MY RAMBLINGS ABOUT "SUCCESSFUL" CHRISTIAN BLACK PEOPLE AND SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT BLACK MEN I

Let me start by making it clear that "success" is a relative term. "Success"or "successful" in this writing means the degree to which a person has been recognized by their community for how they have utilized their God-given gifts and abilities in the earth--and the degree to which people appreciate those gifts enough to want to hear a person's story. For instance, an obese person who manages to lose a significant amount of weight and works his or her way to a fit and healthy body may have a story that inspires, especially if they've mastered certain fitness techniques that help others. Whether this person is wealthy or not or has earned college degrees may not matter to a person bound by food addiction or compulsive overeating. If this fitness guru has been gifted with a speaking ability that has a profound impact on all that hear his or her words, then that person is successful in this context. A person who has overcome physical disabilities in order to defy the odds on what they were expected to achieve in their lifetime may be deemed "successful" and have a testimony to which people are drawn. Helen Keller comes to mind. The world's standards of success has much to do with education, income, status, and the like. That's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the opportunity a person has to influence others based on the world's recognition that something special has occurred in their life. So, in this context, the Christian parents who speak at community seminars about the best ways to help an autistic child operate in heightened levels of independence, based on the success they've had, are just as successful as the person who created the traffic light. Or perhaps a successful person is just someone who makes good biscuits. *You'll catch that in a minute.

With that being said, here are my ramblings about Black Christians who perpetuate the “fight the power” ideology and this idea that Christians can somehow bypass using the Power of Jesus in the fight and some thoughts and poetry on the Black Man in general. Enjoy—if you can.

You know some people believe racism is the worst sin ever. Now that’s probably an okay way to think if you don’t claim to be a follower of Christ. They believe racists are the most disgusting people on the planet. They hate them. The peculiar thing is that many of those same people clap back with “no sin is greater than the other” when folks start talking about homosexuality and abortion. Help me understand.

It bothers me when I hear Christian black people (I am focused on the Black experience here) who have bought into this idea that the “all powerful” “WHITE MAN” is the holder of their destiny. Many successful black people, who claim Christianity, will give glory to God and acknowledge Jesus as Lord in front of some people and will say from their lips that without the grace of God and His help in the midnight hour and miraculous open doors and answered prayers, they wouldn’t be where they are today, but, when pressed to take that same message and testimony to the black community, they yield to their desire to be accepted. They default to this “everybody doesn’t believe in Jesus, so I’ll just leave the ‘Jesus’ part out of the message, strategy. “I should still be able to have a practical influence over my black people who are oppressed by the White man” ideology. I don’t understand that. I think it’s cowardly. How can you stand before people and not tell them the “REAL KEY” to your success, who is Jesus?

I think you’re hiding the ball so that they don’t reject YOU! You’re afraid to give all glory and honor to God before men and you’re helping them to believe that the “WHITE MAN” holds the key to their destiny when the White Man’s keys obviously couldn’t lock your destiny shut. You see, it was JESUS that opened doors for YOU and helped YOU and made a way for YOU. How did YOU get past the WHITE MAN? Do you not think He will do it for the black youth too? Why would you withhold the route you took? Let me answer that—so that they’re not offended and won’t reject you and what YOU have to say. WELLLL, if they ask ME to come speak to their youth, they better be ready to hear the TRUTH! I can only tell them how I overcame obstacles, whether it was racism, my own laziness, insecurity, bad choices, or the influence of incorrect ideologies growing up. I can’t tell them any OTHER way. I can’t leave out PARTS of my journey. It was JESUS! Periodtttt!

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Not Ashamed to proclaim the name

Invite ME in to speak to your youth

And I’m going to proclaim who I know is the Truth

His name is JESUS

AND I won’t bite my tongue to please “us”.

I can give you practical ways to get A’s and Bs, you see

But had I not stayed on my knees it would have been Cs and Ds for me

Don’t be deceived we have ONE enemy that’s common to man

I know who he is and now I know who I am

And it’s NOT the “White Man”

Black men running around giving your power to everything you see ....

You think that’s not affecting your destiny??!!

