Rebirth in Spring (a remix of Gods common grace through Springtime.)

Cool breezes that refine my skin like stone

A fresh outlook from the inner prison of winter

I missed her so and long to kiss her lips that bloom bright from clean snow

The wait is added excitement through new rains and showers

I love the warmth she brings in illuminated rays through the aroma

Of her growing, toxic-to-my-senses, pheromones that make me sick

With love.

So sick I can’t even enjoy her with a clear mind

I breathe in deeply her exhaled northern breath as her fragrance intoxicates

My will to choose, causing me through predetermined desire to select a day of

Just lying down in her pasture. I’d rather.

Her vision gives me memories of better times in Eden and glimpses of future eternities

In a new Earth and neo-Heaven

And yet the here and now I embrace her as she selflessly gives her all allowing her

Intimacy to be seen by all.

But I know her true intentions, her real motives.

She is the daughter of a Father given as a testimony to the greatness of Him. I AM.

She is a picture of the creative prowess of I AM.

And on her best day, when I walk in her beauty and look into the calm of her crystal

Eye like waters, I see the object of His love, to His glory, through her, me.

Give Her Back To Me. A Voice Calling Out from the Wilderness. A Cry for Hip Hop.

I arrange deranged voice chords to sound board samples with ample time to make symphonies out of prerecorded echoes that let go of time in eternity past, waving into the future, leaving me in the now, present, so I present presents as gifts of hope to get through today, riding on those waves into the tomorrow. Forgetting to check in their sorrow they have carry on luggage only, “excuse me, may I borrow your headphones?” trying to listen to ink scream out of paper like Abel’s blood from the earth, plugged into ancient rhymes from independent ancient times of boom bap raps that are plagued with martyrs of coke, smoke and crack. And now I’m choked from the smoke that rises from a ruined state of hip hop, burning like Rome. Babylon. And two twin towers, two lost powers, Biggie and Pac. Now we just make it rain and it feels like acid showers. And it turns me green like lady liberty where as I once stood for liberty but now just for green, a need to be seen, the state of my hip hop is a rap running towards greed, and still none of this matters except for the blood of the seed, Daweed(david). And so still I proclaim in rhythmic cadence through jaded statements. Get it? I preach to crowds of nodding heads using bass and snare to fixate in their souls a unified sole agreement that the message is true, yup the message is true! “You’ve Pushed Me So Far That I Fell Off The Edge – On My Way Down I Scream Hip Hop Is Dead!” And with arms wide open and eyes wide shut, praying hymns of hums, using one mic to mouth as an accompanying drum, and I’ve sung to Him, Please Lord forgive our sin, making your gift of music, taking your gift to use it as an Idol to be Idle! Actually falling backwards….while trying to run forward I make noises that scratch due to dirty needles injecting wax that hit grooves and soothes in one instance my moves from some distance, far off the recorded track, from the source of my high. It’s these rotations of boombastic sensations that get me through the depression of now. I am a monk of melodies after the order of Thelonious the Monk. Studying scripture of divine revelation through the constant elevation of Aly-us who call like prophets from the past singing, “Follow me, why don’t you follow me, to a place where we can be free.” Yearning with burning like dances for a rapture that takes me higher and higher, being baptized through phrases like “Yo, That’s Fiya!” making me, changing me to be funky fresh and giving me the status of a supa-fly B-boy. And false converts sneak in like D-boys giving false gospels of Dope Boy Magic, yet the Lord is Just and Light, and He can’t have it. There’s no darkness in Him, so the Dope Boys ‘ve had it. Wrath is coming, repent, believe, and begin to demand it. The radio’s not moving, it’s Babylon, Babel, tongues that Babble, building towers as idols that emit frequencies of mega-hertz of this false gospel that our women are only out for the la la la lollipop, and our men are only out for the Lola. Stop. The mula. Stop. We need to Stop. We need to have a new heart so that this can Stop. Give me back my music so that I can Stop. I can’t Stop. Nope, I won’t Stop. Give me back my music, I am Hip Hop. Yup, I am Hip Hop. I am a prophet of this movement that we’ve all forgot.…

Eh…just forget it…

Audio Koine New Testrament Greek

I stumbled upon this simple off the beaten path website where some guy compiled in audio mp3 form New Testament Greek vocab as well as him reading in English and Greek the book of 1 John. It really is quite helpful and I’ve been trying to listen to it each night before I go to sleep. If you’re intrested in starting to learn N.T. Greek or just want to brush up on your interpretive skills go ahead and give this site a look see.

