Monday, September 30, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. PROVERBS 31: 27. "Sacrificing Nothing"

Proverbs 31: 27     She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Proverbs 31: 27.  Do you remember the children’s story, “The Little Red Hen”?

There was this little red hen who came upon some grains of wheat.  She asked all of the farm animals to help her plant the wheat.  Each one said, “No.  Not I.” So she planted the wheat all by herself.

The little red hen asked for help weeding the green stalks when they came up.  She asked for help plucking the wheat, threshing the wheat.  She asked for help taking the wheat the mill.  She asked for help baking the ground wheat flour.  Each time the other farm creatures replied, “No.  Not I.”  So, she did all of the work herself.

Finally, the little red hen emerged from her kitchen with a warm, freshly baked loaf of bread.  (The picture books always showed a loaf that was bigger than the hen carrying it.)   She asked if there was anyone to help her eat the bread, and every animal on the farm stood up and shouted, “I will.” 

“No, you won’t,” replied the little red hen.  “I will eat it myself, just me and my little chicks.”  And that is exactly what they did.

The animals on the farm wanted to eat without working.  They wanted the enjoy the bread of idleness.

Sometimes people fail because they won’t sacrifice some thing:  some destructive relationship, some self-destructive habit, some token of security that keeps them from advancing . 

But other times---- most of the time--- people fail to succeed because they won’t sacrifice their nothings.  They won’t give up the time they spend doing nothing.  They won’t give up the time they spend reading nothing.  They won’t give up the time they spend learning nothing.  They won’t give up the time they spend not practicing, not calling, not emailing, not pursuing opportunities, not exercising their gifts.

It’s possible to miss your chance because you were doing the wrong thing, but it’s more common to miss your chance because you were doing NO THING.

And there are some people, including some women, who actually expect to have everything they’ve dreamed of while holding on to their nothings.  They expect to eat the bread of idleness.

Bro, you don’t need a woman like that.   You need a woman who will plant, and weed, and pluck, and grind away while all of her friends are waiting for Prince Baller to ride through and drop a loaf of bread on their nightstands.

The little red hen you’re looking for may or may not work outside the home.  But she does work.  She sacrifices idle time to make sure that the children are taken care of.  She sacrifices do-nothing time to learn how to take better care of the house.  She gives up the many nothings she could do, and she does everything possible to make her family more and more successful.  

But them other chicks……..?  

If you run across one of those women who wants to do nothing outside the home, and do nothing from home, and do nothing in the home, but she expects you to give her everything she wants------ then you answer, “No.  Not I.”

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, September 29, 2013

SIN, MONEY, & CRAZY

Many churches and church member face serious problems.  Those problems are diverse and complex, but in the congregations I most interact with, all of the major issues boil down to 2 things:  sin and money.

The life of Gideon in the book of Judges deals with the problems of sin and money, and it shows us the solution.  But I have to warn you, the answer is a little crazy.

The title of the message is SIN, MONEY, & CRAZY.

Listen well.


---Anderson T. Graves II   is a  writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .
If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 26. "Gracious Lady"

Proverbs 31: 26     She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

Proverbs 31: 26.  The ideal woman, the kind who’d make a great queen, knows what to say and exactly how to say it.  She is not the airhead  laughing mindlessly and loudly all the guys’ jokes while squeezing her shoulders together so they can see her cleavage.   The future queen is too wise for that.  She understands that if she presents herself like a fool that any man can have then men will treat her like a fool that any man can have.

The future queen, wherever she is, whomever she is, speaks with wisdom and kindness.   And she isn’t nice according to class, or ethnicity, or economic status, or how closely the other people match her concept of physical beauty.  She is kind according to the law of God. 

Because God said so, she loves and speaks kindly to her neighbor---- her rich neighbor, her poor neighbor, her Christian neighbor, her you-believe-what neighbor, her same-race-as-me neighbor, her not-my-same-skin-tone neighbor, her looks-like-they-got-it-all-together neighbor, her everything’s-falling-apart neighbor, etc., etc.

