Racial Profiling

I wrote this a few years back and wanted to post it again at this present time.

Racial profiling does exist and it is impossible to get away from it.

I am going to share a personal experience from an opposite position.

Some years back I was training to manage a Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken restaurant. The Popeye’s that I was training at was located in a predominately Afro-American neighborhood. The store owner, manager and every employee in the restaurant was black. By the way, I am not.

During my time of training I was accepted as the white guy. I was a misfit in the operation but tolerated by those I was learning from.

Some, not all of the customers, who were predominately Afro-American, were not as accepting and pleasant toward the white guy. There were rude comments, slang terms and some very surprised looks cast toward the white guy.

The store manager had talked with me prior to my training and explained to me that this type of treatment was to be expected because the customers were not accustom to dealing with whites in this area.

The manager also expressed his concern about me being in the area after dark. He said he would try to get me out of the store and on the road before some of the nightly activity that occurred in the neighborhood began to take place.

None of what I have explained here was any problem for me and I never took any of it as a personal attack. Why I have told this to you is to set the stage for the Friday morning when I learned one of the greatest life lessons I have ever been able to experience.

I came to the restaurant prior to its opening to the public this Friday morning. As I entered the door behind the customer counter I stopped to chat with one of the employees I had become acquainted with during my time of training. He was loading the cash drawers preparing for the days business.

We were both unaware of the fact that he had accidentally set off the silent alarm and the police were notified that there was a potential problem at the restaurant.

Let’s set the stage. Black neighborhood, all black employees, potential robbery taking place at the restaurant, black police officer, hand on gun, hurries through the door, white guy, with coat on, standing next to the black guy in Popeye’s uniform handling the cash drawer.

What if you had to make a split second decision based upon the information at hand?

I have never been so thankful for a manager, who quickly became aware of what was happening. He jumped over the back counter and yelled at the officer “he works here”.

I guarantee that my eyes were the size of oranges and I was never so white in all my life.

The police officer was doing his job. He came on the scene, assessed the situation, and I was the one thing that was totally out of place according to his quick assessment.

I have cherished this experience for many years because it taught me a great lesson about what it must be like to be the minority in the white community.

As difficult as it is to admit, I was different. I felt out of place. I must admit that I was uncomfortable. I believed we were all just people doing what people do to get along in this crazy world, but, when things went wrong I was the first suspect. I was just doing my job, learning from the best employees so I could train those who would later work for me. But that Friday morning will always stand in my mind as the day I learned skin color is visible, noticeable and can be used against you at any moment.

The police officer was not wrong in making his quick assessment. He had been trained to see what looks out of place and take action accordingly. I don’t hold a grudge. I didn’t feel any less comfortable after the incident than before it happened. I was just given a great gift of understanding that I will never forget.

I hope you think about racial profiling in a different way from now on.

The Church Has A Problem

I have been in some form of ministry for the past 27 years. The longer I am involved with the church the more I see the problem.

The church seems to be able to identify the ills of society. It preaches political involvement. It seeks to know the signs of the time. It educates on marriage, finances, family values and the differences between religious organizations. It discusses eschatology, doctrines, gifts of the spirit, rituals, ceremonies, festivals and spiritual warfare. It can’t seem to settle predestination with free-will choice. It debates prayer in public, public display of the commandments and freedom of worship. It argues over styles of worship, liturgy and length of services. It tries to justify appearance in dressing, hair styles, piercings, tattoos, as well as jeweled accessorizing. It has the latest in exercise programs, dietary restrictions and seminars on being healthy, wealthy and successful. It knows all about the difficulties of Israel in the middle of the Muslim world. It shouts to the world Merry Christmas. Yes, it has compassion on the poor and teaches people to be generous and give from their blessings. Sometimes you hear about prayer services then they have to work through what prayer is and the use of special prayer languages. I’m sure I’ve left out some important items such as drums, guitars, pianos or organs. But here is the problem…

Very few people in the church today know the Good News. They do not know the Gospel. They cannot present the simple message of Jesus Christ to anyone. They do not know the work of Jesus. They do not understand the cross, the death substitution, the power of the blood, the hope of the resurrection, how it saves a person, transforms a person, makes a person right with God and therefore the church cannot spread the one and only message the world needs to hear to come to faith.

Yes, we are to go into all the world and make disciples but how can you make a true disciple if they know not the Christ and His work on their behalf?

Paul calls us to proclaim the mysterious message and that seems to be the last thing the church is known for today.

The Church has a problem!

