Taking the Lord's Name in Vain (Blogging the General Rules)

The First General Rule states:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation, first, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as The taking of the Name of God in vain

The first evil which is most generally practiced on Wesley’s list is The taking of the Name of God in vain. 

This happens to be #3 on God’s top 10 list of thou shalt nots (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5).  But it’s so common now (so generally practiced) that most of us don’t even flinch.   Christians do it, too.

When we exclaim, “Jesus!  Good Lawd! OMG, ”we use God’s name with grammatical irreverence.  When we use His name as an adverb for the degree of damn, as an interjection to express our emotion, or as an expletive or filler word to demonstrate our lack of vocabulary and imagination, it’s disrespectful and grammatically incorrect.

There’s also conversational vanity. 

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence?” Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name.

Yet you say, “In what way have we despised Your name?” (Malachi 1:6)

God is real and He hears our prayers (Psalm 65: 2).  When you yell, “Jesus Christ,” the actual living Jesus Christ hears you.  Being God transcendent and omnipresent, He can handle all of the prayers in the universe all at once; but ----- you ever have somebody call your name and after you stop what you’re doing and leave where you are to respond they say, “Oh.  Nothing”?    You know how irritating that is?  Now multiply that by 7 ½ billion.  

God is real.  If you’re going to call Him, have something to say.  Just basic conversational courtesy.

It’s common to take the name of God in vain grammatically conversationally and deceptively. 

The 9^th Commandment is  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor;” (Exodus 20:16) or, as we often paraphrase, “Thou shalt not LIE.”

Now check this out.

The Hebrew word translated vain or in vain in the 3^rd Commandments (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11) is the same word rendered false in the 9^th Commandment.

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to lie ---- and put your lie on God.  It’s to be so vain that you speak for God what God hasn’t spoken.

When you declare and decree and prophesy that sowing a $200 seed in your service, or ordering the anointed bottle of holy water with the Dasani label scraped off, or liking and sharing that picture of stacks of $100 bills with a photo-shopped White Jesus in the background will force God to give them a blessing---- you are taking God’s name in vain.

And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.” (Jeremiah 14:14)

How many times do you have to NOT receive what they declared and decreed before you stop replying, “I receive that, in Jesus name”?  

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has NOT spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18: 21-22)

Make up motivational stories if you want to, but leave Jesus’ name out of it.

Grammatically

Conversationally

Deceptively

And (last one) relationally.

I am a child of God.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  I’m a servant of the Lord, indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  I wear the Lord’s name as a token of identity, purpose, and spiritual authority. 

But, I have these little quirks, these habits, these tendencies to do the evil that I don’t want to do.  I have a sin nature.  You do, too.  But, if I’m going to call myself by His name  then I can’t let what comes naturally define me.  I’m supposed to be a different.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

So, I struggle.  I wage an internal war against my flesh.  And if I fall, I don’t use His name as an excuse.   No.  His name on my life compels me to  humble myself, and pray and seek His face, and turn from my wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

We can’t just go, “Mmm.  Nobody’s perfect” It would be dishonoring the Name we bear.  We would be like the people Isaiah and Jesus confronted.

These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” (Matthew 15: 1-3, 7-9, referencing Isaiah 29: 13)

We can’t do that.   I know everybody else does.  But we can’t.  Not if His name means as much as it should.

 ---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com  

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter  @AndersonTGraves  

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WE, THE WICKED

Then Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.”    

This quote appears in all 4 gospels.  The context indicates that Jesus said this on the way to visit His hometown  (John 4:44) , during worship while visiting His hometown (Luke 4: 24), and each time He went back to His hometown to visit (Matthew 13: 57; Mark 6: 4).

It’s like Jesus was sighing. 

In Luke 4, after coming off a powerful 2 day revival in Samaria, and a successful preaching tour of Galilean villages, Jesus circled round to Nazareth.  He went to worship in the church where He’d grown up.  He even taught the morning Bible lesson.  To His cousins, His classmates, His brothers-in-law, His old playmates, His old teachers.  Not just generically or spiritually His people, but HIS PEOPLE.   He loved them, so He had to tell them.

He knew how they’d respond, but He had to tell them the truth.

“But I tell you truly…” (Luke 4: 25-27)

The truth is that sometimes God punishes the people in the right country with the correct religion who voted for the most patriotic candidates because you’re just as full of sin and corruption and hypocrisy as the heathens and the Jezebels.

The truth is that God loves you all, but sometimes the person in the room that God likes most is the single mother with the lowest socio-economic status and the wrong ethnic background.

