Lift Him up,
lift Him up!
Lord Jesus Christ is the Most High;
sovereign God of earth, sea and sky.
Raise up the banner,
proclaim His name,
crown Him with glory,
walk in the Way.
Bless up,
bless up!
Lord Jesus Christ is prophet, priest and king.
Be washed in His blood and receive mercy.
Fire baptized you spiritually rise;
born again to worship the Christ.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Bow down before His mighty throne.
Worship the Lamb and the Lord of Hosts.
Raise up,
raise up!
In Jesus is salvation found.
Honor the Almighty God.
Submit to His will and He’ll forgive your wrongs.
Don’t be fooled by Babylon.
Forward onto Mount Zion.
Raise the banner of Mighty Jah.
Like the lion of Judah
forward onto higher ground.
This is influenced by reggae, dub and dancehall riddims (a.k.a. rhythms). This dub poem/ragga song was written while singing psalms to my Lord.
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It has been my pleasure to meet and interact with such a diverse group of people in the blogosphere. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday!
As for me, tomorrow I fly to Wisconsin to spend Christmas with my family. I can’t wait to see my grandparents, parents and stepparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and most of all my brothers and baby sister. It’s a blessing to be able to celebrate this time of year with family.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, but it also celebrates family. Baby Jesus wouldn’t have had much of a chance at survival if He hadn’t had His mother and Joseph to provide Him with clothing, food and love. Scripture tells us that Jesus even had brothers and sisters.
They were a poor family, but they had Jesus and the power of God in their very midst. Today, while we do not have Jesus physically present, we do have His Spirit. I pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that you have the Spirit of Jesus with you as you celebrate the birth of our Savior. Luke 2: 8-12:
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.“
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Peace and goodwill on earth!
Sunday night I attended a Hanukkah celebration held by Chabad-Lubavitch Jews. Chabad-Lubavitch is a branch of Hasidic Judaism and it is one of the largest Ultra-Orthodox Jewish movements worldwide. The event was held, oddly enough, at the Metropolitan Republican Club on the Upper East Side in Manhattan (former President Nixon and mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg have been members).
I was invited to the event by Jewish reggae deejay Benny Bwoy (the Original JEWmaican). I first met Benny a couple of years ago while attending a reggae show. We have since crossed paths at several reggae festivals in NYC and at an awards show held at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The last time I saw Benny was at the Jewish Music Awards held at the Holocaust Museum near Ground Zero where he performed a set and was nominated for best deejay of the year.
When my girlfriend Vonetta and I entered the Republican club to celebrate Hanukkah we were given draidels and milk chocolate coins. We mosied around the large room mingling with the Lubavitchers and eating potato knish and latkes while Benny and his crew set up their equipment. When the music started women and children danced while men stood around the periphery of the room. Benny performed with Jamaican deejay Lynx and, to everyone’s surprise, Lynx chanted Hebrew lyrics to a Jamaican riddim. After awhile everyone was dancing.
After Lyor Cohen, CEO of Warner Music, lit the menorah everyone sang Ma’oz Tzur (Christians call it “Rock of Ages”). Then the rabbi told the traditional story of Hanukkah. The story is derived from 1 Maccabees, an extra-biblical book. It is counted by scholars as historically accurate, but Jewish and Christian leaders do not consider it to be divinely-inspired.
1 Maccabees tells the story of Judah Maccabee and his faithful army rising up against the Greeks who were forcing the Israelites to abandon their belief system. After defeating the Greeks, Judah and his men went to Jerusalem and successfully reclaimed the temple for God. The Talmud adds that there was only one cruse of oil to light the menorah. One cruse should have only lit the lamp for a night but instead, miraculously, kept it lit for eight days. The rabbi said that the true meaning of Hanukkah is to remind the Jewish people that the light that burned in the temple after it was restored is the same light that burns in every Jew.
Vonetta and I were perhaps the only Christians at the event, but we were warmly welcomed. While the story of Judah Maccabees’ great zeal for God reminded the Jews to let their light shine, we too were reminded to keep our fire for Christ burning bright. When we left the event Vonetta said that she hopes that she has more opportunities in her life to witness to others about God’s transformative powers. I believe that her life (and the lives of every believer who has been changed by God’s grace) is a bold and faithful witness of God’s work. We are blessed to have a God who redeems His people. And we should be honored to be a banner unto others for Him.
