Real Talk

Peace and blessings,

Below is a conversation on what appears to be a Christian TV show and/or station, and a Professor of Religion about the

relevance of the bible.

Check it out and share your thoughts. Take care and have a blessed day.

Labels: Bible, Christian, education, TV

"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'
They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?'

Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.'"

- Matthew 16:13-17 (NIV)

Peace and blessings,

I came across this video on Godtube of

a poem by Blair Wingo,

Which I think is entitled "reintroduction to Christ" or something to that effect. In the poem, she touches on the various popular/mainstream conceptions of Jesus Christ (JC), and how they all get it wrong. She reminds us of the importance of seeking the JC of the bible, not the JC that fits our level of convenience. Check it out, spread the word, and share yout thoughts. What do you think? Do you think that Jesus is often mis-characterized in popular discourse/the mainstream? If so, why do you think this is so, and how can we as Christians respond? Have a blessed day and speekonit...

Note: If the link does not work, then go to Godtube.com and type in "allow me to re-introduce the Christ" or "Blair Wingo."

Labels: Bible, Blair Wingo, God, GodTube, Jesus Christ, mainstream, Matthew, Peter

"Father, I'm praying for a friend, he and I are really close/and out of all my friends, for this one i'm concerned the most/he say he reading daily, but he ain't really learnin'/he be in church but say that he ain't moved by any sermon/his face (is) weak, he ain't prayed in a week/he wake up and just weep/with his face in the sink/Lord, you gotta help my man/I'm praying for him daily/he ain't sin but it just seem as if he's going crazy/ ...but is it done for him?/ Lord don't let it be/if he don't want to talk to You then Father hear from me"


Peace and blessings,

These words come from the opening verse of "Praying for You," a song off of Lecrae's "After the Music Stops." In this song, Lecrae is having a conversation with God on behalf of one of his friends, whose spiritual welfare Lecrae is deeply concerned with. When I first heard this opening verse, I immediately thought that this song was about the importance of us interceding on behalf of, or praying for others. Once I heard the second verse, however, I realized that my immediate thoughts about the song were only partly accurate. While the song is about intercession, it is about a type of intercession that I personally never thought about until hearing this song. At the end of the second verse, Lecrae "reveals" to God (we can't really reveal anything to the One who is all-knowing) that the friend he is interceding for is none other than himself. Now at first I was taken back and extremely confused. How could he be talking to God, when in the song he said that his "friend" (i.e. himself) has not been talking to God? How can a person go to God and intercede on behalf of him or herself?

The more I wrestled with this idea, the more I began to "break out" of my limited view of intercession and view the term in a broader, more encompassing sense. Moreover, as I reflected on the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and the various things we experience in our Christian walk, the type of intercession Lecrae was talking about started to make more and more sense. Despite our sinful and rebellious behavior in the Old Testament, God continued to show compassion, sending prophets to warn them to turn away from those things that are not of God, and to turn back to those things that are of God. For those of who repented and turned back to God, He not only provided for them, but in many cases He elevated them in ways never imagined. In the New Testament, Jesus, despite our sinful and rebellious behavior towards each other and also towards Him, gave His life so that we can be in good standing with God, granted we follow and believe in Him as Lord and Savior.

Reflecting on Lecrae's song, and on how God deals with us in the Bible, I began to ask the question: Even though God's love for us is unconditional, is there anything about us, that God sees in us, that could also serve as motivation to love and care for us despite our shortcomings, sins, and rebellion? Now by "about us" i'm not referring to things that we do, because there is nothing we can physically do to give us salvation. It only comes through believing and following the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By "about us" I am referring to some inherently spiritual aspect of our being, that God considers worth preserving and nurturing. I have come to realization that there must be an inherently spiritual part of us that not only longs to connect with God, but that also "intercedes" with God on our behalf when our mental, physical, or emotional being is trying to distance ourselves from Him. That would help explain why even when we feel like we are at our worse and are disconnected from God, He does something, or sends someone in our lives to remind us that He's right there by our side. We don't just intercede for others during their time of need; there's also a part of us that intercedes on our behalf during our own time of need.

