Where Is Your Sanctuary?

TAMPA, FL-The psalmist says in Psalms 122:1, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD." We tend to recite this beloved psalm when we are making our way into the church building on the Lord's day but does it need to apply only to the church house? If we are not careful, we tend to limit the time of worship to those times when we are in the physical sanctuary where we corporately meeting a couple of times each week.

One of the reasons I so enjoy a long commute is that my vehicle (over the years its been a Lumina, two Saturns, a Cavalier and currently an Aztek) has been a sanctuary where the Holy Spirit and I commune and He feeds my spirit as I prepare to take on the day. But my car is not the only meeting place where I hook up with God's spirit. There have been times when my cubicle is the place of worship complete with my visiting choirs (Brooklyn Tabernacle, Chicago Mass, West Angeles COGIC, Mahallia Jackson, Darlene Zschech and Mississippi Mass) and guess preachers (Tony Evans, Charles Stanley, Joyce Meyers, Chuck Swindoll, Dan Chun, Wayne Corderio, Vashti McKenzie, Joni Erickson-Tada and many more).

God is so amazing to meet us at various places in our journey and He reminds us of His faithfulness and promises to us. One of the ways in which God speaks to us is through His continued creative hand in the great sanctuary of the natural world. Many times it has been in viewing nature that I appreciate the presence of the Lord in my life.

When I came out the door of my home in Hawaii and saw a glorious rainbow like that in picture to the left, how could one not praise the Lord (there's another sanctuary, a Montana mini-van) or be reminded of his promise to Noah to never again destroy the earth by flood?

The psalmist asks the question, "Where can I go from thy Spirit?" with the presumed answer being, Nowhere". I discovered yet another place of worship during those times when I was learning how to SCUBA dive as God would meet me on the water and then yet again underneath the water.

Let me invite you to expand your personal definition of sanctuary. Right where you are at this moment, you can "enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise". Revelation 3 paints the picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. When we open that door to Him, wherever we might be is transformed from a regular place to a place of fellowship and worship and when we are in the presence of the Lord, there is peace, joy, strength and beauty.

Sotomayor & "Fidelity To The Law"

TAMPA, FL-One of the quotes that has been played over and over again from the Sotomayor hearings that took place last week was her response to the question of her judicial philosophy, "fidelity to the law". If that was all there was to being a judge, we could just load up a sophisticated computer with some advance artificial intelligence software and then just feed the elements of our judicial cases to it for a ruling.

But we don't use computers to issue rulings. We have human beings which means that laws must be interpreted through human beings. And it is at this point that the variable of experience can come into play. Many on the right were up in arms about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latino woman" comment and she apologized for offending anyone but it is that Latino experience that Judge Sotomayor will be bringing to the bench.

Can we honestly say that judicial rulings in the Jim Crow south were not influenced by racial oppression of the human beings living in the south at that time? The statue of Justice might be blind that's on our courthouses but the best we human beings can do is strive to be objective but it is flavored by who we are, where we grew up and the experiences we've had in this life.

If the law were so black and white (no racial pun intended), all of the opinions of the Supreme Court would be unanimous. If the law were so easily interpreted, there would be no dissents. But it is our experiences that shape our worldview and that worldview effects the way in which we experience the world. How else can one section of the population see that Jeremiah Wright is an anti-US racist and another section of the population see him as prophetic minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ? How else can one are of the judiciary see abortion as an affront to human life and another area see it as a right that can be exercised even in the third trimester?

In the recent Surpreme Court ruling about strip searchings in our schools, I appreciated Justice Ginsbergs comments to the effect that many men might not appreciate how degrading and humiliating it is for a teenage girl to be strip searched. That was spoke through the lense of one who was a teenage girl and who understood all of the complexities that go with it. Not as a justice that was like Joe Friday, "Just the facts ma'am."

The thing that has disappointed me about these hearings for the new justices to the Supreme Court is that nothing is really communicated about who the justice is and what truly is their judicial philosophy. I remember one of the first hearing that I watched when Justice Antonin Scalia was before the Senate and how interesting it was to hear detailed discussions about the law and its nuances.

You would think that with 17 years on the federal bench that there would have been much to talk about with Judge Sotomayor about the way in which she comes to conclusions in her legal renderings. Not to find amunition to shoot her down or words that would lock her into how future cases would be decided. But just an engaging discussion with the judge and the committee that will enlighten the citizenry. Those days seem to be gone in this age of "avoiding meldown" (as Senator Graham put it) rather than digging deeper.

Living A Life Of No Regrets

I heard a very powerful statement the other day that most elderly folks don't regret what they have done but that they regret what they haven't done. Oh sure, we make mistakes along life's journey but that is part of the trip. The question that you need to consider in your own life is whether you are allowing fear to keep you from trying new things and pursuing new opportunities.

I am so thankful to the Lord for the many, many opportunities and experiences that He has sent my way. Some might look at my life and say that they would never have moved from California to New Jersey to Michigan to Indiana back to New Jersey and then to Pennsylvannia and then Hawaii and Oklahoma and now Florida. But to be honest, I wouldn't trade anything for the journey for the Lord has opened me up to so many incredible things in these short 48 years.

And the journey is not over yet. Are there opportunities that I have missed? There sure are and questions that I have but we can't allow those questions or blown chances to keep us from grabbing a hold of the reigns and going down another path. I could easily ask myself, "Why did I leave a great pastoring position in Hawaii?" and beat myself up over that. But you know what, God had a purpose and a plan even in that and He has brought me to a place of ministry in lovely Tampa.

I'm thankful for the technology that has allowed me to take pictures and videos of my journeys so that others can see where I've been. Every once in a while its good to look back over those photos and see the exciting journey I've traveled. Do you have a camera on your cell phone? Start snapping some pictures and capturing the moments of your life not only for yourself but to share with future generations what lies ahead when you live life all out.

Is fear holding you back from living life to its fullest? Jesus said in John 10:10 that He has come that we might live the abundant life. That doesn't mean you have to millions in the bank or the best car on the road. Right where you are you can experience life at its fullest in Christ. When you breathe your last, will it be a "whew, that was some trip" or a "man, I wish I could have "?

MJ & OJ: Will Declared Innocent Black Folks Ever Get A Fair Shake?

The racial divide in the media perplexes me at times. I'm amazed at how the media treats indicted black folks who are then found to be innocent of all charges. In the 90's when OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, there were a lot of people looking for him to get a death sentence or life imprisonment. All the pundits thought it was going to be a slam dunk, open and shut case. The jury had a different perspective and found OJ innocent.

Was OJ able to resume his acting and endorsement career? After all, he was found innocent in a court of law by a jury of his peers. The many on the right who are always talking about the rule of law seemed to have forgotten that little point and no matter what the context, 9 times out 10 when the discussion of OJ comes up in the media, he is always painted as a murderer who beat the rap.

In that same "trial of the century" there was a racist police officer by the name of Mark Fuhrman who had some damaging audio tapes with him using racial slurs about black people and using the N word. But was he dragged through the mud and ostracized from the media? No!! He is brought back on TV time after time after time as a criminal investigator expert. Why is it that OJ is treated as criminal (and I'm talking before the silly crap he recently did that landed him in jail) when he was declared not guilty but Mark Fuhrman, for whom we have evidence of his racial bias, gets to be an expert pundit on television all the time.

I say all that to say that it seems to be happening all over again in the wake of Michael Jackson's sudden passing. Look at the blistering commentary by Bill O'Reilly:



Now I realize that Michael Jackson is not on the same par as Martin Luther King in terms of moral impact on our world but he has had an impact on the culture and on a whole generation of not just black children but young people all over the world. Just like many of my generation, I grew up with all of the Jackson 5 albums in my record collection. MJ was not just a flash in the pan entertainer, he is someone with whom we grew up (he was only two years older than this your humble columnist).

Just like OJ, what Bill and other media & political types tend to do is to focus on the accusations of child molestation. Never had MJ been convicted of any criminal behavior and even when they took the case to court (for those who want to say MJ paid off the first accuser), the evidence didn't hold up and the case was dismissed.

Bill complains that MJ spent millions on himself while singing "We Are The World." MJ like any other celebrity (including O'Reilly who is just back from Switzerland) certainly is able to spend money on himself unlike your ordinary Joe the Plumber type and why shouldn't he? We live in a capitalistic society where if one earns millions of dollars, you are free to spend it however you want (after you give Uncle Sam his due, of course). No one complains about the multiple Penthouses and real estate that Donald Trump owns. No one complains about the jets, cars and other material possessions that many in Hollywood possess. Why should MJ be any different when it comes to enjoying the fruits of his success?

But Michael Jackson also raised millions of dollars to feed starving people in Somalia from that same song, "We Are The World" and he did it not by himself but was able to bring a W-I-D-E variety of entertainers together to make that song possible (right after a Grammy awards show no less) and with their presence also bring along the support of those entertainer's fan base which made the song and the accompanying album a big seller. To paraphrase a biblical passage, Bill has raised his thousands and Michael his millions.

Was MJ a saint to be cannonized? Of course not. He was a great entertainer who was eccentric and had some questionable behaviors that while were not prudent, were not criminal at least from a legal standpoint in a court of law. So why not celebrate his life rather than focusing on the charges upon which he was NEVER convicted? His music has been the music of my life from a youth to the most recent material he released.

I wish the media would stop convicting innocent (from a criminal standpoint) black folks in the public square and never letting them come up for air when they are found NOT GUILTY. The last time I checked, our judicial system based on the phrase, "Innocent until PROVEN guilty."