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Monday, March 31, 2014

WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARY ARE YOU?

In the CME Church and other traditional African-American denominations, we have an organization called the Women’s Missionary Society and we have an expression:  “Everyone is a missionary.”  But in our churches, being a “missionary” doesn’t always mean what you might think it means.  So what does being a missionary mean TO GOD?

Originally delivered at Bass Tabernacle CME Church for the Tuscaloosa District of the Women’s Missionary Societies, this message poses the question: WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARY ARE YOU?

It’s not a question for certain groups in the church, but it is a question that EVERY Christian must personally ask an answer.


So, 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

WHEN JESUS EXPECTS YOU TO BE FRUITFUL IN AN UNFRUITFUL SEASON

Being “stuck in a rut” is an old expression but a persistent problem. Sometimes we find ourselves being personally, professionally, or spiritually unproductive; and we feel stuck in a cycle, “in a rut” of un-fruitfulness.

A season of unfruitfulness can have devastating consequences, especially in our spiritual lives. Jesus recognized this persistent problem and dealt with it----- by talking about fig trees. Take a fresh look at the parables (there was more than one) of the fig trees and learn about: BEING FRUITFUL IN AN UNFRUITFUL SEASON.

This message can bring you out of your unfruitful season.

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

Friday, March 28, 2014

Blogging the Lord's Prayer: BREAD AND FORGIVENESS

Jesus said that to receive what we ask in prayer, we must have faith.  But, Jesus DID NOT say that ALL we need is faith.

No.  No, He didn’t. 

In the Lord’s Prayer, the prototype for effective prayer, Jesus taught:
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6: 12, 13)

Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. (Luke 11: 3, 4)

See the AND there? 

The original Greek word is a primary particle used as a conjunction “having a copulative or cumulative effect.”  In other words, The forgiveness clause is part of the give us our daily bread clause.

To receive, you need faith, but you also need to be forgiven AND you need to be forgiving.

Still don’t believe me?  Can’t hear me over the echo of Creflo Dollar in your ear?

O.K.  Go to Mark chapter 11.

Jesus was teaching His disciples about the power of faith. 

Mark 11: 22     So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
23     For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
24     Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

That makes sense to you, doesn’t it?  Faith moves mountains.

But Jesus didn’t end His lesson there.  Keep reading and you’ll notice an And

Mark 11: 25      “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26     But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Jesus deliberately and repeatedly linked receiving by faith to forgiveness and forgiving.

Jesus said that if you’re praying and asking by faith, but you have something against somebody, then before you finish your prayer, you’re supposed to forgive the person who offended you. 

Why do you have to forgive them? 

Because if you don’t forgive them for what they did to you, then you can’t expect God to forgive you for the dirt you’ve done to Him.  And if you approach God begging, but unforgiven (or to put it another way---- unrepentant) then you can’t expect God to give you anything---- no matter how much faith you have.

James 1: 5-8 says that we must have faith when we pray.  We can’t expect to receive from God when we are doubtful or double-minded .  Later, in James  4: 6-8, Scripture gives us a working cure for double-mindedness: Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts…

In other words, ask for forgiveness.  In one word, REPENT.

If you don’t repent, you’re double-minded; and let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1: 7, 8)

Experience demonstrates that you can ask in faith and still not receive.  Therefore, there must be something more to receiving that JUST FAITH.   

Yeah, yeah.  I know what “they” say.  “They” say that all you have to do is speak the word and believe.  But, what does the Bible say?

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  (James 4:3)

If you follow the reasoning in James chapter 4,  you see that the whole passage is about the two things that keep Christians from getting their prayers answered.  Those two things are:
(1)Our grudging, unforgiveness toward one another;
and (2)Our selfishness and arrogance about the stuff we want.

James 4:1     Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

In Mark 2: 3-12, before Jesus addressed a request for physical healing, the Lord addressed the need for forgiveness. 
He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” (Mark 2: 5). 

