It is hard to believe that we are halfway through July already! Next week, we will be at camp. There may not be a weekly update on Wednesday, but hopefully plenty of updates, photos and information shortly after.
Starting this week with a new song from Chris Tomlin:
Please continue to bathe Sally Sheets, Pastor Paul and the whole family in prayer as they navigate her cancer treatments, which started a week ago today and will last several months.
Please keep our camp experience in prayer, that God moves during the experience and we all draw closer to him because of His grace and mercy.
Also, please pray for the coronavirus situation and leaders making decisions around it and the upcoming school year and all the question marks surrounding what it will look like. Our country and its leaders need prayer on this and the topic we will be addressing in this lesson.
To catch up on previous youth lessons, click below:
July 8, 2020: Nourished in nature
July 1, 2020: Dealing with the difficult
June 24, 2020: Focused on fellowship
June 17, 2020: Savoring the Spirit
June 10, 2020: Tools of the trade
June 3, 2020: Beauty in the broken
May 20 & 27, 2020: Sowing seeds of salvation
May 13, 2020: Trash to treasure
May 6, 2020: Serving as samaritans
April 29, 2020: Adopted into the family
April 22, 2020: Living as lighthouses
April 15, 2020: Absorbing the truth
April 9, 2020: Preparation over procrastination
April 1, 2020: Standing up in the midst of a storm
March 25, 2020: What route do our roots run?
March 18, 2020: God’s calm guidance during a coronavirus craze
Fifteen years ago, we met and eventually adopted our son, Peito. We prayed about the decision to adopt quite a bit — not only because he had been through quite a bit in his life in the 15 years before we met him, but because we didn’t know how people in our area at that time would react because he didn’t fit the region’s stereotype.
Peito is hispanic, with descendants coming from Puerto Rico. Our family and the church accepted him for who he was, but not everyone was as welcoming. Our landlord at the time had a big issue with our adopting him. His attitude toward us changed, he became extra abrasive and made us feel very uncomfortable — he made comments that weren’t racist, but not far from it.
That is as close as our family has come to an experience with racism. When it comes to the topic of racism, the Bible has plenty to teach. Consider the following verses:
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV): For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
1 John 2:11 (NIV): But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV): But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Galatians 3:28 (NIV): There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
There are many other verses along these lines, but this gives you an example. As Christians, we are called to love others, to not judge based on someone’s appearance and to live as brothers in Christ.
Current events have thrust the concept of racism to the forefront, especially after the death of George Floyd during an arrest gone terribly wrong. The incident has restoked the Black Lives Matter battle cry and led to numerous protests across the country with calls to defund police departments and take other drastic measures.
What exactly is “Black Lives Matter?” It is a phrase coined after a similar situation in 2013. There is a Black Lives Matter organization and the three-word mantra has become cloaked in controversy.
Yesterday, Allen Parr, a black Christian blogger who we have watched numerous times on topics in the past via our youth group, released a video about Black Lives Matter that is worth watching and having a discussion about.
In the first half of the video, he tackles the Black Lives Matter organization, and does one of the things I have come to appreciate about Parr — looks at a situation through biblical standards. Did you know the BLM group advocates for some of the extreme groups he shared? How often, when we get involved in a cause or a new group do we, as Christians, take time to read the fine print and make sure that what we are about to support lines up with Godly principles?
He also does a good job of illustrating the concept of what I call reverse-racism. That the organization is calling to defund police across the country because of several bad officers. Stereotyping a whole group by the actions of a few knuckleheads is exactly what caused this mess in the first place.
I did squirm a bit concerning Parr’s comments on the slogan of Black Lives Matter — although I appreciate hearing his viewpoints on the matter and value his stance.
We can, through our actions and prayers, tend to the hurting population of black Americans while still advocating verbally for all lives, including those in danger of ending via another hot topic — abortion. As Christians, we would be holding the hose on the burning home from his cartoon (symbolic for the aching black community) because we value all life.
From a Christian standpoint, it really can be simplified via one passage:
Romans 10:12-13 (NIV): For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Jew and Gentile. Black and White. Society’s worldly views love to divide. As Christians, we unite. Which is why I appreciate the other three-word phrase Allen Parr shared in his video. Perhaps the best response to “Black Lives Matter” is simply “Christ over culture.”
We’ll wrap up with this video, another one worth a healthy discussion the next time we meet:
