Wisdom, Power and Diversity

God welcomes people without getting stuck in a web of sin. He wants us to do likewise. God the Son Jesus Christ is Wisdom and Power that He gives to creyentes (believers) for living the good life He promised us. "Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power" (1 Corinthians 6:12 Amplified Bible.)

A Chinese proverb says, "No one's ten fingers are all the same length" meaning "You cannot expect that everyone will be like you." Paul, an apostle of God, was a keen observer of people who found multiple things in the way people are and act to show and tell them about God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit and to unite them into the family of God which has love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Paul celebrated diversity without practicing Biblical disobedience.

Patience is about cultivating consistent godly character not about putting off godly action. Un dicho (a proverb) says, "No hay tiempo como el presente" ("There is no time like the present.") Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in his August 28, 1963, I Have A Dream speech given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood .... There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights." 1 Corinthians 13:6 New Living Translation Bible says about love, "It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out." Another word for injustice is wrongdoing. 1 Corinthians 13:6 English Standard Version Bible says about love, "It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." The truth is God created equal people of all races, sexes, ethnicity, ages and abilities; He expects us to love Him and to love all people not make exemptions for wrongdoing. 

While racial and other wrongdoing still exists today, legal segregation doesn't; also African Americans are more fully enjoying citizenship rights than in 1963. What are some wonderful ways from African American heritage to lead people to Jesus Christ and to more fully enjoy American citizenship? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.

Children Are People Too

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, California, to parents who were Chinese immigrants. He decided to take a trip to China in 1895. When he came back to the United States, he was told that the laws didn't allow Chinese immigrants re-entry into the United States. Wong Kim Ark wasn't an immigrant.

He took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court which in 1898 ruled that children born of immigrants in the United States are automatically US citizens.

Creyentes (believers) are reinas y reyes (queens and kings). We are called to stand up for justice. Proverbs 31:8 Amplified Bible says, "Open your mouth for the dumb [those unable to speak for themselves], for the rights of all who are left desolate and defenseless."

Even before children are born they are people. On Christmas of 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the following words: "Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God…Man is more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke from a limitless smoldering. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such….And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won't exploit people, we won't trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won't kill anybody."

Righting the wrongs done to immigrants, the unborn, parents and other people is a process. Some pieces of the process are to be informed about legislation and to pass good legislation. Here's a link of a former abortionist, Anthony Levantino, who is now against abortion and supporting H.R. 1797 the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8szDctI9lXM&feature=youtu.be. Here's a link to send an email to your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 1797 the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and to support the bill as is without changes: http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=62650516&type=CO.

Our Creator wants us to be a moral people who do not mistreat people by killing them through abortion or discriminating against them in immigration laws or in any other way. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 7:12 Amplified Bible, "So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets."

Un Corrido Nuevo (A New Ballad)

Zacchaeus was a rich government worker who had cheated people financially. Then he met Jesus Christ, entered into a relationship with Christ and restored by four times the things he had stole as a chief tax collector. Luke 19:1-10 Amplified Bible says, "And [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it. And there was a man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and [he was] rich. And he was trying to see Jesus, which One He was, but he could not on account of the crowd, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass that way. And when Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down, and he received and welcomed Him joyfully. And when the people saw it, they all muttered among themselves and indignantly complained, He has gone in to be the guest of and lodge with a man who is devoted to sin and preeminently a sinner. So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord, See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration] to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now] restore four times as much. And Jesus said to him, Today is [Messianic and spiritual] salvation come to [all the members of] this household, since Zacchaeus too is a [real spiritual] son of Abraham; For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

America has benefited greatly from the labor of voluntary and involuntary immigrants without always treating them well. Now is a good time to begin to right the wrongs. Immigrants shouldn't have to pay to become citizens nor should they be denied tax benefits available to others.

God wants all people to be treated well no matter where they live or who they are. Desmond Tutu of South Africa said in a sermon delivered in Norway, "At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: "Raise your hands!" Then I've said, "Move your hands," and I've said, "Look at your hands--different colors representing different people. You are the rainbow people of God."

And you remember the rainbow in the Bible is the sign of peace. The rainbow is the sign of prosperity. We want peace, prosperity and justice and we can have it when all the people of God, the rainbow people of God, work together."

Jesus Christ wants us to have spiritual, psychological, physical and financial prosperity.

The Chinese invented paper money. God teaches us in the Bible book of Deuteronomy chapter 28 that when we do right money comes. Let's make a new corrido (a ballad) about America doing spiritually, psychologically, physically and financially right by immigrants.

Interconnect

Raizy Glauber and Nathan Glauber were 21-years-old, Orthodox Jews of the Satmar Hasidic sect who had been paired by a matchmaker before marrying about a year ago reports The New York Times. The Glauber's were also killed in a car accident Monday, but doctors were able to perform an emergency Caesarean section to save the life of their son who was born at 24 weeks gestation, according to The New York Times's March 4, 2013, article "Emergency-Room Crisis: When Pregnant Woman Is Dying."