Click the link below to view:

New Testament Greek in Audio mp3 Format

Her Name is εκκλησια & She is Christs Bride - What Does She Look Like?

Local Church Government

As many churches today proudly express their allegiance to scripture alone as the sole authority for their Christian lives, it can not go unobserved that there is a seemingly blatant disregard for the authority of scripture concerning manners of church governance in many local congregations around America today. Among younger Christians especially, the concept of how to do church is championed as being recovered from the dry and monotonous church models adopted by their parents and hence put in place are a variety of different styles. Ranging from the consumer mega church, the all-doors-open emergent church, the non leadership house church, to even the weekly bible study held at a local Starbucks. In each case there may be a commitment to the orthodox teachings of Christian salvation and the understanding of God, but what seems to be missing is an allegiance to scripture on what it is a local church looks like. “The church is biblically mandated, the campus fellowship isn’t. The Lord may want you to be involved in a fellowship, but Jesus nowhere promised that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Campus Fellowship. But there is His promise about the church.”[i] In seeing the church as Christ sees it, how then are believers to practice the institution of church in a way honoring and glorifying to the Bridegroom? This paper will attempt to answer the question of what a biblical model of a local church government looks like.

There are three points that seem to be crucial in the biblical example of a local church. These are 1) a responsible, believing, local congregation that has an autonomous authority as a whole, 2) a group of divinely selected leaders, or elders, within the congregation that guide, teach, and protect the congregation as a whole, and 3) a commitment between both the elders and the rest of the congregation to be united and of one accord in serving God and each other to His glory.

It should not be surprising that the N.T. church, from which we should derive our example, is seen as an assembly of believing men and women gathered together in different cities and regions, meeting in local houses and other spaces. What should be taken from this though is the degree in which this collected group of believers, this assembly of called out ones, or church acted and dealt with life as group committed to reflecting Gods glory. What is clearly seen is that in times of needed discipline or in some other major decisions, the burden of action falls on the church as a whole and not a group of outside individuals or panel. In Matt 18:15-17 it can be observed that the final burden of discipline falls on the whole “assembly” so that if “he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” In Acts 6, where a notable dispute between Jewish and Gentile widows had emerged, the Apostles were said to have called all the disciples and bade them to choose seven who would serve fairly among the widows. The decision was given to all the disciples in that immediate context. Again, in Acts 11:22 it says that they, the church, sent Barnabas to go to Antioch. In 1 Cor. 5 charges that the church assemble to discipline their brother who was supposedly boasting in a perverse sin. It was the church who was to administer the discipline. 1 Cor. 16 describes instruction from Paul on matters of collections and what they are to do. The instruction is given to the church as a whole and then Paul asks that the church approve a messenger to take the offering. Paul does not command a separate committee or counsel but that the church makes the decision.[ii]

These scriptures and more, coupled with the fact that the majority of the N.T. letters are written to congregations as a whole and that the charges, mandates, and commands with in them also apply to churches a whole give good evidence that congregations were committed to the life of a church, the decisions it made, the money it used, its own doctrinal integrity,(1 Cor.11:17-34,Gal 1:8-9, Thess. 5:21) even its manner of worship(1 Cor.14:39-40, Phil 4:1-3). As one searches scripture in hopes of being taught by Gods Word, it becomes evident that the congregation as a whole is responsible for its own response to scripture, that is, if any local church were to skirt the commands of scripture necessary for a healthy church the burden of responsibility falls on the church as a whole. The local church is really the first and clearest picture one sees of Christ’s body united in a body of individual believers. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” (1Cor. 12:12)

