Hello my internet church family,

I want to thank Rev. Fisher and his wife Jan Fisher for producing this site for the past 5 years. Although, I have never met Rev. Fisher, I have found this site to be very inspirational and informative at times. I have been reading this site for about 8 to 9 months. It was largely due to some information on this site that I decided to join the AME church. Thank you Rev. Fisher, Rev. Rogers, Bill Dickens, Rev. Alton Paris, Jeryl, Brenda, Rev. Hanse, and Bro. Robert Matthews for your comments. I have not always agreed with you but I thank you for keeping your comments on a high spiritual plane by abstaining from personal attacks. There has been so much name calling on this bulletin board in the last 2 months that I realize that our enemy known as Satan has orchestrated these vices through our flesh(human nature). The things that I have heard remind me so much of Romans 8. For some reason, I have been fixated on the 8 chapter of Romans for the past 6 months. Our adversary the devil does not like the fact that people can be evangelized through this site. Therefore, he has gone straight to the top to attack the ministers of God through name calling. For the christian who does not seek to follow the Spirit of God daily by praying and bible study this seems unfamiliar to them. I was fasting yesterday and while I was reading my Bible, I noticed that I began to get irritable and think about the racism that Black people have experienced in this country and are experiencing at this time. I began to pray because I knew that this was an attack from Satan to prevent from receiving the word of God by studying my Bible. I also had to pray because I realize that God is the only One that can defeat Satan. Our job is to stand still and see the salvation of God by following the Holy Spirit. For those christians who attack other individuals on this board by calling them names, you are not showing that you have the Spirit of God in your soul. If you read Romans 8, you will find that you are following the ways of your flesh(human nature). When the christian gets in the flesh he or she is against the Holy Spirit. The christian cannot please God in the flesh(human nature) by his will power. The christian must submit to the Holy Spirit to please God. The spiritual nature of ouselves, is one of the least understood aspects of living. My flesh almost got me into trouble many times but for the grace and mercy of God. I had car problems a few months ago and decided that I was going take my car to "Merchant's Tire" for a tune-up hoping that they would find the problem. Well when I approached the service manager, she asked me a thousand questions before she would agree to have my car given a tune-up. I was getting angry and thinking about leaving but the Holy Spirit held my anger in check just a little while longer. The mechanic attempted to do a tune-up and discovered that my dis which is a new device that replaces the distributor needed replacing. He called a company across the street and repaired it. In this situation, if I had yielded to my flesh, I would have missed God's blessing for me. What this experience taught me is that If I get out of the way and yield to the Holy Spirit then God can use me and bless me. Likewise, if the members of the church would get out of the way then our Creator can use us the created to achieve his masterful p lan. So many times we fail in the church beause the created act as though they can do things better than the Creator. I spent last week in Washington, DC at a national conference for the homeless. There were many demographics about us Black folk disseminated there related to housing, health, crime, employment, business, education, politics, and many more that are for the most part abyssmal. If Bishop Richard Allen, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Carter G. Woodson were present on this earth today, I am certain that they would be disappointed with our progress. They would probably ask WHERE IS THE AME CHURCH'S NATIONAL STRATEGIC PLAN TO ADDRESS EDUCATION, POVERTY, HEALTH, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND CRIME PREVENTION IN OUR COMMUNITIES?" Quite frankly, if the AME church does not devise a long range plan of this magnitude, I doubt very seriously if any other organization will be able to do so without divine sanction. We need to stop allowing the devil to bring discord to this bulletin board by following the ways of our flesh. We need to follow the Holy Spirit to keeps us on the path of righteousness.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

Answers

Great post Jazzman and thanks! You discussed the flesh (lower self) and Holy Spirit (Self) very clearly. Ignorance (devil incarnate) drives many of us to act against our true nature…that is the nature of the Self. Our lower nature has a very strong force called ego, which thinks that it is in control of the Holy Spirit. It does everything in its limited power to manipulate a situation. Which is exactly what happened on this BB. I believe through honest dialogue, we could resolve conflict. Perhaps Rev. Fisher could develop a private member's only BB for these types of conversations. Let's not lose this opportunity to heal!

In Love and Light, Brenda

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Amen, Amen and Amen brother

The ways of your tongue tells me that you had a spiritual injection when needed most. I wish I could also receive that type of spiritual injection all the time. However, as you rightly put it, when the nature of the flesh start to take charge of our being then the spirit fades away.

May the good Lord bless you and keep you and may He grant us all the strength to use this BB as a spiritual tool to share information and teach each other! God bless!!

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001