Chapter One
It is rightly fully said that we are living in the most illiterate biblical generation of our time.
As a literacy teacher and specialist this statement is accurate and dumbfounding and I recognize the truth behind it. I am making it my personal quest to personally enhance biblical literacy across the world. I hope that this website is used to improve the lives of all people in the United States and worldwide. I hope that by the end you will gladly join me on this quest.
I often feel like Moses, Harriet Tubman, Dr. King, Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, and a host of others trying to lead our people to the promise land. Who are my people? Whoever God gives me for that day or for a season of time. I am embarrassed to admit that when I was a young teenager I use to pray all the time," Lord, please don't send me overseas as a missionary." But God was much clever than that. He sent me as a tourist, daughter, sister, aunt, mom, wife, granddaughter, a cousin, and as a friend. Like Jonah He kept causing storms to disrupt and erupt in my life so I would have the courage to do His will. I often needed to "get away" and take a vacation or a holiday to get away from the stresses of life. However, no matter how far I ran, how angry I got, or how I try to hide God always found me, brought me back, and got me to do His will.
I have found myself mostly stateside but always actively fighting and striving daily with others in the education field to share the mission of loving others as Jesus. I have done it directly and indirectly through the teaching of literacy. Literacy instruction has the power of teaching all people about important historical figures through their own personal experiences. Through literacy instruction across the curriculum I have taught students of all ages about important historical events and world leaders. I have found that I could spread God's love by teaching all of the content areas. With the blessing of this website I hope I can continue in collaboration with others to continue the mission of sharing God's love in a variety of ways. I can humbly admit that God is indeed good and in collaboration with a host of people in the shadows this venture wouldn't be possible.
I have spent a life time fighting for literacy for all. I have discovered that the secrets of the Universe are Held in the sacred text of the Bible. The Ultimate secret is how to love like Jesus and how to lead like the biblical figures. That is why the Bible has been translated in about 1,300 of the world's languages. That is why the Bible is the best selling book of all time and have sold about 5 billion copies of the Bible to date. To lead you must read.
The Bible is the ultimate love language. It is a language of its own. If you can't speak it or understand it then you are in the disadvantage and in the disenfranchised group. That is why African Americans and others have fought so long for the ability to read and why immigrants are fighting for the ability to come to America. It wasn't to be able to read for the sake of reading or to come to America for the sake of coming to America. It is to improve the lives of the people in their family, communities, and in their nation. According to American Immigration Council it states that in 2019, 44.9 million immigrants (foreign-born individuals) comprised 14 percent of the national population. Many people have died coming to our great country. They were the leaders of their nation. They like us represent hundreds of people.* They were determined to make a difference for their people. They are fellow Moses, Gandhis, Harriets, Cesars, and Mandelas. They are sent here to perserve their heritage and to learn how to thrive in this cultural wilderness. We have the unique opportunity to allow them to read the living Bible. We are the living Bible. When we read the Bible and we integrate it into our lives and we work to improve and enhance the law so that it is current and relevant, we are not just impacting our country but the world. We are raising generations of world leaders.
Our laws are fundamentally based on the Bible. One of my favorite movies is the movie Belle. If you haven't watched this movie I highly suggested that you do and include it in a movie club list or place it on an approved list, but no matter what watch it. I watch the movie Belle annually and other European type movies because honestly I love them but also because it helps me to clearly understand the Bible and the law and how they are intertwine. It helps me to better filter out the devil's BS that is around me on so many levels. That's the God honest truth.
