President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address
By Christopher Hass - Jan 20th, 2009 at 1:47 pm EST
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As prepared for delivery:
My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Spirit of Truth
Cast off the works of darkness! Put on the armour of light. That is our protection. Jesus is coming, and Jesus want us to present our whole body. Don't take second best anymore. Come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Live for God for the rest of your life. John16:3 The Spirit of truth came (Holy Spirit), and would guide us into all truth. The greatest Gift to have is a hearing "EAR," from God. Something in your life can be dead. Jesus will stand in our lives, and work things out. Don't give up over that situation in your life. Call on the Name of the Lord! You will be saved!
When you get born again. God will give you the ability to hear His voice. Ask God for a hearing ear, to hear God's voice. Pray for all of our men and women in the Military, for safety, protection, and their families. Father God bring them back home safe. We are thankful for all of them, and their families. We love you, and support all that you do for your country.
Be careful when talking on the telephone. Everybody is not for you, and they proclaimed to be saved. Some of these saved people are working against you. They called themselves comes in the Name of Jesus!
We have to try the spirit by the spirit and see if it is of God. These type of evil people have another agenda, and they will do a John 10:10 on you. They come to steal, kill and destroy. What a friend you have in Jesus. We do have to trust some people in this world, but be guided by the Holy Spirit.
When you get born again. God will give you the ability to hear His voice. Ask God for a hearing ear, to hear God's voice. Pray for all of our men and women in the Military, for safety, protection, and their families. Father God bring them back home safe. We are thankful for all of them, and their families. We love you, and support all that you do for your country.
Be careful when talking on the telephone. Everybody is not for you, and they proclaimed to be saved. Some of these saved people are working against you. They called themselves comes in the Name of Jesus!
We have to try the spirit by the spirit and see if it is of God. These type of evil people have another agenda, and they will do a John 10:10 on you. They come to steal, kill and destroy. What a friend you have in Jesus. We do have to trust some people in this world, but be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Friday, November 20, 2009
"Be Not Troubled When A Famine Come"
Matthew 24: 1- In the midst of all of these things, be not troubled! You will hear of Wars, but be not troubled!24:7 Famine hitting the land. Pestilence of rats out of controlled. Earth Quakes hitting around the world. These are the beginning of sorrow! vs. 9. vs. 10: Many people are getting offended. Who has offended you, and blocked your anointing? Don't drink the poison! Don't let the bitterness take roots! Offense will arise 24:11, many false prophets shall arise.
Enduring to the end. Stay in Faith, regardless of what's going on in your life. There has to be Endurance.
Amos 8:11-12 A Famine of the Word. People are going and trying to find the Word, and could not find it. Will you endure to the end? What will separate you from the Word! Stay in Faith, and endure to the end! Will it be offense?
Line up with the Word! Your emotions are dominating the Word of God. Psalm 82:1-6 They are trying to do the right thing, but they are going to continue to walk in darkness. The attack is an attack on your faithfulness! Quitting is not an option. The attack from the devil is an attack on your faithfulness! Stand on the Word! Don't pull back from God! Pray and confess, and walk in love like you never before.
Rom. 10:1-2, Churches have a great zeal of God, but not vital knowledge, this leaves you empty. 10:3 Submit to God. You can be sincere in the things you do, but be
sincerely wrong. Don't stop tithing! Don't stop coming to church! ENDURE!!! Get your Faith stirred up!
2nd Peter 1:1-3 Simon Peter an Apostle to Jesus Christ.vs. 3 His divine Power. God has given us all things. vs 4 Be Partakers. The Word of God will grant you access to what you need, that lines up with the Word. Life is better in the Word! Get what you need when you get God's divine nature!
Enduring to the end. Stay in Faith, regardless of what's going on in your life. There has to be Endurance.
Amos 8:11-12 A Famine of the Word. People are going and trying to find the Word, and could not find it. Will you endure to the end? What will separate you from the Word! Stay in Faith, and endure to the end! Will it be offense?
Line up with the Word! Your emotions are dominating the Word of God. Psalm 82:1-6 They are trying to do the right thing, but they are going to continue to walk in darkness. The attack is an attack on your faithfulness! Quitting is not an option. The attack from the devil is an attack on your faithfulness! Stand on the Word! Don't pull back from God! Pray and confess, and walk in love like you never before.
Rom. 10:1-2, Churches have a great zeal of God, but not vital knowledge, this leaves you empty. 10:3 Submit to God. You can be sincere in the things you do, but be
sincerely wrong. Don't stop tithing! Don't stop coming to church! ENDURE!!! Get your Faith stirred up!
2nd Peter 1:1-3 Simon Peter an Apostle to Jesus Christ.vs. 3 His divine Power. God has given us all things. vs 4 Be Partakers. The Word of God will grant you access to what you need, that lines up with the Word. Life is better in the Word! Get what you need when you get God's divine nature!
The Good News - You Are Not Alone
You are not alone! Keep pressing on! God is on your side and with you! You are an Overcomer! You will rise again! God loves you forever and ever! Don't give up! Fight the good fight of faith! Don't worry about what people says! I know that is easy to say, but we can't worry, because they are of the devil! We have to get better and stronger in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Believe what the Word of God says! The Word of God is a healer! People will try to tarnish your reputation and tear you down. Jesus is right there, to pick you up, hold you,heal you, cleanse you,mold you, shape you into His image, and give you that peace that passeth all understanding. God has his time of dealing with the ones that comes against you. Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for God. God knows your heart, and He is concerned and cares for you. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. God is going to TURN that situation around! Jesus loves you.
Rom.1:18- This is about the Wrath of God. Paul is talking about coming to Rome and preach the gospel. This Good News and has the power to change a person's life, deliver them from hell, and the power of darkness. Rom. 1:16-17. The righteousness of God means, that God always done what He says. Everything that God does is right. There is no flaws in God. The righteous man shall live by faith! Hab.1: 1-3. Habakkuk is upset with God. Inquity is what is awful. The wicked surround the righteous. The bad guys are winning! These people are coming against the people of God! Why are you allowing them to do this to us God? vs. 12 Hab. looks at God, and don't understand. I know we will not die, because you are a righteous God and we will not die. you promise we will exist as a Nation forever. God has the Jews as the Apple/ People of His eyes. Hab. 2:1- Record the vision. Write it down and the one who reads it shall run. The vision is for an appointed time. It will come and not be delayed.
Rom. 1:17- The righteous man shall live by faith. Sin is a willful refusal to believe the truth of God. Jesus cannot lie. Jesus prayed for us. John 17:15, 17. Father santify them and set them apart. Santify them through thy truth. THY WORD IS TRUTH! The Bible is the Book that Jesus lives by, and we should live by.
God has given you a free will. You can choose the way, but not the consequences.It's your choice to do what you want to do! God is angry because He has presented you with truth, and you refuse to believe it. Rom.2 deals with the religious. Has a form of godliness but denying the power of God!
You can do everything you know to do and it's not working. WHY? You are trying to do it on your own! Eph. 2:8-9 by Grace are you saved! Grace is unmerited! The righteous man live by Faith! Living righteousness is what God says is right! Hab. 2:4, Heb. 10:38,
The Monk open the Bible reads Rom. 1:17. The righteous man lives by Faith! Escape the Wrath of God. To be right with God is to receive Jesus as your God. Rom. 1:17-18 The wrath of God is being revealed! A righteous anger is when men and women are mistreating one another, and not behaving right. What makes God angry when me refuse to obey, and bow to God.
Believe what the Word of God says! The Word of God is a healer! People will try to tarnish your reputation and tear you down. Jesus is right there, to pick you up, hold you,heal you, cleanse you,mold you, shape you into His image, and give you that peace that passeth all understanding. God has his time of dealing with the ones that comes against you. Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for God. God knows your heart, and He is concerned and cares for you. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. God is going to TURN that situation around! Jesus loves you.
Rom.1:18- This is about the Wrath of God. Paul is talking about coming to Rome and preach the gospel. This Good News and has the power to change a person's life, deliver them from hell, and the power of darkness. Rom. 1:16-17. The righteousness of God means, that God always done what He says. Everything that God does is right. There is no flaws in God. The righteous man shall live by faith! Hab.1: 1-3. Habakkuk is upset with God. Inquity is what is awful. The wicked surround the righteous. The bad guys are winning! These people are coming against the people of God! Why are you allowing them to do this to us God? vs. 12 Hab. looks at God, and don't understand. I know we will not die, because you are a righteous God and we will not die. you promise we will exist as a Nation forever. God has the Jews as the Apple/ People of His eyes. Hab. 2:1- Record the vision. Write it down and the one who reads it shall run. The vision is for an appointed time. It will come and not be delayed.
Rom. 1:17- The righteous man shall live by faith. Sin is a willful refusal to believe the truth of God. Jesus cannot lie. Jesus prayed for us. John 17:15, 17. Father santify them and set them apart. Santify them through thy truth. THY WORD IS TRUTH! The Bible is the Book that Jesus lives by, and we should live by.
God has given you a free will. You can choose the way, but not the consequences.It's your choice to do what you want to do! God is angry because He has presented you with truth, and you refuse to believe it. Rom.2 deals with the religious. Has a form of godliness but denying the power of God!
You can do everything you know to do and it's not working. WHY? You are trying to do it on your own! Eph. 2:8-9 by Grace are you saved! Grace is unmerited! The righteous man live by Faith! Living righteousness is what God says is right! Hab. 2:4, Heb. 10:38,
The Monk open the Bible reads Rom. 1:17. The righteous man lives by Faith! Escape the Wrath of God. To be right with God is to receive Jesus as your God. Rom. 1:17-18 The wrath of God is being revealed! A righteous anger is when men and women are mistreating one another, and not behaving right. What makes God angry when me refuse to obey, and bow to God.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"Evangelism"
We Must Be People Who Pray
When we turn to the New Testament, we find that those who gave themselves whole heartedly to evangelism also gave themselves to prayer. Not only did they plead with men for God, they also pleaded for men with God. We find them asking God for the opportunities to speak the Gospel (Col. 4:3). They also requested the courage they would need when they received that opportunity (Eph. 6:19). Although the emphasis is on believers praying for themselves and others who are evangelizing, they also interceded before God on behalf of the lost (I Tim. 2:1-4).
Pray and keep praying. As you do, expect God to answer. Praying in faith is believing not only that He can, but also expecting that He will. God wants us to pray knowing He can and expecting that He will.
We Must Learn How to Share Christ
When we study the book of Acts carefully, it becomes clear that the disciples knew how to lead someone to Christ. Starting where the person was, they knew how to lead that person to saving faith in Christ as the Holy Spirit worked.
If we are going to have an evangelistic lifestyle, we, too, must know how to lead someone to Christ. In light of this, those who consistently evangelize have found it helpful to master a method. Obviously, one will have to adapt it to particular situations and people, but mastering a method makes most people more consistent in sharing Christ and more confident as they do so.
Whatever approach you use, make certain it makes the Gospel clear. The Gospel in its simplest terms is: Christ died for our sins, and arose from the dead (I Cor. 15:3-4). Therefore, a good approach in sharing the Gospel should cover the basic doctrine of sin (so they understand their need), the death and resurrection of Christ (so they understand God’s way of salvation), and faith (so they know what they need to do). It should also give non-Christians ample opportunity to interact with you so you can be sure they are following you and understand what you are saying.
Excerpt from Dr. Larry Moyer’s How-To Book on Personal Evangelism
Filed Under Evangelism Training · Leave a Comment
We Must Give God Obedience, Not Excuses
The basis of evangelism is the Great Commission. Christ’s command is: “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Luke 5:1-11 tells us about one of the first things Christ taught his disciples in evangelism. Using the metaphor of catching fish, He taught them to catch men. After they had fished an entire night with no success, Christ said to Peter, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Any fisherman acquainted with the Sea of Galilee would understand that if you don’t catch any fish at night , you might as well settle for no fish. Despite this fact, Peter answered, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” Miraculously they caught a net breaking, boat-sinking load, and Jesus said, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” His message was simple: “When I say do it, do it!”
We sometimes think that we aren’t called to speak to a lost neighbor about the Gospel because we may not be able to answer his or her questions. Sometimes this concern has some merit. At other times, it becomes an excuse behind which we hide. After all, Christ’s calling is to us as well as to the first disciples, and He can provide the miraculous catch.
Filed Under Evangelism Training · Leave a Comment
We Must See People the Way God Sees Them
In Matthew 9:36, the observation is made concerning Christ, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” The New Testament speaks of Christ being moved or filled with pity eight times. He looked beyond people’s faults and saw their need – they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Many times Christians feel that being around non-Christians is an unpleasant experience. Some believers are very self-centered and their language can be less than desirable. We forget, though, that the problem is not what they do, it’s who they are – individuals who have never met the Savior. As Christ looked beyond the person’s actions and saw the problem, we are to do the same. We must have a heart of compassion toward non-Christians and see them the way Christ does. His practice is to be our pattern.
When we turn to the New Testament, we find that those who gave themselves whole heartedly to evangelism also gave themselves to prayer. Not only did they plead with men for God, they also pleaded for men with God. We find them asking God for the opportunities to speak the Gospel (Col. 4:3). They also requested the courage they would need when they received that opportunity (Eph. 6:19). Although the emphasis is on believers praying for themselves and others who are evangelizing, they also interceded before God on behalf of the lost (I Tim. 2:1-4).
Pray and keep praying. As you do, expect God to answer. Praying in faith is believing not only that He can, but also expecting that He will. God wants us to pray knowing He can and expecting that He will.
We Must Learn How to Share Christ
When we study the book of Acts carefully, it becomes clear that the disciples knew how to lead someone to Christ. Starting where the person was, they knew how to lead that person to saving faith in Christ as the Holy Spirit worked.
If we are going to have an evangelistic lifestyle, we, too, must know how to lead someone to Christ. In light of this, those who consistently evangelize have found it helpful to master a method. Obviously, one will have to adapt it to particular situations and people, but mastering a method makes most people more consistent in sharing Christ and more confident as they do so.
Whatever approach you use, make certain it makes the Gospel clear. The Gospel in its simplest terms is: Christ died for our sins, and arose from the dead (I Cor. 15:3-4). Therefore, a good approach in sharing the Gospel should cover the basic doctrine of sin (so they understand their need), the death and resurrection of Christ (so they understand God’s way of salvation), and faith (so they know what they need to do). It should also give non-Christians ample opportunity to interact with you so you can be sure they are following you and understand what you are saying.
Excerpt from Dr. Larry Moyer’s How-To Book on Personal Evangelism
Filed Under Evangelism Training · Leave a Comment
We Must Give God Obedience, Not Excuses
The basis of evangelism is the Great Commission. Christ’s command is: “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Luke 5:1-11 tells us about one of the first things Christ taught his disciples in evangelism. Using the metaphor of catching fish, He taught them to catch men. After they had fished an entire night with no success, Christ said to Peter, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Any fisherman acquainted with the Sea of Galilee would understand that if you don’t catch any fish at night , you might as well settle for no fish. Despite this fact, Peter answered, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” Miraculously they caught a net breaking, boat-sinking load, and Jesus said, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” His message was simple: “When I say do it, do it!”
We sometimes think that we aren’t called to speak to a lost neighbor about the Gospel because we may not be able to answer his or her questions. Sometimes this concern has some merit. At other times, it becomes an excuse behind which we hide. After all, Christ’s calling is to us as well as to the first disciples, and He can provide the miraculous catch.
