TRYING TO MAKE GOD MAD. Proverbs 26: 2.

Proverbs 26: 2 Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight. 

Proverbs 26: 2. Let’s be clear: Curses are real. They happen. People suffer under them everyday. Spiritual/ demonic affliction is real. People all around you (maybe you yourself) are really burdened by it.

But let’s also be clear on some mechanics of cursing:
When someone curses you (I’m talking about “cursing” not “cussing.”), they are invoking God (or some other spiritual agent) to do you harm.
When does that happen these days? When someone prays for the Lord to “smite thee” or when they “rebuke you in the name of Jesus” they are calling on the Lord to act against you.

Yeah. But, here’s the thing: No one can make GOD do anything!

You can spray a super-soaker filled with prayer oil mixed with holy water blessed by an apostle and a bishop, but it means nothing if God has not already decided to do something to your target.

God has a mind of His own. So no matter how saved you are (or say you are), just because YOU’RE mad at somebody doesn’t necessarily mean that JESUS is mad, too.

The disciples/apostles James & John were 2 of Jesus’ 3 best friends in the whole, wide world. In Luke 9: 51-56, they got mad at village of Samaritans who flat out rejected Jesus. James & John wanted to curse the Samaritans. Instead Jesus rebuked the 2 disciples.

Just because YOU’RE mad at somebody doesn’t necessarily mean that JESUS is mad at them, too.

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?  (Numbers 23: 8)

Neither those who speak against you, nor you when you speak against someone have any real power to shut-up someone’s spirit, to put bad luck on them, to cut off their blessing, blah, blah, blah.

A person can--- hit you in the head, poison your drink, & lie on you to your boss; but they can’t put a curse on you unless God has already decided to judge you for your sin.

So, don’t waste your money on angel statuettes, medallions, prayer cloths, air fresheners with the Virgin Mary painted on the label, and all the other crap that’s supposed to ward of curses.

Just live right. Establish and grow in a personal, redeemed relationship with Jesus. Live so that God has no reason to curse you.

Everyone else can kick rocks.

Isaiah 54:17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.

---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

“Do it for the Vine!”

For those who don’t know, “The Vine” is an app that allows users with no other media software or skills  to make short videos on their phones.  The videos upload to social media and automatically play in a loop whenever anyone scrolls past. 

This app has become so popular that it’s birthed a new social slogan:  “Do it for the vine!”

When someone yells, “Do it for the vine!” you’re supposed to go crazy for the next few seconds.  They want you to do something video worthy. 

You were going to walk away from the argument because it wasn’t going anywhere good. 

No.  Fight instead.  Come on.

Do it for the vine.

You were going to bob your head to the music and keep on walking.

No.  Pull up your skirt and twerk instead.  Come on. 

Do it for the vine.

To “do it for the vine” you have to make a deliberate choice to ACT.  You can’t just sit there “for the vine.”  You can’t just stand around passively observing “for the vine.”  You have to get up and with all your energy DO SOMETHING “for the vine.”

Social media has made this call to choice and action a call to foolishness and self-degradation.

But like many cultural sins, the current trend is a corruption of something good.

You see, before we had an app for that, Jesus was telling people to “do it for the Vine.”

In John chapter 15, Jesus said,   “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser…I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.(John 15: 5)

Jesus is the true Vine and He wants us to be a part of Him-----and not a passive part.  The Lord commands the branches of His Vine  to DO something.

But not just any something.

If you are in Christ, if the Lord Jesus is in your heart, if He is Lord of your life, etc., etc. , then you should produce a certain type of fruit.

John the Baptist called it fruits worthy of repentance (Matthew 3: 8)

If you have truly repented of your sins and been engrafted into Jesus the True Vine, then you’ll talk to people as though you have left your sins behind not like you’re looking forward to sinning more.  (Colossians 4: 6)

If you’ve really received Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you’ll do your job (whatever that is) as though the integrity of your work was an expression of worship. (Ephesians 6: 6, 7)

If you are part of the Jesus Vine for real, then you will live in such a way that even when surrounded by the darkness of a sinful world, your good works shine as such a light before people that those who see you give glory to God.(Matthew 5: 16)

Speak, and act, and work, and live as though every choice were going to be played back in a loop for Jesus to watch.

Cause it kinda is.

But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.  (Matthew 12: 34)

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  (Matthew 7: 19)  

What we SAY about ourselves is just the caption we place under the scene.  The truth of where we stem from is recorded in our actions every day, every moment.

“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” Jesus said. (Matthew 7: 16)

At any given moment, someone may entice you to do something.  To show out.  To let go and show off the real you.

Do it for the vine!

But before you decide what to do, ask yourself:   Which vine?

