The Bondages of Christendom (Part 7…What Kind of Music Do You Listen To?)

Growing up Negro in the 50’s and 60’s (that’s what we were called back then) in a major city; I was privy to some of the greatest music of that era. Philadelphia had live music shows called “Rock-n-Roll” shows at the famed Uptown Theater. Since I was only a hop, skip and a jump from New York City, I also got to go to the Apollo Theater once. At the Uptown for $1.50, I would get to see Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, the Four Tops, Isely Brothers, Martha and the Vandellas and a few more acts, all in the same show. That was the price across the board—first come first sit—always had good seats!

Stevie will be play one night only April 15th in Brooklyn, NY. The nosebleed seats start at $165.00 and the best seats in the house are $2,333.00! No, I didn’t make a mistake or typo. Yes, he’s come a long way since “Fingertips”! ~Smile~

I would run home from school so I could watch American Bandstand on TV. It was streaming live about 20 city blocks from my house. But it didn’t stop there. I had a younger aunt who introduced me to jazz at around the age of 10…and I loved it! And especially the great jazz singers.

From 1967 – 1970 a Seventh-Day Adventist boarding school became home. We weren’t allowed to listen to rock-n-roll (the devil’s music) but we did have more mainstream music pumped into our rooms via the intercom system, and I was introduce to Glen Campbell, B. J. Thomas, the Carpenters and many more. I found that I enjoyed a lot of it. By the 70’s and 80’s I had a vast love for all kinds of music genres. But, folks used to tease me because all of a sudden I wasn’t Black enough in the music I listened too. So you see, “Blackish” isn’t new at all.

Guess who didn’t care?

That’s right—me!

By the 90’s I was into Yo-Yo Ma, and even Yanni! I began to listen to music in Spanish and Italian. I went through a phase when the saxophone was my favorite instrument, until I switched to the guitar, (especially the Spanish guitar) and then the violin and cello. I even had a few favorite country songs that made their way into my heart. No, I am not your stereotypical woman of color when it comes to many things, but especially my choice of music.

So, what was the problem?

When I came to Christ, I was made to feel that I must listen to gospel music and only gospel music. I had to give up all other music.

That lasted all of 3 to 4 months, before I began to rebel in my spirit. Truth is I really do not like most gospel music. Again, I was treated as if something was wrong with me—a black woman who doesn’t care for gospel music—an oxymoron for sure. I deeply missed much of the music I loved and was beginning to hate what I was told to listen to. I was struggling with a “bondage” setup by others.

At the time was an assistant manager for a large retail chain and often had to drive to a store 30 miles away. The gospel station I listened too on the radio didn’t broadcast well outside the city limits and I came across a contemporary Christian music station and found Sandy Patti, Larnelle Harris, Steven Green and a bunch of others! That first day, I felt like I had found a little piece of heaven. No songs with the verse sung 100 times, and the pronunciation of the words was astounding. Hallelujah!

About a year ago while reading the Palms I began to wonder what the songs King David wrote and sang sounded like to the Lord. I doubted very seriously it was anything like gospel or our hymns. So, I did a search to find a Jewish singer and bingo! I found Gad Elbaz. Here’s the link to a youtube video of him singing the 23^rd Psalm in Hebrew. Take a minute to check it out. This is probably closer to the music God heard from His people then what a lot of us are singing today. It should cause us to pause when it comes to thinking our English songs are it. God is just so vast; dare any of us think we have it like that?

I enjoy and listen to all types of music. God did not take this away from me, but man sure tried to.

Sisters, I’m not trying to tell you to keep listening to music that reminds you of the good old days, “aka” sinful times. I don’t want you listening to stuff that might make you desire things other than God, but you don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater either.

God is God, no matter what! We can’t impress Him by listening to a particular genre of music. He is the Creator of music. And I personally think that music is one of the most wonderful gifts God has given to man. For all the ones who write it, compose it, play it, sing it, and the vast majority of us who get to sit back and enjoy it!

Like anything, without understanding we can find ourselves in a place that lacks the freedom the death and resurrection of Christ bestows upon us.

