GOD DOESN'T LIKE YOUR DATE, EITHER

If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears it and says nothing to her, then all her vows and pledges shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, none of the promises she made will stand against her.

 And the Lord will forgive her, because her father said, “No.” (Numbers 30: 3-5, my paraphrase)

I had the meeting I’ve expected and dreaded for the last 16 years. (I’m including the months of pregnancy after we found out it was a girl)   I met the boy who wants to take my daughter out on a date.

It was a very old-school meeting.  He came to my home, we took a walk, and I interrogated him.  I met his mother, who happens to be a friend of my wife’s, and before the evening was over, I’d also met his father.  They’re a nice family.  He seems like a quality young man.

I hate him.

But I’m going to let him take my daughter away from my house, alone with him in a car, at night. 

If he weren’t dating my daughter, I’d like this young man.  But he is, so I proceed with him in a relationship based on my overt suspicion of his every move and motive.

As our Father, God recognizes that we will spend time with the world.  He understands that it is natural for us to have relationships with “them.”  And though God so loves the whole world that He gave His only begotten Son, make no mistake, God does not trust them---- not with us.

Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty.”  (2 Corinthians 6: 17, 18)

Ultimately, our Heavenly Father wants for us what I want for my daughter.  God wants us to choose the right groom, the One who will love us like our Father does.

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  (John 8:42)

In the meantime, God knows that all of us have to fumble our way through the awkwardness of spiritual courtship in this world.  And I, the earthly father, have to give my daughter the freedom and tools to navigate the dating process without losing herself until she finds and chooses “the one” who will love her as much as I do.

Now that I’m in this stage of fatherhood, I understand God better.  I feel something of His pain when He sent Adam and Eve out of the protection of the Garden and let them go from Him, alone, in a car with the world.  As I consider my own internal turmoil, I can only imagine the----- the ----- the what-even-is the-word?    The anxiety (?) God must endure every second of every day over each of the billions of His children who are courted by the world.

But God gives us the freedom and , by His Word, the tools to negotiate the seductions of this life without losing ourselves.   And if out of the security of a loving relationship with God, we will apply our Father’s wise instructions, then one day He will have the joy of giving us away to live the rest of our eternal lives with the right Groom.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” (Revelations 19: 7)

In the meantime though, make no mistake.  God does not and is not going to like any of the boys His daughters date. 

And I don’t think God has a problem with me feeling that way, too.  As Jesus said, “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.” (John 17: 9)

Which was Jesus’ way of saying what I told this boy and won’t hesitate to tell the next one.

“You seem nice; but when it come to my daughter, son, I really don’t like you.”

---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

SO?

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy  (Psalm 107:2)

Take the first part of that verse and read it with a different inflection.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say, ”So?”

Please, allow me to share an example.

In John chapter 2, Jesus performed the first public miracle of His ministry by turning water into wine at a wedding. (Don’t you just love alliteration.)  This miracle was instigated by Jesus’ mother, who was concerned that the happy couple would be embarrassed that the open bar had run dry.

When Mary broached the topic to Jesus (whom I maintain did not even want to accompany His mom to this wedding), the Lord replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with Me?”

Mother Mary said, “They’re out of wine.”

And Jesus replied, “So?”

There are times when the most lovingly Christian reply is sarcasm.

Yes. Yes, that’s what I said.

I’m not talking about the kind of sarcasm that crosses or straddles the line into verbal bullying.  I’m talking about lovingly and succinctly responding in a matter that communicates that you really don’t give a crap what they think because God has made it clear what you’re supposed to do.

Examine Jesus’ response in John 2 and you’ll notice that it involved:

-          No personal attacks;

-          No passive aggression to destroy the mood of the party;

-          No long justification for his attitude;

-          No direct or indirect efforts to grab attention;

Also, note that Jesus fixed the wedding couple’s wine problem.  He did so quickly and rather anonymously.  We know that Jesus didn’t draw a bunch of attention to Himself because John 2: 9, 10 says that the wedding coordinator thought the bride and groom had pulled the 2^nd batch of wine out of their secret stash.

Saying, “So” doesn’t mean that you don’t care. 

Saying, “So,” doesn’t mean that you won’t help.

Saying, “So,” means that you won’t argue.

Jesus-style sarcasm requires that when it’s all said and done, you’ve DONE a whole lot more than you’ve SAID.

Saying, “So,” doesn’t mean shutting THEM up.

It’s means shutting YOURSELF up.

In fact, a more literal translation of that opening clause in Psalm 107:2 would read: Let the redeemed of the Lord say.

That’s it.  End of sentence.  Literally say------- NOTHING.

Maybe Jesus discerned that the wedding party was too drunk to appreciate a theological exegesis of the transformation of water into new wine.  Maybe Jesus knew He’d just be casting verbal pearls before drunken swine (so to speak).

There were many times when Jesus meticulously explained His identity as the Messiah, the Son of God.  But not THIS time.

This time Jesus just said, “So,” and worked the miracle.  And as far as we can tell from the text, after working the miracle, He said------ NOTHING.

