Category Archives: God’s Economy

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Greenleaf Recap Season 1 Episode 11: Men Like Trees Walking…

Only Two More 'Greenleaf' Episodes Left!!!

bishop

Hello World,

So I’ve missed two weeks of recaps as two weeks ago, I interviewed Deborah Joy Winans who plays Charity on OWN’s”Greenleaf” in place of my weekly recap (if you haven’t checked out “‘Greenleaf’ Star Deborah Joy Winans Shares About New Greenleaf Gospel Album, Her TV Husband & Her Aunt CeCe: My Interview (With Audio, please do so!) and last Wednesday was my wedding anniversary, but babay, I’m back!

I swear (and I don’t LOL) “Greenleaf ” never fails to disappoint! This show just works! I’m not even sure why yet, but I every week, they serve up the drama and I just eat it up!

So on to the recap…

Pain in the Pews…

There’s nothing sadder than a preacher preaching to empty pews, and that is where Bishop Greenleaf is headed if he doesn’t get right with God or somebody…The episode starts with him in an empty sanctuary recalling how he had just preached…He was sweating and shaking and saaanging “my living shall not be in vain” but the congregation was not moved…Correction, some were moving but in the opposite direction….Someone got up and left right in the middle of Bishop’s sermon and the sanctuary wasn’t even full to begin with…

The head deacon or deaconess (which I prefer to call her because how many times do you get to say deaconess) confirms what you can already tell: Attendance and tithes are down at Greenleaf and have been for four weeks! She pleads with the Bishop get a “fresh face” in the pulpit….someone who is “unsullied.” She suggests Jacob or even Grace to which Bishop responds, “She’s the one that got us into this mess.” Yes, Grace, the Bishop’s favorite child, is now on the Bishop’s hit list! He assures the deaconess that Greenleaf will survive it all. But the deaconess replies, “The Lord doesn’t want His church to survive, He wants us to thrive.” Amen and pass the offering plate LOL!

Orange is the New Black…

Mac is finally wearing an orange jumpsuit in prison as he should be after the family secret that he sexually molested his niece is out in the open. But Lady Mae knows that another secret is being kept but this time by the Bishop. Apparently, Mac has something on the Bishop and is using that secret to blackmail him. She tries to get him to share the secret but he remains silent to her anger.

The fallout from the shoot out at church continues to reverberate as $4500 is needed to secure Lady’s Mae’s annual Women’s Day event at the Peabody Hotel, but the money hasn’t been approved by the powers that be at the church although the expenditure is usually approved without issue. Lady Mae decides to take out her own checkbook and write the check for the amount. Let the church say, “Ouch.” How many tithes went into that $4500?!

He’s a Healer…

One of the reasons that I love Grace’s daughter is her inquisitiveness particularly as it relates to Scripture…As the daughter of a pastor, I’m so used to hearing Scripture that I don’t necessarily see the word of God with fresh eyes. But I imagine that if I was introduced to Scriptures a bit later in life, I would have just as many questions (although I still have questions…don’t get me wrong…) Sophia asks her mother Grace, who can still quote Scriptures by heart although she had been away from the church for many years, why did Jesus have to heal the blind man in Mark 8:23-26 twice? You know I’ve never gave it much thought, but why would Jesus, who is the Healer of all healers, have to heal twice to get it right…Obviously, there was a deeper meaning as the blind man says at first, “ I see men as trees, walking.” So this verse is where the title of this show comes from…More to be revealed later in the recap…read on church!

That’s Just My Baby Daddy…

For all of this time, it has been a mystery regarding the identity of Sofia’s father. At one point, I thought her father may been Noah, but we learned in last week’s episode that Ray, a white man that Grace met in Phoenix after she fled from the Greenleaf estate, is Sofia’s father. And despite the fact that Sofia is about that Greenleaf estate life, Ray wants full custody of her as Grace left Phoenix without properly informing him of her plans. She gets served the papers at church…

Speaking of Lawsuits…

Grace is not the only one who is heading to court and finds this out at church…Bishop Greenleaf meets with Alexa’s attorney as the attorney alleges her client was fired without cause. Remember Jacob’s side piece? (Kerissa makes a joke about side pieces as Kerissa and Jacob attempt to help their young son put puzzle pieces together. When the boy picks up a small piece that goes one side of the puzzle, she says Jacob should help as he is good with side pieces…funny…) Alexa’s attorney (and Alexa is in the meeting too by the way) says a lawsuit won’t be filed if the Bishop compensates for her loss. Now with the tithes going down and Lady Mae writing a check for $4500, where is the Bishop supposed to get some cash pray tell?

