Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....December 13, 2021
This week, we learn to reach beyond racial barriers to demonstrate the power of Biblical unity.
This is the 4th in the series of Taking Up Your Cross in Today’s World.
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Aloha cousins. That’s right we are not only Brothers and Sisters in Christ, but we are also blood relatives, even though it may be distant relatives. Having b been brought up in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood in Phoenix, I learned early about loving others who do not look like myself. This week we are going to look at just why we are commanded to love each other no matter what we look like.
We will discuss how we are all related no matter what race we are. How the different races came about. What injustices has occurred over the years and what we, as Disciples of Christ, should be doing in bringing about racial reconciliation.
Gen 1:26-28
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
(NIV)
Let’s look at:
Gen 3:20
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
(NIV)
Going back and studying Bible references and using the Strong’s Greek and Hebrew dictionary, I am convince that God created one man and created one woman from that man. So as the Bible says in many places, even in the New Testament, Eve is the mother of all mankind and we are all from the blood of Adam.
I have heard many people ask where did Adam’s sons get their wives if God did not create other people and how could the earth become so populated by the time of the Flood of Noah. Well let’s address these questions.
In Gen 5:4:
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
(NIV)
As we see in the above verse, Adam and Eve didn’t just have Seth, Able and Cain, they had other sons and daughters. So you still ask where did Seth get his wife? Seth’s wife was either his sister or his niece. In these days of old there were no marriage ceremonies, when a young man and young woman had sexual relations they were considered married in God’s eyes. It isn’t until the third book of the Bible (the book of Leviticus) that God tells His people not to have sexual relations or marriage with close relatives.
Lev 18:6
6 "’No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
(NIV)
So up until this time, people were marring close relatives. But you still ask how could the earth get so populated by the time of Noah.
In school math was one of my best subjects, even calculus. I admit I don’t remember much about algebra and calculus today, but in reading the account of Adam’s life in Genesis 5:1-32 we can estimate what the population could have been. The average life span of people from Adam to Noah time is over 900 years. I think it is safe to assume that the gestation period for human birth was 9 months back then, just as it is today. With Adam living to be 930 year old, he and Eve could possibly have had over 700 to 800 children. Remember the earth was new and man hadn’t corrupted it with poisons and diseases.
The first generation consisted of two people, Adam and Eve. The second generation consisted of their children possibly 800. This second generation could have produced as many as 320,000 offsprings. There are 8 generations between Adam and Noah, not counting Adam and Noah generation. If you remember how to do calculus, then you can do the math, but it is very possible that by the time of the flood, there could have been billions of people here on this earth.
So all people, all races, came from the same original parents, Adam and Eve. To add more evidence that we are all related let’s read:
Gen 7:6-7
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
(NIV)
Now let’s look at:
Gen 7:21-23
21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished-- birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. (NIV)
When God sent the flood, all humans were killed except for Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives. All people on the face of the earth was killed except for these 8 people.
Gen 9:1
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. (NIV)
So we see again that we are all blood relatives through Noah and his descendants. Some Biblical scholars seem to think that this is where the different races or colors of skin originated. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary and others, tells us that the name Ham also represents the color black, the name Japheth represents fair skin and Noah’s son Elam’s name represents the color dusty or brown. So this could account for the difference of skin colors. Also the Bible tells us the area that each of Noah’s sons inhabited. The regions were in different areas. Each son, going in a different direction to start populating the earth again.
So what about the languages. That is easy.
Let’s read about the tower of Babel:
Gen 11:6-9
6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel-- because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (NIV)
We see from this where the different languages of the world came from and also that the people were scattered over the face of the whole earth.
Even in the New Testament, we are told exactly the same thing that the Old Testament has been telling us.
Acts 17:26
26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (NIV)
When did the world learned to hate different races of people? Even during the time that Christ walked on this earth, the Jews hated the Samaritans and both hated the gentiles.
I grew up in the 60's. I remember the persecution that the Black race of people went through. I remember the burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan and their cowardly acts of wearing the white hooded robes. I remember the signs on motels, stores and restaurants that read white only. The signs on buses that read colored stands in the back. The terrible treatment of the Black population in the South has always been atrocious and sickening to me.
We as white people did a huge injustice toward the black people. It is still taking place today. What is the most segregated organization today? It is our churches. Look around. How many people do you see of other races? We at C4 are blessed because of our diversity of races but I am generalizing about the church in general today. Do you get my point?
It isn’t only the African American people that we have mistreated, what happened to the American Indians?
During the 1800’s we murdered them for their land and forced them to live on reservations. During World War II, we imprisoned many innocent Asians living in the United States. During the early western days, we killed and took land from the Mexicans. So why would any of these ethic groups trust white people?
