A couple of hours ago I heard the sad news that Enock formerly of Cross Movement passed away earlier today. He was just 35 years old.
His explosive evangelistic lyrics were among the first to draw me to Christian hip hop early on in my Christian walk. Let us pray for his family at this difficult time.
Some of my favourite lyrics from him below, the first from the song “House of Representatives”:
Gospel activist
advocates
of salvation · preparin’
for the invasion of Christ
the Body-snatcher
who will soon to come rapture us
a Kodak moment won’t capture this
miraculous event our final call is repentance
No moon, no star, no crescent
we give reverence
to presence of the Maker of the heaven’s and the Earth
who places is first
who can match the worth of the great I AM?
who blows on man and turns him back into sand?
God’s Lamb, the God-Man
with the hard hand
turns to ruin
the wicked and subdues them
rescues them who pursues Him
renews them
who’s tuned into the communion
of divine union
it’s no illusion
it’s the Most High rulin’
God ‘n human
Jesus, no man can stand next to
to whom all respect’s due
All hail Ixous
And from the “Human Emergency” CD, I loved the track he did called “Remember”:
His name is Jehovah El Gabor
A.k.a. the God of war, God of flesh
Who could tear you to pieces like carnivores
The blessed, majestic one who’s glorious
Was known to other nations as notorious.
Cause of His terrible acts
Battles didn’t last a half a days length
Not the way the Lord God parade strength.
It didn’t make sense
How he’d crush his enemies
In His mercies have the strongest man
On bended knee.
Relentlessly, exposing human shame
Making a mockery of human fame
The consuming flame
Showering brimstone, men thrown,
Cause they refuse the one seated on gem stones
Enthroned with power and majesty
It was tragedy to face God’s armies
The result was casualties and pillage
But men had to feel this holy spillage
On who’s god was the realest.
The God of Israel be the illest.
CHORUS(2x):
Who owns cattle on a thousand hills?
Who can slay any army on the battle field? The Lord (x8)
VERSE(2):
Peep His splendor ya’ll
Wave the white flag, surrender all
To the one who makes top contenders fall.
Snatching crowns off kings
Cutting short their off springs
He’s shocking,
More than what a thousand volts brings
Ask the king of Egypt
How deep is the ocean floor
Ask Isaiah about when he saw the Lord
Ask king Neb who put him on all fours
To eat with the beats until his pride was no more.
It’s clear, We don’t know who we’re dealing with here.
For years He’s taken fools and filled them with fear.
Jesus, the underdog is Judge of all.
Keeping tabs on the deeds of men like number logs.
When the Son strikes watch thunder fall
And cut asunder all
Who rejects the one who makes the winter spring and the summer fall.
CHORUS
VERSE(3):
Reject Christ you’ll regret it
Truth is what your getting
Off is how we set it
Off is how we let it
Narrows the path I travel
The ways been made clear
The father’s given supervision
To his children like daycare.
Serenade the one
Who I revere like Paul
But the redcoats ain’t coming
It’s God the Son coming through
With His glory thundering
He’ll cut asunder men spill the blood of men
For the love of sin
And the rejection of the blood covering
Which is through the new covenant
All hail the God ruled Government.
How much are Jewels worth?
They can’t match the true worth of the new birth.
Bow to my God and Creator of the Universe.
In the UK, October is Black History Month. Children and some older students will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement and so on. Over the years I’ve heard (false) accusations that Christianity is “the white man’s religion”. Here’s a great resource to counter such claims: www.blackapologetics.com. While that hasn’t been updated recently, there’s still a lot of useful information on the likes of the Five Percenters, the Nation of Islam and other groups.
By the way, I’ve never understood this: I’ve encountered a black people who have converted to Islam and changed their name to an Arabic one, yet say that I have a slave name? Huh?! If you wanna be “pro-black” and change your name to an African one, then cool. I have no problem with that. But changing name to an Arabic one, when they made slaves out of Africans too? Okay… Anyway one thing that I love about biblical Christianity – we’re to conform to the image of Christ, not to some earthly culture.
On one hand I’m glad that he won’t be preaching his false teachings over here, on the other hand when Mr Hinn and his ilk come over it does prove to be useful for those who use the opportunity to preach and hand out tracts outside the event to warn those who are going in to see him…
The Christian life is about glorifying God, and in this video Paul Washer teaches some very important and pertinent points regarding marriage. It was definitely something that I needed to hear!
As you can see, my user name is NaturalSystah. If you’ve not seen the About Me page, it’s because I am a black woman who has chosen not to use chemicals to straighten her hair since 1997.
Some of you may think “What’s the big deal?” Others may be thinking “Uh-oh” as this can still be a touchy issue for many. For the lowdown, I heartily recommend Nappturality.com as a resource for natural black hair. I loved the post by Jean at The Virtuous Woman blog on embracing our God-given beauty and thought that I’d better get on with publishing this post! This is one huge topic that I think is just part of the bigger problem relating to perceptions of external beauty, which is of course highly subjective. There’s big bucks to be made from making people feel that there’s something wrong with how they look and that’s not going to change any time soon.
It’s interesting to me though, that the black pentecostal church in particular was known for frowning upon straightened hair as being somehow worldly. Nowadays natural hair is in the minority in the ones I’ve been to. I’m not sure why or how that shift in opinion happened, but I wonder if the prevalence of many women preachers and gospel artists wearing straight weaves made it seem okay? (side note: I’m not sure I can recall any black female gospel artists with natural hair?!)
I got to thinking that there have been quite a few parallels in my life between my walk with the Lord and my having natural hair. Check it out:
Both Biblical Christianity and natural hair are often misrepresented and are surrounded by many myths, far too many to list here!
