The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Psalm 34: 15-20

Heaven!!!!!!! Talking bout heaven right here on earth. Stairway to heaven!!! Come on get ya shower sing on. You didn’t know I was in select chorus did you! Yessir, I was supposed to get the solo in 7th grade but they felt bad for another student. Alright I may be stretching the truth but I think I was supposed to get a solo. But here I am singing this oldie but goodie sending out this late message. Today’s C is the counselor. Often when we think of counselors we imagine that someone has a problem, that things are bad. However it may just be that a second opinion can make a world of difference.

None of us are meant to live this life alone and I am thankful for those in my life who I would call a counselor. Whether they are listening while I vent during tough times or just opening my eyes to something even greater during good times these people are essential because they help us grow. We get counsel from the Lord through prayer. His counsel may not come through your SPEAKERBOXX however it may come in the form of other people who were sent to guide you a certain way. It may come through a gut feeling or what have you. The point is the Lord is our redeemer, our ever present counselor. In fact I have found myself at times shying away from counsel because I was scared of what it would bring. All that does is cause more confusion within my spirit. I am thankful for the counselors in my life, as I’m sure you are too. Peace and Grace be unto you!

To be without a friend is to be poor indeed.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6: 10-11

Ok so I’m not having a bad day, just one of those days where things are not working out like I would like them to. The stars are not aligned so to speak. I felt myself becoming overwhelmed in the nonsense and I decided to be late to my next meeting and write this message. It’s not a real meeting more like us going over stuff we already know, so they can miss me for 10 minutes so I can get my head right. Put on the full armor of God, I dig it, because the Lord will protect us. Right now as I type these words and today’s dramas are stressing me two things come to mind. 1. It could be way worst, trust me I know. 2. I think about the experience i had last night with my students and I am excited about what I will be able to teach them.

Stress is the devil’s best friend. It makes your blood pressure rise, you become irritated. You start worrying. While in church the Pastor said if you’re going to pray, don’t worry. If you’re going to worry, don’t pray. Great words on Sunday morning but everyday it is a struggle to remember the good that you have been taught to make it practical. So today even though I would like to blow my lid a little bit and I might just end up doing that. I am thankful that I can take a few seconds out of my day and remember that I have been taught a better way. That I do have options and that if I allow the Lord to strengthen me , then there’s no fuzzy wuzzy obstacle that I can’t overcome. FUZZY WUZZY, you liked that didn’t you, well it made me smile. Peace and Grace be unto you!

No matter how the long the winter, the spring is sure to follow.

Discerning False Prophets

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 1 John 4: 1-4

RASTA SKANK SLUT BITCH AND HER SLUTTY MINIONS PT.1 That was original title of the two youtube videos I have provided below. Ironically this morning I was on the train heading to work and I stumbled upon the above scripture. I did not know that the Lord was preparing me for the nonsense I would later see on the internet.

The internet is filled with disrespectful nonsense towards women but here these brothers are in the middle of New York City publicly embarrassing and disrespecting a woman. Calling her all types of bitches and hoes, skanks and sluts and then attempting to validate these disgusting actions with words from the Bible. I am not God, I am not the Judge but the Lord warned us that false prophets would come and attempt to pollute our minds with such foolery. I sit here and watch these men lie with their words, speaking of the mark of the beast, preaching God’s words but acting like little Satan’s filled with venom. Mobbing and disrespecting the very being that is able to reproduce man and mothers our understanding.

Jesus spoke of love, the Bible speaks of love. It says that he who does not love does not know God so how can you attempt to lead a flock. To bring God’s people out of the damnation that they are in while utilizing the devil’s tactics against one of God’s children. I am by no means free of sin however I am baffled how these men who I watched gang up on these women in a cult like fashion have the nerve to preach God’s words yet not adhere to his principles of love and peace. The Bible asks that we learn the words of God and then continue to spread that to other people.

