SILENCE IS NOT CONSENT

“So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.” (Jeremiah 11: 14)

Often, people take arguments personally.  When you actively dispute their position, they take it to mean that you don’t like them--- personally don’t like them.  But that’s not necessarily so, especially if your argument is the honest exposition of God’s Word.

God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.  (Ezekiel 3: 17)

God sent Ezekiel to argue with Israel because God wanted Israel to change, because if Israel changed then God could help them.

When the prophets are loud, it means that God is offering mercy instead of destruction.

On the other hand, people tend to think that when you stop audibly disagreeing with them that it means they won the argument

Not necessarily so.  Sometimes it means that you’re just through arguing with this fool and you’re just gone leave them to continue in their foolishness and bear the consequences of it.

Like when God told Moses, “Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” (Exodus 32: 10)  

Silence doesn’t mean consent.  And prophetic silence, means exactly the opposite.    Prophetic silence means that God has turned against you so thoroughly that He doesn’t even want to talk about it.

There are men and women of God who truly live for the Lord and who speak His Truth with accuracy and integrity.  They speak the same things, confirming that they are led by the same Spirit.

When all or a bunch of them suddenly go quiet----- that’s when you need to be afraid, very afraid.

When they’ve been warning you and warning you about the path you’re on and they just suddenly shut up----- it doesn’t mean that you’ve won them over to your side.  It means that God has told them to let it go and move out of the way.

But we don’t see it that way.  We think we’ve won the “cultural argument,” “shifted cultural discourse in our favor,” or “isolated the opposition.” 

But consider the people who are quiet now.   Do they say what’s popular, or do they say what God tells them to say?

And if they speak God’s Word, don’t you think they’ll also keep God’s silence?

When the prophets are loud, it means that God is offering mercy instead of destruction. When the prophets go silent, it means that God is pissed off.

And it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a silent 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 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

HOW MUCH FAITH DOES A DEMON HAVE?

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!  (James 1: 19)

I have three questions for you.

Question #1:  How much faith does an angel have?

The correct answer is NONE.

You see, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrew 11: 1)

Angels live every moment in the direct experience of God’s presence.  They don’t hope to enter Heaven.  They live there.  They don’t BELIEVE that the unseen God is real; they SEE Him every day.  Therefore, angels don’t have faith.  They don’t need faith. They KNOW.  And because they KNOW, angels OBEY.

Question #2:  How much faith does a demon have?

That’s a little more complicated.  Demons are, after all, former angels.  They have seen God directly.  They’ve spent time in Heaven.  And, according to Job chapter 1, demons (or at least the head demon) have been called before God on multiple occasions since their fall from Heaven.  

But according to James 1: 20, demons BELIEVE in God.  So maybe,  for the angels who’ve fallen, Heaven is something they can’t see anymore.  God’s direct presence is lost to them, and all they have to convince them that what they once knew was really real is ------ faith.

So the answer to question #2 is:  Demons have as much faith as you and I do.

Which brings us to -----

Question #3:  What makes us humans better than angels or demons?

Demons believe in God,  but they disobey Him.   They have faith but not good works.   Angels obey God, but they don’t  have faith. (Faith isn’t necessary when there’s certainty.)  They have works but no faith.

Human beings, among all known sentient life forms, are capable of both faith AND works.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?   (James 1: 18-20)

In the resurrection we will, as Jesus said in Matthew 22: 30, be like angels of God in heaven.   We will KNOW God, and faith will be fulfilled and finished.

But in this life, we get to be more than angels---- the fallen ones and the glorified ones.  In this life we get to trust God even when we can’t see Him.  We get to listen hard and hear God’s voice through all the static of earthly life.  We get to obey God’s Word in an environment that has evolved to get us to do anything except obey God’s Word.  We get to show the angels and the demons how it’s done.

When you look at it like that, we’ve got a pretty cool opportunity here.

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6: 3)

---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

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

So, at certain points of the week, Wednesday (Bible Study) and Saturday (Sunday worship coming up), there's a flood of scripture posts and inspirational messages about faith and blessings.

Then at other points in the week on those same FB walls, there are posts about "Real Housewives of Atlanta," and the posters are rooting for the drama, laughing at the infidelity, and cheering on the worst of the bad behavior.

I'm not picking on RHOA.  I don't watch the show.  I am making an observation about human beings.

