Month: May 2020

What does God say about Racism?

Mark 12:31 it says, “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 

I have been told that you can find the answers to every question in the Bible.  So, I decided to see if that was true.  I want to know what God say about racism.  Here is what I found.

Way back before Jesus was born, God helped the Israelites (also called the Jews) escape Egypt where they were slaves.  God led the them to a special place he called the Promised Land. When they finally arrived, God told them not to marry or mingle with the people in that land because they did not believe in God.  So, it was part of their lifestyle not to marry outside of their race.

Now fast forward to Jesus’s time.  Jesus preached about love, grace and forgiveness.  He said the most important commandment was to love God and in Mark 12:31 it says, “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”  Many Jews did not believe that Jesus was God’s son and did not want to believe what he was preaching.  They only wanted to love other Jews. 

Since many Jewish people rejected Jesus and did not want to believe that Jesus was God’s son, Jesus instructed his friends to tell other races about Jesus so that everyone could have an opportunity to believe and be saved.  They were very successful and lots of people believed and were saved!  So, one day, Peter, one of Jesus’ friends, was asked to go to Cornelius’s house.  Cornelius was the captain of the Italian Guard and not a Jew.

When Peter got to Cornelius’s house, the Bible says in Acts 10:27-29 (MSG) “Talking things over, they went on into the house, where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come. Peter addressed them, “You know, I’m sure that this is highly irregular. Jews just don’t do this – visit and relax with people of another race. But God has just shown me that no race is better than any other. So, the minute I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. But now I’d like to know why you sent for me.”

So, there you have it.  No race is better than any other.  That is what God says.  God created all the different races. Another race may look strange to you, but you look strange to them too.  You may listen to different music, have different traditions, speak different languages, or wear different clothes.  But different isn’t bad, it is just different.  How boring would this world be if we were all exactly alike?  Take some time and get to know God’s people for who they are not what they look like and you will be pleasantly surprised about how much you actually have in common.

Lord, thank you for making so many amazing and wonderful people.  Help me to remember that you want me to love my neighbor as much as I love myself. Amen

Something Brand New

1 Comment

Isaiah 43:19 (MSG) “Be alert, be present. I am about to do something brand new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.” ~ Author Unknown

I saw this quote online a few weeks ago and it really stuck with me. To me, the idea that a storm will clear away things that we never would have moved on our own has God written all over it. So, I started to think back over the storms in my life and I tried to look at them in a different way. For example, when after three years my position was eliminated at the first job in my career, I was devastated. I was young, I had loved my job, and I did not know what to do. But looking back I can see that leaving that job cleared a path for me to find a sales job at a hotel and that lead me to find the faith-based company that I work for today. I have been working there for 23 years now and I have the most amazing work family.

“Be alert, be present. I am about to do something brand new.” That is what God says in Isaiah. But how can He do something new in your life if you are surrounded by clutter & distractions? Maybe the storm you are in right now was not sent to block your path. Maybe it was sent to clear out the unnecessary things that are lying in your path, the driftwood and rubble that has started to pile up in your life and over time and has become an obstacle to you. Maybe this storm was sent to clear away all the things that you were doing that kept you busy and kept you away from Jesus.

Lord, thank you for sending the storms. Your ways are not my ways, but your ways are better. So, I trust you, Lord, to clear my path and to lead me to something brand new. Amen

Are You Humble?

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Are you humble?  That is honestly a trait that I have had to work on this past year. On a regular basis I ask God to give me humility.  It is an intentional prayer that I pray.  It is not that I go around bragging about what I have or what I have accomplished in life.  But sometimes I find myself thinking that I am better than someone else.  

I am sure you have done it before. Maybe you were at the gas station and a car pulled up at the pump behind you and it backfired before the driver turned it off.  Just for a brief second you thought to yourself, “Wow, I’m glad that is not my car.  Of course, my car would never do that because I take better care of my car than that.”  Or perhaps on your way in to work and saw someone sitting on the ground against a building and thought to yourself, “So glad that is not me. But if it were me, I surely wouldn’t sit here in front of everyone looking so sad.”

The fact of the matter is that God sees value in everyone He made, and he wants us to do the same.  I know that God made me in His image, so therefore I know that I am A-W-E-S-O-M-E. But He made others in His image too, so I need to see the worth of those around me. I need to honor and serve them as Jesus did.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome our flesh.  He also gives us the power to choose. So, like Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus.”  When you find yourself thinking something negative, stop and remember that they are a child of God too.  God loves them just as much as He loves you.

Dear Jesus, please send the Holy Spirit to show us the worth of those around us and give us the humility to honor and serve them as Jesus did.

Jesus Loves Our Children

Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Being a mother is the most important job you will ever have. You need to raise your children to be loving and happy, kind and respectful, strong and brave and most importantly you need to foster their relationship with Christ.

You can do this even if you are not a mother. Children mirror the attitudes and behaviors they see around them every day.  If you talk negatively about other people, they will learn to talk negatively about other people. If you blow up at them for every mistake they make, they will learn to blow up at their friends for making a mistake. If you think everyone is “out to get you” that attitude will pass down to the children around you.

But if you do unexpected acts of kindness for other people, children will pick up on that too.  If you model happiness even when things are difficult or show appreciation and respect to teachers and police officers, children will learn to react the same way. If you make a point of telling them they are making you proud when they do something good, then you are filling them up with confidence and they learn to encourage others around them.

Fostering a relationship with Jesus works the same way.  It starts with things like commenting on what a beautiful flower or sunset God made for us.  You can buy a devotional book that is age appropriate and sit down together at night or after dinner and read it together.  You can watch shows together, like The Chosen, that teach you about Jesus in a way that is interesting to kids.  You can pray at meals or when there is something bothering them.  Just this week one of my sons was struggling with online school and friends.  After we talked about what was going on, I asked him to sit down so I could pray for him.  This is modeling what you should do when you have problems, go to God in prayer.  There are great Christian messages on YouTube too that are current and relatable to youth.  Spend some time listening to them and then share the link of the ones you want them to listen to via text. 

Jesus loved the little children and talked about them often as an example of what our faith should be like. Jesus also warns us in Matthew 18 that we should not cause the littles ones or young believers to sin by tempting them or by neglecting or demeaning them. We should help young people to avoid anything that could cause them to stumble in their faith and we should steer them toward Christ by our example, our words and our acts of kindness.

Dear Jesus, please bless all the mothers today and all women that have influence over our children. Fill them with your Holy Spirit so that they can be examples of Jesus’s kindness and love.  Amen.