The Old Black Church

When I was a teenager in the 70's these kinds of shirts existed then, with knock-offs of the ads that existed then." GAP " God Answer Prayer; "FBI" firm believer in Christ. They were tacky then, they're still tacky now.Today the one that turn my stomach more than any is" Jesus Is My Home Boy." For me to try and see Jesus as an Home Boy is..... Now if they were just tacky, that would be something for the person wearing the shirt to bear. But what get's me is that they kinda cheapen the gospel of Jesus Christ which I don't like. I believe,they kinda turn off people who aren't Christians, causing more harm than good for the cause of Christ. For me there are two important ways you can spread the gospel in an effective way: You can live it and You can speak it. But at some point in Christendom some one made a decision to try something new. Which seems to just by pass passing out tracts to strangers on the street and instead ju

I should've known better.I could use several words to describe the BET awards show, but i decided to keep it simple The word i have chosen is HORRIBLE. It was totally embarrassing. The artist of today are talentless, unlearned and disrespectful. And we say this our future? God help us....On Sunday night, BET held their annual BET Awards show what a mess of a show. Ever since Michael Jackson's unexpected death last Thursday, the entertainment network had been scrambling to find a way to honor the legendary singer. Producers were quoted as saying the show would be re-tooled to pay proper homage to the "King of Pop." The tributes to Jackson felt thrown together--montages of Jackson's career were arbitrarily intertwined throughout the telecast while artists shared their memories of Jackson as the show cut to a commercial. Despite the minimal effort, the show was too often void of talent and class. It's amazing to think with as many artists as were present o

My grandmother always had some advice for you rather you wanted to here it or not. She once told me "don't be a door mat for any man". When I heard about what happen with 1st lady Sanford I thought about what my granny said so many years ago. Time after time we’ve seen the wives of politicians stand by their men as their husbands mount teary eyed, scripted apologies for their philandering ways. Well Jenny Sanford, Governor Mark Sanford’s wife, ain’t having it. When Governor Sanford gave his speech on Wednesday begging for forgiveness for having a long term affair with a woman in Argentina and disappearing on everyone for a week, he was all alone. There was no dutiful wife by his side and with a statement she released to the media on Friday, made it clear she had no intentions of so easily giving her forgiveness: I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my actions.

Men Day have always been important in the black church for a number of reasons and, as such, they tend to have strong, meaningful, historical overtones. Some people speak of America’s racist and unjust history toward black people in terms of “manhood denied.” Ice Cube said in a rap, “You treat me less than a man, cuz right now you got the upper hand.” But rather than seeing the day as an opportunity of reprieve for black men from an oppressive existence, what the day offers black church communities is a chance to celebrate the healthy roles men have played, and can continue to play, in the unfolding divine drama of black freedom that involves the entire community—women, men, youth, and children. What the day also allows us to do is to be conscious of the ways that our community has endured despite the challenges against us, and to celebrate men who do not reproduce the oppression that they have overcome by marginalizing women, children, or gay and lesbian persons. The day is a day

Well one thing is for certain, the BET Awards are guaranteed their best ratings ever with the death of Michael Jackson. I’m actually going to watch it this year whereas I just would have caught the highlights online.So now, the other question is: Who’s going to perform the Michael Jackson tribute? Usher Chris Brown Justin Timberlake All three of the above have more than channeled MJ their entire careers. But to me Chris Brown’s career is built on being little MJ as the following performances show: While both Usher and Justin Timberlake can make their own claims to the Michael Jackson throne, neither of them move as well as Chris…both Usher and Timberlake can out sing Chris, but on pure performance value and channeling MJ AND sending the man off in the style he so richly deserves…as much as it pains me to say it…this should be Chris Brown’s shining moment and, if he get it, would secure the comeback he so desperately needs after the abuse plea. So what do you think: Will he get it?

MTV is at it again! It has come out with a new show that follows the lives of high school girls who are pregnant. In my teen years being pregnant was frown upon not celebrated. Any way the show is called “16 and Pregnant,” and the following trailer will give you an idea for what this mini-series has in store: Now I watched the show for the second time the other night, and I don't think it's a good idea. To me it almost seem like MTV is glamorizing the idea of teen pregnancy. All you see is young girls throwing baby showers and getting excited about how cute the baby will be. I believe that’s the last unrealistic message that MTV’s viewers need to hear. Lately in the news there were stories of young girls who intentionally got pregnant for a myriad of reasons. Is it safe to say that when most young people make the fateful decision to have sex before they’re married, they’re not considering the weight of their actions. So is MTV feeding their naiveté? Question : Do

