Making Black History

“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.”

 Rosa Parks

 Who do you have a lot in common with? Most of us think of our family. After that, perhaps we think of our community. Our political values and party would be on the list that either draws or divides us from others. Economic, marital and family status is another subdivision. Somewhere our church fits in. Our occupation and sports team loyalty is another partition.

  The New Testament is clear – believers have more in common with other believers than any other social group, even those of their own biological family, if they are not believers. Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Our unity in Christ is superior to all family, national, political, economic, cultural, occupational, or denominational loyalty. We are first brothers and sisters in Christ. Every other social partition is to be a very far second to the unity we have in Christ.

  Believers have something that we do not have with any other, even our own family. We are trusting in the cross and Christ alone for our salvation. With our brothers and sisters in Christ we have the same values, worldview and common blueprint of God’s Word. Ultimately, we have the same Home and final destination.

  There is a continual conversation about the growing division in America and really the world. For those who have trusted in Christ alone, there must be no division. Believers trust the same Savior, though we’re from different cultures, languages and even nations, we have more in common than either of us have with our neighbors across the street who have not trusted Christ.

  Sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made a sad accusation of the Church, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Jesus died for us so that we’d be One Body in Him. Unity is imperative and of utmost importance to God. Just a sidebar, it’s one reason that at Grace, we have gluten-free communion crackers. Communion is about our unity in Christ. We believe then that it’s vital we symbolize that even in the elements of communion.

  February is Black History Month. There are many African-American brothers and sisters that you may be unaware of who, though they may not be making history, are making history in eternity. If you’re a reader, pick up their books. If you’re a listener, find them on the radio or a podcast or even on YouTube.

  Tony Evans is the founding pastor of Dallas’ Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, which began in his home in 1976 and has grown to a membership of almost 10,000. He’s the first African-American to earn a doctorate in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. You can hear him on both radio and television. He’s been the chaplain for 30 years for the Dallas Mavericks. He has authored over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.

  Jackie Hill-Perry is a writer, speaker and artist. Since coming to know Christ at the age of 19, she’s shared the light of gospel truth through teaching, writing, poetry and music. She released her debut album The Art of Joy in 2014. Growing up fatherless, Jackie experienced gender confusion. She abused marijuana, loved pornography, and embraced both masculinity and homosexuality. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of that, but was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? In her 2018 book, Gay Girl, Good God, she shares her story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Coming to Christ, she came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new…not in a church, or through contact with Christians—God broke in and turned her heart towards Him right in her own bedroom in light of His glorious gospel.

  Thabiti Anyabwile trusted Christ when he was 25 years old. Greatly influenced by Pastor Mark Dever, he served as an assistant to him at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C.. Currently, he’s the pastor at Anacostia River Church in southeast Washington, D.C. Our leadership read together and we give his book, What is a healthy church member? to everyone who attends our New Members’ class. His writings as a black believer about peace and racial reconciliation continually challenge me. Let me share just one quote: “The only way to live responsibly in the world is to commit ourselves to the kind of peacemaking that begins with things as they really are. We must learn to cope with the tools of the gospel and the Scripture, and that’s going to require a bunch of humility and faith.”

  Priscilla Shirer is an author and conference speaker. As a freshman at the University of Houston, she interned with a Christian radio station. Soon listeners were calling the station, inviting Priscilla to speak at their Bible study groups and other events. She was invited to lead a weekly Bible study at the Zig Ziglar Corporation and join its speaker team. She calls Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, her mentor in ministry. Priscilla Shirer will tell you that she is a wife and a mom first. God used her to launch Going Beyond Ministries and she has authored over a dozen video driven studies for women and teens on a myriad of biblical characters and topics. 

  There are many others I could add to this list. Will we always agree with them? No. God’s Word is the final standard. We hold without apology Sola Scriptura, the Bible is the only authority for faith and practice. Yet, in a polarized America, a polarization that’s often contaminated the Church, we’ve forgotten that God’s Word is cross-cultural, written primarily by Middle Eastern Jews thousands of years ago. If God can use the Bible to bridge that great divide and bring about unity, there’s no question our awesome God can bring about unity in His family today, if we’ll let Him.  

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

The Invisible Poor

“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” W.C Fields

  In a recent interview Donald Trump shared that he’s been told “no” his entire life. He then went to on say that his father gave him a “small loan of a million dollars” that he had to repay with interest at the start of his career.

  Very few people would classify a million dollars as a “small loan.” Yet, at the same time, most of us really don’t understand true poverty and what it means to be poor. I know that I don’t. 

  Because of media caricatures and sometimes generational bigotry, assumptions are often made about the poor that have little validity. Politicians use the poor as pawns, advancing political agendas, with little regard for assisting those who truly need it. Most in the middle class or above rarely personally know any poor people, at least with any depth.

  That’s one of the wonderful benefits of a local church in that those from all economic classes are present, welcomed and accepted. A biblical church must be classless, ageless, raceless and genderless. As Galatians 3:28 states, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

  Yet, most of what we know about those outside of our normal social circles, we learned second hand. As a result, we tend to develop stereotypes of what poor people are like that have little validity and are certainly not universal. There’s a tendency to imagine our own socio-economic group to be diverse, even “normal” while we imagine “other” people belonging to a another group with which we’re less familiar, as being, for all intents and purposes, all the same.  

  The end result though is that there’s a tendency to draw stereotypical conclusions. Please be honest. Are these assumptions that you have made? While I won’t elaborate on these, I do want to challenge our preconceptions. 1. Poor people are uneducated and often stupid. 2. Poor people are lazy. 3. Poor people are substance abusers. 4. Poor people are limited in their use of the English language and poor communicators. 5. Poor people are ineffective and inattentive parents.

  The fact is that you will find poor people that fit some or all of those five statements. You will also find rich people who fit some or all of those statements. They’re stereotypes that often have little reality or validity. For example, just because someone has a Ph.D. doesn’t mean that they’re smart. They may just be an educated fool.

  My reason for pointing this out is that as believers, we have a biblical responsibility to assist the poor, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17), but we rationalize not fulfilling our biblical obligations based on our stereotypes.

  We’re also entering the season when many are looking for more opportunities to be generous to those that are economically challenged. Yet, because the plight of the poor has been so politicized and we are more stereotypical than biblical, few of us have taken the time to really think through “Who are the poor? How can I truly help someone who is poor?” So let me share some practical suggestions.

  Make it personal. The American approach of delegating responsibility has sidelined the average Christian and caused us to miss being a blessing and in turn being blessed. Most of us, if we’d stop, pray and think – already have someone in our social circle who’s economically challenged. Begin by praying for them. Invest some time to really get to know them. Hopefully, it will challenge you to be something very, very biblical – Incarnational. Rather than loving someone poor from a distance in a sanitized way, you enter their world, know them, love and serve them as Jesus would.

  Let God stretch and humble you…and grow your gratitude. The most common sin in the Church today and the average Christian, and one rarely considered is PRIDE. It is easy to be thankful we’re not impoverished. But we wrongly conclude that it’s because of our own initiative, hard work and biblical obedience. We often also judge those in poverty.

  Everything we have is because of God’s grace. While following biblical principles can lead to stable or fruitful lifestyles, all people living in poverty have not been the cause of their situations. Many are born in poverty, many for generations, sometimes because of unjust societal structures or oppression. This may have left them without the resources and/or knowledge to escape it. Remember what Scripture tells us about wealth, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

  Take care of your own first. It’s not first the responsibility of government or even the church to take care of the poor. It’s first the family, 1 Timothy 5:3-4 & 8. Sadly, government stepped in because the family and church failed. I’m thankful for government programs that help the truly poor, yet it’s first the responsibility of the family and then the church. If someone is part of the church, and they don’t have family, it’s our responsibility as a family of believers to care for them. We’re to also care for brothers and sisters (Galatians 6:10), before those outside the church family.

  Be creative and help, don’t just enable. It is easier to write a check or give groceries, than it is to take the time to teach someone life skills, like how to get a job, how to keep it, how to budget, how to discern the difference between needs and wants, or even to encourage someone to break addictions that keep them in the cycle of poverty. To do this takes commitment, prayer, wisdom and a heart investment. Yet, the end results are worth it. It’s the fulfillment of the old adage by Maimonides, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

  Remember Jesus’ commission is the main thing. The greatest need everyone has is not what they have in their stomach but what they have in their heart. Whether they are rich or poor, healthy or sick – everyone’s greatest need is to hear and accept the gospel. It’s what Jesus commanded us to do first and it must be our top priority. All mercy ministries must be first gospel focused. While we must not ignore physical needs, we just can’t ever forget what the greatest need is. It’s very tempting to neglect the spiritual for the physical because physical results are more evident.

  This issue of the needy can’t be avoided by Christians. We can’t stay silent on the problems of the impoverished, hoping governmental programs will absolve us of responsibility. It’s tragic that, by and large, too often we’ve virtually ignored the very people with whom Jesus spent the bulk of His ministry while we retreat within our stained-glass walls to sing about becoming “more like the Master.” It’s time every believer, every Bible-believing Church once again take seriously the command of Jesus to care for the needy and support those among us who are less fortunate.

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