Rhythms of Grace

You raise me Up

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10, NIV)

In many cities, less than 35% of at-risk boys are graduating from high school. Alex Ellis, a New Jersey clothier and author of Redefining the Male Image has set out to change that. His program, Tied to Greatness, goes to urban centers around the country and brings in notable men in entertainment, arts, business and industry to teach at-risk boys how to tie a necktie. This rite of passage might have been taught by a father or grandfather in the past in preparation for church or some special event. For many families, those days and those figures in the home are long gone. Each participant receives a copy of Mr. Ellis's book, participates in a ceremony and pledges to stay in school. There is also an essay contest. The winner will be a awarded one of Mr. Ellis' custom suits with all the accessories.

Tied to Greatness has targeted 4,000 boys across the country to be part of the remaining 2008 tour. The upcoming cities are: Dallas, TX - (March 14), Cleveland, OH - (March 28), Los Angeles, CA - (April 4), Detroit, MI - (April 11), Chicago, IL - (April 18), and Newark, NJ - (May 2). If you are in any of these cities (or anywhere really), please pray about donating or participating. Retail or corporate donations of ties would probably be especially appreciated. Check out the Tied to Greatness website for more information.

What I love about this program is that one man took something that was part of his life and mission and found a way to bless others with it. I can just see Flex from the Shades of Style series scrambling so that he and Jay could have been a part of this! (I actually thought this). Still, think about what's in your hands right now, what's on your heart. How could you use it to bless someone? To tie your purpose with your passion? I'll be here musing on it too, but in the meantime, check out Tied to Greatness.

Today's Rhythm:

Father God,

Bless Tied to Greatness and all they are doing with young men. May every young man who participates come away a sense of hope and knowing that someone cares about him. Supply every need for all the ties, men, publicity and supplies needed for this project. May each boy know that these things come from You and that You will guide them into their destiny. Bless everyone reading with a vision, both for ministry and mastery, purpose and passion.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's Rhythm: You Raise Me Up, Selah

Balm in Gilead

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? (Jeremiah 8:22, NIV)

The scripture above is one of the base scriptures for Sistahfaith: Stories of Hope and Healing from Women Believing Beyond Shame (Kimani Press, 2009). It was my first nonfiction project and again and again while reading the stories of the contributors I was brought to tears by the healing and restoring power of God. The same scripture touched me deeply during the writing of Pink, Shades of Style #1. I hadn't meant for the book to center around AIDS in the Black community, sexual purity or any of that. In fact, until the Publisher's Weekly reviewer expressed disbelief that AIDS actually affected black folks in disproportionate numbers (I guess they thought I made that up too!) I hadn't thought about it much except to add information in the back of the book about Balm in Gilead, a nonprofit organization focused on HIV/AIDS in the African diaspora (everywhere slave ships touched ground). This week, they are celebrating the Annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS.

Though you may not attend a black church (neither do I, though I grew up in one) I think it's a good prayer focus for THE church in general as AIDS is devastating so many around the world. As a black woman living in a state with one of the nation's highest AIDS rates (Florida) I see children being orphaned right here on our soil. Check out some of Balm in Gilead's statistics and some of their initiatives for more information, but please join us in prayer this week and if you haven't picked up Pink, do get a copy and give it to a young person of color in your community and if you have read it, please pass on a copy to your church youth group or library. Of all the books I've written, I get the most email from young people on this book and always they are either proclaiming their vow to stay sexually pure or trying to find a way out of today's vicious cycle of hooking up and friends withOUT benefits. That said, let's pray.

Today's Grace:

Father God,

We thank you for your Word and the blood of Your Son. I come before you with my people, our people, your people and ask You to heal the wound of AIDS/HIV in our country and throughout Africa and the world. Give us ears to hear and a heart to obey Your word in regards to sex and have mercy on those of us who have made bad decisions or suffered for the bad decisions of others. Be the Great Physician to us and apply Your healing balm to our community and to our hearts.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's Rhythm: Balm in Gilead, Karen Clark Sheard

Becoming God's Hands

You've heard me talk about Tom Davis here and the work he and Children's Hope Chest are doing in Swaziland, where half the adults have AIDS and most children are orphaned. He linked to a story a couple days ago that really touched me. When one of the teams arrived to cut firewood for the grandmothers and orphans, the army prevented them. Frustrated, they set out on a home visit and found a woman, very sick and shriveled with five children. Another look revealed that the form near her was a baby. A newborn.