In our quest to know God, we find out who we are in Him and that He is not a “one size fits all” kind of God. He deals with us individually. His Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. He will correct us if need be. He might direct you to listen to only certain types of music—but let Him do it—not someone else.

I find great pleasure in music and I have loved to dance since I can remember. Moving into the Kingdom of God, I did not lose any of that. Do I feed off pop music and dance from it all the time? No. I listen more to music that encourages my spirit in the Lord, but it doesn’t mean I can’t listen to Tom Jones sing “It’s Not Unusual” too.

Freedom in the Kingdom comes with having a personal relationship with Christ. And it deepens the more we study God’s Word and spend time with Him.

If you have been secretly listening to certain types of music because you are afraid of what others might think. Stop it! Only be concerned with what God thinks about what you are doing. And if it is okay with Him—listen on and enjoy!

Next Week: The Bondages of Christendom (Part 8…Are You in the Right Ministry?)

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie

The Bondages of Christendom, Part 6…( Being at Church Every Time the Doors Open)

There was a time in my walk with the Lord, when I thought there was some sort of loss by not being at church everytime the doors opened. But that is not true.

Many African American Christian congregations have a midweek (Wednesday) service of some sort and also special services on Friday evenings a lot too. And we can’t leave out the many things that might go on any given Saturday, and we’ve yet to talk about a weekly Bible study. Therefore if you look at a month with four weekends in it the doors to the church could possibility be open at least 12 to 15 times a month. That’s a lot.

When I found myself with a 2 month preterm baby and a pediatrician who was a Christian, the first thing she told me, “Don’t take your baby to church for at least 3 months.” She explained that with her being preterm she needed not to be subjected to all the germs one might find in a large gathering of people until her immune system was stronger.

I took her advice.

What did I do? I read my Bible and watched the Believers Voice of Victory during the week, Charles Stanley on the weekends and did a bi-weekly women’s bible study over the phone and stayed in touch with my mentor to discuss the Bible. 

In the course of the next few years, there were many times I didn’t attend a church service or event. Often it was the lateness of the hour or inclement weather. But here’s the catch, when I missed a service, it never failed that some well meaning sister would come up to me and say, “Girl, I didn’t see you Friday night…you really missed it!” And after awhile I began to believe them. I thought I was missing out because I refused to drag my child out into the cold night air or for whatever other reason I wasn’t there.

When talking to my mentor about it, she reassured me that I wasn’t missing anything. And you know what? She was absolutely correct. God is able to keep us no matter what. And the only way I would have missed anything would have been if the Holy Spirit instructed me to go and I just didn’t do it. Yeah, disobedience will do that for you.

If you are in a congregation that has a lot going on it doesn’t mean you have to be there for everything—all the time.

I’ve had conversations with two teachers who complained of how tired their students from Christian households were on Thursday. Why? Being at church on Wednesday evening and getting in the bed later than usual. One even said she no longer scheduled tests on Thursday because they did so poorly. That is not a good testimony.

I have witnessed this first hand, especially with single mothers. They pick their children up from after school care; stop at McDonald’s on the way to church. Service starts at 7pm, is over at 8:30 or 9:00 and then they still have to get home and often attempt to do homework.

One Friday night during a special service, a woman stood up and gave a testimony of how she had been so disrespectful to her husband. During their marriage she became a Believer and her husband had not. She was one who came to church every time the doors were open, with no regard to his feelings. She said the Holy Spirit had corrected her and she would be stepping down from the ministries she was on and spending more time with her husband. About a year after that, he started coming to church with her and accepted Christ as his savior. You see, her actions no longer made him resent God for taking his wife from him.  

As a single mom who homeschooled, and worked from home for two different people, I was often tired. And I had to learn to have balance in my life before I burnt out or became so overwhelmed I just gave up! I started taking one Sunday a month off. We slept in, stayed in our jammies, and I made sure to cook the day before. It was a real blessing!

