#Spirit of Truth Urban Ministries

[coghive]

[Music] I Am – Ogocity Ft. Dr. Flourish Peters

Urban gospel artist OGOCITY is back with a Spirit-Filled new single titled “I AM,” featuring Dr. Peter Flourish, founder of The Logic Church. The powerful song, rooted in 2 Corinthians 5:21, serves as a reminder of the finished work of the cross and the divine exchange that occurred, where Jesus took our punishment for sin and bestowed upon us his righteousness. With a distinct style of praise and worship, OGOCITY’s career took off in 2017 with hits like “I’ll be there” and “For you,” which resonated with their emphasis on the importance of love and being present for loved ones. Her most recent release, “Citizen,” featuring Gerald Bishung, received widespread acclaim from both media and listeners alike, as it got the world dancing to its anthemic beats. “I AM” Produced by the acclaimed hit maker, Hills-Play also features a powerful, impactful charge delivered by the incomparable Dr. Flourish Peters. OGOCITY expresses her excitement about the new single, saying, “I am thrilled to share this new song with the world. ‘I AM’ is a declaration of the truth that we are made righteous in Christ Jesus. The believer in Christ needs to know of their identity and this song establishes that. I believe this song will raise a generation that walks in the freedom and knowledge of the finished work of Jesus and I am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Peter Flourish, whose powerful message adds depth to the song.” As a rising star in the urban gospel music scene, OGOCITY has garnered a strong following for her unique style, powerful vocals, and inspirational lyrics. “I AM” is expected to be another hit that continues to touch lives and spread a message of hope and faith. “I AM” is now available on all major streaming platforms, and OGOCITY and Dr. Peter Flourish can be followed on social media platforms @OGOCITY and @flourishpeters, respectively. Don’t miss out on this uplifting and empowering song that reminds believers of their true identity in Christ Jesus. I Am – Ogocity Ft. Dr. Flourish Peters Stream Below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xgzUFfhio&pp=ygURSSBBbSDigJMgT2dvY2l0eSA About OGOCITY OGOCITY, known as Ogochukwu Oye, is a renowned urban gospel artist with a unique style of praise and worship. Her music is inspired by her faith and carries a powerful message of hope, love, and faith. She began her career in 2017 and has since released several hit singles, gaining a strong following for her powerful vocals and inspiring lyrics. Connect with OGOCITY on social media @OGOCITY. About Dr. Peter Flourish Dr. Peter Flourish is the founder of The Logic Church, a renowned ministry that inspires and equips believers with practical teachings from the Bible. He is a sought-after speaker, author, and spiritual leader, known for his powerful messages and impactful teachings. Connect with Dr. Peter Flourish on social media @flourishpeters. Read the full article

[shawnpgreene]

Monthly Recap: May 2022

It was an action packed month in May of 2022 for me. Sometimes I forget what was accomplished and what needs to get done. I’m learning time management and organization is the key to keep up with the tasks and remembering to track what has been completed. Rosemarie and I started out the month visiting three bagel shops in Buffalo and reviewing them. I recoded it, but have yet to produce the video.…

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

It is crucial to realize that the AI revolution is not just about computers getting faster and smarter. It is fuelled by breakthroughs in the life sciences and the social sciences as well. The better we understand the biochemical mechanisms that underpin human emotions, desires and choices, the better computers can become in analyzing human behavior, predicting human decisions, and replacing human drivers, bankers and lawyers.

In the last few decades research in areas such as neuroscience and behavioral economics allowed scientists to hack humans, and in particular to gain a much better understanding of how humans make decisions. It turned out that our choices of everything from food to mates result not from some mysterious free will, but rather from billions of neurons calculating probabilities within a split second. Vaunted “human intuition” is in reality “pattern recognition” Good drivers, bankers and lawyers don’t have magical intuitions about traffic, investment or negotiation - rather, by recognising recurring patterns, they spot and try to avoid careless pedestrians, inept borrowers and dishonest crooks. It also turned out that the biochemical algorithms of human brain are far from perfect. They rely on heuristics, shortcuts and outdated circuits adapted to the African savannah rather than to the urban jungle. No wonder that even good drivers, bankers and lawyers sometimes make stupid mistakes.

This means that AI can outperform humans even in tasks that supposedly demand “intuition”. If you think AI needs to compete against the human soul in terms of mystical hunches - that sounds impossible. But if AI really needs to compete against neural networks in calculating probabilities and recognising patterns - that sounds far less daunting.

In particular, AI can be better at jobs that demand intuitions about other people. Many lines of work - such as driving a vehicle in a street full of pedestrians, lending money to strangers, and negotiating a business deal - require the ability to correctly assess the emotions and desires of other people. Is that kid about to jump onto the road? Does that man in the suit intend to take my money and disappear? Will that lawyer act on his threats, or is he just bluffing? As long as it was thought that such emotions and desires were generated by an immaterial spirit, it seemed obvious that computers will never be able to replace human drivers, bankers and lawyers. For how can a computer understand the divinely created human spirit? Yet if these emotions and desires are in fact no more that biochemical algorithms, there is no reason why computers cannot decipher these algorithms - and do so far better than any Homo sapiens.

A driver predicting the intentions of a pedestrian, a banker assessing the credibility of a potential borrower, and a lawyer gauging the mood at the negotiation table don’t rely on witchcraft. Rather, unbeknownst to them, their brains are recognizing biochemical patterns by analyzing facial expressions, tones of voice, hand movements, and even body odours. An AI equipped with the right sensors could do all that far more accurately and reliability than a human.

Hence the threat of job losses does not result merely from the rise of infotech. It results from the confluence of infotech with biotech. The way from the fMRI scanner to the labour market is long and tortuous, but it can still be covered within a few decades. What brain scientists are learning today about the amygdala and the cerebellum might make it possible for computers to outperform human psychiatrists and bodyguards in 2050.

AI not only stands poised to hack humans and outperform them in what were hitherto uniquely human skills. It also enjoys uniquely non-human abilities, which make the difference between an AI and a human worker one of kind rather than merely of degree. Two particularly important non-human abilities that AI possesses are connectivity and updatability.

Since humans are individuals, it is difficult to connect them to one another and to make sure that they are all up to date. In contrast, computers aren’t individuals, and it is easy to integrate them into a single flexible network. Hence what we are facing is not the replacement of millions of individual human workers by millions of individual robots and computers. Rather, individual humans are likely to be replaced by an integrated network. When considering automation it is therefore wrong to compare the abilities of a single human driver to that of a single self-driving car, or of a single human doctor to that of a single AI doctor. Rather, we should compare the abilities of a collection of human individuals to the abilities of an integrated network.

