Author Archives: Antoine Barlow

“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”                                                                                       Genesis 28:17-18, KJV

“MONDAY MORNING MANNA”

Do you find it as interesting as do I that most celebrity vocalists do not write their own songs? Often overlooked is the songwriter who in essence really is the one to whom the greatest degree of glory should belong.  Afterall, it’s the songwriter whose lived the experience through which his or her song has sought to capture.  It’s the songwriter who has craftily penned each lyric and in most cases even the musical chords through which their message will be sang.  By and large, the hardest part has already happened far in advance of you and me ever hearing the work.  Though the singer is indeed a genius in his own right he is merely an instrument through which the great work of another is being played.  In fact, one can argue that vocalists have it easy to some degree in that they were born with great singing skills which inculcates that they are doing something rather easy for them to do.  On the other hand, the writer has toiled, sweated, lacked sleep, experienced either loss, tragedy or pains and perhaps even spent well over a year making the work just right before its passed along to the selected vocalist. 

One of the most beautiful songs ever written in my opinion is entitled, “Wake Up Everybody.” This song first aired in 1975, through the melodious voice of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass.  Some of the song’s lyrics which ring true even today are: Wake up everybody, no more sleeping in bed, No more backward thinking, time for thinking ahead; The world has changed so very much from what it used to be there is so much hatred, war, and poverty.  The frame is as follows; the world won’t get no better If we just let it be; The world won’t get no better; We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me.  As you read these lyrics I’m willing to bet that you can already hear Teddy Pendergrass humming this tune as he is most famous for the work he did in bringing the song to life while sadly, none of us have ever thought about John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen who were actually the writers of this beautiful work.  All three of these legendary artists have been deceased for several years, having all died young; yet, today the hard work they did can be felt in the hearts of all who hear them. 

Along this line of discussion, I’d like to inject that there is an unseen songwriter in His own right who did the hardest work ever done in securing salvation for a lost world.  The man, Jesus Christ experienced the hard labor of torture, humiliation and mocking all of which ended in His Crucifixion on a Rugged Cross followed by His subsequent Resurrection three days later.  That finished work of Jesus is the means through which by simply believing in the hard work He did, you and me can rest in the ease of knowing that our sins are forgiven, our souls are Saved and a beautiful structure somewhere beyond the stratosphere awaits us after we have achieved sainthood. 

In light of all that’s been said its encouraging to read about Jacob who learns something of Jesus in the passage we’ve selected to exegete in this writing.  The background of this passage is that Abraham’s second son Issac has found himself in a dilemma of sorts.  The dilemma is that God is doing something different than He has done before and that difference has caused a dangerous division in Issac’s family.  Since Issac is advancing in age the future he inherited from his father Abraham is now ready to be passed on to his son Esau but God decides to do something different. This time the blessing will skip the older son and be given to the younger son Jacob.  The knowledge that the blessing will go to Jacob causes stark division in this family and Esau has let it be known that as soon as his Father Issac dies that he will kill his brother Jacob.  

Armed with this information Jacobs mother decides that to protect her son the best decision was to send him to live with her brother Laban in a far away land.  At the time of this text Jacob has been walking three days and worn out from his journeying he spends the night in a desert place called Bethel. Today’s passage picks up when Jacob lies down to sleep and at some point during the night God meets the young man in his dreams. As part of this dream Jacob notices a long ladder with Angels going up and down it and he begins to hear God speak to him during the night.  There is great conjecture surrounding why Jacob was shown this dream and particularly a long ladder but John 1:51, KJV offers us the answer we need in Jesus’ quote, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” This is Jesus’ reference to the ladder.  Particulary, there are three ways that Jesus is the ladder being referenced in the text.  First, like a good ladder Jesus is strong enough to stabilize even the weakest among us.  Perhaps you’ve found moments of weakness in your life and if so, let me ensure you that it’s in our weakness that Gods strength through Jesus can be realized.  Secondly, Jesus like a good ladder is long enough to reach us no matter how far we may think we are away from Him.  In verse thirteen of this passage Moses informs us that Jacob saw God at the very top of this ladder.  This is to indicate that if God held the ladder and the ladder reached all the way to Jacob in the middle of a hot and dry desert then there’s no place that God cannot reach down to us and lift us from where we are to where He wants us to be.  Finally, like a good ladder Jesus is sure enough to hold the heaviest weight.  The Scriptures remind us that life is complete with heavy burdens that weigh us down making it difficult to climb due to increasing heaviness.  My appeal to you today is to take that heaviness you may have at this moment and give it to the one who is sure to handle it.

Simply stated, Jacob was dreaming of a ladder that was strong enough, long enough and sure enough to offer him protection, provision and prosperity.  The Good News for you and me today is that the same ladder symbolic of Jesus Christ offers us the same promise which is that, God is with Us!  Because Jesus has done the hardest part by dying on the Cross in our stead we, much like modern day vocalists only have an easy work left to do, which is to believe in the finished work at Mt. Calvary.  We must believe that even though we may be weak our God is strong, even though we may be far away at times, our God is near and even though we may be overburdened, Our God is a burden bearer. 

I challenge you today to grab hold of the ladder that has been placed before us so that we too, can be Saved.  When Jacob awoke isn’t it interesting that what he exclaimed was, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”  The word Jacob used for dreadful in Hebrew is the word nowra which is translated to mean Awesome! Beloved, it’s nothing short of Awesome that God is with you just as He was with Jacob and that He has already done the hardest part through His Son Jesus.  Accept the Awesome power of Jesus into your life today and begin your climb from where you are to where God wants you to be because even the hottest, driest desert can become a place akin to the gate of Heaven once you truly recognize the presence of this Awesome God who happens to be surrounding you right now!                                                  

In Jesus’ Name,            

“But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. ”                                                                                      Luke 8:23, KJV

MONDAY MORNING MANNA

What if anything has been your life-changing moment? A life-changing moment is that point at which you realize that God is in control and that He has arranged all kinds of U-Turns along life’s journey for you to recognize that your life is out of control unless He is leading it.  That epiphany came to me one night while on military duty in Baghdad, Iraq.  My flight had just arrived in Baghdad around midnight and after just fifteen minutes or so, I received news that I would be leaving by convoy with the United States Marines.  Once the Marines showed up to get me and four other soldiers they shared with us that we would be traveling for one hour on the back of one of their pick-up trucks at speeds of over seventy miles per hour with the lights off.  These were the necessary precautions we were taking during that time because of the significant threat in the region.  Oftentimes terrorists would place bombs alongside the roadways.  Their technique was to throw a female out in front of military vehicles and once the driver slowed down to avoid hitting her the bomb would be detonated killing everyone in the vehicle and especially those on back of the truck.  To say the least, I was literally shaking in my boots!  Nonetheless, I mounted the back of that pick up and prepared myself for the long and dangerous ride.  I distinctly remember praying as hard as I ever have that God would allow me to arrive safely and of course He did.  That was the start of my rededication to Him and not one day since that evening have I looked back as that truly was a life changing moment in my life.  Life-changing moments are unique to specific people which is to say that my moment won’t be yours and neither will yours be mine.  In fact, the only thing true about all life-changing moments is that they are ordained by God to get our attention to the obvious fact that He and He Alone deserves to be the head of our lives.

