God's Promises

^{1 Samuel 23:16-18
 16} And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. ¹⁷ “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.” ¹⁸ The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.

In this passage David was receiving encouragement from Jonathan who was Saul's son and Saul was out to kill David. Although Jonathan was Saul's son he still stood with and encouraged David, reminding him of the promises of God. When we are faced with giants and there is nothing more to do just stand on the promises of God and believe Him for his word is truth. 

As Christians we need to encourage each other to keep going and continue running this race for our reward will be when we meet Jesus.

Your opinion please!!!!

I believe music is the soundtrack of our lives and the rhythm of our soul, so what you listen to is the peep hole into whats in your heart. When Hip Hop was created it was used as a form of self expression and I have a theory behind the history. African American back in the 70's did not have a lot but we knew how to take what we had and create opportunity. So without instruments we configured a sound with just our voices called beatboxing, and put a rhythm to our words which complimented the beat. Through rhythmic story telling, rappers encouraged and educated their audience which was the beginning of Hip Hop.

Over time those encouraging messages became self righteous, shallow, insecure lyrics of false hope. The reason I use the phrase 'false hope' is because the general messages which are transferred through hip hop glorify materialism, immorality, disrespect, and inhumanity. Now don't get me wrong every rap song out does not fall under that umbrella however majority of mainstream hip hop music does.

As time progresses the quality of the message is rapidly declining and unfortunately increasingly capturing the attention of the younger generation. However now a younger generation of followers of Christ are attempting to take the hip hop sound and deliver messages of our Savior JESUS CHRIST saving grace, labeling it Holy Hip Hop.

Many mature believers in Christ do not agree with using hip hop as a vehicle to declare the word of God because hip hop is claimed to be 'worldly' and 'the devil's music.' They believe its sacreligous to mix things of this world with Jesus Christ because it can be viewed as we are conforming to the things of this world and compromising the Gospel.

My question tonight is, is it the label Holy Hip Hop which is conflicting, or is it the message over a hip hop beat which stirs confusion?

Capable to Pass

I heard a message from Sheryl Brady where she preaching of how Jesus was a teacher and teachers have to give test to ensure that the student will apply what they have learned correctly. She continues to describe how God gives us test because He knows we are capable of passing them but our test will confirm if we are ready to be promoted to the next level. See the bible says that we will go from glory to glory to glory and I believe that every test we pass is allowing us an opportunity to be presented with God's glory. The joy for me is when I reflect back to what God did the last time when my faith was tested and He showed up in a remarkable way. So based on the magnitude of His glory last time I can't imagine how He will reveal his glory this time. Most of what we experience and go through we have faced similar before we just have to believe, trust, and know that God will do it. Be Blessed!



E. Necole

Wednesday our topic will be about rappers who rap about the Gospel...........