IF...i was to post.....about "racial reconcilliation"...would i be stoned?

Brother Neil:

Thank you and AMEN in sharing this truth from Dr. Michael Brown! There should be no fear, shame, or reservation in sharing TRUTH brother.

As I have pondered your words it is true that there can be an apprehension in putting truth out on this forum because of the quick downward spiral many of the posts, topics, and threads have taken.

Just remember the words of our dear brother Paul when he admonishes us that there MUST be heresies amongst us so that they which are approved might be made manifest.

I agree that the Spirit of Unity which was present in the upper room before the promise of the Holy Spirit fell is the deep desired goal but the word also tells us that the wheat and the tares WILL grow together UNTIL the harvest.

Be not surprised or dismayed Neil, just be bold and be about and do the Fathers business. When we find ourselves giving that which is holy or presenting the pearls of truth and they appear that they are not received we need not shrink away. Little eyes are watching Neil, little eyes are seeing, seeds are being sown and watered.

Just because there is silence on the part of many who visit here when things go awry does not mean that TRUTH will not prevail. It will prevail! and bring forth fruit in the Lords desired time of harvest. Just be about the Fathers business.

This is the word that the Lord has impressed upon me from the prophet Zechariah.

Zechariah 8:13-17 ESV And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong." (14) For thus says the LORD of hosts: "As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, (15) so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. (16) These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; (17) do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD."

Brother, just because the church has made its mistakes and had its shortfalls, God has promised to make His bride ready and vessels of honor that He will use and we need not to fear.

And as Brother Brown so anointedly confirmed and said in his teaching, speak the truth and do not fear in rendering true and righteous judgement because THIS is what will make for peace to Gods elect.

(17) Let us not think as Elijah thought that we are the only righteous one. Even those whom appear to not have ears to hear, there is no where to hide! No mountain, nor deep watery grave, Gods elect will not escape His presence or truth.

For me, I would welcome a discussion on this topic as it is and always has been a topic near and dear to my heart. If it causes offense with some, again, we need not be surprised,but I do see profit in such a discussion.

Brother Dave

I think this is an important topic- might want to change the title so it is easier identified.

I didn't listen (yet) to dr Browns message but I am sure I would agree with him as I generally do.

The church I attend is thankfully pretty racially diverse and we are trying to lead the way in this area in our community.

Perhaps I can ask this question: "What would racial reconciliation look like?"

I have been so frustrated by recent events that I am not even sure.

Hey Brother,
What an awesome idea!
I can't tell you how many times I've thought the same thing. All this empty talk of unity in the Body yet 'Sister' churches staunchly remain apart on Sunday mornings.
My present church [mostly Caucasian] has a sister fellowship [mostly African-American] across town, probably 30 minutes driving. The pastors say they have a great relationship but for reasons I don't yet understand, they had a joint Sunday evening service for the first time in 20 years this year [at the behest of our worship leader]

Perhaps it never occurs to pastors that sometimes they ought to fellowship together with other congregations on Sunday mornings....to actually demonstrate this much-vaunted but invisible unity.

I guess logistics may be an issue but still....

My old house church in New England on the other hand, meets every other Sunday with a sister house church. Such beautiful messy fellowship...priceless!

The Lord is indeed at work, uniting His own.

Blessed be His Holy Name. Amen.

I believe it would look something like this:
REV 7:9-10
 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

When Christ is truly our life, the only color that matters is the blood of the Lamb. When pride, anger,resentment and fear in the heart of man is laid down at the cross, then true reconciliation can be seen and known.

Renee (who happens to be African-American)

I agree that the church must lead the way. However, it must be initiated from both sides of the isle. It's not the fault of any one particular group. Everyone of all colors and cultures within the body of Christ must seek to be one with each other. I went to an AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church recently for my daughters High School Chorus performance. It was awkward at first. It was an all black congregation. We stood out like white rice in a pot of black beans. But when worship started, we became one. It was a great time together of community camaraderie and worship.

However, I found it ironic, distasteful and rather divisive that a church would go by this name. This church denomination is boldly declaring that it is a black afri can church. I understand reserving heritage and culture....but it doesn't help with racial divide.

Dear brother, the AME church was founded in 1816 during a time of terrible racial prejudice and slavery was still alive and well. They were not welcome in the white Methodist denomination so they started their own. The same thing happened in the founding of the Church of God in Christ; blacks were not welcome in the AOG denomination so they started one for the black community. It was done out of necessity during those times.

Sad, but we have to bear with it, while striving to help and be kind to one another until the Lord settle the things in His way.

Not in My City Summit:
September 29, 2016

With communities divided and racial tension sweeping our nation,
God has called us to stand up and say "Not In My City!"