The second evident and still just as crucial point is that throughout the N.T. there is a clear imperative to have a leader over the local congregation to act as a shepherd or to be an elder that guides and teaches. In fact, it should be argued that the precedence the bible and N.T. church gives us is that of a plurality of equally important [iii]elders acting as leaders and teachers to the congregation. What this does is now add a check and a balance to the above picture of a democratic congregational rule in that there are now key gifted individuals whom God has placed to guide and instruct their own local assembly in a manner that is glorifying to God and compatible to scripture. But why more than one elder? Because scripture teaches this.

.

The O.T. and Palestinian practice with in Jesus’ day showed that a plurality of elders was usually the case. (Deut. 19:12; 21:1-9, 18-21)

“The other four New Testament authors who refer to Christian elders are James, Peter, Paul, and Luke, and each of them appears to assume a number of elders will be present in every congregation. James instructs his readers to “call the elders [plural] of the church [singular] to pray over” a sick person (James 5:14). Peter writes as an elder to the “elders [plural] among you” (1Pet. 5:1). If 1 Peter 5:5 should be translated “elders” instead of “older men,” it would again appear Peter assumes a plurality of elders in a single congregation—or at least this assumption could not be ruled out. Paul greets the bishops (plural) in the church (singular) at Philippi in his letter to the Philippians (Phil. 1:1). And he exhorts the elders of the church at Ephesus to be “bishops” (plural) to the “flock” (singular) that God had given them (Acts 20:28)…So certainly the churches established by Titus in Crete were at least supposed to have a plurality of elders in each local congregation.” [iv]

What is even more clear are the in depth qualifications given by Paul in 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 as to what and who an elder should be. These qualifications by no means are much different from whom any Christian should be but the list does make a distinction in credentials thereby disallowing a number of individuals from becoming and elder. What can not be denied tough is that the office of elder is established and that the clear markings of a church is one that is led and taught by these divinely selected elders. (Heb13:17) Does the final authority then lie with the Congregation or with the Elders? This question seems to be unfair in that the elders are apart of and represent the congregation. What seems to take place is a very open conversation between the elders of a congregation and the rest of the believing body thus securing as best can be a unified and cohesive decision based upon the authority of the congregation as whole, but delegated and confirmed with the elders. This leads then to the third and final point.

That there is a difference between an elder and the rest of the congregation is clear and what relationship they should have to each other should be just as clear. Hebrews 13:17 admonishes the congregation to obey they leaders and submit to their authority. The elders are described as men who watch over the church as men accountable to God. Then the writer tells them to obey them in order that their work will be a joy and not a burden. This seems to promote an environment of humble servitude as well as cautious leadership. A healthy relationship between both parties in which open dialogue must constantly be obtained and practiced. The role then of the teacher is to teach the truths of Gods’ revealed truth, constantly pointing the church to a hope in Christ. The role of a church leader is then to lead as a representative of who the church is; this is no doubt influenced by the teaching capacity of the elder. A cyclical effect is almost seen here; clear and authoritative (more so even expository preaching) teaching guiding the congregation as a whole wherefore the congregation as a whole can make clear and wise decisions on local church matters wherefore, finally, the elders represent its own congregation in giving credence to its congregation and giving final judgment to any matter.

In conclusion, a biblical picture of what the local church government looks like is an multi-elder led church in which the congregation takes no passive role but is constantly aware and active in the discussion of how the church as a whole, fairly represented by the elders, will act and look.

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[i] Mark Dever speaking at the 2007 New Attitude Conference

[ii] Each scripture reference was derived from Perspectives on Church Government: Five Views of Church Polity. Daniel Akins essay on the single elder led church, pgs 27-32.

