YOUR MOVE

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” 
 But [Moses] said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” 
 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses… (Exodus 4:10-14).

We pray, “Lord send someone to help them.”

The Lord responds , “I did.  I sent you.”

When the day began to wear away, the twelve [disciples] came and said to [Jesus], “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.”

But [Jesus] said to them,  “You give them something to eat.” … (Luke 9:12-13)

We pray, “Lord Jesus, send them somewhere to get some help.  Show up in their lives, or show them how to seek You for what they need.”

The Lord’s replies, “You help them.  Instead of waiting for Me to come to them, you come to Me, and then you go to Them, and you help them.”

Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.  Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.   For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him,  “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Luke 7:6-9)

We say, “Lord, You have all power and all authority. Speak to their situation.  Call your angels to bring deliverance from their circumstances.”

The Lord’s answers, “I gave you power when I sent you the Holy Spirit.  I gave you authority to bind and to loose.  I don’t need to call more angels.  I called all of you to go to them and deliver deliverance from their circumstances.”

What if we’re not waiting on a move of God in this nation?

What if God has already moved, and now He’s waiting on a move of us?

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at 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.

YOUR MOVE

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” 13 But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses… (Exodus 4:10-14).

We pray, “Lord send someone to help them.”

The Lord responds , “I did.  I sent you.”

When the day began to wear away, the twelve [disciples] came and said to [Jesus], “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.”

But [Jesus] said to them,  “You give them something to eat.” … (Luke 9:12-13)

We pray, “Lord Jesus, send them somewhere to get some help.  Show up in their lives, or show them how to seek You for what they need.”

The Lord’s replies, “You help them.  Instead of waiting for Me to come to them, you come to Me, and then you go to Them, and youhelp them.”

Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.  Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.   For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him,  “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Luke 7:6-9)

We say, “Lord, You have all power and all authority. Speak to their situation.  Call your angels to bring deliverance from their circumstances.”

The Lord’s answers, “I gave you power when I sent you the Holy Spirit.  I gave you authority to bind and to loose.  I don’t need to call more angels.  I called all of you to go to them and deliver deliverance from their circumstances.”

What if we’re not waiting on a move of God in this nation?

What if God has already moved, and now He’s waiting on a move of us?

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at 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.

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 10

Proverbs 29: 10     The bloodthirsty hate the blameless,but the upright seek his well-being.

Why did Cain get mad at Abel (Genesis 4) ?  Because Abel pleased God.

Why did King Saul hate David so much that he murdered a city full of priests (1 Samuel 22)?  Because David had pleased God.

Why did King Ahab call the prophet Elijah his enemy (1 Kings 21)?  Because Elijah spoke the truth of God.

Why did the false prophet Zedekiah slap the true prophet Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18)?

Why did the rulers of Jerusalem call Jesus a devil worshipper (Matthew 12: 22-30; Mark 7: 37)?  Because He was righteous, and He did all things well.

Now stop right there.  Before you insert your name in place of Jesus, Micaiah, Elijah, and the other righteous men who were persecuted by haters;  take a deeeeep breath----- and get over yourself.

Who are you mad at because their work was praised while yours was ignored?

Did you talk bad about ole boy’s/ ole girl’s friends, children, spouse, mama, or dog----- because you can’t stand ole boy/ ole girl so you don’t like whomever’s with them either?

Are you still mad at that old lady from 2 months who pointed out that your underwear was showing from over your pants (or from under your skirt) when in fact, your underwear was showing?  (How else did she know what brand you were wearing?)

Whom did you accuse of cheating, or sleeping with the boss, or getting somebody else to do their work, because “there’s no way that anybody is really that good at their job”?

Remember when you were so hurt that people can’t stop judging you for old stuff and recognize that you’re not that person anymore.  Well, why do you keep looking sideways at so-and-so and telling everybody about what he/she did back in 1998?

Instead of asking why other people can’t just be happy for you when good happens; ask yourself why you aren’t happy when there’s so much good happening to others around you.

