One Blood Quotes

“William Pannell said in one of his sermons that the ugliest four-letter word in the English vocabulary is "them". It's a word that separates and divides. It's important that we know their names. It's really hard to dislike someone you pray for regularly. One of the most important things we can do to move the cause of reconciliation forward is to pray for the brothers and sisters who we have been separate from.”
― John M Perkins

“We've been looking in all of the wrong places for help in fighting this battle for reconciliation. We've sought help from social service agencies and government programs. But this is something that requires divine power.”
― John M Perkins

“Jesus intentionally brought together disciples who were very different - fishermen, tax collectors - not people who would naturally love one another. But he did this to show us what love looks like in practice. We have the privilege of putting this same kind of love on display as we love those in the body of Christ who don't look like us.”
― John M Perkins

“If we have been silent and have chosen to ignore the mistreatment of others in the past, we should begin to speak up and challenge injustices. If we were racist and bigoted in our speech and actions, there should be a radical change that is observable. If we have been angry and spiteful toward the other, there should be a radical change that is observable. And, yes, if we have an abundance of wealth and we have the opportunity to use this blessing to encourage those we have previously been prejudiced against, we should open our hands in Christian love and brotherhood. We should tear down the walls that have separated us for so long.”
― John M Perkins

“The psalms of lament were meant to be tools in the community worship experience to bring the worshipers into the presence of our God. The lament is His gift to us, His church. They urge us to come and be healed together.”
― John M Perkins

“The psalmists came to God with pure, raw emotion...He wants us to empty our hearts of this heaviness...I know that without his Spirit moving on all of our hearts, nothing will happen for good.”
― John M Perkins

“In our Western world we don't do well with grief and suffering. Our rugged individualism has trumped the call to shared grief. And many of us believe that it shows a lack of faith to lament. We want to move too quickly to our claims of victory in Jesus. We neglect the need within our souls to cry out.”
― John M Perkins

“When you live a lie it destroys everyone involved. For the slave master, his conscience was seared as the love of money, and economic gain overruled his concern for his fellow man. And for the slave, his sense of dignity and personhood was assaulted without recourse.”
― John M Perkins

“It seems to me that we do not need to be taught how to lament. What we need is simply the assurance that we can lament. We all carry deep within ourselves a pressurized reservoir of tears. It takes only the right key at the right time to unlock them...in God's perfect time, through lament, when these tears are released, they can form a vast healing flood. - Michael Card”
― John M Perkins

“It troubles me that there is no outrage at our collective failure to rise up to God's call to oneness. In the Old Testament when Ezra returned to Jerusalem with the exiles and discovered that they had violated God's law by intermarrying with foreign wives , the people of Israel gathered for a time of corporate lament.
"Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children - gathered to him from Israel, for the people wept bitterly: (Ezra 10:1). And then in verse 6: "Then Ezra rose from before the house of God and went int the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.”
― John M Perkins

“That we have given up our control of this issue is evident in the fact that the Black Lives Matter movement began outside of the church. We should have sounded the alarm when Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Eric Garner (Staten Island, New York), and so many others were killed. We should have been leading the marches and speaking truth to power. But instead, too much of our energy and drive has been misdirected toward materialism, comfort, and convenience. Many of us no longer keep our church building open to provide a safe harbor for our children after school. We are concerned that our building may be torn up. We have shut out the children in our communities who need the influence of God's people and God's Word on their lives. We have become inwardly focused and are not the healing agents we once were. This is part of our confession and we must be broken about it.”
― John M Perkins

“Peggy McIntosh, a professor at Wellesley College, shares some of those advantages:
- If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford in which I would want to move.
- I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
- Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
- I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
- I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
- If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.”
― John M Perkins

“The Son of God, Alpha and Omega, was multiethnic, multicultural. IN the family tree of Jesus were the indigenous inhabitants of Israel, Palestine, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Sudan, Libya. If that is true, we need to present it, remember it. Then we need to ask what it means for us, through the Holy Spirit, for that Christ to live in us. We must wrestle with what it means to follow that Jesus, to surrender to that Jesus, to represent that Jesus. He walked our earth as a multiethnic, multicultural, Jewish human being. But we have reduced him from that. In our culture, we have made Jesus look like, whoever we are instead of who he is. We have made him white. Western. European. Democrat. Republican. Urban. Handsome. Comfortable." - Pastor Efrem Smith”
― John M Perkins