For example, many drivers are unfamiliar with all the changing traffic regulations and they often violate them. In addition, since every vehicle is an autonomous entity, when two vehicles approach the same junction at the same time, the drivers might miscommunicate their intentions and collide. Self.driving cars, in contrast, can all be connected to one another. When two such vehicles approach the same junction, they are not really two separate entities - they are part of a single algorithm. The chances that they might miscommunicate and collide are therefore far smaller. And if the Ministry of Transport decides to change some traffic regulation, all self-driving vehicles can be easily updated at exactly the same moment, and barring some bug in the program, they will all follow the new regulation to the letter.

Similarly, if the World Health Organization identifies a new disease, or if a laboratory produces a new medicine, it is almost impossible to update all the human doctors in the world about these developments. In contrast, even if you 10 billion AI doctors in the world - each monitoring the health of a single human being - you can still update all of them within a split second, and they can all communicate to each other their feedback on the new disease or medicine. The potential advantages of connectivity and updatabilily are so huge that in some lines of work it might make to replace aIl humans wlth computers, even if individually some humans still do a better job than the machines.

You might object that by switching from individual humans to a computer network we will lose the advantages of individuality. For example, if one human doctor makes a wrong judgment, he does not kill all the patients in the world. and he does not block the development of all new medications. In contrast, if all doctors are really just a single system, and that system makes a mistake, the results might be catastrophic. In truth, however, an integrated computer system can maximize the advantages of connectivity without losing the benefits of individuality. You can run many alternative algorithms on the same network, so that a patient in a remote jungle village can access through her smartphone not just a single authoritative doctor, but actually a hundred different AI doctors, whose relative performance is constantly being compared. You don’t like what the IBM doctor told you? No problem. Even if you are stranded somewhere on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, you can easily contact the Baidu doctor for a second opinion.

Similarly, self-driving vehicles could provide people with much better transport services, and in particular reduce mortality from traffic accidents. Today close to 1.25 million people are killed annually in traffic accidents (twice the number killed by war, crime and terrorism combined). More than 90 percent of these accidents are caused by very human errors: somebody drinking alcohol and driving, somebody texting a message while driving, somebody falling asleep at the wheel, somebody daydreaming instead of paying attention to the road. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated in 2012 that 31 percent of fatal crashes in the USA involved alcohol abuse, 30 percent involved speeding, and 21 percent involved distracted drivers. Self-driving vehicles will never do any of these things. Though they suffer from their own problems and limitations, and though some accidents are inevitable, replacing all human drivers by computers is expected to reduce deaths and injuries on the road by about 90 percent. In other words, switching to autonomous vehicles is likely to save the lives of a million people every year.

Hence it would be madness to block automation in fields such as transport and healthcare just in order to protect human jobs. After all, what we ultimately ought to protect is humans - not jobs. Redundant drivers and doctors will just have to find something else to do.

- Yuval Noah Harari, When You Grow Up, You Might Not Have a Job in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

[saltydogscast]

Not Your Average Christian Podcast

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

So you’re interested in the Salty Dogs Christian Podcast? Boy, are you in for a treat! (no pun intended). Ha-ha. You know, the whole dog thing? First of all, what this once was is not what it is now. Our show has evolved over time, having begun in February of 2017 and now running four seasons long, things have shifted. We started off interviewing many of our friends in ministry - pastors, volunteers, organizational leaders, those kinds of people. They were the “salty dogs” on the show. A salty dog is someone who has been at sea for a long time that has gained wisdom, experience, and insight and has become well-acquainted with the sea and its troubles, its peace, its power, its serenity. You want to sail with a salty dog. So the premise was that we’d interview those around us and learn everything that we could from them. This is what you can expect between seasons one through three.

Somewhere around halfway through Season 3, we began expressing some saltiness of our own. But not as salty dogs at sea, but in the way of the phrase “You salty bro?”. Yes, we are indeed salty. Urban Dictionary defines being salty as “ when you are upset over something little” as in “He was so salty after he died in smash bros”. LOL. This is great. However, the things we’re upset over aren’t so little in our eyes. We address many of the discrepancies between commonly held doctrines of the Christian faith and what we see in scripture. People love to ask the question “Where’s that in the bible?” and we ask the same thing, where is it? Where does the bible say that we’re to be doing church the way we’re doing church? Or that evangelism is what many say it is? Or if the bible really plays the primary role in the life of the believer, or is that the job of Holy Spirit? Or that you never look more like Jesus than when you’re serving or giving? Or that a staff-led, elder supported church paradigm is God’s way for all churches for all time?

Yes, We’re A Little Salty

The reason we’re a little salty is that we often feel like we’ve been slighted, duped, and even misguided in the things we were taught about faith, ministry, the bible, Jesus, the Spirit, and about some things concerning life in general. Wouldn’t you be a little perturbed finding out that the things you were taught were the truth, are in fact, not the truth? This is where we’re coming from. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth, and only tell us what He was hearing. We’re trying to let the Spirit do that work in us. We’re having conversations that are birthed from our journey in the faith. The cool thing is that if you start in Season 1 and listen through the end of Season 4, you’ll be able to see our journey from then to now, the way we’ve wrestled with scriptures, doctrines, pride, and self. We believe we’re unique in this way. It’s not like we started as a Baptist podcast and are still a Baptist podcast (BTW, we’re NOT a Baptist podcast). You get a real view of Christians without all the answers trying to come to conclusions, but are still right where they started: journeying with the Lord and learning as they go.

Give Us A Listen

It’s our hope that you really do enjoy the show and gain insight for your faith and relationship with Jesus, but just know right off the bat, we’re not your average Christian podcast.

Happy listening! And stay salty, my friends.

Buy Jason A Coffee source https://www.saltydogspodcast.com/blog/christian-podcast

[rlschmaltz]

The Death of Faith Requires the Absence of Faith: Christian Revelation Lights the Eternal

November 23, 2017. By Robert Schmaltz. 

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

It is plain to say the strains on keeping with faith are legion. Taking into account the widespread presence of ferocious violence, grinding poverty, severe hunger and thirst, domestic abuse, rape, the human mills of war and genocide, it is in fact an incredible feat to yet believe in the absolute power of love and forgiveness. Though, for the Judeo-Christian traditions the vicissitudes of corruption have gone down the ages. Yet, Christianity in its most basic element continues to build up the church of faith, hope, and love. For Christians, everywhere as well as in the United States, faith is regularly tested by the impulses of personal desires. Scores of church leaders have become willing advocates of social, political and economic movements whose ethics contradict all that God reveals to us through the deeds and words of Christ. Meanwhile, the turn away from Christ’s body (the church) as a reaction to those transgressions follows from abandoning critical theology as the means to living in good faith. 

