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The invisible prisons of mankind: there are various kinds. There are prisoners of poverty, prisoners of materialism and greed, and of gluttony and indiscriminate consumption, prisoners of fame and self-glorification, prisoners of false doctrines, prisoners of hatred, and prisoners of addictions, moral depravity and psychological and mental illnesses.
Regardless of the type of prison one finds themselves in, it is a place of confinement that is very hard to get out of, especially when one’s thinking on matters had been firmly established and strongly-entrenched; when one’s mind is shackled by tradition, brainwashed for years by either certain philosophies and ideologies or simply conditioned as a product of one’s environment as they were growing up.
Imprisoned in The Mind
For instance, did it ever occur to you that people who are incarcerated are already in some form of prison before they ended up behind bars? Especially those who are in and out of the prison system, and those who landed in prison after perpetually committing wrongdoings. Yes, for this latter group, it finally caught up with them.
But to be clear, let us first eliminate certain groups of people who are wrongfully imprisoned. There are those who have been wrongfully accused and certainly innocent, which is of course hard to prove. And then there are those who are currently in prison due to their religious beliefs and so they are persecuted for such beliefs; as far as I know, we do not have this in the United States anymore – or at least, not yet. But in other countries, there are people who are in prison due to their religious stand. For example, the unwillingness to be part of the military to participate in wars and other international conflicts make these people a target for being punished for such religious stance.
Now that we have set aside these groups, we can focus on the ones who are in prison due to deliberate misconduct and illegal activities. Let’s investigate why some end up losing their liberty and why they are in such a dismal and demoralizing condition.
Let’s take Lisa,* an attractive woman in her 40s who is in and out of the women’s correctional institution due to her drug use and stealing. She grew up abused in some of the foster care families she was placed in. She and her siblings were placed in different foster homes because their mother had mental illness and their father was abusive. The youngest of her 5 children was born in prison. The infant was immediately taken away and became ward of the state, an innocent child and a new generation entering another sad cycle in the foster care system. Lisa’s children themselves are growing up in foster care. The 2 oldest girls who aged out of the system had been impregnated in their early teens and live in low-cost housing – their children fathered out of wed-lock by different men.
I got introduced to Lisa years ago via her oldest sister Susan, a friendly woman who belonged to a ladies’ group that used to go out to dinners once a month, which I was a part of. When I met Lisa, she was staying temporarily with Susan. Eventually, she went back to prison, as people like Lisa are repeat offenders. I tried to help by mentoring her third child, her only son Jimmy, a boy of 13. I even wrote to Lisa while she was incarcerated, offering some spiritual guidance. But Lisa is not interested. Instead, she wrote back asking for money. I gave her some before and who knows how she used that money. We are not supposed to enable people like Lisa. The truth is, even if these people end up with a large amount of money, how long will that money last? More importantly, how will they use the money?
I thought of Lisa’s kids and said to myself, maybe I can save the boy, just maybe. One day, I was looking for him and was told that he was staying at a trailer park not far from where I used to live. I found the trailer. It was dilapidated with broken windows and looked abandoned. But just outside its door was a huge garbage can full of trash, with flies swarming around due to unwrapped soiled diapers that expose infant feces – which suggested that adults and children actually live there, in that filthy condition.
The adults were able-bodied so of course they could’ve cleaned the place. But did they have the mindset to do it? Are their minds free to embrace a dignified way of life? We don’t know what happened to the girls as they were growing up but we could only guess. Why were they allowing different low value and deadbeat men to enter their lives and father their children? To not have boundaries? To impregnate them and leave them to fend for themselves and go through the welfare system on their own? What made them think that using their sexuality is a form of power, when in fact it was the very thing that’s leading them enslaved to the debauched and morally-corrupt lives they lead? And worse, dragging along little children into this kind of life? Where’s their self-respect? Their dignity? Sadly, looking at their mother’s story above, and to how these girls had been raised, we know the answers to these questions.
No one answered the door so I asked the lady at the next mobile home. She said the police took Jimmy because he tried to molest a young girl in the neighborhood. Before I left, I said a little prayer inside my car – for God to spare the boy. Over the years, I’ve thought of Jimmy and would pray for him and his family, especially because I heard that one of the girls ended up contracting AIDS. What a way to live, being trapped in a never-ending cycle of pervasive victimhood and trauma, of which I myself am all too familiar of, but able to escape.
