Chapter 6 Part 1 Women

Chapter 6

Women

“Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted,
To the oppressed city!
She has not obeyed His voice, She has
not received His correction; She has
not trusted in the LORD, She
has not drawn near to her God.”
Zephaniah 3:1,2

My heart goes out to my sisters. For too long you have had to shoulder the responsibility of the man. You have been looking for a man and have only gotten little boys, just another child to raise. You have been told by the world that you have no beauty, that your features are not right. Yet the same people who condemn them imitate them all the time. It seems that everyone is against you. You are the mother of creation and the mother of us all. Why do you continue to allow yourself to be polluted? You were at the cross of our Savior and sought after Him at the tomb. Though you obey His voice, you do not trust in Him. You have allowed yourself to be corrupted by the world. Instead of drawing near to God you have chosen to draw near the world. You have allowed the world to turn you into a fornicator and a harlot. They have beaten you down so bad that you have decided that being with anybody is better than being with nobody. It is better to be with a dog with fleas than to be alone with God. You have sold your purity and innocence to the highest bidder. In doing so, you have condemned our children to poverty and sinfulness. God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”[1] With God, we may be alone, but we are never lonely. You were once the purity and strength of a nation, now you have been profaned. Why have you allowed yourself to be perverted by this world? Do you not know that you are a child of the Living God?[2] The Bible says, “that charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD will be praised.”[3] Therefore, it is not how the world views you that matters, but how God views you. By what is in your heart.

You no longer desire purity for yourselves, but lewdness. Some of you to be perfectly honest have become downright nasty. The fornication needs to stop. You should not allow the devil to rule over your bodies. It is so difficult when the whole world appears to be “doing it” and no one seems to be against it. I have to ask where the outrage from the mothers is. Where are the older women who are, suppose to teach the young women to be chaste? When did being pure become a bad thing? I obviously missed that memo. Do you not realize that you have given up your royalty for temporary pleasure? How can you feel good about yourselves when all you are to most of the men are objects and not human? You will only be treated, how you allow others to treat you. When you seek after God and purity, you allow God to exalt you and not the world. The world’s pleasure is only temporary, but God’ pleasure is eternal. You have been chosen by God to be pure, to be holy.[4] The Bible calls for you to be pure for your husband in marriage. That it is a disgraceful thing to be a harlot in your father’s house.[5] Therein lies the problem, most of our young women do not live in their father’s house. Therefore, fornication is breeding fornication. Because so many of our children are being raised by single, unwed mothers the children see this lifestyle. It is not what mother says, the children see that mom is not married and her “boyfriend” is coming over, some probably living in the house. What message is this sending our children? That it is ok to fornicate as long as you are an adult? That is not what the children are seeing. They are seeing that it is ok to have sex with a man you are not married to. In other words, it is how the mother is living that the children see not, the words she is speaking. We want to be judged by what we say and not by what we do. However, God says we will be judged by not only the things we say, but also the things we do. Our hearts and our actions will judge us. How can you lay down with any man that gives you a little attention and not have that effect your children. There is an old saying that went like this, “Why should anybody buy a product when you are giving away the store. In other words, why would anybody want to marry you when you are giving away the gift without the marriage or commitment?

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[1] Deuteronomy

[2] Romans 8:16

[3] Proverbs 31:30

[4] 1 Peter 1:16

[5] Deuteronomy 22:21

Chapter 5 Part 5

“And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the
country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her…
and the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it;
and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done
a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter,
a thing which ought not to be done.”
Genesis 34:2,7

The Scriptures tell us that the men were grieved and angry because their daughter and their sister had been violated. It did not matter the violator wanted to marry her she was violated. I wonder where the outcry is today when our daughters and sisters are violated. Where is the disgrace? The Bible says a thing, which should not have been done. However, if you are out violating other people’s sisters and daughters how can you be angry when it happens to yours. Their sister’s purity had been taken and they did not like it and they let it be known that they were not happy. The problem today is that so many people are fornicating there is no one to speak out against it. There was a time when a young woman losing her purity before marriage was a disgrace, but not so anymore. Do we think that God has changed His mind about sin? I think not! Our young women are being violated everyday right in our midst and instead of anger and disgrace we only want to make sure they are doing it safely. Well they are going to do it anyway, we tell ourselves, and it is only natural. The devil is a liar. I believe God. We should stop making excuses for sinful behavior, not only for our young people but for ourselves as well. We should begin to stand on the promises of God and say enough is enough. Our young women are worth more than this. We should begin to make an investment in our children. They are our most precious resource. It should start with us as men, as fathers. Fathers protect your daughters; let them know that you expect purity from them.

Merry Christmas

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

I would like to take this time to thank everyone who is supporting this effort. I understand that there are some harsh sayings in these words, but it is time we heard the truth about what we are doing to our children and ourselves.

I would also like to say, "Glory to God and wish everyone a Merry Christmas." If you are able to be with your children please take this time to give them something that last forever, not just a gift that is only temporary. Love your children....

Chapter 5 Part 4

“and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God
carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you
went until you came to this place.”
Deuteronomy 1:31

In God’s design, a man carries his son, not the other way around. A man is not only financially responsible, but also spiritually as well. It begins with the natural and then goes to the spiritual. The Bible says, “What man among you will give his son a stone when he ask for bread or a serpent when he ask for a fish?”[1] As we see a man is the provider of his family not a liability to his family. No man is to be a weight around his family’s neck. The apostle Paul wrote, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”[2] A man is to carry his own weight and if he has any dependents he should be taking care of them as well. Just as there is an epidemic of fornication, this has led to an epidemic in “deadbeat” dads. There is a reason they are called dependents, they are depending on you! At no time in the history of the world has there been this level of irresponsibility towards children. The main people who are supposed to be protecting them are the ones exploiting them. How that must feel to be cast off by the ones you rely on. Have we become so selfish and sinful that the cries of very own children fall on deaf ears? I pray that we have not.

“For the children ought not to lay up for the
parents, but the parents for the children.”
2 Corinthians 12:14

For the sake of our people, we as men should begin to resist the flesh. It is not about the women, it is about us men as the head of the women. It is about our being able to resist sin against God. In the Bible, there is the story of Joseph and the wife of an Egyptian officer in whose home he was living in and working. The wife attempted to seduce Joseph repeatedly to no avail. Imagine the constant temptation he was under, but he remained faithful to his God.

