Redeemed from the Law? Then why do we condemn...

After a pretty interesting discussion after the tithing post (part 2 will come later down the road,) a reader mentioned that tithing is not "biblical." The premise was that tithing was not "biblical" because Christ came that we may be redeemed from the law. That led me to think... if we have been redeemed from the law, then why do we condemn those sins, activities, and thoughts that are considered part of that "law?"

I would like to spark a discussion. Before we do though, let's look at the scripture:

Galatians 3:13 states:   "But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

So what was the law? Was it the laws that Jews were to follow before the coming of Christ? The 10 Commandments?

Further reading of Galatians 3 says that :

"Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers (Gentiles) might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith."

If this is the case, what was promised to Abraham? Deuteronomy 28 gives us the detailed account of what was promised to Abraham as well as what the "curse" entailed.  According to Moses, the "curses" for breaking the "law" were sickness, poverty, and spiritual death.

So, does being redeemed from the curse of the law mean that we are no longer bound by the rules or laws such as homosexuality, wearing clothing made of different material, eating pig and shellfish? Does it mean that because we have been redeemed from the law that we are no longer "punished" for breaking or being disobedient to the law because of His grace and mercy? Or does it mean that through our belief and faith that we Gentiles can now enjoy the same blessings and prosperity that was promised to Abraham?

Leave a comment and let me know what say you!

Reference

Deuteronomy. Bible Gateway. Retrieved from www.biblegateway.com

Galatians. Bible Gateway. Retrieved from www.biblegateway.com

The Fears of a Mother

Initially, I wanted to write a new post continuing the conversations on tithing and even explore the thoughts of others on "the law" as outlined in the Old Testament versus the New Testament and Christ redeeming us from "the law" but I couldn't. In light of recent events, my heart has grown weary, sad, and troubled. In less than 48 hours, 2 unarmed black men were gunned down by police officers. Now before you run for the hills shouting "oh hear we go with that again" or "I'm tired of talking about race in the United States," hear me out.

Many, many years ago when I was in the 5th grade, I remember as vividly as if it happened yesterday that my teacher Mrs. Jackson replied that she would "never want to bring a child into a world like this" to our question of why she didn't have children. In our mind, she would have made the most wonderful mother outside of our own as she was just that awesome of a teacher and mentor to us. Years later, after I had married and had my first child, I happened to find Mrs. Jackson and visited her at the school where as she resided as a principal. Even after all of those years, she still held onto the same thoughts she had way back when she was my teacher... she could never bring a child into this type of world.

I have come to understand her sentiments. If you know my story, my children are miracles for me but often I have felt guilt for birthing them into a world where they may be discriminated against, shunned, looked down upon, or ridiculed just because they were born black... a matter in which there was no choice. As much as I love my boys, thank God for them, and pray for and over them... I fear for the hardships they may have to endure all because they are black. 

It is a funny thing to realize as an African American/ Black woman that I have NEVER in my life worried about black on black crime. Not once. However, I am TERRIFIED that one day my name, the name of my husband, sons, nephews, father, cousins, etc will be the next hashtag, media talking point, or point of outrage. I'm not terrified because myself or anyone that I know has done/ will do something illegal or wrong but because we just so happened to be born black... and feared, reviled, and thought of as less than. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all white people, cops, or other races view African Americans in this light... it's just a scary thing when there are so many that do. It is a scary thing to be feared or hated because your skin is brown as if we had a choice as to what race or color we were going to be born as. 

As I look at my young sons, I pray that they NEVER EVER have to experience the racism that many of our friends, family, and we ourselves had to. There are so many points that can be made as to why many black men are being shot and killed by those that fear us but I will not make those points here. I just ask that when you hear the stories, the families speak, and the outrage over these tragedies that never seem to end, think about this...

When an EMT makes a statement that he didn't stop to help those in a car accident because they were black...

When a child is killed is killed within seconds for having a TOY gun...

When a woman is jailed and sent to a mental ward because officials don't believe a Black woman is capable of having a high profile job and nice car...

When a man is SHOT outside of his home because police don't believe he owns a nice car and lives in an "upscale" part of a neighborhood...

When no charges are filed for a child found in a gym mat with his organs missing and replaced with newspaper...

A community isn't saying that ONLY Black lives matter because all lives do, we are just saying that apparently everyone needs to be reminded because that's not what is being displayed....

The Great Tithe Debate... (Part 1)

It seems that Facebook always gives me material to blog about in regards to religious principles, sayings, or biblical truth. A few days ago, I read a post where a young lady had diligently and faithfully paid her tithes to her church. Upon falling on hard times, she reached out to her church family for help. Her church family looked at her "financial giving record" and denied helping her and told her to reach out to a secular entity. I recount that story because it is stories like this, the misunderstood wealth of many internationally known pastors, and misinterpretations of the Bible that make people turn their noses up to the idea and thought of tithing.

~ Before I go any further, yes I tithe at my church. Do I condemn individuals that don't... NOPE! I'm just giving the knowledge so individuals can make their own informed decision.~ 

So first, let's look at what the scriptures say about tithing. First, there are 20 different scriptures in the Bible concerning tithing. The first scripture shows itself in the very first book of the Bible (IMAGINE THAT?!) Genesis 14:19 -20 states: 

Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

    Creator of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God Most High,

    who has defeated your enemies for you.”

