Exodus 8:25-27

²⁵⁾And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

²⁶⁾And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

²⁷⁾We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

This year for New Years, I began reading the Bible straight through.  I have probably read most of the Bible in my lifetime in various chunks, and individual verses.  Now I’m going all the way.  I read about 4-6 chapters a week, so at this rate it will take me about 4.5 years, which is fine by me.  When I’m done, I’ll start over! So, I just started Leviticus today.  In my next few posts I plan to share some things I found particularly helpful in Exodus.

The above verses are part of the back in forth between Moses and Pharaoh.  God sent Moses to instruct Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.  Moses starts out with a bit of a soft sell, if you will. He asks Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go out into the wilderness for three days to worship.  Pharaoh responds with a compromise. He will allow the Jewish people to worship and sacrifice, but they must remain in the land of Egypt to do so.

This is totally unacceptable to Moses, and it is totally unacceptable to any truly saved individual! I hear a lot of you out there. Marta, that is a really narrow statement to make! I will completely own that, because here’s the deal: salvation is really narrow! Don’t believe me?

Matthew 7:13-14

¹³Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

¹⁴Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Never listen to anyone about salvation- pastor, friend, family member, person on tv, blogger, etc- unless they discuss it straight from the Bible.  Which is what my pastor always does.  Therefore so do I.  And the Bible clearly tells us that the key to everlasting life in the Lord is following the narrow way through the straight gate.  Period.  ”But Marta, I turn 21 next year! I could party for my birthday and still be saved!” No,you can’t.  ”Well, I go to church every Sunday, and sometimes during the week.  So I go out to clubs every now and again.  So what?” So, you’re not saved!

True biblical salvation produces a complete, 180 degree change in your life! And when you do unholy things, you feel convicted about it! You don’t make excuses about it, because then you are following the broad way, through the wide gate, which is what most of the world is doing.  That means that you aren’t holy, and set apart for God.  You are most of the world, you just go to church and say “Jesus” a lot.  Guess what, millions and millions of people do that, and unfortunately they are headed for destruction.  If you are worshiping in the land of Egypt (the world) then so are you!

I work with several “Christians” who swear, drink, smoke marijuana, and talk openly about fornication.  But they attend church every single Sunday. One of these young ladies sings in the choir! Yet you cannot tell the difference between her and the nonreligious people I work with.  Another woman I work with prides herself on being a Christian.  She talks about God and church all the time.  She never swears, and chastises anyone who does.  So, I mean, she stands out from the rest of the world, right? She must be saved! Wrong! She also enjoys an excellent, expensive glass of wine with a meal, or a delicious fruity cocktail a few times a month with girlfriends from church, and she is currently planning a “tasteful” birthday party for herself- complete with pole-dancing lessons from a pole-dancing expert (aka a stripper).  Yet a lot of people at my job see her as a truly Christian woman, because she walks and talks differently than they do, and eschews a lot of the worldly things they do.  A lot- but not all! She is worshiping in Egypt.

I like how J. Vernon McGee puts it: “We are in a race today with two horses.  One horse is black and one is white. If you decide to ride them and put one foot on one horse and one foot on the other, you will soon make a strange discovery.  These horses will run in opposite directions.  You must make up your mind which horse you want to ride.” Let me break it down even further.  One horse is condemnation and worldly behavior, and the other is salvation and holiness.

So what about you? Which horse are you riding- or are you still trying to ride both? Are you sacrificing in the land of Egypt?

Hi Mavens!

In the morning after the moisturize and seal, I baggy bun my hair. What is a baggy bun? It’s literally a bun with a plastic baggy on it! I coil my hair into a low bun and secure it with a scrunchie. Then I place a sandwich bag over the bun. You can use a processing cap, even a plastic grocery store shopping bag. Over the bag I place a black wig cap, and a scrunchie over that, and that’s it. My hair is getting a deep treatment all day, just marinating in all that moisture. You can place a phony pony or a fake bun over the baggy bun,and no one will be the wiser. I do this 5 or 6 days a week.

If your hair isn’t long enough to bun, I recommend putting a processing cap over your entire hair, a wig cap on top of that, and a cute wig, just until your hair is long enough to bun. If you follow my system to the letter, it will be long enough in no time!

