All About Us

"Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him."
~ Isaiah 53:3-10, Message Bible

We have a saying "it's not about you!" that we invoke when we feel a person is being too domineering or too self-centered. We say this in a desire to take the focus off of them and refocus their attention to the needs and concerns of the broader group. However, on this day, it really is all about us.
 

Isaiah's Song of the Suffering Servant depicts a man who surrendered himself to be used for God's purpose without complaint. No matter what happened, "He didn't say a word." The Messianic Jewish community and later Gentile Christianity identifies Isaiah's suffering servant as Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah (also called the Christ).
 

This same Jesus suffered attack from the moment of His birth. Others heralded him as a child king and Herod Antipas committed infanticide against all male children two years and younger.

This same Jesus, after age 30, suffered constant surveillance by both Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers -- much like J. Edgar Hoover's FBI suspiciously watched the civil rights leaders of the 1960s -- for preaching and teaching peace, communal responsibility, and reliance upon the God of Abraham in the midst of political occupation.
 

This same Jesus suffered rebuke and suspicion from His own people for feeding, healing, and performing life-enriching miracles because He did so at "inappropriate" times.

This same Jesus suffered arrest for unsubstantiated capital crimes against the State.
 

Though Jesus was the focus, it was not about Him!

• It's about Deity coming to earth, living among us, and teaching us to live up to our lost birthright.
• It's about Deity taking on our "stuff", bearing our blame and shame, so we could reclaim the sense of divinity we lost.
• It's about an Innocent being beaten while the guilty cry for His slaughter. It's about His wounds and ripped flesh, His brokenness, being the purveyor of our wholeness.
• It's about shedding untainted blood as a sacrifice on a cross-shaped wooden altar so that our tainted blood could be spiritually transfused and our royal divinity restored.

Humanity is the reason Jesus left Glory, came down 42 generations, and took on human flesh and human indignities. He was wrongfully crucified among thieves as a political dissident. Crucifixion was the greatest indignity known to humanity created to provide a particularly painful, gruesome, and public death. This fate He endured was our eternal fate. We were, in truth, political dissidents stirring up strife in the Kingdom of God at the bidding of the prince of this realm. Our just sentence was death, complete separation from God, existing in a torturous state in a body that could never be consumed for all eternity.

Whether we believe or not is immaterial. The Record does not/cannot lie. His death was all about us. He paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. He laid Himself down on the altar as the innocent sinless Lamb of God. For our stuff, they hung Him high and stretched Him wide. On the cross we horrified, they lifted Him up and God was glorified. God's plan was deeply prospered through Him. All who were drawn were transformed before their eyes. It was all for us that Jesus died. It was All About Us that the God-Man was crucified.
On this Good Friday, I bid you Selah.

Lord, Enlarge My Territory

"And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested."
~1 Chronicles 4:10, NKJV

We've all prayed that the Lord would enlarge our territory; however, there are a few questions that must be answered before He does.

Why do we want God to enlarge our territory? Is it so great men and women will know our name or are we earnestly endeavoring to advance the Kingdom?

Have we been faithful over that which God has already entrusted to us? If you are an associate minister or lay leader, are you faithful to the pastor's vision or are you branching out to run your own agenda? Beware that God will not bless you with more until you have proven faithful to what is now assigned to your hand.

If your motives for expansion are pleasing to God, what vision has He given to you? God does not do 'shotgun evangelism'. Shotgun evangelism is when you shoot spiritual buckshot and pray that you hit something -- anything. When God gives vision, He is specific. You have specific ministry gifts that are to be presented to a particular people or group. Some are called to minister to ministers. Others are called to minister to women or young people. Some are called to minister to administrative issues. Still others are called to minister to discipleship issues. What ministry niche has God called and equipped you to serve?

When you've identified your motives and mission, you must identify your ministry methods. How are you to deliver the ministry to the people, especially if your people are beyond your local church network? When God gives vision, He gives strategy and provision. Are you feeling God’s nudge to write a book? Maybe God is telling you to create a seminar, workshop or conference. To some, God is saying it’s time to put your ministry on the air via radio and television. Someone is hearing ‘satellite’ as a means of spreading the Word. Whatever strategy has been given to you, pursue it! Count the cost, but don’t be afraid of it. Remember, if God has given vision and strategy for a work, He will also direct you to provision.

In the Bible, numbers have significance. Seven signifies completion. 7+1 = new beginnings; therefore, 2008 is a ‘Year of New Beginnings’. As we approach the last months of this year, seek God as you take your next steps, trust God, and launch out into the deep.

