Urban Christianz Ministries

Healing For Your Soul

By Sonya C. Triggs

Can God really heal your pain?  Does every trial come to make you stronger?  Is it better to 'go through' willingly, or put off dealing with your pain as long as possible?  Read on to discover the secrets that will help you heal your soul.

Can God really heal your pain?  Yes He can (He can do all things!) - but He can only do so with your permission.  Of course I want to be healed, you are thinking.  Right.  Just like the invalid who lay at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9).  In this story, this man, who had lain by this pool for 38 years, encountered Jesus.  This man and many others like him waited by that pool every day because they knew at a certain time, an angel would come and 'trouble' the water.  And they knew that whoever stepped into this pool immediately after the 'troubling' of the water would be healed.  Jesus saw this man, knew his story and approached him.  But, funnily enough, even though Jesus knew his whole story, he asked the man 'Wilt thou be made whole?'  Think about it - Jesus was asking the man if he wanted to get better!  Obviously he wanted to get better, right?  He had been lame for 38 years!  Why else, you ask yourself,  would he have waited by that pool every single day if he didn't want to get better? But the really telling part of the story is what the man said in response to Jesus's question.  The first thing that came out of the man's mouth was an excuse - he told Jesus how he had no one to carry him to the water, and how others made it into the water before he could get in the pool.  Jesus, however, got right to the heart of the matter and told the man 'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.'  So the man got up, picked up his mat and walked!  He was healed.  What can we learn from this passage of scripture?

Why Go To Church - Want to Know 13 Reasons?

by David Hopkins

It's not necessary to go to church in order to get saved and therefore go to heaven, but going to church still has very important benefits that can help improve your life and keep it in order.

Below are 13 reasons why we should attend church services on a regular basis.

1. Because it is an act of obedience to God and it honors the Lord’s Day. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Ex. 20:8).

2. Because we need to belong to a community of faith that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ who are trying to live out the gospel just like we are.

3. Because we will benefit from being taught and led in worship by others, rather than always depending on ourselves to read and study the bible.

4. Because we need regular reminders of our standing in Christ, help in acknowledging and confessing our sins, and teaching about God's truth.

Blood Brothers

By Butch Shramek

Psalm 133:1

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

At one time or another we have all been to a Men’s Breakfast, where we sit around, eat, pray and “talk”, and I am not trying to say that any of these things are bad. I love to eat (ask those who know me), and I love to pray. Talking? I guess it would depend on what you are talking about. The usual conversion at these breakfasts is about the kids, or wife, or golf. Superficial to say the least. Maybe that’s why not too many men attend them.

Men need more, although sometimes getting them to acknowledge that is like pulling teeth. If you have ever been in a group where men drop their guard, and become transparent and real, then you have indeed found a group of men following God’s heart. A group of men who can laugh together, cry together, and battle together. Battle? Yes! We need someone to stand side by side and fight with. Once we find our soulmate, and or have children of our own (because men are always going to be kids in one way or another, and that is something that we need to hold on to), we have found those people in our lives that we are willing to die for. Take the bullet, give up a kidney, or do whatever it takes to make sure those we care about are safe. What we then need are people we can stand side by side and fight with. Fight for our hearts. Fight for our lives, and the hearts and lives of our brothers.

It is so hard for men to be real. To show emotion, and be seen for what we really are. It all comes from the way we were raised. My father, whom I love very much, is a great man. He is my number one hero. But I was 21 years old and moving out before I can remember telling him I loved him. He responded and was as comfortable about it as I was. I never saw my Dad cry until I was 18 and his father died, and he tried his best to hide it from me. It also made me as uncomfortable as he was. Why? Because it’s not manly?  We have been brought up to think that showing emotion is a sign of weakness. Letting someone see us cry isn’t the macho image we want people to see. We would rather they see us under control, strong and manly. Faking your way through your emotions takes nothing. Being real, and taking off the mask, takes more guts than living any one of the stories we fabricate to make us look manlier.