At night, after the moisturize and seal, I do the same baggy bun, but I put the bun directly on top of my head. I do this for two reasons. Bunning is an excellent protective style for length retention. It keeps your ends and most of your length completely protected. But if your hair is in a bun in the same place all day and all night, the tension on the hair where the bun forms can cause some mild breakage. The solution to this is to kind of rotate the position of the bun. So in the day time I rotate between a low bun and a middle bun. And I put it in the high bun at night. The second reason is sleeping comfort. By putting the bun on the top of my head, I can sleep on my back or either side with zero discomfort. Try it! you’ll love it!

So I put the baggied bun on top of my head. I then take a plastic processing cap with a whole torn out of the very top, and place it over my head, with the baggy bun sticking out of that hole in the top of the cap. So the processing cap is very snug on top of my head. I then take a spandex wave cap, the type the men use, and that one has a hole in the top as well, and I put it on top of the processing cap, with the baggy bun sticking out of the top. And this is my version of the Green House Effect (GHE). The wave cap and the processing cap trap heat in, causing an increase in sebum production, and really activating the ingredients in the Miracle Hair Growth Oil. If you can imagine how quickly plants grow in a moist, steamy greenhouse, well, this is the effect we’re cultivating here, and it really works. I even have a winter hat with a hole in the top of it that I put on top of the whole deal to increase the heat sometimes. Five or six nights a week with this as well. The results are amazing. Give this 90 days and then judge for yourself.

Do you baggy bun and/or GHE? Weigh in with a comment below! And join my newsletter for more tips and tricks and exciting discounts on Miracle Hair Growth products! God bless!

Proverbs 11:9

“An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.”

The definition of a hypocrite is a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. (Merriam-Webster).  We all deal with hypocrites on our jobs, in our families, even at church.  Church is where the worst and potentially most dangerous hypocrite is: the one who acts respectfully towards the pastor and then talks about him behind his back.  Psalm 105:15 says “…Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”  Those who bad mouth the pastor have a huge fall ahead of them.

As Christians, we don’t associate with hypocrites.  However, we leave the justice to God.  Joseph let the Lord fight his battles when Potiphar’s wife through herself at him and then accused him of being the aggressor, and he ended up ruling Egypt second only to Pharaoh.  We must learn to do the same.  Our tendency is to tell a person exactly how we feel, but in God this is unnecessary, and often unbecoming of a Christian.  Holding our peace can be difficult, but it’s an important trait to cultivate.

Discernment and wisdom will help us avoid hypocrites altogether.  Are you lacking wisdom? Just ask God! James 1:5 says “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Non-Christians (and Christians who don’t attend church) try to use the concept of hypocrisy in the church as a reason not to attend.  They insist that Christians preach one thing and practice another.  While this can certainly be the case, it does not mean that attending church is useless because you don’t see the fruit in everyone who goes.  Healthy eating is the key to being slender.  I may tell you to eat healthy if you want to lose weight, and then I may turn around and eat a pound of junk, and I may even be fatter than you are, but guess what? The fact remains that healthy eating is the key to being slender.  And- this is going to be deep- I’m not a hypocrite in that instance, unless I’m telling you I’m slender! Sam over at Apologetics Shorts got into this, and I really enjoyed what he had to say in his post “Christians are hypocrites!“.  And for even more insight on topic, check out William’s take on it on Outside the Camp: reflections of a renegade Christian in his post “Hypocrites in the Church“.

How do you deal with hypocrites in your life? And what do you think about the concept of hypocrisy in the church? Let me know what you think.  God bless!

P.S. Sign up for my Newsletter and never miss a post!

Hi Mavens!

Moisture is the key to your hair’s health and your length retention. I apply Miracle Hair Growth Oil first.  Then I moisturize on damp hair; if it’s dry I dampen it first. Then I spray a leave in conditioner, followed by a creamy leave in.

Next, I seal in the moisture.  I use a moisturizing oil followed by a butter.  Then I bun and baggy, or bun and GHE (Green House Effect).

This is my daily routine, twice a day.  If my hair is straight, I use a light moisturizer like White Sands Porosity The Fix or Fantasia IC Leave in, and seal with Chi Silk Infusion. This is a good combo for maintaining moisture without weighing straight hair down.  However, for serious moisture and length retention you want to use a more intense method like the one in the video above.  God bless!

