Voice of A Parent Vol. 1: Little Child Runnin Wild

A Poem by C.J. Green

The Bible, you know the Book of Books about the King of Kings,

strange, it speaks some of the most truthful things.

even talks about the youth it seems,

showing a picture of a family in Luke  15.

About the 11th verse, shows a youth with foolish dreams,

left daddys house to pursue these things, but blew his means.

He needed to survive so he got this gig,

caught himself havin thoughts of stealing the slop from pigs,

He like yo,this is wretched..  I gotta stop this, kid!

The servants are livin better back at my Pops' crib!

So he humbly humbled his already humbled soul,

and practiced saying sorry all the way back to the fold.

...Or so the story's told, but the part that applies,

to us living today, cause youth are on the demise...

is the point that the time came when this guy checked himself and remembered,

Home, and it brought him right back to his center.

That same Book of Books I'm referring to mentions raising up a child,

in the way he should go... and he'll not depart from it, when he is old.

And also, foolishness is undoubtedly bound in the heart of a child,

but the rod of correction will take it out.... 

SO, is it safe to assume, that, currently no room is being made for the way a child should go,

 or when it comes to correction, are we saying "no"?

Because if that foolishness is not removed, I wonder, does it mature, 

into a deeper foolishness?

A severe case of stupidness?

And if we don't show the child the way he ought to go, 

does he refuse to grow? No, I dont think so...

He grows anyway, he just get's his training from... Wherever.

I myself, don't want Wherever to train my child, never!

I don't even know them...

SO I will show them..Aye man, woman! Your kids, why don't you grow them,

instead of lettin Whoever, Whatever, create thoughts for them...

Example given, mother, who showed your son how to sag his pants to the back of his knee,

showing 3/4 of his walmart boxers you bought him last week?

Was it you? did you give him the technique to say to the pervs on the street,

Check me out MAN, come get it, fresh meat?! Was it you.... Mom?

Or father, were you the one who taught your daughter,

to model in the latrine like she was in a magazine, 14, one cheek resting on the sink? Did you Dad?

Probably not, but she took the shot, with the cell phone you bought and still pay for,

while dudes on the net, like "Bet! That's what it's made for!"

Cursin, hormones workin,

Can't wait till they see her, in person...

See what we're rehearsing, when we stop giving our children direction?

Oh, they'll do some off the wall, but at least it's not a reflection.. 

of what they learned, from their "protection",

  and at least when they remember what they've learned,

"I have been foolish, gone astray, lost the way", ... they will have a center in which to return...

if not they are just waiting their turn,

in front of the big spinning wheel of jacked up stuff that can happen to a kid!

What will it land on? Before it do, put your hand on em!

To show them how to live, is the most important thing a parent can give, if you love... give.. 

Walking By Faith: New Beginnings

Walking By Faith: New Beginnings: Change is scary at times. It removes us from familiar surroundings, and often times drops us dead center into the town of WHAT-DO-I-DO-NOW; ...

The Queen of Heaven?

Ok, so earlier this week, my youngest son comes home from school, with an assignment titled, The Ancient World. His class (maybe whole school) has been studying Mesopotamia, and prior to this week he had been speaking about the Sumer and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers running along the sides of Mesopotamia and other random stuff.

This particular assignment that my son brought home caught my attention because after my eyes left the title heading, "The Ancient World", they fell to the words "write a song of praise to the "Queen of Heaven and Earth"... followed by "O Queen, we thank you for the sky, which you have made to bring forth the rain...", (blank lines for child to write) O Queen, we thank you for the earth you have made that brings forth the grain" (more blank lines). I have researched the Queen of Heaven before so it caught me off guard to see this. And here is why:

The Queen of Heaven goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel in the Bible, book of Genesis... and is placed by historians as the mother and wife of Nimrod, who is overwhelmingly named as the ruler who decided to undertake Babel. And yes I did say wife and mother... Her name was Semiramis, and her and her husband are reported to have led the rebellion against God, for the destruction of their ancestors during the great flood. If I stopped there, you could probably understand why I was a tad heated... Did I mention Mesopotamia housed Babylon, Nineveh and other wicked pagan cities? Ok, back to the "Queen of Heaven"... Semiramis dabbled in the occult and was supposed to have found a way to deify her self... (is that a word?).. Which brings us to the next manifestation of this Queen of Heaven... Diana, Ashteroth, Ishtar, Artemis, Isis and even Mary the mother of Jesus have been labeled the Queen of Heaven.. the everlasting virgin. The goddess of fertility, who God warned and subsequently punished Israel about. They would worship her by burning incense, pouring out drink offerings, baking cakes in the shapes of stars, moons or the female figure, and told Jeremiah that they would not stop worshiping her and (basically) runteldat to God. So God decreed that Israel and Judah would fall... (Jeremiah 7:20, Jeremiah 44). Catholics still refer to the deified Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

And my son's assignment was to write a song of praise to her.... Imagine my blood boiling in my veins. The devil is a real sneaky sort... and I bet someone (most people) will say... awww man, you're overreacting... but when I picture that being said to me, I picture the enemy smiling... like yeah dude, lighten up! But I am on the wall for a reason y'all... and if we don't start finding out, we could be going light on stuff God goes very hard on... Just sharing... don't trust that anything is okay until the Spirit says it's okay...


