slavery – Cross Culture Church

“Dimensions of Freedom”

This year has numerous prophetic overtones. 400 years ago, Africans were brought to America as slaves and stayed in bondage for 250 years. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Watchnight Services held in many African American churches originated to commemorate the time they spent awaiting the news that their freedom had come. Yet it took two and one-half years before federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure the freedom of those who had been set free by proclamation. Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation was made real with the backing of military force. The information was withheld by many of the slaveholders until after harvest time, using their labor to harvest their crops. The news began to spread and over 250,000 enslaved were set free. The day marked for celebration was June 19^th and became known as “Juneteenth.”

This year, 2020 connotes vision. 20/20 vision is the ability to see correctly. Vision provides one the ability to see ahead; to envision things as they ought to be. Israel was enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years. They were subjected to harsh punishments and forced servitude. It was their cry to God that their voices were heard on High. God raised up a leader, Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Pharaoh’s resistance was met with plagues that enveloped all of Egypt. Now in the global pandemic of Covid-19, along with Global Warming, fires, hurricanes and floods, earthquakes, and other dilemmas are plaguing the world. Through all that is currently happening, a new paradigm is emerging. Laws were amended in the past, Civil Rights legislation and Affirmative Action; an African American was even elected as President of the United States. Yet the residue of slavery remains as systemic racism is deeply ingrained into the American psyche. The changes did not go far enough, yet the beneficiaries of the established systems have their consciences pacified. As long as the established system remained, true freedom would never be fully realized. “So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.” (Ex 8:28) The leash, or the economic controls remain affecting the educational systems, the availability of jobs; the penal system overrun with the children of former slaves, and other crippling effects that prevent the realization of deeper dimensions of freedom. There remains an invisible ceiling that prohibits the advancement from going too far. The controls are there to regain the harsh grip that once was attached to the neck of the slave.

Then all of the events of history converged into one prophetic moment. The public lynching of George Floyd ignited global fires that brought years of oppression to the surface. With leadership assisting in igniting the fire through inflammatory remarks, the light has now been turned on and is burning brightly. As it was on the Day of Pentecost, new questions are being asked and new actions are being initiated. The unsettled state of the world has led us to an apex. Moses approached Pharaoh with the objective of freedom with a purpose. “Let My people go that they may worship Me.” This nation was established for the purpose of worship; when true worship was withheld, the situation descended into newer and different forms of bondage. Taxation without representation; the Church under the control of the Government, and many other methods of bondage. Yet freedom to worship without worship in Spirit and in Truth leads to the freedom to enslave others with the disease of amnesia, forgetting why freedom was ever extended. This time, may we embrace the right definition of both freedom and worship. Then we will be free indeed. Free enough to even intercede for our former slave masters! Pharaoh said to Moses, “when you get to where you are going, pray for me.”

01 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

January 2018 Article: The Year of “Cross Culture”

Posted by wwalker Categories: Articles

Three years ago, we changed our church’s name from Abundant Life Church to Cross Culture Church. Not that we do not believe in the abundant life, nor is it a matter of changing our assignment. There are times in life when the vision given by God is to be reinforced so that our understanding can be extended. When most think of abundance, their thinking is usually directed towards personal abundance alone. There is a sign in the center of our sanctuary with one word; “OTHERS.” It was placed there so that all who worship among us would focus their attention beyond themselves. We wish all to know that we are blessed in order to be a blessing. Not only that, but to know that our greatest blessing is being a blessing. When we are able to bless others, it is because we are graced by God for Him to serve others through us. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Serving others is giving your life through extending your redeemed soul to others. When your life becomes conduit in the Hands of God, He reaches others through you who otherwise would have remained unreached!

The ransom of Christ’s life was to redeem us or to purchase our redemption. We were sold into slavery and under the dominance of the devil. Jesus had to stoop lower than the slave in order to rescue him from his dire condition of slavery. He became a man to identify with our humanity. Then He became sin for us in order to fully identify with our fallen condition. The ransom of His life was to free us from being a slave to sin. This was and currently is His service to all humanity. He served us by dying for us on the Cross. We have received His life in abundance when we are enabled to serve others without expecting anything in return. It is His gift in us that qualifies us to serve and motivates us to keep on serving. If Jesus could wash the feet of His disciples, we ought to wash each other’s feet. The symbolism of washing feet has to do with becoming the lowest level of servanthood.