We think we're more sophisticated than brutal ancient peoples or those uneducated masses over in third-world nations. We think that conspiracy theories about the decline of society and post-apocalyptic fiction where we kill each other is far-fetched because we would never let things go that far.

But the same trick the Romans used in their Colliseum is being used on your television:  Basically, all they have to do to circumvent your sophisticated sense of morality is to stop calling it sin and call it "entertainment."

Cause when it's "just a show" you applaud the lions and scream for blood just like the pagans down the street.

Maybe "The Hunger Games" isn't all that far-fetched.  Maybe we aren't as sophisticated as we think we are.

Or as Solomon said, "To do evil is like sport----to a fool." ( Proverbs 10:23)

---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

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

Out of one of those places where the Bible seems to contradict itself God spoke with powerful clarity and gave Pastor Graves a  message about the church and your church, an invitation and a warning.  The lesson is called:  ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL.

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

WHO TOLD YOU THAT WAS A GOOD EXCUSE?

            

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 9-11)

In Genesis chapter 3, God came down for His usual evening meeting in the cool of the day with Adam, but Adam wasn’t there.

The Lord called, “Adam, where are you?”

God didn’t ask because He couldn’t find Adam.  We wish that was why God asked.  We wish that we could hide from God when we sin, but that’s not the case.

God was really asking, “Adam, why aren’t you where you were supposed to be?  Why aren’t you in the place where I told you to meet Me?”

When the Lord shows up in worship, at your church, on Sunday morning----- Where are YOU?

Since the very first time, mankind’s sin has caused us to miss worship, to skip his time of fellowship with God, and then to make excuses.

“Lord,” said Adam, “I just couldn’t make it.  See, I’m naked, Lord.   I didn’t have a thing to wear.  And I couldn’t show up like that.”

And God said, “Who told you you were naked?”

Again, it’s not that God didn’t know.  God wasn’t requesting information.  God was saying, “Who told you that you were naked because I never brought up the fact that you were naked?”

You say you can’t serve because you’re not educated.  Well, who told you that you weren’t educated?  Who brought it up? Because God never brought up the fact that you don’t have a degree.

You say you can’t give because you’re not out of debt.  Who told you that you’re not out of debt?  God didn’t bring that up when He invited you to test Him with tithes and offerings and see won’t He open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that you don’t have room enough to receive. (Malachi 3: 10)

You say you can’t lead or help in ministry because you’re not comfortable with the responsibility.

Well, who told you that you’re not comfortable enough?  God didn’t bring up comfort when He called Moses to go back to Egypt and lead Israel out of bondage.

God never brought up comfort when He called a prophet, or a king, or an apostle, or a poor Jewish girl from Nazareth to go and walk out a great calling before His people.

 Adam wanted his lack of clothing to excuse him from showing up where God called him to be to do what God had called him to do.    What excuse are you using?  And who told you that that’s a good excuse? 

Cause God didn’t.

And by the way, when Adam said that he’d skipped the meeting with God because he was naked----- Adam wasn’t naked anymore.

Before God showed up in the Garden, Genesis 3: 7 says Then the eyes of both of [Adam and Eve] were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  

YOU, like Adam, need to stop bringing up old stuff as an excuse for not walking in your calling now.

O.K., you messed up a marriage.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you used to be an addict.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you were a fool in college.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you have been shirking and shaking your responsibilities in the church for a long time.  We get that.  Come back.  Meet God where He placed you and serve Him NOW!

But I have to warn you:  When you come back and face God, He is going to skip right past your excuses and force you to deal with the REAL PROBLEM.

Naked wasn’t Adam’s problem.  He had been naked and serving God just fine for the first 2 chapters of Genesis.

Naked wasn’t the problem.  Naked was a circumstance.  SIN was the problem.

So God called on Adam to deal with the real problem. 

“Ain’t nobody worried about you and naked,” God said.  “But tell me this Adam: Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 11)

(This is where God cocks His lip, fold his arms, and taps His foot)

See, all that other stuff---about how you grew up, and how folks mistreated you, and what you didn’t used to have----- that’s all just circumstantial.

Stop putting the blame on your parents, or your boss, or White people, or immigrants, or the media, or your ex, or the woman whom You gave to be with me, Lord (Genesis 3: 12).

What did YOU eat that you weren’t supposed to?

