What Are You Preparing For?

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Barack Obama, Dallas, George W Bush, George W. Bush Presidential Center, George W. Bush Presidential Library, President, Presidential library, Southern Methodist University

George H.W. Bush Presidential Library -      College Station, TX (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Just a few days ago, the George W. Bush Presidential Library was dedicated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.  Presidential libraries are intended to be repositories for papers, records, collections, and other historical materials of every president who has held that highest office.  In short, it is a place to preserve the legacy of a president.

I’m sure that each president, as he leaves office, has a way he wants his presidency to be remembered.  However, legacy is not just something that presidents strive for.  Each of us under the sound of my voice has something we want to be remembered for and some way we want to be remembered—not just in death but even as we transition the various seasons of life.  For instance, as a graduating Masters of Divinity student next week, I want to be remembered as a hardworking, conscientious, dedicated classmate.  So, legacy is not just about our final moments. All of us are striving to be positively remembered and make our mark throughout our lives.

While legacy is something that our finite, temporal minds try to wrap themselves around, the reality is [as Pastor Rick Warren says] “you weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.”

No, I don’t want to turn this into a spiritual soul searching session this morning, although all of us can never do that too much.  I do, however, want to make one point in light of that statement.  How does what you do from day to day translate into preparing for eternity?  It’s real simple this morning.  Are you trying to be remembered or are you preparing for eternity?  Ponder that.  Meditate on it.  Sit with it.

Before I go, let me remind you to continue to pray for the victims of the Boston marathon bombing.  Let us not forget this tragedy too soon but let it drive us to pray and spur us to practical action and a heightened moral and political consciousness.

Make it a great day!

Resurrection Responsibility

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Christ, Christianity, Easter, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Resurrection, Resurrection of Jesus

Although I’m a preacher, I typically don’t spend this time inundating you all with excessive spiritual conversation but on this resurrection morning to talk about anything else would be irresponsible.

SO HERE IT IS!  HE GOT UP!

The question that now needs consideration is whether we have taken advantage of our opportunities to get up. Better yet, who are we helping to get up?  The resurrection should open our eyes up to some practical realities and that’s where I want to hang out for the next 60 seconds.  Here is what I really want to say. His getting up allows you to stand up and help somebody else up. So, I want to take a moment to talk about what I call resurrection responsibility.

Take a quick introspective look at yourself.  Who have you helped besides you?  The resurrection wasn’t about Christ’s edification, although He certainly is exalted!  It was about helping us.  So, who have you helped?  No help is the reason why the sequester is taking its toll. It’s the reason why the unemployment rate is so high. It’s the reason why children in Africa don’t have access to clean running water.  So, let that be the message of the resurrection that dwells in your hearts today.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer someone with a word or song.

If I can show someone He’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain.

He got up, He sent somebody to help get you up, and He wants you to help get someone else up!  Find your resurrection responsibility and fulfill it!  He or she may be closer than you think!

The Great You Inside of You

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Bible, Christianity, God, great, greatness, image of God, Jesus, Lord, Psalm, religion, Religion and Spirituality, who am I

Who am I?  While it is a basic question, it is one that recurs again and again throughout the course of our lives.  At 5 years old, we are drawing pictures that illustrate what our childish minds think we are.  At 13, 14, 15 years old, as we transition through our adolescent years, we try to fit in with the crowds in school to find who we are and where we fit in.  When we graduate college and are faced with career choices, we scratch our heads and wonder who we are.  In our young adult years, when we grow bored with our careers and feel like we’re working but not making a sizeable contribution to society, we wonder who we really are.   As we reach the apex of our middle age years, knock at the door of senior citizenry and realize that we are aging and that the balance of our days is less than those of yesteryear, we once again find ourselves asking that same question – who am I?

Genesis 1:27 helps us with this.  It says that we are made in the image of God.  And then the psalmist says in Psalm 145:3 “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.”

In short, He’s a great God!  Because He—the immutable, omnibeneficent, Holy, awesome, life changing, powerful, death conquering, miracle-working, soul-saving, life redeeming, heart fixing, mind regulating God—is the image in which you are made and because He lives inside of you, it is safe to say that there is greatness in you.  There’s a great you inside of you!

