Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
A God who Speaks by Rev.M.D.Rogers
Has someone ever told you something, only to come back later and change his story? In thinking about this question, some people's minds may immediately go to politicians. You have heard the joke, "How do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving." Obviously, this does not characterize all, or perhaps even most, politicians. The statement alleges, however, that politicians will change their message when speaking to particular groups to accomplish certain goals.By contrast, when God speaks He has only one message, which is applicable to all people at all times. As One whose very character and nature is holiness and truth, God cannot lie. As the sovereign creator and God over all things, there is no one to whom His message does not apply. Whether speaking through the world He has made, through His written Word, or through the incarnate Word – the Lord Jesus Christ – God's message is clear. He has made mankind for relationship with Himself, that we might know, love, serve and glorify Him. Though our sin separates us from God, His plan from the beginning was to reconcile to Himself those who would place their faith in God's provision for redemption – Jesus Christ
Since the beginning of the world, God has spoken to man. Though God speaks through creation itself, He did not simply create the world and then hide, leaving man to figure out the world and his place in it. Rather, from the beginning, God took the initiative to reveal Himself, His ways, and His purposes to man. He spoke to Adam as he walked and lived in the garden. He spoke to Moses from the burning bush and later, according to Exodus 33:11, face-to-face. God spoke to the prophets, by His Spirit, commanding them to write down His words so that they might pass to future generations (2 Pe. 1:20-21). God spoke to them in various ways at various times (Heb. 1:1). The thing we must remember in all of this, however, is that God is the One who took the initiative. His words are what He communicates to man (2 Tim. 3:16).
God is a God who speaks, a God who reveals Himself, His character, His purpose, and His plan. From the beginning, that which He has spoken has been clear and consistent – He will provide for lost man a sinless redeemer that will reconcile God and man. He has done this in Christ. In the weeks to come, we will see not only that God speaks, but how He has spoken and how all that He has spoken points us to Christ.
Stop to consider the wonder of having a God who speaks—not just a distant deity who thunders orders and admonishments from heaven, but one who actually wants to have a conversation with you! Why would the Lord of all creation go to such lengths to communicate personally with each of us? Consider the following reasons:
• God loves you and desires a relationship with you.
• He wants you to know Him personally through intimate communication.
• He longs to encourage you to trust Him. As you experience the fulfillment of His words, your faith grows strong.
• He wants to guide you. The Lord has a good purpose for your life and is willing to direct your decisions and ways so you can experience all that He has planned.
In our busy world, it’s easy to take for granted this invaluable privilege of communication with God. If we are too busy or distracted to hear, His voice will not stop—but we’ll miss out on the riches of an intimate relationship available only to those with receptive hearts and ears.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Fats Domino - We Celebrate Black History
Music Prodigy
Legendary musician Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. was born on February 26, 1928, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The youngest of eight children in a musical family, he spoke Creole French before learning English. When Domino was 7, his brother-in-law Harrison Verret taught him to play the piano and introduced him to the vibrant New Orleans music scene; by age 10, the talented boy was already performing as a singer and pianist.
At 14, Domino dropped out of high school to pursue his musical dreams, taking on odd jobs like factory work and hauling ice to make ends meet. He was inspired by the likes of boogie-woogie piano players like Meade Lux Lewis and singers like Louis Jordan. In 1946, Domino started playing piano for the well-known New Orleans bass player and band leader Billy Diamond, who gave Domino the nickname "Fats." Domino's rare musical talents quickly made him a sensation, and by 1949 he was drawing substantial crowds on his own.
“I knew Fats from hanging out at a grocery store. He reminded me of Fats Waller and Fats Pichon. Those guys were big names and Antoine—that’s what everybody called him then—had just got married and gained weight. I started calling him ‘Fats’ and it stuck.” - Billy Diamond
Rock 'N' Roll Pioneer
In 1949, Fats Domino met collaborator Dave Bartholomew and signed to Imperial Records, where he would stay until 1963. Domino's first release was "The Fat Man" (1949), based on his nickname, a song co-written with Bartholomew. It became the first rock 'n' roll record to sell 1 million copies, peaking at No. 2 on the R&B charts. The two continued to churn out R&B hits and Top 100 records for years, with Domino's distinctive style of piano playing, accompanied by simple saxophone riffs, drum afterbeats and his mellow baritone voice, making him stand out in the sea of 1950s R&B singers.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Sunday, February 16, 2020
W.E.B. DuBois -We Celebrate Black History
Du Bois was a founder and general secretary of the Niagara Movement, an African American protest group of scholars and professionals. Du Bois founded and edited the Moon (1906) and the Horizon (1907-1910) as organs for the Niagara Movement.
In 1909, Du Bois was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and from 1910 to 1934 served it as director of publicity and research, a member of the board of directors, and founder and editor of The Crisis, its monthly magazine.
