DRAMA ENVY: I WISH I HAD YOUR PROBLEMS

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  (Romans 5: 10)

All across my newsfeeds I see people posting about the haters trying to get at them, the cheating men/ women who don’t appreciate them, the fake friends who gossip behind their backs, and the devil--- the devil attacking them at every turn.

I envy those people.

I envy them because all their problems are external, and external problems are easy to fix. 

Got haters?  Stop listening to them.

Being cheated on?  Leave that fool and don’t take them back.

Fake, gossiping friends?  Stop telling them your business.  And stop calling them “friends.”

Hateful boss?  Transfer.

Dysfunctional, co-dependent family?  Move and stop calling them 20 times a day.

Nosy folks on Facebook?  Get off Facebook.  (If you can’t handle strangers you friended disagreeing with you, just delete your social media profile.)

And the devil?  The devil’s the easiest one.  FORGET THE DEVIL. Focus on God.  Jesus handled satan a long time ago. 

I wish I was one of those people who’s pleased with myself and afflicted only by external enemies and haters.  But sadly that’s not my luck.

My biggest enemy is ME.

Like Paul said, “The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”  (Romans 7: 19-23)

I don’t wake worried in the middle of the night, afraid of what my haters are going to try.  I do stress over how prepared I am (or am not) to fulfill my part of all the deals I’ve made with God over the years.

I seldom get into a lot of drama with other people.  My headaches come from pulling logs out of my own eye.  My freshest and deepest scars have come from wrestling with myself.  And I’m a tough dude. 

So, I look with wonder at all these folks who only every have trouble because of what other people do to them.  It’s like the strange gospel narrative I hear in some Christian circles: 

We know that the Lord Jesus interceded in history to save us from sin.  But the way they tell it, the Lord apparently came to save them from EVERYBODY ELSE’S sins.  Must be because they quickly say that they don’t regret their old ways.    So they’re unrepentant ----but saved.  Therefore, they must be saved from what other people did wrong.  In their version of the gospel, every saint is a victim of sin, rescued by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

But I don’t read it like that. 

The way I see the gospel, Jesus came to save me from MY sins.  Jesus came to save you from YOUR sins.  We aren’t the victims. 

We’re the villains.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5: 10)

I have my share of haters, false friends, unreasonable supervisors, crazy family, and spiritual attacks.  I know that you do, too.  But I strongly recommend a fresh assessment of who is the greatest source of trouble in your life.  Is it really ALL men? ALL women?  Is it really only their fault?  Or is it your choices?  Does the problem begin with what they do, or with how you respond to what they do?

But probably, it’s them.  Just them.  Not you, not you at all.

You don’t contribute anything to your own drama.

It’s probably just me.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1: 8-10)

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

REAL WORSHIP, FROM THE TENT, TO THE TEMPLE, TO THE THRONE

What is good worship? What determines if our worship is acceptable to God?   The answer is not a list.  It is a journey. Come on that journey from Genesis to Revelations in one message. 

Delivered for the opening night of Revival at Layman’s Chapel CME Church in Birmingham, AL

The title of the message is REAL WORSHIP, FROM THE TENT, TO THE TEMPLE, TO THE THRONE.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

RIGHT NOW, LORD! RIGHT NOW!

Two caregivers, two fathers, one whose son is medically terminal, the other whose son suffers from psychosis, seizures, and schizophrenia with suicidal tendencies--- both confronted Jesus with their needs.  The interaction leaves us with a message for those times when you’re out of time and so very not in the mood for a sermon.   

The title of the message is RIGHT NOW, LORD! RIGHT NOW!

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

Taking the Lord's Name in Vain (Blogging the General Rules)

The First General Rule states:

It is therefore, expected of all who continue therein that they shall continue to evidence their desire of salvation, first, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as The taking of the Name of God in vain

The first evil which is most generally practiced on Wesley’s list is The taking of the Name of God in vain. 

This happens to be #3 on God’s top 10 list of thou shalt nots (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5).  But it’s so common now (so generally practiced) that most of us don’t even flinch.   Christians do it, too.

