The Scourge Of Racism
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With great empathy for the men who serve as pastors in the churches of Jesus Christ among black Americans as I have also done, I must still declare the truth that far too many are the reason the churches they serve are stuck in the house of refuge mentality, spiritually immature and impotent as well as in rank rebellion against God! While over the years I have heard pastors say the people are to blame by being unwilling to grow--which is true in some cases, it is the pastors that are fully guilty before God because they are unwilling to repent from what they know is sin and spiritual immaturity in personal conduct and church priorities as they cling to manmade religious practices and traditions.
Since among many churches the culturally admired preaching skill of pastors cover a multitude of sins, character flaws and spiritual immaturity contrary to the teaching of the Bible (Titus 1:5-9), the spiritual state of members or impact on their surrounding community with the Gospel in obedience to Christ does not matter. Moreover, it is largely immaterial that a pastor may act out to the point of criminality because he is bound by the root ties of the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism. Though we know not even the godliest pastors have arrived, we are not supposed to settle for being bound by Satan as normal (Philippians 3:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:22-26).
Pastors bound by Satan with any tie binding work of the flesh in sin (to include pride) or at the root, the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism hurt themselves and their watching congregants because like it or not the Bible declares their leadership is primarily by example (1 Peter 5:2-3). A pastor can and will not preach Christ as the Deliverer superior in strength that breaks the ties Satan has used to bind up members of the church if he is complacently bound too (Luke 11:14-22). Satan stronger than sinful men has been able to keep such pastors and members bound even after their supposed new birth because they are unwilling to be set free by Christ.
As a result of being bound, the pastor’s preaching in the house of refuge majors on comforting himself and the people in their spiritual immaturity with God’s grace and mercy, railing against the system depending on his level of social activism and powerless moralizing. In the latter instance, while he might quote or take his text from Ephesians 4:26 wherein the apostle Paul declares from Psalm 4:4, ‘“Be angry and do not sin,’” and adds, “do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (NKJV), because he is shackled by the root tie of anger as a continuing mental and emotional legacy of slavery and racism, rather than obedience, he will urge all to join him in doing their best in their own inadequate strength to comply (Romans 7:14-23). Meanwhile, he remains an angry black man.
I know something about being an angry black man because I was until the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel and power of the Holy Spirit set me free (Romans 7:24-8:4) as I wrote in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics!3 And how did the Lord come to liberate me? In all confession and repentance before the Lord I owned my sin failures with anger and realization of being helplessly bound by it as a tie on my soul in the light of His Word (Genesis 4:1-8; Proverbs 29:22; James 1:19-20). I then asked Him for help! I have since learned that as sinners, it is why we are angry (Jonah 3-4) and what we do with it after it has risen up that will determine whether it is sin or not. Uncontrolled venting of anger or burying and letting the sun go down on it leads to sin every time.
Righteous indignation at evil, injustice and real or perceived personal injury naturally gives rise to anger which in and of itself is not sin since a holy God in whose image we are made gets angry too and judges (Genesis 1:26-27; Numbers 25:1-5)! Where petition for readdress of legitimate wrongs suffered can be made (to include peaceful protest), we pursue this (Acts 16:16-24, 35-40). In the meantime--regardless of whether or not we get relief, those of us aspiring to be strong men of God in the image of Christ willfully choose to call on the Holy Spirit for supernatural help to forgive the wrong done to us and trust God for vindication as it is written, ‘“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord,’” (Luke 23:33-34; Romans 12:19-21, NKJV).
Now, what I have just written is how the Lord Jesus delivers us one by one from every tie--root or otherwise--binding the soul. Indeed, whether the ties are of the sinful works of the flesh or mental and emotional, we must own them before the Lord and then soberly confront them with the truth of His Word and power of the Holy Spirit! We confront with the truth of God’s Word as the Lord Jesus modeled for us because it exposes and destroys Satan’s lies in sin lifted up against God setting us free (Matthew 4:1-11; John 8:31-32). Through Christ, we confront in the strength of the Holy Spirit as our help because we are truly weak against Satan, sin and self controlled by sin (Philippians 4:13). Alas though, one must want to be delivered by Christ to engage in the process of liberation!4
3 See p. 109-110. Pick up your Hard or Soft Cover Editions of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics in the Strong Man Store. 4 Please support our Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book for incarcerated men to over 800 prison libraries across the nation. Go to https://thestrongmanofgod.org/Books-To-USA-Prisons-Project.