Earlier this week, I took notice of Ms. Alice Johnson as she spoke of her life-changing moment.  Ms. Johnson was convicted on eight federal counts in 1996, for her involvement in a cocaine trafficking organization in Memphis, TN.  While imprisoned Alice got involved in the drug game after she lost her job at FedEx where she had worked for ten years.  Alice was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and after serving almost twenty years of her sentence she was pardoned by President Trump.  Alice immediately began participating in re-entry programs, one of which was done on video and unbeknownst to her the video was seen outside of the prison by Kim Kardashian West. Kim began advocating for Ms. Johnsons release on the grounds that her punishment was excessive and an example of disproportionate impacts on African Americans.  Since her release in 2018, Johnson has become an advocate for criminal justice reform in the United States, often invoking her personal experience. The month after her release, in July 2018, she called for an end to mandatory sentencing and in September 2019, she met with Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee to promote greater access to expungement, prisoner education and reduction in barriers to reentry and to express concerns about the cash bail system.

I became interested in Alice’s story just last week as I watched her give a very moving speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, August 27^th.  The now sixty three year old Ms. Johnson stood on that stage and ignited the crowd with her personal story of how God had changed her life through the experience of incarceration.  Brothers and Sisters, all of us will receive moments along lifes journey where we can replace our ME with a HE (Jesus).  The place at which we make such a declaration will become the starting place from which our life changes for the better.  Such was the case with regard to the disciples in this particular passage of scripture.

At the time of this text Jesus has been teaching by the Sea of Galilee. It was there that He informed His hearers about the importance of the Word of God by using the example of seeds. He says as much in verse eleven by stating that the Seed of which He spake is the word of God. Most notably in verse fifteen Jesus says that the Word of God has fallen on good ground when it hits an honest and good heart, which having heard the word, believes it, and it brings forth fruit with patience.

My friend, it is the aim of God that everyone of us hear His Word because faith comes by hearing but also that we act upon everything we’ve heard in His Word by faith, so that in His time after we’ve waited patiently we can begin to see the results that only faith can deliver. The life-changing event for the disciples happened in verses twenty two through twenty six.  At the onset of this event Jesus tells His disciples to get into the boat with Him so they can travel to the other side of the lake.  Once on the boat Jesus takes a nap in the bottom of the boat and just as they were half way to shore a storm breaks   out and begins to fill the boat with water.  In response, the terrified disciples awaken Jesus who then gets up, speaks to the wind and tells it to calm down which it did immediately.  Following his calm of the wind and water then Jesus, asks the men, Where is Your Faith?, inculcating that they too could have done what He just did if they had adequate faith. 

Beloved, perhaps the most intriguing part of this story is that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen yet He still took a nap.  Because He is all-knowing, He knew that this journey was dangerous.  Prior to Him telling them to go into the water He knew the storm was coming and that water would fill the boat and He had to have known that the men were going to be terrified.  My question is why would Jesus knowingly send His brothers into a storm? The answer is simply that He knew that because of the storm their faith would become stronger so He allowed if for the greater life-changing reward of faith that would be realized.  Maybe you are in your own kind of storm right now.  Yours may not be Alice Johnsons incarceration nor even my experience in war because your storm is unique to you but as is true of all storms it won’t last always and this very one could very well be your life-changing experience should you allow it to be so.  With all that’s been said, it’s my appeal to you that Jesus be accepted as your personal savior today! Allowing Him to change your life beginning right now will be the best decision you’ve ever made because in the midst of storms it’s always better to have Him and not need Him than to Need Him and not have Him!   

In Jesus’ Name,            

“And the demons having gone forth from the man, did enter into the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep to the lake, and were choked. ”                                                                                  Luke 8:33, KJV

“MONDAY MORNING MANNA”

In this highly intense political season through which “We The People” will elect a President later this year it is beneficial to introduce a little known political figure by the name of Arthur Fletcher.  Mr. Fletcher is a political unknown to most people for two reasons.  First, Fletcher is unknown because the only seat he ever won was that of city councilman of Pasco City, Washington though he sought the Governorship  there in 1968 and the mayor-ship of Washington, D.C., in 1978.  The second reason Fletcher is a political unknown is that he always ran on the Republican ticket which since the Civil War has seen little to no support from his fellow black voters.  Perhaps what Mr. Fletcher is most known for is having been credited with coining the slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” and for having been the founder of Affirmative Action.   Affirmative action is a set of policies and practices preventing discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origins. It now often refers to policies positively supporting members of disadvantaged or underrepresented groups that have previously suffered discrimination in areas such as education, employment and housing.  Like it or not, Affirmative Action is here to stay for at least another ten years and its results are overwhelming as it relates to higher education.  For instance, between the years of 1976 to 2016, Hispanic enrollment at colleges and universities rose from 4% to 18% and blacks rose from 10% to 14%. 

Mr. Fletcher is indeed correct in saying that a mind is a terrible thing to waste and as the studies indicate many are meeting the opportunity to learn head on but what does that say about the minds of those who have opted to do otherwise?  To this writer, it says that a large number of people in the world experience the fates that they do because they have given the devil control of their minds.  Specifically, according to 1 Peter 5:8, ESV, “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This particular scripture warns us that when our minds are not actively engaged the devil will invade and even overtake us which ultimately leads to death because the devil exists to kill, steal and destroy (Jn 10:10, KJV).  You may ask how does the devil accomplish his attack on our righteous minds and to that question I’d have to call you to an experience I had growing up.  I have always been amazed at the awesome power of the human mind to retain and regurgitate that which has been placed within it and as I recall my teens I cannot help but think about what I filled my mind with most, which was music.  Particularly, I was a huge fan of what we call gangster rap and as a younger man I listened to my favorite rapper Tupac Shukar, all day every day.  I listened to Tupac’s C.D.’s so much so, that I committed every one of them to memory.  As I look back during those times I was angrier, lonelier and a whole lot crazier which can all be attributed to what I filled my mind with most.  In fact, one of my favorite songs by Pac was, If I Die Tonight! Some of the lyrics to that song are as follows:    

I’m sick of psychotic society, somebody save me

Addicted to drama, so even mama couldn’t raise me
Even the preacher and all my teachers couldn’t reach me
I run in the streets and puffin’ weed wit my peeps

In my brain all I can think about is fame
The police know my name, a different game, ain’t a thing changed
I’m seeing cemetery photos of my peers
Conversatin’ like they still here, if I die tonight

If you’re honest with yourself and me these lyrics though written by a musical genius also speak to the many struggles that he lived.  For instance, in line one Tupac makes the claim that he feels like he’s going crazy and wants somebody to save him; in line two he admits that he was overly rebellious to his mother; in line three he admits that authority figures couldn’t tell him anything; in line four he speaks of drug abuse; in line six he speaks of his criminality; in line seven of his trauma after the deaths of his friends and in line eight about his hallucinations. 

Overwhelming in just these few lyrics Tupac made three distinct references to feeling like he was losing his mind.  Brothers and Sisters the whole aim of satan is to flood our minds with so much garbage that we begin to see ourselves as nothing more than trash just waiting to be thrown away which is exactly what was going on in the text that we’re studying today. At the time of this text an unnamed man had been inhabited by demons.  This man had become so destructive to himself and others that he had to be handcuffed, shackled and forced outside of the city.   He was in his own mental cemetery and there he had begun to cut himself in hopes of taking his own life.  All of this he did while unclothed.  Perhaps you too, have felt like this man before.  Perhaps your hands have been chained to indicate that you just can’t get a grip on anything good, perhaps your feet are shackled to indicate that every-time you try to move forward you keep falling down, perhaps you have been hurting yourself and perhaps like him nothing you seem to do can cover your nakedness.  If either of these define you let me be the first to tell you that one Affirmative Action can heal your soul and point you in the right direction.  The word Affirmative simply means statement and the most life-changing statement that anyone can ever make is that “I believe in Jesus and Accept Him as the Lord of my Life”!     