Filed Under Evangelism Training · Leave a Comment
We Must See People the Way God Sees Them
In Matthew 9:36, the observation is made concerning Christ, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” The New Testament speaks of Christ being moved or filled with pity eight times. He looked beyond people’s faults and saw their need – they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Many times Christians feel that being around non-Christians is an unpleasant experience. Some believers are very self-centered and their language can be less than desirable. We forget, though, that the problem is not what they do, it’s who they are – individuals who have never met the Savior. As Christ looked beyond the person’s actions and saw the problem, we are to do the same. We must have a heart of compassion toward non-Christians and see them the way Christ does. His practice is to be our pattern.
"Are You Saved" Where Will You Go For Eternity?"
ARE YOU SAVED?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where will you go for eternity?
There is nothing more important than where you will spend eternity!
If you have never thought about where you will go when you die...now is the time to do so. Perhaps you received one of these tombstone cards with the question, "What is the most important part on this headstone?" What do you think? Take a good look at it.
Is the most important part your name? The date? That you were dearly loved? That you were someone's son or daughter?
The answer is surprising...
It's none of the above!
Did you miss it?
Most people do.
The most important part on the headstone is the dash in between the two dates. It represents all the days of your life here on earth. The bible tells us that life is like a vapor. Think about it. Your life appears for a little while and then it's gone.
Have you ever thought about death? Where will you go after you die? Where will you spend all eternity when your life here on earth is over?
Think about it. The ultimate statistic is that 33 people out of 33 people die! That means you won't escape death. No one will. And eternity is a long time. In fact, just think, it's forever and never ends. There is no time in eternity.
We care about you and we want you to understand that there's nothing more important than where you go after you die. That's why someone gave this card to you.
Have you ever looked at yourself according to how God see's you? If not, here's what to do, evaluate yourself by the 10 Commandments to see how you measure up to God's standard of righteousness.
Have you ever lied (even once--fibs, white lies, etc.)? Have you ever stolen (the value is irrelevant)? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you ever looked with lust? If you have said "Yes" to these three questions (by your own admission), you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart; and we've only looked at three of the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps you're thinking that the 10 Commandments were given a long time ago and are not relevant for today...but the bible gives us surety in the New Testament, "that no fornicator (a person who has sex outside of marriage), unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Ephesians 5: 5 (Italicize portion not in the original text).
Have you put God first in your life? Or have you created a false god to suit yourself; a god you feel comfortable with? If God judges you by that standard will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? If you're honest and listen to your conscience you know that you will be guilty, and end up in Hell.
The reality of that should strike terror in your heart!
But WAIT!
LISTEN!
There's Good News!
God Himself made a way for sinners to be forgiven...Listen to this...
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man and was without sin. He suffered and died on the cross and then He rose from the dead, defeating death. You broke the Law and Jesus paid the fine with His precious blood for sinners! Today, here's what to do, confess your sins to God, repent (turn) from your sins, put your trust in Jesus to save you from eternal damnation, and you will pass from death to life. Only through Christ can God forgive you and grant you the gift of everlasting life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION: What is life all about?
ANSWER: Life is all about the Glory of God!
Click HERE to Read More!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some proofs of a genuine work of salvation:
Are you wrestling with the thoughts that you aren't saved? Do you question whether your faith in God is genuine? Perhaps you feel like you've had a conversion experience in the past but your not sure if you're a true convert. Below are five questions to ask yourself and explanations that provide general proofs of a genuine work of salvation. We hope that these provide helpful insight to you:
Is there present belief in God?
We are never to depend upon a previous testimony of something we did years ago such as pray a prayer or sign a card or walk down an isle for an altar call, we must presently be confessing Jesus Christ as Lord through faith.
Is there a habitual impenitent sin in your life?
A true Christian will not habitually and impenitently practice a lifestyle of sin. (1 John 1. 5-10). This does not mean that we will ever be sinless, this side of heaven, but that we who are in the light do not seek to remain in darkness.
Is there observable growth?
There must be an observable growth in the life of the believer. We are called to grow in our salvation in the areas of knowledge, love, grace, and fruit. (John 15; 2 Pet. 3.18). Those who think that nothing more than a mere confession of faith is needed, to prove oneself a Christian, run the danger of self-deception and ultimately lack assurance of their salvation.
Is there a pursuit for holiness?
A true Christian is not to remain carnal in mind and affections. We are to pursue holiness. A believer in Christ, hungers for righteousness and seeks to be pleasing in obedience to the Father. (Hebrews 12:14). This proof is extremely telling regarding ones salvation as well as their spiritual maturity. Do we love darkness? Do we rejoice in sinfulness? These things are to be rejected by the true child of God.
Do you hold to the essential doctrines of the Faith? Especially, having to do with the Doctrines of God, Authority, and Salvation?
There are certain doctrines and teachings in Scripture that cannot be breached. The failure to hold to the "Essentials" will result in heresy, false doctrine, and false hope. One of the reformers once said, "If you have the wrong God in the end you meet the Devil". Thus, it is essential that we have the right God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). That we believe in the true identity of Jesus Christ, being fully God and fully man.
We must believe that the Bible is the word of God and the final authority for all of faith and practice. We will have no foundation otherwise. Believing, therefore, that the Bible is inerrant, infallible, and inspired is essential. For without it we would not know God at all. Also, we must believe in a proper view of salvation. In other words, it is by grace through faith that we are saved and not by human works lest we boast in ourselves. (Eph. 2.8; Tit. 3.4-7).
These proofs are never to be mistaken as works. That is, that none of the above mentioned are offered as works which prove that we have earned the right to be saved. Rather, we are saved by nothing more than sovereign grace. Assurance is a miracle of God and it is reserved for the child of God. For the Christian, we have the blessed promise of assurance and that we can know for certain whether we are saved or not. Below are two powerful verses on assurance that you can take comfort in:
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5.13).
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without doubting, for He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10. 22-23).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Hear Solid Bible Teaching Visit:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where will you go for eternity?
There is nothing more important than where you will spend eternity!
If you have never thought about where you will go when you die...now is the time to do so. Perhaps you received one of these tombstone cards with the question, "What is the most important part on this headstone?" What do you think? Take a good look at it.
Is the most important part your name? The date? That you were dearly loved? That you were someone's son or daughter?
The answer is surprising...
It's none of the above!
Did you miss it?
Most people do.
The most important part on the headstone is the dash in between the two dates. It represents all the days of your life here on earth. The bible tells us that life is like a vapor. Think about it. Your life appears for a little while and then it's gone.
Have you ever thought about death? Where will you go after you die? Where will you spend all eternity when your life here on earth is over?
Think about it. The ultimate statistic is that 33 people out of 33 people die! That means you won't escape death. No one will. And eternity is a long time. In fact, just think, it's forever and never ends. There is no time in eternity.
We care about you and we want you to understand that there's nothing more important than where you go after you die. That's why someone gave this card to you.
Have you ever looked at yourself according to how God see's you? If not, here's what to do, evaluate yourself by the 10 Commandments to see how you measure up to God's standard of righteousness.
Have you ever lied (even once--fibs, white lies, etc.)? Have you ever stolen (the value is irrelevant)? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you ever looked with lust? If you have said "Yes" to these three questions (by your own admission), you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart; and we've only looked at three of the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps you're thinking that the 10 Commandments were given a long time ago and are not relevant for today...but the bible gives us surety in the New Testament, "that no fornicator (a person who has sex outside of marriage), unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Ephesians 5: 5 (Italicize portion not in the original text).
Have you put God first in your life? Or have you created a false god to suit yourself; a god you feel comfortable with? If God judges you by that standard will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? If you're honest and listen to your conscience you know that you will be guilty, and end up in Hell.
The reality of that should strike terror in your heart!
But WAIT!
LISTEN!
There's Good News!
God Himself made a way for sinners to be forgiven...Listen to this...
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man and was without sin. He suffered and died on the cross and then He rose from the dead, defeating death. You broke the Law and Jesus paid the fine with His precious blood for sinners! Today, here's what to do, confess your sins to God, repent (turn) from your sins, put your trust in Jesus to save you from eternal damnation, and you will pass from death to life. Only through Christ can God forgive you and grant you the gift of everlasting life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION: What is life all about?
ANSWER: Life is all about the Glory of God!
Click HERE to Read More!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some proofs of a genuine work of salvation:
Are you wrestling with the thoughts that you aren't saved? Do you question whether your faith in God is genuine? Perhaps you feel like you've had a conversion experience in the past but your not sure if you're a true convert. Below are five questions to ask yourself and explanations that provide general proofs of a genuine work of salvation. We hope that these provide helpful insight to you:
Is there present belief in God?
We are never to depend upon a previous testimony of something we did years ago such as pray a prayer or sign a card or walk down an isle for an altar call, we must presently be confessing Jesus Christ as Lord through faith.
Is there a habitual impenitent sin in your life?
A true Christian will not habitually and impenitently practice a lifestyle of sin. (1 John 1. 5-10). This does not mean that we will ever be sinless, this side of heaven, but that we who are in the light do not seek to remain in darkness.
Is there observable growth?
There must be an observable growth in the life of the believer. We are called to grow in our salvation in the areas of knowledge, love, grace, and fruit. (John 15; 2 Pet. 3.18). Those who think that nothing more than a mere confession of faith is needed, to prove oneself a Christian, run the danger of self-deception and ultimately lack assurance of their salvation.
Is there a pursuit for holiness?
A true Christian is not to remain carnal in mind and affections. We are to pursue holiness. A believer in Christ, hungers for righteousness and seeks to be pleasing in obedience to the Father. (Hebrews 12:14). This proof is extremely telling regarding ones salvation as well as their spiritual maturity. Do we love darkness? Do we rejoice in sinfulness? These things are to be rejected by the true child of God.
Do you hold to the essential doctrines of the Faith? Especially, having to do with the Doctrines of God, Authority, and Salvation?
There are certain doctrines and teachings in Scripture that cannot be breached. The failure to hold to the "Essentials" will result in heresy, false doctrine, and false hope. One of the reformers once said, "If you have the wrong God in the end you meet the Devil". Thus, it is essential that we have the right God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). That we believe in the true identity of Jesus Christ, being fully God and fully man.
We must believe that the Bible is the word of God and the final authority for all of faith and practice. We will have no foundation otherwise. Believing, therefore, that the Bible is inerrant, infallible, and inspired is essential. For without it we would not know God at all. Also, we must believe in a proper view of salvation. In other words, it is by grace through faith that we are saved and not by human works lest we boast in ourselves. (Eph. 2.8; Tit. 3.4-7).
These proofs are never to be mistaken as works. That is, that none of the above mentioned are offered as works which prove that we have earned the right to be saved. Rather, we are saved by nothing more than sovereign grace. Assurance is a miracle of God and it is reserved for the child of God. For the Christian, we have the blessed promise of assurance and that we can know for certain whether we are saved or not. Below are two powerful verses on assurance that you can take comfort in:
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5.13).
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without doubting, for He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10. 22-23).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Hear Solid Bible Teaching Visit:
"How to Share With Those Hurting"
How to share with Those Who are Hurting
...............Search...............
Translations available… Help Translate
on this topic
Articles…
If God knows I am HURTING, why doesn't He help me?
I'M UGLY. Why was God so unfair to me this way?
Does God feel our pain?
Why does God allow innocent people to suffer?
Youth Essay: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
I'm thinking about committing suicide.
What should a Christian do if overwhelmed with DEPRESSION?
Are there biblical examples of DEPRESSION or how to deal with it?
If a Christian commits suicide, will they go to Heaven?
I think I am ADDICTED TO SEX? Does Jesus have answers for me?
I think I was sexually ABUSED, but I'm not sure. What Is sexual abuse, and what can I do to stop the trauma I am facing now?
ABORTION - for numerous answers to assist people considering abortion, see our Life Before Birth section
Books…
Passing Showers, Daryl Witmer
Getting Through the Night, Eugenia Price
Lament for a Son, Nicholas Wolterstorff
Parables of the Forest, Pamela Reeve
Where is God When It Hurts?, Philip Yancey
Videos…
Miracle of the Cards
A Vow to Cherish
The Window
Secular films dealing with loss and tragedy (from our Movies for Therapy feature
Dead Poets Society | Dying Young | Lorenzo's Oil | Message in a Bottle | One True Thing | Ponette | Shadowlands | Wit
Linda Wooding (friendship with an elderly Hindu woman)
Know of something that should be added here?
Let us know.
An unsaved woman recently confided in a preacher that she harbored bitterness toward God, because both her father and her brother were victims of murder. The question then arises, how do we witness to a person is such a state? Do we blatantly talk about sin, righteousness and judgment? The answer can be seen in the story of a little boy who was running through some woods. He suddenly tripped over a log and cut his jugular vein. His father quickly picked him up and held his finger tightly on the vein to stop the blood flow, as they rushed the child to a hospital.
Helpful Tips
If there has been a death, tell your friend that you are sorry about their loss.
Be sure to show genuine sympathy, concern and sensitivity.
Look for ways you can help in real, tangible ways. House cleaning? Yardwork? etc.
Coping: Ask God to give you the grace to be all you can be for your loved one or friend. Pray for love and patience. Your loved ones will need you now more than they have ever needed you.
The best thing you can do for your loved one who is suffering is to be there for them and to help them prepare for that day. A question to ask is "Are you ready to meet your Creator?" If he or she answers no, then you have a great opportunity to tell your friend that the Creators greatest desire is for us to have a personal relationship with Him.
—Compiled from Jim Uttley of Indian Life, Ray Comfort, and others.
As they entered the surgery, the distressed child held out his thumb to the surgeon. When he had fallen down a splinter of wood had entered his thumb. Of course the good doctor ignored the boy's plea to remove the splinter, and immediately set to work on stopping the blood flow from his jugular vein.
There are not many in the world that escape suffering. Two hundred thousand people were murdered in the U.S. during the 1990's, leaving perhaps more than a million loved ones to fight bitterness, and to ask why God allowed the murder to happen. No doubt each unsaved person held up a pained thumb to God, when He is more interested in stopping the blood flowing from the jugular vein. We expect God to immediately fix that which we consider the most serious wound, when God wants to first deal with the “sin” issue - that which will be the death and eternal damnation of us. So, if as Christians, we care about the will of God and the eternal welfare of the person to whom we are speaking, we will go for the jugular; we will speak about the sin issue.
However, it goes without saying that we need to show a deep empathy for the person who has been through suffering as we gently take them through the Law. This may take a little practice, but it is something in which each of us must become proficient, if we want to see the lost come the Christ.
This is how to best handle the sensitive issue of witnessing to someone who is hurting. Tell him that you are sorry about his loss. Again, make sure that you show genuine sensitivity, then do what a surgeon would do with a severed jugular vein. Turn immediately to the serious issue at hand - the person's salvation. Unless he was a Christian, stay clear of any talk about whether or not the loved one who died went to Heaven or Hell, by saying that God is good and that He will do that which is right on Judgment Day.
Say something like, "When we are confronted with the issue of death, it can often make us think about the issues of God, and about our own eternal salvation. Do you ever think about God? Do you consider yourself to be a good person?" Then gently take him through the Law.
If there is any offence, apologize and change the subject. But more than likely you will find that by talking about his personal salvation, it will be like a complete subject change, and therefore there wont be offensive.