Are things any different today? There is still the mass outward appearance of racism today, and it still exists in the hearts of people. The TV news programs have done shows where a white man and a black man have gone to purchase a car. The white man was better treated and got the better deal on the same identical car. Again a white man and a black man have applied for the same job and the white man got the job, even though the black man was much better qualified for that job.
This prejudice even exists with Christians. I left a church here in Arizona in 2003 because of racial comments the members made even inside of the church. It did not totally focus on Blacks but tended to be more toward the Hispanic population. A lot of the time we don’t understand others unless we walk a mile in their shoes. In you mind, change places with your brother. What would be your attitude toward the people that persecuted your grandparents and are still not accepting you as equals? Even today, the racism can be seen in our Asian community. I just read where Suni Lee, the Olympic Floor champion was harassed in Los Angeles. I do admit it does not seem to be as bad here in the Islands but it does still exist.
Do you have any close friends of another race? I do. Do you have any friends of another race? When you talk with someone of a different race, is what you are saying different from what you are thinking? Do you feel superior to other races? Maybe this is why a lot of our Churches are still segregated. We must reach out to all people.
The sixth promise of a Promise Keeper is this:
A Promise Keeper is committed to reach beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.
In other words we must tear down the walls that separates us from our brothers and sisters of other races and cultures. We are all one body in Christ. Without one part the body can’t function to it’s fullest. We must learn to love one and another. We must learn to put aside our differences and look to the oneness in Christ. We must learn to treat everyone equally no matter the color of his or her skin.
We need to pray that God will make us color blind, remember God made all the different colors of man in God’s on image. We need to pray for a spirit of humility. We are no better than any other race of people. Hitler thought that the German peoples was superior to all other races, but where is Hitler today?
I think the following scripture says it all. If we have love in our hearts, then there can’t be any hate toward other races. We must love and treat all races of people, as we would want to be treated. You can’t love someone and not respect them.
I Jn 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (NIV)
Are you reading this today and don’t have the love of God? If the love of God is not in you, then you don’t love God. God loved us so much that He sent His only Son who live a sinless life to take on our sins, so that we could have an eternal life with God when we die. A person who loves is a content person, but the person who hates is a miserable person. By accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, God lives in you and you in God.
We go through our life looking for love, but the love that we need is right here in front of us, the perfect love of God. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, come down to the altar now and start experiencing the true love that you have been looking for all of your life.
For those of us that do know the Lord as our Savior, we need to ask God to forgive us of all of our injustices that we have done to our brothers and sisters of other races, whether in thoughts or actual deeds. Let’s reach out to others of different races and cultural backgrounds. You may be surprised at what blessings you may receive by doing so. i love you all:)
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
In keeping with our theme of this week....Now I know that our church is a loving, caring and God fearing church. Even though there may be no racists in our church, there are ways you and your church can reduce racism around you, and in your communities.
Prejudice
There are all sorts of ways we can show prejudice toward people. We seem to naturally judge people on sight. For one thing, it is our human nature that is at work because, first off, we seem to notice the weaknesses in people first before seeing any of their strengths. We might catch ourselves thinking, “This person is overweight, this person has scars, this person seems poor, this person looks sick, this person looks old”…and so on. We are just too quick to judge a book by its cover. And I raise my own hand in guilt over that, but I am striving to do better. I am trying to look at the person through the lens of God’s Word. God judges their character from within…looking and seeing the heart. That’s something that we can’t do, but somehow, we try, and we’re usually wrong about it.
Personal Preferences
We are command, “do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism” (James 2: 1). I have seen with my own eyes where two different men come into church and they “pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool” (James 2:3). I must first look into the mirror and remember that God choose me, for some reason, and that “God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him” (James 2:5). Prejudice comes in all packages…not just in skin color, but what about racism? What does Scripture say about that?
Discrimination or Racism
Maybe we forget (or I do), but Jesus Christ commanded us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28), so how could we ever regard a person by their skin color alone?! It should not be so. The Word of God says “that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35). That clearly means we are not to “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1). When I see people now, I do not see the color of their skin. I am looking right into their eyes, listening to what they say. That’s the only way I can get to know them…by listening. My preconceived notions won’t help me here. In fact, they can mislead me.
One Race
The point of this article is the Bible tells us that there really aren’t lots of different races of people around the world. The truth is, there is only one race; the human race. Every human being ever born of a man and woman were descended from only one man, and that was Adam (Acts 17:24-26). Lest we think the Old Testament taught differently, the nation of Israel was told to “not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex 23:9). That helps me…I must remember I too was separated from God…a sojourner, but He saved me out of the world, just like He did for Israel when He brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand. That was great news for Israel because they could never have freed themselves from their bondage. Neither could we, but by the grace of God.
