Monday, January 21, 2008
In The Zone
"When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, 'My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.'So Jesus went with him."
"A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, 'If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.' Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."
"At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?'"
"'You see the people crowding against you,' his disciples answered, 'and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"
"But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'"
"While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. 'Your daughter is dead,' they said. 'Why bother the teacher any more?'"
"Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, 'Don't be afraid; just believe.'"
"He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.' 40But they laughed at him."
"After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, 'Talitha koum!' (which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, get up!' ).
"Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat."
-Mark 5: 21-43 (NIV)
Peace and blessings,
As someone who is studying to be a developmentalist by trade, I've had considerable exposure to different developmental theorists. Of the many theorists that I have come across (Piaget, Kohlberg), the theorist that is the focus of this post is Lev Vygotsky. While reading a scholar's analysis of his theory and its application to education, I was struck by Vygotsky's notion of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD, Miller, 2002), which is the difference between what one can learn or achieve on their own and what they can learn or achieve with the help of others who are (slightly) more advanced. I was well familiar with the notion before reading this analysis, but this I read with sort of a different lens (who knows, I may just be "coming up" with things just to say I posted something on my blog, lol). This around around, viewing youth in terms of ZPD sounded to me a lot like how Jesus viewed those he interacted with, and how he currently views us. Further, it was a sermon today I heard at an event at a friend's church (Harmony Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland, CA) that clarified what I was originally thinking when this topic came to mind months ago.
The speaker spoke from the above passage and focused on Jairus' interactions with Jesus. In a nutshell, Jairus approaches JC, worships him, and asks for Him to heal his daughter who is near death. As JC was going to his house, a woman who had been bleeding for seven years had touched JC's clothes and through her faith, was healed. Noticing that someone touched Him ("power had gone out from Him"), he turned around and asked who touched Him. By the time JC makes it to the house, Jairus' daughter dies. JC tells those at the house not to fear, but to have faith, and then He brings the girl back to life.
What stuck out to me when I heard the message is that I could have only imagined what was going on in Jairus' mind during this whole ordeal. What I found interesting is that Jairus sought JC out and worshiped Him before he asked Him to heal his daughter. This tells me that Jairus' faith in and knowledge of JC was such that he knew that Jesus had the power to heal his daughter. When describing the events immediately following his daughter's death, however, I didn't sense the same kind of certainty on Jairus' part. Not to say that I blame him, because after all, his daughter just died. I know in my life there are times when even small feats that have caused me to doubt Jesus' power (thank God for grace, lol).
I think Jairus' experiences are important to our understanding of Christ's love for us because Jesus' love for Jairus is an example of how, like Vygotsky's notion of ZPD, I think that we all have a zone for proximal spiritual development. Just as Vygotsky believed that children could learn and achieve more with the assistance of more advanced others, we can learn and achieve more with the assistance of JC and the Holy Spirit than we can on our own. Similar to this notion is James Gee's (2003) argument that to be a good educator is to educate students in a way where the demands (e. g. assignments, activities, tests) are on the edge of their students' "regime of competence," which is the students' level of knowledge. This way, the tasks students' face are difficult (i. e. on the edge of their regime of competence), but not too difficult that they cannot complete them successfully (i. e. it is still within their regime of competence). I think that Jesus understood both of these notions, which is why 1) He was and is so patient with His disciples and followers 2) He stresses practicing humility and relying on God and the Holy Spirit and 3) He tells us that through prayer, fasting, and communing with God, we can resist temptation, overcome the devil, and "shake some things up" in this world for the building up of God's kingdom.
Jairus shows us how our knowledge of and faith in Jesus is a progressive thing, such that insofar as we are connected with and following God, we will learn more about Him, and increase our relationship with and faith in Him. While initially Jairus knew Jesus as (and believed Him to be) one who prolongs life (healer), it appeared that he did not know Jesus as (or believed Him to be) a one who restores life once it is seemingly "lost" (life-giver). Once JC restored his daughter's life, this increased his knowledge and faith in JC so that it not only includes healing, but also restoring life. It was as if JC knew of Jairus' regime of competence regarding his knowledge of Him, and knew that just with some assistance ('Don't be afraid, just believe'), that Jairus could expand his regime of competence. I think for many of us, our spiritual development may follow a similar trajectory. If I have learned anything since seriously deciding to walk with JC, it is that my knowledge of and faith in Him was not "complete" once I made the decision. However, I have to continually learn about Him (through reading the word, fellowshipping with other believers, and looking at His track-record as evidenced in my life) and work on increasing my faith in Him. After all, this walk is a marathon, not a sprint. As a developmentalist-in-training, I really like the idea of constant growth and progression, and there is no better way to grow and progress than in knowledge of and faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What do you think? Until next time, stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy: NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Miller, P. H. (2002). Vygotsky and the sociocultural approach. In Theories of developmental psychology (pp. 367-419). NY: Worth Publishers.
Labels: development, faith, Jesus Christ, Mark, spiritual, Vygotsky
Friday, January 11, 2008
Words, Worldview, and Works: The Search for Consistency
"In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
-Luke 10: 30-37 (NIV)
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."
- Matthew 23:23 (NIV)
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."
