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Reflections On Being A White Male In A Time Of Racial Unrest 

Guest Writer:  Mark Matlock

 

White guys are under attack, or at least it feels that way. I’ve been reflecting on what this means and what I’ve learned and continue to learn about myself.

 

1. I can’t help that I am a white guy. It’s who I am, but I recognize that this does not excuse me from hurting other people knowingly or unknowingly. In fact, I may have added responsibility for undoing the wrong being done.

 

2. The “unknowingly hurting people” aspect is what I struggle with most. I don’t like to be considered ignorant and I don’t like being blamed for doing something I don’t think I did. Yet, I’m coming to realize more and more that I am part of a problem even though I’m not consciously participating. This is white privilege, I don’t like that word, because it sure doesn’t feel like privilege, but the world I live in was built by white men for the benefit of white men. Does a fish understand water? Only when they leave it.  I am the fish.

 

3. If I engage the conversation, I will eventually say the wrong thing. That’s okay. I need to learn from that. Better to engage and stumble than remain in my ignorance.

 

4. I unknowingly hurt people of color because of systemic racism. Systemic Racism really exists, my use of the dictionary definition of “racism”  to prove it doesn’t is, in fact, an example of systemic racism.

 

5. This thing called white fragility is real. I don’t like it because I’m not fragile, or maybe its because a woman wrote the book (“she has an agenda,” “she doesn’t know me,” “I’m not fragile you’re trying to make me that way”… wait is this my racism coming out?)

 

6. … but I read the book and wow… for the most part it captures my experience and what I observe in my other white guy friends. I’m tired of talking about race, being aware of myself as a white person all the time. It’s exhausting… oh wait everything I just wrote about being white is almost exactly what my friends of color have been saying for years. Hmmm.

 

7. What I consider to be healthy, vibrant conversations about race are often seen by people of color as a display of my white supremacy. Has my whiteness shaped the way I interact and discuss this topic?… it appears that might be the case.

 

8. I like to have an opinion about everything, I argue and move on, but these issues are deeply felt to affected people and they can’t move on. I need to treat this discussion with the  respect and weight it deserves.

 

9. I hide behind reason, logic and rational thought as superior tools,  forgetting this is a conversation about relationships, and that requires some other tools in the toolkit I don’t use as often like humility, submission, empathy, and love.

 

10. I like to be funny, my humor on this issue doesn’t reveal my cleverness, it often hurts people and gets me in trouble.

 

11. I’m not as curious about people as I give myself credit for. I need to ask more questions to learn why “I don’t get it.”

 

12. I want my friends of color to rescue me, to give me props, to validate me as one who gets it. They are true friends when they don’t but rather confront me.

 

13. White guys will most likely never be woke. There’s a moment you might think you are, then you realize you aren’t. It’s not about being “woke”, it’s about people experiencing equality, understanding is what is important.

 

14. Time… straight white cisgender men want to solve problems and move on (don’t believe me ask your spouse) … reconciliation is a relationship word. It’s not all in the head, this isn’t an easy fix.

 

15. Re-read your first point.

 

Mark Matlock has been working with the parents, ministers and non profits for nearly three decades and he’s spoken live to more than 1 million teenagers. He is the principal at WisdomWorks, a consulting firm that helps Christian leaders leverage the transforming power of wisdom to accomplish their mission. Mark is the former executive director of Youth Specialties and the creator of PlanetWisdom Student Conferences. In all his free time, he has written more than twenty books for teens and their parents including Faith For Exiles with David Kinnaman, President Barna Research.
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Creating Space for Grace

 

“If you make yourself the main character in the story,

then you’ll evaluate everything that happens by its effect on you

not the affected.”

 

As Christians grapples with the issue of race, it has become apparent that many don’t perceive reality the same. Most are operating under different beliefs and stimuli which come from experiences, something heard, or something read. Facts and truth have differing definitions.  When we interpret through the lens of our self-centered view, the actions of others often make no sense, and frustrate, hurt or infuriate us. But can you see that it can cause problems, inhibit understanding and empathy. 

What you believe about a person or event will determine how you label them. The labels you use will allow you to project valence and dictate your actions to engage or disengage.

As used in psychology, valence means the intrinsic attractiveness (positive valence) or averseness (negative valence) of an event, object, or situation. It is typically easier to use the “other” as a projective object. Efforts, by Blacks, to change their conditions are labeled as social justice, Marxism, critical race theory, cancel culture, or progressive Christianity. Push back or disagreement by Whites is labeled as fragility, racism, privilege, or conservatism. Somehow, Christianity has settled into cultural norms rather than setting the standards for cultural norms based on God’s Word.  We abandon Kingdom conversation of unity for cultural dialogue that divides. America is becoming more and more multiracial, warranting a broader recognition of those who do not fit into a society’s clear-cut notions of race.