It is wonderful to belong to a good strong congregation, but there is no magic is being in a church building two or three times a week. That doesn’t make sense for everyone’s lifestyle.

When I homeschooled, if we did go to church during the week, my daughter was able to sleep in and get the proper rest she needed or else we would not have went. I never jeopardized our safety by trying to get to church (or anywhere for that matter) when there was inclement weather, especially ice. Just recently we had a lot of ice on a Sunday morning, and people were asked to stay off the roads. So, why were so many out there trying to go to church? Are we not supposed to obey the law or officials? It shouldn’t matter if your church is open or not—wisdom if key.

There are many different reasons one may not be able to attend church services, and we should not be bent out of shape when that happens. The key is a personal and upfront relationship with God. Yup! That’s it. Reading and studying our Bibles, gives us freedom and great understanding.

Sisters, have you ever questioned why we are beat over the head or made to feel guilty if we don’t come to church more than once a week?  Where in the Bible, does it say we must do this? And if you are thinking about Hebrews 10:25, it is so often taken out of context.

If you are a single mom with young children, don’t feel pushed to keep them out late at night. They will not always be young or little—you will have a season when you will have more freedom to do things. If you desire to attend women’s bible study, see if someone will help you by babysitting. If not, study and read on your own until that time when you are able to attend a bible group. It is the Holy Spirits job to lead us into all truth—you study God’s Word, and trust me—He will.

Wives, if your husband asks you to stay home on a Sunday morning with him, don’t be afraid to do that. God is right there with you. You will win him over with love.

Some of you might have disabilities or are battling an illness and haven’t been able to get out. I do understand your desire to be with the saints, but don’t let it be a discouragement to you. You see, God will keep us no matter where we are. Just look at how He keeps those in Muslim nations who have converted to Christianity. They can’t go to church publicly; they have to meet in small secret groups, often sharing one Bible. We have many brothers and sisters who do not have the privileges we do in the Western World, but many of them have a stronger faith then us. They also have more of God’s Word written in their hearts then we do. So you see—God is the One who keeps us, whether we go to church 3 times a week or not. Amen!

Footnote on last week’s blog…This post came up in my Facebook feed on Monday, “I've decided to abandon the new Bible reading method, the one where you read the same book 20 times in a row. I realized I was kind of dreading reading the Bible and bored with it, and that's no way to feel about God's Word! I also kept losing my place.”

Nest Week's blog: The Bondages of Christendom (Part 7…What Kind of Music Do You Listen To?)

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie

The Bondages of Christendom, Part 5…(Reading the Bible Through In 365 Days)

Reading the Bible in its entirety is wonderful and something every Believer should do, but it doesn’t need to take a year. It’s when we start to follow formulas; we lose our joy and encounter frustration and defeat.

In talking to different women it seems they have gotten caught up in trying to follow a schedule of reading the Bible through in 365 days because—no one has ever told them to just sit down and read the Bible. Again, we like to make things complicated when God has made them very simplistic.

Just to see what’s out there, I googled, “reading the bible through in one year” and wow, I hit the motherload of several different ways to do it, but here are the 3 most popular.

•          Immersion plan…you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament three times in a year. How does that work?     You are reading a portion of both testaments each day.
•          Chronological…in order of events. In other words, it has you are all over the place.
•          Book order…from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.

One of the major problems with a reading schedule for completion in 365 days is life unscripted! We all experience it and none of us can get away from it. One little thing, and your scheduled reading for a week can go down the drain.

Then what?

How do you catch up?

Most often you don’t and the whole thing falls by the wayside.

Or are you one who is not disciplined in reading at all, but you know you should so you take on reading the Bible through in one year. Problem is you can’t keep it up because of your lack of discipline and commitment. You’re like a person who just learned the basic pearl stitch in knitting and can barely read a pattern, yet you buy yarn to make one of the most elaborate sweaters one could knit. You start out big, but it doesn’t take long before distractions and excuses cause you to fall behind to the point you just give up!

Discipline is key to reading and studying the Bible. A characteristic many of us have yet to develop. That’s the bad news, but the good news is—you can start today to turn that around!

