WHY I FAILED FIRST GRADE MATH

My first report card in 1st grade included an F in math.  I was a smart kid.  I had a great teacher.  I understood the concepts, and I had ample opportunity to practice the concepts as taught.  The reason I failed math is that I liked addition, and I didn’t like subtraction. 

Addition was cool.  You take two little numbers and turn them into one big number.  That was nice.  But subtraction turned two big numbers into one little bitty number.  That was mean, and I didn’t like it.  So I decided to add all of the math problems, even the ones that contained a minus sign.  Once I'd made that small reinterpretation of the principles, math became one of my favorite subjects.

In my mind, I had good reasons for changing the directions of the problems, but my reasons didn’t change the reality of the assignments.  Hence, the F in math on my first grade report card.

The Bible contains some uncomfortable directions.  There are things in scripture that sound uncool, even mean.  Many of us have really good personal reasons why we’d rather do, teach, and believe something other than what the directions in the Bible tell us.   We have the freedom to do that, but  neither our reasons nor our liberty change the reality of God’s revealed Word.

What a sad, sad shame it would be to spend a life joyfully and sincerely doing and teaching the opposite of what God’s Word, to exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1: 25) only to discover that the big red “F” doesn’t stand for “fine” or “faithful.” 

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.   As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.  (Galatians 1: 8, 9)

True Biblical doctrine isn't always as nice or as cool as we imagine it could be; but it’s still the Truth.  And we owe it to God, to the world, and to ourselves to deliver the Truth no matter how much we dislike the problems that come from faithfully speaking what the Bible honestly says.

 Jesus said: Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5: 19)

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

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

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 39: 11-14. "Young People Today"

Proverbs 30:11     There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother.
12     There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.
13     There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
14     There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30: 11-14. O, how we lament the problem of  “young people today.”

Young people today have no respect for their parents.

Young folks today think they know everything.
Young people today.  They commit any and every  sin they can think of and act like it’s O.K.
These young people today will kill you as soon as look at you.
Young folks these days don’t care about anyone but themselves.

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates even said, “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

When we complain about TODAY’s kids or THIS GENERATION, we’re implying that the problem is the day/ the times, that the problem is our particular cultural context.

But, the same issues we have today existed in ancient times.

The same complaints about young people were voiced in the conservative, overtly godly culture of Old Testament Israel, a time and place where parents could legally stone their children for disrespectful language (Exodus 21: 17; Leviticus 20: 9).

The criticisms we make of our younger generation are the same which were made in the religiously pluralistic, sexually liberal squares of ancient Greece.

The problem is not the times.  The problem is not the culture.  The problem with “young people today” is not TODAY.

And, the problem isn’t that they’re young. 

Solomon called children an inheritance from God, a reward, a source of the parents’ strength like arrows in the hand of a warrior. (Psalm 127: 3-5)

In Matthew 19: 13, 14, Jesus called children the model for the people of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The problem with “young people today” isn’t that they live in today’s culture.  It isn’t that they are young.  The problem is that they’re PEOPLE.  Each young person is a complete PERSON.

If my son cusses me out, it’s not the nation’s fault for taking prayer out of schools.  It’s not the media’s fault for playing Lil’ Wayne records and airing episodes of “American Dad” and “Family Guy.”  It didn’t happen because we are living in the end times and such behavior is inevitable (not that we aren’t living in the end times).   And it isn’t because my boy got in with “the wrong crowd.”

Listen.  If my son cusses me out the problem is MY SON.  It’s not the culture.  It’s not the times.  It’s the person.

Young people today sin for the same reason that old people today sin and for the same reason that people have sinned in every time and culture since Eden--------because they individually choose to.

Stop making excuses.   Stop looking for labels and diagnoses to excuse what they did.

Your child’s sins are your child’s fault.

Deal with it.

Seriously.   Do something to deal with it.

Don’t acquiesce dominance in your house to the screaming, hitting 2 year old.  Check them and teach them not to scream and hit.

Don’t believe the hype that every teen yells at his/her parents and slams their bedroom door.  It’s not inevitable.  It’s not a necessary part of the maturing process.  It’s mean.  It’s disrespectful.  It’s sin.  Deal with it while the kid’s still short and cute and you won’t have to suffer with it when he’s awkward and tall.

When your child throws a pencil in class, stop blaming it on ADHD.  ADHD makes your child’s brain change the subject.  Choosing the subject of pencil throwing and then acting upon that subject isn’t ADHD.   

It’s free freakin’ will.

Young people may not be fully developed, but young people are fully human.  And every human being has full access to his/her free will. 

Free will exercised contrary to God’s will = SIN.

Whatever the age, whatever the times, sin is the real problem.

Deal with it.

How can you deal with it?   How can a young man cleanse his way? (Psalm 119:9a)

By taking heed according to Your word. (Psalm 119:9b)

The Word says that Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— …much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.  (Romans 5: 12, 15)

The problem with kids today is sin.  The solution to sin is Jesus. 

O.K.? 

Good.  Now deal with 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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 39: 11-14. "Young People Today"

Proverbs 30:11     There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother.
12     There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.
13     There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
14     There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30: 11-14. O, how we lament the problem of  “young people today.”

Young people today have no respect for their parents.

Young folks today think they know everything.
Young people today.  They commit any and every  sin they can think of and act like it’s O.K.
These young people today will kill you as soon as look at you.
Young folks these days don’t care about anyone but themselves.

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates even said, “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

When we complain about TODAY’s kids or THIS GENERATION, we’re implying that the problem is the day/ the times, that the problem is our particular cultural context.

But, the same issues we have today existed in ancient times.

The same complaints about young people were voiced in the conservative, overtly godly culture of Old Testament Israel, a time and place where parents could legally stone their children for disrespectful language (Exodus 21: 17; Leviticus 20: 9).

The criticisms we make of our younger generation are the same which were made in the religiously pluralistic, sexually liberal squares of ancient Greece.

The problem is not the times.  The problem is not the culture.  The problem with “young people today” is not TODAY.

And, the problem isn’t that they’re young. 

Solomon called children an inheritance from God, a reward, a source of the parents’ strength like arrows in the hand of a warrior. (Psalm 127: 3-5)

In Matthew 19: 13, 14, Jesus called children the model for the people of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The problem with “young people today” isn’t that they live in today’s culture.  It isn’t that they are young.  The problem is that they’re PEOPLE.  Each young person is a complete PERSON.

If my son cusses me out, it’s not the nation’s fault for taking prayer out of schools.  It’s not the media’s fault for playing Lil’ Wayne records and airing episodes of “American Dad” and “Family Guy.”  It didn’t happen because we are living in the end times and such behavior is inevitable (not that we aren’t living in the end times).   And it isn’t because my boy got in with “the wrong crowd.”

Listen.  If my son cusses me out the problem is MY SON.  It’s not the culture.  It’s not the times.  It’s the person.

Young people today sin for the same reason that old people today sin and for the same reason that people have sinned in every time and culture since Eden--------because they individually choose to.

Stop making excuses.   Stop looking for labels and diagnoses to excuse what they did.

Your child’s sins are your child’s fault.

Deal with it.

Seriously.   Do something to deal with it.

Don’t acquiesce dominance in your house to the screaming, hitting 2 year old.  Check them and teach them not to scream and hit.

Don’t believe the hype that every teen yells at his/her parents and slams their bedroom door.  It’s not inevitable.  It’s not a necessary part of the maturing process.  It’s mean.  It’s disrespectful.  It’s sin.  Deal with it while the kid’s still short and cute and you won’t have to suffer with it when he’s awkward and tall.

When your child throws a pencil in class, stop blaming it on ADHD.  ADHD makes your child’s brain change the subject.  Choosing the subject of pencil throwing and then acting upon that subject isn’t ADHD.   

It’s free freakin’ will.

Young people may not be fully developed, but young people are fully human.  And every human being has full access to his/her free will. 

Free will exercised contrary to God’s will = SIN.

Whatever the age, whatever the times, sin is the real problem.

Deal with it.

How can you deal with it?   How can a young man cleanse his way? (Psalm 119:9a)

By taking heed according to Your word. (Psalm 119:9b)

The Word says that Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— …much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.  (Romans 5: 12, 15)

The problem with kids today is sin.  The solution to sin is Jesus. 

O.K.? 

Good.  Now deal with 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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 30: 6

Proverbs 30:6     Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Proverbs 30:6.  Centuries later, in Revelations 22: 18, the Apostle John said the same thing.

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; Iand if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Revelations 22: 18, 19)     

John’s warning is found in the last chapter of the last book of the canonized Bible.

At the time Agur wrote Proverbs 30: 6, the Bible, the written canonized Word of God was far from complete.  None of the New Testament had been written, and most of the Old Testament prophets hadn’t even been born.  Agur wasn’t writing the last book of the Bible.  This wasn’t even the last chapter of the book of Proverbs.

So, Agur isn’t warning against adding text to the Book.  Agur is warning against attaching unauthorized ideas to the Word.

When someone preaches, prophesies, or teaches from the Bible, he/she is speaking the Word of God.  To deliver the Word in a way that makes sense, you use stories, analogies, and references that are not in the Bible.  And that’s fine.

We can expand on the illustrations and applications of Scripture; but we must never change the point, message, ideas, or ideals of the Scripture.  We can use our personal experiences to explain meaning in the Bible; but we must never allow our personal experiences to define meaning in the Bible.

If you, or I, or anyone adds meanings to God’s Word that God didn’t put there, then we are lying on God.

Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3: 4)

This is what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for doing.  He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition”. (Mark 7: 9)

We have our old traditions, and we have our new and emerging traditions.  Trends.  We call an emerging tradition a trend. 

When personal/ social trends and traditions disagree with the Word of God, Christians have 2 choices:

(A)   Reject the tradition (be it old or emerging) and hold to the eternal and infinitely applicable Truth of God; or
(B)   Add unauthorized ideas to the Word of God and attach to the scriptures meanings that God didn’t put there.

Jesus said that the 2^nd option means making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. (Mark 7: 13)

We make the Word of God of no effect when we hop up and say “The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not,’ but God really means ‘Thou shalt go ahead because social norms have changed.’ ”   That's lying on God, and that’s a dangerous thing to do because God does not take it well when anybody---you, me, or angel (Galatians 1: 8)--- lies on Him.

God has not changed His opinions on sin or life in general (Malachi 3: 6).    God has said what He meant and He still means what He said (Isaiah 40: 8).  

Human cultures, laws, traditions/trends do change with the times.  But, God doesn’t.   

Rituals, forms, languages, and styles of worship do evolve.   But, the Truth of God’s Word doesn’t. 

Don’t change it.  Don’t lie on God.  If you do, the lie will only hurt you and those you convince. 

Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3: 4)

Not the other way around.

---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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 30: 6

Proverbs 30:6     Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Proverbs 30:6.  Centuries later, in Revelations 22: 18, the Apostle John said the same thing.

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; Iand if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Revelations 22: 18, 19)     

John’s warning is found in the last chapter of the last book of the canonized Bible.

At the time Agur wrote Proverbs 30: 6, the Bible, the written canonized Word of God was far from complete.  None of the New Testament had been written, and most of the Old Testament prophets hadn’t even been born.  Agur wasn’t writing the last book of the Bible.  This wasn’t even the last chapter of the book of Proverbs.

So, Agur isn’t warning against adding text to the Book.  Agur is warning against attaching unauthorized ideas to the Word.

When someone preaches, prophesies, or teaches from the Bible, he/she is speaking the Word of God.  To deliver the Word in a way that makes sense, you use stories, analogies, and references that are not in the Bible.  And that’s fine.

We can expand on the illustrations and applications of Scripture; but we must never change the point, message, ideas, or ideals of the Scripture.  We can use our personal experiences to explain meaning in the Bible; but we must never allow our personal experiences to define meaning in the Bible.

If you, or I, or anyone adds meanings to God’s Word that God didn’t put there, then we are lying on God.

Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3: 4)

This is what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for doing.  He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition”. (Mark 7: 9)

We have our old traditions, and we have our new and emerging traditions.  Trends.  We call an emerging tradition a trend. 

When personal/ social trends and traditions disagree with the Word of God, Christians have 2 choices:

(A)   Reject the tradition (be it old or emerging) and hold to the eternal and infinitely applicable Truth of God; or
(B)   Add unauthorized ideas to the Word of God and attach to the scriptures meanings that God didn’t put there.

Jesus said that the 2^nd option means making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. (Mark 7: 13)

We make the Word of God of no effect when we hop up and say “The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not,’ but God really means ‘Thou shalt go ahead because social norms have changed.’ ”   That's lying on God, and that’s a dangerous thing to do because God does not take it well when anybody---you, me, or angel (Galatians 1: 8)--- lies on Him.

God has not changed His opinions on sin or life in general (Malachi 3: 6).    God has said what He meant and He still means what He said (Isaiah 40: 8).  

Human cultures, laws, traditions/trends do change with the times.  But, God doesn’t.   

Rituals, forms, languages, and styles of worship do evolve.   But, the Truth of God’s Word doesn’t. 

Don’t change it.  Don’t lie on God.  If you do, the lie will only hurt you and those you convince. 

Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3: 4)

Not the other way around.

---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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116