I have always considered purgatory to be unfounded in scripture. After reading the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 I questioned if these verses are where the Catholic church derives its doctrine of purgatory.
In Matthew 18:34-35 Jesus says,
“In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
Since I am a babe in Christ, I pray to keep my mind and heart open to the Word of God and His Holy Spirit. I pray that it is the Lord who is teaching me rather than me solely depending on the traditions of men to interpret scripture.
I wondered if purgatory could perhaps be biblical. I prayed to God for the wisdom to discern the true meaning of these verses. I pleaded with the Lord and asked His Spirit to teach me. I worshiped Him, thanked Him, and waited on Him for an answer.
He revealed to me that these verses do not negate or endorse the doctrine of purgatory. He showed me that I was focusing on God’s punishment when the point of the parable is to be merciful. The Spirit of the Lord revealed that these verses emphasize the importance of forgiveness and that we should forgive others from our heart as God forgave us because of His Son.
A believer can have preconceived notions about verses, but when they lean on the Spirit for guidance the truth is illuminated by the very Person who inspired the Word. Praise the Lord for His love and mercy.
Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be an adventurer. My childhood list of choice vocations included truck driver, writer and vagabond. Yes, even vagabond (which, I might add, is different than a bum or hobo).
Growing up I moved often and, being raised by a single mother, I was granted more independence than most kids. My father (who never married my mother) traveled a lot when I was very young. He’d send postcards from Florida, Texas and other places hospitable to transients, and he’d return to Wisconsin with great stories from the road.
As a teen I threw myself into literature. I read Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” relentlessly. And Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was my bible. Unfortunately, as a troubled youth many people (including teachers, a principal, and even a chief of police) told me that I would grow up to be nothing (some of them used harsher words).
At age 17, a week after barely graduating high school, I left home to travel the American West. Since then I have circled the globe, visited over 30 countries and I’ve been to 5 continents (haven’t made it to Antarctica or Australia yet). I’ve zig-zagged the length of South America, read the Koran in Morocco, taught English in Korea, and in India I accepted Christ as Lord.
As I mature in the Lord I can see that these experiences have taught me to be tolerant of other cultures. Being raised poor (and even despised by society’s expectations), I quickly learned to empathize and even identify with the lost, downtrodden and marginalized people of the world.
1 Corinthians 1:27 says:
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
I was blessed to be raised by a compassionate, selfless mother and to have a strong, encouraging father in my life. Above all, I praise Christ who has liberated me from sin and society’s expectations. I praise God for not throwing me away. I praise Him for His mercy. And I praise Him for His power to confound the world through His love. More fire.
The Abyssinians are a male trio famous for their close harmonies. They are from Jamaica and were raised in the Christian faith. When they came of age they joined the Rastafarian movement, a black consciousness movement that claims former king of Ethiopia Haile Selassie to be the second coming of Christ. Reggae songs are mostly Rasta hymns. The Abyssinians first album deals with African themes, but stays away from Rastafarianism.
Since I was a teenager I have enjoyed listening to reggae musicians such as Bob Marley, Jacob Miller and newcomers like Capleton and Sizzla. The songs are filled with conscious lyrics dealing with social activism, equality and justice.
Like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Rastas are a cult of Christianity. The following is an extract from an article I wrote for High Times magazine. The story originally covered an event sponsored by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church honoring the 75th anniversary of the coronation of Haile Selassie. The article is a biography of Haile Selassie, the person at the center of the Rasta movement. One thing that the article does not mention is that Haile Selassie was a devout Christian who sent bishops to West Indian nations to preach the gospel and dispell Rastafarianism.
Emperor Haile Selassie
On November 2, 1930 Ras (Prince) Tafari Makonnen ascended the royal throne of Ethiopia to become the 111th emperor in a royal line descending from King Solomon and Queen Sheba. At his coronation he was proclaimed Negusa Negast (King of Kings) and crowned Emperor Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity) I, Conquering Lion of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia.
