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VOL VIII   NO. 2   FEBRUARY  2007

REV. ROBERT KELLEY

 


Spiritual Reality Is The Reality! - Part III

 

Rev. Robert Kelley is the founder and president of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and pastored the St. Mark Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon at the time this was published.

 

(Editor´s Note: This is the conclusion of a postscript to the recent article, "The Renewing Of Our Minds.")

 

Instead of worrying about whether responsible Europeans and their descendents escape justice, black Americans need to worry about if we will or not (Hosea 7:2)!  There is only one way of escape from the global outpouring of God´s wrath coming against all Gentile nations and sinners (Haggai 2:20-22).  That way is through Jesus Christ alone (John 3:16-21; I Thessalonians 5:1-9; Hebrews 2:1-4)! But we are so free now we even have the nerve to debate about whether Jesus Christ is really the Son of God risen from the dead or not!

 

Our slave forefathers did not have the luxury of such a debate.  As God gives to every man the freewill to choose, they either chose to look to Him through Christ or outright chose not to in the midst of their painful bondage.  Thousands of spirituals and work songs with a biblical and/or Christian theme attest to the fact that many chose to believe!  Truly, we have not come this far by skepticism or other religions. Somebody had faith in the living God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

God honors faith, even the simple, child-like faith that our Christian slave forefathers possessed (Matthew 18:1-5). Our people have not been destroyed to this day because God has honored the faith of our Christian slave forefathers who suffered many long years and not a few died waiting for His deliverance.  And for what, that their descendants (especially our disillusioned men) as embittered victims might spit in the face of God because our lot seems so unfair? Or how foolish is it to root for the destruction of the nation we live in?

 

The Bible argues, "Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, "´why have you made me like this,´" (Romans 9:20b, NKJV)? And again, understanding that it is the Most High God who controls humans affairs, "Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins," (Lamentations 3:39, NKJV)? Rather than complaining as though somehow we, above all other human beings are innocent victims, we should be lifting our faces toward Heaven confessing to the God who judged us, "We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned," (Lamentations 3:42, NKJV). This, our Christian slave forefathers did!

 

Not as bitter victims, but chastened sons and strong men of God we were to endure our suffering and witness the strength of the risen Christ to the world!  As lights shining in a dark place, we were to reflect the glory of Christ as we each patiently bore our cross before persecutors and a watching world.    From slavery to victory in Jesus Christ our experience would trumpet to the oppressed in all nations (including those of the tribes in the land from whence we came) that there is salvation, hope and eternal life in Him!  And in the dark days of global Christian persecution to come (Matthew 24:9-10; Revelation 13:1-10), we would even be comforters to those who were once our worldly and often cruel masters.

 

Indeed, bitter victims don´t forgive those who have harmed them.  However, in the image of Jesus Christ who forgave those that condemned Him to die from the cross (Luke 23:34), forgiven black American strong men of God would forgive and do good to those who formerly enslaved them (Mark 11:25-26; Romans 12:17-21; I Peter 2:21-24).  This would not preclude Holy Spirit led, controlled and empowered freedom fighting as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught and lived out.  History is proving the Dr. King led portion of the Civil Rights Movement accomplished more for our people than any other!  Why? He did it God´s way!

 

As when God sent Israel into Babylonian captivity, we would also build, plant, marry, bear children and "seek the peace" of the cities and nation wherein we live in prayer so we might have peace (Jeremiah 29:4-7)!  We would not receive and should now stop listening to those false prophets God did not send, but trust in His plans for a glorious future that span eternity (Jeremiah 29:8-9, 11)!  This was the worthy future vision of our Western sojourn based on a biblical interpretation of our experience and a Bible Christian worldview.

 

It is now time for us to grow up in our understanding as a people. The ignorance of slavery is long past (I Corinthians 13:11). One of our strongest qualities is spiritual sensitivity.  God has wired us to sense spiritual reality as nearly second nature.  Our ancestors (and millions of their descendants in West Africa today) from fear in this ability engaged in all manner of sinful occult practices.  For them, spiritual reality was the most important reality. God could have righteously destroyed them because of their occultism and other wickedness.

 

Notwithstanding, in His mercy and grace God spared the lives of those who became our slave forefathers so they might serve His purposes in these last days of universal amnesty before His full wrath comes.  If the thing formed (and in our case, also mercifully spared from Hell which our forefathers deserved as sinners) does not or will not serve the purposes for which the Creator brought it forth, is it then worthy of further preservation?  If His response to fruitless fig trees is any indication, Jesus would say no (Matthew 21:18-19; Luke 13:6-9)!

 

We are running out of time.  If we will lay hold of the God of spiritual reality and fulfill His will for us, we must do so now! Otherwise, the rebellion-birthed destruction already at work among us will have its perfect consummation!


 

©2007 Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc