THE FACE OF TRUTH? or THE FACE OF EVIL?

A  new HuffPost/YouGov poll, asked Democrats and Republicans about their opinions on a range of political proposals (universal healthcare, the Iran nuclear deal, affirmative action, etc.).  Half of the time the researchers said that the proposals came from Democrats (President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and/or John Kerry).  The other half they said the same ideas came from Republican Donald Trump.  The poll found that people’s positions on important political issues were more influenced by whom they thought the idea came from than by what the idea actually was.    (Read more here on the Huffington Post website.)

One of the poll items asked people if they supported or wanted to repeal the 1975 Public Affairs Act.  Republicans were more likely to support the 1975 Public Affairs Act when they were told that President Obama wanted to repeal it.  Democrats were more like to support keeping the 1975 Public Affairs Act when they were told Republicans wanted to repeal it.

P.S.  There is no 1975 Public Affairs Act.

In other words, for Democrats and for Republicans, for liberals and for conservatives, the party mattered more than the truth.

In John 3: 20, Jesus said “everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light.”  In verse 21, Jesus said, “he who does the truth comes to the light.”

Truth comes to light.  Evil doesn’t come to the light.

Jesus said that the opposite of truth is evil.

Political parties are not inherently evil.  But, absolute loyalty to a political party, or to any human institution, does and always has led to all kinds of EVIL.  Most Nazis during WWII never saw a concentration camp, but they supported their party.   Most White Southerners ,ca. 1781 – 1955, never murdered a Black person, but they revered the Klan and supported segregation.  Most of the ugliest episodes in human history have been carried out by people who personally knew little to nothing about the people they raped, murdered, and displaced.  They didn’t know the truth.  They only knew what their party told them.

Kill the Savages.

Hang the Niggers.

Death to America.

F*** the Police.

When historians arrive in the aftermath of party instituted atrocities, they pick through the rubble, and ask, “How could people have done such terrible things?”

Because the people didn’t know the truth.  And without truth, all you have is evil.

More and more, each of receives news tailored to our socio-political digital profile.  More and more, we see, hear, and read only what our party says.  We are increasingly isolated from the truth.  We are progressively conditioned for evil.

My side’s position isn’t true because it came from my side.  Your side’s either.  You and I have to put in the extra work to read the other side’s opinion, to dig into the mechanisms behind the study, to go 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 sources back to figure out how two equally qualified experts can reach such different conclusions. We have to discipline ourselves to stop immediately believing the expert who’s on “our side.”

We must pursue the truth, or we’ll end up serving truth’s opposite.  According to Jesus, the opposite of truth is evil.

Jesus said “ And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

(John 8: 32-34)

So you can either be a slave to your party’s sins (John 8: 34), or you can know the truth and counter the impetus to evil.

Only THE truth can make Americans free.

---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

If... Then...

This is what He said:  "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." (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

This is what we hear:  "if people who call on My name will pray then I will hear from heaven, and will forget their sin and heal their land."

Notice the difference?   Read them again.

We expect----heck, some people stand up and DECLARE--- that God will fix what’s wrong for us.   Why? 

Why would He?

Are we called by His name? 

To bear His name is to be a member of His household.  To be a member of His household is to obedient to His authority.  Are we obedient to His authority?  Really?  Even when He authoritatively tells us to do what we don’t wanna and to quit doing what we enjoy?

Are we the people called by His name, or are we just the people who call His name when we want something?  Cause those people are houseguests, not member of the household. 

Do we humble ourselves?  Or do we exalt ourselves as blessed, highly favored, anointed, royal, etc., etc.?

I’m not saying that the saints aren’t all of those wonderful, Biblically rooted things.  I’m simply pointing out that when we focus on the exalted aspects of our Divine identity, we’re not in the place where God said He’d hear, forgive, and heal.

We pray.  Oh, we do pray.  But when we pray, do we seek His face, or do we seek His fortune?  Do we want a deeper experience and understanding of God for God’s sake?  Or, do we want deeper blessings from God for our sake?

Last questions.  Be honest, now. 

Are we turning from our wicked ways? 

Are we, or are we turning around looking for ways to justify our wickedness?  Do we come to Him weeping and confessing, “Lord, we have done wrong.  Lord, I have done wrong”?  Or, do we come to him with 3-ring binders full of reasons why what we’ve done shouldn't be called wrong and shouldn’t be held against us?

(It’s the White man’s fault. 

I was born this way. 

My parents gave me PTSD. 

My student loan is too big. 

My income is too small. 

Other people are worse than me.

Obama.)

How can you or I turn from our wicked ways when we don’t see what’s so wicked about the way we are? 

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.

Now here’s the hard part.

God will hear our prayers.

God will forgive our sin.

God will heal the brokenness and injustice in our land.

But first…

But first, we have to:

1)      Submit to His authority

2)      Genuinely humble rather than exalt ourselves

3)      Love Him and seek Him alone

4)      Be real about how wicked and stupid WE have been

---then He  will hear from heaven, and will forgive our sin and heal our land.

And if not, then He won’t; and 50 years after this movement we’ll be talking about how sad it is that nothing has really changed.    

---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

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

THE PROMISE OR THE PRESENCE

What do we want from God?  What do we really want?  And why does praying for what we want work out so inconsistently?  Sometimes we get it.  Sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we get what we want, but it doesn’t work out the way we wanted.  Why?

Maybe the problem isn’t with the asking.  Maybe the problem is with the wanting.

The solution lies in a crucial choice.  Go back to Exodus and consider the choice between THE PROMISE OR THE PRESENCE. 

Listen well.

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

---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

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

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

Audio of sermon: MY FATHER’S HOUSE

On the day of His resurrection, what did Jesus want?  After 33 years of earthly life and 3 days of death, what did Jesus want to do more than anything else?

Reconsider Luke’s two accounts of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, because the answer may change------ everything.

The sermon is called:  MY FATHER’S HOUSE.

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 LESSON OF THE GIANTS

In the movie “Jack the Giant Slayer,” the people of the kingdom have lost their faith in the old stories of giants.  So, when the giants show up again, the people are totally unprepared. 

In a similar way, we Christians have forgotten the stories of giants past.  So, when giant-sized trouble comes, we don’t know what to do.   Follow me on a journey through the Biblical account of giants.  Hear the wisdom embedded in these ancient stories and see how you can apply these ancient accounts to your life right now.   Learn THE LESSON OF THE GIANTS.

Listen well.

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

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

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

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