Then there’s Mark who is imprisoned at the state penitentiary for robbery and assault. Mark and his accomplices had weapons, which made the charges against him more serious. Mark is a product of a broken family. His parents divorced when he was little. Because his father was always absent, he did not have a good father figure and a good male role model. As a result of parental neglect and lack of guidance, he got involved with the wrong crowd. Mark is an angry young man, fierce and has violent tendencies. He always challenged authorities and has no respect for them. Time will tell if Mark changes his ways. Will he find rehabilitation inside prison? Or will he simply become hardened by many years of serving time behind bars.
In the movie Shawshank Redemption, Red (Morgan Freeman) was released from prison after decades of incarceration. Red who initially stayed at a halfway house was placed for employment as a bagger in a grocery store. His supervisor gets irked every time Red had to ask permission to go to the restroom. In Red’s words, “40 years I’ve been asking permission to piss. I can’t squeeze a drop without say-so.”
This made me think of the husband of an acquaintance. He too was in and out of prison. The man got the wonderful opportunity of obtaining a state job and so we were initially happy for him because this was his chance to start anew. Unfortunately, after several months, I saw his face on the newspaper. He got caught stealing money and using a state credit card for fraudulent expenses.
You may ask, “what on Earth is wrong with him? That was his chance for a new life!” What drives him to steal? His wife has a good management job also as a government employee. Then he had a decent paying job. Why was he a repeat offender? Like most DUI offenders? Was he starving? Were his needs not met? Is the money not good enough even for his wants? Did he do drugs? Gambled? No, he didn’t do any of those.
But think of famous Hollywood actress Winona Ryder. She has money. Millions in fact. But what drove her to shoplift that resulted in her getting arrested? They believe she may be suffering from kleptomania. According to Mayo Clinic, it is a mental health disorder that involves repeatedly being unable to resist urges to steal items that you generally don’t really need. Often the items stolen have little value and you could afford to buy them.
I had an elementary school classmate with such condition. Let’s call her Digna. Her family had money (because mom was working abroad, but dad died earlier) so she was not lacking. In fact, she had really nice things, clothes, accessories, shoes. She was being raised by her grandmother. I was friendly with her but did not know anything else about her family life. One quiet weekend afternoon, as she and I were hanging out, she had the idea of going to the produce market (part of what we consider an open “wet market” in other countries). On places like these back in those days, the vendors would basically tightly cover with tarp the fruits and vegetables when they are done selling for the day. Then they go home.
Digna knew this. So she and I went there and she told me how we could freely get any fruits and vegetables we want – she even showed me how to do it. I remember how she slid her hand under one of the tarps and it came out with a beautiful perfectly ripe tomato. And she proudly told me, without remorse, “see how easy it is?” I have to admit, it felt exciting. I understood her excitement of being able to obtain something without paying for it, that in a way, she outsmarted the stall owner. She was this kid having power over an adult, a business owner and figure of authority, and that’s thrilling for her.
Probably the same kind of thrill pranksters get when they can mobilize people to take certain actions due to fear. That is a powerful feeling. “You see that stampede when I yelled FIRE in a packed movie theater that caused people to panic resulting in many getting hurt?… I DID that. I also caused damage to an establishment owned by rich people. I’m powerful. And now the cops are looking for the culprit, but they won’t find me.”
My Family’s Generational Cycle
I don’t have any recollection of ever going back with Digna to the market to do it again. What I remember thinking was that I did not want to be friends with someone like that. So, I might have decided to avoid her and stopped hanging out with her. I also remember my mother always being around, like hovering around into my business – like a helicopter. I most likely told her what happened, and she admonished me and advised against associating with Digna.
My mother was not much of a provider like I am to my kids, but she was a nurturer, which I am less of as I handled my kids almost with an iron fist, instituting corporal punishment. No, I did not hit my children in an uncontrolled way out of bursts of anger because that is abuse and I do not consider myself abusive. I spoke with the kid (okay… I nagged), discussed matters (at length), and brought the kid into the room with the understanding that the belt will be used. It is a controlled form of punishment: 3-5 whips for misbehavior on fully clothed buttocks, slight pain but no marks left. And that’s how the point got across to them – like a signet ring of discipline, just like the way my father used to do for us. And in no way I remember him as being abusive. What I remember was his love for us, not the times he used the belt.
