Hip-Hop, Idolatry, & The Church Pt. 14 ~ An Ode To The "king"

This post was kind of difficult for me to categorize. It was a cross between the current title and my Nephilim series. I'm sure you'll understand why as we continue. The Radio Podcast related to this post can be found HERE and HERE

Singer/ Actress Lauryn Hill (aka  L. Boogie now Ms. Lauryn Hill) has been one of the music industry's most prolific stars. Beginning with the hit group called the Fugees, Lauryn has not only made music but also had starring roles in films such as Sister Act II, Hav Plenty & King of the Hill. She was formerly married to the son of music icon Bob Marley, Rohan Marley.  She is said to have a net worth exceeding $10 Million just from record sales and other closely held investments.  

What is strangely unique about Lauryn is her disappearance and absence from fame and industry, and a temporary and planned future reemergence with what seems to be a spiritually centered and focused message. After winning over 4 Grammys in 1998 for her release, "The Miseducation Of Laury Hill" she disappeared for 4 years. She has threatened to reappear with a new spiritual dimension and offering better than ever. Some say that her disappearance was due to a settled lawsuit ( $5 Million) involving the claim of  New Ark (Vada Nobles, Rasheem Pugh, Tejumold and Johari Newton), who held that Lauryn had tried to stiff them of credit for their work in writing and assisting on many of the albums songs. Prior to the suit, when asked about a written contractual agreement between her and the production company, Ms. Hill stated:  

The Fugees

"We all love each other. This ain't about documents. This is blessed."

Lauryn then reemerged in 2001 with a MTV 2.0 release in 2002 in which she introduced some spiritual/revolutionary type songs such as "The Conquering Lion" and "Everything Is Everything", "The Mystery Of Iniquity"  and "Oh Jerusalem". What many still don't know is that all of these songs were dedicated to and based upon the actions of a man that she considers to be Christ on earth. His name was Haile Selassie.

The Conquering Lion

Haile Selassie (aka: Tafari Makonnen) (7/1892 - 8/1975), Ethiopia's former Regent (1916-1930) and Emperor (1930- 1975), was an influential world leader, and one that set the standard for NATO and other world organizations as it pertains to peacekeeping and nation building. He was not fond of any official political or economic system and was deposed by communism towards the end of his reign. He claimed to be the distant grandson of direct relation of King Solomon and the Queen Of Sheba (1 Kings 10:13). According to legend, Solomon not only gave the Queen material items, but also impregnated her before she left upon her visit to Jerusalem to speak to teh wise King. As a result this union produced another royal line and offspring of David and another branch of the Jewish nation. 

Haile Selassie's name means "Power of the Trinity" or "Might of the Trinity". Haile is said to have been a member of the  Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church until his death. However, seemingly, beginning in Jamaica in and around 1930, he was hailed by his loyal followers as God incarnate, and Jesus reincarnated. Therefore, he was said by his devotees to have been God in the flesh.

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Except Those Days Should Be Shortened

Matthew 24: 21-22 ~ "21-For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22-And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

The devastation and loss of human life and life in general has never been so pronounced in this generation as we have seen over the last 10 years or so. From, mass wildlife die-offs to earthquakes, tsunami's, volcano eruptions and more, it seems that the Earth and those of us on it are under attack. According to the US Geological Survey over 1 million people, an average of 100,000 per year, have died as a direct result of the most dangerous earthquakes in the last 10 years around the world. According to data compiled from the by the same organization, there is an upward trend of about 150 earthquakes per year above category 6 over the last 30 years. This averages out to be about 3 per week somewhere in the world. Although that number spikes at times, it is generally holding to that trend.    

Japanese Coast Line
Before (above) and after (below)

Because there are advanced detection and sensor systems in use, scientists have been able to observe some rather interesting effects that the natural disasters have caused. Scientists can now measure how these events effect the whole Earth. Most specifically when we look at some of the recent earthquakes we find that they actually effected the Earth's rotation and axis resulting in a reduction in time by causing the Earth's rotation to speed up. According to a a Yahoo News article by Liz Goodwin:

• The quake off of the Japanese coast shifted the earth's axis by 6.5 inches, and also shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds. It also  and sank Japan downward by about two feet and moved it closer to the United States by 8 feet.  

• The 2010  massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile also shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds

• The 2004 Sumatra quake shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth's axis by 2.76inches

Dr. Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, stated the following:

"An earthquake can make Earth rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis, just as ice skaters can speed up their spins by pulling in their arms. Conversely, a quake can slow the rotation and lengthen the day if it redistributes mass away from that axis" 

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Calling Out To ALL COGIC Bishops

The Late Founder
Bishop Charles H. Mason
Caring For The Sheep

With the passing of General Board member and former Presiding Bishop, Bishop Chandler D. Owens I believe that there is a serious call to the leaders of the Church Of God In Christ. The perception is that we, as a church, must stem a tide  of secularism and political and social liberalism and elitism that many Saints have contacted my office and this blog regarding. The ugly trio of politics, liberalism and elitism have reared their ugly head and the response is a grumbling and travailing within the spirit of believers calling for a restoration and reversion of this church to biblical principles and godly precepts devoid of politically and secularly inspired aspirations that lend to the seduction and consequent subdual of the masses.

