Monday, January 20, 2020, 12:41 pm | Randy Thomasson
Do you see people’s souls?
As a want-to-be disciple of Jesus Christ, I want to see people’s souls, to motivate me to love them more deeply.
But I also want to see people’s souls because I don’t want to be distracted by false identities.
Because ultimately, we’re all souls with skin on. And on Judgment Day, every human being will be in one of two groups — saved or lost, forgiven or condemned.
This is why I’m attracted to the 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, in part, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” How Christian this practical, moral perspective is!
Yet in my generation, I’ve heard even more profound wisdom from biblical Christian pastor E.V. Hill of Los Angeles, who, during the 1992 L.A. riots, was a guest on the Christian-format radio show I was producing at the time. (Back in 1957, Hill and MLK were two of seven pastors who formed the anti-segregation Southern Christian Leadership Conference.)
While portions of Los Angeles and Long Beach were burning — a criminal response to white police officers being acquitted of using excessive force against Rodney King, who was resisting arrest — Hill uttered these wise words on the air:
“I don’t understand the verdict, but this I know — I know who I am: First, I’m a Christian. Second, I’m an American. Third, I’m a man. Fourth, I’m a black man.”
E.V. Hill got it right.He knew his main identity must be in Christ, and he moved race to the back of the line, where it belongs. For in the New Testament, true Christians have a spiritual identity that’s literally out of this world:
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)
This is why true Christians should think of themselves as “in Christ” and avoid competing identities. Likewise, when asking the introspective question, “Who am I?”, the correct Christian answer is “I’m a saint,” or “I’m a child of the King,” or “I’m a sinner saved by grace,” or “I’m a happy slave of Jesus Christ.”
This means my primary identity is:
not in my race, ethnicity, or nationality not in my sex not in my age not in my performance not in my looks not in my possessions not in my status and not dependent on people liking me
I can tell you, I’m not totally there yet. Because developing my identity in Christ requires me to daily “die to myself” and to replace the lies I’ve believed with the truth of the Bible, which tells me the truth about God, the truth about myself, and the truth about the devil. The pursuit of a Christian identity is the quest for true mental health. Real peace, real security, real significance, real knowledge, real love, and real life are its satisfying fruits.
As for a non-Christian in the United States of America, his or her main identity should be as an American. For if citizens of a particular nation do not identify with their own country first, it’s all to easy for them to become unreliable in matters of faith, duty, and love.
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all … The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic … There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.” Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President (1901-1909), in 1915
“I want to say — I cannot say too often — any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready. If I can catch any man with a hyphen in this great contest I will know that I have got an enemy of the Republic.” Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. President (1913-1921), in 1919
Thursday, January 2, 2020, 10:38 am | Randy Thomasson
December 29, 2019 shooting at the Sunday morning service of West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas (Fort Worth vicinity)
I was horrified by the church shooting in Texas just before New Year’s. Even though the hooded murderer inside the church building killed two others, he was stopped from killing even more people when he was shot dead by a trained member of the church’s security.
With the growing, devilish trend of church shootings in the USA, you can bet that more congregations will get the idea that they should train at least one male churchgoer to shoot and stop an invading murderer. And despite this hard subject, we all should be very glad when a good guy with a gun takes down the bad guy with his gun.
Because with the rise of atheism and immoral, unfair wrath against peaceful religions, no church can say, “It can’t happen to us.” And I hope no pastor will be paralyzed into a false sense of security by thinking, “God’s in control.” Truly, our main thought here needs to be loving our neighbor, by preventing harm to our neighbor. And for Christians, closer than neighbors are the brethren, who we should love with a whole heart.
In 2019, there were at least two shootings at a California houses of worship — in April, at a Jewish synagogue in San Diego County, and, in February, at a Protestant church in Sacramento County. Ready to explore a murder-prevention plan for your church congregation? Here’s a good-reputation training ministry that can help.
“But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.” Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, in John 10:12-13
Wednesday, December 18, 2019, 10:17 am | Randy Thomasson
On this historic day, when the impeachment power of Congress is blatantly misused by the ruling Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, here is what I told the media in a SaveCalifornia.com news release. I hope it’ll help you as you talk about it too.
Why independent voter Randy Thomasson opposes Trump’s impeachment “Adam Schiff of Glendale and Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco should be embarrassed to proceed, since they have neither probable cause nor overwhelming evidence of any crime.”
Sacramento, California (December 18, 2019) — In light of today’s expected vote of the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, Randy Thomasson, an independent voter and president of SaveCalifornia.com, a leading family issues organization promoting moral virtues for the common good, has issued the following statement:
“If you were falsely charged with a crime, you’d demand due process and evidence. Unfortunately, we’re seeing neither of these ethical and constitutional rights in the House Democrats’ impeachment push against President Donald Trump.
“‘Abuse of power’ is a fact-free charge, since U.S. presidents are permitted tremendous latitude in their relations with other countries. For President Trump to ask the new Ukraine leader to demonstrate his anti-corruption campaign agenda by investigating how former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, famously enriched themselves in Ukraine, was not only permissible, it was the right thing to do. Ironically, it’s the House Democrats who are abusing their power by providing no evidence at all that President Trump committed any crime, yet they’re still trying to reverse an election through impeachment.
“‘Obstruction of Congress,’ the second empty charge, is only because the Trump Administration refused to testify and to provide confidential information that the House Democrats’ “impeachment inquiry” demanded. Yet numerous presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have both claimed and used executive privilege, based on constitutional separation of powers. The U.S. Supreme Court has not opined that this is ‘obstruction,’ so neither should the ruling Democrats.
“Impeachment leaders Adam Schiff of Glendale and Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco should be embarrassed to proceed, since they have neither probable cause nor overwhelming evidence of any crime committed by President Trump. This unconstitutional act is likely to backfire on them politically. Perhaps it already has, since independent voters oppose impeachment 49% to 34%.
“As a registered independent, I wasn’t able to vote for Trump, but I am morally obligated to oppose the Democrats’ impeachment charade due to lack of evidence. Because evidence is the only fair standard for charging or convicting anybody.”
— end —
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope; That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work, That we may see it; And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, That we may know it.” Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man! Isaiah 5:18-23
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