WHO YOU WITH?!

Our society is in transition.  We face what some describe as unprecedented and unforeseeable shifts in behavior and cultural expectations. 

Only, according to the Bible, this turmoil isn’t unprecedented.  God foresaw all of it and He gave us a prophetic explanation of the problem and prescription of its resolution.  If you want to understand the root of our cultural upheaval, if you want to know why our communities live in fear of violence, if you want to know how things got to be in the state they’re in and what can turn it all around, then you need to turn to Isaiah chapter 59 and follow a message that poses the question: WHO YOU WITH?

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

Who Made YOU Mad? or “3 Questions for the Offended”

This is not the post I meant to write today. I meant to get back to blogging through the Articles of Religion, but I had an online exchange with my friend Tony Ares that forced me to do some real self-examination. 

Tony posted something about the debate over the Washington Redskins mascot debate. In our back and forth, Tony referred to the “ 'loud professionally offended' making decisions for all of us.”*  

The comment stopped me.

I started thinking about all the things that bother me today that didn’t bother me a year or two years ago.  I tried to mentally divide my offendednesses** into stuff I didn’t understand enough about to be angry and times when I jumped on the indignation bandwagon.

I couldn’t discern the difference. Not immediately. 

Can you?

Think about the political and social issues and activities that you think need to be outlawed or legalized after all the decades they’ve been whatever they are.

Think about them.

Did you read the book?  Did you then read an equally well researched and written book supporting the opposite viewpoint?

Or did you hear about it on Twitter or Facebook?

If the overwhelming majority of your friends and online followers believed the exact opposite and if you had heard the opposite opinion from all of them FIRST, would you still have the same opinion?  Would you still be offended?

This is important.  How much of your opinion is really YOUR opinion?

For who-knows-how-long, Adam and Eve walked around Eden buck naked and nobody had a problem with it.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2: 25)

Then one afternoon, they did something they’d never done: they put on clothes and hid from God. 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  (Genesis 3: 7, 8)

When God confronted them about this shift in their view of what was socially appropriate in a Pre-Fall society, Adam explained that he and his wife were now offended by their traditional state of primordial nudity. (Genesis 3: 10)

Why? 

“Who in crap’,”  (My paraphrase. You won’t find that phrase in the NIV.)  God asked “Who in crap told you that you were naked? I didn’t say anything was wrong with you being naked.  Why do you suddenly find it ‘offensive’?”

Adam’s response was evasive and embarrassing.  The gist though was that he did not arrive at his new opinion independently.  He had consumed opinion-based media in the form of fruit from the Tree of “Knowledge.”   And this new source of information had him and his wife looking at themselves and each other differently.

Adam and Eve had stopped seeing themselves the way God saw them and started seeing themselves the way a certain serpent saw them. 

Solomon once said, “Do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you.”  (Ecclesiastes 7: 21)   In other words, “If you listen to everything everybody says you’ll find reasons to be mad.”

But some of you think, “Well, if that’s how they feel, then I wanna know.”  (Try to imagine me rolling my neck when I say that.  Better yet, don’t.)

To you who wanna know EVERYbody’s opinion, Solomon points out “Many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others.” (Ecclesiastes 7: 22) 

Is what they did/ said out loud really so much more offensive than what’s happened in your own heart? (Matthew 5: 20-22)

Who told you to be offended?

Now pause for a minute, because right now you might be absorbing what you think is my opinion instead of examining your opinions.  I am not trying to unoffend*** you.  I’m trying to get you to consider WHY this pisses you off and that doesn’t.  You may have good reasons.

But what if you don't have any reasons?

Christians especially have to be extra conscious and careful about simply copying and pasting the prevailing cultural opinion onto our minds.

Sometimes, popular opinion is right. 

And sometimes it’s not. 

The prevailing opinion during Jesus’ public ministry was that Jesus was either a new prophet or a reincarnated one (Matthew 16: 13, 14) .

The correct answer was something totally outside the mainstream. 

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16: 16)

How did Peter find the courage to speak such a fringe opinion? 

He faced the 3 questions I have to face and you need to face as well.  They are the 3 questions Tony got me thinking about.  They’re the 3 questions God has been asking His children since the beginning.