If you are one who maybe reads your bible once or twice a week (if that), try setting aside 15 minutes a day for reading. Some might look at that and say, “Only 15 minutes a day? That isn’t much!” But it is for someone who doesn’t read at all. It is doable and will help you become disciplined in reading every day. Your time and love for reading the Bible will increase on its own…we all have to start somewhere.

Maybe you just have a desire to read the entire Bible through, I say, “God for it!” But don’t try to follow a formula or time frame of 365 days—just read it! Spend an hour a day reading and you will be through the entire Bible faster than you think. Make sure to have highlighters, sticky notes, a note book and pen. Why? So, you can make notes of things you want to go back and study and can easily find things you want to meditate on. Take 10 weeks to read the Bible through, and then spend the next 42 weeks studying and meditating on things you have read.

I don’t suggest reading a little of the OT and NT at the same time because it really doesn’t make sense. Would you take a Terri Blackstock mystery and read Chapter 1 and Chapter 30 at the same time? Of course not.

It’s great to set goals in life, but they must be realistic to our lifestyles. If you’re a mother of young children then more than likely in the course of 365 days, someone is going to have a cold, virus or something. And often those types of things run through the family. And when you are nursemaid to 3 or 4 people who are vomiting and pooping everywhere, usually the best you can do is call on the Lord to help you make it through! ~Smile~ So after 10 days of this, you now find yourself 10 days behind and you still have 9 months to go.

This is why a 365 day (scheduled portion) read of the Bible is not very realistic for the average person, especially if you are chief bottle washer, cook and maybe even work outside of the home.

There is freedom and joy in reading the Word of God. It is the most fascinating read there is and ever will be. But when we start to put limitations, and unrealistic expectations to it, we can easily find ourselves in a bondage situation. And when we can’t keep up we often experience feelings of failure and self-condemnation.  This is not what God desires for us. We are instructed to “study” and show ourselves approved unto God. We are to “study” so that we can rightfully divide the truth from fiction and not be lead astray. We are to "study" so when adversity shows up we are able to stand and faint not. And we achieve this by spending time with God on a daily bases—not a daily formula.

Did you know that the way God has designed our minds, (not brains) that if we meditate on a scripture daily for at least 7 minutes a day for 21 days—we renew our minds? I’m sure many of you didn’t know this. Only 7 minutes! But that is God—simplistic!

Here’s a link to a video (about 25 minutes long) broadcast of a recent BVOV (Believers Voice of Victory) Kenneth Copeland Ministry, with Dr. Caroline Leaf. Now this is some great information on how our mind works and how the Word of God renews it. If you don’t have the time to watch it now, please do before the weekend is over. It will change your life. She was on for 2 weeks and you can go into their archives and watch them all—I did, and it is life changing. How meditation works in our mind (click)

Sisters, spending time getting to know the God who made you, the God who saved you and the God who lives within you, is an exciting experience. And it’s a must if you desire to live the good life of the Kingdom of God. But it is not one of drudgery or obligation.

If you are one who has attempted to read the Bible through in a year and failed…start over! Have a set time each day and read what you can in that time frame. And if you have a day where “life unscripted” shows up…just pick up where you left off! Amen!

Next Week: The Bondages of Christendom, Part 6…( Being at church every time the doors are open)

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie

The Bondages of Christendom (Part 4… Finding What Your Spiritual Gift(s) Are)

When I was young, I often coveted the birthday presents of others. My birthday is January 4^th, and growing up my Christmas presents were twofold. I never had a birthday party as a child; in fact I usually didn’t even get a cake let alone a gift, so when others had parties, cakes and gifts…jealously ruled my heart.

Sad to say, but I see the same thing in the Body of Christ, when it comes to our Spiritual Gifts. (click)

As with any gift, we have an expectation and can’t wait to see what’s inside. No matter how beautifully wrapped, there are some who just go for it and rip the wrapping off as quickly as possible. Then there are those of us who savor the wrapping and painstakingly take our time. But deep down we are all excited to see what it is.