The original Rastafarians drew their inspiration from the teachings of the Jamaican Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey. In the 1920s Garvey preached that a black king would be crowned in Africa and his followers rejoiced when they saw this prophecy fulfilled in 1930 with the crowning of Ras Tafari. On November 8, 1930 in his Jamaican newspaper, The Blackman, Garvey proclaimed, “The Psalmist prophesied that Princes would come out of Egypt and Ethiopia would stretch forth her hands unto God. We have no doubt that the time is now come. Ethiopia is now really stretching forth her hands.” To the Garveyites, Haile Selassie I was a hero without peer. To the Rastafarians he was the Living God of Abraham and Isaac.
In 1931, upon assuming power, Selassie established the first Ethiopian constitution, which re-focused government power to his bloodline solely. He abolished slavery and made Ethiopia a founding member of the United Nations. The Italians invaded Ethiopia in the mid 1930s and Selassie retreated to Geneva to plea for international aid. In his speech Selassie said, “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned…Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.” Bob Marley’s song “War” is based on Selassie’s 1936 address.
Selassie was forced into exile and spent his time between Bath, England and Jerusalem. When Italy joined forces with the Nazis in WWII, Allied Forces finally came to the aid of Ethiopia and helped to expel the fascist Italian army from Ethiopia allowing Selassie to return as Emperor of Ethiopia.
After WWII, Selassie donated a large parcel of land, called Shashamane, to allow Black settlers from the West Indies to return to their homeland in Africa. Shashamane is located about 150 miles south of Addis Ababa and currently has over 50,000 West Indian (mostly Rastafarian) residents. He remained emperor until 1974 when he was overthrown by a military coup. He was eighty-three years old and the last emperor of the Solomonic Dynasty.
I was on my way to pick up Chinese take-out when I ran into James (a.k.a. Hammer John, a.k.a. Scram). He told me that he has been sentenced to serve an eight month prison sentence in Sing Sing on drug possession charges. The sentence starts today. We sat on the cold cement stairs in front of a new housing development on the block and talked gravely about life, God and salvation.
He told me how he had once been a “good man,” how he had worked for the Board of Education and how he has two children (one is currently in college). He told me of the suffering that he has caused his family. He confessed to slinging rocks (i.e. selling crack cocaine) and having an alcohol problem. He told me that he is a three-time felon (or a “loser” as they call it on the street) and that he had to cop a plea bargain to reduce his sentence to a misdemeanor to keep him from going away for a seriously long time.
Hammer John’s father is the pastor of a Baptist church in the neighborhood. Hammer resonated a desperate spiritual yearing. He said he never goes to church, but he confessed that he needs to be saved. He said that he needs to be rescued from his imminent situation as much as he needs to be saved for the rest of eternity. He said that he wished Jesus would reveal Himself so that he’d know how to change. He wanted a visible, physically present Jesus to comfort and save him.
He wanted to know what he could do to be saved. He said he believed, but that believing didn’t seem to be enough. While he was telling me all this I was praying to God and leaning on His Holy Spirit for guidance. I told Hammer to keep believing, but also to start trusting the Lord. I gently told him that he won’t find salvation in drugs, booze or sex. I told him I know only because I too have tried to find fulfillment in the things of this world. I confessed that I too have served time. And that God has revealed Himself to me at moments where I have acknowledged my uselessness and brokeness.
A verse recently preached on at my church came to my mind and, accepting it as a prompting from the Spirit, I shared it with Hammer. “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). I encouraged him to pray and search the Word until he is consumed by a hunger for God. Almost an hour had passed since Hammer and I started talking. I had almost forgotten about the take-out waiting for me at the Chinese restaurant. He thanked me for sitting with him. I thanked him for sharing so candidly with me.
He didn’t confess any hope in reconciling with his family or of finding suitable employment or of kicking his habit, but he did confess a hope in Christ. As the rest of us start our holiday season (exchanging gifts, fellowshiping, honoring the birth of our Lord) Hammer John is starting his prison sentence. Pray that the Spirit of God sets the captives (in sin) free.
Let me first say that there is a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in my living room. It’s wonderfully festive. And now I’m about to drink a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy some holiday music (Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s “Light of the World“).
I don’t want to ba-hum-bug anyone’s Christmas spirit, but having read Jeremiah 10:3-4 the sparkle of my Christmas tree’s glitter has somewhat faded.
“For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”
What do you think? Could the prophet be talking about the Christmas tree?