If he is bitter at God and that is hindering him from opening his heart, gently let them know that many people have suffered terrible losses in this life, and they have let that suffering bring them to the Cross, and consequently to everlasting life. An analogy that may be helpful is to say that if someone offers to lift you out of quicksand, don't let the fact that you don't like the color of their skin or you can't understand why they are wearing certain clothes, etc., stop you from giving your hand to your rescuer. God offers to lift us out of the quicksand of death itself. Tell him: "Let Him pull you out, and once you are saved, ask your questions. If you don't get an answer in this life, you are guaranteed to get one in the next."
What should I say to someone who has lost a loved one through cancer?
Be very careful not to give the impression that God was punishing the person for his sins. Instead, speak about the fact that all around us we can see the evidence of a “fallen creation.” Explain how in the beginning there was no disease, pain, suffering, or death. But when sin entered the world, it brought suffering with it. Then gently turn the conversation away from the person who died to the person who is still living. Ask if he has been thinking about God, and if he has kept the Ten Commandments. Then take the opportunity to go through the spiritual nature of God's Law. Someone who has lost a loved one often begins to ask soul-searching questions about God, death, and eternity. Many people are so hard-hearted that it takes a tragedy to make them receptive to God.
Author: Ray Comfort of Living Waters Publications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christian Answers Network HOMEPAGE and DIRECTORY
EffectiveEvangelism.com is a part of ChristianAnswers.Net
...............Search...............
Translations available… Help Translate
on this topic
Articles…
If God knows I am HURTING, why doesn't He help me?
I'M UGLY. Why was God so unfair to me this way?
Does God feel our pain?
Why does God allow innocent people to suffer?
Youth Essay: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
I'm thinking about committing suicide.
What should a Christian do if overwhelmed with DEPRESSION?
Are there biblical examples of DEPRESSION or how to deal with it?
If a Christian commits suicide, will they go to Heaven?
I think I am ADDICTED TO SEX? Does Jesus have answers for me?
I think I was sexually ABUSED, but I'm not sure. What Is sexual abuse, and what can I do to stop the trauma I am facing now?
ABORTION - for numerous answers to assist people considering abortion, see our Life Before Birth section
Books…
Passing Showers, Daryl Witmer
Getting Through the Night, Eugenia Price
Lament for a Son, Nicholas Wolterstorff
Parables of the Forest, Pamela Reeve
Where is God When It Hurts?, Philip Yancey
Videos…
Miracle of the Cards
A Vow to Cherish
The Window
Secular films dealing with loss and tragedy (from our Movies for Therapy feature
Dead Poets Society | Dying Young | Lorenzo's Oil | Message in a Bottle | One True Thing | Ponette | Shadowlands | Wit
Linda Wooding (friendship with an elderly Hindu woman)
Know of something that should be added here?
Let us know.
An unsaved woman recently confided in a preacher that she harbored bitterness toward God, because both her father and her brother were victims of murder. The question then arises, how do we witness to a person is such a state? Do we blatantly talk about sin, righteousness and judgment? The answer can be seen in the story of a little boy who was running through some woods. He suddenly tripped over a log and cut his jugular vein. His father quickly picked him up and held his finger tightly on the vein to stop the blood flow, as they rushed the child to a hospital.
Helpful Tips
If there has been a death, tell your friend that you are sorry about their loss.
Be sure to show genuine sympathy, concern and sensitivity.
Look for ways you can help in real, tangible ways. House cleaning? Yardwork? etc.
Coping: Ask God to give you the grace to be all you can be for your loved one or friend. Pray for love and patience. Your loved ones will need you now more than they have ever needed you.
The best thing you can do for your loved one who is suffering is to be there for them and to help them prepare for that day. A question to ask is "Are you ready to meet your Creator?" If he or she answers no, then you have a great opportunity to tell your friend that the Creators greatest desire is for us to have a personal relationship with Him.
—Compiled from Jim Uttley of Indian Life, Ray Comfort, and others.
As they entered the surgery, the distressed child held out his thumb to the surgeon. When he had fallen down a splinter of wood had entered his thumb. Of course the good doctor ignored the boy's plea to remove the splinter, and immediately set to work on stopping the blood flow from his jugular vein.
There are not many in the world that escape suffering. Two hundred thousand people were murdered in the U.S. during the 1990's, leaving perhaps more than a million loved ones to fight bitterness, and to ask why God allowed the murder to happen. No doubt each unsaved person held up a pained thumb to God, when He is more interested in stopping the blood flowing from the jugular vein. We expect God to immediately fix that which we consider the most serious wound, when God wants to first deal with the “sin” issue - that which will be the death and eternal damnation of us. So, if as Christians, we care about the will of God and the eternal welfare of the person to whom we are speaking, we will go for the jugular; we will speak about the sin issue.
However, it goes without saying that we need to show a deep empathy for the person who has been through suffering as we gently take them through the Law. This may take a little practice, but it is something in which each of us must become proficient, if we want to see the lost come the Christ.
This is how to best handle the sensitive issue of witnessing to someone who is hurting. Tell him that you are sorry about his loss. Again, make sure that you show genuine sensitivity, then do what a surgeon would do with a severed jugular vein. Turn immediately to the serious issue at hand - the person's salvation. Unless he was a Christian, stay clear of any talk about whether or not the loved one who died went to Heaven or Hell, by saying that God is good and that He will do that which is right on Judgment Day.
Say something like, "When we are confronted with the issue of death, it can often make us think about the issues of God, and about our own eternal salvation. Do you ever think about God? Do you consider yourself to be a good person?" Then gently take him through the Law.
If there is any offence, apologize and change the subject. But more than likely you will find that by talking about his personal salvation, it will be like a complete subject change, and therefore there wont be offensive.
If he is bitter at God and that is hindering him from opening his heart, gently let them know that many people have suffered terrible losses in this life, and they have let that suffering bring them to the Cross, and consequently to everlasting life. An analogy that may be helpful is to say that if someone offers to lift you out of quicksand, don't let the fact that you don't like the color of their skin or you can't understand why they are wearing certain clothes, etc., stop you from giving your hand to your rescuer. God offers to lift us out of the quicksand of death itself. Tell him: "Let Him pull you out, and once you are saved, ask your questions. If you don't get an answer in this life, you are guaranteed to get one in the next."
What should I say to someone who has lost a loved one through cancer?
Be very careful not to give the impression that God was punishing the person for his sins. Instead, speak about the fact that all around us we can see the evidence of a “fallen creation.” Explain how in the beginning there was no disease, pain, suffering, or death. But when sin entered the world, it brought suffering with it. Then gently turn the conversation away from the person who died to the person who is still living. Ask if he has been thinking about God, and if he has kept the Ten Commandments. Then take the opportunity to go through the spiritual nature of God's Law. Someone who has lost a loved one often begins to ask soul-searching questions about God, death, and eternity. Many people are so hard-hearted that it takes a tragedy to make them receptive to God.
Author: Ray Comfort of Living Waters Publications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christian Answers Network HOMEPAGE and DIRECTORY
EffectiveEvangelism.com is a part of ChristianAnswers.Net
"Burden For The Lost" Ray Comfort
A Burden for the Lost by Ray Comfort
...............Search...............
Translations available… Help Translate
on this topic
The School of Biblical Evangelism from Ray Comfort offers 120 lessons that will help train you and your whole family about sharing your faith in Christ with others. Highly recommended.
Ministries…
Ray Comfort, Living Waters
EvanTell
The Faithful Witness
Asian Internet Bible Ministries
Audio…
(online audio)
Hell's Best Kept Secret
How to get on fire for God
Keys to revival
Militant evangelism
Keys to Zeal
Why the lack of power within the Church?
How to Get Passion for Souls
Freedom from the “fear of man”
Video…
(online)
Bad News Good News (R. Larry Moyer, 40 mins.)
How to witness without getting a nervous breakdown (R. Larry Moyer, 60 mins.)
Books
The Way of the Master by Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort
See EvanTell for several downloadable pdf books
Know of something that should be added here?
Let us know.
Before the beginning of time, God saw not only the cry of his heart, but the cry within every human heart. The Mighty Three, the Triune God, broke through the hosts of hell to draw water from the Well of Bethlehem. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Now the offer to sinful humanity is: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).
The true convert holds the Cup of Salvation in his trembling hands. He has seen the cost of his redemption. He sees that he was not redeemed with silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ. Like David (2 Sam 23:15), he cannot drink of that cup in a spirit of self-indulgence. Rather than drink in the pleasures and the comforts of the Christian life, his reasonable service is to present himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and pour his life out as a drink offering to the Lord.
DELIGHTFUL HEART
I was killing time in a department store when an elderly man struck up a conversation with me. It wasn't long before the conversation swung around to the things of God. When I asked this man if he had a Christian background, his answer was interesting. He said, "Oh, I am a churchgoer. I believe in God the Father; and the Son, He's around too…somewhere." His reply was both humorous and tragic. This man went to church, obviously had faith in God, believed in the deity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet he was not saved.
If you love God, your heart will go out to the millions who are in such a state. They are in the “valley of decision.” Valleys are often without direct light, and direct light is what sinners need. They don't understand the issues. They are so close to salvation; it is as near as their heart and mouth. Yet without repentance, they will perish. Such thoughts are grievous. If you are born of God's Spirit, you will find that something compels you to run to the lost, to reach out to the unsaved, because God gave you a new heart that delights to do His will.
Well-known author and pastor Oswald Chambers said, "So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does." Bible teacher C. F. W. Walthers said, "A believer is ready to serve everybody wherever he can. He cannot but profess the gospel before men, even though he foresees that he can reap nothing but ridicule and scorn for it; yes, he is ready also to give his life for the gospel."
One cannot help but see Peter's passion for the lost, so evidently portrayed for us in the Book of Acts. He put behind him the three denials of his Lord, and stood before a multitude on the day of Pentecost. When a crowd gathered around the lame man who had been healed, he boldly preached the gospel to them. He testified before the very ones who had murdered the Savior, and he told them so. He had a passion for his God and a passion for sinners.
What was the apostle Paul's greatest passion? This longing, this aspiration, this yearning, was simply for the salvation of the lost. His greatest passion was for evangelism, something made evident by his own words. In the introduction of his letter to the Romans, Paul said that he was in debt to the world. His evangelistic zeal was so great that he said he would give up his relationship with Jesus Christ if it would mean that his brethren would be saved. Look at these sobering words:
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).
I have looked at a number of Bible commentaries to see what they make of these verses. They have said that Paul could not be speaking of his own salvation. The reference is rather to Paul's willingness to be cut off from Israel. It's my understanding that the apostle was already cut off from Israel because of his faith in Jesus. If it was merely a reference to being cut off from his people, why did he say that he had already suffered the loss of all things? If they were but rubbish to him, why then does he have to back that up with (what seems like) oaths to make his point?
It is as though Paul was writing to hearers who would not be able to understand such love. How could evangelistic intensity weigh so heavy on a man that he was prepared to be cut off from any association with the Lord Jesus, to see that desire fulfilled? Such a statement could not penetrate selfish minds without a thoughtful preparation. They would not believe him, so Paul testifies that in what he was about to say:
He is telling the truth in Christ. The very One who was truth itself was Paul's witness that what he was about to say was true.
His Holy Spirit-regenerated conscience bore witness that he spoke the truth. He had cultivated a conscience that was tender before God and man, and the "work of the Law" did not accuse him of lying. His words could not be dismissed as mere exaggeration, or even hyperbole.
Deep within the soul of this man of God lay a burden--a great sorrow, a continual grief. Horror of horrors--he was saved, but his brethren were not.
Perhaps you do think Paul was lying when he said that his concern for the lost meant more to him than his relationship with Jesus. Maybe he had no fear that all liars would have their part in the lake of fire. Perhaps he had no concern that in bearing false witness, he would transgress the Ninth Commandment, for which Ananias and Sapphira where swiftly struck dead in their crooked tracks. Of course, we can't be the judge as to whether or not Paul was telling the truth in Christ, that his conscience was bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, but there certainly is evidence of his evangelistic priority in his writings.
Moses said a similar thing when he asked that God would cut him out of the book of life, rather than judge Israel.
In light of these thoughts, I don't know how anyone can call himself a Christian and not have concern for the lost. Charles Spurgeon said, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that." He continued, "The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
When an emergency vehicle drives through a city, the law demands that every other vehicle must pull over and stop. Why? Because someone's life may be in jeopardy. It is to be given great priority. That's how we should be when it comes to the eternal salvation of men and women. There is an extreme emergency. Everything else must come to a standstill, or we are in danger of transgressing the Moral Law, which demands "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Hell should be so real to us that its flames burn away apathy and motivate us to warn the lost. Do we see the unsaved as hell's future fuel? Do we understand that sinful humanity is the anvil of the justice of God? Have we ever been horrified or wept because we fear their fate? The depth of our evangelistic zeal will be in direct proportion to the love we have. If you are not concerned about your neighbor's salvation, then I am concerned for yours.
Watch on-line video of Ray Comfort giving his famous inspirational message,
"Hell's Best Kept Secret"
Dial-up | Broadband
Requires RealPlayer
Also available: Online audio messages by Ray Comfort
The evangelistic zeal described on the previous pages should characterize a normal, biblical Christian. However, according to the Dallas Morning News (June 11, 1994), sixty-eight percent of professing Christians out-side of the “Bible Belt” don't see evangelism as being the number-one priority of the Church. Also in 1994, the Barna Research Group found that among American adults who said that they were “born again,” seventy-five percent couldn't even define the Great Commission. A survey by Christianity Today (a major evangelistic magazine) found that only one percent of their readership said they had witnessed to someone “recently.” That means ninety-nine percent of their readership were just “lukewarm” when it came to concern for the fate of the ungodly. According to Zondervan Church Source, ninety-seven percent of the Church has no involvement in any sort of evangelism. Only once in Scripture did Jesus give three parables in a row (Luke chapter 15). He did so to illustrate God's profound concern for the lost soul.
How is it that so many who are within the Church can profess to love God, yet neglect or even despise evangelism? The answer is frightening.
The Way of the Master book
by Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort
How to effectively share your faith simply, effectively, biblically… the way Jesus did
[More Details] US$1299
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The School of Biblical Evangelism from Ray Comfort offers 120 lessons that will help train you and your whole family about sharing your faith in Christ with others. Highly recommended.
Ministries…
Ray Comfort, Living Waters
EvanTell
The Faithful Witness
Asian Internet Bible Ministries
Audio…
(online audio)
Hell's Best Kept Secret
How to get on fire for God
Keys to revival
Militant evangelism
Keys to Zeal
Why the lack of power within the Church?
How to Get Passion for Souls
Freedom from the “fear of man”
Video…
(online)
Bad News Good News (R. Larry Moyer, 40 mins.)
How to witness without getting a nervous breakdown (R. Larry Moyer, 60 mins.)
Books
The Way of the Master by Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort
See EvanTell for several downloadable pdf books
Know of something that should be added here?
Let us know.
Before the beginning of time, God saw not only the cry of his heart, but the cry within every human heart. The Mighty Three, the Triune God, broke through the hosts of hell to draw water from the Well of Bethlehem. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Now the offer to sinful humanity is: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).
