Fresh Bread: Not Added Favor but Multiplied Favor

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord (2 Peter 1:1-2, KJV) One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is found in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (NKJV). I love the “things added” part. However, when it comes to good stuff from God, I’d much prefer to have things “multiplied” to me as opposed to simply added. Peter tells us that we can actually put ourselves in a position where we can cause God to switch from simply adding His blessings to us, to multiplying them. A simple definition of the word “grace” is the word “favor”. I use an acronym that helps me define the word “favor”. It is the word P.A.S.S. God gives me His grace and His favor because He wants to pass me and not fail me. P.A.S.S. means: Promote Appreciate (as oppose to depreciate) Side with (Psalm 118:6), and Support. The Scripture tells us that we can have God’s grace, favor, P.A.S.S. multiplied to us, but it occurs “through knowledge of God and Jesus.” The etymology (original definition) of the word “knowledge” is “The practice of perceiving the truth.” The Bible—God’s Word—is truth. (John 17:17; John 8:31-32, NLT). Thus, the more we read the Bible, the more we perceive the truth about God and Jesus. But there’s a problem! In a poll taken by the Gallup Organization in October, 2000, 59% of Americans reported that they read the Bible at least occasionally. This is down from 73% in the 1980s. The percentage of Americans who read the Bible at least once a week is 37%. This is down slightly from 40% in 1990 (see: Americans and the Bible). And if these statistics were trending downward in the 90s, then they are probably even worse as we head into a new decade. With statistics such as these, can there be any wonder as to why we are experiencing only added grace instead of multiplied and abundant grace? How do we change this? Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2 instruct us to meditate (spend a lot of time) in the Word...
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The New iPod Touch

On September 7th, Apple did it again by releasing its new iPod nano. What makes this new nano different from the old are the added features of video recording and an FM radio with live pausing. You may or may not like Apple’s products, but it cannot be denied that this company has the reputation of being cool, innovative, and able to grow. We at Pentecostal Tabernacle determined that if our church is going to be associated with being cool, innovative, and growing, then we must also focus on having a new “iPod touch”. Therefore, at the beginning of the year we determined that our congregation would consistently work on four areas (iPod): 1. Influencers (Developing strong leaders) 2. Pastoral Care (Providing good spiritual care for our members) 3. Organization (Becoming better managers of all our resources, especially our talented partners) 4. Discipleship (Fulfilling our Lord’s commission, found in Matthew 28:19, to make disciples) Thus, the free iPod nano we are giving out at each of our Back-to-School Sunday services today is a visual reinforcement of our commitment to these four areas. We are renewing our iPod touch because we believe that when churches, organizations, or people continue to develop in these four areas, they do not simply grow, they grow in a healthy manner. So, my question is: Are you growing in these particular areas of your life? If not, then I not only invite you to join us on this journey but I also invite your...
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Happy vs. Rejoice

Have you noticed that the Bible does not command us to be happy but does command us to rejoice? When I searched both words in the King James Version of the Bible, I discovered that the word “happy” was used 25 times while the word “rejoice” was used 240. It seems to me that God puts a far higher premium on our rejoicing than our being happy. But the question is, Why? Maybe the reason can be found in the definition of each word. The root word of the adjective “happy” is the word “hap”. This word is defined as, “one’s luck or lot, an occurrence, happening, or accident”. However, the root word of the word “rejoice” is “re” + “gaudium” which is a verb that means “Go back to your source of delight (satisfaction), again and again.” The word “Happy” is an adjective, while “Rejoice” is a verb. Now most of us have learned that an adjective is a word that describes or identifies a noun (a person, place, or thing). Thus, happy is not an action. It is simply an identifier, a description, a result. Therefore, if you are happy now, it just so happened that you are described as being lucky at that moment ,though it was an accident. And that also means you could be identified as unhappy tomorrow. But the word “Rejoice” is a verb, which reflects an action, an exercise, movement, something one does. Happy seems passive. Happy connotes waiting for something to occur that will bring one into a certain place of satisfaction, such as a better job, a romantic relationship, a sunny day, a great sale on a desired item. Rejoice speaks to something that is very active. Rejoice speaks to something I can have control over. Thus, if my source of satisfaction is running, I can go back to running again and again. However, the Bible commands us to “Rejoice in the Lord”; to go back to our source of delight (satisfaction). That source is: The Lord. Psalm 37:4 tells us, “Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Wow! If we keep going back to make the Lord our source of satisfaction again and again, He will give us the desires of our heart. So which will you choose? Will you choose to wait for some “person (romantic love of your...
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Lord Had Mercy!

