Giving Boys a Bigger Emotional Tool-Box

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Make Your Money Count By Rev. M.D. Rogers

2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Just as Paul used the example of the Macedonian churches, who gave out of their poverty, to challenge the believers in Corinth to excel in the grace of giving, I would like to provide a few practical exercises to help us move forward in using our money for Kingdom purposes.

First, personalize God’s money. Because God owns all things, He allows us to manage His money while on earth. I have learned that when I assign God’s money a name it forces me to clarify its purpose. For example, if I have cash in my pocket, but have not personalized it I may spend it on things that are unhealthy for me like too many sodas or candy. I believe we spend money more frivolously when it is not given a purpose. We could easily take the $5 a day we spend on coffee each month and sponsor a pastor in Haiti who lives on $150 a month. 

Second, practice giving like God gives to you. How often does God bless you in spite of your unfaithfulness? Several years ago, I decided since God gives to me even when I don’t deserve it that I would try to model that by tipping waiters and waitresses 20 percent of the bill regardless of their service. Sometimes, that has been challenging when the service is bad, but I always try to use the opportunity for Kingdom purposes.

Third, practice random acts of kindness with God’s money. I love going to church with $5 in my pocket, and I pray for God to show me who I could bless. There is a lot of fun in being God’s secret agent. When you give on God’s behalf, people get excited because they know God was thinking about them, regardless of the amount. You can also pay for people’s food in the drive-thru line behind you. Please know your generosity can be a powerful witness to the gospel of Christ. 

There are numerous other examples we could apply to our finances. Just remember, make your money count because you will be held accountable for your money. 

CRITICISM

Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy received endless advice and criticism from the media concerning how he should run the country. Much of it he took good-naturally. In fact, he often used a favorite story in response to the media's comments about how they thought he could do a better job.
He told about a legendary baseball player who always played flawlessly. He consistently hit when at bat and was never thrown out at first. When on base he never failed to score. As a fielder, he never dropped a ball and he threw with unerring accuracy. He ran swiftly and played gracefully.

In fact, he would have been one of the all-time greats except for one thing - no one could ever persuade him to put down his beer and hot dog and come out of the press box to play! Most of us can empathize, for we all have people in our lives who criticize and second-guess. They are quick to point out flaws and quicker yet to offer advice.

When it comes to receiving criticism, I believe it helps to remember first that not all criticism is invalid. Wisdom listens for the kernel of truth and saves it for future growth. But when criticism seems unfair, I believe it helps to remember the hawk. When attacked by crows, it does not counterattack. Instead, the hawk soars higher and higher in ever- widening circles until the pests leave it alone.

When there is nothing to learn from criticism, can you rise above it and soar?

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.-NASB Translation

FATHER'S DAY 2014

Fatherhood Call to Duty

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/june-web-only/fatherhoods-call-to-duty.html

-Milwaukee Africology department celebrates career of Dr. William G. Rogers » Milwaukee Community Journal

Milwaukee Community Journal » WISCONSIN'S LARGEST AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERUW-Milwaukee Africology department celebrates career of Dr. William G. Rogers » Milwaukee Community Journal

Unconventional Mother’s Day Gifts

This Mother’s Day take a moment to think of all the mothers in the world who are in need. There are millions of women in the world living on less than a dollar a day. There are women in this country who are wondering how they are going to feed or diaper their children from day to day. There are children who need medical attention that their parents may not be able to afford. Anyone who has ever had to worry about such things can deeply sympathize. For those of us who have escaped such worries, we can only imagine the level of instinctive stress that uncertainty can provoke.

There are many ways to celebrate Mother’s Day, but here are a few unconventional suggestions that will prove to your own mother that she did a good job raising you. How about dropping off a box of diapers and/or a case of formula to a local food bank or women’s shelter? If you have some baby furniture or clothing that your own children have outgrown, how about donating that stuff to a local charity? Does our local hospital have a fund for children who need care? Are there doctors in our community or city who volunteer in clinics overseas who might need supplies? There are countless ways to help support Moms locally and globally. Let your own Mom know that you were thinking about her and all of the many things she provided for you along the way…and that you did a good deed in honor of her. It will make her proud. 

Becoming Who We Are by Rev. M.D. Rogers

If there were ever a dysfunctional church, it was the church at Corinth. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians reads like a laundry list of problems. Every chapter presents at least one issue where the church is missing the mark. There are scandals, disagreements, confusion, and outright sin. Members quarrel, pridefully taking sides against each other. They hurt and alienate one another.

And yet, at the very beginning of the first letter, Paul addresses members as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints. Despite all their failures, Paul does not forget what Christ can do in and through them. He points them to their God-enabled potential. In a sense, Paul tells them: "You are holy. Now become who you are."

How can the Corinthian church be both holy and not holy? One way to explain this paradox is through the concept of Christ's "imputed righteousness." We usually apply this to persons, but it also applies to the church corporate. To have Christ's righteousness "imputed" to us means that it belongs to us and counts in our favor. It means having his righteousness cover over our sinfulness, so that God can perceive us as righteous, even though we aren't. Despite lacking any holiness of our own, we are clothed in the "white robe" of Christ's holiness. To claim that the church can enjoy imputed righteousness is not to ignore its failings and shortcomings. But it does remind us of an important aspect of holiness: It is derived from another source.