Which vine are you part of?    Your fruit will tell.

Which vine defines you?  Your choice will answer.

Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. …Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7: 17-20)  

Jesus told His disciples, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. (John 15: 3, 4)

He promised that If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (John 15: 7, 8)

Jesus said that the good that is Him is already in you.  Just hold to His Word. Just rest in His presence.

Jesus said that if you abide in/ find your center in Him & His Word that you can bear good fruit.  Any good thing you want to accomplish you can do.

If you abide in Christ and in His Word, if you lose yourself and find yourself in Jesus, then you’ll be able to hear it---- the sound of Jesus chanting, “Come on, my child.  Show them what you got!  Get up.  Do your thing.  Bear My fruit.”

Do it for The Vine!

(Acknowledgement:  This blog post was my wife's idea.  God gave her the title and the concept.  She told me that I had to write it.  The Holy Spirit in us both did the rest.)

---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

READ IT LIKE JESUS SAID IT: The Last Supper

Historians, theologians, and cultural anthropologists have studied the Last Supper with expert eyes.  But for just a moment, I want you to look at the Last Supper through the personal eyes of Jesus.

Imagine walking into the upper room and looking around at the disciples---- not just the 12, but all the friends and followers who could pack themselves in for the annual Passover meal.  Your mother is there. (We know she was close enough to be at the cross the next morning.)  So are James’s and John’s mother, Mary Magdalene, and the others who walked with you from Galilee down through Jericho.

Imagine seeing them there, happy, excited about what a great Passover it’s been so far.  Hear them chattering away, so relieved that finally----- finally the crowds in Jerusalem are giving You the recognition You deserve.   Hear their easy conversation, their jokes about the chief priests with their empty threats, but they won’t raise a finger against You because the city would riot.

Hear them speculating on what the Kingdom will be like because surely it’s near. It must almost be time.  They’re so happy.  They’re so, so happy.

You look around at them all, and you think, “This time tomorrow I’ll be dead.”

That’s what the Last Supper meant to Jesus.

Yes, it was the fulfillment of prophesy.  Yes, it was the bridge between the Old Covenant and the New.  Before the night is  done, Jesus will teach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, review the fundamentals of the New Testament Church, institute the practice of prayer in His name, and clarify the eschatology of the end times.

But on it’s deepest and most personal level, this seder meal that Jesus organized was His last chance to have all of His friends together before He died.

What would you say to your friends tonight, if you KNEW that you were going to die tomorrow?

From the moment Judas left the room in John 13: 30 until Jesus and the 12 headed out for the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane in John 18: 1,  Jesus talked.  For 4 ½ chapters John records what Jesus said.  Nearly a quarter of John’s gospel is occupied by this one conversation/ lesson/ sermon.

The Last Supper tells us what Jesus would say if He knew that He was going to die the next day.

Because He did.

This week, read John chapters 13-17 again.  Hear the voice of Jesus speak to you.  Hear His sorrow and His hope.  Listen to the Word like your Best Friend was talking and this was the Last Supper you would have with Him.

Listen well, because that’s what it meant to Jesus.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. (John 14: 30)

I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15: 15)

---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

Laugh a Little because Jesus Couldn't Pick a Denomination

As I read and re-read the gospels I see in Jesus’ ministry, the already blooming seeds of Protestant denominations.  An it's kinda funny.

Of course the miracles and prophetic declarations foreshadow Pentecostals and charismatics.

In Luke 9, Jesus took His disciples way out into the country just to talk,

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place (Luke 9: 10)

but it turned into a major meeting ,

But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God (verse 11)

with side gatherings  and breakout sessions,

Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” ^15 And they did so, and made them all sit down (verses 14, 15)

and they couldn’t dismiss until they'd served a meal and packed some to-go plates.

So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them (verse 16)

That was a Methodist moment.

And then there’s John’s account of the Last Supper.

After 2 chapters of preaching, Jesus said Arise, let us go from here (John 14: 31), but they didn’t go anywhere.  Jesus kept preaching for another 3 chapters.   

When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. (John 18: 1)  

Jesus said He was closing, but He preached longer after His first close than He had before it.

Now that was full-on Baptist.

---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

BLOGGING THE LORD'S PRAYER: Lead Us Not into------ What?

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one (Matthew 6: 13; Luke 11: 4 )

This section of the Lord’s model prayer speaks a simple message:  Trouble is bad, but sin is worse.

If you get into trouble, if you fall into tribulation, if you are afflicted by the evil one then Jesus says, “It’s O.K.   Ask God for deliverance.”

Bad things will happen to you, but don’t panic.   God will bring you through.