I pray that grace, peace and mercy will cover Michael family, friends and fans in this time of mourning. While he was a great artist and so much more, he was also a father, a brother, a nephew, an uncle. And a son. What a tragedy for any parent to have to bury their child. We have no way of knowing where he’s ultimately spending his eternity, but I was reading something posted on Mary Mary’s Facebook page that touch my heart and lifted my spirit: Last night we received some good news from Terri McFaddin-Solomon who is good friends with Sandra Crouch. Three weeks ago Sandra and Andre’ spent some time with their close friend, Michael Jackson. Michael asked Andre` to play, “It Won’t Be Long And We’ll Be Leaving Here.” Michael then prayed with Sandra and Andre and accepted Christ into his heart. Now he’s singing in the heavenly choir.! Our hearts rejoice! He was a legend; an icon. His career, epic. His talent, unrivaled. His life, troubled. Often imitated but will never duplicated. H

It's true, the greatest gift given to us is love. It's the purpose for living and the reason we were made. We were made to move in God's love and spread it to the world so that everyone may see His love through us. Down through time the idea of love have turn into a human instinct and simplified into a mental response designed to continue the human species. This turns the concept of love into something of a physical nature rather than a gift from God. We as humans, have tried to cut, and trim love to fit our own way of thinking. But trimming love is essentially the same as trying to trim God himself, which can't be done. It's a never-failing always-giving gift that seems to be almost ignored. I can tell you from personal experience that love can be ignored out of sheer human pride, a pride that often stems from a false love that we've allowed the world to create for us. When we let the world create love for us it becomes something reserved for only a select

Jesus never asked or instructed us to tolerate people He commanded us to love them.Tolerance is a word that shouldn't be a part of the believers vocabulary . Tolerance is a permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from our own. It is easy to allow someone to live any way that they want just as long as it doesn’t affect your own life. It is much harder to love people as we love ourselves. The God kinda of Love requires us to do more than just accept people of all kinds from a distance - essentially ignoring them. This kind of love requires us to actually get involved in people’s lives. If loving God is what gives us our identity as Christians and that same God says that loving people is just as important as loving Him, then Christians should be identified also by their love of people. In other words, Jesus never instructed us to “love your neighbor as yourself as long as your neighbor is the same race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and has the same

There's nothing wrong with disagreement! I can disagree with my brother and sister in love and in Christ with out falling out. Just because I don't embrace your way of thinking or a certain thought that you may have it don't make me a cult. I don't believe the direction the church is headed in is the right direction... . meaning I don't believe the attack on people life styles and choices is what the church should be doing. God gave every man FREE WILL and He will judge every man according to what he/she did with that FREE WILL. You can not regulate a person heart but you can change a person heart and mind with the truth of the word of God and not some erroneous teaching that is not true. All sin should be attack from the pulpit and not just homosexuality and abortion. If you don't like were I stand on an issue that's alright with me but that is my stand unless you can show me different. Because on that Day when I ANN BROCK stand before a Living God

I like John Piper teaching and I love reading his many books. His latest book Desiring God is a book with a very basic concept of Christianity that many seem to have missed. In which he expresses as a logical syllogism: Humans desire happiness and pleasure. God's being is the source of all happiness and pleasure. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to pursue God wholeheartedly. John Piper calls this concept Christian hedonism, and his main statement is, "God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him." Why is it that we so often attribute undesirable qualities to God, but we also recognize that He commands us to desire Him? This won't work. Humans are not wired to want someone who harms them or treats them badly. We are wired to desire those who are desirable to us in some way. God made us. It would have been ridiculous for Him to command us to do something that can't be done. Instead, "We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19 I

Okay, okay, so texting is popular. Everyone is doing it but way ahead of the bell curve has to be the pre-teens and teens as they bruise their thumbs in order to stay cool, or cheat at school. Does this mean though that we really have to condone excessive texting to the point that we have a national championship to figure out who is the fast texter? Come-on people this is stupid! Sure the publicity for GL, who sponsored this massive nonsense, is worth the $50 Grand that the winning 15 year old girl walked off with, but I still ask why do we need to do this? Kate Moore, the 15 year old winner, said that parents should chill out about their kids texting through dinner cause they could end up just like her with a big purse of money and a new phone. Moore, with a speedy and accurate performance, beat out 20 other finalists from around the country over two days of challenges such as texting blindfolded and texting while maneuvering through a moving obstacle course. In the final showdow

