MEN OF COLOR...ALL MEN ARE COLORED!

I am blessed to be a part of this little band of brothers; these are what we all call the men of the "Upper Room". For about 5 years, we have gathered together to eat our lunch, and to study God's word. I should say that we eat a spiritual feast every day that we are at work. It is possibly the most incredible Spiritual journey that I have ever been on. Our study and contemplation of The Word is "super intense". It took us 2 years to study the Psalms. Some days, we only covered 1 or 2 verses, because we found a nugget of gold in the scriptures that needed to be digested slowly. Maybe to the chagrin of some who read this, is the fact that we are compiled of Christians from all denominations...some Baptist, some Penticostal, some Catholics, some former Catholics, and I think even a Methodist. Obviously from looking at the photo, you can see that we are also diverse in races, as well. We also pray together, and we have witnessed some awesome answers to our prayers, among which are physical healings, restored marriages, foiled satanic attacks, and blessings of all kinds. We have laughed, cried, laid hands on the sick, and grown in Love for one another in a way that is really indescribable.
The one thing that we have discovered is that we are all color blind when it comes to race. We know that there will be NO color in Heaven. I find it interesting that there is only one chromazome difference between the darkest black man and the fairest white man, and God most likely built in these differences to adjust for climate locale of the races. Obviously, no two people are identical, even twins; we all have characteristics that differ in some way, even though there may be similarities. There are, however, personality traits that are common to all, and we can have control over how these traits are implemented in our lives. The negative ones that we all experience from time to time, are all tied to hate, and have satanic ties...like anger, greed, avarice, envy, strife, intolerance, violence, deceit, and cruelty, to name a few. All human beings are capable of these things, and we are all presented with the opportunity, from time to time, to practice them in our lives, or to CHOOSE not to. Racial origin has absolutely NOTHING to do with the choice, these are common human traits that are NOT of God!
Jesus said,"For a good tree bringeth NOT forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by HIS own fruit."Luke6:42,43.
Galatians says that "the fruit of the Spirit(of God) is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith. Meekness, temperance;against which there is NO law...If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us NOT be desirous of vain glory,(NOT) provoking one another,(NOT) envying one another."
I write to you these things, because some people seem to think that there is something wrong with loving a person of another race; that their race is somehow better than another; that they may have done something good, deserving of being born white, or black, for that matter. In some cases, these people are also self proclaimed Christians. ...QUESTION: Where in God's Word does He condone such thinking? I maintain that such thinking is hate-based, and NOT of God! God IS not a God of some sort of karma, where He decides that one person gets to enter the Earth wearing a certain skin color, with better or worse living conditions than another. If you believe in the Bible, then you must understand one thing... God destroyed every person on the Earth at the great flood, EXCEPT Noah and his family, a total of 8 people. EVERYONE born on the Earth, since that great flood, is a direct descendant of those 8 people; Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives. SO!!! If you could literally pour all of the blood of every human from that time until now, into one great huge pool, it would all be the same blood. Although it's weird to think of it in that way, pondering it in that manner aids in comprehending how closely we are all related, NO matter what the skin color may be.

What I have laid out here is a simple blueprint of right and wrong. It is true that as long as we live on this Earth, that we will experience "bad things" happening all around us, and that possibly the resentment and hatred between the races of humans will continue in some manner, BUT is it required? Does everyone have to participate? You may respond to me with all kinds of hypotheses, or "what ifs", or "because they did this or thats", or "they hate us, we will hate 'em back". NO my friend, that does not answer the question of: "Since many people participate in racial disharmony, should I be connected to, or participate with them in their hatred?" MY answer is NO! What is YOURS! My friend Jeff, who is a part of our group, says that dialogue across racial lines is a good thing; I agree, but even sincere dialogue is just what it is...TALK! Until positive, bridge building action is implemented, talking is futile. It is really not so hard to do; people just need to jump off the train of unforgiveness and stubborness, and make the first move towards freedom.

What kind of freedom are we talking about here? When I was growing up, I was raised in a Southern, white racist society. Because my father was raised in the same environment, he succombed to the typical race bating, and jokes that pervaded our everyday life; it was his peer pressure of the time, but even though he always had the usual prejudiced things to say(like almost every friend and co-worker that he had), I learned that there was something different about him that even he did not fully understand. I often think that my wonderful mother was his stabilizing factor, for she always taught me that I was not better than anyone, and that every person has feelings, that every person feels pain, that every person has a need to be loved, and that I should never mistreat anyone in ANY way, no matter what race they may be. I truly think that this thinking must have rubbed off on my Dad. It was proven to me on a couple of occasions. My Dad was in management for a major airline for over 33 years; on one occasion, a black man, who had worked there for 25 years with a near perfect work record, was left by his wife of over 20 years; she ran off with another man. Well, this employee lost his mind, and went out and got drunk for about 3 days, and did not show up for work. My dad was forced to fire the guy. When he sobered up, he asked for an appointment to see my dad. After explaining what happened, my father fought with upper managent to rehire this man, because he had such a great work record, and he had put in 25+ years of service to the company. Upper management reluctantly gave the man his job back, BUT without any of his seniority. My dad did battle, again,to get the man's seniority reinstated, as well.

On another occasion, we were eating our breakfast at 6am one morning in our nice suburban home, when there was a knock at the door; my dad opened the door to find a young skinny black boy, about 13, standing there in the cold(about 18 degrees). It seems that a white man had dropped him off to throw the newspapers for his route, and never returned to pick him up. "Pleez mista, I won't harm anyone, I just need to come in a get warm," he pleaded. My dad brought him in, and sat him down, and fed him some hot breakfast, and warm milk. My dad never even made warm milk for any of us, but he could see that this young man was in danger for freezing to death! After that, he even gave him a jacket, then took him home, on his way to work.

My dad was a really good man in so many ways, but there was always that peer pressure on him to act like a biggot. The truth is that I know that he was not like that in his heart. Once, when he was in his late seventies he was at a Christmas party at his mostly white church. He was making a racially slanted remark, when he realized that the one black man in his Sunday school class, overheard him. My mother told me later that my dad's heart was broken... with tears in his eyes, he went over to the black man, and begged his forgiveness, and told him that he loved him, and that he was wrong. I really think that Dad meant it, and that he wasn't just ashamed of being "caught".

Many people think that Martin Luther King was "all about" freedom for the Negroes, and the civil rights of African Americans. NOT TOTALLY TRUE! In 1963, it was inevitable that the Civil Rights Bill would be Law, and that integration was coming. What he sought was a much deeper freedom than that! Every man, woman , and child should read MLK's "I HAVE A DREAM" speech. I will quote to you what I consider to be his deepest motive for us all ...ALL of us!

"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE ARE FREE AT LAST!"

For the speech in its entirety, go to http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html

WILL YOU BE FREE TODAY? FREE YOURSELF FROM HATRED...FREE YOURSELF TO LOVE........aside from the bag of iron chains that will be taken off your shoulders, will come the incredible ability to have a lot more friends, and a lot more......PEACE! PEACE with God, yourself, and your fellow man. I am speaking from my own personal experience!!!

JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN...ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD.
RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE,
THEY ARE PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT,
JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD!