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FROM GOD’S CORNER
By Aundra Bryant
Tallahassee, Florida
Several years ago, Reverend
Jasper Williams of the Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia
recorded a soul stirring, thought
provoking sermon entitled “If
Walls Could Talk.” In thinking
about the title, my mind ran back
to the book of Nehemiah, Chapter
Six where we find Nehemiah’s three adversaries Sanballat, Tobiah and
Geshem trying to discourage him and getting down right angry at his attempt
to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Verses 1-4 states, 1 When word came to
Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had
rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not
set the doors in the gates- 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message:
“Come, let us meet together in one of the villages [a] on the plain of Ono.” But
they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this
reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the
work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” 4 Four times they sent me the
same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
There are three things that the walls would tell us today if they could talk.
Firstly, the walls would tell us that it is time for a change. The reason that the
rich upper class does not want a change in Washington is because they want
the status quo to remain on top where the rich can continue to get richer and
the poor poorer. Former Fulton County Commissioner Reginald Eaves said
once that “the rich get all they can, can all they get and then sit on the can”.
The Word of God tells us that “when you have done it to the least of these,
you have done it unto me”. We hear it repeated every Sunday during the
benevolence offering, “If a man sees his brother in need and shuts up his
bowels of compassion, where is the love of God within him?” The Church of
Jesus Christ today has a great challenge because not only must we be concerned about saving the souls of our brothers and sisters, we have to be
concerned about their family, their children and their livelihood. Dr. Barbara
Reynolds, well known journalist put it this way, “people don’t care about
how much you know until they find out how much you care”.
Secondly, the walls would tell us that you can’t build a house without
walls. In other words, we can’t make this journey without the Lord. Remember, that the Israelites were God’s chosen people, a peculiar people and a
blessed people. However, when you forget about God and start placing gods
before him you are headed for trouble. The prophet Nehemiah encouraged
the people not to be intimidated and that they could complete the walls with
the help of the Lord. Many times we have to remind our young people that
what you’ve learned God taught you, where you plan to go in life, God will
have to take you there and what you have accumulated God gave it to you.
We as the people of God should be the first ones to enter the House of God
on Sunday morning because as the Mighty Clouds of Joy sing, “I get a blessing every day, on Monday, he gives me peace of mind, Tuesday, he gives me
joy divine, on Wednesday, hears every word I say, on Thursday, he’ll always
make away, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I get a blessing every day.”
Finally, the walls would tell us that the best is yet to come and no one or
nothing can keep us down. One of the greatest weapons that Satan tries to use
on the people of God is that of discouragement. A father was giving his son
a lesson on Black History and he began to name all of the great men and
women who contributed to not only America but the world as a whole. The
father asked his son about a man whom the son never had heard of before.
The son replied “Dad, I’ve never heard of him before”. The father replied
“Do you know why? because he gave up”. Satan feels that if he can somehow discourage the saints and make them feel that God has forgotten about
them, he can lead us astray. Our young people are faced with obstacles every
day that Satan has tried to place in their way and block their path. We hear
of so much crime and devastating news about our young men who would
rather turn to a life of crime than to pursue and focus their minds on positive goals that help produce bright, responsible and law abiding citizens.
The negative folks will tell them that working that low paying job or going
to that boring class will lead you nowhere. The Word of God tells us in Ephesians “now unto him who is able to do abundantly exceeding above
anything that we could ever ask, according to his power that is at work
within us”. We need some more Nehemiahs in 2008 because there are too
many great minds being wasted, eyes losing their insight, hands being
placed in handcuffs, legs being shackled and voices being hushed, never to
speak again.
There is a story told of a black man name Joe who worked in a brickyard.
The other white workers would throw racial slurs and very nasty comments
at him every day while he was working. Joe pondered in his heart what to
do and he came up with an idea. Joe said to himself, “every time they call
me out of my name, I am going to take a