The fact that he took the time to discipline us tells me that he was very involved in our lives, concerned on ensuring we will turn out to be decent adults. Furthermore, what that close involvement tells me is that he didn’t have anything else going on outside of his job and our family life, like some extra-marital thing that would’ve prevented him from being emotionally connected to us. Else, he would’ve simply kept providing for us materially and financially and allowed our mother to do the disciplining because of his unavailability and emotional involvement with other women or another family. He did not bail out on us. He was there for us until the end. For a child, that means a lot.
So, I picked up from my father his form of discipline and administered it to my own children. I was very involved in my children’s lives, as a nurturer and a disciplinarian. My mother on the other hand was gentler as she was more of a homemaker. She was more feminine than I am. And there was reason for that.
My father was a professional photographer, a deeply religious man who succumbed to colon cancer and died at 45 when I was seven. He brought me regularly to his dark room to show me the tricks of his trade, how photographs were developed in those days. I still remember the smell of chemicals as he soaked those portraits in basins of water. He was an artist, one of the best people in his field. His name is still imprinted to this day at the bottom of portraits that were taken back in the 60s and 70s of people in my old country.
He was a good man who cooked, washed our clothes, spoiled my mother, and wrote her the most beautiful love letters. He took a lot of pictures of her, of us. The way Robert Kincade took photographs of Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County. I could tell from my mother’s smiles that she was in love with the man who was taking her pictures. I could sense in the ways she posed that she felt safe, loved, and desired. They were not just husband and wife, they were best friends and lovers. He made her bask in what people these days call “feminine energy.”
Very different from my experience. Because I spent almost two decades in verbal combat and emotional warfare, it took a toll on me. I developed mistrust, hyper-vigilance, unbalanced “masculinity” and fierce independence. Masculinity in women is not necessarily bad. Women need to tap into this when concrete actions and decisions are needed to be made. But when a woman is constantly in this out-of-balance mode, it destroys her beautiful, loving, and free-flowing nurturing energy. The presence of a good man in her life should provide the constant flow of masculine energy that she needs for a life of physical and emotional protection, stability, and structure.
It’s only more recently when the last kid left the nest that I started looking after myself and nurturing my long-lost femininity, going back to what I was before I started having children. So when I feel myself needing to go back to my masculine side by force to survive a combat, the need to fight and defend myself against toxic masculinity, I retreat and walk away. I now would rather be alone and wait patiently for a man that is just like my father.
Father was a kind and loving masculine man who ingrained artistry in me and love for the arts, music and literature. He loved the good life. There were always music and good food in the house. He enrolled me in ballet classes and guitar lessons and sent us to an expensive Catholic school. He spoke to us in Spanish and I remember him speaking it in such a poetic way, like he was always speaking to the love of his life. He was a hopeless romantic which explains the way I am – who I truly am. Sadly, you know what they say about the good, they die young.
Though we descended to poverty, my mother raised us inculcating honesty and staying out of trouble, though teenage years were a different story, as is true for many in that age group. Though I seem to have grown up always knowing right from wrong, so even if I was doing the wrong things, I was fully aware they were not right, and I always felt guilty. So it really did not become out of control for me. Though lacking in material things, my mother’s constant presence, support and protection were powerful catalysts in my eventual decision to be morally upright. And I applied the same strategy to my children, who also grew up without a father. Money was tight but they had what they need, and some.
I became like my mother though more on the stern side. I never considered myself a “tiger mom” as what Asian mothers are generally known for – demanding A’s, titles and academic and secular success. It’s spirituality and good conduct that I focused more on. Almost every night, I would read books to them, either children’s books or Bible stories. I’ve become some sort of a “helicopter mom” – always hovering on my children’s lives, like who are you talking to? Who are you with? What are you doing? Give me the logistics. That kind of stuff. It paid off. One of my daughters said that it’s more of a hassle dealing with me than doing the wrong things. So whenever she thought of doing bad, she got discouraged because she knew it would displease me and she’d hear about it to no end. Deep within, she also knew that what displeases me are basically things that would hurt her and her good chances in life.
