druggie pride

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. - Jesus Christ

When she got out of rehab there was one thing that now she could not stand for people to do. She had just spent weeks in rehab with people on the brink of death and dying inside. This time in rehab came after years that she had spent battling the drugs herself. Now that she was out of rehab she had a chance to start all over again. She had a chance to be the person she knew she could be before the drugs took her life away. She had written letters asking people to forgive her for all she had done in that past life. She had prayed that she could pick up the pieces of her life and move on. 

Now it was time, rehab was over and her life was beginning again. She moved to a new town with new people but carried with her the scars and the memories both good and bad. As she met new people, she met some that were using drugs the way she had been just weeks before. As she talked to them there was one thing that they would do that she could not stand...

...and that was to have druggie pride

She had seen people in rehab that still had this problem and now that she was back in the world it was everywhere...

Druggie Pride is when someone that uses brags about all that they have done while they were high. Someone with druggie pride will overlook the negative in doing drugs and only talk about all the fun times they had when they were using. 

This type of person may not be using anymore but even if they are not, they find a piece of their identity in the life they led as a drug addict. They build up in the minds of the people that listen to them that drugs are great and the only down side is coming down or the eventual hangover.

She hated when people would talk about drugs that way. She will be the first to tell you that she made some awesome and fun memories while high. But those memories can’t fill all of the hurt inside that was created by lying to people that loved her, watching the lives of her friends spin out of control and the low times of depression and withdrawals between hits. 

She would say that those people aren’t helping anyone by acting like drugs are all good and saying that drugs improve life. She knew that drugs were on the road to a dark place she didn’t want to go again. She had found Jesus. She had begun the most important relationship ever and she had left the drugs in the past.

how many of us still dwell on the sins we committed...

We think about how much fun we had while doing them or how great they made us feel when we escaped reality. We leave those bad habits at the door of our hearts just in case we need to go back there again. We have sinner’s pride.

Even though we know the pain and agony Jesus had to endure for our sins to be forgiven, we are quick to make him relive those moments every time we given in again or think about those sins as being the best times of our lives. 

Instead of seeing sin as evil and pulling us away from God we view our bad habits and addictions as part of our identity and we even go as far as to rationalize what we do. We rationalize our sin by saying that what we did isn’t as bad as what some people do, and that our sin is okay because it is just in our mind, or only happens when we are really tired, totally alone or completely stressed. 

but God doesn’t view sin this way... 

He sees sin as what sent His perfect Son to the cross. Don’t get me wrong, if you have asked for God’s forgiveness then you are forgiven. But each time you dwell on your past sins and go back to the same habits and addictions that Jesus has delivered you from then you are mocking his death on the cross.

I am nice guy and if you do something to hurt me I will most likely (Lord willin’) forgive you. But if after you do it, you go around bragging about how fun it was or how you would do it again if you ever got the chance, well then that will probably irk me. 

imagine how jesus feels...

Stop thinking about the calm timid hippie Jesus you see in all the paintings and think about the Jesus that overturned tables and cracked the whip in the temple courtyard. That Jesus, while he loves you more than anything, will be pretty miffed by you using the grace and mercy he has shown you as a license to sin all you want.

When you accepted the gift of salvation, part of that was repenting of your sins, to repent means to turn your back on and walk away from. I know that none of us will be perfect, but what repentance is saying is that instead of walking back toward our sinful, lost life we are running toward God even though we will trip along the way.

The verse at the top of the page is saying to us that if we are going to follow God it is going to have to be whole heartedly...

... no more living with one foot in the feces of sin 

while the other is trying to step onto the streets of gold...

The Bible says that God sees all sin the same. All sin in the eyes of God deserves death. God’s Son is the one that died the death for all of our sins. 

Part of that horrible death that he endured was spent on the cross seeing with his mind’s eye and feeling all of the sin that everyone has committed from the beginning of time until the end of time. So before you go around building up a type of sin as fun, try seeing it through the eyes of Jesus. 

our problem is that we see it through our eyes and not Christ’s...

We see getting drunk and think we won’t hurt anybody 

and man will we have some stories to tell.

But Jesus sees a family dead in their car coming 

home from grandma’s house and a kid passed out 

at the wheel of the other car.

We see having sex and think that it doesn’t matter that we 

aren’t married and committed, because sex is just a physical thing.

But Jesus sees a girl that just wanted someone to love her 

sitting alone in a room holding a positive pregnancy test.