- Matthew 23:25 (NIV)
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
- Matthew 23:27 (NIV)
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
- James 1:22-27 (NIV)
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
- James 2:14-17 (NIV)
Peace and blessings,
Out of the many topics I have been blessed with the opportunity to write on over the past two years (by the grace of God), this one has probably been the most pressing on my heart. I originally thought of the idea for this topic last summer, during a time when God was speaking to me in "unique" ways so to speak.
Throughout the years I have learned (through sermons as well as through personal experience), that a common misconception about the Christian walk is that once we "join the squad" (i. e. give our lives to Christ), then things will generally go smooth from there. Sure there are a few bumps or minor setbacks along the way, but for the most part, life will not really be difficult. Although the bible tells us that as believers that all things will work out for the good (Romans 8: 28), it also tells us that the things we experience in life can help built our spiritual character (Romans 5: 3-5). Taken together, I interpret these scriptures to mean that for Christians, we will inevitably experience hurt and pain, but that all of our experiences (good or bad), insofar as we seek out God in the midst of those experiences, can yield spiritual rewards for our life on earth and for our eternal life in heaven.
In general, I feel like God has been showing me that many of our experiences as Christians are sort of like "check points" to assess the extent to which our lives are consistent in three areas:
our worldview (how we view the world, our place in it, others' place in it)
our words (the things we say,, words we live by, the advice we give to people)
our works (how we act in the world, treat others)
Let me preface this by saying that I am not arguing that we as Christians have to be perfect, because Lord knows we can't be (lol). What I am arguing, however, is that many of our experiences provide a measuring stick for us to assess in what ways our worldview, words, and works line up or do not line up. This level of consistency is a difficult task because there may be certain areas where we are more or less consistent. For instance, in certain contexts it is more easier for me to be consistent in all three areas, others more easier to be consistent in two of the three, and other areas where there is no consistency. The goal in my opinion is two-fold. One goal is for us to continually work on those areas that we have partial or not consistency and build on those areas. As mentioned in
one of my prayers this year is for God to help me view things the way He views them, because there are times when I find myself telling others to view setbacks through a spiritual lens yet I myself am viewing my obstacles through a purely human (limited) lens. Second, our goal is to recognize those areas in which we do have consistency, and learn from them so that we are able to live our lives in a way that best pleases God; through our expression of love, faith and humility in how we view the world, the things we say, and how we live.
What do you think? Any areas where you see consistency? Inconsistency? What are some steps you think yourself as well as us as Christians in general can take to achieve and maintain consistency? Take care, God bless, and speekonit...
Labels: character, Christian, consistency, experiences, God, James, life, Luke, Matthew, Romans, spiritual, words, works, worldview
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Health Nutz, pt. 1
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
"You know, we're not just staying pure, because we're afraid we'll get pregnant. Not as believers. The world, they don't do it because they fear circumstances. We don't just stay pure because we're afraid of getting a disease. Now these are things that you got to factor in. But that ain't the only reason we're not doing this. We're staying pure because we love God."
- Da Truth, from "Fourplay (Interlude)" off of his album, "Moment of Truth (2004)"
Peace and blessings,
While sitting in my public health course one day, I had an interesting revelation. During our many discussions and readings about the health issues facing us as humans (i.e. diseases, mental illness, physical illness), it hit me: to be a Christian is to be a health nut. As illustrated by Paul's letter to the church of Corinth, our bodies are temples purchased and set aside for use by God. Further, I am convinced that the extent to which God can use our bodies as vessels to do His will (e.g. spreading the love of Christ and thus changing the world) depends (at least in part) on how much we value and take care of our physical and mental selves. Now I must clarify that by taking care of our physical selves i'm not suggesting that we need to all be lean and/or thin, nor am I suggesting that for us to be overweight or have meat on our bones means that we are not taking care of ourselves. This is not what I mean at all. Instead, what I am saying is that as we ascribe to the Christian faith and doctrine, we are inevitably promoting our overall health.
A few examples of the behavioral requirements/implications of our faith serves to illustrate this point. Preserving sex until marriage has obvious health benefits on two levels. On a physical level, a sexual relationship within the context of a godly marriage reduces the chances of contracting a STD. If both spouses were virgins prior to getting married, then this risk is practically non-existent. On a more social level, I believe that because sex establishes just as much a spiritual connection as a physical connection, that bonding with someone on that level can potentially have negative consequences if we're not careful. For instance, engaging in many sexual relationships may make it difficult to have meaningful relationships, given how one may have to struggle with these physical and spiritual connections they have with all of these people. Therefore, it may be hard for us to recognize the person we are supposed to spend the rest of our lives with, when we are still connected to these other individuals from previous relationships. Other examples of health - promoting behaviors that we as Christians are required or at least encouraged to practice include avoiding "greedy" behaviors (gluttony, etc...) and avoiding the use of faculty-altering substances. I think that consuming our temples with greedy behaviors and faculty-altering substances also makes our temples too "cluttered" to be used by God.
The above quote by Da Truth makes an important disctinction regarding this issue. Although there are these and many other health benefits that result from walking the Christian walk, it is important to know that these benefits in themselves are not our motivation for engaging in health - promoting behaviors. First and foremost, engaging in health - promoting behaviors should follow from the gratitude for being redeemed by Jesus Christ, and the desire (via love) to live a life pleasing to God. Because God is like hecka smart, and thus He cares for us better than we care for ourselves, it "just so happens" that by serving Him, we are also promoting our physical and mental health.
