Toni V. Lee

Christians are getting swift and brutal clapback when they rebuke other Christians for posts they don't like--most have made them uncomfortable in their religious zones.  The ones that tickle me are those that begin with "You aren't saved because..." and "That kind of behavior is not in the Bible."  These draw my chuckles, "Jesus would never say or do anything like that..." and "That's not Christ-like..." 🤭  Let's talk about it...☕🍩  Jesus was blunt and didn't bite His tongue. He wasn't being mean or nasty. He saw it and called what He saw.  He called folk... ▪️Blind guides  ▪️Fools ▪️Serpents  ▪️A generation of vipers  ▪️Hypocrites Jesus scolded.  He rebuked.  He told people they were like whited supulchres…full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. Meaning, they were white and shiny--holy--on the outside but full of decay and rot on the inside.  Jesus was so indignant about what was going on in the Temple... ▪️He...

Buckle up... After studying the preponderance of the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that people need to get over themselves.  If you think the absence of your presence or footprint, stops the show or impacts the significance and validity of the show, you are sadly mistaken. Why? You are important...but not THAT important.  I mean, it's not about you. It's bigger than you. Your participation is welcomed...but not needed. Why? Sweetie, you can't stop the show. Why? You are just not THAT important. What made you have such an over inflated view of the importance and impactfulness of YOU that you think you can stop the show by doing or not doing...whatever?  See, you ARE important...but your are NOT crucial. The show WILL go on with you...or without you.  Communities would be stronger, families would be more cohesive, churches would be operating on a higher level, relationships would be more enduring, friendships would last...if people would...just...get...over.....

It cuts deep when someone confides their heart tears to clergy or other church leadership, then the next time they attend service, they overhear the congregation whispering about their business or they catch folk swallowing their words mid-sentence because the sentence was about them.  During that same service, the Pastor will preach his heart out, the congregation will praise and worship enthusiastically, all while the person sits in their midst with a broken and bleeding heart. The person who was broken is not the problem. No, it's not them. 🙅🏾‍♀️The problem is every single tongue that participated in the breaking/slashing. That's called church hurt. It happens...a lot.  There is no perfect church. I agree 💯. BUT that is no excuse for operating in the flesh and hurting people in a place that should be a REFUGE from pain and heartache. Don't be that church. Just keepin' it real...

Make it make sense! 🤯  Let's talk about it...☕☕☕ It was disclosed that Bill Clinton got up to shenanigans with grown women who were not his wife, then lied about it. Evangelicals said his actions demonstrated a lack of moral character that made him unfit to serve as president. They emphasized the importance of fidelity and honesty in public officials. They rallied for his impeachment.  At that time, it was perfectly correct and Biblical to call out the wrongdoings of the President for the Bible informs us in Acts 5 we should submit to authority but be prepared to obey God, not man. An aside 👩🏾‍🏫: That word "submit" deserves a thorough study and break-down all on its own. It's being used by some as a tool to say, "Authority is given by God, those in authority can do/say whatever they want and it's right", "Do what I say with no questions asked", "I'm the law around here and what I say goes", "Check your brains and your Bib...

When you can see/read people, you want to let them know they're not gettin' over and that you're not stupid. There are times you can't because you're being checked and aren't allowed to say what you really really REALLY want to say 🤐. As blunt as I can be, I also swallow words. I'm not allowed to unsheathe the word knife from my mouth. 😁 But that doesn't stop my mental side-eye 👀 and silent, "Hmmph, they really think I don't know, don't they..." Maybe, it's just me. 🤷🏾‍♀️ I've said it many times before and I'm sayin' it again: People are somethin' ELSE...Christian people too. Sometimes, we're the absolute worse because we sanctimoniously wrap our ugly and "sometimey" behavior in scripture.  If being accepted by people is crucial to your self-worth, you will always wrestle with feeling you're not good enough or always at fault when really you're the victim of someone being messy, their proje...

Lord, deliver us from evil! Dear Lord, stay the hand of the enemy! Lord, please come and see about us! Dear God, help us! Lord, save us from...! These are "small" prayers 🙏🏽 that tumble around in my heart daily. My small world is comparatively ok, but I'm very aware that the hand of evil is reaching and touching. I see the hurt, lawlessness, and injustice and it's heartbreaking. 💔 SO heartbreaking. 💔😢 Some nights, my heart is so heavy because of events, I pray for a personal God encounter. I crave and need a personal, rejuvenating encounter with Him. A "I'm here...I've got you," kind of encounter. I had a dream Sunday night that was so vivid. Some of the scenes still replay in my mind. I'll share one here.  I was riding in a car with a Christian powerhouse --the sho' nuf born-again, Bible believin' kind. I looked out the window and stared at the clouds. The longer I looked up, a huge shape took on more  definition.  The Christian rid...