She’s not nice because she’s weak.  She isn’t kind because she’s “fake.”  (“Fake” is such a hellishly stupid concept.  Like somehow it’s more genuine to be a gossiping jerk than to be freakin’ polite and professional.)  The woman who will be queen is not polite because she wants something from you.  She is kind because that’s how the Bible, the law of God, teaches her to be. (Ephesians 4: 29-32;  Luke 10: 29-37)

The same speaker who described the virtuous woman also advised the reigning king: 
Open your mouth for the speechless,
In the cause of all who are appointed to die.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
And plead the cause of the poor and needy. ( Proverbs 31: 8, 9)

A Proverbs 31: 26 woman speaks kindly and wisely because that is what good kings do, and she is a match for a king. 

In the South, we have a word for a such a woman.  We call her a “gracious lady.”  It’s the way we describe the wives of governors and presidents, and the matriarchs of great families.   It’s what we expect of our queens.

Speak to people as a gracious lady.  It’s what God expects of His queens.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.   Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4: 5, 6)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, September 22, 2013

LIVING WRONG IN THE NAME OF JESUS

The closing chapters of the book of Judges record events that weren’t very ------ godly.  These are not the accounts of Biblical role models.  These are the what-not-to-do stories.  Judges chapters 17 & 18 in particular shows how good, loving, family-oriented people end up setting in motion generational cycles of sin that consume them, their descendants, and their community.  The lessons of this cautionary tale can change the trajectory of your life and the lives of those you love. 


Listen well so that you don’t end up LIVING WRONG IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a  writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.
Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 25. "The Warrior Wife"

Proverbs 31: 25     Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31: 25.  I feel really bad for a man who, day after day, has to wake up to weak coffee and/or a weak woman.  Neither one is going to help the brother get through the day.

And, sisters, I know that there are a historical and cultural forces that encourage you to dull your intellect, atrophy your strength, and let your boobs speak for you.  Fight against those forces.

It may be easier to project a perpetually wretched attitude.  It may be easier to pretend to be stupid until it’s no longer pretending.  It may be easier to let men pass you around like an unmarked cup at a frat party.  But in the end you will have only misery.

It’s more difficult for a woman to walk in her strengths, to lead with her brains and not her body, to be honorable in relationships rather than being gossipy, messy, and cliquish.  Yeah, that is much harder. But God promises and experience proves that you will be happier in the end.

God made you to be both strong and honorable. 

Not miserable and wretched.  Not weak and silent.   Not dumb and promiscuous.  Strong and honorable.

Strength refers to the ability to perform her tasks.  Honor refers to trustworthiness and loyalty.

Strength and honor sounds like a warrior traits, don’t they? 

Of course they do.

After all , a man needs a wife who will watch his back, much like a king needs bodyguards to watch his.

A king doesn’t ask the cook to watch his back if the cook is just a cook.  A king doesn’t leave guard duty to the butler if the butler is just the butler.  A king doesn’t dispatch the janitor to cover the flank while he charges toward the enemy, not if the janitor is just a janitor. No.   Unless------ the cook, the butler, and the janitor are really warriors undercover.   

Under the cover of marital submission, a man’s wife is really his most trusted and loyal warrior.

Now, I don’t need my wife’s physical protection.  Physical protection is my job. (Yes.  It is.) 

But I do need somebody to spot (and sometimes quietly eliminate) the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual threats that I miss.   That’s the job of my warrior-queen.

When I look at the woman God gave me to watch my back I know that she will and I know that she can.   I hear it in her conversation.  I see it in the clothes she chooses (and chooses not) to wear.  I feel it in the way her body tenses and her eyes narrow when untrustworthy people step into my personal space.   It’s all over her.

She wears strength and honor like clothing.

And that looks good on a woman.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, September 15, 2013

PRAISE BY THE BOOK

What does it actually mean to “praise the Lord”?
Set aside your assumptions, and prepare to learn what the Book actually says about what God does and does not want in our praise.
Learn how to Give God PRAISE BY THE BOOK.


Listen well.
The message is called  PRAISE BY THE BOOK.

