I guess notice him because his window blinds were open like he didn’t have a care in the world. He was just playing airplane with his two little girls. He was odd to me. He didn’t drink, smoke or do anything like that. And I knew about every vice that the residents of Lake Edward had, it was my business.
We called him a square not in a disrespectful way but that’s what we called anybody that didn’t fit. I was thinking that I didn’t want to fit in anymore but I just didn’t have the mind state to walk out. As I watched him play with his daughters I thought to myself, “One day I was going to be just like him. A nice dime piece wife that wasn’t like any of these chickheads around here. I was going to live a normal life with a little one that looks like me and there would be no need for a blood test. And I wouldn’t have to close all the window blinds in the house because my enemies wanted my head.”
To Be Continued
November is one of those winter months that nobody really likes unless their birthday‘s in it. The frost in the air makes everything have a chill which makes everything just miserable. Thanksgiving is at the end of the month and for a good reason, it gives everybody a nice ending to a bone chilling month.
This story takes place in early November, just a couple of days after Halloween. The taste of candy corn, tootsie pops, and bite-size candy bars were still on the tongues of the hood dweller of the Lake Edwards area of Virginia Beach. It was about 8’ o clock at night when Red Mike, Blue, Ali, and I were standing on the corner of Red Horse and West Hastings waiting for the next ‘sell‘. I looked up into the window of this square cat that live in the townhouse across the street.
He was one of the only brothers that lived in Lake Edward but didn’t stay there, if you know what I mean. When we would see him or his family coming or going we would give them respect. We would stop cussing so loud, stop pulling on our blunts, or any of the other things we felt that would show him disrespect. If we saw his wife, we wouldn’t try and holla at her, even though she was worth it. And when we saw his two daughters straying a little too far from their front door, one of us would tell them, “Oooo, Ima tell your Mama you not in front of the house like suppose to be.” He also had one of the only cars on the block that was being used as a couch like some of the other cars.
To Be Continued
Genesis 1: 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so.
This morning as I was doing my yard – putting the grass clippings in some of the missing areas – I looked at the lawn clippings and noticed the seeds. At that moment The Spirit of the Lord dropped this down into my heart, “I have already given you the Seed that you need. Will you now sow it in the bare spots of your life? ” If our lives are the Earth, then God has already given us the Seed that we will need to sow back into the lives. He wants us to sow so that we can all reap in a harvest. But the thing about is, we don’t want to do the work but we want to enjoy the feast. Stewardship is just about gone in Christian Living. I know a little about not wanting to do the work but still willing to waste money on seed because I was about to go to a nursery and buy some grass seed and fertilizer. Grass seed is in the grass clippings and will act like mulch. First I had to mow the yard; get a little sweat on my brow, get my heart rate up with all that walking and stretching from husbandry work, and hand spread the mulch.
If we will do the work then God will set the table for the harvest feast. And all the workers will have eat the fruit of a job well done from being a good and faithful servant.
Exodus 32: 15- 29 is the story of when Moses caught the Children of Israel worshipping a golden calf right after the LORD GOD had given them the Law. The Priests, under the orders of Moses, killed 3000 Israelites because they still praise a false god. Acts 2 is about the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 that were in the upper and Peter preach a Word so strong that 3000 people gave their hearts to Lord Jesus. According to the Law~ kill them. But Grace calls for mercy and puts us in justified state with GOD.
The Law can not justify anyone, it wasn’t meant to, it was meant to show us that we can not live up to God’s Righteousness . Jesus Christ is the only man, born of a woman, that always and at every point followed the Law. The Lord Jesus is the Righteousness of God. That’s the main reason why GOD gave the Law, to show us that we can’t live up it. Think about it like this: thou shall not lie is one of the Ten Commandments that we break constantly but all we had to do is to break it once. One time breaking the law makes you a law breaker. Which make us forever out of the Presence of GOD. We see that Grace is more than just unmerited favor from God. It is God’s way of helping us to do what He has called us to do for Him and His Will.
John 8: 1- 11 is a perfect showing of God’s perfect love in this little woman that the Pharisees brought into the square after catching her in the act of adultery. By them bring her to Jesus they were trying to show how Jesus was against the enforcement of the Law. But Jesus showed them and all of us what grace really is. Okay you did it, no doubt about, but when you stand in front of the Master and your heart has true repentance in it, He will give you Grace. Not the full existent of the Law which we deserve but mercy from the Lord GOD who wrote the Law which we broke.
You can live by the Law or by Grace but you can’t live by both. You can not live by some laws that you have made for yourself because just like the Law that GOD made, we can’t live up to those. But all we have to do is live in the Light of Christ and let His Grace shine on us. The next time you say grace over your food, you might think about it a little differently.
God is great and God is good…
