Self-Glorification is artistic suicide. - Moses Soyer

And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there. I thought in my heart, “God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.” Ecclessiastes 3: 16-17

I attempted to start writing the Pardon me this morning at 5am. I was in a daze, and I felt that it was my way of speaking to God and channeling what I was feeling. Well it is now 1pm and I can’t even find that message which may be a good thing. I found this scripture below the scripture I originally intended to use. The last line spoke to me, it spoke of a blind faith to me. A blind faith that God will correct things, that he will make things right despite the negative we see before us. As I prayed for a friend of mine, I prayed with a belief that the Lord would bless this person and that although the path may be dark right now. I knew for certain in my heart that this person would be blessed beyond measure and the dark days would turn to well lit skies.

The bible talks about there being a time for everything. In the place of justice, in the face of doing right we can somehow be wronged. Immediately we will ask why would God allow this wrong but I believe despite the wrongs we call life. When we remain faithful to the Lord, he corrects the wicked and wrong that others try to impart on our lives. No scripture or words of encouragement seem to suffice when a tragedy hits. We all lose the ability to find words to comfort one. But we never lose the ability to support. We never lose the ability to be an ear, a shoulder to cry on, or just a friend when our friends are in need. God will bring judgment to the wicked and he will place justice in our lives as a blessing to us for being his faithful children. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Vengence is mine sayeth the Lord

Now therefore , Our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. I Chronicles 29: 13

Pardon me for sending this message out so late.,I had my first final exam this morning. I really like to get into the message of the day in the mornings, I really like to vibe with the word and sometimes that takes a while. However this morning I had to get into Property Law and ready myself for the exam; easements, mortgages, future interests, that sorta stuff. Today’s scripture is very short but powerful to me. Last Monday I felt as if I truly knew nothing and I was unprepared for the exam that I just recently got out of. While no grade has been submitted yet, I am confident in the knowledge I put forth.

I could thank myself, and I could thank my friends who helped me prepare for this exam. However most of my thanks has to go to our Creator for the effort he put forth in helping me get through this test. He gave me the mindset to prioritize my studies and allow the information to flow through my brain. He has afforded me kind friendships that looked to help me with material they saw that I was struggling with. He even spoke to the Professor and made sure that he made a fair exam that I would be able to articulate the necessary arguments. So I praise his glorious name and remind myself that all things are possible through him. Peace and Grace be unto you.

God is good, all the time!

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

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: Romans 5: 2-4

The word said we glory in tribulation; you read words like that when you’re at your deepest bottom and you think to yourself, God is bugging. Alright maybe you’ve never had those thoughts but I have. Yet it was me who was bugging because the word also says that tribulation builds our patience. Through tribulations that we are patient enough to endure we are blessed with experience and through experience our Lord has blessed us with the ability to hope. Hope, you see the experience whether it was good or bad gives rise to a different way. That’s our hope, when we stop hoping for a better way, for a better tomorrow, it is then that our spirit is dying.

I can only speak for myself but when I allow an experience to strip me of my hope I become void inside and that to me feels like a spiritual death. So I don’t quite know if I glory in tribulation, glory might not be the first term that comes to mind. However, I see the good in hardship because it is my hardships that have made me a better man. It will be my continued endurance through this game called life, these experiences, that will allow me to hope for a better day. And when that better day comes hold it up as a testament to the Lord’s work. Moreover to even get to that hope, to get through life’s experiences we must be patient. I am one of the most impatient brothers you have ever met. My mother says I want everything on my time; she’s probably right, I mean I got things to do, lol. However I am slowly but surely learning, often the hard way that my time does not matter. God has a plan and I am more of a servant to his time. So all we can do is live, and through living we will acquire experience whether it be good or bad, it is these experiences that will build an unyielding faith in our spirits and allow us to hope for our greatest good. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26: 3-4

I remember being in junior high school and hearing Prodigy of Mobb Deep rap “there’s a war going on outside no man is safe from, you can run but you cant hide forever, from these streets that we done took, you walking wit ya head down scared to look, ya shook!” While I lay in bed this morning, refusing to get up I thought the same lyrics only I said there’s a war going on inside, inside ourselves, our own personal demons. We really can’t run from them even though we attempt to by suppressing our feelings and acting as if things aren’t truly bothering us. Prodigy rapped about the streets that he and his cohorts took; the demons that exist within us, the skeletons in our closet they take over the streets of our lives. Our minds, our hearts; they produce doubt and and low self esteem causing even more pain and strife in our lives.