The true convert holds the Cup of Salvation in his trembling hands. He has seen the cost of his redemption. He sees that he was not redeemed with silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ. Like David (2 Sam 23:15), he cannot drink of that cup in a spirit of self-indulgence. Rather than drink in the pleasures and the comforts of the Christian life, his reasonable service is to present himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and pour his life out as a drink offering to the Lord.
DELIGHTFUL HEART
I was killing time in a department store when an elderly man struck up a conversation with me. It wasn't long before the conversation swung around to the things of God. When I asked this man if he had a Christian background, his answer was interesting. He said, "Oh, I am a churchgoer. I believe in God the Father; and the Son, He's around too…somewhere." His reply was both humorous and tragic. This man went to church, obviously had faith in God, believed in the deity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet he was not saved.
If you love God, your heart will go out to the millions who are in such a state. They are in the “valley of decision.” Valleys are often without direct light, and direct light is what sinners need. They don't understand the issues. They are so close to salvation; it is as near as their heart and mouth. Yet without repentance, they will perish. Such thoughts are grievous. If you are born of God's Spirit, you will find that something compels you to run to the lost, to reach out to the unsaved, because God gave you a new heart that delights to do His will.
Well-known author and pastor Oswald Chambers said, "So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does." Bible teacher C. F. W. Walthers said, "A believer is ready to serve everybody wherever he can. He cannot but profess the gospel before men, even though he foresees that he can reap nothing but ridicule and scorn for it; yes, he is ready also to give his life for the gospel."
One cannot help but see Peter's passion for the lost, so evidently portrayed for us in the Book of Acts. He put behind him the three denials of his Lord, and stood before a multitude on the day of Pentecost. When a crowd gathered around the lame man who had been healed, he boldly preached the gospel to them. He testified before the very ones who had murdered the Savior, and he told them so. He had a passion for his God and a passion for sinners.
What was the apostle Paul's greatest passion? This longing, this aspiration, this yearning, was simply for the salvation of the lost. His greatest passion was for evangelism, something made evident by his own words. In the introduction of his letter to the Romans, Paul said that he was in debt to the world. His evangelistic zeal was so great that he said he would give up his relationship with Jesus Christ if it would mean that his brethren would be saved. Look at these sobering words:
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).
I have looked at a number of Bible commentaries to see what they make of these verses. They have said that Paul could not be speaking of his own salvation. The reference is rather to Paul's willingness to be cut off from Israel. It's my understanding that the apostle was already cut off from Israel because of his faith in Jesus. If it was merely a reference to being cut off from his people, why did he say that he had already suffered the loss of all things? If they were but rubbish to him, why then does he have to back that up with (what seems like) oaths to make his point?
It is as though Paul was writing to hearers who would not be able to understand such love. How could evangelistic intensity weigh so heavy on a man that he was prepared to be cut off from any association with the Lord Jesus, to see that desire fulfilled? Such a statement could not penetrate selfish minds without a thoughtful preparation. They would not believe him, so Paul testifies that in what he was about to say:
He is telling the truth in Christ. The very One who was truth itself was Paul's witness that what he was about to say was true.
His Holy Spirit-regenerated conscience bore witness that he spoke the truth. He had cultivated a conscience that was tender before God and man, and the "work of the Law" did not accuse him of lying. His words could not be dismissed as mere exaggeration, or even hyperbole.
Deep within the soul of this man of God lay a burden--a great sorrow, a continual grief. Horror of horrors--he was saved, but his brethren were not.
Perhaps you do think Paul was lying when he said that his concern for the lost meant more to him than his relationship with Jesus. Maybe he had no fear that all liars would have their part in the lake of fire. Perhaps he had no concern that in bearing false witness, he would transgress the Ninth Commandment, for which Ananias and Sapphira where swiftly struck dead in their crooked tracks. Of course, we can't be the judge as to whether or not Paul was telling the truth in Christ, that his conscience was bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, but there certainly is evidence of his evangelistic priority in his writings.
Moses said a similar thing when he asked that God would cut him out of the book of life, rather than judge Israel.
In light of these thoughts, I don't know how anyone can call himself a Christian and not have concern for the lost. Charles Spurgeon said, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that." He continued, "The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
When an emergency vehicle drives through a city, the law demands that every other vehicle must pull over and stop. Why? Because someone's life may be in jeopardy. It is to be given great priority. That's how we should be when it comes to the eternal salvation of men and women. There is an extreme emergency. Everything else must come to a standstill, or we are in danger of transgressing the Moral Law, which demands "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Hell should be so real to us that its flames burn away apathy and motivate us to warn the lost. Do we see the unsaved as hell's future fuel? Do we understand that sinful humanity is the anvil of the justice of God? Have we ever been horrified or wept because we fear their fate? The depth of our evangelistic zeal will be in direct proportion to the love we have. If you are not concerned about your neighbor's salvation, then I am concerned for yours.
Watch on-line video of Ray Comfort giving his famous inspirational message,
"Hell's Best Kept Secret"
Dial-up | Broadband
Requires RealPlayer
Also available: Online audio messages by Ray Comfort
The evangelistic zeal described on the previous pages should characterize a normal, biblical Christian. However, according to the Dallas Morning News (June 11, 1994), sixty-eight percent of professing Christians out-side of the “Bible Belt” don't see evangelism as being the number-one priority of the Church. Also in 1994, the Barna Research Group found that among American adults who said that they were “born again,” seventy-five percent couldn't even define the Great Commission. A survey by Christianity Today (a major evangelistic magazine) found that only one percent of their readership said they had witnessed to someone “recently.” That means ninety-nine percent of their readership were just “lukewarm” when it came to concern for the fate of the ungodly. According to Zondervan Church Source, ninety-seven percent of the Church has no involvement in any sort of evangelism. Only once in Scripture did Jesus give three parables in a row (Luke chapter 15). He did so to illustrate God's profound concern for the lost soul.
How is it that so many who are within the Church can profess to love God, yet neglect or even despise evangelism? The answer is frightening.
The Way of the Master book
by Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort
How to effectively share your faith simply, effectively, biblically… the way Jesus did
[More Details] US$1299
"Making Peace With God"
MAKING PEACE WITH GOD
Are you ready to Pass from Death to Life?
The most astounding event of human history occurred when this man, Jesus Christ, died on a Roman cross. When He died, an untimely darkness covered the land at 3 p.m. and an earthquake occurred as He took His final breath. This man called Jesus was crucified. 3 days later He was raised from the dead! Here's why He died:
"But your iniquities (sins) have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah 59:2
God is holy and our sins separate us from Him. We have all broken God's laws by lying, dishonoring our parents, cheating, hating, committing a sex act in our mind with someone we are not married to, stealing, coveting, taking His holy name in vain, etc. These are all sins against God and we are all guilty. Committing any single one of these sins makes us guilty of breaking the whole law and worthy of death.
Divine justice demands that our violations be punished. Because we are guilty of breaking God's holy law, we deserve to be fairly repaid for our offenses. God doesn't want us to be punished in hell forever though, so He sent His Son to pay the debt for us, so we would not have to pay for our own sins in eternal hell as we clearly deserve, but rather live now and forever with Him. What love!
At the end of a perfect (sinless) life, Christ carried the very cross He was to be nailed to. His infinite love for you, along with the nails driven through His hands and feet, held Him to that cross as He agonized for 6 hours in pain - to pay for your sins. He was crucified to make peace between God and man. The Son of God bridged the gap that sin had caused. This wonderful man named Jesus, chose to shed His life blood (die - in excruciating pain) for you rather than live without you. He loves you.
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23
Christ died to fully pay for the sins of the human race (John 19:30). God loves us and wants us to experience relationship with Him, now and forever (John 17:3). Friend, who else has ever died for you but Jesus, the Good Shepherd?
"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (that's you)." Romans 5:6
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save (rescue) sinners.” 1 Timothy 1:15
No religion or religious figure can save your soul from hell (no matter what they claim). Jesus didn’t come to start of religion but rather to establish His eternal kingdom in the hearts of men, granting them a relationship with God. Jesus Christ is the only One who bears nail-scarred hands and feet for your sins. He is the only way to God and your only hope.
"For there is ONE God, and ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5
The Son of God died and rose again to take away all your sins. He was the only One qualified for the job and He is the only One worthy of your worship. Peace With God Happens When We Meet the Prince of Peace.
By no accident, you are reading this message. This is your moment in history to be saved. Praying and doing good deeds and going to church will save no person from eternal punishment - “For by grace (undeserved favor) are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Only the good work of Christ shedding His sinless blood on the cross for you will save the soul as one repents before a holy and righteous God and Judge. If you are going to get right with the LORD and go to Heaven, there must be a moment of reckoning. Now is your time to be saved. No one will ever through a life of good works earn God’s favor. There must of necessity be that divinely-defining moment when you lay your whole life/being/existence into His perfect, holy hands.
Now apply His holy blood to your life so that you may live now and eternally with Him. You must completely turn your life over to Him and turn away from all your sins - repent. Now, pray this prayer to God with all that is within you, from your heart and out loud: "Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for shedding Your holy blood for my sins to save me from eternal damnation in hell. You are my only hope. Heavenly Father, I acknowledge all my sins against You right now, and ask Your forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus, who died and rose again for me. Lord Jesus, take over my life right now and forevermore. I love You. Amen.”
Tell another Christian. Find a group of Christ-loving, Bible-living believers. Be water baptized. Read your King James Bible daily and talk with God in prayer. Follow Christ to the end of your life.
What To Do Next
Tell another Christian that you just got saved (Lk. 12:8-9).
Get a King James Bible immediately - It’s the real English Bible (don’t let anyone fool you about this).
Be water baptized as a public and open announcement that you now belong to Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19).
Read your Bible daily, and commune with God in prayer (2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:2; Rev. 1:3).
Write Scriptures (with reference) on index cards and begin memorizing God’s Word (Ps. 119:11; Prov. 4:4; Hab. 2:2).
Find a strong, Christ-centered, God-fearing, vibrant, and Bible-living group of believers to fellowship with regularly (Acts 2:41-47).
Discern Wisely: Always remember that those who truly know the LORD Jesus honor His Word as final authority & are led of His Holy Spirit (Jn. 5:39; 8:47; Rom. 8:14; 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:16). The supreme goal and deepest desire of their lives is to know Him yet more and more (Jn. 17:3; Phil. 3:10). God’s Word is your Textbook for life and not a man’s book or commentary.
Continue following Jesus to the end of your life here on earth (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; 25:1-13; 1 Pet. 1:5, 9).
Sign up for the free Moments for My Master email devotional: send your request to: Sign up here to receive FREE email devotionals. You can also request to be placed on the mail out newsletter (paper). This will help you grow in your relationship with Jesus, greatly increase your knowledge and discernment as you diligently study and feed on God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 5:11-14; 1 Pet. 2:2).
Be a witness of Christ’s salvation. Share with others what Jesus has done for you (Philemon 7). You may wish to go on the ministry website, and order your supply of Gospel tracts to help you communicate the Gospel to others. ORDER TRACTS
Sign up for free print newsletter at: www.SafeGuardYourSoul.com
Kiss the Son - audio message by todd tomasella (37.9 MB; 0:41 min.)
Jesus Saves - audio message by todd tomasella (41.7.0 MB; 0:45 min.)
Feel free to email us if you have said this prayer in repentance and faith and gotten saved. We would like be in prayer for your new life in Christ.
Make sure you get on the FREE email devotional list: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." (1 Peter 2:2) FREE email devotionals Now that you are a child of God, it is very important that you search and feed on God’s Word daily (Jn. 5:39). Check out the ARTICLES page on this site for a variety of rich Bible topics to help you grow more established in your relationship with the “King of saints” and become increasingly discerning with His truth (Rev. 15:3). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) He also warned: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matt. 10:22)
Born Again: What is It?
“I Love You Son”
PASS It ON! For the glory of God and the sake of precious souls, please bookmark this site and use it as a tool to win lost souls and as a ready, universally-accessible resource medium to help you disciple other members of Christ's body.
Are you ready to Pass from Death to Life?
The most astounding event of human history occurred when this man, Jesus Christ, died on a Roman cross. When He died, an untimely darkness covered the land at 3 p.m. and an earthquake occurred as He took His final breath. This man called Jesus was crucified. 3 days later He was raised from the dead! Here's why He died:
"But your iniquities (sins) have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah 59:2
God is holy and our sins separate us from Him. We have all broken God's laws by lying, dishonoring our parents, cheating, hating, committing a sex act in our mind with someone we are not married to, stealing, coveting, taking His holy name in vain, etc. These are all sins against God and we are all guilty. Committing any single one of these sins makes us guilty of breaking the whole law and worthy of death.
Divine justice demands that our violations be punished. Because we are guilty of breaking God's holy law, we deserve to be fairly repaid for our offenses. God doesn't want us to be punished in hell forever though, so He sent His Son to pay the debt for us, so we would not have to pay for our own sins in eternal hell as we clearly deserve, but rather live now and forever with Him. What love!
At the end of a perfect (sinless) life, Christ carried the very cross He was to be nailed to. His infinite love for you, along with the nails driven through His hands and feet, held Him to that cross as He agonized for 6 hours in pain - to pay for your sins. He was crucified to make peace between God and man. The Son of God bridged the gap that sin had caused. This wonderful man named Jesus, chose to shed His life blood (die - in excruciating pain) for you rather than live without you. He loves you.
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23
Christ died to fully pay for the sins of the human race (John 19:30). God loves us and wants us to experience relationship with Him, now and forever (John 17:3). Friend, who else has ever died for you but Jesus, the Good Shepherd?
"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (that's you)." Romans 5:6
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save (rescue) sinners.” 1 Timothy 1:15
No religion or religious figure can save your soul from hell (no matter what they claim). Jesus didn’t come to start of religion but rather to establish His eternal kingdom in the hearts of men, granting them a relationship with God. Jesus Christ is the only One who bears nail-scarred hands and feet for your sins. He is the only way to God and your only hope.
"For there is ONE God, and ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5
The Son of God died and rose again to take away all your sins. He was the only One qualified for the job and He is the only One worthy of your worship. Peace With God Happens When We Meet the Prince of Peace.
By no accident, you are reading this message. This is your moment in history to be saved. Praying and doing good deeds and going to church will save no person from eternal punishment - “For by grace (undeserved favor) are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Only the good work of Christ shedding His sinless blood on the cross for you will save the soul as one repents before a holy and righteous God and Judge. If you are going to get right with the LORD and go to Heaven, there must be a moment of reckoning. Now is your time to be saved. No one will ever through a life of good works earn God’s favor. There must of necessity be that divinely-defining moment when you lay your whole life/being/existence into His perfect, holy hands.
Now apply His holy blood to your life so that you may live now and eternally with Him. You must completely turn your life over to Him and turn away from all your sins - repent. Now, pray this prayer to God with all that is within you, from your heart and out loud: "Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for shedding Your holy blood for my sins to save me from eternal damnation in hell. You are my only hope. Heavenly Father, I acknowledge all my sins against You right now, and ask Your forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus, who died and rose again for me. Lord Jesus, take over my life right now and forevermore. I love You. Amen.”
Tell another Christian. Find a group of Christ-loving, Bible-living believers. Be water baptized. Read your King James Bible daily and talk with God in prayer. Follow Christ to the end of your life.
What To Do Next
Tell another Christian that you just got saved (Lk. 12:8-9).
Get a King James Bible immediately - It’s the real English Bible (don’t let anyone fool you about this).