Listen well.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a  writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Friday, September 13, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 16. "She Invests"

Proverbs 31: 16     She considers a field and buys it;
From her profits she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 31: 16.  She doesn’t buy the property just because it’s cute.  She doesn’t want the field because, “So-and-so bought his wife a field, and all the real ballers got fields now.”  She gets the field because she is going to plant the field and work the field, and once the field becomes profitable she can upgrade to a vineyard which will gain her family entry into the lucrative wine market.

This isn’t a vanity purchase.  It is an investment in her family’s future.

Investments take her time and her labor work and her perseverance, but over time, investments appreciate and pay off. 

Bro, you don’t need a woman who only brings back purchases.  From time to time she should bring home an investment.  

The sister ought to come home with a new degree or certification so she can get a raise, a pack of seeds so you never have to buy vegetables again, , a new book  she just wrote, a ball of yarn for the sweaters she’s gonna sell, a mixer for the cupcakes she peddles out of the back door, a set of tools for the cars she fixes on the side, a job, or something.  Something that appreciates and adds value for your family’s future.

Notice that the woman described in Proverbs 31: 16 doesn’t expect her husband to do all of the work.  She appraises the land.  She negotiates the purchases.  She plants.  Not because she’s needs a backup plan in case this marriage thing doesn’t work but because she knows that this family is forever and she is investing in that future.

When my wife and I got married neither of us had finished college.  Since our wedding she has earned 4 degree, including 2 master’s degrees and an Ed.S.  You have to understand that my wife doesn’t really like taking classes, and she HATES writing papers.  She has 2 master’s degrees and an Ed.S.  That’s a lot of classes and a loooooot of papers. 

She didn’t put herself through all of that because it was required for a high school science teacher nor was she satisfying a sense of vanity or competition.  She pre-calculated the career raises and retirement benefits, factored in job satisfaction from the changing job titles with the 2nd masters and compared it all to tuition costs over time.  The investments were worth it.  Well worth it.

So, bro, before you trip about her going back to school, writing that music, getting that industrial sized mixer, or ordering pizza on Thursday because she’s got an extra-large order to fill by the weekend------ chill.  Take a breath and consider the return on her investment.   She isn’t neglecting her wifely duties.  She is fulfilling them.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Thursday, September 12, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 15. "First Up. First In."

Proverbs 31: 15     She also rises while it is yet night,
And provides food for her household,
And a portion for her maidservants.

Proverbs 31: 15.  The manager of a hotel or restaurant is up and on duty hours before breakfast begins.  He/she makes sure that the staff are all in place, equipped, and on task to provide food and hospitality for the guests.  The manager probably never flips a single pancake or takes a single order, but he/she takes care of everybody ---- all of the guests and all of the staff.   

Why would “a boss” get up so early and work so hard when he/she has employees to do that stuff?  Because that’s what it takes to be a boss.

First up.  First in.  Last to leave.  Last to bed.

That’s how King David lived (Psalm 119: 147).  That’s how Moses operated (Exodus 8: 20; 34: 4).  Joshua got up first and got it started (Joshua 3:1).  And Jesus was always up and rolling before his disciples (Mark 1: 35), even if He’d ended the night before literally dead (Matthew 28: 1, 2).

First up.  First in.  Last to leave.  Last to bed.

I remember the many cold mornings that my father woke me to do some early morning chore.  I remember that he was already fully dressed and he’d already been up and outside working before he came to get me.  I remember carefully stepping over the freshly shined shoes that Daddy changed into for the day job he sandwiched between early morning and late evening working on the farm.

I remember my mom flicking on the light switch and hollering for me to get up and get ready.  I remember that she had the housecoat on over her workclothes, her makeup was already done,  and the house already smelled of biscuits (homemade from scratch), and grits, and bacon that were almost done.

First up.  First in.  Last to leave.  Last to bed.

That’s what it takes to be a leader.  That’s what it takes to be “a boss.”

And ladies (as Proverbs 31 states), that’s what it takes to be a queen.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116