Language matters and there is a confusion of the slogan Black Lives Matter – a plea to secure the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans, especially historically wronged Blacks, with the organization called Black Lives Matter – which has a specific and stated agenda. Maybe a new slogan should be created to separate the movement from the organization. These three words are dissected ad nauseum. We have to unravel the narratives taught in some churches today that assume this movement of Biblical justice being worked out within society is about property and jealousy. Those that oppose the movement use “Thou shall not steal or covet” as the defense to ignore reality. Let’s be clear, the movement is about how you got it, not that you have it. Others say using the word “Black” as the presupposition ignores the transcendent God-ordained meaning of life – The Imago Dei. Some pastors are asking to whom and in what way does it matter? I’ve even heard pastors say that the phrase assigns guilt based on ethnicity which isn’t Biblical. We are all imperfect sinner who moves in faith.  These are brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s stop throwing other Christians under the bus from the pulpit. A mist in the pulpit can become a fog in the pews. Let’s not forget Sunday’s became and still is the most segregated day of the week.

These pastors cap off their messaging by labeling it ALL as Communism or Marxism. Using the old playbook, going back to the ’50’s and ’60’s, labeling any principle that attempts to obtain a level playing field for all. M.L. King was viewed as a Communist for calling out the situation people faced. The reality was that King’s view of Communism was that it was fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. The central issue King was calling out was the defense of the gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty.

As Christians, we cannot ignore or excuse the past sins. We must confront them, repent for them, and find ways to correct the actions that may allow them to continue. If you see God’s image in you as more valuable than the image of God in those different from you, you have lifted yourself to be better than the other person. That is about “have no other idols before God” and “thou shall not bear false witness”.  God’s summarized the commandments because we tend to prioritize to fit our needs – “Love God and to Love your neighbor.” One cannot say “I love God” but hates their neighbor or has nothing to do with their neighbor. Because God is love, we are able to love. Love pleases the Lord and makes one worthy of the Lord’s saving grace. From God’s love, mercy and compassion follow.

My prayer is that when our strength is fading in a world of moral decline, self-interest, and cultural confusion that integrity will shine as a light upon a hill.  Only by coming together across geography, race, class, denomination, age, across all the differences that really do NOT matter, will we be able to listen to each other. It’s only by embracing one another in a spirit of love and collaboration that we create space to grow in grace together.

 

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Untangling The White Evangelical Mind