Be water baptized as a public and open announcement that you now belong to Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19).
Read your Bible daily, and commune with God in prayer (2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:2; Rev. 1:3).
Write Scriptures (with reference) on index cards and begin memorizing God’s Word (Ps. 119:11; Prov. 4:4; Hab. 2:2).
Find a strong, Christ-centered, God-fearing, vibrant, and Bible-living group of believers to fellowship with regularly (Acts 2:41-47).
Discern Wisely: Always remember that those who truly know the LORD Jesus honor His Word as final authority & are led of His Holy Spirit (Jn. 5:39; 8:47; Rom. 8:14; 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:16). The supreme goal and deepest desire of their lives is to know Him yet more and more (Jn. 17:3; Phil. 3:10). God’s Word is your Textbook for life and not a man’s book or commentary.
Continue following Jesus to the end of your life here on earth (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; 25:1-13; 1 Pet. 1:5, 9).
Sign up for the free Moments for My Master email devotional: send your request to: Sign up here to receive FREE email devotionals. You can also request to be placed on the mail out newsletter (paper). This will help you grow in your relationship with Jesus, greatly increase your knowledge and discernment as you diligently study and feed on God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 5:11-14; 1 Pet. 2:2).
Be a witness of Christ’s salvation. Share with others what Jesus has done for you (Philemon 7). You may wish to go on the ministry website, and order your supply of Gospel tracts to help you communicate the Gospel to others. ORDER TRACTS
Sign up for free print newsletter at: www.SafeGuardYourSoul.com
Kiss the Son - audio message by todd tomasella (37.9 MB; 0:41 min.)
Jesus Saves - audio message by todd tomasella (41.7.0 MB; 0:45 min.)
Feel free to email us if you have said this prayer in repentance and faith and gotten saved. We would like be in prayer for your new life in Christ.
Make sure you get on the FREE email devotional list: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." (1 Peter 2:2) FREE email devotionals Now that you are a child of God, it is very important that you search and feed on God’s Word daily (Jn. 5:39). Check out the ARTICLES page on this site for a variety of rich Bible topics to help you grow more established in your relationship with the “King of saints” and become increasingly discerning with His truth (Rev. 15:3). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) He also warned: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matt. 10:22)
Born Again: What is It?
“I Love You Son”
PASS It ON! For the glory of God and the sake of precious souls, please bookmark this site and use it as a tool to win lost souls and as a ready, universally-accessible resource medium to help you disciple other members of Christ's body.
"Try The Spirit By The Spirit And See IF IT IS OFGod"
Did you know that it is disobedience to believe everyone who comes in Christ’s name?
Notice the hand symbol
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3
Friends, we love Jesus Christ and His body. Get as mad as you wish when perhaps your favorite celebrity preacher is exposed and uncovered. With no desire to be divisive or controversial, we are going obey God by helping the truth and standing with the LORD Jesus Christ to bring to light the wolves who are operating using the name of the LORD in vain while devouring precious souls. It’s high time to cease being gullible and naive and begin to grow up spiritually and be exercised in the Word of God to discern truth from error.
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” 2 Corinthians. 11:13
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4
Just because you like a certain leader’s personality or he tells you things you like to hear, does not make him true to God. Be it known that endorsing in any way or bidding “God speed” to a false prophet makes one the enemy of Christ and brings the same judgment upon that supporter as the deceiver is going to receive (2 Pet. 2).
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 9-11
This is no small matter friend. So
Notice the hand symbol
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3
Friends, we love Jesus Christ and His body. Get as mad as you wish when perhaps your favorite celebrity preacher is exposed and uncovered. With no desire to be divisive or controversial, we are going obey God by helping the truth and standing with the LORD Jesus Christ to bring to light the wolves who are operating using the name of the LORD in vain while devouring precious souls. It’s high time to cease being gullible and naive and begin to grow up spiritually and be exercised in the Word of God to discern truth from error.
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” 2 Corinthians. 11:13
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4
Just because you like a certain leader’s personality or he tells you things you like to hear, does not make him true to God. Be it known that endorsing in any way or bidding “God speed” to a false prophet makes one the enemy of Christ and brings the same judgment upon that supporter as the deceiver is going to receive (2 Pet. 2).
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 9-11
This is no small matter friend. So
"Your Branch"
John 15:2 says, "Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit."
"God Wants Your Heart"
God wants our heart and our love. We demonstrate our love by our obedience and submission to Him and to His word. We cannot actually do much to serve God Himself apart from serving one another and being kind and loving toward one another. It’s not about what we do to ourselves and our bodies; it’s about what we do for others. If you are mean to others while you do your religious duties; you obviously missed the point of serving God. True religion cares about others and reaches out to help one another. Do not get lost in the maze of your works program and lose your own way with God in the process.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Lyrics to "Let Go" By Dewayne Woods
LEAD:
I couldn't seem to fall asleep
There was so much on my mind
Searching for that peace
But the peace I could not find
So then I kneeled down to pray
Praying help me please
But then he said you don’t have to cry
Cause I’ll supply all your needs
HOOK:
As soon as I stop worrying,
Worrying how the story ends
I let go and I let God
Let God have His way
That’s when things start happening
When I stopped looking at back then
I let go and I let God
Let God Have his way
LEAD:
There’s so much going on
Sometimes I can’t find my way
And often times I struggle
Struggle from day to day
I have to realize that it’s not my battle
Not my battle to fight
I have to know if I put it in your hands
Everything will be alright
HOOK:
As soon as I stop worrying,
Worrying how the story ends
I let go and I let God
Let God have His way
That’s when things start happening
When I stopped looking at back then
I let go and I let God Have his way
Let God Have his way
Lead
Let go, let God
Let go, and let God
let go, let God
Oh let go and let God
Let go, and let God
My brother let go and let God
My sister you can’t handle it,
Let God
Oh let go and Let God
Choir
Let go and Let God
Let go and Let God
Let go and Let God
He’s the only one with the answers just let God
Let go and Let God
He can handle it all, yes He can
Let go and Let God
With tears in your eyes just let God
Let go and Let God
He feels your pain
Let go and Let God
And he know your heart
Let go and Let God
He knows your issues
Let go and Let God
He knows your struggles
Let go and Let God
So let go and Let God
ALL SING:
Soon as
As soon as I stop worrying, soon as I stopped worrying
Worrying how the story ends Then and only then can I ,
I let go and I let God I can let go
Let God have His way I can let God, Let him have his way
That’s when, that’s when
That’s when things start happening everything will turn around yes it will
When I stopped looking at back then when I stopped looking at way back then, I can
I let go and I let God I can let go I can let God
Let God Have his way Oh, Soon as
As soon as I stop worrying, Oh~
Oh yeah~ That’s when things start happening
My body was healed and my worries were cast aside as soon as
Soon as I stopped worrying
When I threw up both of my hands and I gave it over to him
That’s when things
That’s when things start happening
When I let go and I let God
Send "Let Go" Ringtone to Cell Phone
[Thanks to Katisa for the above lyrics]
I couldn't seem to fall asleep
There was so much on my mind
Searching for that peace
But the peace I could not find
So then I kneeled down to pray
Praying help me please
But then he said you don’t have to cry
Cause I’ll supply all your needs
HOOK:
As soon as I stop worrying,
Worrying how the story ends
I let go and I let God
Let God have His way
That’s when things start happening
When I stopped looking at back then
I let go and I let God
Let God Have his way
LEAD:
There’s so much going on
Sometimes I can’t find my way
And often times I struggle
Struggle from day to day
I have to realize that it’s not my battle
Not my battle to fight
I have to know if I put it in your hands
Everything will be alright
HOOK:
As soon as I stop worrying,
Worrying how the story ends
I let go and I let God
Let God have His way
That’s when things start happening
When I stopped looking at back then
I let go and I let God Have his way
Let God Have his way
Lead
Let go, let God
Let go, and let God
let go, let God
Oh let go and let God
Let go, and let God
My brother let go and let God
My sister you can’t handle it,
Let God
Oh let go and Let God
Choir
Let go and Let God
Let go and Let God
Let go and Let God
He’s the only one with the answers just let God
Let go and Let God
He can handle it all, yes He can
Let go and Let God
With tears in your eyes just let God
Let go and Let God
He feels your pain
Let go and Let God
And he know your heart
Let go and Let God
He knows your issues
Let go and Let God
He knows your struggles
Let go and Let God
So let go and Let God
ALL SING:
Soon as
As soon as I stop worrying, soon as I stopped worrying
Worrying how the story ends Then and only then can I ,
I let go and I let God I can let go
Let God have His way I can let God, Let him have his way
That’s when, that’s when
That’s when things start happening everything will turn around yes it will
When I stopped looking at back then when I stopped looking at way back then, I can
I let go and I let God I can let go I can let God
Let God Have his way Oh, Soon as
As soon as I stop worrying, Oh~
Oh yeah~ That’s when things start happening
My body was healed and my worries were cast aside as soon as
Soon as I stopped worrying
When I threw up both of my hands and I gave it over to him
That’s when things
That’s when things start happening
When I let go and I let God
Send "Let Go" Ringtone to Cell Phone
[Thanks to Katisa for the above lyrics]
"Love Poems By Black Author"
Valentine's Day » Valentine » Love Poems » Love Poems By Black Author
Love Poems By Black Author
Love poems can speak volumes just in one word. Love is a universal feeling that entwines two hearts. There are a variety of emotions that are expressed in love. People cry in love, laugh in love and are happy in love. Even the deepest of sorrows and happiness can be expressed through love poems. Various authors write love poems. But black authors write some of the love poems. Love poems by black authors express love in the most sensual manner. Here are a few love poems by black authors that will leave you feeling happy forever.
Secret Love:
By Jayde Josephine Caesar
Our relationship had to be a secret,
a secret that I couldn’t tell,
so I loved you and treasured u quietly,
and that I did quite well.
I wanted to shout from the rooftops,
But kept all my love deep inside,
Cos if we told your family our relationship would never survive
I could understand your reasons,
I could understand this was best,
But sometimes it pushed me so far it really put our love to the test,
As time grew I began to wonder if maybe this was right,
If maybe on a spontaneous burst we could elope one night,
But that would never happen
I knew it would never come true,
But deep inside il always hold my secret love for you.
Love:
By Dawn Robinson
Love. I met him one day
then he drifted away
He came back another day
and decided to stay
If you love, let it go
and it will come back some say
I tried and it worked
now it is here always.
More Poems ...
Beautiful
Love Poems By Black Author
Love poems can speak volumes just in one word. Love is a universal feeling that entwines two hearts. There are a variety of emotions that are expressed in love. People cry in love, laugh in love and are happy in love. Even the deepest of sorrows and happiness can be expressed through love poems. Various authors write love poems. But black authors write some of the love poems. Love poems by black authors express love in the most sensual manner. Here are a few love poems by black authors that will leave you feeling happy forever.
Secret Love:
By Jayde Josephine Caesar
Our relationship had to be a secret,
a secret that I couldn’t tell,
so I loved you and treasured u quietly,
and that I did quite well.
I wanted to shout from the rooftops,
But kept all my love deep inside,
Cos if we told your family our relationship would never survive
I could understand your reasons,
I could understand this was best,
But sometimes it pushed me so far it really put our love to the test,
As time grew I began to wonder if maybe this was right,
If maybe on a spontaneous burst we could elope one night,
But that would never happen
I knew it would never come true,
But deep inside il always hold my secret love for you.
Love:
By Dawn Robinson
Love. I met him one day
then he drifted away
He came back another day
and decided to stay
If you love, let it go
and it will come back some say
I tried and it worked
now it is here always.
More Poems ...
Beautiful
"Prisoners" by Poet Yusef Komunyakaa
Prisoners
Usually at the helipad
I see them stumble-dance
across the hot asphalt
with crokersacks over their heads,
moving toward the interrogation huts,
thin-framed as box kites
of sticks & black silk
anticipating a hard wind
that'll tug & snatch them
out into space. I think
some must be laughing
under their dust-colored hoods,
knowing rockets are aimed
at Chu Lai--that the water's
evaporating & soon the nail
will make contact with metal.
How can anyone anywhere love
these half-broken figures
bent under the sky's brightness?
The weight they carry
is the soil we tread night & day.
Who can cry for them?
I've heard the old ones
are the hardest to break.
An arm twist, a combat boot
against the skull, a .45
jabbed into the mouth, nothing
works. When they start talking
with ancestors faint as camphor
smoke in pagodas, you know
you'll have to kill them
to get an answer.
Sunlight throws
scythes against the afternoon.
Everything's a heat mirage; a river
tugs at their slow feet.
I stand alone & amazed,
with a pill-happy door gunner
signaling for me to board the Cobra.
I remember how one day
I almost bowed to such figures
walking toward me, under
a corporal's ironclad stare.
I can't say why.
From a half-mile away
trees huddle together,
& the prisoners look like
marionettes hooked to strings of light
Written by Yusef Komunyakaa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MrAfrica Poetry Board (------
Post Your
Usually at the helipad
I see them stumble-dance
across the hot asphalt
with crokersacks over their heads,
moving toward the interrogation huts,
thin-framed as box kites
of sticks & black silk
anticipating a hard wind
that'll tug & snatch them
out into space. I think
some must be laughing
under their dust-colored hoods,
knowing rockets are aimed
at Chu Lai--that the water's
evaporating & soon the nail
will make contact with metal.
How can anyone anywhere love
these half-broken figures
bent under the sky's brightness?
The weight they carry
is the soil we tread night & day.
Who can cry for them?
I've heard the old ones
are the hardest to break.
An arm twist, a combat boot
against the skull, a .45
jabbed into the mouth, nothing
works. When they start talking
with ancestors faint as camphor
smoke in pagodas, you know
you'll have to kill them
to get an answer.
Sunlight throws
scythes against the afternoon.
Everything's a heat mirage; a river
tugs at their slow feet.
I stand alone & amazed,
with a pill-happy door gunner
signaling for me to board the Cobra.
I remember how one day
I almost bowed to such figures
walking toward me, under
a corporal's ironclad stare.
I can't say why.
From a half-mile away
trees huddle together,
& the prisoners look like
marionettes hooked to strings of light
Written by Yusef Komunyakaa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MrAfrica Poetry Board (------
Post Your
"Poet Arna Wendell Bontemps" ***Great Reading***
Brief Bio
Arna Wendell Bontemps (13 Oct. 1902-4 June 1973), writer, was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of Paul Bismark Bontemps, a bricklayer, and Maria Carolina Pembroke, a schoolteacher. He was reared in Los Angeles, where his family moved when he was three. He graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, in 1923.
Bontemps then moved to New York's Harlem, where the "Harlem Renaissance" had already attracted the attention of West Coast intellectuals. He found a teaching job at the Harlem Academy in 1924 and began to publish poetry. He won the Alexander Pushkin Prize of Opportunity, a journal published by the National Urban League, in 1926 and 1927 and the Crisis (official journal of the NAACP) Poetry Prize in 1926. His career soon intersected that of the poet Langston Hughes, with whom he became a close friend and sometime collaborator. In Harlem Bontemps also came to know Countée Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer.