The good news for the man in the Scripture was that Jesus showed up and spoke to him.  Jesus went on to cast the demon out of the man and returned him to a positive mental state of sanity just like He wants to do with you.  The verse above which I’m led to exegete in this writing is that just before Jesus performed an exorcism on this man the demons from inside him asked Jesus not to kill them but to instead allow them to go on living in the pigs that were feeding in the area.  Commentators suggest that the reason they asked such a thing is because demons require a body in order to live and to accomplish their evil work.  Not only that but should Jesus grant their request even if the pigs were to die at least the demons would have a home in the area until they could find someone or something else to inhabit.  The verse states that Jesus grants their request and the demons having gone forth from the man, did enter into the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep to the lake, and were choked.  Brothers and Sisters, satan still inhabits people today through the things they take in via the mind.  It’s been said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop and nothing could be truer.  If you’re spending time engaged in actions that are not drawing you closer to God then you can be sure that they are drawing you further from Him; thereby, making you a likely candidate for demon possession.  Has the devil not already killed enough of your dreams?, has he not already stolen enough of your stuff? And has he not already destroyed enough in your life? If so, the good news is that you can invoke your rights of Affirmative Action.  Affirm today that you want to be Saved and are willing to live as the creator God has commanded and begin to perform actions that are consistent with the Christian Way of Living.  The man in this verse did just that and became one of the most powerful witnesses to what God can do in the whole Bible. Like him, your handcuffs and shackles can fall off today, you can stop hurting yourself today, you can be clothed with the Righteousness of God today and every one of your demons can be cast out by praying this prayer today!

“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. Amen.”

In Jesus’ Name,            

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ”                        Genesis 32:24, KJV

Monday Morning Manna

For the better part of fifteen years it has become the custom of my family that every Friday we order a pizza and sit in front of the television to watch a movie which in most cases is a marathon.  A marathon is a series of related movies that come on one after another until all episodes have been viewed.  Many years ago we stumbled upon a movie called “Rocky” that has since become our family favorite.   The movie Rocky is a series of eight shows chronicling the life and rise to stardom of champion fighter Rocky Balboa from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.      In 2013, while vacationing in New York City we decided that since we loved Rocky so much and were so close to Philly, we would drive down to see the Rocky statue, to take pictures of his birth home and to stop by the gym in which he once trained. To my dismay after researching this matter a bit further, I became disgusted so much so that the joy I use to get from watching Rocky marathons soon passed. 

Sadly and strangely, it seems that there is not now, nor has there ever been a fighter from Philly or anywhere else in the world known as Rocky Balboa. In fact, the whole show is a fictitious farce in the finite mind of a filmmaker which simply means that the whole thing was make believe.  Though it’s lost its appeal to me and my family I can affirm that there is at least one truth related to films about Rocky Balboa.  Notably the one truth regarding Rocky movies and also applicable to you and me is that there will be times in our lives that we will have to wrestle out of our weight-class. By this I mean to suggest that sometimes we may find ourselves in a bout with an opponent, obstacle or obtrusive that may be bigger, stronger, wiser and even more fierce and when such is the case we can either respond or retreat.  Have you ever wondered why it is that we have never seen nor will we see a fighter Mike Tyson’s size fight someone Floyd Mayweather’s size or someone Evander Holyfield’s size fight someone Manny Pacquiao’s size? The answer is that in the world of fighting there are divisions based on weight class with the smallest being the flyweight (108 pounds) and the largest being the heavyweight (over 200 pounds).  In the world of fighting it is well understood that one’s size gives them an unfair advantage over others, so to keep from causing greater than normal injury to fighters, wrestlers and kickboxers absolutely no one is allowed to fight outside of their weight-class. 

Interesting to me is the fact that weight class rules don’t apply to those outside of the professional fighting arena thus with no regard to whether we may be seriously injured or perhaps even killed you and me must sometimes face opponents, obstacles and objectors that far exceed our weight-class.  For instance, I can make the argument that racism is bigger and stronger than us, the coronavirus is bigger and stronger than us, voter suppression is bigger and stronger than us and a whole host of other issues like mass incarceration, health problems and generational curses are all much bigger and much stronger than us; yet, they are often unavoidable circumstances.   Along this line of discussion it even seems that God knew that like Rocky, we too would sometimes find ourselves in the ring of life with challengers who have the upper-hand. 

To this the scriptures would inform us that God has not given us the Spirit of fear but of power, of love and of sound mind.  In fact, from the Bibles perspective its Gods intention that though we may be often outmatched still we can and must endure each obstacle, opponent and objector by standing firm on His Holy Word, by trusting in His Holy power and by learning life lessons along the way.

Are you facing anything bigger than you right now?  If so, keep reading because through todays text you will find some actions that just might give you the advantage over your enemy.  At the time of this text Jacob whose name means con-man has found himself in the fight of his life. Jacob left home nearly twenty years ago after a fight between he and his brother Esau. It happened that one day while Esau was out hunting for wild game his brother Jacob was at home preparing a meal. Once Esau came home he asked his brother for a bowl of the meal being prepared to which Jacob replied, “I will sell it to you for your birthright” During this particular time, the birthright was what we would call an inheritance today.  The rules governing biblical birthrights mandated that they were only granted to the first born male child.  It should be understood that Jacob being the younger child would have had nothing coming but still he continued to go even further in his con of taking his brothers inheritance by disguising himself to look like Esau so that on his father’s deathbed the then blind man would not be able to tell them apart.  After the birthright had been legally passed on to Jacob through theft, Esau returned home and learned what had happened.  The tension between the two brothers over this became so high that in fear for his life Jacob had to leave home immediately.    

In this particular text Jacob is returning home to see Esau for the first time in two decades and according to verse twenty-three Jacob spends the evening alone in a remote location. The actions that Jacob takes in the remaining verses inform us of what we should do whenever we find ourselves wresting with overwhelming opponents, obstacles or objectors.  In verse twenty-four we read that there Jacob wrestled with a man.  Most Bible scholars agree that the man with which Jacob wrestled that night was Jesus Christ or at least an Angel but in either way this opponent was bigger, larger and even wiser than Jacob.  The word structure of the verse actually gives us the first action that we ought to take when we are overwhelmed which is that we should pray.  The Hebrew word for wrestle in verse twenty-four is awbak which means to get down and dirty.  In our understanding we should take this to mean that when trouble comes we can do more by going down and praying than we ever could do by retreating.  Secondly, verse twenty-four states that Jacob wrestled with the un-named man all night long, which informs us of the importance of waiting on God while we’re praying for His Greatness to be revealed in our situation.  There is much to be said about waiting but more than anything we must recognize that nothing will happen outside of Gods timing so the best thing we could ever do after praying about a matter is to wait and see how God will intervene on our behalf.  Finally, after praying and waiting we have nothing left to do but to hold on to our faith by trusting that God will make a way – somehow!  In verse twenty-five the text says that after Jacob realized he was outmatched he simply held on while repeating the words, “I won’t let go until you Bless me.” Brother my appeal to you today is that you will begin to pray, to wait and to trust God in spite of everything that you may be facing right now.  In fact, should you be so led, the best prayer to pray while you wait this evening is the one through which you ask God to forgive your sins and to accept you as His child so that you can receive the rich reward of a heavenly inheritance when the day breaks!