Mark Matlock
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 NIV
I’m often asked to explain white evangelicals by my friends of color as they try to untangle why their white Christians brothers and sisters behave as they do.
For decades I have identified as an evangelical. For me, this has always meant declaring basic orthodox Christian beliefs, a firm commitment to the authority of scripture, but also a belief that I have a purpose in the world to share the good news of Jesus in word and deed.
Today, some 45 years after Jesus saved me and I began to follow Him, I struggle to identify as an evangelical, even though I have never wavered from the basic tenets mentioned above.
Those who study church history tell me that “evangelicalism” was formed to separate from the term “fundamentalism” which had meant being committed to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, but had since become tarnished and no longer seemed to represent the spark of Christian living in the world. A “rebranding” was needed.
Today when most people hear the term evangelical they think of conservative Republicans that are white, support Trump, are anti-gay, pro-life, and anti-science.
Evangelicalism has become something else. Slightly over 80% of Americans self identity as Christians, only 20% identify as evangelicals.  In fact, at Barna, a research group studying the intersection of faith and culture, a person must identify 9 basic tenets of evangelicalism to be labelled as an “evangelical”… only about 5% of Americans meet those 9 requirements.  So as I speak about the white evangelical mind, consider that I am no longer certain of all that means, and I do not speak for everyone.
While there are many topics to explore, I want to focus on the white evangelical mind as it comes to racial injustice and reconciliation.
I began this reflection with the words of Jesus on the cross. Scripture records few words from Jesus while on the Cross, but what we have is powerful.
In this prayer of forgiveness, Jesus recognizes the ignorance of the people. And if I were to summarize the perception of white evangelicals in this moment, whether or not true, it is that we are ignorant people. But not just ignorant in the naïve innocent way, but in the sense that we believe we know more than we do. And that is an important reality I have had to come to grips with in my life, in some ways my evangelical beliefs make me falsely confident in my ability to know and understand what is true.
Tangle 1. The first tangle to recognize is that white people think little about “race.” We don’t think much about “ethnicity” either unless we are choosing what to eat for dinner… “You want to do Mexican or Chinese Tonight? Neither? Italian would be better?” In fact, we often see race and ethnicity as the same thing, so that is often a good place to start.
We were raised in the narrative of America as a melting pot, so our ethnic identity is seen as something from our past. We see American identity asking its citizens to lose some of that moving forward as you “melt.” It also means, for white Americans, that co-opting other cultures is okay too, because we are all in that same pot. Many immigrants gladly acculturate to the American way of life, my great grandmother did, which is a very different journey than that of African American slaves who were sold and shipped against there will to the US. White people have rarely thought about this experience.
I didn’t like Robin DiAngelo’s concept of “White Fragility” when I first learned about it, but now I understand it as a very real part of my own experience and what I see in other white people. As I began to be confronted about race, it was disorienting, I was indeed “fragile” because as a white person I’d never had to think about what it meant to be “white.”
If you want to engage the white evangelical in racial reconciliation, it will require patience. We just haven’t had to think about race as long as minority groups and we are the weaker brother when it comes to this topic. The patterns of our white experience are predictable, and each person goes on almost an identical journey. Having conversations about race with a white person is like playing the same song over and over again, the first few times is great, and then it time to move on. I’m glad my friends of color didn’t abandon me even when I was worthy of being given up on. To this day they endure my ignorance as I seek to learn more.  I know too that it can be exhausting, but when you give the gift of friendship in this area to a white person, it is priceless.
Tangle 2. White evangelicals value theology as concepts, not as relational dynamics.
Here’s what is hard, white evangelicals do not want to be viewed as racist. Our core theology recognizes the image of God in every person and desires for all to know him. There is great compassion too for meeting people’s needs, but we think of these things as concepts and programs instead of how those concepts transform interpersonal relationships.
We were taught to debate ideas, to see things through a rational lens. Theological terms then became definitions and theological concepts thesis statements rather than guides for interpersonal transformation. Conversations about race in these forums rarely lead to transformation. But over time, they can move into more personal areas.
When engaging the white evangelical on matters of race, its best done in the context of relationship rather than as a topical matter when possible.
Tangle 3. American White Evangelicals have a strange relationship with power. A significant part of the white Christian identity is the belief that America is a Christian nation and that we are losing the culture war. This has created a false pursuit of cultural power through political means rather than on the power of doing community good. Jesus was persecuted for doing good, unlike the White Christians in America who feel persecuted for being judgemental.
This has given evangelicals the sense that they too are marginalized and in a fight for not just their “white” heritage, but its strange infusion with Christian values. This means that we are often ignorant to how we are participating in institutional or systemic racism, because we have a strange history with power, Christianity, and liberty.
Because we feel we are losing the Christian ideals, this country was based upon, we are trying to protect something we feel we are losing, rather than recognizing that perhaps we need to be living into those ideals more fully. Exposing white evangelicals to the truth of American history that has been sanitized is key to helping us grasp the horror of slavery and its aftermath in Jim Crow and beyond. Help us grasp the current racial injustice that is invisible to us as part of the dominant white culture. MLK realized it was hard for whites to see. His non-violent tactics provoked the racism that was hidden to whites so it could be seen. Camera footage, research of racial injustice experiences, sharing of stories all help us to see.
There is quite a bit to untangle in the white Christian mind, it’s not simple. If you can tolerate our ignorance, you can make great progress with those that are willing to continue the journey.  It isn’t the duty of persons of color to educate white people and help them transform. We need to be doing the work ourselves, but because our own attempts are messy, even hurtful, I am grateful for the investment you make in helping us become better people. While an element of white evangelicalism are indeed bad actors, there’s hope that something new can emerge as we engage these issues together in brotherly love.
Until that glorious day, Father, forgive us for our ignorance.
Mark Matlock has been working with the parents, ministers and non profits for nearly three decades and he’s spoken live to more than 1 million teenagers. He is the principal at WisdomWorks, a consulting firm that helps Christian leaders leverage the transforming power of wisdom to accomplish their mission. Mark is the former executive director of Youth Specialties and the creator of PlanetWisdom Student Conferences. In all his free time, he has written more than twenty books for teens and their parents including Faith For Exiles with David Kinnaman, President Barna Research.
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Where Do We Go From Here . . .

The iphone camera has exposed the painful reality and experiences that people of color have been shouting about for years. Those of us who have been in the trenches for decades fighting racism in America wonder how long the soul searching will last. There is a system, and then there is individual bias. There are structures that perpetuate racism and then people who give in to that system. We eventually will need to move beyond the rage and began to think about what’s next? To determine what we can do as a group and as individuals to change the conditions of hearts and minds. The Church must step up to lead change in communities; following the footsteps of Jesus and stand in unity surrounding the things that matter to God.

