Culture Collision: Devotions From Time Of GraceSample

Race matters

One of the sad characteristics of life on this planet in the 21st century is that we have all gotten more tribal. Under stress, we shrink backward into groups just like us. This is bad news for America’s eternally strained racial environment. 

The Black Lives Matter movement cannot imagine why anyone could disagree with them or oppose them. Those who advocate All Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter too see their position as more universally moral. Neither side has much empathy for the other, and so the shouting goes on.

Christians have an important role here. We can affirm the unconditional universality of God’s grace. We can teach and live the truth that God wants all to be saved and that all nations and tribes will be represented in the throng around the throne in heaven. We can show the world how to love, respect, and appreciate people not like us for Jesus’ sake. 

We can live out the beautiful relationship that took place in a chariot in Gaza along the Mediterranean coast long ago. The evangelist Philip was led to an African government official who was puzzling over a Bible. Philip sat with him and revealed the gospel of Christ to him. The Ethiopian said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” Philip baptized him, and the African “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:36,39).

Two very different men became brothers that day.