My Soul Loves You, Lord
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid
(August 15, 2020)
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”(John 8: 36, King James Version [KJV]).
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus Yahshuah,
My sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus Yahshuah, we are Christians, are we not, of Christ, if you will. We stand on a universal, as folks say—-a worldwide, stage. However, we stand as capitalists. Seemingly those dreamers, who come here dream of becoming a capitalist in a progressive movement of making money in a thought process that encourages the sky is the limit as the only hindrance standing in your way.
Yes, a perfect world, if you will, however, does not remain perfect, incorruptible because of the sinful nature of man, a self-destructive wanton lust that thrives in the murkiness of death; a nasty business that works beneath the surface of all that is good about the life we live, in pursuit of happiness in life and liberty. Yet, we find many folk are not happy, many folk do not feel alive—-they are the living dead and the walking dead, many folk do not feel free.[John 8: 36, KJV, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”]. Do you feel free, my sisters and brothers, in the life you live? How free are you, in your heart and in your mind?
Understandably those new folks who come to our part of the world, the Great and Grand ole’ United States of America (USA), known for our show business entertainment Kings and Queens, who live in lavish homes built from the coffers they acquired while working their namesake and the wealth earned through their works in entertainment. Those folks, who nowadays want the scholarly look of respect and seek degrees of learning beyond Kindergarten to 12th Grade (K-12) and risk jail time for bribing school admissions and department heads for entry of status above and beyond test scores. Those folks want it all, not just the stardom of entertainment but now entry into the ranks and files of higher learning. The quickest way to stardom, fast money, and fame. Those stardust sprinkles once felt in a song of a star, in a dance of a star, in a book of a star, in a movie of a star, and nowadays, in a video game of a star, do not leave the hearts of those who dream to make it in that place of overnight stardom, where stars are made. [Deuteronomy 8: 18, KJV, “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”].
Of course, the only sensible thought to not making it big in the USA, is to own a shop, to become a meager shopkeeper of low-standing in highfalutin societies around the world, a peddler, who is peddling products, from the streets of the world to a storefront on some lonely street eager for the foot traffic of big business.[Google dictionary, “high·fa·lu·tin
/?hif?'lo?otn/, adjectiveINFORMAL
adjective: highfalutin; adjective: highfaluting; adjective: hifalutin; adjective: hi-falutin; adjective: high-falutin; adjective: high-faluting. (especially of speech, writing, or ideas) pompous or pretentious."you don't want any highfalutin jargon", amusement,?the state or experience of finding something funny. “we looked with amusement at our horoscopes"?FULL DEFINITION. Similar:?pretentious, affected,?high-sounding, high-flown,?lofty, grandiose,magniloquent grandiloquent, ornate, florid,?flowery, overblown, overdone,?overripe, overwrought, verbose,?inflated, rhetorical, oratorical,?turgid, pompous, bombastic,?declamatory, sonorous,?portentous, pedantic, boastful,?boasting, bragging, windy,?purple,la-di-da, fancy-pants,?hoity-toity, poncey, posh,?fustian, euphuistic, orotund,?tumid, ??Origin
mid 19th century (originally US): perhaps from high + fluting (present participle of flute).”]
In America, the USA, a shopkeeper is as grand as a star, with franchises, and trading markets with stocks where money is projected; you do not really have to have it yet just dream the impossible dream and make it happen. That’s America! Yes, that’s America, where a newcomer, a minority with big dreams, big ideas could convince a bank loan officer to give a loan for whatever else they need in their shop because they already saved up $100,000, to get their first store in America. That’s the USA! [Wikipedia, “Where did the term peddler come from? The origin of the word, known in English since 1225, is uncertain, but is possibly an Anglicised version of the French pied, Latin pes, pedis "foot", referring to a petty trader travelling on foot.
Wikipedia › wiki › Peddler].
Where does that leave the black man when he cannot own his own neighborhood store or the black woman when she wants more than a beauty salon shop or she wants to own the building she operates her shop out of, not just rent the building. The corruptions enter in the perfect world and the well-wishers scramble to gain the advantage, to secure their future—-their ability to get wealth.This is where the dream turns sour and all the folks become sour grapes when they decide to use the color of a person’s skin to practice hate, an evil against God’s creation-denying God. We notice, here, in our world that we do not live in a world without color. Let us accept that God’s paintbrush still is a mighty paintbrush, indeed, for some folks truly believe that when God made their skin color white, he freed them but God did not tell man to practice hate with skin color, therefore, a skin color of white is not any more freeing than any other skin color.
