*Don’t miss your chance to say good-bye to Gospel legend Walter Hawkins. The musical tribute will be televised on the Gospel Music Channel Sunday, July 25 at 8 pm ET.

Guest appearances include BeBe Winans, Mary Mary, and Yolanda Adams.

For more information, visit www.gospelmusicchannel.com.

Those demands include the firing of all IMPD officers involved in the Brandon Johnson excessive force case; include civilian participation in IMPD’s Internal Affairs process; reorganization of IMPD’s training academy; making sure that IMPD’s work force is more reflective of the community it services and having the Federal Justice Department involved and monitor this process.

NEW MUSIC FROM EARNEST PUGH “THE GREAT I AM”

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO. HE WILL BE PERFORMING LIVE AT THE YOLANDA ADAMS HEALTH AND WELLNESS TOUR SATURDAY JUNE 26TH FROM NOON TO 5PM AT THE VENUE, (THE OLD VALUE CITY DEPARTMENT STORE), 5110 WEST PIKE PLAZA ROAD BROUGHT TO YOU BY NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS, LOWES, AARP, VERIZON WIRELESS HOW SWEET THE SOUND, STATE FARM, IOPO AND INDY CONNECT THIS IS A FREE EVENT!!!

However, I believe one of the major reasons many of our prayers have not been answered is because we have forgotten or simply do not understand a principle that Jabez understood. This principle is: “God blesses those who have prepared themselves to be blessed”.

When Jabez asked God to bless him indeed, he was asking God do something He nor anyone around him had experienced. He asked for something out of the ordinary and supernatural. Recognizing he did not have the capacity to handle such a blessing, He petitioned God to provide him with the necessary capacity by expanding his borders. Jabez said, God bless me indeed, but don’t forget to correspondingly increase my ability to handle what You are going to do. This is the key to experiencing God’s abundance in your life.

Many of us have asked God to do something extra ordinary in our lives but we don’t have the capacity to handle or properly manage what we’ve asked for. We’ve asked God to pour out rivers of blessing upon us but only have a cups capacity. If God were to give us what we’ve asked for much of it would be wasted. God will never give us something that we are not ready for.

There may even be some who have been preparing themselves for expansion but have forgotten God in their preparation. You can’t build a barn big enough to hold what God can pour out. Only God knows the measure and integrity of the container needed to possess His blessings.

When God called Abraham and told him that he was going to multiply and bless him abundantly the first thing He told him was to move. God told him to move from his family and go to a place that He would show him. God told Abraham to move for two reasons:

(1) It would remove him from the pagan influences of his family and society, and
(2) to make room for the blessing that He had planned to give him.

Abraham disobeyed God by bring his nephew Lot with him and the first recorded quarrel they had was not over money or theological differences – but space. God had blessed Abraham to the point that the land could not hold both of them. The reason the land could not hold both of them was because the land was given in proportion to Abraham’s blessing. God blessed Abraham but also gave him the means and ability to possess and care for his blessing.

What have you asked God to do in your life? Do you believe that God will answer you? Are your preparations adequate and in line with what you’ve asked Him for? Have you included God in your preparations? I believe if Jabez were here to share with us the key to experiencing abundance in our lives he would say: First, believe that God will bless you, and second, you must be prepared for your blessing before it will comes.

Have you made room for your blessing?

Scripture Of The Day: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.” – 1 Chronicles 4:10

******************************
“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” ~Don Williams, Jr.

eLZhi, no explanation needed. One of hip hop’s greatest emcee’s took the time out to speak with me. We chopped it up about his current projects ‘The Leftovers Unmixedtape’ and Slum Village’s ‘Villa Manifesto’, as well as the passing of J Dilla and Baatin, how he was able to use Dilla’s beats. If you recall eLZhi took time out in 2008 while promoting The Preface to check in with theurbandaily.com eLZhi spoke about Dilla’s estate drama:

There’s some drama, some issues and hopefully it’ll get resolved real soon cuz that man worked hard for his empire. The people close to him deserve to reap the benefits off of what he put out there and I don’t think [Dilla's mother, Ms. Yancey] is getting what she deserves and I hope it goes down well. And I hope it goes down soon. It’s crazy how certain people can be cold hearted toward certain situations and I hope it gets resolved real soon.

A highlight of our conversation was about his upcoming projects and working with Black Milk, another artist on my ‘List of Greats’ to interview. The Preface is considered by many as one of the best hip-hop albums of 2008 and all time for that matter. I can only speculate that his upcoming project and work with Black will fall in to the ‘Best Of’ category.

Check out the full interview below.

Although I met eLZhi last year at the Rock the Bells Music Festival in Chicago, this interview is definitely a personal achievement. I have an undefined amount of respect for eLZhi and Slum Village for creating and staying true to hip hop, with out succumbing to the commercialized hip hop genre of “music”.

Although the pairing of J Dilla and Slum Village is one of hip hop’s best, “Selfish” produced by Kanye West and featuring John Legend came close. The song samples a part of the intro to the hit song “Call Me” by Aretha Franklin.

CONNECT WITH ELZHI:

www.eLZhi.com
FOLLOW AC ON TWITTER

For booking, please contact The JAE.B Group at booking@jaebgroup.com

AC Side Note: If you haven’t seen eLZhi perform, that is something you need to put on your To-Do List Immediately!

RELATED: THE LEAK: Slum Village “Dope Man”

RELATED: Is Slum Village’s Elzhi Still Detroit’s Best Kept Secret?

« Return to IBE Calendar

« Return to Summer Celebration Events

Event:

IBE’s 40th Anniversary Family Reunion presented by Managed Health Services, June 19-20, 2010

Time:

Saturday 9 am – 7 pm and Sunday 10 am – 6 pm

Location:

Washington Park, 3030 E. 30th Street

City:

Indianapolis

State:

Indiana

Zip:

Free to the public

Notes:

This two-day Community Festival held Fathers Day weekend (June 19-20) promises to be a fun-filled weekend for friends and family to gather and enjoy numerous activities for the entire community; 5on5 Dust Bowl Tournament, Health Fair, Entertainment Stage, Old School Car and Motorcycle Show, Food Vendors, Children’s Activities, including bounce houses, face painting, kid’s obstacle course, sumo wrestling, and much more kid-friendly fun and entertainment.

Dustbowl Game Entry Fee: Division I 12-16 year olds: $250.00 per team
Division II 17 year olds & older: $300.00 per team

To register your team, download the registration form below.