We all live with contradictions, and none can truly claim to possess the full wisdom and knowledge of God’s divine nature. Though what complicates faith in Christ for so many, is the helplessness that comes with any attempt to morally reconcile the acts of a church that is accessory to policies which encourage the widespread damages of poverty, cycles of warfare, and a political status quo which protects sexual predators, adulterers, liars and thieves.

How can those cruelties which are a virulent part of our social, political and economic disorder, as well as the church which abides by those worldly powers, be reconciled with the Spirit of God and Christ? To be Christian demands settling the soul’s differences with corrupt institutions as well as our own shortcomings through the discerning heat.

It is from within scripture that Paul the Apostle seeks to provide encouragement to all whose faith is strained. With heartening clarity Paul speaks to us both as members of the Christian faith and as citizens. Saint Paul bears the truth that the Spirit of God never moves us to deny the feast of God’s love and mercy which is revealed through all good deeds and acts for all to share. God’s revelation appears throughout the ages in one and every instance of good deed, compassionate feeling, acts of love and forgiveness.

God does not institute divisions in the world, but calls us all especially the outcasts into banquet together. The ministry of Christ does not establish factions in the community of faith (the church) nor uphold divisive attitudes within the commonwealth (I Cor. 11:18-19). In fact, those powers which dominate in any present era through divide and conquer tactics are the enemies of Christ (I Cor. 15:24).

Through to the works of prophet Isaiah, the world has been understood as sinfully laden with iniquity and power dealt corruptly (Is. 1:4). God’s unequivocal revelation makes understandable the kind of life Christians are called to lead. Lives not with hearts that are hardened, callous, greedy, deceitful (Ep. 4:18-19). Not without the spirit of discernment for the common good. We are called to live by example, seeking with passion to put bitterness, wrath, ill-will, and malice away from us. Preferring in good faith to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving and above all else loving (Ep. 4:31-32). Knowing that even as we continue to struggle to put off the nature of our fallen world, we are forgiven just as we are loved.

Today, members of the Christian faith are sounding the alarm of collapse in the United States. No doubt, the church has proven itself to be pervious to the powers which corrupt. Some members of the faith, struggling to find evidence to support the lasting vitality of the church, have gone as far as to pronounce Christianity in the United States dead. In his recent essay, Baptist minister and social justice activist Miguel A. De La Torre fulminates, “The beauty of the gospel message — of love, of peace and of fraternity — has been murdered by the ambitions of Trumpish flimflammers who have sold their souls for expediency.” (emphasis added)

The sense of loss and doubt that follows from the experience of church leadership falling into line with the political conservatism that is tolerant of racism, promoting of nationalism, and preaching a gospel of wealth is fully appreciable. As a political thinker, as a theological thinker, and as someone who was earnestly socialized by the urban social justice counter-culture in these United States, there are hardly any aspects of the current political order that do not temp my fury. However Christian faith, the moral source which sustains resistance to degenerating into hatred and contempt for persons, even those who preach and act in particularly evil ways, cannot be said to be in decline. This is a lens which focuses the light of God everywhere always, in anyone, in all of us, in me.

As part of the continuity of the risen Christ, the companions of Christ (Christians) are charged in their following to carry forth through oppressed peoples’, distressed peoples’, and lost peoples’, cries for dignity and freedom. The charge that Christianity is dead in the United States holds only if there is no longer a voice for the fullness of dignity and freedom for the suffering. This charge holds only if the true image of self which transcends the oppressors’ image has been blotted out. This charge holds only if the liberating truth of Christ’s resurrection has been overcome by the enemy of humanity.

The followers of Jesus know that Christ’s body is very much alive. Our faith is guided by scripture reminds us when we turn to Jesus and ask, “where are you as we suffer? Where are you as we are abused and as we are killed?” God turns to us through Christ saying, “where are you in my suffering? Where are you in the midst of my abuse and in my death?” Christ always returns to us. This is God’s profound gift, Christ’s salvific power made available to through the ministry of Jesus and the cause for which he was crucified.

When Jesus is Resurrected, he does not seek to continue on his ministry of justice and mercy politically. The heads of state, priests, and the mob public put Jesus to excruciating death (Mk. 15:11-15). Meanwhile, the resurrected Christ does not return, fulfilling God’s prophecy with a grand display for persecutors to witness. No, the risen Jesus returns as quietly and intimately as Christ first entered the world. Christ returns to continue the ministry of God through Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James (Mk. 15:40), to Cleopas (Lk. 24), to the apostles. To all of Jesus loved and entrusted with God’s ministry, Christ reproached for their lack of faith and hardened hearts.

As Christians, we are called into a mission to build the kingdom of God, the kingdom of peace on Earth, and the means to the mission is to gather together with all those who hear the call. We are called closer in toward those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the hearts to serve God’s power and presence eternal. We are not called to mighty works whose first principal is to overthrow any seat of power. We are called to serve God’s kingdom, accompanying Christ on the mission to mount up lives of dignity with those who are cast out and those who have sinned or turned away from God. We turn our concern not toward the self-righteous, nor the mighty, but toward our mutually shared suffering and joy.

Near the end of her astounding life as one of the truly great contributors to American fiction, Flannery O’Connor wrote a short story titled Revelation. This story located in one of the southern United States, follows a decent Christian woman named Mrs. Turpin. Her worldly character is polite, helpful, giving of her time and kindness. At the same time Mrs. Turpin’s interior dialog is relentlessly judging, disparaging even, while at the same time giving thanks to Jesus. Saying, “Jesus, thank you! Thank you thank you!” Mrs. Turpin is very pleased with who she is as opposed to one of those she envisions as some despicable others. The revelation in O’Connor’s story is a warning that finally strikes at Mrs. Turpin’s conscience. One that suggests we ought to mind less those forces which disturb the body than those which impair the eyes of the soul.

To believe that Christianity may be used toward dehumanizing ends or to perpetuate abuses of social, economic, and political power requires abandoning discernment as a feature to living faith. Accepting of racism, sexism, and the preaching of the gospel of capitalist success follows from a gospel of self which sets aside the saving significance of Jesus Christ’s ministry and cause in the world. This follows from exchanging the truth about God for a lie (Rom. 1:25). Seeing this, theologian James Cone, urges a critical theology “based on the Bible and using tools of the social sciences” as a necessity for participating in God’s work of redemption, even while so many who preach the gospel express disdain for critical theology.

We are sinners - which is to say turned away from our true nature toward a distorted sense of self - called out from the mob condemning Jesus to death, away from the frenzied observers to the abuse of Christ’s body (now the church). First and foremost, Christians are called to be a part of God’s large plan, not any man’s small plan (Mt. 13:47-49). We are all called into companionship Jesus Christ who is present throughout everything in this life that serves eternal wellbeing.