Intro to The GAME

Wouldn’t it be great if, when we were born, someone would give us the rules of the game we have entered and explain to us what it’s all about, how to play it and the end of the game goal?

One of the mysteries of life, is what’s it all about? If we miss this understanding, we will recklessly flail about lost in a daily life that makes no sense at all.

What if you understood that life is a maze game? What if every day was the next maze that you had to work through?

Think of it like this, you will have approximately 27,000 difficult and strategic mazes placed before you on the day of your birth. You will be given 24 clock hours to complete each maze. Each maze has lessons that will need to be encountered and learned that will assist you as you go deeper and stay longer in the game. If you do not learn, absorb or fully understand the lessons of each day, you will not be cast out of the game, you will, though, struggle with the following mazes as you will have to catch up on your learning as you encounter the next day’s lessons along the way.

Everyone’s maze game is different. It has been specially and specifically designed for you by the Creator of the game. Now, many of your mazes will intersect and interact with other players along the journey. From them you will learn lessons, share knowledge and hopefully give helping advice back and forth. Be very careful in your interaction. Many people that have been placed into the maze game do not know what the game is all about and they will give you advice from their blind perspectives. Never allow yourself to be confused by other players who know not what they are doing.

By the way, there will be casualties. There will be gains and losses along the way. You will encounter enemies that will hinder your progress and there are some wise old sages along the way that will seem out of touch with reality but they will understand the game and help you greatly if you’re willing to open your mind to the truth.

Now, within the game is the danger of losing yourself and even your own mind. Some people, who have found the truth, will be driven to complete the daily mazes. Then there are some people who have not realized the truth that will be driven out of their minds by the daily mazes. Check yourself frequently to make sure you’re on the path to the proper goal. It’s easy to get side tracked and derailed if you don’t know the goal of the game.

Oh yeah, the goal of the game is to finish all of your required mazes and walk through the exit door right into the presence of the Creator of the game.

Are you ready to play? Most of you have been playing for quite some time without the knowledge of what you’re doing. I plan to help you today to get back on the right track and find your way to the exit.

To hear the full message go to…

http://firstchurchofgod.info/?p=2127

 

 

The Eternal Test

I want you to take a trip of imagination with me. I want you to see yourself as an eternal being. You existed before you were born into a body but you do not know this.

You were a person, (mind, will, emotions, personality and conscience) before you were given an earth suit. The earth suit was created to house your person while dwelling on this planet.

Think of your earth suit as an avatar for your soul or person to dwell in. An avatar, in our computer age, is a bodily representation of your person. This is, in reality, what your body is in this world.

Your bodily form was chosen for your soul by someone else (Creator, King, Lord). There are also many parameters for your avatar that are also chosen for you.

Here is a list of questions to make you aware of the parameters chosen for your avatar or earthly body;

Did you choose to be born?

Did you choose your parents?

Did you choose the time in history you would be born?

Did you choose the geographical location of your birth?

Did you choose the type of society or culture you would be born into?

Did you choose the religious beliefs you would be born into?

Did you choose the economic status you would be born into?

Did you choose the educational capabilities you would have available?

Did you choose the talents, abilities or handicaps you were born with?

Did you choose your nationality (race), sex (male or female) or other physical appearances as well as body type?

Did you know the date of your death is also chosen for you?

Now, when you, your person, was imparted, or placed, into the earth suit, avatar or body, with all these parameters chosen for you, your past memory of eternity was erased. You were allowed to have or keep a desire for this eternity which has been placed upon your heart or in you with your person.

Now, what is about to happen is you are going to be tested.

See your person or soul has to be tried through Satan’s dark domain, or this earthly world order, set up here on this planet, to find if your person is true to your Creator, King and Lord, or if it is false and lost in the world of darkness and separated from the Creator, King and Lord for all eternity.

The difficulty with this test is, although you have a desire for eternity, you, also, have been given a spirit of a fallen sin nature to dwell in the body with you.

All this would be good to know as you proceed into your life on this planet called earth. But, we are born blind to, ignorant or unknowing of this reality. Now, you have an inkling for eternity in your person, and you also have a sin nature that gives you a desire and passion for this world and all of its offerings.

Satan, the fallen one, the devil, the crafty serpent or the great dragon, has also set up his system in this world to play upon your sin nature to tempt you away from the Creator, King and Lord, or keep you from seeking eternity. Satan desires that you stay lost and are not awakened to the reality of what is really going on in this worldly system.