 

Christians commanded to “Love the Lord your God. . . and to love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s challenging to love others well if you don’t love God first. But loving God is only half of the story. His love needs to transform the way you view yourself. When you see yourself the way God sees you, you can love others the way God loves you. 2 Cor 3:18 teaches, “You become what you behold.” We must open our eyes to see what to do. Because when all is said and done, more has been said than done.

 

I once heard Vernon Jordan use an analogy of tearing down an old building to replace it with a new modern and useful one. He said that “the wrecking ball that knocks down the building takes only hours, but the clearing of the debris takes much longer.” How do we clear the rubble?  By implementing cleanup crews against injustice, hate, apathy, and economic imbalances. We pick up the weapon of truth, the recognition of courage. The Church can embrace the responsibility to clear the rubble.

 

We have reached a tipping point where Christian leaders are posting to social media that they now want to listen to the pain and listen to the issues people of color are facing. Jesus first listened, engaged in conversation to understand the change needed, and then changed the conditions of the individuals and the community. That third step is the  “miracles” because it took great faith to execute. That is the step that will be the most challenging and require the self-sacrifice that Jesus calls us all to make. It’s the cleaning up of the rubble. Those that are affected have made their message clear, “if the social structure doesn’t care about them, why should they care about the social structure.” When you devalue someone’s experience because it is not your reality, their anger and actions are in direct proportion to their experience.

 

White Evangelicals often have differing views of the Gospel than people of color. The cultural causality tools used to provide context may account for the differing theological views:

 

    • Freewill individualism that minimizes and individualize the race problem as ones on fault;

 

    • Capitalism that despite years of politicians insisting otherwise, the laws of economic gravity have always run in reverse. Opportunity doesn’t trickle down, it cascades out and up;

 

    • Ideologies that further self-interest over the good of the group;

 

    • Economic productivity that the only long term solution to poverty comes when people have skills and discipline to get economically productive jobs and keep them;

 

    • Choosing to ignore the institutionalization of racialization in economic, political, educational, social, and religious systems. Often thinking and acting as if these problems do not exist;

 

    • Moral vision based on people needing external structures or constraints in order to behave well, cooperate, and thrive;

 

  • A belief in relationalism founded in the personal determination of “who is my neighbor.” Believed to be spiritually and individually, not temporally and socially based.

 

The challenge to everyone is to live like Jesus. Cleaning up the rubble will require us to consider the needs of others. To overcome not being comfortable talking to people of other races. To move from evaluating everything in terms of potential threat or benefit to the self, and then adjusting behavior to more of the good stuff and less of the bad. Therein lies the miracle; the change of heart that leads to a shift in thinking that results in a change in actions.

 

The solutions are not a call for you to be ashamed of the past nor a call for you to say racism is wrong, but it is a call to take specific actions. It’s no longer acceptable to say you believe in equality but act in ways that perpetuate inequality. To stay on the same path, you either lack the courage to take action or don’t care.

 

To the small, medium, and mega multicultural churches, this is a heartfelt call from a place of love and request for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. The images used in worship and preaching must reflect the diversity of your congregation.  Jesus and the angels with blonde-haired and blue-eyed who came from Africa portrays a false narrative. The pictures of those in need of service always being people of color is misleading. Diverse leadership is not starting/expanding campuses into communities of colors and installing a Pastor of that ethnicity while maintaining a white decision-making structure at the main campus.

 

We violate God’s intention for the human family by creating false categories of value and identify based on identifiable characteristics such as culture, place of origin, and skin color. We first have to be reconciled meaning, I have to feel and see dignity in you, not just accept you because the Bible tells me to or because it is comfortable. Seeing dignity does not come by overlooking differences through emphasizing a shared human identity that ignores race. We transcend racial differences in the context of our primary identity as one in Christ.

 

To use the words of Divided By Faith, “The choices and actions that people make to deal with racial divisions do matter and can make a difference. Good intentions are not enough. But educated, sacrificial, realistic efforts made in faith across racial lines can help us move toward a more just, equitable, and peaceful society. And that is a purpose well worth striving toward. That is the message of the Gospel.”

 

Heavenly Father, we need you at a level that is beyond the ordinary. We need you at a supernatural level because you have allowed it to be clear that we have human limitations. So we cry out to you for wisdom, knowledge and understanding. 