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back
anything from me, but you, because you are his wife. How can I do
this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Genesis 39:9,23

Just as Joseph refused to defile himself with another man’s wife, so we should no longer continue to defile ourselves with fornication and adultery. For many believe that there is no price to pay for fornication, but I believe that if they take a closer look at their lives they will see broken dreams, broken promises, and broken lives. There must be a revival among us as men if we are to overcome this epidemic. Instead of teaching our sons to be pimps and players, we should be teaching them to be followers of God. We should stop expecting others to do what we ourselves should be doing. We as men have to lead for a change; we should sacrifice ourselves for the future. We have been selfish and spoiled for too long. We should begin to stress purification of not only our young women but our young men as well. Let us put the focus on education and spiritual growth over the sinfulness that has led our people to this place where we are today. We are up to our elbows in the fruits of sin, the fruits of fornication.

Because of his faithfulness, God was with Joseph and made him successful in everything he did. Faithfulness to God has more than an eternal reward it also provides earthly rewards. The success of our people as well as our individual success depends on our faithfulness to God. We should learn that until we overcome our sinful nature and selfish desires we will not be successful. Sounds like a simple thing, but experience has shown us that this is no easy order. Sin is a very formidable opponent it is cunning and powerful. It does not give up easily. We should understand that sin is more than what we do it is everything we are. It is what I think, what I desire, and what I think is right or wrong. Sin is such a deep and intricate part of what we are we cannot overcome it alone. Only through the power of Christ which dwells within us are we given the power to do this. It is only when we surrender and submit to God that we win and overcome this sinful nature.

I write these words from the love of my heart. I pray that enough of us will step up as men and heed the call of God to resurrect this people. Surely, there is enough of a remnant of God’s people to begin this monumental and long journey back to God and His righteousness.

“O, that they had such a heart in them that they would
fear me and always keep all my commandments,
that it might be well with them and with their children.”
Deuteronomy 5:29

I pray that God may give us a heart to fear Him once again, to follow His commandments. The Bible says if we do that, it will be good for both our children and ourselves. All good men of faith should come together to end this cycle of sin, to begin the process of rebuilding this people. It is no longer about how we got here but; what are we going to do to get out of here. Are we going to continue to point fingers at one another or are we going to lead this stiff-necked people back to God? The time for delay is over. If we do not come together and seek God, most of our men will either be dead or locked up. Most of our young women will be alone and pregnant or alone with a house full of babies.

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe
in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone
were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in
the depths of the sea.”
Matthew 18:6

Do you not think that God will hold you accountable for leading His children astray? You may think that you are bulletproof, but God has something for you. People think they can sin without consequences. One of the first results of the “fall” in the Garden of Eden was guilt. They hid themselves from God. Do you think you will be any less guilty today? It is bad enough when you sin yourself but when you cause others to fall for your own selfish pleasures, there will be a price to pay. You get credit for those sins as well. Therefore, when you are running your little game and leading those young women astray know that God is watching. The pleasures of sin do not last long.

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[1] Matthew 7:9,10

[2] 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Chapter 5, Part 3

“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure
through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who
have actually escaped from those who live in error.”
2 Peter 2:18

Many men are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They approach with words of endearment that have no meaning. They are empty promises designed to destroy and not to encourage. They play on the desire to be wanted by all humans. They attack a woman’s vanity and use it against her. They deliberately mislead and connive the unsuspecting women into a false sense of security and hope. Only to pull the curtain down when they have achieved their goals. They use any and every method at their disposal to overcome the obstacles to their desired end. That end of course being their own selfish pleasure. The Bible says those being attacked are newly removed from sinful pasts. The same women who are being misled are the same sisters standing up in church during the altar calls professing the lordship of Christ Jesus. That lordship should begin to be realized in a person’s life, in how we live. How long do you think the shepherd will allow His sheep to be treated this way? Remember they are still technically under authority, many men are not. Eventually, the good and faithful shepherd will come to the aid of His fallen sheep. Woe to those wolves who are found to have been misleading His flock.

Many brothers have gravely erred in their conduct and thoughts. They have mistaken God’s patience for indifference, His kindness for weakness. Do not be fooled, God at His appointed time will unleash His wrath upon those who are disobedient. We must discontinue this utter lack of respect for God and His Word. We should repent as a people beginning with us, the men. We cannot continue to deny the authority of God and bring accusations against Him. This false pride must cease. This attitude of being bulletproof, it may work on the streets, but it does not carry with God. How much longer will we continue not to see the futility of our actions? Our lives are continuing to get worse. Our children and our family’s lives are getting worse. There is still time to step back from the abyss. We are on the path to destruction. All we like sheep have gone astray.[1]

“and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of
uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a
reviling accusation against them before the LORD.
but these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and
destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will
utterly perish in their own corruption,
and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who
count pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and
blemishes, carousing in their deceptions while they feast with you.
having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin,
enticing unstable souls and are accursed children.”
2 Peter 2:10-14

It is amazing to me how this was written two thousand years ago and yet it captures what is happening in our communities. We have turned fleshly pleasure and desire into a god that we are sacrificing our souls to. However, we are not just sacrificing our souls, but the children’s souls as well. Our hearts are “trained” in sinfulness, not in righteousness. Our only faith is in ourselves and whatever paltry pleasure we can derive at the expense of others. The problem with sexual sin is that it keeps taking more and more to get us excited. The more women we are with the more women we lust after. We have debased our women and perverted ourselves.

The future for us in this condition is not a pleasant one to look forward to. Our communities will continue to deteriorate. Our children will continue to be cut down by each other or the police. There will be a growing chasm of dissension between us as a people. There will be no unity amongst us. We as a people will continue to be disrespected and scorned. New plagues of drugs and crimes will come upon us. Parents will stop caring for their children. Our hearts will begin to wax cold towards one another. Children will lose their love and respect for their parents. Our best and brightest young people will fall prey to destruction. Fornication and sinfulness will rule our lives and our hearts. Unless the Lord was to have mercy, it would be our destruction. The Lord will keep a remnant for himself, a humble and faithful people who will love and obey Him.

These things are to wake us up to our deliberate sinfulness before God, to cause us to repent and forsake this terrible sin. How can we not see the damage this epidemic has and is causing to our people? It all begins with the men, there has to be a revival, as we have never seen. As a people, our biggest enemy is our attitude towards fornication and sexual sin. It cannot be ignored any longer. We as a people need to take action or it will destroy us. The time is at hand for every man to seek God while He may be found.[2] God has shown us the problem, are we willing to do the solution? Are we even willing to acknowledge that there is a problem? For our sakes, I hope so. In order to begin to solve a problem, we must acknowledge there is a problem.