God, your Creator, King and Lord, on the other hand, has revealed His message of return to the world and is calling you to come back to Himself. This message of return, once heard, must be believed, realized and ultimately revealed to you through your life on this planet.

See, the world is a mess. Everything in it seems to be wrong. It has fallen to the god of this age and he is working to prevent your return.

You know, instinctively, that something is wrong. You desire for life to be different. Yet, you work hard to dwell in the mess and make the best of it. You have been deceived to believe that this is just the way it is. You are not aware that it is just a testing ground for your soul or person to find out what you are really all about.

See, the Creator or King of the Kingdom, has established this test to find out your true heart. Actually, He knows your heart. He is revealing your true heart to you through this test of time.

See, we are all going to die on the testing field. The last enemy that we must overcome is death. Now we will only die once and then we will face the judgment.

The judgment is either after you die, if you haven’t been awakened by the message of return, or, at the moment you realize what is going on and return to the Lord for forgiveness through His Christ.

This message needs to be told and taught to us as early as possible so we know what is going on. The problem is many parents don’t know it, aren’t interested in it and haven’t been taught it either. So, they are not able to inform their children of this needed knowledge. Without this knowledge the child will be drawn deeper into the clutches of the world and have to suffer greatly before they ever hear the Truth of what is really going on.

This leads to generation after generation falling further and further from the truth. Without this truth, there is less of an opportunity for this message to reach people before they are so buried in and bound to this dark domain. As you tire from all the darkness and come to realize this world has no future aside from a total reset, you begin to search for a way out of the mess. As you seek you will find but it seems you must exhaust all the worldly advice before you will actually open your mind to the truth of what is really going on.

Now remember, this is a test. It is just a test and the result of the test depends upon your eternal desire. If you truly desire the eternity that has been placed upon your heart, you will begin to seek for the right answers and find that God has made a way back from the mess to Himself through the Christ.

This is the truth. Now it’s time for you to discover it for yourself.

Wrong Knowledge

Have you ever entered a classroom and been handed a test to find you studied all the wrong material? You suddenly feel lost, you’ve been kicked in the stomach, you’re about to puke, you’re nervous, stressed, and it seems that you have no hope.

This is the way I imagine most people encounter questions about God. This is how they react to questions of their beliefs about eternity and things that really matter.

It seems to me that we spend our lives chasing after all the “Wrong Knowledge”.

We try to figure everything out. We want to know how it happened. We want to understand how it works. But, we never seek after the One Who created or made it all to happen.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1-4

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

Hebrews 1:2-3a

And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

Romans 1:20

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

So, we have no excuse for having all the “Wrong Knowledge”.

It seems God has made a way for us to know Him. If we know Him, we actually have a greater understanding and far more knowledge (that leads to wisdom and true intelligence) than those with all the “Wrong Knowledge”.

Yet, those with all the “Wrong Knowledge” seem to press their wrongly motivated ignorance, of that which is really important, upon those of us who know the One Who created, made and sustains everything.

Everyone will stand before this God that most do not know at all. They will have to answer the question “What about Me?”

It is at that moment that you will have entered the class room and be handed the test that you spent a lifetime studying the wrong material for.

Jeremiah 9:3

“My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 4:22

“My people are foolish and do not know me,” says the LORD. “They are stupid children who have no understanding. They are clever enough at doing wrong, but they have no idea how to do right!”

I pray you’re studying the right material for your final exam.

My Story

Once upon a time, I went to the library of God to pick out a book. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read an action adventure, a romance novel, a horror story, a fantasy or a drama. As I walked the aisles I found the perfect book. It was the story of my own life.

As I began to read the book I found that it was a great adventure filled with fantasy, horror, romance and a great amount of drama. I was hooked. I couldn’t put the book down. Every night when I would finally read myself to sleep I couldn’t wait to arise the next morning and get back into the book.

This book has been filled with fun, excitement, death, destruction, fantasy, horror, romance, sorrow, pain and great tribulations. It has been the most fascinating story I have ever read.

My favorite part of the story is when I had the opportunity to meet the Author. I have actually met and even correspond with the Author of my own story. My favorite question for the Author continues to be, “How is it going to end?” He keeps telling me to turn the page and continue the journey through the book.

I, like everyone else, desire to know what is happening next. I decided to turn to the back of the book so I could find out. The pages were blank. Nothing has been written beyond the page I am presently reading. Yet, the Author and finisher of my book has already completed the story. He has told me that He knows the days and hours of my life. Yet, He is unwilling to reveal anything to me before I experience it.