The Glauber baby boy is the age of babies now protected from some second-trimester and third trimester abortions in some American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."

Because of the age and place of residence of the unborn they are being discriminated against. The unborn have few legal rights.

Issues are interconnected. Christian minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." King also said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The injustice of discrimination is widespread. During segregation African Americans and other people of color were compelled to sit in the back of buses and to go to colored only public places. The Voting Rights Act got rid of things like poll taxes, literacy tests and other administrative barriers erected to block African Americans and other people of color from voting. Are today's citizen tests, English tests, long waiting periods to become citizens like the past discriminatory poll taxes and literacy tests?

All Rafael and I had to do to become American citizens was be born. We thank God that we are not slaves, undocumented or living in countries where much of the population is living in circumstances comparable to segregation and even slavery.

Is anyone advocating for making American citizenship for immigrants almost as easy as it is for those born citizens?

A proverb from Zaire says, "A kind person is the one who is kind to strangers." Matthew 7:12 New Living Translation Bible says, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." It does not matter if people want to stay in a country permanently or temporarily, God encourages us to treat them like ourselves. Deuteronomio 10:17-18 Palabra de Dios para Todos dice, "porque el SEÑOR tu Dios es el Dios de todos los dioses y el Señor de todos los señores. Él es grande, poderoso y terrible. Él no tiene favoritismos ni acepta sobornos. Él se encarga de hacer justicia a las viudas y a los huérfanos. Él ama al inmigrante que habita contigo y le da comida y ropa." Deuteronomy 10:17-18 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes. He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing."

Of course, we would not want to offer citizenship to drug lords, terrorists and other real criminals, but many foreign people will add great value to our American society by becoming citizens. Ruth, who was from Moab, was also in the human heritage of  King David and Jesus Christ. Ruth said to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, in the book of Ruth 1:16-17 English Standard Version, ". . .“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”"

Ruth was brave enough to escape the paganism of Moab. For other escapes, read my article "Audacious Escapes" and "Only One is All Good."

Ruth married the Jewish Boaz and lived the rest of her life in Israel. The women of Israel said to Naomi about Ruth in the book of Ruth 4:15 New Living Translation, " . . . your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons."

How much value and goodness are we missing through discriminatory practices like abortion and the process for foreigners to become citizens?

Pro-Woman, Pro-life

For part of the lives of my grandmother, Mildred, and my great-grandmother, Pearl, in our great and glorious country of America women did not have equal rights with men. A time existed in America when women could not inherit family property, pursue schooling, get a divorce or vote. They were generally paid far less than men to do the same job and were severely restricted in the types of jobs and businesses they could have. Proper female professions were typically limited to teacher, nurse, farm help, factory worker, mill girl or maid.

Yet in spite of all these impediments, inequalities and injustices, contrary to some of today's feminists, the women's movement started out pro-woman, pro-life. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, passionately-in-love wife married 47 years, mother of seven, women's-rights activist and abolitionist, was both pro-woman and pro-life. In a 1873 letter to Julia Ward Howe, the originator of Mother's Day, Stanton writes, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."

Six of Stanton's children were planned; the seventh was not. She supported birth control, but not abortion linking abortion to infanticide. The seventh child was born to Henry Brewster Stanton and Elizabeth Cady Stanton later in life when Elizabeth was 44. She could have gotten rid of the "mistake," but instead of abortion, she chose life for their child.

Abortion and infanticide have an historical and present-day link. Jill Stanek was a registered nurse in the Labor & Delivery Department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She discovered not only were abortions being committed there, but babies were being aborted alive to die without medical care.

When hospital leaders said that they would not stop, Stanek went public, eventually got fired for her outspokenness and has become a national figure in the effort to protect both born and pre-born infants. Her written testimony was included in U.S. Congressional debates on the Born Alive Infants Protection Act which became law on August 5, 2002. The Born Alive Infants Protection Act protects live aborted children from infanticide.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton authored the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments which sought equality for women. The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments reads in part, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . . The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyrant over her . . . In view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half of the people of this country . . . because women do feel themselves aggrieved, . . . we insist that they have immediate admission to all rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States."

Stanton joined with Susan B. Anthony to author the three-volume History of Woman Suffrage. Together these friends of 50 years were not just motivators they were movers. They fought for women's rights with many other women like Sojourner Truth. Although it was illegal for women to vote in America in the 1800s, Anthony cast her vote for president on November 5, 1872. She got arrested for it on November 18, 1872. Anthony says, "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God." The Bible agrees. Acts 5:29 New Living Translation Bible says, "But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority." God does not favor men over women. Galatians 3:28 Amplified Bible says, "There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

God also says through Solomon in Proverbs 22:6 English Standard Bible, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." While Anthony did not marry or have children, Stanton married and had seven children, but both died before women had the right to vote in America. Harriot Stanton Blatch, Stanton's daughter, and Nora Blatch, Stanton's granddaughter, continued to fight for women's right to vote. Despite beatings, imprisonments and other persecutions, women obtained the right to vote in America through the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

True Self, Child-of-God Self

". . . But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves . . . " -- John 1:9-13 The Message.
 