Interestingly enough, even with the animals, this malice in perception, is evident. My canine female dog let us say, female dog instead of the proper word because the proper word for a female dog is now used as jargon, in the homes, streets, movies, venues of America, hid her white puppy only for a sinful neighbor to steal her white puppy. [Google dictionary, “jar·gon1
/'järg?n/, noun, special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand."legal jargon", amusement, the state or experience of finding something funny. “we looked with amusement at our horoscopes" . FULL DEFINITION?Similar: specialized language,?technical language, slang, cant,?idiom, argot, patter, patois,?vernacular, computerese, legalese, bureaucratese, journalese,?psychobabble, unintelligible language, obscure language,?gobbledygook, gibberish, ?double Dutch, lingo, -speak, ?-ese, mumbo jumbo, geekspeak,
ARCHAIC: a form of language regarded as barbarous, debased, or hybrid.”]. The thief stole the other puppies, of varying colors, all in the splendor, of God creations. I will not say the splendor of the fathers of old who experienced faith in the life they lived without ever seeing Jesus, God’s perfect image that followed Adam in the gospel reading of Hebrews. Do you ever wonder what complexion each one of the biblical children and family were, God’s people, we read fair, ruddiness, lost their countenance, so forth and so on but not the twisted descriptions that we use today?
We call each other, black; those of us who identify with the word black, since a series of evolving Negro people became colored people became African-American people became black people. What a journey of maligned truth? Those folks; supposedly not our people but who DNA links to us nonetheless, who either God painted them white, red, and yellow or they painted themselves, that color, want to position themselves as better than, more deserving of favor than, more the apple of God’s eye than, more the highly favored than, more the one the crowds sang about like King David than, the down-trodden who is at the bottom of the American native-Indian totem pole, the bottom of the heap in any competition feeling the pressure of the weight of those competitors that lay on top of them. Can anyone breathe, down there?
Life is still playing the same game of taking away the air we breathe, God’s gift of the breath of life. Now, to curse us all, we need ventilators to help us breathe as we suffer with an incurable virus that only gives relief of healing for three months, the coronavirus (COVID-19). Is this a curse against us for taking God’s gift of breath to mankind? You know the sneaky plays in competitive sports are no more sneakier than the plays of human interaction.
Most importantly, how we juggle our balls in the air to get the bills paid? How we meet with the boss to win a promotion, casually saying the boss is like you, meaning you and the boss are the same color therefore the promotion belongs to you, rightfully so, we hear these words played out, We are the same. Whatever, you must do to get the bills paid, is how you juggle your balls in the air, if you use skin color in politics, then, what of it, no one lasts long, anymore anyway. What about how you volley, to keep your balls in the air. Well, yes, many folks are called colored but I am not really yet when you go to Great Britain and see the long silk garments worn by the women cleaning the bathrooms in the airport, you say to yourself, that’s colored.
More importantly, why do you say that? It is not the man in the suit but the suit on the man. Another, It is not the suit on the man but the man in the suit. I think we all knew the princes of England when they cleaned toilets, in their training to become rulers in their lands.
What is it, this thing called perception? Why is the perception of a man the reality of the man; the life that the man lives; even more so the belief system of the man. In my experience, a personal note of teaching in England, I started an after school program called Parent Teatime, in order to give students who wanted to connect with me the opportunity to do so, because I was. a star to them, an American teacher, who came to England to teach. On one visit to a home, the father, a medical physician—-a surgeon was away.
We say forgone conclusions remain foregone. With that said, the mother, quickly spoke to me, You are like us. The British tell my husband, Get your black hands off of me!, when he cares for them. I did not respond to the game play just looked at the mother of my student with loving eyes. I did speak to her about her son, in my classes.
