Where do We go from Here?

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Welcome back to Words of Life.

I'm Cheryl Gillum, and I'm Bernie Dake. Bernie, in this final discussion between Commissioner Willis Howell and Lieutenant James Harvin, they discuss practical things we can do in our homes and our churches to welcome diversity in our own lives. In all of the talks that have happened in the last few months, I've heard things where people say something like, well, I'm colorblind.

I don't see color. And I think I kind of understand what they're trying to say, but unfortunately, I find that to be kind of ill-informed. If we're created in God's image and all of us are different, can't we celebrate that diversity? I think it's about appreciating the beauty of all of God's creation and the diversity in that. Well, we'd like to hear your thoughts on this series and what are some of the takeaways you've learned through this series and what advice do you have for other listeners? If you were willing, send us an email to radio at uss.salvationarmy.org or call 1-800-229-9965. Today we are here again with the words of life, speaking about unity, here with Commissioner Howell and myself.

To be with you again, yes. Today we're going to be talking about practical applications on diversity and unity in our homes and our churches and in our communities. What does that look like in the home? I can't address what it should look like in a secular home. If I can frame any thoughts that I have in the context of what I think believers should be doing.

And so in the case of the home, we have plenty of instruction in Scripture as to what home life should be like. There is this giving and forgiving with one another. We don't always agree. We are sharpened.

We are enhanced. We are certainly stretched in a family context when we are forced to reckon with and wrestle with ideas, opinions, views that we might not share right off the bat. Instead we have an attitude of, I've got to think about that. So I think that is a good model for the Christian home. If Christ is at the center, Christ needs to pervade and have this umbrella effect over the family so that everything is done under that sort of an operating system. I believe, along with that, Christ being in the home, we also need to understand that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts and shows where we need to be honed, where we need to weed out things.

A good self-assessment or a question would be, when is the last time somebody has eaten at our home that doesn't share our ideologies, that doesn't share our culture or experiences, being open and honest with ourselves to see, okay, maybe, just maybe, I'm only surrounding myself with people who think, look, sound like me. And if that's the case, then we're falling short in that manner. And so this is where I talk about in the last episode of pausing in the pain, right? And pausing in the pain with people is the only way we can have true empathy, not just a sympathetic moment where we say, okay, wow, that looked like it hurt. But no, let me walk with you in it.

Let me invite you in the home. Let's talk about it. That's honestly, I truly believe that's how we are going to truly emulate Christ to the world. Pain in and of itself is not necessarily a negative. I mean, nobody's raising their hand to say, oh, I'll have some more pain, please. But pain can be useful. Pain can teach lessons. And where we are currently in this culture, in this United States culture, and we've said before, this is not necessarily where everybody is who's listening to our broadcast.

Their cultures are going to be very different. But speaking from where we are currently, our country, our culture, and yes, our church is going through significant pain right now. Can you imagine what a tragedy it would be if we wasted the pain just for the sake of being numbed or this desire to go back to normal, whatever normal is or was. So pain can be helpful in that it teaches us. You only have to burn your hand in the fire once, and you realize I'm not putting my hand in there again.

So pain has taught us a lesson. The pain here that we're wrestling with, I think, does bring us back to how do I treat my brother in Christ? How do I treat a fellow believer?

How do I treat someone who doesn't look like me, someone who doesn't vote like me, someone who has a completely different set of ideologies and philosophies? We still should be building relationships that, as Christians, we're clearly called to be salt and light. Christ told us that he was the light of the world as long as he was in the world.

Well, he's no longer in the world, so he's passed that responsibility to us. As the body of Christ in the world, we are now the light of the world. If all we do is keep our light in our own little enclosed churches and chapels and core and everything else, talking about how wonderful it is that we have light in here, and then as soon as we go out, we want to hide it, that doesn't help the world. Light always will push back darkness.