On a related note, here's an article discussing the potential of
As another point of clarification, I do not wish to come off as judgmental or as if I don't have flaws, because Lord knows I do! I just want to put this topic in the open as it's been on my heart for a while, and I pray that it's received in good spirits. With that said, what do you think? Stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...
Labels: 1 Corinthians, Da Truth, God, health, Jesus Christ, mental health, Moment of Truth, Paul, physical health, spiritual
Sunday, August 12, 2007
A Few Thoughtz: The Heart of Racial Justice, pt. 1
Peace and blessings,
Before I begin, I would like to preface this introduction by saying that I am more of a humanities and social sciences person than a hard sciences person, therefore I apologize if my description of this medical instrument does not do the instrument justice, lol.
When people are unable to take care of themselves, they often need something to assist them in initiating and facilitating internal bodily processes such as eating and blood flow. A major medical instrument that provides this assistance is an IV. A person who is seriously ill, for instance, may need to use an IV to pump blood in his or her body. Without this IV, his or her condition will get worse. Under more severe circumstances, the presence or absence of an IV can mean the difference between life and death.
Prior to starting my first semester at a major university, I knew that one of the most important things I needed to do was build upon my relationship with God. For me, that meant that I needed to find a church home. The first day of new student move –ins, I was greeted by a member of Black Campus Ministries (BCM), who invited me to bible study. While attending the bible studies, I found out that BCM was only one part of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), a campus ministry organization that serves students of all ethnicities. For example, like BCM, there are ethnic-specific ministries for Chicano/Latino students, and Asian/Pacific Islander/Philippino students.
Despite being aware of and around this diversity, I primarily viewed BCM and Intervarsity as a ministry to help me in my individual, highly personal walk with God. After reading B. McNeil and R. Richardson’s “The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change,” however, I realized that Intervarsity was about much more. In addition to providing me with spiritual resources to strengthen my personal walk with Christ, Intervarsity also provided opportunities and spiritual resources to acknowledge, appreciate, and strengthen my cultural and social walk with Jesus.
On a cultural level, Intervarsity is grounded in the belief that racial/ethnic unification and reconciliation are not just worthy goals to achieve in themselves: the call to achieve these goals is evident throughout the Old and New Testament. To illustrate the importance of these goals, McNeil and Richardson cite various scriptures, including God’s spreading out of cultures via different languages for the people of Babel and Paul’s emphasis on eliminating cultural barriers to show that Christ’s love extends to Gentiles as well as Jews, to name a few. On a social level, Intervarsity helped me realize that any form of injustice is a sin. Therefore for Christians, having a heart for and actively engaging in a relationship with Christ means doing the same for the oppressed and marginalized. Using Paul’s declaration in Ephesians 6:12 that the battle is not with people per se, but with (spiritual) powers and principalities as a framework, McNeil and Richardson urges us to denounce and oppose sins of racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression. Through Christ, we not only have the spiritual power to denounce and oppose these powers and principalities: we also have the victory over these things through our faith in and obedience to Christ.
So in a nutshell, McNeil and Richardson’s “The Heart of Racial Justice” has given me a newfound appreciation for the ministry Intervarsity provides to college students through their focus on personal, cultural, and social growth in Christ. What does this have to do with the example you gave in the opening paragraph? Here’s the connection: Just as an IV in the medical sense is used to preserve and save lives, my view of what it meant to be a Christian prior to getting involved with Intervarsity was limited thus was suffering. Like the physical lives of people who cannot do for themselves, my spiritual life was in need of an IV to “feed” me some different, more encompassing ways of viewing my relationship with Christ and His kingdom, and through the grace of God I was introduced to these new and diverse perspectives through Intervarsity, my spiritual IV.
What do you think? If you have been or are currently a part of Intervarsity, what have you learned since your involvement that you were unaware of prior? If you are not familiar with Intervarsity or have not been involved with the organization, any general thoughts/reactions to this piece? Take care and speekonit…
Labels: Black Campus Ministries, God, Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, IV, Jesus, ministry, New Testament, resources, spiritual, students
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A Few Thoughtz: The Politics of Jesus, pt. 1
" Rather than taking a literalistic or legalistic approach, the politics of Jesus calls for scrutinizing every political policy and policy proposal by this standard: It is based upon the command to 'love your neighbor as yourself?' That is, does it treat the people and their needs as holy? It is important that this principle not be treated as a law with layers of liturgical and organizational requirements. Rather, it is to be seen as a yardstick that at every point seeks to apply mishpat (justice), sadiqah (righteousness), and hesed (steadfast), continually demonstrated love for our neighbors to every public and private act of consequence. This is the way the politics of Jesus enjoins us to approach every question of politics and social policy (pg. 323)."
"If we look honestly and unflinchingly at the political culture in America today, it becomes clear that Jesus' judgment against the religious and political leaders of his day (in reality, they were the same) is also his judgment against the leaders of our day. America's most vocal and self-described politicians 'of faith' profess biblical beliefs while consistently acting in ways that contradict biblical justice. Worse, they portray themselves to the American masses as the definitive moral voice of America, the righteous, divinely ordained spokespersons for God to us all. Yet there is little question that if Jesus were walking among us now, he would stand against the political leaders of our day--and many of the religious leaders, too--as he stood against them in his own day (pg.329)."