Check this out: Queen of Heaven Wikipedia and Semiramis





Homework: Why was the tower of Babel significant? Was it just a cute story of the people trying to make a super duper skyscraper? Or was there more behind it?  (Find out, it will make a lot more sense, when you know!! If you wanna cheat and copy my answer, let me know! lol Or, be patient and I might post it one day :-P )

1 John 4

 ¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

The Graciousness of Uncertainty

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be." 1 John 3:2
Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We imagine that we have to reach some end, but that is not the nature of spiritual life. The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere. Common sense says - "Well, supposing I were in that condition . . ." We cannot suppose ourselves in any condition we have never been in. Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him. Jesus said, "Except ye become as little children." Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.
"Believe also in Me," said Jesus, not - "Believe certain things about Me." Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come. Remain loyal to Him.

(Taken from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers)

.... the Lord your God, He is God....

⁹ “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face." - Duet. 7

BibleGateway.com's verse of the day... just meditating on it... a thousand generations of mercy and covenant upholding... that's power...

Think on it...Have an awesome day!

Paul's Christmas List

Philippians 3: 7-11
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,  if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Lost anything recently? I'm just thinking about Paul, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Gave up his life as a Christian hater to become a Christian... Christians didn't trust or accept him because He was a Christian hater. Incarcerated but invigorated. Because he literally traded his life for Christ. He became what some people consider the most prominent writer of the New Testament. His work spoke volumes about his faith. And his faith drove his work... One glorious meeting on the road to Damascus and the man literally changed religion. He had credentials, and prestige. He would probably have been in our time a highly educated man with a doctorate and very esteemed job, considered an expert by a great deal of the world's people. He had gained much!

Paul said he gave up the things that were "gain", so that he could know Christ and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering and to be conformed to his death. Not gold and silver, fame and publicity or a harem of beautiful women. He sought the Truth and he found it, and he was not sorry for the exchange he had made.

So the things we lose.. the things that slip away from us, are taken away from us, that we throw or give away... are we counting them "as rubbish"? Or, are we forgetting what's really important, Christ? Are we prepared for our lives to get rougher and more turbulent as we gain the knowledge of Christ and the "fellowship of his suffering". Are we ready to be "conformed to His death" or are we looking for streets of gold to walk on while we live here on earth?

Paul wanted to "attain to the resurrection from the dead", and that is what we all should want. To enter into eternity after we die having been raised by God to live with him, should be our hope. I will consider the things I have lost and will lose as extra baggage, that by losing I can more easily walk beside Jesus!

Thoughts of peace and not of evil...

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you", says the LORD, "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:11-13

 

What a blessing to know God has "thoughts of peace and not of evil" towards us. That's good news for any who might think God is against them because of tough times they are going through. True, He has either ordained or allowed those times to come into our lives but He reminds us that there is always peace available. His "thoughts" are not our thoughts... His ways not like our ways... His thoughts don't continue to change and/or develop like ours. His infinite thought is locked in on  "peace and not of evil", so peace is one of those things that stays on tap (like wisdom).  

Even knowing that we have peace just a change-of-mind away, we will still struggle because of being in close proximity to our dilemmas. Notice how we find it easier to tell someone to calm down when they are upset, than it is for them to actually do it. And how we ourselves were so "out of it" and someone told us to be calm, but we found it difficult. It is times like these where we must stand on the "Rock" through faith. Jesus' disciples were facing a mighty storm while Jesus slept in the bottom of the boat. It's easy for us to say they shouldn't have been worried, but if you were in the reality of that situation, and what you were experiencing outweighed your ability to find peace (or so you thought at the time)... a lot of us would be worried too! Jesus came up and spoke to the storm and there was a "great calm" (Mark 4:39) and he asked them two questions: Why are you so fearful and How is it that you have no faith?  If we who follow the Master think about situations and storms we have come through in which we doubted and worried and fretted (all things He said not to do), if we look back we can almost see Jesus asking us those two questions:

Why are you so fearful? and How is it that you have no faith?

 From now on, my brothers and sisters, whoever may read this now or later... Let'sstand on the "Rock" and believe that God has thought peace for us.  He has given me peace like he has given me air and all I have to do is breathe it in. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4: 6,7

 

 Father God, I find it awesome that you have smiled so on your people to think peace for us, in such a dark and troublesome world. Just like evil is always present in every day to try and throw us dear Lord, your peace is there as well to help us hold on. Jesus often left the crowds to pray and I suspect he gathered through meditation and prayer the means to gather in peace for the turmoil that would often take place  from day to day. Thank you for Jesus, our Savior, our King, our example and picture of peace! Please make us all more receptive to peace, real peace, the peace that comes from you... not the world's peace which is only temporary and doesn't last.  In Jesus name....