This Black History Month, I cry out yet again as the Lord leads against the failure of the many churches among professing Christian black Americans to be at the forefront of dispensing the tie breaking truths in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our people, hurting men and those on lockdown in particular. Sadly, one major reason for this is that many of our churches remain caught up in the house of refuge mentality and practice of manmade religion. Another reason directly tied to this is that many of the leaders of these churches are themselves still bound by Satan with the ties of sin and the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism.
Though I have been crying out to the professing Christians and churches of black Americans at the Lord’s directive since 1986 through various media efforts to include our Ministry’s From Slavery To Victory Education Project launched in 1994 and ongoing at www.fromslaverytovictory.org as well as in blogs under the category, Black History on this site, it is very clear many have turned a deaf ear. For if the number of black American men on lockdown is any indication, things are not improving spiritually, mentally and emotionally for us, but as the Lord has foretold through me, spiraling downward to complete ruin and that in spite of an African-American President in the White House!
Truly, the heavy burden of lifting us up as a people should never have been put on the President, any other sinful, mortal flesh or institution of men because it is impossible. However, with the Lord strong and mighty, nothing is impossible (Genesis 18:9-14; Jeremiah 32:13-26; Luke 1:30-37, 18:24-27)! For those who will look to Him with a faith that is more than simply believing He exists, but full confidence and trust in as well as reliance upon Him, He remains a mighty present help in the time of trouble (Psalm 33:16-22, 46:1-3). What is impossible is pleasing God without faith in Him (Hebrews 11:6)! What happened to us; we used to know this?
Besides putting our faith in and spreading our love to all of the wrong people, places and things as a harlot of low self-esteem, we have stopped believing on and acting in obedience to the Word of God as it is written! Or how else is it that our transplanted African slave forefathers that became Christians persevered through their darkest nights with singing and dancing to God that drove their enslavers to fear induced mockery and greater attempts to break them down; their subsequent churches serving faithfully through the height of the Civil Rights era as houses of refuge from the fierce and violent storms of oppression as I have formerly written in Black History blogs.
As I have also written, the house of refuge mentality with all of its attendant manmade religious practices and traditions continue in many churches well past a generation later and have served to impede the spiritual development of our people (Hebrews 5:12-14). In comparison, retaining the house of refuge mentality is like Israel still insisting on manna after God cut it off. God had given them manna in the wilderness with instructions on how to collect it. The bread from Heaven was good when they collected it as God instructed, but was spoiled and stank when they did not. It stopped coming after they had crossed over into and began to eat the produce of the Promised Land--a new phase in their journey with God (Exodus 16; Joshua 5:9-12).
Israel wandered in the wilderness in the first place because they had refused to enter and take the Promised Land when God was ready for them to do so (Number 13:30-14:38). Now, in similitude because of refusing to do His will, professing black American Christians take refuge in their churches while our communities are war zones with our sons filling prisons and graveyards; our daughters enraged protest and with Beyonce, hearken back to the militancy of the Black Panthers as an answer. But like Moses to whom God showed the deliverance of his people was in his hand, so, we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our hand--if guilty professing Christians will repent, believe and proclaim it from the heart as commanded (Exodus 4:1-5, 14:10-16; Isaiah 49:5-6; Romans 10:6-15)!
It was never the Lord’s intent that the churches among our people should serve indefinitely as houses of refuge with their own religious program and agenda. Regardless of culture, race and language the churches of Jesus Christ are supposed to be about His business (Matthew 16:13-18); the business of making disciples by going as heralds to preach and give witness to the Gospel about Him, the reality of His love, grace and power operative in our own lives. After disciples are made, they are to be taught the whole counsel of God; the risen Christ laboring with us to the end (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-18; Acts 1:8, 20:17-27)!1 But the churches can go no further than their leaders (Proverbs 29:18).2
1 In a book of his selected sermons entitled, Strength To Love, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2010, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through a sermon rejecting Com-
munism, chided black American Christians for not having the same zeal for proclaiming and witnessing the Gospel truth of Christ as the Communist did for his em-
pty political system. He challenged the church he served as pastor (and all those in the black community as I do today) to a renewed devotion to the cause of Christ
such as the early church displayed and away from traditional inward and Sunday focused activities, p.106-108. 2 Please support our Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back to Basics presenting the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and biblical instruction about becoming a strong man of God in His image to prisons across the nation. Go to https://www.thestrongmanofgod.org/Give.
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