Da Word... 168!

Hey All!

Good Morning from FLORIDA!!!   YEAH!  I'm chillin' down in the Florida state!  Except, it's not that warm here in the mornings and evenings!  I was surprised ;-D  heh heh.  Happy Thanksgiving all!  Aight on to.... da Word!

And if by grace, then it is no longer by works;  if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

- Paul (Romans 11:6)

Word!  That's my man Paul droppin' some knowledge.  He's been expoundin' upon righteousness and da Christ, about life and how one is saved, about Israel and the Gentiles, da whole nine.  Right before this part, he was spittin' about how the Prophet Elijah was conversin' with Pops about how Israel was layin' waste to all the prophets and destroying Pops' altars.   He also felt they were gonna kill him next.  But Pops was like, "naw son, i've got 7,000 who have not bowed to Baal."  Real quick, Baal is one of the false gods worshiped back in the day.  See, there was a "remnant" of peeps!   "Chosen by grace."

See, it was not because of any works that these 7,000 became Pops' remnant.  It was by grace!  Pops gave them deliverance.  This remnant chose not to bow down to some false god, but instead chose to remain true to the one true God.  It wasn't by works, it was their faith.  They chose to grasp onto God's grace, a grace that Pops gives freely.  But in order to get it, we gots ta come on out and take it!  It wasn't about the dude who has a phat resume of "good" things that s/he has done for society and for others.  It was a condition of the heart!   Why?  Cuz the most evil of peeps can do "good" things, many times for motives that are selfish.  

So what does this mean?  It means that Pops cannot be won over by works!  Cuz it ain't about works!  It runs MUCH deeper than that.  We can't earn Pops' grace; we can't win our way into His heart and His kingdom.  He's already given it all to us.  We just gotta reach out, accept it and embrace it.  Works, my friends, comes as a result of a changed heart.  And if it were the other way around... then grace would be worth beans son!  And we'd have a whole SLEW of other problems (pride probably being the utmost cancer).  Naw lo, it's grace bruthaz and sistaz!  Grace!  Let you works follow according to a changed heart.

Aight peeps!  Gotta bounce, PeACE!

G_bless,

   - patrick

Da Word... 167!

Good Evening!

What's going on potnas!  Thanksgiving is coming with a quickness!  Gonna be tight.  This brutha is heading back to Florida to see da fam and da friends.  It's been a while fa real!  Aight, on to... da Word!

checkit:

...he heard the Lord's voice: 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

Acts 7:31,32

Yooooo, how about that?  Imagine, you roll up to an interesting phenomenon that, by all logic, should not be happening (in this case, Moses rollin' up to a burnin' bush that wasn't burning...).  And suddenly you hear a voice resonating with such authority and depth, and it says, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."   This is HUGE!  The apostle Stephen is before the Sanhedrin recounting this bit of history.  Stephen was chosen to replace Judas, since Judas had died.  Oh, and Stephen was da man! 

N e who, Abraham is the father of the whole Israelite nation.  Yo, Abraham is also the father of Ishmael whom nation of Islam traces some of its roots.  Basically Abraham was it.  Pops and Abraham were mad tight.  Isaac, Abraham's son, was a promise and a miracle.  Abraham and is wife Sarah had Isaac at an age where the tools (if you know what I mean) should have been way beyond the years of child creating functionality.  Pops and Isaac also rolled tight.  And then there was Jacob.  Pops and Jacob were made tight too!   From that point on, Pops introduced Himself a lot as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - three significant and powerful figures in Israel's history, respected to the utmost.

Now why do I belabor this point?  Cuz it's like this, see, we EASILY fall into our comfortable ways and thoughts.  And yeah, we know God is there and is awesome.  But we easily fail to realize the immensity of the being that is GOD... present with us at every moment!  When an Israelite was met with, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob"  yoooo you better believe realization set in with a quickness!  Imagine any leader who has a commanding yet awesome presence, one whom you admire or respect and would never think you'd ever get to meet face to face.  And then suddenly, boom, you are in his/her very company.  That feeling can't be described.  Now if that's Pops....  yooooo, no comparison!   And I bet you we would do a lot of things differently if that realization were constant. 

So let's make it constant and stop playin' games and kidding ourselves!  Let's live as if we are in the constant presence of Pops, rollin' tight with the creator of all things.  Cuz potnas, da fact is, Homeboy is ever-present.  Let's be real and true all the time, not just sometimes. 

G-bless,

   - patrick

Da Word... 166!

Good Afternoon!

Today is nice and warm yo!  Low 50s, I was almost sweating.  Compared to the low 30s it was a couple days ago, todays weather is like that of a tropical island, heh heh.  NICE blue sky with a few small scattered clouds and a magnificent sun.  Not to mention all the different colors adorning the trees that have not yet shed all their leaves.  Dope yo. Aight, on to... da Word!

Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

- Proverbs 11:4

Oh yeah!  Da proverbs are BACK potna!  This one is hot too, uh huh!  Wealth is like, the bomb diggity in this country, and in many countries.  But especially in a capitalistic society, the pursuit of wealth is like whoa....  It's basically the ultimate goal: amass a lot of wealth and live la vida king.  I mean, with wealth you can get anything you want right?  With wealth nothing is out of reach.... right?  Well, nothing except the things you can't buy with money, life and love just to name a couple.  It's interesting how da word is in direct opposition to human and/or conventional wisdom.  Here, Pops is saying that righteousness is the ultimate goal, cuz when it comes down to it, it is righteousness that will save a brutha's and a sista's soul.

It's a change in perspective potnas!  And it's waaaaaaay practical.  I mean fa real, what worth will wealth have the day Pops comes to call?  The day when all things material will be extinguished pretty much.  What will matter then?  How much wealth you have amassed?  Or how much love you have poured out onto your fellow man and woman?  Matter of fact, what kind of person would you become even now if you neglected your fellow peeps just to amass wealth?  Yeah you'd have wealth, but your life would be a sorry and pathetic one because you will have no real people in it.  But you def would be surrounded by peeps who would betray you in a second if you ever lost your wealth. So, is this saying that the pursuit of wealth is bad?  Naw lo!   It is saying that when your pursuit of wealth becomes your single goal, far deeper and reaching consequences await you.  

Basically, keep things in perspective.  Let us not allow our pursuit of wealth to cause us to be blind.  Let it not cause us to hate.  Let it not cause us to trample people underfoot on our way up.  Let it not cause us to forget our innate duty to our fellow brethren and sistren.  Let it not destroy our humanity.  For life is just to precious of a thing to waste.

G-bless,

   - patrick