A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 4-7

Proverbs 31: 4     It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink;
5     Lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.
6     Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.
7     Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Proverbs 31: 4-7.  Talk about an endorsement!  With Lemuel and his mother speaking in this passage, we have a king, a former prince, a queen, and a woman who fought for her place as 1^st lady of the nation all  endorsing the message: Getting drunk is not a good look for a success.   Getting high is not what you do if you want to stay on top.

God blesses people to attain success and power so that they can use their success and power to help others.  The chemicals make you forget that.  The chemicals make you selfish, immoral, and unjust.  The buzz and the high draw you off the path of God’s favor and place you on track for destruction.   Outside of God’s favor there is personal and spiritual poverty.  Outside of God favor there is misery.  Outside of God’s favor there is death in spirit and in truth.

The sad irony is that the closer you get to bottom (to the point of perishing) the more miserable you become and the more you need the buzz to forget how poor and miserable you’re becoming.  And yes, while the chemicals are active in your system, you do forget; but you don’t change.  You’re still impoverished.  You’re still pitiful.  You’re still dying.

And the kings and queens of the culture look down on you and say, “He’s got nothing else.  Let him have another drink.  She’s not doing anything with her life anyway.  Pass her another blunt.  But oh, no.  Nothing for me.  I have a meeting in the morning.”

It doesn’t matter how you categorize your drug of choice. It doesn’t matter if it’s liquid or leafy, synthetic or “social,” packaged or prescribed.  If it’s intoxicating then it’s not helping you succeed.  It’s holding you back.

Since you’ve been intoxicating yourself, you’ve not gotten better have you?  Your relationships aren’t more stable are they?  For all the stuff you’ve dreamed you haven’t actually achieved anything more, have you?

And when you look closely at the bottle-popping, drug-passing imagery you notice that the ones who are fully intoxicated are in the background, servants to the one pouring into their glasses or sitting sober and clear-headed while everybody else gets drunk and high, trying to forget how successful they are not.

Yeah, I know what the songs say.  But  pay more attention to what God says.

Pay more attention.

If you want to be a king, if you want to be a queen -------- you’ve gotta get sober.

---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

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

 

Proverbs 31: 4-7

Proverbs 31: 4     It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink;
5     Lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.
6     Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.
7     Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Proverbs 31: 4-7.  Talk about an endorsement!  With Lemuel and his mother speaking in this passage, we have a king, a former prince, a queen, and a woman who fought for her place as 1^st lady of the nation all  endorsing the message: Getting drunk is not a good look for success.   Getting high is not what you do if you want to stay on top.

God blesses people to attain success and power so that they can use their success and power to help others.  The chemicals make you forget that.  The chemicals make you selfish, immoral, and unjust.  The buzz and the high draw you off the path of God’s favor and place you on track for destruction.   Outside of God’s favor there is personal and spiritual poverty.  Outside of God favor there is misery.  Outside of God’s favor there is death in spirit and in truth.

The sad irony is that the closer you get to bottom (to the point of perishing) the more miserable you become and the more you need the buzz to forget how poor and miserable you’re becoming.  And yes, while the chemicals are active in your system, you do forget; but you don’t change.  You’re still impoverished.  You’re still pitiful.  You’re still dying.

And the kings and queens of the culture look down on you and say, “He’s got nothing else.  Let him have another drink.  She’s not doing anything with her life anyway.  Pass her another blunt.  But oh, no.  Nothing for me.  I have a meeting in the morning.”

It doesn’t matter how you categorize your drug of choice. It doesn’t matter if it’s liquid or leafy, synthetic or “social,” packaged or prescribed.  If it’s intoxicating then it’s not helping you succeed.  It’s holding you back.

Since you’ve been intoxicating yourself, you’ve not gotten better have you?  Your relationships aren’t more stable are they?  For all the stuff you’ve dreamed you haven’t actually achieved anything more, have you?

And when you look closely at the bottle-popping, drug-passing imagery you notice that the ones who are fully intoxicated are in the background, servants to the one pouring into their glasses or sitting sober and clear-headed while everybody else gets drunk and high, trying to forget how successful they are not.

Yeah, I know what the songs say.  But  pay more attention to what God says.

Pay more attention.

If you want to be a king, if you want to be a queen -------- you’ve gotta get sober.

---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 .

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 30: 23b "Rebellion or Revolution---for Girls"

Proverbs 30: 21  [NKJV]   For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,
23     A hateful woman when she is married,
And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

Proverbs 30: 21, 23b.  Number4, and final, in this list of shifts that shake the world is a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.  Some translations says a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

So basically we’re talking about a servant who ends up in her boss’s place. 

In a positive sense, this passage about the glory of upward mobility.  An elite leader recognizes and rewards the merits of her lowly employee who is more qualified to lead than her well-connected peers.

In the negative, this scripture is about a sneaky sister who steals her boss’s place (possibly by stealing her boss’s man).

The point is that sisters can choose to be a Hannah or a Hagar.

