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    jackieholness

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    Hope. Wish.. Pray…

    littlegirl2

    Hello World!!!

    Goodbye 2008! Hello 2009! By tomorrow, another year in the life of you and me will be over…I wonder what’s coming next! For roughly the past 10 years or so, you can find me in church on New Year’s Eve listening for God’s words to me for the upcoming year. I’ve been amazed time and time again how whatever verse or verses the pastor chooses to preach on that night sums of my experiences for the upcoming year. It’s uncanny… I’m excited to find out what I will hear tonight…

    But aside from God’s words for me, I have some words for God…I want to know when some of my deepest dreams will come true…I want to believe that some of my dreams will come true this year, but if you have lived for a while now, you know that sometimes dreams are deferred. (Shout out to Langston Hughes!) If you’ve lived long enough, some of your dreams have been shattered. Maybe your husband died of leukemia shortly after you were married. Maybe your mother died of breast cancer. Maybe your father rejected you. Maybe you wrote a book that will never be published. Maybe your wife cheated on you. Maybe someone has broken up with you. Maybe the love of your life left. Maybe no one has asked to marry you. Maybe you never passed the bar. Maybe you have a crazy behind family. Maybe you never intended to be a single baby mama. Maybe you ain’t got that record deal yet. Maybe you’re a raging alcoholic and you’re impossible to deal with. I could go on and on unfortunately…

    Goodness, I hate to write such pessimistic prose, but we all know that sometimes life is a b@#%*. So what are we do? For today, I have decided to hope, wish & pray that my dreams will come true…According to the Word, you are “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 When I first read this verse years ago, I thought it meant that God will give you whatever you want if you serve Him. I know that’s not true now. Now I believe that if you come to know the Lord in an intimate way, He will guide you to your true desires – that is He will give you the desires He has for you. He will guide you to your God-given destiny. So over the years, God has shown me what are my false desires and what are my true desires.(I no longer desire to date a man from every continent, ha,ha, for instance.)  Anyway, two dreams or two desires remain…at least for today. Well, that’s not true. I have more than two dreams, but I am thinking of two in particular…(What dreams do you think I am referring to? Guess?)

    I don’t know about your relationship with God, but I let Him know how I feel. And sometimes I say, “Okay God, the answer to this problem is taking too long. I need for You to act right now. I cannot take it anymore.” When I get like this, my face is glistening with tears and I am prostrate on my bedroom floor. And sometimes I throw a tantrum. Yes, I get down and dirty. I take the Lord at His word. According to the Word, you can “cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you.” Psalm 55:22. So I’m steady castin’ !

    But that’s the beauty of God. If you know Him, love Him and try to serve Him, you can claim His promises. I do. And so with the sliver of belief that I have left that my dreams will come true, I will hope, wish & pray that in 2009, at least one, maybe two will come true…Please God!

    Any thoughts?

    P.S. The title of this post was inspired by the Hidden Beach artist Lina, who sings the song “Hope, Wish & Pray.” Why she hadn’t blown up yet! Check out the song here. Isn’t it beautiful?

    Posted on

    Christianity Obama Style…

    Hello World!!!

    What it do? In just over a month, you know what it is…Barack Obama will officially become the 44th president of the United States!!! Yes, it’s another post about Barack Obama. No, I’m not over it…So read on if you’re an Obama fan!!! Here’s the thing…As I mentioned in another post, many Christians are convinced that President-elect Obama is not a Christian although he has publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ many times. It seems these same Christians believe that President Bush, aka Iraqi shoe dodger (crazy huh?), is a devout Christian entrusted with the sacred duty of leading our nation to the Promised Land where all secular music is of the devil and legalized abortion is worse than starting an ill-advised war.

    But check it…Was anyone watching President Bush’s interview with ABC Nightline’s Cynthia McFadden on Dec. 8?  According to a Baptist Press article, Bush said he believes there are multiple ways to God.  He also said that he believes that Christians and Muslims pray to the same God.

    “I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough, loving enough, that can encompass a lot of people. I don’t think God is a narrow concept. I think it’s a broad concept. I just happen to believe the way to God is through Christ, and others have different avenues toward God, and I believe we pray to the same Almighty — I do.”

    And Bush may or may not believe that humanity started in the Garden of Eden.

    Asked if the Bible is “literally true,” Bush said, “Probably not. No, I’m not a literalist. But I think you can learn a lot from it.”

    Now, y’all know if Bush had voiced these same words about eight years ago, many evangelical Christians wouldn’t have voted for him. But here is the response of Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

    “I am very grateful that we have a president who is a person of personal and deeply committed faith in Jesus Christ, but statements like these remind us that he is indeed commander-in-chief, not theologian-in-chief,” Land told Baptist Press. “I know the president, and he is a person of strong faith and has sort of a C.S. Lewis Basic Christianity kind of faith that is very deep and profound in his personal life, but he is not a theologian. In this particular instance, he is wrong. The Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not Allah, and there are not many paths to God.”