Then—Boom! Joy! Elation! Disappointment! Take your pick. We can experience great moments of joy, shed tears of happiness, or be very disappointed and ungrateful depending on what it is.

We can also experience these same emotions when it comes to our spiritual gifts.

One of the most wonderful things I found out as a babe-in-Christ, (Besides I didn’t have to bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan too because I was a woman.) was that I was going to get a spiritual gift or two. Woo Hoo! But who knew I was going to take a step into bondage versus freedom?

I was instructed to purchase a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit! The author went into great detail as to what each gift meant and what it was used for. There was even a chapter of questions you answered to help you pinpoint what your gift(s) might be. Here is where the trouble started. I didn’t see where I had any real gifts and this lead to disappointment in Christ. At the time I had a deep root of rejection and so I found myself feeling that I somehow was not as good as those around me. It brought up feelings of “God loves them more than me.” Where is the joy and freedom in that?

One of the biggest problems I encountered was being in a church with a bunch of proud folks who often had to let you know what their gifts were and how fantastic it made them. This causes envy amongst the saints for sure. But, since hindsight is 20/20, half the folks were pretenders. Yup—faking it all the way! Perpetrating a fraud! Just making up stuff—but nothing has really changed—we still do it today.

A few years back I was looking for a congregation to be part of because I had moved. One morning I went to a Sunday school class of a congregation I had been to a couple of times. They were winding up a study on “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” (go figure), and the teacher had handed out a printed sheet with all her gifts (so she said) and with her chest stuck out, she went down the list…in detail. What a horrible display of pride and how confusing that could be for a babe in Christ. In answer to your question, “No, I didn’t go back.”

Over the years I have come to realize that most of us are functioning in a gift long before we are aware of it. Unlike birthday parties—we are not the center of attention for everyone else to ooh and ah when we are given a spiritual gift.

Reading a book on how to find out, recognize or use your spiritual gifts to further the Kingdom, is a waste of good reading time that could be spent in the Word.

The Bible states the Holy Spirit gives everyone in the Kingdom gift(s). And that there is not one that is greater or better than another. They are all needed. So, don’t covet a gift you might see in someone else. For one, you don’t know what they have had to go through in order to function in their gift(s). I have yet to meet a missionary that didn’t have the gift of helps. The life of a missionary is not pampered nor is it easy. Every encourager I’ve met has most often lived through some type of hell and some more than others. You know that praise and worship leader everyone wishes they could be like—well, often their praise and worship comes from some type of hard living they had to do.

In the natural, humility is always grateful for the gift, even if it’s something they won’t use, or even like that much. That’s because they see past the gift itself and are grateful for the love and thought that went into it. In Christ, our humility should send us over the top in whatever gift we are given and whatever capacity we are chosen to use it in. You see…everyone is not going to be on television or have a large ministry for all to see. Some of us work in the shadows and go unseen by many—but never unnoticed by God.

It’s not our choice—it is our service.

If you are not sure what your gifts are or how they should be used? Ask the One who gave them to you. No need to buy a book on the subject at all.

Think about it…would you give someone you loved a car without making sure they could drive? No! And neither would the Holy Spirit.

The bible tells us that He gives all gifts at His discretion. That speaks volumes! In other words, it shows us that He knows what is needed to enhance the Body and who can handle what? If He wasn’t going to instruct us, it would be like giving someone who lived in the Amazon rainforest a Mac card that gave them access to $10,000,000.00. What good would it be to them without instruction, pin numbers and access to an ATM? None! And that’s my point.

God never leaves us stranded and it is the Holy Spirit's job to guide and instruct us. And another thing…where does it say in the Bible we get all our gifts at one time? It doesn’t.

Study your Bibles sisters. Study so you can live in the great Freedom our Lord and Savior has provided for us. Study what it really means to live in the Kingdom of God. Study and learn that the Holy Spirit is not abstract, but real and how important a role He plays in our everyday lives. Amen!

Next Week: The Bondages of Christendom, Part 5…(Reading the Bible Through In One Year)

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie