Race Relations: The Kingdom Approach I

Greetings Kingdom citizens,

As a side study to our 52 Weeks of Praise, I feel compelled to speak on race relations within the body of Christ. To begin, allow me to bring up a few scriptures. You're going to want to grab your Bible for this. Also, be sure to chime in on the discussion by leaving comments.

                                                                               - SCRIPTURES -
Galatians 6:10 - As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Proverbs 3:27 - Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
Acts 17:26 - And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.
Galatians 3:8 - And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Revelation 5:9 - And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Revelation 7:9 - After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.
Revelation 21:24 - And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Romans 5:18 - Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 12:17-18 - Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
1 Corinthians 15:39 - All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 - And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.
1 Timothy 2:1 - I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.
1 Timothy 2:4 - Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 4:10 - For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
1 Peter 2:17 - Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

Now that we've reviewed some scriptures, allow me to take a deeper look at some biblical precepts to further set the stage for this discussion. Keep your Bible near. We'll come back to elaborate on these scriptures.

Notwithstanding, from just reading them we can derive a good idea of what our attitude and behavior should be as we interact with other believers/citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, regardless of race. As citizens of Heaven, but believers on Earth we represent God. He is seen or manifested to others through our obedient actions. Therefore, it is clear that we should interact, engage, and respond to people as our Heavenly Father would in order to represent Him properly. In other words, it is Heaven's culture that we should shew forth on the earth among men. As it is in Heaven so should we be, execute, and demonstrate consistently on Earth. We are on the earth but not [spiritually] from the earth. Moreover, we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14,16). Our original spiritual citizenship/birthplace was (and is) Heaven because that's where our human spirit was created in the first place (Genesis 1:26-27). It is only our physical bodies, which house/encompass our human spirits, that were made on and from the earth. So when we were born again, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (e.g. The Holy Trinity) took up residence inside our human spirit NOT our physical bodies. Therefore our connection link to Heaven, our country of origin, is our redeemed human spirit. Why is this important? Because the kingdom principles (Bible standards/laws) that we are to follow have a Heavenly origin just like our human spirits. Therefore, since we originated from Heaven we should adhere to the principles of Heaven. Heavenly principles will produce Heavenly results and wordly principles will produce wordly results. Heavenly results are God's results and God's results are His willed or intended outcomes.

So God's system is established: His principles lead to His intended outcomes or results and His outcomes are the best outcomes. Therefore, His believers should live for and to His outcomes or results. In the mouth of a committed kingdom citizen it would sound something like this:

"Father God in Heaven, I recognize that my life, my purpose, and all I'm to be and do originates from you. I submit to your will (plans and processes) and willed outcomes (results) for my life and through my life to others. As I now set my heart to obey you and follow your heavenly principles, your willed outcomes (results) will be executed to your glory. Help me to hear and adhere to you forever. In Jesus' name, Amen."

So if anyone is really interested in being all that God wants them to be or having all that God wants them to have, then praying a prayer as such is a must.

Now, with the spiritual stage being set for this discussion, what exactly is God's or Heaven's attitude about race relations among believers? First of all we must understand that God is not against or for any one race in particular. He created all of the races and loves them all equally. In other words, God loves every human equally. No more, no less! His love is all-inclusive- universally and comprehensively. There's nothing a human can do to increase His love for them or decrease His love for them. If we review the creation account of mankind in Genesis 1:26-27 we'll quickly find that ALL mankind, that is every race or nationality, was created in His image. For all races were represented in the first man, Adam. Now after all these ages certainly God would not reduce the value on His own image, especially after going through the trouble [so to speak] of creating us in it. Besides, John 3:16 tells us that God was moved with such love for those created in His image (mankind) that He gave His only Son for them. So God is certainly not pro-white and against the other races. Nor is He pro-black and against the other races. He's equally for all because He created all. This idea is actually fairly familiar to us humans. Just think about how a parent that has multiple children loves them equally. Unless they were born at the same time, each child physically looks different, acts different, and has differing personalities and temperaments. Yet, it is no question that that parent loves each of them because they birthed them. If this be true with humans and their children how much more with God and His offspring?

In part II let's review each scripture shown above individually...

Love Thinks

Hello good people, this past Sunday morning the Lord woke me up around 4:30 and I began to meditate on how LOVE does not take account or keep records of wrongs. As I laid in the bed I determined, when I got fully up, to locate the scripture and take a deeper look at it. Allow me to share what the Lord shared with me. Here we go...
The Apostle Paul begins his discussion on the exercising of your ministry giftedness through love in I Corinthians 13. Most of us immediately recognize this chapter as the "Love" chapter. It's refreshing because, for a quick evaluation of your love walk, you can start here anytime! Thank God for such a powerful written "love" road map! Besides, as Kingdom citizens, we should be performing scriptural self-evaluations on a consistent basis.

