Knowing your Role in God’s Scheme…

Let me open this post by saying that there is a difference between being ANOINTED and being HOLY. Being anointed allows you to be used by God. Being holy gets you into heaven. You can be anointed without being holy. And you can go to HELL while being anointed.

As a musician and a facilitator of Gospel/Christian music I have the opportunity to work with a lot of people. There are so many wonderful things about the Gospel/Christian music industry. There are so many wonderful things about music ministry. We have so many talented people that God uses in this area of the body of Christ. I could spend several paragraphs on testimonies and accolades for music ministry.

However, this entry is of a different tone and texture.

There was a time when God was a lot less tolerant of sin. Priests that went into the temple who were not sanctified were slain in the temple. Persons that served in music ministry in the tabernacle or the temple of the Old Testament had to be sanctified before they entered service. If God found sin in them they would be slain. And God was the one doing the killing. This caused people to attempt to live holy lives based on fear and reverence. This kept them alive but was not conducive to a thriving relationship between them and God.

So, God changed things. With the sacrifice of Christ, our final lamb, we no longer have to face the penalty of sin. People aren’t slain if they enter Christian service with sin in their lives. God doesn’t want us to live holy because we are afraid to die. He wants us to live holy because we love Him so much that we don’t want to hurt His heart.

This opens the door to a lot of shadiness. Since God isn’t killing folks, churches are excusing folks. Churches are extremely passive about the open and public sins of persons in the pulpit and in the choir stand. Musicians, preachers and singers can get drunk, “shack up” (that’s what we called it back in the day. Now it’s so common that there is no real name for it), be flamboyantly gay, curse, lie, cheat on their spouses, not attend bible study, exemplify no real conviction – except while they are performing, and the church just looks the other way. What in the world are we doing?!! And we wonder why there is no POWER in the church today. It’s because we have so much sin in the camp and no body is saying anything.

Saul was king of Israel. But he sinned and the presence of the Lord had departed from him. Still, everyone gave him respect because he was still anointed. I don’t know if he made it to Heaven. Samson was a judge of Israel who was feared and admired. But, because of his disobedience, the presence of the Lord departed from him and he did not know it. He still knew how to shake. And when he shook, everyone got excited because they knew something awesome was about to happen. But there came that day when Samson’s shake had no power. Still, after being blinded by his adversaries, God used him once more to kill thousands. But, I don’t know if Samson made it to Heaven. There was a pharaoh whose heart God hardened so that He could perform all twelve plagues against Egypt. I don’t think the pharaoh went to Heaven. There was an evil spirit sent from God to torment King Saul. I don’t think that evil spirit went to Heaven. There was a donkey used to keep Balaam from being killed by an angel. I don’t think the donkey went to Heaven. There was a rooster used to announce Peter’s denial of Christ. I don’t think the rooster went to Heaven. Do you get my point? The fact that you are anointed or that God chooses to use you doesn’t mean that you are going to Heaven. It means that you are anointed for that time. Don’t get it twisted.

And for those that say, “Well, I gave my life to God so the blood of Jesus covers all my sins,” tell me what kind of relationship do you have with God? There are several people that come to a service and walk up to the altar and say that they are giving their lives to God but their lives never change. I believe that the true evidence of salvation is the demonstration of Christ in the life of the believer. If your life isn’t demonstrating Jesus then are you really saved?

To my fellow Christians, the New Testament epistles teach us that the church is responsible for holding each other accountable to holy living. When we see someone living an ungodly life we should approach that brother or sister with the love of Jesus and find a way to motivate him or her to live holy. We need to stop the practices of silent consent and overlooking blatant disregard for Godly living. We are our brother’s keeper. God is holding us responsible.

