“Saul, Samuel, and the Witch of Endor” A Scary Story of BIBLICAL Proportions

It’s Halloween.  There’s a full moon.  We are experiencing superstorms and frankenstorms in diverse place.  And it’s Wednesday, so most of us have Bible study tonight. 

The perfect time to draw your attention to an actual true ghost story---- in the Bible.

Read 1 Samuel 28: 3-25.

Then read 1 Samuel 31: 1-5, which tells what happened the very next day.

Happy All Hallow’s Eve.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. "The Man with the Iron Friend"

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

I know that this proverb is out of order in the A WORD TO THE WISE series, but I was meditating on this verse and the Lord opened a realization to me.

You know that iron isn’t the only thing that sharpens iron, right?

Most of the knife blades I’ve sharpened (and I’ve sharpened a lot of knife blades) were sharpened on a stone.  This proverb is about the difference between the encouragement of friends and the encouragement of strangers.

See, encouragement and support are not generic concepts. 

To be a truly supportive friend, your method of encouraging must match the person you’re trying to help. 

If your friend is iron, be an iron friend. 

For example, if your friend is building a restauraunt, and you want to be supportive, then don’t do things that would be helpful to someone starting a band.  Do the specific kinds of things that encourage and assist a restaurant owner.     

Your method of help should match the person you’re trying to help.

Once you’ve gotten past the initial idea, your friend needs more than a generic, “Good job!  You can do it!” Heck, you can say that to anybody about anything.  Ask your restaurateur friend what kind of stove he/she is going to buy.  Find out the best places to buy tablecloths in town.  If there’s a conference for small business owners or a restaurant equipment showcase nearby, suggest going there before you suggest going to Six Flags.  Help clean-up after opening night.  Run to the store when they run out of tomatoes.  Wash some dishes.  Encourage your friend in specific ways that contribute to the important goal(s) he’s set for himself/ she’s set for herself.

And when they get overly-stressed and they need to get away and blow off steam in a non-job related manner, roll with that; but respect the grind when they start working on vacation.

That’s what it means to be iron friend adding to the edge of an iron friend.

But, iron isn’t the only thing that sharpens iron.  Your sister, co-worker, pastor, spouse, or buddy will also get help and sometimes encouragement from people who don’t care about  her/him.  That’s O.K.  Those people are sharpening stones, and there’ll be more stones than iron.  To succeed your friend needs those non-loving but beneficial relationships, too.  But those are stones.

You are iron, like your friend is iron.  You have his back because you love him, not just because he’s a good investment. 

You are working at her side because you love her, not just because your job description requires you to offer assistance to a client.

You are listening and helping in the way that he is saying he needs you to help, not just doing what serves your interests or allows you convenience. 

That’s being  a sharpening iron to an iron friend who needs help to be at his/her sharpest.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28: 25

Proverbs 28: 25     He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife,
but he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.

Proverbs 28: 25. Some translations refer to a proud or arrogant man.  Others refer to the greedy or covetous man.  So, the principle is that pride and greed are interchangeable & synonymous vices.   

If I think that I’m all that, then I want all that there is as the due reward for allowing you peons to benefit from my existence.  If I want what you have because you have it, it means that I think myself so above you (and you so far beneath me) that it is inherently unfair for you to have something good unless I have something much better.

And that, boys and girls, is where drama comes from.

That’s why thieves get genuinely mad when the people they’re robbing try to stop them.  That’s why community-destroying criminals speak self-righteously about the sin of snitching.  That’s why multi-billion dollar companies that trim their expenses by dumping poison into not-so-rich people’s water supplies and robbing workers of their legal wages, feel justified in complaining about the intrusion of government agencies.  And why instead of grabbing onto opportunities to work, to learn to manage money,  and to build a life and family the way God tells us to; some people choose instead to become professional beggars. (By the way, today’s professional beggars are much more sophisticated than those of ancient days.  Today, they have to be able to fill out forms, make phone calls, and present an appropriately sympathetic backstory.)

All this drama flows from the fountain of pride, arrogance, greed, and covetousness.