Hi Mavens! I suggest that you transfer your MHGO (Miracle Hair Growth Oil) to an applicator bottle.  I apply it throughout my scalp, and then massage it in really well.  The longer the massage the better.  Any questions, let me know! And if you haven’t grabbed your Miracle Hair Growth Oil, what are you waiting for? Don’t you want to grow 2-4 inches in three months? God bless!

P.S. Do yourself a favor, grab yourself some Miracle Hair Growth Oil, and you’ll be whipping your hair back and forth in just a few months!

So, I have to get into this Trayvon Martin thing.  Its just ridiculous.  I almost passed out just now watching the news! Okay, before I forget.  You MUST sign the Trayvon Martin Petition! <—Click the link.  This boy’s family deserve to see justice done here.  We all do. I am praying daily for the Martins! Mavens, please join me in that, if you aren’t already praying for them!

Here’s why I almost passed out.  Geraldo Rivera had the NERVE to say that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie was as much to blame for his death as George Zimmerman himself. (<—–Click the link for the full story) He went a step further and said the hoodie was the problem BECAUSE Trayvon was of a dark complexion, and he said any darker skinned people (blacks, latinos, any other non-white people) should not wear hoodies because it makes them look suspicious. AHHHHHHHGHHH! I cannot even wrap my mind around the fact that someone would say that! So white kids can run around and 8 Mile it up to there hearts content, but if you have pigment to your skin, you’d better leave hoodies alone? Socio-economic circumstances shouldn’t matter here, but neither should race, and since it clearly does, lets get into it.  Trayvon Martin versus the 8 Mile type of white kid depicted in the movie.  This kid had never been in trouble a day in his life,not only that he apparently saved his father’s life at age 9.  No drugs,no alcohol.  Which kid in a hoodie is more likely to be up to no good? Ding, ding, ding! If you answered the 8 Mile character, you are correct.  But apparently if we see a white kid in a hoodie we should go about our business, but a black kid in a hoodie should be shot.  THIS IS RIDICULOUS! I am so disgusted I can hardly type this post.

Hearing that child calling for help (I would ignore the comments below the video, they get pretty profane) was traumatic for me, to say the least, so I cannot imagine what he went through in those moments before George Zimmerman executed him, A grown man executed a child.  An innocent child who was never in trouble, and George Zimmerman had a violent criminal record! This is a complete travesty and the police need to arrest this man ASAP before he hurts and/or kills someone else.

What do y’all think? Let me know! God bless!

There’s a cute little story about God communicating with us, and it goes something like this.  A man lives in a town in a valley, and the valley is flooding.  Everyone is scrambling around to evacuate.  The man sits down in his armchair and starts reading a book.  “Aren’t you coming? We have to get out of here!” his neighbors say to him.  “No,” the man says, “I have faith that the Lord will come get me, and I’m going to wait here on him.” An hour later a neighbor stops by his truck.  The water is almost too high to drive in.  “Hurry, hurry, come with us before its too late!” the neighbor exclaims.  “No thanks,” the man says. “I’m waiting on the Lord.” The water continues to rise, and the man is forced to move to the second story of his house.  “I know You’re coming, Lord,” he says.  A boat comes along.  “Get in, before its too late!” they yell.  “Nope!” the man yells back.  “I’m good! I’m waiting on the Lord!” The water keeps rising, and the man has to climb onto his roof.  “My faith is still strong, Lord!” he says.  “I know You’re on Your way!” A helicopter flys by, circles around and comes back.  “Take my hand!” screams one of the passengers. “Let me pull you to safety before it’s too late!” The man waves them off.  “No thanks!” he hollers.  “I’m waiting on God!” The water continues to rise, the entire valley is engulfed, and the man dies.  He arrives in Heaven and asks God “what happened? I waited and waited, and you never came for me!” God replies “What are you talking about? I sent a truck, a boat, and a helicopter!”