We see a little lie about someone that will never find out anyway.

But Jesus sees a reputation ruined for nothing other than good gossip.

When you see sin the way that Jesus sees sin then you will no longer suffer from Sinner’s Pride. Our goal as believers should be to grow stronger in our walk with Jesus and to get rid of everything in our life that grieves the Holy Spirit within us. 

The reason we do this is because when we think about how much Jesus loves us we want to show him that same love back. Take an inventory of your life today. 

What entertains you? Is your movie, tv and music life full of the same sins that sent Jesus to the cross? Is your everyday talk and conversation full of the same gossip, lies and obscenity as it was before you were saved? Do you hang out with the same people and go the same places and do the same things that have pulled you down spiritually in the past? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions then it’s time for you to go into spiritual rehab and to get rid of the sinful nature that has crept back into your life. 

you don’t have to fall away from god...

There is no rule out there saying that anyone has to sin. Jesus was as much of a human as we are and he never sinned, yet was tempted more than us.

Make today the day you remember the price that was paid for you to have eternal life, remember the person that made your hope possible and once again walk away from all sin that pulls you back to your past and away from your Savior.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the

author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary

and lose heart. – excerpt from a letter to the early church

the bathroom light

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. - Jesus Christ

it happens every night without fail...

You have been asleep only about an hour and it hits you. You have to pee!!! As you slowly come out of your dreamy haze, you debate just how bad you need to go to the john. You think to yourself, “well if I can just hold it for um… six more hours then I will get up.” But then you remember some study that came out about how holding it is bad for your prostate and even though you have no idea where your prostate is you know that you don’t want a bad one of those. So you make some neanderthal grunting noises and climb out of bed. 

As you walk along the dark hallway leading to your oasis you thank God for one thing. You remembered to leave the bathroom light on before you went to bed and now you have some light to guide you. 

Cause we all know what happens when we forget to leave the light on. You know, you will be staggering to the bathroom in the dark and stub your baby toe on a piece of furniture that the night elves put in your path just for fun. 

Then you will let out a string of words under your breath that a biker wouldn’t repeat. A pain shoots through your entire body and you could swear that you broke your whole leg. 

Oh yeah, when you forget to leave that light on a lot of weirdness can happen. I once forget to leave that light on and when I made my nightly pilgrimage to the bathroom I was too tired to turn the light on. I figured I had been doing this for a good 18 years and I could do it without the light on. Needless to say it wasn’t that easy. 

Life Lesson 103: 

Never put your dirty close hamper directly across from your toilet. 

(anybody can get disoriented in the dark)

without that light we are lost

Without that light the trip is so much harder.

Jesus once said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We live in a dark world, where many people are lost and blind. Some people can’t see

beyond the sin of this world. I was there once too. But one day, into my darkness came a shimmer of light, and as I walked closer to the light I knew I had found the way. 

That was the day that Jesus came into my heart and saved me. Now I can be the light to others who are in the dark. Our world has been in the dark for so long that we have begun to hate the light. We are spiritually nocturnal.

But for all of the artificial light that we have created we can’t compete with the true light, Jesus Christ.

As believers we have been given the unique and wonderful opportunity to reflect the light to the dark parts of this world. We can light the path for those walking in the dark and encourage them to follow the light too.

Yet all too often, since we live in a world of darkness we choose to be dark also. We hide our light so that we can fit in with those in the dark, because if our light shown, then everyone would know that we are different and maybe we wouldn’t be accepted the same. 

one match can light up a dark room 

So as believers we are the light and everyone will see, unless we choose to bury our light under our sin and pride and cover our light with our fear of rejection and want for acceptance.

Wow, boy are we dumb. I can tell you that I would surely laugh at the person that got up during the night and walked to the bathroom in the dark while holding a flashlight. That person could have avoided all the stubbed toes, bumped heads and embarrassing accidents. But everyday that we go through our lives hiding the light of Christ we do the same thing. We are under the belief that life will be easier, and the world will love us more if we are in the darkness with them, when the exact opposite is true. 

I have a love and appreciation for the person that led me to Christ that I can’t even describe. Had he hidden his faith I may still be without Christ.

Jesus is the light of the world and we are his mirrors to the world. Today you must choose to live as a child of the light or to continue on in this world of darkness. Either way know that for every second you waiver on the fence of indecision people are stubbing toes and bumping into walls all in search of the true light.