[iii] Perspectives on Church Government. Pg 280

[iv] Mark Dever, By Whose Authority, Elders in Baptist Life. 2006, 9Marks. Pg8-9

Also, “The Anglican scholar and pioneer missiologist Roland Allen came to this same conclusion: “… it seems to be an irresistible conclusion that the elders appointed by St. Paul were definitely appointed with power to add to their number and thus to secure to new Churches a proper order and certainty of sacramental grace. Finally, St. Paul was not content with ordaining one elder for each Church. In every place he ordained several. This ensured that all authority should not be concentrated in the hands of one man.” Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours (London: Robert Scott, 1912), 138-139”. (Mark Dever, By Whose Authority, Elders in Baptist Life. 2006, 9Marks.)

I must decrease….to a fixed gear

Can I let you in on a secret? I’ve recently fallen in love.  Her name is Ms. Pista, Bianchi Pista and she is my new bicycle. Well I’ve had her for about a month now.  My eyes have been opened to a new world of freedom, poetry and motion in traveling by bicycle, seeing my neighborhood with all my senses as I see the houses free from the cage of glass windows, as I smell the aroma of some Latin Bar-B-Q, as I feel and touch the breeze as I fly through the narrow streets on my sleek road bike, and hear the commotion of everyday life and cars approaching and children playing and squirrels squirreling.  By decreasing my mode of transportation from car to bike I have increased my awareness of life around me, taking a sabbath break, no, a fast from the clutter and fabricated comfort/ease of modern transportation.

My bike has something else up her sleeve. She is a fixed gear bike.   Now how do I explain this?  Kent Peterson states it best when he writes this;

“And how is it to ride? It doesn’t coast. You don’t coast as you start out and put your foot in the second pedal. No, you grab the pedal on the fly. The bike won’t ever let you forget — it doesn’t coast. If you want to go fast, you pedal fast. To go slow, you pedal slow. When you stop, it stops. How are the hills? Really fun to go up, really a workout coming down. I am the engine and the brakes.The big brakes are my quads and my kneecaps working to slow those big wheels down. And in one instant I have to be strong and in one instant I have to be fast and always I have to be paying attention. This is riding. This is a bicycle that teaches me something every time I ride it, that makes me more by virtue of it’s being less. It’s the bike I ride until the street lights come on and sometimes even longer. It’s the bike I put away sadly and take out joyfully. It’s the bike that never forgets why we ride.”

So as you see, the gears are fixed to the pedals. I can not coast. And my thoughts on that? It is so much fun to ride, ride for pleasure through my neighborhood, ride to school, ride to get groceries, ride for exercise, even ride to pray.  The excitement and competition that arises between me and the terrain due to me not

being able to coast, that I always have to keep peddling, is great.  I’m continually pushing my self to see how far I can go, what hill can I overcome.  My city and route to school takes on new dimensions never seen before in a car.  Experiencing the hill God made in a new light that physically burns my thighs and pushes my lungs, which in turn causes me to rejoice in the beautiful creation of an incredible creator.  My first time on the bike, testing it before my purchase, seemed retarded. Really.  It was like I didn’t know how to ride a bike.  You forget how much you coast on a free wheel bicycle, especially getting started.  And I kept forgetting I couldn’t coast while riding which almost ended up with me several times being lifted up off my seat by the pedals and flying over the handle bars.  Now, now I don’t even think about it….I just ride, continually pedaling, always going. If I want to stop, well I slow down my legs, there are no brakes because there are no need for brakes, I am the brake.  If I want to go faster do I switch gears? No there’s only one gear, its fixed, so I pedal faster.  This to me is truly riding a bike, always in tune with whats going on, always aware of whats coming ahead, always enjoying the journey because it’s actually me putting in the effort of getting to my destination.

So if you see me riding through Hyattsville, Riverdale, College Park, Greenbelt, or Lanham say in your mind, “there goes a blessed man.” (=

A Prayer to the Sovereign Lord

This prayer I found on the reformation21 blogsite written by John Leonard of Cresheim Valley Church. I could not resist in sharing this with you and share the blessing it had on me. What a wonderful prayer to read aloud and to make your own. Enjoy to and for His glory.