What is YOUR SIN?   

What is YOUR role in your failures?

What did God tell YOU to do that you ain’t doing?

What (or whom) did God tell you to leave alone that you’re still messing with?

Adam never dealt with that.  And so, God stopped asking.   God stopped asking Adam to meet Him and serve in His garden.  But, Adam’s PURPOSE in the garden was to serve. So, since He couldn’t fulfill his purpose, he had to go.

Oh, wait.  You might be thinking that Adam’s purpose in the garden was to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.    I see where you’re coming from.

That’s was Adam’s purpose in the larger world, but to fulfill that purpose in a state of perfection and favor, Adam had to fulfill His purpose in the place where He was to meet God and serve.

When Adam lost Eden, he lost God’s favor.  Adam and Eve still went out to multiply and pursue dominion, but now they had to pursue it on cursed ground, through thorns and thistles, by sweat of his brow, with the ever-present oppressive possibility and inevitability of death dogging his every move.

Only grace kept Adam and Eve alive.  But grace doesn’t stop bad from happening.  Grace makes it possible for you to carry on despite the bad that happens.

Grace gave Adam and Eve a 3^rd son named Seth.  But Grace did not stop the curse from manifesting in Cain and making him the murderer of his own brother.

Our lives are a constant cycle of frustrations and failures.  We survive.  We persevere.  We find happiness because of grace.

But if we would meet God where He wants to meet us, deal with our own sin, and submit to His plan and calling, then we would experience something even better than grace.

We would experience FAVOR.

Now don’t get too crazy over terminology.  Grace and Favor are overlapping and sometimes indistinguishable concepts.  The point is that things can be better.

We can do better than just kinda, sorta, barely survive.

We can live and live life more abundantly.  We can.  You can.

But you have to stop making excuses.  You have to get up and show up where God called you to meet Him, experience His presence, and walk out the holiest, most spiritually intimate part of the God’s great calling on your life.

See you, Sunday.

  

---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

A COMPELLING LIFE

com·pel-  /comkəmˈpel/ verb.  force or oblige (someone) to do something.  bring about (something) by the use of force or pressure.  drive forcibly.

com·pel·ling - /kəmˈpeliNG/  adjective.  evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way.  not able to be refuted; inspiring conviction.  not able to be resisted; overwhelming.

In Luke 14, Jesus was invited to a dinner party at the home of a senior Pharisee.  His host went all out.  He had the best food, forced his servants to work on the Sabbath, and invited all the best people to sit around Jesus, the guest of honor.  Everything about the dinner event was meant to be impressive, to be “compelling.”

Jesus was not impressed, but He did feel compelled to share some stories. 

The moral of His stories (Luke 14: 1-14) was basically, “If you want to put on and interesting, admirable, irresistible---- compelling----- dinner, then next time do the exact opposite of everything you’re doing now.”

·         Don’t hide behind legalism to indulge your greed for personal possessions and to hide your indifference to suffering persons.  Next time, forget your oxen and heal the sick. (Luke 14: 1-6)

·         Don’t scheme and politic for public positions of power and prestige.  Next time, deliberately seek out the position of greatest humility.  Don’t lobby for more, but accept only what is offered to you.  (Luke 14: 7-12)

·         Instead of choosing the rich and prestigious for your guest list, hoping that they will reciprocate with invitations to their next fabulous parties.  Next time, “you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.” (Luke 14: 13-14)

Jesus’ parables were designed to be instructive and convicting----- to be compelling.

And, as is usually the case, the first reply was something stupid.

All of the uppity dinner guest should have felt convicted by Jesus’ words.  They should have begged His forgiveness for their selfishness and hypocrisy.  They should have given up their seats of honor and made plans to bring the poor into their homes.  They should have felt compelled to repent and change.

Instead, somebody just got his “shout on” for no reason.

Now, when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”(Luke 14: 15)

The man’s praise break was supposed to impressive to Jesus. 

Jesus was not impressed.

He was like, “Really?  You’re just gonna throw back some random church cliché based on one word out of that whole exposition on ministering to the poor and the sick.”

Jesus jumped all over the guy with another story, a parable about insincere people making excuses about a dinner party (Luke 14: 16-24)

Jesus’ parable ended with the “Master” of the dinner feast declaring that none of the rich friends originally invited “shall taste my supper.” (Luke 15: 24)

In their place, the Master told His servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them (them being ‘the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind’) to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Luke 15: 21-23)

“Compel them, ”the Master said.  “Force them to come to me.” 

