Don't Major On The Impossible Things
But it is easy to get caught up in the narrative of the day. First of all, let me say that anyone who practices racism is committing sin. Racism in any form is demonic. It has no place in the heart or life of someone who follows Christ. I expect anyone who harms another person in the name of racism to be fully prosecuted by the law. We are to stand together in the love of Christ with one another and for one another regardless of skin color.
Well, pastor, you are a privileged white male. You don't know what racism is. Nonsense.
- I've lost jobs just because I am a follower of Jesus.
- I've received extra scrutiny by banks and loan providers because I am a pastor. One even told me that I have a "dishonorable" profession.
- Because I am Pentecostal, I've been told I was demon possessed, right to my face.
- I recently was refused service in a restaurant because of the color of my skin.
- Parents have told my wife and I that they didn't want my daughter associating with their child because "we don't make enough money."
- I've been told that I hate Hispanics, Italians, Catholics, African Americans, the mentally and physically challenged, gays, children, teens and the elderly. Why? Because I disagreed with them.
- I've had numerous other cultures tell me that "I owe them because I am white" and when I refused to assist them (mostly because I don't have the resources to do so) they call me racist.
So what can you do?
Rom 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. The Message paraphrase
#1 Change your point of view from a worldly to a Godly one. How you see your world will determine how you react to it (or let it affect you).
Matthew 28: 19 - 20 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
#2 Don't Major On The Impossible Things - Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are responsible to bring about world peace. In fact, the Bible goes out of its way to let us know that we will not live in a world that will be at peace. (Matthew 24; 1 Thess. 5:3)
We will do everything that we can to live holy lives at peace with others (Rom 12:18). We will also do as Jesus commanded, love one another (John 13:34 - 35). We should do as Jesus says in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. This doesn't mean that we are to be some kind of cosmic conflict resoluters. It means that we are to help people restore their relationship with God through Christ. Or in other words, be at peace with God.
Will we ever see world peace? Yes. But mankind will never be able to do it on their own.
Revelation 7: 9 - 10 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Follow Jesus and you will see the day when world peace will happen. Until then, we will be diligent and love every race and culture. We will declare that racism is wrong. We will tell the world that Jesus can heal their wounds. We will change the narrative.
PRAY: Dear Jesus, with Your help - help me to change my world today. AMEN
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