Thoughts and Testimonies
Booklet 1
Introduction
The Lord saved me in 1992. Around
1994, I wound up having a wilderness experience that lasted about sixteen
years. It involved physical and so-called mental illnesses as well as
backsliding. I thought that God and fellow Christians had abandoned me. On May 2, 2010, I was rushed to the hospital after having
difficulty breathing. The Lord made his presence known during my hospitalization
and brought me out of the wilderness. He reminded me of other times in which
He'd made His presence known and helped me realize that He would never abandon
me. I wrote
the thoughts and testimonies in this booklet after my hospitalization. As I recuperate, I've had a
lot of time to reflect on past experiences and observations. Many of those experiences
and observations involved prejudice or discrimination.
Even though
past experiences often left me feeling angry, sad or fearful, I believe that God allowed me to go through them for a reason. However,
I'm not about to claim a new revelation. According to Ecclesiastes 1:9,
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which
is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing
under the sun." Other people in the past and in the present have also experienced
prejudice or discrimination. I believe that the Lord has helped me understand
my experiences in light of Scripture. Hopefully, the things I've written in this booklet
will encourage or comfort someone who's had the same or similar experiences.
As you read these "thoughts and testimonies,"
please open a Bible and read the referenced verses in context. Trust the Lord and His
guidance. May God bless you.
*****
Then
Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him.
Acts 10:34-35
A friend of mine and I recently had a discussion about
"white" churches compared to "black" churches. Afterwards,
I thought about how strange it is to discuss white versus black or white versus
black versus brown churches in 2010. The American history of segregation
persists in far too many - but, thankfully, not all - houses of worship. It's as if
we fail to see that Jesus is not a patchwork Lord, His body consisting of black
arms, white legs and a brown torso.
If you believe the Holy
Bible, then you believe that Adam
and Eve are the roots of every family tree. Since we all descend from them,
deliberate divisions based on skin
color make no sense. This is
especially true where churches are concerned. Once upon a time,
some people believed
that God's confounding of languages at Babel was also a confounding of colors.
Therefore, they believed that we were meant to be separated along color lines.
The basis of this belief seemed to be grounded in the idea that when we get
together, we disobey God.
I
believe that unity doesn't necessarily lead to disobedience. Our ancestors, in
their unrighteousness, tried to build a tower to reach heaven. Those of us who
are saved, having the righteousness of Christ and
submitting to God's will, would not have a similar goal. Lost people, united, exalt themselves and act like gods. Christians,
united, exalt God and serve Him. But here many of us are in the United States
today speaking the same language but all too often not even attending worship services together,
rendering them color-based or color-conscious. You wonder how anyone who claims
to be saved could ever justify segregated fellowship when you consider verses such
as Acts 10:34-35 or Galatians 3:28 ("There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."). May we leave that part
of history in the past and truly be one in Christ.
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