Darkness cannot withstand the light. Scripture right now is trying to impose a darkness on the church, and as long as we stay huddled within our four walls, refusing to shine the light of Christ into it, then it appears that the darkness wins. When we shine the light of Christ by living the life of Christ, and that's only done, or I should say it's best done, through relationships with people who are not like us, that's when people start to wonder, what is it about him?

I can't really put my finger on it, but he's different. We are called to live that life, is to exemplify Jesus in everything that we do. Every fabric of our day, it has to be to point people to Jesus through our actions, our words. I've spent many nights awake thinking about these very things, thinking about how can we bring true change, but it comes with a self-assessment of acknowledging that the church, we haven't exemplified Christ and, well, we need to do a self-assessment with ourselves.

How would somebody experience me that doesn't look like me? How do I come off to people who don't have the same cultural background, that doesn't have the same political party? Because we're about bringing unity, and whenever we place our own ideologies above someone else and say that they are less than, that is superiority. We believe that we are better than, and that does not belong, because Paul says, be humble. It is the thing that is diametrically opposed to pride. It's humility. And I think we have to come to grips within our home, in our churches, in our communities that we have to establish humility as believers. But we have to address it within ourselves. We have to say, where have I fallen short? As believers together, the only way this will be achieved, I'm convinced, is for us to continuously and regularly model ourselves after Jesus.

We have the pattern. I can't speak about you, but I can speak about me. I still have rough edges.

I still have sharp corners that the Lord is working with and working on in order to shape me ever more to be like Jesus. The world will never achieve that kind of unity. I don't care what the politics are. I don't care what the world view is.

I don't care who comes up with whatever plan. And I'm not saying people shouldn't do that. But unless and until it is centered on the person and the values of Christ himself, true unity will not be achieved, certainly in the world, let alone in the church. We are driven each and every day to be more and more like Jesus, understanding that where we have fallen short in the past, we are acknowledging and taking the actions in our heart, bringing it before Jesus saying, we understand and we repent from that and move forward. I have seen pastors, believers allow themselves to become politically petty.

And I've been so disheartened at that. And I pray for our leaders, our preachers, our teachers to not do that, to not allow politics to make you petty, but to simply be persuaded by Christ to follow him, to look at his teachings, his actions, his words and see how he lifted out. Instead of seeing the church and the kingdom through a political lens, look at culture, look at politics, look at the world through kingdom lens. And I think there is the subtle temptation for believers to get that backwards. I think we want our politics to inform our faith as opposed to our faith holding sway and informing our politics.

Politics can be so all consuming. And to borrow the words of Christ, give to Caesar what Caesar's, do what you need to do, honor your civic responsibility, but give to God the things that are God's. And as believers together, we have given our lives, we have given ourselves, we have submitted to a calling that we believe that he's placed on our lives. And we and others like us want to give God what belongs to him. And that's ourselves.

And everything else comes somehow after that and needs to be informed by the offering that we've made. Well, Commissioner, I just want to thank you for being here. And if I could ask you to pray for us, it would be greatly appreciated. Let's pray together. So Father, here we are. Just two of us on this particular broadcast, two of us on this particular screen, but joined by a countless number of those who are watching or listening, uniting our hearts in prayer.

There's that theme of unity again. We unite ourselves, Father, to your purpose and to help bring your kingdom here on earth, the values of the kingdom here on earth, that your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven. That's work on our part. It's not just a simple prayer that we toss to the ceiling. It's not just a simple set of words that we recite every now and again in our churches. Lord, help us to be about bringing up there down here in our attitudes, in our behaviors, in our words, in our relationships, and yes, in the unity we the church model to this very aching world. So Father, I pray your continued blessing on all who are listening. I pray your blessing on all who are watching. I pray your blessing on James in his ministry and ask that you would watch over him and continue to keep your anointing in your hand on his life. Father, we commit ourselves to you yet again and ask that people who interact with us would not see us but would hear and sense your very presence. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. Email us at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O.

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