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
I Timothy 5:18

How can we as “so called” men make babies and not be responsible for them. No other creature on the face of the earth does that. How can you not provide for what is yours? These are not some orphans in a far off country; these children are our flesh and blood. How can you enjoy anything knowing that you have children suffering somewhere? Fornication is one of the most selfish and self-centered of all sins. All that matters is my gratification, my pleasure. It is interesting that when women get a man who has children from a previous relationship that he is not supporting, they have children by this same man. News flash, if a man has deserted his children from a previous relationship, he is going to desert the ones he has with you! These women will not only have children from this man, but will also defend this man against the women he has already deserted. Of course, in the end they find out what the other woman already knew and tried to tell her. This is not about “hating” on other men, it is about loving my people and especially those broken children already here and those yet to come. What self respecting man will not take care of defenseless children or will steal from his flesh and blood? A man is supposed to support and leave an inheritance to his children. We pretend they do not exist and then wonder why they are angry and in pain. We leave them to grow up thinking that their father does not love them. The pain of this is devastating to a child. Men it must and will stop one way or the other.

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[1] Isaiah 53:6

[2] Isaiah 55:6

Chapter 5 Part 2

We have left the most important job God has given us to our women. A mans first job is to save his home. How can we save our homes? Homes implies family, we do not create families. We do not create homes we destroy them. We do not exalt our women we tear them down. We destroy homes by taking our young women from their homes with false lies and then leaving them after our fornication to raise our children. We steal their innocence and purity and leave them with nothing. From the looks of our communities children are not a blessing from the Lord, but more of an obstacle to the game. What game you ask? The game of how many women we can get to have sex with us. For many of our men the measure of our manhood is the number of sexual conquest we have. There is only one problem; children are being created. It is amazing with all this fornicating going on no one has considered condoms. Do not get me wrong fornicating is fornicating and is still considered a sin with or without a condom, with or without a child being produced. However, consider the lives we are needlessly destroying. We expect our women not only raise the children but to provide for their spiritual training as well. A job God has clearly assigned to the man. How long will we continue to try to mock God?

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for
whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who
sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but
he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
Galatians 6:7,8

We as humans are notorious for laying claim to those things we do not possess. We tell ourselves we are not so bad or evil men, so were in no danger of the wrath of God. The Bible plainly states we will all reap the wrath of God. The men of my generation have been sowing to our flesh for a long time.

There was a man who received two puppies. He named the first one flesh and the second one spirit. The man fed the puppy named flesh twice as much food as spirit and plus gave him all the scraps from the table. As they grew and matured, which puppy do you think will get larger? I would venture to guess the puppy named flesh. It is a physiological fact. That is what we have been doing, feeding our flesh man twice as much as our spiritual man. How do I feed my flesh man you ask? Simply by feeding my fleshly desires; fornication, pornography, drugs/alcohol, strip clubs, etc. You get the picture. How do I feed the spiritual man? Through fellowship with God and obeying of God’s word is how my spirit is fed. There is a war going on inside of us between our flesh man and our spirit man, it is as old as time. Right now, for most of us, our flesh man is “swoll” and our spiritual man is puny. When temptation comes along, we are not able to stand because the flesh man overrides the spirit man. Christ Jesus warned His disciples in the garden, “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The flesh has been ruling our lives for too long. The Bible tells us we as a nation, we as a people will reap what we sow. We have sown the seeds of fornication and now we are reaping the fruits of it.

“They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall pay
for your idolatrous sins. Then you shall know
that I am the LORD God.”
Ezekiel 23:49

Because of our lewdness, God will judge us. The Lord wants to use us to show the world what can happen, if a people will repent of their sins and return to God. He wants to demonstrate His great mercy and forgiveness. Conversely, He will demonstrate what happens when they do not. There have been too many victims in this epidemic. The Lord is patient towards us, but His patience will not endure forever. It is time for us as Black men to grow up; the time for foolishness is over. How can we continue to demand that the world treat us as men while we behave as little children? Because we have left the authority of God, He is giving us up to our wickedness. For too long we have denied the hurt and pain we have inflicted on others through our fornication, taking the innocence and purity of our people with no regard to the outcome.

I hear men all the time say, “It’s the woman’s fault. We would not be fornicating if it was not for the women.” Not only is this cowardice, the Bible completely disagrees. The Bible says that the woman is the weaker vessel. We as men should step up and accept our responsibility to our communities. We will never be taken seriously by the world until we learn to control our behavior. In Proverbs it says, “That a man with no self-control is like a city without walls .” He cannot defend himself or anyone else. It is sad but even our Black brothers from around the world have lost respect for us. They see us as spoiled little children. The legacy we have given our children is full of sinfulness. As men our responsibility, is to teach the ways of God and to train them in God’s Word and ordinances. We have not done that. Instead of teaching them righteousness, we have taught them lawlessness. Can we now be surprised by the current state of life? I am not!

“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from
such people turn away! For this sort are those who creep into
households and make captives of gullible women loaded down
with sins, led away by various lusts.”
2 Timothy 3:2-6

Wow, do any of these traits sound familiar to anyone? This I believe concisely encapsulates our current state of affairs. The part that sticks out for me is the part about gullible women. We have men in our communities that make a living off the checks that some women get monthly. They only visit these women once a month when their checks arrive. Or they will do the same to women who are working regular jobs, only coming around on payday. These men do not give a second thought that the woman’s children and usually that man’s children also, will be struggling for the rest of the month. They concern themselves only with their own greed and desires. This is not the behavior of men, but of greedy, selfish children. The world revolves around me. These same women are supposed to be looking out for the welfare of these broken children, more on this later. These men have made captives of these households and loaded these women down with sins. The fruit of these sins are the children. The same children they chose to rob. How long will we rob our most precious resource and not expect a backlash. We also rob them in our lack of financial support. Those of you, who think you are better than the monthly check pimps are, think about how much support you are providing your children.

Here is the insanity of it all those men who do remain after the “blessed event” rather than teaching their sons not to repeat their mistakes, they teach them the exact same behavior. “I’m raising a playa”, they exclaim. No, you are raising another irresponsible fornicator like yourself! Children come to us as empty vessels from God; it is up to us to fill those vessels. It is as if their minds are new little computers that need to be programmed. In the computer business there is a saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” In other words, whatever you program in; that is what is going to come out. If I input wisdom, the child will be wise. Look at how we dress our littlest children; we buy them designer clothes and shoes. Not for their sakes are we buying these things, but to impress the world. We think it is more important to put them in FUBU than to put God’s word in them. It is more important what is on the outside of our children than what is on the inside. The Bible says, “They love the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Wisdom is to be sought after as if it were gold according to the Scriptures. It is to be taught by the elders. Wisdom is suppose to come with the passing of time, the older one gets the more wisdom one should acquire. The only problem we have is that some of older men are just as foolish, if not more foolish than our young men. Their many years instead of providing wisdom, has only provided a multitude of sins. O my people how long will we continue to forsake the Lord? How long will we ignore His Word and commandments?

