Playing God Is Serious Business: Know When To Say When

Many of us like to take risks in life, push our luck. Often we may not realize how daring we are being. Please believe, there is a difference between being bold and being a buffoon.

Basically, you don't want to put your life in danger or shorten your life span. We do have free will and a set destiny, including our eventual death date. Nevertheless, why make life harder on ourselves?

Professional athletes may be some of the worst offenders. Take Kobe Bryant for example. He has had several surgeries on various parts of his body, the last two have been season ending on his knee. He has hardly been a factor in the NBA as of late. He already has five championships, several records, Olympic gold medals, and millions of dollars, not to mention a loving wife and two lovely daughters. Kobe should seriously not play God and think seriously about retiring.

Peyton Manning was at a similar crossroads three years ago. He could have been paralyzed. He did his due diligence, rehabbed hard and sought every professional opinion before coming back. He's still planning on playing at age 39 since he continues to pass routine physicals and stay healthy. Patrick Willis announced his retirement today. He decided for himself and his family that testing God and his own athletic prowess wasn't an option.

I have been faced with this several times in my life. I do lead a very healthy lifestyle but I still take risks. A year ago, I entered an eating contest where I ate a giant burger in under 30 minutes. This was a one time thing and I was full for days. I also run and have a half marathon around the corner. I was reminded today about running too close to the road and the sidewalk. My running style has allowed me to avoid injury and accidents over the years. But it still got me to thinking. I want to stay as safe as possible. The only routes I currently run on are those with back roads and little traffic or running trails with at least a sidewalk. Since I am doing more outside running now, these safety measures will continue to improve.

So use good judgment in your life and don't think the Good Lord is automatically going to bail you out because you make a foolish choice. Trust Him, trust yourself and use good reasoning and common sense.

What are some ways that you have tested and played God? Do you think that even when you make poor decisions, God always protects you?

Mistakes: Casting The First Stone

Do you ever feel like you are judged by one or two mistakes, instead of praised for all the good things you have did?

I realize this is graduation season. My simple message to those finishing school and entering the next stage in life is that people will scrutinize,  analyze and memorize your shortcomings. The key is to always do your best and respond strongly in the face of adversity. Simply put,  try to use your errors as learning tools and do not make the same ones twice.

It seems easy to get onto someone for making a mishap, when you couldn't have did it better, or you are tearing that person down to build yourself up.

The Bible says as paraphrased let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Therefore,  I say, if your house isn't made of glass and you are mistake free,  hurl those cruel stones at will.

We're only human so we will mess up and stumble in life's journey. Think of when you learned to walk. You started out crawling, then falling, and eventually walking.  However,  most all of us unintentionally trip and fall at some points in our lives.

So what do you do? Keep living, keep learning and keep loving each other. Help the other person up when they fall, instead of kicking them while they are down. They don't need to be reminded of the shortcoming or setback. You should help them prepare for their comeback.

I swear I didn't try to turn this piece into a commencent speech but it has taken that turn.  Life is cruel and unfair, and only the tough survive. Keep a strong support system and God on your side,  and every mistake and accomplishment will seem more meaningful and uplifting.

One thing is for sure, no one was born into the world without fault. Perfection and excellence is learned and practiced. Therefore stay at it and avoid the stones of those who think that one slip-up defines you. Become that definition of yourself.

How do you respond when folks pester you about a mistake? What is one of the most significant mistakes you have made?

Judgement House: Uplifting, Touching, and Informative

Christian Churches nationwide are always looking for creative and Informative ways to reach people and bring more people to Jesus Christ. One of the more popular programs over the last few years has been Judgement House.

Judgment House is a series of skits that a church can utilize to portray a person or family's choices about serving the Lord, and showing the results, positive and negative, of these decisions.

Hopewell Baptist Church in Blacksburg, SC has been doing Judgment House for about four years now, returning in 2014 after a year off. Hundreds have come through to view the rooms of skits the church members have put together.  Many souls have been saved and rededicated to Christ as a result.

I attended one of their final showings during this period and will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The message is simple and one I have heard all my life: accept Jesus into your heart completely and you can achieve the gift of eternal life in Heaven. If one fails to acknowledge Him or has doubts, an eternity in Hell could be waiting.

The delivery of this message is what stole the show. The actors and actresses were very dramatic and passionate.  Skits included one with God at the gates of Heaven, Hell itself and Satan, and finally the kingdom of Heaven with Jesus and many angels. It was very obvious the work Hopewell had put in to learn the various skits, coordinate the rooms, design the sets, and make the experience touching and memorable.

Often when churches put on productions such as Judgement House, they are critiqued for asking for monetary offerings, pressuring people to accept Christ, and even soliciting membership into their congregation. I cannot speak for other churches regarding their JH performances. However I can say that Hopewell Baptist Church does none of this.  The pastor,  however,  does pray with each group at the end of the show and allow them to dedicate or rededicate themselves to Christ, pressure free. This is something I can very much respect. 

