Racism and Hate Are Antichrist

by Gregory A. Johnson

Racism and hatred are alive and well, but not for those who are citizens of the Kingdom. No, you see, the citizens of the Kingdom love God with everything they have, and they love other people as they love themselves. They are willing to give their life for others as Christ did. They are willing to go to jail protesting unjust laws that do not treat people equally, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did.

What would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. say to us today? I think that he would say to us the same things he said in his day. Listen to what he had to say:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation (King 1963).

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true (King 1963).

How to Make the Right Decisions

by Gregory A. Johnson


Please know that whatever God is speaking and through whatever avenue He chooses to speak it, it will always line up with His written word. The angel that came to Joseph in a dream lined up God’s plan with God’s Word. He lined up what was happening with the Word of God spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

Throughout our life, we will continually have to make decisions in difficult situations and circumstances. To make the right choices, we must seek God’s plan. How do we know when we have found God’s plan? There will always be two indicators that will let us know when we have found God’s plan. Number one, God’s plan will always line up with His Word (click to tweet). Number two, we will have a peace that God gives us about the plan.

God’s plan will always bring peace (click to tweet). “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).

Joseph received God’s plan that lined up with God’s Word, and he received a peace from God that allowed him to execute the plan. This Word and this peace enabled him to scrap his plan and execute God’s plan instead. Did it make his life easy? No, Joseph lived his life with everyone talking about how Mary got pregnant prior to their marriage ceremony. You know how people are. I imagine that people shamed Mary and Joseph all throughout their life on this earth, but they were chosen and blessed vessels of God. I imagine they are living pretty nice today around God’s throne as they both submitted to God’s plan and not human reasoning.

Beloved, God’s plan for our life in each situation and every circumstance is far better than our plan (click to tweet). As we seek God through prayer and as we wait on Him, He will lead us, and He will guide us. Weigh every decision you make on two premises. Does it line up with God’s Word? Do I have a peace about the decision? Unless you can say yes to those two questions, continue to pray and wait. If you act on your own plan, you will miss God. If you act on God’s plan, you will receive His blessings. Pray. Wait. Stay in the Word. Receive His peace. Be blessed.

Excerpted from the book, The Characters of Christmas: God at Work in Our Lives by Gregory A. Johnson. Copyright © by Gregory A. Johnson. All rights reserved. 

Taken Out of this World

by Gregory A. Johnson

For many years, it has been popular to trace a family’s ancestry back as far as one can go. There are many resources available now, including the Internet, which makes information for genealogical research more readily available.

The genealogy of Noah is given in Genesis 5:1-32 of the Bible and traces all the way back to Adam. It is interesting to note that after stating the name of each ancestor and years of his life, it is always stated that the individual died, except in one instance—Enoch. It does not state that Enoch died, but instead it says “God took him.”

Enoch was close to God, and God enjoyed his company very much. They would walk with each other every day. I imagine God waited for Enoch to awaken each day so they could spend time together. One day, God just took Enoch into His presence to be with Him for all eternity. Enoch bypassed death.

God has made a way for us to have eternal life through Jesus Christ. We can walk with Him every day, and one day He will take us to be with Him forever. God taking Enoch typifies the great gathering in the sky with the LORD that is to come for Christ-followers.

A Glorious Church Service

by Gregory A. Johnson

Church in a renovated carriage house

Instead of the church in Mississippi, God led us to pastor a group of folk in central Kentucky. We were so happy to find the will of God and move from West Virginia to Kentucky to pastor. The church there did not have a lot of people, it didn't have a parsonage, and it was not debt-free like the church in Mississippi, but God called us there, and they were fine people. They had church in an old carriage house on the property of an old southern mansion that sat on a hill overlooking the city. The mansion had burned down, but the church bought the ten acres and renovated the old carriage house to have church in until they could afford to build a sanctuary on the property.

The property had history. The old two-level carriage house still had iron jail bars on the windows of the basement. It was where slaves were housed at night during the terrible days of slavery in America, when African Americans were treated, valued, and traded as animals. The slaves would work long, hard days on the property farming tobacco and taking care of the livestock. At night they would be locked in the dark, damp, and musty smelling basement with the horses and carriages housed comfortably in the nicer level above them.

In loving memory of my dad, Elmer L. Johnson

by Gregory A. Johnson

Elmer L. Johnson

January 7, 1931 - June 17, 2013

Besides Jesus Christ, my dad made more of an impact on my life than any other man I have ever known. I could never list all the ways that dad influenced my life, but please allow me to share some with you here.

Dad influenced me to:

• love the Lord and faithfully serve him with my time, talent, and finances.
• make the Bible the authoritative guide for all of my beliefs and actions.
• love my wife as Christ loves the church.
• always be available for my children, caring for and loving them.
• point people to Jesus on this journey from earth to glory.
• love God’s creation.

I owe a lot to my dad’s influence, and I thank God for giving me the honor to be his son.

gaj

We Need a Faith and Justice Revival in Our Day

by Gregory A. Johnson

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Revelation 7:9-10 ESV).

On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in a day when those with dark skin did not have equality with those with white skin. The African American was not allowed to ride in the front of the bus with the European American. African Americans could not use the same restrooms. They could not eat in the same sections of the restaurants. The children could not play in the same playgrounds nor go to the same schools. They could not drink from the same water fountain. They could not even go to the same church. Slavery, a great sin of the nation, was over, but segregation and all of its inequalities remained in America. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, not everyone was free; many were bound by the injustices of racism. It is with that backdrop that a dream was birthed in an individual. Although that dream has not fully reached reality, it is burning intensely in the hearts of many in our day.

Dr. King lived his life in the belief of God’s rule that all people are created equal, and all people should be treated equally. This is the dream of justice driven by faith. It is the dream that God gave to Dr. King. It is the dream that God plants deep into the heart of citizens of the Kingdom.