I DREAMED I WAS PREACHINGWritten by Irvin L. Rozier
I had a dream this morning at 2:30...I awoke and wrote it down. Dr. Young, pastor of our First Baptist church, invited me to preach. As I was going up to pulpit, he handed me a letter from Dr. Martin, a foreign missionary who church sponsored. The church lights were dimmed and a faint light shone on report..so faint I could barely read it. I asked Dr. Young if he wanted me to read report and he said yes. The writing was illegible and I could not make sense out of it. I looked up and told audience to bear with me, this "Doctor" writing was hard to read. The Lord wanted me to go on with message so I said, "O, well, Lord's will be done".Then I began to preach message Lord had given me. I said "In beginning, God created everything. He is Creator!" Then I said, "God created prayer." As I begin to speak on prayer, members of church got up and started walking out by droves. Dr. Young was embarrassed by this and look on his face said "Oh, I hope I didn't make them mad by asking you to preach." He looked like he was torn between wanting me to preach about prayer and pleasing crowd. I said to crowd, "Where are y'all going?" They paid no attention to me and kept filing out. Only one man, Vice President of our local bank, turned to me and said "I don't know what is wrong with these people; they need to hear that message on prayer."
| | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: How Do You Change the World?Written by Dorene Lehavi
Recently, I saw an exhibition of paintings by a very talented artist. He clearly has a social conscience and his depictions of pain and misery of disenfranchised and minority people are so vivid and real you can't help but feel pain in viewing paintings. The artist is a warm, friendly, humble man whom I approached with a question, "does he ever paint another side of life?" He seemed interested in engaging in a conversation about it and frankly I was surprised at myself for even approaching him. I have never considered myself either knowledgeable or beyond too shy to talk about art to an artist this way. But, I felt compelled and in hindsight I know why. As a ‘60's activist and an angry idealist, I would have wanted his pictures out there in face of those whom I and he blamed for social injustices he expressed so people would realize and wake up. Well, decades later, I now know that doesn't work. I felt very strongly pain of his pictures, couldn't view them for long, and also knew if he wanted people to buy them and take them home, he'd have a very small audience. I asked if he'd consider using his brilliant artistic ability to inspire by painting beauty. I was surprised at what I was saying, because I have obviously metamorphosed from who I was in past. About a year ago, I decided that 11:00 p.m. news was not a good pre-bedtime story and stopped watching it. If you look closely you will note that “stories” are not necessarily chosen for their importance and useful information, but for entertainment and sensationalism. I can honestly say, my sense of well being has improved. When I watched 11:00 p.m. news, my anxiety level heightened and with that I foolishly tried to begin a restful night's sleep.
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