The four-week-old child had not eaten in several days and had taken to sleeping instead of crying. They left (this was one stop on the way, a care point) and went back to other people and prayed and tried to assess what to do. One of the workers, a woman, who does not feel comfortable with children heard the story. When they returned to the care point, she had the baby, who is now being treated at the abandoned baby hospital nearby.

Though the story is heartbreaking and hard to hear (I'm still wondering what happened to the other children. Have mercy) I am encouraged and inspired by the actions of that one woman to embrace something, someone so beyond her. That's hard for us (well me, maybe not you). Most times, in real life, I fail at it. In my writing though, my heart stretches in faith, often showing me who I really am. Who I want to be.

For Team Ignite, Jesus showed up as a Swazi baby. Look around. Who is your Jesus today? What can we do today to be God's hands in the world? It might be as simple as buying some Saint's Coffee instead of Starbucks and feeding an orphan for a month. Or skipping a fast food lunch and blessing someone (near or far) with five dollars. For others, it might even mean spending five days in Africa. Or sending someone else there. Let's take time today and write down one thing we can do for our Jerusalem (neighborhood and city), Samaria (state and nation) and the uttermost parts of the earth (the world).

Today's Grace:

Father God,

Thank you for the little baby rescued in Swaziland. We praise you for guiding our steps according to your plans. We pray that the child heal swiftly and grow healthy. May no disease, including HIV or anything else, be found in that little body. Give the doctors wisdom and knowledge and cause every cell in that baby's body to line up with your word. Bless the woman and others who are caring for the baby. Give the strength to be Your hands in the earth. Touch the hearts of those whom you would have to support and join them. Bless the dying mother and her other children with comfort, food and Your saving grace. We give You all the glory and all the praise. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's Rhythm: Rezound, First Christian concert in Vietnam...EVER!

Setting the Captives Free

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me . . . He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives . . .
(Luke 4:18, NKJV)

Slavery isn't new. Long after the practice divided our own country it continues around the world, sometimes even returning to our soil through sex trafficking. In Ghana, the female slaves even have a name - Trokosi.

Little must be done to earn the name, usually given to absolve the sin of some male relative committed long before the girl's birth in some cases. Yet, once the name is given, the girls life changes forever. No longer will she be called by her name or taken care of by her people. She will serve the shrine priest and work his fields and have his children, often without going long periods without eating herself. She cannot go to school or learn skills to better herself. Of the women Nicole Mullen interviewed on her trip, most reported becoming Trokosi as young children. One woman said she was taken to the shrine as a baby and released at age 26. She had seven children in the shrine. She is now a Christian, has learned a skill and how to read and write. She is also clothed (Trokosi must go naked).

It's been little over a decade since Ghana's first military election. Six years ago, there was another government transition. In the Volta region, the I. N. Network works to emancipate women and girls enslaved as Trokosi. The project began in 1991 and over 3,500 women have been freed so far. Over 2,000 women and 8,000 children, however, still linger in slavery. Their goal is to affect the release and rehabilitation of all Trokosi in the next 3 to 5 years. Please pray for International Needs Network and for all the Trokosi women and children.

Father God,

Thank you for freedom. Forgive us for taking for granted the blessings we have. Show us how You want us to be a blessing to others in our city, in our country and throughout the world. Bless International Needs Network with everything they need to free, train and keep safe the freed slaves of Ghana and their children. Bless Nicole Mullen as she works with the IN Network. We praise you now and cry freedom in Jesus' name. Amen

Today's Rhythm: Freedom/He Who Dwelleth, Nicole C Mullen and Ex Trokosi Women

Today's Rhythm: I Will Always Love You, Nicole Mullen

Today's Grace:

Father God,

Thank you for loving us. Always. Even when we're unlovable. Help us to do one thing today to show Your love to the people around us, near and far. Bless those families who've risked everything to protect us and to spread the gospel.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Every Tribe Entertainment

Nicole Mullen

Lent Readings

Lingering Love

"Love is patient..." (1 Corinthians 10:4a, NIV)

True love waits. Though best known as an abstinence campaign, it's not bad on principle either. In a world where love often seems conditional on how much a person does and how fast (or how well) he or she does it, patience and love don't always seem to go together. In writing and in relationships, however, it's a necessary truth.