In Jesus’ Name,            

“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly.”    Acts 12:7, KJV

Breaking News: A Million Americans will die Tonight and You can be one of them!

I will never forget the year 2005, as it was a life-changing point in my life.  We had just given birth to our second child which was my first daughter at the end of 2004, and right after seeing her for the first time I had to return to my military training where my unit and I were getting ready to go to Iraq for a year.  We left in early January 2005, and I arrived at my new base in Al Anbar Province, Iraq at the end of that month.  Though, I was a Christian already my faith would recognize a host of challenges on the way to and during the early stages of war.  Apart from my community of other like-minded believers and now around rowdy soldiers most of the time, I had begun to backslide.  Several months prior to us leaving the United States  I had started back drinking heavily for the first time in over five years.  If that weren’t enough the news came in that one of my closest friends who was already in Iraq had been killed by an explosion.  That news drove me further into a depression and made me drink even more heavily to subdue the pain and fear in my heart.  Upon finally making it into the country in which I’d spend the next year, every day the Iraqi’s launched bombs into our camp some of which injured a lot more of my friends.  To say the least, I was terrified that I’d never see my family again!

The reality in which I found myself led me to begin smoking again to ease my nerves and I hadn’t smoked for over five years.  The truth is that challenging times have a way of pulling us back into the familiar coping mechanisms we once used which is always a terrible mistake.  It follows that sometime in early February 2005, I began to have what would be two unforgettable experiences.  The first experience occurred on an evening in February when I was out walking and noticed a light in the chapel on base.       I walked in the door and since no one was there I took the opportunity to sit in one of the chairs to gather myself after a long Army day.  While there, I felt an overwhelming urge to pray so I immediately obeyed.  As I began to pour out my fears to God in prayer, I heard Him say as clear as a bell, “Son, you will Not die in this war” The more I poured out my heart, the clearer the voice became and after getting up from that floor and wiping the many tears from my face, it was clear to me that this challenging time was not one in which I needed to be drawn away from God but rather one in which I needed to draw closer to Him.  From that moment I stopped drinking, smoking, cursing and everything else I had begun to do and began to replace those vices with praying, fasting and daily studying my Bible.  The next experience I would enjoy came in July 2005, on a Tuesday night that for some reason I could not sleep.  I left my tent that night and began walking around the base praying more deeply than I have ever prayed in my life.      It was during that night of prayer that the voice I heard back in February spoke to me again.  This time the voice wasn’t audible but rather it was internal, to mean that I felt a touch that I’ve never felt before.  This encapsulating internal touch awakened in my heart an overwhelming desire to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  If you’ve Not yet figured it out, that was the point that I was called to preach which I would’ve missed had I not heeded the voice back in February to pray more, fast more and study more.  Since that July, I have been preaching Gods Word and His voice has led me into places that I could have never even dreamed I would be.  Brothers and Sisters, let me suggest to you that God uses challenging times in our lives to bring us closer to Him and the closer we are drawn to Him, the more clearly His voice becomes!  Ask any preacher about how they knew they were supposed to preach and every one of them will tell you that they just knew.  The voice of God is vital to our existence because through it He gives us the direction we need to travel in order to gain the revelation that He wants us to receive in order for there to be manifestation of His Majesty in our lives.  My question to you today is have you heard God lately?

Earlier in this writing I inserted the phrase Breaking News: Millions of Americans will die Tonight and You can be one of them for two reasons.  The first reason was to get your attention.  It’s the same strategy the news, newspapers and magazines use to accomplish the same goal.  The second reason that I wrote those words was to acquaint you with what God actually does want from all of us every day.  According to 1 Corinthians 15:31, the Apostle Paul writes, “I die daily” which is to mean that he confesses his sins every single day so that nothing will get in the way of his ability to hear Gods voice when He calls!  Perhaps you’d like to be more certain whether the voice in your head is actually God or if it’s your mind playing tricks on you? If so, the answer to your question is best found in today’s text.       At the time of this text Jesus has been Crucified and has been Resurrected from the grave.  It followed that a preacher by the name of Peter who was with Jesus everyday until Jesus was Resurrected began preaching the gospel all over Palestine.  The king of the land at the time was King Herod and he demanded that Peter be stopped because the gospel message was so powerful that in began to impact the kings popularity.  In an effort to silence Peter, King Herod sent his police officers to arrest Peter on a Friday evening with the hope of crucifying him on Monday.  Peter was quickly booked and placed in a prison cell then chained to two soldiers.  The text continues that in the middle of the night while Peter and the two soldiers were asleep that God sent an Angel into the prison and in verse seven we learn what the Angel said to Peter.  The verse states, “an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He [the angel] struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly.”

More than anything this verse informs us about three ways that we can be sure that it’s God trying to get our attention.  When God is trying to get a message to you He will give you a personal touch.  Notice the verse says that though Peter was chained to two other guys the only one who felt the touch was him.  When God touches us it’s so personal that it will leave no doubt that you are the person being contacted.  The touch of God may be as visible as the burning bush was to Moses or as audible as the call of Eli was in 1 Samuel 3:1, KJV, or even as awakening as Peter’s touch was in the text but there will be no denying that the message is intended for you.  Secondly, when God wants to get our attention it will involve a purposeful task which in this case was the task for Peter to “Get up quickly.” Every message that God sends us will involve a task that must be undertaken and we may not know the purpose of that task until after we’ve gotten up!  Perhaps today is the day for you to get up and get to work on what God is calling you to do which may include a need for you to stop running from Him during the challenges that you are facing and to run towards Him by repenting from your backsliding ways and beginning to pray, fast and study the scriptures again! Finally, when God is seeking to get our attention it will involve a powerful testimony.  The end of verse seven states that when Peter was touched and got up quickly, his chains fell off of his hands.  Brothers and Sisters, a revelation from God is the most powerful testimony that we will ever possess because what happens after the word has been received is that the reality that we have been called by God will be undeniable.  Immediately, after Peter was awakened and standing up by the power of God he was no longer bound, which suggests that after we have heard from God there will be no one alive able to tell us that we were crazy because in our hearts we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’ve been touched, tasked and that we have the testimony that God has spoken! My friend, tonight is significant because at some point during it millions of Americans will die just as Paul did in the text I mentioned earlier where Paul said, “I die daily.” My prayer is that you will be one of the many who die tonight by repenting of everything that has caused you to backslide during these challenging times inclusive of unending mass incarceration, unusual worldwide insurrections and an un-seeable infectious virus.  Conclusively, I would like to make the argument that if you will die tonight, sometime this year you will begin to hear the Living God speak to you like never before.  With all that’s been said, let me suggest to you that the breaking news today is that God wants to break you through His use of  a personal touch, a purposeful task and a powerful testimony! I encourage you to listen intently tonight for His voice and to trust that it’s going to change you forever!   

