Words from a Small-Town Pastor

I Have a Dream

How wonderful and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in harmony. (Psalm 133:1)

The world has not known peace since Cain murdered Abel. I don’t think men can live together in harmony because there will always be people who are driven to follow after the flesh’s desires instead of allowing themselves to be led by the power of the Spirit.

A question has been playing over and over in my head as I watch the demonstrations taking place around the country and listening to the rioters chanting, “Black lives matter”: If black lives matter, why are there so many black-on-black homicides? I can’t understand why, when a white person commits a crime against a black person, it becomes a reason for blacks and outside agitators to start rioting and demonstrating. But each day, black people commit the same types of horrendous crimes against one another, and nothing is said about it.

Over the Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis, there were at least nineteen shootings and four deaths. Chicago had forty-nine shootings, with ten fatalities. Most of these were black-on-black crimes. Where was the outrage? Why didn’t the news media splash photos of those dead bodies all over the web? Why weren’t the black clergy and political leaders screaming about brutality, criticizing that violence, and demanding justice for the deceased and imprisonment for the perpetrators? It seems like the death of a black man is only newsworthy if the perpetrator is white.

I know my way of thinking is not popular, especially since racial tension is so high.

I will be labeled by many as a sellout, but so be it. I’m not buying into what I see happening in our country in the name of BLM.

All lives matter to Jesus. When He died on the cross, it was for all people’s sins, regardless of their skin color or pedigree. It is time for those who follow Christ to stand up, step up, and speak up. We must make our voices heard and do what we can to help people understand that we are all created in God’s image. We must lead the way toward a movement to stop the hating and persecution of those who don’t look like us or are seen as inferior.

Genesis 1:27 (NIV) says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Since God created us, only He should be the one to destroy us. We do not have the authority or the right to take the life of another human.

In Genesis 1:31 (NIV), we read, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

This was after the sixth day of creation. Everything God created was good. So what happened? Sin happened.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they set the pattern for all those who would come after them.

God’s perfect world was no longer perfect. The people He created to occupy the world turned away from Him and sought to make their own way in life. As a result, we have a world today where many people deny that God even exists.

We’re living in the times that are described in 2 Timothy 3:1–5 (NIV): “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Each day, it breaks my heart to see people disrespect the principles of God.

It tears me up to see the violent and evil deeds being perpetrated against one another. I know it must be breaking God’s heart as well.

I have a dream that one day, people will choose to love one another in the same way that Jesus loves us. There will be no need for police officers, courts, judges, or any other legal authority because people will be living as God intended.

I have a dream that all people, regardless of their nationality, status, color, or religion, will one day turn from their wicked ways and look to the one and only God and Creator of the universe.

I have a dream, a dream that a revival will break out all over this world, as it did in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, back in 1970. One morning in 1970, without warning, all heaven broke loose during Asbury College’s ten o’clock chapel service.

While students across America were burning down buildings and rioting in the streets, students at Asbury were strangely drawn to their knees to pray. The service, a routine meeting, was scheduled for fifty minutes. Instead, it lasted 185 hours nonstop, twenty-four hours a day. It continued intermittently for weeks. Ultimately, it spread across the United States and into foreign countries. 2020 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Asbury College revival, an unplanned, unled display of enthusiasm that has been compared to the Great Awakenings of 1740 and 1800.

Yes, I have a dream. A dream that I know will one day come to fruition when Jesus returns to gather all those who love Him and are found faithfully waiting for His return. A dream based on the promises of the God of heaven.

We have all we need to live godly lives because we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside us. The problem, as I see it, is we are not allowing the Spirit to lead us. One day, the battle between the flesh and the Spirit will end. Until it does, we have the responsibility, as believers, to help as many people as we can come to Christ in repentance.