The moral of that story is pretty clear.  We need to quit looking for God to speak to us in these grandiose, Moses and the Ten Commandments kinds of ways, and start looking for all the simple ways He communicates with us.  God spoke to Moses and various other prophets and apostles in a very direct manner.  When I first got saved, it seemed to me that God spoke to everyone else this way but me! I felt like every time I came to church someone was beginning a conversation with “So the Lord told me the other day that…” and “The Lord was dealing with me last night about Sister So and So and He told me to let her know that…”.  As months in salvation started to go by I wondered why doesn’t the Lord tell me stuff to do, or stuff not to do, or stuff that I need to let other saints know about? Maybe He didn’t like me as well as He liked some of the others! That wasn’t a very good feeling. I even wondered if I was actually saved, because God didn’t talk to me like some of these others.  Thank God my answer came over the pulpit, as it generally does.

For the most part, God isn’t speaking to saints today like He spoke to His prophets in the Bible.  I say for the most part because it seems clear that the Lord deals directly with our pastor, and we are so blessed for that.  But the rest of us? The Holy Ghost is leading and guiding us.  That means that when I’m watching a movie or listening to a song and I feel convicted, that’s the Holy Ghost.  If I say something I shouldn’t to my husband and I feel guilty and motivated to apologize, that’s the Holy Ghost.  If I am concerned about something and a helpful scripture comes to mind, that’s the Holy Ghost. If I’m on my knees in prayer, and all of a sudden I begin thinking about Sister Such and Such, that’s the Holy Ghost putting her on my heart in prayer.  If, after praying I am going about my business and all of a sudden a voice in my head says “You should call Sister So and So and tell her what Sister Such and Such is up to so the two of you can pray for her together!” well, that’s probably not God telling me to gossip under the guise of initiating a group prayer.

The Holy Ghost leads and guides us into all truth, but we need to listen for that leading and guiding, because despite the way some people can make it seem, God is not having these back and forth conversations with most people.  Sister Jenny may tell you that the Lord told her to sell her house and buy a bigger one, and that may be what the Lord wanted her to do.  But I highly doubt Sister Jenny said,”Lord, what should I do about this house?” and the Lord said “Well Jenny, I want you to sell this house.  And then, I’d like you to buy a larger one! And I’d like you to buy one in West Bloomfield. This is what I’d like you to do and you can tell everyone what doth sayest the Lord.”

The longer we’re saved, I think we get better at discerning the leading of the Lord.  Prayer, Bible study and sitting under Bishop’s ministry fine tunes our antenna, so to speak.  Eventually I think every saint develops a balance in which they stop looking for grandiose demonstrations from God, and at the same time they stop thinking God implanted every little thought that runs through their heads.  God can communicate to us through an infinite number of ways! But we can also communicate with ourselves in a variety of ways, and the enemy communicates with us as well. When in doubt, run it past Bishop.  If God doesn’t give it to him, He probably didn’t give it to you either.

God bless!

I am actually getting pretty over hearing about the “Year of the Woman” and all the female based issues that are so prevalent today.  For the most part I tune it all out now, it just seems like overkill.  However, today I heard for the first time some of the worst comments the Republicans have been saying, and I’m just disgusted.  I imagine that the Republican men are losing the votes of Republican women right and left at this point.  Republican Delegate Bob Marshall of Virginia is one of those guys that really needs to learn to think before he speaks.

Again, a preface.  I’m actually against abortion, and I actually do think women should be made well aware of what they are doing before they go through with it.  However.  I don’t believe that ultrasounds should be forced on women,and when Bob Marshall said he didn’t get what they big deal was, because the abortion itself was a penetration, well, I was pretty irritated with that comment.  Sounds like he’s saying that if you consent to one penetration, any other penetration should be fine with you.  And the ramifications of that comment (ie. rape) are pretty big.  So if a man consents to a prostate exam, should he be fine with any other penetration of that area? Of course not!

These sort of comments, and Santorum telling the Puerto Ricans that they need to make English their main language, well come on! I want Obama to win,but I wanted him to have to actually have to make an effort to campaign! I like seeing him in full Obama Gear, but if the Republicans keep running their big mouths, he won’t have to do a thing but show up.There are Republican Hispanics and women, and it sounds like the Republican men would like to just hand them over to Obama.  Can’t wait to see what foot they put in their mouths yet.

Just my two cents! Have a blessed day!

So you can see the difference in length and overall thickness.  This is just three months of results!

If you’d like your bottle of Miracle Hair Growth Oil ASAP, head over to http://blackhair411.net/?page_id=35 to order now! And if you’d like to help me publish my hair book on how to grow your hair out fast, head over to IndieGoGo now! Thanks for reading and God bless!