The 3 questions come from the Father’s examination of Adam in the Garden and the Son’s examination of the disciples in the gospels.

Who told you that you were naked? (Genesis 3: 11)

Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? (Matthew 16: 13)

But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16: 15)

The 3 Questions are:
 Who told you?
 What do they say?
 But what do you say?

I’m re-examining what offends  (and doesn’t offend) me by asking myself the 3 Questions.  I pray you’ll do the same. 

 Who told you to be offended?
What do they say to make you feel that way?
But what do you say for yourself?

May your final answer come from the right place.

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 17)

And may you be convicted if your answer comes from the wrong place.

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”  (Matthew 16: 23) 

*(If you’re on Facebook, you can read the post and our exchange here. )

** Yes, “offendedness.” Well, it’s a word now.

*** “Unoffend” is also a word now.  It’s a verb.

---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

WHO DO YOU TELL THEM I AM?

So we’re eating pizza and Philly cheeseteaks and my wife says, “I don’t know why people don’t take the question Jesus asked more seriously.”

If you’ve never talked to my wife, you don’t know that she often begins conversations out loud where she left off the conversation in her mind.

The question Jesus had asked was, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16: 15).

Sheila said, “I don’t know why people don’t take the question Jesus asked more seriously. If it was your boyfriend or your husband, you’d know it was serious.

‘When people talk about you to me, what do they call me?

‘And who do you tell them that I am?’

That’s like a major question.  Why don’t they think that was important to Jesus?”

Sheila (as usual) is right.

We treat “the question” like a kind of casual theological pop quiz.  Like Jesus was checking to see if the disciples had an adequately orthodox view of Christological doctrine.  (Google it if you have to.)

But “the question” wasn’t casual.  It was major.

It still is.

When you’re away from church and other Christians and your sin-loving friends are talking about Jesus and judging His body (the church), what do you say?  Do you say anything?

When your buddies from other faith-traditions are talking about Jesus, calling Him this and that, do you laugh and agree so they don’t think you’re weird?

Do you call Him a teacher because that’s what they called Him?  Do you nervously make little of His divinity?  Do you hasten to make sure that they know that you don’t think He was any more of a big deal than any other spiritual figure?

Do you call Him your Lord, and Savior, and God of everything?

Or do you say, “He’s just a friend”?

I know.  Not everybody comes from the same tradition.  Everyone's entitle to their own beliefs. We’re all children of the same God. 

I know.  I know.

“But who do YOU say that I am?”

That’s what Jesus wants to know.

And the answer majorly matters to Him.

---Rev. Anderson T. Graves II   (email:  atgravestwo2@aol.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 (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).

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

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

HELPING PEOPLE IS SO UNFAIR

As of yesterday, the Ebola virus outbreak in northern Africa had claimed over a thousand lives.  Two of the thousands infected were American health workers who were in Africa to help.  When they got sick they were flown back to the United States and treated at Emory Univesity Hospital in coordination with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) laboratories in Atlanta.  The experimental drugs used on those 2 Americans worked!  They got better.

That’s great news, except----the international community led the World Health Organization (WHO) has been telling Africans that going to a health care center in their home country will help them fight Ebola. Now the Africans see that the Americans didn’t stay at the health care center in Africa.  They left and got better.   

Africans are being told that they are receiving the best possible care for an incurable virus.  But, it sure sounds like the Americans got better care and a cure.  It’s not fair.

I don’t believe that there is a conspiracy.  I don’t think this is racism or elitism.  I think that it’s the constant dilemma for every full-time do-gooder like the World Health Organization (WHO), hospital, non-profits, ministries, and me.

Depending on how you look at it, doing good can look really bad.

The WHO doesn’t have enough of those experimental drugs to give to all the affected people in north Africa.  So, now they have to choose who gets the most promising treatment.  They could protect the health care workers who are there to help and deserve to be protected.  But what’ll it look like when the foreigners stay healthy while Africans get sicker and die?

Oh, and the drugs haven’t been fully tested.  Nobody knows it the treatments will work without side effect or if the drugs will kill every third person. 

What if it causes sterility or horrible birth defects?  What if it doesn’t work in the north African climate?  Will the people of Africa believe that it was an honest mistake, or will they decide that it’s another in the long line of real Western conspiracies to destroy and destabilize African nations?