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong. Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a bay. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. Bumble bees are considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Meanness don't jus' happen overnight. Forgive your enemies. It messes up their head. Don't corner somethin' you know's meaner'n you. It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge. You can't unsay a cruelword. Every path has a few puddles. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty. The best sermons are lived,not preached. Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen, no way. Don't judge folks by their relatives. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Live a good, honorable life.That way, when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time. Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin&#

If you have a dad who loves you celebrate him with joy this Father’s Day. But keep in mind that every one is not standing in your shoes. Father’s Day can be a source of great pain and sorrow. For many years Father Day has always been a time of pain for me. Like many children today who don’t live with their biological father neither did I. I grew up watching my six sisters enjoying their father love but I couldn't connect. For me one day I will leave this world having never experience an earthly father love for his child for me that has always brought me great pain. Any way, according to fathersforlife.org , the figure for children without fathers approaches 40 percent nationally and is almost double that in the inner city. Add to that those who simply have a strained relationship with their father over some disappointed expectation, and the pain multiplies greatly. The fallout from absent fathers has been well-documented. Eight-five percent of children with behavio

It's hard witnessing to people who have been fill with bad Bible teaching for years. I was witnessing to a lady at work the other day who was trying to tell me how America was going to be destroyed like Sodom because of people being too tolerant of homosexuality. Now I've heard this argument quite a number of times growing up and since I became a Christian I still here it alot. Why is it that people think that Sodom was destroyed because of homosexuality? Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. – Ezekiel 16:49-50, NIV Now I do believe there was homosexuality in Sodom, as well as other sinful things. but, in no way do I believe that was the only reason the city was destroyed that wasn't really what God was concerned about at the time when He destroyed it. God

Is it possible for a child the age of 2-6 to understand what it means to accept Jesus as their savior? I mean come on we're talking about 2 and 6 year old.... There's has been a debate going on for years about this...On one side we have The "Jesus Camp" Type... This type believes that one can accept Jesus as an extremely young child (like 2 or 3) if God has called you... They also believe that everything must be done to facilitate that acceptance and to become a part of a church family...Now some people view this type as extreme and have viewed them as a form of brainwashing. On the other side we have The "As An Adult" type.... This type believes that the earliest you can accept Jesus is as an adult...For some, it is 12; others go as late as 21. They believe this because that is the age where you can fully understand what you are asking from God and can fully form complex beliefs.... People generally view this group as closed-minded and think that these

A Belgian teen girl went to a tattoo parlor to have 3 little stars tattooed near her left eye. She fell asleep and woke up with 56 stars tattooed on her face. For this to have 'accidentally' happened there must have been some form of drugs or alcohol consumed, or perhaps this girl was just not happy with the tattoo she initially thought would be a good idea. Kimberley Vlaminck, 18, is suing tattoo artist Rouslan Tourmaniantz to have him pay to have 53 star tattoos removed from her face after an unfortunate mis-communication. Vlaminck went to a local tattoo artist to have 3 little black stars tattooed on her face near her left eye. For some reason, she fell asleep during the inking process and woke up sometime afterwards with 56 stars in total nearly covering one side of her face. It’s not clear how or why Vlaminck fell asleep and remained sleeping for so long and there are allegations that drugs or some other means were a factor. “I think he didn’t understand what I wanted,”

From Saturday's Birmingham News Religion section: Seeing through Christian lenses : Calera brothers lost their jobs in October but their faith burns so bright they had to sell sunglasses. "God gave him a vision, he said. That vision was Christians wearing sunglasses. Ones that say "I love Jesus" on the sides and "John 3:16" on the lens, and have a cross above the bridge of the nose." "He thinks that people will want to share their faith while reducing their exposure to ultraviolet rays." "When you wear these shades, you're saying you love Jesus." "Those sunglasses are going to glorify Jesus Christ our Lord and savior"..."We love him, we're proud of him. We want to say, This is who I am. Be proud to glorify Jesus and wear them in faith." Christianity is something to be lived out, we are called to live for Jesus, not to wear His name on our sunglasses or our t-shirts. Enough with all this "Chris

This is such a sad unfortunate case which I'm really lost for words...A 12-YEAR-OLD girl who was allowed to live with her 15-year-old boyfriend is set to become one of Australia's youngest mothers . The girl had been sharing a bed with the father of her baby from the age of 11, after her mother allowed him to move into their home despite her father's pleas to authorities. Question : What is an 11yr old doing with a Boyfriend ?