Saturday, October 1 at 6:30 pm, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and Pastor John Adolph will join us at Cathedral Church for the "Not in My City" Summit to declare UNITY in the Golden Triangle. Services will continue at Cathedral Church through Sunday, October 2 at 10:00 am and 6:30 pm. We are honored to have Will Ford III and Matt Lockett as our guest speakers with Lindell Cooley as our guest worship leader.

We are expecting God to meet with us as a community of believers during this summit and begin the healing process from the wounds created by racial division in Southeast Texas. We believe if the Church will arise, lead our community and
Stand Together, this crippling cycle can be broken once and for all, opening a door for God to move in an unprecedented way in our region.

In addition to area churches and pastors, we are expecting city officials from Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange to join us. We are hopeful you and your congregation will make plans to attend as well.

In His Service and Yours,

Randy & Suzann Feldschau
Lead Pastors at Cathedral Church

Cathedral Church
2350 Eastex Freeway
Beaumont TX 77703

"God visited His people with a marvelous outpouring of His Holy Spirit at the turn of the 20th century. In 1905, a young black Louisiana man, who attended a Bible school founded by Charles Parham in Houston, Texas, was used by God to usher in modern Pentecostalism. William J. Seymour, at this Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, California, rejected racial barriers in favor of unity in Christ. "The color line as was washed away by the blood,” said writer Frank Bartleman, testifying of his experience at Azusa Street. Sadly, within only a decade, the great Pentecostal Movement slowly began to splinter, and a racial divide was formed. Instead of the pulpit addressing the racial issue biblically by preaching messages of true Christian unity through faith, the division identified with culture. Instead of interracial comity (civility, courtesy), segregation took its ugly shape, and doubly worse, doctrinal separation gave validity to division and solidified the racial divide as well. Because the pulpit did not spiritually address racism, it became a social issue."

Hi ALL

I have both black and white in my blood and have spent time on both sides of the fence with many different beliefs and intellects. As a black man I saw the fears and being treated differently from different white people and have had a sense of anger and vengefulness in my thinking which stemmed from pride, having to watch people look down at my mum for the colour of her skin. It creates a kind of fight or flight reflects in the intellect. on the other hand I have a white father who detested black people (but loved my Mother with all his heart)I understood his frustration as well and at times had the same moments of looking down at Black people.

The Lord was gracious in my early part of my Christian life where I fellowshipped with a Maori Women who just saw people as people despite the skin, belief and intellect and was able to move amongst so many different nationalities with ease and acceptance. I asked her one day "why do so many different people seek you out to spend time with you" she told me that the lord told her that as a Christian she was not of this world and that she was neither Jew nor gentile.

Now when I look at people, I see my family descended from Adam and Eve. I long each day to learn about my brothers and sisters and share the gospel of Christ. I am a manager and my team compose of Punjabi, Hindu, Muslim, atheists, Catholics, Baptist, Pentecostal, Africans, Australian, New Zealand, Scottish and I have a great relationship with each one.

People can tell if you are afraid of them or you look down at them but they can also tell when you your heart is free of these fleshly things as this is what makes us different to this world.

The holy spirit spoke straight to my heart and I had to lay down all claim to my earthy body to the lord and his people so that I can serve him with out bias or prejudges and move where he needed me too. Every one gets effected somehow at times by Satan but not everyone knows they are.

Dear Brother Karl":

Thank you for sharing this testimony and you truly echoe my sentiments exactly. Jesus Christ truly makes the difference!

I am a white male born and raised in the Detroit area, my parents were Italian and I was raised without any racial prejudice and like you shared was taught that we all have descended from Adam and Eve, I had to chuckle when you said you have both black and white blood in you. In reality, we all have black, white, yellow, and brown blood which makes up the most beautiful color of red, LOL.

It is true, people know and sense when you love them genuinely or if you look down on them.

A short recent testimony, I am a business development director for a foodservice management company and we recently opened a micro market and cafe in a business in Michigan.

Our micro market concept replaced the previous providers vending machines and the market works very much like a convenience store where you scan your products and use a self check out to pay.

There is a certain level of training that I have to provide to the building population and it takes me being on site for about a week after we open.

Well I talked to so many people explaining, training, and demonstrating how the self check put works.

Two young black girls came into the market and as always when people come in I will approach and stand near them as to assist with any questions, etc.

After they appeared to have the hang of it, I stepped away and went to our cafe and one of the young ladies came and motioned for me to come speak with her. She asked me if our company had a comment page, website, phone number and I said yes and pointed to a sign we had posted. She then asked me my role with the company and I told her and I said is there something I might help with or answer right now.