A Call to Discipline

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

~ 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, NKJV

Whether we know it or not, sexual immorality is not the only sin one commits against one's own body. As African-Americans, we are culturally guilty of gluttony and malnourishment. We intentionally eat far more than our body needs simply because we like eating. We also eat foods that we should not have; thus, packing on ridiculously high amounts of empty calories from excessive oils, sugars, and starches. Then, if that's not enough, we pride ourselves on getting that after dinner nap. The necessity for such nap is because we've stuffed ourselves to the point of lethargy. Of course, taking a walk or getting any kind of exercise to diminish the effects of our sinfulness is not a thought we're willing to entertain. Overall, this is NOT GOOD!

This is so 'not good' that we develop hypertension, diabetes, and become prone to strokes, heart disease, and certain cancers. I understand that during slavery and subsequent times, we ate what we could when we could. However, for those reading this commentary, we have looooong been past the point of scarcity. Quite the contrary. We live in a state of abundance. Our cupboards are lacking nothing, except the nourishing foods we do not desire.

We MUST do better! We must do better for our own self's sake. If we wish to see old age in health, we must get control of our eating habits. We must eat more vegetables than meat. We must eat leaner meats. We must eat much smaller portions. And, we must limit (if not eliminate) the empty 'junk food' calories we consume.

Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit of Christ. We are bought we the price of the Blood of the Holy. It should not be squandered by our lack of discipline. Why plead for healing when one can eat right and avoid sickness? Why plead for the Blood covering of protection when we can keep ourselves from danger? Why ask for forgiveness for the sin of gluttony when we can avoid such altogether?

Jesus saved our souls/spirits, but WE must transform our minds (Romans 12:2) and bring our bodies under subjection (Romans 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:27); lest we forfeit the fullness of our salvation. I am among the guilty, but I'm reforming my ways.

Won't you join me?

(If you want to know what's working for me, ask and I'll be happy to share. I'm not in any 'health and wellness' business. I don't get any money from any product manufacturer or distributor.)

The Power of Words

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
~ Proverbs 18:21a, NKJV

We often have no clue as to the power of the words we speak, especially those spoken in anger. We blow up and blow off oblivious to the carnage we leave in our wake. And the closer we are to the person to which we're speaking, the more powerful the message we deliver. Yet, it never becomes too late to repent and offer deliverance to the wounded along with yourself.

I received a phone call from a someone I hadn't heard from in 30 years. Words spoken in anger those many years ago deeply wounded me and created an insecurity that haunted me lo these many years. The insecurity, based on a lie, held an otherwise confident woman in emotional bondage. No matter what my brain or others told me, I could not shake the inner tape that told me I was defective.

Yesterday, that same person found me to ask forgiveness and set the record straight. Things were not as I had believed them to be. Harsh words spoken were soon regretted, but pride and youthful immaturity valued saving face more than saving a friend. While there's remorse, there's certainly no condemnation because we've all been there. However, it takes maturity to reach out after all these years to make amends and set things aright.

A weight was lifted for not one person, but two. Two people were restored by the power of words. A friendship between now mature adults was rekindled. The same tongue that dealt death brought life.

NEVER underestimate the power of your words.

Do You Have A Faith God Can Trust?

Though I usually watch Praise the Lord on TBN most nights, I didn’t have intentions to watch tonight. But as I walked from my office to the kitchen, I heard Bishop Eddie Long’s voice so I stopped to hear what he had to say. Bishop Long was interviewing Bishop Darryl Brister from New Orleans whose home, three church buildings, Bible school, seminary, and congregation had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Bishop Brister (www.darrylbrister.org) talked about traveling to four cities weekly to minister to his scattered congregation. Somewhere in the conversation, someone said “I thank God for a faith that He can trust!” My spirit leapped.

How many times have we felt persecuted because we were going through adversity? "Why me, Lord? Whatever I did, I promise not to do again!" We forget that it is through trials/adversity that the metel of our character and spirit are proven.

Consider the story of Job. Satan is going to and fro in the earth seeking whom he may devour and God offered him His servant, Job, with the caveat that he could do whatever he desired except kill him. God told the adversary that he could not take Job’s mortal life.

We know the story…

Job lost everything. He lost his real estate. He lost his cattle. He lost his children. He lost his health. Job was in such sad shape, sitting in ashes with skin boils oozing, that his wife begged him to end his misery, curse God and die.

We know the story…

Job’s response is legendary. He said to his wife, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” God has trusted Job with trouble. Job’s faith has been thoroughly tested and has not been found lacking.

Someone reading this has been going through a horrid season of adversity. So much so that you’ve seriously considered throwing in the towel and giving up. You're in a serious hurt locker and you're crying out to God who is not answering. Sister or Brother, you're in a test! The teacher doesn't talk or answer questions when you're taking a test. Know that you're not alone. God has not left the room! Don’t forfeit your victory at the :59 minute! The alloted time for this test is nearly over. Your tribulation clock is about to strike VICTORY!