Of course this is all easier said than done. We all follow in the footsteps of our father’s. Again I am not bashing fathers, but they are following in the footsteps of their own Dad. It’s a domino effect. I have 2 sons, 11 and 15. I love them very much, and if needed I am certain I would lay down my life for them. So why is it so hard for me to tell them that? Why can’t I let them see into my heart? Because sometimes it’s just too hard. I don’t want them to think I’m weak. We all follow what we know, and all we know is what we learned from our Father. So how do we get past this? We must allow God to father us. I mean in a Father Son relationship. God wants our praise, he wants our adoration, and deserves our respect. But he also wants to be our Dad. He wants us to come to him with everything. He wants us to love him as our Father. He wants to father us. All we have to do is allow him to. Then we will truly be the sons of God.

Loneliness - A Single's Perspective

By Yevette C. Gooden

Isn’t it amazing that with over six billion people in the world how alone we as individuals can feel?  Loneliness is one of the most frustrating experiences for a single Christian.  The constant change of friends getting married, moving away or even the expectation of a child serves only to isolate us even more.  This mental form of isolation is one of the shrewdest and oldest tricks from the enemy.  This in it self will often thrust us from self-pity to feelings of bitterness and resentment in no time.

So what else is there when you’ve quoted the twenty-third psalms for the one-hundredth time and still feel as though nothing is working?  For years I was afraid to confront this issue in my own life.  I didn’t want to go home because well no one else was there.  Often I would leave work and linger at a coffee house or a bookstore for hours.  Only to finally return home with enough time to eat dinner and go to bed.  Not wanting to be alone in my own home manifested itself in other very subtle ways as well.   I wasn’t interested in completing any internal or external home improvement projects.  I didn’t bother to landscape my backyard, for those in the southwest, which had remained a vacant lot.  I wasn’t willing to make my house into a home, because I didn’t really want to be there.  And because I had moved so far from my family members, I rarely had any visitors.

5 Steps to Passing Life Exams

By Apostle M. Christopher Wilson, Sr

An exam is a test that is given at the end of a class to assess what knowledge was obtained by the student during the duration of the class. Depending on whether or not adequate knowledge was gained the student will pass or fail the test. If the student passes the test he moves on to the next level. If he fails, he must take the class and the exam again, yet he still has the opportunity to pass!

I was recently reminded and enlightened to the idea that life too has exams. Because we live in an intelligent universe created by an intelligent God, there are no accidents or coincidences. Everything that happens has been divinely orchestrated by God for our good. However, because of man’s blurred perception, because of ego, we cannot see the plan of God in the light of being a benefit. Even the translation of the word coincidence has been blurred. A coincidence is a mathematical term that means to coincide; to angles that come together perfectly. So in our life coincidences are nothing short of miracles planned and placed in our life by God to complete and bring perfection to a given purpose. Have you ever noticed that 99% of coincidences presents us with a favorable outcome? Can you say miracle?

Now I want to give you 5 steps to help you pass life’s exam.

Step 1: Let go and let God.

I know this first step may not be as clear, as we would like it to be considering all the things that happen in our lives. However, everything in life has a reason and a cause. In understanding that everything has a reason and a cause, even if we may not understand, it calls for us to learn to let go and let God. By letting go we allow the divine intelligence and the universal purpose of God to be played out in our lives without our interference.

God in Jeremiah 29:11 of the Holy Scriptures of the Message Bible translation says, "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out--plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”

The understanding, plans, & ways of God are not like our understanding. By letting go & trusting God, we also let go of ego’s desire to play God. Ego always has a plan of how it could do things better if it was God. God does not need our help, we must trust and know all things are working for our good.

Step 2: Detach from feelings and outcomes.

One of the main reasons we fail many of life’s exams is because we are too emotionally attached to our situation to hear God. Uncontrolled emotions will always be a hindrance to us connecting to source (God). By detaching from the outcome, we are able to view our situation from the viewpoint of a bystander.

As much as we hate to admit it, others always see our situations better than we do. Why? Because they do not have a direct emotional attachment to our situation. This leads me to step 3.