This was the vision! All people, all kindred, all nations, all tongues. One blood. But it was the vision realized when Peter accepted the mandate to love those he had been taught to hate.

I want to know Him. And I came to know Him. I believe the purpose of man is to know that God, the God of the universe who made everything and holds everything together. That big God. That all-encompassing God. the God who makes Himself known to humanity. I came to know that God. And I believe the purpose of us knowing that God is to love Him back and make Him known to others.

And if I had not met Jesus I would have died carrying to strip it away, layer by layer. He reminded me again and again that I could not hoard His love. And I could not be selective about who I would share it with. The love He had shed abroad in my heart was meant to be shared with others regardless of their color. My good friend Judah Smith says, "You cannot exaggerate God's love. Just try it!" I agree with him. God intends for us to be extravagant and free in our love for one another.

Our natural preference is to stay home, comfortable in our own spirituality. God calls us each on a journey, an Abrahamic journey. It doesn't necessarily mean a geographical journey, but it will always mean a spiritual journey of the heart. It will mean leaving the familiar, traveling in discomfort but being pushed to place our trust in God for...everything.

We as the American church need to take more ownership for our collective sin, our obsession with things that will not make an ounce of difference in heaven, and our failure (past and present) to stand up and speak up for the poor, for the stranger, for the ones who don't look like us.

In 2012 they elected Fred Luter as the first African American president of the denomination...."A descendant of slaves elected to lead a denomination forged to protect the evil interest of slaveholders is a sign of the power of a gospel that crucifies injustice and reconciles brothers and sisters.""We thought it was time to stop talking about racial unity in positions of leadership within our convention" and "put a president out there

we only look back so that we can move forward with His power.

Lament comes from deep down in the souls. We need to give voice to our souls.

The wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care." - Henri Nouwen