In 1926 Bontemps married Alberta Johnson; they had six children. In 1931, as the depression deepened, Bontemps left the Harlem Academy and moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where he taught for three years at Oakwood Junior College. By the early 1930s Bontemps had begun to publish fiction as well as poetry. His first novel, God Sends Sunday, was published in 1931, and an early short story, "A Summer Tragedy," won the Opportunity Short Story Prize in 1932. God Sends Sunday is typical of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Little Augie, a black jockey, earns money easily and spends it recklessly. When his luck as a jockey runs out, he drifts through the black sporting world. Slight in plot, the novel is most appreciated for its poetic style, its re-creation of the black idiom, and the depth of its characterization. While most reviewers praised it, W. E. B. Du Bois found it "sordid" and compared it with other "decadent" books of the Harlem Renaissance such as Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven (1926) and Claude McKay's Home to Harlem (1928). But Bontemps thought enough of the basic story to collaborate with Countee Cullen on St. Louis Woman (1946), a dramatic adaptation of the book.
Bontemps's next novel would be on a much more serious theme, but he first attempted another genre. In collaboration with Langston Hughes, he wrote Popo and Fifina (1932), the first of his many children's books. A travel book for children, it introduced readers to Haitian life by describing the lives of a boy named Popo and his sister Fifina. Bontemps followed his initial success in the new field with You Can't Pet a Possum (1934), a story of a boy and his dog in rural Alabama.
Northern Alabama in the early 1930s proved to be inhospitable to an African-American writer and intellectual. The Scottsboro boys were being tried at Decatur, just thirty miles from Huntsville. Friends visited Bontemps on their way to protest the trial, and a combination of his out-of-state visitors and the fact that he was ordering books by mail worried the administration of the school. Bontemps claimed in later years that he was ordered to demonstrate his break with the world of radical politics by burning a number of books from his private library--works by James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass. Bontemps refused. Instead he resigned and moved back to California, where he and his family moved in with his parents.
In 1936 he published Black Thunder, his finest work in any genre. Based on historical research, Black Thunder tells the story of Gabriel Prosser's rebellion near Richmond, Virginia, in 1800. Gabriel, an uneducated field worker and coachman, planned to lead a slave army equipped with makeshift weapons on a raid against the armory in Richmond. Once armed with real muskets, the rebels would defend themselves against all attackers. Betrayed by another slave and hampered by a freak storm, the rebels were crushed, and Gabriel was hanged, but in Bontemps's version of the affair, whites won a Pyrrhic victory. They were forced to recognize the human potential of slaves.
Although Black Thunder was well reviewed by both black and mainstream journals such as the Saturday Review of Literature, the royalties were not sufficient to support Bontemps's family in Chicago, where they had moved just before publication. He taught briefly in Chicago at the Shiloh Academy and then accepted a job with the WPA Illinois Writers' Project. In 1938, after publishing another children's book, Sad-Faced Boy (1937), he received a Rosenwald fellowship to work on what became his last novel, Drums at Dusk (1939), based on the Haitian rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Although the book was more widely reviewed than his previous novels, the critics were divided, some seeing it as suffering from a sensational and melodramatic plot, others praising its characterizations.
The disappointing reception of the book and the poor royalties that it earned convinced Bontemps that "it was fruitless for a Negro in the United States to address serious writing to my generation, and . . . to consider the alternative of trying to reach young readers not yet hardened or grown insensitive to man's inhumanity to man" (1968, p. x). Henceforth, Bontemps addressed most of his books to youthful audiences. The Fast Sooner Hound (1942), was written in collaboration with Jack Conroy, whom he had met on the Illinois Writers' Project.
In 1943 Bontemps earned his master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago. The necessity of earning a living then took him to Fisk University, where he became head librarian, a post he held until 1964. Thereafter he returned to Fisk from time to time. He also accepted positions at the Chicago Circle campus of the University of Illinois and at Yale University, where he served as curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Negro Arts and Letters.
During these years Bontemps produced an astonishing variety and number of books. His children's books included Slappy Hooper (1946) and Sam Patch (1951), which he wrote in collaboration with Conroy, as well as Lonesome Boy (1955) and Mr. Kelso's Lion (1970). At the same time, he wrote biographies of George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington for teenage readers; Golden Slippers (1941), an anthology of poetry for young readers; Famous Negro Athletes (1964); Chariot in the Sky (1951), the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers; and The Story of the Negro (1948).
For adults, he and Hughes edited The Poetry of the Negro (1949) and The Book of Negro Folklore (1958). With Conroy he wrote They Seek a City (1945), a history of African-American migration in the United States, which they revised and published in 1966 as Anyplace But Here. Bontemps's historical interests also led him to write 100 Years of Negro Freedom (1961) and to edit Great Slave Narratives (1969) and The Harlem Renaissance Remembered (1972). He also edited a popular anthology, American Negro Poetry (1963), just in time for the black reawakening of the 1960s.
Bontemps had been forced by the reception of his work to put his more creative writing on hold after 1939, but the 1960s encouraged him to return to it. He collected his poetry in a slim volume, Personals (1963), and wrote an introduction for Black Thunder when it was republished in 1968 in a paperback edition. At the time of his death, he was completing the collection of his short fiction in The Old South (1973). Bontemps died at his home in Nashville.
Arna Bontemps excelled in no single literary genre. A noteworthy poet, he published only one volume of his verse. As a writer of fiction, he is best known for a single novel, written in midcareer and rediscovered in his old age. Yet the impact of his work as poet, novelist, historian, children's writer, editor, and librarian is far greater than the sum of its parts. He played a major role in shaping modern African-American literature and had a wide-ranging influence on African-American culture of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Poems - 6 in all
Arna Bontemps
Arna Wendell Bontemps (13 Oct. 1902-4 June 1973), writer, was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of Paul Bismark Bontemps, a bricklayer, and Maria Carolina Pembroke, a schoolteacher. He was reared in Los Angeles, where his family moved when he was three. He graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, in 1923.
Bontemps then moved to New York's Harlem, where the "Harlem Renaissance" had already attracted the attention of West Coast intellectuals. He found a teaching job at the Harlem Academy in 1924 and began to publish poetry. He won the Alexander Pushkin Prize of Opportunity, a journal published by the National Urban League, in 1926 and 1927 and the Crisis (official journal of the NAACP) Poetry Prize in 1926. His career soon intersected that of the poet Langston Hughes, with whom he became a close friend and sometime collaborator. In Harlem Bontemps also came to know Countée Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer.
In 1926 Bontemps married Alberta Johnson; they had six children. In 1931, as the depression deepened, Bontemps left the Harlem Academy and moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where he taught for three years at Oakwood Junior College. By the early 1930s Bontemps had begun to publish fiction as well as poetry. His first novel, God Sends Sunday, was published in 1931, and an early short story, "A Summer Tragedy," won the Opportunity Short Story Prize in 1932. God Sends Sunday is typical of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Little Augie, a black jockey, earns money easily and spends it recklessly. When his luck as a jockey runs out, he drifts through the black sporting world. Slight in plot, the novel is most appreciated for its poetic style, its re-creation of the black idiom, and the depth of its characterization. While most reviewers praised it, W. E. B. Du Bois found it "sordid" and compared it with other "decadent" books of the Harlem Renaissance such as Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven (1926) and Claude McKay's Home to Harlem (1928). But Bontemps thought enough of the basic story to collaborate with Countee Cullen on St. Louis Woman (1946), a dramatic adaptation of the book.
Bontemps's next novel would be on a much more serious theme, but he first attempted another genre. In collaboration with Langston Hughes, he wrote Popo and Fifina (1932), the first of his many children's books. A travel book for children, it introduced readers to Haitian life by describing the lives of a boy named Popo and his sister Fifina. Bontemps followed his initial success in the new field with You Can't Pet a Possum (1934), a story of a boy and his dog in rural Alabama.
Northern Alabama in the early 1930s proved to be inhospitable to an African-American writer and intellectual. The Scottsboro boys were being tried at Decatur, just thirty miles from Huntsville. Friends visited Bontemps on their way to protest the trial, and a combination of his out-of-state visitors and the fact that he was ordering books by mail worried the administration of the school. Bontemps claimed in later years that he was ordered to demonstrate his break with the world of radical politics by burning a number of books from his private library--works by James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass. Bontemps refused. Instead he resigned and moved back to California, where he and his family moved in with his parents.
In 1936 he published Black Thunder, his finest work in any genre. Based on historical research, Black Thunder tells the story of Gabriel Prosser's rebellion near Richmond, Virginia, in 1800. Gabriel, an uneducated field worker and coachman, planned to lead a slave army equipped with makeshift weapons on a raid against the armory in Richmond. Once armed with real muskets, the rebels would defend themselves against all attackers. Betrayed by another slave and hampered by a freak storm, the rebels were crushed, and Gabriel was hanged, but in Bontemps's version of the affair, whites won a Pyrrhic victory. They were forced to recognize the human potential of slaves.
Although Black Thunder was well reviewed by both black and mainstream journals such as the Saturday Review of Literature, the royalties were not sufficient to support Bontemps's family in Chicago, where they had moved just before publication. He taught briefly in Chicago at the Shiloh Academy and then accepted a job with the WPA Illinois Writers' Project. In 1938, after publishing another children's book, Sad-Faced Boy (1937), he received a Rosenwald fellowship to work on what became his last novel, Drums at Dusk (1939), based on the Haitian rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Although the book was more widely reviewed than his previous novels, the critics were divided, some seeing it as suffering from a sensational and melodramatic plot, others praising its characterizations.
The disappointing reception of the book and the poor royalties that it earned convinced Bontemps that "it was fruitless for a Negro in the United States to address serious writing to my generation, and . . . to consider the alternative of trying to reach young readers not yet hardened or grown insensitive to man's inhumanity to man" (1968, p. x). Henceforth, Bontemps addressed most of his books to youthful audiences. The Fast Sooner Hound (1942), was written in collaboration with Jack Conroy, whom he had met on the Illinois Writers' Project.
In 1943 Bontemps earned his master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago. The necessity of earning a living then took him to Fisk University, where he became head librarian, a post he held until 1964. Thereafter he returned to Fisk from time to time. He also accepted positions at the Chicago Circle campus of the University of Illinois and at Yale University, where he served as curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Negro Arts and Letters.
During these years Bontemps produced an astonishing variety and number of books. His children's books included Slappy Hooper (1946) and Sam Patch (1951), which he wrote in collaboration with Conroy, as well as Lonesome Boy (1955) and Mr. Kelso's Lion (1970). At the same time, he wrote biographies of George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington for teenage readers; Golden Slippers (1941), an anthology of poetry for young readers; Famous Negro Athletes (1964); Chariot in the Sky (1951), the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers; and The Story of the Negro (1948).
For adults, he and Hughes edited The Poetry of the Negro (1949) and The Book of Negro Folklore (1958). With Conroy he wrote They Seek a City (1945), a history of African-American migration in the United States, which they revised and published in 1966 as Anyplace But Here. Bontemps's historical interests also led him to write 100 Years of Negro Freedom (1961) and to edit Great Slave Narratives (1969) and The Harlem Renaissance Remembered (1972). He also edited a popular anthology, American Negro Poetry (1963), just in time for the black reawakening of the 1960s.
Bontemps had been forced by the reception of his work to put his more creative writing on hold after 1939, but the 1960s encouraged him to return to it. He collected his poetry in a slim volume, Personals (1963), and wrote an introduction for Black Thunder when it was republished in 1968 in a paperback edition. At the time of his death, he was completing the collection of his short fiction in The Old South (1973). Bontemps died at his home in Nashville.
Arna Bontemps excelled in no single literary genre. A noteworthy poet, he published only one volume of his verse. As a writer of fiction, he is best known for a single novel, written in midcareer and rediscovered in his old age. Yet the impact of his work as poet, novelist, historian, children's writer, editor, and librarian is far greater than the sum of its parts. He played a major role in shaping modern African-American literature and had a wide-ranging influence on African-American culture of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Poems - 6 in all
Arna Bontemps
"Poet June Jordan"
Brief Bio
June Jordan was born in New York City in 1936. Her books of poetry include Kissing God Goodbye: Poems, 1991-1997 (Anchor Books, 1997), Haruko/Love Poems (1994), Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems (1989), Living Room (1985), Passion (1980), and Things That I Do in the Dark (1977). She is also the author of children's books, plays, a novel, and Poetry for the People: A Blueprint for the Revolution (1995), a guide to writing, teaching and publishing poetry. Her collections of political essays include Affirmative Acts: Political Essays (1998) and Technical Difficulties (1994). Basic Books published her memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, in 2000.
Jordan has received a Rockefeller Foundation grant, the National Association of Black Journalists Award, and fellowships from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded Poetry for the People. June Jordan died of breast cancer on June 14, 2002, in Berkeley, California.
Poems
June Jordan was born in New York City in 1936. Her books of poetry include Kissing God Goodbye: Poems, 1991-1997 (Anchor Books, 1997), Haruko/Love Poems (1994), Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems (1989), Living Room (1985), Passion (1980), and Things That I Do in the Dark (1977). She is also the author of children's books, plays, a novel, and Poetry for the People: A Blueprint for the Revolution (1995), a guide to writing, teaching and publishing poetry. Her collections of political essays include Affirmative Acts: Political Essays (1998) and Technical Difficulties (1994). Basic Books published her memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, in 2000.
Jordan has received a Rockefeller Foundation grant, the National Association of Black Journalists Award, and fellowships from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded Poetry for the People. June Jordan died of breast cancer on June 14, 2002, in Berkeley, California.
Poems
"AfroPoet, Writer, Music, Dance-Tupac Amaru Shakur"
Brief Bio
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born June 16,1971 in Brooklyn, NY. He was born with the name Lesane Parish Crooks, but while still a small child his mother, Afeni Shakur, changed his name to Tupac Amaru. The name is from an Inca Indian tribe and means "shining serpent", and his last name, Shakur, means "thankful to God". Tupac has one half sister. Her name is Sekyiwa Shakur. He also has one half brother. His name is Maurice Harding and he is in the Mopreme of Thug Life. Tupac was born at Lesane Parish Cooks.
Although his father was never much in his life, his step father was. His step father is Jeral Wayne Williams AKA Mutula Shakur. His real father is William Garland.
While a young child, Tupac dicovered his love for dance and music. His mother was very supportive along the way. As a young teen his family moved to Baltimore, MD.While living there Tupac attending "The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts, studying acting and ballet. He left a lasting impression on his teachers after leaving the school, all knowing he had great promise in the arts.
Tupac had many hit records, but the one that put him on the chart was "All Eyes On Me" and it came out for release in 1996. That album sold over 6 million copies, which is revolutionary for a double CD, especially in Hip Hop music. Although there was a dark side to it all: Shortly before this album was released, Shakur was charged and found guilty on sexual assault charges brought by a women he met at a night club. Just hours before he was found guilty, he was robbed at gun point by men whose intent and purpose is still unknown. Later Tupac got out on bail set at 1 million dollars.
On the night of September 13, 1996, Tupac Amaru Shakur was shot and killed while in his car. The gunmen is still so far unknown, but it is believed that it was a gang related shooting. It was told that Tupac was on his way to a charity function when he was murdered. It has also been told though that Tupac was last seen leaving a notorious night club after picking a fight with some men. Those men however were never found or their idenity was never revealed to public sources. Some say the brawl that night in the club is what caused his death. Still others say it was related to the East Coast/West Coast gang bang fighting. Whatever the case Tupac's death was a great loss. We as people lost a great entertainer.