There is isolation, broken relationships, poverty, violence, social fragmentation, hate, and violence in our unjust world. None of these deficiencies are God’s making. Cruelty and even death itself is not of God’s making. The Christian faith compels us to conscientiously allow the soul to follow the anguish, the sorrow, and even the shame we experience in the desolation of these injustices in order to grow closer to Jesus. We follow our compassion to receive God’s offering, the power of love and forgiveness. Pope John Paul II put into words, “Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good, namely the good of eternal salvation.” The pain of cruelty and corruption is there to turn us not away from Jesus Christ but always to draw us closer to Christ’s ministry, the presence of God in the world.

The truth of the resurrected Christ the redeemer is inconsistent with notions of a church grown obsolete or the death of faith. The power of Christ’s ministry inspires a positive attitude toward creation and provides a propulsion for continued transformation through faith, hope and love in the living. “In the living,” Jesus tells us, “I will give you all the light you will need for the ages to come.” (Jn. 6: 44-49) Through every age to the present and into the future, despite vicious corruption the truth of God ceaselessly repairs, amends, intervenes in life, across the expanse of all creation, with care. Through Christ, we are called into profound relationship with one another, one that corruption and death has no power to undo.

Image: Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus. Oil on panel. 37 15/16 x 32 in. (96.36 x 81.28 cm). Late 1620s or 1630-32. Los Angeles County Museum of Art

[barbaramoorersm]

December 10,2017

B 2 ADVENT   12. 10.17

ISAIAH 40: 1-5, 9-10

This beautiful reading comes from 2nd Isaiah and is written to a people in exile in Babylon. The early church saw in Isaiah’s words a foreshadowing of the ministry of John the Baptist.

 MARK 1: 1-8

We are hearing from the earliest of the four Gospels.  You will note that Mark does not include an infancy narrative but launches right into the opening of Jesus’ public ministry as John the Baptist describes it to the crowds.

  Imagine hearing these beautiful, hopeful words from Isaiah when you were far from your beloved home, in exile in Babylon.  “Comfort, give comfort to my people says the Lord.”   Isaiah encourages the people with a beautiful description of how their return will be facilitated.  Valleys will be filled in and mountains made low.  To add to the encouragement and hopefulness, Isaiah describes God as a shepherd gathering and embracing the flock.  My mind travels to the 60 million people on the move today. Refugees in exile, who long for comfort and a return to their beloved homes.   Men, women and children who seek refuge among us until they can return home, or who desire a new home and a new beginning.

 Mark repeats the words of Isaiah and describes John as the person who will prepare the way for the One to come.  John hopes to set the stage for his coming by preparing the way, and making paths straight for the One who will draw the people deeper into the life of God by baptism with the Holy Spirit.  The One who will minister to and comfort the vulnerable and lost.

 John the Baptist, as he ministered and preached in the desert, was quite an ascetic. He was living off the land, so to speak, and was calling his listeners to repentance.  It is interesting to compare the ministries of both John and Jesus. There were many similarities between them, but the differences were profound.  John, the desert preacher and Jesus in many ways the urban minister.  John whose diet was sparse and Jesus who dined and enjoyed community at the tables of others.  But both were calling for a recognition of the need to embrace God’s Kingdom and to prepare for its demands and concerns.  Their differences should confirm for us what Paul says, “There are a variety of gifts”, but all are given by the Holy Spirit.

Both Isaiah and John were telling their listeners that something was going to happen and that new life was coming.   For Isaiah is was a return to their homeland and the possibility of rebuilding their beloved temple.  For John, it was a person, the long-awaited savior and hope for an oppressed people.

 As this beautiful season unfolds, what is it that we as individuals and communities long to receive?   Where are the voices, both within us and within our context that give what Isaiah speaks about, “comfort”?  The voices that that help us get through the valleys of life and the barriers that seem like mountains before us.   The voices that assure us that God carries us in God’s bosom like a shepherd.  

 As individuals and communities, we are in need of such assistance.  Isaiah speaks truth when he sees life as “rugged” and “rough”.   We know the truth of that statement and see how in our communities, people often turn to measures that they hope will relieve them.   Addiction and suicide are on the rise and they are so concerning.   These patterns may have impacted your families and friends.

 Perhaps the ancient prophet Isaiah may have advice for us in these troubling times.   “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem….”    Advent may be as time when we reflect on our words of judgement; on our attitudes that pit one against the other; on our capacity to speak lies rather than facts.   Isaiah adds, “Fear not to cry out… ‘Here is your God’”.  God is present within and among us.  Does that enable us to speak words of comfort because there is so much we do not know about one another?  When Isaiah writes that, God, “like a Shepherd, feeds the flock…” and gathers the lambs and holds them close to the Divine heart, does that reality affect us? There is no demeaning here; there is no distinction here; all of us are part of that flock!

 May this second week of Advent and the second candle we light be a hopeful reminder of the comfort that is available to all of us.

 Amen

[annerodr-blog]

Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton | Social Science |433175453

Toxic Charity Robert D. Lupton Genre: Social Science Price: $10.99 Publish Date: October 11, 2011 Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren’t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it’s meant to help. In his four decades of urban ministry, Lupton has experienced firsthand how our good intentions can have unintended, dire consequences. Our free food and clothing distribution encourages ever-growing handout lines, diminishing the dignity of the poor while increasing their dependency. We converge on inner-city neighborhoods to plant flowers and pick up trash, battering the pride of residents who have the capacity (and responsibility) to beautify their own environment. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, hearts full of pity and suitcases bulging with giveaways—trips that one Nicaraguan leader describes as effective only in “turning my people into beggars.” In Toxic Charity, Lupton urges individuals, churches, and organizations to step away from these spontaneous, often destructive acts of compassion toward thoughtful paths to community development. He delivers proven strategies for moving from toxic charity to transformative charity. Proposing a powerful “Oath for Compassionate Service” and spotlighting real-life examples of people serving not just with their hearts but with proven strategies and tested tactics, Lupton offers all the tools and inspiration we need to develop healthy, community-driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change. Everyone who volunteers or donates to charity needs to wrestle with this book.