The redeemed of the Lord are they whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

If WE understand who we are then we won’t waste so much time trying to prove our spiritual credentials to everybody.

Somebody needs to hear your testimony, but everybody doesn't.

Everybody doesn’t need to hear "your story" EVERY doggone time you perform a good work.

Sometimes they just need sarcasm and service.

Say, “So,” and work your miracle, and then just shut up.

Let your actions speak louder than your words.

---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

RUNNING, ENDURANCE, & GOING ON TO VICTORY

What does the last place finisher in an Olympic even have in common with the most prolific author of the New Testament?  And how does the answer reveal the secret to living a victorious life?

Find out in a message that I had to wear tennis shoes to deliver. It’s a message about RUNNING, ENDURANCE, & GOING ON TO VICTORY.

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

The Loophole in the Law of Sowing & Reaping

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  (Galatians 6: 7)

The Bible says that we reap what we sow.  That’s true, but that’s not ALL.

Paul and Jesus talked about sowing and reaping with a kind of it’s-common-doggone-sense assumption that their listeners (us) would understand that sowing and reaping includes the process of TENDING.

But common sense ain’t all that common, is it?

We forget that we reap WHAT we sow,  but ONLY if we TEND what we sow.

Paul said, “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3: 6-8)

The reward, the “reaping,” comes from God, but that reward is based on not only the labor of planting (sowing), but also on the labor of watering (tending).

We reap WHAT we sow,  but only if we TEND what we sow.

Mathew chapter 13 records Jesus’ famous Parable of the Sower.  This is the story where a farmer’s seed falls on different types of ground, representing the different mentalities in which people hear and respond to God’s Word.

Our favorite line from the Parable of the Sower is “Others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Mathew 13: 8)

We remember that and shout, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (verse 9)

But we’re supposed to hear more than that one line.

We’re supposed to hear that some of the seed, sown by the same Sower ---- died and produced NOTHING.

Where the farmer didn't put up a working scarecrow, the birds ate up his seed; and the seed produced nothing for him to reap. (Mathew 13: 4)

Where the farmer had not added supplemental top soil, the fresh shoots died from lack of depth and yielded nothing for him to reap. (verse 5)

Where the farmer had not arranged for sufficient shade despite knowing well the climate in which he farmed, his new plants did not survive; and from those plants he reaped zerofold. (verse 6)

Where the farmer had done a poor job of clearing thorns before sowing time, and didn’t then follow up by aggressively clearing the weeds during the growing season, the fresh shoots died; and the farmer reaped NOTHING from what he had sown. (verse 7)

The good soil that yielded thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold wasn’t good just because the soil was rich.  The scorched soil was equally rich, but the farmer didn’t reap there.  The thorny soil was great for growing (just ask the weeds), but the farmer didn’t reap from that space. 

The good soil was good because it was in an area that the farmer diligently tended in the time between sowing and reaping.

We reap what we sow,  but only if we tend what we have sown.

That ought to be common theological sense.  But clearly theological sense isn’t that common.

We have propagandized and commercialized the “Law of Sowing and Reaping” to the point that Christians actually think that they can drop money on a patch of carpet in a church or in a little basket, call their money “a financial seed” and then reap a return without tending to the thorns of sin and distraction in their lives, or addressing the shallowness of their spiritual practices, or spending time in the shade of a genuine relationship with God, or changing the company of scavengers in which they still socialize.

We expect to reap after sowing and without doing anything else.

And it just doesn’t work that way.

If you aren’t seeing the great harvest you expect from what you ”sowed” on Sunday, then perhaps you should give more attention to how you are (or are not) tending to your life between worship services.

You reap what you sow, when you tend what you have sown.

---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

I WANT IT BECAUSE I CAN’T AFFORD IT

NPR’s Market Place Money interviewed Darren Dahl, professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business.  Professor Dahl conducted a study of shopping behaviors that found something interesting. 

“Customers are more likely to buy luxury goods from rude, snooty, or aloof salespeople.”  

According to Professor Dahl, "Our research indicates they can end up having a similar effect to an 'in-group' in high school that others aspire to join."

The effect isn’t perfect.  It doesn’t work on non-luxury brands, and the effect diminishes with time and familiarity.  Still, the research offers an opportunity to examine ourselves and our this need to give our money to people who treat us like crap.

Of course, we could have been examining this question all ready if we’d been reading our Bibles.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote: They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. (Galatians 4: 17, New King James Version)

In retail terms, that means: They aggressively advertise to you, but it’s an evil trick.  They plan to treat you like crap so you’ll spend more money.

They want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.

Paul issued this warning to members of a church.

A church!

There is something in our human nature that, independent of times and place and nationalities, makes us susceptible to this, the oldest of tricks in the Book.

THEM: You’re ugly.  We don’t like you.

YOU: Wait.  I’ll starve myself and work out and cover my individuality in mass produced make-up and hair weave until I look like your clone.   Now, please let me be with you people who don’t even like me.

THEM: You’re not rich so you should die when you get sick and drink contaminate water if we feel like polluting. Ad though we get to collectively bargain as political action committees and industry lobbying organizations, you should not be able to combine into unions.