These false Prophets take scriptures out of context, twist the words and meanings of the Bible and then we wonder why this world is so spiritually confused. We wonder why people sit in their homes and say religion is a sham, spirituality is for the psychologically weak and dependent man rather than the wise, God fearing, loving person. It is because people like this, groups like this who use the word to spread fear mongering, to disrespect and divide people. Beware of these false prophets, I challenge these brothers if you truly love God to allow your actions, your words and your teachings to be more in tune with God’s message of love and respect. Do not sit in the street disrespecting women, manipulating Bible verses to further mis-educate the people of the world. Earlier I said I am not God, so I can not judge nor condemn you but I pray for you my brothers because this blasphemy is looked upon harshly. Peace and Grace be unto you!

It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed. But you, O LORD, are exalted forever. For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn [a] like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. Psalm 92: 1-10

2:20 pm, this has to be a record set for the latest Pardon me. Well if I’m going to check in this late I must have some good news to share with you! You know I always have a story to tell, and the scripture represents how I feel about the Lord. How I have to praise his name because he always blesses ya boy. So this story starts somewhere during the semester, I thought i would be overseas with my homegirl Trudi enjoying Europe but God had other plans and that fell through. So needless to say I was not applying for jobs, more or less just doing my school work (sometimes less than more). But one of my other partners in crime hipped me to this fabulous program that she had attended and she thought that i would love it. It was a program teaching our youth the law and preparing them for a mock trial in front of a real Judge during the summer at St. Johns University.

Now you know Ced loves the kids, and I love anything that will allow me to talk and help teach someone something. So I sent my resume, this was the only resume I sent out this whole semester and I let the company know that I was willing to work for free. I just wanted to be apart of this movement that I saw them mobilizing. Doors were closed in my face because all the positions were filled and they could not even take me on as a volunteer. I emailed the executive director and asked him if i could shadow him, I let the man know that I would be an asset to his organization, ALL OF THIS TO NO AVAIL. Then last week I got a phone call, I thought it was the student loan people so I almost did not pick the phone up.

However, I’m glad I did, it was the same company offering me a phone interview right there on the spot. Before this I just planned to blog all summer, who knows where the wind would blow me but I was just going to fly. Today I had my second interview, where I had to do a practice lesson with adults acting as 8th graders. After the practice lesson and interview was over, the Executive Director stuck around, like he wanted to talk to me. That same home girl who first told me of him had told him of me. She let him know that I was a Christian and that I believed in the word of God. We rapped for maybe another 20 minutes just about the Lord and his Greatness and in the middle of that he said “Well, I can just tell you, you already got the job”.

God is good, and the man let me know God worked in mysterious ways on this one. Someone else had the paid position but something caused them to split ways with the gentleman. He said before they went back to the others they had interviewed he remembered that there was this persistent kid who kept emailing him. That pesky kid was me, and my buddy Maat let him know how we all know that God moves through us so he gave me a chance. So here I am, just thankful and thankful that I could share such a moment with you. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Thank you Lord for your blessings, thank the Almighty for the strength?

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3: 5-10

I was looking through the bible for some words of joy, some words of praise because I feel blessed in a lot of ways. I read a topic called right living and figured I would check it out. As I started reading the above passage I was saying to myself “word, this is true, but I’m not about to write about this with my imperfect self”. Then I thought there must have been a reason that I was drawn to this specific passage and God knows that I am far from perfect so I can at least touch on it because it did speak to me.

What I immediately gained from reading these words and having gone to church and hearing the preacher’s talk about the days when they were in the streets is that it is all a process. No one became holy and sanctified over night. But see that word process becomes a crutch for me, I can’t speak for others. As long as something is a process, that is not delineated with a specific time frame we can continue to relapse and do what we feel because their is no clock that we are working on. It’s easy to say that our own conscience should be the clock but it’s not that simple. Over the years I have created many destructive habits, they haven’t destroyed me yet so I continue on that path. Having a renewed love for God but still battling with other temptations. I don’t really have a purpose for today’s message, more of my own confession. In the back of my mind I am asking myself, if I truly want to walk on the right path and receive God’s blessings why am I stalling in the process? Peace and Grace be unto you.