In a moment of synchronicity, Jacob comes to see his father just as Alexa and her attorney are finishing their meeting with the Bishop…And this isn’t the only time that Alexa is mentioned in the episode…So obviously Alexa will continue to be a temptation for Jacob…

But for the moment, Jacob is not thinking about Alexa and pleads with his father to reinstate him at Greenleaf. Instead of reinstating Jacob, the Bishop attempts to redirect him by reminding him that being a pastor was never his dream and that he only became involved in the church after Grace left. Jacob finally gives up trying to convince his father that he is ready to return to Greenleaf and instead apologizes for getting involved with Alexa. The Bishop says, “Pray for her. She’s chosen a painful path.” What does that mean, saints?!!

Ever Seeing but Never Perceiving…

For all of Sofia’s inquisitiveness with her mother, Sofia is totally quiet in youth Bible study so much so that the leader asks her what she thinks of Mark 8. Although she didn’t know what to think when she asked her mother, she has obviously continued to think about the passage and she has an answer for the leader. She says that every person is rooted in something although we cannot necessarily see it with our natural eyes…I like that…

Gaming the System…

Although Jacob doesn’t necessarily perceive it, his actions are rooted in pleasing his father although he has a funny way of showing it. Since his father won’t reinstate him at Greenleaf, Jacob decides to go to the other megachurch in town – Triumph (where Alexa is a member) – and convince Pastor Skanks to hire him there…Jacob approaches the pastor while he is playing basketball at a gym…The pastor lets out an expletive when he realizes that Jacob, the crown prince of Calvary, is coming to him for a job…Okay, I need at least one pastor, other than Grace, that I can admire on this show…

Instead of simply hiring Jacob, Pastor Skanks (as his name suggests, he really ain’t ’bout nohin’) shows that he is really playing chess rather than basketball and tells Jacob that he must set up a meeting with the Bishop so that Pastor Skanks knows that he didn’t hire the Bishop’s son behind his back…

Almost a Golden Wedding Anniversary…

In the midst of all this, Bishop and Lady Mae are celebrating 45 years together! (Ironically, my parents celebrated 45 years of marriage on Sunday!) Well, let me correct what I noted. Bishop celebrated their wedding anniversary by sending her flowers but he later sees the flowers nearly dead on the floor of her office. If Bishop wants them to make it to their golden wedding anniversary, he better tell Lady Mae everything…

Just Call Me Nicety…

I think my favorite character next to Grace is Lady Mae because she is the champion of being nicety…She can be so nasty but because she says and does almost everything with a smile on her face. You think she is being nice when she is really being nicety…nice plus nasty equals nicety…After she discovers that Melisse,  chief housekeeper at the Greenleaf estate and better known as Lovita Alizé Jenkins-Robinson LOL, is the one who confirmed there was shooting at the church to the media, she turns around and gives her one of those scholarships (you know the ones that are used to keep people quiet). In other words, she has paid for to go to nursing school simultaneously releasing from her job at the Greenleaf estate…

My Secret

So actually Bishop isn’t the only one in the family who is holding on to a secret in the wake of the Mac revelation…Kevin, Charity’s husband, has a secret too…but it’s the worst kept secret on the show…The leader of a local charity Adrian becomes particularly friendly with Kevin and he reveals to him that he doesn’t want to be like his father who left his family when he was a little boy…Adrian assures him he is not like his father…Hmmm…whatever…It’s obvious that that this man has feelings for Kevin and Kevin might be feeling him too…Although Kevin has twins on the way, even his desire to be a good father won’t be enough to squelch his other desires…

Below is a video from Jacob’s b-ball game with Pastor Skanks….

Y’all I’m tired…but those are my thoughts…What y’all think of my recap of episode 11?

TWO MORE EPISODES LEFT!!!

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Seven Scriptures to Discern God’s Attitude About Money & Giving…

pastor dollar

Hello World,

In this GoFundMe generation in which people request money for anything from assistance with medical bills to assistance to going on vacation in Vegas, it can sometimes be difficult to discern what to support and what to shame…

This issue came to a head on Thursday when The Christian Post reported that Pastor Creflo Dollar, pastor of the megachurch World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., and his church posted a plea for “200,000 people to give contributions of 300 US dollars” in order to replace the church’s current airplane, which was built in 1984 and had 4 million miles on it, according to the church’s fundraising page. Apparently, “recently on an overseas trip to a global conference, one of the engines failed. By the grace of God, the expert pilot, who’s flown with Creflo for almost 20 years, landed the plane safely  without injury or harm to any passengers.” Specifically, the money will be used to buy a Gulfstream G650 airplane “so that Pastors Creflo and Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace.”