This idea is something I have just recently started seriously thinking about, so I am really interested in hearing what others think. Until next time, stay blessed and speekonit...

Labels: After the Music Stops, Bible, Christian, conversation, God, intercede, Intercession, Lecrae, love, need, prayer, unconditional

Peace and blessings,

I pray everyone's holiday was well. Or if you don't celebrate it, atleast you used these few days off to spend with family and loved ones. I'm sure most of you have heard of the incident involving Michael Richards' racist and degrading comments at the laugh factory. Although I am in no position to past judgement on anyone because there are times where I stereotype other ethnic groups and act out of prejudice(either directly or indirectly, through actions or through thoughts), I especially think that those who are constantly in the public eye (e.g. actors, comedians, etc...) need to be extremely careful for what comes out of their mouth because of their words' potential impact on their listeners. Don't get me wrong, we all need to check our individual prejudices and need to be held accountable, but this should definately be the case for those who have people pay to come hear what they have to say. When you think about it, when we pay (e.g. with our money or time) to hear people speak(e.g. comedians, artists, scholars, etc...), we are in essence paying for the expression of their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. It's the same with purchasing any music artist's cd. Therefore, given the fact that people paid something to hear Michael Richards speak, his motives behind saying what he say are independent of the potential impact it can have on not only those his comments were directed towards, but on his audience as well. It goes back to that scripture that says the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). We continue to pray (not only for Michael Richards and for those whom his words affected, but also) that we watch not only what we do, but what we say and think as well, because according to the Bible they are all the same. Below is the incident at the laugh factory as well as the his apology on the David Letterman show. Take care and as always, speekonit...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RjiVcIlhY







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uul6COkTnNU

Labels: Bible, Michael Richards, prejudice, Proverbs, racism

Peace and blessings,





While attending a graduate student seminar at Atlanta '05 (an African American Christian student leadership conference put on by InterVasity Christian Fellowship), one of the speakers said the following with regards to the perceived distinction between Academics and faith,

"To the Christian, there is no such thing as sacred and secular...everything is sacred."

That phrase stuck with me throughout the whole conference and continues to resonate with me today, especially seeing that I am currently and will be in academia for a while. I took that phrase to mean that as Christians, our entire lives are dedicated to glorifying God. Therefore, regardless of what we "specialize" in (e.g. medicine, science, education, law, etc...), our approach to and usage of those skills must first and foremost be a reflection of our relationship with God. During this and other graduate student seminars, we discussed how many (if not all) of the subjects we study in school (i.e. physics, chemistry, psychology, philosophy, biology, etc...) are simply attempts to further identify, analyze, and explain God's creations. One of my favorite disciplines besides education is psychology, and the more I learn about social and developmental psych (my particular interests within psych), the more I realize that the principles discussed and researched are the same as those emphasized in the bible (i.e. leadership, decision-making, inter-personal relationships, persuasion and influence, etc...). Although I think there are tons of examples in the bible, i'm not going to discuss them here, as that is not the focus of this piece.


I mentioned that quote from Atlanta '05, and the context in which it was discussed because I think it is relevant to the current debate that exists between those who are for Christian hip-hop, and those who are against it. I'm not going to get into the whole debate, but just a brief summary. For those on the "con" side, one of the criticisms of Christian hip-hop is that some artists' use the beats of "worldly" artists, and many of these beats are associated with negative behaviors. Further, it has been noted that before satan was cast down from heaven, he specialized in music, therefore the negative messages and images that are often associated with hip-hip culture(and in other genres as well) are indicative of Satan's influence(via manipulation of one's emotions and attitudes through music). The "Pro" side on the other hand, argues that hip-hop as a culture and artform in itself is not of satan, but it (as with anything) can be used to acheive destructive or constructive ends. Further, people contend that artistic expression is a gift from God, and thus another tool for ministry and spreading the Gospel. For more information on both sides of the debate, you can check out exministries.com (con) and theambassadoronline.com (pro).