The physical healing was just an endorsement of the spiritual restoration of the foundational act of forgiveness. 
That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them.  (Mark 2: 10-12

Come on, let’s be real with each other.  We do a whole lot of praying, and claiming, and speaking, and believing----without results.    
And we have damaged a lot of brothers and sisters by telling them that the problem was, “You didn’t have enough faith.”   (Or, “you didn’t give enough money in church” which is so far from right that it requires a whole other series of posts.)

If we want to have peace with God and true power in our prayers, then we have to embrace more than the “word of faith;” we have to embrace the Word of forgiveness.

Faith is absolutely key to receiving answered prayer; but Jesus said that faith is not the only element.  Two other keys are forgiveness and forgiving.

Unrepented/ unforgiven sin creates static in your spiritual reception.  You can’t really clear hear how God wants to direct your path; so you can end up praying the opposite of God’s will----- with all of your faith.   But God never promised to answer prayer that was outside of His will.

When you hold on to the unforgiven sin debts of others, that also creates static; because you put yourself in the place of God, or rather god, because you make yourself an unforgiving judge of their sins. 

I know that “they” say ask in faith and forget your haters. 

God says, that you can’t forget them.  You have to forgive them.

Remember the Parable Jesus taught in Matthew 18.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.  Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”  (Matthew 18: 32-35)

“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”   Therefore submit to God. (James 4: 6, 7)

Submit to God and repent of your sins.
Submit to God, and because you appreciate the forgiveness you’ve received, give forgiveness to those who have wronged you.

Faith without forgiveness is still faith, but it isn’t mountain-moving faith. 
Faith without forgiving is still faith, but it isn’t receive-what-you-ask-in-prayer faith.
Faith

But Faith connected to forgiveness for your sins and forgiveness of the sins against you ----- that’s the kind of faith that works miracles.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6: 12, 13)


---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
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

Monday, March 24, 2014

A LAMENT FOR MY GRANDFATHERS' WORLD

Only in the last decade of my life have I begun to fully realize what phenomenal men my grandfathers were.  

They were the sole bread-winners of their families, but both of them lived and died without credit cards, payday loans, or second mortgages. (Grandpa Anderson never even had a 1st mortgage.)  To their combined 16 children, my grandfathers both left land, not debt. 

They bought property, built homes, raised children, and sent many of those kids off to college.  And they, Black men, accomplished all of this in south Mississippi during the years of overt, violent segregation.

Neither of my grandfathers had any specialized skills, professional certificates, degrees, or even a high school diploma.  They weren’t inventors, investors, financial geniuses, or marketing gurus. 
They were honest, strong men who worked hard and didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money.

That’s it.  They worked----- hard and they didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money. 

I had two epiphanies about my grandpas’ financial lives:
1st. What they did in their time was totally--- ORDINARY.  Most of the men (the Black men) of their generation in my hometown whom I knew had similar educational levels and left similar inheritances to their children.

2nd. What they did, they could not do today.

Barring an oil strike in one’s backyard, a winning lottery ticket, or a highly successful lawsuit; what are the chances that a 8th grade dropout with no investment portfolio and no specialized could acquire a 16 lot subdivision and keep it ---debt-free.

Wait.  Don’t just repeat that American dream stuff about hard work and dedication.  Stop and think through the scenario of an uneducated man, a regular guy, starting off right now in this economy.  Run the scenarios in your head and tell me how he ends up.  I’ll wait.

……..Well?

Exactly. 

He’ll end up homeless, addicted, imprisoned, indebted, dependent on charity, and/ or dead at a very young age.

Here’s the reality:  It’s not enough anymore to just be an honest, hard-working man who won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

And that means that most of the approximately 39 million adult American citizens who don’t have a high school diploma ARE SCREWED ---- unless they get some other educational or professional credential.

Yeah, yeah.  They should’ve stayed in school.  Too late.  They didn’t.