This is utterly ridiculous! All the noise being made over the comments David Letterman made last week about Sarah Palin’s daughter, let's be realistic... All of the country knows Bristol Palin had a baby.... In comparison, no one knew that Willow Palin went to a baseball game last week.... The joke obviously referred to Bristol, since she actually HAS been exposed to sex otherwise, it wouldn't even make sense. Therefore, it was Sarah Palin and ONLY Sarah Palin who chose to focus this "scandal" on her 14 year old daughter, Willow. So please answer this - if she's so concerned with protecting Willow, why did she needlessly bring her into the spotlight? The fact is that Sarah Palin will do anything possible to extend her 15 minutes of fame...Sarah knew that her 18 year old daughter wasn't a very sympathetic "victim," since she actually had a baby... Instead, she chose to flat-out exploit her 14 year old daughter just to get the added attention... Re

The basic idea behind most forms of meditation is to focus the mind on turning inward, to pay attention to your inner self and center your consciousness so that your mind is open and clear. During meditation, the purpose of this inward concentration is to remove all outside distractions and quiet the chatter inside your head so that you can hear the voice of God. Prayer is essentially the exact opposite of meditation. During prayer, you clear your mind of all outside distractions in order to be able to focus your thoughts on the prayer itself and the answers you hope to find by praying. In essence, we meditate so that God can speak to us; we pray so that we can speak to God.

Many Christians refrain from participating in the lottery because they see it as gambling, and therefore wrong, even if the lottery money goes toward a good cause. Now I believe the state-sponsored lottery is not a Scriptural way to raise funds for even the most noble of causes. It promotes the illusion to the poor that they may soon be the recipients of instant wealth and released from the hopeless cycle of poverty in which they find themselves. In reality, many of the poor waste some of their limited resources on the lottery. The Bible teaches that godliness with contentment is great gain, and that they who want to be rich fall into many temptations and have many sorrows ( I Tim. 6:6-10 ). "But thou, 0 man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness" ( I Tim. 6:11 ). What is your take on buying lottery tickets?

I wonder if Jesus really cares how we dress. Would he care if we were so , unaware of how we present ourselves to our fellow churchgoers or to the world? Or would he cast a disapproving eye at the well-dressed? Appearance appears to be a big deal in our society, and people are often judged by how they present themselves, especially people in entertainment and the media. Do you think Jesus, if he were truly us, would approve of the big diamond crosses with his body hanging on them in platinum gold, next to the guns and money signs? Do you think Jesus would approve of us wearing three thousands dollars suits to worship Him in a building that won't allow the homeless shelter from the cold? I wonder what Jesus would do if he were presented with an Armani suit ? Would he return the gift for money and give it to the poor? Or would he happily accept it and go about His Father business?

The death penalty is one of the most controversial and debated-about issues among Christians and non-Christians alike. A survey on Christia.net.com reveals that believers are divided over the morality of the death penalty. Of the Christians surveyed, 49 percent were in favor of the death penalty, pointing to the line in Leviticus 24:20 - "...eye for eye, tooth for tooth...". They also believe that Genesis 9:6, which states: "Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man," condones the death penalty. On the opposite side of the spectrum, 38 percent of Christians stand adamantly against the death penalty. These respondents point to Matthew 5:38-39: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." A small group of Christians are unsure about whether or no

It’s an audio reading of the entire New Testament of the Bible on 3 CDs (Over 23 hours!) Oh, but here’s the catch! the price? $49.99 Now there's nothing wrong with the making of this audio bible ,’ but is it for all the wrong reasons? Is it all a big marketing scheme? Because I know a lot of people who would only want to listen to this CD just because they see the actors on the television every day. Question: Is this a smart way to get people interested in the Bible, or are they just selling out Jesus? .. In today's world, celebrity endorsements do sell...maybe it's a sad cop-out, but we have to consider how some people might not hear the Word of God otherwise. I also think of it this way. James Earl Jones and Charleston Heston will be known by this generation as the voices for the Bible but the younger generations, maybe not think so... Also I think of how clear and plain it is to hear James Earl

Rap is not foreign to me,neither is the Word of God which is a two-edged razor sharp sword which cuts deep into the soul and heart of the sinner, and the redeemed...I have never embraced Holy- Hip- Hop because I have always put it in the same category as secular Hip- Hop and I was wrong for doing that. I repent of it and will not do it again in the future... without knowledge we fail to grow. “Not being ashamed of the Gospel,” means more than verbally proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ; it means acknowledging and yielding to the power of the Gospel in every area of your life. When we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, He frees us from our sin, so we may glorify God, and proclaim the Gospel with every aspect of our lives. We essentially lay our lives (self) down to serve and glorify God in thought, word and deed s... Lecrae and Desiring God Ministry have joined together to form a kinda of partnership than I never thought I would see. I like the teaching of John