In Jesus’ Name,            

“And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”       Luke 16:26, KJV

MONDAY MORNING MANNA

In my studies this week, I stumbled across an obscure man whose story is so heart-stirring that it must be told into the ears of everyone in the world.  The story involved a man named Elwin Wilson and it took place in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1961. As you are aware across this country racial prejudice ran rampant during the 1960s so much so, that African Americans were not allowed to eat in the same restaurants as whites, not able to drink from the same water fountains as they and not allowed to exercise their right to vote as American citizens. One morning in Rock Hill, a group of young people visited the city in hope of trying to register blacks in the South to vote.  These young people from both the black and white race got off a greyhound bus and entered into the ‘whites only’ section of the greyhound bus waiting room where they were assaulted and severely beaten by a Klansman named Elwin Wilson.

Elwin Wilson would go on to live a fruitful life inclusive of becoming a CIA agent but what should be noted about him was not that he hurt and almost killed the two men in the station that day but the actions he took to right his wrong later in his life. Nearly fifty years after the beating that I’ve alluded to occurred, Elwin Wilson learned that one of the men he assaulted was the late octogenarian and civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis. In Wilson’s own words when asked where he was going when he died, he replied “I’m going to hell for the things I’ve done earlier in my life”. This epiphany led the then elderly Elwin Wilson to travel to Washington D. C., to personally apologize to Congressman Lewis and the two men went on to make multiple appearances during which Wilson apologized to the late congressman over and over on national television. In my opinion there is no finer story of racial reconciliation than this in the whole of American History and I can only pray that all of our hearts would be so touched by learning this story that we too become able to see the dangers in hurting others. 

As you are aware the month of March brought with it what I like to call the great equalizer.  By that I speak of the coronavirus that has claimed the lives of well over 3,000,000 people across the world and nearly 200,000 people in our own country. Though the number of African Americans dying from COVID-19 is proportionally higher than other races the fact remains that regardless of age or race still a lot of people are dying from this virus making it a significant equalizer.  According to a study published on July 8^th by the APM Research Lab staff, the coronavirus has killed 69.7% of African Americans, 51.3% of Native Americans, 40.5% of Pacific Islanders, 33.8% of Latinos, 30.2% of Whites and 29.3% of Asians living in America.  By viewing the numbers one can see that this thing has left no demographic untouched thereby making it the ‘great equalizer.’  Even more dismal than the numbers of the many who have lost their lives due to the coronavirus is the fact that every one of them have had to die alone.        The coronavirus is so devastatingly infectious that inside the hospitals those many staff members (i.e., nurses, doctors and surgeons), who are treating infected persons do so from behind face masks, gowns and gloves. What’s more alarming is that because of the heightened possibilities for infection family members of those infected with the virus are prohibited from visiting them.  The same distance is recognized in the fact that inside prisons and jails all visitors have been prohibited from seeing their loved ones, church pastors as well as church leaders are also not allowed to sit with their congregants during their final hours of life and even hospital chaplains seldom visit dying souls leaving them to die alone! 

I cannot fathom taking my last breath on this side without my wife, my children, my mother nor my siblings there with me.  Similarly, I recall the passing of my dear great-grandmother many years ago.  At the age of ninety-three, Mudear as we called her, took her last breath in her bedroom with all of her living children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Though painful at the time, it was also the most beautiful sight in the world to see the smile upon her face as she left this world surrounded by those she loved.  Specific, to my writing today is that no one in this world should have to experience the loneliness that exists apart from the bonds of human fellowship. 

To that end, one should consider the ways in which he lives on earth because should he die without having accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior not only will he have failed to form fruitful relationships of peoples from all walks of life on earth, he also will spend his eternal life alone.  This is precisely what occurred in our text today. 

It happens that a rich man who lived in a large mansion tucked away behind large gates went in and out of those gates for an unmentioned period of time while just outside his gates lay a sick man by the name of Lazarus who begged to be fed the crumbs from the rich man’s table.  It followed that both Lazarus and the rich man died and Lazarus went to Heaven while the rich man was sent to hell.  From this passage we can learn a few things about what the literal hell may encompass.  It seems that according to the verses of consideration today that hell is a place that one still retains his sensibilities which means that in hell one will be able to speak, see, hear and feel.  The rich man looked up and saw Lazarus sitting with Abraham, he felt the intense flames of hellfire and even posed a question to Abraham.  The rich man asked if Lazarus could come and give him just a small volume of water to which Abraham replied, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” This is a reminder to us that while on earth we should do all the good we can, to all the people we can, all the while we can which means we should refrain from ever hurting anyone. An additional message that can be delineated from this passage is that we never know when will be the day on which we take our last breath!  Unfortunately unlike Elwin Wilson, this rich man had not the time to right his wrongs before leaving this earth therefore, it behooves you and me to maintain positive relationships with everyone for we know not the day nor the hour when God will call us!  Even more pressing is the need to garner good relationships because hell is a place of what seems to be utter loneliness.  According to verse twenty six we read that the next thing Abraham said to the rich man was that even if Lazarus wanted to bring you some water he was prohibited from doing so because, “There is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence,” which inculcates that not only is hell hot, it is also a place of loneliness whereas Heaven is not.  Abraham specifically states to the rich man that you cannot come to US and neither can anyone here come to YOU! It should be understood that this particular hell is not the literal hell that we fathom in our minds but rather a place where souls were kept before Jesus died on the Cross to free all of those who belong to God.    

Today, that place accurately called hades in the Scriptures is non-existent but from the text I can only imagine the loneliness the rich man felt still may be a construct of the literal hell experience.  My appeal to you based on today’s lesson is this, “When and where we die is not up to us but how we die very well may be.” That Said, ponder this question in your mind today, if you were to take your final breath tonight will it be taken in the presence of all those who love you or would that breath be taken – Alone? If so, I encourage you to make the necessary changes in your life that you can control towards repairing broken relationships and building new ones before the final bell rings for you.  Some ways to restoring relationships may include writing or telephoning your loved ones to make amends, forgiving others who may have hurt you and/or asking those you hurt to forgive you.  Overwhelmingly and most importantly relationship restoration starts best by asking God to forgive everyone of your sins and accepting Jesus as your personal Savior so that should everyone else in this world be prohibited from being with you in your final hour, the one who says He will never leave you nor forsake us will gladly be standing by your side!

In Jesus’ Name,            

“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation”                   

                                                                                                                     Psalms 91:15-16, KJV

“FROM TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH”

MONDAY MORNING MANNA

On Wednesday July 8^th, thirty three year old Actress Naya Rivera and her 4 year old son went out for what would be their last time together.  It happened that around 1pm Naya and the baby rented a boat to spend some time together on the waters of Lake Piru in California.  According to the Los Angeles Times around 4:47 p.m., that afternoon the Lake Piru staff noticed that Ms. Rivera failed to return her boat on time, so they went out to search for her. After some time 9-1-1 dispatchers, reported that a 4 year old little boy had been found asleep on the boat by himself, wearing his life vest.  Though this story is quite tragic in the sense that a young boy will now be forced to go through the rest of his life without his mother there also exists within it a tidbit of triumph.  The triumph over and against this tragedy is that a four year old boy who could have also lost his life was ultimately saved by the grace of God.  Much like, this story I have found that all of our lives come complete with moments of both tragedy and triumph. The Bible is filled with references of both, for within it we learn of the boy Joseph who endured the tragedy of incarceration yet went on to enjoy the triumph of being able to save his entire family from famine while serving as Prime Minister of Egypt.  Likewise, we become acquainted with a man named Job who endured the tragedy of losing everything he loved and owned only to later enjoy the triumph of receiving a double portion of everything lost.  Most notably, the Scriptures reveal to us Jesus who endured the tragedy of His Crucifixion but just days later enjoyed the triumph of His Resurrection!  The honest truth is that every one of us will likewise experience moments of tragedy in life; however, those moments are not meant to destroy us rather, they are meant to define us. 