Riightt.  They ought to go get their GED’s.    I teach GED classes.  It’s harder than standard high school graduation exams.

And really, the fact that when you think of a “solution” it involves acquiring some new educational credential is pretty much my point.

It’s not enough to be an honest, hard-working citizen who doesn’t do stupid stuff with his/her money.

But that’s what tens of millions of Americans are.  They couldn’t (or didn’t) succeed in our educational institutions but they are decent, honorable people who just want to work. 

40-50% (depending on the study) of college graduates can’t are unemployed.  And as of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage.

So, who’s going to hire someone with an 8th grade education when they can hire somebody with a master’s degree for the same pay?

The Bible says that If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.  (2 Thessalonians 3: 10)

But what about those who will work, but can’t?

You can’t just walk off into the woods with an ax and a rifle and start clearing land and hunting game.   All of the land in America is either privately owned, municipally zoned, or protected by the office of something or other.

You can’t just walk into a store with a help wanted sign, give the owner a firm handshake and good eye contact, and start working.    The manager has to do a background check, a drug screen, and e-verify your citizenship; and that's only after you complete the application online and IF you make it through the automated screening process.

And if you have any of the following items on your record, it doesn’t much matter how much you’ve matured, changed, paid your debts, or proven yourself---- you’re screwed and burned.
·         felony conviction
·         revoked/ suspended driver’s license
·         drug use in the last 14-90 days (depending on the sensitivity of the screening instrument)
·         no current permanent address
·         no email address
·         bad credit report
·         no credit report
·         any conviction for “any offense other than a minor traffic violation”
·         less than 3 verifiable references
·         absent or spotty past job history

Doesn’t matter how hard you WILL work.  If you have to check “Yes” to any of the above boxes, you probably CAN’T work.

Contrary to the opinion of many, the chronically unemployed can’t just “get a job.”  And when the economy improves it won’t improve or the people whose resumes look like the resumes my grandfathers never had to write.

My grandfathers were decent, dignified, and dedicated men.  They went to church. They were married to the same woman all of their lives.  They owned guns and they paid their taxes.  They were all that an American is supposed to have to be.

But if they started off today, my grandfathers would be unemployed, or homeless, or criminals.

Now, this is the place where I tell you my solution.

This post is not a solution.  It is a lament.

Woe!  Woe unto the American who is JUST honest, hard-working, and won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

---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
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

Sunday, March 23, 2014

WHY IS GOD TALKING TO HIMSELF?

Audio of a lesson the doctrine of the Trinity: WHY IS GOD TALKING TO HIMSELF?


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

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

BLOGGING THE LORD'S PRAYER: DAILY BREAD

Give us this day our daily bread.  --- Matthew 6: 11 

God transcends time.  For God, past, present, and future are all equally accessible.  For God, all time is NOW.

But we’re not God.  When we try to live in the past and/or in the future while simultaneously trying to get things done in the present, we end up stressed and unproductive.  

I’ve had those moments.  I’ve been so far behind on work I should have already done or so concerned about projects that were coming up that all I could do was shuffle papers around and open new windows on my laptop without actually completing anything.    The anxiety of trying to exist in multiple timelines was paralyzing. 

Jesus, Who understands both human psychology and the intricacies of temporal physics, said:  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  (Matthew 6: 34)

Today is enough to worry about today.

We say that God will never put more on us than we can bear (1 Corinthians 10: 13), but we human beings have been known to ask God for too much for one day.  So Jesus teaches us to pray: Give us this day our DAILY bread.

Bread means food, necessities, income, opportunities, clients, contracts, gigs, sales, provision. 
So just enough of what I need, Lord, for me to deal with today.  Not all of yesterday’s and tomorrow’s piled on top of the present 24 hour space.  Just enough for me to process today.

And guess what? 

Today has plenty.  But we still overload today.

We overload the day by procrastinating, pushing the bread-making of the present into the future, hoarding up tasks until they burst out of our calendars and spill into panic.