When the cock is drunk, he forgets about the hawk.

So the lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand sheassess. Job 42:12

I use today’s verse to illustrate the blessings that the bible teaches us our Creator will bestow upon you if you are faithful to his word. The scripture comes from the story of Job; where Job’s life had been turned upside down while the devil continuously meddled in his life. Despite all of the negativity, hardship, pain and suffering Job endured, he remained faithful to God. For that, he was blessed more in the latter part of his life than he was in the first part of his life. Might I add that the first part of his life was not too shabby either; so he was ballin in the end!

I use this story because today I was given some sad news. A fraternity brother of mine emailed me and asked me to pray for his family, his church family and his pastor for this morning their church had burned down. A year ago, I would have been like “man that’s messed up” and then continued on in my day probably never giving it much thought again. However today I was upset to hear such information. People have lost their spiritual place of worship, and everything that church was doing for the community around it is put on hold for just a second during these trials and tribulations. That’s upsetting when you understand the type of impact a church can have on a community. So I got down to pray and while praying I realized it was just a test. This church and congregation will be even more blessed in the second part of their existence than they were in the first, if they remain faithful to the Lord and his ways. I see a new and improved building in their future, more ministries that reach out to the community around them, and an undeniable faith placed in the people of the congregation when they get through this together. So I pray for this church and congregation but I know that they know they will be blessed ten fold just because of their faith. Might be some hell in the hallway but they will find that other door of opportunity that the Lord has blessed them with and they will overcome these obstacles. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Where there’s a will there’s a way

My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2: 1-5

The book of Proverbs is rich with guidance and tutelage on how to be filled with wisdom and enjoy life. So for me today’s scripture is more of a series of steps that will guide us to wisdom and happiness.

Pardon me, while writing this message I just received terrible news and I would be untrue to myself and my walk with our Creator if I did not address how I am feeling. I still feel that the word gives us an understanding for life, the word gives us wisdom and knowledge so that we may grow and live harmoniously in this world. But the word also tells us “thou shall not kill”, and we live in a time where the life expectancy of young black men is getting lower and lower everyday. A pastor once said that the church has left black men in the cold; that as a group of people we do not reach out to our brothers on the corner. He may have been right!

Sean Bell was murdered in cold blood by people who were supposed to protect and serve him. As people of God we have to stand up against these injustices; it says right there in the bible “Thou shall not kill”. It does not say you can kill if you are a cop, you can kill if you are the Supreme Court and the Constitution holds you to be the interpreter of the land. I am thankful for the Lord and his words though, because right now as I am filled with frustration and quite frankly rage I looked back up to the original scripture. We will get through such hardships together because we accept the Lord’s word, and we turn our ears toward wisdom and understanding. We fear our Lord, and find knowledge in his teachings and though it looks like the other team is winning. We will prevail, I believe that in my heart; it’s raining today but the sun will shine again. We must try to change the tides, change the tides to the wisdom of God because these evil spirits can claim any one of us at any given time. I love you because you love yourself, you love God and thus you love me. Peace and Grace be unto you.

By any means necessary

When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Isaiah 8:19

Don’t Stop Believing!!!!!! Just wanted to share with you my concert in the shower this morning; American Idol ain’t got nothin on C. Shine. Don’t stop believing in the power of the Lord, that is the real message that needs to be conveyed. We are living in a time when faith is needed more than ever. The staircase has has less light and some steps are missing along the way. This causes us to be even more frightened of the world and times we are living in. We may turn to other mediums to find salvation, to seek out our own happiness. The word specifically asks us ; “should not a people inquire of their God”? Of course we should but in times of weakness the devil tempts us, tempts us to hold true to anything that looks like an answer.

