The Scourge Of Racism
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As a matter of final reflection on being a Christian forty years, I want to glorify God for my many positive experiences as a member of the Body of Christ on earth! For the sake of brevity in this blog format, I will confine myself to the company of the saints, biblical multiculturalism and music as areas of experience in the Body of Christ that have greatly contributed to the joy of my forty year journey thus far. Though I have written much about how religionists and spiritually immature believers weak in willful sin have brought me grief, I rejoice that occasionally in the journey, I have been truly blessed with being in the company of authentic and faithful saints.
These faithful saints were to me exactly what the Bible teaches: filled with faith and the love of God, obedient and true to His Word, unselfish, ready to give, encourage, edify or help, thoughtful, kind, considerate and eager to serve (John 13:34-35; Romans 5:5, 12:9-21, 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-6; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-3). They have been an oasis of refreshment to me at strategic moments in my journey; appearing by divine providence at times like a man making his way across the desert who has seen mirages of water and finally comes upon its reality after many days. They shall remain nameless (lest any should be unnecessarily offended), but precious to me--bless them, Lord!
While I have left these saints nameless, I joyfully declare they are from both genders, different ethnicities, races, tribes, languages and cultures! The experience of this reality has been especially enriching for me due to understanding and fully appreciating God’s global, Kingdom cause in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, as I wrote about recently in the four-part blog, God Of Restoration And Judgment under the category, The Cause with three others! What an absolutely amazing experience to meet a brother or sister in Christ from a place on the other side of the world who as a sinner, has come to Christ in repentance and faith and loves Him with a passion just like me.
As I wrote in another blog, I was prepared for this biblical form of multiculturalism growing up in Seaside on the Monterey Peninsula of California.1 While racism was extant, the forcibly integrated school system was such that many different ethnicities, races, languages and cultures were brought together. From this experience, I learned to appreciate and navigate among those that were from different ethnicities, races and cultures. What a joy to do this when the opportunities have come in the Body of Christ! However, the operative word here is “when” since a major share of grief in my journey has come from among racially bigoted professed Christians.
To this hour, a number of white Southern Baptist pastors here in the Northwest remain cold toward me for insisting that racism no longer be tolerated among their ranks. I made personal appeals, addressed meetings and wrote about how tolerating racism was unbecoming of those professing such high regard for Christ and the Gospel. Even in this 21st century as a continuing link to the days of America’s secular and church sanctioned practice of racism, my word as a black pastor still carried less weight than that of a white one. This led, for example, in one sad case to having others also receive my correspondence sent to an official so my words would be accurately known.
I agree with anyone that would say this sort of thing should not be among professed Christian brothers. However, until racism is dealt with as the sin it is and truly no longer tolerated in the Body of Christ, such actions will continue to be taken by blacks and other minorities that love our white brothers enough not to allow the guilty to reflexively force us into a less than equal place. Instead of being embittered toward me, such men should have godly sorrow and be deeply repentant realizing that a brother in their midst felt compelled to take extraordinary measures to be heard accurately in the multicultural Body of Christ charged to represent Him (Matthew 23:8; 1 John 3:10-15)!
Another important way I sought as the Lord led to build a bridge of multicultural love among Southern Baptist brothers was through an event called “Praisefest.” Out of what is supposed to be our common love for the Lord, we brought worship teams from churches of various cultural groups together to praise Him through the universal language of music. I never heard anything negative about those sweet times in the Lord which is good. Indeed, some of my most joyful experiences of the Body of Christ as His purposeful, multicultural construction have been marvelously through music! Being an appreciator of all kinds of music came from my departed mother as well as through school days experiences in choirs, bands and later in college and seminary, a radio disc jockey (DJ).
From the European Reformation and church hymns that followed along with the spirituals and work songs of my Christian slave forefathers to Black and Southern Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music my soul has been fully blessed “through it all” (the title of an André Crouch classic) by the multicultural music of the saints. As a DJ in Dallas/Fort Worth, how my spirit soared executing multicultural music sets that ministered to listeners and me! I feel so sorry for professed Christians that have never gone beyond their culturally preferred music to enjoy that of brethren from another culture.2 Thank You, Lord, for the foretaste of eternity with You I have enjoyed thus far, in the multicultural company, love and music of Your Body (Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:12-17)!
1 Read the December 6, 2015 blog, Celebrating God’s Racial Diversity Initiative, Call To Repent.
2 While I fully understand the worldly idea behind radio music formatting, what a lost opportunity to build a bridge of brotherhood in the Body of Christ and give a multicultural
witness Christian music stations have missed following this model that essentially mimics segregated Sunday morning church services. I am available on a professional
consulting basis to assist any Christian music programmer that would like to do a better job of offering a culturally diverse music mix.