Knowing your history is critical. I believe in the power of knowing your families genealogy. It is empowering and quite liberating to know that my ancestors where from many countries in West Africa. Through recent Ancestory research, my family learned that our family was a part of the Bantu people. The Bantu people migrated from west Africa to east Africa in one of the greatest migration ever known to mankind and my people also migrated from the south to the north in America during the northern migration. This vital information showed me that my family on both sides were determined to find resources like food, water, and better opportunities for their families. My ancestors in Africa for over a thousand years kept moving eastward until they reached Kenya. They were nomadic people. How is this helpful? Well, when I think about the Bible it helps me understand that I am a child of Abraham and it opens up doors of opportunity. You see majority of the world strongly believes that they are too. Over 16 million people are Jewish, 2 billion Muslims, and 2.38 billion are Christian. Those numbers are staggering but they are also encouraging. You see in this current time of so much political, economic, and social unrest we are being told all kinds of things. But the honest truth is that biblical and sacred text literacy is vital in improving the lives of our people. It connects us to our Creator and to each other. It also shows me that we are able to ask and receive the blessing of Abraham in our lives and over our families.
Chapter Two
The Bible helps me to see discriminatory practices no matter where I travel. During my many years and hours of watching so many wonderful British movies and tv shows, crime television, attending a Jesuit school, participating in a wide range of diverse cultural, religious, and civic activities, and having a plethora of other wonderful experiences I can honestly say loudly in unison with Churchill and others that if you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it. I would also add that if you don't know your history and the history of others around the world you automatically signing your own and the people that you represents death certificate. This may seem very dramatic but consider for a moment that I may be right.
As sinful people we enjoy putting others in their place and we secretly enjoy playing discriminatory games with others just for the sake of it. Not being able to understand the Bible prohibits you and others from understanding a critical universal language. It separates the haves from the have nots. In order to fight fire with fire you have to understand what you are dealing with and the Bible clearly helps you to filter out the BS no matter where you encounter it. Sometimes God allows us to sit in our mess so that we can make room for allowing the Holy Spirit to bring about correction and healing. This process of healing ultimately overtime brings growth and maturity in all of us. Our world continues to suffer daily because of their lack of knowledge and the awareness of the love and amazing grace of Jesus. How does this information translate for us? We must make it our personal mission to spread the love and grace of Jesus Christ through love and grace and humility. It must be done through the cross because forgiveness and repentance is the regularatory act of reconciliation of man with God. We must bringing the practice of sabbath rest and surrendering our lives to the cross wherever we travel. Our living faith is strong enough to sustain us and to thrive during this difficult time in our world history. God is faithful. His faithfulness is shown to others when we display it in our relationships and it is shown when we extend it to others the gift of reconciliation and mercy.
I have made it a practice of visiting the museum of the Bible and other museums annually. Not only is it the Bible museum a spectualiar museum but it holds the informational keys to success. Churches, Government buildings, Museums, and art galleries like the Holocaust museum and others around the world hold priceless historical, cultural, and religious heirlooms and artifacts. During my time at Canisius I learned so many wonderful and incredible things about my faith and how important it is to love the Bible and why it is important to learn about biblical and world history, music, and art and how to lovely pass it down to others. I was a part of a group of college students who came to Washington D.C. on a field trip that changed my world and those around me. I pray that through my eyes and my stories, and the stories of others, people today will be able to clearly see the Hand of God and His faithfulness throughout time.
Chapter Three
One of my favorite bible verses Mark 16:15 is to go and tell the good news of Jesus Christ because if you don't know your universal humanitarian rights you don't know what you are legally and morally entitled to and what you can actually pray for in private and in public. That is why I find our legal system and our religious system so fascinating and I hope you do as well. I have had the incredible experience of being able to be a participant in learning firsthand what it means to fight for and strive for freedom for all. I also learned by studying the lives of great leaders the power of prayer and the power of surrendering to God's will. It's important to know what you can ask God for so He can help you. Things like grace, humility, wisdom, direction, and courage. Sometimes you need courage to leave a toxic or difficult situation so ask God for courage. Courage to leave, courage and strength to return, courage to stand firmly, courage to release it to God. When you go off and "pray" you are able to come back stronger and more willing to love others as Christ does and as He wants you to in order to build His kingdom here on Earth. The power of surrendering is the daily practice of accepting God's will when it differs from our own and allowing God sovereignty to reign in our lives which will automatically impact others.