Saying the white man is holding you down

But you have freely given your penis your crown!!

Go out black man and find your wife

Build a life and legacy that’ll glorify CHRIST.

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I actually BELIEVE what the Bible says. I am not wrestling with FLESH AND BLOOD. Some of you all who profess to follow Christ believe you are wrestling with the White Man and you’re spreading that propaganda.

Be clear, there is ONE enemy common to man and he HATES us ALL and works against us all.

Don’t be deceived. Be careful of anyone who says, “White Men are evil, but I’m not because I’m black and you’re black and we’re brothers because I’m black and I’m FOR you because I’m black like you.” Yeah okay.

Who wasn’t affected by the fall of man? Black people? Black people are the victims of man, but black people have no transgressions against man? That’s odd. 🤔 I thought everybody was affected by the Fall.

All of my brothers and sisters are IN CHRIST, no matter the race. End of story.

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It seems to me that the only movements that have had a significant impact on the upward social movement of an oppressed race have included God and an outward expression of faith IN HIM and a UNITED effort among the races. Only God can move mountains like systemic oppression, but some of you are at the feet of man yelling and stomping and pounding your fists for change, and it’s futile. It’s only the Grace and interventions of God in the hearts of man that bring about change. Stop expecting people in power to hand over and disperse power to you. That’s just silly. ALL power is in God’s hands and He disperses it to whomever He wishes. Here’s a strategy, Black Man:

Seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, show Him that you’ll be responsible with power and then humble yourself before Him to request more of it. (hint -if you’re responsible with the power you have over small things for example your household, meaning your wife and children, if you can manage THAT and be faithful to THAT, then God may entrust you with more power and expand your reach into your community and government) Ask yourself, “How is my stewardship over little, that the Lord may consider me worthy to rule over many things?”

If you want power, Black MAN you will have to SURRENDER and humble yourself! You will have to put yourself in the hands of God. Can you do that? Is it in you to Surrender?

Put your hands up black man—surrender to Christ!! Submit yourselves to HIM and bow down to Him. Confess that HE IS ALL POWERFUL! And THAT NO MAN can come against what God has for you IN CHRIST. THEN, you’ll have liberty. There IS no other way.

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I won’t keep my Lord under wraps. I KNOW HIS way works. Man cannot oppress God’s people forever. Jesus removed the chain of oppression from my mind and HE can remove it from anyone I may be able to influence. EACH of us, meaning EVERY LAST ONE of us, has been endowed by the Creator with special and unique gifts that are valuable, gifts that should be shared with humanity and that can be used to make a way for us. Those gifts CAN be cultivated as we walk in relationship with Jesus. There are people out there who believe that certain people and people groups are so downtrodden that they have no gifts and nothing to share with the world. That’s a LIE from the pit of hell. God can reveal gifts that we never knew we had. The problem is, everyone wants to bypass the relationship with God and many black Christians promote that ideology when they have a chance to reach people. They say a “little something about God” like He is a side note or an afterthought to their success story. They give him a cursory shout out during or after their speech whenever they do have the opportunity to reach a community, even though they know in their hearts that without Him they could have done NOTHING. If we, Christ followers, aren’t bold enough to profess Christ at speaking events or in places where we have influence, then surely people will think we are a reflection of the Lord we say that we represent. Jesus is not soft, but oftentimes we are. We are afraid to speak the TRUTH in public.

Christians complain about Jesus being portrayed as “soft” but WE are the ones who are the portrait of Jesus in the earth and many Christians TRULY believe that the “WHITE MAN” has enough power over them to keep them oppressed. If that’s true, what does that say about the God you say you serve? What does that say about Jesus?

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The system that oppresses is the World system. The World system is rooted in a spiritual system of evil. Some of the inner workings of The US government and the governmental systems around the world are just carnal manifestations of the spiritual system that’s controlling.