In our procrastination, we’re like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.  In Exodus chapter 16, God sent them bread from Heaven, called manna.  God’s direction were simple.   Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
And Moses said, “‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need…
Let no one leave any of it till morning.”  (Exodus 16: 4, 16, 19)

Manna was their DAILY bread.

But the Israelites didn’t want to follow instructions.  They tried to push some of the daily manna into the next day.

Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank.  (Exodus 16: 20)

It’s like all that work piled up on my desk.  There really is enough today to do.   But when  I procrastinate, I basically leave part of yesterday’s bread to stink  up today.  When the Israelites did that Exodus 16: 20 goes on to say:  And Moses was angry with them.  

Yeah.  I can see that.

Lord knows we tend to say (rather arrogantly), “I can get this all done tomorrow.”  He knows that we think we know, even though we don’t know.  After all God knows the past, present, and future; but we’re not God.

That’s why He says: Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring.  (Proverbs 27: 1)

Resist the temptation to procrastinate by seeing what we have in front of us as special gift, specifically given by God for THIS day. 

Give us this day our daily bread.  

When you work like there’s no tomorrow, then you’re won’t mentally project your provision for today into the future. 

Now, I want to be clear. Jesus does not teach us to go into everyday stressing like all deadlines are this afternoon.  Jesus taught His disciples (and us) to understand what our tasks for today are.  To take the steps designated for today and not to stress over the steps we haven’t come to yet.

Over and over, especially in the book of John (2:4; 7: 30; 8: 20), Jesus refused to take extra steps on His mission because those weren’t the tasks for THIS day, because His hour had not yet come.

Jesus knew He was working a long term plan, but He took that plan day by day.  He was present in and attentive to the now.

When you can focus on the now, a strange thing happens.  Time itself seems to move differently.

Think about the kind of slow-motion perception that happens in a crisis, like a car accident, when what took seconds seems to last forever.

Science explains it like this:
According to Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, it's all about memory, not turbo perception.

"Normally, our memories are like sieves," he says. "We're not writing down most of what's passing through our system."

Think about walking down a crowded street: You see a lot of faces, street signs, all kinds of stimuli. Most of this, though, never becomes a part of your memory. But if a car suddenly swerves and heads straight for you, your memory shifts gears. Now it's writing down everything — every cloud, every piece of dirt, every little fleeting thought, anything that might be useful.

Because of this, David believes, you accumulate a tremendous amount of memory in an unusually short amount of time. The slow-motion effect may be your brain's way of making sense of all this extra information.

"When you read that back out," David says, "the experience feels like it must have taken a very long time.  But really, in a crisis situation, you're getting a peek into all the pictures and smells and thoughts that usually just pass through your brain and float away, forgotten forever.”

When you are focused on the right now, you see more, you notice more, you remember more.  Basically, being totally present in today makes you smarter.  You can accomplish so much more that it’s like time is standing still.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  In other words, there’s enough data available right now to occupy you----- if you’ll pay attention.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Ironically, the key to slowing down time so you can do what you have to do today, is to slow down yourself.  To rest.

Sometimes the bread Heaven sends for the day is the bread of rest, the bread of the Sabbath.

With the Israelites in Exodus, God gave twice as much manna on the 6th day of the week, so that on the Sabbath, they could rest and worship.   The manna on the 6th day, they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.  (Exodus 16: 23, 24)

God knows the past, the present, and the future.  And, God knows us.  He understands the intricacies of time-space perception and the depths of the human minds that He designed.  And so, God gave us----- the Sabbath.

As Jesus said: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  (Mark 2: 27)

A 24 hour period each week to stop trying to catch up or push ahead.  A day of commanded rest. 
Sabbath rest, means a day of worship and meditation, a day to refresh and reflect.  A day to take your foot of the social accelerator so you start the next week calm enough to take things day by day. 