Flip the switch in your life today and shine the light of Christ through your life, to this dark world.

 

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. - Jesus Christ

the ingrown church

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James brother of Jesus Christ

i see it everywhere...

..from the newspapers and tv, to the pulpits and suicide bombings; so many people all over the face of the earth justifying so many acts in the name of religion.

The Christian church is no exception. As a follower of Jesus, raised in the church, I have seen people mistreated, shunned and corrupted all because of religion. The religion I grew up with was that of Christianity. 

Now that I am older I look upon what the Christian church, as a whole, has become and I am saddened, saddened because I do not believe the church of today is the church that Jesus wanted His followers to be.

Even the word denotes the wrong meaning in the minds of people. Most people think that you go to church; they believe “church” is a place that people give money to and it gets bigger and better.

jesus did not refer to the church as a place but as a group of people 

By making church a place we abdicate our responsibility of being the church the six days of the week that we are not at the place, church. By making the church a place, you can justify decisions and actions based not in spirituality but in materialism all for the betterment of the “church”.

The world is not a better place because more tithe and donation money is poured into a building. I realize that believers need a place to meet and grow and worship God, but going with that rationale there are many other ways to achieve this goal than building a structure that stay practically empty over 75% of the week.

Without realizing, we as Christians have begun hiding ourselves inside the “church” in a holy huddle, we carryout all of our life’s activities in the place. We want to have a softball team so the church uses money to build a softball field, we want our kids to play basketball so we build a gym, we want a place to hang out and entertain ourselves so we build a family life center. We do all of this in the name of giving ourselves a spiritual oasis and safe place for our families to be in the midst of an evil world and society bound for hell. We take the tithe and put it toward building up the wall that surrounds our castle of Christianity.

Sure we say the doors are open to anyone that wishes to enter and we pray for them to come in droves but believe you me they are either turned off or intimidated by our campuses and compounds.

They are turned off by that fact that we claim to be doing God’s will inside of building that costs millions to build yet we scrounge to find money to give to the missionaries in the field and the community outreaches in our area.

They are repulsed at the idea of us giving money to build our Tower of Babel while within a five-mile radius of the church, people live in poverty and need.

the church isn’t a haven for the holy... it is a hospital for the hurting 

In the verse above James is saying God isn’t impressed with our just taking care of our own inside the church, no God wants the money and time spent investing into people, people that need help, people that need God.

We don’t need our own softball fields and workout centers, we need to go into the world to the gym down the street and through our lives share with the people in that place the love and truth of Jesus Christ.

The church is growing in and not out.

 I know how bad it is for one of my toenails to grow in and not out, strangely enough that idea applies to the church as well. 

We will only become infected, corrupted and unusable.

It is time we take back the meaning of the word church and return it to being about a people and not a place, a relationship not a religion.

We do not proclaim the love of Christ because He has made us better than the rest of the world. We do not proclaim the love of Christ because we are perfect and have a six-step plan to show others how to become perfect.

People are not led to Christ by our buildings or our budgets; nor are they impressed by what we do in the name of God.

None of that is the reason. No, people come to Christ for the same reason we did, because He becomes real in their life. So to mirror that we must to become real, and say that once and for all the church is a body of people forgiven not perfect that are striving to serve God by reaching out a hand those in need physically, mentally and spiritually.

yes this will make us uncomfortable. 

Yes this will cause us to do something other than show up on Sunday and be entertained by the preacher’s latest anecdotes. 

But this is true religion, this is true Christianity, this is the church.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless; like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." – Matthew the Levite, quoting Jesus Christ

waiting for the wedding

For the Lord, Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. - Paul of Tarsus

you could have cut the suspense with a knife

As we sat there together alone in the room, I could see that the past year was running through his mind. He looked intently at the floor but every couple of minutes he would crack a smile and you could see that he was remembering the beginning.

All of the planning and preparation had lead to this point. The guests were arriving, the decorations looked great and all of us were dressed the best we had ever been. Every so often he would hear that she was about to walk by so he would close his eyes or leave the room, all with a huge smile on his face because he couldn’t wait.

As we walked out of that little room I watched him closely. He went through every emotion in the book. 

Fear- was he ready to be a husband. 

Shock- that the rest of his life was about to begin. 

Joy- that all of his dreams were finally coming true. 

we stood in front of family and friends

The music played softly and carried over the lake and through the trees. He had managed to maintain his composure that is until she walked out of those doors. The second he saw her tears welled up in his eyes, everything was at peace, everything made sense.