That’s why John 16:33 ends with Jesus’ reassurance that In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.(John 16: 33)

So, even though you know that evil times are inevitable, you can “Keep calm and carry on.”

That’s why John 16: 33 begins with Jesus explaining that These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

 Evil situations are bad, but what should you most isn’t evil; it’s TEMPTATION. 

Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1: 14, 15)

So pray: Lord, do not lead us into temptation .

Jesus basically said, “You don’t even want to go there---- at all,” and Jesus knew a thing or two about how being led into temptation.

After He was baptized by John, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  (Matthew 4:1)

God Himself didn’t personally do the tempting.  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God” (James 1: 13); but God did lead Jesus into the place where He would be tempted.  Tempted to sin.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4: 15)

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.(James 1: 12)

Jesus did not fall to the temptation.  But He felt it.

Jesus experienced temptation, and He experienced suffering at the hands of evil one(s).

Every day of His life down here on Earth, Jesus  suffered with the deprivation of Heaven.  Jesus was hated, misunderstood, and targeted for attack essentially from the day of His conception.  Every day Jesus lived with the heart-wrenching knowledge that He would be betrayed and denied by the men He trusted most and abandoned by all of  His best friends.  Jesus knew that His Earthly life would be ended by injustice, torture, and execution in the most painful manner devised by the collective intelligence of the most advanced civilization in the Western world.

Of course Jesus didn’t enjoy or want any of that suffering.   In the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweated blood from the stress (Luke 22: 44) and  fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26: 39)

Yet, despite His suffering, Jesus did not teach His disciples to pray for God to let them avoid evil/ the evil one.  In comparison, Jesus regarded temptation, the enticement to disobey God, as so bad that His disciples we should ask God to keep them away from it all together.

Being tempted hurt Jesus more than being mistreated.

The whip hurt.  The punches, the nail, the spear to His side, they pained Him and/ or left scars.   But it was only when the weight of all sin fell on Him that Jesus spoke with despair---- and gave up.

 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” … And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  (Matthew 27: 46, 50)

For Jesus, sin was worse than suffering.

And so Jesus taught His disciples (then and now) to ask God to deliver us from the evil one; but please, please whatever you do, Lord, do not lead us into temptation.

Which is exactly the opposite of how we actually pray.

Except when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, most Christian prayers sound more like:  Deliver us from temptation and do not lead us into evil.

We excuse our continual sin and we relish our temptations.

"Don’t judge me." 

"Everyone has a right to..."

"I should be able to choose for myself."

"Blah blah blah blah---- grace."

(Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly NOT!)

I’ve actually heard people pray, “And if I should do anything that displeases you this week, then, Lord forgive me.”  (They said this out loud, and they weren’t on any heavy medication at the time.)

We want to yield to every temptation and then get God to deliver us.

But we don’t want to even touch tribulation.  We don’t want to endure any suffering.  We don’t want to experience any pain.  In fact, popular Christianity claims ease and exemption from all unpleasantries as the birthright of every true child of the King.

We want God to keep us away from pain and get us out of sin.

Generally, we Christians are more worried about suffering than about sinning.  And that is the opposite of what Jesus taught.

Jesus said: In the world you WILL have tribulation. 

In the midst of trouble, Jesus tells us that we can still have peace.  We can claim victory and deliverance even while we are being afflicted. 

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Surrounded and affected by a world of suffering we can be of good cheer, because Jesus has already overcome the world and we are always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10)

So, though we wish that this cup could pass from us, nevertheless we trust that God will deliver us from evil.  

Popular Christianity portrays suffering as avoidable (with enough faith) and sin as inevitable.  But that’s not what the Bible says.

Though our flesh longs to yield to temptation, we who have received grace should not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (Romans 6: 13).

Though there’s a part of us that wants to go there and ask for forgiveness later, we are taught to flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.  (2 Timothy 2:22)

I know what everyone says.  I know how everyone thinks.  As Christians, our goal is to transcend our thinking and come to think like Jesus.

Well, Jesus thought that sin was worse than suffering.

And so, we deliberately and obediently pray: 

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one. 

---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

CHILD WORSHIP

Eli was high priest of Israel before Samuel.  Eli had two sons, but the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord. (1 Samuel 2: 12 )  Eli’s sons took advantage of the hereditary title of priest.  They were so corrupt that people thought, “If this is how men of God act, I don’t want anything to do with worship.”  And that made God MAD.

Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.  (1 Samuel 2: 17)

Eli heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting (1 Samuel 2: 22)
But all Eli did was scold his sons a little.  He didn’t punish them.  He didn’t demand that they confess.  He didn’t take away their priestly duties or withdraw any of their privileges; even though Eli knew that his sons, priests, were actually causing more sin.