“Surely, the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets,” (Amos 3:7, NJKV). Those in Christendom today that dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant truly lack the knowledge and wisdom God wills to impart to His people and worse, may not know Him at all! For the Old Testament of the Bible like the chunkiest of soups, is chocked full of truth, instruction and spiritual activity not the least of which is His use of prophets and their messages from Him. From Enoch to John the Baptist of those named to the many unnamed, God’s prophets play a key role in declaring His Word in the Old Testament (Genesis 5:18-24; Mark 1:1-8; Jude 12-15).
In my recent four-part blog, God Of Restoration And Judgment under the category, The Cause with three others, God’s use of His prophets to communicate with Israel during the time of its kings was shown to be extensive. Not only that, but the potency of His Word through His prophets was seen to impact that historical period right on down millennia later to us living in the latter days they often spoke of. As I was led by the Lord to warn you about in that blog, Israel’s nation destroying judgments came only after they refused to heed His Word through the prophets (revisit 2 Kings 17:5-23 and 2 Chronicles 36:15-21) and finally, of course His Son, Jesus Christ (Luke 20:9-19).
The prophets were a manifest token of God’s love, grace and mercy to Israel as He deployed them at strategic moments in the life of the kings and people they served. God expected His people to be faithful to, reverence and serve Him only. This is declared by Him on Mt. Sinai in the opening commandments of ten and written down later on tablets of stone as part of the covenant between God and Israel which they violated right away (Exodus 19:3-20:21, 32:1-24). The prophets kept calling the people back to faithfulness to the covenant as the basis of their relationship with God, His grace and blessings. Their refusal to be faithful brought upon them His promised consequences.
Many times the consequences God announced through His prophets were dramatic. One of those times occurred by the word and actions of an unnamed prophet from Judah who had been sent to announce judgment on king Jeroboam after he set up his rival idolatrous religious system for the ten northern tribes. Not only did God announce through him the destruction of the altar in that system, but the specifically named king of Judah, Josiah, that would burn the bones of the system’s priests on it three hundred years later! When the king sought to arrest the prophet, God caused his hand to wither and restored it after the prophet’s intercession (1 Kings12:25-13:10; 2 Kings 23:15-18).
It is to the spiritual peril of any professed Christian to ignore or dismiss the prophecies of Old Testament prophets. The secrets of the Lord they spoke of have not yet all been fulfilled! Indeed, we who love God and His entire Word contained in the Bible, have in these latter days been granted the awesome privilege to watch His secrets in prophecies long ago uttered by the prophets explode in fulfillment like fireworks shot into the night sky--Israel back in its land as a nation among them! This in itself is prophecy fulfilled since Daniel was told his prophecies would be sealed until unsealed (opened, unveiled) at the time of the end to those that are “wise,” (Daniel 12:8-10, NKJV).
Who are the wise generally but faithful Christians that have been redeemed from sin and restored in God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ! To know Him is to know something of God’s whole Word in certainty, truth, instruction and prophetic importance (Matthew 24:32-35; John 1:1-3, 14, 5:39, 14:1-6, 15-31; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Revelation 19:7-10). God wants us to take Old and New Testament prophecy to heart because in all generations we have needed prophetic understanding and discernment, but now, all the more in these latter days marching to the end and our Lord’s return. For this reason too, among His spiritual gifts to the Church are still prophets wisely interpreting and delivering His prophetic Word (Matthew 23:34; Ephesians 4:7-11)!
As I celebrate my fortieth year as a Christian, I am grateful to God to have been gifted and called to serve Him and the Body of Christ as a watchman/prophet and teacher in His love (Ezekiel 33:1-9; Amos 3:8; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3). While many others in rejection of and disobedience to God’s Word add to their sin the dismissal of ministries like mine, I pray that the faithful will continue to give heed. For truly, those that heeded the instruction and warning the Lord gave me about not voting by race, but righteousness, do not now live with regret from having voted for President Obama.1 That was another practice test from God in making proper judgments in these fast approaching days of the Antichrist--His final exam (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Revelation 13, 14:6-13). In that day, my faithful God will fully vindicate my service (Hebrews 6:10; Revelation 18:1-20)!
1 Read the October 2008 Journal, Judge Righteous Judgment at https://fromslaverytovictory.org/Journal-Oct-2008.
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