Peace and blessings,
I chose to begin with these quotes, because I think they accurately characterize Dr. Obery Hendricks' position as articulated in his book, "The Politics of Jesus." The following book review will be two fold. First, I will briefly (but then again, do I ever discuss anything "briefly?"LOL) discuss the aspects of Henricks' position that I agree with, and those aspects that I disagree with. Afterwards, I will offer a potential explanation as to what factors may have influenced how he argued his position.
In a nutshell, Hendricks (2006) argues that both historically and currently, leaders (political and religious) have in some form or another misinterpreted Jesus' ministry and/or neglected critical components of His ministry. As a result, Jesus has been, and is currently regarded as a passive Messiah only concerned with our personal piety, righteousness, and salvation. According to Hendricks, this view of Jesus is inaccurate or at best incomplete because it fails to acknowledge Jesus' revolutionary nature and his mission to non-violently dismantle social injustice and economic and oppression. Through closely examining scriptures and the social, economic, and political contexts in which these scriputures were written, Hendricks passionately reminds us that in addition to His divinity and the fact that He came, died, and rose so that through Him we can be saved, He was also dedicated to changing the structures which sought to oppress and marginalize the very people He came to save (which is everyone). Whether it was feeding the five thousand, healing (restoring) the lives of those treated as social outcasts, or constantly opposing the Pharisees' and other leaders' illusions of power and dominance over "the least of these," Jesus was always about meeting people's needs (spiritual, mental, physical, and economic).
I agree with his general arguement, and that Jesus' revolutionary nature is often neglected within most political, social, and economic discourse and policies in the U.S. In addition to some political and religious arenas, I think that the media (movies, etc...) is also partly responsible for the neglect of Jesus' revolutionary nature and His emphasis on social, economic, and political change that lovingly and righteously serves all humanity. My only criticism of the book, however, is that I think that some of Hendricks' arguments that he derives from analyzing certain scriptures are somewhat "far-fetched." One example of this is his analysis of Matthew 20:1-16, which is the parable where Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven using the analogy of a householder going into his vineyard to hire workers. In the parable, the householder ends up paying the workers who were hired last and thus only worked one hour, the same wage as those who were hired first and worked for twelve hours. Hendricks argues that despite the general impression that this parable is about how God's love, grace, and mercy are available to everyone regardless of status or circumstance, the parable is actually about the oppressive condition of the workers, the low wage they were paid, and how they were exploited by the householder who hired them.
Another example has to do with his examination of Mark 5:1-10, which is the passage where a man is possed by a legion of demons and is healed by Jesus. Primarily drawing on the facts that the demons asked Jesus no to send them out of the country (as opposed to being sent out of the man), and that at the time "legion" referred to the Roman legions, which was the Roman army, Hendricks argues that the passage is not about an exorcism, but about Jesus addressing the Roman army "for its role in the upheaval that was devastating the social fabric of Israel (pg. 146)." I am in no way a biblical scholar or theologian, nor do I claim to be. I am simply saying that to me, it seems like these conclusions appear to be somewhat of a stretch. Although it is possible that his interpretations of these passages are correct, I think it is more likely that both interpretations are correct. In other words, the passages are more likely demonstrating Jesus' revolutionary nature and concern for "the least of these" though their illustrations of the equal access to God's kingdom (Matthew 20:1-16) and Jesus healing a possessed man (Mark 5: 1-10), than only demonstrating Jesus' revolutionary nature.
In the next couple of days, I will discuss my thoughts as to why I think Hendricks chose to put forth his argument in this way. Until then, stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...
Labels: contexts, economic, Israel, Jesus, leaders, Mark, Matthew, oppression, political, Politics of Jesus, power, religious, revolutionary, scriptures, spiritual
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Loving to Agitate
Peace and blessings,
Now i'm not really an insect person, but the Gadfly is a particularly interesting insect, given 1) its characteristic behavior and 2) who this behavior affects. A Gadfly is a type of fly that annoys livestock. Yeah that's right, all they do is basically agitate livestock. Even more interesting, however, is
While at a Christian leadership conference last November, one of the speakers said something that resonated deeply with me. He said that as Christians, EVERY (social) situation that we find ourselves in (e.g. a meeting, an event, a discussion, an organization, etc...) should be different (changed) simply because we are in it. This is not to say that it is something about us that people should pay attention to, because first and foremost it is not us but God through us, and we are called to be humble. What it is saying is that when people see and interact with us, they should see that God lives in and works through us. This idea of the Gadlfy was also expressed by
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house." (Matthew 5:13-15)
The conference speaker's statement, and its scriptural justification, deeply resonated with me on two levels. For one, the statement resonated with me because pragmatically, it makes sense. Since we have been saved by, and thus called to represent JC, then this representation should be evident through our daily actions. Again, this is not to say that we intentionally draw attention to ourselves as if we're saying "look at me, the super holier-than-thou Christian." This should never be our motivation for doing anything. On another level, the statement resonated with me because it causes me to constantly evaluate my life and ask the following questions: Am I letting my light shine in every situation that I find myself in? Am I decreasing so that God can increase and get the glory?