Mercy! It’s meaning? Forgiveness, gift, kindness, favor, blessing, evidence of divine favor, generosity, Godsend, grace, Ruth. Ruth? Well, we’ll get to that one later. However, the word mercy is not a word we often use. The times that we do hear the word “mercy” being used, are usually either in a movie where a defeated foe pleads for his life or as a student’s request of a teacher during a final exam. “I plead for mercy!” We also may have heard it used as a phrase in a Christian prayer or song: “Lord, have mercy on me!” Or maybe we’ve heard it used humorously when a guy sees a very attractive woman: “Laaawwwdddd, have mercy!” Though this word may seem antiquated with regards to our 21st century word usage, we need to always be mindful of Paul’s words found in Romans: I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1, Amplified Bible) Paul is pleading with us that in view of all of God’s mercies, that being (1) His forgiveness (2) His gifts to us (3) His kindness (4) His Favor (5) His blessings in our lives (6) The evidence of His Divine favor in our lives (7) His generosity (8) What & whom God sends into our lives (9) His Grace and finally (10), the special & close friends (the Ruths) He’s given us in this life…(we ought to) make a decisive dedication of our bodies to God as an act of intelligent worship. Certainly our lives do not always go in the direction or manner we would desire. And while I’m sure things could always be better, when we look over our lives and think about these ten things that we have experienced at some point, let’s at least admit that the Lord had mercy on us. Not only do I invite your thoughts, but I also invite you to take time to thank God today for His...
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Attitude

During the month of August, I seemed to have hit what I would call a very horrible emotional wall. Whereas summer is supposed to be a time of rest, relaxation, and “dialing it down”, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated and discouraged. Someone recently asked me how I was doing. As I paused to think, she responded to my lack of immediate response with the words, “Uh Oh!” I informed her that after really thinking about her question, I had to admit that while my life was going rather well, I myself was not doing so well. The next thing I did was to take a hard look at my attitude. It was then that I remembered the following quote, which I heard almost 30 years ago by Dr. Charles (Chuck) Swindoll: “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations…The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gifted ability, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.” The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace from that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in certain ways. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing that we can do is play on the one violin string that we have left after the other three strings have snapped, and that string is ATTITUDE. I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And so it is….We are in charge of our Attitudes. I can’t say that I am “out of the woods” quite yet, but as one of my minister friends once said, “I have not arrived where I want to be but I’ve left where I...
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The Not-So-Pearly Gates

On last evening myself and a number of other black (not all are African-American) clergy met with the Mayor and Police Commissioner of the City of Cambridge. Unless you have been living on another planet, you more than likely have heard about the arrest of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., a prominent African-American Professor at Harvard University. He was arrested on July 16th, when a policeman responded to a call that two black men were breaking into a house located near Harvard University. And this is the topic of our discussion for this post. What originally seemed like an open and shut case has turned into such a national fire storm of debate that even President Barak Obama found himself dragged into it. Now, approximately two weeks later, we discover that things are not always what they seem. Professor Gates was not breaking into a house, for the house belonged to him. The woman accused of describing the perpetrators of the crime as being black never described them as being black. The arresting officer, Sergeant James Crowley, who has been accused of being racist, may have been more outraged and angered at Professor Gates’ description of his mother than at the color of Gates’ skin. So now we’re having the big discussion of race, not simply in America, but more specifically in a very liberal city known by many as “The People’s Republic of Cambridge”. Cambridge has always looked upon itself as the bastion of openness, the “Pearly Gates” of diversity for so many different cultures, and rightfully so. In my congregation alone, there are representatives from approximately 35 – 40 different countries. Thus, this one instance certainly bruised the pride, and maybe even the arrogance, of a city that may not have always been willing to concede that this kind of stuff still occurs even in a city like Cambridge. I personally do not think that this particular case measures up to all of the accusations we as people of color are making with regards to racism and racial profiling. However, this case represents the smoke that’s led a nation to where the fire called racism still burns. For example, our ministry intern, a Harvard Divinity Student, was followed (almost stalked) by a police officer after coming out of his own apartment. Why? Because he was a black man in his mid-twenties in a Cambridge neighborhood not known...
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