“Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.” ~ Mother Teresa Oh man. Do I really need to say anything to this? I live so segregated from the poor. Now, I really think impoverished Americans have it much better than those in other countries because of the vast amount of social services and free government care we provide. Still, there is no reason for me to be so distanced. My mum always says I care too much for my social life. I typically see my friends once to twice a week, sometimes more. I feel it's how I keep sane, because working with people who are in preschool is lonely. But what if I could give that much time to people who aren't loved? It's easy to love on the lovable, and to have coffee dates and lunches with them. What if I did that with the poor?
I could teach you how to kill without choking, stabbing or shooting.
Just walk past someone who's dying and do this
And it's funny--I'm stuck instructing this tough class but I just passed
I was not the good Samaritan--I was the priest who just passed
Who can't understand why he's only washing his hands after taking his blood bath but
But here's the lesson:
Death is the equivalent to life when life is unmentioned.
So scratch the strife and the tension
You might as well pull them to the side, look them in the eye, and tell them, "I want you to die."
And if they're struggling and desperate for a word of life to survive,
Just keep your mouth closed--now that's homicide
Most Christians are so eager to open their mouths to bless me,
But when I'm struggling with sin, they hold the truth back and
pat me on the back gently, and tell me something sweet,
cuz they don't want to offend me
At that point it was so necessary for me to repent
see, I was driving on grace while my tank was on empty
why only bash violence when silence is so deadly?
And Scripture says our tongues hold the power of life and death
And that helps, but couldn't we use our powers to bring life to someone else?
if we just think it but never speak it, then death will volunteer itself
Shhh don't mention it. Shhhh just roll with it
Shhhhh it's the generation of hush
Hush mode-ism. And it's ruining us
you can trust that people are thinsting for the living water
so why are we so busy sweating bullets
trying to keep it a secret that they're sure to be dry. . .Bones
In this valley we are all Ezekiels
God needs us to speak to his people
Shall they live? I don't know
Cuz honestly, if I'm not speaking life into you, I'm killing you
I see some of you are feeling the same type of conviction I'm feeling too
Cuz if I had an adjective to describe the type of killers we've become, it would be serial
And I'm serious, just look at us
Even in our personal lives, we've hidden behind our lies so many times
that our hearts have a hard time convincing our minds that everything is fine,
so because of our pride, we keep our lips sealed, and pretend that we're mimes
not knowing that our audience is potentially blind
But my God speaks Braille, and it's only difficult
If you can't see what He did for you
So I don't care what they did to you, know how much it gets to you
regardless of who disrespected, rejected, or neglected you, slept with you
and sexually transmitted disease infected you
no matter who, what ,when, where, why or how they spiritually or physically molested you
raped you, betrayed you, spit in your face just to show you how much they hate you
despite what they did against you,
if you take two seconds and think about how you've offended God,
it should make you understand how much you deserve death just as much as they do
so if they hurt you, let them know, speak forgiveness, let it go,
cuz my brethren you should know holding a grudge is the same as holding a gun
with the intention of having someone resting in peace
why do you think they say, speak now or forever hold your click-click peace?
you know sometimes we can be like old TVs
with antennae that can't receive signals from above so they shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
but God wants you to transmit that big picture with love
so don't let fear remote control you
cuz no matter how much static is in your view on Christ's station,
it's never cute to be mute in volume
so I dare you to be different, cuz by faith I've made a decision
that even if I was somehow placed in a prison
feet tied up, hands cuffed, face duct-taped up,
I would summon my faith in the Christ who saved us
through the manifestations of my heart's meditations,
I'd initiate communicate with my brain and
translate that information to my nerves and my veins,
sending words to my epidermis surface in case my lips couldn't release my statements,
I'd nod, twitch, and wiggle and wink you towards salvation
The spirit of pride--every spirit of pride or lack of boldness, I destroy it in the name of Jesus
You are now granted freedom to life--and not just to have it, but to speak it
Just allow God to breathe it, your CPR is needed
so if anyone is ever seeking for life, through the power of your words
I pray and I wish that I never see anyone go shhhhhhh
Cuz Christ took lashes of the whip--and I'm not talking the regular whip
The kind of whip that when inflicted, causes the flesh to rip and compels you to go --
So you never have to go shhh
And now that we know that God has chosen that our spiritual reproductive organs be manifested
by our words through our lips when we're speaking supernaturally we're conceiving by our words
through our lips
so how can life continue to exist when my sisters keep them closed and my brothers keep them zipped?
