Dedicated to teaching God's Love and God's Government

I find it amazing that folks like to use funerals as an excuse to be boorish, obnoxious, and just plain foolish.

What should be a time of mourning for family and friends and a time of sincerity and respect for everyone else frequently becomes a sad circus of role-players and bit-performers clamoring for the spotlight, and armchair commentators attempting their best “Siskel and Ebert” imitations – dissecting every element of what should be a solemn celebration.

All of this is true when it comes to the funerals of everyday folk; more so in the case of celebrity funerals. Folks who tend to put on a show for their own loved ones will give an Oscar-worthy performance for their beloved celebrities.

The family of Whitney Houston did the right thing, in my opinion, by celebrating her homegoing in their family church. And I’m sure they were attentive to every detail to make the service a celebration of life. They prayerfully selected who would speak and who would sing. And, in deference to her fans, they decided to stream video of the funeral to the world – and, sadly, most of the world didn’t deserve to observe it.

I’ve looked over a wide swath of comments in the various social media outlets and am aghast at some of what I’ve read. With the exception of some really thoughtful, heartfelt remarks, the vast majority of comments range from the cruel to the downright stupid.

What’s truly sad is that much of this commentary comes from so-called Christians. Folks who feign holiness but engage in banal banter and outright gossip. Jesus had a word for these kind of folks: hypocrites.

These folks need to grow up, spiritually and naturally.

All so-called saved folks criticizing the order of service and performances at Whitney Houston’s funeral ought to be ashamed of themselves. When a grieving family is gracious enough to share this time with you, respect the solemnity of the occasion, and stop being a critic!

If you can’t say “Amen,” say “Ouch!”

© 2012 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Today we observe the birthday of a great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is clear the nation owes him a debt of gratitude for what his accomplishments in the realm of social justice and equality. However, I would like to speak briefly regarding Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the man of God.

Dr. King understood something the Body of Christ misses today: that if you want to change the social fabric of a nation, you must first change the hearts and minds of that nation. He understood that what plagued America was a spiritual problem and that it required a spiritual solution.

There were other civil rights pioneers that proffered solutions to racial inequalities. Booker T. Washington believed that social change would follow addressing economic disparities. W.E.B. DuBois believed the path to change lie in education and political empowerment. Rosa Parks and Bayard Rustin thought that embracing socialism was the means to that end. All of these efforts were doomed to fail because they addressed symptoms without treating the root cause.

Dr. King studied the successful employment nonviolent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi in the liberation of India. Mr. Gandhi, in turn, derived his strategy by studying the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, while a King in command of the heavenly army, withstood insults, beatings and, ultimately, crucifixion without resistance of any kind. As a result, Jesus changed the entire world!

Today, the country (indeed, the world) is plagued with all manner of social ills. In spite of Dr. King’s efforts, racial inequality is still an issue. There are violent political disagreements. Proposed changes to the social order (e.g., homosexual “marriage”) threaten the very fabric of our nation. Hunger, poverty, and physical illness still pose serious problems. But, like Dr. King, we must come to the realization that the root of the problems are spiritual and, likewise, the change must be spiritual.

The reason why the Civil Rights Movement was successful is that it had the Church as its power-base. It was only when the Church and its leadership stepped up and stepped in that the Movement gained traction.  Similarly, it is high time that the Church steps up and asserts itself to impact the world with the will, culture and intent of the Kingdom of God. Dr. King understood the Church was the world’s  spiritual trauma center and rehabilitation facility and sought to engage it to treat and correct social injustice.

Romans 8:19 declares that “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” In other words, the whole world is waiting for God’s people — the church — to stand up and speak out against the ailments of the world. Jesus, Himself, said it best:

For verily I say unto you , That whatsoever you shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (Mark 11:23)

The problem today is that we — the Body of Christ — are reluctant to speak up. But it is when we speak God’s Word to the situations of the day — then standing in faith that we have what we speak — that we begin to see change!

Dr. King was a mighty drum major for justice but, first, he was a mighty man of God. He understood the power of speaking to the mountain. Today, we need to pick up where he left off — see the problem and then SPEAK GOD’S WORD  to the problem!

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

We are approaching another New Year. Soon, 2011 will be but a memory and 2012 will unfold with promise. The question is, what will you be in this New Year?

The Apostle Paul, in the aforementioned scripture, reveals something that – if caught – will change your life. When we are in Christ, we are something entirely new – a species that, heretofore, did not exist. That means your old nature, along with your old spirit, died with and was reborn with Jesus!

You are no longer a creature of sin, rather, now you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). As a new creature, we obtain a new consciousness – Righteousness Consciousness – and shed our old sin-consciousness!