Hannah was one of two wives in a polygamist marriage (1 Samuel 1: 1-6).  Her sister-wife (actually the Bible calls the other lady Hannah’s rival) had children, but Hannah was barren.  Socially and legally under the Mosaic law, this depressed Hanna’s status to that of junior wife (Deuteronomy 21: 15-17).  In many ancient families, a junior wife without children was little more than a servant to the “blessed” wife/wives.

But 1 Samuel 1 implies that Hannah was a more virtuous woman than her rival.  For this reason, even though she’d given him no heir, Hannah was her husband’s favorite.  When the time came to divide the profits and favor of the family business, the husband gave Hannah a double-portion (1 Samuel 1: 4, 8)  In the Mosaic system, the double portion goes to a man’s chosen HEIR.

Hannah, the virtuous woman, superseded the other woman, and became the family’s HEIR.

God honored Hannah’s godly heart and gave her a son.  Hannah honored God by giving her son back to the Lord to be trained as a priest ( 1 Samuel 1: 9-28). 

That son was named Samuel.  Samuel was not entitled to high rank in the family, but out of his place in the temple, he became the most important spiritual and political figure in the nation.

Samuel instituted the monarchy in Israel.  He prophesied the rise and fall of high priests and kings.  Samuel consecrated the biological line of the Messiah. 

Through virtue, humility, and the integrity to keep her promises to God, Hannah brought forth a son who changed the world.

Hagar was maidservant to Abraham and Sarah.  Hagar got caught up in a scheme to use sin (adultery in this case) as a backdoor to attaining God’s promised blessing.  Drama ensued when Hagar gave birth to  Abraham’s firstborn son. 

Hagar got an attitude with Sarah.  Abraham copted out of his responsibility. Sarah abused Hagar.  Hagar ran away with the child. Then they came back. (Genesis 16)  

Abraham was crazy about his son.  He exalted the child, which meant that he exalted Hagar (Genesis 17: 18).  The young maidservant supplanted her mistress.

Hannah’s rise was based on godliness.  Hagar’s rise was based on sin.

Hannah’s son became one of the greatest prophets in history.  He was the kingmaker of Israel. 

Hagar’s son Ishamael became the patriarch of the Arab nations.  He is ultimately the reason Islam, the religio-political enemy of the Jewish nation, exists.

In Proverbs 30: 23, God speaks directly to and about women.  The Holy Spirit delivers an extraordinarily empowering message to the daughters of the King.

No matter where you start, sister, you can rise to the highest status.  Like men, women also leave a legacy.    If your rise is based on godliness, then your legacy will be great.  If your ascension is based on sin and deception, then no matter whom else you blame----your legacy will be one of corruption.

You can climb the ladder in a way that is sinful and REBELLIOUS, or you can advance in a way that is righteous and REVOLUTIONARY.

One way or another, sisters ---- you have equal potential to turn the world upside down.

---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

Proverbs 30: 23b "Rebellion or Revolution---for Girls"

Proverbs 30: 21  [NKJV]   For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,
23     A hateful woman when she is married,
And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

Proverbs 30: 21, 23b.  Number 4, and final, in this list of shifts that shake the world is a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.  Some translations says a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

So basically we’re talking about a servant who ends up in her boss’s place. 

In a positive sense, this passage is about the glory of upward mobility.  An elite leader recognizes and rewards the merits of her lowly employee who is more qualified to lead than her well-connected peers.

In the negative, this scripture is about a sneaky sister who steals her boss’s place (possibly by stealing her boss’s man).

The point is that sisters can choose to be a Hannah or a Hagar.

Hannah was one of two wives in a polygamist marriage (1 Samuel 1: 1-6).  Her sister-wife (actually the Bible calls the other lady Hannah’s rival) had children, but Hannah was barren.  Socially and legally under the Mosaic law, this depressed Hanna’s status to that of junior wife (Deuteronomy 21: 15-17).  In many ancient families, a junior wife without children was little more than a servant to the “blessed” wife/wives.

1 Samuel 1 shows that Hannah was more than her rival.  For this reason, even though she’d given him no heir, Hannah was her husband’s favorite.  When the time came to divide the profits and favor of the family business, the husband gave Hannah a double-portion (1 Samuel 1: 4, 8)  In the Mosaic system, the double portion goes to a man’s chosen HEIR.

Hannah, the virtuous woman, superseded the master wife, and became the family’s HEIR.

God honored Hannah’s godly heart and gave her a son.  Hannah honored God by giving her son back to the Lord to be trained as a priest ( 1 Samuel 1: 9-28). 

That son was Samuel.  Samuel was not entitled to high rank in the family, but from his placement in the temple he went on to become the most important spiritual and political figure in Israel.
Samuel instituted the monarchy in Israel.  He prophesied the rise and fall of high priests and kings. 

Samuel consecrated the biological line of the Messiah. 
Through virtue, humility, and the integrity to keep her promises to God, Hannah left a world-changing legacy.