When we exclaim, “Jesus!  Good Lawd! OMG, ”we use God’s name with grammatical irreverence.  When we use His name as an adverb for the degree of damn, as an interjection to express our emotion, or as an expletive or filler word to demonstrate our lack of vocabulary and imagination, it’s disrespectful and grammatically incorrect.

There’s also conversational vanity. 

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence?” Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name.

Yet you say, “In what way have we despised Your name?” (Malachi 1:6)

God is real and He hears our prayers (Psalm 65: 2).  When you yell, “Jesus Christ,” the actual living Jesus Christ hears you.  Being God transcendent and omnipresent, He can handle all of the prayers in the universe all at once; but ----- you ever have somebody call your name and after you stop what you’re doing and leave where you are to respond they say, “Oh.  Nothing”?    You know how irritating that is?  Now multiply that by 7 ½ billion.  

God is real.  If you’re going to call Him, have something to say.  Just basic conversational courtesy.

It’s common to take the name of God in vain grammatically conversationally and deceptively. 

The 9^th Commandment is  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor;” (Exodus 20:16) or, as we often paraphrase, “Thou shalt not LIE.”

Now check this out.

The Hebrew word translated vain or in vain in the 3^rd Commandments (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11) is the same word rendered false in the 9^th Commandment.

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to lie ---- and put your lie on God.  It’s to be so vain that you speak for God what God hasn’t spoken.

When you declare and decree and prophesy that sowing a $200 seed in your service, or ordering the anointed bottle of holy water with the Dasani label scraped off, or liking and sharing that picture of stacks of $100 bills with a photo-shopped White Jesus in the background will force God to give them a blessing---- you are taking God’s name in vain.

And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.” (Jeremiah 14:14)

How many times do you have to NOT receive what they declared and decreed before you stop replying, “I receive that, in Jesus name”?  

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has NOT spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18: 21-22)

Make up motivational stories if you want to, but leave Jesus’ name out of it.

Grammatically

Conversationally

Deceptively

And (last one) relationally.

I am a child of God.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  I’m a servant of the Lord, indwelled by the Holy Spirit.  I wear the Lord’s name as a token of identity, purpose, and spiritual authority. 

But, I have these little quirks, these habits, these tendencies to do the evil that I don’t want to do.  I have a sin nature.  You do, too.  But, if I’m going to call myself by His name  then I can’t let what comes naturally define me.  I’m supposed to be a different.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

So, I struggle.  I wage an internal war against my flesh.  And if I fall, I don’t use His name as an excuse.   No.  His name on my life compels me to  humble myself, and pray and seek His face, and turn from my wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

We can’t just go, “Mmm.  Nobody’s perfect” It would be dishonoring the Name we bear.  We would be like the people Isaiah and Jesus confronted.

These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” (Matthew 15: 1-3, 7-9, referencing Isaiah 29: 13)

We can’t do that.   I know everybody else does.  But we can’t.  Not if His name means as much as it should.

 ---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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

Follow me on twitter  @AndersonTGraves  

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WE, THE WICKED

Then Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.”    

This quote appears in all 4 gospels.  The context indicates that Jesus said this on the way to visit His hometown  (John 4:44) , during worship while visiting His hometown (Luke 4: 24), and each time He went back to His hometown to visit (Matthew 13: 57; Mark 6: 4).

It’s like Jesus was sighing. 

In Luke 4, after coming off a powerful 2 day revival in Samaria, and a successful preaching tour of Galilean villages, Jesus circled round to Nazareth.  He went to worship in the church where He’d grown up.  He even taught the morning Bible lesson.  To His cousins, His classmates, His brothers-in-law, His old playmates, His old teachers.  Not just generically or spiritually His people, but HIS PEOPLE.   He loved them, so He had to tell them.

He knew how they’d respond, but He had to tell them the truth.

“But I tell you truly…” (Luke 4: 25-27)

The truth is that sometimes God punishes the people in the right country with the correct religion who voted for the most patriotic candidates because you’re just as full of sin and corruption and hypocrisy as the heathens and the Jezebels.