The truth is that the lifelong skeptic/ heretic/ infidel who humbles himself and obeys the word of the Lord will experience the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit before you do.

The truth is that you are pissed off now.  Sigh. 

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. (Luke 4: 28, 29)

You don’t have to throw me under the bus or off the cliff.  I already know.  It’s always like this when you tell the truth at home.

When the prophets speak of God’s favor on the righteous and His wrath against the wicked, we shout, “Amen,” because we think we're  the righteous and those people are wicked.   Sigh.

But God seldom sent His prophets to speak to the righteous.  He sent the prophets to warn the wicked.

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me. (Ezekiel 3: 17)

It makes us so mad, so form-a-mob-and-throw-him-off-the-cliff mad to hear  that maybe, maybe WE are the wicked.

WE ARE the wicked.

You know this one well, don’t you?   2 Chronicles 7: 14  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

But go back to the verse before.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people (2 Chronicles 7: 13)

“When,” not “If.”   God PROMISED to punish the land because of what His people did.  Not because of what the heathens did.  Not because of what the unbelievers did. 

WE ARE the wicked.

Ever heard a televangelist declare coming judgment for greed?  Or vanity?  Or self-promotion?  Or falsely prophesying the date for judgment so you could raise a million dollars but not sending anyone’s money back when the world didn’t end as predicted?  Stop listening to them telling you that judgment is coming for all the sins they don’t commit.

Stop trying to humble the Muslims, the Wiccans, the Atheists, the Republicans, the Democrats, the not-us.  We have to humble OURSELVES.

Stop seeking a preferred place in power, in history, and  in money.  Seek God’s face.  Cause He wouldn’t have told us we need to if that’s what we’d been doing.

The biggest problem isn’t THEIR ways of being wicked.  The problem is that we haven’t turned from OUR WICKED WAYS. 

Try this. Grab a piece of paper and write down the top 3 sins in America,  the 3 moral issues that are destroying the nation.  Done?  Now list the 3 sins you personally commit most often.  

Which list do you spend more energy protesting against, voting against, and condemning on social media?

(Oh, and if you listed as one of your sins, "I don't stand up for what's right," you aren't paying attention.  That's just another way of saying "I don't focus on other people's wrong instead of mine.")

I know. YOUR sins aren't that bad.  The problem with this country is what everybody else does wrong.

Sigh.

In 2 Chronicles 7: 15, 16, the Lord promised that His house would always have a special place in His heart and whenever WE who come to the house of the Lord and call ourselves by His name decide to pray the way He told us to, “My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.”

The prayers of the righteous church can avail much, but first there must be the prayers of the present church that humbles itself and confesses OUR wickedness.

But you hate me calling you “wicked.”  I really need to check myself on that.    I know.  You’re right.  Sigh.

In John/ Luke, Jesus hometown folks tried to throw Him off a cliff because He told them the truth about themselves. In Matthew/ Mark, Jesus went to the same people and told them the same truth knowing they’d get mad at Him all over again.

How well do you know me?  Maybe too well.  Maybe so well that you know I’m not perfect, so why should you listen to me.  Maybe you know me so well that you can’t get past who I am (or am not) to see the truth that I’m speaking.  You probably can’t help it.  You can’t stop knowing me, and I can’t stop loving  you, so I have to tell you the truth. 

If I’ve offended you---- it won’t be the last time.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

YAY, I WIN! YAY, YOU LOSE!

  

When we've been wronged we want justice.  Actually a lot of the time, we don't want justice. We want vengeance. And we want God to give it to us.

And God promises to deliver.  In the New Testament, Paul referenced the Lord’s assurance that:

Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;

Their foot shall slip in due time;

For the day of their calamity is at hand,

And the things to come hasten upon them.’ (Deuteronomy 32: 35)

David was so happy about it that he wrote these lyrics: :

 It is God who avenges me,

And subdues the peoples under me;

He delivers me from my enemies.

You also lift me up above those who rise against me;

You have delivered me from the violent man.

Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles,

And sing praises to Your name.  (2 Samuel 22: 48-50/ Psalm 18: 47-49)

Like David, we rejoice when we win.

Or, are we rejoicing that our adversaries have lost?

Does your praise mean, “Thank you, Lord, that I won”?

Or does your praise mean, “Thank you Lord, that they lost”?

Nope.  It’s not the same thing.  Not according to the Bible.

David’s son, Solomon, wrote:

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,

And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;

Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him,

And He turn away His wrath from him. (Proverbs 24: 17,18)

God very specifically states that He doesn’t like it when we like it when our enemies catch a beat-down.  In fact, it bothers God so much to see us gloating that He might stop in the middle of administering said beat-down and just let your enemy go ---- unpunished.