Now, first Corinthians, chapter thirteen (13); verse five (5) says this:

LOVE...doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, or thinketh no evil;

What the Lord showed me revolves around the last portion of the scripture - "thinketh no evil". On the surface, this portion of the scripture suggests that love doesn't spend countless hours studying or meditating on evil ideas, wrongs done, bad treatment, offences, and such like. This is a great start for anyone! In other words, it's a complete waste or abuse rather, of time, energy, and capacity to focus much on evil ideas and how you've been mistreated. Candidly, if the truth be told we haven't always treated others especially well either. Sometimes harvest returns to us in unfamiliar places (Galatians 6:7). Nevertheless, this is not the central idea of this verse.

Upon further review of the verse, particularly in the original Greek language, the phrase "thinketh no evil" is rendered "take not account or not impute evil". The word "thinketh" means to take an inventory, estimate, reason or conclude. Therefore Paul is saying that love, specifically the agape love of God (which all believers possess - Romans 5:5) does NOT:  (1) take inventory of wrongs done, bad treatment, or offences similar to how retail stores do when restocking merchandise. Nor does it (2) estimate, reason, infer, or conclude evil motives/actions in a situation where all facts are clearly unknown. Therefore, allowing for the benefit of the doubt (believeth all things - verse 7) is the natural spiritual progression.

So the main idea is this: love ACTUALLY DOES think, take inventory, and/or concludes (as the original Greek language suggest), but NOT OF EVIL, but OF GOOD. Love, being God Himself, takes account of, records, concludes, on the good done. This is exactly how God interacts with us even though we're imperfect. His thoughts towards us are continually good, even when we sin (Jeremiah 29:11). His focus is never consistently on where we've erred but on what we've done well (Psalms 103:12). Therefore since God is the creator and master of love, He is our prime example! Plan to implement His loving approach toward others and continually reevaluate how you're doing.

Begin reflecting on the good done for and toward you. Thank God and someone again today, even if it's been years since they did good towards you! It has been said that people don't have to be nice, but when they do; be grateful for more than a minute. No man is an island to himself, nor is that man on an island with just God! God is indeed great to us personally and through the aid of people!

"Conquer Friendly" Trials

Greetings good people,

I just had to share this powerful FB conversation:

Elton Taylor, Jr. - "Everything you encounter has already been designed for you to conquer." GOD is so good! Let's elevate our thinking to this perspective, people of GOD. Whatever GOD allows to cross your path, just know that it's a set-up for you to win!"

My response - "...this is such a revolutionary word directly from the God. Check this out: 1 Corinthians 10:13a says that- “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (NIV 1984’). So, not only will God not allow more to occur in your life than you can handle- He cannot allow more! He’s just that faithful to His own Word. Therefore, as you noted- every trial, test, uncomfortable circumstance, etc. that faces us is personally designed by God to be “conquer friendly”. Praise GOD! Everything is “conquer friendly” because of the power of Christ on the inside! Ok, ok, ok, I better stop typing now because I feel like shouting, preaching, running, etc.!"

DsW

"GAFGBC Vacation Bible School 2009"

Greetings folks,

I thought this was interesting and worth sharing.

Mrs. Larry and I are teaching six, seven, and eight year old kids in Vacation Bible School (Wilkinson Terrace location). As some of you all know, yesterday's lesson title was "Go Tell" - coming from Matthew 27:26-54, 28:1-10. Of course, that passage deals with Jesus' death and some of the events surrounding it.

Well, there was this six (I repeat six) year old boy in our class that asked the following question about mid-way through the lesson:

"Mr. Wright, I know that blood and water came out of Jesus' body, so did blood come out of one side and water out of the other?"

Now, some adults don't even know about the blood and water which came from Jesus' body when he was pierced in the side. Mrs. Larry and I were pretty amazed by the question. Why would a six year old boy randomly ask such a question? Neither Mrs. Larry or I had mentioned anything about Jesus being pierced in the side. He seemed to already know some of the crucifixion events - even very specific details about it. It showed that he'd had some level of Word exposure. The clincher is that he retained it- again at the age of six. We just had to give him a VBS buck ($5) for such a great question.

Of course Mrs. Larry and I answered the question and continued the lesson, but he wasn't done. He made two other comments during the lesson.

Check it out:

Later, he just volunteered to mention that the captors put a crown of thorns on Jesus' head and pressed it in through his skin to his skull.

Later he volunteered to mention that the captors put a sign on the cross that said "King of the Jews."

And today, another little boy in the class (age 7) said this:

"Mr. Wright, after Jesus was raised from the dead he went back to the cross, gathered up His blood, took it to Heaven and put it on the mercy seat."

Praise God - as we've seen in our own children's ministry these kids can be exposed to the Word and retain it. Now, who does this little boy remind you of? Sounds like Jesus, at the age of twelve when we was in the temple asking and answering law related questions (Luke 2:46-47).

In the service of the King,

DSW