to be sound with flavor...........

I awoke this morning with the same question that I went to sleep with last night. Where do I find a place of worship that is sound but also understands the dichotomy of what it is to be black and reformed. I had the opportunity this morning to read a blog called, "So you want to be a diverse church?", this morning. Brother Woods, sounded off better than I could have of trying to be sound but also appealing to the flavor that he comes to the table with.

Being black in America is one thing but be to black in America as well as totally depended on the Sovereignty of God puts you in a whole another class. It disenfranchises you from most of the pseudo-christian culture. Where it is cool just to go to church with no relevant change taking place in you life. As I woke up yesterday, I began to really to get disheartened by the fact that there were no churches in my city that really preached Christ centered messages to the black community.

Along with my wife, we eventually ended up going to a predominately white church. The service was outstanding. We arrived late but the word that I got in that 30 minutes was more food than I had received at a service in South Carolina since we moved back here. I was always dismayed from going to this church because this church was one of the biggest churches in the city if not the biggest. But I was challenged and informed but yet I felt indifferent.

I grew up in an holiness church then starting preaching in a baptist church , ordained by a missionary church and I attend a Lutheran Seminary. With that being said I have seen a lot of things but this church though not a reformed church preaches a reformed doctrine as much as I could tell. As we left I asked my wife, "Why do we seek to entertain in the black churches instead of informing and teaching". She could not answer and I went back to eat more carpet in prayer. Once again I stood at the door of my question," how do you be sound with flavor". But I am still encouraged by the words of C.H. Spurgeon," believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.”

Just my thoughts

The Reality of Serving

Though I have a great admiration for the Apostle Paul' s writing, I look and say to myself that I do not want to be him. He was an amazing dude that had insight and wisdom, far beyond anything that I can imagine in myself at this moment in my life. But as I read his story through the different letters he wrote I am rocked off the fact that he never spoke about quitting. He would say "I have fought the good fight" (2 Tim. 4:7)or "for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung".( Phil. 3:8).

These are the words that Paul spoke about the things that he endured as he trekked through his life with God. It is amazing to me that Paul speaks with so much confidence in God when so many bad things are rocking his world. He is beaten, almost killed and many other things but he continues to be consumed by the majesty of the Lord. He looks at it as if it is a privilege to suffer for Christ. What a brand to have associated with you?

This serves as a reminder that walking with the Lord will cause you at times to be in a stage of suffering every once an a while. The fact of the matter is that God gets the glory out of the situation and you reap the benefits. This is a easier said than done task but it holds true. As the old mothers in the baptist church used to say" even when you can't trace him you have to trust him." Wow, what wisdom is found it that statement.

I am forever rocked off the word of God.

Just my thoughts

Can I Quit?

As I sit and write this blog, I find my self wondering about quitting everything that is going on in my life. Sometimes life can deal you a bad hand and you just have to play the cards you are dealt. Regardless of all the situations that may go on in you life, you have to keep it moving. As I do some introspection, I really do not have it that bad. I have a house, wife , children, job and plenty other things to go along with those. But the catch is these are some of the very things I want to quit doing sometime.

I know this may not be the most diplomatic way of saying things but I am pass diplomacy. it appears that you work so hard to become better for you and your family but you do move at all. That makes you want to quit. You try to show forth the necessary love to your family but that blows up in your face. You work hard at your place of employment and the next thing you know they are trying to fire you. If not careful all these things can leave a root of bitterness in your heart. This is about the point when you have to look at the Sovereignty of God and rest in that comfort. Though I do not understand everything that is happening I have to believe and know in my heart that it working out for my good. There has to be a reassurance that God is really in control of everything that is happening to me.

As I write I rehearse Romans 8:28 over and over in my mind. That scripture has become my moniker of sorts for progress. I am bugging out but God's massive grace has me chilling. So I make a choice to stay there in the midst of all my issues and misunderstanding because he is sovereign.

Just my thoughts