Wednesday, March 17, 2010

It Is Well With My Soul

This is the fifth and last lament of Lamentations, the fifth cry, poem, dirge, expression of grief, requiem, The writer Jeremiah; speaks to God on behalf of all the people in stacatto-like fashion. He describes the suffering, the pain, the torment, the affliction, the anguish and distress endured by the people and he appeals to God for relief. This lament opens with a plaintive appeal to God to take notice of the humiliation and suffering that had come upon the covenant people. They only had to heed Jeremiah’s words to avoid having become what they had ignored: aliens, widows, and orphans..
Jeremiah 7:5-7 - If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; If ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. The lament closes with a prayer of hope that God would restore them to their days of old. The present generation was bearing the consequences of their sins, Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
You sow good, you reap good,
You sow bad, you reap bad,
You sow love, you reap love,
You sow sour attitude, you reap sour attitude,
You sow discord, you reap discord,
You sow disrupt behavior, you reap it,
You sow compassion, you reap it,
Judah got a taste of her own medicine…
Vs 16, "The crown has fallen from our head” would refer to the end of the Davidic dynasty with King Zedekiah’s capture. Job 19:9, describes Judah's fate when he says, God has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. Is 28:1, Woe to the crown of pride…… Jeremiah 13:18… Humble yourselves, sit down:
You're on your way to wellness when you discover the cause,
You're on your way to wellness when you take responsibility,
You're on your way to wellness when you stop blaming others,
We have more Adam in us than we do Jonah………
When things went bad in the Garden, Adam said, "the woman"…
When things went bad on the Ship, Jonah said, "It's me"
What do you say when things go bad in your life?
The Doctor's fault,
The Lawyer's fault,
The Teacher's fault,
The Policeman's fault,
The Boss's fault,
The Friend's fault,
The Postman's fault,
It's Daddy's its Moma's fault,
It's Brother's my Sisters fault,
It's the milkman's fault,
But when you can own to your own shortcoming,
When you own up to your own mistakes,
When you own up to your own faults,
Own up to your own weaknesses,
Own up to your own imperfections,
Own up to your own deficiencies,
It's my own fault,
And so in this last lament, Jeremiah cries out to God,
In this last poem, dirge, requiem, expression of emotions,
He cries out for the Favor of God,
The reason why you woke up this morning,
It was the Favor of God,
He said Lord, vs 19,
You reign forever,
Your throne endures from Generation to Generation,
Don’t forget us Lord,
Don’t forsake us Lord,
We've struggling so long,
We've been hurting so long,
We've been in the storm too long,
It our fault, but take us back,
We messed up, but take us back,
We failed you, but take us back,
History records, God restored Judah,
God restored Jerusalem,
God restored Zion,
At the end of the story, they were able to say, It is well,
You've got to run all the way.....
Through the storm, through the valley
Through the dark
Through the hurt, disappointments, let downs and set backs.
to get to the end
You dont know if its well at the beginning or not..
you've got to see what the end is going to be!
and you've got to go THROUGH to get Through
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;Whatever my lot,
Thou has taught me to say, It is well,
It is well, with my soul,

Generation I didnt know

These are my nieces. One of course is newly born and I had never seen before. The two older babies I have seen once before. Now the nick-names are the names that I kind of recollect. KeeKee, MeeMee and believe it or not, the baby is called Maggie. These babies are my second oldest nephew's (Kendall Joy) children and he is a wonderful father. I will get their real names and post them someday. I'm just glad these are Kendall's babies.. Babies by all means are for young folks not for folks my age and older.. We only look at them, say how beautiful they are, spoil them and send them home!

Bishop Vashti McKenzi was here in Rochester for the Deltas as well as here earlier for Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. Vashti McKenzie represents the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she characterizes equality for all women in the ministry. The AME Church has historically made some major accomplishments concerning women in ministry. Dr. Vashti McKenzie is a woman of firsts. She was the first woman to pastor at Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. On July 11, 2000, the AME Church elected her its first female bishop in its 213-year history. The AME Church will never be the same. She came to Tucson years ago for Prince Chapel AME Church..... Never ever has there been a Woman's Day in the city even close to that event! She's yet climbing high mountains!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

That's My Moma

Moma is an amazing woman. Mamie Louise Willis Harvey. I am such a fan of hers. She is yet a tall beautiful high heel stepping queen who holds her own in every way! Each of the nine of us (siblings) have so many of her ways! I have been blessed with Mothers across this country, but this is MOMA. I so thank God for keeping her strong and healthy and able to offer advice to us. She's my queen yall. Raised us the right way! Didnt play! If she said go to bed; she meant every word of it, and meant for us to do it right away! She visited us in school, got up every morning of our school days, cooked hot biscuits, (no cans) Salmon Croquets, Pancakes, Eggs, Rice, Bacon.... .That is if we had it in the house... Many times, Moma had to literally make a meal on whatever was there. We really didnt know how poor we were until we got up and actually out of the house, because Moma knew how to make the house go! Rice pudding, Bread pudding, Banana Bread...the works.... We didnt realize it was digging from the bottom of the barrel. She walked to the Busline every morning after getting us off to school, got on the bus and went to work. She would ride the bus home each day, and have a full course dinner for us everyday of our life as chldren. She is and always has been a wonderful mother! She's the Matriarch of her family now and with God's help she will lead us just well. While God has placed many mothers in my life and for each of you I am grateful... I want the world to know "That's My Moma" birthed me, named me, raised me, taught me, loved me, whipped me, chastised me, made a man of me! Thank God for Moma!

It's been a while Yall....

Hello to all of my faithful Blog supporters.... I miss you as you have missed me. So much has transpired but I promise to return to the Blog so that we can continue to be in touch. Well, you know that I have finished my first year in Post Graduate School at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. That's some of the reason you haven't seen me here. Reading, Reading, Reading! Papers, Papers, Papers! And its been good. Can't begin to tell you how the reading is blessing me and I'm hoping that it's blessing those who hear me each week as well. In short, my church is wonderful, family is wonderful and my life is wonderful. You may know by now that my Grandmother passed a couple of weeks ago and we all gathered in Tennessee to celebrate her wonderful life and memories. I have so many pictures with stories that I will post soon which tells you so much about who I really am and shows you kind of where I come from. Be Blessed and tune in to the Blog for more of Rickey Bernard Harvey's Blog.. Oh by the way... Facebook has taken some of my writing time as well. See the link to your right and join the folks who communicate with me daily on Facebook!