“that the older man be sober, reverent, temperate,
sound in faith, in love, in patience…Likewise,
exhort the young men to be sober-minded.”
Titus 2:2,6

As we can see, according to the word of God, teaching of doctrine comes from the older men and women. How many of us can say we are even living the doctrine, let alone passing this information on to our children? We have too many babies raising babies for any wisdom to be imparted. What are we teaching our children to create this epidemic? What message are we sending that it is ok to go out and fornicate and create all these fatherless children? See their use to be a word for these children when we were growing up, it was called a “bastard child”. Of course, that has been replaced these days by some new sanitized term (baby’s momma or baby’s daddy). I believe that it is time to send some new messages. These messages are not in words alone, but also in deeds. We need to begin to change our behavior and character. The Bible tells us that those who do not train or discipline their children do not love their children. Due to our humanistic response to child abuse, physically disciplining children is no longer allowed. Were there being children abused? Yes. Are there children being abused today? Yes. There will always be a small segment of the population that will misinterpret God’s laws. Then of course, there will always be some sick people who are hurting and act out that hurt by hurting others. However, does this give us the right to ignore or reinterpret God’s Word? I think not! Under no circumstances are we to cancel what God has clearly revealed to us. We can never believe that we know better than God what is right for others and ourselves. We must never replace God’s wisdom with the wisdom of man, no matter how many degrees they have. Instead of following God, we are choosing to follow the world. The Bible says that following the world leads to destruction. The Proverbs tells us that “there is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is death.” To not physically discipline, your child seems right by today’s standards, but the Bible says I am sending that child to hell and that I in fact do not love that child.

“You shall teach them to your children, speaking of
them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way,
when you lie down and when you wake up.”
Deuteronomy 11:19

As you can see our jobs as men is not only to teach our children the ways of God, but to strangers and also ourselves. We are to not only speak them, but also live them in our homes. How can we teach our children what we do not know or do not practice? It is written that we should not only be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word as well. We should be streams of living water to our wives and our children; instead, we are cesspools of sin. Our fornication has blinded us to the truth about God. We have been blinded to our true purposes as men. Anybody can make a child; it takes a man to raise one. As we go, our people go. Our people will never climb any higher than we as men climb. Up until now, we have let our women and children down. Rather than sacrifice our selfish lusts, we have sold out the very people who counted on us to protect them.

Instead of protecting our women and children, we have preyed on them. It is no wonder our women are not treated with the respect they deserve. A lot of them have little or no self-esteem thanks to us. Our treatment of them is a direct cause of this epidemic of fornication. In an effort to find, acceptance and love they have allowed themselves to become deluded into accepting any semblance of love, no matter how perverted. In addition, we have orchestrated this wickedness for our own selfish purposes.

Chapter 5 Part 1 Men

Chapter 5 - Men

“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ,
The head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:3

In God’s perfect will and plan for male and female relationships there is a hierarchy. Just as there is a hierarchy in heaven so there is one on the earth. In this hierarchy everyone is under authority, everyone! Because men are the head of the woman, I am going to start with the men. I can already hear the feminist and the humanist rage. In addition, of course there will be others who will object to this hierarchy for various reasons. However it is not my hierarchy, it is God’s. Please forward all complaints to 1-800-CALLGOD and you can argue with God. In our zeal to be politically correct, we have tried to ignore it, but it is to our peril if we do. In God’s perfect plan, the hierarchy is as follows:

GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Man
Woman

Child

This will undoubtedly set off a firestorm of controversy. In this society, anyone who questions the status of women or questions the right of a woman to have everything her way is immediately labeled a chauvinist male. The thing about God and His word is that our belief is not required. God’s divine plan continues whether I believe it or not. Because of our position, the bulk of responsibility falls on the man for this deadly sin of fornication.

In the last few generations, many black men in our communities have been fornicators. Many have chosen to lie down with anybody and everybody without concern for the consequences. It has not only been the poor, uneducated, drug/alcohol addicted practicing this awful sin. It has been lawyers, bankers, and police officers. Also included in this are politicians, community and church leaders, as well as professional athletes and entertainers. It seems that no one professional or otherwise is immune to this epidemic. Why has this been such a large-scale problem? Is it because of our background of slavery in this country? Some say it’s our heritage of polygamy carried over from Africa. Which is false, because Africa has had a rich heritage of Christian teaching and life. In my opinion, it is our deliberate and rebellious sin against God; plain and simple. For whatever reason many have decided, they are no longer under God’s authority. Many of our people have lost their fear of God. Many have chosen to go their own way, no longer being concerned with what God says.

“There is no fear of God before his eyes, when
he finds Out his iniquity and when he hates.

For he flatters Himself in his own eyes.”

Psalm 36:1,2

We have flattered ourselves with how slick and cool we are. However, it has not always been this way. There was a time in our history when men were leading the way, when men had a healthy fear of God. What does it mean to fear God? The fear in the Bible has been translated to mean to be in “awe” or “respect”. How can we not be in awe of God? How can any man look around and not recognize what God has done. I would rather believe in a dream (there is a God) than what I know is a lie (I am God). Who among us can add one inch to his height? Let alone create mountains, oceans, or make the sun rise and set. I am in awe of God for what He has done. It is amazing to me how we have no trouble acknowledging the fear we have of other men, but fear God! It seems that when our plight in this country was at its worst our men cried out to God and He answered.

There was no place else to turn then. Our “so called” Christian brothers were enslaving us and refusing to acknowledge our humanity. What they did not understand or accept is that in God’s hierarchy no man is more human than another man. In theology, two terms help us to distinguish the authority of things versus order of things. These words are nature and order. We humans are all the same nature. We all possess what Paul referred to as the “flesh of men”. However, we do not share the same order. The president of a company has authority over the vice-president, but they share the same nature. The one is not the president because he is more human than the vice-president. Therefore, no man is better than the woman, but his order is different. It is amazing that as our plight in this country has improved, our reliance on God has decreased. As we have become more affluent in this society, we have grown further away from God. The less we had the more we relied on God. This is not just the black man’s plight; it is this way with our society as a whole. This is not to say that we have achieved parity with the majority society, on the contrary. It just shows how little it took us to be drawn away from God, by Satan. In a short period, we have seen some black men rise to great heights in the business, sports, political, and entertainment worlds. There is still a long way to go, but if after these small gains, we have forgotten God how much more do you think God will be willing to allow.

