Sunday, January 30, 2011

I’ve Fallen, And I Can’t Get Up

When I was seven years old, I was playing in front of my house when a girl, riding a bicycle, ran over me and knocked me down. I kept trying to get up, but I couldn’t. I was in a lot of pain. My leg was broken in two places. But I remembered that my father was in the house, and he had the window open so he could hear me if I called him. So I started yelling, “Daddy, Daddy.” Before I knew it, my father was standing there. I said, “Daddy, I can’t get up. I can’t get up.” He had reached down and picked me up.

There are so many people who have been crippled by sin and they are lying there, trying to get up by themselves. They’ll say, “As soon as I get myself together, I’ll go to church.” Maybe somebody who is reading this blog is going through something. You know that you need the Lord, but you want to get yourself together first.

You might feel like your whole world is coming apart. There is trouble in your home, trouble at your school, trouble in your family and you just don’t know what to do. You have to remember that your Father is in the house and He has left the window opened for you. All you have to do is call Him. You can’t be too ashamed to call him. You can’t be too proud to call Him. It’s not too late. If you call Him, He will hear you. He will reach down and pick you up.

You can’t get yourself together. That’s like a sick person saying, “As soon as I get myself well, I’ll go to the hospital.” As long as you are trying to do it yourself, you will be like I was, trying to get up with a broken leg.
To fall and not cry out for help is worse than the fall itself. Maybe you are ashamed to let anyone know that you have fallen because you don’t want people to think less of you. 1st John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If Satan has knocked you down, just remember, your Father is in heaven. And he has the window open. He is waiting for you to call him. Just say, “Father, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Can Anything Good Come Out Of Prison?

The prison industry is the fastest growing business in America. This nation prides itself for being known as “The land of the free.” But for more than 2 million men and women, those words are just another line from a very old song. In many of our penal institutions, there is no such thing as rehabilitation. They have simply become cheap labor camps.

But in many cases, it is not the fault of those who are in charge of the prisons. They are just doing their jobs, so we can’t really blame them. Neither can we blame the parole boards for keeping these men and women locked away longer than necessary. We can’t blame the prosecutors who will do whatever it takes to win a conviction, even if he knows that the defendant is not guilty. We cannot blame the judges for handing out all of those ridicules sentences. We can’t even blame police officers that will lie and plant evidence on someone so he can make an arrest.

Then who can we blame? Whose fault is it that this nation has become so cold-hearted, blood thirsty and unforgiving? This might come as a shock to you, but I blame the church. I blame the church because there are too many of us that do not care what happens in this country as long as it doesn’t affect us. We don’t care how unfair this justice system is, as long as our families are not caught up in it.
It doesn’t bother us that so many of our sons and daughters have become victims of the crack epidemic, just as long as our children are not strung out. Some of us can even sit in our nice, warm cars while on our way to church, and see a homeless person that is obviously cold and hungry, and just turn our heads as it they didn’t exist. We can look at an entire generation of young people being drug off to prison and not even care.

More than 10% of our young black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are in prison right now, and nobody cares. The church has lost its compassion for those who are lost, and has bought into societies philosophy of, “Lock em up and throw away the key.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be any jails or prisons; That's where some people need to be. But prison should not the solution to every problem that we don’t have an answer to. We can’t keep throwing all of these men and women, and now even little children, into these deep, dark, dungeons of despair with no hope of ever seeing the light of day again. I don’t care what anybody says. It’s just wrong.

Thousands of men and women are being released from prison every year with no money, no home to go to, and no one to turn to for help. Many of them are trying their best to do what’s right, but no one will give then a chance. Not even some of our churches. They are afraid of them. They don’t trust them. They don’t want them in their churches. They are asking themselves, “Can anything good come out of prison.”

All of us are not ex-offenders, but we are all ex-somethings. Some of us are ex-alcoholics. Some are ex-adulterers. Some are ex-gamblers. Before we look down our sanctified noses at someone else, we must remember the kind of lives that we lived before God delivered us. If God can change me, He can change anyone. I know that He can, because He changed me when I was in prison.


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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Change The Station

When I was about eleven or twelve years old a group named, “The Coasters” recorded a song titled, “Charlie Brown.” There was a different version of the song that was going around at school. In that version, some of the words were changed and there were a lot of curse words being used.

One night when our parents weren’t home, my brother and I were singing the school version of Charlie Brown, curse words and all. We were singing so loud and having so much fun, we didn’t hear our mother when she came in. But she heard us. Before we could do anything, she was standing there with an ironing cord in her hand.

She looked at me and said, “Don’t stop now. Keep singing.” My brother and I started crying and saying we we’re sorry. But my mother said, “I don’t want to hear that. I want to hear Charlie Brown. Sing Charlie Brown.” While she was whipping us, she made us keep singing Charlie Brown.

After that night, I never wanted to hear Charlie Brown again. As a matter of fact, every time that song came on the radio I changed the station. That is what we must learn to do. Change the station. If your friends are getting you into trouble and making you sin against God, change the station. Stay away from those friends. If the places that you go cause temptation, change the station. Don’t go to those places. There might be something, or someone that you are holding onto that is causing you to stumble. You know what you’ve got to do. Change the station.

Comedian, Danny Thomas told the story about a man that went to his doctor because of a pain that he had in his shoulder. He raised his arm above his head and said, “Doc. It hurts when I do that.” The doctor looked at him and said, “Then don’t do that.”

Change the station!!!