If your money is consistently the product of your drama, then Ding! Ding! Ding!  All of the above applies to you.

If your regular way of getting what you want/need includes playing members of a family, a church, a community, or an office against each other, then you are the person described in the first half of Proverbs 28: 25.  Drama doesn’t follow you. You bring drama.

But if you  want to call yourself a Christian, then you have to change because the last half of the verse is a stated promise and an implied warning from God.

The stated promise is that if you will put trust in God instead of trusting in your hustle, then God will provide for your needs----and do so abundantly.  The stated promise is that if you will follow God’s methods instead of the techniques of the thief, the exploiter, the corrupter, and/or the professional beggar---- then you will see that God’s way pays off better.

The implied warning is that if you don’t change, if you don’t drop the hustle, if you don’t stop the doggone drama------then you will never have anything worthwhile.  You will not have a better life.  And even if you already get some money, you will not have peace or stability in your relationships, including your relationship with Jesus.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
mail us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com  
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

YOUR SIGN?

Dr. Tony Evans told a  story on his radio program.  I’m paraphrasing it here.

A newlywed couple were driving late at night enroute to their honeymoon suite.  The man passed a car on the road, not seeing another car coming down the other side. 

Bam! 

The husband, who was driving, swerved and the  car wrecked.

When the man came to, he saw his bride on the other side, injured, bleeding, and unconscious.  As he looked around he noticed a sign: Office of Dr. Bill Smith.

He looked past the sign and saw what looked like a home with an office added on.   He thought, “Oh, we are in luck.  We were struck in front of a doctor’s office. “

He crawled from the car and dragged his bride to the building.

He rang the doorbell and a man came to the door.

The husband said, “Are you Dr. Bill Smith?”

“Yes, I am,” was the answer.

“Help me, please, Doctor. My bride is dying.”

The doctor said, “I’m sorry.   I can’t help you.  I don’t practice anymore.”

The man, holding his critically injured bride, looked at the “doctor” with anger and hopelessness and replied, “If you don’t practice, then take down your sign.”

(End paraphrase.)

The world around us is dying.  We the church, the members of the church, the folks who say we are Christians are by our profession holding up a sign that says, “I practice the faith that brings healing.  I practice the faith that brings salvation.  I practice the faith that brings peace and comfort and direction.  I practice the faith of Jesus.”

If when you are actually faced with lost, hurting, directionless, uninspired, broken, and /or spiritually immature, you are unwilling to put your faith into practice---------------- then take down your sign. 

Stop lying about who you are.  Stop lying about Whose you are.

If you are wrecked, hurting, needing direction, looking for a Savior, and/or searching for a place to put your faith into practice------ we’ll see you Sunday.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A LITTLE CRAZY IS NECESSARY, SOMETIMES

1 Corinthians 13:1     Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2     And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3     And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

No matter how good the things we do, no matter how well we do good things, we must always act with love and out of love.

Acts 26: 24     Now as [Paul] thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”

In your commitment to do what God has called you to do, you are never permitted to be un-loving.  But, sometimes--- sometimes you do have to be unreasonable.      

 

Sometimes it’ll look to others like you’ve gotten “beside yourself.”   Sometimes people will think that you’ve spent so much time studying this stuff that you’ve gone slap crazy.  Sometimes the reasons people present for you giving up or just compromising somewhat are so ---- logical, that to stay the course in the midst of the obvious conditions would be outside the bounds of reason.

O.K.

You’re not going  to respond to out of bitterness.  You’re not going to retaliate against nay-sayers or  set out to destroy dissenters.  You’re not allowed to be un-loving.

You are going to learn from the wisdom of your opponents and use  it to advance your crazy goals.  You are going to continue following the same insane calling no matter what the crap “they” say.  You are going to do what you know you’re meant to do---anyway.   

You’re not allowed to be un-loving, but you do get to be irritatingly unreasonable. 

Acts 26: 25     But [Paul] said, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. ... 29     And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.”

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com  
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28: 24

Proverbs 28: 24     Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, “It is no transgression,” the same is companion to a destroyer.