"We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity. Our movement is Christian."                       - Adolf Hitler, October 27, 1928 Yes, Hitler really did say that. Let's talk about it... 👩🏾‍🏫 This was part of his tactics to deceive the German's Christian majority and gain their  support.  I wonder how many Christians called him a "Man of God" or "The Second Christ" during that time and got fightin' mad when someone pointed out the contradictions they'd seen...or perceived. 🤔 👩🏾‍🏫  Anywhoo...Hitler's tactic worked: Many Christians believed, received, and doggedly supported. 👩🏾‍🏫 After he used them to gain power and stopped playing Christian, the Christian reaction was mixed:   * Some resisted in any way they could.  * Some aided the oppressed and persecuted.  * Some continued to doggedly support Hitler.  * Some became Nazi informants (snitches) to aid his evil ...

You know, folk are worshipping so many different versions of God: * The version created using cherry-picked scripture. * A version wearing a red MAGA hat.  * A Christian Nationalists version. * A white supremacist version. * A version who's closed fisted and selfish. * A version who cares more about money than people. * A version painted by Trump's prophets. * A version that's hateful, racist, and bigoted. * The version who approves lawlessness, inequity, and injustice. * The version who approves any and everything.  * The version who winks at sin dependent upon the person doing the sinning. * The version who cares more about politics than His creations. * The one where the body (which will turn to dust) of man is more important than the soul of man. * A version devoid of empathy and kindness. . . . I can choose or craft any version of God that supports my personal agenda, preferences, biases, politics, and any version to use as a whip to ensure my personal comfort and prop...

Can we talk about Israel? Christians are adamant that the US should support Israel because the Bible indicates we should. I have no problem with that. The problem is HOW the pertinent scriptures are being interpreted. * What does it mean to bless Israel? * What does supporting Israel mean or look like? * Do we have to give blind support? * Do we have to "help" make God's promises regarding Israel come to past? * Does supporting Israel mean we must join them in and/or approve of all aggressive or questionable actions? Does God really need help fulfilling His Word regarding Israel? The Bible said Israel was His and He would fight for them. Even with that, He did not give them blind support. Israel was corrected when they refused to obey Him and His precepts/principles. Personally, I bless--ask for God's favor upon--Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's biblical instructions. Israel, America, family, friends, anybody operating against the principles and ...

Let's talk about Christopher Columbus... 👩🏾‍🏫 In 1492, there were already millions of folk in the Americas--the indigenous people. 👩🏾‍🏫 Leif Erikson, a Viking, was the first European to sail to North America. He reached Canada 500 years before Columbus ever pointed his ship west, intending to reach Asia. 👩🏾‍🏫 Columbus did not discover America in 1492. In fact he never stepped foot on North American shores.  👩🏾‍🏫 October 12 marks the day Columbus arrived in the Bahamas. He did reach the coasts of what today are Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, as well as explored the Central and South American coasts. 👩🏾‍🏫 What Columbus did in Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) to the indigenous and friendly Taino people is absolutely abhorrent: he forced them into slavery, punishing them with loss of limb or death if they didn't collect enough gold. The indigenous population was destroyed by his brutality and transmitted European diseases. 👩🏾‍🏫 C...

There's a whole lot going on in churches where folk are professing to be Christians that requires the church's attention.  If they invested quality time sweeping around their own front door, they won't have time to police the choices of folk who are not and never have professed to be Christians.  If there wasn't so much known dirt going on in churches, more folk may turn to the church to find a way out of their life choices. Instead, what they're seeing are church folk doing the same things they're doing--and sometimes worse--while preaching against and excluding them for their choices.  I have never heard anyone say they became a Christian because folk excluded, devastated, or turned their back on them. Just keepin' it real...

Some folk will work against you simply because they can. It satisfies their need to have some measure of control over you no matter how small. Life Lesson:  I can save myself a lot of aggravation (and sometimes dollars) by working AROUND difficult folk instead of trying to work WITH them. The first question I asked myself changed from "How can I get them to cooperate WITH me?" to "How can I accomplish this WITHOUT involving them at all?" Listen, you've got stuff to do and places to go. It's not worth the aggravation, your time, and/or the expense. Find a new path. Just keepin' it real...

Plates covered in cemented beans, spaghetti, dried up gravy, and/or something green you can't quite identify. A cup of soured milk. Glasses containing black hardened residue. The surface covered in a thick dark brown, sticky substance containing trapped baby roaches and flies. A bowl with some kind of nose wrinkling white liquid and a huge cockroach floating on the surface...  Would you willingly sit and eat 🍽 at this table?  We sit and eat at the table to maintain our strength, to get nourishment, for fellowship, to help each other, to build relationships, for comfort, for encouragement, and to maintain the family unit.  But...would you sit and eat at THIS table?  This table is filthy and messy! It's a bacteria breeding ground...a toxic nightmare. 🤮  If you eat at this table, you may very well pick up something that will make you severely ill or even kill you.  Again, would you sit and eat at this table?  I believe the answer to my question is a res...

