Daily struggles of inner city ministry, plus Godly affirmation being better than false pride

    I'll start by saying that we had a small flare-up in our Thursday night activity because of a few different things, including one of our inner city pickups using the n-word, which among other things he had done to provoke and bully kids of all races has led the troublemaker to be removed from the program. Thanks to Bomani Jones of ESPN radio for some of the race stuff as he's mentioned a few similar things over the time I've heard him, as I didn't really understand this either, at least not to a great extent.

     However, this isn't just about race; it's also about an Alpha male attitude that transcends race - while we are all one blood (see a longer video here, too), the fact there are different cultures has been used by some to try to put others down, and this is wrong. It is made worse by the injustice which exists in our culture - although aspects of this injustice only deal with worldly things; as I taught in our Youth Leaders Training Institute (YLTI) class just before this flareup, society makes you think, for instance, that you're not somebody unless you have the best shoes (yes, one kid mentioned shoes as an idol before this). However, this is where self-esteem is a major problem.

     Godly affirmation, on the other hand, says you are special to God no matter who you are, that it doesn't matter if you have the same shoes or whatever as someone else. Godly affirmation says that you are so special that if you were the only person ever, He still would have come to die for your sins and risen fromt he dead. he took the punishment we each deserve for our sins, and all you have to do is call on Him with a single, sincere prayer of repentance, admitting you fall short of His perfection, believing He died to take your punishment for your sins and rose again, and calling on Him to save you and make you new inside. You can do that right now, in fact.

          When there is extreme poverty, it makes the idea of being an Alpha male, of trying to prove you're the boss, more prominent, it seems. This Alpha male idea that they have to be challenging others and winning to be accepted is not Godly, but rather, if they let go and let God affirm them as special in His eyes and humble themselves, then they will be truly successful.

     This is more difficult, as I say, since the poverty that exists in the Northeastpart of Canton - and, indeed, in any poverty-stricken situation - makes that task more daunting, and means that spiritual warfare can erupt which we need much prayer to combat. Because people don't have material wealth they decide, "Oh, I know how I can feel better about myself, by being the top dog over someone else." This is a part of their culture that we need to help them see is not Biblical.

     That poverty has also caused problems among classes and cultures. We have had several very good black teens who have been leaders and able to help get kids out to the van and other things, and can help defuse thigns before they escalate.

Part of this is cultural because of the neighborhood and other things. There are been excellent leaders, for instance, who have taught nonviolence and worked for racial justice without fighting back. Leaving aside the fact that God's justice is better than any man's justice - it's easy for middle class blacks, or those who are very heavily into following the Lord (which many of these families aren't) to look at those like Jackie Robinson or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and think, "Yeah, nonviolence works, standing tall and ignoring the taunts allows you to succeed." (I haveheard some say Robinson was so agressive on the field becasue he took his frustration out on the baseball, but the point is, he showed excellent self-control.) It's harder for others, since people in poorer communities haven't tasted the increase that others have. To them, looking only at their circumstances, it appears like not much has changed since 1917. They think, "What did turning the other cheek really accomplish for us?"

     Because of this, there is a tendency taught by their lives in the inner city to think that it's not worth it to be leaders, to be those who say, "Hey, be orderly and respectful and all that." Oh, they might *want* to lead, but often there are certain youth who don't know how to command respect without demanding it, and there is a clear difference. These young people see so many only looking at circumstances that they're used to just trying to force things.

    This is one reason I've tried in YLTI to teach on the fruit of the Spirit and how to avoid the lusts of the flesh to show how there is a difference which should come when we trust in God. Galatians 5:16-26 is a great passage which helps us to avoid the lusts of the flesh like revellings, seditions, etc. by being peaceful, using faith, longsuffering, etc., and listening to authority. Some of the kids did seem to be listening, but it still requires baby steps when the environment has surrounded them with other ideas. One might well say that the churched kid of whatever race is still our Judea, whereas the unchurched is our Samaria. Both are vitala nd Jesus wants us to reach them all, but the way we approach them is different. The Gospel was the same, after all, to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) as it was to Paul, but the Lord sure had to go about reaching them differently.

