Rev Michael Pfleger

This video has been causing some controversy. I was with him until the "I'm white" part. I don't really have a frame of reference for this and don't really know how to feel about it.

It just seems like YouTube.com has gotten a lot of folks in trouble for things that they have been saying in private for years. Some people say that it creates accountability. Personally, I feel that everything is not everybody's business.

What are your thoughts?

not a haiku

There is so much that exists between everywhere and nowhere that we cannot possibly comprehend the significance of a dew drop on a rose petal.

Lesson:

Don't let others define you

i forgot to remember

i'm sorry
i forgot to remember you
if i had known then that the mind was a muscle,
i would have remembered you
if i had known then that there was more to the story,
i would have remembered you
i didn't know they'd say i look just like you
i didn't know that night is no different from day
i didn't know that they would steal you forever
it's so hard to miss you
if i had known then that memories...need to be remembered,
i would have remembered you
so
dad
i'm sorry
i forgot to remember you

TaSh-ism

Lesson of the day:
Be more than you are...and don't tell anyone.

Marriage!

Why do people have an aversion towards marriage?

Specifically, why are Christian people developing an aversion towards marriage?

I've heard (Christian) people say:

"marriage is overrated"

"I don't need a piece of paper to make my love valid."

"Why get married when more than half of all marriages end in divorce?"

"I've never seen a happy married couple."

"Why would I want to restrict myself with marriage?"

As a married Christian, I actually feel insulted when I hear people refer to something I cherish as some sort of foul object. They say that marriage is overrated.

Well, who rated it?

Marriage is more than a piece of paper and if you don't believe that then you don't deserve the gift of marriage.

As Christians, we have to realize that life and the morals that govern our lives are not up to us to decide. We have a road map. The Bible is not just summer reading. If the Bible values and praises marriage, how can you be disdainful towards it?

Whether you go to church regularly or not, the New Testament is the foundation for Christianity. And while some ideas and passages are up for debate and left open to interpretation, the rules of marriage are not. In the Old Testament, there are even chapters dedicated to praising the value of having a good wife. Have you forgotten that marriage has been important since Genesis (2:24)?

Marriage is more than a piece of paper. It's a covenant with God. There is joy and power in promising God that you will love, honor, respect, and cherish someone. There is such beauty in knowing that you have chosen the father or mother of your children, the grandfather/mother of your grand kids.

As a married woman, I wake up each morning thanking God that I have a Man of God on my team, even when I'm mad at him. I love knowing that no matter how bad my day is going, I can come home to someone who has promised God that he will be there to support me. I didn't promise a piece of paper. I didn't promise my momma. I didn't even promise my husband, because I didn't have to. I promised God that I will commit myself to this marriage. That covenant is stronger than any man-made promise. It's stronger than statistics. I don't care what the percentages are, why would I set myself up to fail?

If I am conscious of a statistic, why should I allow my life to validate it?

If other people made certain choices that lead to the destruction of their own marriage, does that mean that you have to go down that same road? Why not look at that statistic and say, "Knowing that happened to other people, I need to make sure I work hard to prevent it from happening to me."

Imagine this: You have a bright younger sibling who is about to graduate from High School. You ask them, "What college are you going to?" They reply, "I'm not going to college. I don't need a degree to prove that I'm smart. Plus, too many people flunk out of college."

Who is stopping you from having the marriage you desire?

A marriage rooted in the Word is one of God's best blessings.

Math

Whoever said that relationships are 50/50 need to be hit on the thigh with a sugar cane. They don't have to be hit hard, just hard enough to stain the memory and leave a welt.

If I'm giving 50% of the time what am I doing the other 50%? Taking? If I am giving for 50 and taking for the other 50, positive 50 plus negative 50 is still zero. If the other person is doing the same, zero plus zero is still, say it with me now, ZERO!

What if the other person takes more than they give? Doesn't that leave me with less than I started with?

I was sitting outside of Starbucks one beautiful day, sipping on green tea lemonade when a random man asked, "Whats one plus one?" "Excuse me," I said.

"Most people think one plus one is two, but in nature its actually three."

Well, I thought this man was crazy, but after I've thought about it, I realize that he may have a point.

Applied to relationships (from friendships to marriage), one plus one is three. Thats who I am alone, who you are alone, and who we are together.

Its not 50/50; its 100/100 because what you give should not be contingent on what you are receiving. If that were the case, we'd all come up short.