No what's the connection between what I've just mentioned and the ugly insect at the beginning of the post? The connection, at least in my opinion, will easily be seen once the Gadfly's actions are explained in further detail. As mentioned earlier, the Gadlfy is known for annoying livestock. Although the term "annoying" tends to have a negative connotation, there are times when being annoying can be a positive and loving thing. If the purspose of annoying someone or something is to preserve their life (e.g. it could very well be the case that if not agitated by the Gadfly, some livestock would die in their sleep through choking or through some other means), then such agitation is warranted. Similarly, I think that we as Christians have a similar calling, to agitate those persons, structures, and ideologies that seek oppress and destroy. Through LOVE, we should constantly be letting our light shine in a way that represents JC in a world that often tries to suppress Him. In terms of being a loving agitator, JC was the best to do it. During his ministry, he showed unconditional love for prostitutes, criminals, and sinners, while at the same time changing (spiritually, mentally, socially, and in some cases physically) every situation He was apart of. In Matthew 10:34-35 he says
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to part asunder a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a newly married wife from her mother-in-law--"
What I take from this is that although JC loved us so much as to die for us and incur the burden for our sins, he also came to "shake things up" so that people can follow Him. Given that Jesus was a revolutionary (e.g. he challenged the oppressive structures and advocated for the marginalized) in addition to being our Savior and Redeemer, we are called to "shake things up" in our groups, organizations, communities, and sometimes even our families, so that God's light can be seen through us.
What do you think? What do you think it means to be a Gadfly? To let your light shine in all situations? Weigh in and speekonit...
Labels: agitate, Christians, communities, gadfly, God, humble, ideologies, JC, love, Matthew, mental, ministry, organizations, social, society, spiritual
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Featured Artist: Mark J
Peace and blessings,
Next up among the long list of Gospel Spitters, is Mark J. who's repping the ATL. The following tracks are from his album, "Soulutions." The premise behind the album is that the solutions to any problem we face is teh renewal of our souls through a relationship with JC. The first track is actually the last track on the album and its entitled "The New Slave Trade." It's basically comparing physical slavery to spiritual slavery, focusing on contemporary pop culture. Let the track play after the song ends, because he leaves you with some food for thought.
The next track is called "Intercession" and in my opinion is the dopest track on the album. It features my boys Japhia Life and Ahmad from 4th Avenue Jones (both have been previously featured on this site). The song centers around the fact that as Christians, we are called to pray for others. Let's get it going...
This track, entitled "God of Israel," is a shot-out to God for the many ways He provides. Isn't He good?
Last but not least, this song is one of the more thought-provoking with regards to the internal (spiritual) battles that we face on a regular. Three stories, one theme...
Ok for real, this is the last song. "Espananza" deals with an issue that everyone who has been or are currently in a serious, meaning relationship can relate to. I need to call my baby right now and tell her how much I love her, lol... Oh yeah, and regards to teh woman's question at the end of the song. Why do you ladies ask those type of questions?
Any thoughts on the tracks? Enough to make you cop the album? Share your thoughts and speekonit...
Labels: albums, ATL, Christian hip hop, God of Israel, JC, Mark J., New Slave Trade, slavery, spiritual
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Movie Preview
Peace and blessings,
I pray all is well. Below is the trailer for the movie "The Nativity Story," which is basically the prequel to the life of Jesus. It chronicles the lives of Mary and Joseph, and the social, political, and spiritual climate of the times leading up to the birth of Jesus. It looks promising. I think it comes out December 1st. Check it out and let me know what you think. Speekonit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wrs3KJMZ34
I pray all is well. Below is the trailer for the movie "The Nativity Story," which is basically the prequel to the life of Jesus. It chronicles the lives of Mary and Joseph, and the social, political, and spiritual climate of the times leading up to the birth of Jesus. It looks promising. I think it comes out December 1st. Check it out and let me know what you think. Speekonit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wrs3KJMZ34
Labels: Jesus Christ, Joseph, Mary, movie, Nativity Story, political, social, spiritual
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Some Food for Thought...
Peace and blessings,
I came across this scripture this week, and I thought I'd post it because I found it to be very inspirational. In my opinion it speaks to the distinction we as Christians must always make between being in the world but not of the world. Namely, although we are humans and to an extent must tend to human needs and faculties (e.g. food, communication, relationship, expression, intellect, etc...), the battles we endure are not of human origin, but of spiritual origin. Similarly, the "weaponry" we use to claim victory over these batttles (because as believers we are already made victorious through Christ) comes from the spiritual power invested in us through Christ (e.g. the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit). I'm interested in hearing what people think this scriputure means to them, so have a blessed weekend, and speekonit...
" 3For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
4For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds,"
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified Bible)
I came across this scripture this week, and I thought I'd post it because I found it to be very inspirational. In my opinion it speaks to the distinction we as Christians must always make between being in the world but not of the world. Namely, although we are humans and to an extent must tend to human needs and faculties (e.g. food, communication, relationship, expression, intellect, etc...), the battles we endure are not of human origin, but of spiritual origin. Similarly, the "weaponry" we use to claim victory over these batttles (because as believers we are already made victorious through Christ) comes from the spiritual power invested in us through Christ (e.g. the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit). I'm interested in hearing what people think this scriputure means to them, so have a blessed weekend, and speekonit...
" 3For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
4For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds,"
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (Amplified Bible)
Labels: 2 Corinthians, battles, Christian, gifts, Jesus Christ, scripture, spiritual, world
Monday, October 16, 2006
The Unpredictability of Prayer
Peace and blessings,
I wanted to share something with you, something that God revealed to me a few about 6 months ago. But first, I have to add some contextual background...