Neither of us are exempt from tragedy and in fact, enduring it is most certainly a character builder.  The question becomes how are we as Christians to deal with the tragedies we face in life? The answers to that question are that we are to remain faithful, hopeful and prayerful.  In the 91^st Psalm, the writer begins by informing his readers that their faith and subsequently ours too, should be in God.  In verse one the writer states that He who dwelleth in the secret places of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  This is to suggest that no matter what tragedies we may face the believer ought always remain faithful to God.  The word faithful means steadfast or unmovable!  Faithfulness in the biblical sense has everything to do with maintaining our devotion to God by not allowing anything to pull us away from our ability to fully believe in His power no matter what we may be facing.  Secondly, the believer must remain hopeful during times of tragedy.  Just as being faithful to God carries the idea of being devoted to Him, similarly but not specifically hopefulness is the act of believing that God will soon lead us into a better day. Brothers and Sisters it’s not enough just to remain devoted to God during tragic moments but we must also believe wholeheartedly that trouble will not last forever. Finally, we must deal with tragedy by taking all of those burdens that are too heavy for us to bear to God in prayer. 

God sees our crying out to Him in prayer as an invitation into our situation and even though we may not physically recognize His presence, we must keep in mind that the very minute we prayed about a matter God began working on that matter.  The work being done by God in response to our prayers may sometimes seem to us like a long time which is precisely why both faith and hope in Him must satisfy our souls until we see the manifestation that He is bringing about in the natural realm.

As I pen these words today there seems to be totalistic tragedy all around us.  Presently, we still face a prevailing pandemic that has claimed the lives of well over 130, 000 Americans and that number seems to be on an upward trend.  Additionally, life as we know it is being impacted in ways that may take years to be relieved.  The American public is incarcerated inside their homes.   Whenever they are allowed mobility they must do so wearing face coverings and armed with all sorts of disinfectant agents like Lysol, Clorox Wipes and Hand Sanitizer to name of few.  The local restaurant industry continues to lose millions of dollars each week and all of their patrons are overwhelmingly inconvenienced with having to be served either through take out or risk waiting two to three hours for in seat service.  In like manner, school age children and college students may not be afforded the opportunity to enjoy this next year without interruption to their learning; employees may soon see another round of layoffs;  the hospitals have no bed space available to treat sick patients;  prisons and jails are among the hardest hit with the Coronavirus; religious institutions for the most part remain closed and for the first time in American history the possibility of election tampering this fall is almost certain.  By all accounts the presence of an unseen virus has caused us to experience significant tragedy in America in general and across the globe in particular.  Many are wondering what must we do? My response is simply that we must remain faithful, hopeful and prayerful during this season until God leads us into the season of triumph just around the corner.  We can believe that this is so because God has promised that He would do so in our text of thought today.  To the writer of Psalms ninety one, God says that “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation” This short passage is oozing with optimism for through it God identifies faith, hope and prayer as the primary prerequisites for an ushering in of great triumph defined as satisfaction and salvation.  The greatest tragedy of our time would be for us to abuse this moment by failing to accept Jesus as our Savior so that we can soon recognize the reality that God is Mighty to Save!, in even the worst of situations.  My appeal to you today is that you jump in the boat of safety, don your life jacket and as the four year old boy I mentioned earlier did begin to rest in God all the while armed with the knowledge that someday soon these momentary tragedies will be replaced by utter triumph in Jesus Name!   

Dr A. Darrell Barlow

Monday Morning Manna

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”                                 Galatians 2:11-13, ESV

Not a day goes by that I don’t miss all of my family members that have passed away from this life and entered into the next.   Among the many voices I hear daily,  it seems that my maternal grandmother who passed away not long ago is the one sending me reminders the most.  Having not been formally educated conversing with her would blow your mind as she was a sage with much wisdom.  MaMa, as she was called by us always seemed to speak in idioms which are short phrases that are packed with longstanding wisdom.  Today, as clear as a bell, I hear her saying to me Son, “if you Know Better, you ought to do better” Doing Better, seems to be the locus of the text above that I’d like to exegete in this writing.  Particularly, at the time of this text the Apostle Paul is giving a reminder to one of his fellow preacher friends whose name is Peter.  The Bible has much to say about Paul who was once a Jewish Pharisee meaning that he was quite knowledgeable of Jewish Ceremonial Law.  These laws required that all Jews eat what is known as a kosher diet and that every Jewish male be circumcised.  The reason God gave these laws were first and foremost to signify that He alone was God and secondly, that there must be a distinction between His people and the rest of the world.  Unarguably, Jesus came to the earth and through His death, burial and Resurrection He fulfilled the Jewish Law thereby making it no more necessary for people to be Saved through the keeping of laws rather, since His ascension into Heaven men and women are Saved by His Sacrifice on the Cross.  Following Jesus’ earthly work the new identifier that God is sovereign and that we are His distinct people is that we accept what Jesus has done because none of us are capable of doing anything to save ourselves.  In fact, it’s futile to believe that we can keep the law because sin is today and will always be around regardless of what we eat or circumcise.  By placing our trust in the fact that believing in Jesus is the only prerequisite to Salvation we free ourselves from any and every law thereby making us all members of Gods family through His Son.  In the aforementioned text Paul has traveled to Jerusalem to meet with three of the Jewish men who walked with Jesus during His earthly ministry and were eyewitnesses to His Resurrection.  These men known as Peter, James and John listened to their Jewish brother Paul, who informed them that Jesus had changed his life and called him to preach the gospel of Salvation through faith and not works to other races of people precisely, the Gentiles.   Because Peter, James and John had been taught by Jesus for three years they each already knew that Paul was indeed accurate for they too, had seen Jesus eat with Gentiles, heal Gentiles and even offer Salvation to them.  Even more concerning is that through several visions Peter himself understood this truth more than the others so much so, that he also had ceased to eat a kosher diet and often even fellowshipped with Gentile Christians.  It followed that Peter and his cohort supported Paul’s ministry to the non-Jews and all three of them bid him Godspeed after giving him their blessings.  Some time later Paul left Jerusalem and settled in a town called Antioch where he began teaching the gospel truth to non-Jews.  One day Peter stopped by Antioch to see the great progress that Paul was making and during his stay there he too, ate non-Kosher meals with the Gentiles, partook in Communion with them and enjoyed fellowship with them with full embrace. 