It takes patient love, from God, my family and myself, to face the monsters that are sometimes standing right in front of the next story. When I'm here but gone, walking around in a cloud of elsewhere, the people who love me smile and nod, waiting for me to return to the hard and fast world they live in.

God waits for me too, even when I sometimes avoid walking through the things He brings into my life to build me and better me. Things that hurt and stretch, that tell truths I don't always want to hear.

Last night, I saw the glimpse of a story that has been waiting in me since I knew what stories were. I was startled by the ordinariness of it, quiet like a magazine slipped behind a dresser and forgotten. And yet, there it was, growing in the shade of all my fears and hopes, growing without my even knowing. I do not yet possess the words to fill it, but the promise of it is enough to wait for. Today I'll promise my heart to another story, one that came to me two years ago in one rush-and-tumble day, keeping me glued to my chair for hours at the thought of it. It's kissed my mind often since then, waiting its turn, considering its time.

Perhaps today it will open to me as it did that first day, but I doubt. Most likely there will be shy glances and an awkward embraces, sweaty palms and broken words. And yet, the thrill remains, knowing as I do that if I will wait and work, the page will come, the word will emerge and the two of us will plunge again, headlong into love.

Father God,

Thank You for waiting for us with a patient, unflinching love. Help us to order our days by that love and not by our lusts for approval or acceptance. Love on us today, Lord. Love on us hard.

In Christ's name, Amen.

Today's Rhythm: Way Up There, Patti LaBelle

Wanna write? Set your timer and write for eight minutes, including the following three words -PATIENCE, RAVENOUS, SOLITUDE.

Committed to the Grace of God

From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. (Acts 14:26, NIV)

In last week's "Driven by Love" post, I shared a discussion with a friend, who asked if we could only thing of God shouldn't it be love. I've been thinking about it since and after some prayer, my answer is a little different. I think if it was me on the receiving end, I'd want someone to tell me the truth (in love, of course). I guess there just can't be one thing that we leave behind. There must be love and truth, work and worship, sacrifice and sometimes even suffering.

People the world over are looking at the church, at the cross and wondering if it's real. Right now, the Woottons, two missionaries from our church, a young married couple, both engineers who went on a short term missions trip to Kenya and were overcome with God's love for those people, are home on furlough with us.

But you can tell immediately that this is no longer their home. They are not on some expedition ministering to Kenyans. They ARE Kenyans. Tonight I looked into the eyes of their newborn blue-eyed baby who was conceived in Africa amid cold water mornings and door-knocking nights. I looked at that infant and saw in the peace creasing his face, in the quiet unflinching grace as strangers held him, the dignity of Africa.

The husband of the group, Isaac Wooten, grew up with his missionary parents in Israel amid the boy bombers and exploding buses. They are there now, in Kenya, where thousands of people are starting to flood into their village amid the violence, so many that the Bible school now cradles them on the floor as they grieve their burnt homes. Here is a story from Isaac's mother Beverly in the month's before the violence. (Clea's mother Connie serves with them too, but she's home on furlough with them. Isn't that cool? Two generations of families serving together?) With everything at a standstill, Isaac's father Greg is teaching revivals to over a thousand people every day about forgiveness and love. They're feeding thousands of refugees from the larger

Anyway, things are bad there now, so please pray for the Wootens and the people they love. We are sending a freighter of goods there that will be later turned into a house (again, isn't that cool?). At someone's birthday party a few weeks ago, I asked Clea what effect the violence would have on their ministry. She smiled and said something like,"It doesn't affect us really, except maybe that we are needed even more."

In that moment, I saw a woman who as much as she loves her life, her four young children and her husband, she has found a greater love. She has committed herself and her family to the grace of God. Though many of us might not become missionaries to another country, think of the people where you are who God might give you a love for. We all want the blessings, but we forget that they are often the result of having a burden. The Woottens have one. Tom Davis has one. And me? Well, one of my burdens is you. Thanks for being here. Again.