She proceeded to tell me that I offended her because I watched them checkout and did not watch the other (white) people in the market.

I was devastated, and I immediately put my hand on her shoulder and said please do not be offended and that I was only there to help and then I said again, please in Jesus name do not be offended and immediately her countenance changed. She at that point knew I was sincere.

I explained that the other people had been down to the market already several times and they brought other co workers to show them their new market and they were actually assisting their friends and already knew the drill.

Any way, even though the color of these young ladies skin was so far from any second thought in my mind I was deeply saddened that it is a very unfortunate thought that many live with continually.

With all this tension we are facing in the world today this incident made me realize how many people are forced to live, think, and react in this fallen world, but like I said, Jesus makes the difference.

Thanks again brother!

Brother Dave

Hi Brother Dave

Thankyou for sharing, The Lord on many occasions has taught me to learn a culture, their superstitions and fears of a person with out them knowing it. when it comes to a conversation the person gets taken back with surprise that I am interested in where they come from and have some knowledge. it gives a sense of safety for that person that I have some understanding and its a good ice breaker to build relationships.

about 6 months ago I was in a shopping centre and I noticed that I was making sure my hands where not in my pocket and I was standing back from the shelves and looking at the security cameras. I felt like I was being watched (as I look a bit scary anyway) I realised how silly my actions where and remembered that I had done this since I was a child. there is no reason for it, it's just something I picked up in my belief as a child which has no relevance for me today, I was just unaware that this was still effecting me automatically in my day to day life.

The minute I say I am a Maori, Australian or which church I am from, puts me in a box or category in peoples minds. where as when I am a Christian I can embrace all people from my heart under the guidance of scriptural love. People can mock or say bad things about where I was born and it means nothing to me.

Fear always looks for an obvious enemy of skin colour and race which are fast indicators that people naturally use to keep safe or away from even though it is most often not the truth.

There are some races I have longed to mix amongst but have not been successful and I am not sure the reason why as yet, but I am seeking the Lord to break down those barriers.

I would encourage you to examine Kiononia Farm in Georgia.

For contrast research Kwasizabantu in South Africa.
http://www.ksb.org.za/

Finally, the work of Taizé in France.

Edit: Added more references.

Renee, I have been putting this off, because of fear or rejection, non believing, stepping on someone's toes, etc. To be correct asking are you male or female, I know some males whose names are Renee, and my first born daughter, born in 1959. I am guessing you are female.

When you posted this; """Renee (who happens to be African-American)""" My heart jumped inside me and my stomach rolled. If I could have been beside you when you said this and I did not know it, I could not help myself, jumping up and hugging you and saying the words of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you". This may be to bold, but I Love you.

I am Oklahoma American, 77 years of age in California.

If you can bare with me for as short a story as I can make it, I will begin.

When I was 4 years old in Duncan Oklahoma, staying with my grand father at a Haliburton Oilwell cementing camp, of which my Grand Father, was the head of, whose payroll number was 2.

There was a grounds keeper who kept the whole camp clean and was put in charge of me. His nick/name was Judge and he was black. He was the kindest, most gentle, caring, loving man I have ever known. I remember always being in tow where ever we went, him holding my hand. I always remember the cooler where my grandpa always kept apples, cool fresh milk, daily cooked bread, and everything else that needed to be kept cool. I never saw anyone in the cooler except granny, grandpa and Judge.

Judge and I would sit down next to a big empty wood barrel and snack two or three times a day, apples bread and cool milk. This black man who was not in a position of high authority was all to me, at 4 years old, he was my all in all. To this day I still love him and know he loved me.

My grandfather was promoted to the head of the whole southwester U.S. and moved to Shreveport La. My grandmother had a house servant, maid, what ever you might call her, she did the cooking cleaning shopping, anything my grandmother might want. This is a puzzle to me, she was quiet, reserved and I always felt she did not even like me.

The puzzle is how can God allow two completely different sides of humanity to be so diametrically opposed, even with each other? I guess that is a rose is a rose but two are never alike. In Christ we are all a new person, that we love one another as He first loved us.

When you Posted; "Renee (who happens to be African-American)"
I was filled with overwhelming emotion and tears I did not know where they were coming from. All I know is you just don't; happen to be African-American, you are exactly what where and why God put you and has you right where He wants you. Precious and perfect in Christ Jesus our Lord. With Christ living in us we are fellow-heirs of God in Jesus, all that is the Lords is yours and mine. You have sure sparked in me the memory of my all at 4, "my forever friend Judge whom I will see again someday". But for now, thank you God for my friend and I know his reward is with him.

In the love of Christ: Phillip