During the time of Peters visit some of his fellow Jews also visited Antioch and began to teach that Paul had misinformed the new Gentile Christians who they felt should keep kosher and acquiesce to circumcision.  If the mixed message were not bad enough it followed that because Peter did not want anyone to know that he had been fellowshipping with Gentiles he immediately stopped meeting with, eating with and even being in the company of Gentiles even though he knew better.  This action of hypocrisy by Peter is precisely what made Paul write in verse eleven that he stood in Peter’s face and told him that he was tainting the gospel message with his racist views.  Making matters even worse, several of the weaker Jewish Christians took Peter’s actions as being correct and they too, disassembled from the Gentiles.    Brothers and Sisters, as believers we should know by now that the gospel of Jesus Christ is inclusive of all who are willing to accept Him as their Savior.  We should know that in Christ there is no separation of peoples because all are members of Gods family who have accepted the finished work of Jesus at Calvary.  Our actions and/or inactions as believers will always be watched by onlookers and we do overwhelming harm to the message of the Bible whenever we knowingly support anti-Biblical thoughts and actions.  The furtherance of the gospel is largely dependent on all of us who know better to do better.  That means that if anyone should shun sins like racism, hatred, prejudice, degradation, oppression and even privilege it should be those who know better.  It is precisely this type inaction in the world today that has caused utter chaos! I admonish you to reimagine the Christian faith on the basis of what you know! To know that God loves everyone yet mistreat anyone is antithetical to the teachings of Christ; to know that God has said that all are equal yet respond from a seat of superiority is oppositional to Christian doctrine and to know that Gods mercy endureth to all generations and yet fail to show mercy towards our brothers and sisters in the world, is akin to treason.  Beloved the Christian life is intended to be lived out peaceably, lovingly and unconditionally on the world stage and to knowingly do anything otherwise is one of the most harmful things we can do to the message of the Cross.  My appeal to you today is that if there is any known prejudice, hypocrisy, pride and even discord in your heart  that you release it right now so that the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding can flow through you to all of those who Christ has called your brothers and sisters.  The truth of the matter is that our nation must do better, our states must do better, our cities/towns must do better, our churches must do better and we ourselves must do better! In the words of the great Mahatma Ghandi, we should “be the change that we want to see in the world.” Conclusively my friend if in any area of your life you have knowingly been less loving than you should this is a great time to make up your mind to — do better!  

Sincerely,

“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.  It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”                                                                             Lamentations 3:21-23, KJV

MONDAY MORNING MANNA

Brothers and Sisters let my declare to you that America has found herself between a rock and a hard place! To be between a rock and a hard place is an age old idiom spoken to define being faced with two unpleasant, dangerous and risky alternatives where the avoidance of one ensures that you will encounter the other.  As you are aware though the racial inequities of the moment have dominated the news cycle for the past three weeks we cannot forget that prior to the present predicament we were already inundated with worldwide pandemonium. What must not be lost upon us is the fact that since March 15th the country initiated a shutdown which has lasted for nearly four months now and as of yesterday over seven million people worldwide have had confirmed cases of Covid 19. Of those seven million cases nearly half a million people have lost their lives.  More specific to us is that here in the Mississippi we have endured our own pains in response to Covid-19 because as of yesterday over 19,000 cases have been confirmed and 881 deaths have occurred several of which have been amongst inmate populations in the multiplicity of penal institutions across the state. Though efforts have been made to reopen the state and subsequently the prisons allowing inmate populations to enjoy the freedom of mobility the truth is that doing so has the potential of placing a myriad of people “between a rock and a hard place.”  No person wishes to be sheltered inside their homes or cells and at the time of this writing a host of my preacher friends complain that their parishioners are tired of missing their in person services being forced to sit at home viewing them but in the same manner no Pastor, Parent or Prison Warden wants to jeopardize the lives of even one of the people entrusted to them by allowing in person gatherings.  We are in a sense in jeopardy if we do and simultaneously in jeopardy if we don’t! “It’s like being between a rock and a hard place.”

Along the same line of thought, today marks the 20th day since the untimely murder of the now infamous George Floyd that took place due to extreme policing measures taken by former officer Derek Chauvin of the Minnesota police department. As you are aware, in the aftermath thousands upon thousands of citizens across the globe have taken to the streets in protest utterly placing themselves “between a rock and a hard place” because should protestors opt to do nothing their silence consents to further over-policing and martyrdom yet if they continue to line the streets with other protestors then they become subject to the Coronavirus. By all accounts each group is in between a rock and a hard place.

The questions on the floor today are how are we to feel? What are we to do? And what do we say when we’re in between a rock and a hard place? Brothers and Sisters in response to the hard places of which we are finding ourselves today it’s up to us rather we choose the rock of hope or the hard place of hate as both of them have their own epistemic consequences. Thus, with all that’s been said this morning let me suggest to you what the Spirit of God ushered into my heart just yesterday. He said to me “Son, whenever you find yourself between a rock and a hard place always chose the rock of hope because hope never maketh ashamed.”

Today’s scriptural reference is a poem of lament written by Jeremiah the Prophet from which we can find three hard responses, actions and feelings that will serve us best while between this rock and hardened place. At the time of this text the children of Israel have made it to the Promised Land and have now been there for over 500 years.  In fact, for the past 586 years they have been enjoying the beautiful land flowing with milk and honey that had been promised to Abraham.  In the past 586 years they have built houses, operated businesses and to their credit built the most beautifully erected church to date. Over the years that church known as Solomon’s Temple had gone from a place where they went in and worshipped and read the Bible into a place that they just stood outside of, took pictures and merely just held the Bible. For years and years they had fallen into sin and this passage chronicles the judgment of God that eventually followed.  Specifically, in the summer of 586BC, God allowed the wicked nation of Babylonia to destroy Jerusalem, her capital city Judah and the infamous Temple of Solomon.

In response the Prophet Jeremiah explains in detail what this invasion by the Babylonians looked like. He writes of overwhelming starvation, demonstrative death and an utter horror that commanded the moment. In verses 1-20 Jeremiah seems to struggle with what he should say; how he should feel and what he should do while between this proverbial rock and hard place.  Jeremiah’s first decision is that of hating where he is and what God is allowing to occur.

Beginning at verse thirteen his thoughts are that God has an arrow that He is shooting into the nation. In verse fifteen he says that its God who has has filled him with bitterness, and has made him drink what we would call clorox. In verse sixteen Jeremiah says that this feels like God is breaking his teeth with gravel stones and covering him with ashes.  In verse eighteen he says “my hope is no more in the Lord and in verse twenty Jeremiah says “My soul remembers everything that I’ve been through as well as, everything I’m going through as these people destroy our cities and I hate it! It’s good that the text turns however in verse twenty four where Jeremiah moves away from how he feels and begins to say what his soul is leading him to say which leads us to what our first response should be when we find ourselves in between a rock and a hard place.

The First response of a person in between a rock and a hard place should be:

I Will Hope in Him

In verse twenty four when Jeremiah says “The Lord is my portion” or territory what he means is that though I hate everything happening around me my hope is in the Lord because He is my territory. What the prophet is suggesting is that even though I may be seemingly losing everything and may soon find myself in some distant land the truth is that because the Lord is my territory He will be with me!

The Second response of a person in between a rock and a hard place should be:

I Will Wait for Him

In verse twenty five Jeremiah says “The Lord is good unto them that wait for him”  We must wait and trust that God is moving.  In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous sermon preached at Mount Pisgah M.B. Church in 1967, entitled “Why Jesus Called A Man a Fool”, King used the phrase, “I see the lightning flashing and I hear the thunder roar.” Perhaps by this he meant to indicate the mounting steam that the Civil Rights Movement was enjoying as at that time major legislation regarding voting rights was passed or perhaps King was just quoting a lyric from the famous hymn Never Alone.  Regardless of his source the idea he advanced was that things were beginning to improve.  You see my friend lightning flashes whenever something positive hits something negative and thunder rolls when something hot hits something cold. Likewise, across the globe today the hard place of hate is hitting the positive place of hope; the cold hearts of many has begun to hit the warm hearts of love; the hard place of injustice has begun to hit the positive place of unity and the coldness of racism is being challenged by the warmth of human dignity.  While all of that is true our most important task today is simply to wait being reminded that according to Jeremiah, ‘the Lord is good to those who wait for Him.”

