The personal blog of Anderson T. Graves II. Education, Religion, Politics, Family, and TRUTH------ but not necessarily the truth you want to hear.
I still love ya' though.
---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).
Let me tell you about the time Jesus started shoutin’. Not raising His voice in anger, though that
happened several times, but the time that Jesus was with the church rejoicing
and and praising God because of what He saw.
With the ongoing controversies and challenges in the church, here is a
Word of reminder of who we the church are, an invitation to what we can
become. Learn how we can once more be A
CHURCH THAT MAKES JESUS SHOUT!
---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).
Article XV - Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a
Tongueas the People Understand
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the
custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the
Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people.
An astonishing and horrible thing has
been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule
by their own power; and My
people love to have it so. But
what will you do in the end? (Jeremiah 5: 30-31)
There are two reasons to talk: (a) You want to be heard; or
(b) you want them to understand.
When you want to be heard, it doesn’t matter that your point has
already been made. You’re still going to
stand up and repeat the previous point because it’s your turn to talk and you
want to be heard.
When you want to be heard, you
choose your words for the sound you like hearing come out of your mouth. Your audience may be confused. You might not make sense. Heck, you might not
even understand the meaning of half the words you use. So
what? You sound good.
But there are consequences.
Between the 4th and 16th centuries, the Catholic
Church outlawed re-translating the Bible from Latin into the local language. The Church declared it a crime punishable by
death for a layperson to own, possess, or read a Bible. It was 1969 before the
Catholic Church officially allowed mass to be conducted in a language other
than Latin. For all of those centuries,
the Church wanted to be heard, but it didn,t really want the people to understand.
And that is how anti-Semitism became common in a religion founded
by Jews. That’s how doctrines, traditions,
superstitions, and atrocities that obviously contradict our own sacred text became
so historically celebrated that, we’re still trying to unravel ourselves from
their legacy. Church leaders who wanted
to be heard but didn’t want the people to understand are the reason that the Dark
Ages were so dark.
As Jesus said to the Pharisees, we commit terrible errors when we don’t
know the Bible nor the power of God. (Matthew 22: 29
God wants the people to understand.
In the Old Testament, Ezra the scribe was the leading academic
expert on the Law. In Nehemiah chapter
8, Ezra gave a 3+ hour reading of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the
Bible). Ezra thought it all needed to be
said, but he realized that it would be difficult to understand all at once.
So, the scribe assigned group-teachers to disperse throughout the
crowd, read back scriptures during Ezra’s lecture, and make sure that every
resident of Jerusalem understood what the Bible said. All of this happened during Ezra’s
reading---- in real time.
Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin,
Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah,
and the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law; and the people stood in their place.
So they read distinctly from the book,
in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. (Nehemiah 8: 7, 8)
It’s not that hard to be heard.
It’s takes a lot more effort to make sure that the people understand
what they hear. To make sure that the
people understand, you have to give them the same access to the Word that you
have. You have to push them to read, to
question, and to not just take your words for it.
If you believe that you degree or title entitles you to unquestioning
obedience, then you think waaaayy too much of yourself, because Jesus didn’t
even profess that status.
When a lawyer questioned Jesus, the Lord didn’t respond, “Don’t
you know who I am?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” (Luke 10: 26)
Jesus wanted him to understand.
At 12 years old, Jesus dominated a scholarly discussion with the
premier theological minds of the Jewish Temple school. But, when He went out in the boondocks to
teach, he used metaphors about planting and reaping. When He taught to urban crowds, he talked about
servants working in a master’s house.
When He evangelized fishermen on the Sea of Galliliee, He showed them
where to get their biggest catch ever and then talked to them about becoming spiritual
fishers of men.
Without condescending to anyone or dumbing down the text, Jesus used
language that the people understood.
If at the end of your time on the platform the people can say “He
sho’ did preach,” but they can’t say what they learned, then you were heard,
but they didn’t understand.
If at the end of your time in the spotlight, the audience is
impressed with how smart you are and all that you have done and achieved, but
they don't have new information or methods to improve their lives; you were
heard, but they don’t understand.