so for the sake of life I beg you to open your mouth and speak
tags: ezekiel azonwu silence is deadly lyrics words p4cm lyricist lounge
They called them crazy when they started out Said seventeen's too young to know what loves about They've been together fifty-eight years now That’s crazy
He brought home sixty-seven bucks a week He bought a little 2 bedroom house on Maple Street Where she blessed him with six more mouths to feed Yea that’s crazy
Just ask him how he did it; he'll say pull up a seat It'll only take a minute, to tell you everything Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I Love You Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common since Never let your prayin' knees get lazy And love like crazy
They called him crazy when he quit his job Said them home computers, boy they'll never take off He sold his one man shop to Microsoft They paid like crazy
Just ask him how he made it He'll tell you faith and sweat And the heart of a faithful woman, Who never let him forget
Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I Love You Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense Never let your prayin' knees get lazy And love like crazy
Always treat your woman like a lady Never get to old to call her baby Never let your prayin' knees get lazy And love like crazy
They called him crazy when they started out They've been together fifty-eight years now
I think I have a tendency to scare people when I talk marriage. Why? I speak candidly, and I think I often sound as if I am suggesting what I find to be an ideal situation. But here's the disclaimer: I know that people don't operate in these ideal situations. We live in real life and we can't act like we live in a perfect world. . .cuz we don't. That being said, I still offer the caveat as follows: don't settle. Because s/he knows you aren't perfect, it doesn't mean you shouldn't attempt perfection.
See, here's the thing--I'll make it perfectly clear that I don't want to sit around on my tush if it's time to get married. I don't have a problem with getting married quickly, if it's to someone who doesn't have the entitlement mentality. We tend to think of marriage as getting, when really, we should see it as giving. All the benefits are not what it's about. It's about joining yourself to another when as a pair, you can serve God and his people better than you can as individuals. To simplify marriage into a equation, I choose to see it as marriage=sacrifice.
Marriage isn't a fairy tale. It's not magical. And husbands don't sparkle.
Marriage is a lifelong commitment. Think about that. Life. Long. I get tired of a cell phone contract well before the 2 years is up. Now, realising a 75 year marriage is a possibility is sobering. And I sure as hell am not going to always feel swoonful over a man, especially when he's in his 90s! Old and wrinkly. . .But marriage is meant to be a CHOICE to love. Day in, day out, through the years. Through the decades.
Still, I want it. In the right time. Yeah, soon. But not the result of a rash decision made by one whose common sense is blinded by emotion and hormones.
We envision a thriving Colorado Springs in which all people can reach their full potential as human beings, free from oppression and discrimination. We envision a region where individual rights are honored, and constitutional rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are upheld for all people.
Sounds good doesn't it?
I took 3 words out of there: "including GLBT people"
We envision a thriving Colorado Springs in which all people, including GLBT people, can reach their full potential as human beings, free from oppression and discrimination. We envision a region where individual rights are honored, and constitutional rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are upheld for all people.
Does it make you angry now?
It seriously makes me so upset to see Christians getting so offended and irate about such statements. Is a homosexual somehow less of a person? No!!! Why do so many in the church treat homosexuality as the unpardonable sin? Why do Christians tell gay people they are going to hell instead of just telling them of the grace that covers our sin and theirs? Have we forgotten that we are also sinners? Have we forgotten that the law is the law, and once it's broken it's broken? It doesn't matter if you broke it once or a million times--you broke it!
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder."Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.James 2:10-13
Do we speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty--the law of Moses? Do we forget that we have cheated, we have lied, we have lusted? That we have put work, money, dreams & aspirations, relationships, or even sleep before our God? Why must homosexuality cause so much more uproar than other extramarital sexual relations? Why does it seem to be so much worse than any other sin?
What about partiality?
The ground at the foot of the cross is level--there is no superiority or inferiority there. But there is sometimes a lack of humility in the church and some create a pedestal for themselves and a pit for others. I'm guilty of partiality.
Guess what James right before the above verses:
My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.James 2:1-10.
How often do we, as Christians, create in our minds a whole character just by appearance? We stereotype. We fit a person into our ideas instead of getting to know them as a brother or sister; a fellow child of God. And we treat them according to our perceptions. What does it matter what one has here on earth. We came into this world with nothing, and so we leave.
Are we treating the "different" as royal heirs to an eternal fortune? How often do we "love"people to death; driving them away from our Lord by our so-called love, which is really quite the opposite? Should we not instead love them to Life? Can we direct our ways so as to make a person want to have what we have? So many regard us with disdain on account of our actions. We make Jesus look terrible!
Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to live your life in accordance with the gospel. Let people see by your actions that it really is good news.
call me corny but: I envision a thriving church in which all people (including GLBT people) can learn their value as human beings, free from partiality and discrimination. I envision a church where individuals are loved, and drawn to Christianity and want to seek true life, liberty and the pursuit of holiness for all their days.
