This post is going to discuss why building a foundation upon The Word of Yah is Vital to the times we are in now. When we Lack The Lord God Almighty in our Homes, our children grow up into the ways of this world and become lost. This occurs when either one parent or both parents are absent or lack the Word of Yah themselves.
This chart taken from the Pew Research Center shows the % of adults who believe or are unsure of their beliefs in Yah. For more information the link will be provided at the end of this post.
This graph shows those who were polled about their beliefs and goes with the above graph.
This next table will show the the arrests by sex for 2018. I am assuming that since Covid-19 that the numbers for 2019 are not analyzed. This chart is taken from the FBI data base and will be provided for more information at the end of this post. (I apologize for the small font.)
When we do not teach the Word of Yah, crime results. Then as a society we wonder why bad things happen, when people shoot at other people and why countries are falling by the wayside.
All of these statistics can be changed when We Turn back To The Lord God Almighty.
What does Abba Yah say about those who have turned Away from Him?
Isaiah 59:2-8 NKJV
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with [a]blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue has muttered perversity.
No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive [b]evil and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
6 Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths. 8 The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
Disobedience Resulted in Captivity
Captivity is more than a state of being held hostage. Captivity of the Mind and of Your Morals, Values, Principals is what the enemy seeks to control. When we are Not Following The True Word of Abba Yah, our Hearts and Minds are Held in a state of captivity.
Zechariah 7:8-14 NKJV
8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts:
‘Execute true justice, Show [g]mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’
11 “But they refused to heed, shrugged[h] their shoulders, and stopped[i] their ears so that they could not hear. 12 Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. 13 Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts. 14 “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”
John 8:42-45 NKJV
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God;nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.
Revelation 21:6-8 NKJV
And He said to me, “It[c] is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes [d]shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 But the cowardly, [e]unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Before we get to How to Raise Children According To The Word of Yah, I want to give you some education and Insight as to what's going on especially in America. We are going to look at some famous songs by artists who are crying out for help, change and a New Direction.
Rap music like all music is poetry set to rhythms and rhymes. We are going to read some lyrics because regardless of what you think about rap music, Men and Women use their words and are crying out for change and for better days. Yet they don't know how to achieve this because many have grown up in violent household where one ( mainly the fathers) or both parents are gone due to drugs & violence. Society has Oppressed the minds of many into believing that the only way to scrap by is to lie, cheat and steal. Equality in society still has a way to go, but it must begin Within ourselves so that we can Understand and end this cycle of violence.
Rap Music and Poetry
Music and poetry are normally not mentioned in the same sentence together, with the exception of hip hop. However, the similarities between music and poetry are far greater than observed by the general public and media.
Some of the similarities are:
Rhythm
Expression
Emotion
Songs themselves have to be rhythmic. As well, poetry flows just the same. Rhythm is what makes music as well as poetry. The flowing of words, the instruments smooth melody; all a part of the greater meaning, poetry.
Read more about The Music - Poetry Connection by www.poemofquotes.com
Rap Lyrics that are Crying Out for Change and Hope Because of the Way One Was Raised and the Lack of Social Structure and Support
[Shoestring]- Dayton Family
No demonstration on this nation, as a murderfest
Got us locked in the jail cell, the others they was put to rest
I had no teacher, it was like my pops had passed away
Bought me a sweet and snapped his fingers, he was gone away
My house is hell, I used bail down there on ?Acre? street
Whole hood on ABC, pops in penetentiary
Caught in the system, he's a victim of his shorty's past
His son's a killa on the for reala, you best to watch yo stash
What's on my mind, is my brotha's name Rodney King?
