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Motivational Monday

Faith Dixson — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:21:56 +0000

An affirmation is a great way to start training your mind toward a positive way of thinking. Coupled with other positive thinking exercises, a positive affirmation will help you overcome any obstacle that is put in front of you. The object of these positive thinking exercises is to ensure that you train the most powerful muscle in your body: your brain.

Here is your affirmation for today which can help keep your day in alignment with your desire to have faith in your path.

Affirmation For Today: I Have Faith In My Path

Gospel Song of The Day: No Way

WTLC-AM — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:15:21 +0000

Welcome a new day with new possibilities. We all want to embrace happiness and the chance of a new day. That’s the best thing about sunrise. The darkness is over. May today be the beginning of the end of darkness for you.

There is a wonderful saying that when the darkness ends the joy begins. I hope joy is reaching your heart and pointing your walk toward to the best.

Hallelujah! Coalition Seeks To Bring Black Men Back To Church

Paul Prayze — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:56:14 +0000

The National Black Church Initiative, a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches, will begin a seven-year initiative to bring Black men back to the church.

The mission is a part of the NBCI’s Healing Family Initiative, which seeks to bolster African-American families against the tide of violence, poverty, moral depravity and failure.

The Grio Reports:

The NBCI uses a Pew Forum 2007 survey and the findings of the Barna Research Group to support their argument. According to the Pew Forum survey, people of black ethnicity were most likely to be part of a formal religion, with 85 percent being Christians. And according to the Barna Research Group, a Christian research firm based in Ventura, Calif., more than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and 5 out of 6 call themselves Christian. But only 2 out of 6 attend church on any given Sunday.

African Americans Can Find Themselves In The Bible

WTLC-AM — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:33:45 +0000

Well, before we even get into this topic of ethnicity and African presence in the bible, we have to deal with certain regions in the bible. Once we do that, we then have to look at the climates of those regions. After looking at those two things we must then look at the people in the bible. Lastly we will look at Jesus himself. Why does this matter? It matters because there is still a detachment from Christianity that some African Americans feel because most of the art and movies about biblical characters look more Caucasian than African.

This is not a new topic for me. Starting as a teenager and then moving into my young adult days I became radical thinker. If you’ve read my blogs you may have noticed that not much has changed. As a Christian I was very intrigued by other religious beliefs. In the late ’80s and early ’90s I learned a lot about my own beliefs by having very spirited yet respectful discussions with young men who were a part of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam is thought by some to be a hate group and by others to be an Islamic sect that strongly emphasizes African American self-esteem. Either way the guys I talked to studied the Bible a lot and challenged me to become a better Bible student. One thing that the guys from the Nation of Islam challenged me on is the topic of Christianity being a “White Man’s” religion. This was something that stuck with me. They would show me pictures of a blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus. They pointed out how Cecil B. Demille avoided having any of the biblical characters in his movies showing any hint of African lineage. If that were not enough, they then pounded me with Elisabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra. This forced me to study. I was shocked to find what I found. I came to learn that they were right about some of the distortions of historical fact. They were correct in pointing out that a lot of the biblical imagery that is portrayed in art and movies was and still is at times very Eurocentric.

In the first chapter of Genesis God created everything in 6 days and then God rested on Saturday. Things get very sticky for some when we get into the 2^nd chapter. Most Sunday school lessons and Biblical commentaries omit any discussion that involves verses 10 through 14 of the 2^nd chapter. In those verses the writer of Genesis tries to give the readers the location of Eden and it’s surrounding territories. In verses 11 through 13, the writer gives a lot of detail but verse 14 is almost an afterthought. The writer describes the flow of an unnamed river that flows out into four rivers. Where this river is placed is important because it flows out to four critical locations. The main regions were named after the people who first settled those regions according to scripture. The first place mentioned is the land of Havilah. I will get back to Noah and the flood in a moment but if you look up the land of Havilah you will find that it is the name of the land now known as Arabia. Havilah is also the name of one of Noah’s great grandson. The second place mentioned is the land of Cush which the Greeks called Ethiopia. Cush is one of Noah’s grandsons. The land of Cush is on the African continent. The writer went into a lot of detail to talk about what is found in Cush and Havilah. What is interesting is the fact that the Nile flows northward, meaning, from south to north and at one point flowed to all of the regions mentioned by the writer of Genesis. Many scholars and theologians fail to mention or write about the similarities of the Nile and the unnamed river in the 2^nd chapter of Genesis. Hmm, I wonder why? In the 14^th verse Tigris and Euphrates are mentioned as after thoughts with not much detail. If we look at the way the passage says the river flowed into four heads, in order to flow to Tigris, Euphrates, Ethiopia and Arabia this river would have to flow north and not south. This puts Eden somewhere in the continent of Africa.