I enjoy it when groups of people find innovative and groundbreaking methods to bring people closer to God and His son, Jesus Christ.  We are in an era where it often takes more than witnessing and traditional church services to reach the masses. Hopewell gets this and has been using Judgement House as a positive vehicle this past few years. 

Visit www.judgementhouse.org to find a Judgement House near you. Or if you are interested in learning more about the one I attended,  visit Hopewell Baptist Church on Facebook,  or call the church office at (864) 839-6653. I know many of the members well, and recognized them in the skits.  They, and the ones at other churches performing Judgement House, definitely want to assist you in your spiritual journey. 

Dedicating yourself to anything important,  including worshipping the Lord, is both a commitment and a choice.  Thanks to Judgement House, the decision is now more visual and graphic, aligning with the Holy Bible and the teachings of Christ.

Have you attended a Judgement House either at Hopewell or another church? What type of impact did it have on you and others?

Seven Common Myths

Myths have been around for as long as the Earth has existed. They continue to grow and become more outrageous.

My research for this blog led me to all sorts of different myths, wives tales and urban legends. However, these are seven that stand out in my eyes.

1. Bubble gum gives you indigestion

My great grandmother Lanier told me this as a small child when I would swallow my gum. I would call her bluff also. Little did I know that many older people passed this down to prevent children from choking on chewing gum. It does digest, and thus does not interfere with your system any better or worse than another candy or good item.

2. Christopher Columbus discovered America

I am personally outraged that we as a progressive nation still celebrate Columbus Day. And for what?  Columbus basically found a new world that was already inhabited by American Indians. They were here first, he came from Italy on a three ship expedition. Now if you care to be technical, it was actually Amerigo Vespucci years later than sailed the ocean blue and named our land America. However, the native Americans were here first and definitely not Columbus.

3. Jesus's ethnicity and birthdate

One must read the Bible with some understanding and back knowledge.  Many parts of the Bible took place in the Middle East,where it is also really hot. Shepherds would go out at night only during the late spring/early summer. Therefore, Jesus is not white. He's actually not black either. He's more of Middle Eastern descent, which can entail a few races. Also, he could not have been born on December 25th, according to Biblical evidence based on shepherds and wisemen.  The miniseries on History channel even depicts Jesus as white, which of course is inaccurate.

4. It's dangerous to talk on the cell phone while pumping gas.

There have been many studies over the years to dispute this claim. It is actually very safe to have a cell phone conversation while at the gas pump. This myth is similar to the old microwave myth about UV rays and such.

5. Reading in the dark damages your eyes

This one was a shocker to me. However, dim to dark light does not damage any part of your eyes. It may be better to read in the light, but the darkness will not harm your eyesight.

6. Fingers get wrinkly when too wet.

The wrinkling of the fingers and your skin is actually a layer that forms between your skin and the water. Incidently, it's not wrinkles, or they would not go away.

7. Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot.

I already knew this.  I've seen lightning strike the same tree several times. Also, the Empire State Building is struck several times/year by lightning. Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod on the premise that lightning strikes a certain spot more than once.

CHURCH: not what it once was, and not what it's supposed to be

Being that this is Sunday and the Lord's day in many eyes, hearts, and minds, church is a major part of Sunday. Some folks, regardless of their relationship with the Lord, pack churches mainly out of habit. They've been doing it for years, and they feel weird when they're not there.

I can't chalk it up to getting older, the church and overall way folks have changed in the 21st century or both. But the modern church has changed now and NOT for the better. It is become more of a business, very corporate, flooded with crooked ministers, shady, hypocritical members, and more drama than the WWE, Facebook, and SOAP.net combined. It seems God is no longer on the forefront. And folks wonder why I don't currently attend church. I will come clean in this blog and explain why I PERSONALLY do not choose to attend church.

First, I have to explain how great church was, and still can be. I grew up in the church. My late grandmother was a devout, religious Christian, attending church every time the doors were open. She never made me attend church, but highly encouraged it. And I loved it then. The fellowship, playing with the children before and after services, Sunday School, VBS, church dinners, etc. Church was soo great then and people were loving and God-fearing. Then I grew up.

I remember how one church had wronged my grandmother over and over again, even after she became disabled. The pastor came to my grandmother's house just weeks after she suffered a stroke and talked down to her like she were a child. My grandmother was a Sunday School teacher (a dang good one too) and she basically said some things in her lesson that stepped on some toes. She didn't call anyone out, but sometimes the truth hurts. Anyways, some of the "inner circle" inside of that church complained to the pastor, and the pastor took their side. My grandmother then left that church. However, my mother still went to that church a few years later. She felt more comfortable in that small, country environment, rather than the bigger church my grandmother and I were now attending. She was disrespected and ostracized by the members and the pastor because she couldn't attend all the time, and judged wrongly due to petty issues. My mother no longer felt comfortable there as she felt the wrath of the inner-circle and favortism working against her.