“But how?” the servant asks, “How can I compel these to accept what others have declined?   Our power can’t compel them?  Our positions and posts of honor doesn’t compel them.  Our impressive list of member and patrons isn’t impressive enough to drive them to us.”

“Bring them to Me,” says the Master, “by the power of a COMPELLING LIFE.”

Jesus tried so hard to teach the dinner party the same lesson He’s trying to teach the church.  Go out into the highways and hedges to the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and show the a COMPELLING LIFE.  Show the love.  Show them sacrifice for others.  Show them grace. Show them unity.  Show them wisdom.  Oh, for the love of God, show them actual holiness!

Lives like that are extremely COMPELLING.

If Christians go out and show that,  people will follow us back to where we worship. 

More than marketing, or technology, or real estate development, the greatest tool for church growth is a church full of people who live compelling lives.

Let your light shine so, that when people see your good works, they are compelled to seek out your Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5: 16, Anderson’s paraphrase)

---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

SEE & HEAR

God is smart.  I mean, really, really smart.  And He’s put His super-intelligent thoughts into this anthology of books we call the Bible.  Divine observations and commentary on science, relationships, politics, finance, psychology, human social behavior, and, most extensively, all aspects of spirituality from the origins of the human soul to the future end of the spiritual struggle against sin.

We’ve got all of this in one collection, and yet we still don’t know what the crap we’re doing in any of the areas above because we don’t read the frickin’ Book!  Or, we read the Bible like it’s a dvr’d 90’s sitcom.  We fast-forward to the same scenes we’ve seen a million times and just repeat the dialogue we already know without paying attention to what’s actually happening. 

(Think about the times you started your Bible time by opening to a random page, but you flipped some more pages because you’d landed on a “boring part,” and you kept flipping until you came to a “good part” that you knew so well that you didn’t really even need to read all the verses.  That’s dvr-ing the Bible.)
That’s why you feel like you’re not getting anything out of your Bible study.

I work with kids and adults who have been unsuccessful academically.  I minister to people who often say they don't get anything out of studying the Bible.    Here's what I've realized.

They have the same BAD study habits.   Whether it's the New Testament or the History of the United States, 1870-1940, I see the same pattern.

Does any of this sound familiar?

- You skip the "boring parts" so you have no context for the parts you do read.

- When you read the parts you like you don't pay attention because you think you already know that.

- You don't listen to the text or think of the names in the book as real people with feelings and individual voices, so it all seems abstract and pointless.

- What you call reading is really just running your eyes across the page.

- You don't put yourself in the text or connect what's happening on the page to your life or your community.

From now on, here’s what you do:  LISTEN & SEE. 

Let the text play a movie in your head and listen to the words on the page like the events on the paper are talking to you.

If you would LISTEN to the Bible when you read it you, if you would open your mind to SEE what Scripture says, then you would hear the Holy Spirit speak, you would EXPERIENCE God’s Word, and you would learn so much more than you opened the Book to find out.

Do that, and you’ll “get it.”  You won’t understand everything, but once you get a taste of how good the Bible really is, you’ll never think of this Book as boring again.

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law. (Psalm 119: 18)

---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

FATHERS OF THE FUTURE

Old school or modern: which kind of father is best?  There actually is a Biblical answer.  God commands us to be a certain kind of father----- but don’t assume you know which kind just yet.  Find out what kind of father, God has called men to be in a Father’s Day message is called:  FATHERS OF THE FUTURE

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

SPIRITUAL DROWNING DOESN’T LOOK LIKE DROWNING

A friend shared an article called “DROWNING DOESN’T LOOK LIKE DROWNING.” That article scared me.

I learned that drowning is “the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under.”  That’s bad, but what really scared me was learning that “of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult.”

Half the time, parents literally watch their babies drown----- and they don’t even know it.

How?  Because most of us don’t know what drowning looks like.  Drowning doesn’t look like drowning.

We think drowning looks like it does in the movies.  In the movies, drowning people dramatically splash and gasp and yell for help.  But that’s not how it works in real-life. 