If you have ever been a part of a wedding you would probably agree that there is something magical about the ceremony. The magic stems from watching as two people who had waited their entire lives for each other come together at long last. From here forward they will be together forever as one. 

This wedding ceremony is an analogy for something far greater. You see in the Bible the marriage relationship serves as an analogy of our relationship with Christ and we, as the church are the bride of Christ.

Everything that Christ did from being born to dying on the cross all centered around saving the love of his life. It is the greatest romance of all time. A man is born to save his one true love. He gives his life to rescue her from the villain, but don’t worry at the end of the story the enemy is defeated, the damsel in distress is saved and they live happily ever after.

christ went to Heaven to prepare a place for you his bride

The great carpenter is up there right now building your dream house, with you in mind. He is creating a place that will be beyond your wildest dreams, a place that will serve as an eternal honeymoon. The best part is that soon he will come back for His bride. He is coming back for you, he has more for you than this place.

No matter how bad your circumstances are here on earth, you can know that your lover is coming for you. So instead of living for this world, which is slowly dying away, we should get prepared to leave and join together with our Savior. 

Instead of getting comfortable here, we need to sit on the edge of our chair as a man does when he is about to walk down the aisle and join together with the woman that he has waited his entire life for. Jesus is coming back to save you! That is the single greatest truth of our faith. You are his bride and he wants nothing more than to love you totally, completely and unconditionally forever.

Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth for the first Heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. - John, Jesus' best friend

who is my neighbor?

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." 
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus...
"And who is my neighbor?" - as told by Dr. Luke

he asked a simple question so jesus gave him a simple answer. 


He wanted to feel righteous in front of that crowd because he knew the law and lived by the law and he thought Jesus was about to pat him on the back and say good job. 


But when he asked the question and Jesus didn't begin to quote law-by-law everything this man lived for he was stunned and embarrassed. He was embarrassed by Jesus' quick and simple answer, an answer that implied that his own righteousness, because he followed the law, wasn't all that important after all. 


So he wanted to catch Jesus off guard and ask, "Who is my neighbor?" saying to himself," Ha, gotcha Jesus, no quick answer on this one. Here's my second chance to be justified before these people because I only associate with the best Jews and my neighbors are righteous and well established in the community." 


Jesus responded with one of the most well known parables of all time, the parable of The Good Samaritan, You can check out the story in Luke 10, here is a quick synopsis:

A man was mugged, beaten and left for dead on a street leaving Jerusalem, the big city. As he lay there dying for the entire world to see a priest, saw him and instead of stopping to help him, which is what you would expect a priest to do, he walked by on the other side of the road. So the dying man's situation didn't change, but there was hope a Levite, who was the chosen holy man by God, the equivalent to an Arch Bishop in standing with the community and a televangelist in popularity, walks by. He sees the man and instead of helping him, which could do wonders for his reputation, he too walked by on the other side. At last a Samaritan man comes by that place sees the man and takes him to get care. He pays for this man he doesn't know with money, probably more than his budget would allow.


Jesus ends by asking the man who was the good neighbor to the man in the ditch. The expert in the law responds by saying "the one who had mercy on him". Jesus told him to "go and do likewise".


but to understand the significance you must understand something about samaritans


This ethnic group of people were looked down on by the Jews. The Jews considered them dirty, evil people that were slightly above animals, much like the slave owners viewed the slaves in the early days of our country. 


Yet out of the three people that saw this man the one that had the least to gain and the greatest reason just to walk by, showed mercy. 


In one story Jesus had torn down this man's self-righteousness. Jesus showed him it's not who you are when people are watching that matters but who you are when it's just you and God and you have nothing to gain. Jesus taught this man that it's not what you know about the letter of the law and how you follow it, but whether or not you understand the love of God and live it.


Jesus took the least of all men, a Samaritan and not only showed that he is equal to the Jews but that he is their neighbor. In one story Jesus showed the world that as people we are equals, equally flawed, equally in need of Christ.


Of all the commandments to follow, loving each other is the second most important. As believers we must view everyone we come in contact as our neighbor, and our equal.