As a member of the congregation-audence, you may prefer to be entertained than to be taught so according to your own desires, because you have
itching ears, you heap up for yourselves
teachers who turn your ears away from the truth and aside to fables (2 Timothy 4: 4). But, that's not what God wants for you.
A church that wants to be enabled and entertained but not taught is
“a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God.”
God wants His people to understand His Word.
---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).
God is smart. I mean, really, really smart. And He’s put His super-intelligent thoughts
into this anthology of books we call the Bible.
Divine observations and commentary on science, relationships, politics,
finance, psychology, human social behavior, and, most extensively, all aspects
of spirituality from the origins of the human soul to the future end of the
spiritual struggle against sin.
We’ve got all of
this in one collection, and yet we still don’t know what the crap we’re doing
in any of the areas above because we don’t read the frickin’ Book! Or, we read the Bible like it’s a dvr’d 90’s sitcom. We fast-forward to the same scenes we’ve seen
a million times and just repeat the dialogue we already know without paying
attention to what’s actually happening.
(Think about the
times you started your Bible time by opening to a random page, but you flipped
some more pages because you’d landed on a “boring part,” and you kept flipping
until you came to a “good part” that you knew so well that you didn’t really
even need to read all the verses. That’s
dvr-ing the Bible.)
That’s why you feel like you’re not getting anything out of your Bible study.
I work with kids and
adults who have been unsuccessful academically.
I minister to people who often say they don't get anything out of
studying the Bible. Here's what I've
realized.
They have the same
BAD study habits. Whether it's the New
Testament or the History of the United States, 1870-1940, I see the same
pattern.
Does any of this
sound familiar?
- You skip the
"boring parts" so you have no context for the parts you do read.
- When you read the
parts you like you don't pay attention because you think you already know that.
- You don't listen
to the text or think of the names in the book as real people with feelings and
individual voices, so it all seems abstract and pointless.
- What you call
reading is really just running your eyes across the page.
- You don't put
yourself in the text or connect what's happening on the page to your life or
your community.
From now on, here’s
what you do: LISTEN & SEE.
Let the text play a
movie in your head and listen to the words on the page like the events on the
paper are talking to you.
If you would LISTEN to
the Bible when you read it you, if you would open your mind to SEE what
Scripture says, then you would hear the Holy Spirit speak, you would EXPERIENCE
God’s Word, and you would learn so much more than you opened the Book to find
out.
Do that, and you’ll “get it.” You won’t
understand everything, but once you get a taste of how good the Bible really
is, you’ll never think of this Book as boring again.
Open my eyes, that I
may see wondrous things from Your law. (Psalm 119: 18)
---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 Churchin 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).
We continue our walk through the early days of Jesus’ public ministry as we review how the Lord organized His disciples into the world-changing movement that was the early church.
In part 2 of what is now a series of messages on the SCRIPT-FLIPPING CHURCH, Pastor Anderson Graves II follows Jesus through His first preaching circuit. The Lord’s journey draws our attention to details in the gospels that we often miss and confronts us with some challenging questions about ourselves, our motives, and the reasons why we the church fail to be all that God called us to be.
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.
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
---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.
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
If you do ministry, mentoring, education, or
community outreach; or if you don’t give what you do a title and you just try
to live right and help people however you can then eventually you will learn
some uncomfortable truths.Eventually,
you will see things in people that will break your heart. Eventually you will
understand the minor prophets and you’ll pray something like Habakkuk did.
Why do You show me
iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are
before me. There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is
powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous;
therefore perverse judgment proceeds. (Habakkuk 1: 3, 4)
Don’t give up.Don’t let the sense of uselessness overtake you.You asked, “God, why do you show me all
this?Why do I have to know how messed up
these people really are?”
It’s O.K. to ask these things of God.But, don’t ask them as rhetorical
questions.Listen, because God has an
answer.
Look among the
nations and watch.Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days which you would not
believe, though it were told you. (Habakkuk 1: 5)
God says, “Hold on.Keep learning what I’m teaching you.Keep seeing what I show you.I
know what I’m doing.You can’t see it
now.Just keep
doing what I’ve already told you to do.
You’ll see.You’ll see.It’s going to be
sooooo worth it. Seriously, it's going to be so good you wouldn't believe me if I told you.”
Hold on.It’ll be worth it.You’ll see.
