Already.
What exactly does that mean??
Did you read that Scripture from Isaiah 6:8?
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Uhhh..yeah, I read that..but that’s talking about the prophet Isaiah..that’s not YOU!
Well, the Bible isn’t just a historical text, it’s also a guide for us to live by and follow, so to me, it’s kinda like that story about the dude in the boat.
Dude in the boat??
Yeah..it was a dude out fishing in the ocean in his boat one day and all of a sudden, the winds changed and thundering clouds started rolling in. It got so dark and gloomy that all of the other small boats like his started heading toward shore and as they passed by him they called out, ‘Say mane!! It’s getting bad out here, you betta head on in like us!’ The dude just brushed them off, cuz in his mind, he was one of God’s children and his proclaimation to them was, ‘Ya’ll don’t worry about me..God has got me covered.’ Next thing you know, the weather started getting rough and the tiny ship was tossed..
That sounds like the Gilligan Island song!
Yeah..I jacked it a bit..but the point is, the water got more and more choppy and the larger boats were heading in to shore to safety and they saw the dude in his little boat being tossed to and fro and they called to him to let them help him get in to safety. But once again, the dude waved them away and told them, ‘God has got me’. Well as time passed the storm REALLY started raging and it was all the dude could do to stay in his boat and not capsize, but then a Coast Guard helicopter flew by and dropped down a line and called out over the megaphone, ‘Grab the line and we’ll pull you up!! This is your last chance!!’ But the dude remained steadfast, in his mind, he knew God would save him, so he waved them off and they left.
This must be one of those ‘miracle’ stories.
No, actually this is a hardened heart story..cuz not too long after the helicopter had left, the man’s boat capsized and he fell into the ocean and drowned. So he’s going up before the Judgement Seat of the Lord and he passes by St. Peter on his way to the stand and asks him, ‘Say mane! What’s the deal?? I thought God and all the saints and angels had my back?? How come ya’ll didn’t save me??’, Peter looked at him while he shook his head and said, ‘Jesus came for you 3 times and you kept denying Him…mane.’
Oh. So I guess you’re saying that God sent you to save folks?
I don’t know about all that..but I do know that the people who read what I write, as well as the people who know D. Washington personally, will never be able to say that nobody ever told them about Jesus Christ.
Yeah well..you already know how I feel about that religion thang..it’s a man made construct to appease the masses. The God I submit to isn’t confined to a building full of folks who think they’re holier than thou.
Neither is Jesus. As Believers we go to church as an act of obedience, because if you want to have God’s protective hedge around you and your family, you need the covering of being part of a praise and worship community.
C’mon now! You ain’t got to go to church to believe in God!!
That’s true..but if you DO believe, then you’re going to study that Word and hold it close to your heart. And God’s Word does not change, all those who are called by His name are commanded to honour the Sabbath and keep it holy. You can make all kind of excuses about how you’re already ‘All prayed up’ or how you watch ministers on TV to get fed, but that still doesn’t negate you from being responsible to the commandment..obedience is better than sacrifice mane.
Yeah, well, maybe it’s just me. Cuz whenever I do go to church, I find myself being turned off by all the jankiness IN the church! From the preachers sleeping with almost every woman in the congregation, to all the phonies who show up just to show off their clothes..I just prefer to worship God by myself and keep it real.
I feel that..cuz I used to be just like that too. But if you’re REAL about keeping it REAL, then you’re going to study that Word. And as easy as it is to take it in ‘sips’, using those Scriptures that ‘feel right’ to you as edicts, but ignoring the commandments that you’re not ready to deal with, that’s when you’re going to find yourself trapped in the midst of a storm, then God is going to start working on your heart. You don’t have to feel bad about having shortcomings and faults, we all do. God doesn’t expect you to come to Him as a perfect person, He just wants you to come..He’ll take care of the rest in due time.
See..you making a n’ga feel all…strange and sh’t. Cuz you trying to make a n’ga think about some thangs that he just ain’t ready for yet.
That ain’t me..that’s that Word I just put on you that’s working on your heart. (smiling) Like I told you mane..God sent D for ya!
So I guess you’re that n’ga that’s throwing down ropes to save folks!?
Nah, I can’t even save myself..Jesus is the one who gets the glory mane. He’s the one that got up on that cross and laid it down for us.
Jesus is the Savior huh?
Already!
Mane D..with the way you break it down, you could start your own church and have people down to follow you.
Yeah..well, God is not through with D yet, I still have my own issues I’m working through.
What do you mean?
Well..in my mind, the people who GO to church have already acknowledged their need to grow closer to Him. God put on my heart to reach out to those who don’t go to church or study the Word for themselves. When you survey the landscape of what’s really going on in the world today, we already have more than enough preachers up in the pulpit, what we really NEED right now is more soldiers on the battlefield. Shining that Light into the darkness, so that those who are lost might be found.