Chapter four
I love the word diversity because according to the Oxford language it means the practice or quality of involving people from a wide range of different social, economic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. When you look around your kitchen table, your boardroom, your church, your communities: do you see and celebrate true diversity? Do you see and hear diversity of thought, diversity in backgrounds and experiences, do you see heaven on earth? I know that I have always been taught that Heaven is a place for all of God's children and I imagine that discriminatory practices are not held in the afterlife. How much more should we make it an effort to hold the societal door open for one or two more on the diversity spectrum?
I love my country. I love the ideals of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. I love watching movies like the National Treasure, Fast & Furious, Braveheart, Disney & Marvel, and Spy movies like James Bond and etc because it reminds me of how we should as Christians fight daily to preserve the Bible. We should fight for it with great humility, love, wisdom, and courage. The best way to do that is to learn it, live it, and then share it daily. When we become living examples of Jesus Christ across the board it is life changing. When we walk into rooms people can clearly feel and experience the love of God. The love of God isn't reserved for just a chosen few it is reserved for anyone who desires it no matter who they are. The scriptures say that you have not because you ask not this is essential for us to understand, how we can help make a significant impact in our communities. It is important to ask for what we need in our homes, in our churches, and in our communities. We can pray like a lamb or a lion, but pray according to God's will in Christ Jesus. Pray and let God take care of the rest.
By reading and sharing the Bible daily and living out our faith by what we do or don't do, by what we say and don't say, we are showing others what we value. Our yeses and our no's show the world who God truly is. Is He a God of Love? Is He a God of peace? Is He a God of War? Read the Bible and find out. Read the Bible everyday to discover how you can make the greatest impact in this life time. By reading the Bible and teaching your children and others the Bible you are teaching them to become the complete embodiment of Jesus Christ. They learn first hand how to become His hands, His feet, and His voice. They also learn how to recognize Jesus everywhere they go. They learn how to love completely.
Jesus is the ultimate literacy and freedom fighter. Jesus went to the women and to the disenfranchised communities of His time and he feed them, he defended them, he protected and provided for them, he taught them, he loved them. How much more should we? How much more should we strive to become more like Christ in our homes, our communities, and wherever God sends us?
So like the great book says...keep fighting the good fight of faith. Keep praying. During this season of lent continue to stay connected to the King of Our Universe and the ultimate lover of us all. Continue to strive to do the will of God. That is Jesus. His power and His blood unites us and propels us out into the world to do good things according to His will. Let His will be done across the board and around the world. In every country and in every nation. Let your Holy Spirt fall O Lord and sweep across this earth and renew us and sustain us. In Jesus Name. I pray. Come Holy Sprit Come! Amen Amen Amen.
Some questions to consider:
Why have so many wars been fought?
Who has possessed the greatest wisdom or courage? Explain why?
Compare them to someone else who lack wisdom or courage. Why is this significant?
Who possessed the greatest wealth in world history? Why?
Why were Africans prohibited from reading and sharing the Bible in early American history?
Why has preserving Jewish, Christian, and Muslim culture been so vital during world history and especially now?
What is true diversity?
Using the information we have read about what can we do to strive for biblical literacy for all? What can we do to actively live out our faith everyday?
What are some ways we can invite other cultures from around the world to our literacy table?
What are some real ways we can make a difference in our communities? How can we set the table and keep inviting others to God's table at work, at church, and in our homes?
Resources
*See your Facebook friends list or your greeting card list.
Integration of the Bible and World History
Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/27/religion-why-is-faith-growing-and-what-happens-next
My Inspiration PlayList
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=YzjKveEjzBY&feature=share
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=GarhKAcPjrw&feature=share
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mqbVo0PpdIk&feature=share
My Active Armor of God
Opmerkingen