Yes, our hearts are broken over what is happening in our country — it started with a virus that has taken over our world as we once knew it. Now we see rioting and looting in the streets over injustices committed to our fellow citizens. Wrongs have been committed as people have taken things into their own hands. Due to this unrest, there have been many needless deaths in our country.
Everyone has an idea as to how this chaos can be stopped and the world again become the peaceful, safe place we once knew. As Christians we should not, we cannot remain silent. Our commitment to God and the soon coming of Jesus must be ever in the forefront of our thinking. Our every action must show the world that we serve a God who gave his Son to an ugly death so that we would not be forever lost. He knows all about injustice.
Taking a political side will never solve the problem. Ignoring safety precautions will never solve the problem. Taking to the streets in riot will never solve the problem. We are all in agreement that change is needed. . . but who should bring about this change? In Isaiah 58 God speaks to his people: “Tell My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.” God deals primarily with reforming His church, not the government, because His church is to be the salt and the light which permeates and changes the secular culture around them.
Jesus is to be our example in all things. He lived under the harsh government of Rome. He saw and experienced Rome’s social and racial injustice; but how often do we find Him marching in protest against its social abuses? Did He stage protests or circulate petitions to have corrupt leaders removed from office? NO! He simply told His followers, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say and do not do.” Jesus taught against racism in the story of the Good Samaritan. He demonstrated that all lives matter in His dealings with the Roman centurion whose son was dying, the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and the two demon-possessed men who lived among the tombs in the region of the Gadarenes. Matthew 5:38-46.
"The only thing that can change the heart is the power of God, and the only heart He can change is the one given to Him."
God has not called us to change our government but to bring Jesus to the hurting throngs. The only thing that can change the heart is the power of God, and the only heart He can change is the one given to Him. As followers of Jesus we are not to unite with groups who use unbiblical and unChristlike methods to protest against social injustices. It is Satan’s work to divide us into groups — black and white, rich and poor, privileged and under privileged. It is his work to turn us against each other through envy and strife.
Let us accept the wisdom that comes from God, go out and live it wherever we go, with everyone we meet, and in whatever situation we find ourselves. We may not change the world for everyone; but we can change it for one person at a time by bringing that one to Jesus.
Yes, “Black Lives Matter.” But, let’s not forget that “Black Lives Matter” is a subset of “ALL LIVES MATTER.” I love the song: “Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in his sight.”
Dear Father in Heaven, please help us, as a church, to live out your mission to the world.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Cheryl Lindeman