About a week and a half ago, my girl told me about an interesting phenomena she observed while at Kaiser. Basically, she was telling me how she watched a woman who, after having an unpleasant interaction with a woman of a different race, kept telling her young son (who by girl thinks could not be any older than 7 years old) that the other woman was mean. In particular, the mother kept telling her child something to the effect that "see, now that's a mean, mean woman," and so forth. Moreover, the mother made sure that her voice was extremely soft and her demeaner was overly nice, as to provide her son with a sharp contrast between the nice, sweet mother and the mean woman of another race. After my girl told me exactly why this observation upset her so much (namely because she felt that the mother was using her influence as his mother to convince her son that the other woman was mean), we came up with the following "theory" regarding the development of prejudice and/or racist attitudes among children. In particular, the idea that the development of prejudice and/or racist beliefs within a child may result from the child's learned association between a person of another race and another trait. Further, this association (and thus its affects on the child's development of discriminatory attitudes) is stronger when the child learns this association from an influencial authority figure (e.g. his mother, etc...).
How does this incident relate to prayer you might ask? I provide this story as contextual background because as a child, I underwent a similar process in which I came to associate a behavior with an influential person in my life. That person was my great aunt. She's a matriarch of the family in that all of my cousins and I grew up over her house, as she would babysit all of us. She also one of the most annointed, sweet, and "filled with the holy ghost" type folks I have ever met. In fact, I truly believe that she is an angel, always providing the family with the type of love and spiritual guidance we always need but rarely know how to ask for it or truly appreciate it. Every day, she would pray over all of us( her children, myself and our cousins). In addition, she would spend hours in her room praying to God. As a look back, i realize that she provided me with a great deal of the spiritual foundation that I working to strenghten today.
Although as a child I didn't fully understand what the Christian walk would entail, or who God was for that matter, But started emulating my aunt's prayer behavior for two reasons. One was that you simply couldn't grow up in her house hold and not talk to God, lol. The other, and more important reason, was that even though I didn't quite know what she was doing or why, I knew HER. I knew that she always had my best interests at heart, and whoever she was praying to must be pretty important, because she truly was (and still is, of course) a strong, wise, and beautiful person. So, whenever I would be experiencing hardships, i would get on my knees and attempt to talk to God. Out of the many things I would pray for ( and out of a need to preserve my character I'm not going to name all of them, lol), the thing that I prayed for the most was for my parents to stop arguing. When I was younger, they used to argue all the time, and I was scared that they were going to get a divorce. Despite many nights of praying, my parents continued to argue (and in some instances the arguments got worse). Once my sister came into the picture and was old enough to realize what was going on, I became less concerned with how the arguing affected me, and more concerned with how I could prevent it from affecting her.
Now plenty years have passed and I've gotten older. Further, I have come to know for myself, the same God that my aunt so fervently prayed to day in and day out. Although I could now say that I had a personal relationship with God, at times I would still feel that because my parents didn't stop arguing, that God did not answer my prayer. However recently, out of nowwhere, it was if God spoke to me and was like "look at the bigger picture." I thought about my fellings regarding the answering of prayer, and how sometimes when I would tell others to trust God I would feel like a hypocrite because deep down I felt like that one my sincerest prayers as a child did not get answered. However, as I widened my perspective of who God is and the extent of our relationship, it became clear that many times when i pray, my "prayer-scope" is limited due to the limitations of my human nature and rationality. Because my parents didn't go from arguing to "the Huxtables," I thought that God "dropped the ball" with regards to that prayer. Despite my doubting of God, he nevertheless reminded me that He did in fact answer my prayer, but He answered it HIS way, which was in much broader scope than I had initially perceived. Even though in my prayer I wanted my parents to stop arguing, what I really wanted (e.g. my heart desired) was for my parents to stay together. By the grace of God they just recently celebrated their 23rd anniversary and I don't have to spit out divorce statistics to illustrate how much of a blessing that is.
So in sum, it took alot of wrestling and growth to realize that God answers all your prayers (assuming they are in accordance with His will), but He does so His way. Further, His way is the way that has our best interests in mind. So if I've learned anything from this realization, is that not only does God answers prayers, but that if we feel like we have been constantly praying to God for something to no avail, then it probably means that our "prayer scope" is too small, and that when God answers it, He's going to do so in a way that 1) gives Him the glory and 2) goes over and above what we thought we wanted or needed. Until next time, speekonit...
I wanted to share something with you, something that God revealed to me a few about 6 months ago. But first, I have to add some contextual background...
About a week and a half ago, my girl told me about an interesting phenomena she observed while at Kaiser. Basically, she was telling me how she watched a woman who, after having an unpleasant interaction with a woman of a different race, kept telling her young son (who by girl thinks could not be any older than 7 years old) that the other woman was mean. In particular, the mother kept telling her child something to the effect that "see, now that's a mean, mean woman," and so forth. Moreover, the mother made sure that her voice was extremely soft and her demeaner was overly nice, as to provide her son with a sharp contrast between the nice, sweet mother and the mean woman of another race. After my girl told me exactly why this observation upset her so much (namely because she felt that the mother was using her influence as his mother to convince her son that the other woman was mean), we came up with the following "theory" regarding the development of prejudice and/or racist attitudes among children. In particular, the idea that the development of prejudice and/or racist beliefs within a child may result from the child's learned association between a person of another race and another trait. Further, this association (and thus its affects on the child's development of discriminatory attitudes) is stronger when the child learns this association from an influencial authority figure (e.g. his mother, etc...).