Jesus said,  “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” --- Jesus (Luke 6: 27-28)

You can’t honestly love, pray for, and bless people while you’re celebrating their destruction.

Of all David’s enemies, the one who caused him the most stress was his predecessor, King Saul.   David was unwaveringly loyal to Saul, but the old king was psychotically jealous of David. (It all started in 1 Samuel 18: 5-9.)  

Saul tried to set him up to be killed in battle.  He tried to have him assassinated.  He threw a spear at David with premeditated intent to drive it through the young man’s chest so hard that David would be left hanging from the far wall.   He tried that twice.

But God was on David’s side.  God put Saul in a completely vulnerable position where David could have easily killed the crazy old king.  The Lord did that twice (1 Samuel 24 & 26),

But David wouldn’t take the shot. 

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath (Romans 12: 19)

Way back in the Old Testament, David understood that vengeance belonged to God.  God would deliver payback--- in God’s own time.    

…for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12: 19b)

David sincerely loved his enemy.  And when bad things happen to someone you love, you don’t rejoice; you mourn.  When David heard that Saul had been killed in battle,

David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.  And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening… (2 Samuel 1: 11, 12)

David became king.  Saul was killed, but not by David or David’s orders.  David totally won because he didn’t try to make his enemy totally lose.

Maybe that’s why we can’t completely win.  Maybe that’s why we have to keep fighting enemies we’d already beaten:  because we’re so happy to see our enemies fall.

And when we celebrate their defeat, God sees and it displeases Him and He stops beating them down, and we have to deal with them all over again.

Kinda explains a lot of American history.  

Kinda explains a lot of personal history, too.

   

Be glad you got the job.  Don't be glad them other fools are still broke.

Be happy that your son's team won.  Don't be happy that the opposing quarterback got hurt.

Thank God for the undeserved redemption and grace He purchased for you by the blood of Jesus Christ.  But don't do the that's-what-you-heathens-get dance when you hear about a Muslim or Hindhu girl disfigured by an acid attack or honor killing.

Cry out for deliverance.  God will answer.  Thank God, and move forward.  But don’t gloat.  Don’t brag.   Don’t forget that your salvation isn't justice.  It's mercy.

Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.  (Matthew 5:7)

Be merciful to your enemies.  Treat your haters with love.    

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;

And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;

For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,

And the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25: 21, 22)

Love those who want you to lose. 

It’s the only sure for you way to win.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

GIVE THEM SOME SPACE?

At a press conference Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake explained why she held the police back from early and aggressive response to protestors.  She wanted police to “…make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech.”

She went on to say “…we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well, and we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate." (NBC News)

The mediaverse lit up about Baltimore Mayor’s “Space to Destroy.”  The mayor was accused of incompetence, indifference, complicity with the violence, even racism and conspiracy to see poor Baltimore burn.  The mayor and her defenders said her words were mischaracterized, taken out of context, etc. etc.   

I don’t know.  

But I do know that what Mayor Rawlings-Blake said sounded an awful lot like something Jesus said.

In Revelations chapter 2, the Apostle John quotes Jesus from His letter to the church of Thyatira:

^Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. ^And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. (Revelations 2: 20, 21)

The King James Version renders the quote like this: I gave her SPACE TO REPENT. 

Jezebel was the evil wife of King Ahab, queen of northern Israel-Samaria, and nemesis of the prophet Elijah.  She was responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of Jewish prophets, the corruption local and national leaders; and she nearly succeeded in making pagan worship the official and exclusive religion for 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jezebel was not a good person.

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the Elijah of his day.  In similar manner, this woman in Thyatira was/ would be the new Jezebel.

Not a good person.

But the Lord didn’t/ wouldn’t intervene early to stop Jezebel’s murderous activities.   In 1 Kings 18 & 19, God authorized Elijah  to call down fire from Heaven and order the execution of Jezebel’s favorite prophets, but God didn’t let Elijah take out Jezebel.   The Lord let her live for years more, sending unheeded warning after unheeded warning to her, her husband, and their subjects.   

When the Lord finally fulfilled His prophetic promise to destroy Jezebel and all of her house,  Elijah had gone on to glory in a flaming chariot, and his protégé Elisha had to certify the execution (2 Kings 9).

But why wait?  She was not a good person.  She’s a Jezebel.  Her name is synonymous with being a bad person.  Why stand back and let her do all that damage?

Well, why stand back and let you do all the damage you’ve done?

