Introduction
Chapter 1: Cleared for Take-Off But Refusing to Fly
God has already put in you everything that you need to become all that God intends
for you to become. You ought to be flying high. You ought to be a go-getter. You ought
to be aspiring to go higher and to do everything that God has placed in you to do.
But all too often, we allow issues in our lives to get in the way, and before we know
it, we find ourselves sentenced to a prison without bars.
Chapter 2: My Family Is A Hot Mess
If we look back over our lives, can we be honest enough and admit, that maybe, things
went wrong in our family because the person in charge made a wrong turn? Was it your
father? Was it your mother? I don’t know. But somebody made a wrong turn, and the
sad thing is, you are still experiencing the consequences of the choice they made.
Chapter 3: You Were Born To Blow Up
You may have experienced those who have tried to hold you down and keep you back,
but everything they did to keep you back only set you up for what God had in store
for you. And that is my word to you today: you were born to blow up.
Chapter 4: Sexual Healing
Whenever you have been wounded psychologically, it sets the stage for you to do some
warped things biologically. In other words, whenever you have been scarred emotionally,
it sets the stage for you to look for ways to medicate your misery, and oftentimes,
we medicate our misery by doing that which is warped, biologically. Allow me to raise
three questions: Have you ever been wounded emotionally? Have you ever had something
to happen to you that left you wondering, will I ever be able to get up? Do you look
for ways to medicate your misery?
Chapter 5: Why Is Loving You Hurting Me?
Can you not hear the helpless screams of Tamar as she says, please don’t do this?
This is a terrible thing to do. But being physically stronger than Tamar, Amnon because
of his sickness, takes advantage of Tamar. Imagine how Tamar must have felt. She must
have felt something similar to what Ludacris articulates in the song, “Runaway Love,”
about poor little Lisa...
Chapter 6: There's Some Music We Just Can’t Dance To
Do you like what Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego did? Nebuchadnezzar is ticked and
says, “I’m going to give you one more chance to bow down and do the right thing. You
do it as soon as the music plays.” Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego said, “Oh king,
chill. Bring it down, because the bottom line is, you can play the music all you want
to, we are not dancing to that music. What you don’t understand is, we have standards,
and the standards that we stand on will not let us dance to any kind of music.”
Chapter 7: What's Up With The Down-Low?
This “down-low” thing has placed some beds in the wrong places. We’ve had women get
wounded because the bed was in the wrong place. Children are confused because the
bed was in the wrong place. Is there hope and help? Is there peace, power, and a prescription
for those whose bed is in the wrong place? Yes, there is. Do you want to know how
it works? Let me give you three points...
Chapter 8: Aren't You Sick Of This?
I’m about to get in trouble right now because I’m a black preacher talking to black
people about their bodies. I’m a black preacher talking to black people about how
they handle their physicalities. Many times, we don’t mind talking about our spirituality,
but don’t you talk about what I feed my body. Don’t you bring me to church and talk
to me about my lack of exercising, or about the fact that I cannot feed my live body
dead food, and not expect to have a dead end. Don’t you talk to me about my body;
just talk to me about my soul. I am talking about your soul!
Chapter 9: Over My Dead Body
What do you do when life has beaten you down so much so that you are at your breaking
point? I don’t care how long you have been going to church, how big your Bible is,
or how much you love Jesus, every now and then, life will push you so close to the
edge that you feel you are about to lose your mind. Every now and then, life will
break you down and leave you feeling completely shattered...And every now and then,
life will break you down to the point where you will say, “you know what? I have had
it up to here, I can’t take it any more.” You may have gone through so much hell that
you have reached your breaking point.
Chapter 10: Don't Set Your Queen Up To Be A “Ho”
We have picked up that legacy, and now, nobody tears us down like we tear ourselves
down; nobody talks about us any worse than we do; nobody disses our women any worse
than we do; nobody runs us down like we do. And I know some of you are talking back
to me right now saying, “aw, man, you just trying to bad mouth hip-hop.” I am not
bad mouthing hip-hop. Recently, I was watching some old black exploitation movies:
“Super Fly,” “The Mack,” and some others, and I understand that hip-hop has basically
gotten what they’ve gotten from the generation before them. So before you judge the
fruit, you need to check the roots.
Chapter 11: What Happens When a Black Man Goes Home
I believe I am writing to some black man who needs to recognize that once you name
your pain and reclaim your name, you are going to realize the lion in you that God
made you to be; and since God made you a lion, “king of the jungle,” you will never
allow anybody to play with you as a toy, and tame you out of something that God made
you to be, because you know who you are. When you wake up to who you are, you won’t
let people treat you other than who you are.