You can’t fix them, but if you fix that about you---- you’ll feel much, much better.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.(Romans 12:15).

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

DEEPER THAN CRAZY: What the story of Jesus’ birth can teach about the Connecticut school shooting

The Sandy Oaks Elementary School murders happened geographically far away from Montgomery, Alabama, but aspects of this assault still touched close to home.

I was wrestling with the why and how of the Newport, Connecticut tragedy at the same time I was wrestling with a message God was giving me about the birth of Jesus.  In a way that only God can do, the Holy Spirit opened the Word and showed what the Biblical story of Christmas has to say to us about the tragedies that are becoming increasingly common in our society.

It’s not your usual December sermon, but it may be just the Word we need.  The message is called: DEEPER THAN CRAZY.

Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com  
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to:

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

 

READ THE FOLLOWING

Read the following and tell me that there's not something truly, deeply wrong with something fundamental in this country.

Read the following and tell me that it's not something deeper than poverty or race or education or the placement of community centers.

Read the following and tell me that it isn't time to talk about everything, including all of the things that we've been saying we can't talk about.

Saturday, December 15, 2012. A gunman opened fire at St. Vincent’s hospital in Birmingham, wounding 3 people before being killed by police.

Saturday, December 15, 2012.  East of Birmingham, a man armed with an AK-47 assault rifle killed 3 people and injured a child who was under 2 years old, in Cleburne County near the Georgia state line. Police shot and killed the man after pursuit.

On Friday, December 14, 2012, 28 people, including the gunmen were reportedly shot and killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT. 20 of these casualties were children.

Friday, December 14, 2012.  In Homewood, a 30-year-old woman and her two sons, ages 4 and 5, were found murdered in their apartment.

Tuesday, December 11 2012. A gunman opened fire in an Oregon shopping mall, killing 2.

December 11, of this same week,  22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. His motive is unknown.

September 27, 2012. Five were shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others were wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself.

August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself.

July 20, 2012. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater.

May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt.

April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died.

April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

 

And that's just the list from this spring till now.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at 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 want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made 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 29: 9. "You Can't Fix Stupid----Can You?"

Proverbs 29: 9     If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.

Proverbs 29:9.  Comedian Ron White said that you can get laser surgery to correct your vision; you can get plastic surgery to tighten your skin; you can get ear implants to restore your hearing------ “But you can’t fix stupid.”

Now Mr. White isn’t exactly a theologian, but his bit does hit on a recurring idea in the Bible. 

Passages like Proverbs 29: 9; Proverbs 26:4; Ecclesiastes 10: 13 seem to say, “You can’t fix foolish.”

And that’s a hard saying, especially for us preachers, teachers, change-the-world type crusaders.  We’re out there every day and up late into the night trying to find an actual, non-rhetorical answer to the question: How do you help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped?

People keep telling us that the answer is: You can’t.

But we just keep asking the question anyway.

And then we come to what Jesus said: Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Matthew 7: 6)

We want to teach.  They don’t want to learn.  We can’t both have what we want, so we argue. We rage.  They rage.  Or, we argue at them, and they laugh at us for arguing with ourselves.

What’s ironic is that after all the trying to teach, all the casting of pearls, all the begging the boy to listen, the person who’s most frustrated is the wise would-be teacher who has the knowledge and therefore, supposedly, the power.

(P.S.  Knowledge and power don’t always = PEACE)

You can tell people what they need to learn.  You can show people the solution to their problems.   You can explain, illustrate, and demonstrate by living example the way to better, the truth about progressing, and the life that pleases God.   But, if they don’t want to learn, then they won’t be taught.      

Told.  But not taught.

You/ I/ We can’t fix foolish.

It’s impossible.

Which brings us back to God.

And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18: 26, 27)

The Biblical principles are:  (1) You can’t fix foolish; and (2) With God no problem is unfixable.

Therefore, the solution is to bring the fools to God, and to bring God to bear on the foolishness. 