 

In Jesus’ name. Amen
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A Prophetic Pattern

 

Today, Pastor Mike Evans provides us a challenge for standing in the gap for other. Isaiah, Esther, Nehemiah, and so many more heard God’s call and took a stand. Today, God is calling once again…but that raises a vital question. When God calls, who will answer? Those who have the heart to obey regardless of the cost. The prophet Isaiah was one such man. In his day, God’s people were in a desperate spiritual condition. Their king, Uzziah, who had once been a good man dedicated to following God, had violated the law and been judged as a result. His death created a power vacuum at a time when the kingdom was surrounded by enemies and danger lurked on every side. At that moment, Isaiah was given a vision of God’s power and majesty—a reminder of the help that was available to the Jewish people if they sought God’s face. But there needed to be a go-between, someone to speak to the people for God. Isaiah heard God’s call and volunteered for duty. He said, “Here am I; send me.” Notice that he did not ask God to find someone else to take on the challenges of the job. Isaiah was willing to step up and take responsibility to stand for God’s Chosen People.

 

Today, God is once again looking for men and women of courage and faith to answer the call and stand in the gap for the sake of the gospel. Will your answer be “Hineni”? It is time for us to stand in the gap. And I believe with all my heart that it is time for us to receive the signet ring of heaven’s approval and authority so that we can see God’s power on display in every part of our lives.

 

Heavenly Father, There is so much need in this world today. Lost jobs, a lack of food on the table, decreasing availability of medical assistance, rising violence, financial greed. Help us to be the ones willing to stand in the gap for the sake of the Gospel. As this world waxes worse and worse, let us be the ones who will demonstrate your love though our lifestyle.

 

In Jesus’ name. Amen
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Let Go of Guilt

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”                      Romans 8:1

 

Guilt is like a rock. It sits in the pit of our stomachs and can weigh down our every thought, behavior, and action. It can distract us all throughout the day and keep us awake at night. Our muscles work overtime just to carry it around, and yet we still hold onto it. It’s imperative that we stop feeling so guilty. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t feel guilt. True guilt is a loving instrument from Spiritual Guidance used to convict, correct, and conform your character when you go astray. True guilt is your friend, a Spiritual companion that whispers truth and motivates you to reconcile and seek forgiveness. Much of the time, however, the things we feel guilty about are not our issues. Another person behaves inappropriately or in some way violates our boundaries. We challenge the behavior, and the person gets angry and defensive. Then we feel guilty.

 

Guilt can prevent us from setting the boundaries that would be in our best interests—and in other people’s best interests. Feeling guilty can distract us and rob us of the precious resources we need to take care of ourselves. While there is friendly, helpful guilt that helps us stay true to our path and moral compass, the other, more common, lingering guilt is a secret conspirator that taunts and condemns, bringing dishonor and shame. This type of guilt arises when you blame yourself even though you’ve committed no wrong or when you continue to blame yourself after you have repented and righted your ship.Today is the day to let go of your guilty feelings—big and little. Just like feeling good about ourselves is a choice, so, too, is feeling guilty. When guilt is legitimate, it acts as a warning light, signaling that we’re off course. After we make amends or change a behavior, its purpose is finished, and it’s time to let the guilt go.

 

SOURCE: CHANGE IT UP

 

Dear God, to you I lift my soul. I trust in you. For the troubles of my way are many. Do not remember the sins of my youth. Bring me out of my destresses. Let integrity and uprightness redeem me. For I put my trust in you.
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Pulling Down Strongholds – Part IV

 

Today, we close out Strongholds with special message from a mentor and friend Pastor Max Ludaco, Teaching Minister at Oak Hill Church in San Antonio, Texas. He is a best selling author including his latest book Jesus: The God Who Know Your Name which has been one of our past recommendations. He reminds us that this sermon, preached in the past, is still relevant today. You will be blessed by his insightful message.

 

Does one prevailing problem stalk your life? Where does Satan have a hook in you? Some are prone to cheat. Others quick to doubt. Maybe you worry. Yes, everyone worries some – but you own the national distributorship of anxiety. Perhaps you are judgmental. Sure, everybody can be critical, but you pass more judgments than the Supreme Court. What is that one weakness, bad habit, rotten attitude? Where does the devil have a stronghold on you? Ahh, there is the word that fits–stronghold–fortress, citadel, thick walls, tall gates. It’s as if the devil has fenced in one negative attribute, one bad habit, one weakness and constructed a rampart around it. “You ain’t touching this flaw,” he defies to heaven and he places himself squarely between God’s help and your:

 

– explosive temper – fragile self-image
– voracious appetite – distrust for authority

 

Seasons come and go and this Loch Ness monster still lurks in the watery lake bottom of your soul. He won’t go away. He lives up to both sides of his compound name: strong enough to grip like a vice and stubborn enough to hold on. He clings like a bear trap; the harder you shake, the more it hurts. Strongholds: old, difficult, discouraging challenges.