“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord,
than great treasure with trouble.”
Psalms 15:16

We are more materially prosperous than at any point in our history in this country. Yet, in our prosperity, we have lost something. We have lost our spirituality. There are those who would say that we are still poor in this society, but even the poor in our society enjoy many things the poor in other countries dream about. Christ Jesus told us in the “beatitudes”, blessed are the poor in spirit. The problem with most of our “so called” Christians is they do not believe that being poor is a blessing. They say, “That’s really not what He meant.” It seems straightforward to me that is what He said. It is a fact the more abundant our resources the less we depend on God. The Bible speaks about the difficulty of the rich getting into the kingdom of heaven. The problem with most of us is that we look at our wealth in relation to those around us. We see so much conspicuous consumption in our society from the television that we think we are poor. However, if you were to look at the poor in say South America, Central America, or Africa, that is real poverty. We have “so called poor in our country wearing a hundred dollar sneakers. The fact is we are not poor; we just do not have all we desire. When your very survival is a day-to-day ordeal, you rely on God. You know that it is only by His grace that you make it another day. The old saints knew not only where their eternal salvation came from, but also their daily bread. This generation of man has decided that relying on God is no longer necessary. Let the women go to church. Let the women raise the children alone with no support, financial or otherwise. What we do not realize is that by not submitting ourselves to God, we are throwing the whole hierarchy of God out of balance. The first list illustrates God’s hierarchy and the second list is how we have corrupted that hierarchy.

GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Man
Woman
Child

Man
GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Woman
Child

By having our women go to church alone, we have left women and children under God’s authority. They are under God’s authority, but not under the covering of a man as God intended. I was recnetly engaged to be married and I told my fiancé that I needed to cover her and she did not understand what I meant. After I put the ring on her finger, she realized what I was saying. The ring said more to other people than she ever could. By me giving her that ring, it showed the world that she had a man that loved her enough to make a commitment for life to her. Many people have no respect for the sanctity of relationships, let alone marriage. By covering the woman I love, I send the men who would not respect our relationship a loud and clear message that she is loved. Not only the woman should be covered but the children as well. Most predators are looking for an easy target; just the physical presence of a man can deter a lot of this behavior. We are the ones outside of God’s authority. Notice the only ones who have the same position in both diagrams are the women and children. God will not allow anyone authority over anyone or anything who is not under authority themselves.

“You could have no power against Me unless
it had been given you from above.”
John 19:11

Therefore, we see that God gives the authority even in this world. Here is the key; God loves those women and children just as much as He loves you. He will not allow us authority over them when we are running around engulfed in sin. That is why we have no authority in our homes and our women refuse to submit to us. Why should they? Who in their right mind would submit to a lost little boy? The way we have been living has not been as men, but as little boys. Little boys only care about themselves and their own selfish pleasures. The world taught me that a man was: a drinker, drug addict, fornicator, an adulterer, stays out all night, and answered to no one. What I have since learned is that I was being a fool. Two marriages and countless relationships later, it finally dawned on me how foolish I was. Today I know that a man takes care of his responsibilities. He gets a job, wakes up and goes to that job. A man loves and takes care of his family, especially his children. A man not only makes babies, but he raises them as well. How can we claim to love our children and yet we do not provide for their needs? We have not behaved as men, and now we are reaping the fruit of that childish behavior.

Chapter 4 Part 3

Therefore, God can and does use anyone to prosper His people and to continue His divine plan. However, in order for that to happen, we must submit to His will and not ours. We must follow His perfect plan and not our imperfect ones. We must cooperate with the Hole Spirit. God will never impose His will in our lives. I have often said, "God loves me so much, He will allow me to kill myself." God has given us His “plan A”, but for some reason we must use our inferior “plan B”. This one requires God to initial here, here, and sign at the bottom. This is the plan we came up with while waiting on God’s perfect “plan A”. This is the plan that we devised when God seemed too busy or when we did not want to turn some area of our lives over to Him. God made us sexual beings and God wants us to enjoy it, but like everything else in His creation within the boundaries of His perfect love and will for us.

For those of us who have been married, marriage is a difficult proposition. It has it‘s moments of pure bliss, mixed with moments of what seems like pure hell. Into this mix, we incorporate habits of the male role model being around the house infrequently and under dubious conditions. The man, the supposed head of the household according to God’s hierarchy could not even be in the house. We wonder why our men do not know how to be husbands and fathers. How can we?

In this already explosive atmosphere, we add the blossoming women’s liberation movement with its calls for freedom for women. At this time, I want to acknowledge that for the first 200 years of our country’s history the white male has had a monopoly on opportunity. Anyone who was not white and male was excluded from any and all opportunities. Saying all this, the women’s liberation movement had some appeal with its cries of freedom. The problem occurred when they began to tell women that they did not need a man. I am all for equal pay for equal work for everyone, but it goes against God’s Word to proclaim that we do not need each other. The women’s movement even went so far as to compare their struggle with the plight of the black people. This only gave it more creditability in the eyes of some. I wonder though how can the mistress of the house compare her position with the slave? No matter how difficult their situation may have been I have not heard of many stories where the mistress of the house made a decision to exchange places with the slaves. One writer explains in the following way:

“Part of the overwhelming frustration black women felt within the Women's Movement was at white feminists' unwillingness to admit to their racism. This unwillingness comes from the sentiment that those who are oppressed can not oppress others. White women, who were (and still are) without question sexually oppressed by white men, believed that because of this oppression they were unable to assume the dominant role in the perpetuation of white racism; however, they have absorbed, supported and advocated racist ideology and have acted individually as racist oppressors. Traditionally, women's sphere of influence has extended over the home, and it is no coincidence that in 1963, seven times as many women of color (of whom 90 percent were black) as white women were employed as private household workers. It has been the tendency of white feminists to see men as the "enemy," rather than themselves, as part of the patriarchal, racist, and classist society in which we all live.

Not only did some white feminists refuse to acknowledge their ability to oppress women of color, some claimed that white women had always been anti-racist. Adrienne Rich claims, "our white foresisters have ... often [defied] patriarchy ... not on their own behalf but for the sake of black men, women, and children. We have a strong anti-racist female tradition;" however, as Bell-Hooks points out "[t]here is little historical evidence to document Rich's assertion that white women as a collective group or white women's rights advocates are part of an anti-racist tradition." Every women's movement in the United States has been built on a racist foundation: women's suffrage for white women, the abolition of slavery for the fortification of white society, the temperance movement for the moral uplifting of white society. None of these movements was for black liberation or racial equality; rather, they sprang from a desire to strengthen white society's morals or to uplift the place of white women in that society.”