I enjoyed my visit. I think how many folks leave their native lands for freedom yet the lives they live are not free lives, even with the money and the high-ranking job positions. Well, you know how it is, back here home, on American soil, as you kiss the ground, happy to be back home in America, in the USA, Are you happy? Folks say, America will give any and everyone a chance to make it big but African-Americans, the descendants of change, not the descendants of slavery, shall we say because they are always fighting and marching about something because they cannot compete and the truth be told the newcomers, the minorities that come from other lands want to leave them behind; take the promotions, take the salary increases, take the bonuses, take the commissions, take the jobs, open their own businesses, take the American dream. Who cares whether someone somewhere feels you are an evil doer when you use the color card and make a Black person feel uncomfortable as long as you get what you want—-the dogged approach, at all costs get what you want because what you have is never enough, you do not want to live a life to just get by, use the black man card and get over?
How I got over. How I got over my LORD. My soul looks back in wonder, how I got over. Now, the color of skin card game is not the only game, in town, there is the game of staying in your place meant more for women—-all women than black people because the black man that was a slave received all rights at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 which should have been at the turn of the 19th century when the British enacted a law, about 65 years earlier yet we in the USA lagged behind just like the State of Texas lagged behind, even more so, with Juneteenth. Why did not the powers that be, just free, at the turn of the century?
The truth is slavery is still in practice in our world, today, even war slaves, women called comfort women who provided sex to the men celebrated their liberation in Korea, of recent in a posting in social media. You know the games we play in our human interactions and engagements with one another, we are not getting pass God for He sits up high and looks down low. Another personal note, in my journey to England to teach, at Patent Teatime, I visited a hone of a student, the father was away, a businessman who extensively traveled the world, in his business obligations and commitments. The mother quickly spoke to me, When the cat is away the mouse do play. I did not respond, just enjoyed teatime of cookies or biscuits and tea and light conversation about her son, my student in class.
The feeling of free is the sword of Christ, a double-edged sword that cuts both ways, for truly we know infidelity is not just to beg the question of sin but is grounds for divorce, irreconcilable differences in some governing lands even stoning to death in some lands still practicing the old laws. [Hebrews 4: 12, KJV, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”; Revelation 19: 15, KJV, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”; Proverbs 5: 4, KJV, “But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”]. I said nothing. What does a woman do to compete with her husband as he travels the world, on business? Does a woman need to compete with her husband?
In Reflection, when I returned to the USA, I visited my mother, because my father passed away the year before I traveled to England to teach. I went around the corner to what the British would call a Pub but here, in the USA, we called a bar. I was outside because just as much activity is outside the bar especially inner cities that have a bar with enough land for parking and shade trees. A man walked near me as many walked up and listened to my children speak and quickly they picked up on the British language for my children were just in what the British called Infant School. The man turned to me and said, How was that British thang?
I did not respond for I did not engage in infidelity while on my teaching assignment in England but this is a forgone conclusion in the hearts and minds of most folks that when you travel for business you check out the locals. I only engaged in my teaching assignment, church, the public library, Parent Teatime, plane gliding with my children, a co-worker, and a friend we met on her first trip alone to China in the Heathrow Airport when we arrived in England whose parents were a British mother and a German father, a business man who also extensively traveled for business, a visit to our British-German ancestry friend’s home that looked like a palace with a large barn and a driveway that seemed bridge-like, it seemed like a storybook to cross over to enter the grounds of the home, one neighborhood party—-two doors down on the same side of the street I lived on, London for the teacher exchange conference and London for a visit to Vogue house. I lived in my teacher exchange partner’s home and my teacher exchange partner lived in my home. I drove my teacher exchange partner’s car, a French Peugeot. The car did not look fancy but I guess it was on the low-end of fancy for a school teacher’s salary.
I remember the car shook when I tried to pick up speed driving from Leeds to London to Vogue house for an interview. The traffic was filled with fast-paced speeders, speed angels or speed demons. I did not see, at that time. You know a woman’s place, we still beg the question?
In closing, we stand at the precipice of individual change, calling on each member of Christ, to change their wicked ways. Jesus called you a friend, not a servant because you are God’s Iove, His children, and His love for you is also His love for the world that we live in, not one and the same just God’s love. [John 15: 15-17, KJV, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.”]. I do not think we could say this more clearly than we have said, Jesus loves you. God loves you. My soul loves you, Lord. [Mark 12: 28-31, KJV, “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”; Matthew 22: 35-40, KJV, “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”; Luke 10: 25-28, KJV, “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”; John 13: 31-35, KJV, “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”; Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, KJV, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”].
Christ be with you. Walk with God. God bless you. God bless