Let's lay the halo to the side for a few. I promise it'll still be there at the end of the post, then you can put it back on.😁 You're saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost and that with a mighty burning fire 🙌🏾 (that's my COGIC upbringing right there), but there are days...😁 Be honest. Those days when your patience is runnin' on fumes and someone walks toward you with foolishness written on their forehead, so you start praying "Jesus, take the wheel!" and "Keep me, Jesus!" 😁 The entire time all of that is going on, "Don't come here today with that mess...NOT TODAY!" is tremblin' on your tongue and tryin' to push through the barrier of your teeth. Your finger☝🏽twitches to rise and your neck muscles tense to snake. 😁 It happens! No? Maybe, it's just me. 🤷🏾‍♀️ Sometimes, I yield to the help for which I prayed...Sometimes, I choose not to. I could say, "They made me...." but in all honesty, it ...

Statistical Analysts are saying that educational levels are being reflected in the guy in the White House's approval/disapproval ratings. True? I don't know. I DO know there's also high disapproval among folk who don't have degrees as well. Personally, I'd find it more interesting to see a Christian poll that shows the approval/disapproval ratings based upon the application of biblical precepts.  I grew up hearing stories from my mom’s friends and one of her teachers about how smart she was in school. I've often wondered what it would've been like if she could've nurtured that and not have to quit school to work in the fields like many others of her generation.  As I've seen posted many times, having a degree or education doesn't mean you have common sense. I TOTALLY agree with that. There are folk who are very smart and savvy and don't have a formal or higher education.  On the other hand, I also believe majoring in ignorance, mastering in w...

After the super bowl half-time show, I read so many complaints about how bad the show was.  Young folk loved it and laughed at the older folk who didn't get it. They decided to help their fellow Americans who didn't get it and sent around crypt notes. 😁 After the performance, the artist's sales soared, reels of the performance, reels of folk (all races, ages, and walks of life) dancing to "They Not Like Us" are everywhere. I saw a reel this morning of the reaction of the super bowl crowd during the performance and they were VERY engaged--singing along and dancing. I didn't watch the half-time show. I heard about it on FB.  If I hadn't sought and been open to receiving additional--and different--information, I'd have the same exact perspective as my FB friends because they would've been my only source.  Hmm...there's a lesson there. 🤔 Just keepin' it real...

King Nebuchadnezzar did some awful things and was proud of his awful accomplishments. The Lord stripped him of that pride in the most embarrassing and demeaning way.  The source--the kingdom that he'd built through ruthlessness and cruelty--of his arrogance and pride was taken away from him. The Lord stripped him of his sanity and made him live with the beasts of the field for 7 years. This prideful and awful man ate grass like oxen and looked like a beast himself. What he didn't know was you can do whatever you think you're big enough and bad enough to do, thinking you're "winning" and are untouchable but there is One greater who sits high and looks low. One Word from Him can instantly topple man-made kingdoms and restore that which was taken. There are consequences when we willingly put our hope in false gods and clay rulers/kings. Israel was in exile 70 years! The number coincides with the number of violations the people of Judah committed against God's...

Relationship is essential and should be recognizable. Through the years and varied relationships with people, I have come to the conclusion that there's a difference between Christians and born-again, Bible believing Christians.  I grew up in an old-fashioned COGIC sanctified church where there was an expected standard of living of anyone who said they were saved and any who knowingly dropped that standard were directed to the alter for repentance and renewal/refreshing. After I left home, I was able to differentiate between Church rules established for the good of the congregation and Bible teachings, but I'm SO grateful for the foundational teachings. In my experience, some Christians live like anything-goes-as-long-as-it-feels-good. It's a permissive way of living. You have no idea they're a Christian until they flip "the Christian here" switch.  On the other hand, born-again, Bible believing Christians have a relationship with Christ that permeates their e...

"Spinning in the grave" is a saying that means if a deceased person were alive, they would be extremely upset or angry about something currently happening. It implies they'd be so disturbed they would practically be "turning over" in their grave due to the situation.  In light of that, I wonder who's spinning 🔁 the hardest Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, the Apostle Paul, John of Patmos, or America's Founding Fathers.🤔 Just keepin' it real...

Knowing and appreciating that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb is right and good, but knowing and appreciating that Lewis Latimer--a Black inventor--improved upon Edison's invention, making it more affordable and practical is just as important. Black History month--1 month out of 12--recognizes the great contributions Black Americans made in American history. Contributions that would otherwise get little or no acknowledgement. Black history month doesn't detract from American history in any way, it shines light upon and acknowledges the American history that's just as meaningful to the shaping of this Nation but not given as much "daylight".  Just keepin' it real...