Sherman Cox's Blog, page 2
September 19, 2019
Devotional – Don’t Turn Around
Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You Round,
Turn You Round, Turn You Round
Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You Round,
Walking Up The Kings Highway
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36 ESV)
One of the biggest issues standing in the way of forward progress is a lack of perseverance. We start a bit and then stop. We don’t lose the weight because we cease our program. We don’t finish the book, because we allow things to stand in our way. We don’t keep on. In short, we just stop.
The road is often difficult to a better future. We have to step over the ways that we have been before. We have to stop being how we have been. We have to change. Yes, we must persevere. The book of Hebrews says: “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36)
The Bible writer is simply telling us to be like the singer of this song. Don’t allow anyone or anything to stand in the way of your progress. Don’t allow anyone or anything to “turn you round” from the road that leads to the promise of God. Don’t allow anyone or anything to stop you!
God has called us to be Ambassadors of the Kingdom. Let us live and work in such a way that all will see that we are “walking up the kings highway.”
Holy God, we come to you today knowing that you have promised us a glorious future, but we wonder about our capability to possess it. Please guide our feet that we might see where we need to go. Please, strengthen our limbs that we might have the power to go head on in the ways you have shown us. And Finally, please enlighten our mind that we might perceive and see your leading. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
March 14, 2019
Audio – Preach Sabbath More Fully
What does it mean to preach the Sabbath more fully? How can we do this? is this important? Brother Sherman Cox discusses this question in this episode.
August 25, 2017
Integration…Black Churches…And The Need For A Home…
I read it and then just started writing this…
Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child…A Long Way From Home…
This spiritual strikes deeply at the heart of African American Alienation…
We were born here…
We didn’t choose to come here…
African Americans are not fully African…
Most of us have no idea what parts of Africa our linage comes from…
Most of us have had that robbed from us…
We don’t know the culture…but our seekign the symbolism of Africa (I’ve done this to..as you can see in the logo of SoulPreaching.Com.
Our African sisters and brothers who come to this country can say they are from Ghana….they are from Kenya…they are from Ethiopia…etc…
But what can we say? Where is our home?
We may say Detroit….We may say Atlanta….we may say New York…
But we are often reminded that we are not fully American either…
When All you ssay is “Black lives matter” and even your Christian brothers and sisters compare you to the KKK…
That ain’t home…
When unarmed blacks are killed and you complain and even your Christian sisters and Brothers want to change the suject to Black on Black crime…as if black criminality exonerates Police misconduct….
We are reminded we ain’t home…
So here we are as DuBois reminded so many years ago….not American…not African….
But there is one place…A place that began in the Bush Harbors…
A place that sustained us during the depths of Jim Crow…
A place that is by no means perfect, but aided in all of our struggles for liberation…
That place…
The Black Church…
That was home…
Now, I do not wish to minimize the complex nature of the interaction that many have had with the church…
The Black church, like the church in general, grapples with its own problems…
We grapple with the role of women in the church…
We grapple with the treatment of some weak members…
We must admit that it is not everybody that has a liberative interaction with the church…
We have cliques like everybody else…we sometimes alienate folks even here…
So we are not everything we should be…
like any home…we don’t treat everybody as we should…but it is a home…our home…
It was a place where we could put our feet up and lean back in the chair….
It was a place where we didn’t have to worry about laws and rules placed on us by those who didn’t understand where we coming from…
It was a place where salve was applied to the recipients of racism…
It was a place where we didn’t have to defend the statement “We matter.” like we have to do everywhere else…
It is home…
Home got problems like everywhere else…but when all else fails…we always try to go back home…
The Black church is not just about worship style…
It’s not just about music….
It’s not just about an entertaining preacher…
It is a place outside of our cookouts, family reunions…that African American’s can go Home…
this rally hit me as I was waiting for my car to have some work on it…
Another African American came up…and we started talking…
And that little room we were in was suddenly transformed…
Into Home….
We talked a little about basketball…
We talked a little about politics…
I know we were working off of a multitude of assumptions that racism has placed in us…a multitude of assumptions that hurts have placed on us…a common belief that we are somebody…we matter…and we don’t have to argue or debate over it…
Every week…we come together and worship the Lord…and praise and sing…But we also have a little slice of home…
So it may take a little longer than other folks…(and I sometimes get a slight agrivation about this)…
We may have to listen to Sister Betty clamor on about her week during the offertory time…
But it’s home….