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I
will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18 NIV

Therefore, it was always God’s plan for men to need women and women to need men. We were placed here to be helpers for each other, not hindrances. So here, we have the intentional emasculation of the black man through racism mingled with the call of the women’s liberation movement, “What can a man do for me?” The women’s movement saw the man as the enemy through sexual discrimination, yet overlooked the inherent racial discrimination of the participants. That through the policies many supported to overcome poverty they were actually destroying the black family unit. This left the black man with few if any options.

“Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16

It is only by the grace of God that we have been given this desire for one another. I would not for a moment overlook the pleasures and the joy that God has given us in a healthy sexual relationship between married couples. We have perverted this relationship by making sex and our own selfish pleasures our God. We should ask ourselves what is our desire when we participate in fornication. Is it a desire to please God or to please man? God has created a hierarchy for His understanding not mine. When I surrender to God, I lose my justification for asking why. Why is this happening to me Lord or why is the world setup in this way? It is not for me to question, it is only for me to do. Many times some modern Christians believe that God needs their belief and understanding to do His will. God does not require my belief! It does not matter whether I believe in God because God believes in me. We should always remember that we were created for God. God was not created for us.

“For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”
Romans 11:34

Chapter 4 Part 2

To continue, here is the place that the white establishment should step forward and accept responsibility for its racist policies that laid the groundwork for our current situation. Whether those policies were intentionally designed to create the atmosphere that helped to destabilize the black family, they did in fact have that effect. Because they penalized the women that were married, the policies sent the message that it was more beneficial to the family not to have a man present. The black woman no longer needed the man for financial security. The purpose of the man became procreation only and many men gladly accepted that role. It removed the responsibility from the man of raising the children they had fathered. However, what the family gained in economic security they lost in family stability. These policies replaced the presence of the father with a monthly check. These policies undermined the family structure and created a dependency that has taken decades to remove. These same policies had the opposite effect of their stated purpose. Instead of lifting people out of poverty and into the mainstream of American economic life, they created generational poverty. Those on the government rolls would pass that dependency on to their children and their children’s children. It became a vicious cycle and created an entrenched underclass. These guidelines also and more importantly perverted the divine plan of God for the family. They forced people to make a choice between economic survival or family loyalty. No one should ever have to make such a choice, but many did.

The purpose of this book is not to explore the depths of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, but how we as a people must overcome the sin that we now practice with an attitude of indifference. The problem with placing blame for racism is that there is never anyone to accept the responsibility for it. In the white community, it has always been the previous generation that had the problem with racism. Have we been treated unjustly? Of course, we have! Am I trying to excuse the behavior of others towards us? Of course not! Nevertheless, we have to move forward and begin to take responsibility for our own destinies. The problem is that we think white people hate us and some do. The majority of whites are just indifferent towards our plight and us. The opposite of love is not hate it is indifference. Indifference means I do not care if you live or die, just do not bother me. I believe the term used is "NIMBY" or not in my backyard. Let me stay in the suburbs or in my gated community and leave me alone. Hate at least involves some emotion. How many of us now hate someone we once loved? However, how many of us are now indifferent towards someone we once loved?

Our future and our most precious resource depends on our taking responsibility for our own salvation. The salvation of our people and especially of our children depends on us and no one else. The time has come to stop waiting on others to do what we should do for ourselves. Rightly or wrongly, we are in the situation we are in, how we got here is moot. The real question is what are we going to do about it? Are we going to continue to look for help from outside sources, the very sources that enslaved us and counted us as less than a man in the first place? So far, our tactics and game plans have not proved profitable for correcting this gross inequity to the eventual benefit of all our children. It is high time that we take back our communities, one soul at a time. For too long we have had leaders that have enriched themselves at the expense of the rest of us. We have not treated our children as our most precious resource and we have begun to pay the price. What we have given our children as an inheritance is lies and empty promises. Instead of surrendering ourselves to God and getting under His authority, we have been waiting on the same people who enslaved us to rescue us. This is not only illogical and politically impractical, but an insult to our children period. Passing along an entitlement mentality is demeaning to us and to our children as if this world owes us because of our heritage, because of slavery and prejudice. Get over it! Right now, we need to accept the fact that we are our worse enemies. It is always easier to avoid responsibility for our own actions. Granted, someone brought the poison into our neighborhoods, but we did not have to take it. We will only get better results when we demand better from those in positions of responsibility and especially ourselves.

When God freed the Israelites He expected and demanded that they be responsible for themselves. With His guidance they would prosper without the help of their captors. However, when they submitted themselves to God, He would use their captors to prosper them.

“…who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all
That I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt.” And
Of the temple, “Let it’s foundation be laid.”’”
Isaiah 44:28

Chapter 4 Part 1 Government Policies, Institutional Racism, and Societal Values

Government Policies, Institutional Racism, and Societal Values

Now we begin the controversy. Unlike the majority of peoples that arrived in this country, the black man’s plight was different; we were brought over in chains. We did not have control of our bodies or our lives. We were at the mercy of others. All of our institutions and customs were replaced with the customs and institutions of slavery. It was under this system that the practice of marriage and the black family structure were perverted for us as a people. The practice of not allowing slaves to marry as well as the practice of breeding people as with livestock were common during this period. No one can measure the devastating effect of this on the psyche of a people. There have been many books by both blacks and whites debating the effect this has had on us as a people, as well as a number of psychological and sociological studies. To be sure, this was a major issue and despite the obstacles, a surprising number of blacks did marry in secret ceremonies during this dark period in our history. I think the more devastating policy against the black family was the later government services policies of the times, policies that prevented the male from living in a house that was receiving government payments.

These were the policies that rewarded women for having children out of wedlock and drove the black man from the family structure. The more children a woman had the more money in aid she received. This intentional racist policy elevated the black woman over the black man economically and further emasculated him. The man could not obtain employment to care for his family due to racist hiring policies, but the woman was able to obtain financial assistance without the necessity for a male presence. Institutionalizing the enmity, that God had already placed between man and woman at the fall of Adam. So not only could he not get a decent job due to racist policies and prejudice, he could not be present publicly in the household. The black man had to sneak in and out of his own home like a thief in the night. The psychological effect of this phenomenon has I think never adequately been measured or researched. For more information on this topic, I would recommend the report of former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. This report was written while he was Assistant Secretary of Labor in the Johnson Administration. The name of the report was “The Negro Family: The Case For National Action”, it discussed the connection between the loss of the family nucleus in the black community and poverty.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of marriage to families and society, the sad fact is that, for more than four decades, the welfare system has penalized and discouraged marriage. The U.S. welfare system is currently composed of more than 70 means-tested aid programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to low-income persons. Each year, over $200 billion flows through this system to families with children. While it is widely accepted that the welfare system is biased against marriage, relatively few understand how this bias operates. Many erroneously believe that welfare programs have eligibility criteria that directly exclude married couples. This is not true.