The message is very simple.  Reflect on this today.  You are made in the image and likeness of God and He that is in you is certainly great.  So, by default you are great!  What is preventing you from seeing yourself this way?  After all, you’ve been fashioned in the mold of the One who has never lost a battle.  There’s a great you inside of you!

Amen.

Do Something

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All men are created equal, Barack Obama, Black History Month, Inauguration, Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, United States

Since it’s Black History Month, let me take a few moments to highlight something that I think is worthy of consideration over the next 20 some odd days.

Almost two weeks ago, President Obama made a statement in his inaugural address that has been resonating with me ever since.  He said and I quote:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.  For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.”

I know that’s a mouthful but I think that the last line of what I just read is a worthy charge during these dawning moments of a month long celebration of Black History.  Let’s not spend all of our time this month reciting fast facts and having our children color brown faces onto sketched artwork of major black icons.  Instead, let us heed the profound words of our president.  Because truth and freedom are not self-executing, our goal must be to execute both.  In other words, the president was simply saying that we are executors of the realization of truth and conduits of freedom.  I put them into practice, I initiate their action, I make them happen.  It is our job to show people, as those who marched before us did yesteryear, that our future can be better than our past.  Over the next 25 days, let us remember that sacred obligation.

My intention is not to tell anyone what to believe politically. I could go there but I’m not trying to do that.  Let your conscience be your guide.  However, what I am suggesting without equivocation, is that we all have a common responsibility—to see that self-evident truths are realized and that freedom comes alive and that takes some practical action.  Exercise your right to vote, mentor a child in a mentoring program, volunteer in the community, take a few minutes each day to turn off 92Q and stay informed, teach our children the way.  But for goodness sake, do something!  We are living in perilous times where we can no longer can we sit and do nothing and stare out of the windows of our comfort zone.  We’ve each got something to do!  Do something!

That is the best way to pay homage to those whose blood has been sacrificed for our opportunities.  That is the best way to honor the legacy of those who were whipped, beaten, battered, and abused.  That is the best way to humbly appreciate a grandfather who only had a 3^rd grade education or a grandmother whose highest career level was a domestic.  Do something!

My Take: Jesus was a dirty, dirty God

Reblogged from CNN Belief Blog:

Editor’s note: Johnnie Moore is the author of Dirty God (#DirtyGod). He is a professor of religion and vice president at Liberty University. Keep track of him @johnnieM .

By Johnnie Moore, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Jesus was a lot more like you than you think, and a lot less clean cut than this iconic image of him that floats around culture.

Read more… 1,021 more words

Obama Inauguration 2013

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America, Barack, Capitol, Inauguration, Malia, Michelle, Obama, Sasha, United States

Off Da Chain – “Django Unchained”

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Alex Haley, American, Django, Film, Quentin Tarantino, Slavery, Sukiyaki Western Django

I want to zone in today very briefly on the new Quentin Tarantino movie that’s generating a lot of buzz called “Django.”  The movie is [what he] believes is a more realistic and accurate portrayal of slavery in contrast to Alex Haley’s “Roots.”  As a matter of fact, Tarantino has been recently quoted as saying that “Roots” is inauthentic.  Go figure.

A couple of quick things here.  First of all, I think that it is good work in terms of theatre and I respect Tarantino’s craft very much.  I was engaged the entire time although the film was almost 3 hours.  I commend him on this and this alone—the revulsion of this film is real.  The disgustingness of how slaves were treated was portrayed in some cases realistically.  It came across as brutal as it actually was.

However, I take exception to his recent statements calling “Roots” inauthentic.  How does he know? What makes him, a white man, an authority on slavery?  So, that’s the first thing that raised my eyebrow.

Secondly, I was taken aback by the reaction of my people during the movie.  The atrocity of what was done to African American people was quite funny to a lot of Black folks.  I will say what one of my friends said; he was on point with this statement:  “I’m not as disappointed in Tarantino as I am in how my people respond to and celebrate this work.”

Please hear me when I say that our liberation is no laughing matter.  When you are the descendant of those who picked cotton and then you see white folk make their struggle into a film laced with what is supposed to be comedy, it ought to spark something in you.  When your skin has been kissed by the same sun that shined down on the wounds of those who were whipped and beaten and then you sit and watch a 3 hour parody with “light moments” throughout, it out to activate a righteous indignation in you.