In The Crisis, Du Bois directed a constant stream of agitation–often bitter and sarcastic–at white Americans while serving as a source of information and pride to African Americans. The magazine always published young African American writers. Racial protest during the decade following World War I focused on securing anti-lynching legislation. During this period the NAACP was the leading protest organization and Du Bois its leading figure.
In 1934, Du Bois resigned from the NAACP board and from The Crisis because of his new advocacy of an African American nationalist strategy that ran in opposition to the NAACP’s commitment to integration. However, he returned to the NAACP as director of special research from 1944 to 1948. During this period, he was active in placing the grievances of African Americans before the United Nations, serving as a consultant to the UN founding convention (1945) and writing the famous “An Appeal to the World” (1947).
As Scholar
Du Bois’s life and work were an inseparable mixture of scholarship, protest activity, and polemics. All of his efforts were geared toward gaining equal treatment for black people in a world dominated by whites and toward marshaling and presenting evidence to refute the myths of racial inferiority.
From his earliest years, Du Bois was a prolific, gifted scholar. In 1884, Du Bois graduated from high school as valedictorian. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., in 1888, having spent summers teaching in African American schools in Nashville’s rural areas. In 1888 he entered Harvard University as a junior, took a bachelor of arts cum laude in 1890, and was one of six commencement speakers. From 1892 to 1894 he pursued graduate studies in history and economics at the University of Berlin on a Slater Fund fellowship. He served for 2 years as professor of Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
Du Bois received his Master of Arts from Harvard in 1891, and, in 1895, he became the first African American to receive a doctorate from the university. His dissertation, “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870,” was published as No. 1 in Harvard Historical Series.
In 1896-1897, Du Bois became assistant instructor in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. There he conducted the pioneering sociological study of an urban community, published as The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). These first two works assured Du Bois’s place among America’s leading scholars.
From 1897 to 1910 Du Bois served as professor of economics and history at Atlanta University, where he organized conferences titled the Atlanta University Studies of the Negro Problem and edited or co-edited 16 of the annual publications, on such topics as The Negro in Business (1899), The Negro Artisan (1902), The Negro Church (1903), Economic Cooperation among Negro Americans (1907), and The Negro American Family (1908). Other significant publications were The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903), one of the outstanding collections of essays in American letters, and John Brown (1909), a sympathetic portrayal published in the American Crisis Biographies series.
Du Bois also wrote two novels, The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) and Dark Princess: A Romance (1928); a book of essays and poetry, Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil (1920); and two histories of black people, The Negro (1915) and The Gift of Black Folk: Negroes in the Making of America (1924).
From 1934 to 1944 Du Bois was chairman of the department of sociology at Atlanta University. In 1940 he founded Phylon, a social science quarterly. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935), perhaps his most significant historical work, details the role of African Americans in American society, specifically during the Reconstruction period. The book was criticized for its use of Marxist concepts and for its attacks on the racist character of much of American historiography. However, it remains the best single source on its subject.
Black Folk, Then and Now (1939) is an elaboration of the history of black people in Africa and the New World. Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945) is a brief call for the granting of independence to Africans, and The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa Has Played in World History (1947; enlarged ed. 1965) is a major work anticipating many later scholarly conclusions regarding the significance and complexity of African history and culture. A trilogy of novels, collectively entitled The Black Flame (1957, 1959, 1961), and a selection of his writings, An ABC of Color (1963), are also worthy.
Du Bois received many honorary degrees, was a fellow and life member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was the outstanding African American intellectual of his period in America.
As Global Citizen
In 1948, he was cochairman of the Council on African Affairs; in 1949 he attended the New York, Paris, and Moscow peace congresses; in 1950 he served as chairman of the Peace Information Center and ran for the U.S. Senate on the American Labor party ticket in New York. In 1950-1951, Du Bois was tried and acquitted as an agent of a foreign power in one of the most ludicrous actions ever taken by the American government. Du Bois traveled widely throughout Russia and China in 1958-1959 and in 1961 joined the Communist party of the United States. He also took up residence in Ghana, Africa, in 1961.
Du Bois was also active in behalf of Pan-Africanism and concerned with the conditions of people of African descent wherever they lived. In 1900 he attended the First Pan-African Conference held in London, was elected a vice president, and wrote the “Address to the Nations of the World.” The Niagara Movement included a “pan-African department.” In 1911 Du Bois attended the First Universal Races Congress in London along with black intellectuals from Africa and the West Indies.
Du Bois organized a series of Pan-African congresses around the world, in 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927. The delegations comprised intellectuals from Africa, the West Indies, and the United States. Though resolutions condemning colonialism and calling for alleviation of the oppression of Africans were passed, little concrete action was taken. The Fifth Congress (1945, Manchester, England) elected Du Bois as chairman, but the power was clearly in the hands of younger activists, such as George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah, who later became significant in the independence movements of their respective countries.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
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