condition of the Heart…
Someone pointed out to me that it might be due to my age but my view on racism was an oversimplification of the problem. It was pointed out that some people had to drive 60mi to work because jobs in town only would hire minorities and that businesses are afraid to discipline minorities for poor performance due to lawsuits and discrimination charges. I have seen a couple of cases of this. I worked at one employment that had to x number of whites and x number of minorities working on the floor. If a black man quit another minority was hired in his place and the same if a white man quit a white man would be hired in his place. At another place of employment I can remember a supervisor getting in trouble because there were to many black people in his department. He had to start hiring whites to even out the ratio. Now I am thinking this is due to Affirmative Action but I am not 100% on that…there might be another reason for it. This is not about whether this is reverse discrimination, helping or hurting, moral compensation, or fair or unfair! My reason for not addressing those issues is because it doesn’t matter, racism is simple in Bible, if you die with hatred in your heart you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven, if you die with unforgiveness in your heart you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Excuses why do not matter to God.
I still hold firm to my stance that racism is a tradition passed down but I do understand there are many other reasons for racism and this concept might be more for my age group and younger. While thinking about this it has made me realize how important it is to guard our heart. How easy it is for us to build up resentment against a certain race or socio status due to our cultural/behavioral differences!
Guarding Our Hearts
I find in some cases that racism might be unintentional, might not be really realized because you only get that way when certain circumstances or situations with another race or socio class happen.
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
“ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
We have to guard our hearts because it is the condition of our hearts that will allow us to enter the kingdom of Heaven! You heart is your life, it is the final condition of your heart that determines your eternal fate. The heart is your contentment in life, it is your joy, it is your peace, and it is your freedom in Christ.
I want to point out something, if you are racist or harbor unforgiveness and you decide that you want to change and you start making a change in your heart I believe that is a heart after Christ. It doesn’t mean your heart is going to change overnight, it will take work but as long as you are praying and working with Christ to remove it from your life you heart is a heart after Jesus. The only thing that matters is Jesus and your relationship with Him! His guidance of your life will lead to success for the Kingdom of God.
Guarding our Minds
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
You must be careful of what you allow yourself to think about. The more you entertain thoughts, the more susceptible you are to succumbing to them!
I was talking to Pastor Brown the other night about hearing Gods voice and learning to distinguish between Gods voice and Satans/Our own thoughts. Here is what he said, “The Hebrew word is Nabba. It is the “bubbling up” of God’s voice (River) from deep within our Spirit. It is “deep calling unto deep” - which is a term most Christians have no revelation of…it is a heart thing that touches the mind, but it does not start in the mind. Our thoughts start in the mind, and Satan’s suggestions are to the mind. That’s why we must be led by the Spirit that is in our heart.”
Now I have not studied this but it is how I am envisioning spiritual warfare of the mind. So we guard our hearts and mind because God speaks to use from our hearts to our minds, and Satan speaks to our minds to penetrate our hearts! It reminds me of old war movies where the enemy is trying to penetrate the gate to enter the city so they use this battering ram to bust it down to infiltrate the city. I feel the same concepts apply, for we are always engaging in spiritual warfare, Satan trying to infiltrate the Temple of God…our hearts by bombarding our minds with unclean thoughts!
No one is Worthy
Romans 3:10 (NIV)
“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
John 8:1-11 (NIV)
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Who are we to think we are better than anyone else? Who are we to think that anything we do is worthy of God’s love, grace, and mercy? We are NOT and arrogant if we think we are! We have to forgive them, regardless of whatever excuse you want to make! These are not my words but Christ’s and John 14:23-24 tells us that those who love Jesus will obey His teachings and those who do not love Him will not follow His teachings!
Forgiving
Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Loving
The bible doesn’t just to forgive them but you also have to love them! You have to be patient, kind, content, humble, polite, serving, calm, forgiving, rejoicing in the truth, protective, trusting, hopeful, and persevering with them! 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Matthew 22:36-39 (NIV)
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Legalism or Not?
You might think this is Legalism, just me attempting to put rules and guilt on people and conforming them to believe what I believe or as I think a Christian should be. That is not my heart and this is nothing more than what God is revealing to me, my thoughts, studies, and feelings put in words. No I do not believe this is legalism but Jesus’ teachings. I know myself and others will be guilty of it at one point or another. It is not the works that get us into Heaven but Jesus and it His blood that covers our sins. There isn’t 1 thing I can do to get into Heaven. When I gave my Heart to Christ my life became not my own, it never was, but Jesus’. This is to make you aware what the Bible says about racism, judging and for those who are living in these sins to repent and begin changing their hearts! This will not happen overnight, you will not be able to make the change on your own for you cannot do anything. Though as you seek God in prayer, dwelling upon His word, fasting, serving others you will find as you grow closer to God these things will be removed from your heart and replaced with a Love for God and others!
I am no one; I have my faults and struggles. I struggle with thoughts, praying, reading, fasting, and serving on a regular basis. I am simply a man who is seeks all that God has for me. Who wants to please God in all that I do and say. Am I there? NO, but I am trying to get there! My heart is a heart after God and I know He is faithful to receive me! If you get out of the everything is about me mentality and realize that Everything is about Jesus you will begin to see it! That is where I am right now; Jesus is bringing me from an “I” mindset to a Jesus mindset!
Should we interpret the scriptures referenced as literal?
Well I do plan on studying and writing more on that but to simplify this question I will answer it like this. For most of those I know, they believe the Bible is literal. Though I find sometimes people can turn blunt teachings into a moral lesson and use an excuse as to why they do not follow it. All the while they claim the Bible is literal. If the Bible is literal then it is literal…which is how I believe. It concerns me that many people who I believe are Christians, will not make it to Heaven because of their warped mindset and unwillingness to sellout to Christ. They want Heaven but they still want parts of their life more…
Luke 16:13 (NIV)
“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
James 1:22-25(NIV)
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
James 4:4(N IV)
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
