Why Does He Eat With Such Scum?

The Pharisees dogged Jesus out by asking His disciples why He chose to eat with the prostitutes, tax collectors, and other known sinners. The Pharisees missed the fact that Jesus had come for those who were sinners not religious people who were filled with sin but who thought that they were already good enough! I have a subscription to this daily prayer and devotional and I wanted to share with my readers. I hope that you are as blessed by it as I was when I read it!




Why Does He Eat With Such "Scum"?

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Be abundantly blessed!

Mediocrity hates greatness...be great and let the haters hate!

The Indictment Against Mega Churches

The Indictment Against Mega Churches

This show will examine the much maligned phenomenon of the "Mega" church. The pros and cons as well as the presentation of facts and dispelling fallacies surrounding this very controversial topic.

Mocha Brown aka Koretta L. Allen is available for public speaking engagements especially pertaining to subjects of single parenthood, being single, women's empowerment through the word of God and much more. Mochababybrown@gmail.com

All of the Pharisees Aren't Dead!

All of the Pharisees Aren't Dead!

Click the link and listen as Isaiah Robertson breaks down and verifies what I have been saying in several entries about the church, legalism, religion and the Pharisee spirit that has taken hold of many to where they live in constant condemnation despite the fact that the Bible says that those who live in Christ Jesus do not live in condemnation. Beware! All of the Pharisees Aren't Dead!

Mocha Brown aka Koretta L. Allen is available for public speaking engagements especially pertaining to subjects of single parenthood, being single, women's empowerment through the word of God and much more. Mochababybrown@gmail.com

Practice Love, Practice Love, Practice Love: The Loveless, Apostate Church

I find some things about the church to be rather ironic and actually (dare I say it?) hypocritical. How can you in good conscience ever say that you are a Christian when love, your love for God and love for the things that He loves is not the motivation for everything that you do? It's nothing less than sheer lunacy! Now, make no mistake I am very well aware of the day and time in which we live. I have every reason to believe that we are living in the last days, like the tail end and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Christ's return occurred in my lifetime. With that being said, Matthew 24:12 says, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold..."(NIV) so I truly understand the reason for the lack of love but I'm still irritated that it is such a major issue in of all places the Christian church.

A little over a year ago, I heard a message by Bishop George Bloomer regarding the things that would truly send one to hell. Basically he explains that the things that the Christian church often harps on of what will send a person to hell such as what a person wears and other legalistic, religious hang-ups may not lead to a thriving life in Christ but they will not cause you to enter into eternal damnation. But what he did say will definitely send a person to hell is how we treat other people i.e., how we love other people. The church has become so profoundly superficial in that all around the country preachers and pastors enter their platforms and pulpits and they fail to make reiterating and sharing the genuine love of the God that they claim to serve, a priority in what they preach. Bible teachers can expound in detail on the hermeneutical, exegesis of various scripture and yet they often fail in properly articulating to the church that the absence of love is the absence of God and if anything will send you to hell, the absence of God in anything you do no matter how well intentioned, will get you a one-way ticket there!

If you don't believe in hell then this post is not for you! If you are deluded into believing that your good works in and of themselves are what you need for you to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord. Believe it or not, people who have that unfortunate mentality are the very people who will stand before God in judgment and plead to Him about all of the good works that they've done and He will simply reply, "Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I don't know you!" (Matthew 7:23 paraphrased) Just thinking about being rejected like that hurts me to tears! Can you imagine going through the motions of feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, etc only to stand before the Father and be told that He doesn't even know you? The whole premise of Christianity is relationship with God. A loving, healthy, Father/child relationship with the Most High God! That was His reason for even creating humankind in the first place. Your motives for doing whatever you do no matter what it is, will be the deciding factor as to whether you will be blessed to spend eternity with God or eternity in hell. I know that it is not popular to talk about hell but it is a reality whether you acknowledge that it is or not. If you don't have love for God then don't bother doing all of these wonderful things for people. Some people are all too busy trying to redeem themselves in the eyes of people without realizing that the only thing that really matters is the redemption of God. You've already been redeemed in the eyes of the Father and once you accept and receive His love then what anyone else feels or thinks about you is irrelevant.

Okay enough about hell for now and back to the issue of the loveless, apostate church where love and compassion are faked in order to appear Christ-like and godly. Your church has missions overseas and across the country but there are people attending your church who are going home to empty cupboards, pantries and refrigerators. There are people sitting next to you that are hungry, homeless and without their basic needs met and the church is suppose to be there meeting the needs of the people but they preach and dance and shout to a good message that no one will remember all supposedly in the name of Jesus and those same hungry, homeless, needy people will leave the same way that they entered because it's all a show!!! I am realizing more and more that anytime that you can feed the hungry overseas but there are hungry people down the street from your church, that something is seriously wrong! Please don't misunderstand, I believe that we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and meet the needs of the poor and needy all over the world but what good does it do if we neglect to bless those in our own "backyard"?

I went off on this "practice love" trip after one of the prominent people that I have been following on Twitter tweeted about the need to practice love to everyone, everywhere and it blew my mind that this Buddhist has grasped as a mantra the whole concept of Christianity and what really ticked me off was the fact that if this Buddhist who is a generous philanthropist and charitable giver can grasp that concept then what's wrong with the church? Then he went on to say that he is trying to teach one of his children to practice love! That really bowled me over because I don't know too many Christians anymore who proactively teach their children to practice love, in fact some of the worst and rudest children are church kids. But a weak or even a new Christian may have seen this Buddhist tweet that and then after reviewing his acts of charity and philanthropy in comparison to the church be persuaded to believe that either Buddhist are more faithful in conveying true love than Christians or they adopt the erroneous concept of there being more than one way to heaven and thereby multiple ways outside of Christ to get to God. I know better so I wasn't shaken from that standpoint, but I am tripping on this mega-church, televangelist concept of Christianity that some times preaches love but you can't see the manifestation of that love in the local community. Before Jesus went back to glory He told the disciples that they (and we) would do greater works and this was more than likely because He was multiplying Himself through them and us so that we would be able to feed the hungry, heal the sick and meet the needs of the needy in a greater capacity because the effect of the Gospel has multiplied itself by the millions so there should be fewer people in need. Let me be clear, the church (not just mega-churches) has become a selfish, elitist social club of people who believe that they have it all figured out and that they have arrived and I am fully aware that Jesus told Judas when he became upset with Jesus over the woman who washed Jesus' feet with the expensive oil that we would always have poor people among us and yet this does not exonerate the church from it's responsibility to the poor and especially the poor who are living locally. This ignorant selfish, social club mentality has created a culture of celebrity within the church that exalts the people and their pulpit and in some cases, on-camera personas over the bare bones truth and expression of the Gospel which is LOVE! So people have been lulled into this obscene false sense of absolution because these preachers and pastors are successful fundraisers, so churchgoers believe that because they give tithes and offering that they needn't do much else because the ministry is reaching out to people on their behalf. Meanwhile they are sitting just a few pews a way from people who are hurting and are losing their homes, don't have food to eat or a place to sleep but it's okay to overlook them because it's obvious that they don't have enough faith to make them rich and prosperous so the church owes them nothing but a good God bless you and a half-hearted "Jesus loves You"! What a fallacy and just an outrageous lie! This is madness and once again, I am going to ask that the true Bride of Christ stand! Because the whore dressed in white who is calling herself the church does not accurately reflect the image of Christ but people are allowing her to call herself the Bride of Christ when they ought to know who she is by now!