[dolphingirlfriend]

dunbar - ch 9 “empowered voices in the public eye” 186 - 206

using text delivery to speak an important social message

blues and gospel artists spoke to their audiences - about justice and building community

tracing african traditions into america

today - african american can mean - people of African descent whose families were taken into slavery during the trans-Atlantic slave trade or those who have immigrated during the 20th and 21st centuries

the stories in this chapter are connected to people whose ancestors were taken as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries - an est 9-12 million people were captured, bought and sold. they had no material goods and carried traditions + rituals internally

call and response - one musician (or more) performs a musical phrase or statement - (the call) - another soloist or group answers with a phrase or statement (the response)

griot- west african musician-historian -one-stringed instruments and mouth bows in West African areas were possibly reborn as one-string diddley bows + harmonicas in the rural south - griot is a predecessor of blues 

blues scale - in western terms, a major scale with a flatted third, fifth and seventh tones - pentatonic/modal melodic systems in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria - sound like the blues - pitch flexibility, not an exact scalar system

pentatonic - a five tone melodic system

modal- music that is based on modes (sequences of whole and half steps) other than a major or minor

melisma- a succession of multiple pitches sung on a single syllable

syncretism- the blending and merging of two or more distinct cultures into a distinctive new culture - blending of African and Christian worship styles - tribal worship + spirit possession blended with Christian traditions in the south. 

spirituals in the rural south

field cry/field holler - improvised monophonic song with flexible pitch and rhythm, sung by workers in the field. (blues and gospel is linked to 19th century spiritual - umbrella term for black religious music in the time of slavery)

blues-related scalar systems, moaning, flexible melodies - predecessors (believed to be) or blues and gospel style

beyond the music

sojourner truth (1797) and harriet tubman (1829) used vocal music - truth used hymns and songs to convey messages about freedom - tune of auld lang syne “i am pleading for the mothers/who gaze in wild despair/upon the hated auction block/and see their children there”

“go down, moses” was used as instruction in the underground railroad

textual references carried double meaning - the “chariot” of “swing low, sweet chariot” - enslaved people to heaven, but also freedom on earth to a new land

tubman used “wade in the water” for people to step in the water to avoid dog tracking / and perseverance. 

women’s song has a long history of walking through trouble, not around it, on the path to ultimate freedom (bernice johnson reagon)

impact of the great migration

end of slavery wasn’t true freedom for african-americans - families still didn’t have money, couldn’t reconnect - it meant sharecropping situations 

poverty, discrimination, lynchings, boll weevil infestations - prompted black people to move out of the rural south. many moved to north cities - known as the great migration. 

when the mississippi river flooded in 1927, the delta farming area was further decimated, and there was another migration

about 1.5 million black people moved from the rural south to urban centers of the north by 1930

crowded conditions, segregated housing, need for employment, and discrimination up north 

community was built in safe spaces - churches and nightclubs

gospel church: the musical cradle

gospel - black religious music that emerged in urban centers during the early decades of the twentieth century - covers a number of subgenres: quartet singing, arranged choral singing and solo work - genre began in the 1910s

2 branches of black church existed- conservative, reflective worship - favored in mainline traditions like Methodism, and a more exuberant style in the sanctified church - like Pentecostal, Baptist churchs, allowed worshipers to move with the spirit. 

sanctified church - used elements of traditional african musical ritual - dancing, moaning, body percussion, invoking spirit possession with rhythm

church was a place of community for women, to escape and combat prejudice (spiritual and emotional survival) - much more women than men

church community supported women musicians - musical training, leadership, moral support, monetary support - women who had their start in the black church were - toni braxton, tina turner, aretha franklin, big mama thornton

analyzing the gospel sound

“surely god is able” - marion williams - considered by many to be the most accomplished gospel singer of the twentieth century

vamp - repeating musical accompaniment common in jazz, gospel, soul, musical theatre - usually outlines a single harmony or harmonic progression over which a soloist improvises

expanding the female pulpit: moving gospel to the world’s stage

women - gospel was a ministry parallel to male preaching 

arizona dranes - blind pianist of the sanctified church, played with a barrelhouse-style piano blues - combined rag-inspired melodies with boogie woogie bass lines (boogie woogie - piano style emerged in the 1930s, featured a syncopated melody against a driving, repeated bass figure)

many of the record companies were controlled by white entrepreneurs - race record market - targeted sales to the african-american community 

black owned companies - black swan records, arose during that era

the battle of the image

black community continued to purchase records into 1930s- but the radio was about to come into the picture

women who led the development of gospel within the church, also led the way to commercialization of the genre into the nationwide community

sister rosetta tharpe - she moved into the commercial world, but began to be questioned about her sincerity.  she started her career in the church. she played guitar at six, and traveled with her moth around the country. she moved to the nightclub + theatre scene by 1938 so she could reach more people and by 1939 she had a huge national audience

she performed at “the cotton club” which catered to a white upper-class audience (and this was featured in life magazine). they featured people like duke ellington, bessie smith, louis armstrong. her stage presence began to change from conservative dress to stylish gowns

the gospel audience grows

the doors into the secular world were open for gospel stars

almost all the gospel greats of the era were women - clara ward - and the ward singers - marion williams and mahalia jackson

gospel singer stage presence was not provocative, but it was flashy - glittery dresses, dangly earrings, high piled wigs. some chose church robes, but with rhinestones and jewels

some felt there was too much sexuality, also the people who produced the music were white and they were taking advantage of the success, while dictating presentation style and sometimes even the spiritual message

mahalia jackson - walked the sacred-secular line, and was regarded as a devout carrier of the gospel message. she delivered the word with a blues inspired sound.

the blues on stage: another public forum for women

the night club scene of the 1920s featured blues singers

the blues performer projected an image of confidence and control, rather than ‘contented servant’ or promiscuous temptress

blues lyrics spoke about history, culture, race, class, and sex 

like the women of west african lament traidition - they used music to deliver a message

rural blues/ classic blues - blues that originated in the south, accompanied with guitar, and classic that emerged in urban centers- accompanied by piano and drums

the blues performer spoke to middle-class audiences about challenges of every day life - lost love, broken families, separation, poor housing, working all day, keeping the family functional, sexuality - cheating men, exploration of new sexual freedom in first generation beyond slavery (okay).

leaders of the classic blues style

many performers have been ignored because there’s less “value” (it’s misogyny) on the classic blues tradition

gertrude “ma” rainey- was a link between rural and classic blues styles- rainey chronicled the encournter with the blues

the recording industry was largely closed to african-americans prior to the 1920s until mamie smith was discovered. her 1920 recording of ‘crazy blues’ on okeh records is considered to be the first recording by a black blues artist

bessie smith - 1923 “gulf coast blues” and “down-hearted blues” sold about 800k copies, the first year she recorded. she was dismissed as an inauthentic star because she sang songs written by others. she sang songs about the feelings of black female workers, about power relations with men

bessie smith taught the blues through the aural tradition - many people still learn through her recordings today

memphis minnie - doesn’t fit the classic blues mold. she was born lizzie douglas in mississppi delta region in 1897 - she had a lot of rural style. she wrote her own music and could play guitar. she had a virtuoso picking style, and developed to a smother post- Depression era approach. she favored provocative clothing and stances. she was known for beating up men who went after her and sometimes displayed a pistol.

