One of the goals I strive to accomplish with servinemup.com, is to make sure I touch on current social and political events that are happening around the world, such as the elections in Iraq or the joint meeting of the 4 different National Baptist Conventions. Of course this means I have to read different newspapers and various media (internet, TV, radio, etc) outlets that serve up the information for the day.
The bad part about it, is that once you start reading about all the things going on in the world, the wars, the diseases, the famine as well as the thousands of atrocities committed every day, it all has it’s way of making you want to grow closer to God. Because once you open your eyes and see all of the demons and evil forces that are so active in the world, it will freak you out a bit and incline visions of living on an isolated island away from all of the perils of society.
Some people remain blissfully ignorant..
"I don’t watch the news, I don’t read the newspaper, I don’t know NUTHIN and I like it just like that!"
While others start paying greater attention to what’s really going on in the world and then they get paranoid. Some even to the extent of barricading themselves and their family away from the rest of the world. I have my moments, from time to time, when I read or see news so disturbing, that it will make me seek refuge through prayer and reading the Bible. There’s some sick and twisted people in this world ya’ll and we’ll never have enough jails to keep them locked and isolated away from the rest of the population.
So for those who don’t have a safe haven of refuge, a place where they can go and be reassured that ALL things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose, I pray for you too. Because when those storm winds start blowing, you better have a plan to come on in out of that rain. You gotta have faith in SOMEthing mane…or else there is no hope.
Now of course, all news isn’t dreary and depressing. There are some occurrences that happen in life that will make you smile and say, “Hoorayy for the good guys!” Feel good pieces if you will. I can only go so long with reading of the latest shootings, armed robberies and murders in the metropolitan section of the paper before I need to come up for a breath of fresh air. When I write my blogs here on servinemup, I always try to have an encouraging tone in the background, Jesus lives ya’ll..the tomb is empty! All of the people who visit servinemup DON’T recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior, some people get upset just to see those words.
"There he goes again with all that Christian evangelizing!! Why is it, that whenever someone believes in Jesus they feel the need to ‘enlighten’ everyone else about Him?? "
When you embrace Jesus into your heart, it will give you a charge of love and hope and you really know when you’ve ‘got it’, when you want to go out and tell everyone who doesn’t know, about the Amazing Grace and Mercy of the Lord. It’s part of the call to discipleship. Too many people allow hypocritical church going folks or prosperity preachers to turn them away from really learning about the full gospel. From pedophile priests to whoremongering preachers, there are a myriad of problems in the church that cause people to shun organized religion and instead just ‘do their own thang’. When you read the Bible, you’ll learn that this isn’t a new phenomena to the world, the last verse of the book of Judges reads:
In those days, there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes. – Judges 12:25 KJV
So even way back after the children of Israel had entered the Promised Land, people were shunning religion and organized worship and just doing their own thang. I’ve never considered myself a religious person, but I do consider myself a spiritual person. I pray, I meditate, I study the Bible daily, and I diligently seek Him. And right in the midst of growing stronger in the Word, I realized that I looked pretty stupid going to God in prayer, asking Him for blessings, when I knew I wasn’t obeying all of His commandments, which includes honoring the Sabbath.
Of course we can all turn on our TV and hear some Joel Osteen or T.D. Jakes or whoever is on, preach the Word and get our ‘church’ on. But this does not negate the need to join in fellowship with a church body of Believers. The actual act of GOING to church is still a sensitive subject with a lot of young folks and men, mainly because Sunday is for FOOTBALL!! Right? I’m sure there’s a lot of folks sitting in those church pews every Sunday thinking about kickoff, ready to watch Mike Vick do the fool, or ready to watch Ray Lewis hit somebody. I like football too! But once I became a father and I started observing my kids growing up in this increasingly sinful and immoral world, I knew I wanted them to have the foundation of knowing the Lord and His Word.
Because there’s a lot of places that I have been in my life, that would have taken me into a lot darker roads if not for my childhood training in the Bible and the ways of the Lord. I didn’t want my children to be devoid of this ultimate ‘grip’. So my wife and I started sending our children to Sunday School, but we’d stay home. Then my wife started going and I was staying home..doing MY thang.
Ya’ll football freaks know how it goes on Sunday mornings in the NFL season..wake up in time to eat some breakfast and watch pre-game shows. By the time those noon kickoff games come around..PSSSHTT!! That’s the sound of a cold one popping open and you get that good long first swig in..you know, the game is better when you got your ‘mind right’. Kids come home from church and see you in your spot on the couch, doing ‘your thang’, you might even ask them if they had fun in church, but right when the commercial goes off, you’re right back into the game..doing your thang.
This is not a diatribe against football fans, because I’m one of them. I really do enjoy watching the games. But for those who are fooling themselves into thinking they’re part of the family of God, but yet they’re not making ANY effort to worship or praise Him in the fellowship of other Believers, whether it’s at Sunday School, 11 o’clock service, Saturday night worship service, prayer meeting, Bible study..if you ain’t giving ANY of your time to Him? Then you need to check yourself and be real. The most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. With the multitude of church services in America, there’s SOME fellowship that has a worship schedule conducive to your weekly routine. Once you start giving God some of your TIME..that’s when He’s going to grab you even closer to Him so that you can feel just how good He really is.
Now the good thing about the Superbowl, is that it doesn’t start until the evening, so you can go to church, get your praise on and be back in front of the television READY to enjoy the game! The Superbowl is a huge social event here in America, especially here on the Southside of Houston Texas. People throw Superbowl parties, everybody comes over hyped, smiling, and ready to enjoy the game, eat some good food and enjoy the fellowship of other football fans and friends. My wife and I have our ‘road dogs’ that we hang out with..either they’re at our house or we’re at there’s. Somebody might be firing up the bar-b-que pit or it might be a big pot of chili or gumbo on the stove, cooler full of dranks..it’s a PARTY!
It’s always good to find a group of people that like to kick it like you like to kick it. Good food, good drinks, big fun and a lot of laughs. This camaraderie is a large part of enjoying life, because no matter how successful you are, if you don’t have anyone to share it with, your joy will be limited. So I hope all of you out there had a nice Superbowl weekend, and now that the football season is over, you might want to take this time to reflect on your fellowship life. Since there won’t be any football games on until the late summer, you just got a lot more free time on your hand on Sunday mornings. Why don’t you gone and call that audible and redirect the play toward the Lord? There’s no better time than now, cuz in case you haven’t heard, Satan and his legion of angels are in an all out blitz! They’re trying to get your soul mane, you better call Jesus for that ‘max protect’ scheme..He’s the only way you can win.