     It's important to reach the parents, too, in spots like this, and help them understand that we need them to work with us, at least in part, to help their kids see that it's not about not fighting back, it's about reaching out and showing them that as the skies are higher than the seas, so are God's ways higher than man's ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.(Isa. 55:8-9) Backing down when being called names and provoked with looks and such (I presume that also happens, I know it's possible but don't really get such nonverbal things) isn't being weak. It is saying, "Your taunts don't impact me." It is letting God's strength and power be what leads them. And, this can even be done in worldly ways. You could say that, "By ignoring your taunts I am actually diminishing you because I am saying you don't matter." Each of us does matter to God, of course, but sometimes when you can show that God's ways make sense even in the world, it will help people to see that we have logic on our side and that can cause them to look further into what else we have to say.

     We are, after all, wanting to help these young people to grow to follow the Lord, to not be acting out their frustrations at life - poverty and all that goes with it - but to accept that they don't have to have all the things of this world in order to be satisfied. (Just as the example I used last night about not needing the best Air Jordans to be someone special to God, because those are things that will all pass away.)

     They may come from a different background than we do, but if we have conversations where we listen and see where they are not just spiritually but also in their mentality, we can help them (kids *and* parents) to realize it's not our word but God's Word that is going to help them. To paraphrase Lincoln said of Gettysburg, we should use this as a new birth and let it be somewhere where we can share with the families the freedom that God provides and try to understand why there are these problems so we can help guide everyone to realize the love that God has for them and how they can overcome this.

     This is likely all stuff some inner city ministries have known for years, but because we have had so many different roles in filling in the gaps, one might say, some of this is stuff we are learning on the fly as we work in this particular neighborhood. So, please continue to pray for us, and by all means, e-mail us with your own ideas for helping, knowing that we only have the one night a week and some Saturdays. And, also, go to our website and give so we can send some of these kids to a great church camp. Thanks.

Constant contact with no need for constant texting/tweeting/Facebooking

The last post was topical. While it won't air till September, you can hear our show on the Iran nuclear deal and Ezekiel 38-39 here as well as all our shows on the radio page at gcyouthquake.org.

I was pondering the incredible size of Facebook and Twitter recently, along with how people seem glued to their phones while texting. And, I got to thinking. It may not be a mere fact caused by our global society, but a symptom of something else.

While I'm sure we're not the first to suggest this, please let us take a moment to explain, and to share how to have a wonderful bond that will never break. With it, whether this desire for constant contact - yet at a distance - is a symptom or not, our young people today can feel peace and assurance that will never end.

Society at breakneck speed

The first person to say, "Stop the world, I want off" wasn't born in the 21st century or probably even the 20th. It might have been when railroads began to connect faraway places, or when news that took days to arrive could suddenly reach one instantly by telegraph. It may have been before then, in fact.

Whenever it was,the pace of life has only sped up since. This leads to a couple of things which may be causing the intense increase in focus on computer screens(personal computer and cell phone ones) as opposed to normal bonding.

One is the vast amount of information available. It can be overwhelming at times, to the point Daniel prophesied 2,500 years ago something which is no doubt true today - "Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."(Dan.12:4) That "going to and fro" implies a constant flitting about like a hummingbird with a caffeine rush, going from place to place at a ridiculous pace. The increase in knowledge implies a continual increase, exponential growth in fact. This is certainly true today, with what we know doubling every 22 months a few years ago and less now.(Not that we're saying we're real close to the end - Dr. H.A. Ironside was saying the same thing about the last days decades ago.)

(It should be noted a secondary meaning concerns understanding the Book of Daniel itself and Jesus as Messiah. It's important to always interpret Scripture with Scripture to understand it, and also when in doubt to go to the original languages of the  Greek and Hebrew; the quote is from the King James Version, from the  Antiochan Texts. Here is a good example of how not doing so hides the richness of God's Word in the different lessons which may be drawn from it.)

This vast amount of information available means people are constantly trying to use it - Googling anything from directions when lost to the lyrics of that song that's on the tip of your tongue to what that thing on the New Orleans Saints helmets is.(Fleur de lis, a French royal symbol, so you don't get interrupted looking for it.)