Poems - 11 in all
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born June 16,1971 in Brooklyn, NY. He was born with the name Lesane Parish Crooks, but while still a small child his mother, Afeni Shakur, changed his name to Tupac Amaru. The name is from an Inca Indian tribe and means "shining serpent", and his last name, Shakur, means "thankful to God". Tupac has one half sister. Her name is Sekyiwa Shakur. He also has one half brother. His name is Maurice Harding and he is in the Mopreme of Thug Life. Tupac was born at Lesane Parish Cooks.
Although his father was never much in his life, his step father was. His step father is Jeral Wayne Williams AKA Mutula Shakur. His real father is William Garland.
While a young child, Tupac dicovered his love for dance and music. His mother was very supportive along the way. As a young teen his family moved to Baltimore, MD.While living there Tupac attending "The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts, studying acting and ballet. He left a lasting impression on his teachers after leaving the school, all knowing he had great promise in the arts.
Tupac had many hit records, but the one that put him on the chart was "All Eyes On Me" and it came out for release in 1996. That album sold over 6 million copies, which is revolutionary for a double CD, especially in Hip Hop music. Although there was a dark side to it all: Shortly before this album was released, Shakur was charged and found guilty on sexual assault charges brought by a women he met at a night club. Just hours before he was found guilty, he was robbed at gun point by men whose intent and purpose is still unknown. Later Tupac got out on bail set at 1 million dollars.
On the night of September 13, 1996, Tupac Amaru Shakur was shot and killed while in his car. The gunmen is still so far unknown, but it is believed that it was a gang related shooting. It was told that Tupac was on his way to a charity function when he was murdered. It has also been told though that Tupac was last seen leaving a notorious night club after picking a fight with some men. Those men however were never found or their idenity was never revealed to public sources. Some say the brawl that night in the club is what caused his death. Still others say it was related to the East Coast/West Coast gang bang fighting. Whatever the case Tupac's death was a great loss. We as people lost a great entertainer.
Poems - 11 in all
"Poet Countee Cullen"
Brief Bio
Born in 1903 in New York City, Countee Cullen was raised in a Methodist parsonage. He attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York and began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. In 1922, Cullen entered New York University. His poems were published in The Crisis, under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, a magazine of the National Urban League. He was soon after published in Harper's, the Century Magazine, and Poetry. He won the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize and other awards for his poem, Ballad of the Brown Girl, and graduated from New York University in 1923. That same year, Harper published his first volume of verse, Color, and he was admitted to Harvard University where he completed a master's degree.
His second volume of poetry, Copper Sun (1927), met with controversy in the black community because Cullen did not give the subject of race the same attention he had given it in Color. He was raised and educated in a primarily white community, and he differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes in that he lacked the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing. An imaginative lyric poet, he wrote in the tradition of Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the new poetic techniques of the Modernists. He died in 1946.
Poems - 10
Born in 1903 in New York City, Countee Cullen was raised in a Methodist parsonage. He attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York and began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. In 1922, Cullen entered New York University. His poems were published in The Crisis, under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, a magazine of the National Urban League. He was soon after published in Harper's, the Century Magazine, and Poetry. He won the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize and other awards for his poem, Ballad of the Brown Girl, and graduated from New York University in 1923. That same year, Harper published his first volume of verse, Color, and he was admitted to Harvard University where he completed a master's degree.
His second volume of poetry, Copper Sun (1927), met with controversy in the black community because Cullen did not give the subject of race the same attention he had given it in Color. He was raised and educated in a primarily white community, and he differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes in that he lacked the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing. An imaginative lyric poet, he wrote in the tradition of Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the new poetic techniques of the Modernists. He died in 1946.
Poems - 10
Poet Sterling A. Brown"
Brief Bio
Sterling Brown was born in Washington, D.C., in 1901. He was educated at Dunbar High School and received a bachelor's degree from Williams College. He studied the work of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, but was more interested in the works of Amy Lowell, Edgar Lee Masters, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. In 1923, he earned a master's degree from Harvard University and was employed as a teacher at the Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg until 1926. Three years later, Brown began teaching at Howard University and in 1932 his first book, Southern Road, was published.
His poetry was influenced by jazz, the blues, work songs and spirituals and, like Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and other black poets of the period, his writing expresses his concerns about race in America. Southern Road was well received by critics and Brown became part of the artistic tradition of the Harlem Renaissance, but with the arrival of the Depression, Brown could not find a publisher for his second book of verse. He turned to writing essays and focused on his career as a teacher at Howard, where he taught until his retirement in 1969. He finally published his second book of poetry, The Last Ride of Wild Bill, in 1975. Brown is known for his frank, unsentimental portraits of black people and their experiences, and the incorporation of African-American folklore and contemporary idiom into his verse. He died in 1989 in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Poems - 4 in all
Sterling A. Brown
Sterling Brown was born in Washington, D.C., in 1901. He was educated at Dunbar High School and received a bachelor's degree from Williams College. He studied the work of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, but was more interested in the works of Amy Lowell, Edgar Lee Masters, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. In 1923, he earned a master's degree from Harvard University and was employed as a teacher at the Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg until 1926. Three years later, Brown began teaching at Howard University and in 1932 his first book, Southern Road, was published.
His poetry was influenced by jazz, the blues, work songs and spirituals and, like Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and other black poets of the period, his writing expresses his concerns about race in America. Southern Road was well received by critics and Brown became part of the artistic tradition of the Harlem Renaissance, but with the arrival of the Depression, Brown could not find a publisher for his second book of verse. He turned to writing essays and focused on his career as a teacher at Howard, where he taught until his retirement in 1969. He finally published his second book of poetry, The Last Ride of Wild Bill, in 1975. Brown is known for his frank, unsentimental portraits of black people and their experiences, and the incorporation of African-American folklore and contemporary idiom into his verse. He died in 1989 in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Poems - 4 in all
Sterling A. Brown
"Poet Maya Angelou"
Brief Bio
Born Marguerite Johnson, Maya Angelou spent her formative years shuttling between St. Louis, Missouri, a tiny, totally segregated town in Arkansas, and San Francisco where she realized her ambition of becoming that city's first black streetcar conductor. During the 1950s, she studied dancing with Pearl Primus in New York, later appearing as a nightclub singer in New York and San Francisco. She worked as an editor for The Arab Observer, an English-language weekly published in Cairo; lived in Accra, Ghanna, where under the black nationalist regime of Kwame Nkrumah she taught music and drama; and studied cinematography in Sweden. She became a national celebrity in 1970 with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first volume of her autobiography, which detailed her encounters with southern racism and a rape by her mother's lover.
In 1971, she produced Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie: The Poetry of Maya Angelou; in 1975, Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well; in 1979, And Still I Rise; and in 1983, Shaker Why Don't You Sing? In 1977, she was nominated for an Emmy award for her portrayal of Nyo Boto in the television adaptation of the best-selling novel "Roots."
Three more volumes of her autobiography have been published: Gather Together in My Name (1974); Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976); and The Heart of a Woman (1981). In 1986, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes was published. Angelou's other works include Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship, and Now Sheba Sings the Song.
On January 20, 1993, Angelou read her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," during the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
Poems - 32 in all
Maya Angelou
Born Marguerite Johnson, Maya Angelou spent her formative years shuttling between St. Louis, Missouri, a tiny, totally segregated town in Arkansas, and San Francisco where she realized her ambition of becoming that city's first black streetcar conductor. During the 1950s, she studied dancing with Pearl Primus in New York, later appearing as a nightclub singer in New York and San Francisco. She worked as an editor for The Arab Observer, an English-language weekly published in Cairo; lived in Accra, Ghanna, where under the black nationalist regime of Kwame Nkrumah she taught music and drama; and studied cinematography in Sweden. She became a national celebrity in 1970 with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first volume of her autobiography, which detailed her encounters with southern racism and a rape by her mother's lover.
In 1971, she produced Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie: The Poetry of Maya Angelou; in 1975, Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well; in 1979, And Still I Rise; and in 1983, Shaker Why Don't You Sing? In 1977, she was nominated for an Emmy award for her portrayal of Nyo Boto in the television adaptation of the best-selling novel "Roots."
Three more volumes of her autobiography have been published: Gather Together in My Name (1974); Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976); and The Heart of a Woman (1981). In 1986, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes was published. Angelou's other works include Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship, and Now Sheba Sings the Song.
On January 20, 1993, Angelou read her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," during the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
Poems - 32 in all
Maya Angelou
"Poet Rita Dove"
Brief Bio
Rita Dove was born in the year 1952 in the city of Akron, Ohio. Her father was a research chemist at the Goodyear plant in Akron and her mother, a homemaker. As a child, the young Dove had a particular fondness and passion for books and said that her parents encouraged her to read anything that she pleased; her parents valued and understood the importance of an education. Dove went on to graduate summa cum laude from Miami University of Ohio, and then to study German at the UniversitÉt TÄbingen, where she would become a Fulbright Scholar. She also received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa. It was there where she met her husband to be, German novelist and playwright Fred Viebahn. Together, the two currently reside in Charlottesville, Virginia with their daughter Aviva. She is presently a Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia where she teaches creative writing.
Dove has been the recipient of many prestigous awards and has held various seats and positions. She was the seventh Poet Laureate/Consultant in Poetry of the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995. She was the youngest person ever appointed to that position as well as the first African American ever appointed. She has also been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1978 and 1989 and from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1983-84. Dove has been given honorary doctorates from several different universities and colleges. She has held residencies at Tuskegee Institute, the National Humanities Center and the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Italy. She was named Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine and given the NAACP Great American Artist Award, both in 1993. She won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book of poems, Thomas and Beulah. She has been given the Folger Shakespere Library's Renaissance Forum Award, the General Electric Foundation award, as well as many other honors. In 1995 she along with Jimmy Carter, welcomed a gathering of Nobel Laureates in Literature to the city of Atlanta, Georgia; hosted by the Cultural Olympiad of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Dove was also responsible for writing the text for Alvin Singleton's symphony "Umoja - Each One of Us Counts," which was comissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to be performed during the opening festivities of last summer's Olympic Games held in Atlanta.
Rita Dove's first work, The Yellow House on the Corner was published in 1980. It is a collection of poems dealing with various topics and experiences such as adolescence, romantic encounters, and glimpses into slave history. It was received well by most critics and caught the attention of her peers. Thomas and Beulah, another collection of poems is probably her most famous piece of literature. One critic wrote "[S]he speaks with a directness and a dramatic intensity that commands attention... [Rita Dove] fashions imaginative constructs that strike the reader as much by their 'rightness' as their originality." Using her poetry, she recounts the lives of her two grandparents, telling both sides of their story: Thomas first, and then Beulah, which in a sense gives her the last word. Dove explains their viewpoints regarding each other and life with a simple, yet elegant and realistic prose. Dove has penned many collections of poems, however Through the Ivory Gate was her initial attempt at writing a novel. Encouraged by her husband and publishers, she wrote this story about a young African American woman and her experiences as she returns to her hometown (which, coincidentally is Akron) to perform and teach children at a local school about puppets and creative arts. Like the story's young protagonist, Dove herself is also very involved with younger children. She has appeared on such shows such as "Sesame Street" and NBC's "The Today Show" attempting to draw people who have little prior interest to poetry. Her self declared intention is "to bring poetry into everyday discourse ... to make it much more of a household word."
Poems - 16 in all
Rita Dove
Rita Dove was born in the year 1952 in the city of Akron, Ohio. Her father was a research chemist at the Goodyear plant in Akron and her mother, a homemaker. As a child, the young Dove had a particular fondness and passion for books and said that her parents encouraged her to read anything that she pleased; her parents valued and understood the importance of an education. Dove went on to graduate summa cum laude from Miami University of Ohio, and then to study German at the UniversitÉt TÄbingen, where she would become a Fulbright Scholar. She also received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa. It was there where she met her husband to be, German novelist and playwright Fred Viebahn. Together, the two currently reside in Charlottesville, Virginia with their daughter Aviva. She is presently a Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia where she teaches creative writing.
Dove has been the recipient of many prestigous awards and has held various seats and positions. She was the seventh Poet Laureate/Consultant in Poetry of the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995. She was the youngest person ever appointed to that position as well as the first African American ever appointed. She has also been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1978 and 1989 and from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1983-84. Dove has been given honorary doctorates from several different universities and colleges. She has held residencies at Tuskegee Institute, the National Humanities Center and the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Italy. She was named Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine and given the NAACP Great American Artist Award, both in 1993. She won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book of poems, Thomas and Beulah. She has been given the Folger Shakespere Library's Renaissance Forum Award, the General Electric Foundation award, as well as many other honors. In 1995 she along with Jimmy Carter, welcomed a gathering of Nobel Laureates in Literature to the city of Atlanta, Georgia; hosted by the Cultural Olympiad of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Dove was also responsible for writing the text for Alvin Singleton's symphony "Umoja - Each One of Us Counts," which was comissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to be performed during the opening festivities of last summer's Olympic Games held in Atlanta.
Rita Dove's first work, The Yellow House on the Corner was published in 1980. It is a collection of poems dealing with various topics and experiences such as adolescence, romantic encounters, and glimpses into slave history. It was received well by most critics and caught the attention of her peers. Thomas and Beulah, another collection of poems is probably her most famous piece of literature. One critic wrote "[S]he speaks with a directness and a dramatic intensity that commands attention... [Rita Dove] fashions imaginative constructs that strike the reader as much by their 'rightness' as their originality." Using her poetry, she recounts the lives of her two grandparents, telling both sides of their story: Thomas first, and then Beulah, which in a sense gives her the last word. Dove explains their viewpoints regarding each other and life with a simple, yet elegant and realistic prose. Dove has penned many collections of poems, however Through the Ivory Gate was her initial attempt at writing a novel. Encouraged by her husband and publishers, she wrote this story about a young African American woman and her experiences as she returns to her hometown (which, coincidentally is Akron) to perform and teach children at a local school about puppets and creative arts. Like the story's young protagonist, Dove herself is also very involved with younger children. She has appeared on such shows such as "Sesame Street" and NBC's "The Today Show" attempting to draw people who have little prior interest to poetry. Her self declared intention is "to bring poetry into everyday discourse ... to make it much more of a household word."
Poems - 16 in all
Rita Dove
"Poet Lucille Clifton"
Brief Bio
Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York. Named after her great-grandmother who, according to her father, was the first Black woman to be legally hanged in the state of Virginia, she was raised with two half-sisters and a brother. Growing up, she recalls hearing the word 'nigger'. She knew that it wasn't her, and she thought, "'Well, I'll have to suspect everything they say, won't I?' And I've always been a very curious person, interested in a lot of things, and, so, in writing, I never thought I would be a poet," (Davis).
Clifton was awarded a scholarship to Howard University, becoming the first person in her family to finish high school and consider college, entering as a drama major. After two years she lost her scholarship and told her father, "I don't need that stuff. I'm going to write poems. I can do what I want to do! I'm from Dahomey women!" It was at this point that Clifton's writing began.