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

Proverbs 3:9-10 says:

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

One of the main scriptures that I can honestly say I have heard from roughly 3rd grade to this very day is Malachi 3:9:

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

*Personal Note* - I can only speak on how tithing has blessed me. One day, I decided to "test" God as Malachi stated. (Yes, TEST!) I can honestly say that God has proven Himself in my life time after time. Although I can confidently say that my pastor does not misappropriate funds given to the church, in my spiritual development, after I have done my part in sowing my tithes, I don't worry about what the pastor is doing with them. Once it has left my hands, what is done with it is then is between the pastor and God. (I had this thought for other churches I have sown tithes or offerings into as well. Now don't get me wrong, I WILL NOT SOW INTO WHAT IS NOT CONSIDERED GOOD GROUND. If I KNOW that the church is corrupt or misappropriates funds, I will not sow there however, I WILL SOW INTO A CHURCH THAT OPERATES IN BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES...)

Back to the subject matter at hand, the Bible gives several scriptures that tells its believers that tithing is something that we do in our relationship with God. Does God need our money? Of course not. To make it simple, not only does God want us to show him that He can trust us with what he blesses us with, that money/ possessions won't become our "god," and that we won't allow our money and possessions to define us but also to help the place where we worship to pay the bills, help those in need, and fund outreach programs (even Goodwill needs money to run its operations right?) So, if this is the case, why is it so hard for us as believers to give to our church but we have no qualms about shelling out money on nonsensical items? Ponder this until next week when I look at all of the reasons that people WON'T tithe and debunk many of the myths, misconceptions, and fears that may be keeping us from the blessings that we have been looking for!

NBG

How did Jesus find dudes named Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Phillip, and Andrew in the Middle East?

The other day I was scrolling through Facebook as I normally do after I get off work to unwind and got worked up instead when I saw this:

Really?!?! Do I really need to write a post about this? (Well, no but I am!) Folks are really asking this question? With a big sigh, I recognize deep down in my heart that people are or their wouldn't be memes and discussion wars about this. So, here comes the blog post. First, to get down to answering the question at hand, we must first review the Bible:

Matthew 10:2 - 4 (NIV) says,"These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him."

Most individuals are familiar with a few of the disciples, especially Peter, Matthew, and Judas however, just like EVERY OTHER WORD in the Bible, names were also translated from Hebrew and/ or Aramaic. Translation of the Bible was not a singular event in which it was translated from Hebrew/ Aramaic to English. The Bible or the many books we now know to be the Bible took many travels down translation lane. However many trips to translation from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English and other languages, one thing remains the same, the names of the disciples were not originally Matthew, James son of Zebedee, Judas, Peter, Simon, Andrew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Philip, John, or Bartholomew. 

The original names of the disciples were:

 Simon was Shimon.

 James was Yakov 

 John was Yochanan 

Bartholomew was Bar-Talmai (son of Ptolemy)

 Matthew was Mattityahu meaning, “gift from God.” 

Thomas was Tau’ma

Thaddaeus was a variant of Theudas 

Judas was Yehuda. 

Andrew was Andreas

Philip was Filippos

So please, for the love of all of the information that is available to us at a swipe of our fingertips, the next time someone asks the question, "How did Jesus find guys named  Matthew, James son of Zebedee, Judas, Peter, Simon, Andrew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Philip, John, or Bartholmew in the Middle East?" Please tell them that those names were TRANSLATED from the original text!

References:

 Shafiroff, I. (2011) Hebrew Names for Jewish Apostles.

Religion of the Slave Masters? Ummm...

One of the many things that irritate me about some individuals is their unwillingness to search for truth and knowledge in an age where knowledge is literally at ones fingertips. This is especially true about religion and the many traditions we practice without a second thought to why we do what we do or believe what we believe. Now, before I begin this blogging adventure into religion and spirituality, I must declare that yes...

I am a Christian and believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

Now that that has been declared and is now out of the way, one of the things that grinds my gears to no end is when people state that African Americans have adopted the religion of there slave master...

This is not to say that many religions practiced such as Uduk, Massai, and Dogon were forcibly replaced with Christianity. That is not what this post is about. This post is about the argument that we as African American people were given the religion of our slave owners.

Around 300 AD,King Ezana decreed Ethiopia (then called Aksum) to be a Christian nation, centuries before the first slave was bought to the "New World." Despite that fact, did we all miss the scriptures in Acts when an Ethiopian eunuch was baptized shortly after the death of Christ and went to spread the Gospel before the Apostle Matthew made it there?

As it stands for many African Americans, it is easier to find a kid that doesn't like electronics than it is to find your lineage unless you get genetic testing and even then, it is a feat to find direct decedents that can be traced back to the many nations where our peoples were enslaved. It is a disservice to our diversity, strength, and ingenuity as a group of people to make blanket statements about religion, beliefs, and spirituality. I can no more trace my ancestry back more than 5 generation like many African Americans than the next, so how can I make the statement that my ancestors before me never served the God I serve, despite their country of origin?

NBG