Church about Racism- 5/31/2020

This morning in Elevation church was a collaboration of Steven Furtick and John Gray, and it was a sit down discussion within the community of believers about racism, sparked by what happened with George Floyd a week ago in Minnesota.

Parts with * are thoughts I included of my own.

I HIGHLY encourage you to go on Youtube to Elevation Church and experience this conversation yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7jTUfNyPkE

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Sometimes in order to take a stand, you have to take a seat. 

God sat with people in order to learn and to show them they were equally important as everyone else. 

I stand with Justice- 

if an animal is abused, someone would get jail time, it would be a huge injustice. animal rights groups would be all up in it. there would be years of uproar and there would laws and change and regulations, etc.

if a black man is abuse or killed, sure we get upset, we may have angry backlash, but after a short amount of time, we go back to our lives and nothing happens. "it happens all the time"

*why do we ALLOW It to happen all the time?! 

*why are we okay with that?

*but we aren't okay with a cat being crushed under a boot?

God tells us exactly how we are to treat others

Deuteronomy 10:19 "And you are to love those who are foreigners, but you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt"

Psalms 67:4 "May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you tule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth."

Proverbs 14:34 "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people."

Galatians 6:10 "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

Learn how to step into the picture, and not just see it and move on. 

*stop, listen and learn. 

You have to extend the grace that you want in order to have grace cover your life. 

"My blackness is weaponized before you know the character of my manhood."- John Gray

You can't pass a law to change someone's heart. 

*This has to be something you allow to reach inside you and effect you. 

We become numb and accept denial, we become tolerant of things we should not tolerate. 

We are only 3 generations removed from people owning over people in this nation. 

*this may be why I don't understand why people would be treated this way. I myself am only 2 generations removed from immigration. my grandmother and grandfather traveled over to America when they were very young. I don't understand why immigrants could be treated this way. (african americans versus european americans.) 

The South and the North are separated Democrat and Republican. Jesus was not political, he was ethically and morally correct. 

*Political correctness is getting in the way of justice. 

Why are bad things in the Bible? (slavery, etc). 

Because God allowed the human emotion to be expressed without judgement. 

When you say you're color blind (you don't see black and white, you see all nationalities in one big melting pot, you don't a difference between them), that's a terrible thing. 

Colossians 3:11 "Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all."

We are to celebrate and see diversity! To noticed and to cherish the differences in cultures! To be together in brotherhood and sisterhood with all languages and nationalities. 

We have programmed Jesus to be like a pull-too. Repeating 5-7 things that we are okay with. 

*pull the string- "blessed are the peacemakers"

*pull the string- "respect your elders"

Personal exposure is so critical. 

*Like when I had the chance to be part of the touring music ministry team, I got to experience this TWICE! And being part of missions to Detroit, and being engulfed in the poverty in Romania. We have to have chances and TAKE opportunities to be in those places. How are we to learn and grow and change if we always stay in a bubble, hearing all the noise? We have to have personal experience in order to really know and understand.

Quiet is not a strategy, repentance is. Realizing that you need to make changes to your direction, and changing your mind and refusing to contribute to the indifference. 

THIS is a strategy. 

Gods gender- we were made in his image

Is God male or without gender?

• God Has No Gender. As a rough guess (based on no research), 90 percent of all monotheists believe that God is exclusively male. Even though most Christian and Jewish sects grudgingly admit that God created women in “his” image (Genesis 1:27 and 5:1-2), this has translated to fair treatment of women only extremely rarely.
  
  Genesis 1:27
  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
  
  Genesis 5:1-2
  This is the written account of Adam's family line.
  When God created mankind, he made in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. and he named them "Mankind" when they were created. (In Hebrew, this mean "man".. which is human, so humankind.)
  
  Why does God need a gender?
  
  Because we, as humans, have a hard time wrapping our minds around and believing in something we can't see. We are a visual species. So when we are presented with the idea of something that invisible but real, our minds can't comprehend it. Take, for instance, the wind. We cannot see the wind itself, but we can see the effects of; things that are moving (plants, clouds, material, etc), the tangible movement of air across our skin that creates physical reaction.
  So we create an image from the facts that we can physically gather in order to have "something" that our eyes can see, so we can believe it's real. If there is no gender, we cannot create a physical image that would interpret our mental processes. Therefore, we search for an answer to the question of identity. 

amen

What does it mean?

https://www.biblword.net/ending-prayer-with-amen/

https://bibleask.org/word-amen-mean/

Let it be so
I believe that what was said will come to pass
Faithful
Certainty in blessings

"Amen"- Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be holy in your sight.

When freedom of speech is not freedom of speech

when we say freedom of speech.. what are we saying?

are we saying "i can verbalize anything i want?"
because that's stupid
freedom of speech doesn't mean be an idiot
freedom of speech doesn't mean you're opinion is the only thing people should think of
freedom of speech doesn't give you the right to put other people down

freedom of speech is to have open discussions
freedom of speech is so we can congregate and bring ideas and different points of view to the table

check yourself and what you believe something means..
because just like in The Princess Bride-
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

“all the good ones are taken”

we look around us and see men and women with rings on their fingers
and think
I wish that was me

"all the good ones are taken"

question for you
where are you looking?
or
the bigger question
what are you creating yourself to be?

if you aren't working on yourself to be the person you would want
the best version of yourself
you are nowhere near ready to be in a relationship with someone else

sure
self love is a life long journey
but at your core
who are you?
and who do you want to be with?
who you YOU want to BE?

sometimes.. the bad ones are taken too
you're just wishing you weren't alone

double check yourself
and think
what are you searching for?
and am I working on being my best self?
or do I want someone who wants to change me because I don't know who I am?

learn who you are first
work on loving yourself
and the right one will come

“I am who you say I am”

I’m not what the world says
-
imperfect
stupid
not enough
too fat
too odd
too weird
strange
picky
too old
too young

I am what God says I am
-
just right
-
loved
necessary
intentional
priceless
amazing


Elevation worship-
"I am chosen, not forsaken,
I am who You say I am!
You are for me, not against me,
I am who You say I am!"

put your ear plugs on and listen to your soul
not the noise around you
but the Spirit within you

affirmation VERSUS reassurance: the difference

Affirmation is something you learn to speak into your own life.
Things that help you walk through on your own.
I am strong.
I am a great mom.
This and that are good about me.
Speaking positivity into your own life.
Which is important!
You need to know your own worth, and being able to say these things out loud and believe what you're saying to yourself is powerful!
Words of affirmation from other people looks something like "you do such a good job at that!"
"i appreciate that you've been doing all the dishes lately"
"it makes things easier for me knowing that you're taking care of the kids"
"you're fantastic at communicating with people. i'm not, and that's helpful to me."

Reassurance is when other people tell us something that is good that they notice.
When I think about how hard being a mom is right now, someone can reassure me by telling me "you're doing a great job!", "you are keeping them fed and clothed and making sure they get rest! you're rocking it!".
When I break a nail.. reassuring me that it will grow back and i'm great at taking care of them, even if it sucks in this moment. :)
When my husband thinks he doesn't do enough for our family.. "you work so hard for us. you put in hours a day at your paying job, you keep up with cleaning and mowing the yard, you take time every Friday night to pour joy into us by making popcorn and watching a movie, you make sure we sit down as a family every other week to talk.. you're amazing."
Telling someone they were noticed when they put the cart back in the parking lot.
Saying that a choice of clothing or makeup was a good choice.
Reminding someone that you appreciate that they remembered to take out the trash and did it.