Come this Friday to a fundraiser with one of the most effective organizations in San Francisco working to end Homelessness!
Selah
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All posts for the month May, 2013
People often ask me, “What do YOU believe in Reverend?” “ Do you believe in the one true GOD?”
They ask me, “Reverend what religion to you serve, where is your church?”
They wonder if I am acceptable to their belief system. Am I worthy of their “Godhead”?
The real Godhead.
The need to define to whom you belong to is a natural thing. Animals need packs, fish need schools, birds need flocks….you get the idea. But humankind has taken this idea to it’s extreme. To belong, is to gain entrance into god’s graces and not to belong, damns to you for eternity. It is two sides to a coin that man created. Not God.
Well, to be quite plain about this, I am not sure if I am worthy. In fact I am not even sure if I carry the message correctly. Most likely I am not. But that is not the point of these conversations that I have with you.
I will never be what you would have me be. The sad truth is no one, not even god for that matter will ever stack up to your standards and it hurts me to say it and probably hurts more to hear it.
How can we, a single species on a solitary world, in a vast universe full of God’s wonders have the hubris to ask another if they are worthy or even believe in a godhead who’s fundamental existence is far beyond our comprehension. It actually makes me laugh.
The Godhead…The combination of the holy trinity to Christians, The intent, not the manifestations, of god to the Jews. The secrets of the holiest of holy’s are not meant for mortal man. So give me a fucking break and get a life.
Jesus would have never asked that of us. He would simply walk up to us and ask us the most simplest of all questions. Is there love in our hearts? Because that is the manifestation of Godhead in this reality.
It’s not about who created the heavens and the earth.
It is not about under which roof you pray.
It is about how you, alone and divided from the rest of creation, spend your time in creation. Do you serve yourself for your own bitter ends or do you work for betterment of the world in any small way that you might? Do you carry the banner of love and light for all to see? To bring enlightenment to all of the dark places inside our own hearts, to be the beacon that others need to see?
God lives in our actions. How much else can we really know? More importantly, how much else do we NEED to know?
I preach for the world we live in. I preach for the world that we know. I judge based upon actions, I forgive based upon the same. I walk in the footsteps of the prophet, the shadow of the son and the sweet ass of god’s delight. I am a flawed man who will never measure up, but works diligently every moment of my life to find the divine.
This is the only version of God that we will know and the only manner in which we can achieve godhead in this reality.
Or so I believe…..
While we are on the topic of love in our hearts and I want to draw attention to one of the organization that I work with. They are called The Community Awareness and Treatment Services Organization. (CATS for short) They house the homeless, feed the hungry, care for the lost souls who’s lives have become what some would call refuse. It is they who are worthy. They don’t care who you are, what you look like, what you have done in this world to bring you to their doorstep. They exist only to serve and better our world.
Jesus would like them!
They are doing a fundraiser and I urge you to help support them, but I ask you NOT to believe what I say but go out and see for yourselves.
Bare Witness and share it with the world. Send it to everyone you know so that they may join in and take part in this moment of Godhead. So, that they may help heal our world.
Bare Witness!
I cry out to the heavens, meet me in the American Spring!
Selah
I have been subtly or maybe not so subtly, calling on everyone, every living, breathing entity, that inhabits this country (man, beast or what-have-you) to join us in this thing, I call the American Spring. So maybe it’s time I explain a bit about this movement/phenomena in not such an obtuse way.
The American Spring is a time where we as citizens of this truly amazing country, learn to take responsibility and power away from those who would mis-use it. (And I hate to say it…but that’s just about everyone in power!)
There are now record profits going to the same companies that brought us to bankruptcy and bamboozled our middle class into poverty. There are now a record number of gun lobbyists trying to keep guns in the hands of morons and the sick. (And I do NOT mean the mentally ill!)
(Guns don’t kill people-lawmakers do!)
Everyone blames the cost of healthcare for his or her woes, not the military-industrial complex. The only folks who serve jail time are those of the lower class and the occasional scapegoat. (And the scapegoats only get 15 months at a minimum-security prison while the drug-addicted thief gets 5 years of hard time.)
We are in sequestration and still the price of housing is going up. How can this be? How can my wonderful city be building nothing but luxury condos while at the same time having a record number of evictions?