Coulda been Shoestring, instead the devil chose Malice Green
Can't go to sleep, not too deep cause I be hearin shots,
Down on my block bodies drop, it'll never stop
The ghetto drama for yo mama is a wicked sin
God save her soul, don't wanna say it but my mom's a fiend
Stand in the rain, can't take the pain, the stress is kickin in
Mack's in the pen cause it was all about his dividends
Life was a struggle, had to hustle, and sometimes buckle
A swollen knuckle, lockin up was the ghetto couple
Out to get rich, but I'm no snitch, no need to drop a dime,
My future's blind, now tell me what's on yo mind
The Dayton Family is a group from Flint Michigan. Here is one example of what occurs when Society Doesn't Care, and this is one story that made national news. Think about Everything Else that does not.
A story of environmental injustice and bad decision making, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began in 2014, when the city switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in a cost-saving move. Inadequate treatment and testing of the water resulted in a series of major water quality and health issues for Flint residents—issues that were chronically ignored, overlooked, and discounted by government officials even as complaints mounted that the foul-smelling, discolored, and off-tasting water piped into Flint homes for 18 months was causing skin rashes, hair loss, and itchy skin. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission, a state-established body, concluded that the poor governmental response to the Flint crisis was a “result of systemic racism.”
Long before the recent crisis garnered national headlines, the city of Flint was eminently familiar with water woes. For more than a century, the Flint River, which flows through the heart of town, has served as an unofficial waste disposal site for treated and untreated refuse from the many local industries that have sprouted along its shores, from carriage and car factories to meatpacking plants and lumber and paper mills. The waterway has also received raw sewage from the city’s waste treatment plant, agricultural and urban runoff, and toxics from leaching landfills. Not surprisingly, the Flint River is rumored to have caught fire—twice.
Gangstas Paradise- Coolio
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left...
Look at the situation they got me facin'
I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the streets
So I gotta be down with the hood team
Too much television watching got me chasing dreams
I'm an educated fool with money on my mind
Got my mac 10 in my hand and a gleam in my eye
I'm a loc'd out gangsta set trippin' banger....
Tell me why are we so blind to see
That the ones we hurt are you and me...
Power and the money, money and the power
Minute after minute, hour after hour
Everybody's running, but half of them ain't looking
What's going on in the kitchen, but I don't know what's cookin'
They say I gotta learn, but nobody's here to teach me
If they can't understand it, how can they reach me
I guess they can't, I guess they won't
I guess they front, that's why I know my life is out of luck, fool....
Coolio was born Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. on August 1, 1963, in the South Central L.A. area of Compton. As a young boy, he was small, asthmatic, highly intelligent, and a bookworm, which often made life outside the home difficult. His parents divorced when he was 11, and searching for a way to fit in at school, he started running with the Baby Crips and getting into trouble. Even so, he still wasn't really accepted and was never formally inducted into the gang; he tried to make up for it by creating a menacing, unstable persona and carrying weapons to school, and his once-promising scholastic career wound up falling victim to his violent, poverty-stricken environment.
Historian Steve Isoardi writes about how the term South Central came to be in his book "The Dark Tree." "Lured by an expanding economy and the prospect of jobs, the relatively low cost of real estate, a mild climate, and a seemingly less-overt racism," Isoardi states, "African Americans began moving to Los Angeles in large numbers after 1900. For the next forty years their numbers doubled every decade and by 1940 represented slightly more than 4 percent of the total population."
Right from the beginning of this period, the city was already segregated because of racially restrictive housing covenants written into property deeds. These covenants were not only enforced through the property deeds. The banks and insurance companies also indirectly enforced them through the practice of denying loans, insurance policies and other financial services for African Americans that attempted to sidestep covenants. This practice is better known as "redlining," and it continued well after the covenants were declared unconstitutional in 1948.
This post would not be complete with out my man Tupac who in his music wrote about so much.