See, it’s hard for a single parent to have time for your growing children’s business when you are focused on maintaining a romantic relationship. Or worse, when you are in and out of marriages and relationships, always in constant turmoil and in combat with a romantic partner. So I avoided those kinds of drama. I focused on raising them to be independent and conscientious people. The sacrifice of not focusing on my personal emotional needs paid off. I wouldn’t trade the life I had with my children with a relationship with any man.
Do I own the bragging rights? No I don’t. My children and I are simply products of the way my mother raised me. Who, herself, was a product of how her own mother raised her. My maternal grandmother was an industrious, God-fearing woman who sewed the clothes that my mother wore. My grandfather was a noisy alcoholic who gave his hard-earned money to neighbors and strangers whenever he was drunk. So she stopped depending on him.
My grandmother was born in the early 1900s before the start of the first World War. She was a strong-willed woman whose life’s motto is to stick with your children no matter what happens. Wash other people’s clothes for a living, scrub their toilets if necessary. And become your children’s ride or die – because we’ve seen the emotional toll to children when a parent is not around to support them not just financially but also morally and emotionally.
Granted, there are always exceptions to the rule and there are children who became adults and escaped the generational cycle of poverty or dysfunctional family cycles but by and large, this kind of pattern of a family tree’s way of life can affect and last for several generations. Ours lasted for over a century and who knows how far back. We are at least three generations of women who have become both mothers and fathers to our children. This is a powerful psychological cycle that is not easy to break – either for the good, or for the bad. In my family’s example, though we were not rich, we did not feel the urge to steal or do harm to others physically, mentally and emotionally, and therefore can only put up being in an abusive and rough situation for so long. We know better than to allow other people to disrespect or use us, be it in platonic relationships or romantic ones.
Make no mistake. It was really tough to raise four children on your own, disciplining them and being a mother and father to them. I was spread thin – like 2 tablespoons of jam needing to be spread on a whole loaf of bread. Case in point, I remember running around in a huge high school dividing my time during a PTA orientation event to meet all the teachers of my two youngest kids. I made sure they stick with me so I would know which classrooms to run to session after session, as I do not want to miss meeting each teacher (I missed a few to be honest).
I was with them in every graduation, every event, every parent-teacher conference, every medical appointment, every crushes, every relationship, every heartbreak, every wedding…. I had physical and electronic folders for each of my children. A box of files for each of them. I managed them like a business, but a business with tough love. I think my kids saw the sacrifice. And that we had what we needed. We are by no means perfect people, and we still stumble from time to time. But when experiences are ingrained in your mind as a child, it is hard to erase those. They affect your mindset and shape the way you do things as an adult.
The bottom line and the point is, though my family line never became rich, and even in the midst of grinding poverty (like me as a ten-year old girl putting 3 rocks together to create a makeshift stove and use pieces of wood gathered nearby to cook rice and vegetables on), the children in my family were loved and never abandoned. And even if my father died young, even if my mother and grandmother are also no longer around, we know that we are not just loved – but also wanted. And that love is enough to sustain us and liberate us, to not succumb to a life of hopelessness and despair, to give us hope that there are always better things to come.
Not Free
Our childhood experiences are some of the most powerful influences in molding our character and shaping our views in life. For the most part, they make us the way we are today. Even if we sometimes end up joining the wrong crowd as young adults, what happened to us in childhood will eventually come back consciously or subconsciously in our minds and affect our actions, that sometimes we don’t even know why we do certain things.
This is why it is extremely important to protect a child from traumatic experiences, to shield them from harm for as long as the adults possibly can. And that is why couples who fight a lot are highly advised to not let the children hear their parents arguing and bickering. Sadly, such is not the case for many people today in a generation of selfishness and self-centeredness.
Going back to people who lack self-control, there is something going on inside their minds that tells them, they are not totally free. And those whose minds are not free tend to engage in risky behaviors without regard to the consequences of their actions. For instance, they may experiment on drugs which may result to serious addictions and very bad associations, shoplift that can lead to arrest and a criminal record that stays with them for the rest of their lives. Or they may engage in promiscuity or one night-stands that can result in acquiring sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies, and other harmful behaviors. While committing any of these acts, people with ensnared minds mistakenly think their actions are not going to harm them down the road, but unfortunately do because a pattern of such behaviors always have sad and harmful endings.
