On October 4, Christians the world over remembered one of the greatest heroes of our faith—Francis of Assisi. He was born the son of a wealthy merchant in a society much like our own. The gap between the rich and the poor was unacceptably wide. Christians and Muslims were killing each other in the name of God. Both the church and the world were going through great change.
Francis was not always popular, but he was always Christian. He was one of the first to criticize capitalism, one of the first environmentalists, a church reformer, and a conscientious objector to war. His social activism was the natural outworking of his love for God, and his belief in the Bible. These are the words to his famous prayer:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is discord, union,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is error, truth,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is sadness, joy,
Where there is darkness, light.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.”

Dr. Robert Wilkerson is a minister, writer, and founder of People for the Christian Way, an organization whose mission is to encourage all people to practice Christian principles in business, politics, and every area of life. drbobwilkerson@bellsouth.net, www.peopleforthechristianway.com

Attaining Real Glory

Rev. Reid

Little Johnny was the son of the local minister. One day his teacher asked the class what they wanted to be when they grew up. When it was his turn to answer, he replied, “I want to be a minister just like my Dad.” The teacher was impressed with his determination and so she asked him why he wanted to be a preacher. “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “since I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, I figure it would be more interesting to be the guy who stands up and yells than the one who has to sit down and listen.”
Johnny is not the only one that does not understand the source of real glory. We attain real glory by living in the moment, one moment at a time and putting God first. The problem is we have become imprisoned by who we think we are – our name, our identity, our denomination, the society, our race, country, our social status, class or position. We become smaller and smaller as we move from birth to death. By the time we die we have obtained much in this world but gained nothing that will last. Real glory is immortal. Superficial glory or world grandeur is soon forgotten.
There are two ways of attaining real Glory. The first way is by living each moment, one moment at a time.  There is a difference in obtaining things in life and attaining the real glory of living. Our birth was an Attainment in real time. We did not ask to be here but we came. We were born innocent with a vastness of the sky. As we grew older our life became smaller and smaller. We began to associate with parts of life and we missed the whole which is God. Jesus’ message to us was we cannot put anything before the life that is eternal. Nothing! He said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  This is a hard lesson because we have much invested in our relationship with our family and other things in this world. Living moment to moment requires surrendering to God every breath we take. Unless we are willing even to deny our worldly family and things of this world, we cannot be part of a spiritual family. Unless we are willing to deny the ordinary ties of the body, we cannot move into the world of the Spirit. We have to leave behind the world of matter, the world of the body, to move into the world of the Spirit. This takes living each moment seeking, loving and trusting God.
Second, we can attain real glory by putting God first and carrying the cross we have been given in life. Jesus says,“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We all have a cross to carry. A cross is anything or anyone that comes between us and God. A cross can be our job or profession, our family, wealth, power or prestige. To attain real glory we must put God first. This is hard to do because we have become so attached to the parts of life that we like. The world of the Spirit contains the whole where we never die. And until our ego, character, selfishness and self-centeredness die, we cannot follow Jesus Christ. We have to die so that the new can be born in us. It can be born only when we are gone. It is not a question of transforming our old self, or improving the body or our mind, howsoever better we become, we will remain the same, if we are not born again. To be born again, we must put God first in all things. It is then that we attain to real glory.
Here is the deal, we attain to real glory by surrendering our life to God. Remember, God comes from the same door from where death of the ego comes in. If we are afraid of dying we will remain afraid of God. God and death are two names of one phenomenon. If we are afraid, we interpret God as death. If we accept Christ as our risen Lord, we interpret death as new life in God.

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:18

Sometimes things happen in your life that catch you completely by surprise. Your friends are acting strange, your job furloughs you, terminates you or reduces your hours, your car breaks down, your children are in trouble and so much more. Everywhere you look there is something and you feel like throwing up your hands and walking away. DON’T DO IT! Stop and take a minute to remember. What happened the last time you felt like this?  GOD WORKED IT OUT! What happened the last time you lost a job? GOD GAVE YOU A BETTER ONE! What happened the last time people were acting strange? GOD REMOVED THEM OR CORRECTED THEM! The last time you needed Him, He was there and He is here now.

Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Proverbs 4:5

Don’t be alarmed by the trials appearing in your life. Don’t worry about the Government shutdown or debt ceiling. Don’t focus on anything but God and REMEMBER what He has done in the past. His power is not regulated by the Government, His provision is not subsidized by the Government, His grace and mercy has no ceiling and He is still in control. Rather than believing what you hear, remember what you know.