With this being the case it is highly unlikely that Adam and Eve would be, by American standards, white or Caucasian. What is also mentioned in Genesis 3^:8are the words “…the cool of the day”(KJV). There is no “cool of the day” without the warm or even hot of the day. Hot and even warm means sun. To my knowledge there were no buildings in Eden, so that meant that Adam and Eve were outside all day. If you are out in the sun all day every day, it is impossible to have a light completion. One of Adam and Eve’s descendants was Noah. I know you have heard about the flood but some taught the falsehood that Noah’s 3 sons represented the three hues of man (Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid). According to false teaching, a White man named Noah had a Black son named Ham, an Asian son named Japheth and a White son named Shem. It’s obvious that if Adam and Eve were dark skinned people from the continent of Africa then their descendants would be dark skinned as well. By American standards, Noah and his family including his 3 sons were all of African descent. In Genesis 10:6 we find that one of Ham’s descendants is Cush. Remember the writer of Genesis called a region Cush that was near Eden. The Greeks named the people of this region Ethiopians which means burnt faced people. The Greeks named where these people lived Ethiopia, because it was the land of the burnt faced people. In other words, these people were dark skinned Negroid or black people. In Genesis 10:7 Cush had a son named Havilah. Havilah, as a reminder, settled in Arabia. Scientists would even be hard pressed to prove that life began in Europe. What some would deem Caucasian people didn’t existed at this point in Genesis if you use Genesis as a historical guide to the beginnings of humanity. Once we get to the 11^th chapter, we reach the story of the tower of Babel.

A brief synopsis goes like this; everybody on earth was in one place and decided to build a tower as high as they possibly could. God sees what they are doing and knows that it is possible as long as they were unified. In order to stop this building project God came down and caused everyone to speak different languages. At this point those who spoke Spanish found others who spoke Spanish and migrated to Spain. The same happened with English speaking people and so on and so forth. If you think about it, those who went to colder climates adapted to those climates. Over time, after many descendants, it’s safe to say they probably began to look different from the darker skinned people who remained in the hotter climates. Let’s move to the story of who is believed to be the writer of Genesis, Moses. I’m sure you know or have read about Moses being put in a basket by his Sister to float down a river to a place where Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing in Egypt. Moses was taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the house of Pharaoh as her child. There is no way Moses could have looked like Charlton Heston and flown under the radar in the house of Pharaoh. Moses had to at least resemble the Egyptians to be treated as one of their own. Keep in mind the Egyptians you see today are not the Egyptians Moses saw. In 353 BC, Egypt fell to the Persians. This fall meant that those peoples intermingled. Prior to that Egyptians looked like Ethiopians. All of them were burnt faced people, according to the Greeks. Keep in mind that this was not a derogatory term by the Greeks but merely the best description they had to describe dark skinned people. With that said the Hebrew people including Moses had to look like the Cushites or Ethiopians or as the Greeks described burnt faced people. Hold on to your hat for this one, according to American standards, Abraham and his descendants, including Moses, at the very least, looked like what Americans would describe as Negroid or black. I could go into all of the times Ethiopia and Egypt are mentioned in the Bible but to some that would seem heavy-handed. Keep in mind I am only expounding on what the Bible clearly lays out about the appearance of certain people in scripture. There is so much biblical history about Africa that it would take much longer to go into all of the facts but I will point out something else that is quite interesting. In Matthew 2:13 an angel of God tells Joseph to take his family to Egypt. The angel gave these instruction to Jesus’ earthly father because Herod was about to kill all of the boys 2 years and younger around Bethlehem during that time. We’ve already noted that Egypt was a region of dark-skinned, African people. Would God have His angel to tell Joseph to hide himself, his wife and Jesus in a region where they could be easily spotted? Can you imagine Joseph, Mary and Jesus being white by American standards trying to move about in the midst of a bunch of dark-skinned people, African people? To put it bluntly Herod would have found Jesus and killed him. Going to Egypt was smart because they could blend in. Wait a minute!!! That means, by American standards, Jesus had to be black. How do I come to this conclusion? First, he had to look Egyptian, second, he was a descendant of Abraham and third, he was in a sun drenched region that is still very close to Africa. One last thing, check out Acts 21:37-39. A Roman commander thought Paul was an Egyptian. Even the Apostle Paul looked like what Americans would call a black maan. According to Ephesians 1:7 “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” Is this passage saying that the the whole body of Christ is black according to America’s “one-drop rule”? Ok, I have now scared a lot of people so let me say here that in the Bible skin color didn’t matter. Unfortunately in a lot of art and literature skin color mattered too much. Sadly in most American churches Africa is conveniently forgotten about as it relates to biblical history. Christianity is for all people of all colors and nationalities. I just wish that the African presence in scripture was not extracted through ignorance or blatant racism. With that said, the Church should be more like the church was in Antioch. In Acts 13:1 we see that many nationalities were in this church’s congregation.