Nevertheless, welfare programs do penalize marriage and reward single parenthood because of the inherent design of all means-tested programs. In a means-tested program, benefits are reduced as non-welfare income rises. Thus, under any means-tested system, a mother will receive greater benefits if she remains single than she would if she were married to a working husband. Welfare not only serves as a substitute for a husband, but it actually penalizes marriage because a low-income couple will experience a significant drop in combined income if they marry.

For example: A typical single mother on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families receives a combined welfare package of various means-tested aid benefits worth about $14,000 per year. Suppose the father of her children has a low-wage job paying $16,000 per year. If the mother and father remain unmarried, they will have a combined income of $30,000 ($14,000 from welfare and $16,000 from earnings). However, if the couple marries, the father's earnings will be counted against the mother's welfare eligibility. Welfare benefits will be eliminated (or cut dramatically), and the couple's combined income will fall substantially. Thus, means-tested welfare programs do not penalize marriage per se but, instead, implicitly penalize marriage to an employed man with earnings. The practical effect is to significantly discourage marriage among low-income couples.

This anti-marriage discrimination is inherent in all means-tested aid programs, including TANF, food stamps, public housing, Medicaid, and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food program. The only way to eliminate the anti-marriage bias from welfare entirely would be to make all mothers eligible for these programs regardless of whether they are married and regardless of their husbands' earnings. Structured in this way, the welfare system would be marriage-neutral: It would neither reward nor penalize marriage.”

Chapter 3 Part 6

10) Anger of the children

“For son dishonors father, Daughter rises against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies
Are the men in his own household.”
Micah 7:6

The most distressing result of this epidemic of fornication to me is the pain/anger of the children. The most devastating thing I have heard is the voice of a child looking for their daddy. Are you my daddy? To see the hopeful look of that child turn to disappointment is heart wrenching. According to God’s perfect plan for the family, every child needs a father and a mother. This was always God’s plan. It was that way from the beginning and continues to this day. As much as some women would like not to believe it, children need a father in their lives. It is a painful thing for a child to grow up missing a parent. It is even more painful if the parent is still alive and is choosing not to be a part of the child’s life or not allowed by the custodial parent. To the child it is not important who is right or wrong in our little petty squabbles. They just miss the parent. With fornication, you add a different component, the child as well as the mother may not even know who the father is. We have all seen or heard about those young women on those daytime talk shows who brought a number of men on the show for DNA testing and it turns out that none of the men were the actual father. We look at the women with empathy or ridicule, but how about that child? Who can know the pain/anger that child feels or will feel in the future? Imagine a person so sexually promiscuous that they do not even know who got them pregnant. Where is the outcry? Where is the help? This person is obviously in need of some serious help.

My main concern for this book is the pain/anger of the young men in our community. We have a generation of angry young men. They have every right to be angry. When they were looking for a man to lead them and to guide them, no one was available. I blame them for their actions, but I do not blame them for their feelings. Women, no matter how many men you have been with you do not know what it takes to be a man. You may know what you like in a man or do not like in a man, but that is very different from being a man. Because of this epidemic of fornication, we have a generation of young men that do not know what it takes to be a man. Their concept and definition of being a man is askew. There have been no men in there lives when they needed them and they are angry. They are especially angry with the men of the generation that begat them. They are acting out this anger daily in our communities through the outbreaks of senseless violence. Because of their anger/pain, they do not respect their own lives or the lives of anyone else. Why do you think that they live the lifestyles they live, take the risks they take. In their minds, they have nothing to lose. Nothing to live for. The value of life for them is cheap. Our communities are not friendly places because of this anger/pain. It does not matter who the victim is. Their anger knows no bounds. The majority of drug dealers in our community are these angry young men. The level of violence is off the charts. I remember when I was a young man, all the drugs were sold by whites and there was not this violence. These angry young black men have gotten a hold of the game and with it has come this senseless violence. Back then, you brought your dope and went about your business; you and your business were appreciated. Not so today, buying drugs from these angry young men is an adventure in abasement. You are giving them your money and you are being verbally and sometimes physically mistreated. It makes no sense. It is as if you went to Wal-Mart and the clerks began to verbally assault you as you walked up to the check out line.

The bulk of the anger is reserved for the generation that gave birth to them. Their attitude seems to be you want drugs/poison, no problem. Here you go and I hope it kills you, because you remind me of my parents on drugs. They were off getting high when I needed someone to raise me and my brothers and sisters. I don’t even know who my father is. You think this generation is angry, wait for the one following it. These angry young men believe that women are nothing but “hoes” and “bitches” and are to be treated with no respect. They are not looking for any long-term relationships, let alone marriage. Look at what they have been taught by their parents. They are another generation of fornicators creating another generation of angry children. This next generation will be even angrier and even more violent. I am afraid of what their future will hold. The level of violence is going to escalate to a level that I think will be shocking to all who witness it. Everyday we are outraged by the senseless acts of violence we see or hear about. Our communities are in for urban warfare due to this epidemic of sin. In between the police and the angry young men, we are under siege. God is not mocked. We cannot continue to flaunt our sinful ways before God and not expect any repercussions. What we are doing is practicing intentional sin and God’s word is clear on those that do intentional sin. The Bible tells us that God will visit the sins of the fathers to the sons and the son’s sons. Most experts believe that addictions/alcoholism are hereditary and pass from generation to generation. I believe that for us fornication will be the same. We must begin to act on this epidemic or it will be the death of us as a people. We have become ensnared by this sin and it will be difficult to extricate ourselves from it, but we must. I hear all the time how it is a cultural thing and it amazes me how so inbred it is that we continue to excuse this sinful behavior. Our children will be cut off from God and the face of this earth if we do not act. There is no greater problem facing us today. We talk about our economic woes, and joblessness, but these issues pale in comparison to fornication. If we continue down this road it will not matter how much money we have, it will not be enough to combat the problems we will be facing. We should rally together as a people and speak to this issue. Our very lives depend on it.