How does this incident relate to prayer you might ask? I provide this story as contextual background because as a child, I underwent a similar process in which I came to associate a behavior with an influential person in my life. That person was my great aunt. She's a matriarch of the family in that all of my cousins and I grew up over her house, as she would babysit all of us. She also one of the most annointed, sweet, and "filled with the holy ghost" type folks I have ever met. In fact, I truly believe that she is an angel, always providing the family with the type of love and spiritual guidance we always need but rarely know how to ask for it or truly appreciate it. Every day, she would pray over all of us( her children, myself and our cousins). In addition, she would spend hours in her room praying to God. As a look back, i realize that she provided me with a great deal of the spiritual foundation that I working to strenghten today.
Although as a child I didn't fully understand what the Christian walk would entail, or who God was for that matter, But started emulating my aunt's prayer behavior for two reasons. One was that you simply couldn't grow up in her house hold and not talk to God, lol. The other, and more important reason, was that even though I didn't quite know what she was doing or why, I knew HER. I knew that she always had my best interests at heart, and whoever she was praying to must be pretty important, because she truly was (and still is, of course) a strong, wise, and beautiful person. So, whenever I would be experiencing hardships, i would get on my knees and attempt to talk to God. Out of the many things I would pray for ( and out of a need to preserve my character I'm not going to name all of them, lol), the thing that I prayed for the most was for my parents to stop arguing. When I was younger, they used to argue all the time, and I was scared that they were going to get a divorce. Despite many nights of praying, my parents continued to argue (and in some instances the arguments got worse). Once my sister came into the picture and was old enough to realize what was going on, I became less concerned with how the arguing affected me, and more concerned with how I could prevent it from affecting her.
Now plenty years have passed and I've gotten older. Further, I have come to know for myself, the same God that my aunt so fervently prayed to day in and day out. Although I could now say that I had a personal relationship with God, at times I would still feel that because my parents didn't stop arguing, that God did not answer my prayer. However recently, out of nowwhere, it was if God spoke to me and was like "look at the bigger picture." I thought about my fellings regarding the answering of prayer, and how sometimes when I would tell others to trust God I would feel like a hypocrite because deep down I felt like that one my sincerest prayers as a child did not get answered. However, as I widened my perspective of who God is and the extent of our relationship, it became clear that many times when i pray, my "prayer-scope" is limited due to the limitations of my human nature and rationality. Because my parents didn't go from arguing to "the Huxtables," I thought that God "dropped the ball" with regards to that prayer. Despite my doubting of God, he nevertheless reminded me that He did in fact answer my prayer, but He answered it HIS way, which was in much broader scope than I had initially perceived. Even though in my prayer I wanted my parents to stop arguing, what I really wanted (e.g. my heart desired) was for my parents to stay together. By the grace of God they just recently celebrated their 23rd anniversary and I don't have to spit out divorce statistics to illustrate how much of a blessing that is.
So in sum, it took alot of wrestling and growth to realize that God answers all your prayers (assuming they are in accordance with His will), but He does so His way. Further, His way is the way that has our best interests in mind. So if I've learned anything from this realization, is that not only does God answers prayers, but that if we feel like we have been constantly praying to God for something to no avail, then it probably means that our "prayer scope" is too small, and that when God answers it, He's going to do so in a way that 1) gives Him the glory and 2) goes over and above what we thought we wanted or needed. Until next time, speekonit...
Labels: children, family, God, learn, parents, prayer, prejudice, racism, spiritual
Monday, September 25, 2006
The Diversity of the Spirit
Peace and blessings,
This piece is something I felt God has been putting on my heart for the last couple of weeks. It seems like within American ideology there is this over-arching sense of and need to polarize beliefs, ideas, and groups. For instance, a large part of our livelihood tends to consist of a composite the choices we make from polarized alternatives. Either you're a Democrat or Rebublican, beautiful or ugly, fat or skinny, and so forth. I know these examples are somewhat simplistic, but the point is made nonetheless. Many aspects of our lives are dictated by an "either/or" framework.
Now I am not making a case for absolute relativism, because I believe that the enactment of absolute relativism, especially moral relativism, would pose a great threat to the human existence. Moreover, I believe that when it comes to how to live and how we should treat one another, there is an objective truth that governs these and all behaviors, and it resides in the relationship with God through Jesus Christ. With that said, what I am making a case for is for the acknowledgement of the spiritual diversity that derives from a relationship with God.
As a child, I thought of God as someone who was a strict disciplinarian who saw and knew everything. I thought that if I ever did anything that was contrary to His will, He was going to severly punish me, if not immediately, then eventually. Therefore, I attempted to stay away from trouble and be a "good boy," but for the wrong reasons. Although God is a sovereign and jealous God, our primary reason for living holy lives in accordance with His will should not be because we are afraid of what God will do to us. Instead, I believe that our primary reason for living for God is simply because of WHO HE IS! Once we change our conception of God from someone who is waiting for us to mess up so He can "lay the smack down" to someone who created, redeemed, and called us into a loving relationship with Him, we will be able to walk with Him, and thus live for better lives for Him.
