Say It Loud! "I'm Black, and I'm Tired!"

Say It Loud! "I'm Black, and I'm Tired!"

Last weekend, a friend and I visited the Museum of the Bible to take in an exhibit entitled “A Balm in Gilead”. Admittedly, I didn’t do my due diligence to research the event before purchasing my ticket. I simply thought it was a gospel concert given the affair largely boasted of performances by the Howard University Gospel Choir and Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers.

Now, speaking of the performances, the choirs were phenomenal! They had hymns, they had range, they had rhythm, and they had me clapping and singing along.

But as for the rest of the event? They simply had a lot of nerve!

Missions in East Asia: A Request for Your Support

Missions in East Asia: A Request for Your Support

With my Pastor’s support and recommendation, I have been invited to travel to East Asia this spring for a short-term missions trip in partnership with Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  During this two-week trip, I will have a chance to share the Gospel with students at a local university. East Asia is among the unreached regions for the Gospel, so a great majority of students will be hearing the Gospel for the first time. 

Christ lived a perfect life, bore the wrath of God on the cross, and rose again that anyone who repents and believes may have eternal life with Him. But thousands in East Asia will suffer eternal punishment in hell if they never receive this glorious hope. That is why I must go. 

Will you send me?

Christians, Like Christ, We Marry for Keeps (But): On Divorce, Remarriage + the Gospel

Christians, Like Christ, We Marry for Keeps (But): On Divorce, Remarriage + the Gospel

“What would you do if your husband cheated on you?”

“DIIIVOOOORRCE!”

“Really? Divorce? You’d just give up your family like that?”

“Give up on my family? Didn’t my husband give up on us the moment he cheated? I could NEVER trust him again!”

“That’s cold! I can’t believe you’d do that.”

“Are you SERIOUS?!”

This is a snippet from a conversation I had with a gentleman I dated well over a decade ago. I do believe that was the last conversation we ever had. He was an audacious fellow, and I was a little bit more than furious. The nerve of him. OF COURSE I’d divorce my unfaithful husband!  What was he thinking...that if we got married he could do whatever he wanted and I’d just deal with it? Tuh! Nope! I was so undone by his response. In fact, as I shared that conversation with girlfriends over the years, everyone said that I was right and agreed that this guy was clearly out of his mind. I didn’t need them to affirm me, of course. I already knew I was right. Indeed, I was more than right! 

But then I began to follow Christ.

Truth + Fire’s Top Ten Posts of the Decade

Truth + Fire’s Top Ten Posts of the Decade

Okay, so Truth + Fire has only been around since 2015, and our top ten articles of the decade actually come from the past three and a half years. Yet, as I reflect on the past 10 years of my life, much is revealed about my testimony in these stats, and in the articles resulting from them. As I’ve previously shared, when I began Truth + Fire, I simply wanted to share my faith. But that faith was not only immature, it was filtered through the ‘prosperity gospel’. Granted, in the months before publishing my first post I’d begun an independent Bible study and was surely learning a few things. But, the truth is, I sincerely don’t believe I was converted at the time I launched this blog. I’ve actually had to go back and DELETE a couple of posts from Truth + Fire’s first six months of publication. For example, in September 2015, I wrote a piece about Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. where I fawned over his humility and ability to unite people no matter their beliefs! Meanwhile, this man not only brings a false gospel, but he has a whole antichrist spirit! BAH!

Thoughts About Suicide...

Thoughts About Suicide...

In September 2019, late Pastor Jarrid Wilson made Christian and mainstream headlines after taking his own life. He was 30 years old with a birthday on the way. In addition to his noble profession as a pastor, he was a husband, a father of two boys, and a mental health advocate. As the pastor of a megachurch with a sizable social media following, Wilson was loved and adored by many, and in the days following the news of his death, those who knew and followed his ministry took to social media to say their goodbyes, express their condolences and to honor his memory. Wilson’s story also gave way to a larger conversation on Christian suicide, and as many utilized social media to grieve his death, many also took to social media to try to make sense of his actions. 

Unfortunately, many did so according to their own understanding. 

1. Thoughts About Suicide + the Bible

1. Thoughts About Suicide + the Bible

While suicide isn’t explicitly condemned in the Bible, it would be wickedly disingenuous to consider that God’s tacit approval of the act.  Pedophilia, same-sex marriage, abortion and other sins also aren’t explicitly named as sin, yet an honest reading of what God says on a host of other matters reveal his heart on these topics. First, there’s the fact that murder is an explicitly named sin (Exodus 20:13), and suicide is but self-murder. Second, it’s helpful to note that all instances of suicide in the Bible were carried out by those who were enemies of God, or those or who had turned away from Him. 

2. Thoughts About Suicide + Mental Illness

2. Thoughts About Suicide + Mental Illness

While it’s a popular in the world and among some Christians to absolve one of the sin of suicide if they suffered mental illness, there is no Biblical case for it. First, let’s highlight how there isn’t a single sin the Lord excuses because of one’s mental health. There is no such thing as “Go and sin no more, unless you’re mentally ill.” And we need to be honest -  what we count as “mental illness” is what the Scriptures count as spiritual oppression or double-mindedness (Judges 9:23; 1 Samuel 16:14-23; 1 Kings 18:21; Matthew 4:24, 5:15, 9:23; Mark 5 and elsewhere). Scripture says “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). But there is hope, as the double-minded can be cleansed if they draw near to God (James 4:8).  

3. Thoughts About Suicide + Repentance

3. Thoughts About Suicide + Repentance

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  In context, this verse appears in a letter to a body of Believers who are being encouraged to remain in right fellowship with God and one another. In fact, the whole of 1 John offers these (and future) Believers a test for a being a genuine Christian - those who confess and are repentant of sin (1 John 1), those who don’t practice willful sin (1 John 2), those who love their brother (1 John 3-4), and those who love God by keeping His commandments (1 John 4-5). And, yet, those who would make a case for suicide being a “forgivable sin” would say one who commits self-murder can be assured of Christ’s salvation, no repentance necessary.

4. Thoughts About Suicide + Faith

4. Thoughts About Suicide + Faith

Even if we remove mental illness claims away from the topic of suicide, there are those who claim Christian suicide is still possible in a “moment of weakness” or as a “split second decision”.  To be sure, that’s an extremely drastic decision to make in a snap. But if it were to occur, it would only prove that individual, even in that moment, rejected the sufficiency of God’s grace for us, as He says He is made strong in our weakness (1 Corinthians 12:9).  Even if someone took his/her own life in a “split second” decision, it doesn’t negate that the Lord, who calls His just to live by faith, says if someone so much as shrinks back, His soul takes no pleasure in them (Hebrews 10:38). One making this argument also has to contend with the fruit of patience and self-control we have as Believers born again of the Holy Spirit. So, again, a Christian making a snap decision to take his/her own life in a flash moment of despair is an interesting scenario.

Why I No Longer Pray for 'Contentment in Singleness'

Why I No Longer Pray for 'Contentment in Singleness'

About two weeks before my 39th birthday I fell into a mild depression. I was entering the final year of my 30s a single lady, and not only that, there was no one waiting in the wings to “put a ring on it”. Honestly, that broke my heart...and it did a nice little number on my pride. I didn’t feel “single, saved and sassy” or whatever catchy, alliterative descriptor some Christian authors might use these days. I simply felt “single and sad”...and angry...and lonely...and frustrated...and anxious!

Thankfully, on the day of my birthday, the depression and heaviness of what I’d been feeling lifted. But in the weeks and months to come, I’d still find myself “feeling a way” about my marital status.