November 05, 2008

What saddens me the most

I am saddened that the candidate I voted for was not elected...

I am saddened that the political party that most closely reflects my personal views will not be represented in the white house...

I am saddened that the political party that supports beliefs directly opposed to many fundamental Christian principles has majority control of the senate...

However...

What saddens me the most is simply this:

...that drinking fountains, buses, public places, restrooms, schools, voting booths, workplaces, politics, ......and now the white house..... have all desegregated before the Church.

It is time for Christians to wake up and become prayerfully and faithfully committed to freeing themselves from the bonds of segregation. The one institution that has been given the charge for acknowledging the equality of men, under the grace of God, since the days that Jesus Christ walked the earth, should have never become the last institution to do so...

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 15:5,6
"For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body......But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." -1st Corinthians 12: 13-16, 24-26
"Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision' (that done in the body by the hands of men) - remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." -Ephesians 2
"But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of it Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, [red, yellow, black, or white], but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:8-14

To the Church of Jesus Christ: Arise and unite as one body!

3 comments:

  1. i totally agree. the church should be the first place where people are seen for who they are and not what they look like. it is sad.

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  2. i, too, agree! it also saddens me that if we lived in the days of the Bible, we would have taken up weapons and fought (literally) against the forces that tried to take down our nation. yet, today we sit back and act powerless. the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, lives within all believers. it's time we start praying and believing in that authority! praying for you and linds across the miles!

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  3. I know I'm almost 2 years late on this but this is a hot topic for me. In this country, minority ethnic groups don't have much of an issue with attending a church with a white pastor. It is actually very common for a multi-ethnic church to have a white pastor. On the flip side, very few whites will regularly attend a church with a black pastor. Why is this? I've got my assumptions, but I can't guess the intent of a fellow believer's heart.
    The issues are deeper than skin color. It goes beyond music preference. It goes beyond theological weightiness. It's a cultural issue that is made apparent by skin color.

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