The Black Church is home…
You can come to my home if you want…
I invite you to it…but remember….this is somebody’s home when you get there…
I know…I know..millennials question everything as they should. They want us to tell them WHY..and they should…Generation Xers like myself ain’t done enough passing on….and the Boomers didn’t pass on enough to us either…
But
My sisters and brothers….don’t give up your home so quickly…cause you are gonna miss it when it’s gone…
And when it’s gone…I really hope and pray that what you are seeking to replace it with is also home…
Where oppressed people don’t have to argue about whether racism even exists and can get to applying the salve so that those people can make it another day…
August 14, 2015
Was Elliot A Charlatan?
This was a very interesting question that kind of shook me. You see there is a little of Elliot in many folks. Instead of going forward and stepping confidently into God’s future, we sometimes weakly allow the fortune to move us where it wills.
However, God has a plan for us. It reminds me of the story of Jonah where Jonah decided instead of going into Nineveh, like God said, he would go into Tarshish. (Jonah 1:3)
But even though Jonah directly disobeyed God and had to face the consequences of such (including spending some time in the belly of a large fish), his very presence was a witness to those sailors on that boat ride from Joppa to Tarshish.
The sailors went from calling to their gods to worshiping Jonah’s God. (Jonah 1)
Elliot made a great impression on Bethel Community Church even though it started by deception. Was he a charlatan? I don’t think so, but even if he were, God can even use that for God’s glory.
I would love to know what you think. Please reply to this email with your thoughts.
By the way, if you have read the book, please take a minute to go leave a review. (http://www.amazon.com/New-Pastor-Bethel-Community-Book-ebook/dp/B0128ZZO6O/)
May 25, 2015
Devotional: Power Not Talking
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 (ESV)
The church needed a new fax machine. An email thread was circulating among various church leaders. A deacon wrote the specifications of the machine. The information technology person wrote that it was in stock at the store. Someone else said that we need to hurry up if we are going to buy it because that model doesn’t stay around long. Then the associate pastor reminded the group that if we hurry we can catch the treasurer before she goes home for the day. Someone else asked about the return policy on the machine. Then someone else asked how the church could ensure only proper use of the machine. The emails went on for a few more minutes. A lot of typing was happening, but no one was buying the machine.
Portrait of surprised african man talking on the phone isolated on a white background
You ever had something important to do, but you found many ways to talk about the activity? You studied the activity. You planned the activity. In fact, you talked about what you would do if you were successful and what you would do if you failed. The only think you hadn’t done is the activity in question.It is easier to talk about doing something than to actually do something. It is easier to walk around the issue than to actually get something done. I know, I’ve been there.
In our text, the Apostle Paul separates himself from many who just “talk the talk.” No, he was going to look at these talkers face to face and evaluate them based on not the talk, but the power.
On that email thread, the pastor finally tired of all the talking and wrote a simple email, “Deacon, buy this and install it tomorrow.”
Today is the day you stop studying, planning, and talking about something that God has called you to do. Right now, today, Do it in God’s name!
Heavenly Father, we beg of you to forgive us of our inaction in the fact of your leading. Guide us from being merely talkers to being actors who demonstrate your power in our lives. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.
May 19, 2015
Devotional – You Have Power
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
I remember last year during a football game one of the few times that the Tennessee Titans were driving to the goal. In the middle of a play, the screen went totally blank. I pressed the on-button on my remote control and watched nothing happen. I jumped up and ran to the television to press some buttons on the TV. Nothing happened. The screen sat blank, and I was missing the game. Upon examination of the room, I saw that the television was plugged into the power strip. It was plugged in but it was dead.
Have you ever been in such a situation where you were attempting to do something and you didn’t have the power? It looked like you were plugged in, but dead. Just like I couldn’t watch the television, you didn’t have the power. Life is going on and you were missing it.
Right now, think about something that you need to do, but have not done because you don’t think you have the power to do it. Well I am here today to tell you that you now can take steps to doing it. You can now stop allowing things to stand in your way. Yes, you have received power.