Chapter 3 Part 5

8) Violence

“Behold I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, I will burn
your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your
young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the
voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.”
Nahum 2:13

The epidemic of fornication has led to an epidemic of violence and lawlessness in our community. In our community, the value of life has never been cheaper. Our young men (young lions) are dying; for no better reason than a pair of sneakers or looking at someone the wrong way. This epidemic of violence and lawlessness continues to rise. It is not just in our major urban centers but has made it’s way into the rural communities. In addition, fornication reduces the value of a human being and turns them into an object. It no longer becomes murder to the predator, because we are no longer human. You are not a person; you are an object, a non-entity. Women become less than human and therefore are expendable. Through fornication and pornography, their status is sub-human in the minds of the sexual predators and can be disposed of with little or no remorse. As more of these predators are caught, they have given us insight into how these sexual sins have perverted their minds and their consciences. Granted these men represent the extreme of our society, but how much longer will that be the case? As we have become more insulated to these horrors, we become more accepting of these sins. The problem with sin is that it never gets harder to commit it always gets easier. The toughest sin to commit is the first one. The Bible says we are tempted not by God, but by our own selfish lust. The more we sin the more we want to sin. There is a reason we live in the most violent society in the industrialized world. I believe the main reasons are fornication and other sexual sins.

9) Loss of usefulness to God

“But I discipline my body and bring it into
subjection, lest when I have preached to others,
I myself should become disqualified. “
1 Corinthians 9:27

How can I give to others what I do not possess? How can I preach against what I myself am guilty of doing? The Bible says that in order for me to be used by God I must live a certain way. I must be free from the wickedness that I preach against. Jesus Christ did not sin though sinners surrounded Him. We are to bring the message, but not the mess. I have always been amazed at the “dope house” preachers. These are people who while in the “drug houses” getting high, want to quote scripture to you or the “drunk” who preaches, he can quote the Bible front to back, but cannot stay sober. There are going to be many surprised “so called” Christians on judgment day. They will think because they were in church, read the Bible, and other "saintly" things, they are going to be saved. They will not. Jesus Christ said that in that day not everyone who calls Him Lord will be saved.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will
declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!”
Matthew 7:22,23

According to Jesus Christ, what saves us is not what we do, but that personal relationship with God. If I read the Bible all that makes me is a Bible reader, if I go to church all that makes me is a churchgoer. None of these things will save me. What saves me is my personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Without that relationship all my deeds are worthless, no matter how noble the cause. If I am immersed in sin how can I hope to lead others or be used by God? I use to sell drugs. I wanted to be a good and fair drug dealer. I did not want to hurt anyone. I would even front to people and not “sweat” them too much if they were late. I still prayed and meditated every morning. In my mind, I was not hurting anyone. All my customers were adults; I was not forcing them to take the drugs. Everything was cool according to me. I was going to be a “Godly” drug dealer. Well guess what, God does not need drug dealers. See, I was selling poison to my brothers and sisters. Eventhough they were adults, what about there children, who counted on them. Who did get the things they deserved because the parent was spending all the money on drugs. Am I responsible for that? I think today that I am. There are those who would say if I do not someone else will and my answer is let him or her. I was ruining lives, not just the lives of the users, but their children’s, and my own as well. If someone had “jacked me” on the streets I would have had to make a decision on whether I would retaliate or get out of the business. Because if I did not retaliate then I would have had no respect on the streets and everyone would “jack me” or rip me off. I would not have been able to continue in that business. Whatever you choose to be, be true to it. If you are going to roll with the drug lifestyle then be true to that lifestyle. If you are going to roll with God, then be true to God. Choose you this day whom you will serve......

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Chapter 3 Part 4

6) Lack of respect

“…But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”
Proverbs 29:15

Another problem with fornication is that it causes us to lose respect for ourselves, our bodies, and the other person. You cannot respect others if you do not respect yourself. By fornicating you lose the sanctity of your own body. You profane the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body becomes a tool against itself. When we can no longer resist our fleshly desires and become slaves to them, we lose respect for ourselves. We become disappointed in ourselves for our failure to withstand the onslaught of the flesh. Over the course of time, we become addicted to our pleasure and lose our identities. We become nothing more than instruments of gratification, losing our God given human dignity. God created us to be more than just sexual organs. We were designed to reflect the image of God on earth. I believe that we were created for a higher purpose than cheap sexual pleasure. Self-respect is gained through accomplishments of a higher level than the number of sexual partners or conquests we have. Men are not immune to this loss of respect. The more sexual partners we have the more of an object we become and the less respect we have for ourselves. When people become objects to us it does not matter who or what they are. It is no longer about them, it becomes about my selfish pleasure and me. There were times when I would be with someone that I not only did not know, but what I did know about her I did not like. That did not prevent me from having a sexual relationship. When our sexual desires become perverted it does not matter whom we are with, it only matters what we want. For some unknown reason many modern Christians believe they are entitled to some sort of exemption from God’s laws and God’s word. I think a lot of them are going to be in for a rude awakening. At some point in my life I came up with the mistaken idea that the rules did not apply to me. The laws of man and nature no longer held me in their limits. I was of course wrong and the results of my life bear witness to my error. I believed that I was smarter, cooler, slicker than everyone else so what happened to you would not happen to me. The laws of God apply to all, there are none who are exempt, none.

7) Deterioration of society

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
Isaiah 5:20

The Bible tells us woe to any society that does not obey God’s laws. The insidious nature of fornication is that it perverts God’s plan for the family. Without commitment between a man and a woman there is nothing holding together the fabric of the family or the fabric of society. God’s plan for us is more than momentary pleasure with no thought to the consequences. For a while now we have seen the signs of our society and community deteriorating. Our historical institutions are crumbling under the weight of this sinful epidemic. Crime in our community has reached new levels of savagery. It is no longer safe for children to pay outside or for old people to walk down the streets. Our community and neighborhoods have become war zones. Granted, society as a whole is falling apart, but it seems to be at an accelerated pace for us. The institutions that use to give us stability have not been able or willing to stem this tide of lawlessness. I believe the reason is their failure to address this crisis of fornication. I think that on further investigation many of our “so called” leaders may themselves be participating in this sinful activity. How many times have we heard on the news or read in the newspaper that some leader is confessing to having an illegitimate child from an illicit affair. It would be difficult for them to condemn what they themselves are guilty of committing. We have allowed society to dictate to us what is right and wrong and not relied on the word of God. Many black churches in particular and many modern churches as a whole have chosen their master and it does not appear to be God. If it were, they would not continue to condone through lack of condemnation, this problem. With no clear direction, it is no wonder our children are continuing down this slippery slope to hell. If I have been a fornicator and have not repented, how can I teach others not to do it with any conviction? It is like me telling my kids not to do drugs while puffing on a marijuana cigarette, kind of loses some weight. I do not know if our community can withstand another generation of angry children.