What got me thinking about this debate was a song I heard on Lecrae's Album, "After the Music Stops (2006)." His album is one of the best Christain rap albums i've ever heard, and I advise you to cop it (album info will be on the site soon). The name of the song is called "Jesus Muzik" and it sounded to me like the hook sampled the voice of a secular rap artist. I called "the music expert(my sister, lol)" and she told me that when songs are "chopped and screwed," they slow the voice down so that anyone's voice can be transformed into that slow, "draggy" sound. Despite this information, I still wondered if people would view the song and its impact differently if the song did contain a sample of a secular artist? My answer is no, or atleast they shouldn't for a couple of reasons. For one, I can atleast say for me that I listen to the music I listen to not just because of the quality of the music itself, but also because of my perceived quality of the artist as well. I believe that the artists that I listen to ( both "secular" and "sacred") are generally "good" people in a sense that I believe they make music for the betterment as opposed to the detriment of their listeners. Therefore, because I own both of Lecrae's albums and I'm aware of his sincerity and fervor in spreading the Gospel, I know that whether or not the sampled voice on the track is from a secular artist is an irrelevant issue. Further, being preoccupied with whose voice was sampled will cause me to miss the purpose of the song and the album, which is to show Christ to the lost and to strengthen us as believers to do the same.

The second point I wanted to make before I sign off (Honestly, I never intend on being this long-winded when I write, lol), is that I think there is a need to distinguish between the culture and art-form of hip-hop itself, and how artists within that culture and art-form choose to use their gifts. With regards to the debate mentioned earlier, I am for using hip-hop as a tool to reach the lost because when it's all said and done, what matters is what words are spoke, not whose voice was sampled or what beats were knockin'. The bible talks about how the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Christian hip-hop artists are first and foremost Christians, therefore we as listeners should be more concerned with the Gospel they are spreading, and not which samples or beats they use, how they are dressed, etc... After all, as long as the music is inspired by Jesus, we need to forever rep and support that Jesus Muzik...

Here is another scripture that I thought was relevant to this issue, as well as Lecrae's music video for "Jesus Muzik." Peace, blessings, and I want to know your thoughts on this issue, so definately speekonit...



"21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

1 Corinthians 9:21-23 (New International Version)




Link to the "Jesus Muzik" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTXRaSvq-M

Labels: academic, ATL, Bible, Christian, faith, God, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Lecrae, social psychology

Peace and Blessings,

I know my updates have been sparse as of late, but blame the mind not the heart. Been on my academic grind lately plus traveling. Anyway, I'm back like I left something, and I wanted to direct your attention to the two newest additions to the "archives" section. With all of the negative press currently in the media, especially as it relates to people of color, it' s good to hear of stories where God is obviously present. Yesterday I came across the article about the young girl who testified against the person who shot her. The image of her on aol.com had her crying, and initially I didn't want to click the link. My spirit has recently been grieved with all of the "bad" news I've been exposed to lately, and I felt like I couldn't take reading another article about a young child suffering. However, the "her words might surprise you" part of the link caused me to click on it to read about what happened. Apparent this beautiful young girl was hit by a bullet fired during a shootout when she was 3 years old, and is now paralyzed for life. Now five years old, she confronted the shooter in court and after telling him that what he did to her was horrible, she broke out in tears before replying with "but I still forgive you." I was blown away that a five year old who was the victim of a terrible crime and is paralyzed for life can do something that we as adults fail to do all the time. The power of forgiveness is not just manifested in the way in which the "forgiver" can now move on with their life. Forgiveness is also and more importantly a transformative act that changes the way in which the perpetrator, regardless of the offense, views the moral implications of their actions. The bible's emphasis on forgiveness (e.g. many of Jesus' healings were in the form of forgiving people of their sins) reflects one of the many ways that things work out for good for those who believe. In particular, God's love and transformative power can be revealed even during times when our choices have detrimental affects on others. I believe that being confronted by his victim and then forgiven by her, especially seeing the severity of the bullet's impact and the fact that she is only five, resulted in some sort of "transformation" for the perpretrator.
The other article I wanted to speak on briefly was the one about the father finding his daughter after 13 years. There are not really any implications I can draw out of this situation as with the one mentioned above, therefore I can do is thank God and give Him the glory. There is no doubt in my mind that people were constantly praying for him and his family and that he be reunited with his daughter. With all that is going on, it;s a blessing to come across stories like these where the only explanation of the outcomes (e.g. how can a five year old who has suffered so much take the moral and spirtual high road and forgive her shooter? How can a father who has not seen or heard from his daughter in 13 years since she was deemed missing now have the opportunity to reunite with her next week?) point to the Lord Almighty. Until next time, continue to, and always, let's continue to pray for out friends, families, communities, and for situations we may not be directly tied to, because if it's one thing i've recently realized is that prayer not only works, it is revolutionary! Speekonit...

