MEDIA THAT TAKES YOU HIGHER
RIDING THE WAVES
BLACK AND POLICE SHOOTINGS
THE DESTRUCTION(S) OF BLACK WALL STREET
IT’S A FAMILY REUNION
THE SCALES MUST BE WRONG!
THE SECRET THING EVERY HUSBAND NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT HIS WIFE
GOD’S PURPOSE FOR OUR LIVES
SEEING BY CHOICE
WHY I AM, WHAT I AM
God is the Supreme Intelligence, and He knows how to communicate with His children. He has promised to hear our prayers and to guide us in the paths of righteousness. God is ready and willing to hear and help us.
Only our sins or our economy of faith “tie His hands.” Put self and personal opinions aside and come before Him as a child before a loving parent. He will delight in manifesting Himself in your behalf. He bids us, “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Luke 11:9).
—Message, circa May/June 1991
Charles D. Brooks director/speaker of Breath of Life
Eric A. Todd, Ed.D.
If you are a leader this book is for you. Eric Todd presents 12 leadership principles that guide any leader to consider their methods. Topics include: how to communicate, how to envision with a team, personal testimonies about hindsight, lessons on caring for people and knowing how to resolve conflict. Todd’s life story is compelling and informative as he shares his life’s journey and lessons. This book can be found on Amazon.
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© 2018 by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, Maryland, 21046, U.S.A. Address editorial correspondence to MESSAGE MAGAZINE, 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, MD 21046-1565 U.S.A. All subscriptions are prepaid. If you did not order MESSAGE, it is being sent as a gift from a friend. You will not be billed. To subscribe, mail payment to MESSAGE, 1350 North Kings Road Nampa, ID 83687, U.S.A. or call 1-800-456-3991. Subscription price: one year, $19.95 U.S. currency; single copy, $4.00; overseas, add $10.00 per year for postage. Prices subject to change without notice. Periodicals Postage paid at Nampa, Idaho and additional offices. Vol. 87 No. 4 July/Aug 2021. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MESSAGE, 1350 North Kings Road Nampa, ID 83687, U.S.A. Printed in the U.S.A.
Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this issue are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Statements in this issue attributed by an author to other speakers/writers are included for the value of the individual statements only. No endorsement of those speakers’/writers’ other works or statements is intended or implied.
he aging disciple John recorded the best expression of “destiny” that I have ever known. This, glimmering sliver of hope expresses a word picture of the moment God’s people sync in a marvelous show of faith and triumph:
“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” (Revelations 15:6).
This status update juts out from a foreboding, prophetic forecast as if to say: “We interrupt this program to bring you this important message: ‘Don’t worry, but get ready.’” As we wade through the stream of destiny, each of us even within our distinctive array of concerns and challenges, bound together in a manmade murk of injustice, climate dysfunction, and financial malpractice, must determine how we’re going to ride this thing out.
- Black Americans were killed at a rate of 35 deaths per million, which is 2.5 percent higher than White Americans.
- White Americans are killed by police at 14 deaths per million.
- Hispanics are killed at 26 deaths per million
- From 2013-2020 98.3 percent of the police involved in killing, walk away from the incident with no charges. (Mapping Police Violence)
hile news pundits reference former police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction and sentencing in connection with the death of George Floyd as proof that the “system” works, they provide no answers for the rate of deaths being so much higher for black people. Conviction requires such an egregious level of interaction, captured on mobile devices, in order to ensure that the “system works.”
he first wave of destruction:
May 31-June 1, 2021 marked the centennial of the plundering of the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. A smoldering reservoir of white resentment toward black prosperity was unleashed when a black teenager was accused of sexually assaulting a white teenage girl in an elevator.
Though the “victim” denied being assaulted and refused to charge her “assailant,” white supremacist terrorists refused to allow a lack of evidence to deprive them of declaring open season on blackness. Law enforcement deputized a posse that killed 300 people, looted hundreds of homes and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, including hotels, grocery stores, medical and law offices, schools, and—20 churches. Yes, many professed Christians torched 20 of their neighbors’ churches in less than 24 hours! To make things worse, insurers denied coverage for the losses.
he first wave of destruction:
May 31-June 1, 2021 marked the centennial of the plundering of the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. A smoldering reservoir of white resentment toward black prosperity was unleashed when a black teenager was accused of sexually assaulting a white teenage girl in an elevator.
