldest daughter Abrianna took pictures, Olivia played guitar and sang, and Isaiah spoke. Friends, God is so good. He worked something really difficult and

I don’t know if there’s anything in my life that turned out the way I had planned years ago. Thank God! I definitely would not have chosen the path that He put me on, but I can’t say I would change anything. Though I did try to go my own way many times. I don’t think I can count how many times I exercised and used my “free will” as an excuse for disobedience. Have you ever done that? I have literally thanked God for the free will, reminded Him that He gave it to me, then did what I wanted to do. I essentially blamed him for my disobedience. The gall! It can be so hard to trust God because all we can see are all of the circumstances right in front of us, and we worry that if we don’t take immediate action, all will be lost. It’s important for Christ-followers especially, to remember our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), it is spiritual. The battle belongs to the Lord.  And here’s the thing... God sees EVERYTHING...past, present, and future. He knows the whole sto

As you may remember, my word for the year is “Sacrifice.”  One of the things I continue to learn about sacrifice is that there are times it involves leaving our opinions and judgment on the altar. Relationships with others are more important than being right. Jesus sacrificed His life for us, the least we could do is sacrifice our right to say what we want when it means we can live in peace. Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  That means loving that person whose sins we can’t see past and allowing God to do the job of changing. That was never ours to take on. That’s why Jesus died on the cross. He’s got it handled. Do you know what our job is?  Love each other. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  John 13:34 Everybody. Always. The end.

Last year I talked about how growing up I hated Black History Month, and since it’s back, I want to share again.  You may have noticed that I have brown skin. ;) Growing up, I felt embarrassed every February when my white classmates would inevitably look to me for some special insight on the people we were learning about because obviously, I should know more since they were “my people.”  I didn’t know much about the contribution of people who looked like me, past the fact that we were slaves, could run fast, make memorable speeches, and invented a variety of things made from a peanut. I needed to know more. History has historically been a look back at the highlight reel of white men. White women have often been left out as well. I am still learning about the contributions of white women and other people of color, to this country. Some may be excited by that, anticipating learning things they didn’t know before, and some may be rolling their eyes wondering why “they” get their own month

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” -1 John 4:20 That’s pretty strong language. Have you ever thought about it? Picture that person you absolutely cannot stand. Yeah, you know who I mean. Do you dislike them so much you can’t stand them? Would you go so far as to say you hate them? Check your heart. Over the past couple of years I have been tested in this area. Maybe you are like me and find it easy to justify negative feelings toward someone you find to be difficult. They did this or said that, so maybe somewhere deep down we feel like maybe God will give us a “pass” to feel the way we do. He doesn’t. Christ died for every single one of us. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). So who do we think we are to pass judgment on anyone else? If you call yourself a Christ-follower, and struggle with this, It’s ti

I feel like this is a message that God is continuing to try and get across to so many of us. It keeps coming up.  We have got to be the most impatient people. That’s got to be frustrating to the One who created us. I can’t help but think of my kids when they ask me for something that I have already planned to give them.  I can’t always give it to them at the exact time they ask.  There are very often other things that need to happen before I am able to give them a particular gift, or something they actually need.  It’s always been interesting to me how many times they will ask for something as if I didn’t hear them the first five times.  It can be frustrating. In my opinion, it shows a lack of trust. Maybe they think I didn’t hear them. Sometimes, I don’t give any kind of hint that I am considering honoring their request.  They often formulate a whole plan on how they will get what they want or need without me. Somehow they think they can make it happen sooner. Don’t we do that to God?