What You Can Do
So what can you or your church do to reduce or show no favoritism and especially display no racism among people? First of all, there is no excuse for anyone being racists. That is huge sin, and no believer in Christ lives this way (1 John 3). This type of behavior was even forbidden in the Old Testament. One such law was recorded in Leviticus 29:33-34 where it said, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God .” Again, a good way to not be prejudice is to look at ourselves. We must remember our own salvation. Most of us where headed to hell on the expressway, but Jesus stepped in and stepped up for us, redeeming us by His precious sinless life’s blood, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. There was no good reason He saved us…it was only out of love (Rom 5:6-10), so we must treat all people without regard, discrimination, and prejudice.
Conclusion
You and your church can do a lot to reduce racism. First of all, we can draw a circle around us…and start with the person in the circle. That would be us. We must examine our own hearts to see if we’re carrying prejudice in our hearts or have any preconceived notions about people of differing incomes or skin colors or… We should never treat people differently just because of how they look or their social standing or avoid some people and try to seek out others above others. Rather, we should “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3), and “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom 12:10). That’s the double-quick cure to racism if ever I heard one.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Is It Good to Have a Plan for Reading the Bible?
The Word of God is essential to our spiritual lives, both in coming to know God in the first place and as we continue to grow in our faith. First Peter 1:23 says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” In other words, the Word of God plays a vital role in our becoming Christians. But to those who have been born again, Peter adds, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). Just as babies need nourishment to grow and thrive physically, so Christians need spiritual nourishment to grow and thrive spiritually. Peter is not only talking to new or “baby” Christians; he is telling everyone who has been born again to crave the Word of God like babies crave milk.
Although Peter is not distinguishing between new and old or mature and immature Christians, the writer of Hebrews does make that distinction when he writes, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:12–14). This author is disappointed with his readers. They have been Christians long enough that they should not only know the deep things of the Word of God (solid food) but be teaching them to others. But instead, they are stuck in immaturity and still need baby food (milk). Who are the mature? Those “who by constant use [of God’s Word] have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (v. 14). It could not be clearer: We cannot become Christians without the truth found in the Bible, nor can we become mature, holy Christians without the Bible. It is an essential part of our spiritual diet. We need to feed constantly on Scripture.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus said this while being tempted by Satan; he quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 to protect himself spiritually. In other words, even Jesus himself needed to be strengthened by God’s Word. At the last supper, Jesus prayed on behalf of his followers and requested of his Father, “Sanctify them [or make them holy] by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
So in the same way that we plan for things that are vital for our well-being in other areas—eating, exercise, finances—we also need to plan to regularly feed on the Word of God. If we are honest, we will admit that if we don’t make a plan, we probably won’t do it. So, should we plan to read the Bible? Absolutely! Our spiritual health is at stake!
Here is my challenge to you: commit to reading through the entire Bible regularly—every year or two. That may sound overwhelming, but it is not too hard if you have a plan. Reading the entire Bible is important because the entire Bible is important. God does not waste words on unimportant things. So our goal should be to get God’s Word into us over and over again throughout our lives.
There are many good plans available to help you. Back to the Bible has a variety of reading schedules to meet many needs at many sites on the Internet.
You can read through the Bible from beginning to end in the order of the canon (the order found in your Bible). You can read through the Bible chronologically, that is, reading the books in the order in which they fit in the flow of biblical history. You can read through the Old Testament and New Testament simultaneously. They also offer a plan that blends some of these strategies.
Some study Bibles include reading schedules. For example, the English Standard Version Study Bible has one that covers the entire Bible in one year. Assignments for each day include passages from four categories: Psalms and Wisdom Literature; Pentateuch and the History of Israel; Chronicles and Prophets; and Gospels and Epistles.
You can even devise your own schedule. There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament and 260 chapters in the New Testament. If you want to read each day, divide the total by 365. It might be wise to allow some flexibility in your schedule and set a goal for reading the Bible twenty-five days each month; that would mean dividing the total chapters by 300. If you want to move a bit slower, divide the chapters by 600 and cover the Bible in two years, reading twenty-five days per month.
I would encourage you to change things up along the way. Variety brings freshness, which is especially important if this is something you want to do for the rest of your life. Doing the same thing over and over can become routine and boring. For example, for your first read-through, start at Genesis and keep going until you reach the end of Revelation. Next time, read the books of the Bible chronologically. There have been several occasions when, due to my own spiritual needs, I have decided to read through and meditate on the psalms exclusively (regarding meditation, see chapter 39). I would read the book of Psalms two to three times in a year. But then, I would complete the rest of the Bible in the next year so that, over a two-year span, I had read the entire Bible. As is so important with any spiritual discipline, such as Bible reading, memorization, and meditation, find out what works for you and do that.
Remember one of the key texts regarding the inspiration of Scripture. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed …” The next verse provides the purpose: “… so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (v. 17). Through our commitment to regularly reading and studying the Bible, God will accomplish this wonderful purpose in our lives.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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