Though the “victim” denied being assaulted and refused to charge her “assailant,” white supremacist terrorists refused to allow a lack of evidence to deprive them of declaring open season on blackness. Law enforcement deputized a posse that killed 300 people, looted hundreds of homes and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, including hotels, grocery stores, medical and law offices, schools, and—20 churches. Yes, many professed Christians torched 20 of their neighbors’ churches in less than 24 hours! To make things worse, insurers denied coverage for the losses.
he first wave of destruction:
May 31-June 1, 2021 marked the centennial of the plundering of the Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. A smoldering reservoir of white resentment toward black prosperity was unleashed when a black teenager was accused of sexually assaulting a white teenage girl in an elevator.
Though the “victim” denied being assaulted and refused to charge her “assailant,” white supremacist terrorists refused to allow a lack of evidence to deprive them of declaring open season on blackness. Law enforcement deputized a posse that killed 300 people, looted hundreds of homes and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, including hotels, grocery stores, medical and law offices, schools, and—20 churches. Yes, many professed Christians torched 20 of their neighbors’ churches in less than 24 hours! To make things worse, insurers denied coverage for the losses.
id you know that the tradition of red foods reaches back to the Juneteenth Celebrations? During those celebrations—which started 2 1/2 years after we’d been freed—the menu included red foods like drink, cake, and watermelon. Some of the reasons ranged from honoring the blood of the ancestors, to ancient African sacrifice customs, to red meaning strength and spirituality. While red soda has become a popular mainstay at our gatherings, the historical red cultural drink at those gatherings was made of hibiscus and was called “bissap” in West Africa. It was brought to the Caribbean and America during the slave trade and is now popularly known as sorrel.
We’re featuring some delicious dishes from Chef Cynthia Chea Pean and Chef Mommy, Heather Martin. Both offer recipes featuring the same traditional foods—okra, greens and vegan fish—prepared natively from Africa and Louisiana. I guarantee, they are delicious.
was a little disturbed about the fact that I had gained so much weight during the past 12 months. I blamed my humble bathroom scale. It was dormant for the past year and so something must have happened to its internal mechanism. Come to think of it, I didn’t want to believe what any of the scales I encountered indicated! Surely they must have been wrong!
A recent survey by the American Psychological Association showed that 42% of adults in the United States reported undesired weight gain due to COVID. The average increase was 29 pounds. It is interesting to note that this study also reported an 18% undesired weight loss presumed due to muscle loss from “all that sitting around.”
ost men spend their lives wondering what women want. It’s probably the single most asked question by men. In fact, it was Sigmund Freud who said, “The great question that has never been answered…despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?’” It’s an elusive subject, to say the least. Most men assume women have a long list of things they want in a man, like: 1. Must have money; 2. Movie star looks; 3. Cooks and cleans. However, this is far from a woman’s mind when she thinks about what she really needs from her man.
When it comes down to it, all women want trustworthiness. That may seem obvious, but there’s much more to this idea than simply not cheating on your spouse. Let’s start by defining the word. Trustworthiness – “deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable” (dictionary.com). Women want to be confident, secure and able to rely on “her man.” They want the kind of man Jesus was when He “loved the church…[and] gave up his life for her” (Ephesians 5:25b, NLT). This is how “husbands… [must] love [their] wives, just as Christ…” (Ephesians 5:25a, NLT). Christ demonstrated trustworthiness for men everywhere and reveals the secret thing that all women need from them. Here are five practical ways to improve on your trustworthiness for your woman:
ccording to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), about 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. – 43.8 million – experiences mental illness in any given year. Many of these individuals turn to their church or their personal faith in search of support. Despite the prevalence of mental health concerns, however, there is still a stigma attached to mental illness. For many, the culture of silence, mistaken expectations and misguided attitudes cause believers to feel shamed, blamed, and alone in their mental illness.
