The Marben Bland Podcast

Send us Fan Mail If God Can Tell Our Unpleasant History, Why Can’t We  Without question W.E.B. Du Bois the American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist is one the most important Black leaders in the world.   He helped found the NAACP and edited  The Crisis its magazine.  Educated at Fisk and Harvard where he received his Ph. D. in 1895 Dr. Du Bois taught at the then Atlanta Univer...

Send us Fan Mail God is doing some cool things in the second chapter of Genesis.  The earth, sky, and everything in them were finished in just six days.  As the seventh day dawned, he blessed it making it a holy day.  God made it holy not for going shopping, not for cleaning the house and not event for watching football. God made it holy for rest from all the work need to create the world.   After...

Send us Fan Mail Ready, Set, Lent So, it’s Fat Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.   Lent begins 40 days prior to Easter, where many Christians prepare for the resurrection of Jesus by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation, and spiritual self-discipline. The significance of the 40-day period of Lent is based on two episodes of spiritual testing in the Bible: the 4...

Send us Fan Mail Jonathan Pitts, joins The Podcast to discuss the importance of financial literacy and what he and others are doing about it.   For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air.  Love is in the air as couples celebrate with food, flowers, and fondness.  Love is in the air with expression of devotion directed from folks on dates to daughters with text messages to dads giving his family sweet delights.  Love is in the air with a jaw dropping 145 million Valentine's Day cards given each year.  Making Valentin...

Send us Fan Mail Prayer is the most basic act of worship.  Prayer is where the rejection of the world is met with the acceptance of God.  The sweet moment of prayer is profound, the sweet moment of prayer is lovely the sweet moment of prayer is an uninterrupted time of blessings.   The Reverend Richard Allen lead church services for the black members of the mostly white Saint George’s Methodist Ch...

Send us Fan Mail The Lord blesses us with the Amazing in our lives.  My guest Sherry D. Fields is one of those amazing people.  She is the chief marketing officer for Natural Radiant Life, a brand of skin care products that is changing the way people take care of themselves.  Sherry joins me on The Podcast for a discussion of her inspiring story of family, friendship, business, and faith.  Order p...

Send us Fan Mail   The big game, the Super Bowl is Sunday, and for the first time both teams will have African Americans starting at quarterback.  For Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Patrick Mahomes it is just a game as it should be.  However, it was not that long ago that white NFL executives and white owners believed that blacks lacked the physical stamina, emotional courage, and yes,...

Send us Fan Mail In Exodus chapter 32 Moses God’s chosen the leader of the Israelites had gone to the mountain to be with the Lord.    Concerned that Moses and by theory God had not returned to them, the Israelites got Aaron the priest older brother and spokesman of Moses to build an idol god in the shape of a Golden Calf.    Aaron announced a special festival to honor the golden calf which was no...

Send us Fan Mail The Reverend Quinton Steverson , the host of “The Faith Talk” podcast joins The Podcast to talk about his life, his faith journey, his podcast, and his love of the Pittsburgh Steelers. For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail Rev. Cynthia Parnell-McDonald, Ph. D  pastor of Cosmopolitan AME Church, Atlanta joins the Podcast to discuss her founding of SHIFT the one-million-dollar program funded by the Lillie Endowment, designed to provide supportive, holistic innovations to help ministers thrive in the AME church.  For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail  What happens when black people do bad things to other black people.  By now we have all seen the horrendous video footage of the police officers beating Tyre Nichols. Five Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder. Tyre Nichols is black the five officers are also black.  As blacks in America our history is dotted with violence. The cruelties of slavey, t...

Send us Fan Mail In Chapters 4 and 5 of Matthew’s account of the Gospel is Jesus is going through Galilee, teaching and proclaiming the good news.  He does all this while curing every disease and every sickness among the people.    With his teaching and healing the fame of Jesus spreads.  Seeing the great crowds that followed him Jesus and his disciples went up the mountain, where he taught then t...