Bill of Rights

1. You have the right to sing and rap in the shower and/or tub as if no one in the other rooms can hear you.

2. You have the right to try whatever dance move you saw in a music video.

3. You have the right to have celebrity crushes and get offended if anyone talks bad about him/her.

4. You have the right to ask questions and be nosey sometimes, not because you need to know, but just because you want to know.

5. You have the right to laugh so hard that drool comes out of you mouth and not be embarrassed because sometimes, things are just that funny.

6. You have the right to buy something that you don't need, as long as you got it for a good price.

7. You have the right to stare at people in public places (if they didn't want to be looked at, they should have stayed at home).

8. You have the right to be picky with your food and to like onion rings but not onions or tomato soup but not tomatoes.

9. You have the right to wear your hair like that even though we all talk about you.

10. You have the right to think that someone else is musty and then realize that you forgot to put deodorant on.

11. You have the right to say something stupid every once in a while and when someone asks you about it act like you didn't say it.

A Financial TaSh-ism

I have bad credit so that no one will steal my identity.

A TaSh-ism for the Spirit

True independence can only be attained through total dependence.

Seriously.

There is freedom in total surrender.

I'll explain.

As humans we are innately lacking in so many things. Our spirits especially, if we weren't, we'd be God. Knowing that we lack so much, it would be foolish to depend solely on ourselves for things. But we do and all we end up with is frustration. Then we say, "It's not fair."

Have you ever noticed that the people who brag about "not having to depend on anybody or any thing" are usually the most unhappy people?

Since we are all lacking as humans it would be equally foolish to seek what we lack in other people. There's a lot more I could say about this but I'll put it simply: That's not how the puzzle was designed.

Sure, we need other people but not in the way that we think. That's why we were put here together.

But back to the original statement: True independence can only be attained through total dependence.

All that we need and all that we seek is in God. There are many great scriptures that I can quote and they can either touch your heart or go over your head. But I will say that philosophy describes God as all-powerful, all knowing, without lack (meaning bad or evil), and also ever present.

Since God, by nature, cannot lack, and we, by nature, do, why not choose Him as your support? I'm not speaking to the atheists, because I'm speaking from experience. I am not nor have I ever been an athiest and I've gown up knowing who God is and what He could do. I saw it in the bible. However, I never related to the people in the bible. "Why would God do for me what he did for Abraham, David, Joseph, or Ester? That was thousands of years ago and if I want to make it in this world, I have to do it myself." That's what I believed.

But I went through this life banging my head on the wall with frustration. So I surrendered. I mean honestly, what did I have to lose? I wasn't getting anywhere.

There was so much strength and freedom in that surrender that it's hard to explain. It's kind of like not having a job and being stressed out about it and then getting hired and knowing that you start work in a week. You feel free knowing that your need is taken care of, so you sleep easy because you know that you stat work next Monday.

With God, all needs are met. How do I know? He said so. And since He cannot lack that means that He cannot lie like we do because a lie is a lack of truth. So what makes me different from Abraham? Well, besides the obvious gender differences...nothing. Because God is ever-present, His promises are as good today as they were when time began. Have you ever heard the statement "Let go and Let God"? That's total dependence, and it's only with this dependence that we can conquer and slay the dragons set before us.

So why stress when you can surrender?

The Truth

My husband and I watched a special on the discovery channel that talked about dinosaurs and evolution. They concluded that (get this), the modern day chicken evolved from the t-rex. Well, hubby laughed at this theory, but I got a much needed moment of clarity. This explains why I hate chickens, they're mini t-rexes that terrorize the world. They're also vile and disgusting creatures that I'm pretty sure are over populating the planet.

Chickens are {bleep}holes.

I'm pretty sure that all the world's problems are somehow caused by chickens.

Global Warming - chickens.

Low self-esteem - chickens.

War - Chickens!

My nightmares - Chicken-rexes.

Don't be fooled. A chicken is not a beautiful thing. I'm not just saying this because I'm afraid of chickens, I'm pretty sure that most of this is true.

Legacy

hen Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
Matthew 16:24-27

Legacy... It's not about how much stuff you have.

Legacy is about the fruit you bear. God destined everything to produce fruit of its own kind.

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
Genesis 1:11

So, when thinking about legacy, we have to decide what kind of fruit we want to produce and become that type of tree.

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:16-18

We must study the Word, it tells us what the criterion is for a good tree.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.
Proverbs 11:30

We must also remember that we eat our own fruit.

Who doesn't love good fruit?

" Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Isaiah 3:10