We've Got to do Better! - Bill Cosby

I've chosen to include this for thought provoking dialogue, not as a spiritual expose`.

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be..

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what ? ? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics. I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2 ? ? Where were you when he was 12 ? ?

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol ? ? And where is the father ? ? Or who is his father ? People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something ? ? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up ?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from?? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa . With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back!

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks, have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer."

---Dr. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D

8/29 Devotional

John 17:15 I do not pray for You to take them out of the world, but for

You to keep them from the evil.

It is first a comfort to know that Christ prayed for us. Yet notice that Christ did not pray that we be taken out of this world, but He made provision for us while in this world. The psalmist says, "...though I go through the valley of the shadow of death...". The key is knowing to go through. Not falter or succomb. Go through trials. Go through temptations. Go through the evils of this world knowing that Christ has made provision to keep us from the eventual consquence of evil, which is death. Christ's prayer is for the gracious provision and protection that keeps us from power and path of evil.

8/28 Devotional Posting

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

For meditation- What is it about your life that you are happy with? Celebrate that! Celebrate your strengths, pray about your weaknesses. Celebrate knowing that any strengths that could be considered such are those things where God's graciousness is shown and not you yourself. Pray knowing that God's strength can be shown in your weakness.

Sunday School Lesson 9/2

Genesis 1:1-25

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

8/26 - Sunday School Lesson

Malachi 2:17; 3:1-5; 4:1 - Malachi's Description of God's Just Judgement

Chapter 2:17 You have wearied the Lord with your words; Yet you say, "In what way have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does evil Is good in the sight of the Lord, And He delights in them," Or, "Where is the God of justice?"

Chapter 3:1 "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of hosts. 2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness. 4 "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the Lord, As in the days of old, As in former years. 5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien-- Because they do not fear Me," Says the Lord of hosts.

Chapter 4:1 "For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the Lord of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.

3/22 Devotional

1 Cor 13:4 - 8
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things;
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

It is revealed directly from God what true love will do. In as much as it is important to know what love will do and how it behaves, we must understand what it will not do. In its highest state God is love.

Pray that love abounds within families enough to reform family structures to the confines of scriptural family.

8/22 Family Pic

Just a few of my Aunts and Uncles.

Sorry, didn't get a chance to touch the picture up.

8/21 Devotional

And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights - Exodus 24:18


The life of fellowship with God cannot be built up in a day. It begins with the habitual reference of all to Him, hour by hour, as Moses did in Egypt. But it moves on to more and longer periods of communion; and it finds its consummation and bliss in days and nights of intercession and waiting and holy intercourse. - F. B. Meyer

Is it a wonder the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. It this constant communion that provides strength, guidance, joy, peace, and some many daily necessities of which the Christian life is made of.

Pray for a daily communing with God.

8/19 Devotional

What is man that you are mindful of him? Psalm 8:4

Could Dr. Isaac Watts have known the depths that man would reach in 2007? Could he have imagined the state of confusion of our pulpits and pews? Could he have ascertained that the boldness of Satan in attacking and accusing the brotherhood would be so brazen against our families, communities, and churches? Yet God in His grace and mercy watches and cares. He forgives and allows for repentance.

Alas! and did my Savior bleedAnd did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

Refrain
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,And the burden of my heart rolled away,It was there by faith I received my sight,And now I am happy all the day!

Devotional 8/18

God has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclestiastes 3:11

The things God has created.
At times my thoughts have debated
Whether truly all have purpose towards good
You couldn't know unless maybe you've walked in shoes through my neighgorhood
No faith sees and says where my eyes fail
Thoughts become reality, faith removes the veil
God does everything perfect whether or not I can see it in my mind
God has made everything beautiful in its time

We may not see the beauty of every circumstance at every time. I think of God's view of us in time knowing that He sees and knows the beauty of all things working together according to His plan; A wonderful plan that allows for forgiveness.

Devotional 8/17

"And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them"— 2 Kings 6:16

How great the obstacles of the righteous are! Sciences, arts, and worldly vices mounted against those who dare stand for truth. Faith calls for the called of Christ to stand without trepidation knowing that faith having God as the empowering force, is a majority. Fight the good fight of faith daily. Be encouraged!

Prayer: Praise God for the insights He has given to you. Pray for the victims of the earthquake in Peru. As always pray for each other.