Despite a growing desire to help those suffering with mental illness, members and leaders often report feeling ill-equipped to address mental illness or mental health to their pastors, church leaders, and congregation members. A major factor that contributes to this is the failure to see how the gospel is intimately connected to the workings of the mind and heart. However, mental health and the origins of mental illness are woven throughout the Bible beginning in the book of Genesis.
was an innocuous conversation in which we talked about many things, and nothing at the same time. During a lull in our banter she detonated a bomb: “I’m buying a gun.”
We had no guns in or near our home, and zero conversations about purchasing such. Nevertheless my level-headed, young adult daughter announced to me—in that same casual way she shared the fact that she was purchasing a car—“I’m buying a gun.”
She was tracking with a growing trend among black Americans, who, in droves, are purchasing firearms. This major surge in gun acquisition in the black community exploded in 2020, with the data indicating a phenomenon in the making. Yet, the “gunning up” of America, represents only one indicator of our crisis-level distrust and disunity.
ocial justice is a term that weighs heavily on our communities. For some communities, social justice brings awareness of a social hierarchy in this world that creates disparities in things such as socioeconomics, race, and gender. For other communities, social justice serves as a daily reminder that they participate in a system that disadvantages other identities and they need to be part of the solution.
The people caught in the middle are in survival mode. Some of us survive until the next pay day; some try to get a job to have a pay day; some code switch in order to “belong”; and many experience microaggressions. Through it all, we end up having to advocate for our own humanity. So while necessary, social justice work can be exhausting.
How can we have productive dialogue in a way that aligns our human and Christian values? Unfortunately we do not always have the best examples. Many times we see people disagreeing, yelling at each other or attacking another person in a comment thread.
However, even given that reality the Bible refers to God as a Father. The Bible described God, the eternal Father, as the Creator, Source, Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creation. He is just and holy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in consistent love and faithfulness.
After God delivered the Israelites they sang a song which included these words:
“The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone” Exodus 15:2-3, (emphasis supplied).
Many look unfavorably upon the God of the Old Testament because of His judgments upon various nations, failing to understand that these nations were destroyed because they were nations guilty of the sin of oppression. And, God hates oppression.
Yes, they’ve achieved a measure of success and experienced accomplishments – received an education, have a nice car, have a nice house, a good job. But they’re never truly confronted the question, “Have I done the thing that God created me to do?”
But whether they know it or not, God has a plan for their lives. And everything happens according to His sovereign plan. His plan was in place before the foundation of the world.
In life, many people aspire to things that aren’t in God’s plan. Often, they want to do something important because they think if they do something important, that will make them important, but you will never be truly satisfied with anything less than fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing”.
ou’ve heard that everything happens for a reason. What if I told you that everything happens to reveal your resilience and royalty? It doesn’t always feel like we are a chosen people set aside for greatness, but I want you to consider that your destiny is in high places. Join us as we examine a young man who is found sitting in the dirt but was predestined to be there for a divine purpose.
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Author and CEO of Love Beyond Walls, Terrance Lester on Proximity and Presence
Proximity is when you are close to something, but presence means that you are intentionally showing up to be around that on a daily basis.
Presence is when you switch on and you take it to another level, where you’re saying I am going to show up in community. This is not something that’s just an event. This is something that I’ve adopted as a lifestyle. This is my life and my witness, and that’s the thing that I like to highlight is that we need to move away from doing a lot of these event-oriented things and move to a lifestyle of service.
If you are busy, and you’re only available for a few events, that’s cool, but people are hungry today. People need shelter tonight. People need to stop smoking tobacco tomorrow. These issues are constantly persisting, and if you’re only operating from a place of proximity, where you still have this every-now-and-then, you can’t have the long-lasting change that you really desire to see, because presence is when you dwell.
And using my faith, it says Jesus came to the earth and He dwelt among them. I want to not only be around my neighbors to just love them for a moment, I want to be there to build relationships. I want to know their fears, their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, and also want to embody what it means to live in solidarity with those who are suffering.
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