SIN, MONEY, & CRAZY

Many churches and church member face serious problems.  Those problems are diverse and complex, but in the congregations I most interact with, all of the major issues boil down to 2 things:  sin and money.

The life of Gideon in the book of Judges deals with the problems of sin and money, and it shows us the solution.  But I have to warn you, the answer is a little crazy.

The title of the message is SIN, MONEY, & CRAZY.

Listen well.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 26. "Gracious Lady"

Proverbs 31: 26     She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

Proverbs 31: 26.  The ideal woman, the kind who’d make a great queen, knows what to say and exactly how to say it.  She is not the airhead  laughing mindlessly and loudly all the guys’ jokes while squeezing her shoulders together so they can see her cleavage.   The future queen is too wise for that.  She understands that if she presents herself like a fool that any man can have then men will treat her like a fool that any man can have.

The future queen, wherever she is, whomever she is, speaks with wisdom and kindness.   And she isn’t nice according to class, or ethnicity, or economic status, or how closely the other people match her concept of physical beauty.  She is kind according to the law of God. 

Because God said so, she loves and speaks kindly to her neighbor---- her rich neighbor, her poor neighbor, her Christian neighbor, her you-believe-what neighbor, her same-race-as-me neighbor, her not-my-same-skin-tone neighbor, her looks-like-they-got-it-all-together neighbor, her everything’s-falling-apart neighbor, etc., etc.

She’s not nice because she’s weak.  She isn’t kind because she’s “fake.”  (“Fake” is such a hellishly stupid concept.  Like somehow it’s more genuine to be a gossiping jerk than to be freakin’ polite and professional.)  The woman who will be queen is not polite because she wants something from you.  She is kind because that’s how the Bible, the law of God, teaches her to be. (Ephesians 4: 29-32;  Luke 10: 29-37)

The same speaker who described the virtuous woman also advised the reigning king: 

Open your mouth for the speechless,

In the cause of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth, judge righteously,

And plead the cause of the poor and needy. ( Proverbs 31: 8, 9)

A Proverbs 31: 26 woman speaks kindly and wisely because that is what good kings do, and she is a match for a king. 

In the South, we have a word for a such a woman.  We call her a “gracious lady.”  It’s the way we describe the wives of governors and presidents, and the matriarchs of great families.   It’s what we expect of our queens.

Speak to people as a gracious lady.  It’s what God expects of His queens.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.   Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4: 5, 6)

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 31: 26. "Gracious Lady"

Proverbs 31: 26     She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

Proverbs 31: 26.  The ideal woman, the kind who’d make a great queen, knows what to say and exactly how to say it.  She is not the airhead  laughing mindlessly and loudly all the guys’ jokes while squeezing her shoulders together so they can see her cleavage.   The future queen is too wise for that.  She understands that if she presents herself like a fool that any man can have then men will treat her like a fool that any man can have.

The future queen, wherever she is, whomever she is, speaks with wisdom and kindness.   And she isn’t nice according to class, or ethnicity, or economic status, or how closely the other people match her concept of physical beauty.  She is kind according to the law of God. 

Because God said so, she loves and speaks kindly to her neighbor---- her rich neighbor, her poor neighbor, her Christian neighbor, her you-believe-what neighbor, her same-race-as-me neighbor, her not-my-same-skin-tone neighbor, her looks-like-they-got-it-all-together neighbor, her everything’s-falling-apart neighbor, etc., etc.

She’s not nice because she’s weak.  She isn’t kind because she’s “fake.”  (“Fake” is such a hellishly stupid concept.  Like somehow it’s more genuine to be a gossiping jerk than to be freakin’ polite and professional.)  The woman who will be queen is not polite because she wants something from you.  She is kind because that’s how the Bible, the law of God, teaches her to be. (Ephesians 4: 29-32;  Luke 10: 29-37)

The same speaker who described the virtuous woman also advised the reigning king: 

Open your mouth for the speechless,

In the cause of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth, judge righteously,

And plead the cause of the poor and needy. ( Proverbs 31: 8, 9)

A Proverbs 31: 26 woman speaks kindly and wisely because that is what good kings do, and she is a match for a king. 

In the South, we have a word for a such a woman.  We call her a “gracious lady.”  It’s the way we describe the wives of governors and presidents, and the matriarchs of great families.   It’s what we expect of our queens.

Speak to people as a gracious lady.  It’s what God expects of His queens.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.   Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4: 5, 6)

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

LIVING WRONG IN THE NAME OF JESUS

The closing chapters of the book of Judges record events that weren’t very ------ godly.  These are not the accounts of Biblical role models.  These are the what-not-to-do stories.  Judges chapters 17 & 18 in particular shows how good, loving, family-oriented people end up setting in motion generational cycles of sin that consume them, their descendants, and their community.  The lessons of this cautionary tale can change the trajectory of your life and the lives of those you love. 