So, I continue to turn the pages of life looking forward to what is before me knowing that every page I have turned has brought me to where I am.

I wish I knew where I was headed. I wish I knew how it was all going to end. I guess this is what drives me to get up every morning continuing to experience my journey though the story.

The Author has made some great promises to me as I correspond with Him. Here is one that He wrote to me, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.” (Romans 8:28-30)

As I journey through the pages of my story I do not know if I am in the middle or close to the end. The Author, though, keeps giving me hints of where I am headed. I am headed for His glory. He is at work in the midst of all the details of my story to make me to become like his Son. The Author is at work and is causing all that I am faced with to work together for my good. Some days I don’t see how this can be possible but I must trust the Author and turn to the next page.

I hope you will grab your life story and begin to read it as it is the most exciting story you will ever experience. I also hope you get the opportunity to meet the Author along the way. Knowing Him, sure has made the difficult pages easier to handle.

Letter to An Atheist

I’d like to congratulate you on your strong, devout, sincere and militant belief in God.

You call it being an Atheist. You cannot be an Atheist without God.

Did you know that the focus of atheism is God?

See an Atheist denies God. He does not believe in God. He claims that God cannot exist. Yet, in his unbelief he actually proves God because that is the focus of his actual belief.

Atheism stands on the denial of God. It must refute God at every point. It is a very stressful religious belief because the harder you work to disprove God you are continually working against what you have to believe exists to question and refute God.

If God did not exist there would not be a single Atheist. Atheism would fall because there would not be the focus point of God to deny.

An Atheist needs God because without God he has no religion, no belief, nothing to fight against, and no reason for his own existence.

Atheists are some of the strongest believers I know. Those who claim to believe in God do not know God nearly as well as one who knows God so well that he is willing to fight against God.

The true Atheist does not exist without GOD!

You may not like God, understand God, worship God, acknowledge God, you may be mad at God, but in all that you continue to prove God.

This Standard Stands!

About a decade ago there was a book released called “Who’s Ethics Who’s Morals”. This book reminded me of an editorial I encountered a few years back that put forth the idea that we should stop relying on the Bible as our nation’s moral compass. This editorial was very well intended but it leaves America without a true standard of morality.

The founding fathers of America knew and understood that the Constitution of the United States was not a moral compass.

The founders firmly believed that without God and the Bible the American people could not be governed because a self-governed humanity cannot properly establish a moral compass for itself.

Let’s think deeply about what is being said here.

To have a true standard of morality it must come from outside the group of people that are to be governed by it.

If the people, who are the governed, establish their own standard of morality, it will always be changing to include the next level of immorality that the people desire to declare moral. The people’s morality standard will always be changing to moralize the lowest of actions at the time of the establishment of the new standard.

The Bible is a never changing standard that comes to us from outside of humanity.

God, the Creator, established a standard of morality for His created individuals. Since His standard came from outside the realm of created humanity, it has true authority over the people who are living within His created realm.

A morality standard that is established from within the realm of humanity has no true authority, because it will always be changing to satisfy the strongest, loudest, largest or most powerful group of people who are establishing the new standard. (If you don’t believe this, just watch a group of kids playing a game in the front yard.)

I hope you can see that the lack of a standard from outside our created realm will ultimately lead to chaos within our realm.

So, for those who say there is no God, or Creator, they are ultimately saying there is no true morality.

If there is no true morality then we are all independent and can decide our own morality based upon our own desires and this leads to the mess we are witnessing in our society today.

As you can see from the society we are presently living in, this self-established moral compass does not and cannot work. So, there must be a set of laws or standards established from outside the people group because left to ourselves all hell will break loose.

Now the question is, who is going to decide the new standard if we drop God, the Creator, and the Bible as our standard?

If we leave the standard to a democratic vote, the losers of the vote will continue to press their desires upon the masses until they are able to reduce the standard to include their chosen immorality as moral.

Are you starting to see the impossibility to govern without a standard that is established from outside of humanity?

Without God’s standard found in the Bible, we will slowly fall to the lowest form of immorality and declare it to be moral.

God knew this. Our founding fathers knew this. Those who are working to make today’s society aware of this truth also know this.

Like it or not, without God’s standard of morality there is no true and lasting standard or moral compass.

Without the Bible we will always be working to have our self-desired actions accepted as the moral standard.

The next question would be, Who will judge those who disobey the Creator’s standard set before us. Only the Creator is able to do such. So, within the realm of time, we will witness and suffer the disobedience of man against his Maker. But all things will eventually be set right with the One Who created this human experiment.