Hagar was maidservant to Abraham and Sarah.  Hagar got caught up in a scheme to use sin (adultery in this case) as a backdoor to attaining God’s promised blessing.  Drama ensued when Hagar gave birth to  Abraham’s firstborn son. 

Hagar got an attitude with Sarah.  Abraham copted out of his responsibility. Sarah abused Hagar.  Hagar ran away with the child. Then they came back. (Genesis 16)  

Abraham was crazy about his son.  He exalted the child, which meant that he exalted Hagar (Genesis 17: 18).  The young maidservant supplanted her mistress.

Hannah’s rise was based on godliness.  Hagar’s rise was based on sin.

Hannah’s son became one of the greatest prophets in history.  He was the kingmaker of Israel. 

Hagar’s son Ishamael became the patriarch of the Arab nations.  He is ultimately the reason Islam, the religio-political enemy of the Jewish nation, exists.

In Proverbs 30: 23, God speaks directly to and about women.  The Holy Spirit delivers an extraordinarily empowering message to the daughters of the King.

No matter where you start, sister, you can rise to the highest status.  Like men, women also leave a legacy.    If your rise is based on godliness, then your legacy will be great.  If your ascension is based on sin and deception, then no matter whom else you blame----your legacy will be one of corruption.

You can climb the ladder in a way that is sinful and REBELLIOUS, or you can advance in a way that is righteous and REVOLUTIONARY.

One way or another, sisters ---- you have equal potential to turn the world upside down.

---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

A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 29: 23

Proverbs 29: 23     A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Proverbs 29: 23. To succeed you need CONFIDENCE that is equally yoked with HUMILITY. 

You know that this is worth doing, you know that you can get it done, but you know that you can’t do it alone. 

You know that failure is a real possibility, but you won’t let incremental failures stop you from pressing toward ultimate success.   

You’re not as smart as you thought you were, but you can and will learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know when you first started.. 

There are other people just as/ more gifted than you.  O.K., so you’re going to meet them and bring them onto your team. 

You aren’t entitled to anything, not even the thing you want most; so you can’t just claim it, you’re going to have to earn it or create it.    

Confidence tied to humility is leads to success.

Once you taste success, be careful that you don’t keep the confidence and lose the humility.  The remainder after losing humility is PRIDE.   And pride will take you down faster than the jealousy of haters and the fickle shift of circumstances. 

Pride makes you forget that what you attain is based on what you do not who you think you are.

Pride makes you think that you deserve success just for being you. 

Pride makes you think that you built this --- by yourself, that you put this thing together --- alone, that by the might of your own arm you established your empire (Daniel 4: 29-33).

Pride turns you from all the people and practices that got you to where you are.  You become “a different person,” a dumber person.   In the worst cases, pride takes such a strong hold that you continue declaring your own worthiness even while you fall down, down, down to rock bottom.

Keep confidence tied to humility.  Confidence is what you say to yourself when you fail.  Humility is what you don’t say about yourself when you succeed.

Confidence is what you see in you.  Humility is what others see in you.

Don’t let confidence become unequally yoked without humility.

If you are the only person who thinks you’re humble, then you’re not.   If you feel the need to remind people how humble you are, then you aren’t

If you do not regain a genuine perspective of humility, you will soon suffer the ravages of runaway pride.

And that will suck.

---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 29: 23

Proverbs 29: 23     A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Proverbs 29: 23. To succeed you need CONFIDENCE that is equally yoked with HUMILITY. 

You know that this is worth doing, you know that you can get it done, but you know that you can’t do it alone. 

You know that failure is a real possibility, but you won’t let incremental failures stop you from pressing toward ultimate success.   

You’re not as smart as you thought you were, but you can and will learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know when you first started.. 

There are other people just as/ more gifted than you.  O.K., so you’re going to meet them and bring them onto your team. 

You aren’t entitled to anything, not even the thing you want most; so you can’t just claim it, you’re going to have to earn it or create it.    

Confidence tied to humility is leads to success.

Once you taste success, be careful that you don’t keep the confidence and lose the humility.  The remainder after losing humility is PRIDE.   And pride will take you down faster than the jealousy of haters and the fickle shift of circumstances. 

Pride makes you forget that what you attain is based on what you do not who you think you are.

Pride makes you think that you deserve success just for being you. 

Pride makes you think that you built this --- by yourself, that you put this thing together --- alone, that by the might of your own arm you established your empire (Daniel 4: 29-33).

Pride turns you from all the people and practices that got you to where you are.  You become “a different person,” a dumber person.   In the worst cases, pride takes such a strong hold that you continue declaring your own worthiness even while you fall down, down, down to rock bottom.

Keep confidence tied to humility.  Confidence is what you say to yourself when you fail.  Humility is what you don’t say about yourself when you succeed.

Confidence is what you see in you.  Humility is what others see in you.

Don’t let confidence become unequally yoked without humility.

If you are the only person who thinks you’re humble, then you’re not.   If you feel the need to remind people how humble you are, then you aren’t

If you do not regain a genuine perspective of humility, you will soon suffer the ravages of runaway pride.

And that will suck.

---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