Being more God Conscious

           What's good everybody.....(not even sure there is an "everybody" reading this!) anyway....lol....was just here thinking about being God conscious as opposed to being people conscious. I really think that we can spend so much time worried about how someone else perceives us and what we can do to please them and make them happy until the most important things go lacking....like for instance how God perceives us! We can have the entire world thoroughly impressed with our actions and antics and they'll all be patting us on the back and congratulating us, giving us ribbons and little plastic gold trophies with "other fake lil men" on them! And we eat it up and ask for more!.....meanwhile, back at the ranch, God is looking at how deficient we are when it come to the things He cares about which is people being MINISTERED to....not entertained! When I say ministered to, I'm talking about needs being met, hungry being fed, naked being clothed, the bound being loosed, sick ones healed....not always standing in some pulpit and bashing them over the head with a Bible! You don't have to tell an alcoholic he's drunk...he already knows that! We spend the majority of our time "jumping through hoops to please lost people" and less time finding out how to please the one who loved us enough to die for us and bring us back to himself so we could reach those same lost folks we spend so much time trying to please! I'm just as guilty as anybody else but that has to change if I'm going to be effective for God! I LOVE people! I don't always like what they do to themselves and to each other but I love them because that's who God is concerned about and we are HIS hands extended on the earth. If we take some inventory of our lives and switch that around, we'll find that when we are more God conscious than we are people conscious, the people will benefit more from being around us than when we are just "performing" for them! Think about it....
               Now....as a musician this works out the same way. When I'm hired to do a job as a musician...I want to know what I need to do to fulfill the needs of the person hiring me. First and foremost I need to recognize that my gifts and abilities did not originate with me! God is the giver of the gift and the giver must be the one pleased FIRST with what I do with it! If I play/write/compose/produce music I do that as unto the Lord first and if I can please him with my attitude and motives and results then man's standard will not only be met...but exceeded! God's ways are are higher than my ways and His thoughts than my thoughts so therefore his standards are higher as well! If I'm conscious that whatever I do I do in the presence of the Lord....I will do it with more care and attention to detail than if I were just doing it in the presence of say..."Todd the bandleader!" when we place our focus on the giver of the gift and not the beneficiary of the gift, the beneficiary receives more benefits! Savvy?
             Let's become more God conscious than people conscious.....it's really better for the people we deal with when we do this! God Bless and keep you till next time!
                                                Bayce3

Where did it come from?

                                                
         Whats happening people?! Hope this entry finds you all well and prosperous! I was reading in Matthew 25 today and the parable that jumped out at me was the one about the wealthy man who gave out the talents to his servants starting at verse 13...."yeah, so what!" you say? I know we've all heard or read this parable a hundred times but I genuinely love when on that one hundred and first time reading it, you see something you didn't see before! Well I saw this....which is not to say you haven't already so bear with me.....thanks! I noticed that number one, the rich man KNEW his servants and what they were able to handle...."gave to them according to their several abilities..." check out how he gave one servant 5 talents, another servant 2 talents and the last one received just one...the wisdom of the rich man in not giving the "one talent guy" 5 talents is the foreknowledge that he wouldn't be able to handle them and would more than likely lose them instead of make them grow. He also knew that the "two talent guy" might be overwhelmed by the 5 but was capable at the 2 level! The "one talent guy" was given the one because even if he lost it, the loss wouldn't be as great as it would were he to lose 5. His master knew he wasn't able to handle much, so he gave him a little to see how he would do with that. The whole point of all of this is God expects us to be profitable/ bear fruit/ grow/ expand/ multiply/ gain and prosper with whatever HE trusts us with. He wants us to show that we're good stewards over what HE gives us, so He can give us more to work with. Notice also that NONE of the servants had their own talents to work with. They were GIVEN TO THEM BY THEIR MASTER.....He gave to them their "several abilities" as well so he knew who could handle what! It's not your or my job to be concerned about who can handle what and why or why not!.....Thats up to God! I just need to be concerned about taking the little he GIVES ME and using the abilities He gave me to make it grow FOR him...not for me.....the last thing they did when the accounting time came was give a report on their progress and GIVE IT ALL BACK TO HIM. They weren't concerned about being rewarded for what they had done, because it was their "reasonable service" as servants! The rewards came after they had proven themselves FAITHFUL over what He had entrusted them with.
                  Now..........you know I always tie these in with music somehow.......musicians and singers don't focus so much on the size (or lack thereof) of the talent given to you, or the place in which you're planted to carry that out...and forget that it's supposed to grow under your care! I may never be onstage with some of the "so called greats" of the music world but if I'm faithfully serving where I'm planted, my reward for being a good steward will be just as significant if not greater than being mobbed by crowds and constantly patted on the back and congratulated for something I couldn't even give to myself anyway! We cannot fall into the trap of viewing what we do and where we happen to do it as insignificant and small....if that's where God placed you, then that's probably all you could handle at the time! That's not to say He won't ever promote us but we have to prove that we can handle that without it "handling us." Lastly, Going through the motions is just as bad as "burying your talent in the earth" because at the end of the day we're giving Him back the very same thing he gave us with NO fruit to show.....He could've just kept that if that's all He wanted from us when He passed those things out! I may not be onstage with Fred Hammond or Prince or anybody else....but I'm at GCR (Gods City of Refuge) serving faithfully and you better believe when the time of accounting comes....I'm gonna have fruit by way of increase to show for what He's called me to do!.............Now......will you?
                  God Bless you till next time!..........Bayce3

Working as a Team

                        There is an aspect of what we do as Christians that constantly gets overlooked. We are the body of Christ and just like our natural body, different members have different jobs and those jobs have to be done in an orderly fashion for the body to operate effectively and efficiently. There is a certain "flow" to the way the body operates and just like in our own natural body, sometimes things come in to interrupt the flow and things break down....we have to guard against anything that will disrupt the "flow" and cause us to have to stop and "fix stuff!" There is an established order of things in the body and those are set in place by God. Whenever there is a part that rebels and refuses to operate as it was designed, it is cancerous to the rest of the body and must be removed or it will affect the other parts of the body until the body is destroyed or so disabled that is of little or no use at all! We as Christians need to operate in the several measures that we are created to operate in and not try to be something we weren't designed to be. Doing this will insure that the body operates efficiently and effectively.
                     When it comes to music, it's the same principal....knowing our place in the band and what we are supposed to be contributing to the overall "sound" is imperative if the music is going to be "music" and not just noise! As a bassist, my job is to lock in with my rhythm section partner, the drummer/percussionist to create a rock solid foundation. If at any time I feel it's necessary to compete with them rhythmically instead of complimenting each other I am becoming a "cancer" and firing me will restore the flow that makes music music! Know your job, be proficient AT your job and DO your job. If every member focusses on their own responsibility in the band, then every area will be covered and the music won't sound like two trains hauling a load of drunken cats had a head on collision! Know your Job, be good at your job and do your job......let's make the body work and the music sound like music!
                       Until next time, be blessed.........Bayce3