Lastly, the third response of a person between a rock and a hard place should be to:

Seek Him

In this passage not only does Jeremiah tell us to hope in Him and wait for Him but he also tells us that there is something we can do while we wait.  Specifically, while we hope in Him and wait for Him, according to verse twenty five Jeremiah says we must also Seek Him because “The Lord is good to the soul that seeketh him.” To seek the Lord is similar to playing hide and go seek with our small kids. In so doing, not one of us gets so far away that the child can’t find us nor, do we go so far out of their purview that we can’t see them. Just The other day I played hide and seek with my own baby and I sat in the middle of the floor with a blanket over my head and with one eye watching her the whole time. When she began to go in the wrong direction I started calling her name until she turned around and came to me.

Beloved, God is not hiding from you, He is in plain sight just as He has always been but He sometimes has to use circumstances we may hate at the time in order to get our attention. Explanative perhaps Covid-19, the murder of George Floyd, the worldwide lockdown, economy shutdown and social unrest is simply Gods way of getting our attention! Regardless, whether it is our Not, todays text is certainly a call through which God is saying to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah that even in the midst of this “rock and hardened place”,  Dont Lose Hope because I’m good to those who have hope, to those who wait and to those who seek me!  At the beginning of this text Jeremiah was hating his predicament but by the end of the text Jeremiah is expressing hope in the Lord.  You may ask what changed? The change occurs in  

verse twenty one where Jeremiah writes “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”

What Jeremiah recalls to his mind is what he states in verse twenty two which is that it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  In other words, Jeremiah says even though my city has been destroyed, my church has been burned to the ground and I’m being carried away as a slave still I have to thank God that at least I’m still alive!  Also, its helpful to note that the word for compassion that Jeremiah uses is the word (ra·cha·mav) which comes from the root word (rechem) which actually means “the womb”  As you are aware to be in the womb means to be on the way out from the confines of a mothers belly into the abyss called the world. 

I pray that you find encouragement today in the fact that though things may not be as you would prefer them at the present time at least you’re still living and so long as you’ve got hope, wait a little while longer and continue to seek the Lord you too are coming out because His compassions never fail.  In fact, they are renewed every day for Great is His Faithfulness! My appeal to you today is that if you are in between a rock and a hard place in any area of your life it may be helpful to Hope in Him, to Wait For Him and to Seek Him!

Dr A. Darrell Barlow

“RECOVER ALL”

Monday Morning Manna

^“And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.”                                       1 Samuel 30:16-17, KJV

It was honestly the most amazing football game that I’ve ever witnessed! The game was held on November 5, 1994, during my first year in college.  The Alcorn State University Braves who at that point had only lost two games were playing the Mississippi Valley State University Delta Devils who were 4-6.  Though their record didn’t show it, the Delta Devils were a good ball club and rival games tend to always bring out the best in a team especially when they have home field advantage.  On the first few plays of the game the Delta Devils had hit superstar quarterback the late Steve “Air II” McNair causing him to be sidelined the entire first three quarters due to a hamstring injury.  Without Steve, the Delta Devils were able to initiate a strong offensive plan that had them leading the contest 24-0 for the first three quarters.  The players who were a bit overly confident that they would win began to celebrate on their sidelines so much so, that it got in the feelings of Mr. McNair.  Steve limped over to then Coach Cardell  Jones and whispered in his ear, “Coach, tape me up and put me in.” It’s tragic that champions like him are not around anymore. With no thought of the fact that he had at least five more games to play, that this was the year that he was being considered as a strong Heisman Trophy candidate and that his NFL career could be jeopardized, for the good of the team Steve was taped up and put in the game.  The rest was absolutely amazing! Attendees at that game saw him limp the entire fourth quarter avoiding defender after defender and throwing touchdown after touchdown.  Steve and his Braves went on to win that game 49-24 having scored all of their T.D’s in the final quarter of the game-it was amazing!  That year Steve threw for over 6,000 yards and made the cover of Sports Illustrated.  The takeaway from that amazing game is that the human spirit is incredible and once it is enlivened by the Spirit of God it can do amazing things. 

In the same way the text above chronicles another superstar in his own right.  At the time of the text David has not yet been crowned the King of Israel.  In fact, his arch rival King Saul who is the seated King has been trying to kill David for over ten years.  Saul’s attacks have become so successful that for David to obtain safety he had to go live in the land of his enemies the Phillistines.  While in Phillistine country David and his 600 men lived in a town called Ziglag near the southern part of Philistia.  One day, David and his men went out to work and the town of Ziglag was raided by a group called the Amalekites.  The Amalekites burned Ziglag to the ground and took all of the women and children captive.  Upon their return to the torched town David’s men blamed him for the atrocity and attempted to take his life.  Embittered by the fact that he’d lost his home, his family and the trust of his men David became distressed but according to verse six of this chapter he encouraged himself in the Lord.  After encouraging himself David prayed and heard God tell him to pursue to enemies in order to find his family.  Somehow, David motivated his men to follow him once more and in so doing they came to the village of the Amalekites where they witnessed the scene taking place in verses 16-17. 

Just like, the MVSU Delta Devils who thought they had clinched a win after having left the Alcorn Braves scoreless for three quarters, the Amalekites also began to celebrate.  According to the text they were drinking and dancing over the fact that they had pillaged Ziglag and had to their credit taken numerous slaves.  It’s never wise to celebrate too early! Let me suggest to you that our adversary the devil has been celebrating lately as if he has clinched another victory.  What he sees is an entire world terrified and frantic due to the present COVID-19 pandemic that has the entire populace sheltered inside their homes and even the entire populous of prisons sheltered in their cells.  If that were not enough no end seems to be in sight, the numbers of COVD related deaths continue to rise daily and now worldwide protest has ensued due to the recent murder of the now infamous George Floyd who was killed just weeks ago in a heinous act of police brutality.  Can’t you imagine what the devil must be thinking?           I would bet that he’s drinking, dancing and excited about all of the turmoil that he has been complicit in causing but what he hasn’t figured is that there’s an injured but encouraged champion just over the hill ready to get in the game. 

The story goes that early that morning when the Amalekites were hung over from their night of carousing in comes David and his men who utterly destroy all of them and end up recovering everything and everyone that had been stolen from Ziglag. Brothers and Sisters my appeal to you is that God wants you to recover everything that the devil has stolen from you over the years.  The enemy of our souls has burned many of our hopes to the ground, he has stolen our joy, arrested our faith and holds our families captive while he and his demons dance and drink in victory but the good news is that the game is not yet over.  God is coaching a team full of Christians who simply need to whisper into his ear that they are ready to be taped up and put into the game.  To be taped up by God in the spiritual sense is to have Him apply the living Blood of His Son Jesus to us thereby, making us able to get moving again.  We are experiencing unprecedented challenges in the world today but if you’re ready to get in the game, God is ready to use you today so that you can recover all.  My appeal today is that you began to see yourself getting back in the game and giving it all you’ve got.  If you’ve never been saved before you can get back in the game by simply accepting Jesus as your Savior.  If you’ve backslidden you can slide back by rededicating your life to Christ today and if you by chance may be a distressed Christian try encouraging yourself and getting back in the game.  God loves you so much that He has sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins.  Accept that finished work of Jesus and take your place on the field.  All of the help of Heaven is waiting on you to shut the devil up, stop his celebration and recover your stuff!

Sincerely,

ADB