This blog should help dispel the myth that Christianity is a “White Man’s” religion.

It’s Time To Stop Being Company To Misery

WTLC-AM — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:37:44 +0000

Misery loves company.We have all that countless times in our lives. Actually the real version of it is “Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.” Today is the day we stop embracing things like this. Today and every day after we will begin at our best. Of course we have to begin at the beginning – that is to say, the beginning of our day. As soon as we can at the start of each day, preferably before our feet hit the floor, we need to ask God into our day. Ask God what purpose He wants you to live out in that particular day. This doesn’t mean just the lists of tasks you should complete. You only need to reach for your “to do” list for that.

Asking God for the day’s purpose goes to the heart of how you will relate to others all day .God may give you thoughts about being more mindful of your spouse’s needs, and how you should meet them more cheerfully. He may remind you that He wants you to work that day on speaking to your children in calm and loving tones. He may inspire you to change your schedule a bit because He wants to have time with you, and He needs you to slow your pace so you have more time to concentrate on Him.

He may bring just one word to mind such as patience, or humor. Every day may have a different and unique purpose. But when we start by asking God to reveal it, we can then order the tasks of the day under His purpose and know how to approach them better, finding the grace in them. This approach is very different from the “stand back, Lord, and watch all that I can do for you today” approach with which most of us race through each day.

We spend our energy doing a million things we think will be pleasing to God (or even our loved ones). Then we get frustrated when everyone doesn’t fall all over themselves appreciating us, and we don’t feel any closer to God after all our efforts. But when our first moments of the day tap us into His grace and help us get that days marching orders, we will spend more of our time in accordance with His will and will end the day with more of a sense of “rightness” in our hearts. Notice Grace-Filled Moments Each task in the day comes with its o win grace, and finding that grace is the next step in our day. Every interaction we have with another person is a chance for us to see and serve Christ in them, and to reflect Christ to them. Jesus tells us what we do to the least of His people we do unto him.

If we can train ourselves to see Jesus in our spouse, our children, our co-workers, we will begin to approach people differently and God’s grace will begin to flow between us. Even the most redundant and menial tasks will take on a sanctifying depth they hadn’t had before. To see that such a sanctification of the mundane is not out of our reach.

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Gallery: Signs Of The Times

WTLC-AM — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:53:07 +0000

We are nearing the time of the year that we begin traveling. Whether it is graduation, family reunions or vacation some of these churches we will be dropping in on some of these churches. Make sure that when you are on the road you look up and see what is ahead. Watch the signs.

Some of the signs were just funny. Some of the signs are truthful in a tongue and cheek way. In any case they are amusing to read. Let us know if you see any on your travels.

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Is Murder Still Murder? [Opinion]

WTLC-AM — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:33:42 +0000

Sunday afternoon as I watched the replay of our bombing of Libya I could not help but think about war and death and stewardship. Listen, I am old enough to understand that the war is inevitable in society and history of humankind for one reason or another. I am not naïve to the fact that we have financial and political interests in the world that better benefit our needs. I do wonder though if we had to handle this with such a heavy hand by risking possible mass murder.

Most people would probably say it’s “unjustified killing”. In civil society the judicial system decides whether killings are just or unjust, not the bible. There are laws that apply on the battlefield as well. Things like Use of Force and Rules of Engagement. For instance, it is against the Geneva Convention to use flamethrowers to kill the enemy. However, it is perfectly acceptable to nuke another country, killing hundreds of thousands people instantly and then subsequently hundreds of thousands more over the course of the following months from the radiation.

