The wonder of God’s majesty always keeps me in awe. Imagine with me for a moment a world that is not “color blind” but one that is “color full.” What exactly do I mean? You see, we speak often about how we wish the world was “color blind” so we would be fully accepting of one another. I submit to you that it would be far better for our world to become “color full.” “Color full” would encourage us all to celebrate the fact that God has created vast shades of color in the human race. Think about it this way. Many who are milky light would like to get and keep a tan, others who are very dark at times desire to lighten up, and most of those inbetween would like to be a different shade of color than they are right now. Because most human beings are not content in our own skin we tend to be unaccepting of those who are most different from us. The only answer for true acceptance is to see everybody with the eyes of Jesus.
Therefore, God has continually placed a personal and corporate ministry statement upon my heart that is steadily being implemented. This statement is simply “Capturing the Culture of Christ.” In “Capturing the Culture of Christ” you and I are released from catering to the ideas of any particular culture or race and can concentrate on molding and shaping a completely new culture where Christ is the center piece. What currently happens is each culture “race” has an identity and some stigmas and stereotypes attached to that identity. In other words, statements will be made like, “Oh, they do that because that’s what their people do” or “You know it’s a cultural thing” or even “You don’t understand because you’re not like me and my people.” Although these statements and others like them are made and carry some measure of truth they do not explain how we are to meld together in God’s Kingdom.
Just look around and you will see that church is still very much divided and often very segregated. Many churches complain about how they just don’t understand other cultures so they can’t reach them. Others moan and groan about how people should become like them in order to fit in. Still some will comment that they don’t want “them” to take over our church. I’m not quite sure who “them” are but the statements are still made to me at various times. How do we at TEBC get beyond all of this? The only way I know of is through the Love of Jesus and our complete obedience unto God. Rather than accepting the ways, traditions, and patterns of every culture and attempting to implement that into the church we must look to the Scriptures and implement God’s Word creating the Culture of Christ in His House and in His people.
Capturing the Culture of Christ,
Bro. Bobby
Working with people of a wide variety of cultures is a blessing to me. To see that no matter how you were raised or what cultural situation you may be living in or what part of the world you were raised. We all have the same need. We all have the same condition. We all have the same need and that puts it mildly. We have a desperation for the Savior. We all sin, we all fall short. If we can see ourselves and realize that we aren’t any better than anyone else and humble ourselves before our G-d and king we can see what Brother Bobby is saying. We can be a community of followers from every tribe, tongue, and nation that Jesus wants us to be.
Thank you Brother Bobby and Shalom,
Ken
As children of God, if we would each let the love of Jesus Christ so fill our hearts and minds, everyone would be accepting to changes and to new peoples whether red, yellow, black, or white – and no one would see color when they look at people… they would only see a child of God.
Remember the song most all of us sang in Sunday School as we grew up?
(one of the verses went like this)
Red and Yellow Black and White,
they are precious in HIS sight,
Jesus loves the little children of this world.
We sang it then, but do we not believe what it says now… today – for our church? – for America?
We welcome changes and new people for our church family and pray in our hearts that we always welcome everyone in Jesus’ precious name.
Thank you Bro. Bobby. I know how good it feels to be accepted by my church and even loved there with all my flaws and sin. And how much more so to know that Jesus loved me enough to die for my wretched self. If I can remind myself of this daily, and be reminded (as your blog does), I can love and accept others too. God has given me help in this. My best friend is Asian, my financial planner is Indian and my church is more color-full all the time. God is the same towards us all. You are so right that we should implement God’s culture and not man’s cultures. I believe you follow this and it works.
God Bless you,
Kim