I experience freedom in Christ, the Son has set me free indeed! Having natural hair has freed me in many ways too.
There are many who give up on the faith or on natural hair, either because of ignorance or lack of support/ostracism.
I’ve been ridiculed for being a Christian and yep, having natural hair
There are people whose lifestyles can indicate that they may be a false convert, and I’ve wondered about those who have eschewed chemicals, state proudly that they have natural hair yet regularly fry their hair with heat and it’s rarely seen in a non-straight style…
I’ve been called judgmental because of my faith, and also for having fairly strong opinions about natural hair (which I might add, I don’t give unsolicited but I will correct untruths when I hear them – whether about the Lord or natural hair) – my faith and my views on hair are unpalatable to some…
I didn’t get too much grief about my hair growing up, but I do remember hearing people say that it was a shame that I didn’t inherit my dad’s “good hair” (good hair = straight or wavy, anything but nappy or “picky”, the Afro-Caribbean pejorative term for kinky textured hair). To my shame I deeply resented my hair and gave in to the chemicals when I was about 14 or 15. I loved having it straight and wouldn’t entertain the idea of having it any other way until I turned 20 and started questioning many things I was doing in my life. I wondered why it was ok for the relaxer to go on my head yet the stylist had to wear gloves? And I slowly began to see that there was nothing inherently wrong with my hair, I was just ignorant as to how to treat it. Now I realise that my hair texture is not “bad”, not even problematic, it’s how the Lord designed it to be.
At first my peers thought I was going mad, especially when I cut out the relaxed hair and had natural hair only 3-4 inches long. It did make me giggle inside though when I saw a few of them wear the same canerow style that I had though Incidentally, the Lord saved me a couple of months after that haircut and He’s been working on me both inside and outside, praise Him.
Here’s a review from Tim Challies on the book “Glory Road“, it sounds like something I’d like to check out as one who is a relative newcomer to the doctrine of monergism. It’s a collection of testimonies from ten black American church leaders regarding how they came to embrace the doctrines of grace.
A while back I expressed my incredulity regarding anyone seeking to be the new wife of “Bishop” Thomas Weeks, especially so soon after the news of the domestic violence against his former wife Juanita Bynum. I couldn’t believe it when I saw this on my YouTube homepage:
What’s going on? Does she think that somehow things will be different this time? Is it all about publicity? I don’t know, but one thing this is for sure is a very sorry episode.
*Update* The wedding will take place on 17th October.
As I was washing up the dishes, I was listening to a commercial inbetween songs being played on the radio. It was heartbreaking; two mothers affected by gun violence here in London. The first mother who spoke lost her son in gun violence. The second mother’s son was one that pulled the trigger and killed someone else. You could clearly hear the heartache in both of these parents; one can only imagine their anguish.
However what stopped me in my tracks was when I heard the second mother say that her son was really a “good boy” and that she had no idea what made him pull the trigger. I must say that this is part of the problem – too many people think that they are supporting their loved one when they essentially call them a “good boy”. Now I’m not a seasoned parent, but I firmly believe that we do our families no favours when we refuse to look squarely at the facts and fail to point out wrongdoing. It is misguided to think that “shopping” an errant son or daughter is being disloyal. I recall reading this story a while back about a woman who informed the police that her sons viciously attacked a man, leaving him blind in one eye . Amazingly she was made an outcast from her family! For doing the right thing! No one wants to see a loved one in jail but really, could none of them see that what she did probably stopped them from becoming murderers? I’m glad that she listened to her conscience.
How many of us have been to a funeral where people were eulogised as a “good lad really”, when many in the congregation knew that the departed was involved in illegal activity and that this was the result of their demise?
I’ve never understood the mentality of being an “informer” or “grass” as a bad thing. Perhaps its one of the things that the prophet Isaiah warned about when he said, “Woe to those whocallevilgoodandgoodevil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). The book of Deuteronomy is replete with verses advising the Israelites to purge evil from among them. When a transgression – from breaking a school window or stealing apples to rape or murder – has been committed, it does the community good and the perpetrator good to call a spade a spade.
At the root of all this though, is a refusal for us to admit that our loved ones may well have done wrong, even if they confess it without remorse. At some level, we all deny that we’re thoroughly depraved and deserve God’s holy judgment on us. We underestimate God’s holiness and we underestimate our innate evil. Beyond sin being what we do, it is what we say, think and is our condition. Thank God for the gospel, that He has sent His Son, Jesus to atone for the sins of those who repent and put their trust in Him.
Mothers, fathers, grandparents, family, whoever. If you really love your family member or friend and you know that they’re heading down the wrong road, show that love by telling them that what they’re doing isn’t right. Show that love by daring to be in the unpopular minority. Show them that love in the knowledge that you could be saving them and possibly someone else from having blood on their hands.
I wanted to share yet another inspiring story of missionary Mary Slessor. Until I had this forwarded to me, I had not heard of her. I just love her boldness and dedication.
I just saw this post on Pulpit-Pimps.org about George Müller then read of his Wikipedia entry. What a powerful story! I highly recommend watching the videos.
I had heard his name before, but I can’t believe I knew so little about him even though I’m UK born and raised. Looks like I’ll be heading to the bookshop in the near future, Lord willing.
What an example of a dramatic conversion experience – from underage drinking and gambling to missionary and really trusting God for all his needs. Once again I’m convicted of a need to trust the Lord in every area of my life and to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer:
“Little children, let us notlove in word or talk but in deed andin truth.” – 1 John 3:18
Incidentally, the Lord saved me a couple of months after that haircut and He’s been working on me both inside and outside, praise Him.
