Skip to main content

RECLAIMING OUR COMMUNITY


I wrote this article over five years ago and I believe revisiting it is appropriate in light of what we are facing these days. When we think about the condition of our communities; we need to understand we are not just fighting against guns and gang violence, but against spiritual wickedness in high places.  In order to reclaim our community we must first recognize the source of the problem, confront the problem, and then conquer the problem.
Recognize—Confront—Conquer

THE WAR AGAINST VIOLENCE

This war against violence is not just a physical one; it is also a spiritual war.  In the physical realm we need to bond together and say no longer will we allow the violence to take over our community. It will take everyone corporation. On the spiritual aspect of the war we need to understand that our fight is not against the gang members but against the spirit of murder that is driving our young people (friends & family) to violence. 

The only way to fight against the spirit of murder is through prayer and education.  We must pray for our community and educate our young people about morality, their value in God’s eyes, their personal destiny, and the hope and future with God at the center of their life. 


EDUCATION AND CHANGE

Education is key because unless we give young people a new hope and a
new meaning to life, we will not be effective in our efforts to bring change.  In order to bring change in our community we need to effect change in the minds of our community members. We need to give the people in the community a reason to live, a reason to be a part of the family. Without change, all efforts to unite and build a better community are useless. We cannot build a better community if everyone is not on the same page. We cannot build a better community if we don’t have the same vision and purpose for our community.  If we don’t have a common goal unity will not be among us.  To create unity we must all agree on the big picture, which is to create a peaceful community. Bear in mind that we will not all agree on every issue that arise, but we must respect each other opinion, and agree to disagree in order to accomplish our major goal: PEACE AND UNITY WITHIN OUR COMMUNITIES.


FORGIVENESS AND CHALLENGE

No one is perfect, we have all made our share of mistakes, yet God has not condemned us, He is always willing to forgive when we ask for His forgiveness. Let us take those mistakes, learn from them and allow God to use us in spite of our faults.  There is a great challenge that lies ahead of us and it will not be easy to accomplish it. One thing we can be confident of is this “God who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it to the end. It is up to us not to grow weary in welling doing.  With every obstacle that comes our way let us lean on Jesus for His supernatural strength to   carry us through.  This work will take commitment and dedication. There will be times when you will feel like giving up, that is quite ok.  It is in those times of weakness that God will show Himself strong. 
So how are we going to rebuild our community? The restoration of this community can only be    accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. God promises to rebuild and restore. Isaiah 61:1-4 declares “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me (Jesus).  Because He has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the  brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of    righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”  And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.

God promises to do His part in restoring our community, now let us come together and do our part in bringing restoration to our community for generations to come.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring God’s Love: Loving God His Way

The way we love God sometimes is not the way He requires us to love Him!   Loving God requires us to know His love language. Today we begin to explore loving God His way. “ If you love me, keep my commands." - Yeshua (Jesus). John 14:15 God’s love language! God’s commandments are His love language.    Read Exodus 20:1-17 God' Commands are two categories: Our relationship with Him. Exodus 20:2-11 Our relationship with each other. Exodus 20:12-17 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Carried Away

Many of us are being carried away with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting and being tossed to and fro because of spiritual malnutrition. It is evident in our society as we see the rise of prosperity gospel and the infiltration of new age practices in our churches. Believers are being led astray because those who are called to lead are not executing the plan of God for the church or ministry in which they are called to serve. Leaders are more concerned about their agendas and programs rather than the purpose of God. The word of God has set forth the ministry of the church and the purpose of its leaders. In Ephesians chapter 4:7-16,  the Apostle Paul gives us a clear picture of the governing body (earthly) of the body Christ and its function; yet there are churches today who are operating without the order of government as established in Scriptures. This governing body: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Legacy

Jeremiah 29:10-13 10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.  11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Most people in life can trace their family line as far back as four generations. Yet some of us don’t know our biological parents much more to know our grand-parents. Ever since I was a child I always heard my mom and her sisters talked about their parents as if it was some kind of mysterious fairy-tale.  Though my mother and her three siblings are of the same mother and father, it is a mystery to me how two of them ended up with different last n...
Post a Comment
Read more