Listen well so that you don’t end up LIVING WRONG IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 25. "The Warrior Wife"

Proverbs 31: 25     Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31: 25.  I feel really bad for a man who, day after day, has to wake up to weak coffee and/or a weak woman.  Neither one is going to help the brother get through the day.

And, sisters, I know that there are a historical and cultural forces that encourage you to dull your intellect, atrophy your strength, and let your boobs speak for you.  Fight against those forces.

It may be easier to project a perpetually wretched attitude.  It may be easier to pretend to be stupid until it’s no longer pretending.  It may be easier to let men pass you around like an unmarked cup at a frat party.  But in the end you will have only misery.

It’s more difficult for a woman to walk in her strengths, to lead with her brains and not her body, to be honorable in relationships rather than being gossipy, messy, and cliquish.  Yeah, that is much harder. But God promises and experience proves that you will be happier in the end.

God made you to be both strong and honorable. 

Not miserable and wretched.  Not weak and silent.   Not dumb and promiscuous.  Strong and honorable.

Strength refers to the ability to perform her tasks.  Honor refers to trustworthiness and loyalty.

Strength and honor sounds like a warrior traits, don’t they? 

Of course they do.

After all , a man needs a wife who will watch his back, much like a king needs bodyguards to watch his.

A king doesn’t ask the cook to watch his back if the cook is just a cook.  A king doesn’t leave guard duty to the butler if the butler is just the butler.  A king doesn’t dispatch the janitor to cover the flank while he charges toward the enemy, not if the janitor is just a janitor. No.   Unless------ the cook, the butler, and the janitor are really warriors undercover.   

Under the cover of marital submission, a man’s wife is really his most trusted and loyal warrior.

Now, I don’t need my wife’s physical protection.  Physical protection is my job. (Yes.  It is.) 

But I do need somebody to spot (and sometimes quietly eliminate) the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual threats that I miss.   That’s the job of my warrior-queen.

When I look at the woman God gave me to watch my back I know that she will and I know that she can.   I hear it in her conversation.  I see it in the clothes she chooses (and chooses not) to wear.  I feel it in the way her body tenses and her eyes narrow when untrustworthy people step into my personal space.   It’s all over her.

She wears strength and honor like clothing.

And that looks good on a woman.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 31: 25. "The Warrior Wife"

Proverbs 31: 25     Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31: 25.  I feel really bad for a man who, day after day, has to wake up to weak coffee and/or a weak woman.  Neither one is going to help the brother get through the day.

And, sisters, I know that there are a historical and cultural forces that encourage you to dull your intellect, atrophy your strength, and let your boobs speak for you.  Fight against those forces.

It may be easier to project a perpetually wretched attitude.  It may be easier to pretend to be stupid until it’s no longer pretending.  It may be easier to let men pass you around like an unmarked cup at a frat party.  But in the end you will have only misery.

It’s more difficult for a woman to walk in her strengths, to lead with her brains and not her body, to be honorable in relationships rather than being gossipy, messy, and cliquish.  Yeah, that is much harder. But God promises and experience proves that you will be happier in the end.

God made you to be both strong and honorable. 

Not miserable and wretched.  Not weak and silent.   Not dumb and promiscuous.  Strong and honorable.

Strength refers to the ability to perform her tasks.  Honor refers to trustworthiness and loyalty.

Strength and honor sounds like a warrior traits, don’t they? 

Of course they do.

After all , a man needs a wife who will watch his back, much like a king needs bodyguards to watch his.

A king doesn’t ask the cook to watch his back if the cook is just a cook.  A king doesn’t leave guard duty to the butler if the butler is just the butler.  A king doesn’t dispatch the janitor to cover the flank while he charges toward the enemy, not if the janitor is just a janitor. No.   Unless------ the cook, the butler, and the janitor are really warriors undercover.   

Under the cover of marital submission, a man’s wife is really his most trusted and loyal warrior.

Now, I don’t need my wife’s physical protection.  Physical protection is my job. (Yes.  It is.) 

But I do need somebody to spot (and sometimes quietly eliminate) the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual threats that I miss.   That’s the job of my warrior-queen.

When I look at the woman God gave me to watch my back I know that she will and I know that she can.   I hear it in her conversation.  I see it in the clothes she chooses (and chooses not) to wear.  I feel it in the way her body tenses and her eyes narrow when untrustworthy people step into my personal space.   It’s all over her.

She wears strength and honor like clothing.

And that looks good on a woman.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

PRAISE BY THE BOOK

What does it actually mean to “praise the Lord”?
Set aside your assumptions, and prepare to learn what the Book actually says about what God does and does not want in our praise.
Learn how to Give God PRAISE BY THE BOOK.

Listen well.

The message is called  PRAISE BY THE BOOK.

Listen well.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116