What does that mean? Whatever a man is actively conscious of, that is what he does. For example, a carpenter spends most of his waking moments thinking of working with wood. An electrician spends his time thinking of wire and switches. A sinner thinks about sinning. But, when you become righteousness-conscious, you are immediately convicted and prompted to repent; that is, to change your mind, not confess your sin!

Which brings me to another mind-renewing point: if you are in Christ, you are no longer a sinner, you are a saint. Change your speech along with your mind!

So, as you go into this New Year, do not set your mind on carnal resolutions that you cannot keep.  Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing (a constant process, not a one-time thing, by the way) of your mind! Set your mind on righteousness and you will assume a posture of righteousness. And this righteousness is not of our own doing, it is part of the finished work of Jesus Christ that is imparted to us in the New Birth!

Receive and appropriate what Jesus has done for you, saint! When you allow this to manifest in your spirit, it will change your life!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

The Magi (and there weren’t necessarily THREE) brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh; all of which were precious, costly commodities (Matthew 2:11).

I’m going somewhere with this…

Joseph went to Bethlehem to be counted in a census and TO PAY HIS TAXES; y’all hear me, you don’t pay taxes on nothing! The situation was not that there was no money for Mary and Joseph’s lodging, rather ALL THE HOTELS WERE BOOKED!

I’m gonna get there, y’all stay with me…

God told Joseph to take his wife and son into Egypt to hide from Herod (Matthew 2:12-13). Now, recalling from the Exodus, Egypt was about 8 days walk from Canaan – you need provision for the journey…and that costs MONEY.

And while Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were in Egypt, they needed sustenance until Joseph could get a job!

I submit to you, the cash value of the gifts of the Magi would have provided ample means to make all this possible. Remember, God does not give vision without sending provision!

Thanks for staying with me – we’ve hit our destination: Jesus wasn’t poor!

Jesus’ poverty was this: he came from Heaven and it’s infinite resources to finite earth. In that context, even if he came to earth as a billionaire, he’d have still became poor for our sakes (2 Corinthians 8-9)! Contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not a poor, vagabond, itinerant minister. He was acknowledged as a Rabbi or Teacher, and his garments were costly enough that Roman soldiers cast lots for them (Matthew 27:35).

Now don’t misunderstand me, We are here to minister (serve) as Jesus did. That’s so clear a blind man could see it! The point is that folks try to say Jesus was poor to equate poverty with piety – and that is absolute rubbish. Likewise wealth does not equate to sin. We need to change our traditional paradigms to line up with Scripture!

Bonus information: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went into Egypt to hide from Herod. Herod sent soldiers into Egypt looking for the Christ child. In order to successfully hide, perhaps they had to look like the natives.

Give that a minute to sink in!

Merry CHRISTmas, y’all!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

There are many meanings that may be derived from the CHRISTmas holiday. The birth of the Savior, the fulfillment of prophecy, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men are all pertinent aspects. However, there is one more that deserves a more detailed treatment.

Emmanuel – God With Us. Isaiah 7:14 describes Him thusly:

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

God With Us. Give that a minute to sink in! God was with man at creation but sin separated the two. For many generations, God was apart from man. Imagine the sorrow of a loving Father separated from His children! This was God’s great sorrow; He is a Holy God and cannot abide in the presence of sin. Therefore, God had to be separated from that which He loved the most so that His holiness would not be compelled to destroy His crowning creation.

God wrapped Himself in human flesh…but why? One reason was that Jesus needed to be the perfect sacrifice; He had to be conceived of seed that was not tainted by sin. An imperfect man could neither be the sacrifice nor a spirit being. The sacrifice had to be fully man – because man had (Genesis 1:26-28) and lost (Genesis 3) dominion – and fully God, for the perfection of the seed and the perfection of the saints.

But wait – as they say in infomercials – there’s more! For parents reading this, rewind to when your children were toddlers. You often gave instruction from a seated or standing posture, but when you really wanted them to understand your will – or for you to understand their perspective, you would kneel down to their level.

Jesus was God, Himself, kneeling down to our level! Through the Person of Jesus, God was tempted as we are, to know joy and sorrow as we do, and, most of all, to taste death as humans do. Like a loving Father, He stooped down to our level to instruct us and to gain our perspective!

What Love!