    Now if Bush can be seen as as “a person of personal and deeply committed faith in Jesus Christ” in spite of his controversial beliefs, can these evangelicals also support Barack Obama, who also is a Christian?

    Andre C. Willis, an assistant professor of the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School, explored how Obama’s brand of Christianity may influence his leadership in an article on TheRoot.com.

    First of all, this is what Obama said about his faith in Jesus Christ to Rick Warren, pastor and author of the best-selling book, ” The Purpose Driven Life,” during the campaign.

    “Well, as a starting point, it means I believe in—that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that I am redeemed through him. That is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis. Yes, I know that I don’t walk alone. And I know that if I can get myself out of the way that, you know, I can maybe carry out in some small way what he intends. And it means that those sins that I have, on a fairly regular basis, hopefully will be washed away.”

    And for the record, Obama is also an evangelical Christian although some evangelicals may not know this or choose not to believe this truth.

    All forms of evangelicalism share core tenets: a belief in the importance of personal conversion through Jesus Christ (salvation); the commitment to biblical activism (authority of the Bible, not reason or experience); and an investment in public morality (public witness). Where they differ is in their emphasis: progressive evangelicals strongly emphasize the suffering of Jesus and his political struggles against the social order, while conservative evangelicals are preoccupied with imposing “biblical” morality.

    According to the article, Obama’s style of Christianity will be more progressive rather than conservative. Rather than focus on the rules and regulations brand of Christianity (a Pharisaical type if you ask me), he will focus on empowering the poor and disenfranchised.

    So what do you think? Do you believe that Bush and Obama worship the same God? Do you believe that it is possible for both Bush and Obama to be Christians? Do you think the evangelicals that support Bush will also support Obama? What role do you think Obama’s faith will play in his leadership? Do you think that Jesus loves both George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama?

    Any thoughts?
     

     

     

    Posted on

    Two Steps Forward…One Step Back.

    Hello World!!!

    A friend of mine told me last night that he noticed I hadn’t been updating my blog as much as I usually do. I was so touched. Someone missed me…I hope you’ve missed me too! I haven’t been updating as much as I should this month…maybe more about that later 🙂

    So here’s the topic – What is your secret struggle? What is the area of your life in which you take two steps forward only to take one step back? For the divine Ms. O, Oprah Winfrey that is, her weight is her not-so-secret struggle although she wishes it were a secret!  She recently admitted that she has gained 40 pounds since 2006 which puts her weight at a solid 200 pounds. On the January issue of “O” magazine, it features a picture of the 200-pound Oprah looking at the 160-pound Oprah! I really, really, really feel for her!

    I have never been obese, but I have struggled with body image issues pretty much since I realized I had a body! I apologize to those who knew me from age 20-25, my favorite question to ask was, “Do you think I look fat?” I swear if I could retrieve the brain cells I devoted to my weight, I would probably have enough to have won the Pulitzer Prize by now! Thank God I now I have a reasonably stable body image, and I no longer feel the need to weigh myself several times a day!!! How did I get rid of this demon? God..and like Forest Gump says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

    So again, what is your secret struggle? I love the story about the  woman at the well in the Bible!  It seems that she was a love and relationship addict! (Theologians, you will correct me if I’m wrong, I’m sure!)  When she met Jesus, she had already had FIVE husbands, and the man she was living with at the time she met the Lord wasn’t even her husband!  She thought her issues were a secret, but the Lord called her out! That day, that woman thought she was coming to the well to get regular old water, but instead, her thirst for real love was quenched that day…Praise Jesus!!!

    I think Zacchaeus had a Napolean complex.  As a result, he had chosen a career in which he dominated people, but secretly, he longed to have self esteem that was based on his inner worth rather than his job. And Jesus, being the Lord that He is, got it.  He told him he was worthy of salvation! Praise Him 2x!

    I think the man with one talent had the insidious habit of comparing himself to others. It seems to me that he constantly compared himself to the man who had five talents and the man who had two talents. Rather than get into the comparison game, these two men worked hard with what they had and were able to double their talents. The man with one talent, however, seemed to be ashamed of his one talent and hit it in the ground. Unlike the other stories, however, this story didn’t end well. The one talent the man had was taken away from him and given to the man who had 10 talents because he failed to use it.  Sad, huh!  (My father’s antidote to this behavior is, “Keep your eyes on your own plate!” But Praise God 3x anyway just because HE is WORTHY!

    So again, what is your secret struggle? And how do you deal with it? Please post your comments!!! You don’t have to post your name!!!

    Any Thoughts???

    (Aside: If you’re in the Denver, Colorado area, check out my friend, Soul Daddy!  His album release party is tomorrow!!! Congratulations!!! You go boy!!! 🙂 )

    P.P.S. I have included a Rev. Paul Jones classic, “I Won’t Complain.”  It doesn’t fit this post, but for some reason the song is on my mind this morning. According to what I read, this amazing talent was killed when he was 30 years old!