Sometimes, people who lack the strength to positively self-direct may, in a very strange and twisted way, subconsciously be allowing themselves to be under other people’s control because of lack of self-regulation – to the point that you involuntarily, yet unwittingly, submit yourself to be in a position where just like Red mentioned above, you have to ask permission to do the most basic bodily function. Everyday mundane things that we on the outside pay no attention to and do anytime we need or want to.
Their minds are in disarray that even if they wouldn’t want to admit, in effect they’re subconsciously saying, “Go ahead, stop me on my tracks because I’m out of control. Make decisions for me. Tell me when I can wake up, eat, bathe, use the bathroom and go to sleep because I couldn’t decide these things for myself. In fact, I couldn’t decide many things for myself except for the bad ones that I am constantly making.”
This experience is what somehow awakened another young woman who was in jail for addiction and possession of street drugs. She came from a well to do family but she grew up constantly seeing her parents fighting. Her several months in jail somehow taught her a lesson that she does not want to go back to that humiliating condition anymore. She said she was jailed along with lowlifes and hardened criminals and that there was no privacy in using the toilet in a cramped jail cell. She is now in some type of halfway home sharing a room with another woman, attending rehabilitation meetings and working by cleaning houses and facilities. Let’s hope she is heading towards a positive direction in her life. She just has to completely leave behind her former associations.
It’s important to note that before Lisa, Mark and the others are to be set free physically, they must free their minds first. They must be liberated from whatever it is in their minds that just would not allow them to be completely free because they are captive to the dark forces of some sorts – either with the way they were raised, the wrong companies they kept that put bad ideas in their minds, or the lifestyles they decided to embrace, and the resulting mindsets that became the twilight zones of their state of minds.
Then there are those who are outside the dreary confines of prison, but nevertheless living day to day inside their invisible prisons of mental illnesses, depression, toxic and illicit relationships, addictions and vices like drug use, smoking, gambling, and viewing pornography.
Some people today are like walking time bombs. They are in delicate psychological conditions where they are just one straw away from losing it. By losing it, I mean they could decide to end their lives at any minute or alternatively, kill other people before killing themselves; or they may simply take risky actions that could jeopardize their reputations and physical freedom.
In a world where loneliness has become a health threat of epic proportions, in fact an epidemic,** where people’s attitudes leave a lot to be desired, where mankind is regularly subjected to natural and man-made disasters, where nations are rising against nations in different places resulting in widespread warfare (as is prophesied will happen during the final part of the days), and where a third world war hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, how are we to cope and get out of this current sad state of our society? To not live in anxiety and constant fear? Indeed, one does not have to be incarcerated to be considered imprisoned. There are all kinds of prisons in the world, and not all of them are made of cold cinder blocks and steel. To those of us who believe, there will always be hope.
…. that the creation itself will also be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.
– Romans 8:21
Political and Religious Enslavements
In the world today, billions are under the yoke of political and religious systems that make life harder and more complicated. Of certain religious systems, the God of the Bible clearly says to “get out of ‘her’ my people, if you don’t want to suffer in her plagues.” “Her” being Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. She was also called the Great Prostitute, the Harlot, because she commits fornication with the Kings of the Earth. That is, involving herself with world and governmental leaders and their political systems steeped in filthiness and corruption promising reforms but really do not deliver. You see these leaders filibustering and making empty promises on podiums and in town halls.
If your religious organization is involved in politics or expects its adherents to side with a certain political party, you have some serious thinking to do because God said that the Kings will devastate the Harlot and make her naked and eat up her flesh. Yes, the “Kings” play dirty. These are shocking words but this event has been prophesied. There will come a time when the governments of this world will eliminate religion. It may start in one powerful country that will have a domino effect in other parts of the globe. They will see religion as an unnecessary entity that adds to the evil of this world for it causes wars and divisions resulting in deaths of millions of innocent people. If you see some government leaders threatening to close places of worship, know that we are getting closer to the fulfillment of the prophecy mentioned above. Their goal is to declare “Peace and Security” on a global scale – which is an entirely different story.