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Change The Station

When I was about eleven or twelve years old a group named, “The Coasters” recorded a song titled, “Charlie Brown.” There was a different version of the song that was going around at school. In that version, some of the words were changed and there were a lot of curse words being used.

One night when our parents weren’t home, my brother and I were singing the school version of Charlie Brown, curse words and all. We were singing so loud and having so much fun, we didn’t hear our mother when she came in. But she heard us. Before we could do anything, she was standing there with an ironing cord in her hand.

She looked at me and said, “Don’t stop now. Keep singing.” My brother and I started crying and saying we we’re sorry. But my mother said, “I don’t want to hear that. I want to hear Charlie Brown. Sing Charlie Brown.” While she was whipping us, she made us keep singing Charlie Brown.

After that night, I never wanted to hear Charlie Brown again. As a matter of fact, every time that song came on the radio I changed the station. That is what we must learn to do. Change the station. If your friends are getting you into trouble and making you sin against God, change the station. Stay away from those friends. If the places that you go cause temptation, change the station. Don’t go to those places. There might be something, or someone that you are holding onto that is causing you to stumble. You know what you’ve got to do. Change the station.

Comedian, Danny Thomas told the story about a man that went to his doctor because of a pain that he had in his shoulder. He raised his arm above his head and said, “Doc. It hurts when I do that.” The doctor looked at him and said, “Then don’t do that.”

Change the station!!!

"He's Only A Prayer Away: 9 Examples Of Praying Until Your Breakthrough" Book in Stores Now!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Hes-Only-Prayer-Away-Breakthrough/dp/0982033036/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279928966&sr=1-7

Sunday, January 9, 2011

It Ain't That Kind of Party

I have discovered that people who know little or nothing about the Bible also know little or nothing about heaven and hell. They have seen movies and cartoons that have been made on the subject; therefore, many of them believe that they know what lies ahead for them when there lives are over. Many of them believe that hell is going to be just one big party.

I can still remember some of the misconceptions that I once had concerning this matter when I was still living a life of sin. I had always said that I didn’t want to go to heaven when I died. I honestly thought that heaven was going to be the dullest place imaginable.

I mean, what was there to do for a player like me? There are no nightclubs up there. There are no wild parties or loose women running around. There are not even any drugs up there, so I couldn’t get high, kick back on one of the clouds and just chill out. So what was there to do besides walk around all day and sing a bunch of church songs that I didn’t even know? And besides, I figured that once the angels heard me sing, they weren’t going to let me join the choir anyway.

And why would I even want to go to heaven? I wasn’t going to know anybody there, at least not anyone that I wanted to hang out with. I figured that heaven was going to be full of squares. You know, people that had to work for a living, went to church on Sundays, and went to bed at night. You know, those kinds of people.

No, heaven was not for me. There was not going to be any partying in heaven. The real party was going to be in hell where all of my friends were going to be. I could just see it. All of us down there together: Fuzzy, Tadpole, C.J., Red and all of the other players and hustlers. We would all be there, together again, smoking the best weed, sipping on some Johnny Walker Red and partying with some of the finest women in hell. What a good time that would be. It might be a little warm and uncomfortable down there, but I’d get used to it. Besides, you should see some of the hellholes that I have been in while here on earth.

I know that some of the things that I have said might be funny or unimaginable to some of you. But that was how I really felt. You would be surprised just how many people are lost and know that they are on their way to hell, but they think that it is no big deal. It is nothing that they can’t handle.

Many of them feel that they have no choice in the matter. It is too late for them, so they may as well make the best of it. Some of them think that they might even enjoy it. It can’t be any worse than life has been for them here. But we have got to reach out to them and let them know that hell is not what they think it is. We have got to let them know that it ain’t that kind of party.

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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Junkyard Jewel

Maya Azucena wrote and recorded a song that is so beautiful and powerful that the first time I heard it I almost cried. Maybe it touched me so deeply because it described me and so many other people that I know. The name of the song is, “Junkyard Jewel.” Some of the lyrics are:

He was a Junkyard Jewel
Hidden in trash
Forgotten too long
Until found at last
Junkyard Jewel
With so much inside
Hidden from the rest
As a matter of pride

The world is full of junkyard jewels. They have lost their way and are living in a world of hopelessness. Some of them are in prison. Some of them are on drugs. Some of them are prostitutes. Some of them are in gangs. They are not bad people. Many of them are intelligent and talented. But they are victims of their environment.
Dr. Martin Luther King said, “There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people who feel that they have no stake in it. People, who have a stake in their society, protect it. But when they don’t have a stake in it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

Many of our young men and young women feel that they have no stake in this society. They have become disenfranchised. They have no jobs and they see no future. Many of our young people are being exposed to first-class jails and second-class schools. They are Junkyard Jewels.

Many people are going to the church for help. The sick, the hungry, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the gang members, men and women who have just gotten out of prison. They are going to the church looking for help.

But what is the church’s response? Many times we are saying, “Send them away. We don’t want those people with all kinds of diseases coming in here infecting the rest of us. Send them away. We don’t want those crack heads and drunks coming in here with our children. Send them away. We don’t want those homeless people coming in here smelling up our church. Send them away. We don’t want those jailbirds and gang members coming in here starting trouble, pastor. Send them away.”

The church is looking at a world full of lost and hurting people who are coming to us for help. But we are saying, “Send them away. Let them find help someplace else.” But I can hear Jesus saying, loud and clear, “They don’t need to go away. These are my Junkyard Jewels. You help them.”

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