So what do you do? Well we can keep running until the day it all catches up with us and we’re to fatigued to even fight back. Or we could trust in the Lord; but really trust in the Lord. I mean you can go to church and hear beautiful gospel songs, a mighty word that makes you jump and shout and go home and still feel empty. Trusting in the Lord starts with trusting in yourself and trusting that he made you the way you are supposed to be. Trust that the experiences that he takes you through, he is taking you through because you can handle them and he has a great reward for you when you pass his test with flying colors. I know I’ve been stressed out; went to church, felt good there, came home and was stressed out. Three weeks later, still stressed out until we really hear the words in today’s passage. Trust in the Lord forever for he is our ROCK. Trust in yourself because the Lord breathes within you and face the war going on inside because with his grace you are safe from it and you will prevail. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians: 7-10

Today’s scripture couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s a message that I truly believe in; people who are blessed deal with strife and struggles as testament to their faith. Tuesday I’m getting interviewed on CNN, my blog reaches the highest numbers its ever seen. Wednesday I feel like I am in utter darkness; literally. Through it all I smile because I know that i have been blessed time and time again so any troubles that I receive just build my character. Times of hardship also show us our true friends who surround us and the Lord allows them to come to our aid. What a blessing! The experiences that we have in life build the people who we are becoming. If everything in life was easy, we would take the beauty of life for granted. I want to appreciate all of the blessings I am given, and so if that means I have to be in the dark before i can see the light then so be it. For I plan to be relish in the light much longer than I will ever be in the dark and I pray the same for you. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Water always finds a way out.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie: thought it tarry, wait for it because it shall surely come……. Habakkuk 2:3

A close friend of mine sent me this scripture a few nights ago. Prior to receiving it we had been on opposite ends of a conversation about how to handle certain things. So as a fool does, when I received this scripture, I read through it but I did not try to understand it. When our own ignorance is bliss sometimes we do not see when a lesson is being presented before our very eyes. I try not to stay ignorant for too long and I went back and read the word again. I started to allow the words to resonate within me, searching for the reason that this particular scripture had been sent to me.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time. My vision, your vision but most of all God’s vision for the greatness that we will achieve. Many of us get worn out, and frankly become tired because we feel that our dreams are taking to long to come true. Our prayers are lying in wait and while they sit in limbo, we live in the world daily with these thoughts on our brains. It takes a wise person to realize the dream is still in the universe, the prayer will be answered and when it is, it shall speak truth into our lives. However, it is not the time; what you mean it’s not the time Ced? Don’t get mad at me; I’m asking the same question with you. But just maybe if tomorrow we could achieve our greatest good, our destiny. Just maybe at this time in our lives we would not be able to appreciate it or handle the greatness we are to become. The Lord says though it may linger, have faith because his blessing will surely come to us. We are all being tested daily in our ability to have patience and to have faith in the Lord. I’m down to wait; I pray for all of us, that what we receive doubles our expectations and we laugh when we remember that we had little faith at one time and how blessed we have become. How blessed we were all along. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Proverbs are the daughters of experience

YES WE CAN! SI SE PUEDE!
My Vote’s for Obama (if I could vote) …by Michael Moore

April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live
in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.)
couldn’t get their act together, and thus our votes will not
be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will
you please cast my vote — and yours — on Tuesday for Senator
Barack Obama?

I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for,
primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most
people I know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the
ballot in November, as long as there’s a picture of JFK and
FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word
“Democratic” next to the candidate’s name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name
under the Big “D” is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It
can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two
months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone
from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I
guess the debate last week was the final straw. I’ve watched
Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to
the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she
hurled the name “Farrakhan” out of nowhere, well that’s when
the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the “F”
word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama
has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator
Clinton, Obama’s pastor does — AND the “church bulletin” once
included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas!
No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained
the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if
Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the
Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth,
that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that’s how you sounded. Like you were
nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity.
How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you.
You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And
now to throw it all away for an office you can’t win unless
you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry
“Uncle (Tom)” and give it all to you.

But that can’t happen. You cast your die when you voted to
start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses
who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited
from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman
elected to the White House. That day will come — but it won’t
be you. We’ll have to wait for the current Democratic governor
of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong
on this or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the
forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a
profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement
is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man.
But what’s going on is bigger than him at this point, and
that’s a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in
November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert
and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their
hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama
is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats
done to deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In
November of ‘06, the country loudly sent a message that we
wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So
why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’
minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible
damage it has done to our people and to this world. I’m almost
at the point where I don’t care if the Democrats don’t have a
backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little
heads. Just as long as their name ain’t “Bush” and the word
“Republican” is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that’s
good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled
senseless for 8 long years. That’s why I will join millions of
citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like
a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one
eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters –
that big “D” on the ballot.

Don’t get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time
ago.

It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer
version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the
corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat
must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day
we will have a party that’ll represent the people first, and
laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have
seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev.
Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking
the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout
at the TV, “Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband
were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky,
who did she and Bill bring to the White House for ’spiritual
counseling?’ THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!”

But no, Obama won’t throw that at her. It wouldn’t be right.
It wouldn’t be decent. She’s been through enough hurt. And so
he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That’s why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That’s
why he’ll take us down a more decent path. That’s why I would
vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win
in November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death
train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible
to hear the words “President McCain” on January 20th. We know
there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black
man. Hillary knows it, too. She’s counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country,
has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to
shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written
there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or
woman was only “three fifths” human. On Tuesday, the good
people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Luke 12: 22-26