Sometimes people do yell for help and thrash about in the water. That’s called Aquatic Distress and sometimes (but not always) happens before true drowning.  The difference is that during aquatic distress, the victim can still assist in their own rescue by grabbing a lifeline, throw ring, etc.

The noise and drama means that they haven’t lost control.  They’re scared but not yet dying.

Actual drowning is characterized by the Instinctive Drowning Response which looks very different from the Hollywood version.

The more I thought about this article, the more I understood why the church loses so many people.  They’re right next to us, spiritually drowning, and we don’t even know it because the Instinctive Drowning Response looks like this:

1.       Drowning people are silent.  “Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help.” The brain deprioritizes speech in place of the instinctive search for air.

I’ve had church members tell me why they no longer come to church, but I’ve never had one tell me as they were heading out the door that they weren’t coming back.  They just leave and they don’t say anything.

Hollywood has us programmed to respond to drama.  When a family on tv is in crisis, doors get slammed, imposing music plays on the soundtrack, and the cameras flash a series of close-ups on tightly emotional faces. 

But in the real world, when things get really bad, people just go silent.  They stop arguing.  They stop saying anything. 

They just go under.

2.       Drowning people look like they’re swimming just fine.  “Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water.”  It looks like they’re breathing before diving again, but they can’t stay above water long enough to fill their lungs with air.

I’ve walked with many individuals and families through dramatic crises. During the most dramatic moments they are at church, on the phone with me, seeking godly counsel, and praying.
They look like they’re going to be alright and even grow from the experience.

But then they just go under.  They miss worship.  They skip counseling.  They stop calling and returning calls.  Quietly.  Without drama.  They just sink beneath the waves.

3.       Drowning people don’t signal for help.  “Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface” instead of raising their arm to wave.

When people drown spiritually, they often don’t  cry for help.  Oh sometimes there’s the midnight phone call or the desperate “Pastor, can you come by right now” text.  But most of the time, when it gets really, really bad---- nobody says anything.

Days or weeks later when I find out what happened, I ask, “Why didn’t you tell me?” And they respond, “I didn’t want to worry you.  There was nothing you could do anyway.”

4.       Drowning people look calm but they’ve lost control.  The survival instinct so overwhelms drowning victims’ brains that they physically cannot choose to help themselves or to help you help them by voluntarily reaching out or grasping a floatation device.

We say, “He just ‘snapped.’ “ 
“All of a sudden, she just lost it.”

After weeks of oh-we’re-fines, the psychologically broken truth comes out.  Really, we don’t see them lose control.  Control was gone a long time ago. 

What we see is the loss of false calm masquerading as control.

When they’re really far gone, they can’t help themselves.   I can’t just throw them a lifeline of  “Call me if you need anything,” because they won’t make that call.  They can’t.  They’re too busy trying to keep their heads above water.

5.       There’s a very small window for rescuing someone who’s drowning.  When someone’s really drowning, it isn’t a 5 minute sequence during which siblings can argue, a couple can share a kiss, and lifeguards can run in slow motion after fixing their hair and make-up.  ”Drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.”

As a pastor, I’m the spiritual guardian of my congregation.  I’m there in the water with them, and if they’re drowning, I’ve got maybe 20-60 seconds as they greet me at the end of worship or Bible study to  notice and grab them, and start the struggle of getting them to stop fighting me and God so that God can restore to them the breath of life.

The drowning article scared me because I realized that I have watched souls drown in my church, and I didn’t even know it.  But now I know what to look for.  Now I know, and I’m not scared anymore.

I’m determined that no one else in my charge is going under without me noticing and wrapping my arms around them doing my best to lift them up.

Deliver me out of the mire,

And let me not sink;

Let me be delivered from those who hate me,

And out of the deep waters.

Let not the floodwater overflow me,

Nor let the deep swallow me up;

And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.  (Psalm 69: 14, 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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

THE DAY THE CHURCH WAS BORN

A sermon for Pentecost called:  THE DAY THE CHURCH WAS BORN.

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

JESUS MISSED HIS DAD

John chapter 20 says that outside the empty tomb on Resurrection Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene saw Jesus, but she didn’t recognize Him until he called her name.  When Mary realized that it was Jesus, risen and alive, she cried out, “Teacher!” and threw her arms around Him. 

Jesus basically replied, “O.K., Mary.   Mary, that’s enough.  You can stop hugging me now. Hey, Mary!  Let go!” 