It is easy to love those that live the way we do, act the way we do and believe the way we do. It is harder to love those that are not like us. Those people we call weird or walk by on the other side of the street or hallway when we see them. Those people that we refer to as "them" or "their kind". We all share a common ground and that is we are all human, from Bill Gates to the homeless guy I pass on my way to work, from the Supreme Court Justice to the pregnant teenage mom debating abortion...we are all human. 


it isn't enough for us to love god and our clique


It isn't enough for us to go to church, read the Bible and wear the Christian t-shirts. Jesus is calling us to love the unlovable to reach out to those who are hurting and dying; to tear down the walls of prejudice and preconceived notions and to see people through His eyes.
"Who is my neighbor?" is not the question. The question is, "Who can I touch, who can I reach with the love of Christ? ".


 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' - Jesus Christ

you can't out give God

Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. - God

the concept is simple...

God has given us so much and if we will give back to Him, then He will give us even more. If you are keeping score about who has sacrificed more to make this relationship work, then let me save you some energy and let you know that God wins out every time. God gave His Son; God gave you a chance at life. God has blessed you in more ways than you can count everyday.

the question is...

Then why are we so selfish when it comes to giving back to God? We say God I am more than happy to serve because of all that you have done for me, and God when you call me I will drop everything to do what you need me to. Yet we turn around and we treat God like a telemarketer. We hear the phone ring and hope that it isn't God because we are having such a great time. We look down at the caller id and tell everyone in the house to just let it ring. We check the mail and we open the mail that is from God's bank with our daily check of blessings, but we avoid that pink letter that says final notice, cause this is the letter where God tells us what He needs us to do.

 we have all prayed that prayer that says...

"God if you will get me out of this situation, or provide me with this, or make all of this better then I will do anything that you need me to". Then after God delivers us, or blesses us we say, "Umm.. what prayer? I don't remember any prayer. Sorry" Once again we think that we dupe God. But it turns out we are really duping ourselves, because through our service to God, He will bless us more. He even blesses us in ways that allow us to serve Him more. All of this can be yours if you are just willing to give to God.

think about how God has blessed you...


You may have money - good you can use it to help those without money or give it to a ministry where you see God working.

You may have time - great God needs you to mentor other people or to volunteer to go see people in the hospital, and you know God may even need you to spend some time at the food pantry shelving cans.

You may have a nice new car - wonderful there are about 3 people in your neighborhood that need rides to church, or Bible study, or could use a trip to the grocery store.

You may own a home - then why not open it up to a missionary's family while they are in town, or maybe use your house to host a Bible Study or prayer group.

 the point is that...

God has given to you in ways that other people in this world have never even seen; it is time to give back to God, and watch Him give back to you even more. You may be sitting there thinking about how crappy your life is right now, and you may think that God is not blessing you at all. Well I have news for you, if you are reading this then God has blessed you with at the least two eyes and the ability to read, which is something that some people don't have. So instead of getting your undies in a wad comparing what you don't have with what others have, why don't you use what you do have to honor God and fulfill His purpose for your life. Let God take what you have and do something with it.

 the story is told...

...of an old one legged man that goes to the office of the foreign missions board and wants to sign up to go to Africa and witness to the tribes in the mountains. The guy behind the desk tries to talk him out of it, saying that the terrain is too rough to use crutches on, and that everyday there is a lot of physical activity. When his pleas for this man to change his mind don't work, then this guy asks the man one more question. He asks, "Why do you feel that you should go Africa with your one leg?" The man responded saying, "Because I don't see people with two legs going"

we can talk all day long...

...about how we will give to God when we have more to give. But know that people less fortunate than you are already giving to God.

It's not about equal gifts but equal sacrifice.

you can't out give God...

If you give to Him, He will bless you even more than you could have imagined He would. I have seen this truth in my own life. But when I hold on to my money, or toys, or home as if I earned them by myself, then that comes between me and my relationship with God. Don't forget that God is the banker, everything you have belongs to God, and you won't be taking it with you when you go. While you are here, use you time and talents to bring people to Jesus and to grow them in their faith.

then you will see a threefold miracle...

1) You will be relying on God and not on yourself.

2) People will be blessed through your giving.

3) God will give you back more than what you started with.

give it all to God cheerfully, happily and willingly...

God will take care of you, no matter if you have one dollar in the bank or one million. God will take care of you if you are living in a motel or in a mansion. You trusted God with your eternity now trust him with your everyday.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. - Jesus Christ

cows and horses

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. – Dr. Luke

from my front porch I get to see something everyday that not a lot of people see. 