Send us Fan Mail The author of Psalm 27 knows the highs and lows of life.  In response the Psalmist makes a dramatic, definitive, and declarative statement then answers a question about the status of his life: “The LORD is my light and my salvation is the statement.  And the Psalmist answers his question by saying whom shall I fear?”    In a sermon recorded live at Greater Bethel in Athens, on Jan...

Send us Fan Mail The Godly Virtue Of Honesty  In 2 Kings chapter 12, we find this story.  The temple badly needed repair so the King started what amounted to a Go-Fund-Me campaign.  A chest with an opening in the top was placed at the temple door, and soon the chest was full. The priest distributed the money to building superintendents who paid workers and bought the materials for the temple’s rep...

Send us Fan Mail Charles Richardson joins The Podcast to discuss the news.  Topics include the GOP House of Representatives, George Santos, The Georgia General Assembly, the back-to-back national champion University Georgia Bulldogs, books, and the state of newspapers in America. For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail The Highs And Lows Of Life  Last Saturday, fans of the University of Georgia fans gathered to celebrate the teams second straight national. Joy abounds as the highs of life were experienced.  Then in the early hours of Sunday morning Devin Willock, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman and Chandler LeCroy, a football recruiting analyst, died in a car crash.  The lows of life were...

Send us Fan Mail Over a half a century after his death Martin Luther King, Jr. is now a figure of history.  His life and work known primarily in speeches and a holiday that portrays King as a happy warrior marching, singing, and yes making those speeches.   The reality is in his lifetime King was a deeply divisive person in American society.   Martin Luther King Junior was a radical. He believed t...

Send us Fan Mail With great intention Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River specifically to be baptized by John The Baptist.   However, when Jesus got there was a big problem John The Baptist, the most famous baptizer of all time did not want to baptize Jesus because he believed he was not worthy.    John told Jesus in Matthew 3:14 “This isn’t proper,” “I am the one who needs to be baptized...

Send us Fan Mail Handling money better is always one of the top New Year’s resolutions.  As we kick off 2023 Phyllis Tufts  Hightower, author of the new book Ten Keys To Avoid Debt: The Devils Evil Borrowing Trap, joins Marben Bland to talk about money, debt and Gray, Georgia where they both grew up.     For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail We all watched with horror as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest following a routine tackle.  The life-threatening injury, the reaction of the players, the unprecedented canceling of the game all captured on Monday Night Football resonated with the nation.    The phrase "thoughts and prayers" is a trendy term used during times of national trauma....

Send us Fan Mail As migrants surge to the United States southern border the debate rages about what to do with people who flee their own country because they have a dream to come this county for better days.  Shortly after his birth Jesus became a migrant fleeing his own country following a dream form the Lord.    In a sermon recorded January 8, 2023, Pastor Marben Bland, gives a Biblical perspect...

Send us Fan Mail The entire nation witnessed the cardiac arrest suffered by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Cardiologist Dr. Tiffany Randolph, MD of Cone Health and director of its hypertension clinic.  She joins Dr. Veita Bland, MD to discuss treatments for hypertension and the situation with Damar Hamlin. For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com 

Send us Fan Mail Prayer, Football, Prayer   I wake this morning to the news that I prayed about before going to bed that Damar Hamlin, a 24-year-old safety in his second season with the Buffalo Bills, would make it through the night.  Over this New Year’s holiday weekend, I watched a ton of football, and I enjoyed it all. However, in that enjoyment I often forget that in nearly every game I watch...

Send us Fan Mail The Reverend Rick Smith is the Chairman and CEO of the Classic City Conference, scheduled for January 4-6 in Athens, Georgia.  The conference is a gathering of faith leaders designed to help churches plan for the new year and beyond.    Rev. Smith joins The Podcast to discuss the conference, and his ministry.   For More Great Content Go To  Marben Bland.com