I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. Isaiah 5 : 1-5

Think of the above story as if it were your life. You have put alot of work into your life and at times it does not seem that your life yields success. But that is no reason to destroy your life. Do not ask, what else could you ahve done with your life. Maybe you should let go of some of the gardening practices that you are using. Let go of some of the chains that we have bound ourselves too. Free your mind and start anew!

The rain is pouring, smacking the streets violently while a track from Isaac Hayes album Hot Buttered Soul plays. Feels like a defining moment in ones life, the rain always seems to signify the end of one and the beginning of something else. I was reading Iyanla Vanzant’s Acts of Faith yesterday and she was talking about letting go. Whether you are letting go of a relationship, or relinquishing the psuedo control that you thought you had on your life, the issue is that we may have to let go. But letting go sounds insane, life’s troubles feel like your hanging from a cliff, your whole life depends on the moment you are in right now or so you think.

Who wants to let go, what ever you’re holding onto may feel to you like the bane of your existence. This is the mental build up that we give things, whether they are material or just things we feel like we can not live without. I read once, in order to receive you must strip yourself of all your possessions mentally and still believe that you have or will have again. This was a book dealing with taoism, it had some extremely great lessons. I have not been on my daily grind of writing this week. Check the blog, it’s updated sparingly. Partially it may be because I have no computer but more importantly it’s because I’m letting go. While letting go we do not know what door God will open but we have to have faith that he is about to show off in our lives. We have to have faith that these new beginnings, these new happenings though they may bare a dark moment, or a rainy day; there will be light in the end, a sun that shines upon our faces as we cry tears of joy. Peace and Grace be unto you!

You know, life is bound to be a roller-coaster if you keep looking back. A life that matters is focused on where you’re headed, not where you’ve already been.

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

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