"Changes"
(feat. Talent)
[2Pac:] I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself: "Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?" I'm tired of being poor and, even worse, I'm black My stomach hurts so I'm looking for a purse to snatch Cops give a damn about a negro Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero "Give the crack to the kids: who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare!" First ship 'em dope and let 'em deal to brothers Give 'em guns, step back, watch 'em kill each other "It's time to fight back," that's what Huey said Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead I got love for my brother But we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other We gotta start making changes Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers And that's how it's supposed to be How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me? I'd love to go back to when we played as kids But things change... and that's the way it is
I see no changes, all I see is racist faces
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under, I wonder what it takes to make this
One better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right
'Cause both Black and White are smoking crack tonight
And the only time we chill is when we kill each other
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven-sent
We ain't ready to see a black president
It ain't a secret, don't conceal the fact:
The penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks
But some things will never change
Try to show another way, but you staying in the dope game
Now tell me, what's a mother to do?
Being real don't appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today," but you made it in a sleazy way
Selling crack to the kids
"I gotta get paid!", well hey, but that's the way it is
Tupac Shakur, the son of two Black Panther members, William Garland and Afeni Shakur, was born in East Harlem, New York on June 16, 1971, and named after Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru II, an 18th century political leader in Peru who was executed after leading a rebellion against Spanish rule. Tupac’s parents separated before he was born. At the age of 12 Shakur performed in A Raisin in the Sun with the 127th Street Ensemble. Afeni and Tupac later moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he entered the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts as a teenager. While at the school, he began writing raps and poetry. He also performed in Shakespearian plays and took a role in The Nutcracker.
When Society only focuses on the actions of men/women and not why or what took place to change hearts and minds we thus become blind to what is Happening in the World. These men are Educated individuals who do speak About God but do to their environment, they became a Product of that Environment
I am a woman who grew up without a dad and to be 100% honest I learned my mother doesn't know or wont tell me who my real dad is. At the age of 5 the man I knew as my dad beat my mother almost to death. I recall my grandma getting a call from her as we spent our summers in Arkansas and we had to leave immediately. I recall pulling up to my grandpas house and my mother was so badly beaten that you could barely recognize her.
This man during my childhood would drink, smoke, and do drugs. I recall needles in the waste basket a few times in the bathroom. I know he would steal thing from people as he never worked. One day he brought home a Nintendo and it was stolen, but I didn't know this at the time and thought how amazing it was to have a video game system to play.
Later in my life I would make the same mistakes my mother did. I would get into abusive relationships with men who would beat me for no reason. I never cheated, but they did all the time or they would validate the reason for beating me as I thought I was better than them. According to statistics, I should be a white woman on drugs, with no education and on welfare because I came from a broken home, the wrong side of the tracks, and had 3 children before the age of 20.
Like so many people in the world, it comes down to choice. I had The Lord God Almighty instilled into me by my grandfather who took me to church on Sundays. If my mother didn't bring me and my brother to his house, he came to pick us up. My foundation was established, yet I still made poor decisions, because I didn't think I deserved better due to the way I was raised. A lot of this also stems from generational curses which will be another post.
Environmental Factors and Your Mental Health
Scientists define “environment” in the realm of mental illness broadly, some going so far as to suggest it encompasses everything that isn’t an inherited gene. That’s a departure from traditional thinking in environmental health, however, which has historically viewed environmental threats in the context of infectious agents, pollutants, and other exogenous factors that influence the individual’s physical surroundings. Environmental threats to mental health include these traditional parameters—along with pharmaceutical and illicit drugs, injuries, and nutritional deficiencies—but also consist of psychosocial conditions that relate to the individual’s perceptions of the social and physical world.
Any number of circumstances—for instance, sexual abuse, falling victim to crime, or the breakup of a relationship—can produce psychosocial stress. But experts assume each of these circumstances triggers more primal reactions, such as feelings of loss or danger, which serve to push victims toward a particular mental state. “Feelings of pure loss might lead to depressive disorders, while feelings of pure danger might lead to anxiety disorders,” explains Ronald Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. “And feelings of loss and danger might lead to both simultaneously.” Either alone or in combination, psychosocial and physiological stressors can interact with genetic vulnerability to alter brain chemistry and thus alter the individual’s mental health.