So in this Holiday season, remember that Jesus is, indeed, the reason for the season. But know that your Heavenly Father ordained the birth of His most precious gift to be given as a sacrifice so that mankind could be reconciled to Himself. It is through the chastisement of our peace (Isaiah 53:5) that peace on earth and goodwill toward men is possible because the conflict between sinful man and Holy God was reconciled once and for all in the Person of Jesus Christ

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

The devil’s power ends with the Kingdom of God and the earthly dominion of man, which Jesus came to restore. Because we are His emissaries in the earth, we are to be equipped with all sufficiency (spiritual and natural) to accomplish every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8), to have the expectation of material blessing (Mark 10:29-30), and to have abundant life (John 10:10). Prosperity not taught is just as bad as prosperity out of context. Biblical prosperity is part of the Kingdom Citizen’s benefits package and MUST be taught in its proper context!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

This is the season when many Americans celebrate what has come to be known as Thanksgiving. For the sake of brevity, I will not rehash what the history and symbolism of this “holiday” are, but it is commonly held that this is the day that we give thanks for our many blessings.

I, for one, do not think a single day is sufficient to express gratitude. Furthermore, I do not think it is enough to thank him for the things He has blessed us with.

King David rendered it thusly:

O give thanks unto the LORD: for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever (1 Chronicles 16:34).

In other words, we are to give thanks to God simply because He is good. The correct perspective for the Disciple of Christ is to focus on the Giver, not the gift! America, in contrast to much of the world, enjoys a higher standard of prosperity than any other nation. As a result, we have become spoiled – we want bigger and better, and we want it now. Because of our lusts for material things and creature comforts, an entire ministry segment has emerged that caters to the materialistic mentality. This segment proffers that if you simply exercise faith and worship God with your money, God will respond as if He were a “blessing genie,” and indulge you with all your material wants.

Don’t get me wrong, the Bible is crystal clear that material blessing is part of the believer’s benefits package:

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant (Psalm 35:27).

But I digress. There are exactly 29 occurrences of the word “thanksgiving” in the King James Bible. And while the Bible clearly teaches us that “thanksgiving” is an act that believers perform to honor God, the Word teaches us that there is a higher, unsaid act that, I think, should be the hallmark of any Disciple of Christ:

Thanksliving.

Thanksliving is a paradigm shift from world or religious living to Kingdom or relationship living! I have long held, and teach relentlessly, that you cannot do something without first being something. My prime example of this is the passage of scripture, “…be ye holy for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16). You cannot do holy without being holy. And, frankly, you cannot do anything holy without first being in Christ – because Jesus is the source of both holiness and righteousness.

That said, we must be grateful in order to live a Christ-like life. We must have an attitude of gratitude! And our gratitude can no more be a once-a-year expression than our worship can be a once-a-week event.

The life of Thanksliving is a life of thanksgiving. You cannot truly live without loving and you cannot truly love without giving! Therefore, a grateful life is a giving life. I’m not talking about feigned or coerced giving, but giving as Jesus taught in Luke 6:38:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

or how the Apostle Paul rendered it in 2 Corinthians 9:7:

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

So we see that the concepts of Thanksliving and thanksgiving go hand-in-hand, joined by love and giving.  But there’s another component to the life of thanksgiving that cannot be ignored: joy.

Joy and happiness are similar but are not the same. Happiness is conditional, based on circumstances; the more favorable the circumstances, the happier a person generally is. Joy, on the other hand, is a choice. You must choose to have joy! Joy is that feeling of peace and confidence that abides in the heart of every true Disciple of Christ.

That peace and confidence that comprises joy persists in spite of circumstances! If you have a new car, you have joy. If your old car breaks down, you have joy. If you have a great career that allows you to work in your God-given purpose, you have joy. If your stuck in a dead-end job, you have joy! When you choose to have joy, you can focus on the source of your joy and not circumstances. When you have joy, you focus on the Giver, not the gift. When you choose joy, you love in spite of how you perceive how you’re treated. When joy abides in you, you give, not because you expect to receive anything, but because you want to reflect Jesus, who gave His life for you.

If you get this down in your spirit, you will experience Thanksliving daily and won’t have to wait for a “special” day to give thanks!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Folks have misinterpreted scripture concerning women in ministry, e.g., 1 Corinthians 14:34. Here, Paul was dealing with specific folks with specific issues (Corinth had women who were out of control), hence the use of the word “your” instead of “all.” It’s important to note that many, if not most of the first century churches were started by women, the woman ad the well (John 4) was sent by Jesus to preach to the Samaritans, and Mary Magdalene was the first person to preach the resurrection.

A little story, a Deacon I know back in Crockett, TX had a conversation with one of his daughters that went like this:

“Daddy, God called me to preach.” His reply, “Oh Lawd!”