Where are the taxes being generated by these condos going?
Where indeed?
Because at it’s heart, the American Spring is the final battle. It is the last stand of the middle class in what is becoming all out class warfare. Something that the wealthy and powerful have been setting up for years.
Let me ask you this-
Who will pick the fruit in the fields when we do not allow illegal aliens to work here? Who will clean the rooms of the hotels and elegant homes when we can no longer import our workers cheaply? Will you be the part of the new manufacturing America, whos average income is below the San Francisco minimum wage?
Will you be the new upper class’s bitch?
This is the new class that the powerful are creating. The working poor!
Those that can’t afford to fight and are too busy to even notice.
It happens slowly, a reduction here, money mis-spent there. A financial calamity that reduces the job market and cleans out the unwanted in the stock markets and bam, there you have it.
Fast and clean like the executioners ax.
We are led away from what really is going on by the illusion of good news, by the illusion of great times ahead, which-by the way-I pray for-daily!
But our focus is being divided;
By those in the media who wield the power of word and picture.
By those who wield the power of the law and re-word the constitution for their purposes.
By those who wield the power of religion and re-word the bible for their insidious plans. Yes, I said insidious, because I believe there is another plan in the works. Another truth to be unfurled.
The middle class is much like gravity. One of the weakest forces in nature, but yet one that has the most profound effect on reality. It has an infinite range of effect, it cannot be absorbed, transformed or shielded against and it always attracts and never repels.
Revolutions are born from this middle class. Nations are built on the success of the middle class. It is the middle class that forms the fabric our great nation-of all nations for that matter. But when those in power get greedy whom do they take it from? Not the poor, they have nothing left worth taking. Not their brethren the rich, because there is a mutually assured destruction clause in their relationship.
So where do they go?
They knock on the door of the middle class, hand out in earnest, with tales of fear and decimation. Tales of-if only and when and it’s just the way it is and my favorite-not my fault.
And the middle class gives in because it knows nothing else. It is the beauty of the middle class, their utter single mindedness towards a simple life. One of happiness and dreams of prosperity.
But the most crucial part of the American Spring is that you should not believe me!
You should not take my word for it! But go out and seek you own answers. Ask the questions that matter to your friends, your bosses, your congressmen and anyone who will listen. Ask the questions that matter! Ask the questions that will change your life.
Will you fight for the American Spring?
Selah
The American Spring
I get up every morning, and read the papers front to back,
Not missing a single word.
I like the way it feels, folding over in my hands,
A relic of the past.
My future is past!
The papers sing me stories of things I can’t control or stop,
Swearing it’s from god.
I drink my bitter coffee, while conversing with my friend,
My version of the creator.
He’s my favorite god.
And I feel helpless against the tide of liberty’s decay.
I feel helpless against the tide of political betrayal.
But underneath it all are excuses that I tell myself,
The excuses of my story.
My wife she holds the purse and my shame seems to never end,
It’s the shame of my story.
There’s no jobs to be had!
And I feel helpless against the tide of liberty’s decay.
I feel helpless against the tide of political betrayal.
It takes more then a ribbon to show you care.
More then a flag on your chest to be aware.
Serving your country can be done in many ways.
You don’t have to die so other will say.
He’s a true patriot, god rest his weary soul.
He died on a cross or was it sand under the sole.
Of a boot still worn by a our butcher of choice.
He gave his life to defend my voice.
Lord, lift him to heaven, rest his soul, but his family and his neighbors got to get off the dole.
Don’t just stand and wait for the American spring,
Don’t just be idle but sing the praises of the free.
Freedom is not the right to be white,
It’s the right of dissension, and the will to fight.
I’m gonna run and find our American spring,
I’m gonna get on my knees and pray for this thing.
I’m gonna find you and dance and sing,
I’m scream and shout the American spring!
You gotta fight for the American Spring!
You gotta die for the American Spring!
You can’t hide from the American Spring!
We all long for the American Spring!
You gotta fight for the American Spring!
You gotta die for the American Spring!
You can’t hide from the American Spring!
We all long for the American Spring!
You gotta fight for the American Spring!
You gotta die for the American Spring!
You can’t hide from the American Spring!
We all long for the American Spring!
From the upcoming CD American Spring……
Selah
The Reverend LordRifa 