The WHO and every other person and organization that’s out there doing good in the world must decide whether the help they can give right now will do more good or more harm.    But even when you use your very best judgment---- how do you predict how people will perceive your decision?

As for the last question, the answer is:  You can’t.

Depending on how you look at it, doing good can look really bad.

In John 11, Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.  Jesus performed that miracle in a graveyard full of other people’s dead friends, brothers, and loved ones.  Yet, Jesus only resurrected Lazarus.

Don’t you think some other grieving person thought that was unfair?

In Mark 5: 24-34, a huge crowd surrounded Jesus including all kinds of sick people .  One lady was instantly cured by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. 

And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” (Mark 5: 30-31

The disciples knew that a bunch of people were touching Jesus and His clothes.  But, only one of them got healed.

How unfair does that look?

Why her?  Why not me or my sick friend?

Our human resources are limited.  No matter how altruistic our hearts, we have to make difficult but firm decision about whom and how to help, which means deciding whom and how NOT to help. 

And no matter what you decide, no matter how wisely you judge, no matter how lovingly and unprejudicially you select--- you’re going to hurt somebody, and you’re going to piss somebody off.

Jesus spoke to that when He referenced the Old Testament outreach of the prophets Elijah an Elisha.

But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4: 25-27)

And Jesus audience (in church) responded like people respond today.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  (Luke 4: 27, 28)

(Oh, and isn’t it interesting that one of the statements that made the worshippers mad enough to throw Jesus off a cliff was the story of a prophet going way over yonder to help a foreigner and single mother “while there are all these needs right here at home.”)

You won’t help everybody.  You CAN’T help everybody. 

That’s a fact, but not an excuse.

Jesus never said, “It isn’t time to heal every sickness so I’m not going heal any.”

If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2: 15-17)

Help everybody you can.

But, you can’t help everybody.  And, you won’t please everybody.

Don’t kill yourself inside over the limitations of your resources.  Increase your capacity as you can, but accept that no matter how much good you intend, no matter how much good you actually do---- it’ll look bad to somebody.

Do good anyway.

---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

WHO TOLD YOU THAT WAS A GOOD EXCUSE?

            

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 9-11)

In Genesis chapter 3, God came down for His usual evening meeting in the cool of the day with Adam, but Adam wasn’t there.

The Lord called, “Adam, where are you?”

God didn’t ask because He couldn’t find Adam.  We wish that was why God asked.  We wish that we could hide from God when we sin, but that’s not the case.

God was really asking, “Adam, why aren’t you where you were supposed to be?  Why aren’t you in the place where I told you to meet Me?”

When the Lord shows up in worship, at your church, on Sunday morning----- Where are YOU?

Since the very first time, mankind’s sin has caused us to miss worship, to skip his time of fellowship with God, and then to make excuses.

“Lord,” said Adam, “I just couldn’t make it.  See, I’m naked, Lord.   I didn’t have a thing to wear.  And I couldn’t show up like that.”

And God said, “Who told you you were naked?”

Again, it’s not that God didn’t know.  God wasn’t requesting information.  God was saying, “Who told you that you were naked because I never brought up the fact that you were naked?”

You say you can’t serve because you’re not educated.  Well, who told you that you weren’t educated?  Who brought it up? Because God never brought up the fact that you don’t have a degree.

You say you can’t give because you’re not out of debt.  Who told you that you’re not out of debt?  God didn’t bring that up when He invited you to test Him with tithes and offerings and see won’t He open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that you don’t have room enough to receive. (Malachi 3: 10)

You say you can’t lead or help in ministry because you’re not comfortable with the responsibility.

Well, who told you that you’re not comfortable enough?  God didn’t bring up comfort when He called Moses to go back to Egypt and lead Israel out of bondage.

God never brought up comfort when He called a prophet, or a king, or an apostle, or a poor Jewish girl from Nazareth to go and walk out a great calling before His people.

 Adam wanted his lack of clothing to excuse him from showing up where God called him to be to do what God had called him to do.    What excuse are you using?  And who told you that that’s a good excuse? 

Cause God didn’t.

And by the way, when Adam said that he’d skipped the meeting with God because he was naked----- Adam wasn’t naked anymore.