I then experienced problems of my own within the church. You see, I try to avoid drama at all causes, and my focus was (and still is) worshipping the Lord and receiving His message. However, when I can't do either peacefully and openly, there's a problem. The church I was at was (and still is) a good church. I was there for years. However, it was my family church, therefore most of my family attended that church. It seemed like I couldn't raise my hand in worship at a certain time without getting snotty looks, judgments, or a phone call to my mom and grandma. As the young folks say now, #wheredeydothatat? Also, I had been undergoing changes for a while. You see, I grew up Pentacostal, in the Church of God. Yes that's right, the shouting, speaking in tongues, fire-breathing sermons, so on and so forth. However I began to realize that denomination shouldn't be the reason you worship God. It's about his love, his lessons and teachings, and the fact that he sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

Having all of these thoughts in my head, I left my family church and became non-Denominational. I just couldn't belong to a church where 90% of my family belonged, were in my business all the time, plus subscribed to a certain denomination. You see, Christianity has become a big joke now. You have Pentacostals, southern Baptists, independent Baptists, AME Zion, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. What people fail to realize is WE ALL WORSHIP THE SAME GOD IN CHRISTIANITY!!! When you lose sight of that and your spirituality, you are missing out. Your heart might be the right place, but your mind must wake up.

When my beloved grandmother passed in 2004, I decided to give church another try. I went to a non-Denominational church that was all I was asking for: free and open worship, not subscribing to a religion, getting away from traditional church service but not the traditional message. I even knew the minister and liked him. However, that church lacked structure and organization. It appeared an inner-circle of few tried to take over the church once the Pastor left. They even had it rationalized since one of them was an ordained minister. However, none of the church members voted on it. Heck I was there 7 months and they never even made me a member. That was very sad. I wasn't kept informed on much of anything: church happenings, gatherings, prayer meetings. Basically, if it wasn't in the church program, I didn't know about it. I got tired of that mess and left by the end of the year.

I then tried another church a couple of months later. It appeared to have the elements I mentioned earlier, plus a lot of more organization and order. Too much order, as I would later learn. This church was quite a piece of work as I would also learn later. The pastor and his wife were evangelists so they would, in addition to Sunday morning worship and Wednesday Bible study, often have services out of town 3-4 nights a week. These services would be as far away as Forest City, NC, and they expected their members to attend. Now at the time I was evaluating the church to become a member, I didn't realize the church was like this. It seemed once I became a member, it was completely different. It was difficult for me to make certain services as I lived 30 minutes away from the church. Plus they had funding issues at the building they were at, and would always ask every Sunday for a $20 offering from everyone, in addition to tithes. When that was ineffective, they toyed with the idea of making folks bring in their check stubs and tax statements to ensure that they were tithing properly.

The pastor there was also quite a piece of work. He was a talented, charismatic minister, teacher and musician. However, he had an attitude problem and was very aggressive. He got sooo ridiculous that used to get onto me for using the restroom during altar call (by get onto, I mean publicly call out for the ushers to block the doors so I couldn't get out). That's when I just about had it. I mean, seriously, how and why can you tell an adult NOT to use the bathroom during services? That never did sit right with me. I let that persist for a couple of more weeks, even sought the advice of some Christian warriors in my life. Within a month, I left that church.

Some of you are probably thinking "well Drew you just haven't found the right church, you can't give up on God, etc, etc". I say well back the truck up there! I have NEVER given up on God. Just because you don't attend church doesn't mean you've given up on the Lord! Give me a break! I have just grown tired of being around hypocrites, crooked ministers, unfocused, fake Christians. That's not what God intended for his church to be about. If one reads carefully in Matthew, it says nothing about these things being part of the church, nor does it say you will be condemned for not attending church. Personally I read my Bible daily (especially Proverbs) thanks to my Bible app on my BB, I watch Joel Osteen weekly, I pay my tithes to charitable organizations and other Christian avenues that need them. Lastly, I associate myself not only with Godly folks, relatives, friends, and ministers alike, but REAL, HONEST folks who I know I can trust and aren't hypocrites. I've already did a blog on "Keeping it 100?" so by now you should know that honesty is important all around for me. It is no different in regards to the Lord.

I'm ashamed of how the church is now. Corrupted by inner circles, Aunt Esthers, crooked ministers, the mega-church system, hypocrisy, prejudice, and I could go on (Heck I already have). It is frustrating to me to see how church is now. I do attend a few live services a year, but I feel that my way is good as well. Only God can judge me and my spirituality.

By no means am I trying to get anyone to stop attending church. I just get tired of folks looking down their noses at me and feeling I'm a heathen just because I'm not in church every time the door is open. Well to you I say this in closing. I know who I am, my relationship with the Lord, my Bible, and I do what is required of me, in spirit and my heart. Please sweep besides your own front door first before coming to mine. Thank you and good night!