And then the Internet blew up with criticism of the plea stating that Pastor Dollar should opt to fly commercially or charter a bus and that airplane, which reportedly costs $65 million, itself was too much of a luxury. Kirsten West Savali of The Root said that Pastor Dollar should buy the airplane himself and outright called him a charlatan…

logoHowever, not everyone criticized Pastor Dollar and the church’s efforts…A Mark Moore, who may or may not be a member of World Changers, on Facebook said, “I am totally disgusted by the response of ministers & church leaders to Pastor Creflo Dollar’s recent pursuit of new aircraft…I’ve seen several posts from ignorant people outraged that ‘Creflo expects me to buy his jet?!’ No precious heart. ‘Creflo’ didn’t ask you to do anything. This outrage stems from a letter his ministry shared with his PARTNERS. Partners that he’s connected with over the 20+ years he’s been on international television. Partners who have decided that something he has shared has helped them enough to cause them to decide to support him.”  He concluded his lengthy post mentioning Dr. Myles Munroe, who along with his wife Ruth and others, died in a jet crash in the Bahamas in November. “I’ll close by saying that it’s disheartening to see some of the same people, who wept over the TRAGIC loss of Dr. Myles Munroe and members of his team as a result of their old aircraft not being able to handle the storm, berate Pastor Dollar for being upfront and embracing “you have not because you ask not” (which is in the Bible).”

Lakeshia Poole, also via Facebook, noted that Pastor Dollar is not the only pastor in the metro Atlanta area who uses an aircraft in ministry…Poole,  who was a member of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta before moving back to her hometown, noted that her former pastor, Dr. Craig L. Oliver, Sr., uses a helicopter to be transported to the churches various locations to preach on Sunday…”Once upon a time while walking to church, I spied my pastor in a helicopter. A helicopter, bro? Really? Is this what my tithes and offering paid for? I felt some type of way and yet I walked quickly into the newly-planted-5-minutes-from-my-house location vs. driving in the even-on-a-Sunday-hellacious-traffic of 285 to the main location. Did he really need a helicopter to spread the gospel? No…yes…maybe? Selfishly, I became cool with it because honestly if it wasn’t for that helicopter, I wouldn’t have that convenient connection…”

By Friday, the fundraising web page for the aircraft had been taken down although donations are still possible, according to the AJC…

As I said originally, with so many causes, campaigns and churches asking for support, it can be difficult to discern how or if one should give so I’ve decided to post seven scriptures that we can use to discern how God wants us to use the resources that we have been given from Him…

1. “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7…While it is always good to support the church through tithing and or offerings, we should not feel forced or compelled to give because if we feel forced and or compelled to give, how can we give cheerfully?

2. “Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.” Deuteronomy 16:17…Don’t give what you don’t have! If you have been  blessed financially, you may be able to give more…However, don’t give your mortgage money to the church or to anything else if that is all that you have at the moment…

3. “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:3-4…The implication is that yes, we must give to the poor…However, when we do, we don’t have to tell everyone…It is in poor taste to tell others how you are helping this organization or that person unless you are trying to get others to do the same and even then we don’t have to brag…

4.” But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” 1 Timothy 6: 6-10…We all should strive to be financially stable but desiring to be rich can lead us down a road to hell…

5. “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” Luke 16:13-15…You have to value God over your resources, and He knows who or what we really serve…And furthermore, while someone may be praised by a lot of people does not mean that God sees that person the same way…

6. “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Being rich in good deeds is way more important and valuable than being rich in money…

7. “But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” Acts 3:6 Peter, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, had no money to offer, but what he did have to offer was healing in the powerful name of Jesus Christ…

There are many more verses in the Bible about money and giving, but these verses provide a good foundation to go fund or not…

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ex-Con’s Art Featured in United Methodist Church National Prison Summit

Hello World,

I love a good redemption story. Isn’t that the whole point of the Bible? To redeem us from our sins and set us on the right path…

That’s why I have to share the story of Leonard “Rusty” Medlock, who I read about on the Dallas Morning News website. A former drug dealer, he began dipping into his supply…

“Even in my darkest hours, I was praying,” Medlock said. “I was the only one sitting in a drug house, using drugs and praying out loud. I’d say, ‘Lord, please don’t let me die in this sin.’”

freeAlthough he eventually went to jail, God still heard his prayer…

“When I was in elementary school, my art teacher told my mom I had a real talent,” Medlock said. “And Mama said, ‘I know. He’s doing it all over my living room walls.’”

Behind bars, he started sketching again. He learned how to strip the bright colors off of Skittles candy and turn it into brilliant paint. He even used toothpaste to paint.

But another creative idea — drawing portraits of those featured in newspaper obituaries — got him noticed. He mailed them to funeral homes and asked them to pass the images along to survivors.

“All of a sudden … I started getting money on the books,” he said, referring to the cash — as much as $150 — that folks sent him.

To read his how art eventually freed him from jail physically, mentally and spiritually and see his artwork, go here…

Medlock’s art will now be featured in the National Prison Summit on Incarceration held at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas this Friday through Sunday. hamilton

According the summit website, the National Prison Summit on Incarceration is a weekend designed to bring national, statewide and local experts together to share strategies and best practices to those who work in prison ministries. The goal for the summit is three fold. First, providing information about the need for community and faith-based volunteers to do ministry inside the prison walls that will transform the lives of persons incarcerated; Second, learn from experts about evidence-based practices on starting and growing your prison ministry; and finally how to be more effective and develop successful re-entry programs.

Any thoughts?