As teenagers we all are discovering our identity. At age 15 when Constance Baker Motley was discovering her identity, she was told to get off a public beach in Connecticut because she was black.

Instead of internalizing the shame, God caused Motley to develop her true self, her child-of-God self. God used this experience to make Motley aware of the inequality in America among blacks and whites. Instead of accepting the status quo of discrimination, Motley decided to be a mover and shaker for justice. She sought to gain knowledge about the black struggle for equality in America not only from this experience but also through her family and her Episcopalian church.

Motley went on to extinguish much of Jim Crow, racism and sexism. She became a key member of the team that won the civil rights case Brown v. School Board of Topeka, Kansas et al in 1954. The US Supreme Court decided this case by doing away with "separate but equal" education for blacks and others and declared segregated schooling unconstitutional. It was Motley who drafted the original complaint which was successfully argued by Thurgood Marshall.

As counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Motley won nine out of 10 civil rights cases she litigated before the US Supreme Court and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s chief legal advisers.

Motley was also the first black woman to become a US federal judge. She was the first black woman to be elected to the New York state senate. Motley was the first woman of any race to become president of one of the five boroughs that make up New York City, in her case Manhattan.

Seek God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost, the three that are only one, for your true self, your child-of-God self. Society is suffering. We need everyone to be their true self, their child-of-God self to bring the kingdom of God from heaven to earth. Talk to God.

Father God in the Precious Name of My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Empowered by the Holy Ghost, in all ways change me into my true self, my child-of-God self. Prevent fear, shame and any bad behavior from stopping me from being all that you created me to be.

Goodness Comes Back to Us

Mordecai discovered a plot to kill King Ahasuerus/Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia (Esther 2). He informed Queen Esther (who was his uncle's daughter), who informed King Ahasuerus, and the would-be assassins, Bigthana and Teresh, were brought to justice and hanged.

Then Mordecai's good deed was forgotten, but not forever.

Meanwhile Mordecai kept on doing good. He also didn't swell up with a superior-than-others attitude or shrink into self-pity because he was not receiving the recognition due him.

God is just. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5:25 Amplified Bible, "So also, good deeds are evident and conspicuous, and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden [indefinitely]." Mordecai's good deed had been written down in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia. One night King Ahasuerus couldn't sleep (Esther 6). So he got up and read the book and was reminded about Mordecai's good deed. Later he honored Mordecai.

Mordecai was a man of God. "When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7 Amplified Bible).

King Ahaserus made Mordecai's enemy, Haman, to honor Mordecai for reporting the king's would-be assassins to the authorities in the splashy way that Haman thought he should be honored.

Maybe you are putting more effort into a relationship than you are receiving? Don't worry if you are doing good, but honor doesn't seem to be coming to you. Mordecai protected his king, his queen, his nation and his family through the reporting of the would-be assassins of the king and other good deeds. God knew how to please and honor Mordecai in the perfect timing and way for Mordecai's good deeds. Mordecai also became manager of Haman's estate and a leading ruler of the empire. Likewise in God's perfect timing and way He knows how to please and to honor you.

Please share an on-line comment about a good deed that was honored.

Discrimination

Zelophehad died without fathering any sons (Numbers 27). His inheritance was about to pass out of his family, but Tirzah, Milcah, Hoglah, Noah and Mahlah spoke up and said to Moses, Eleazar, other Israelite leaders and other people that's not right; our father's inheritance belongs to us. These daughters loved themselves and their family and friends by recognizing they needed to secure a place and provision of their own to nurture themselves, their families and friends.

Moses went to God to see if the Zelophehad daughters were being discriminated against and were due justice. God said yes; it's not right to let others have Zelophehad's inheritance because his offspring are females.

Our God often does things big. God didn't only correct this case of sexual discrimination. God also granted justice and protection to multiple members of families by saying in Numbers 27:8-11 New Living Translation Bible, "And give the following instructions to the people of Israel: If a man dies and has no son, then give his inheritance to his daughters. And if he has no daughter either, transfer his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. But if his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan. This is a legal requirement for the people of Israel, just as the Lord commanded Moses." That made it impossible for a family to lose its inheritance.

Later on God manifested His plan of making it impossible for all believers to lose their spiritual inheritance. God made believers joint heirs with God the Son Jesus Christ for eternity. Pilate showed Barabbas partiality, and Jesus died. God didn't keep quiet about the wrong. Jesus Christ got up from the dead in three days granting forgiveness of sins and an eternal relationship with believers.

Speaking up is critical to improving relationships and living. Don't keep quiet about discrimination. Speak up. Proverbs 18:21 Amplified Bible says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]."

Please share an on-line comment about speaking out against discrimination.