So, you don’t get to blow off Christian worship in the name of holy naptime.  Jesus continued His teaching on the Sabbath by saying:  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.  (Mark 2: 28)

So Jesus is Lord/ Chief/ the most important part of the Sabbath, not ESPN.

I have learned the hard way that there is a point at which you can’t move any faster until you slow down, a point at which you can’t get any more done until you step away from your work for a while, a point at which you can’t figure out the answer by thinking about the question. 

At that point you have to accept the bread of rest.

One Sabbath day, a group of Jews asked Jesus what signs He could do compared the miraculous manna that Moses had given in the wilderness.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”  (John 6: 32 – 34)

They said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
They said, “Give us every day this daily bread.”

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.”  (John 6: 35)

You want to find the focus every day to produce like time is standing still?   Then every day, make Jesus the center of your focus.

You want to find rest and refreshment on the Sabbath day?  Remember that the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath, and make Jesus the focus of your Sabbath day.

When you do, it changes the way you perceive all the tasks, challenges, opportunities that a day brings.  Making Jesus the essential daily bread of your life changes your mind.

For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.” 

Give us this day our daily bread.  

Every day, God gives you enough to do that dayEnough to move you a full day closer to achieving the goals that God has blessed.  Enough to move a day closer to the blessings God has already placed in your path. .  Enough to move you a full day closer to fulfilling your calling. 

But you can only get there, one day, one Jesus-centered day, at a time.

Give us this day our daily bread.  

 ---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
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

Sunday, March 16, 2014

ROLE MODELS

This past weekend, Sheila and I were at a the CME church’s Alabama Spring Convocation. That’s where we saw the Brasfields.  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brasfields are in their eighties, but they’re still active in church functions.  We see them at all the statewide CME church functions. 

So, you have to picture this.

The four of us were in the lobby of a building at Miles College.  None of us was more than a foot away from the other.  I was facing Mrs. Brasfield.  My wife was facing Mr. Brasfield.

Mrs. Brasfield looked up and said to me with a smile, “You know this week we’ll be married 60 years.”
As she finished her sentence, Mr. Brasfield immediately said to my wife, “You know, our 60th anniversary is next week.” 
His wife laughed, “I just said that.”

As Bro. Brasfied bent his 6 foot-plus frame to take the arm of his 5 foot-minus and stooped wife, he turned to me with a smile and said, “60 years!  This fella said to me, ‘Don’t ya’ll get tired of looking at each other?’  I said, ‘If we do we don’t remember.’ “

You can keep Jay-Z and Beyonce and all of your Real Housewives of Wherever.

The Brasfields of Tuscaloosa, Alabama----Those are my role models.

---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

STOP IFFING UP GOD’S WILL

Jacob was a talented negotiator, a skilled deal-maker.  The problem is that he tried to cut deals with God, sometimes negotiating with God to get what God had already promised to give.   Jacob, like us, tried to set conditions on God’s unconditional promises; and he almost lost the very blessings he wanted to receive.

If you’ll learn from Jacob’s story, you’ll realize how to live with much less stress and much more assurance of God’s favor.  The key is learning to live without a certain 2-letter word.

The title of the message is: STOPIFFING UP GOD’S WILL.


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

Sunday, March 9, 2014

SAME STORY, DIFFERENT SETTING

A message about Passover, Communion, the Cross and hope: SAME STORY, DIFFERENT SETTING.


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
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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

Thursday, March 6, 2014

DANG! THAT'S SO RATCHET.

Some of the situations I deal with every day are ratchet.  They are.   They just ARE. 

Ratchet is a urban slang term derived from the older, more formal English word wretched, and meaning exactly the same thing:  bad, pitiful, deprived, depraved, miserable, etc., etc.

Does that mean that the circumstances are ratchet or that the people in the circumstances are ratchet?  My days are a mix of both.

I deal with some the most noble, generous, hard-working people I’ve ever met---- some of whom are homeless.  I also encounter some of the most selfish, profane, predatory, and arrogant people I’ve ever seen----- some of whom are in junior high school (and I don’t mean teachers).