I can feel that.
No soul left behind mane…Servinemup Ink is ridin’ on them fools!! Now..whatchu go do?
What do you mean?
You know what I mean n’ga..are you go come on in or are you go stay out there in the that storm?
I don’t know if I’m ready for all that yet.
That ain’t no excuse..I wasn’t ‘ready’ either, but at some point you have to step on out there on faith, knowing that He got you. Cuz one thing’s for sure, ready or not, Jesus is coming back mane..and if you ain’t on His team, you’re bound to drizz-own. Be a REAL player mane…get in the game for the Lord.
I was playing golf the other day with a close friend, and two other guys that we had never met. That’s just how golf is, they pair you with strangers, but by the end of 18 holes you end up as friends. It doesn’t always end up that way, cuz sometimes you have to play with people who are so ‘throwed off’, you never want to play with them again..anyway, over the course of the round, we all started talking about our professions and what it is we do for a living and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of the guys we were playing with was a journalist. I made sure to give him one of my cards and told him to check out the website..www.servinemup.com...but as me and my podna got back into our cart to drive to the next hole, he started smiling at me…
You gave him one of your cards?
Yeah..I ‘serve’ em up whenever I can.
Man…he’s going to be tripping when he reads some of your stuff.
Why do you say that?
Well you know..I read it..and you write about some different kind of sh’t that most n’gaz don’t talk about. Sometimes you write about some sh’t that I ain’t even ready to think about.
You know what? That’s probably the best compliment I’ve ever received.
Really? Why do you say that?
Cuz that lets me know that I’m writing to please God and not man. Cuz you better believe, those same things that you ‘ain’t ready to see’ are those same things that I wasn’t ready to see either before the Lord convicted my heart.
So then the question always arises, ‘What is it that makes me so sure that Jesus is Lord?” And it’s a great question to ask, because I’m sure we all have had doubts about the deity of Christ at some point in our lives, even the ‘church’ folks. For me, it all started with the sensation of being out on that boat..tossed to and fro. I believed in one Almighty God, the presence and existence of a Supreme Being, but my hangup came with religion and where all the different faiths fit in to the picture of God’s plan for man. I mean, our lives couldn’t be just random chaos..could it???
Orthodox Jews say if you’re not kosher you’re going to hell, Muslims say you gotta believe in the prophet Mohammed, Christians say that Jesus is the way, Buddhist, Taoist, there’s literally thousands of different religions throughout the world..who’s to say one is right and everybody else is wrong? So I was stuck in agnosticism..I mean, who REALLY knows what’s up? Ain’t nobody died and came back to tell us what it’s like on the other side, so who has the authoritative claim to salvation? Could 2 Billion Muslims be wrong? If Christians are supposed to be so ‘saved’, why are all these priests molesting these little boys? Jesus was Jewish, how come they don’t believe in Him? I had millions of questions that shrouded my heart, and kept me from walking toward the Light…it all seemed useless.
And the more I prayed and studied, the more that Spirit started to move in me. I sometimes wonder where I would be spiritually if I hadn’t gotten married and if I didn’t have any kids. Because it took some real life pressure and frustration for me to realize that I was in a dark pit of despair and my soul was thirsting for the Truth. There wasn’t a single cataclysmic event that made me know..but there was a turning point that pushed me to the edge and prepared me to make that leap of faith over to the other side and that was when I read Isaiah.
I have an uncle who pastors a church in Kansas City, MO..Uncle D! (he's the one with his mouth open, preaching the gospel of dominoes) and I heard him preach a sermon one day on Isaiah and how his book is often referred to as the ‘Bible in miniature’. But when you really study it, you see that Isaiah prophesied or ‘shot-called’ so many facts about the coming Messiah, that it would take a hardened heart NOT to see that Jesus was a part of God’s plan for the redemption of man from the beginning.
Behold! The virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and call His name, Immanuel. – Is 7:14
So when you get into that Old School Scripture, you will really begin to see how Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but rather to fulfill it. Now we can go all day and all night through the Scriptures, talking about Jesus, but that’s just MY testimony on how I came to Christ and above all, I’m just glad He sent me ya’ll..and that’s fo real. Cuz I sometimes think about what my life would be like without Jesus, and it makes me shudder and tremble.
Mixed Marriages (Still Tippin) got some positive, but it seems the general consensus is that folks want me to get more real into the marriage thang. Americans are tripping on Social Security and how it’s set to be completely depleted of funds before most of us X-generationers reach retirement age, but what ya’ll need to be tripping on is the assault on the first social union decreed by God and that is the marriage between a MAN and a WOMAN. All ya’ll gays that’s trying to jump on that marriage bandwagon..this ain’t the place for it right here, cuz I ain’t trying to hear all that nonsense and I’ve got the Bible to back it up. So..for those ready to get deeper into the ‘marriage thang’, check out that Love and Respect.