You see, in what would be my front yard there is a pasture complete with cows and horses. I get a kick out of walking down my driveway and talking to the cows as they chew their cud. They are great listeners. On Sundays you can see all the cows lying in the grass together as if they are having cow church. Well it looks like cow church, cause one cow is always standing, that must be the preacher. 


I grew up out here, so spending time with the cows is nothing new to me, but about eight years ago the cow pasture changed forever. The owners of the pasture bought two horses, because their sons began to ride. I don’t have to tell you how beautiful those horses are and when you talk to them they look like they care, cause they stare at you with those big black eyes.

Yet one thing I have noticed is that the cows and the horses don’t socialize at all. If the horses are on one side of the field the cows are on the other. If the horses come over to eat the grass in one spot, then the cows leave, disgusted. I’ve seen this whole ordeal happen a lot, and I am amazed at how much like humans cows are.

We are prejudiced by nature. We want to be around people like ourselves that do the things that we do the way that we do them. We tend to have friends that look like us, talk like us and view life like us. We shy away from people that are different. We shy away from people that aren’t like us. We are no better than the cows.

i am a person of mixed race. 


I grew up here in the south and felt the pain of prejudice in the form of racism all throughout my childhood. I was rejected by blacks because I looked white and I was rejected by whites because I looked black. There was hate inside of me for both races. 


But my internal hate could not compare to the hate that these two groups of people have had for one other for hundreds of years. Not everyone hated me; no, some just didn’t want me around because I didn’t fit into their group. Fathers wouldn’t let me date their daughters because of the color of my skin, a color which must have drugged up old memories and opened old wounds. The racism I encountered had many 

sources, but one outcome. Racism is not the only form of prejudice though.

Prejudice comes in many forms. Prejudice can be how you view a group of people; the poor, the rich, the fat, the skinny.

Prejudice is always found when you view other people as the “them” versus your group of people as the “us”. You find yourself saying “people like that”, or “those types”, or “you can trust anyone that is (fill in the blank)”.

prejudice exists for three reasons

1. people want to belong to groups, humans have a fear of being alone

2. people want to be better than others, even if that means putting other people down

3. people are uneducated about others in their society

Prejudice is never based in fact though. You can not take one aspect of a person and define the whole person by it. You can not have an experience with a person and take the quality that stood out to you most about them and then apply that experience to everyone with that quality.

- If you get mugged by a black guy on the streets downtown, you can’t think that all blacks downtown are out to get you.

- If you see a movie that stars a stupid guy covered in tattoos and piercings that only wants to get high you can’t assume that all people with tattoos and piercings are underachievers

- If you go to a church and the people aren’t welcoming, don’t write off all people in all churches.

In the eyes of God there is no prejudice we are all humans deserving of God’s love and saved by God’s grace. 


We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we are all God’s children. God’s doesn’t assign us any label except saved and unsaved, because that is the only label that matters. We as believers must see people this way too. 


we must see people through love...


...and reach out to those that haven’t experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ and lead them to Him.

We need to end the cycle of experiences breeding stereotypes, leading to prejudice. We all come from different walks of life, but in our differences we find unity. Because no one person is the same we are all one group of diverse people. 


You may try to identify yourself with a group and exclude others from it, but you are trying in vain, because you will find you have just as much in common with the people inside your group as you have with those outside your group.

- The races aren’t that different, each race has it’s own class of poor, rich, thief, saint, married and unmarried

- The socio-economic classes aren’t that different, there are rich people that are just as unhappy as poor people, and there are those who don’t have as much that are better off than those that do.

There is just no way to assume anything about anyone. We must get to know people as individuals.

look to the heart...

…through how the person carries himself 
…through what she is wearing
…past where they have been
…deeper than the color of their skin

…See what really matters, see who they are, not what they are.

I don’t know if the cows really do dislike the horses, but I do know that they will be sharing the same pasture for the rest of their lives. 


we are all sharing the same pasture called earth. 


We all drink from the same water, eat the same foods and live under the heat of the same sun. The things that bind us together are so much greater than those that tear us apart.

People will wrong you, but don’t take your revenge against a group of people for the actions of one person, let each one be accountable for his own deeds. 


God sent Jesus for all of us. If God loves all of us enough to send his son to die for anyone of us, then we are all worth loving and we are all equal. 


Put down your hate, put down your pride, put down what your parents taught you, put down what society tells you, once and for all put down your prejudice, take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.... I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. - Paul from Tarsus