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. James 1: 22-25

When I woke up this morning the sun was busting through my blinds, shining down on me. I thought to myself  “we should not be afraid to let our sun shine”, in fact we must power up our sun to shine. There will always be obstacles that will attempt to stand in the way of our sun’s beauty but we must not allow these clouds to block our sunlight. Clouds such as loneliness, job related issues, a hard time at school, or any other matters that may affect your view of yourself and also how you allow that view to be promoted.

So the scripture goes hand in hand with the thoughts I had when I first woke up. Don’t just listen to the word, don’t just say you believe in God show the world you believe in God. We show the world this through our actions, by our smile, we show how we believe in God when we persevere through the toughest of times. Only a person of God can be so resilient. We can no longer look in the mirror and see our faults and not look to correct them. Those same flaws will eat us alive, those same flaws do not allow our sun to shine as bright as the Lord has given us the power to let it shine. The last line speaks to all of us, if we can look into Gods law and trust in his word which sets us free from these worldly pains we will be blessed because of our faithful duty to adhere to the Lord’s request. Real rap I don’t necessarily know how to let my sun shine, how to look into that mirror and keep trying to perfect an imperfect being. Yet I believe together we can, as a community loving one another the way the Lord asks us to do I can achieve through you and you can achieve through me because we all give the power to HE, OUR CREATOR. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Amityville’s own Donnie McClurkin

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A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35

Love, deep term but what does it mean? This scripture teaches us to love one another as our Lord and Savior has loved us. That’s a very serious statement, what makes someone not worthy of love. If all of the skeletons in our closet were exposed then plenty of people would pass judgment on us and not show us the love that we feel we deserve. So the word is asking us to love, to stop the petty bickering and fussing. To stop judging other people for their wrongs because our wrongs are just as bad if not worse. But most of all by loving one another we show the world the faith that we so gloriously walk in.

How can we be viewed as walking with god when we are filled with hate and jealousy? How can we say that we represent the words that we read in the bible, the shouts we hear on Sunday morning and yet still walk around with venomous tongues? This is a walking contradiction, this is the same contradiction that has so many people going away from the church because these actions are inconsistent with the gospel.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. By loving each other, smiling, speaking kind words to each other and lending a helping hand when we can. These are all ways that we can honor what our Creator has asked us to do. A friend of mine told me when you are thinking something negative, when you are about to show a side of you that is a little ugly just say AMEN and keep it pushing. I said it like 10 times the other day but the most important thing is that it worked. Lets love one another and support one another. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Man is like palm wine; when young sweet but without strength; in old age, strong but harsh.