This position goes crosswise to today’s culture. Capitalism alone suggests that we work hard at getting others to serve us. If any product is presented, or acts of service given, one must first look at personal profit as the bottom line. Churches erected in order to present a good showing of success and impressing others that their existence is relevant. People who parade their gifts and benevolence for awards and the applause of men. But the Culture of the Cross is to silently bless others even when your gift to them goes unrecognized. Jesus silently suffered in midst of the mocking and the jeering of the crowd. Paul admonished us to allow the mind of Christ to be in us, or to be given full expression through us. We are committed to publishing His message of humility through this, our ministry.

This year we will be emphasizing the work of the cross in the life of each individual. The Culture of Christ comprising of a culture that will confront through doing good what has been popularized over the years thus contributing to our nation’s demise. While there is concern regarding the value of the life of people-groups, the violent nature of mankind against others who do not look or think the same; decisions made to accept what ought to be rejected and rejecting what ought to be accepted, the need for cultural transformation is ever present. It must first begin among the people who are called by His Name if it is to ever reach the larger populace. We are committed to this and willing to invest our whole lives to this noble cause. There will be many who will count our ministry as being irrelevant and out of touch with reality. But we believe this to be the year where we will experience this as a vision whose time has come!

03 Jul 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: July 3

Posted by wwalker Categories: Meditations

“I am God, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely.” Leviticus 26:13 (MSG)

God identifies with us and calls us His own. In order for us to experience the blessings of communion, there had to be a divine rescue. The attachments of old held us as slaves to another. It was our condition and geographical location. We were in our Egypt and joined to the culture of Egypt. What where once were was so much a part of us that our objective was to further conform to what we were able to see. But God’s love sought us out and reminded us that we were in a place that we did not belong. The dissatisfaction within our souls not to settle was His mercy and grace reaching down to the lowest parts in order to lift us up above the slavery of Egypt. Then He ripped the harness off our necks enabling us to move about freely. Now that we have been set free after having been given the will to be free, let us not return to the house of bondage. We are now free to worship and free to serve God with our whole heart, soul, and strength. We have been freed that we may move freely.

01 Nov 0Comments 0Likes

November 2016 Article: “Your Call and Your Election”

Posted by wwalker Categories: Articles

The collective choices of a generation clearly reflect its sentiments. The way that people think at any given time is expressed through their voice by vote. If there are pockets of resistance or individuals who disagree with society’s direction, it serves only as an indication to the level of desperation that influences our need for change. The loss and lack of influence by those who possess the right position create a vacuum to be filled by opposing views that challenge their stance and contradict their position. When personal preferences are not questioned in the light of spiritual authority and absolute truth, every position taken can be justified in one’s own eyes. The spin on the argument in defense of the decision to go the wrong way, even though it may be convincing, only widens the gap away from civility and points towards barbarism. When intellectualism is added to the mix, the result is a sophisticated way of saying nothing well and becoming so broadminded that life itself has lost its meaning.

Thank God for the availability of choices. We are forced to make choices every day, and each momentary choice leads to our final destiny. The question is, where are we headed? How do we expect to get there? Who can tell us if we are on the right track? Throughout the Scriptures, we read of individuals and people groups choosing between two or more options. The consequences of their decisions are clearly revealed as an example and warning to this generation. Yet so many treat life as if historical facts are meaningless and the only thing that matters is how they presently feel. Choices either lead to an open door of opportunities or a closed prison door of slavery.

You have been given the privilege to choose because you were chosen for a purpose and a cause that extends beyond what you currently see. The initial call is Jesus Christ calling you to Himself. Then, out of your entering into right relationship with Him, you are enabled to see and understand life from an altogether different perspective. His everlasting Kingdom becomes your priority, and in time, every decision is measured from the basis of its eternal worth.

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; (11) for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:10-11

You have been called to elect or choose what God has chosen for you. He has placed before you the options of life and death. It is not death immediate but rather the paths that either lead to life or lead to death. Your children and preceding generations will follow the path that you pave for them. The trends and values of our day will eventually become legalized and institutionalized so that our children will grow up in an environment based upon the pace that you have set. You are voting for more than a president, a congressman, or a senator. You are voting, even before you visit the polling place, by the decisions you are making right now. Who are you voting for with your life? Things can turn around and be different but it requires individuals who will first listen to the call of God. To elect is to choose or to make a choice. Neutrality is also a choice—more specifically, it is a choice not to choose. Then it leaves choices to others to make for us. Your destiny is then guided by chance and not choice. Today, ask God to reveal to you the things that He has chosen for your life, and allow His choice for you to become your choice for yourself.