This may seem to be no big deal to some this morning but please understand me.  It goes beyond laughing at parts of the story that were written to be intentionally funny.  It goes beyond that.  What grieves me is the trivialization, the reduction of our heritage to comedy and the fact that our people are not historically informed enough to see and understand this.  I find a great problem with that.

A lot of people will say it’s just a film.  I beg to differ.  When MY history is involved it then begins to resonate and become personal with me.

So while we can debate on the movie itself, I think no Black historically conscious being should find slavery funny.  I was not able to laugh at all during those snippets because the struggle of my ancestors was at the forefront of my mind.  I leave you with this question.

Is this an exploration of history or an exploitation of it?

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

I’ll Be Damned!

Tags

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, eternal life, Jesus Christ, salvation

“I will tell you one thing,—
if you believe in Jesus Christ and you are damned,
I will be damned with you.”

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon-

 

Standing Against the Stigma

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Jovan Belcher, Junior Seau, Kansas City Chiefs, Mental disorder, mental health, National Football League, NFL, psychologist, World Health Organization

This past weekend many of us heard the disturbing news about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, a 25 year old young man who shot and killed his 22 year old girlfriend with whom he has a 3 month old child.  After shooting the young woman, Belcher then drove to kill himself at the Chiefs’ training facility in front of the coach and general manager. That’s pretty much all of the information that the media says they are able to give us at this time.  So, obviously unanswered questions are looming and so far [according to the news reports] no one knows why this happened.

This brings me to a subject of great concern, particularly in our African American community and that is mental health. Something is wrong when a brother kills the mother of his child and himself without warning or reason.  A rising NFL star who [by most of our standards] has the look of success has been defeated.  The arresting thing is that this is becoming epidemic.  Belcher is not the first NFL star to succumb to suicide.  Just last year Junior Seau took his life.

Current mental health statistics are off the charts.  The World Health Organization has said that by 2020 (just a few years away), Major Depressive Illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world especially for women and children.[1]

We are in a recession, unemployment is many people’s story, it’s hard to get through school, and I could go on and on.  To put it plainly, mental health challenges are on the rise.  There is stress at home, in school, and in the workplace. So, there must be some discussion about this.  For so long we have avoided it because of the stigma that goes along with seeking professional help.  No one wants to be labeled as crazy.  But I’d rather be crazy and getting help than crazy, helpless, and left to my own devices.  While I say that in jest, the reality is that your challenges don’t make you crazy, but ignoring them will.

If your weight is too heavy to carry, call someone today.  Ask for help this day.  Call your church, call the local counseling center, call a psychologist, and let them do what they do.  Do not allow yourself to become a statistic.  Stand against the stigma!

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[1] World Health Organization, “Mental Illness”; http://www.who.int/topics/mental_disorders/en/; Internet; accessed 5 December 2009.

Staying Committed To Your Convictions

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Christ, Christian, Christianity, commitment, committed, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Lord, standards, Word of the Lord

During a time where everything is volatile and standards are non-existent, what do we [as Christians] actually stand for?  Do we stand for Christ or culture?  Do we stand for Christianity or carnality?

The man or woman of God, who has professed the immutable (unchanging) God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as the head of his or her life, has been called to be a force of stability in an ever changing culture.  The least we can do for a God who has been committed to us is to be consistently committed to walking His way.

O to be like Him, tender and kind,
Gentle in spirit, lowly in mind;
More like Jesus, day after day,
Filled with His Spirit, now and alway.

I don’t know about you but I want to be like Jesus!  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord![1]  That’s my conviction!  I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation![2]  That’s my conviction!  I am not ashamed of who I am…a man of God and what I stand for…godliness and holiness!  That’s my conviction!  My brothers and sisters, we must stay committed to our convictions!

The old church says it best: holiness is still right!  Who do you choose today?  “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.”[3]

So, today I charge you to be consistent in Christian character and committed to your convictions!  Remember that the Word is true—the grass fades and the flower withers but the Word of the Lord (our Christian convictions) will stand forever.[4]   Stay committed to your convictions!

Amen.

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[1] Joshua 24:15, paraphrased.
[2] Romans 1:16, paraphrased.
[3] 1 Corinthians 10:21, NIV.
[4] Isaiah 40:7, paraphrased.