I pray that a NEW movement emerges among followers of Christ, especially in the Black community. I pray that any person professing Jesus as Lord behind closed doors and among other Christians will be given the courage and fortitude to take their WHOLE story to the masses when they have the opportunity to influence those who are oppressed. I say, don’t get in front of these communities and share an abbreviated and watered-down version of how you overcame your obstacles. TELL them about how the Lord gave you ideas about new ways to tackle assignments. TELL them about how He, Jesus, encouraged you in the midnight hour. TELL them how you prayed and almost gave up until the Lord showed up. TELL them about your tears and how you cried out to God and how HE ANSWERED and helped you! You WILL ALWAYS have people in your audience who don’t believe in God or as they say, “Jesus and all that”. Many of them believe the whole idea of religion is, once again, a creation of the “all powerful” White Man. Hear me: White people are just people. It takes the Lord to free a community from a mindset that says they are anything more or less than that.

I charge followers of Christ to come against the idea that black communities need anything other than the power, provision, and intervention of God on their side to overcome human oppression. And hasn’t He already done that when He sent his ONLY son to die for us? All we have to do is EMBRACE the power that we’ve been granted access to, accept the provision, and ALLOW the intervention! We do that by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Stop pointing the oppressed and the youth in the WRONG direction. Show them enough respect to TELL THEM THE TRUTH about how you came to break free from the oppression of the mind that is binding them. It’s going to take COURAGE. And for those in your audience who don’t believe in “all that God and Jesus and religion stuff” then let them know that you can only tell YOUR story. Somebody else may be able to tell them another way, but you can only speak to YOUR experience and nothing else. It’s that simple. Some people might walk out and leave and may not like you. Oh well. Go IN expecting that and it won’t bother you as much. Everybody won’t love you because they didn’t love Jesus. Don’t be afraid! What can people do to you? Remember what our brother said in Romans, Romans 8:31 (ESV) about God's everlasting love. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

THOSE BISCUITS THO!

Imagine having a family gathering where there’s this one family member who always makes the BEST tasting, softest, and moist biscuits anyone’s ever had. They fall apart and melt in your mouth. Let’s call her Gloria. Now the original recipe was passed down from generation to generation and they were pretty good. But one day, many years ago, Gloria got a tip from a Master Chef. He told her that including a little sour cream in her recipe would work wonders on the texture of those biscuits. Ever since Gloria started using the sour cream, the family has been begging her for the recipe, but she doesn’t really want to share it because most of her family members have always professed that they are lactose intolerant. She thinks they’ll be mad at her when she tells them the truth, so Gloria keeps giving her family members the old recipe when they ask, leaving out that one key ingredient. However, she keeps serving them the delicious biscuits at family events. Each time one of her family members tries the recipe that she gives them, they end up calling her with complaints and frustrations about why they can’t achieve the same results that she achieves. They believe they are using the exact same ingredients and following the exact same instructions that Gloria does. Although she knows better, Gloria tells them that their failure may be because of their old white oven because she uses a modern black powerful oven. Not only do Gloria’s family members keep making mediocre biscuits, but they don’t understand that they are not bound by the restrictions they put on themselves for being “lactose intolerant”. They’ve been tearing those sour cream biscuits up for years with no ill effect. (Go with this analogy for the sake of illustration. I know there are a lot of vegans who may take issue with this analogy. Just try to grasp the point.)

By failing to let them know how she really made those biscuits, Gloria is allowing her family to remain in the chains of their brains, believing they are still lactose intolerant. Imagine if they knew her REAL key to success. Might they venture out and expand their dietary experience and try new recipes of their own because of their new found freedom? Might this revelation open doors for her family in ways she never imagined? And on top of that, THEY WILL NEVER REPRODUCE the success she’s had making those biscuits as long as they’re missing a key ingredient and blaming their old white oven.

Don’t be like Gloria. IF YOU KNOW BETTER, don’t withhold the key ingredient to your success from people who look up to you. Don’t allow them to honor the works of YOUR hands, without acknowledging the influence the Master Chef has had on your story. If you know better, direct them toward the answer, who is Christ, who can free them from the chains of an oppressive mindset. Don’t waste your time or theirs pointing them toward an old white oven that has no power over their end result, which is their destiny. If you know Jesus, you know there is no bypassing His power in obtaining the liberty we so desperately long for as a people.