Here is something that will hopefully eliminate confusion and doubt in your mind as far as religion is concerned. The clarity of the concept below will move you to pray to the right God and throw all your burdens on Him. Furthermore, it will liberate you and give you peace that is beyond normal, knowing where you stand in the grand scheme of things.
Christ, the founder of true Christianity, did not involve himself in the wars, conflicts and politics of his day. When radical Jews were about to seize him to make him their king, he fled because in his words, “my kingdom is not of this world….” Over the centuries, wars had been waged and millions had been killed in his name and yet, he had nothing to do with the blood bath; In the same way that God has nothing to do with all the chaos going on in the world today.
When Christ walked the Earth, he did not incite rebellion against the ruling power of his day nor did he even lead peaceful protests in the hopes that things will change. Because he knew that no human could deliver much needed social changes, and that only God’s kingdom (in God’s time) will undo all the harm that’s ever experienced by mankind. Adherents of true Christianity (a continuation of first century Christianity – see the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds – Matthew 13:24-30, 34-43) do not create factions. Though small in number compared to the world’s major religions that include militant Christendom, true Christians are a united people and the ones practicing the real peaceful religion (worldwide unity, oneness of mind and non-involvement in wars and politics creating divisions are proofs of this).
God’s people do not engage in empty rituals and hypocritical piety displayed by those having forms of godly devotion but proving false to its power, to which the Almighty strongly advised us to stay away from. He has nothing to do with the hypocrites. He doesn’t know them and His face is turned away from them. The Bible states they are offspring of viper. Christ said they “resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of every sort of uncleanness (Matthew 23:27).” This basically describes the spiritual condition of people who are like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They were what Christ called “whitewashed graves” (or tombs) in which they were covered with white paint, so they “look beautiful (pious) on the outside but on the inside were full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Meaning outwardly, they appeared holy and clean, but inside they were spiritually dead because of the depraved works they produced (desires of the flesh like smoking and other forms of rottenness, perversions, foulness, corruption, defilements, pride and lack of genuine humility, envy, lack of mercy and sincere love for fellowmen).
In contrast with true Christians and like their leader Jesus Christ, they are not insecurely militant and up in arms over the slightest hint of provocation and criticism. Why is this? It’s because they have the quiet confidence of the Christ and the wisdom coming from the Bible, the original and authentic Word of God – a book backed by God’s holy spirit and survived countless attempts to extinction by evil men. Though obviously plagiarized by other so called “holy” books, and exploited for their own gain and profit by people claiming to be “men or women of God,” the Bible is Not tampered or changed as claimed by other religious groups. Think of it this way, IF someone takes credit for your work, tweak some of the ideas to suit their lifestyles and man-made doctrines, THEN tells others you have been lying, what would you feel? …… Exactly. Now, think how the God of the Bible feels about these false accusations.
Miraculously, despite the Bible having been penned by men of different backgrounds from different time periods, and in a span of thousands of years, the Bible books are in complete harmony with each other. This is not surprising because the Bible’s true Author is the Almighty and tells us how He will redeem us. The prophet Daniel himself admitted that he did not know what he was writing about but he kept on writing anyway because God Himself moved him to do so. Many of its divinely-inspired writers did not know each other and yet, they all pointed to one central theme, the coming of the Messiah who will save mankind from everlasting death.
If you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you will learn that it’s the story of Jesus Christ, God’s love for humans and mankind’s redemption from sin and death. Every life story in the Biblical Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) were of people who were in the direct lineage of Christ, the others were just side stories. Example, of Abraham’s grandsons Esau and Jacob by Isaac, Esau is the older one and was supposed to be the ancestor of Christ. But why was his life story not mentioned in the Bible and the focus was on his younger brother Jacob (aka Israel)? It’s because fleshly Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup! Because of this, Jacob was the one who was blessed and became the forefather of the Messiah. The Bible also tells the story of Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute – both were not even Jewish. But because God counted them righteous due to their actions and the help they gave to the Israelites, they became part of Christ’s lineage and thus became his ancestresses when they married Israelite men. ***
The Greek scriptures also known as the New Testament of course start with the Gospels and the birth of Christ all the way to Revelation where he gave the vision to John who was exiled in the island of Patmos. So the Bible is truly about the coming of the Messiah.