 “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.” (John 20: 17)

Why was Jesus so standoffish, and what did the pending ascension have to do with anything?

Well, it wasn’t because Jesus needed to avoid prolonged physical contact.  I mean, He had just overcome torture, crucifixion, death, Hell, and being bound in airtight burial cloths soaked in a couple hundred pounds of embalming ointments which were in turn sealed in a cave blocked by a giant rock.

So I don’t think that Jesus was in danger from  ----- a hug.

Remember what God the Father told Moses when Moses asked God to reveal His glory?

He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33: 20)

Jesus had always existed.  He’d always been one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had always had perfect, unfiltered fellowship with the Spirit and the Father.  But when Jesus came to our Earth, incarnate as a baby, He inhabited a body which could not look directly into the face of His Heavenly Father. 

During the years of His earthly ministry, Jesus prayed to and spoke to His Father.  He did His Father’s will.  He demonstrated His Father’s love.  He reflected His Father’s image.

But Jesus had not actually SEEN His Father in 33 years.

Jesus didn’t want Mary or anyone else holding onto Him on Resurrection Sunday because more than anything else, Jesus wanted to go home and see His Father. 

And that why Jesus told Mary to stop hugging and “go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” (John 20: 17)

To us, the ascension of Jesus in Luke 24 was a spectacular miracle, but for Jesus it was the chance to finally go home and see His Dad.

Listen to the complete sermon about the Ascensions at  http://hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com/2014/06/audio-of-sermon-my-fathers-house.html

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

The Holy Ghost Makes You Do What?

Acts 2 tells the story of Pentecost, the birthday of the New Testament church.  Verses 41-47 lists what happened in the church when the disciples became empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

The list goes something like this:

Verse 41

1.       Baptism

2.       Numerical growth by conversion

Verse 42

3.       Bible study

4.       Fellowship

5.       Eating together

6.       Praying together

Verse 43

7.       Collective fear of/ reverence for God

8.       Miraculous wonders

9.       Miraculous/ prophetic signs

Verses 44, 45

10.   Pooling financial resources

11.   Meeting financial needs through shared resources

Verse 46, 47

12.   Public worship and

13.   Powerful effect on the surrounding community

14.  Repeating all of the above

It's a long list, and you’ll notice that it includes the words "wonders" and "signs."   But signs and wonders are only PART of the litany of activities that come out of a Holy Ghost empowered church.

If we ignore the reality of miracles, we're quenching the Spirit.  We’re selling the Holy Spirit short.

If we ignore everything except miracles, we also are selling the Spirit short.

A church filled with and empowered by the Holy Ghost may, for example, speak in tongues and prophesy (and they might not).  But if the members of the church ONLY speaks in tongues and prophesy; but they don’t help anybody, or teach anybody, or touch their neighborhood, or love each other, or do anything with their tithes other than make the building and the pastor look fancier and fancier----- then that church is missing out on the Holy Ghost just as much as those poor Christians who no longer believe in miracles.

The church with no wonders and signs and the church with wonders and signs only are equally incomplete in ministry.

And if we stay satisfied with either extreme we become the kind of Christians that Paul warned Timothy about.   We become people having a form of godliness but denying its power.(2 Timothy 3: 5)

Jesus promised His disciples that after He sent them the Holy Spirit they would take His ministry farther.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. (John 14: 12)

Remember that Jesus did many great works, and not all of them were miracles.  Jesus healed, but He taught more than He healed.

Jesus multiplied physical and financial resources, and He also advocated for the poor and the marginalized.

Jesus prophesied and discerned the thoughts of other, and He systematically explained the scriptures and applied Biblical teaching to contemporary life.
Jesus came out and preached to mass gatherings of people, and He spent years training and discipling a small group of future leaders.

Jesus did everything on the Acts chapter 2 list.  And He expects that we who truly believe in Him will do even greater, even more of the same things He did.

And that is what Holy Spirit filled ministry looks like.  

Jesus said, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14: 26)

ALL things that Jesus said.  ALL of the same things.  Not just the miraculous things, but also the equally important and not so spectacular works of a Holy Spirit-filled ministry.

This Pentecost season, I pray that we all seek and find, ask for and receive the fullness of Christ’s ministry.  May this Pentecost make today’s church like the New Testament church on Pentecost.  May we all grow into the full ministry of the Holy Spirit.

---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