1 Timothy 6:17-19 Amplified Bible says, "As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be proud and arrogant and contemptuous of others, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment. [Charge them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal and generous of heart, ready to share [with others], In this way laying up for themselves [the riches that endure forever as] a good foundation for the future, so that they may grasp that which is life indeed." Mary Church Terrell was born into a family of wealth. Her father, Robert Church, although born a slave became the South's first African American millionaire. Instead of leading a life of pride, arrogance and contempt for others, Mary Church Terrell led a life of good works.
Terrell was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a speaker, writer and activist for freedom and equal rights for African Americans and for women of all races. Terrell was big-hearted. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were black leaders with different views on how to achieve African American progress. Terrell saw merit and areas of disagreement in both perspectives; yet she helped both men.
She also was a married woman who helped women of all races. Terrell worked with suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt. After American women gained the right to vote in 1920 Terrell organized women to become active in the Republican Party and in international groups. Terrell said, "We believe we can build the foundation of the next generation upon such a rock of morality, intelligence, and strength, that the floods of proscription, prejudice and persecution may descend upon it in torrents and yet it will not be moved."
While everyone will not be materially wealthy, God calls everyone to be big-hearted. Proscription, prejudice and persecution are heart problems. The remedy is the love of God living on the inside of creyentes (believers) and overflowing on the outside. 1 Corinthians 13:3-7 Amplified Bible says about love, "Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing. Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]."
The enemy of love, Satan, is always working to make our hearts small. While American women got the vote in 1920, in 1924 the US Immigration Act shut down almost all immigration from Asia and in 1973 the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision stole the right to life from unborn girls and unborn boys.
A Chinese proverb says, "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." The US House of Representatives lit a candle recently by passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act which protects the life of unborn girls and unborn boys age 20 weeks and older. The Senate also lit a candle by passing immigration reform.
Un dicho says, "Clamor del pueblo sube al cielo" ("The outcry of a people rises to heaven.")
Now is a good time to pray passionately to God that the Senate will pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the House will pass immigration reform and President Barak Obama will sign both into law.
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