IT'S A HUMBLING JOB, BUT SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 12: 8)

Paul had a problem, a major problem.  He called it a thorn in his flesh.  We don’t know for certain what this “thorn” was, but it was bad.  Paul called it a messenger of Satan.   It buffeted Paul.  (Buffet means it beat him down.)   Three times he went into extended prayer, begging God to take it away. 

God had saved Paul from shipwreck, preserved him from stoning, delivered him from prison, and neutralized the venom of an island viper that bit Paul beside a campfire.  But this thing----this thorn in Paul’s side---- God refused to remove it.

In fact, it was God who sent the thorn to Paul in the first place.    

Now why would God afflict His personally called apostle to the Gentiles with a thorn in his flesh? Why would God afflict His most prolific New Testament author with a messenger from Satan to beat him down.

Paul confessed the reason:  lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.

Paul had a problem with pride.

Sometimes he got full of himself.  Just skim through 2 Corinthians and look at all the times and ways that Paul used the word boast or its translate equivalent.

Paul found it hard to humble himself.

So God did it for him.

For Christians, especially for Christians called to a level of extraordinary service, God DEMANDS humility.

But He offers a choice in the way we acquire humility.

We can (a) humble ourselves

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. (2 Chronicles 12: 7)

Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18: 4)

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.  (James 4: 10)

Or (b) God will do it for us.

People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled (Isaiah 5: 15)

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  (Matthew 23: 12)

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (James 4: 6)

Paul taught a lot of spiritually correct things about humility and esteeming others better than ourselves (Philippians 2: 3); but Paul wasn’t good at practicing the humility that he preached.

Paul didn’t do a very good job of keeping himself humble, so God sent a thorn in the flesh , a messenger of Satan to do it for him.

You and I have a choice.  We can learn from Paul’s experience or we can share in Paul’s experience.

Something to think about the next time you assume that your story is the most important story they'll ever hear.

Something to think about the next time it's has to be cheating, or nepotism, or racism, because it's impossible that anybody was actually just ---- better.

Something to think about the next time you walk into a room thinking how blessed these people are to have YOU there.

Humbling you is a dirty job, but somebody's going to do 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 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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

MAMA, WHAT YOU CALL THEM---- THAT’S WHO THEY’LL BE

The Mother’s Day message is called MAMA, WHAT YOU CALL THEM---- THAT’S WHO THEY’LL BE.

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 .

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

Or send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail should be addressed to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL LISTENING?

A young man became lost driving back roads in Alabama.  He saw an elderly man walking on the side of the road and asked directions to his destination.  The elderly man said, “Sure.  Give me a ride and I’ll lead you right on in.”

After 45 minutes of twists and turns off and onto county roads and dirt roads, they arrived at a house in the town of Slapout, Alabama. 

As the elderly man exited the young man’s car, the young man confusedly said, “But sir, this isn’t where I was trying to go.”

“I know, son,” the elderly man replied as he closed the gate behind him, “but this is where I was trying to go.”

                   

Where are the people you’re following, leading you?

It kills me how so many people still tune in for relationship and parenting advice from single celebrities with jacked up children.

I'm not talking about folks who HAD broken relationships and have healed their families.  Those folks are credible.

I'm talking about the people you listen to who's CURRENT significant other is nonexistent or a fool and whose children are CURRENTLY more screwed up than you are.

These celebrity advice-givers are clearly gifted in communication and empathy; but if their personal lives are still sick, how can they treat yours without infecting you with their issues and causing you more harm than good?

Jesus put it like this: How can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”

“Hypocrite!, “ said Jesus, “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7: 4, 5)

And, stop confusing the magnitude of someone’s financial success and media notoriety with the health of their personal lives.   That’s two totally different things.

You’re not listening to them to learn how to be rich and televised; you’re watching them to hear how to be good husbands, wives, and parents.

But the people you’re listening to  are terrible spouses and parents.  Heck, some of them are NOT spouses OR parents.

But they “understand”……..?

Do you understand what they understand?

Look past the money and  their own press releases.  How have they structured their own relationships? That’s their idea of success. 

