FOR JESUS’ LOVE 6
Leadership Traits
By
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (July 16, 2017)
“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” (St. John 21:15-17, King James Version [Christ’s charge to Peter]}
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus,
My sisters and brothers, faith leads us on to the promised land to receive the promise---that which was promised to us from God, to receive he whom was promised to deliver us from sin---letting faith be known as the greatest of all leadership traits among men and among the churches, which is beyond low expectations. For by faith, according to Hebrews our forefathers made it over. Remember the ole gospel song:
How I got over. How I got over, my Lord. My soul looked back in wonder. How I got over.
Apparently, God, we know was drawn to men because of what leadership traits they started out with, fundamentally speaking the men of faith that God chose stood on love of Jesus, goodly choice young man---tallest of all men, integrity, goodly and proper, blessed, and power. For King David also was goodly to look to, ruddy with a beautiful countenance (I Samuel 16:12, KJV [Samuel anointed David]).
With that said, just as men of faith started out with leadership traits that led them to become strong men of faith, for Jesus spoke to the people, the parable of the sower--- to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God, for Jesus is the seed which fell according to St. Luke 8:8, “And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.’ How is this so? Further to, the Word spoke, “But that on the good ground are they, which is an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.’ [8:15]. For men of faith stood in good ground so that the seed---Jesus---was sowed in them to bring forth fruit---for the men of faith had an honest and a good heart [8:15] and the church according to Paul in his writings to the Corinthians spoke of what was expected of the church of Macedonia when Titus arrived that in their great struggle the abundance of their joy and the deep poverty where they found themselves would abound to riches of their own generosity (II Corinthians 8:2, KJV [Liberality and thanksgiving]. In the deep south, in the United States of America
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, there is an old saying of “pull yourselves up by your boot straps.”
Most importantly, Jesus expectations were not low, for when the seed fell---it fell also on good ground and of that good ground where it fell was and still is expected to be an honest and a good heart, to yield fruit an hundredfold. Jesus was not of the stay in your place. Keep them in their place---low expectations---survival of the fittest. Get in where you can fit in. Fit in where you can get in---sort of thinking type of folk, for he was Godly, power with God and power with men. Jesus believed all things were possible. For out of the mouth is life and death and a man must believe that his salvation, his deliverance is in him, for Jesus, the seed, is in him and Jesus the seed that is sowed in him is his Savior---his deliverer. And has promised him life everlasting, more than what God gave man in the beginning, “…an hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3, KJV) and more than what Moses gave them in Psalms 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten…” Now, God was drawn to King Saul for his goodly and tall man leadership traits but when he outright disobeyed his instructions for battle he no longer looked upon his goodly and tall man leadership traits as truth for reigning over Israel as King: “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7, KJV)
To that end, Moses saw that the children of Israel were a generation without faith even after their deliverance from Egypt [Deuteronomy 32:20, KJV [The song of Moses, “…And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith…”]). In the gospel readings of St. Matthew, in The Sermon on the mount, Jesus said, ‘Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? There was a man and there was a woman and there were many children who were due to their circumstances of war, poverty, and no courage of their convictions to pull themselves up by their bootstraps found themselves without clothes to wear, even after a natural disaster, seeing all that they owned cast aside thrown by the wind to the ground dirtied and soiled but then a company sent their trailer filled with washing machines and dryers---state of the art models---to do the dirty work of cleaning their clothes. Thank you Jesus. To God be the glory.
Furthermore, and what is first will be last and what is last will be first. For those without hope to overcome, to get over that which chained and bound them down to a state of confusion---a lost soul---not knowing how to care for himself or herself, the light of Jesus shone upon them awakening them out of their state of confusion and hopelessness restoring in them a new heart full of faith, for them to rise up out of the ashes to become heads of organizations---spearheading missions to help those who also lost their way, could not see God in their lives, who wondered where was Jesus, similar to the lost souls who panicked when Moses left them to be with God on Mount Sinai---the light shone down upon them. Was it one day, one hour, one minute or one second that they looked up and noticed that they were surrounded by the light of God the light of their Lord and Savior, saved from poverty? There was a young man whose family recently celebrated his 22 years old birthday but he died because he won the lottery for $400,000 and he was killed by at least seven people who could not stand to see him in wealth even
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though he had just purchased toys for the local children in the community---in the neighborhoods, for Christmas---they harassed his home calling to tell his family what they planned to do---come take his money—but his family and he did not run and surely as they said they showed up one day and they broke down his door where he sat with his girlfriend and child and they shot him dead when the pants that he took off to give to them did not have the credit card or debit card in them so they could get all his money. My sisters and brothers they have tried some of those men who killed him and plan to place all the rest in trial---black-on-black crime rate but as much as his family celebrated his recent birthday a few days ago it was so sad to see---for he was a good child, his mother said.
