The Times We are Living
There are a few amongst us who are living witnesses of some of America’s darkest sins of the past. My mom is 92 years old at the time of writing this essay. I am pleased to say that she is still mentally and physically sound. She still drives herself to the Y and does her lite workout exercises several times a week. In addition, she lives in Tennessee, where she was born and lived all her life. I was born there also but I left the south during my mid-twenties. When I left home back in the mid-1970s race relations were still atrocious. We were still going through the civil rights unrest during those times. That period shaped me into the person that I ultimately became today, the good and the bad. That fire still lives in my belly until this day.
The life my mom experienced from the late 1920s through the 1960s was even more unimaginable. Blacks lived in fear in the deep southern portion of the good old USA. Segregation was the accepted unnatural order of the south. Blacks knew the consequences of crossing racial lines. Had it not been for the bravery of a few leaders change would not have occurred? Bigotry was so deeply etched in the system for so long that only a few select blacks would cross the line, many died doing so. Unless you have experienced living under such a vicious and demonic power you don’t realize the lasting effects of such brutality and oppression.
I often speak about America’s dark past because race relations indeed have always been an essential part of the fabric of this nation. It has indelibly imprinted a very deep and dark wound on the souls of so many of its citizens. The scars from this centuries-old practice have gravely impacted countless lives that suffered at the hands of evil, vile, and ungodly people. Such a toll cannot be rectified by any measure we could use to make an adequate assessment. Many souls were killed, thrown overboard, buried in shallow graves, burned alive, hung on trees, Used as medical guinea pigs, or slaughtered out in the parries across this nation. Human beings were treated as savages and not even given acknowledgment of their humanity. This dark past has carried over until right now. It exists just beneath the surface like a slightly frozen glaze of ice on a lake. Unfortunately, there are factions poking holes in that thin veneer today hoping to return things back to the olden days.
As a country that claims allegiance with God, it makes you wonder what god they might have been worshipping. I don’t need to go over the past 400 years of the history of this land to describe the gruesome details about how unfair, unequal, inhumane, or unjust the treatment of many of our nation’s natural-born citizens unfolded. Sufficient to say that many racial minorities, especially those of color, to also include native-born American Indians and African Americans suffered the brunt of the evil in the bile of bigots. God’s heart must have been broken hundreds of millions of times as He witnesses the horrific treatment of His many children of creation. One would hope that His true children would take a stand for at least what is decent, or at basic minimum, what is humane.
To abuse, any human being or animal is an offense against their Creator. Whether it is done through submission, omission, or neglect, the results are the same. God is very clear… you are either for or against Him. That means when you knowingly and willingly do things against God’s creations, you do the same against Him. Christ said, “What you did to the least of them you did unto Me.” Likewise, “What you did not do for the least of them, you also did not do for Me.” Over the past 400 years of the history of this country alone, there is a lot of atonement that has to be made before God Almighty. There are people walking around today acting as if none of this ever happened, but God has been keeping the score and His day of reckoning is at hand. Every knee shall bow before Him!
There was a time, not that long ago when minorities were forced to submit to unfair treatment sanctioned by the leaders of this nation and by those who were placed in power to govern over the people. Slavery was not a minor hiccup. The slaughter of American Indians was not just a hiccup. Placing citizens in internment camps was not an accident. Using poor people as health test subjects was by design. Discriminating against people of a race, denying people their God-given rights and like were not, and does not reveal evidence of God-fearing people. For a nation to live under a constant lie for so long until it becomes a way of life… doesn’t make the lies become truth.
This country has a lot of retribution to pay and it is Almighty God that has been offended. No one stone will go unturned and no debt will go unpaid. God’s children need not seek revenge, for it will snag them into the same trap along with the other offenders. Your God says: “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”
Moses said it this way to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 32:43:
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”
It would be easy to take matters in your hands because of the injustices you know to have happened. No matter how egregious they may have been to people, they offended God’s righteousness… in this arena, no man has the right or duty to assess. Vengeance belongs solely to Almighty God who is the only Judge that holds all things into accountancy. So the righteous need not hold back on the good that they should always be doing for the sake of God. As fellow human beings, we mourn and we grieve for the loss and the injustices at the hands of our fellow human beings. However, true justice does not come now… it comes when God pulls down the gavel. Woe to those who have offended God.
Right now, in these very times, we are living, God IS, and always have been keeping the accounting. Not one sparrow falls from the sky without His direct knowledge. If He cares that much for His tiny creatures, how much more do you think He cares for those created in His image and His likeness? Every person born of God, the ones He blew the breath of life into their mortal bodies, is a child of God: to include the good, the bad, and even the ugly. He loves each of them because they belong to Him. By that token, every soul will carry the burden of the infractions made against their Maker. Accountability to God is inescapable. Even death cannot separate us from the debts that we owe to the One that gave us life with meaning and purposes.
Fortunately for some, and unfortunately for others, there is a remedy to such offenses. Through our many infractions and imperfections, we are not discarded or dismissed into the abyss. Retribution is possible… reconciliation is possible… justification is possible, and forgiveness is also possible should one turn and face God. Anyone who realizes the error of their ways and sincerely feels remorse in their hearts can be made whole by God… no matter how egregious the infractions might have been. The debt is owed to God alone. The eternal Judge has already been appointed by God to issue the consequences. Grace has made this available to all but all will not take advantage of His offering. Therefore, no power on earth or in the heavens can separate us from what God has in store for His offenders.
Without question, these are troubling times we are living. Unfortunately, such times are not new to God or even to mankind. On numerous times we have faced such troublesome times and God reacted. The story of Noah and the great floods come to mind. There are other signs of things to come happening right now that people are refusing to acknowledge. It would be better for mankind to take heed while there is still life and grace available because woe to those that cross over into eternal existence without the covering of God’s grace and mercy. Let them continue to eat, drink and be merry now for a time is at hand they would wish to be human again and correct their faults while under our Father’s grace.
To my Christian brothers and sisters, we know what Christ said about the sign of the end times in the 24th chapter of Matthew. The bottom line is for us to be ready because no one knows the hour or the day of the end times. Being ready means to make your accounting with God. Take advantage of the measures God extended to all His children. Anything less is not guaranteed. When you are right with God you are right with everything He made and therefore made worthy of His eternal glory. Let those who have ears receive the message from the Lord. He alone has the power to make things right with the Father. Selah!