The truth is that God loves you all, but sometimes the person in the room that God likes most is the single mother with the lowest socio-economic status and the wrong ethnic background.

The truth is that the lifelong skeptic/ heretic/ infidel who humbles himself and obeys the word of the Lord will experience the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit before you do.

The truth is that you are pissed off now.  Sigh. 

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. (Luke 4: 28, 29)

You don’t have to throw me under the bus or off the cliff.  I already know.  It’s always like this when you tell the truth at home.

When the prophets speak of God’s favor on the righteous and His wrath against the wicked, we shout, “Amen,” because we think we're  the righteous and those people are wicked.   Sigh.

But God seldom sent His prophets to speak to the righteous.  He sent the prophets to warn the wicked.

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)

It makes us so mad, so form-a-mob-and-throw-him-off-the-cliff mad to hear  that maybe, maybe WE are the wicked.

WE ARE the wicked.

You know this one well, don’t you?   2 Chronicles 7: 14  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

But go back to the verse before.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people (2 Chronicles 7: 13)

“When,” not “If.”   God PROMISED to punish the land because of what His people did.  Not because of what the heathens did.  Not because of what the unbelievers did. 

WE ARE the wicked.

Ever heard a televangelist declare coming judgment for greed?  Or vanity?  Or self-promotion?  Or falsely prophesying the date for judgment so you could raise a million dollars but not sending anyone’s money back when the world didn’t end as predicted?  Stop listening to them telling you that judgment is coming for all the sins they don’t commit.

Stop trying to humble the Muslims, the Wiccans, the Atheists, the Republicans, the Democrats, the not-us.  We have to humble OURSELVES.

Stop seeking a preferred place in power, in history, and  in money.  Seek God’s face.  Cause He wouldn’t have told us we need to if that’s what we’d been doing.

The biggest problem isn’t THEIR ways of being wicked.  The problem is that we haven’t turned from OUR WICKED WAYS. 

Try this. Grab a piece of paper and write down the top 3 sins in America,  the 3 moral issues that are destroying the nation.  Done?  Now list the 3 sins you personally commit most often.  

Which list do you spend more energy protesting against, voting against, and condemning on social media?

(Oh, and if you listed as one of your sins, "I don't stand up for what's right," you aren't paying attention.  That's just another way of saying "I don't focus on other people's wrong instead of mine.")

I know. YOUR sins aren't that bad.  The problem with this country is what everybody else does wrong.

Sigh.

In 2 Chronicles 7: 15, 16, the Lord promised that His house would always have a special place in His heart and whenever WE who come to the house of the Lord and call ourselves by His name decide to pray the way He told us to, “My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.”

The prayers of the righteous church can avail much, but first there must be the prayers of the present church that humbles itself and confesses OUR wickedness.

But you hate me calling you “wicked.”  I really need to check myself on that.    I know.  You’re right.  Sigh.

In John/ Luke, Jesus hometown folks tried to throw Him off a cliff because He told them the truth about themselves. In Matthew/ Mark, Jesus went to the same people and told them the same truth knowing they’d get mad at Him all over again.

How well do you know me?  Maybe too well.  Maybe so well that you know I’m not perfect, so why should you listen to me.  Maybe you know me so well that you can’t get past who I am (or am not) to see the truth that I’m speaking.  You probably can’t help it.  You can’t stop knowing me, and I can’t stop loving  you, so I have to tell you the truth. 

If I’ve offended you---- it won’t be the last time.

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

ASK THE QUESTION, CHRISTIAN

In the gospels, the disciples of Jesus had an irritating habit of not asking the question that most needed to be asked.  Such is the case in the closing verses of Jesus’ evangelistic campaign to Samaria.  The questions they didn’t ask turn out to be 4 of the most crucial inquiries for Christians today. 

Find out what those questions are.  The title of the message is ASK THE QUESTION, CHRISTIAN.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, 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).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064