John Leonard Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary and Pastor of Cresheim Valley Church, Philadelphia, PA (a daughter church of Tenth Presbyterian)

Our great God and Heavenly Father,

Forgive me, because my prayers are too often only selfish attempts to get what I want from you. I come, list in hand and little else. I justify this kind of prayer because you tell us in your word to ask, seek and knock.

My misconception of your true character robs you of your Sovereign Majesty and glory, an idolatry that is most evident in the way I pray. How dare I treat you, the Lord of the Universe, as if you were my delivery-boy: unconscious of you most of the time, summoning you when I need something, and dispatching you without so much as a “thank you.” Forgive me, Jesus, for treating you with less respect than the guards who mocked you, struck you, spit in your face, and then crucified you.

Forgive me for not praying in faith but rather out of a heart that is filled with superstition. For in truth, I believe prayer’s power lies in me or in another or even in prayer itself.

I have often gone to pastor, priest or saint, because they are “special”; they most certainly are able to get your ear, for you wouldn’t hear me. But it is my ears that are deaf to your voice calling me to come. And do not I betray you by believing that I need another mediator than the one you provide? What man could be more righteous than you Christ, and whose prayers would accomplish more? Is there any other who is continually interceding for me? I am faithless for not believing in your promises to come boldly into your presence because the way is made possible by the blood of your Son. What could you value more Father, than the blood of your Son?

I have ignored your instructions when I pray because I sound like a pagan, endless babbling and rants, trusting in my many words or getting the form right. My prayers have been long, elegant and emotional all to impress, to get your attention and win your approval; if not from you then at least from others. Sometimes I shout hoping that you will hear and answer me. If nothing else I hope that I am convincing myself and I call it faith.

Teach me again to pray as you taught your disciples to pray - so differently than I pray. For your prayer O Lord, is short, only eloquent in its simplicity, and straightforward.

Forgive me, for my prayers question your goodness and love by denying the very words my lips are confessing when I call you “My Heavenly Father.” How my prayers must break your heart because I don’t know you nor do I trust your word. Why do I not rest on your promises that guarantee with the giving up of your own Son that you will with him freely give me all things? Why do I call the bread you give me a stone and the fish a snake? If I being evil know how to give good gifts, how much more should I have confidence in you, Father.

But Lord, some days I feel like I can really pray and you hear me because I have been good or done something for you. Doesn’t that place you in my debt? Forgive me for making Christ’s death meaningless by valuing my pitiful acts as more significant than Jesus’ life and death. Why do I, Lord, desire to cover the perfect righteousness of Christ with my own filthy rags?

Father, dare I say, your sovereign rule offends me! How can you? How can you force your will on all creation, especially your children? What offends me is not the power, but that it is yours and not mine. Of course I never would admit that this is the reason I question your sovereignty. I prefer to look thoughtful and reflective, to be philosophical but if the truth were known, you hold all power, glory and all authority- and I want it. Have mercy on me Lord, for I still long for what my first parents coveted. For not being satisfied with bearing your image, I long to take your place. But this is not something you have denied me. In Christ you call me to join you, to reign with him. But Lord, Christ has chosen another direction than the one my heart is telling me; He in his glory steps down, to serve and to suffer but I want neither! Teach me Father to be like Christ and to desire a cross, that humiliation comes before exaltation, and that the glory of the resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering cannot be separated.

If I cannot have your place, then at least I can blame you for the deadness in my soul that is evident in the absence of prayer. After all Father, why should I pray if you already know and have already decided? Forgive me Lord, again like my first parents, I have believed Lucifer’s lie, the one he planted in our souls to doubt your goodness and love. Teach me to see you rightly Lord, that in all your attributes you are sovereign and your sovereignty fills all your qualities of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Knowing you this way allows me to pray joyfully, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Don’t let me hide my lack of love for others and my disobedient heart behind theological speculation that would leave you responsible for my sin. Show me how your plan and my actions fit together, how your will and my freedom merge so that they are one. Help me understand that your election does not exempt me from praying for the lost, sharing the gospel and pleading with people to be reconciled to you, but because of your sovereign plan I can be outrageously bold, confident, and at the same time patient when calling others to Christ.