---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 Churchin 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).
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 30: 18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I do not understand: 19 The way of an eagle in the air, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, And the way of a man with a virgin. Proverbs 30: 20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wickedness.”
Proverbs 30: 18-20.Bad girls are easy.(And not just in the way you think.)
Agur, author of Proverbs 30, says that the soaring majesty of the eagle is beyond his comprehension.The slithy lethality of the viper perplexes him.The power and fragility of a ship upon the see fills him with awe.And romance?The complexitiesof a relationship where the woman is a virgin----- code for a virtuous woman, a good girl---- that is way too much fo Agur, 2nd generation editor of the collected works of Solomon.
In verse 19, Agur confesses insufficient intellect to explain the intricacies of love with a good woman.In verse 20, Agur summarizes the mentality and method of an adulterous, immoral, or man-she’s-nothing-but-bad-news woman. In one sentence.
Good girls are complex.Bad girls are easy.
In 1 Peter 3:7, the Lord commands husbands to honor and to UNDERSTAND our wives.
If you’re married to a good woman, then you’re compelled to understand someone who is strong, but submitted to you; someone with her own will and wants whose desire is always after you; someone who spends hours each day trying to figure out how to help you be the best you without MAKING you do anything; someone who loves you so thoroughly that God doesn’t even bother to command her to love you.
I say, “Lord, it’d take me the rest of my life to understand somebody like that.”
And God says, “Exactly.”
But as for them other chicks: they’re easy to understand.
This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wickedness.”
She takes. She consumes.She sucks the life from you, casts you away, and thinks nothing of it.Nothing complicated there.
Such women aren’t mysterious.They’re evil, and easy.Getting her body is simple, and when you get into her mind you’ll find that simple, too.As the great Prince Akeem (Coming to America) asked, “So why would you share your bed and your fortune with a beautiful fool?”
There are things in this life that, no matter how many times you see them, they always BLOW YOUR MIND! If you’re a man married to a good woman------ let your wife be one of those things.
---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.
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: 18 There are three things which are too wonderful for
me, Yes,
four which I do not understand:
19 The way of an eagle in the
air, The
way of a serpent on a rock, The
way of a ship in the midst of the sea, And
the way of a man with a virgin. Proverbs
30: 20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: She
eats and wipes her mouth, and
says, “I have done no wickedness.”
Proverbs 30: 18-20.Bad girls are easy.(And not just
in the way you think.)
Agur, author of Proverbs 30, says that the soaring
majesty of the eagle is beyond his comprehension.The slithy lethality of the viper perplexes
him.The power and fragility of a ship
upon the see fills him with awe.And
romance?The complexitiesof a relationship where the woman is a
virgin----- code for a virtuous woman, a good girl---- that is way too much fo
Agur, 2nd generation editor of the collected works of Solomon.
In verse 19, Agur confesses insufficient intellect
to explain the intricacies of love with a good woman.In verse 20, Agur summarizes the mentality
and method of an adulterous, immoral, or man-she’s-nothing-but-bad-news woman. In one sentence.
Good girls are complex.Bad girls are easy.
In 1 Peter 3:7, the Lord commands husbands to honor and
to UNDERSTAND our wives.
If you’re married to a good woman, then you’re
compelled to understand someone who is strong, but submitted to you; someone
with her own will and wants whose desire is always after you; someone who
spends hours each day trying to figure out how to help you be the best you
without MAKING you do anything; someone who loves you so thoroughly that God
doesn’t even bother to command her to love you.
I say, “Lord, it’d take me the rest of my life to
understand somebody like that.”
And God says, “Exactly.”
But as for them other chicks: they’re easy to
understand.
This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wickedness.”
She
takes. She consumes.She sucks the life from you, casts you away,
and thinks nothing of it.Nothing
complicated there.
Such
women aren’t mysterious.They’re evil,
and easy.Getting her body is simple,
and when you get into her mind you’ll find that simple, too.As the great Prince Akeem (Coming to America) asked, “So why would
you share your bed and your fortune with a beautiful fool?”
There are things in this life that, no matter how many times you see them, they always BLOW YOUR MIND! If you’re a man married to a good woman------ let your wife be one of those things.
---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.
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
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