YOU: Of course.  You’re right.  That’s what America is all about.  Please, let me vote for you, and campaign for you, and contribute to your organization, even though your every action is against my own economic self-interest.”

THEM: You.  You don’t have a private jet like I do.  You don’t have Armani preaching robes or a Bentley with personalized plates or a fat diamond on ever other finger.  So, God doesn’t love you as much as He loves me and you can’t be a member of my church.
YOU: Oh, preacher-prophet-bishop-apostle-doctor-televangelist-cult leader, wait.  Let me swipe a credit card.  Let me take out a loan for your appreciation gift.  Here’s my W-2 and the password to my online checking account.  Just please, oh please let me sit in the members auditorium.

They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.

An old, old trick.  But it still works.

But now that you know, you don’t have to fall for it anymore.

The Bible’s advice for avoiding the exclusion trick is very simple.  The next verse of Paul’s letter to the Galatians says be always zealous in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.  

 Zealous in a good thing

Basically that means: Instead of drooling over the stuff that disrespectful, demeaning, snobbish, hateful people offer; choose instead to want good things.

Not shiny things.

Not expensive things.

Not the things you’d never heard of until you heard that song.

Not the stuff marketed through exclusion.

Good things.

Things that allow you to do good----and it’s not good to compromise your integrity or your dignity just so you can have LESS money. (Cause you do realize that every luxury purchase is a net loss to your income?)

Want, really want good things---- things that allow you to do good.

Investing in your children’s college education is good.

Eliminating your family’s debt is good.

Having a good job and positioning yourself for a better career is good.

Don’t let THEM define your desires.  Define your own desires in terms of what is actually GOOD for you.

If you let evil people (who don’t even like you) continue to tell you what you’re supposed to want, then they will have you spending your money to impress people who treat you like crap.

And that’s NOT good.

---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

: GROW UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

How can you be a child of God and yet walk in such weakness and brokenness and lack of blessing?  How do you access all of the blessings promised to children of God.

Find out in a  Youth Sunday sermon for youth and adults alike.  The sermon is called: GROW UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

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

LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS

RSVP at  RSVP on Facebook

or by email to hallmemorialcme1@aol.com 

THE PLAN & THE COMPLAINT

 2 Kings chapter 5.

Naaman's life was all good, except for this one thing:  Naaman was a leper.  He had a chronic, incurable skin disease that was going to destroy his body and kill him.  But other than that, everything was fine.

Naaman heard that he could get help at church, so he went to visit the Reverend Pastor Prophet Elisha in Israel.  He even brought something for the offering--- this one time.

But Elisha didn’t even give Naaman a chance to sit in his office and tell his story.  Instead Elisha referred Naaman to the Jordan River with instructions to go through 7 cycles of full body wash-rinse-and-repeat.

Naaman was NOT happy. 

He stormed out of the church lobby.  His tires left a pair of black streaks in the church parking lot as he burned rubber in disgust.  He went off to his boys in the back seats of the Tahoe.

Scripture says it this way: But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ “ and on and on he went. (2 Kings 5: 11)

…So he turned and went away in a rage. (2 Kings 5: 12)

One of Naaman’s boys, a guy who worked for him, leaned over from the passenger seat, …spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5: 13)

Naaman calmed down and he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5: 14)

He was cured.

Did the waters cure Naaman?  No.

God cured Naaman.

But God only delivered the cure when Naaman obeyed the plan.

We come to God (or to church) for help, for a cure for what ails us?  And when things go the way they’re supposed to we get an answer from the Lord.  Sometimes God speaks to us through the primary pastor, reverend, preacher, prophet, apostle, or bishop of the church.  Sometimes, the answer comes some other way.

But the answer isn’t always, “Here.  Here, let ME immediately fix your problem for you.”

Sometimes the answer is, “Here.  Here is the plan  for YOU to follow to correct the problem for (or in) yourself.”

And that’s when we storm away and kick rocks on our way out of the parking lot.

“That ole sorry, preacher!”

“They supposed to be so Christian, but they can’t help nobody!”

“Who do they think they are, telling me what to do?” 

“I knew I shouldn’t ‘ve even come here.  I shoulda gone down the street.”

“Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?”(2 Kings 5: 12)

Why did Naaman have to go through all of that running around and spend all that time washing and whatever?

I don’t know why, but that WAS the plan God gave him.

He could obey God’s plan and get better, or he could complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

What plan did God give you when you showed up looking for help?

How you comin’ with that?

Too much trouble?

Takes too long?

You got better things to do?

O.K.  Well, you can either obey God’s plan and get better.

Or you can complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

You can whine about  the church or the pastor could have done; but if God didn’t tell them to waive their hands over the place/ relationship/ illness/ bill and call on the Lord then no amount of “decreeing and declaring” is going to make it better.  Just because they didn't please you doesn't mean they didn't obey God.

If you went to them for help from the Lord, maybe that's what you got----- even if it wasn't the way you wanted to get it.  The church did it's part.  Now, you have a choice:

Obey God’s plan and get better, or complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

---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

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