Sunday, August 16, 2020

"Let Justice Roll Down"

 Unveiling of Four Little Girls Memorial

Four Spirits Memorial" has made the history of September 15, 1963 complete!

“I call them ‘My Girls.’ When people tell me they’re going to visit the memorial, I ask them to bring the girls flowers, and to put them in the shoe, in the bow or on the bench. They are a constant reminder that this should never, ever, ever happen. Sadly, it does happen — all over the world.”  - sculpture Elizabeth MacQueen

16th Street Baptist Church

On September 15, 1963, the congregation of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama greeted each other before the start of Sunday service. In the basement of the church, five young girls, two of them sisters, gathered in the ladies room in their best dresses, happily chatting about the first days of the new school year. It was Youth Day and excitement filled the air, they were going to take part in the Sunday adult service. Four Little Girls

Just before 11 o'clock, instead of rising to begin prayers the congregation was knocked to the ground. As a bomb exploded under the steps of the church, they sought safety under the pews and shielded each other from falling debris. In the basement, four little girls, 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley, were killed. Addie's sister Susan survived, but was permanently blinded.

“The contribution of the civil rights movement to the black man’s struggle for justice and equality is one that is undeniably great. And this is so, because those who led the movement were committed men and women. They were committed to the cause. And to the struggle.

But how sad that so few individuals equally committed to Jesus Christ ever became a part of that movement. For what all that political activity needed- and lacked - was spiritual input. Even now, I do not understand why so many evangelicals find a sense of commitment to civil rights and Jesus Christ an “either - or” proposition.

One of the greatest tragedies of the civil rights movement is at evangelicals surrendered their leadership in the movement by default to those who with either a bankrupt theology or no theology at all, simply because the vast majority of Bible-believing Christians ignored a great and crucial opportunity in history for genuine ethical action.  The evangelical church- whose basic theology is the same as mine – had not gone on to preach the whole gospel.”

John M. Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down  Let Justice Roll Down

"Come dream with me. Dream of a fight for something bigger, 
something more important and worthwhile.
We need to fight for justice and peace,
for the walls between us to come crashing down.”  -Dr. John M. Perkins

 John M. Perkins, Dream with Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win






Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church,Selma,AL
Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church is a church at 410 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Selma, Alabama, United States. This church was a starting point for the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and, as the meeting place and offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the Selma Movement, played a major role in the events that led to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The nation's reaction to Selma's  Bloody Sunday march is widely credited with making the passage of the Voting Rights Act politically viable in the United States Congress.

The church was built in 1908 to a design by A. J. Farley. Its congregation arose out of a combined African-American and white congregation of Methodists which separated by race in 1866. Its first sanctuary was built on this site in 1869. 

“The reason we haven’t solved the race problem in America after hundreds of years is that people apart from God are trying to create unity, while people under God who already have unity are not living out the unity we possess. The result of both of these conditions is disastrous for America. Our failure to find cultural unity as a nation is directly related to the church’s failure to preserve our spiritual unity. The church has already been given unity because we’ve been made part of the same family. An interesting point to note about family is that you don’t have to get family to be family. A family already is a family. But sometimes you do have to get family to act like family. In the family of God, this is done through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. A perfect example of spiritual unity came on the Day of Pentecost when God’s people spoke with other tongues (Acts 2:4). When the Holy Spirit showed up, people spoke in languages they didn’t know so that people from a variety of backgrounds could unite under the cross of Jesus Christ. The people who heard the apostles speak on the Day of Pentecost were from all over the world, representing at least sixteen different geographical areas, racial categories, or ethnic groups (Acts 2:8–11). But in spite of the great diversity, they found true oneness in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual oneness always and only comes to those who are under God’s authority because in that reality He enables them with the power of His Spirit.”