You fill in the blanks—think about the stories of mankind, of humankind, of humanity where man conquered his circumstances through Christ Jesus, witness the victory, witness the sword of victory, for the victory is the LORD’s, for the battle is the LORD’s,--give God the glory. Did he prove Himself through you---were you chosen to be a witness of God’s wondrous working power-breaking miracle working power, with power to open the doors of prison, with power to awaken you up out of the cold grave---resurrection power, with power to restore unto you all that you had plus more, more in your latter days than in your former days? Do you hold the stories in your heart of mankind---the stories of those who fell even from grace since the fall of Adam who became lost again and again from Christ Jesus, from God---who stopped believing for one reason or another reason in the love of God for their salvation---in Jesus their Savior? How many times were the people of God shattered in many pieces lost without hope when the God they served held all the hope that they needed, oh, only if they would come to Jesus and ask God for what they need---for he knows about each and every last one of us, all the members of the one body, of the church, watching them listening to their heart their dark and lost thoughts, their rebellious nature ruling them chaining them not letting them confess their sins and return to their LORD?
In summary, in my experiences dealing with the educated versus the uneducated (illiterate)even more so the self-directed learners and those who ‘fake it until they make it’ that to embrace knowledge posed potential problems for the fake it learners because seemingly in their minds’ eye their knowledge-base was larger than life, for they were mentally challenged even in a state of delusion and tended to hate lifelong learners for they run away from anything and all things that are knowledge-based, everything they said from their knowledge-base was ‘off the cuff’ where they ducked and dodged weaving in and out of faked knowledge figuring things out to the best of their ability just to get by wherein they rejected knowledge. Therefore, I observed in the Deep South that they felt that truth of knowledge minimized them and diminished them letting them see how small they really were in their collective knowledge not giving them a strong conscious as the gospel readings speak of for leadership of others. Furthermore, their retained knowledge composed of fantasized grandiose images that they bestowed upon themselves to compensate themselves for lack of experiences outside of their cultural existence. This collection of false images fantasies they created made them gods—made them see themselves as gods of themselves, in which they felt no need for guidance, direction or instruction from God Almighty or Jesus.
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The” I AM” of Jesus in the gospel readings was not their I AM, for those in the state of delusion looked only to themselves---lived in a bubble of existence denying Jesus---lost without faith, of a weak conscious, desperately in need of leadership to make a difference in their lot to have joy, abundant living, health and wealth. For example, of meats offered to idols, the eating of it, was an issue that Apostle Paul spoke to those with a strong conscious to lead those with a weak conscious, for those with a weak conscious watched everything that the person with a strong conscious did, so the brother with the strong conscious had to see himself as a leader of others [“For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? (I Corinthians 8: 10-11, KJV)]. Lord save us. Let us leave the negative and welcome the positive.
The creations of fantasies existed no more or less than as false images which rendered them a false prophet incapable of loving God or his son Jesus. But, I find that the ‘fake it until they make it’ learners partnered up with anyone with knowledge that would let them so the person they partnered up with would let them take their knowledge---own their knowledge as their own---as they say in the deep south—‘break their backs’ so they could catapult themselves off their backs to success, leaving the one they took the knowledge from behind for to leave them behind spoke to their accomplishment of breaking their back and taking all that they had---Jesus called them thieves, for they came to steal, kill and to destroy yet in their twisted reality the person with the knowledge became the Jesus of the person without knowledge and they were supposed to be able to take all that their Jesus had, for he saved them and in saving them was responsible for their abundant living because he said so. However, Jesus did not leave them behind for according to Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians when he told them how the church of Macedonia struggled with deep poverty yet in the abundance of their joy felt free enough to build their church in Jesus’ way which relinquished the restraints of their impoverished state---a freedom that only those who have been bound by poverty understood when their faith gave them the relief of feeling freedom when bound—not being limited to the movement of where they could go while in chains--- going nonetheless, not in the physical but in the spirit, giving in spite of being bound to responsibility, in faith, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (II Corinthians 8:9, KJV). Lord save me.
All things are possible. For all things are indeed possible, just believe to receive. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