Proverbs 28: 24. Buford Graves (my pops) hated being lied to.  Seriously hated being lied to.  If I set something on fire as a kid, the whooping for the fire would be separate and less severe than the whooping for fabricating a response when he asked, “Why the  ***** is there a big ******  scorched place in the back yard?” 

In fact, over time I realized that if I stood up like a man and explained what happened honestly, the wrath would still come, but it would be much, much less severe, and less “linguistically colorful.”

(I’m speaking hypothetically, of course.  I never actually set anything on fire much.)

Daddy’s explanation for his hatred of lying above most all other sins was, “If you’ll lie, you’ll steal.  If you’ll steal, you’ll kill. And before I let you do that, I’ll kill you first.”

For Pops, lying was a gateway offense.  It fostered a mentality that was the foundation of all criminal behavior.

Now read Proverbs 28: 24 again. 

Solomon was telling his son that robbing/ defrauding/ taking financial advantage of your parents is a gateway offense.   “Son, if you’ll rob your daddy or your mama then you’re just like those people who ride around destroying people and villages----you little ***** barbarian!”

The mentality that allows your friend to steal grandma’s social security check and feel justified in doing so  is the mentality of a companion who will defraud you and then put on a Oscar winning performance framing you for whatever went wrong.

If someone brags about how they trick their parents out of money, manipulate their guardians for personal gain, and misuse elders in their family/ community ------ put some distance between you and that person.  If they’re O.K. with doing that, then they will do anything to anybody.

If you are/ have been guilty of defrauding parents or elders, check yourself.  What’s done is done, but if you feel bad about doing it---good.   The guilt is a good thing because it means that you haven’t given yourself over to the path of bitterness.

But, the bitterness and sense of entitlement that unrepentant fraud creates and nurtures  won't stay  contained in your relationship with the elders.  That same mentality will poison your other relationships.

If they have failed to do right by you, they were wrong.  Forgive them.  Forgive them.  And move on with your life. 

Don’t try to avenge yourself.  Don’t try to take by any means necessary what really may rightfully be yours.   If you’re obsessed with what was not given in the past, you will miss what’s available in the present and the future.  And so, you will destroy yourself and maybe even the generation that follows you.

Before Cain became a murder, God warned him that his attitude/ his mentality had him standing at the door/ the gate of a horrible, horrible act.   Cain ignored the warning.  Cain didn’t repent of his bitterness toward his brother, and after he destroyed Abel, he still showed no remorse for what he’d done. 

Cain opened the gateway to worse and worse sins, until it consumed him and infected generations of his descendants (Genesis 4: 23, 24).

So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ^  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 3: 6,7)

Solomon was right.  And, Buford was right, too.  For your own good, be careful how you treat old folks.  Be careful what gates of offense you walk through.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

ANOTHER COLLEGE TRIP? WHAT'S THE HURRY?

Matt 14:19 Then [Jesus] commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

Matt 15:36 And [Jesus] took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.

Matt 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

So in mid-October, Hall Memorial CME Church loaded up a bus with our sons & daughters and took them on an academic recruiting trip to the University of Alabama.    A couple of weeks from now in mid-November, we will load up the sons and daughters of Hall Memorial CME Church along with some students from our adopted school, Seth Johnson Elementary School, and take them on an academic recruiting trip to Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama. 

The question I’ve been asked is, “Again?  Why so soon?”

(Wait.  That’s two questions.)

I have answers, but first let’s consider the question(s).  If the trip was worthwhile (and it was), then isn’t it worth our while to do it again?  We the church have proven ourselves skilled at creating events.  From our earliest days,  the church has held festivals, and feasts, and special days.   I mean, Halloween is derived from an old made-up Christian “holy” day.  (Yes, I’m also aware of the pagan & occult roots of Halloween.  Stay on task.) 

What’s lacking in the church today isn’t special days or special events.  What’s lacking is ministry and movement.   In those seasons of history when the church has  turned the world upside down, Christianity was a movement, a movement for abolition, a movement for civil rights.  Big events never happened for the sake of saying, “We had such a good time.”  Big events were part of a larger, longer movement for changing something about society.    