When you walk into wretched, it’s there.  Whatever your political leanings, no matter what your position on the relevant social issue, the situation is what the situation is.  The choice of adjectives doesn’t alter reality.

Jesus said: For the poor you will have with you always; but Me you do not have always. (Matthew 26: 11; John 12: 8)

We usually stop quoting and thinking after the poor you will have with you always. At which point we throw up our hands in holy resignation and declare, “It is what it is.  Let’s go home.”   
Hold on there, Speedy.  Cross-reference and also read Mark 14: 7.

Jesus’ full statement was: For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.  

It is what it is; but whenever you want to, you can do something about it.

You can either say, “Dang, this is so ratchet.  Somebody should do something,” and then pick up your bag and leave.
Or, you can say, “Dang! This is so ratchet.  I’m going to do something to help,” and open up your bag and get to work.

Especially if you claim to be a Christian, if you choose the first option----- that’s wretched.  That’s you being spiritually ratchet.

Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelations 3: 17)

I know how bad it is where I go.  I’m fully aware that many of those I want to see healed are suffering from self-inflicted wounds.  I’m conscious of the fact that I’m diving into an ocean of generational curses trying to save one drowning family at a time.  I see the hundreds of years of history and billions of dollars in economic interests with vested interest in the continued exploitation of people I’m trying to empower.

It’s wretched.  I know.

So I do what I do every day.  I pray and then I open up my bag and get to work.  That’s what Jesus told me to do for them.  That’s what Jesus did for my wretched/ ratchet soul.

---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
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

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

… Your Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven

We learn the Lord’s Prayer as a series of short phrases, chanted like a nursery rhyme.  The rhythm helps us remember the words, but it sometimes makes it harder to hear the meaning.

We chant these 3 lines, pausing in between: Thy will be done………... On Earth ………...As it is in Heaven.

But we should say this one sentence all in one breath: Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Jesus made His disciples look at the world around them and compare it to Heaven.  Obviously then we see some room for improvement. 

But, in that lop-sided comparison we also see the promise of improvement because God’s will wasn’t always done so perfectly in Heaven.

The archangel Lucifer rebelled against God’s authority and 1/3 of the angels joined His uprising against God’s will in Heaven.   They were defeated, convicted, and sentenced to exile until their final sentence was carried out in the lake of fire.
(Isaiah 14: 12-21; Revelations 12: 3-9; Matthew 25: 41)

But somehow Heaven went from 33% rebellion to 100% of God’s will being done.

How?  God cast all sin out of Heaven.*

That meant expelling all of the angels who sinned.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2: 4)

God cast sin out of Heaven by wholesale eviction of the sinners.

And the angels who rebelled are doomed.  There is no plan for their redemption.  They have no Savior. 

For indeed He does not give aid to angels (Hebrews 2: 16)

Looking at Heaven as the example, God’s will is done on Earth when and where sin is cast out.

But we human beings have an advantage the angels don’t.   We have a Savior in Jesus Christ so we can choose redemption from our sins.

For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.  (Hebrews 2: 16)

When God casts sin from His presence we can choose to be cast out with our sins, or we can choose to let the sins go and stay in the presence of God.   That choice is possible through, in, and because of Jesus.

And we can make that choice daily.  We can choose every day to confess and renounce our sins, to let God expel our corruption while we remain in His transforming presence.

Heaven so defines the angels that when they violated the sanctity of that place, they could no longer stay there.  Where the corrupt angels are is their hell.

But you need not be defined by the corruption of our world.  You don’t have to be confined to the moral environment.

In Christ, you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And when you choose to be changed you can show and prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12: 2)

And so God’s will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.


*The word Heaven has multiple meaning.  For this post, I’m talking about the throneroom of God and the immediate surrounding area; in other words, the place where the good angels live.
  
---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
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