WHAT ARE MISSIONARIES FOR?

A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.  A Christian is safe when he/she leaves missionary work to a few religious specialists. But is that what Christians are for?  A missionary is safe when he/she accepts the title but avoids outreach.

And that brings us to the message for Missionary Day at Miles Chapel CME Church.  The sermon is titled: WHAT ARE MISSIONARIES FOR?

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

CHURCH WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED

We make our resolutions and our plans but things always seem to go another way.  Jesus had the same experience.  Take a new look at the familiar story of the feeding of the 5,000.  Hear a necessary message for the new year and every new move. 

The title is CHURCH WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED.

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

REMEMBER THE RACCOON

Last month a raccoon died in Toronto, Canada. 

It made the news.

It wasn’t a toxic raccoon, a pet raccoon, or a raccoon from a move, or the beloved attraction at a local zoo.  Just a regular raccoon.  Around 9 A.M., Someone discovered the creature’s body on a sidewalk.  They called the city of Toronto, and someone there said they’d send someone from Animal Services to remove the thing.  No one came.  All day and into the night people passed by the dead raccoon. 

They took pictures. 

They tweeted about it.

They made phone calls.

They ranted about the city’s lack of response.

People spent time and real money creating a mock memorial.

 

You know what no one did?

No one scooped the dead raccoon up off the street.

A shovel, a trash bag, and 2 minutes to toss it in a dumpster.  10 minutes to bury it in a backyard.  The photo-shopping, printing, and matting on the framed picture definitely took longer than that.

But, this  is who we are.  We are a series of cities filled with people who can launch a website in under an hour but can’t move a dead raccoon.  We can choreograph a flash mob singing “Uptown Funk” in Grand Central Station, but we can’t move a dead raccoon.  We want freedom and privacy, but we need the combined resources of a major metropolitan municipal government to move a dead raccoon.

We are so pitiful.

We’re like Jesus’ disciples in Luke 9.   Jesus and His disciples had retreated to a deserted area to debrief and relax after their first evangelistic mission, but the crowds found them and Jesus, moved by their needs, spent the day preaching and healing people.  By the end of the day, Jesus and the disciples were looking out at 5,000+ exhausted and hungry people scattered over the countryside.

The disciples accurately discerned the problem in their makeshift community, and they collectively advised Jesus to outsource the solution. 

This was the city’s problem. A charity should handle this.  Perhaps there was an NGO or local non-profit that could address the problem.  Better yet, these people should go and seek relief in the private sector.

“Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” (Luke 9: 12)

Get them together, Jesus. Educate them on their problem.  And send them to somebody else for help.

In Matthew’s account, Jesus responded, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14: 16)

Dude, you see the raccoon lying there. Move it.

The disciples counted their treasury and polled the 5,000+ population for support.  They came up waaay short (Mark 6: 37).  But they pooled what woefully insufficient resources they had gathered and brought it to Jesus. (Luke 9: 13b)

They organized the people into smaller groups and got to work (Luke 9: 14).  Miraculously, with God’s blessing, it worked.  The needs were met, and the disciples each had lunch for the next day. 

So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. (Luke 9: 17)

It took the government of Toronto 14 hours to send a city employee to remove the dead raccoon. It didn’t take 14 hours, but it took 14 hours.

Our government has the capacity to solve your communities’ unemployment, crime, education, infrastructure, obesity, and litter problems. 

But will they?  And if they do, how long will it take?

Probably longer than it would take you and me to do incredible work with insufficient resources. 

Jesus started Christianity with a core group of 4 failed fishermen, a tax agent who quit his job, a couple of frustrated militants (zealots), a pessimist, and a few others who were so un-remarkable that the four gospel writers can barely keep their names straight.

What amazing things could you or I do with Jesus’ blessing our inadequate resources and un-remarkable congregations?

Let’s find out.

---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

"YOU, SWEAR?" #25 of 25 Blogging through the Articles of Religion

Article XXV - Of a Christian Man's Oath

As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle, so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth.

In Matthew 5 while arguing with the Pharisees, Jesus went on a rant about people swearing by this and that all the doggone time.

 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37     But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.  (Matthew 5: 33-37)

“For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had said that the devil “is a liar and the father of it” (John 8: 44). 

Anything beyond the simple truth is lie.

Therefore “whatever is more than these” simple truths is from the devil.

So, Jesus ranted, don’t  swear by this or that.  Just tell the doggone truth.

Without the simple truth, an oath is just a ritualized lie--- bearing false witness.