That night, God took the ol’ Deacon back to his childhood in a dream. On their farm, they had a reliable rooster that would crow on time every day. Well one day, that old rooster up and died.

Now, if you know anything about chickens, you know a good rooster is hard to find. So, during the search for a new rooster, one of the hens jumped up on a fence post and began crowing like the rooster did, and did so until they got another rooster.

The Spirit of the Lord asked Deke if he ever cursed that hen for crowing, and Deke said, “no…”

The Spirit continued, “Then don’t curse your daughter.”

The Deacon’s daughter pastors a thriving church …with her Daddy’s blessings.

True story…

The point is, God calls, God anoints, and God appoints. It is not for man to decide. This is one of those traditions that burdens the body of Christ and needs to be done away with.

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

The reason why many “churches” do not have the nature of The Church is because there is a widespread lack of understanding of what The Church really is.

First of all, The Church is not a building, a charter, or a gathering of folks. The Church is a living, spiritual and natural being comprised of many members that carry out vital functions.

Contrary to popular belief and contemporary manifestation, The Church is not a “country club” for the saints or the museum of the “frozen chosen.” When you become a member of The Church, you are not simply a number, you are grafted in, as a finger to a hand. You are part of a glorious body. This body nourishes each member and the Head, Jesus, gives each member instructions for the work to be performed.

While I’m here, let me hang my hat for a minute…Each member has a UNIQUE function. All of us are not called to preach, just like every cell in the body is not called to be the eye. Imagine a body full of eyes…that is a freak of nature! Speaking of the ministry, not everyone is called to preach the same message or even to preach in the same manner. Each of us are fearfully and wonderfully designed — individually and expressly — by the Hand of God with a unique purpose to carry out equally unique assignments.

The Greek word for “Church” in Matthew 16:18 is “ekklesia.” It is a word meaning “called out assembly.” More to the point, it is a GOVERNMENTAL, not a RELIGIOUS word! Many folks dont know this, but the Government of Rome at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry called their upper legislative assembly the Ekklesia. Furthermore, the ancient city-state of Athens called its legislative body Ekklesia.

Now put this in context…When Jesus said, “upon this rock (the truth spoken by Peter) I will build my Ekklesia; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, He was saying that upon the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, He will establish His everlasting government. This is what was prophesied in Isaiah 9:6.

Jesus did not come to establish another religion; the world had (and has) enough of them. What He came to re-establish was the governmental order that was ordained from the foundation of time!

That said, The Church is not about religion. The Church is the point where God connects with man through Christ. It is God’s earthly government, duly deputized and empowered to have dominion over the earth!

Church should be an ER for the wounded, a kitchen for the hungry, and a sanctuary for the besieged. It should be the point where God’s Heavenly Government is dispensed on the earth. It should be the place where the lost can come to catch the revelation of a loving Father, who wants to reconcile them to Himself and loved them so much that He gave His very best in the Person of His Only Begotten Son!

I feel like preaching, but I’ll take my seat now…

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

DON’T BE DISCOURAGED! Out of nearly 850 Facebook “friends,” about 20 or so (and I love y’all dearly) regularly “like” my posts, and less than 10% of these “friends” have clicked “like” on my book page. Those are daunting statistics, but, like David, I encourage myself in The Lord and keep moving. God has given me a divine assignment and I will be faithful to execute it, in spite of opposition and naysayers.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, outside the core of folks who really love you, people on Facebook fit into one of four categories:

1. The perpetually busy. These are the “movers and shakers.” I understand folks who are busy doing kingdom work, building businesses, and otherwise changing the world for the better. They cannot respond to everything…and that’s cool. I want to stay connected to them because they inspire me to greater levels of achievement.

2. The haters, AKA “frienemies.” These are folks who are watching your every move, anticipating your fall. But, if your steps are ordered by God and you are walking in your purpose and assignment, your haters are doomed to disappointment! In due season, God reveals them to me, and I delete them.

3. The voyeurs. This is the reality tv crowd. They haven’t plugged into their God-given purpose, so their lives are – temporarily, at least – devoid of meaning. Of course, some folks are just plain nosy (yep, I said it). And, when God reveals them, I delete them.

4. The gleaners. These folks don’t respond to a lot because they’re either shy or otherwise reserved. However, they are really blessed by what you post but don’t vocalize it. Many of this group possess tremendous wisdom!

So don’t get down in the doldrums when folks don’t respond to your posts. If you’re a preacher, keep preaching. If you’re a teacher, keep teaching. If you’re a writer, keep writing. Get into your God-given purpose and operate in your divine assignment, ignore the haters, block out the voyeurs, and walk in your divine assignment!

BE ENCOURAGED!