Quote

"There is a seductive, serpentine logic at work on young black people. Without anyone saying a word, black youngsters find themselves in a hypnotic, self defeating trance that has them walking into a back alley of failure. Brainwashed by popular culture to ignore reality, they are in a confused state of mind and doubt the value of schooling."

~Excerpt from Enough by Juan Williams

WE WILL WIN IN 2010!!!

We will win in 2010!

Things were supposed to be fine in 2009!

All was to be great in 2008!

I’m sure you’ve heard statements like these at length around this time of year every year. Anybody ever wonder why we keep declaring these positive affirmations year after year? What are we going to win? What is going to be so great? What are we really looking so forward to? What is really our expectation?

I got good news for you. Thanks to Jesus Christ, we are definitely going to win in 2010! We won in 2009, 1999, 1989 and every other year withwhich you can rhyme something or say something cool about! If you are a blood washed, born again believer in Jesus Christ I have news for you…

WE WIN

I challenge you this year to embrace your true victory. I’m not merely talking about the way the Lord is going to meet your physical needs as promised. I’m talking about the ultimate victory that was wrought through the advent, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.

I invite you to study Philippians 3 sometime around the beginning of this New Year. Know that this world is not our home. We are sojourners in this strange land. Verse 19 says:

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: KJV

Depending on your translation, the word conversation may be, and could more accurately be rendered citizenship. It seems as though all too often, our “New Years resolutions” and things we “are believing” God for in the next year have to do with our wants on this plane of existence. If we are honest about it, most of us would admit that we enjoy the creature comforts of this life. It is ok for us to want them and the Lord understands our feelings towards them. However I challenge you to make sure that as we go into 2010, you are not allowing your appetite (v. 19) for this world’s goods shape your outlook and your focus.

I challenge you in 2010 to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:20) Happy New Year!!!

We Win

We Have Already Won in 2010!!!

I recently heard a woman say she wants a man that isn't scared to pray. I say ok, show me a woman who is not scared to submit...

All My Single Ladies...

We often hear stories lamenting the plight of single black women and their search for suitable black men to marry. I recently saw one at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/single-black-females/story?id=9395275

I have a few thoughts on this. I happen to be a happily married black man who married a beautiful black woman almost seven years ago. My wife and I have much in common. We both were raised in what would probably be considered traditional homes. We each had both our parents in the home. Both our fathers were the primary bread winners for the family and seen as the head of the household. Though our mothers both worked, they were also phenomenal mothers and homemakers. They were raised to be such. We both saw a glimpse of how things were in the "good old days." I suppose some would think of living arrangements like this as archaic and antiquated, but you know what? IT WORKED.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't have a lot of patience for sorry, shiftless black men. As our problems and issues have been greatly documented, I'd like to take a few minutes and view the opposite side of the coin, the black woman. You see, my mother was raised from a young girl to be a good wife and mother. She learned may skills that I fear are becoming a lost art among the young women of my generation and the younger. I have a question that I feel could shed a lot of light on this issue for the single black woman. Do you even know what does it mean to be a good wife?

It seems to me that the ladies of my generation on down are not raised with the objective of becoming a good wife, homemaker or mother. In too many cases this is a secondary objective that they are left to figure out on their own. In middle class to affluent black families, it seems the primary goal and focus for women is now education and career. Some of you may stop reading after this but how many of you were taught to cook? Sew? Raise children? Perhaps most of all, dare I say, defer to a man?

Black woman, for a lot of reasons, many of them good, you are raised to be independent. You are not raised to accept the fact that you have a need. You are often raised to suppress it. This could be because of the fact that it seems that you can't depend on men these days. (A statement I can't really argue with) It could be because you have your own goals, dreams and aspirations and you are not going to submit to anyone, much less any man.

I know I'm "old school," but it seems to me, that today we are raising our black girls to be what men should be:

The Protector The Provider The Leader TheVisionary The Watchwomen

Could someone please tell me what happened to:

The Supporter The Nurturer The Helper The Homemaker The Comforter

I am far from perfect, but I am too thankful that I have a wife that acknowledges that she needs me. My wife has more education than I do, but she still supports me, respects my wishes, submits to me and allows me to be the man. That may sound strange to some. I would have you know that I would die before I would let someone hurt her or my daughter. It makes me happy to know that she trusts me to hold her heart in my hand and I treasure her for the "good thing" that she is (Proverbs 18:22)

I'd like to submit to you that it is really not all about education and or finances. Your bank accounts, house, clothes and the car you drive shouldn't be the things that motivate you in life. The older I get, I realize that family is the largest, preeminent and overarching ambition of my life. Family used to be the ambition of most black folks. Family is the foundation from which we build strong communities and a strong nation. We the black men and black women must return to that...

Let's Go Back

Thus says the LORD: “ Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

-Jeremiah 6:16

People are smarter now but things were better when I was younger. It seems as though the "better" things get, the worse of we are as a culture. The more we progress, the more our families and values regress. I find this to be true in the church as well. For all of our advances in the media and delivery of our ministries, our families and values seem to be weaker than ever.

Let's Go Back is the title of this blog. Some changes are necessary and good, however I believe that somehow we must return to the core values of what made us great as a nation and as the people of God. Is everything we used to do really that bad? What's wrong with Hymns? What's wrong with a little reverence every now and then? I would like to explore these topics in greater detail in the coming months...