Many people would say that the distinction between killing and murdering in a wartime situation would have to do with whether or not the war is just. Again, it would be decided by the courts, not by what the bible says. Romans 13: 1-2 trumps it, obey your leaders as if unto God. God put those leaders over you so you must obey them. Do we really obey or do we just concede. Or, do we just not care? There are large numbers of African American men and women who serve the country with commitment and loyalty than is spoken about. These young men and women are our brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, nieces, nephews. They are following the orders of high command.

As good stewards of the world that God gave us, we have to care about what those actions mean. Do we rectify every infraction with harsh punishment? By no means are the actions of Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi excused. He is a murderer. Plain and simple. He broke the vow of leadership when he opted to murder innocent people on a plane for no other reason than retaliation. He continues to violate the freedom and common dignity and decency of his people by choosing to silence their voices of opinion by death. That is unacceptable. Period.

What we must do is write our Congressmen and Congresswomen and let them know how we feel about such unforgiving final options. If we do not begin the conversations on what actions like this mean to us than we are not living up to what is commanded us by God. That stewardship is over all that he gave and created in Genesis. Even if you do not believe in Christianity, there is a natural order and care to the universe. Do we even spend time thinking about that?

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10 Steps To Prevent Sex Abuse In Churches

WTLC-AM — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:16:00 +0000

There has been much made about the misconduct of religious priests and ministers. It is by introducing a clear and concise ways to deal with your congregation. This will not allow for the lines of familiarity to grow. They have also introduced a sample code of ethics for congregational leaders as follows:

1. Provide spiritual guidance and teaching for congregants, congregational staff members, and members of the larger community.

2. Treat staff and congregants with dignity and respect.

3. Uphold integrity through honest communication.

4. Nurture their personal religious life through prayer, meditation, and study.

5. Maintain healthy boundaries with congregants by nurturing family relationships and/or friendships with others whom they do not also serve as religious leader.

6. Refrain from making sexual overtures and engaging in sexual relationships (other than with one’s spouse), or sexually harassing congregants, whether or not the leader and/or congregant is married.

7. Be accountable to an identified supervisor or group of peers that conducts regular performance reviews, seeking input from members of the congregation.

8. Avoid disclosing private information about congregants.

9. Recognize the power dynamic in their role with congregants, using that power to seek the well being of those they serve and never for their own personal ends.

10. Limit their professional role to pastor, teacher, or priest to avoid dual relationships and arbitrary boundaries with congregants.

A safe and healthy place to worship is something that we should all have for our human dignity. It is also important to remember that not everyone that wears a collar has committed some sexual sin. If these guidelines were instututed this would alleviate all the issues at hand.

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The Golden Voice Ted Williams Embraces His Faith and Life

WTLC-AM — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:34:19 +0000

We often travel roads of redemption which lead us to help others. Ted Williams sat down with Meredith Veira on the Today show and talked about his rediscovery of faith and sobriety.

Mr.Williams understand that the change in life begins when you start to really think things through. He feels blessed and now has the desire to help others change and set their paths right.

God Bless Ted. We wish you a great journey.

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Minute Meditation: Prayer for Financial Security

WTLC-AM — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:23:57 +0000

A prayer for financial security is something each of us need to say from time to time. As we head to the end of another quarter with the raising of oil prices doubts of job security creep in. We must trust that we are not the worth of our financial gain. Sometimes we are called to do something totally different.

In the last few years the world economy has been crumbling, falling apart and many nations have been affected, some, countries have filed for bankruptcy, while others have seen massive multinational corporations fold over night.

I by this decree do say that I am free of financial insecurity, people, places, play, work, lies, secrets, disabilities, pain, confusion, worry, weakness of body, mind & spirit and eternal death. Please help me to not place my worth in the financial things of this world but in the truth of who you made me to be Amen.

We watch the news, and count the numbers of people affected, and then hear from a close friend they have been terminated because the company closed down literally overnight.

For many Christians, being unemployed is embarrassing. Suddenly, we find ourselves without a job. We are, perhaps without success, seeking employment

If you, or someone you know finds themselves in this difficult and unfortunate situation right now, be encouraged, and remember that no matter how awful a time you are having trying to be gainfully employed, and feel that you are knocking on all the wrong doors, always remember that you are never alone, and that the journey you are on, is the same journey someone else is taking, most often than not, alone, and without the Lord.