Well don’t stop believing! Believe that you are on the right path by following God and his wisdom. “Should not a people inquire of their God”? Well who else are we to consult. It takes a deep inner faith to believe and understand that God has something great prepared for us. Some of us will miss the boat and lose out on the wonderful blessings that were rightfully ours because we stopped believing, we were caught up in the ways of the world and only the tangible things we could see. I’m in major figurative mode today because I am seeing the stairwell and the missing steps and I know that if I let God guide me I will skip over those downfalls. This does not mean that I will not stumble but I will have missed the bigger fall, the uglier stumble which could leave me in a much worst state. So stumble, fall down and get back up again because in order to achieve we must inquire of our God and not the worldly nonsense that may possibly cause us to fall down into something we may not get up from. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Unless you call out, who will open the door?

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6: 10-12

A close friend of mine hit me up yesterday and said “can the next pardon me be about how much the devil is a hater”? To which my response was “well you know he’s a hater, he hates on me all the time; you just gotta ignore that dude”! But we can’t just ignore the devil; we cant feed his power either because he is a powerful being. Just look at all the evil and hurt in the world! What we must do is what the word above says; be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. While attending a church in Carol City, Florida; a section of Miami, the pastor gave three consecutive sermons about the full armor of God. The way he broke it down was so artful, essentially he spoke of our faith being the strongest part of this armor. We need this armor of God to protect us from the many ills of the world.

Look around at all the senseless killings, the molestation of our children, raping of our women; these are all acts of the devil, inspired by his evil schemes to corrupt us. The political climate; people rioting in Haiti, all across America people are losing their homes; the state of people’s lives is becoming chaotic. How many times have you heard; if your God is so good than why would he let you live like this. The movie “The Devil’s Advocate” displayed this lovely, they questioned our minds about the ills of this world and then threw it back on God as to say he was not protecting us, so he must not exist. That faith and the true armor of the Lord tells us this is not so. Don’t be fooled though, it should tell you something else. Its a war going on outside; the devil’s troops are strong in their conviction to collapse our faith, our good spirit and energy. Look at the spread of disease, drug epidemics, families turning on families. The media turning on the church; the church turning on the church and being more involved with numbers than wisdom and the word. You see it in your daily life, you find yourself struggling despite the fact that you believe you are doing right and being faithful to the Lord. These are all acts of the devil that we can not ignore. We have to suit up; get together and fight for our happiness, for the betterment of our families. We serve a higher power, we are playing for the right team so let’s acknowledge that we have some haters but be wise enough to know that we are blessed with the best protection and knowledge to defeat such clowns. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Snake at your feet a stick at your hand.

Food for thought:

Do not believe everything that you read in the newspapers, hear on the radio, or see on television or youtube. I was browsing through a forum and I read the title “Oprah denies Christ, Trouble for Obama”! I quickly clicked the link because I was curious as to where this information could be coming from. Low and behold; the same bible toting soldiers who have been claiming Barack Obama is a Muslim and substituting Jesus’s love message with hate for all those who do not believe as they do, are behind this same message. These same evangelists, as they call themselves must have never read the book of Romans where we are taught not judge for if we judge then we condemn ourselves.

So I watch the clip and Oprah did no such thing, I am not writing this to support Oprah but to ask people to take the lid off of their truck yard minds and allow objective thoughts and reason to seep through. I am a Christian man, I go to church on Sundays when my time permits. I send out daily messages that quote the scripture in the bible. This is all fact; I also listen to the teachings of Brother Malcolm, Louis Farrakhan, Father Pfleger, and a host of other spiritual leaders. I post quotes of the day from spiritual leaders such as the Great Buddha, Dali Lama and other figures who do not represent Christianity. To tell me because I understand that we are all praying to the same God and just calling him different names is the most bigoted, ignorant, non-factual statement that I have ever heard.

Spirituality is about finding the God within; Jesus never taught us to hate or judge anyone! Instead he taught us to love and care for one another, the same principles that other religous groups teach throughout their teachings. The way that media outlets are using these types of edited, chopped up videos to perpetuate a message of evil is rather disgusting. Rather than unify the people of this world under God and create a love language, we would rather use our differences to create further division; only heightening the problems of the world. So the next time you get an email, or a message like the video I am about to show you, think objectively before you react to the propaganda that fear mongers and hate mongers put forth in order to create more chaos in the world as we know it. Peace and Grace be unto you!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&hl=en]