minnie used an electric guitar - her recordings from 1941 are some of the first electric blues style

langston hughs wrote about her - in chicago defender in january of 1943 - she had amazing music and could talk about community and history

ongoing blues impact: artists and styles

blues women often are omitted from recorded history after bessie smith

willie mae “big mama” thornton - daughter of a gospel church singer and preacher, but wrote and performed blues tunes. she recorded “hound dog” in 1952... spent seven weeks on the r and b charts

elvis presley heard the song - he covered it as a rock and roll tune - and it was known by almost every american as an “elvis” tune. most people didn’t know what it meant, or that it had been first recorded by a black woman. she also wrote “ball and chain” which was covered by janis joplin in the 1960s

ruth brown - credited for formulating the rock and roll sound - she recorded under r and b labels but was restricted from rock and roll charts

meanwhile, white artists such as patti page received fame and fortune covering her songs - brown had a string of hits on the atlantic label in the 1950s - atlantic was dubbed ‘the house that ruth built’. she didn’t receive much money.

margie evans, nina simone, koko taylor, deborah coleman

summary

gospel and blues have impacted a wide array of popular genres in the twentieth and twenty first centuries - country blues, country gospel, doo wop, rhythm and blues, rock and roll... soul music - black power, pride and freedom

[1iamhis]

#middaybabymidday

Unreached and Unengaged Peoples

Opening Prayer: 

Dear Lord, Your heart longs that all people should have access to the knowledge of Your love and of Your saving work and we recognise with grief and shame that there are thousands of people groups around the world for whom such access has not yet been made available to our Christian witness. These are peoples who are unreached, in the sense that there are no known believers and no churches among them. Many of these peoples are also unengaged, in the sense that we currently know of no churches or agencies that are even trying to share the gospel with them. Indeed, only a tiny percentage of the church’s resources (human and material) is being directed to the least-reached peoples. By definition these are peoples who will not invite us to come with the good news, since they know nothing about it. Yet their presence among us in our world 2,000+ years after You commanded us to make disciples of all nations, constitutes not only a rebuke to our disobedience, not only a form of spiritual injustice, but also a silent ‘Macedonian Call’. Forgive us and show us the way forward.

In Jesus name.

Amen, Amen.

Reflection:

Let us rise up as the Church worldwide to meet this challenge, and:

a. Repent of our blindness to the continuing presence of so many unreached peoples in our world and our lack of urgency in sharing the gospel among them. 

b. Renew our commitment to go to those who have not yet heard the gospel, to engage deeply with their language and culture, to live the gospel among them with incarnational love and sacrificial service, to communicate the light and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ in word and deed, awakening them through the Holy Spirit’s power to the surprising grace of God. 

c. Aim to eradicate Bible poverty in the world, for the Bible remains indispensable for evangelism. To do this we must: 

(1) Hasten the translation of the Bible into the languages of peoples who do not yet have any portion of God’s Word in their mother tongue; 

(2) Make the message of the Bible widely available by oral means. (See also Oral cultures below.) 

d. Aim to eradicate Bible ignorance in the Church, for the Bible remains indispensable for discipling believers into the likeness of Christ. 

We long to see a fresh conviction, gripping all God’s Church, of the central necessity of Bible teaching for the Church’s growth in ministry, unity and maturity. We rejoice in the gifting of all those whom Christ has given to the Church as pastor-teachers. We will make every effort to identify, encourage, train and support them in the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. In doing so, however, we must reject the kind of clericalism that restricts the ministry of God’s Word to a few paid professionals, or to formal preaching in church pulpits. Many men and women, who are clearly gifted in pastoring and teaching God’s people, exercise their gifting informally or without official denominational structures, but with the manifest blessing of God’s Spirit. They too need to be recognised, encouraged, and equipped to rightly handle the Word of God. 

Cities

Cities are crucially important for the human future and for world mission. Half the world now lives in cities. Cities are where four major kinds of people are most to be found:

(i) the next generation of young people;

(ii) the most unreached peoples who have migrated;

(iii) the culture shapers;

(iv) the poorest of the poor. 

Closing Prayer: 

We discern Your sovereign hand in the massive rise of urbanisation in our time, and we urge our church and mission leaders worldwide to respond to this fact by giving urgent strategic attention to urban mission. We must love our cities as You do, with Holy discernment and compassion, and obey Your command to ‘seek the welfare of the city’, wherever that may be.

Help us in our search to learn appropriate and flexible methods of mission that respond to our urban realities. We pray for Bible literacy among the generation that now relates primarily to digital communication rather than books, by encouraging digital methods of studying the Scriptures inductively with the depth of inquiry that at present requires paper, pens, and pencils. Help us keep evangelism at the centre of the fully-integrated scope of all our mission, inasmuch as the gospel itself is the source, content, and authority of all biblically valid mission. All we do should be both an embodiment and a declaration of the love and grace of God and His saving work through You, Jesus our Christ.

Amen, Amen.

💛💛💜💜💛💛💜

#middaybabymidday

https://s3.amazonaws.com/web-assets.youversion.com/html-email/2019-03-bible-for-everyone/2019-03-bible-for-everyone-details-en.html

Grenfell Tower support updates & help https://grenfellsupport.wordpress.com/immediate-updates/

I want you to join me on MeWe, the Next-Gen Social Network. No Ads. No Spyware. No BS: https://mewe.com/i/iamachildofthealmighty

[hottytoddynews]

Brian Foster, Ph.d candidate, assistant professor of sociolgy and Southern studies at UNC Chapel Hill, speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2017 LOU MLK Day of Service. Photo by Robert Jordan University Communcations.

University of Mississippi students, staff and community partners are spearheading efforts to promote community engagement and encourage a spirit of service in Lafayette County and Oxford during 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances.

The Lafayette-Oxford-University MLK Day of Service opening ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 15 at the Burns-Belfry Museum and Multicultural Center.

Program participants include Katrina Caldwell, UM vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement; Oxford Alderman Ulysses “Coach” Howell; Jeff Busby, president of the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors; and Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter. The Rev. C. Edward “CJ” Rhodes II, pastor of Mt. Helm Baptist Church of Jackson, will deliver the keynote address.

“I am very humbled and honored to be asked to deliver the keynote for such a historic occasion,” said Rhodes, the 23rd and youngest pastor of Jackson’s oldest historically black church. “As we look back on the achievements and sacrifices of Dr. King and others, this generation is challenged to do great things not just for themselves, but for others and the world as well.”

The son of famed civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes Sr., Rhodes earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2004. He continued his education at Duke Divinity School, where he served as vice president of the Black Seminarians Union in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Rhodes serves on the board of the Urban League of Greater Jackson, the Center for Ministry and the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference, and is the former president of the Farish Street/Main Street Project. The recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, he also serves as host of “The CJ Rhodes Show” on WRBJ-97.7 FM and is author of “Thy Kingdom Come: Reflections on Pastoral and Prophetic Ministry.”