No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord’s people transgress. (1 Samuel 2: 24)

The Lord sent an unnamed prophet to deliver a message to Eli.  The Lord said: Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me? (1 Samuel 2: 29)

Why do you honor your sons more than Me?

When you stop calling it wrong when you find out YOUR child does it, too; you honor your children more than God.

When you ignore the way the Bible tells you to raise your children because you don’t want to upset the child, never mind how it makes God feel; you honor your children more than God.

When you treat your child as infallible and incapable of any wrong and you rebuke everyone who tells you otherwise, regardless of evidence and logic and the fact that you've heard the same things from multiple teachers in every grade at different schools; then you have made your child a holy god in your eyes and you honor your child more than God.

And when you honor your child more than God, then God says:  Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. (1 Samuel 2: 30)

When you honor your child more than God, then God says:

Generations of baby boys will die young.

I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house (1 Samuel 2: 31)

Kids from good homes, surrounded by “saved and sanctified” family, in a land full of opportunity will die young.

Despite all the good which God does for Israel, … there shall not be an old man in your house forever (1 Samuel 2: 32)

And the ones who live will disrespect you, shame you, and break your hearts.

Any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart  (1 Samuel 2: 33)

The tragedy will happen non-stop.

Your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them (1 Samuel 2: 33)

And all the potential you saw in them, all the good you “claimed in the name of Jesus” for your own, will go to another.

I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind  (1 Samuel 2: 35)

And your children and the children of your children will borrow and beg at the feet of others

Everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread  (1 Samuel 2: 36)

All because you honor your sons more than God.

Think about it.  Think about it.

Of course you love them so much that you don’t want to deny them anything.  Of course you love them so much that you want to believe everything they say.

But do you love them more than that?  Do you love them enough to discipline them into morally strong men instead of morally empty boys?

Do you love them enough to make them be respectful to all adults because it’s right not because it’s earned so that they grow up knowing that right is not relative?

Do you love them enough to distrust them a little and check their stories before you act on them?

Do you love them enough to  repent of your sins and walk right before them so that they understand that even Daddy and Mama submit to God?

Do you love your children enough to place the love of God, His Word, and His ways above their wants and yours?

Do you love your children enough to honor God more than you honor them?

Well if you don’t, at least you know what to expect.

And the expectation isn't hypothetical. 

Eli continued indulging and enabling his sons for years.  But before his grandchild was born, Eli lost both sons and the ark of the covenant that had been the great charge of his ministry.  After 40 years of ministry, Eli passed out, broke his neck, and died knowing that he’d lost everything he’d been trying to hold onto (1 Samuel 4: 1-18).

And the legacy of Eli’s cursed parenting did not end with his sons. The curse passed to another generation, a generation led by a single mother filled with bitterness over the failings of the men in her family.  With her dying breath, Eli’s daughter-in-law poured that bitterness out on her son.

Phinehas’ wife, was with child, due to be delivered; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her.  And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Do not fear, for you have borne a son.”

But she did not answer, nor did she regard it.

Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” (1 Samuel 4: 19 )

We see this curse at work all around us.  The death, the immorality, the epidemic of shameless failure--- they aren’t coincidences.  They’re consequences.

The consequences of honoring our children more than we honor God.

---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

SOME THOUGHTS

Some thoughts from My Literalist, Bible-believing Worldview:

On Labor, Minimum Wage and Immigrant Workers

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it,

for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you. (Deuteronomy  24: 14, 15)    

On Predatory Lending

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.

If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.  (Exodus 22: 25-27)

On Entitlements

If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.   (Leviticus 25: 35)

On Community Service/ Unpaid Labor to Receive Charity

And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.  (Leviticus 25:39)

On Deference to the Rich and Special Protection for “Job Creators”

The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor;

Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire;

He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. (Psalm 10: 2-3)

He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, And he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty.  (Proverbs 22: 16)

The righteous considers the cause of the poor, But the wicked does not understand such knowledge. (Proverbs 29:7)

On Liberal, “Socialist” Activists

Defend the poor and fatherless;

Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy;

Free them from the hand of the wicked.  (Psalm 82: 3-4)

On Equal Rights for Women

Then came the daughters of Zelophehad …     And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying, “Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers.”

So Moses brought their case before the Lord.

 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right.”  (Numbers 27: 1, 2, 4-7 )

On the “Place” of ex-Criminals and Sinners

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.  (Matthew 21: 31)

On Single Mothers and Children without an Active Father

You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.  If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. (Exodus 22: 22-23)

On What We’ll Have to Answer for in Judgment

“For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”

 Then they also will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?”

Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  (Matthew 25: 42-46)

 ---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  .

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Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116