Instruct me Father in what the older saints knew, that your sovereignty was the reason to pray, and to pray prayers filled with blessing, thanksgiving and praise. Make me understand you the way the Psalmist did, who being convinced of your sovereignty, argued and plead his case before you using your own promises as his evidence. Or to say with Job, “behold he will slay me, I have no hope, even so, I will plead my case before him.”

Reveal your majesty to me like you did to Isaiah, that in seeing you, I will see the true folly of my sin and being cleansed by a baptism of fire can then, from a cleansed heart offer myself in service to you.

Move my heart like you moved the apostle Paul’s, that as he laid out your plan of redemption for the church in Ephesus he was caught up in blessing and glorifying you, so much so that he could not take a breath for almost an entire chapter.

Let me rest in the mystery of your election, knowing that I am but clay in your hands, that you harden the heart of whom you please, love whom you please, pass over some, cut off nations and graft in others. Behold, your kindness and severity. Until like your apostle I can pray,

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Make me to know the promises I look to and hope in, “that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God in Christ, that I am more than a conquerer,” can only comfort me if these promises are grounded in your sovereignty, “that you work out all things for the good of those who love you.” And resting in your plan, keep me Lord, from murmuring against you, manipulating and scheming to get my way.

Help me to see life like Joseph, who when he had a chance to take revenge on his brothers for their betrayal, saw himself not as the victim of their evil act but understood that his life fit into your much greater plan. And when I do not get my way or what I want, help to me see that it is not others who are obstacles, but you My Shepherd are leading me in the paths of righteous.

In the face of disaster, teach me to pray prayers that trust in your plan and Providence, wherever you lead me in life and whatever circumstances I might face. Because of your dominion, may I greet all things as gracious gifts from my Father in whom there are no shadows. Your sovereign mercy enables me to give thanks in all things so that your peace that passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind. Even in the most difficult events help me to pray a prayer of rejoicing and hope like Habakkuk prayed:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

And when overwhelmed, Spirit, search my heart and mind giving expression to the cries of my heart with groanings too deep for words, bearing witness with my spirit that I am still your child and these cries are acts of faith that long for your kingdom to come.

Don’t let me be like Jabez Lord, who prayed for you to bless him and you graciously answered his prayer, but we are not told of any good Jabez did for you.

Most of all Lord, teach me to trust in your sovereign mercy the way Christ did. For trusting in your sovereign plan he could pray both, “Take this cup from me but not my will be done but Thine, Oh Lord.” Then give me the grace to like my Savior, who when persecuted for righteousness sake was able to say, “Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.”

For it is only then Lord, that I will have learned to pray in faith, realizing that you have taken the list from my hands, and in my prayers you have mingled my desires with your will so that I have received something far greater than I could have hoped, thought or imagined. You will have given me what my heart truly desires and all that I need. You, Father.

For in trying to get what I want out of you by my prayers, you have gotten what you want out of me. For I have taken my eyes off my list and see only you and in that moment, I know why the Psalmist asked for just one thing, and sought just one thing, and that I like him pray, “may I dwell in your house Lord all the days of my life, to behold your beauty, and to meditate on you in your temple.”

Questions for Further Thought or Discussion:

1. Why pray if God is sovereign?
2. Examine how you pray, what do your words show about your understanding of the nature of God?
3. How would understanding the sovereignty of God affect both our prayers content and purpose?

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John Leonard can be reached via email at jleonart@wts.edu. Check out his church’s website at www.cresheimvalleychurch.org

ESV Study Bible Arrives

My Favorite Bible Just Got Better. Introducing the New ESV Study Bible. 

For all the good information on this new gem, go to www.esvstudybible.org

This will be something every student of the scriptures should have. “The rightful heir to a great line of historic translations,” Piper calls it.