Jesus didn’t prohibit Christians from taking oath and then telling the truth.  He condemned taking an oath and then telling a lie.  We know this because Jesus Himself testified under oath in a court of law.

Matthew 26 explains that after being betrayed by Judas, Jesus was put on trial before the Sanhedrin Council.  Initially, Jesus refused to speak but then He was “sworn in” by the high priest. 

But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Matthew 26: 63)

The tribunal Jesus faced was illegally assembled, improperly conducted, and corruptly concluded.  Jesus response wasn’t about the integrity of the court or the 1^st century Judean justice system. 

The official oath in that court didn’t compel Jesus to tell the truth; Jesus always told the truth.   The court couldn’t compel Jesus to violate God’s law; Jesus also always kept God’s law.  But, Jesus did answer when the high priest put him “under oath by the living God.”

Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26: 63-64)

Jesus’s actions demonstrate the application of His words.

Like Christ, Christians should speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth without embellishing our words with “I swear,” “I promise,” “I put that on my mama/daddy/grandma/life..”  Like Christ, Christians should just say what we mean and mean what we say.

Like Christ, Christians can also speak the truth under oath, in court, in response to a judge’s request.   Like Christ, our testimony doesn’t depend on the integrity of the legal system.  We tell the truth because that’s what Christ-followers are supposed to do. 

An oath itself isn’t necessary, but it also isn’t a sin.

---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

DO YOU GET IT?

In other words, Jesus wanted to know, “Do you get it?”

The Lord is asking that question of all of us still today.  What is “it”?  And how do you get “it”?

Find out in this message.  Find out: DO YOU GET IT?

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 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 Loophole in the Law of Sowing & Reaping

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  (Galatians 6: 7)

The Bible says that we reap what we sow.  That’s true, but that’s not ALL.

Paul and Jesus talked about sowing and reaping with a kind of it’s-common-doggone-sense assumption that their listeners (us) would understand that sowing and reaping includes the process of TENDING.

But common sense ain’t all that common, is it?

We forget that we reap WHAT we sow,  but ONLY if we TEND what we sow.

Paul said, “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3: 6-8)

The reward, the “reaping,” comes from God, but that reward is based on not only the labor of planting (sowing), but also on the labor of watering (tending).

We reap WHAT we sow,  but only if we TEND what we sow.

Mathew chapter 13 records Jesus’ famous Parable of the Sower.  This is the story where a farmer’s seed falls on different types of ground, representing the different mentalities in which people hear and respond to God’s Word.

Our favorite line from the Parable of the Sower is “Others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Mathew 13: 8)

We remember that and shout, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (verse 9)

But we’re supposed to hear more than that one line.

We’re supposed to hear that some of the seed, sown by the same Sower ---- died and produced NOTHING.

Where the farmer didn't put up a working scarecrow, the birds ate up his seed; and the seed produced nothing for him to reap. (Mathew 13: 4)

Where the farmer had not added supplemental top soil, the fresh shoots died from lack of depth and yielded nothing for him to reap. (verse 5)

Where the farmer had not arranged for sufficient shade despite knowing well the climate in which he farmed, his new plants did not survive; and from those plants he reaped zerofold. (verse 6)

Where the farmer had done a poor job of clearing thorns before sowing time, and didn’t then follow up by aggressively clearing the weeds during the growing season, the fresh shoots died; and the farmer reaped NOTHING from what he had sown. (verse 7)

The good soil that yielded thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold wasn’t good just because the soil was rich.  The scorched soil was equally rich, but the farmer didn’t reap there.  The thorny soil was great for growing (just ask the weeds), but the farmer didn’t reap from that space. 

The good soil was good because it was in an area that the farmer diligently tended in the time between sowing and reaping.

We reap what we sow,  but only if we tend what we have sown.

That ought to be common theological sense.  But clearly theological sense isn’t that common.

We have propagandized and commercialized the “Law of Sowing and Reaping” to the point that Christians actually think that they can drop money on a patch of carpet in a church or in a little basket, call their money “a financial seed” and then reap a return without tending to the thorns of sin and distraction in their lives, or addressing the shallowness of their spiritual practices, or spending time in the shade of a genuine relationship with God, or changing the company of scavengers in which they still socialize.

We expect to reap after sowing and without doing anything else.

And it just doesn’t work that way.

If you aren’t seeing the great harvest you expect from what you ”sowed” on Sunday, then perhaps you should give more attention to how you are (or are not) tending to your life between worship services.

You reap what you sow, when you tend what you have sown.

---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

THERE IS MORE TO IT THAN THAT

Remember the alphabet song A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K- Ellamenopee…. 

