GOD AND THE DAD-LECTURE (lessons from the end of Exodus 15)

Blogging  Exodus 15: 25-27

 ²⁵ So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, ²⁶ and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.

Upon reflection I realized that I when I give my children money it usually comes with a lecture.  Here’s the script:   Here’s $____ .  It’s yours.  Spend it how you want, BUT you know you need ____ and _____ is coming up; so you might wanna _____ first and make sure you ____.  Don’t go and _____ cause you won’t have anything left to _____ and when you can’t  _____ , don’t come running to me asking for another $_____ because you have money to handle your business, right?  O.K.

I can tell that gets on my kids nerves.  I don’t care.  But I can tell.

I bet God can tell, too; cause He does the same thing with His children.

In Exodus chapter 15, the Lord  performed a mighty miracle at the waters of Marah. He transformed the chemical composition of a poisoned spring and saved the escaped Hebrew slaves from death by thirst in the desert.  He gave them sweet water out of a bitter spring.

But before they left Marah, He also gave them a lecture.

. . . the waters were made sweet [, and there] He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them (Exodus 15: 25).

A statute and/or ordinance is a rule, a codified restriction or requirement made part of the law.  We aren’t told what this law was, but we are told why this law was.  It was a test case. 

Before He gave them the Law, before even the 10 Commandments, God wanted to see if these people, this prenatal nation could handle living by God’s rules. 

The lecture I give my kids when I give them money is a test ---- and a plea.  I need to see if they will make responsible choices.  I WANT to see that they will make responsible choices because I want to give them more responsibility, more freedom, and more opportunities for (yes) money.  My lectures are the daddy way I beg them to please do the right thing here, kid, cause there’s more where this came from.   More lectures for sure, but also more blessings.

“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you (Exodus 15:26).

The God of the Bible has a LOT of rules:  how you have to  treat people, who you should love, who you should forgive, how you should handle your money, who you can have sex with . . . a lot of rules.  But each of those rules is actually a plea.  Every “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not” is God saying “Please, please, please, my child.  Show Me that you can responsibly handle this part of the miracle that is your life because I want to bless you with more authority, more power, and more opportunity to grow and to succeed.”

After refreshing Israel at Marah’s one spring, God gave His people a statute and ordinance as a test.  They kept that test-case rule.  And so,  God brought them not to another single spring with a log next to it,  but Then they came to Elim, where there were TWELVE WELLS of water and SEVENTY PALM TREES; so they camped there by the waters.

If you ever feel like God is holding you back with warnings and slowing you down with lessons, take a breath.  It’s all right.  Your Heavenly Father isn’t trying to keep you from enjoying the present.    He is trying to position you for the greater blessings He has in store.

  

---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 Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

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

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Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

I couldn't work this into the blog post, but #Mrlegendarius 

THE WE GREATER THAN YOU OR ME

Final sermon as pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church. (Apologies for the audio quality)

The title is:  THE WE GREATER THAN YOU OR ME.

Listen well and leave a comment.

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 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on 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

HARDER THAN YOU THINK; BETTER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE

My father always told me that life would be harder for me than it was for him.  I didn’t believe him.  But, then I grew up, experienced life, and had children of my own.  Now, I understand what Pops meant.  And now I understand a pattern among God’s people that didn’t make sense before.

In our nation, in our churches, and in our personal lives it often feels like one step forward and two steps back.  But the Bible actually lays out principles for how God can use these cycles to accomplish great things in your life.

You’ll understand after you listen to the message called  HARDER THAN YOU THINK; BETTER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE. 

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

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

RIGOR & EXPECTATIONS

We say some things that make no sense, but because they have been said so long by so many important people, we just keep on saying them.  For example, in education we constantly use the terms Rigor and Expectations.  And the way we use those words makes no sense.

We say things like  "increased rigor will increase performance" or "high expectations get results."