Do you want to learn how to never have kids and build a house for an unemployed man who ain’t neeeever gonna marry you to live in in your backyard?

I only ask, because that’s how some people define a successful long-term relationship.

(Yes.  There is where I went.)

Do you want to learn how to be a good, strong Christian woman from someone who’s idea of spiritual success involves ordination in the priesthood of Yoruba idols?

I only ask because that is how some people define spiritual maturity.

(Yep.  I said that, too.)

If that’s what you want, then cool.  Keep listening.  Take notes.  Download the audiobook.

But if you define relational and spiritual success differently; then perhaps you should look for a guide whose definition of success in those areas matches yours.

Otherwise you might achieve a goal you don’t want to achieve.

“Let them alone,” said Jesus, “They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. (Matthew 15:14)

---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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

WHOSE BABY IS IT, MAMA?

A  mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  (Genesis 2: 6, 7)

Genesis 2 says that God formed man in the womb of the earth.  But the earth did not CREATE man.  God did. 

From the mist watered dust of Pangaean Africa, the Lord shaped a man, but it was only a shape until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  Man was on the earth and of the earth.  His work was with the earth. 

But Man was not made by the earth or for the earth. 

Man was made by God, in God’s image, to serve God’s purpose.

In the beginning man’s meaning, our destiny was found beyond the womb that birthed us.

Some things never change.

For You formed my inward parts;

You covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You,

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made…

My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them. ( Psalm 139: 13-16)

Biological mothers have the great privilege of participating in the Divine work of creation.  A baby, a child, an original image of the eternal God is fashioned inside of them.

Inside a mother, but not BY a mother.

God said that, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.  Before you were born I sanctified you.”” (Jeremiah 1: 5)

Who formed you?  Who knew you first?

Now take a deeeep breath.

Mothers don’t make babies.  God does.

A mother to her child is as vital as the earth, but a child’s identity, purpose, and destiny can only truly be found beyond the womb that birthed him.

For a season of 17 years or so, mothers have stewardship of Divinely created life in the person of their babies.   For that season, Mom, you are steward of God’s image. 

Steward, not owner.

I was cast upon You from birth.

From My mother’s womb You have been My God.  (Psalm 22: 10)

Mama, your job is to guide your children to God from their birth, to teach them to know the Lord from their earliest movements in the womb until the moment they exit your home for adulthood.

They’re yours, but they don’t belong to you forever.

Bring them up so that you can let them go.  Love them so well that they can leave you.  Provide for them such a home that they can build their own without you.

Don’t handicap your children with co-dependency.  Don’t tie them in knots of guilt or poison their marriage prospects to keep them near.  With such strategies you may keep them close to you, but you will take them far from their God-given purpose.

And that’s hard.   But not just for you.

Hannah, the mother of the great prophet and king-maker Samuel,  agonized over her obligation to  set her son on the path to his destiny, a path that would separate them for months on end.

Hanna said, “For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord.” So they worshiped the Lord there.” (1 Samuel 1: 27, 28)

Notice Hannah’s language.  She couldn’t bring herself to say that she was GIVING Samuel back to God.  She called it a loan.  She struggled within herself, but she let Samuel go.   Hannah didn’t just release her child.  She delivered him ---- to God.

Through pregnancy you labor to bring forth a baby who can survive outside your body.  Through motherhood you labor to deliver an adult who can survive outside your home.

The God-ordained mission of motherhood is  to bring your children up in such love, instruction, and example that when the time comes for them to pursue their destiny you deliver into the world an adult who understands that he/she does not belong to Mama.

They belong to God.

I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother …and your mother …, and I am persuaded is in you also. (2 Timothy 1: 5)

---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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

IDK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOVE

I was having a conversation with a teacher friend and I realized something.  We have texting acronyms to express humor, sarcasm, anger, and sexual innuendo, but not for compassion or shared grief.  (None that I’ve seen)

If you wreck your car,  I might LOL or SMDH.  But  I don't FBFU (feel bad for you) or HURA (hope you're all right).

Our communication lacks the language of empathy.