The Word says that your trials come to make you strong. The Word says that if God has trusted you with trouble and you’ve been proven faithful, consider your trial a setup for increase. Promotion is just beyond the horizon of daybreak. START SHOUTING!!!

Don’t take my word! Hear the Word of the Lord spoken through the apostle, Paul:

There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary--we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! ~ Romans 5:3-5, The Message

When going through trouble, we have to shout praise. David and his men came returned to Ziklag from warring with the Amalekites to find Ziklag burned to the ground and the women and children carried off into captivity. Their grief was inconsolable. The people were so overcome that they talked of stoning David. Yet the Scripture says:

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” ~ 1 Samuel 30:6, KJV

As David encouraged himself through praising his God, his joy returned. And with joy came strength. And with strength came victory.

If God has trusted you with trouble, don’t wait until the battle is over. SHOUT NOW!

SHOUT because He has found you worthy!

SHOUT because when you come out on the other side victorious, like Job (42:10), you will reap a bountiful harvest if you faint not.

SHOUT because the mess you came through will become your message. And from your message, God will add to your ministry because you proved to God that your faith could be trusted.

Mind Mapping a What?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ~ Philippians 4:13, NKJV


If you’ve read my introduction, you know I sustained a traumatic brain injury in an auto accident seven years ago. Traumatic brain injuries are not uncommon. I’m one of 5.3 million Americans living with disabilities associated with traumatic brain injury. By the end of this year, another 1.5 million Americans will have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Though my injury was categorized as “mild” because I lost consciousness for less than 30 minutes, according to respected specialists in brain injury care and rehabilitation, so-called "mild" brain injury can devastate one’s functional and interpersonal life by causing significant dysfunction in the realms of attention, cognition and memory while leaving you with an unchanged external appearance. Because you look as you always did, misusage of words is seen as a slip of the tongue. Forgetfulness is attributed to being overextended. Losing track of a thought or “spacing out” in the middle of a conversation is thought to be preoccupation. Folks dismiss, minimize or downright rejected your symptoms as "not real."

Well, as you guessed, several of many functional deficits showed up when I would endeavor to minister. One of the most frustrating tasks was preparing to preach. Head trauma had caused me to have all kinds of visual and cognitive challenges. I couldn’t always track words on a page. I had difficulty quoting well-known Scriptures. I’d lose my train of thought before getting to the end of the sentence. Of course, this produced great anxiety that just made things worse. After two humiliating incidents, I stepped down from pulpit ministry. I simply could not risk permanently destroying the integrity of my ministry.

“How shall I preach? Help me, Holy Ghost!”

To the rescue the Spirit brought to my mind a method I’d learned about many years ago during my psychology training: Mind mapping!

“You have to be kidding. You mind map what?”

I mind map my sermons! Since I’m a visual/kinesthetic learner who has trouble tracking lines of print on a page, it made sense to try an option that uses symbols, pictures, and limited words. (For a full discussion of mind mapping, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindmapping)

How does one mind map a sermon? (For those who are not preachers, RESIST the temptation to leave. Mind mapping is an intriguing organizational tool for any kind of work because it allows you to immediately capture ideas and associations without struggling with hierarchy or sequential order.) Let me demonstrate by going through my sermon preparation.

Monday: Monday is somewhat leisurely. Sermon preparation begins with the Holy Spirit inspiring either a text or subject to my spirit. I grab my study notebook and favorite Bible and prayerfully begin “mining the text” jotting down, in longhand*, whatever key words or thoughts initially come to mind. Key words are then explored in a Hebrew-Greek lexicon for further amplification.

* For many visual/kinesthetic learners, the actual act of writing is important to embedding and solidifying ideas in the brain.

Tuesday-Wednesday: As I begin linking the text and topic, I start to “hear” elements of the sermon in my spirit. I write down whatever I hear: pieces of the introduction, points, conclusion – whatever. Whatever is given, I mind map in my notebook. Very often, the scriptures accompanying the points come in familiar phrases. I write down the phrases and when the anointing lifts, I run the scriptural phrases through my Bible software program to get the full verse.

Wednesday evening-Thursday morning: By now I’m starting to “preach in my spirit”. The points and their order are beginning to come together. This is when I go to my mind map software (www.inspiration.com). With minimal keystrokes, I’m able to mind map whatever I’m internally preaching. My goal is simply to empty myself and get everything down.

Thursday-Friday: This is when I flesh out the various parts of the message putting everything in order and beginning serious wordsmithing. Because I’m on the computer, it’s a lot of cut ‘n paste/drag ‘n place. I also begin exchanging mind map symbols for clipart graphics. The whole while, I’m preaching the message aloud. Just as the song, Jacob Ladder says, “Every round goes higher, higher.” The message, as I wish to preach it, is becoming embedded in my spirit.