Labels: Bible, daughter, father, forgiveness, girl, God, moral, news, prayer, reunited

Peace and blessings,

The verse I wanted to share this week is the following:

" Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well. Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the street? [Confine yourself to your own wife] Let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you. Let your fountain[of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe[tender, gentle, attractive]-let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love. Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray? For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Whou would have us live soberly, chastly, and godly] carefully weighs all man's goings. His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cord of his sin. He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost."
Proverbs 5: 15-23 (KJV-AMP)

In my opinion, this verse speaks to four themes. The first is importance of remaining faithful in marriage and resisting the temptation to "dip out." The second is consequences that "dipping out" in marriage can have on the married couple's children. The third theme is the sanctity of marriage. That is not to say that everyone is supposed to get married (because God may have not called some people to get married), but that for those God calls to marriage, it is imperative to use that union as a testimonty to God's love and grace. This testimony is for the benefit of the couple, the couple's children (their children, etc...), and for others. Therefore anything that threatens that union (i.e. "dipping out"), inevitably thwarts are ability to realize and actualize God's purposes for the married couple'd lives. Further, children often shape their perceptions of and reactions to relationships based on that of their parents (or guardians who fulfill that parent role), therefore married couples have a moral responsibility to their children in that respects. The fourth is less of a theme and more like an application for today's times. American society prides itself on effieciency and variety, and their depictions of relationships is no different. Epecically with regards to men, there's this dominant idea that the more women the better (at least when you're young, because eventually when you get older you'll settle down). I argue that this is especially true for Black men, as we are constantly being fed images and messages (e.g. music, videos, other aspects of popular culture, etc...) that having many women is the signifyinf marker of what it means to be a man. However, I urge us a Black men to be men of God and to not to succumb to societal pressures. I am in no way saying that this would be easy. By the fact of simple demographics alone, black men are disproportionatley dead or incarcerated, creating situations in society where in various institutions (schools, churches,e tc...) and places of employment, the women heavily outnumber men. So in essence, black men have a large pool of women to choose from, making it that more difficult to maintain a one-woman relationship. This temptation is what makes the reliance upon and word of God so critical to our (and everyone's ) approach to relationships. Let's pray that God will revolutionize how this country values relationships and the sanctity of marriage, so that male and female relationships reflect God's image, and not ours. Until next time, stay blessed and speekoinit...

Labels: Bible, children, God, marriage, Proverbs, scripture

Peace and Blessings,

Lately, a friend and I have been talking about all of the people who've passed in 2005 and in the first quarter of 2006. With Gordon Parks, an African American pioneer in film and photography (see link) passing earlier this week, he joins an honorable group of individuals and freedom-fighters. Richard Pryor, Ossie Davis, Corretta King, and Rosa Parks are just a few of the individuals whose legacy will be forever felt. In addition to reflecting on the lives of those who came before us, we've also been asking oursleves a semi-selfish, yet undeniably relevant question: "Now that many of our soldiers are gone, what are WE going to do to honor their names and the causes that they dedicated their lives towards achieving?" It is commonplace to honor individuals through memorials and grave visitations (of which I am in no way criticizing or devaluing). I believe that there also comes a time, however, when we must honor those who came before us by our actions. Although I like the New Testament(NT) much more than the Old Testament (OT) , one thing that fascinates me about the OT is the heavy emphasis on the mentor-mentee relationship. Whether it's Moses - Joshua, Samuel - Saul, or Elijah - Elisha, the OT gives importance to leaders raising leaders. This dynamic was also evident within early churches (although women were unfairly denied participation in such dynamics) and religious institutions (Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X in the NOI, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, etc...) during the civil rights movements, which is the era through which many of the fallen soldiers discussed above lived and contributed.