How many hearts have you broken?

How many lies have you told?

How much pain and suffering has been caused by you, or the friend you love, or the child you adore, or the sibling you still believe in?

And why didn’t God take YOU or THEM out early?

We are all given more “space” than we deserve.

The theological terms for this are: grace, mercy, longsuffering, love.

Gracious, merciful, loving God gave, and will give, Jezebel space to repent.   She used, and will use, it as space to destroy.  Gracious, merciful, and loving God responds to that choice with destruction.

Anderson T. Graves II, circa 1992, was not a good person.  I wasn’t a murderer, but in other areas of my personal life I had some decidedly Jezebelish ways.  God gave me space to repent. In February 1994, I used that space to repent.  God saved my soul and changed my left for better than I had imagined. 

Samaria, Thyatira, Baltimore, Montgomery, or wherever you are---- in those places, we are all given more space than we deserve. 

It can be space to repent or it can be space to destroy.  The choice is in your control.

The consequences of that choice are not. 

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

GRACE BY ALL MEANS - The Articles of Religion # 16

Article XVI - Of the Sacraments

Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him.

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.

Those five commonly called sacraments, that is to say, confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel; being such as have partly grown out of the corrupt following of the apostles, and partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures, but yet have not the like nature of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, because they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves condemnation, as St. Paul saith.

Something supernatural happens when we pray.

Through the consciously physical act of speaking or thinking words toward God, God Himself personally and directly connects with us.  The divinely instituted but humanly executed act of prayer is what John Wesley called a means of grace.

Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement, defined a means of grace as “outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed … to be the ordinary channels whereby He might convey to men, preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”

Imperfect people pray because they want to experience the grace that only God can convey.  Prayer is the means, but it’s not the only one. 

Jesus taught that “men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18: 1).  The Lord also commanded that we keep the Lord’s Supper “as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22: 19); and that we carry on “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The means of grace include prayer and other works of piety, works of mercy, and keeping the sacraments. These are the channels God uses to connect us to Himself and to “convey to men, preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”

The sacraments are means of grace.  This means that baptism and communion are more than rituals.  Baptism isn’t just symbolic.  The Lord’s Supper is more than a re-enactment. 

Something supernatural happens when we participate in the sacraments.

Like prayer, the sacraments, open a channel  of direct connection to God.  That’s why Paul told the Galatians that “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3: 27)

That’s why the apostle warned the Corinthians to  recognize/ discern the presence of God in the Lord’s Supper, and to take that connection seriously.

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. (1 Corinthians 11: 29,30)

Too often we act out the rituals but we don’t discern the Lord’s presence connecting with us in the sacraments. We need to take the language of prayer and of worship and reconnect that language to the sacraments.  That language includes:  faith, enthusiasm, and expectation. 

We pray expectantly.  Let us baptize with expectation, thanking God in advance for what He will do to sanctify the life being baptized.

We worship enthusiastically.  Let’s come to the communion table with enthusiasm.  Let’s be happy and grateful for the chance to be at the altar of the Lore one mo’ time.

We approach God in prayer and in worship by faith. Then let's also baptize by faith, not just because it’s time for the infant or the new convert to be baptized but because we know that God is connecting with this person in this act.  

Let's commune by faith, not just because this is the Sunday that we do the juice and crackers, but because we KNOW that God is actually pouring out His grace on those who come to the table with honest hearts, even if they don’t have perfect lives.

But let's not confuse the MEANS with the END.  Nothing in the man-composed words of our rituals and nothing in the physical elements of the sacraments are supernatural in and of themselves.    A consecrated cracker can’t save you or protect you.  

But if you receive the sacraments the way you pray a sincere prayer, if you participate in the sacraments the way you give yourself over to authentic worship, then God does something supernatural.   God gives grace.   

Supernatural isn’t always spectacular.  The experience of God’s grace isn’t always a burning bush or a flaming pillar.  Grace reaches us as peace in unchanged circumstances, as direction along a still mysterious path, as assurance in the deep places of ourselves for which we have no adequate names.  

Grace is good.  By all means, get more of it.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

A CRISIS OF FAITH

Many Christians go through a period when they feel like they’ve lost their faith.  If you have gone through or are going through a time like this---- you’re not alone.  One of Jesus’ bravest and most loyal disciples experienced a season of profound doubt so deep that we call him “Doubting Thomas.”

Hear Thomas’ story.  Learn how a believer becomes a doubter.  And learn how to come out of doubt with stronger, life-changing, miracle-working faith.  The message is called A CRISIS OF FAITH.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064