Saturday: I go about my day, but shut down for a quiet evening. Before 9 p.m., I make sure my mind map is in final form, printed, and in my sermon portfolio with my Bible.

Sunday: Having lived with the message for 20-30 hours, when the preaching moment comes, I trust the anointing. The mind map keeps me on-track. I’m freed from anxiety to connect with the congregation as well as make course corrections with the Holy Spirit.

This overcoming daughter of Zion gives praise to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or think according to His power working in me! (Ephesians 3:20)

Talk to me! Share your thoughts on my solution to sermon preparation or your experience with overcoming adversity.

The Importance of Telling Our Story

"In the future your children will ask you, `What is the meaning of these stipulations, laws, and regulations that the LORD our God has given us?' Then you must tell them, `We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with amazing power. Before our eyes the LORD did miraculous signs and wonders, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people. He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had solemnly promised to give our ancestors. And the LORD our God commanded us to obey all these laws and to fear him for our own prosperity and well-being, as is now the case. For we are righteous when we obey all the commands the LORD our God has given us.'

~ Deuteronomy 6:20-25, NLT


I went to see the movie, The Gospel, last weekend. I have been psyched about this project since I first heard of it months ago on TBN. I sent emails to several friends urging them to go during this first weekend when the entertainment industry pays the most attention to the box office stats. I wanted to do whatever I could to help this movie succeed. All the while, down in my spirit, was a nagging question. Why was this movie so important to me? What made this movie worth the effort and energy? The answer was simple. Finally, there was a movie being produced by my sistahs and brothas, backed by a major Hollywood studio (Screen Gems) that unashamedly depicts my experience with God that is set in my church setting with my music and my artists. It is so important that people tell their own stories. Telling our stories will mean the difference between life and death for our future generations.

In the passage above, Moses tells the people that a day will come when children will ask why their faith was so important to them. On that day, he said they should tell them about how God brought them from destitution and despair to prosperity, protection, and wholeness. Likewise, for the very same reason, we should tell our children our story. Not only must we tell our salvation story as a people, but each family must tell its family story. Our children need to know the bridges and landmarks that have brought us over. They need to know of the folks who paved the way before them.

My story…

I am a born and bred “Bapticostal” minister, the firstborn of working class parents, and the first in my entire family to attend college. I grew up in a large (but nowhere near mega-sized) urban Baptist church that was both faith station and social center. Our worship style was the urbanized expression of the slave religious experience. We had the well-robed choirs and uniformly dressed ushers in the aisles that gave the U.S. Marines serious rivalry in the area of precision drilling. We were a Bible toting, scripture quoting, emotional preaching, sho’nuff singing, fall out shouting, dancing, praise Him to the highest congregation. Yet our worship was looked down upon by whites and affluent blacks alike as an uncivilized throwback to the jungles of Africa.

Until recently, I rarely saw my faith story told publicly in a positive light. Though Black preaching has been seen as "a unique cultural idiom", the overall worship experience has not been valued. The Sunday School materials of the 50s and 60s showed little white girls and boys interacting with a blonde hair, blue eyed Jesus. In the early 70s, I worked in a white church where the stained glass window had a shackled woolly-haired blue-black slave boy kneeling at the feet of a standing Abraham Lincoln eluding to Lincoln being the great Savior-Emancipator. During the early 80s, I became the Associate Pastor of a predominately white church. My black pastor and congregation came the white church for my installation service. The black folks came in great numbers. Our choir was beautifully robed choir. The deacons, church mothers, nurses, and ushers were smartly uniformed. All came to celebrate and share the worship experience. Though my new congregation went out of their way to be warm and polite, the discomfort of many with my style of worship was palpable. Our sacred expressions were not appreciated. We were too noisy, too emotional. The whispered comments were painful. Twenty years later, I teach Western Religions in a major university. The textbook selected for my course uses subtle imagery to stereotypically depict the black religious experience as a caricature of its authentic self.

“You can’t tell it. Let me tell it…what He’s done for me.”

This movie along with Tyler Perry’s “Madea” series (including his recent cinematic release, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”), and the Urban Works Entertainment productions are important movies to support because we are telling our salvation story with honesty, contextual integrity, and reverence for the God of our understanding. Our story is saving knowledge. When the Israelites stopped telling their story, the absence of saving knowledge became a key factor to their downfall. Israel was deported and Judah went into exile. I feel certain that the absence of us telling our salvation story has led to the erosion of the values African-Americans once held sacred.

Interesting thing happened while at the movies. Because the contemporary praise and worship genre has now crossed all Christian creeds, social classes, and ethnic cultures, EVERYBODY was into “my” experience.

If anything I said stuck a cord with you, please share. Only you can tell your story.