Hall Memorial CME Church didn’t take one college trip and stop because what we do isn’t about bragging on a single, successful event.  Hall Memorial CME Church is a movement.  We are committed and focused on elevating the mindset of a community of children.  Our agenda is to transform the minds of our children so that they have the mind of Christ.  Jesus did not wander through life doing the bare minimum.    People observed the way Jesus lived, and they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well.” (Mark 7:37)

We’re going to a college campus again because the movement from survival to success isn’t complete.  We are pouring ourselves into the task of raising up a generation that spiritually, morally, academically, and socially  “does all things well.”

So why so soon?

Because we can.

Because God has blessed us with the opportunity to go now, so why would we wait?   Do we put it off for another few months, when we can go now?  Do we postpone another year, when we can go now?  Do we wander around for another 40 years when the blessing is right over the hill right now?

Nah, cause that’s not how ministry works.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.  (Galatians 6:10)

We have the opportunity, so we’re going to ride to Miles College on November 10^th.

Look back up at the 3 scriptures I placed at the opening of this post.

Jesus miraculously ministered bread to a multitude in the wilderness.  He did that.  It was done.  It was known.  It was widely publicized, and He was glorified for the event.    But in the next chapter, when the opportunity came to basically do what He’d already done, Jesus  fed them again.  That’s ministry. 

Later, when it was just Jesus and the disciples, with no multitude to applaud them, Jesus blessed the disciples’ bread in much the same way He had blessed the multitudes’ loaves.  He did so quietly, without an obvious miracle.  Jesus used the big events to prepare His followers for the real transformation, the shift that was best explained in that quiet, behind the scenes blessing of bread.   The big events were part of larger, longer, deeper movement to change the world.

On November 10th, at 7 A.M., when that bus leaves 541 Seibles Road, Montgomery, Alabama, headed to Miles College and then to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, it will be just one more important step in transforming a generation and a church.   

But this is just the beginning.

This is what we do at Hall Memorial CME Church.

You know you wanna get in on this.

See you Sunday.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28: 23.

Proverbs 28: 23     He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue.

Proverbs 28: 23.  First of all, it’s amazing and amazingly sad how popular Christianity has dumbed down the people of God.   The term “rebuke” gets so over-used in the context of spiritual warfare, and people read their Bibles so little,  that many Christians think “rebuking” another person means binding that person’s spirit or making that person go away. 

To rebuke someone means simply to tell them that they’re wrong, to set them straight (Genesis 21: 25; Leviticus 19: 17;  Matthew 16: 22; Luke 9: 55).

 

In Proverbs 28: 23, Solomon is teaching his son and us not to be a brown-nosers. 

There will be times when you’re dealing with somebody who’s wrong, or at least you think they’re wrong.  You may love them, respect them, even work for them.  Don’t if you say, “Oh, that’s a great idea!” when you sincerely believe that the whole things gonna fall apart----- don’t expect your false compliment to profit you in the long run.    If the boss’s idea does in fact fall apart, make no mistake, he/she is gonna look at you and ask, “Why in crap didn’t you say something before now?”

 Tell the truth.  Speak that truth in love not in a loud,  mean, or condescending manner.  And don’t just say, “That won’t work” or “We can’t do it.”  Identify the specific pieces of the plan that need revision.  Be prepared to help fix the weak links. 

As my mother Shirley Graves would say, “I know you can see the dirt, but can you sweep?”

The object of rebuke between people is correction and improvement. 

Now, if you’ve lived in the real world for any amount of time then you know that some folks don’t take rebuke very well. 

You sincerely just want to help.  They attack you for being negative or not-a-team-player. 

You try to be discreet and quiet.  They write you into their next sermon.

You believe in the vision and really just want to see the program succeed.  They label you as a threat and set out to destroy you.

Scriptures like Leviticus 19: 17 remind you that if you see your brother/ sister messing up and you withhold rebuke then you’re not expressing godly love.   Passages like Matthew 7: 6  and Luke 9: 5 warn you not to beat your head against a brick wall but to move on once you’ve said what you have to say.