Following the keynote, awards will be presented to outstanding LOU volunteers in four categories: a community member and one student apiece from the Oxford School District, the Lafayette County School District and the university. All recipients are to be announced at the ceremony.

“The Office of Leadership and Advocacy is proud to work once again, side-by-side with so many excellent community partners,” said Hal Sullivan, coordinator of student affairs programs at UM. “Our goal, in the spirit of Dr. King, is to encourage reflection, action and redefine ‘service’ for this community.”

Other activities scheduled are:

Saturday (Jan. 13):

Second Annual Community Reading of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 5 p.m., Off-Square Books. Readers include members from the LOU community to acknowledge one of King’s most powerful works.

Monday (Jan. 15):

Community breakfast, 8:30 a.m., Second Baptist Church

Opening ceremony and keynote address, 10:30 a.m., Burns-Belfry Museum. Attendees also can participate in activities for children ages 3-10 and listen to recordings of oral histories that illustrate what life was like for north Mississippians during the civil rights era.

Community showing of “The Long Walk Home,” 1:30 p.m., Burns Belfry Museum. A community conversation about the film, hosted by the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, follows. Kiese Laymon, UM professor of English, will facilitate discussion about the movie.

Community give-back benefiting the Exchange Club Family Center, 4-9 p.m., Chili’s Bar & Grill.

Community food drive benefitting the Food Pantry, all day, Abundant Truth Salt and Light Ministry in Taylor. Donations can be brought to any of the day’s events.

Ole Miss staff involved in planning of MLK Day of Service events expressed enthusiasm about participating in such a worthy cause.

“We are inspired by the members of the North Mississippi VISTA Project, who are collaborating with the Oxford and Lafayette school districts to offer lessons and activities on the civil rights movement,” said Laura Martin, assistant director of the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement. “In the spirit of lifting up agents of change, we encourage people in the LOU community to nominate deserving individuals for the MLK Service Awards.”

Community and campus participation is crucial to the success of the service observance, said Kaitlin Wilkinson, Volunteer Oxford director.

“This national day of service honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and commitment to transforming our nation through service to others,” she said. “The LOU MLK Day of Service offers community members a chance to engage in a variety of volunteer opportunities that are designed to give back to the community.”

For more information about MLK Day of Service events, contact ola@olemiss.edu.

By Edwin B. Smith

For more questions or comments email us at hottytoddynews@gmail.com. 

The post UM Students, Staff Join Community for MLK Day of Service Activities appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

[elizabethrus-blog]

Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton | Social Science |433175453

Toxic Charity Robert D. Lupton Genre: Social Science Price: $10.99 Publish Date: October 11, 2011 Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren’t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it’s meant to help. In his four decades of urban ministry, Lupton has experienced firsthand how our good intentions can have unintended, dire consequences. Our free food and clothing distribution encourages ever-growing handout lines, diminishing the dignity of the poor while increasing their dependency. We converge on inner-city neighborhoods to plant flowers and pick up trash, battering the pride of residents who have the capacity (and responsibility) to beautify their own environment. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, hearts full of pity and suitcases bulging with giveaways—trips that one Nicaraguan leader describes as effective only in “turning my people into beggars.” In Toxic Charity, Lupton urges individuals, churches, and organizations to step away from these spontaneous, often destructive acts of compassion toward thoughtful paths to community development. He delivers proven strategies for moving from toxic charity to transformative charity. Proposing a powerful “Oath for Compassionate Service” and spotlighting real-life examples of people serving not just with their hearts but with proven strategies and tested tactics, Lupton offers all the tools and inspiration we need to develop healthy, community-driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change. Everyone who volunteers or donates to charity needs to wrestle with this book.

[westmontsf]

Spirituality and The City: Public Transit Stories

WSF students Grace Martino and Joshua Feliscuzo reflect on finding God in in ordinary moments and encounters with others, particularly while riding the MUNI bus. 

“People to People”

Grace Martino, a Gordon College student majoring in Urban Ministries, is interning at Because Justice Matters.

 Get up, go to work, go home, sleep, and repeat. Routines are all around us. They provide us with comfort and a sense of stability in what is a messy, messy life. We succumb to these thoughtless patterns that get us through the day. Since being in San Francisco, this truth about routines has magnified tenfold for me as people walking on the street and riding the bus are filtered as objects in passing. However, as many of these stories go, there is one moment that has changed the way I live in this city of thousands of people.

One day after work, I stomped onto the congested bus, whipped out my card, pressed it to the scanner *beep* and my fixed my eyes on an empty seat. As I was about to plug in my headphones my gaze met that of a woman who was smiling at me in a sea of people on their phones. I smiled back and surveyed the bus. My non-conformist spirit rose up, and I decided to put my phone in my pocket. 

I was almost tempted to give in to my technological addiction, but I turned to the older gentleman next to me wearing an intricate blue hat. I hesitated, but I mustered enough courage to tell him that I loved his hat. His eyes lit up as he told me that his Palestinian friend had gotten it for him, and from there a floodgate of conversation opened up about his 50 years spent in the city. We shook hands and smiled as we parted ways and, like in a cheesy movie, I looked back at the woman as she grinned at me again with eyes that gleamed and said “Well done.”

You see, routine is not the problem. Rather, routines have allowed me to forget that the person next to me has a story, that I am part of the backdrop in this scene of their movie called “Life.” I had forgotten the commandment to love the other, which starts with acknowledging the other. 

No interaction is too small. Life isn’t meant to be lived from task to task, but rather from people to people.

“God’s Presence in Public Transit”

Joshua Feliscuzo, a Westmont College student majoring in Communication Studies, is interning at R.O.C.K.

One day before I went to work, I prayed to God that He would embrace me. I then left the Clunie house, bought a white mocha, and got on the public transit. I had my earbuds in and a man who seemed to be struggling with mental illness started talking to me. I decided to engage in conversation with him.

I was uncomfortable, and probably other people were too. But I knew the Christ-follower thing to do was to listen and talk to him--I mean, sincerely listen and talk to him. Our conversation ended and he left the bus. And so did I. 

On my way to the second bus that I take to work, a man who had been on that same first bus told me that I was a good person. So I said, “Thank you.” He said he was having a crappy day and that he wouldn’t have had the patience to deal with the man on the previous bus who was talking to me. 

Now the point of this post isn’t to glorify me, but to glorify God. God embraced me when I talked to the man on the bus who seemed to be struggling with mental illness. The conversation reminded me of Jesus’s humble and gentle heart. A heart that is near to the oppressed and desiring to give rest to those who are weary. A heart that loves to embrace others. 

On the second bus ride to work, “No Longer Slaves” popped on my shuffle play and reminded me that my fear of not being perfect before God is cast out by His perfect love. I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re all going through something, but I think it’s pretty cool that God is constantly running towards us and embracing us.