Lastly, it is this "living for Him" part that inspired me to write this piece. Once we are in a relationship with God through Christ, we learn about the Christian docrtine and the principles of the faith. I know for me, there were times where as I was getting more into the Bible and into what it means to be a Christian, I would not only feel marginalized within a larger social context (e.g. there are just certain places and things a Christian is not suppose to go and do), but I would also feel limited in terms of the way I thought about God. I think it is often easy to confine our conception of God to the books of the Bible. Even though He is the same God, He also created each and everyone differently, and thus speaks to us differently. As I began to realize that, I stopped assessing my conception of and relationship with God based on others' conceptions of and relationships with Him, and found my own. That is the beauty of God working in us through the Holy Spirit, is that God not only meets us where we are at, but He also uses us according to our interests, personalities, and ways of thinking. For me, the way I view the world and the phenomena within it is heavily based on me viewing things in terms of connections, patterns and analogies. In order for me to truly understand something, I must develop a comparable analogy that explains it, or see how it connects to something else. It is no surprise that becaause God made me this way, that these are the ways in which I feel that I see God at work in the world. Things like how the little, everyday things we do (either by deliberate choice or out of reacting to the circumstance), can make the difference in receiving or missing our blessing, as well as in our opportunities to be a blessing to someone else.
Through my experiences and the constant changing of my conception of God, it is clear that while there are many people who do not have a relationship with God because for whatever reason they do not believe, there are also many of us who have a narrow conception of God and of the avenues through which He plans to use us to do His will. It is my prayer that we as Christians place substantial emphasis of the diversity of the Holy Spirit, namely the fact that our conception of God should never be limited, but to expand so that once we realize that God uses all of us according to our unique personalities, ways of thinking, interests, and talents (assuming of course these do not conflict with His will), we can put ourselves in a better position to serve Him. Stay blessed and as always, speekonit...
This piece is something I felt God has been putting on my heart for the last couple of weeks. It seems like within American ideology there is this over-arching sense of and need to polarize beliefs, ideas, and groups. For instance, a large part of our livelihood tends to consist of a composite the choices we make from polarized alternatives. Either you're a Democrat or Rebublican, beautiful or ugly, fat or skinny, and so forth. I know these examples are somewhat simplistic, but the point is made nonetheless. Many aspects of our lives are dictated by an "either/or" framework.
Now I am not making a case for absolute relativism, because I believe that the enactment of absolute relativism, especially moral relativism, would pose a great threat to the human existence. Moreover, I believe that when it comes to how to live and how we should treat one another, there is an objective truth that governs these and all behaviors, and it resides in the relationship with God through Jesus Christ. With that said, what I am making a case for is for the acknowledgement of the spiritual diversity that derives from a relationship with God.
As a child, I thought of God as someone who was a strict disciplinarian who saw and knew everything. I thought that if I ever did anything that was contrary to His will, He was going to severly punish me, if not immediately, then eventually. Therefore, I attempted to stay away from trouble and be a "good boy," but for the wrong reasons. Although God is a sovereign and jealous God, our primary reason for living holy lives in accordance with His will should not be because we are afraid of what God will do to us. Instead, I believe that our primary reason for living for God is simply because of WHO HE IS! Once we change our conception of God from someone who is waiting for us to mess up so He can "lay the smack down" to someone who created, redeemed, and called us into a loving relationship with Him, we will be able to walk with Him, and thus live for better lives for Him.
Lastly, it is this "living for Him" part that inspired me to write this piece. Once we are in a relationship with God through Christ, we learn about the Christian docrtine and the principles of the faith. I know for me, there were times where as I was getting more into the Bible and into what it means to be a Christian, I would not only feel marginalized within a larger social context (e.g. there are just certain places and things a Christian is not suppose to go and do), but I would also feel limited in terms of the way I thought about God. I think it is often easy to confine our conception of God to the books of the Bible. Even though He is the same God, He also created each and everyone differently, and thus speaks to us differently. As I began to realize that, I stopped assessing my conception of and relationship with God based on others' conceptions of and relationships with Him, and found my own. That is the beauty of God working in us through the Holy Spirit, is that God not only meets us where we are at, but He also uses us according to our interests, personalities, and ways of thinking. For me, the way I view the world and the phenomena within it is heavily based on me viewing things in terms of connections, patterns and analogies. In order for me to truly understand something, I must develop a comparable analogy that explains it, or see how it connects to something else. It is no surprise that becaause God made me this way, that these are the ways in which I feel that I see God at work in the world. Things like how the little, everyday things we do (either by deliberate choice or out of reacting to the circumstance), can make the difference in receiving or missing our blessing, as well as in our opportunities to be a blessing to someone else.
Through my experiences and the constant changing of my conception of God, it is clear that while there are many people who do not have a relationship with God because for whatever reason they do not believe, there are also many of us who have a narrow conception of God and of the avenues through which He plans to use us to do His will. It is my prayer that we as Christians place substantial emphasis of the diversity of the Holy Spirit, namely the fact that our conception of God should never be limited, but to expand so that once we realize that God uses all of us according to our unique personalities, ways of thinking, interests, and talents (assuming of course these do not conflict with His will), we can put ourselves in a better position to serve Him. Stay blessed and as always, speekonit...
Labels: conception, diversity, God, Jesus Christ, personalities, prayer, spiritual, thinking, will
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