John M. Perkins, One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race

One Blood: A Parting Word to the Church on Race


"Perhaps the strongest indictment against us as the Church is that we have settled for an Americanized version of the Church that mirrors whatever culture says, and there is no collective sense of loss, no sense of remorse. We have sinned deeply. The problem is that we haven’t got a taste of the sinfulness of racism... We don’t see the wickedness of profiling God’s people that He has created to be one and that He has created in His image (p. 75)."

John M. Perkins, One Blood: A Parting Word to the Church on Race


"In the midst of all the pain, oppression, and lack of meaning in life, the Church must proclaim the answer that is provided to us so clearly in Scripture. It is simple. We must be loving like Jesus in this fractured world."  

John M. Perkins, One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race

"For too long, many in the Church have argued that unity in the body of Christ across ethnic and class lines is a separate issue from the gospel. There has been the suggestion that we can be reconciled to God without being reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Scripture doesn’t bear that out. We only need to examine what happened when the Church was birthed to see exactly how God intends for this issue of reconciliation within the body of Christ to fall out (p. 33)."

John M. Perkins, One Blood: A Parting Word to the Church on Race

A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory By Timothy Keller

(a) Biblical justice is significantly more well-grounded. It is based on God’s character—a moral absolute—while the other theories are based on the changing winds of human culture. (b) Biblical justice is more penetrating in its analysis of the human condition, seeing injustice stemming from a more complex set of causes—social, individual, environmental, spiritual—than any other theory addresses. (c) Biblical justice provides a unique understanding of the character of wealth and ownership that does not fit into either modern categories of capitalism or socialism.

(a) Christianity does not claim to explain all reality. There is an enormous amount of mystery – things we are simply not told (Deuteronomy 29:29). We are not given any ‘theory of everything’ that can explain things in terms of evolutionary biology or social forces. Reality and people are complex and at bottom mysterious. (b) Christianity does not claim that if our agenda is followed most of our problems will be fixed. Meta-narratives have a “we are the Saviors” complex. Christians believe that we can fight for justice in the knowledge that eventually God will put all things right, but until then we can never expect to fully fix the world. Christianity is not utopian.  (c) Finally, the storyline of the whole Bible is God’s repeated identification with the wretched, powerless, and marginalized. The central story of the Old Testament is liberation of slaves from captivity. Over and over in the Bible, God’s deliverers are usually racial and social outsiders, people seen to be weak and rejected in the eyes of the power elites of the world. 



by Rita Springer  (feat. Dante Bowe)

VERSE 1
There is a power
There is a presence 
Holding all heaven
Watching the earth
It can part troubled waters
Quench every thirst
Heal what is broken
And break every curse

VERSE 2
There is a power
So overwhelming
All of creation
Bows to its name
It came to save every captive
Cover every shame 
To keep every promise
And break every chain

CHORUS
There is power in this room
Any darkness has to move
For the light is breaking through
Everything that exalts
Itself must fall
Underneath the power of 
Our great God

VERSE 3
There is a power
Death cannot alter
There is a grave
Hell could not steal
It’s here to change every outcome
Lift every head
Win every battle
Raise up the dead

BRIDGE
In the name of Jesus there is power
In the name of Jesus there is healing
In the name of Jesus there is power
In the name, in the name
In the name of Jesus


Ephesians 1 : 19
and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

2nd Corinthians 12 : 9
And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for `my' power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.



“My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own. “
- Ta- Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

“And still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory but because it assures you an honorable and sane life.”