Before God showed up in the Garden, Genesis 3: 7 says Then the eyes of both of [Adam and Eve] were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  

YOU, like Adam, need to stop bringing up old stuff as an excuse for not walking in your calling now.

O.K., you messed up a marriage.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you used to be an addict.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you were a fool in college.  Where are you supposed to meet and serve God now?

O.K., you have been shirking and shaking your responsibilities in the church for a long time.  We get that.  Come back.  Meet God where He placed you and serve Him NOW!

But I have to warn you:  When you come back and face God, He is going to skip right past your excuses and force you to deal with the REAL PROBLEM.

Naked wasn’t Adam’s problem.  He had been naked and serving God just fine for the first 2 chapters of Genesis.

Naked wasn’t the problem.  Naked was a circumstance.  SIN was the problem.

So God called on Adam to deal with the real problem. 

“Ain’t nobody worried about you and naked,” God said.  “But tell me this Adam: Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3: 11)

(This is where God cocks His lip, fold his arms, and taps His foot)

See, all that other stuff---about how you grew up, and how folks mistreated you, and what you didn’t used to have----- that’s all just circumstantial.

Stop putting the blame on your parents, or your boss, or White people, or immigrants, or the media, or your ex, or the woman whom You gave to be with me, Lord (Genesis 3: 12).

What did YOU eat that you weren’t supposed to?

What is YOUR SIN?   

What is YOUR role in your failures?

What did God tell YOU to do that you ain’t doing?

What (or whom) did God tell you to leave alone that you’re still messing with?

Adam never dealt with that.  And so, God stopped asking.   God stopped asking Adam to meet Him and serve in His garden.  But, Adam’s PURPOSE in the garden was to serve. So, since He couldn’t fulfill his purpose, he had to go.

Oh, wait.  You might be thinking that Adam’s purpose in the garden was to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.    I see where you’re coming from.

That’s was Adam’s purpose in the larger world, but to fulfill that purpose in a state of perfection and favor, Adam had to fulfill His purpose in the place where He was to meet God and serve.

When Adam lost Eden, he lost God’s favor.  Adam and Eve still went out to multiply and pursue dominion, but now they had to pursue it on cursed ground, through thorns and thistles, by sweat of his brow, with the ever-present oppressive possibility and inevitability of death dogging his every move.

Only grace kept Adam and Eve alive.  But grace doesn’t stop bad from happening.  Grace makes it possible for you to carry on despite the bad that happens.

Grace gave Adam and Eve a 3^rd son named Seth.  But Grace did not stop the curse from manifesting in Cain and making him the murderer of his own brother.

Our lives are a constant cycle of frustrations and failures.  We survive.  We persevere.  We find happiness because of grace.

But if we would meet God where He wants to meet us, deal with our own sin, and submit to His plan and calling, then we would experience something even better than grace.

We would experience FAVOR.

Now don’t get too crazy over terminology.  Grace and Favor are overlapping and sometimes indistinguishable concepts.  The point is that things can be better.

We can do better than just kinda, sorta, barely survive.

We can live and live life more abundantly.  We can.  You can.

But you have to stop making excuses.  You have to get up and show up where God called you to meet Him, experience His presence, and walk out the holiest, most spiritually intimate part of the God’s great calling on your life.

See you, Sunday.

  

---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

WHO OR WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

It’s a simple question but the answer can both deepen and elevate our praise, our worship, and the day-to-day way we experience the presence and power of Jesus Christ.

No matter how much or how little you have in material riches, this Thanksgiving can be a transforming moment in your life, if you learn the lessons of a message wrapped up in the question: WHO OR WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?
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 .
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

WHOM DO YOU REALLY LOOK LIKE? (WHO'S YOUR REAL DADDY?)

The church wants unity.  We preach about it.  We sing of it.  We have workshops and conferences dedicated to the pursuit of unity in the church.   But can unity in the church be a bad thing.   Consider the concept of Christian unity from a slightly different perspective.

Hear a message delivered on the final night of revival at New Hope CME Church.   Based on the theme of “gaining strength through unity,” you are challenged to open the scriptures and ask yourself:   WHOM DO YOU REALLY LOOK LIKE?

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