Father God,

Bless the Woottens and their parents. Protect the people in Kenya. Cool the rising tensions. Heal their nation with the fruit of your Spirit. Be with Tom Davis and the Children's Hope Chest team as they feed AIDS orphans in Swaziland. Help us, overwhelmed and overcommitted to find our place, our people, who you have called us to love. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin...with me.

In Christ's name, Amen.

Today's Rhythms: Beautiful, Isaac Wootton, Birech Bible College, Kitale, Kenya

Rooted and Grounded in Love

"...That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19, KJV)

Yeah, I went King James on you. Sometimes, it's just gotta be done. I love the rhythm of these verses and the content too. We prayed yesterday to let our roots go down deep. Today we see why, where that foundation must come from--the love of God.

One of my good friends (well, a few of them actually) is traveling to Swaziland today with Children's Hope Chest. If you've been around here long, you've heard me talk about the organization and its fearless leader, Tom Davis, the author of Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds (yeah, it's one of the twelve books of Christmas. We'll be rounding that up soon. There are a few books that weren't chosen). Tom also has a company called Saints Coffee, that sells fair trade coffee in order to feed AIDS orphans in Swaziland. He's a pretty cool guy with great kids and a wonderful wife, who like him, are driven by love for Swazi people, love for God. He even broke down a few guidelines for us land lubbers to bring Africa into our prayers and giving a little at a time.

But I digress (as usual). That friend and I were recounting an experience she'd had where a Christian person felt led to correct a stranger about something. No doubt the person felt compelled to let the individual know the folly of their ways to save the man's soul, but my friend asked me a question after telling the story that I've been thinking over ever since.

"If you had only one thing to leave with someone, wouldn't you want it to be the love of God?"

Wow. I think yes, but I wonder at times how far down my roots really go. Often, I find they are easily tugged to the surface of me, seeking approval, meting out punishments. The word rooted in these verses means "to render fixed", "to establish" and in some cases, "to commune." I think of Martha's sister Mary on that last one. There she is, sitting at Jesus' feet, not caring if they order Domino's or serve a gourmet meal. She was so in communion with Him that she knew He was not long for this world. She wanted to drink Him in while she could, to try and grab hold of the incomprehensible love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of it.

I want that too.

Father God,

Thank You for being love. Forgive us for the times when we forget to express Your love along with Your holiness. Strengthen us in our inner man. Help us to quiet our minds enough to receive the water of Your word that we might grow down deep, in the secret places of our souls. Bless the Children's Hope Chest team with safe travel and a fruitful, love-filled trip that brings glory to Your name.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

Today's Rhythms: I Can Only Imagine, MercyMe

Complete Joy

"...Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:2-4, NIV)

Paul knew the secret to joy--being driven by God's love instead of selfish ambition. Even in the Christian realm, it is so easy to become driven by sales numbers and best sellers lists, media attention and acclaim. Much like the children of Israel wanted a king over them, we desire, even crave celebrity and even create it when it suits us.

And yet, often when its achieved, there is loss, strife and pain. Paul, however, sat in a prison room and wrote about joy. Complete joy. Why? Because instead of focusing on his small cell, he went beyond it, into every church he'd ever been too, every heart he'd ever touched. Though his body was confined, his heart remained full of passion and compassion. He continued to be driven by love.

Of the five categories I'll be blogging on this year, this one (driven by His Love) is the middle one, the center of everything. The Bible says that without love, we have nothing. As I've spent the past year working on the Sistahfaith project, I know that is true. Every time I edited a piece, I found myself in tears, in prayer, in praise. I found myself overwhelmed that God had brought so many people to one mind and one heart after the enemy had tried so hard to separate us, not only from one another, but from God Himself.

I thank God for the editors who work on my books, who, for little pay and lots of work, are driven by love to spread the love of Christ through literature. I can see places in the past few years where I wasn't driven by the love of God, but by my own selfish ambition and lust for approval. I can't say that won't happen sometimes as this flesh is a trip to be sure, but more and more I pray to be motivated through love and for love. For it is then that my joy will be complete.

Father God,

I thank you for all the works you've given us to do and all the people you've sent to help us do them. Help us to be driven by your love, knowing that without it, everything is just a clanging symbol. Help us to see beyond our circumstances into the life of others. Lead us to complete joy, for you are glorious!

In Jesus' name,

Amen

Today's Rhythms: Glorious, Martha Munizzi