The Scourge Of Racism
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Released October 5, 2023
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Arising from the midst of the Lord’s permitted severe adversities as judgment upon along with grace, mercy and revival in His American Church are men; men who aspire to be “strong” as described of old by Daniel the prophet and in Christ’s image (Daniel 11:32-35; Romans 8:29, NKJV).1 Such men are supposed to be well represented in the Church. However, in these latter days they have been made rare by a multitude of Church sins including the toleration and practice of racism. Restored in their sold out devotion and obedience to Christ, aspiring strong men of God in His image are the only ones that can stand to lead the Church out of racism and into modeling racial harmony!
All men are weak in sin before God (Psalm 6:1-2a, 51:5; Luke 5:4-8; Romans 3:9-18, 23)! Our thinking, attitudes, words and deeds fully display the sin nature that resides within us (Mark 7:21-22). Indeed, racism is but one of many sins men practice that flow from our sin nature and the arrogance with pride spawned by it in the heart.2 With all other sins men commit, racism too, is not only a display of the sin nature, but spiritual weakness. Consequently, as the Lord leads me to write in The Scourge Of Racism, those who practice racism whether they profess to be Christians or not and whatever their hues are also showing spiritual weakness only He can deliver a man from.3
Jesus Christ, God “the Word” and “Son,” came into the world from Heaven by the express will of “the Father,” (John 1:1-2, 14-18, NKJV). He taught with “authority” and did mighty works in the power of God (Mark 1:21-28, 4:35-41; John 20:30-31, NKJV). He was also tested in every manner as we are to the death, but no sin was found in Him for He was perfect in all of His ways (Matthew 4:1-11, 26:36-46, 27:35-54; Hebrews 2:18, 4:15). Without dispute, Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God He wants all willing men to look to as the role model for what being a man is about, follow and imitate to the end of bearing His image forever (Luke 9:18-36; 1 Corinthians 11:1, 15:47-49)!4
While the Father does allow for the reality of sin weak Christ followers, this is not His perfect will (1 Corinthians 11:23-32). Every man that repents of his sins and believes on Christ for salvation is called by the Father to become a strong man in His Son’s image and purposely set on a path to spiritual maturity to that end by Him (Matthew 10:24-25; Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:1-11). In seeking to please Him and do His will, Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image submit to and obey His commandments as taught (Matthew 28:18-20). Chief among the Lord’s commandments is for His disciples to “love one another” as He exemplified (John 13:34, NKJV).5
Not only would the world know the reality of Christ by His disciples’ display of love for each other, but they by their obedience to His command would be showing Him love the way He requires (John 13:35, 14:15). As a result, they most assuredly would not be tolerant of or practicing the loveless sin of racism! For besides disobeying the Lord’s command to love each other practicing racism, they know this sin wickedly does harm to its object whether a fellow believer or not (Romans 13:8-10). Too, they understand themselves to be sons of God who behaving in righteousness and love, are distinct from the devil’s children and their hurtful conduct toward others (1 John 3:10-15).
The men I am describing--aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ--are not more evident in the Church at this hour because many have been left ignorant of their calling attending churches where it or anything like biblical manhood is not taught. Also, men are marginalized in the Church due to another sin, capitulation to feminists for the sake of their definition of equality. Nevertheless, Christ Lord of His Church is restoring willing men through Ministries like ours!6 They are being purposely taught the way of Christ as the Strong Man of God so in being personally restored, they might also restore their families and communities to include local churches as needed.7
As I write in The Scourge Of Racism, whatever their hue aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image do not tolerate, practice or in silence endorse the sin of racism, but call it out while modeling the Lord’s commanded love.8 As it should be, these aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ are local church leaders as well as those rising up from the pews to display the solution to racism in His Church and to a skeptical, hostile watching world to His glory as we are called to do! Truly, standing against racism and all biblically defined sin in the midst of intensifying adversities and persecution from Christian impostors and the world will be challenging; they will have the experiences of the men in Daniel’s prophecy already cited as they serve in Christ’s strength (Philippians 4:13).
1 Read the October 15, 2023 post, In Judgment, Grace, Mercy And Revival, under the category, Glory To God!
2 See the September 17, 2023 post, Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, under the category, Biblical Worldview, for a definition of racism.
3 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 64. The book can be purchased in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
4 Learn more about Jesus Christ as the Strong Man of God in my previously published book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics! The Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions are available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
5 The Lord knows His commandment is impossible without the indwelling power and help of the Holy Spirit and spoke in anticipation of His coming to equip us to obey (John 3:1-8, 14:16-17, 26; Romans 5:5; 1 Peter 1:22-25).
6 Since 2005 Strong Man Ministries has been carrying out the Lord’s mission to restore men, their families and communities despite actual opposition not only from the world, but local churches! Learn more about our work on our Web Site and courageously consider supporting it.
7 Restoration through returning to the Lord is an important first step for professed Christian men who know they are far from anything like His image in their walk. Our on- going Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, seeks to facilitate that restoration. Your soul, sir, is worth the thirty minutes it takes to watch the rally on our YouTube channel.