What Have I Been Doing? \ For my Mom

So where have I been? Where have all the posts gone? I’ve been here. I haven’t left my beloved Soulah Gratia. I’m always thinking of things to write, stories to tell. I want to talk about my new Bike (bicycle really). I want to talk about my new goal to cook more. I want to tell you stories about preaching at three in the morning outside bars in College Park. But I haven’t. I don’t know why, really. It’s my nature I guess, born again and new, but there’s still that darn flesh, sinful at that. Perhaps this queer, eccentric post will start a leak that leads to a crack that results in a flood of posting and writing and confessing and pouring.

I’ll start with this.

I went shopping today with my Mom. Not an unusual event. It’s really a time of bonding and in some weird fashion a way in which we can express love to each other with out actually saying ‘I love you.’ We hang out and go through the aisles of a selected supermarket and pick out items for the next month or so. And then she pays for it all, blessing me and I’m sure herself at the same time. A motherly thing probably. Well I was in class tonight going through Revelation and we were discussing the seven seals and when the professor reached Revelation 6:7-8, which is the fourth seal, and how there was a Pale Horse released with the rider’s name being Death and how he had the authority to kill a fourth of the worlds population through sword and famine and pestilence and wild beasts. This made me think of how lucky I was to have a mom who would be willing to go shopping with me and buy me groceries. I don’t need her to, I can very easily go alone and get my own food, but the fact that she wants to spend time and bless me, a poor seminary student with lots of good food…its humbling. I was just reminded of how times will be in those days and how sometimes I do get hungry with no food at my house, and yet the Lord is good. He has blessed me with a loving Mother. I texted her during class that I was thankful and that I loved her.

Calling You Out Untill….

I’m sooo fed up to here with all this neo-soul me, beat nic - so free, poetry in motion, Dwele listenin, only where brown and beige and maybe Red, Black & Green, can find me on U street maaaan – Black Broadway Faaan, Down with Bush with your fist pumped high and wish Asata Shakur would come back and run for Presidente, but you wouldn’t vote for her if everyone knew about it cus your stuck in the underground, and hip hop was only good when I was too young to understand.

      Stuck Up

           Non Socializing….unless there’s art involved and maybe some Jamaican green while we only eat at Ethiopian joints, Caribbean food or Sooooouul Foooood cus I’m soooooo cool, and I write my poetry on cocktail napkins just to show my friends how spontaneously artistic I am.
 

“Naw man, I don’t listen to radio anymore, my music is from the heart that beats rhythms of mother land…” Shut that mess up!

     

This Poetry MOVEment is novelty, a fad, really – down and out, lost out of control, and the fact that I’m up here as a Caucasian, Protestant, Male should confirm that this whole “Spoken Word Poetry” bit is played the **** out, sold out and ready to be raped for profit, you can’t stop it so just stop it, put down the pens and just quit! Fake-stressed poets who put forth a façade of esoteric B.S. – against the grain, counter culture, underground movement of mos definitely not Talib Kwelis.

      And you

                Carry

                   Your back pack as a badge of street culture that’s into books.

     Oh…You read?!?!?!…..Vanity Fair?…….The New Yorker?

     Oh, right, right, the biography of Malcolm X and Saul Williams Said the Shotgun to the Head. ” The Quran NOT the Bible cus I AM a poet.”    Whatever.

Until

      I          I…. see this beautiful perfect complexion image of a queen with eyes like green emeralds, her hair makes me want to fall in love.

     And we meet and I say “Hi, I’m Stephen, what’s your name?”

She says Gina

    “Hi, my name’s Gina.”

     “What do you do?”

She says she’s a student.

     “I’m a student.”

I begin to fall in love at first sight and she asks me what it is I do.

     “What do you do Stephen?”

                     …… I’m a Poet  (=

 

 South African Artiste Simphiwe Dana

Gnarles Barkley - Smiley Faces

Just a Brilliant video concept. brilliant I say!