These concepts express the assumption that if schools make work harder then students will do better work.

You know that's garbage, right?

If you pass out trying to run 1 mile in 30 minutes, telling you that now you have to run 2 miles in 20 minutes is not going to grant you magical new powers of speed and endurance.

Raising the level of rigor and expectations does not CAUSE better performance because rigor comes from outside but expectations come from within.

Let me explain. 

Within the educational system, verbs/ action words are very important.  Educators are trained to use verbs that express physically observable actions:  external actions.  Educators are trained to avoid verbs that express less observable actions ---- feelings and stuff.  So, teachers are mandated to COMMUNICATE high expectations because you can observe what and how people communicate. Teachers aren’t required to HAVE high expectations because that’s internal and unobservable.

The problem is that there's a huge difference between teachers who COMMUNICATE high expectations to their students and teachers who HAVE high expectations for their students.   It’s the same the difference between a man who SAYS he loves you and a man who LOVES you.

Regulations and procedures can mandate the expectations that teachers communicate, but they cannot change what teachers actually feel.   

High expectations only work when the teacher genuinely believes that his/her students are smarter and better than they’re past performance indicates.  That teacher will push himself/herself to deliver better instruction while inspiring, motivating, and darn near stalking students, parents, and administrators into delivering nothing less than their A-game.   A teacher who believes that his students are performing below their potential will HAVE & COMMNICATE higher expectations.  She will give harder (more rigorous) assignments, AND she will relentlessly teach, re-teach, explain, demonstrate, tutor, and contemporize the information for the students.

On the other hand, a teacher who’s forced to COMMUNICATE high expectations and assign more rigorous work but who doesn’t really HAVE any higher expectations for his students---- that teacher won’t put forth an ounce more effort than he did last year.  And no one can make her.

NO.  YOU CAN’T.

You can require a teacher to read a script, but you cannot regulate sincerity.
You can dictate the number of times a teacher walks around a room per quarter of the class period, but you can’t change the look in her eyes when she looks over the room.
You can make a teacher post two dozen inspirational posters in his classroom, but you cannot make the teacher believe any of it, and no box set of 24 posters can fool children into thinking that a teacher believes in them when they can sense every day that she doesn’t.

Harder work (rigor) can come from a mandate, but higher expectations must come from the heart.

Now read Hebrews 6: 1-12, because that scripture is all about rigor and expectations.

In verses 1-3, Paul COMMUNICATED a coming increase in the rigor of their Bible study.  He said that they would be leaving elementary principles of Christ and going on to deeper, more rigorous spiritual concepts.   In the next few verses, Paul talked about some of their spiritual classmates who had dropped out.  He said that he didn’t think they’d make it (a big no-no for any teacher today).

it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit…     if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.  (Hebrews 6: 4-6)

But Paul doesn’t just SAY he wants them to meet those higher expectations.    Paul really believes in their ability to succeed where so many of their peers had failed.

But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you (Hebrews 6: 9)

And so, Paul pushed them.  In verses 11 and 12, Paul demanded diligence, and consistently high levels of effort all the way until the end. Paul didn’t tolerate them becoming sluggish but he offered them multiple models to imitate those who through faith and patience met rigorous standards  and went on to successful inherit the promise.  

Paul pushed them and he pushed himself.  He didn’t push because it was mandated.  He pushed them because it was necessary.  Paul pushed them because he could see that they were better than they had allowed themselves to be. 

Paul communicated higher expectations and instituted increased rigor because he first HAD higher expectations.

The process begins in the heart of the teacher not in the regulations of the mandate:

1.      See greater in them.

2.      Communicate greater to them.

3.      Give greater to them.

4.      Demand greater from them.

But if you don’t see it in them when you communicate it to them, you won’t get it from them because you won’t give it to them.

Exclude the heart of a teacher and the practice of teaching will fail.

---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 (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) 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

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

Support by check or money order may be mailed to  

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

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