 

The term stronghold appears at least fifty times in the Bible. It commonly referred to a fortress with a difficult access (see Judges 6:2; I Sam. 23:14). When King David first saw the city of Jerusalem, it was an old, ancient, cheerless fortress inhabited by enemies. No wonder it was twice called a stronghold (see II Sam. 5:7,9).

 

The Apostle Paul uses the term to describe a mindset or attitude.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 ASV)

 

We do not grit our teeth and redouble our efforts. No, this is the way of the flesh. Our weapons are from God. They have divine power to demolish strongholds. Isn’t that what we want? We long to see our strongholds turned into rubble, once and for all, forever and ever, kaboom! Maybe it’s time for a different strategy.

 

Have you asked others to help you? Everything inside you says: keep the struggle a secret. Wear a mask, hide the pain. God says just the opposite: “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed” (James 5:16 MSG). Satan indwells the domain of shadows and secrets. God lives in the land of light and honesty. Bring your problem into the open.

 

I know a young couple who battled the stronghold of sexual temptation. They wanted to save sex for the honeymoon, but didn’t know if they could. So, they called for help. They enlisted the support of a mentoring, understanding married couple. They put the older couple’s phone number on speed dial and asked their permission to call them, regardless of the hour, when the temptation was severe. When the wall was too tall, they took the tunnel.
Maybe it is time to get drastic. I had a friend who battled the stronghold of alcohol. He tried a fresh approach. If I ever saw him drinking, he gave me, and a few choice people, permission to slug him in the nose. The wall was too tall, so he tried the tunnel.

 

One woman counters her anxiety by memorizing long sections of Scripture. A traveling salesman asks the hotels to remove the TV from his room so he won’t be tempted. Another man grew so weary of his prejudice toward non-whites, that he moved into an ethnically diverse neighborhood, made new friends and changed his attitude.

 

“God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world.” (Eph. 1:19, 20 NCV).

 

Ask for help. Get drastic. Try a fresh approach. Who knows, you may be a prayer away from a breakthrough.

 

©Max Lucado, September 2015
used by permission
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the ministry of Pastor Lucado. Help me to be drastic in my actions as I breakdown the strongholds in my lives. This body of mine is your temple. Satan you are trespassing on my Father’s property and in the name of Jesus whose I am and whom I serve, its time for you to go!!!
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Pulling Down Strongholds – Part III

In Part II, we unpacked how this pandemic may be exposing our financial strongholds. Today, as we are all dealing with pain, loss, grief, and suffering we explore from a new vantage point how our beliefs about the poor and food insecurities can become a stronghold. The apostle Paul defines strongholds as “speculations or lofty things raised against the knowledge of God. It is any type of thinking that exalts itself above the knowledge of God, thereby giving the devil a secure place of influence in an individual”.

 

Again, and again, individuals and communities have demonstrated that the worst situations tend to bring out the best in people. In every moment of darkness, there are countless moments of small gestures of compassion and connection that allow people to show who they are, how they want to live, and what matters to them. Shawn Donnan and Reade Pickert reported, “just a four-minute drive across the lagoon from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club, and ten minutes from the Palm Beach outposts of Chanel and Louis Vuitton, Howley’s diner has become an emblem of America’s stark new economic reality. The kitchen staff at Howley’s has been cooking up free meals for thousands of laid-off workers from Palm Beach’s shuttered restaurants and resorts. The rows of brown-bag lunches and dinners are an early warning that the country’s income gap is about to be wrenched wider as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and the deep recession it has brought with it. Palm Beach is one of the richest counties in the country.

 

Even as much of America is fretting about supermarket shelves depleted of their favorite cereal brands and toilet paper or the logistics of curbside pickup from favorite restaurants, a brutal new hunger crisis is emerging among laid-off workers that has begun to overwhelm the infrastructure that normally takes care of the needy.”

 

Unfortunately, a large portion of the middle class are now experiencing the long food lines; and its not the grocery store lines. They are in food distribution lines faced with a predetermined choice, long waits, and the shame of having to depend on someone else for sustenance. These people aren’t lazy, on drugs or unmotivated. Circumstances have created havoc in people’s lives, yet it’s easy to understand their plight. They are our neighbors; they are just like us. We should be willing to assist them.

