Take My Hand Inspirations
SALVATION SERIES
STEP 5: Finally
Inviting Christ Into Your Heart
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes
to Me I will by no means cast out (John
6:37).
For
many of us, our whole life’s story is one of rejection—not being accepted for
who you are. Sheila grew up shrouded in
a culture of hatred. No matter which way
she turned, she was met with a blow to the way her hair was kinky or a belt to
the part of town she lived in or a blockade to her road of academic achievement
simply (or for “them”, the haters, stupidly) because of her gender—a girl child—and
race—Beautiful Black African! In other
words, abject intolerance or reckless racism were all mixed up in junior high
and high school society, so where could she go to find worth and peace and
freedom “to be me” in a messed up crippling world?
THE
CHURCH. This was the place she found herself in most
of her evening hours during the week and mostly all day long on Sunday. A place of refuge where her family could go
and relax with others struggling for or (to be honest) battling for the right
to life. This was the spot to dump all her
burdens and woes, fears and blows—at the cross of Jesus Christ.
But
for many members in Sheila’s church family, there was a rift in the connection
of Black people worshiping a “White” Jesus, the very nightmarish image of the
raving lunatic called “the oppressor”. How could hope and love emanate from such a
figure connected to a race that spewed evil everywhere it went, colonizing,
enslaving, and pressing down everything good about peoples with more melanin
than they? Even her folks on the motherland ridiculed her family while pouring
libation to their “real gods”, black gods, in African Traditional religion.
While
riding in the back seat of her father’s burgundy Corolla, she thought deeply
about this dichotomy: if God is love and Jesus loves me, then why do “Whites”
hate “Blacks” so much so as to remorselessly hang them on trees or openly kill
them dead on the streets or institutionalize this hatred in unspoken policies
in schools, work places, restaurants, and even which toilet to use (as if white
----- smells better than black ----).
All these questions rattled in her teen-aged mind until she slept that night under
heavy rainfall and a thick pink blanket atop a firm mattress and plush pillow.
Jesus came to her
in a dream. It sounded like He was knocking at a door (or
was it the rain beating the window pane?), so she got up to open it. In came this figure described in the Bible: And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius
stone in appearance (Rev. 4:3). His
head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a
flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, [and
His voice as the sound of many waters] (Rev. 1:14-15a). His face shown like the sun, and His clothes
became white as the light (Matthew 17:2). Jesus in His natural form, His real form in
the world called spiritual, is quite opposite than how He is pictured in the
physical world. So let us remember that:
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. . . . All things were made through
Him. In Him was life, and the life was
the light of men. And the light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. . . . to bear
witness of the Light, that all through Him might believe. And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth
(Read John
1:1-14).
Now
let’s put this entanglement to taking Step 5 to rest. Jesus is neither white nor black. He is the Word of God and Light
(like fire, fine brass, jasper, shining sun, all pure gold in colour). What He looked like on earth must be left in the past because He has resurrected and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father. And when He returns, will He not be in His glorified body? Dearly beloved, it would be too late to decide to let Jesus in your heart after you have confirmed his human skin tone. Wouldn’t you be honoured to worship the most
precious of God’s creation—His Word and His Light—which destroy all things in
darkness including the power of idols, false gods, and, most definitely, the
power of sin entrapping a man’s soul, including making him confused and entangled in strongholds called arguments/distractions about the colour of Jesus?
Sheila
smiled and felt so safe, so warm, so special and cared for, so at peace and so
loved in the presence of Jesus as they dined together that night. They dined together every night until she
danced with Him into eternal Light.
DO
YOU WANT TO FEEL SO SAFE, WARM, SPECIAL, CARED FOR, AT PEACE AND
UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED?
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
© 2018 by Take My Hand Inspirations, a
division of PepParadise Society Ltd Publishers.
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Unless otherwise stated, all scripture
quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
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Take My Hand Inspirations
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