When I was much younger I joined a church under a powerful preacher. He was an amazingly anointed man of God. Over the course of the years I spent under his ministry I watched him become trapped by his weaknesses. I watched in silence as he abused alcohol. I watched in silence as my married pastor practiced promiscuity with women in the church. My silence gave consent and my consent became acceptance and my acceptance eventually became participation. I found myself doing all the things my pastor was doing. As you could imagine, that church started dying and several lives were severely damaged and souls were lost. Eventually, God delivered me and pulled me away from that pastor. I don’t know if that pastor ever got back on track. And I often wonder if the lives that were damaged and souls that were lost could have been saved if I had just spoken up.

Finding my place in MINISTRY…

So my wife and I joined this wonderful church, Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church. It is so fulfilling to be a part of a healthy, wholesome ministry. What I’ve lately found challenging is the fact that I grew up in church. My parents were in ministry since I was like 8 years old. I started preaching when I was about 13 years old. The word of God is very important to me and I’ve spent many hours studying it… especially since the days that I found myself caught up in some very unhealthy and erroneous doctrinal teaching. Today, I have a voracious appetite for rich, solid teaching and preaching. My tolerance is very low for unstudied preaching and unfounded teaching. So I needed a pastor that could unpack things in the scripture that I hadn’t already heard but things that were textually and contextually correct. My heart’s cry was for a leader that could lead me to new depths in God’s word. I found that in Rev. Dr. Kirk T. Houston, Sr. Hallelujah!!!

One of the things that I loved doing when we lived in Atlanta was ministering at the Atlanta Union Mission. I had the opportunity to serve as a chaplain for the Women’s Division and subsequently the Men’s Division. This afforded me the chance to work one-on-one with several persons making the transition from incarceration back into society. It also allowed me a chance to minister to several persons who were homeless and finding shelter from the elements.

When we were invited to sing at Rock Church of Virginia Beach I met a wonderful family. The two children in this family have amazing stories. The fact that they are still alive is a testimony of the grace of God. For anonymity, I will use a fictitious name. The little boy, “Mikey,” just stole my heart. He loves God and is captivated by drums. Although confined to a wheelchair, he sits in the service and plays “air drums” during each song. He says that when he grows up he wants to be a preacher. Weeks after we performed at Rock Church, Mikey’s mom contacted me. She said that while planning for Mikey’s birthday party she asked him what he wanted for his party. Expecting him to request a clown or something of the sort, she was surprised when he said that he wanted “Michael M. Smith” to come to his house for his birthday. He said that he wanted to sit down with me and talk about the Lord. WOW!! I was so deeply touched by this request. My wife and I spent a wonderful evening with Mikey and his family. He and I sang, laughed and played together. He preached to me and demanded that I preach to him. It was so much fun.

As I left there, I was reminded of Jesus’ ministerial practices. He spent most of His time with people that needed encouragement and love. It felt as though spending a few hours with a physically challenged young boy was just what Jesus would have done. If only I had the power within myself to heal him. If only I were Jesus…

So with renewed passion, I was so excited when I received a call from one of the largest Gospel Music radio stations in the area (WXEZ Star 94.1) with an invitation to sing at a Thanksgiving dinner they were holding for homeless and less fortunate persons in the Newport News, Virginia area. Once again, I was ministering to persons that were in desperate need of encouragement and strength. A few weeks later, immediately after returning from our two-city tour in South Carolina, we went to the Union Mission in downtown Norfolk, Virginia and spent an evening singing and ministering to homeless men. That evening the presence of the Lord was very heavy in the room as several men gave themselves in worship and several received the Lord Jesus as savior and Lord. It was a powerful night.

It is my belief that every artist should discover your assigned audience. Some of us are called to minister to the world, some to minister to the church, some to minister to the youth, some to minister to older persons. But we are most successful when we are ministering to the people to whom we were designed to minister. I believe that I’ve been designed to minister to the body of Christ and to persons like “Mikey” and the men at the Union Mission, seeking hope and encouragement.

There is so much more for me to tell you about… like the SC tour… like my new production venture with a new up and coming artist… like the new opportunity God is giving me to work with my local church. So stay tuned.

Have a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season. Don’t forget to take specific time out to worship Jesus Christ. He is God’s gift to us all. He is the Savior of the world.