Human beings derive their holiness from the unique holiness of God. "I am the Lord, who makes you holy" (Ex. 31:13; Lev. 22:32). "I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. . . . I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:44–45). "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God" (Lev 20:7). "You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own" (Lev. 20:26). Scripture shows a connection between God's holiness and our holiness that must not be forgotten. 

There They Crucified Him - Rev. M.D. Rogers

In Luke's Gospel, chapter 23, verse 33, I want to kind-of break some grammatical rules. You can do that when you are out of school. You've got to graduate first, though. It says this: "And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." It goes on to say some more things, but that is the part I want to deal with this morning.

"And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." I want to lift as a thought around this text: Why Calvary? It is up out of Luke's legacy that I am led to lift this word about our Lord.

Luke is, indeed, the third of the three Synoptic Gospels. Luke is the heavily editorialized biography of Jesus of Nazareth. Luke is the one that was written and addressed to that Roman dignitary, the most excelled Theophilus. Luke's Gospel is a most distinct biography. It is loaded with luscious tid-bits and a plethora of detail on the man from Galilee, his message, and his mission. Matthew's Gospel is a great Gospel, some scholars have called it the Jewish Gospel in that it points out that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise. Mark's Gospel, I think, is a very interesting Gospel. Scholars lay claim that it is the first one, and rather rustic in its presentation. But the main emphasis is that whatever situation Jesus entered into -- when he exited that situation, things were different. Luke's legacy is one that begins way back with the genealogy of Abraham. John's Gospel is the one that begins way back before Abraham, back where Moses started in the Pentateuch, "In the beginning . . ."

Luke's Gospel is the one that has some unique stories in it. Only Luke carries the story of the annunciation to Mary. Only Luke carries the story of Anna and Simeon in the temple. Only Luke carries the story of Jesus at the age of twelve being in the temple. Only Luke carries the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah. So I guess, as is bound to be, it would be Luke's Gospel and a luscious bit of detail that would demand our attention for this preaching moment. Follow Jesus as he falls and as he rises, and then, finally, outside of the western gate on a little eighteen foot mound that is shaped like a skull known as Golgotha. Luke says, "And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him."

Calvary--Golgotha--the place of the skull. It symbolizes the seat of death, the rule and reign of the grim reaper--Calvary. It was the citadel for that cold, unconscionable reality that has no eyes, no ears, and no heart. Death ruled and reigned on Calvary. Death was the real hallmark in the minds of those of that day on Calvary, and, "When they were come to the place called Calvary," listen y'all, "there they crucified him."

There's seemingly a malicious and blasphemous intent to take Jesus specifically to that place of the skull, that place where death ruled and reigned. "And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." But not only that, something tells me that they didn't want to take him to that hill, and then [have] God show Himself and then [see] Jesus catapulted into being all that he said that he was. The record says, "And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him."

But not only that, death was reigning on Calvary, and death was the last word. Death was the bomb, y'all. Death was king. Death had the last word. Death had taken everybody. Death had taken Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Death had taken all of the prophets, major and minor. Death had to wait on Methuselah for 969 years, but death won out. Hezekiah got a fifteen-year extension, but death still won out. Elijah resurrected a boy, but he only lived long enough to die again. Death was the bomb, and they wanted to make sure that they put Jesus in the hands of death so that he would be finished, so ". . . when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him." 

But is there another reason? And the Spirit said, "God didn't want any questions about who was really in charge. He let them go to Calvary because He inarguably wanted them to know that He was the victor. He wanted the victory of Jesus uncontested, indisputable, and the reason He let them go all the way to Calvary is because if they thought that Calvary belonged to Satan, then God was going to show that He was the Captain Ship God by whipping Satan on his own turf. He was going to beat him even though Satan had home-court advantage."

So what happened that fateful Friday? What happened was when the soldiers grabbed Jesus and laid him down on that old rugged cross, Jesus was talking to them all the while. He was saying, "Now, you can go on and nail my hands, but whatever you do, don't raise me. You can go on and you can rivet my feet, but whatever you do, don't raise me. You can go on and spear me in the side, and my head is already crowned with thorns and you've already whipped my back. You go on and do whatever you got to do, but I am trying to warn you now, whatever you do, don't raise me, don't raise me." I heard somebody say that what they did was they made the mistake of doing what he told them not to do. They raised him from a dead level to a perpendicular on the square. They raised him, and when they dropped him in that hole, the black preachers from Louisiana said that the whole world reeled and rocked like a drunken man. Midnight told midday, "Move over and let me sit on the throne, because the sun refused to shine, because two suns can't shine at the same time."

When they raised Jesus, he said, "I told you not to raise me. I told you it is all right to nail my hands and rivet my feet, but I told you don't raise me." When they raised him that is when he said, "And I, if I be lifted up, I draw all men unto me." So they raised him, and in their raising him, guess what? It changed all of history, because guess what? The law, the love of the law, was given on Sinai, but the law of love was given on Calvary. See, the waters receded on Ararat, but at Calvary all my sins were washed away. There was fire on Mount Carmel. Oh, but there's blood on Calvary. There was a transfiguration on Mount Tabor, but if you come to Calvary, you can be born again. Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on Mount Zion, oh, but, "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

 

Pass-The_ Ball...: Sheep Are Led-Rev. M.D. Rogers

Pass-The_ Ball...: Sheep Are Led-Rev. M.D. Rogers

Authentic Manhood: 3 Myths About Mentoring

Authentic Manhood: 3 Myths About Mentoring

Playahata » Blog Archive » 4 Reasons to Save Public Education

Playahata » Blog Archive » 4 Reasons to Save Public Education