If you wreck your car,  I might LOL or SMDH.  But  I don't FBFU (feel bad for you) or HURA (hope you're all right).

Our communication lacks the language of empathy.

As a society we’re training our hands and lips to be mean and nothing else.  We’re teaching ourselves, especially our children, to interpret every event as something to be laughed at or scoffed at.

What are we making of our children, of ourselves?

David described the product of such grammatical manufacturing. 

Pride serves as their necklace;

Violence covers them like a garment.

Their eyes bulge with abundance;

They have more than heart could wish.

They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression;

They speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens, (Psalm 73: 6-9)

Verse 9 prophetically describes the range of this kind of communication. 

And their tongue walks through the earth.  

Worldwide 

WWW dot

Hashtag

No filter

Think about it.  When's the last time you saw a funeral broadcast on tv that didn't include some kind of snarky commentary or supposed controversy?

When's the last time that a tragedy was just a tragedy and not also a scandal?

What does it mean when the most important word in the last year was “selfie”?

SELFie.

Most daily communication is devoid of any emotion that cannot be expressed in a picture I took of me.

I of ME.

Culturally, we don’t talk anymore about loving our neighbors.  It takes too long, so we only talk about loving ourselves.

We're losing the language of empathy and replacing it with the vocabulary of pandemic narcissism.

Linguistic history teaches that when a society loses the words for a thing, the thing itself disappears.

What does that look like?  Again, the ancient Book describes it well.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:   For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  (2 Timothy 3: 1-4)

Any of this sounding the least bit familiar?

Solomon said: Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18: 21).

Perhaps we should add a footnote saying, “and in the power of the text, too.”

And if that’s true, then what are we doing by what we are saying?

What are we losing by what we aren’t texting?

By what we have no acronyms to depict?

We have abbreviations for hate and lust and mockery, but we are losing the language of genuine love.

---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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

How much of what we believe comes from the Bible, and how much comes from “You know it’s like They say…,”   not They in the culture, but They in the church.

What if They are wrong?

What if what They always say about God's expectations isn't what the Bible says?

If you really want to know, Pastor Graves answers these questions in a message that challenges our conventional wisdom.

The message is called THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION.

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 .

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

Or send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail should be addressed to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A PSALM FOR FAMILIES

When Your disciples asked You

to teach them

to pray

You taught them to begin

“Our Father Who Art in Heaven”

Our FATHER

Of all the ways You could present Yourself

Of all the ways Jesus could present You

You named Yourself our FATHER

Thank You.

Now, restore to us the joy of fatherhood in Your name

Restore to men the joy of leadership

Of responsibility

Of being the protector

Or being the provider

Of being there.

Restore to us the joy of being husbands and fathers and the first priest of our families

Fathers in Your name

You brought forth life from nothing

Out of the womb of the earth You birthed us all

Thank You.

Now, restore to us the joy of motherhood in Your name

Bring back the joy of bringing life

Of nurturing

Teaching

Caring

Restore the joy of womanly grace

And of being the first love in our homes

Restore to us the joy of motherhood in Your name

When we Your children went so wrong that You saw us headed to death and condemnation

You chose

Of all the ways you could have intervened

To manifest and send to us Yourself as Your child as Your Son

Thank you.

Now, Lord, restore to us the joy of childhood.

Give our children peace

And dreams

Hope

And security

Give our children laughter without malice

Play without corruption

Discovery without destruction

Protect them from themselves

Deliver them from the enemy who makes them enemies

Of themselves

Bring back the joy of childhood

In Your name.

When we were broken by sin

You gave Your Son to make us whole

And Your Holy Spirit to remain with us

And in us

To empower us to live wholly.

Now, fill our families with your Holy Spirit

Where we are broken,

Split

Divided

Separated

Estranged

Or strangers

Heal us.  Make us whole.

Restore the lost joy of loving one another.

Empower reconciliation

Enable restoration

Cleanse our tainted hearts

And renew our wronged spirits

Give your Holy Spirit to us

And restore to us the joy

Of family

So that we may remember Who made us

And in remembering fulfill

The first blessing of Creation

And reflect Your image

In our FAMILIES.

---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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116