I am hopeful because I have in recent months seen some ministries actually getting outside of the cliquish, four walls of their churches and into the communities to bless the people and serve God by serving the people that God has mandated us to love. Love is a mandate not a choice for the true Christian and that is love in word and in deed. Love will not allow you to look disdainfully upon a homeless family and not ask what you can do to help. Love will not allow you preach to people and not offer to meet their needs both physical and spiritual needs. Love for God, true love for God will not allow you to disobey the mandate to love everyone, everywhere! Christianity has been hijacked by a group of fraudulent people who have found it quite lucrative to preach and market themselves as Christians but they fail to stand the litmus test of what it truly means to love. I love the term "practice love" because sometimes loving everyone, everywhere does not come naturally or easily so it must come from the Holy Spirit within us and it has to be put into habitual practice so that it becomes apart of who we are and not just what we do! Just as God does not love, He is love; we must become love to a world that is hungry to see the love of God expressed through us.

I will repeat: The absence of love is the absence of God! God is love! Practice love! Practice love! Practice love!

Be abundantly blessed! Mediocrity hates greatness...be great and let the haters hate!

Mocha Brown aka Koretta L. Allen is available for public speaking engagements especially pertaining to subjects of single parenthood, being single, women's empowerment through the word of God and much more. Mochababybrown@gmail.com

The Necessary Discomfort

My mother and I recently had a discussion about wimpy parents who don't want to be the heavy in their children's opinions. Instead these wimpy, milk-toast parents have taken the preposterous notion that a parent can be their child's buddy. I have, like so many other parents watched the "nanny" shows that send in a nanny to help the parents effectively raise their children. Even more embarrassing are the parents who go on the various talk shows with their kids, who they have allowed to get outrageously out of hand. I often wonder about parents who end up afraid of their own children. It's bizarre and unnatural and really there is no need for it.

When I was a teenager my mother would have the radio playing in the bathroom and it was always on the local Christian music station. One of the programs that I grew up being very fond of was Focus On the Family with Dr. James Dobson and one of the books that he had written was titled "Parenting Isn't For Cowards." Truer words could not have been spoken. Although I don't agree with Dr. Dobson's political leanings as of late, I even as a teenager then, agreed with his concept of parenting based on biblical principles. Please do not take this out of context, abusive behavior towards anyone, especially a child is always unacceptable however I am not one of these mealy-mouthed, punk liberals who believes that corporal punishment is NEVER useful. WRONG! Corporal punishment is useful for different children in different ways but always as a last resort. But no matter how you decide as a parent to discipline your children, just know that it is not pleasant but it is necessary and failure to create and establish as well as enforce boundaries for your children will cause them to resent you later on!

Proverbs 13:24, 22:15 and 29:15 all refer to the importance of corporal punishment but just know that if you feel as if this is not the best thing for you or your child that whatever form of discipline or boundary enforcement you use will have to be effective and should begin as soon as the child becomes aware that there are consequences for their actions. I'm not saying that you saying that you shouldn't create a friendly environment of openness and mutual respect but the role of a parent has to be clearly defined even more so than the boundaries that exist on your job between you and your supervisor. The best bosses are those who are friendly and respectful and yet professional. These managers, supervisors, etc understand that an effective workplace is hinged upon creating boundaries between them and those who work for them. Your boss can not be effective or successful if they are constantly compromising their position to appease you or have your approval and validation on every decision that they make. Like it or not, they're in charge and they don't have to have your approval for anything that they do. Case in point, if you are too busy trying to simply appease your children because you don't want to be bothered or gain your child's approval and validation of who you are as a person and as a parent then you will not be the kind of parent that they need and deserve. Some of you, might not like this but YOU are the parent and you have to begin to trust that the love that you have for God and your child will enable you to make the right decisions concerning your children so that they can grow up to be children who will be an asset to you and society and that means disciplining your children effectively so that they clearly understand that there are consequences for their actions.