So your rebuke won’t always be a conversation, especially when the conversation’s only going to lead to drama.

In Genesis chapter 20, Abraham and Sarai lied to Abimelech king of Gerar.  When the king found out, he responded by paying them the full amount of what was basically a civil settlement.   Abimelech was saying, “O.K.  I have totally and generously fulfilled my obligations in  this situation.  Now I’m out of it.”  Genesis 20: 16 says, Thus Sarai was rebuked.

Paul put it this way: “Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”  (Romans 12:20, which is quoted from Proverbs 25: 22)

If words have only made the situation worse, then don’t say anything else.  Don’t sabotage the idiotic plan, and don’t’ praise it when you know it’s idiotic.  Simply perform your duties with excellence and with integrity.  When it falls apart and you cannot be blamed---- therein is the rebuke.

Now, you can’t hide behind the non-verbal option.  You have to “gird your loins,” man-up/ woman-up and speak up.  But when you have tried the loving, discreet, well-intentioned, direct verbal rebuke (and tried it more than once) ---- if the results are counter-productive, then you close your mouth and let your actions speak, praying all the while that they get the message.

Remember that you don’t want to bind them up in failure.  You’re not trying to cast them away from your presence.  You want them to see and correct their error.  You want them to get it right. 

If that’s what you want, then you’ll find favor with God and, in the long run favor with that boss/ person who eventually realizes that you’re the one they could trust.

However, you don’t want the other person to do right and to succeed, then you just be quiet from the start because the only one you should be rebuking is yourself.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

LYING ON GOD (THE HISTORICAL LIE)

Everywhere you turn somebody’s telling you who God is.  Even, perhaps especially, non-Christian sources have a lot to say about the nature and actions of the God of the Bible.  This message considers the origin and motivation behind some of these perceptions and compares what “they” say with what the Bible and history actually say.  Take a rapidfire walk through His-story in a sermon about LYING ON GOD (Historical Lies).

Listen well.

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Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com   
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves  

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28: 22 "Broke to Be Rich"

Proverbs 28: 22     A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, and does not consider that poverty will come upon him.

Proverbs 28: 22.  I’m not sure who makes the “Under New Management” signs in Montgomery, but their business is booming.  Every odd week a restaurant closes, and every even week the closed place re-opens under a new name.   Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Though, often the food is really good, I have noticed a small, common factor in the restaurants that are fated to close:  They’re not prepared to lose money.   

New businesses, even those with strong, profitable business models go through an initial period of spending more than they take in.  The appropriate expenses of renovating, hiring, setting up new contracts, advertising, etc., etc.  mean that opening night profits won’t cover opening night expenses.  An entrepreneur who assumes immediate profitability, will close up shop when the business doesn’t start off making money.  The former place will soon be “Under New Management.”  Meanwhile the entrepreneur opens a new place with the same expectations of immediate riches.  Wash.  Rinse. Repeat.

A successful business owner once told me, “If you’re not prepared to go broke, then you’re not prepared to get rich.”

In the book of Exodus, the children of Israel were enroute to the Promised Land which God was going to place “Under New Management”---- theirs.  They were not, however, prepared to be hungry (Exodus 16: 1-3).  They were not prepared to go thirsty (Exodus 17: 1-3).  They were not prepared to lose life and limb facing the giants who were current owners of the place (Numbers 14: 1-3).    They ended up wandering from spot to spot for 40 years until a braver generation emerged.

Jesus hand-picked the apostle Peter to manage the early development of the Christian Church (Matthew 16: 15-19) , but Peter wasn’t prepared to see Jesus die (Matthew 16: 21-23).  He wasn’t prepared to face his own spiritual weakness (Luke 22: 31-34).  Peter had to go through a season of sifting.  After that he was changed/ converted and made able to lead and strengthen the brethren (Luke 22: 32).

A business, a people, a church, or a family that has been promised prosperity must consider that poverty will come upon them.   We have to accept that a season of hard work with little gain is required before the time of harvest.  