The Question & The Call

Are there officials, especially Bishops, yet within the church that will undertake agenda that will benefit ALL members and factions of the church? This is the question that should be posed and one that I believe is deserving of an answer. Now, to be fair, some of the issues we face are issues based on individual and personal accountability or lack thereof. Then on the other hand public trouble is generated by a few who are visible because they do and allow what the church, especially the Grand Ole COGIC,  is not supposed to do and allow.

To recap, some of the more pertinent issues, we must examine how churches are currently being handled in periods of transition. As I have featured on this site, we now have what can only be perceived as greedy Bishops that engage in suing and bringing shame to the churches that they oversee as we will further explain below. Church laws that were instituted to protect the Saints are being used to bind them and restrict them under the eyes of our national leaders and leadership.

Then there are other serious issues that have developed from Clergy Sexual Abuse and Misconduct of the innocent. Seemingly, those that have been hurt in these types of cases have been hurt without repair. Others have been awarded resources and finances of the church to the tune of millions of dollars at a time. We have been directed to experience pastoral training on the effects of CSA and CSM within the jurisdictional setting, but we must ask, are there yet leaders within the church willing to undertake these issues from a victims perspective, calling an end to the ungodly practices of denial, avoidance and media posturing? Are there any that will make it known that what this church needs from top to bottom is an awakening and a reversion to plain, simple and honest truths rendering godly service to the people that they have been called to lead?  

Atrocities

1 Tim. 5:22 ~"Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other men's sins keep thyself pure"

In outling these issues, please know that I yet believe that the Church Of God In Christ is one of , if not the

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In Memory Of Bishop Chandler D. Owens

A must read:

Calling Out To All COGIC Bishops

Bishop Chandler D. Owens
10/1/1931 ~ 3/6/2011

Supt. Harvey Burnett, the New Bethel/ Bethel Epiphany COGIC, The T.T. Rose Memorial District Of Illinois 3rd Jurisdiction and the Dunamis Word, stop to honor the memory of the late Bishop Chandler D. Owens who passed from this world on Sunday March 6th 2011.

Bishop Owens served as a former Presiding Bishop Of The Church Of God In Christ (1995-2000)  was the pastor of the Greater Community Church Of God In Christ in Marietta, Georgia,  the Bishop of Central Georgia Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and a General Board Member of the church Of God In Christ for over 35 years. He is said to have been a preacher of the gospel for over 70 years.

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"In The Name Of"...The TRUTH & The Granville Sharp Rule

Matthew 28:19-20 ~ "19-Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20-Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Acts 2:38 ~ "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

In my post dealing with Bishop Noel Jones and his recent attempts to make the heretical belief in oneness doctrine and its resultant baptismal formula requirement "In Jesus Name" more palatable and acceptable for mainstream and trinitarian believers, the Bishop challenges those that disagree with him with the following statement:

"Well if they were baptized in the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost, it can't be a contradiction"...."It' can't be a contradiction or Jesus would have started the biggest revolution in the whole Christian matrix"...In Matthew 28:19: the name of Jesus was implicit, it was implied. In Acts 2:38 the name is not implied, it's explicated. Now, my word to anybody who would call me a heretic, is, if something is implicit and something is explicit, it can't be contradictory"..."Matthew 28:19 does not contradict Acts 2:38, neither does Acts 2:38 contradict Matthew 28:19."

I have dealt with the bishop's assertion previously in print HERE, and by audio HERE and HERE, but I thought to revisit the issue adding a little more detail to my previous argument in effort to equip believers with additional information. 

Preface

I would like to say that, this topic wasn't confused by the early church as some may think. The early church certainly struggled with the concept that God revealed himself as three distinct persons in his dealings with the church and the world, but this distinction wasn't blurred until the 4th Century  heretical beliefs of Sabellianism appeared. The misteaching is that The Council Of Nicea established the Trinity. This is a patently false understanding! Nicea defended how Jesus was deity rising to establish a standard against the heresy of Arius, who taught that Jesus was god but not the eternal God. Arianism taught that Jesus was the greatest of all God's created beings, was created out of nothing and was divine in as much as he was like the Father but that he was yet a created being. I will deal with this issue and what happened at Nicea in a separate post.

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BMI...A Tribute To ~ Commissioned

Now, anyone that knows me knows that I am all things Commissioned. Not simply because of personalities, but because every one of the group members that I know (past and present) are sincerely dedicated to Christ and the building of Christ's Kingdom. In other words, they are saved folk, and not just playing the part and making money. So when my friend Karl Reid posted a part of BMI's January 2011 tribute to Commissioned as sung by the Clark Sisters, I was more than happy to add it to the blog. As a bonus I added The Men Of Standard tribute to Commissioned also. This is yet another fantastic song that blessed my life. These songs were written at a time when Gospel music actually had lyrics that let you know they were singing gospel...isn't that a novel idea??? BTW: I'm rootin' for another tour with all NEW songs this time...in other words a new Commissioned project with all the original and current group members. I think we would be well served to go back to real gospel music with Christ centered lyrics.  

(Special note: I hope that the Clark Sisters and other gospel singers will continue to tribute gospel folk instead of secular folk such as Frankie Beverly...Just a thought!)

The Clark Sisters ~ "I'm Going On"


Men Of Standard ~ "Runnin' Back To You"


Blessed!

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Calling The Community From Death To Life

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved"

Romans 10:1

I think I'll just let them speak:

The Testimony


The Poem


Testimony ~ "Born in sin, shaped in inquity, open to do all sorts of things BUT..."

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