God has not changed,
Minister Deidra Bibb

Taken From Eurweb.com

The Perfecting Church, home to famed gospel singer and Pastor Marvin Winans, is having a special dedication ceremony for the congregation’s youngest members on Sunday. Charity Grace, a Detroiter who recently started attending services at the church on East Nevada Street, wanted her only son, two-year-old Joshua Grace, to share in the blessings.
“I want to instill values and morals in my son based upon the Word of God,” she told Fox 2 Detroit.
But when she called Perfecting Church on Tuesday to sign up Joshua for the ceremony, Charity said she was told by a woman elected in the church that Pastor Winans has a strict policy — he won’t bless the babies of unwed mothers in front of the congregation, Fox 2 Detroit reported.
Grace said she felt degraded by the pastor’s decision. She’s hoping he reconsiders, even if it means having her son dedicated during the week by a church elder.
Until then, she told Fox 2 Detroit she has no plans to return to Perfecting Church.
“I absolutely would not set foot back in the church right now because I feel like they look down upon me and my kind, meaning single moms and unwed mothers,” Grace said.
Pope Francis recently said in May that the Catholic Church should bless children born out of wedlock, because their mothers chose life over abortion.
“Look at this girl who had had the courage to carry her pregnancy to term. … “What does she find? A closed door,” he said, according to Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. “This is not good pastoral zeal, it distances people from the Lord and does not open doors.”
Dr. Jacqui Lewis is the Senior Minister of Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan’s East Village. She told The Huffington Post she was surprised that a child “of any kind” would be denied a blessing from a church, and referenced the Gospel of Mark, 10:10-16:
“People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.”
“You want to know what the Kingdom of God is like?” she asked. “Check out the children. Check out their innocence, check out their wide-eyed wonder, check out their acknowledgement that they are dependent on others.”
Dr. Lewis also noticed something else — the little boy from Perfecting Church who was denied a blessing is named Joshua. “You know, Jesus’s name is really Joshua,” she said. “Joshua is Jesus’s namesake, and Jesus was born to a mother just like this mother.”
The pastor is a member of the Winans family, one of America’s most famous gospel clans. He’s released several albums with the Perfecting Church choir and is a recurring member on “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.” Winans also memorably delivered the eulogy at Whitney Houston’s funeral in 2012. He was carjacked and assaulted outside a Detroit gas station in 2012.
While Dr. Lewis has never met Winans, she said she believes he’s a man with a “real heart for Jesus’s people.” She told The Huffington Post she hopes to someday have coffee with Winans to talk about the issue of withholding blessings.
“The way we think about God and the way we think of what God wants us to do … I think that happens in relationships,” she sai

THE STRONG ONE WHO SEES
Who is this “Strong One Who Sees?”  The God and Creator of all the world and He wants to be the Lord of your personal life.  Why not invite Him into your heart today?  Jesus is the strong one who sees into the heart and mind of every human in the world.  He sees into your heart and depicts your every thought; He knows what you are thinking now.
The church is the Body of Jesus; He gave his life for the church. What is the church, you ask?  It is a body of believers, and each one has personally asked Him to come into his or her heart.  This is what you must do also – ask Jesus for yourself to come into your heart and to forgive you for all your personal sins, and accept you as His child. If you mean what you ask Him, He will surely come into your heart and live there. He personally came to live in my heart, when I personally asked Jesus to forgive me; and many others as well, and He will do the same for you when you personally ask Him into your heart, and to forgive your sins. Each person must personally ask Jesus in their heart for themselves. No one can ask for you, nor accept Jesus for you. Therefore, the church is a body of believers who have “personally” asked Jesus into their hearts. Will you ask today?
There are very many unnecessary complex problems, and circumstances that are caused by man’s mishandling what God created good – for all to benefit, and survive by – and do well.  Man has injected his ways, which never could work, but because man set God’s way aside, he has malfunction and brought on much suffering for everyone. When you set God’s Word aside, you are sure to fail. God is longsuffering, loving and kind, but He will judge. The nation is suffering now because of the choices man has made against God’s prescribed order. The worshippers of the Holy God – who created this Universe – call upon you “Law Makers” to read God’s Word, and govern your doings accordingly. God will judge you.
www.thealmightyeyes.com

   Stillman College invites the community to attend its Religious Emphasis Series, which will be held October 23rd and 24th, 11 a.m., in Birthright Alumni Hall. The guest speaker will be Dr. Marvin Frank Thomas, Sr., President/Dean of Phillips School of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Ga. The theme of his speech will be “What Time Is This In America, Particularly in Black America, And What Does It Require of Us?”
“Throughout the years, Stillman has invited well-known and highly regarded speakers in the field of religion to address the community during our Religious Emphasis program. This is a long and cherished tradition that not only enlightens faculty, staff and students, but impacts our entire community. We encourage anyone who is concerned about religious thought and spiritual growth to join us,” states Dr. Debra Bass, Acting Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology.
Dr. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with a minor in sociology from Stillman College, a Master of Divinity degree from Phillips School of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
He is the pastor of the Good News Community CME Church, Lithonia, Ga, and the former pastor of Walls Memorial CME Church, in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, Dr. Thomas served as pastor of congregations of the CME Church and presiding elder in the states of Alabama and Tennessee. He has also served as the Vice President for Student Affairs and a member of the Religion faculty at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. In addition, he is a former member of the Religion faculty and Student Services staff at Stillman.
Dr. Thomas is an Ordained Elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where he is a member of the Southeast Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin Annual Conference. He is currently serving as Chair of the Council of Deans at the Interdenominational Theological Center. In addition, he serves as an adjunct instructor at the ITC.
The Religious Emphasis Series is free and open to the public.