In a writer's group she met a man named Ishmael Reed, who showed some of her poems to Langston Hughes. He was the first to publish Clifton, premiering her work in the anthology Poetry of the Negro. Her first complete book of poems, Good Times, was published in 1969. She has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her first children's book, Some of the Days of Everett Anderson (1970) launched her into writing children's stories. Clifton was recently interviewed as part of a major video series exploring the American phenomenon of public poetry, "The Language of Life," with Bill Moyers. She has been honored as Poet Laureate of Maryland, and currently teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Lucille's poetry is straightforward and makes use of vernacular speech. Her poems contain compassion and a high level of emotion, which is uniquely American. Her African roots and her personal history have become the basis of her writing. Other common themes include family, death, birth, and religion. She says, "the proper subject matter for poetry is life." (Davis). She asserts that the reason to write poetry is to assert the importance of being human.
Poems - 10 in all
Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York. Named after her great-grandmother who, according to her father, was the first Black woman to be legally hanged in the state of Virginia, she was raised with two half-sisters and a brother. Growing up, she recalls hearing the word 'nigger'. She knew that it wasn't her, and she thought, "'Well, I'll have to suspect everything they say, won't I?' And I've always been a very curious person, interested in a lot of things, and, so, in writing, I never thought I would be a poet," (Davis).
Clifton was awarded a scholarship to Howard University, becoming the first person in her family to finish high school and consider college, entering as a drama major. After two years she lost her scholarship and told her father, "I don't need that stuff. I'm going to write poems. I can do what I want to do! I'm from Dahomey women!" It was at this point that Clifton's writing began.
In a writer's group she met a man named Ishmael Reed, who showed some of her poems to Langston Hughes. He was the first to publish Clifton, premiering her work in the anthology Poetry of the Negro. Her first complete book of poems, Good Times, was published in 1969. She has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her first children's book, Some of the Days of Everett Anderson (1970) launched her into writing children's stories. Clifton was recently interviewed as part of a major video series exploring the American phenomenon of public poetry, "The Language of Life," with Bill Moyers. She has been honored as Poet Laureate of Maryland, and currently teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Lucille's poetry is straightforward and makes use of vernacular speech. Her poems contain compassion and a high level of emotion, which is uniquely American. Her African roots and her personal history have become the basis of her writing. Other common themes include family, death, birth, and religion. She says, "the proper subject matter for poetry is life." (Davis). She asserts that the reason to write poetry is to assert the importance of being human.
Poems - 10 in all
Lucille Clifton
" Poet Nathan Eugene Toomer"
Brief Bio
Nathan Eugene Toomer was born in Washington, DC on December 26, 1894. His surname was Pinchback but he used his father's last name as an adult and changed his name from Eugene to Jean when he began to write. Toomer spent his early years in Washington in the home of his grandparents. His grandfather was Pinkney Benton Pinchback, a prominent Louisiana politician of the Reconstruction era. They were racially mixed and could have been considered white but his grandfather identified with the blacks.
Toomer considered himself a new type of man. He said he was mixed with "Scotch, Welsh, German, English, French, Dutch, Spanish and some dark blood." He said he was of the "human race". He spent much of his childhood in an affluent white section of Washington free of racial prejudice.
After the death of Toomer's mother in 1909, the Pinchbacks experienced extreme financial losses and moved into a modest black section of Washington. Toomer attended the M Street High School, Washington Secondary School for Negroes.
Toomer went to several universities studying various subjects and working different jobs. In 1914, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to study agriculture but he left. He entered the Massachusetts College of Agriculture but left after a short time. In 1916, he was enrolled at both the American College of Physical Training and the University of Chicago. He studied evolution and socialism. He worked at a shipyard, a store, sold cars and directed physical education.
Jean Toomer's greatest contribution to literature is Cane (1923). It is composed of poetry, short stories, drama and prose that covers African-American culture in the rural south and urban north. When the writers of the early Harlem Renaissance read Cane, they were pleasingly surprised. Jean Toomer mostly associated with progressive white writers of the late 1910s and 1920s. After writing Cane, he was proclaimed by the black writers as the most promising black writer of that time.
During this time, he began to write and he read constantly. He read Victor Hugo, George Bernard Shaw, Walt Whitman and others. From 1919 and 1920, he enjoyed and met prominent New York intellectuals such as Edwin Arlington Robinson and Waldo Frank. Frank and Toomer became close friends and were part of Greenwich Village's artistic society.
In 1921, Toomer was living in Washington taking care of his aging grandparents and trying to write. He met a principal of a small black school in Sparta, Georgia, who needed someone to manage his school for a short time. In the fall of 1921, he accepted this position. This temporary position gave him the opportunity to study the culture and the people of the rural south and to discover his black roots.
Toomer loved living among the people of this beautiful land even though it was segregated at the time. He stayed in a "shack" and began to realize the hardship the blacks suffered both socially and economically. Even though Toomer only stayed a short time, this experience was the basis for Cane. It became a search for his identity.
Cane is divided into three sections. In the first section, Toomer interwove six stories with twelve poems using nature to create portraits of six southern women. "Karintha", "Becky", "Carma", and "Fern" shows the richness of a passing life, while ghost, full moons, and fire in "Esther" and "Blood-Burning Moon" represents the dissolution of life.
Cane's second section is comprised of seven prose sketches and five poems. They are set in urban Chicago and Washington, DC. The black people of this section, descendants and survivors of the black southern culture, are seeking a new life and hope in the urban north.
The third and the longest section entitled "Kabnis" brings the themes of both sections one and two together. It is a portrait of an educated confused black that travels to the south to teach school in Georgia. Cane shows the strength and beauty of African-American culture.
Between 1921 and 1923 Toomer wrote other works of African-American themes, a short story, "Withered Skins of Berries," and two plays, Balo and Natalie Mann. The Howard University Players produced Balo, a one-act folk drama during the 1923-1924 season.
Toomer married Margery Latimer in 1931. She died giving birth to their child Margery. In 1934, he married Marjorie Content and lived the rest of his life with her in Pennsylvania as a Quaker. His writing after Cane was never published, mostly because his post-Cane works were considered tedious and boring. He wrote several autobiographies, four novels, plays, poetry, short stories and articles. Critics believed Toomer gave up the beautiful writing he had done in Cane for something not so beautiful when he became influenced by the Gurdjieff philosophy.
Toomer became distressed over his inability to publish. He suffered with kidney and eye problems in the 1940s. During the final years of his life, he underwent intensive treatment for different ailments. His mental and physical state deteriorated and on March 30, 1967, he died of arteriosclerosis.
Poems - 10 in all
Nathan Eugene Toomer was born in Washington, DC on December 26, 1894. His surname was Pinchback but he used his father's last name as an adult and changed his name from Eugene to Jean when he began to write. Toomer spent his early years in Washington in the home of his grandparents. His grandfather was Pinkney Benton Pinchback, a prominent Louisiana politician of the Reconstruction era. They were racially mixed and could have been considered white but his grandfather identified with the blacks.
Toomer considered himself a new type of man. He said he was mixed with "Scotch, Welsh, German, English, French, Dutch, Spanish and some dark blood." He said he was of the "human race". He spent much of his childhood in an affluent white section of Washington free of racial prejudice.
After the death of Toomer's mother in 1909, the Pinchbacks experienced extreme financial losses and moved into a modest black section of Washington. Toomer attended the M Street High School, Washington Secondary School for Negroes.
Toomer went to several universities studying various subjects and working different jobs. In 1914, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to study agriculture but he left. He entered the Massachusetts College of Agriculture but left after a short time. In 1916, he was enrolled at both the American College of Physical Training and the University of Chicago. He studied evolution and socialism. He worked at a shipyard, a store, sold cars and directed physical education.
Jean Toomer's greatest contribution to literature is Cane (1923). It is composed of poetry, short stories, drama and prose that covers African-American culture in the rural south and urban north. When the writers of the early Harlem Renaissance read Cane, they were pleasingly surprised. Jean Toomer mostly associated with progressive white writers of the late 1910s and 1920s. After writing Cane, he was proclaimed by the black writers as the most promising black writer of that time.
During this time, he began to write and he read constantly. He read Victor Hugo, George Bernard Shaw, Walt Whitman and others. From 1919 and 1920, he enjoyed and met prominent New York intellectuals such as Edwin Arlington Robinson and Waldo Frank. Frank and Toomer became close friends and were part of Greenwich Village's artistic society.
In 1921, Toomer was living in Washington taking care of his aging grandparents and trying to write. He met a principal of a small black school in Sparta, Georgia, who needed someone to manage his school for a short time. In the fall of 1921, he accepted this position. This temporary position gave him the opportunity to study the culture and the people of the rural south and to discover his black roots.
Toomer loved living among the people of this beautiful land even though it was segregated at the time. He stayed in a "shack" and began to realize the hardship the blacks suffered both socially and economically. Even though Toomer only stayed a short time, this experience was the basis for Cane. It became a search for his identity.
Cane is divided into three sections. In the first section, Toomer interwove six stories with twelve poems using nature to create portraits of six southern women. "Karintha", "Becky", "Carma", and "Fern" shows the richness of a passing life, while ghost, full moons, and fire in "Esther" and "Blood-Burning Moon" represents the dissolution of life.
Cane's second section is comprised of seven prose sketches and five poems. They are set in urban Chicago and Washington, DC. The black people of this section, descendants and survivors of the black southern culture, are seeking a new life and hope in the urban north.
The third and the longest section entitled "Kabnis" brings the themes of both sections one and two together. It is a portrait of an educated confused black that travels to the south to teach school in Georgia. Cane shows the strength and beauty of African-American culture.
Between 1921 and 1923 Toomer wrote other works of African-American themes, a short story, "Withered Skins of Berries," and two plays, Balo and Natalie Mann. The Howard University Players produced Balo, a one-act folk drama during the 1923-1924 season.
Toomer married Margery Latimer in 1931. She died giving birth to their child Margery. In 1934, he married Marjorie Content and lived the rest of his life with her in Pennsylvania as a Quaker. His writing after Cane was never published, mostly because his post-Cane works were considered tedious and boring. He wrote several autobiographies, four novels, plays, poetry, short stories and articles. Critics believed Toomer gave up the beautiful writing he had done in Cane for something not so beautiful when he became influenced by the Gurdjieff philosophy.
Toomer became distressed over his inability to publish. He suffered with kidney and eye problems in the 1940s. During the final years of his life, he underwent intensive treatment for different ailments. His mental and physical state deteriorated and on March 30, 1967, he died of arteriosclerosis.
Poems - 10 in all
Poet Torrian Tucker-"Mr. African Poetry Lounge"
Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!
My Baby
My Baby (awww)
I want to say that I love
I mean I adore you
I place no one above you
My Baby
You know I care for you
I mean I cherish you
You know I'll die for you
Just because you're my boo
My Baby
I want to tell the whole world about a friend of mine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This is when my life had better times,
I wanna to talk about my girl if y'all don't mine
I remember it clearly, when you nearly blew my mind
3rd day of school, I saw you looking all beautiful
Single, your man cheated, must've been a fool
Someone as fine as you, must sit on a pedestal
She was bright skin, stood at 5'5"
She had looks that could kill, and I almost died
I would've gave her anything at the drop of a dime
But she told me she just wanted a poem that would rhyme
My girl is more than just good looks
She's smart, funny, and she can cook
And every morning, I thank Jesus Christ
For sending you into my life, my future wife
And now I love her even more
Because she said "I'll be with you if you were rich or poor
If you were a R&B singer and was going on tour
Or a hardworking man trying to buy an Accord"
As long as we're together, our love will last forever
You know two birds of a feather, flying over the weather
Now my mind just went blank, like some bad prank
I need to check my word-bank, to find a word to thank
My Baby (awww)…
Now Lyfe Jennings said it best when he said it "Must Be Nice"
It sure is, having my girl by my side
You know having that one true girl always down to ride
There are no dark days, she's the light of my life
Now it's such a beautiful thing,
when we step on the scene
Birds begin to sing,
now I wanna sing
But could you guys help me [clears throat]
You are so beautiful… to me… can't you SEE
Okay, I'm gonna stick to poetry
But I had to let you know, you are the center of my world
If you look up the word "great", there's a photo of my girl
Now you're saying "Terrell, you're so crazy,"
Only because I love my lady
And this girl, I love her daily.
Why? That's simple, because she's
My Baby (awww)…
This girl is like a sweet dream
My Nubian Queen
Next week, let's go shopping for a ring
Because it's clear to me
You're the one that I want to marry
Now it is apparent to me
That you can't wait to tell you parents 'bout me
And all your close friends and the rest of the family
And when you meet mine, don't fret the "who is she"
I just tell them "the future 'Mrs. Tucker' my babies' mother'"
Then my mom will tell my dad "yeah, it's clear he love her"
And it don't have to a special day like your birthday just to say
I love
My Baby (awww)
I want to say that I love
I mean I adore you
I place no one above you
My Baby
You know I care for you
I mean I cherish you
You know I'll die for you
Just because you're my boo
My Baby
Written by Torrian Tucker
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MrAfrica Poetry Board (------
Post Your Poetry, and Receive Feedback...
Join Our Poetic Community Today!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Baby
My Baby (awww)
I want to say that I love
I mean I adore you
I place no one above you
My Baby
You know I care for you
I mean I cherish you
You know I'll die for you
Just because you're my boo
My Baby
I want to tell the whole world about a friend of mine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This is when my life had better times,
I wanna to talk about my girl if y'all don't mine
I remember it clearly, when you nearly blew my mind
3rd day of school, I saw you looking all beautiful
Single, your man cheated, must've been a fool
Someone as fine as you, must sit on a pedestal
She was bright skin, stood at 5'5"
She had looks that could kill, and I almost died
I would've gave her anything at the drop of a dime
But she told me she just wanted a poem that would rhyme
My girl is more than just good looks
She's smart, funny, and she can cook
And every morning, I thank Jesus Christ
For sending you into my life, my future wife
And now I love her even more
Because she said "I'll be with you if you were rich or poor
If you were a R&B singer and was going on tour
Or a hardworking man trying to buy an Accord"
As long as we're together, our love will last forever
You know two birds of a feather, flying over the weather
Now my mind just went blank, like some bad prank
I need to check my word-bank, to find a word to thank
My Baby (awww)…
Now Lyfe Jennings said it best when he said it "Must Be Nice"
It sure is, having my girl by my side
You know having that one true girl always down to ride
There are no dark days, she's the light of my life
Now it's such a beautiful thing,
when we step on the scene
Birds begin to sing,
now I wanna sing
But could you guys help me [clears throat]
You are so beautiful… to me… can't you SEE
Okay, I'm gonna stick to poetry
But I had to let you know, you are the center of my world
If you look up the word "great", there's a photo of my girl
Now you're saying "Terrell, you're so crazy,"
Only because I love my lady
And this girl, I love her daily.
Why? That's simple, because she's
My Baby (awww)…
This girl is like a sweet dream
My Nubian Queen
Next week, let's go shopping for a ring
Because it's clear to me
You're the one that I want to marry
Now it is apparent to me
That you can't wait to tell you parents 'bout me
And all your close friends and the rest of the family
And when you meet mine, don't fret the "who is she"
I just tell them "the future 'Mrs. Tucker' my babies' mother'"
Then my mom will tell my dad "yeah, it's clear he love her"
And it don't have to a special day like your birthday just to say
I love
My Baby (awww)
I want to say that I love
I mean I adore you
I place no one above you
My Baby
You know I care for you
I mean I cherish you
You know I'll die for you
Just because you're my boo
My Baby
Written by Torrian Tucker
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MrAfrica Poetry Board (------
Post Your Poetry, and Receive Feedback...
Join Our Poetic Community Today!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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