Our Environment play a huge role in our development. When we lack solid foundations in The Lord God Almighty, things crumble and fall apart. When we witness our parents acting inappropriate, we tend to pick up on the behavior they display.
The human brain does 80 percent of its growing in the first three years of life. Genetics guide the growth of a brain in the skull, but do not completely design the brain. Instead, genes prepare the brain to be adaptable, hardwiring itself according to the experiences and environment in which your child grows up. Because experiences have a direct impact on brain development, your child is especially vulnerable to negative experiences in these first, vital years.
“Exposure to arguments and physical conflict can push kids into the extremes of aggression or withdrawal,” says Brown. “They can develop a deep distrustfulness of others, or fall into a pervasive sadness.” Their sense of trust and safety is diminished, and they begin to see their world as a dangerous place filled with adults who cannot keep them safe.
Brown says by age 7 or 8, these changes in the child’s perception of the world are extremely difficult to change. “Changing these behaviors later in life takes a good doctor and lots of money”, Brown says, only half jokingly.
How To Raise Children according To The Word of Yah-
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
[a]And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Psalm 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
Focus on the Family is One of the Ministries that has so much information on how to teach children. I wish I knew what I know now when my children were young. I use to listen to James Dobson the founder of Focus on the family on talk radio when I was going through my wilderness stage in 2011-12.
For parents of young children, the journey of raising Christ followers starts with the task of instilling respect for God and His authority. The psalmist tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). While most of us enjoy teaching toddlers fun Bible stories, we can’t stop there. Early childhood materials may solely emphasize how “Jesus is your friend.” Warm fuzzy feelings build affection for Jesus, but they don’t build the foundation for spiritual wisdom. Awe, wonder and respectful fear of God lay that groundwork.
So how do you instill this respect? Teach your young children these truths:
God is strong. He can do anything.
God always keeps His promises.
God gives us rules that we must obey.
Even if Mommy or Daddy can’t see what you are doing, God sees it.
God disciplines us because He loves us.
Wisdom is the ability to apply God’s Word to life situations. So to grow in wisdom, your children must first learn God’s Word. From ages 5 to 8, add biblical teaching to your daily routine. At this age, your children probably love to learn. Make sure you emphasize the following four areas
Who is God? Is He an angry ogre ready to club you when you disobey? Is He a passive observer who is tolerant of everything? Is God what you make Him to be? Or is He the righteous, powerful and loving Creator found in the Bible? Use Bible stories to teach about God. Take the story of David and Goliath for example. What can we learn about God from it? Many children’s materials conclude, “You can do anything if God is on your side.” But that is backward. The story’s application ought to be, “Make sure you are on God’s side.” What is truth? Your kids will be bombarded throughout life by truth claims from the media, teachers and friends. If you are not successful in teaching them that truth and wisdom come from the Bible, they will struggle greatly with faith challenges later. This means you must regularly include statements like the following in your conversation: “We can always trust what God says”; “God’s Word is always right”; “Obey the Bible, and you’ll never be sorry.” Who is man? Our humanistic culture treats man as basically good. That’s why children often struggle with accepting the Bible’s claim that man is sinful. If they’ve not experienced abuse, abandonment, addictions or other deep hurts (as I hope they haven’t), they probably see the people around them as good. Your children will not appreciate the need for a savior until they see themselves and others as sinners. Who is Jesus? Growing up in a society that professes to value tolerance will challenge your children’s faith. They may be called “intolerant” and “hateful” for claiming that Jesus is the only way to God. When your children sit in a classroom of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and atheists, will their faith in Jesus stick? To withstand this pressure, your children need a secure knowledge of who Jesus is and why He is the only Way. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/leading-your-child-to-christ/
We must be the change that our Communities are needing. That change first begins within us then in our homes and in society it's self. Our children are the next generation and we need to build them up in the Name of God so that the cycle of hate, disparity, malice, murder, greed, envy...ends.
For a more in-depth sermon search River City Revival on your podcast platform
Belief in God- Pew Research Center
FBI Crime Report 2018