It also allows others to provide "information" themselves by posting it, so anyone can share their favorite recipe with the world, announce a special event, or just let people see that cute picture of their puppy carrying a baseball-shaped salt shaker and trying to get you to throw it for him.

Society losing richness, depth of relationships

The second problem is that this constant movement and increase in information can lead to overload, but also to the problem of relationships not being as deep as possible. This is just as significant, in a different sense, as the point about how much trouble one can get in posting the wrong things online.

It's a problem because centuries, even decades, ago we humans valued close, personal relationships. We were meant for such things, in fact.

I(Doug) have trouble reading nonverbal expressions due to a few handicaps - a nod to me is just "yes" for instance, and I can't discern between what I've heard are numerous types. While that and a few other little things may be due to my brain processing things a bit differently, for quite a few young people it seems they enjoy internet communication more than talking.

There may be other reasons, but mostly, they don't feel a closeness to others because they are, in some sense, too wary because things seem to come and go so often, but also, trying to interpret the depth of things is so difficult at times because they are hit with so many other things. They feel an intense amount of pressure to do so much that they are, in a sense, backing away by having only computer contact. This problem of depth perception, one might call it, also leads to problems with understanding things such as privacy and what should be posted online, in fact.

Jesus provides a calming, loving answer

The wonderful thing is that God provides an answer for every situation - and, His Word will give you security even in the most troublesome times.

Jesus bears our burden for more than just sin, though with only a 30 minute show it's understandable that was the majority of our focus in that one. He wants to help everyone, and in fact, he'll provide constant contact just like an online situation, except His love is so much deeper. That's the reason He promised that the Holy Spirit would come and live in each believer, in fact.

If you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you can pray anywhere, anytime, about anything. It doesn't have to be really fancy wording. It's just sharing your heart with God. That might feel hard for some people - which could be another reason some prefer online communication so they don't have to share what may be very painful memories and intense feelings. But, the key is, God knows what we need - he just wants us to be humble and willing to admit we need His help. That's why we pray when He knows our needs. If we don't pray for something we are saying, "I can do this myself."

The problem is, we are powerless against the spiritual warfare that is out there combating us, and we need His help. tThose intense feelings that you might have, those can be shared with God and He will give you strength to cope, He'll give you a strategy for making things better, and so on. Maybe you can't save the world but you can save one person, for instance. Maybe you can be the spiritual leader for someone else and it will take your mind off your own circumstances, and let you focus on the positive - that relationship with God who will see you through everything.

There is so much turmoil out there because of modern life, we need Jesus more than ever.

He will be the answer when you ask how to get through something; He may not heal all your physical ailments (I've had numerous handicaps since birth) but He will heal you spiritually. He is also the answer when you want a friend who will be there forever.

Jesus  called His disciples friends

Yes, He called them friends, and will call you friend, too.

This does *not* mean you can just ignore who He is - He is the sinless, holy, all-powerful, etc. Creator of the Universe. he must be approached with respect and reverence, but at the same time, He is willing to hear that prayer for a puppy or kitten that is hurt, all the way up to a scary battle with cancer you or a loved one face, or anything in between.

And, He will be beside you all the time. He will live in you through the Holy Spirit. Each of us is only a single, sincere prayer of repentance to Jesus Christ away from eternal life, but that eternal life begins at the moment you trust Him to save you by calling on Him by simple faith to do so, believing He took all the punishment for your sins when he died and rose from the dead.

That constant contact with the Creator of the Universe is possible only because of His amazing grace, not anything we have done or could do. Once it's received, then of course like any relationship communication is key, but that will be so easy. You can share your deepest thoughts with Him and know He will never leave you or forsake you. You can read His Word and He'll speak to you, you can hear His still, small voice through the Spirit, and many other things I don't have time to get into. Just remember, anything you take in must agree with His Word, or it can't be from Him.

So, I pray you will use this chance while we are in the Age of Grace to develop that relationship with Jesus Christ. He wants to have a relationship with you. Indeed, His love for you is far beyond anything mankind could imagine, even the people of a century ago who constantly had those much deeper relationships.