When the right intellectual, social, financial, political, and personal resources don’t solve the problem, it means that the main problem isn’t  intellectual, social, financial, or political.  The primary problem is SPIRITUAL. 

When the proven programs and policies aren’t making a dent in the dilemma, then you don’t simply have a troubled community, you have a SPIRITUAL stronghold. 

Now, it’s laziness and sin for the church to neglect physical needs under the supposedly Christian slogan of “Just Give ‘Em the Gospel.” (James 2: 15-17; James 4: 17)

But it’s also foolish for the church to forget that our greatest resource, our final and first line of defense and plan of attack is the invisible power of PRAYER. 

Then Jesus spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart  (Luke 18:1).

When they’re like pit bulls attacking you for the holiness you represent, PRAY because God can transform a dog into an example of miraculous faith (Matthew 15: 26-28)

When you’ve exhausted your most valuable resources but they keep turning on you and wallowing in their old mess, PRAY because God can transform an unclean life into a clean one.  

What God has cleansed you must not call unclean (Acts 11: 9).

You can’t fix foolish.  

God can.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made 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 29: 9. "You Can't Fix Stupid----Can You?"

Proverbs 29: 9     If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.

Proverbs 29:9.  Comedian Ron White said that you can get laser surgery to correct your vision; you can get plastic surgery to tighten your skin; you can get ear implants to restore your hearing------ “But you can’t fix stupid.”

Now Mr. White isn’t exactly a theologian, but his bit does hit on a recurring idea in the Bible. 

Passages like Proverbs 29: 9; Proverbs 26:4; Ecclesiastes 10: 13 seem to say, “You can’t fix foolish.”

And that’s a hard saying, especially for us preachers, teachers, change-the-world type crusaders.  We’re out there every day and up late into the night trying to find an actual, non-rhetorical answer to the question: How do you help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped?

People keep telling us that the answer is: You can’t.

But we just keep asking the question anyway.

And then we come to what Jesus said: Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Matthew 7: 6)

We want to teach.  They don’t want to learn.  We can’t both have what we want, so we argue. We rage.  They rage.  Or, we argue at them, and they laugh at us for arguing with ourselves.

What’s ironic is that after all the trying to teach, all the casting of pearls, all the begging the boy to listen, the person who’s most frustrated is the wise would-be teacher who has the knowledge and therefore, supposedly, the power.

(P.S.  Knowledge and power don’t always = PEACE)

You can tell people what they need to learn.  You can show people the solution to their problems.   You can explain, illustrate, and demonstrate by living example the way to better, the truth about progressing, and the life that pleases God.   But, if they don’t want to learn, then they won’t be taught.      

Told.  But not taught.

You/ I/ We can’t fix foolish.

It’s impossible.

Which brings us back to God.

And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18: 26, 27)

The Biblical principles are:  (1) You can’t fix foolish; and (2) With God no problem is unfixable.

Therefore, the solution is to bring the fools to God, and to bring God to bear on the foolishness. 

When the right intellectual, social, financial, political, and personal resources don’t solve the problem, it means that the main problem isn’t  intellectual, social, financial, or political.  The primary problem is SPIRITUAL. 

When the proven programs and policies aren’t making a dent in the dilemma, then you don’t simply have a troubled community, you have a SPIRITUAL stronghold. 

Now, it’s laziness and sin for the church to neglect physical needs under the supposedly Christian slogan of “Just Give ‘Em the Gospel.” (James 2: 15-17; James 4: 17)

But it’s also foolish for the church to forget that our greatest resource, our final and first line of defense and plan of attack is the invisible power of PRAYER. 

Then Jesus spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart  (Luke 18:1).

When they’re like pit bulls attacking you for the holiness you represent, PRAY because God can transform a dog into an example of miraculous faith (Matthew 15: 26-28)

When you’ve exhausted your most valuable resources but they keep turning on you and wallowing in their old mess, PRAY because God can transform an unclean life into a clean one.  

What God has cleansed you must not call unclean (Acts 11: 9).

You can’t fix foolish.  

God can.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116