March 28
Deut 9:1-10:22 | PS 69:19-36 | Prov 12:2-3 | Luke 8:4-21
Slavery is wrong and was wrong, and will always be wrong. When an enslaved group gets emancipated, what happens has much to do with what they do with the past and how they see the future. Booker T. Washington, who was raised in slavery, adhered to Christian principles, and was quoted as saying, "The happiest people are those who do the most for others", "If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else", and "Character, not circumstances, makes the man,". Many may not be aware, that he, and others were responsible for creating "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma (which was attacked in 1921, but rose again to prominence afterwards), and created Harlem to be a thriving center for people of color in terms of business, church, the arts, etc. Contrast this with the mentality of BLM, which as stated by its own founders is a Marxist organization (Marxism at its core is anti-God, anti-religion). As opposed to leaders like Booker T. Washington who elevated the people, there are leaders like Al Sharpton who elevate their status as victims. Civil rights, social justice all sound so good, but, sadly they have been responsible for maintaining bondage, more than any other group they like to point at. As long as people continue to see themselves as victims, they will always feel entitled rather than thankful, seeking justice rather than seeing grace, be rebellious rather than being broken before the God of the universe.
As we continue through the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, it is easy to forget that it is a story of a group of people who were emancipated from bondage. The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt for around 400 years. Their treatment while in Egypt was terrible. Yet, the Torah is a book of emancipation. God does not speak to them as victims, but as a people looking forward to embrace the freedom that He is offering them. What held them back from enjoying their freedom sooner was their own mentality, their own stubbornness. God freed them, and His instructions were clear, as we read in Deuteronomy 10:12-13, "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?" Look forward, break the shackles of victimhood and the mindset that comes with entitlement. We read, why they struggled for so long, as we read in 10:16, "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer." God further said of the people in 9:24, "You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you."
The enemy wants to keep people in bondage. This could be people groups or individuals. People who see themselves as victims will never be free. Victims see themselves as being owed something. When we reflect on the riots fueled by BLM, there was so much anger, rage, screaming, etc. People who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior remain in bondage to sin. Sadly, most leaders care little for those they claim to be leading but more about their own status and popularity. As long as we remain rebellious we will never be broken before the Lord. As long as we feel we are owed something, we will not realize that we deserve nothing. If freedom is what one desires it comes from repentance and being under God's grace and mercy. Anything else is a lie, no matter how well it is dressed up.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: