Excellent Speech?

Excellent speech becometh not a fool!

I say that to myself very often.  Especially when I am wowed by a truly well spoken youngster or other.  I say to myself let us truly see if his deportment lives up to that wonder.   I know my own foolishness that my speech precludes.   How did you know that only a real fool has such wonder in their speech? Not always, but often.  The humility of a drawl and the humility of the New England Caaaaa" seems synonymous with the lisp in Spanish to remind the elite that their speech doesn't fool God about their condition.  God will snatch that tongue right out of your mouth, if you don't mortify the pride of good diction.

Is ain't yo crown said pop Winans to Donnie when he won that lifetime achievement award.  We have much to look forward to if we cast our trophies on the Lord.  He does as much with them as he does with our cares...

Good diction is impressive, but I thank God for the many glances of warning that I have received from loving African American mommas who have warned me of the danger of imitating Queenly pride when speaking"the Queens ENGLISH".  It is not a mark of pride so much in the African American community as much as a mark of assimilation.  You can hide under your perm and your complexion and your speaking skills, but you cannot hide that you are Black.  It will come out one day!  Don't let it come out in the true shame of missing heaven on account of it.  I pray for the young preacher man who spoke deeply into my heart on Sunday evening.  What a wonderful experience to admire great vocabulary? But would to God that his heart for souls and compassion were as potent as his speaking.   My husband says that to me every day, almost in many different ways.  You have the ability to pull out a word that means what it takes me a million words to say,  but God isn't impressed at all.  

Prayer and compassion are indeed more than Words and I hope that young men and my sons learn that as well!

What went Ye out to see? Thoughts on the sermon from a young pastor, yesterday at Trinity...

Speaking in the authority of God is tricky for the young preacher these days.  Older people need reminders of the usefulness of God in the listening.  The distraction of telling someone since I am preaching and you are not, is a comic aside that was certainly a distraction if only a humorous one.  We must be careful of not diminishing the authority of Gods word  and the usefulness of God using our youth.  We don't need that.  God is using our youth and we should expect more, but humor must be carefully timed.

I also think that an admonition to encourage the downtrodden was missed in the sermon.  Listen to Gods dealings with them, AMEN.  But also be ready to bare burdens together to the throne of Grace!

The expectation of Jesus to meet you in your hardest need was or didn't seem to be emphasiized or pointed out at all.

Much time was spent on whose question was it.  And not much on the response of Jesus to give tangible credible encouragements to the down trodden.  Jesus could have said how dare you question, he didn't.  He knew Johns death was imminent.  But he didn't tell him that.  He turned Johns eyes upon Jesus and that is what we must do...

Looking at what is dark is ineffective to trial bearing.  Praise and Thanksgiving give power to those who may be fainting under the weight of suffering.  Where is the sacrifice of praise?

John the Baptist was the greatest and most used prophet. But, he that is least in the Kingdom is Greater than He. How?

Let us not miss the intimacy of Christ dimension of New Testament Faith.

The God of our Data Gap (information gluts) or the God of our heart ‘ligion.  Do you know him?  or Are you studying Him?  The Man after God’s own heart was sometimes ignorant of the details of data for lack of study, but he was always in pursuit of God in his personal experience.  This is what we are learning when we sit at the feet of suffering Saints of God and others who have learned to know God well.

Sometimes, I hear us justifying our woeful lack of expectation from God on our behalf because we are studious and we are too deep for the masses to embrace our doctrine.  Are we desperate for God’s presence in our everyday?  Are we waiting for God to fulfill our prayers to be amongst us in power and in numbers, also?

We plead for the showers of blessings that others have known.  We plead that in wrath you would remember mercy.  We plead that You would not leave us without your presence in our worship.  We have exalted the polished and the beautiful for our leaders and helpers and perhaps ignored the less polished Saints for positions in leadership and we must learn better.

We have a greater presence of God than John the Baptist had.  What did Jesus mean that he that is least in the Kingdom is greater than he?  He was used amazingly in the building of the Kingdom of God.  But his experience was without the fellowship of the Church the Bride of Christ and his experience was without the effective sending of the Holy Spirit as it is now.   We have a daily and continued expectation of God to impose himself on us by His Spirit.  What is more than a conqueror experience in our trials?  It is the reality that God’s light of faith is shining and drawing others to himself through our difficulties and that He deigns to draw the closer to those whose situations are hard.  He is carrying us!  He is not someone to whom we have to send others to ask of.  He is right with us in our sufferings.  Our grief may blind us to that experience, but that doesn’t make it any less true.  God is far closer to His suffering Saints than we can even know.

Thank You God for the New Testament experience of faith and love of you!

The Wind is a Whisper!

The First Sunday of the Scopes Trial imagination

The powers of hell were roaring as the Twenties were in midswing.  Is the bible a suitable ingredient in American Education?  Who knew that this would be the question that would be answered and continue to be answered in 1925 by the Scopes Trial?  Were we to inherit the earth or the Wind?

A Suitable consequence for a country that had all but forgotten God in its revelry and consumption of war-games.  The world had forgotten God and was reeling from the economic crisis that the abolishment of slavery had sent.  What do we do with all of the people who have been used in body and soul and now have not the skills to become of any economic use?

Crash, it all came tumbling down and the stock market crashed and people went scurrying to find a place to hide from the economic crisis.  My family migrated from Jamaica, some about that time.  That real and unthwartable push to better the life of yourself and your children was worldwide, Blacks and Whites alike.

The reality of the Industrial Revolution had made the service industry a minimal useful economic equalizer.  Everybody was learning to recreate themselves, as we are now.  Some had little skills and some had none at all.  What do we owe our people and our children?  Preparations for life…  Where will that come from?  Is the Bible Relevant?  Is Darwinism?

Someone died at the end of the Scopes Trial and I call him the Steven of Darwin!  A great Theological Mind Gave his all to tell us the house was on fire!