The rhythm was so familiar that we just ran parts of it together and missed the real meaning.

Unfortunately, that’s what we do with the time between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  We lump it all together and miss the deep truths that Jesus revealed in the 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension into the throneroom of Heaven.

In this message, Rev. Graves reveals how we have reduced the post-resurrection story to a blur and shows why THERE IS MORE TO IT THAN THAT.
(I've put an outline of Scripture references at the bottom of this post.)

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 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

"There's More to it Than That"  SCRIPTURE OUTLINEJesus’ Appearance to 2 disciples,

Emmaus Road,

Resurrection Sunday afternoon

1.      Luke 24: 13-34

1^st Appearance to the Eleven (minus Thomas),

Jerusalem,

Resurrection Sunday evening

2.      Luke 24: 35-48

3.      John 20: 19-24

? Mark 16: 14-18  (Uncertain timing)

? Mark 16: 19, 20  (Uncertain timing)

2^nd Appearance to the Eleven (with Thomas),

in Galilee,

8 days after the Resurrection

4.      John 20: 24-31

3^rd Appearance to the Disciples,

in Galilee

5.      John 21: 1-17

6.      Matthew 28: 16-19

In various Places,

During the 40 days after the Resurrection

7.      Acts 1: 1-3

8.      1 Corinthians 15: 6, 7

The Ascension,

Between the Mount of Olives and Bethany,

40 days after the Resurrection

9.      Acts 1: 4-12

10.  Luke 24: 48-53

? Mark 16: 19, 20

BLOGGING THE LORD’S PRAYER: STRAIGHT TO THE TOP

Matthew 6: 13      …For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

My father taught me to go straight to the top when I need something done.  Buford Graves said, “There’s always somebody who can say ‘No’ when everyone else has said, ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’ when everyone else has said ‘No.’  That’s the person you talk to.”

Jesus gave the same advice when He taught the disciples how to pray.

Jesus taught the disciples to praise God for His holiness, to seek God’s coming kingdom, to desire God’s will in every plane of existence,  to ask God to provide what they need, to ask God to forgive and to make them forgiving, to seek God’s preventive and redemptive protection, and His rescue from the evil one. 
Jesus taught His disciples to do all of that For (meaning Because)  Yours  is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

We acknowledge that angelic authorities, powers, principalities exist and affect us; but

when we really need to get something done we go past angels and straight to the top.

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels (Colossians 2: 18)

We recognize and respect the status of human authorities.  We deal with bosses, managers, gatekeepers, and colleagues, rendering to Caesar what Caesar is due; but when we really need something, we go past people and straight to the top.

Do not put your trust in princes,

Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;

In that very day his plans perish.  (Psalm 146: 3-4)

Why? 

[Because] Yours  is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

David was the greatest king in the Old Testament, and David said: “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.

11     Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,

The power and the glory,

The victory and the majesty;

For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;

Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,

And You are exalted as head over all.” (1 Chronicles 29: 10, 11)

David was at the top of the political game, but he understood that he wasn’t at the very top. 

And when we need something, we go straight to the very top.

God loves us.  This we know because the Bible tells us so.  But we don’t pray to God just because He loves us. 

Mama loves you.  Your pet dog, cat, parrot, iguana, or rock loves you.  But you don’t pray to those. 

(You don’t, do you?)

Despite the love, you don’t (I hope you don’t) pray to those because their power to answer your prayers is limited.

If God loved us as much as He does, but He was limited as other entities are, then it wouldn’t be feasible to pray to God.   It would be like praying to mama, or your pet rock, or to an angel. 

But God is far beyond your pets, your guardian angel, and even your mom.

Those have some power.  Those possess some glory.  Those, like King David, operate in authority over certain territories or kingdoms.

But God----- God has THE power, THE glory, and THE kingdom.

That is to say:  God has ALL power, ALL glory, and ALL kingdoms.

And God the Father has manifest His Son Jesus Christ far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1: 21- 22)

That’s Jesus---for through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2: 18)

Why would we give our worship to peons when we know Who’s at the top?

Why would we bow our hearts to the people of this world who say “No” when we know Who has the ultimate “Yes”?

Why would we submit our lives to the cultural influence that tempt us with “Yes” when we have heard God’s ultimate “No”?

Why would we yield the fate of our souls to those who like us are mortal and created, when we can appeal directly to the infinite and eternal Creator?

Why wouldn’t you bow to the One to Whom every other power, glory, and kingdom ultimately submits?

So Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say… For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen

---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 my ministry. 

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116