It’s NOT Political

Joshua 5:13-14a

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”

What I want to open your eyes to in this post is how horribly disrespectful Christians are to governing leaders.

I don’t really care if a person is a Democrat or a Republican. For the most part we have forgotten that our governing leaders deserve our respect. Especially from those of us who declare ourselves to be Christians.

When government begins to be discussed in church settings, we who are leading the discussion must understand that we are not discussing politicians.

I always try to raise the level of the conversation to God’s standard of Biblical laws and principles. I am not for either political party. I am an agent that speaks on behalf of the Scriptures.

There are times that some of my Scriptural teaching sets better with people of a certain political agenda. This does not make me a party affiliate. I am an independent person that is not registered to any political party. I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God that resides in this world for a short period of time.

I hate CNN and have lost my desire to watch FOX for the same reasons. They are both very disrespectful of people who deserve our respect.

We can, and I hope will again, in our country debate issues instead of taking up sides against a political party. What I see happening in the media is pouring over into the church. We call people, who deserve our respect, all kinds of names and degrade them because we disagree with their political direction.

It’s one thing to hear people outside the church say the things they say. But those of us in the church need to be respectful and even praying for our governing leaders.

You may disagree with a persons politics but don’t allow that to lower your level of respect to a point of name calling and personal attacks.

Let us, the Christians, respect our governing leaders and leave all the personal attacks to the night time talk show hosts. If people want to watch that type of programming, I pray they won’t bring it into Bible study.

Please pray for our governing leaders, our media hosts, our so called comics, and especially Christian leaders. May we learn to know the difference between debating policies and attacking people personally.

And also remember, we who are Christians are representing a higher kingdom and should always represent it well. This world is not our home. Yes, we live in it but we should not act like we are of it.

The “IF ONLY” Syndrome

We live at a time when the greatest idol of worship is “IF ONLY”.

This idol of worship has such a hold on its worshipers that it totally controls their life, well actually, their lack of life.

The “IF ONLY” syndrome has spread throughout our society like a plague and is stripping people of their ability to live freely every single day.

The “IF ONLY” disease generally has a single point of infection. At the point of contact, the person infected never notices that the disease spreads through their life until it has control of everything.

It will control their actions, activities, families, friends, work place environment, decisions and their emotional state. It will become the cause of much suffering. It will slowly strip them of reality and their ability to be effective in any capacity at all.

The “IF ONLY” syndrome will incapacitate the person infected and leave them as an invalid lying in a state of weakness and depression that will draw every drop of life blood out of their person.

The “IF ONLY” syndrome is one of the cruelest diseases known to man. You do not see it coming and it blinds you instantly so you cannot see the symptoms that you are suffering. You know you are suffering but you do not know why and cannot get a handle on how to stop the pain.

Many family members, pastors, counselors, teachers and friends will come along to help the infected person but they do not know the cause of the infected person’s pain. They will work hard to treat the symptoms but they cannot cure the disease until the one with it can identify when they were first infected by it.

This disease infects the human soul. It eats away at the mind. It devours the will. It devastates the emotions. It distorts the person’s memories. It perverts their personality. And above all it sears their conscience.

The “IF ONLY” syndrome strips a person of the ability to live within the realm of reality. It so captivates the person that they can no longer focus on the here and now. They begin to live in the state of wishing.

The person wishes for what could’ve been, would’ve been and should’ve been, to the point they can no longer accept what really is.

They become so fixed on the “IF ONLY” that they spend all their waking hours hoping it will be. Most of the time, the “IF ONLY”, is not even a real possibility. This wishing for what can never be is the idol’s power and control mechanism over the infected person’s life.

The person infected with this disease is never happy with the good things of life because they could have been better “IF ONLY”. They are really devastated by the difficult or bad things of life because they believe they would not have turned out this way “IF ONLY”.

This idol has taken over and engulfed the person to the point they cannot handle what is real and must self-medicate the symptoms with drugs, alcohol, over spending, continual pleasure seeking and entertainment to dull the pain. Some seclude themselves into deep darkness and allow their guilt and shame, stemming from the “IF ONLY”, to drive them insane or to suicide.

At this point I must ask what is the “IF ONLY” in your life that has become your idol of worship. Until you can honestly identify the point of contact you will not be able to overcome the disease. It will take you deeper than you ever wanted to go, keep you far longer than you wanted to stay and strip you of the life you were intended to live.

I pray you can turn from your “IF ONLY” syndrome and face that which is real.