To his son-
“The struggle is really all I have for you because it is the only portion of this world under your control.”
- Ta- Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

“In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage. Enslavement was not nearly the antiseptic borrowing of labor – it is not so easy to get a human being to commit their body against its own elemental interest....
There is no uplifting way to say this. I have no praise anthems, nor old Negro spiritual’s. The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are distructible – that is precisely why they are so precious. And the soul did not escape. The spirit did not steal away on gospel wings. The soul was the body that fed the tobacco, and the spirit was the blood that watered the cotton, and these created the first fruits of the American garden....
It could only be the employment of carriage whips, tongs, iron pokers, hand size, stones, paperweights, or whatever might be handy to break the black body, the black family, the black community, the black nation. The bodies were pulverized into stock and marked with insurance. And the bodies were an aspiration, lucrative as Indian land, a veranda, a beautiful wife, or a summer home in the mountains. For the men who need to believe themselves white, the bodies were the key to a social club, and the right to break the bodies was the mark of civilization.”
- Ta- Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me



Come Through- love that's willing to reach To the ends of the earth for me.

"This love that's willing to reach To the ends of the earth for me..."


"Don’t be shocked by My words, but I tell you the truth. Even you, an educated and respected man among your people, must be reborn by the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God." 

John 3:7 VOICE

"Don’t be surprised that I told you, ‘You must be born again.’ 

John 3:7 ERV


"There is no one else who can rescue us, and there is no other name under heaven given to any human by whom we may be rescued."

 Acts 4:12 VOICE

"Jesus is the only one who can save people. His name is the only power in the world that has been given to save anyone. We must be saved through him!”

Acts 4:12 ERV

Heart ♥️

"I will plant a new heart and new spirit inside of you. I will take out your stubborn, stony heart and give you a willing, tender heart of flesh."                Ezekiel 36:26 VOICE

"I will also put a new spirit in you to change your way of thinking. I will take out the heart of stone from your body and give you a tender, human heart."

Ezekiel 36:26 ERV


'Cause You rewrite my story Your love rewrites my story'


 Come Through - Kim Walker Smith

I wait for You now

Like the desert waits for the rain

Like a child at the end of the day

I know You'll come through

I trust what You say

As a treasure no one can take

Every word so steady and safe

You always come through


All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

All I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me


I cling to a hope

And I hold it deep in my chest

I sing till there's nothing left

You'll always come through

Yes, You do

You'll always come through

You'll always come through, yeah


All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

And all I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me


You are who You say You are

You do what You say You'll do

So my heart will trust Your heart

I know that I know You'll come through

You are who You say You are

You do what You say You'll do

So my heart will trust Your heart

I know that I know You'll come through

I know that I know You'll come through

I know that I know You'll come through


All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

And all I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me, yeah


You'll always come through, oh-oh

Oh, oh-oh, oh

So amazing to think about my life

And after all that I've walked through

I still see that

All I've ever known is Your love, Jesus

Doesn't matter the ugliness of the past

Doesn't matter the pain of the past

This is how great Your love is

How redeeming Your love is

All that we can stand and say

All we've ever known

Is a love that calls out to me

All I've ever known

Is a love that runs to the ends of the earth

Just to find me

All I've ever known

Is a love that holds me close and

Never lets me go

All I've ever known

Is the love of my Father


All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

And all I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me

All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

And all I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me


'Cause You rewrite my story

Your love rewrites my story

How great is Your love, Jesus

Your love rewrites my story

So I can stand and say

All I've ever known is Your love

Your kindness, Your mercy, Jesus, oh-oh

And I can look back and see You

In every piece of the story

That is the redeeming power of Jesus

That is the redeeming power of Jesus

Oh, He rewrites Your story

You're no longer the same

He's in every piece of the story

Open our eyes to see it tonight

Open our eyes to see how nothing is wasted

Nothing is wasted, no

You rewrite our story

This is Your kindness

This is Your goodness

This is the cross

This is the work of the cross in our lives

We are no longer chained to the past

We are no longer enslaved to the past

We no longer have to carry the labors from the past

This is the work of the cross

This is the work of the cross

He makes all things new

He makes all things new, yeah, ah

He makes all things new, ha-ha

He makes all things new, yeah


All I've ever known

And all You've ever shown

Is love that's willing to go

To the ends of the earth for me

And all I'll ever need

Is who You are to me

This love that's willing to reach

To the ends of the earth for me