You can’t save it and enjoy spending it at the same time.  You won’t know it without the sometimes tedious effort of learning it (and getting it wrong sometimes as you learn).   You can’t grow unless you’re willing to lose a few along the way. 

You won’t get rich if you aren’t prepared to be broke.

If the sacrifice is too great, you can always walk away from what God has promised you.  But, the promised blessings will still be there(Romans 11: 29; 2 Corinthians 1: 20).  They’ll just end up “Under New Management” (Matthew 25: 25-29).

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,

Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28: 21 "Partiality"

Proverbs 28: 21     To show partiality is not good, because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

Proverbs 28: 21.  Right is right.  Wrong is wrong.  Just is just.  Stupid is stupid.  Regardless of whom the people are.  Regardless of their/ your affiliations.

Yet, there are people who expect you to support them and their plans just because you are also a Democrat, or a Republican, or Black, or White, or Methodist.  These people talk a lot about mutually scratching backs, but their ease with partiality and favoritism betrays a dangerous mentality. 

For them status and power are more important than old-fashioned right and wrong.  When your integrity, your reluctance to get with the program, or your basic existence threatens their superior status or fails to sufficiently increase their power-----they will sell you out.  Interestingly, today as in Solomon’s time, most sell-outs happen over a meal.

 Be warned.  The “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” approach exposes your blind side to strange fingernails and to potentially fatal knife wounds.

Oh, and look at the backs of the people around you.  Check your hands for a hidden blade.  Examine your mentality. 

Consider whether you feel justified in attacking your brother or sister just because he/she failed to tow the party line. 

How easy has it become to disregard the plank in your associates eye while you take a magnifying glass to the speck in the eye of your opponent?  

What moral lines have you crossed in the name of “unity”? 

What explicit Biblical truths have you ignored for the good of the group?

What truths from the other side have you dismissed? 

What lies from your side have you defended?

Has your self(ish)-interest, your desire to maintain or take back your power led you to blind partiality? 

Was the bread good?

To show partiality is not good, because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

Leviticus 19:15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. 

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 28:20 "Get Rich Quick?"

Proverbs 28: 20     A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 28: 20.   Getting rich quick never means staying rich long.  There are schemes which will put money in your hands with little effort and in a short time.  But built into all those schemes are the inevitable ways that money will be taken from you--- quickly, like snatching duct tape off your arm.  And you know, when you get duct tape on your arm and the tape gets snatched off, you always lose some hair and some skin. 

When the get-rich-quick schemes fall apart (and they always do) you’ll lose more than you’d gained.  And you might lose some parts of your life that you can’t just grow back.

But, I understand.  You need more.  You want better than what you have, and you know that you have to get out there and get it.  O.K., but since getting it quick will be counter-productive, you need to a method that will work and leave you better not worse off.

The word God uses for the productive approach is FAITHFUL.

Faithfulness before God means knowing the path He has chosen for you and following it with increasing commitment, increasing competence, and increasing love.  Thus ,as you are more and more faithful, God delivers to you more and more blessing. (Remember the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: 14-30.)

As 2 Corinthians  8:7, puts it: as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.

Hear your calling.  Learn your purpose.  And turn every gift, experience, credential, connection, skill, and issue that you have toward fulfilling that calling and purpose.

Your calling is the purpose for your life.  Therefore, expect to spend all of the rest of your life pursuing the different aspects, avenues, and opportunities that are part of that purpose.   This won’t be an “Oh, I did that.  Now I’m done” experience.  This will be an “I’m doing this. Now I need to add that to what I’m doing” life. 

A faithful servant evaluates each opportunity for how it does or doesn’t fit into the Master’s calling.  If it pulls you from the path, even if there’s a promise of quick reward, stay away from it.   If it’s difficult or risky, but it fits within the Word and follows your purpose, then handle it.

You won’t always get it right the first time.  Keep trying. 

You won’t always receive proper reward or recognition when you get it right.   Keep getting it right.  Continue doing what God called you to do, but keep doing it better and better.

Getting it quick means a paid-day.  Following faithfully means a prosperous life.

Choose wisely.

1 Peter 5: ^6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577

Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116