God gave us power when God gave us the Holy Ghost, so today, you have power. And the scripture tells us that you will be witnesses to that power.
Today, stop living like you haven’t been given the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit. Today, I ask you to become witnesses to the power that Got has given to you.
Well, I looked again, and then realized that the problem with my television set was that the power switch on the power strip was off. See I was plugged in, but I didn’t turn the power on. My child must have hit it while I was paying close attention to the game. I simply turned on the switch and then the television jumped back to life.
Today, you can jump to life, because Jesus has already flipped the switch giving us his Spirit. Today, live the life that God has called you to live and be witnesses to that power.
Holy God, we thank you for giving us the power that comes with the Holy Spirit. We know that with power comes responsibility and so today we ask that you help us become witnesses of that power in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
You Have Power
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
I remember last year during a football game one of the few times that the Tennessee Titans were driving to the goal. In the middle of a play, the screen went totally blank. I pressed the on-button on my remote control and watched nothing happen. I jumped up and ran to the television to press some buttons on the TV. Nothing happened. The screen sat blank, and I was missing the game. Upon examination of the room, I saw that the television was plugged into the power strip. It was plugged in but it was dead.
Business person holding electrical powered wires concept on background
Have you ever been in such a situation? Where you were attempting to do something and you didn’t have the power? It looked like you were plugged in, but dead. Just like I couldn’t watch the television, you didn’t have the power. Life is going on and you were missing it.
Right now, think about something that you need to do, but have not done because you don’t think you have the power to do it. Well I am here today to tell you that you now can take steps to doing it. You can now stop allowing things to stand in your way. Yes, you have received power.
God gave us power when God gave us the Holy Ghost, so today, you have power. And the scripture tells us that you will be witnesses to that power.
Today, stop living like you haven’t been given the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit. Today, I ask you to become witnesses to the power that Got has given to you.
Well, I looked again, and then realized that the problem with my television set was that the power switch on the power strip was off. See I was plugged in, but I didn’t turn the power on. My child must have hit it while I was paying close attention to the game. I simply turned on the switch and then the television jumped back to life.
Today, you can jump to life, because Jesus has already flipped the switch giving us his Spirit. Today, live the life that God has called you to live and be witnesses to that power.
***
Holy God, we thank you for giving us the power that comes with the Holy Spirit. We know that with power comes responsibility and so today we ask that you help us become witnesses of that power in our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
May 11, 2015
Devotional: Fear Can’t Win
I remember when I was a child playing at a particular playground in Kansas City Missouri. There was a jungle gym with monkey bars. I was afraid however to be so high in the air. The fear paralyzed me to the reality that I wasn’t that high in the air. It kept me from attempting what I wanted to do.
Many of us are like that. We allow fear to keep us from our dreams. We allow fear to stop us from opening that business that God has placed in our heart. We allow fear to stop us from pursuing that relationship that God has placed in our path. We allow fear to stop us from risking our heart by becoming a friend.
Anxiety And Fear Signpost Meaning Worried Nervous Or Scared
Yes, the spirit of fear is strong in this world that we live in. This scripture places the spirit of fear in contrast to the spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. God only gave one side of the equation and not the other.
In our lives, fear stops us, it keeps us from our exerting the power we have in Jesus. It keeps us from the love of relationships. It can even mess with our sanity.
The victory is not in us, praise God. The victory is not in fear. No, the victory overcomes the fear by power, love, and a sound mind.
Eventually I got to the point where I could get on those monkey bars. I even fell down a few times, but what I learned is that falling wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Fear no longer could paralyze me. I learned to step on out.
Today, I dare you to stand in the power of that God has given you, and never allow fear to hold you back from being the one that God has called you to be. Fear can’t win when you live in the power of what God has already given to you.
***
Lord, we thank you for giving us the spirit of power to live your life in this world. We thank you for the spirit of Love that helps us to relate as we should in this world. And finally, we thank you for the mind spirit of a sound mind you have given us that we can keep our sanity in the midst of whatever happens in this world.