If you are a Christian parent understand that these children are yours on loan. They are not yours in the true sense of your possessing them which is one of the reasons why you should not treat them so much as if they are a possession but rather like everything else that God brings into your life, a gift. You are a steward not an owner. One day just like everything else that you do in this life, you will have to give an account for how you have raised the precious souls that God has so graciously entrusted to you to raise to His glory. So if you abuse, misuse or mistreat your children; neglect them or even provoke them to anger and a life of struggle by being a wimpy, spineless parent who would rather be a buddy than a parent, then you WILL have to answer for what you chose to do or chose not to do in the raising and rearing of those children. Failure to create and establish boundaries makes a child feel as if you don't care. As a parent you also handicap a child when you neglect to create boundaries and enforce them for your children. It's called lawlessness! Children who grow up with a disrespect for authority, legitimate boundaries and who haven't been taught how to behave appropriately at home will not miraculously do so in public and they will bring you to an open shame! Lawless adults end up in prison, on drugs, indulging in other self-destructive behaviors and the cemetaries are full of young people whose parents didn't think that they were harming their kids by being their buddy's while neglecting to fulfill their roles as effective parents. I can't tell you how you should raise your child but you need to know what the Bible says and then you need to be sure that your methods of discipline are effective and that they do not break the child's spirit or are in any way counterproductive to your children growing up to be happy, healthy, stable adults. Whatever you do, do it in love and your child might not like it now but they'll love you for it later.

Additional scriptures: Proverbs 10:1, 17:25, 22:6, and Ephesians 6:4

Be abundantly blessed!

Mediocrity hates greatness...be great and let the haters hate!

Mocha Brown aka Koretta L. Allen is available for public speaking engagements especially pertaining to subjects of single parenthood, being single, women's empowerment through the word of God and much more. Mochababybrown@gmail.com

When The Loneliness Gets to Be A Bit Much!

My parents' divorced when I was 6 or 7 years old. I was crushed, I think that I may have even had a nervous breakdown. I couldn't stop crying, everything hurt. It even hurt to breathe. Later all of that pain would manifest itself in anger, rage and being downright suicidal but even in that I still held out hope that one day I'd be married. One day I would have a family of my own.

I spent my twenties trying to find my way and I allowed the mistakes of others to coward me into a life of mediocrity. But I was too proud to openly admit that I wanted to be married. I didn't want to appear too vulnerable or weak. In my thirties, I had had enough of being lied to and lying to myself but my rush to make things happen by having my children out of wedlock only complicated things and frustrated me more. I love my babies but I know that they deserve a father as well as a mother. I played myself and sold myself short by playing the role of a concubine instead of waiting to be a wife.

As I approach 40, I am still holding out hope that one day my prince will come but my hope is fading and I have been asking God lately whether or not it is truly His will for me to even be married. My grandfather used to tell my cousins and me that we should ask God for what we wanted in a husband and I've been doing that since I was about 15 years old. I look back over my life and I see guys who wanted to get with me but I wouldn't give them the time of day for one reason or another, now I wonder if I may have missed out on a good thing. Only God knows for sure and only time will tell. But right now, I'm lonely. The kind of loneliness that if left unchecked can grow into desperation, and Lord knows that I can't go out like that ever again. Never, ever make a decision out of desperation or fear! Trust me, if you do, you WILL regret it! I've been praying more and meditating more on the Word. When I pray, my knees aren't good enough, I have to lay prostrate before the Lord. I keep hearing "wait" in my spirit, so wait I shall!

But Abba, please help me to wait on you to give me new strength like an eagle (Isaiah 40:31), You also said that if I wait on You that I would not be made ashamed (Isaiah 30:18). I know there a lot of single mothers who feel what I feel especially those that have never been married and are my age. For those who are younger you wonder, hope and pray that you won't end up like me but that you'll be happily married by the time you're almost 40 whatever the case, I am praying that God will meet your needs as well as my own according to His will and that we will not desire anything that is not apart of His perfect plan for our lives and our childrens' lives or frustrate the awesome things that He so lovingly has in store for us who have the audacity to love Him!

Be abundantly blessed!

Mediocrity hates greatness...be great and let the haters hate!

Mocha Brown aka Koretta L. Allen is available for public speaking engagements especially pertaining to subjects of single parenthood, being single, women's empowerment through the word of God and much more. Mochababybrown@gmail.com