The Bible promises Real hope for a wonderful future in a peaceful and beautiful world that will be inhabited by righteous mankind, a new world in which wickedness, trashy political ideologies and false religion will no longer exist. Because this promise needs to be imparted to every single human, God moved sincere-hearted men to translate the Bible. So far, it has been in hundreds of major languages and regional dialects, portions of it into the thousands, so that people in many lands will obtain much needed hope in the language of their hearts – their native tongue. When you read this Holy book in your own language, you can’t help but get comforted and strengthened despite these critical times that we are in.
Go in through the narrow gate, because broad is the gate and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are finding it.
Be on the watch for the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? Likewise, every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit. A good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. Every tree not producing fine fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.
– Matthew 7:13-20
Sixty years ago, Martin Luther-King in his fight for racial equality uttered in his most famous speech the words “I have a dream… that man will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Granted that today, racism is against the law – but not prejudice. Prejudice is harder to detect but it continues to fester in people’s hearts. One may not be openly racist but their actions and the words that sometimes come out of their mouths in your conversation with them show what truly is in their hearts. Nevertheless, nobody is arrested for prejudice, chauvinism and bigotry.
Majority of mankind are still enslaved to ideas propagated by imperfect human leaders, of how one race or political/religious group is superior than another. It is no wonder because the Scriptures stated that, “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” But Christ said that you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. Free from what? Free from wrong ideologies detracting from the truth and adding to people’s mental and spiritual confusions, free from worldly systems that make life hard for people trying to survive, free from complications and burdens resulting from psychological and emotional traumas.
The Original Plan
Indeed, we live in a world of mankind that is far from the original purpose that God has created us for. That is, to live forever in a paradise Earth filled with peace, happiness, and love for one another regardless of our skin color and whatever nationalities, beliefs, and religions we might have had in our previous lives. There is hope. God said he will make everything new and that the former pains in people’s hearts will never again be called to mind. Can you still think of a painful experience in your past (though it doesn’t cross your mind anymore) but you no longer feel the sting that it brought to your life? In the new world to come, all of those pains will go away permanently.
For look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be called to mind, nor will they come up into the heart.
– Isaiah 65:17
It Begins With Us
In the meantime, what can we do as individuals? Praying for others will always help. I am confident that it does because years later, I found out that little Jimmy who I mentioned at the outset became one of my daughters’ high school classmates in their senior year. They were about to graduate when I met him again. I was so happy to learn that he was about to enter community college to take criminology – a very suitable degree given the background of his family. So I’d like to think that my prayers followed Jimmy because somewhere along the way, he was placed with people who truly cared and made a huge positive impact on his young mind. The generational cycle of struggles was broken in the story of Jimmy’s life. I’m so proud of him and for the young man that he’s become.
So what else can we do? It does not hurt also to start with our own lives, to make personal improvements, to develop a close personal relationship with God so we can obtain much needed spiritual guidance to help us make sound decisions in our lives. And just like a flight attendant’s instruction to put our oxygen mask on first, before helping others, so we must put our own lives in order before we can reach out to others to offer help. It is not selfishness to help ourselves first and focus on our own needs. This is an important rule for survival. Once we have the ability to breathe and stay afloat, we are then in a position to save and help others stay alive as well.
Remember, if we could make a positive difference in one person’s existence, for that one life to not become a liability to society, then we only have not touched that person’s life but also the lives of countless others whose lives they will affect – be it their own family, their children, their neighbors, people they work with, acquaintances, relatives, friends and even strangers they encounter in their day to day lives. If we are able to help just one person, to lend a helping hand, we can then confidently say that we’ve made the world a better place.
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With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and He will reside with them, and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them. And He will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” And the One seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new.” Also he says: “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” And He said to me: “They have come to pass! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To anyone thirsting I will give from the spring of the water of life free.
– Revelation 21:3-6
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*Names are changed to protect privacy
**World Health Organization, November 15, 2023.
***When the Israelites became disobedient by worshipping idols/other gods, forming alliances with pagan nations and rejecting the sent Messiah, God abandoned them and are no longer considered His people, His chosen nation. God thus formed a new spiritual Israel of obedient and righteous people.
Image Credit: Pict Rider for Prism Reports
Video Credit: He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – The Hollies (YouTube – 2019 Remaster Video)
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