July 20, 2014
God’s Gonna Show Up
Wade In The Water
Wade In The Water, Children
Wade In The Water
God’s Gonna Trouble The Water
We are in a world that seems so unpredictable. Our weather experts seem to only get it right sometimes and even then only partially right. The news is full of unpredictable things. The war that breaks out that seems to be out of our control. The automobile accident where someone else causes the accident that kills the family. The gunman who seems to want to cause hurt and pain. Even the winner of the sports team eludes us as many seek to make money predicting who will win the game. All of these things force us to face the reality that we just don’t know what is going to happen.
Just A Little Predictability
But this spiritual comes in with a little predictability in a world that cannot be predicted. The singer encourages us to go down into the water. Go down into the water because God is going to trouble the water. God is going to make God’s presence known in that water.
Bible students know that this spiritual is using imagery of the crippled man who was trying to get into the water when it was troubled. (John 5:7). The Bible story provides us with some interesting things for contemplation. First, the Spiritual is based in the rumor that something divine comes to this pool. You know when you are at your wits end, all you can do is place yourself where God has shown up in the past. The singer of the Spiritual encourages us to go down to where we heard God has shown up in the past. We have heard of healing happening there. We have heard people getting blessed there, so go show up there to get the blessing that God has for you.
Stay In The Water
Another interesting point is that in the Bible story the healing came to the one who was first in the water when the shaking of the water happened. The singer doesn’t want to wait until the troubling happens before jumping in the water. The singer wants you to “camp out” in the water. The singer wants you to be there before the troubling happens so that you can fully experience that “troubling of the water.”
Today in this unpredictable world, the singer of this Spiritual tells us to go where we know that God has worked in the past and then wait for the troubling. And ultimately the singer is sure that God is not only gonna show up, but God is gonna “trouble the water.”
Holy Father of all Humanity, we recognize our total and complete dependence on you. We recognize that we don’t know what will happen in this world and thus we are totally dependent on your working for and through us. Oh Lord, we really don’t know where to go to receive they blessing so we humbly beg that you would come by the places where you have met us in the past and please give us your blessing that you have given to others. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Where Are Your Shoes?
I got Shoes, You Got Shoes
All God’s Children Got Shoes
When I get To Heaven, Gonna Put on My Shoes
Gonna Walk, All Over God’s Heaven
We probably know that only the barest of necessities were given to the slaves by the slave master. Just barely something to cover themselves. They didn’t have a robe or shoes. Certainly the slave singer was not happy about that, but the singer saw past the present reality into God’s future. Seeing God’s future transformed the present moment of frustration into a moment of celebration.
This singer simply looks pass this present reality to a different one. You see in the present reality I don’t have shoes. In this present moment, I don’t have a robe. In fact in this present reality, I don’t have all the things that I need to survive. But in God’s ultimate reality, the singer has them. No, the slave master does not have the last word. God has the last word.
One thing I like about this spiritual is that the singer is talking about a present parallel reality. The slave is saying “The slave master says I can’t have shoes, but I have shoes today.” Not only do I have shoes, but the other slaves have shoes. Feet look as bare as they did before they decided to sing, but they continued “All God’s children Got shoes.” The shoes are a present possession in God’s ultimate reality.
While the shoes are a present possession in God’s ultimate reality, the slave will nto be able to use them until the future for they sang “when I get to heaven I am gonna put on my shoes and walk over God’s heaven.” The slave is celebrating the fact that presently I have the shoes but in the future I will use those shoes to walk over God’s heaven.
Today, many of us do not have the things that we should have. Some of us are even missing meals. Some of us do not have a good enough prescription drug plan to pay for all of our pills. Some of us cannot even afford the coat or shoes that are needed to get through the winter safe and healthy. But the promise of God is that God has gone to prepare a place. The promise of God is that he will come again to receive his own. The promise of God is one day we will no longer have to want for the necessities of life.
This reality changes our lives in such a way that we can celebrate God’s future. This reality changes things such that we can continue “Marching to Zion.” This present reality shapes and forms us as we live even today for we know that for the child of God, our needs and wants are fully realized in God’s promised future.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing for our greatest needs in the future. Please help us to continue walking just a little bit longer in the tattered shoes of the present with fully knowledge that one day we shall put on those shoes you have for us when your Kingdom is fully realized.
