Could you do the right thing if called upon to respond? Stand up to family or friends if you saw them doing something wrong? Risk alienating your friends and family to do what is right when everyone else was being rewarded for going along with the crowd? Would your inner moral compass work if True North suddenly disappeared and the very ground beneath your feet underwent a seismic shift?
Some say they understand the fear that grips Christians who refuse to speak out against the divisive madness transpiring in this country, but when we are followers of Christ, our integrity and faith will cause us to stand against division. Will the impulses of violence, racism and intolerance be too strong for our faith to contain? Or will we commit to becoming God’s Revelation 7:9-17 vision – a vibrant, forward-looking multiracial family.
We can have different ideas about how the country should deal with its many challenges but not how we view and treat people. We can lose any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation through hypocrisy, inconsistency, incredibly selective mercy, and thinly veiled supremacy.
These tendencies bring us all dangerously close to those who were “confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else,” leading one of them to pray, in public, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—extortioners, unjust, adulterers robbers, evildoers, adulterers” (Luke 18:11).
You cannot devise your own morals to fit your situation. We’ve been told by popular theologians for some years that “the situation determines morals.” Now we are reaping the bitter fruits of practicing that kind of ethics. If God is, then what God says must be “absolute”—man must have moral boundaries.
The Bible tells us that with what judgment we judge, we shall be judged. So we must avoid hypocritical and self-righteous glee at the evil that is being done.
Let us hope that by God’s grace, we may turn the corner. Let’s hope we realize that the crisis in Christian integrity is the most serious we can face.
Discern the will of God and use wisdom in your words and actions.
PTL Elder Byrd,
The lost cause article… the manifesto that allowed the churchgoing Christians to leave worship and then go celebrate a murder. The manifesto that permeates in the pores of the American soul to excuse the denial of rights for some, to excuse inappropriate responses from slave catchers, I mean police officers. Lost in the telling of this country’s history is the story of the Lost Cause and the Daughters of the Confederacy who wrote the misleading narrative that White America still upholds today. The manufactured stereotypes that many can’t get past, when they see human beings of a darker hue than theirs.
The family is doing fantastic, Praise God. We are taking Lauren back to Ann Arbor on the 24th. Sydney is a rising senior and was deemed an All-American by USATF junior olympics after contributing to a silver medal in the 4×100 relay final for 17-18 girls. I pray God’s grace and mercy continue to pour upon you and your loved ones!
Thanks for the encouraging content.
Godspeed,
Reg
Stay encouraged my brother. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. And thanks for the update on the kids. You know they are my heart. You and the wife have done a wonderful job in raising Godly daughters.
Blessings,