 

Donnan and Pickert further presented, “The surge in demand is not just in Palm Beach. Food banks have recorded increases in requests for assistance as government-ordered lockdowns have started to bite, prompting employers to lay off staff. Food insecurity was already a chronic problem in many U.S. communities. Across the U.S. 14.3 million households were short of food in 2018.”

 

Everyday life has become a struggle — not just finding food, clothes, or diapers, but finding the money to pay for them. The pre-existing problem of food insecurity is exploding as more and more without work have come to depend on various types of support organizations. A second wave of job loss is hitting those who thought they were safe. The middle class is, or are, a few months away from becoming part of this group mostly defined as “the poor”.

 

Our guest speaker, Jeremy Everett wrote in the Dallas Morning News, “Too many of our views about the causes of hunger in our nation are made up of one anecdotal experience, Facebook posts, or our favorite news source. Rarely are our opinions informed by actual research, a comprehensive biblical view, or proximity to the problem.

 

“In Matthew 25, Jesus lays out our responsibility: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 
Here, what matters is whether a person has acted with love and cared for the needy. These acts are not just “extra credit” but constitute the decisive criterion for judgment. The calling of the faithful is clear: Feed the hungry and you will live. Unfortunately, we have scapegoated the poor to justify not living up to our calling. To scapegoat and push the poor out of our minds, we’ve had to dehumanize them. We have worked hard to classify the poor as lazy, to divide them as deserving and undeserving. We have developed theologies of prosperity to lift those who are rich in order to demonize those who are poor.

 

Thus, we’ve decided that it is morally defensible for some children to have an abundance of food while others have nothing in the fridge. We can just blame the parent for being lazy or entitled. This is antithetical to the Scripture we read in Matthew. After all, the accused in Matthew are the ones that did not see the hungry and give them food. The ones that did not provide shelter for the stranger. Instead, Matthew calls us to not only see the hungry as humans, but to see them as Jesus.”

 

Maybe. . . just maybe this is an opportunity for everyone to gain an understanding, through a lived experience, the struggle to acquire food when things are out of your control. Maybe. . . just maybe we are experiencing a season of great spiritual awakening. Maybe. . .  just maybe this is a chance to see the poor as Jesus sees them. Maybe. . . just maybe we will have a little more compassion for the least, the lost and the last. Maybe. . . just maybe if we can come up with $2 Trillion in welfare to rescue those we can justify as in need; our view of justification can become Biblical for those we can’t justify due to our strongholds of thinking of our self more highly than we ought.  In an effort to keep me humble my mother use to always say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”.

 

God, we need You. Oh how we need You. You are our first defense, our righteousness. Our lives have been turned upside down and we search for answers. At times we lose our way and forget that You asked us to think of others more highly than we do of ourselves. Break strongholds in our lives. Help us to be examples of You to a wondering world.

 

In Jesus name we pray. Amen

 

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Pulling Down Strongholds – Part II

 

We are now in the early phase of a medical and economic disruption unmatched in most of our lifetimes. It has crashed economies, broken health-care systems, filled hospitals, emptied public spaces, separated people from their workplaces and their friends. This fast-spreading virus is prompting some economists to even predict a U.S. recession. This current need for social distancing is high-stakes and non-negotiable. Social Distancing, a term that epidemiologists are using to refer to a conscious effort to reduce close contact between people and hopefully stymie community transmission of the virus. We are in a grey area now with much contemplation on how we go about daily life. We’re all participants in the world’s largest natural experiment in behavior change.

 

Psychologists sometimes describe the barrier to behavior change as the conflict between wants and should. This can be described as strongholds. We know we should choose the side salad, but we want the basket of fries. We know we should shelter in place but we’re bored and want to get out. We know the Bible instructs us that we should love our neighbor, but we want to think of ourselves as different than them. When we consider our susceptibility, we fall victim to the illusion of invulnerability.

 

I’m reminded of the rich ruler in Mark 10:17 – 27 who thought he was doing everything right but was so consumed with his money that Heaven had became a distant dream. One of his problems was that he considered himself to be faultless concerning the Law. Stronghold! With surgical precision, Jesus simply touched on the one issue that exposed the greed the ruler did not even suspect he had. He should have listened to Jesus but he wanted to keep his money. He was not willing to make the change and follow the Lord if that meant he must share his wealth with others. He broke two commandments – he did not love his neighbor as himself, and he did not love the Lord with all his heart. He had made an idol of his wealth, and he loved it more than God. Stronghold! The rich ruler needed the Savior, and the financial fears the world is showing today demonstrates so do we.