[specifically-marie]

Happy Writing

“Hape” (adjective): enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment. 

  I first began writing as hobby. From time to time, I would dibble and dabble with a poem or two, yet never had any aspirations in becoming a writer (yet, alone an Author).

 However, in 2009 my step-father was diagnosed with stage three metastatic cancer, which spread from his hips into his lungs.  This was a trying time for my family.   It also didn’t help matters that I was experiencing some issues at my place of employment.

During this time, my employer and I was settling our issues through arbitration.  Fortunately, we reached a mutual decision and (an amicable settlement) and we parted ways. This allowed me the time to help my mother care for my step-dad, as well remain a constant support for her and the family.

 As we all know, cancer is an ugly disease which causes havoc on the mind, body and spirit.  Its effects are not just physical, but it is also an emotional drain on the victim and his/her family.

 My step-dad was diagnosed with cancer in May of 2009 and lived for three months, afterwards.  As you can imagine, his death was devastating to my family.  He was the only father that I knew.  My siblings and I had contact with our biological father and knew of him, as well.  But, I was two years old when my mother and biological father divorced.  So, I have very little childhood memories of him.

 After death of my stepfather (from herein, will be referred to as Dad), it was very hard for my mother. You see, mom and Dad had been married for forty-five years.  Therefore, you can see our concerns.  When couples have been married as long as my parents, you tend to worry about the “living” parent stability and overall welfare.

 However, my mother come from a long line of strong-dominant women. Although, she still misses him terribly, she has adjusted quite well (of course it took some time).  

 I still remember my first manuscript, it was a novel (276 pages to be exact) entitled, “From Egypt to Canaan Land”.  Man, I began writing that manuscript in January of 2009.  I still can remember to this day, how the characters just popped in my head and how my pen gave them life. Becoming a writer has come with a lot of challenges for me.  Particularly, when it comes to what others think about my work.  Why, it matters to me?  I have no definitive answer, yet it does worry me, a bit.  

 I like to think of myself as a spiritual writer with a lot of “urban swag” (I have no idea of what that means!) But, I write based on my experiences, observations and some of the horrible issues which affect today’s society, such as: suicide, depression, incest, homelessness, marriage, homelessness, relationships, etc.  “Sounds a bit, morbid?  Yeah, I know.”

Yet, in reality these issues affect our lives every day.  Unfortunately, these are the issues we rarely talk about.  It easier to store these things in our chest of silent regrets, rather than to speak openly about them.

 I am a devout Christian (mind you, I didn’t say the best Christian), whose favorite scripture is found in Luke (4-18):

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

 This particular scripture ministers to my “spirit”, for two significant reasons:

 1.   Jesus, ministry was one without walls.

 Upon reading the life and ministry of Jesus in the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), do you know that you’d rarely find Jesus in the synagogue or church? He ministered among the poor, sick, the downtrodden, diseased, those suffering from mental health and variety of diver diseases.  

 2.   Love God and your neighbor as you love thyself (Jesus two Greatest Commandments, Matt 22:36-40)

 The Word of God states in Corinthians 10:13, “there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man”.

 We all come from different facets, cultures and background.  But, there is one important factor that we share. We are all the same.  We encounter the same struggles, in our lives. Therefore, we are not really that much different from each other.  God created one people.  Therefore, we must learn to live by the principles defined by Jesus.  That, we love one another.  It is the only way, that any of us will ever be free.  Our minds will continue to be in bondage, if we believe that one particular race of people is better than others.  If that is truth, then as a people we have certainly missed the meaning of Agape love. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. Yet we find it impossible to love one another as we love ourselves.

Therefore, when I decided to embark on a “writing” ministry, I wrestle with the idea of what to write. I want my writings to be open, honest and raw, which deals with real-life situations.  Stuff, like am I crazy because I have a few emotional problems and want to see a psychiatrist.  It may sound stupid, but these are real issues that some folks deal with every day.

 However, I’ve finally realized my calling as well as my passion as a writer.  Choosing to become a writer is going to be an amazing journey for me.  The idea of being able to inspire, encourage and motivate others gives me a “warm, fuzzy and happy” feeling.

 Therefore, come with me as I blog the start of my new journey as a writer/author.  Follow me on Facebook@ H. Marie Hampton, Amateur Writers Guild and specificallymarie on twitter and Instagram.  Be blessed.

  ��י�

[joycelow-blog]

Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton | Social Science |433175453

Toxic Charity Robert D. Lupton Genre: Social Science Price: $10.99 Publish Date: October 11, 2011 Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren’t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it’s meant to help. In his four decades of urban ministry, Lupton has experienced firsthand how our good intentions can have unintended, dire consequences. Our free food and clothing distribution encourages ever-growing handout lines, diminishing the dignity of the poor while increasing their dependency. We converge on inner-city neighborhoods to plant flowers and pick up trash, battering the pride of residents who have the capacity (and responsibility) to beautify their own environment. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, hearts full of pity and suitcases bulging with giveaways—trips that one Nicaraguan leader describes as effective only in “turning my people into beggars.” In Toxic Charity, Lupton urges individuals, churches, and organizations to step away from these spontaneous, often destructive acts of compassion toward thoughtful paths to community development. He delivers proven strategies for moving from toxic charity to transformative charity. Proposing a powerful “Oath for Compassionate Service” and spotlighting real-life examples of people serving not just with their hearts but with proven strategies and tested tactics, Lupton offers all the tools and inspiration we need to develop healthy, community-driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change. Everyone who volunteers or donates to charity needs to wrestle with this book.

[rubywilll-blog]

Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton | Social Science |433175453

Toxic Charity Robert D. Lupton Genre: Social Science Price: $10.99 Publish Date: October 11, 2011 Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren’t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it’s meant to help. In his four decades of urban ministry, Lupton has experienced firsthand how our good intentions can have unintended, dire consequences. Our free food and clothing distribution encourages ever-growing handout lines, diminishing the dignity of the poor while increasing their dependency. We converge on inner-city neighborhoods to plant flowers and pick up trash, battering the pride of residents who have the capacity (and responsibility) to beautify their own environment. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, hearts full of pity and suitcases bulging with giveaways—trips that one Nicaraguan leader describes as effective only in “turning my people into beggars.” In Toxic Charity, Lupton urges individuals, churches, and organizations to step away from these spontaneous, often destructive acts of compassion toward thoughtful paths to community development. He delivers proven strategies for moving from toxic charity to transformative charity. Proposing a powerful “Oath for Compassionate Service” and spotlighting real-life examples of people serving not just with their hearts but with proven strategies and tested tactics, Lupton offers all the tools and inspiration we need to develop healthy, community-driven programs that produce deep, measurable, and lasting change. Everyone who volunteers or donates to charity needs to wrestle with this book.