Pic of Richard Pryor, courtesy of

AirMassive

Rosa Parks, courtesy of

Achievement

Coretta Scott King, courtesy of

People

Although our soliders may not have physically took our hands and showed us the ropes in terms of imparting us with lessons of wisdom and leadership, they did so by their actions and the lives they led. I pray that we'll be able to lead lives of leadership and righteousness so that the generations to follow will have a sort of "blueprint" through which to navigate through anything this world presents them with. Speekonit....

Labels: African American, Bible, freedom fighters, Gordon Parks, mentor-mentee relationship, New Testament, Old Testament, pioneer

Peace and Blessings,

I pray all is well with everyone. The verse I chose for this week is the following:

"There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
-Galatians 3:28 (NKJ AMP)

Although when Paul initially spoke these words he was primarily referring to the discrimination of Gentiles, this first demonstrates to me the power of Christ as not just a source of salvation, but a source of unification. It's not by chance that the impetus fueling the civil rights movement was justice for and unity among all peoples, and that Christianity provided the foundation and moral core of the movement. Whether the injustice is economic, gender-related, social, racial, or whatever, to be a Christian is to advocate for justice and unity. I pray everyone has a blessed week! Speekonit...

Labels: Bible, Galatians, Jesus Christ, justice, Paul, scripture, unity

Peace and Blessings,

Lord willing, i'm going to try to post a bible scripture or two every week that I think speaks to a Christian perspective towards the issues discussed on this site as well as scriptures that I personally like. Feel free to comment to the post and include your favorite scriptures or those that you feel may apply to the issues discussed on the site. For this week (as well as next week because this post is at the end of the week), i'll start it off with Isaiah 61:1 which reads:
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has annointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound."

Source: New King James Amplified

This is one of my favorite scriptures because it speaks to the revolutionary aspect of Christianity, where Christians are agents of social change and advocates of human rights. In an article I read this week for a class i'm taking on the New Testament, the author argues that to understand the plight of people of African descent in America( perceptions, resistance, understanding, etc...), we must understand the different ways in the Bible has functioned within Africans and people of African descent throughout history (especially during slavery). In addition, he argues that people of African descent manipulated the Bible to fit their social experiences during different periods in history. In other words, their meaning of the Bible during the early years of slavery is different from that of later years of slavery, from once they were free, etc...Now while I agree with his first argument that how he view America is related to our understanding of the Bible, I have an issue with the use of the word "manipulation." In my opinion, it was the Europeans (and anyone else) who used the Bible and Christianity to justify slavery who manipulated the Bible, not Africans. Africans and people of African descents' interpretation of the Bible during different periods in history are not examples of manipulations but a succession of scriptural truth. God does not like individuals manipulating His word for the exploitation of others in the name of greed. Moreover, Jesus' ministry was about healing and empowering the oppressed and marginalized. He emphasized the importance of and commanded us to love one another and to put others before ourselves. Neither of these commands could be achieved by using the Bible to justify slavery. Until next time...speekonit

Labels: African, Bible, God, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, manipulation, ministry, scripture, slavery

Peace and Blessings to all,

I just read that article about the 37-pound woman who gave birth to a 3-pound baby boy (see link to the left). All I can say is God is good! Although she had two prior miscarriages, her and her husband stayed prayed up and determined, and now they've given birth a child destined to fulfill God's purposes for his life. This story reminds me of the many accounts in the Bible where God came through for women who didn't think it was physically or biologically possible for them to get pregnant (Sarah-Abraham's wife, Elizabeth-John the Baptists' wife, etc...). I pray for all the best with their new family, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Speekonit...

Labels: Abraham, Bible, Elizabeth, God, miracles, Sarah