 

Allow me to ponder with you that maybe. . . just maybe God is trying to show us that our dependence needs to be on him and not on our finances. I’m not saying God sent Covid-19 but maybe. . . just maybe since our finances have become our strongholds, He’s allowing us to see that finances can’t save us. Freewill individualism, the belief that people are expected to survive on their own. Maybe. . . just maybe the coronavirus outbreak will shock us into understanding just how much damage financial strongholds have inflicted upon American society. In Deuteronomy 15. God says, if you followed the Law, as you claim to do, there wouldn’t be any needy people among you. But there are, because of your unfaithfulness. In other words, Jesus makes it plain that we can (should) solve this problem at any time we want.

 

I read a post that gives us something to think about, “In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said you want to worship athletes; I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians; I will shut down Civic Centers.  You want to worship actors; I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money; I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church. “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Maybe we don’t need a vaccine. Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. JESUS!” 

 

The future is uncertain, the economy is in turmoil, but God is still on the throne breaking strongholds. As we approach Easter, maybe . . . just maybe we reflect on the greatest “should” ever, the uncommon love of the Cross.

 

God, we come to you with our lamentations, our worries and our fears. Wrap them in the mantle of your love. Fill us with peace so that we may share it with the world. Let us exult daily in your glory as we look forward to the resurrection.

 

In Jesus name we pray. Amen
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Pulling Down Strongholds – Part I

Dr. I. David Byrd,  March 15, 2020

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. . . ”                    1 Cor 13:1-13
The perniciousness of this world renders too many Christians invisible in our society. There is an assumption that only certain groups are “true” followers of Christ and represent the moral compass. This fatal flaw weakens our witness and causes nonbelievers to look at religion, in the vernacular of the young people, “side eyed“. Differences in doctrine causes Christians to treat each other in ways that cause the unbeliever to think – why would I want to be part of that? We often forget that every human and every human system is corrupted by sin. Sin causes us to place hope in earthly leaders and political parties in which no final hope exists. Moral or immoral has been replaced by winning arguments through political agendas that are creating a divided Church. We have forgotten the fact that Jesus came to win hearts, not arguments!
Please welcome our first guest writer, Robert L. Deffinbaugh who teaches us that,
“While all Christians now share in the “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3), we do not all share in the “unity of the faith” (Ephesians4:13). We Christians disagree, in part at least, because as 1 Corinthians 13: 9-12 tells us, our knowledge is partial and incomplete. We tend to disagree over those things we do not fully know, even though we may believe we do know. Love is the means God provided for us to live in harmony and unity, even though there is a diversity of doctrine in matters which are not fundamental. Paul’s instruction on love then becomes absolutely vital to our Christian walk and to our Christian unity. If we want to discover what that difference is, we shall find it less in a distinctive semantic range of a particular word group than in the descriptions and characteristics of love given in the Scriptures.
Paul’s approach to teaching us about love is very different. He does not instruct us about the importance of distinguishing between Greek words for love. He begins in verses 1-3 by showing that spiritual gifts have only minimal value, unless they are exercised in love. In verses 4-7, Paul does not attempt to give us a very technical definition of love; instead, he describes love in a way which makes it very clear what biblical love looks like. And his description makes it glaringly evident that the Corinthians had indeed lost their first love.”
We see this today, as some Christians have adopted a self-fulfilling kind of love instead of the self-sacrificing love of Jesus. It is impossible to have this love unless God helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. Here is what I mean:
  • Love is patient vs.  jumping to social media to pronounce it’s discontent.
  • Love is kind vs. allowing attacks and sarcasm to infiltrate our language.
  • Love does not envy vs. disguising our envy with spiritual criticism of other Jesus’ followers.
  • Love is not proud vs. a failure to show compassionate servant leadership.
  • Love does not dishonor others vs. falling into the trap of throwing shade at another person’s success to put in question how valid their excellence truly is.
  • Love involves unselfish service to others vs. a focus on every person for themselves.
Sin causes us to think more highly of our selves than we ought. And our desires become our idols; strongholds! To assume “we” are right and “they” are wrong; Strongholds! To assume “we” know better what someone needs to do than “they” do; Strongholds! To believe “we” can win souls to Christ by controlling “them”; Strongholds!
These examples aren’t for just anyone. It’s the plea of an early church leader to Jesus’ followers. His plea? That those who follow Jesus may be extremely odd because of their care and concern for all people – which is only possible as we walk in the power of Jesus.
Jesus, please help me in these areas today. I sometimes get caught up and lose sight of the fact that our identity in and loyalty to you transcends political allegiance and personal agendas. Help me to love as you love. Our love for one another should be a shining example to the world.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.