8 The Scourge Of Racism, op. cit., p. 64.
True to the epilogue of a literary work, the Lord leads me to provide some hopefully clarifying and helpful additional information on some issues not more fully presented or addressed at all in the three-part post, Jacob, God Named Israel, under the category, The Cause, just concluded June 18, 2023. In doing so, I am being especially sensitive to help those who have only recently become Christians and aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ to develop a basic understanding of our God; His ‘“thoughts’” and ‘“ways’” which ‘“are not’” and infinitely ‘“higher’” than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9, NKJV).1 He is after all, God Almighty who made us and not the other way around (Isaiah 40:12-26)!
First, God is sovereign. This means He is the highest authority in all of existence (Psalm 9:1-2; Isaiah 44:6). Whatever He chooses to do in Heaven and His creation is His business for which He has no obligation to give an account to anyone. In accord with the foregoing, God’s election of Jacob over his fraternal twin, Esau, to be the heir of the covenant of promises made to their forefather, Abraham, and father, Isaac, was His sovereign business He does not have to explain nor does anyone have the right to question (Romans 9:6-21)! That said, neither Ishmael nor Esau rejected as heirs of the covenant of promises went unblessed (Genesis 17:18-22, 27:38-40; Deuteronomy 2:1-5).
Also, concerning Esau, Jacob and their divergent interests and dispositions, I was led by the Lord to point out Esau’s wild outdoorsman persona passed off as prototype manhood by some in the Christian men’s movement is not biblical.2 Truly, no portrait of manhood coming from the will of sinful men (and there are many) finds favor as a preference with God our Creator. The portrait of manhood God designed and exalts begins and ends in His Son, Jesus Christ! For this cause, more important than any manhood persona devised by men or what we do as responsibilities in all other roles of biblical manhood is who we are as “sons of God” in Christ’s “image” (Romans 8:12-30, NKJV)!
Second, Jacob came by his use of deceit in his affairs honestly from both Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 12:10-20, 26:6-11).3 How could God be so favorable to such men? How can God be so gracious to all sinners including us saved through the blood of Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Besides being back to His sovereignty and the fact He can choose to work with any sinful man He wills, you have conveniently forgotten the patriarchs were saved by faith as we are (Romans 3:20-4:25; Galatians 3:15-18). So, if God had not interacted with sinful men, none of us would be here because as Scripture shows, He would have destroyed all by now (Genesis 6:5-8)!
Third, Jacob’s attitude toward Leah in what amounted to a forced marriage was not right, but understandable in the sinful flesh. He did not love Leah, but mechanically fulfilled his marital expectations including sleeping with her. God did not make Jacob love her as He does not force us to love Him! Instead, He intervened for and blessed Leah with fertility while making Rachel infertile during the first fourteen years of the polygamous marriage. Too, He worked in the mess Jacob had made from failing to seek Him to serve His purposes and grow him as He does with us. Meanwhile, the Lord also took Rachel from him without apology as she died giving birth to only their second child.
Fourth, incestuous polygamy was dealt with in this year’s Mother’s Day post.4 As noted then, marrying two sisters became sin and all of the sexual sins that come up during our examination of Jacob were later addressed with his descendants and the world through the one and only written Law God gave them. Marriage to sisters was forbidden in Leviticus 18:18. Raping an unmarried virgin and sex with the wife of one’s father both arise in the final Jacob, God Named Israel post (Genesis 34:1-2, 35:21-22a). God’s commands about these two issues are found written one after the other in Deuteronomy 22:28-30.5 His perpetual moral standards in these and all the commands of the written Law are integrated into the New Testament as well (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 5, 6:9-20).
Finally, among the ways I was taught and built up by the Lord writing as a focus on Jacob of the three Jewish patriarchs, is having a greater appreciation for the end of the journey. Abraham, followed by Isaac and Jacob appeared on God’s generational stage performing their parts ultimately in the drama of His plan from eternity to redeem fallen mankind through their greatest Descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, then died. How the sons and family of each patriarch gathered to and buried them touched me deeply. Giving me a right now, application, the Lord took pioneer Christian broadcaster, Pat Robertson, 93, home during these posts. He was clearly a patriarch to his family, those at CBN, other ministries he founded and many Christians during his time on God’s stage.6
1 While acknowledged, nowhere in the Bible will one find God being okay with weak and feeble devotion to Him! To the end of helping professed Christian men passionately press to “be strong in the Lord” as He wills, I wrote the book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics (Ephesians 6:10, NKJV). Its Hard and Soft Cover or E-Book Edi- tions as well as companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study are available in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the June 4, 2023 part one post, Jacob, God Named Israel, under the category, The Cause.
3 Despite all of the good God did through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they left a legacy of using deceit in situations especially of fear with their descendants (technically, Abraham did not tell the whole truth which is still deceit--see Genesis 20). Beyond what was noted in the June 18, 2023 post about the use of deceit by the “sons of Jacob” after the rape of their sister and making him with all the rest of the family believe Joseph had been killed and eaten by an animal (Genesis 34:13-29, 37: 23-35, NKJV), it has played a role in their biblical history and attempted even to the face of God in Christ (Exodus 2:23-25; John 8:31-33).
4 See footnote 5 in the May 14, 2023 post, Motherhood: A Female’s Greatest Gift, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
5 No one guilty of sin before the written Law got away with anything! Reuben, Simeon and Levi are examples of those who received enduring divine judgment from the lips of their father, Jacob, for their sins (Genesis 49:3-7). And note the fear of retribution in all of his guilty sons concerning their brother, Joseph (Genesis 42:18-24, 50:15-21).
6 CBN stands for Christian Broadcasting Network.
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