“And finally, we can all confess to being consumed with fear around this issue. True success in the area of reconciliation will require the mastery of our fears. This fear has people saying, "I can't do it" before they even try. Whites are afraid to cross the divide because they might have to give up some of their power and status. Blacks are afraid because it's a lot of hard work, usually with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Many of us who have tried to make the effort have found out, like LeBron James, that we're still seen as "the lesser other." But God's Word speaks into our fears: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfects in love." (1 John 4:18) So the antidote to our fear is His love. It is His love empowering us to extend our hands and hearts to one another.”
― John M Perkins

“To forgive is to make a decision to cancel a debt that you are owed and not to hold it against your offender. There is no forgiveness without a debt. And when we realize the enormity of our own debt it makes forgiveness possible. So in this sense forgiveness is closely connected to gratitude. If our hearts overflow with gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us, all that He did to secure our salvation, all that He continues to do to keep us - then forgiveness will be easier. The person who doesn't have anything to be grateful for is an angry, vengeful person.”
― John M Perkins

“Many struggle to forgive because there's the notion that to forgive is to suggest that the wrong was not committed. But forgiveness requires an offense to have been committed. Someone was hurt. En evil deed was done.”
― John M Perkins

“And I think that when the Lord puts fire in your belly and a call on your life, quitting isn't an option. But if we're able to stand and to remain committed, it's because of His grace. We can't claim credit for it. He does it in us and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our part is to just do what He tells us to do.”
― John M Perkins

“Without them the chain would be broken and progress, as slow as it has been, would have stopped. The same is true with you. You are a link in the chain of progress, and our children and their children are depending on each of us to remain strong, to do our part until the work is finally done. And one day it will be done. Of that I am confident.”
― John M Perkins

“I don't think it makes sense to go into a battle and not know who you're fighting against. And if you're in a battle and don't even know there's a battle going on, you're going to be wiped out. This thing of reconciliation is one of the devil's main battlegrounds. We need to know that in order to be ready to fight well.”
― John M Perkins

“In this battle for biblical reconciliation, we don't go against the Enemy with swords, spears, and javelins. We don't fight with small stones and slingshots. We pray. We pray. We pray because this battle is the Lord's. And by praying we call down the whole army of God to defeat the enemies of reconciliation. Like David, we believe that God's power is more than enough to bring victory.”
― John M Perkins

“Some people think that those of us who believe in social justice don't believe in prayer, that we don't pray enough. They think that because they don't really understand what prayer is. They think it's something that you do at a set time; that it's just asking God for what you want. But prayer is more than that. Prayer is listening for God's answer. It's that intimate practice of asking according to His will and moving as He directs. I love the words of this song, "Lead me, guide me, along the way. For if you lead me, I cannot stray. Lord, let me walk each day with thee. Lead me, O Lord, lead me." That's what prayer is.”
― John M Perkins

“And I'm convinced that prayer and work go together. We've got to work and we've got to pray. We've got to do all that we can humanly do to move toward God's vision for unity in the body of Christ. And we've got to pray that He will reign over our efforts and will bring His supernatural power to bear against the forces that oppose us.”
― John M Perkins

“After He changes our hearts we need Him to move us beyond our fears and anxieties into loving relationship with one another. When we are fearful, our prayers are probably more powerful...because they're probably more honest. We need Him to help us lay aside prejudices and wrong-headed notions about one another and help us to learn from and with one another. We need His help to be honest and transparent with one another, to grieve our past and be ready to move forward together as one.”
― John M Perkins

“There's an African proverb that I think expresses beautifully just how important this face-to-face kind of friendship is: "When I saw you from afar, I thought you were a monster. When you got closer, I thought you were just an animal. When you got even closer, I saw that you were a human, but when we were face to face I realized that you were my brother.”
― John M Perkins

“The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn't that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness...there is that voice...that whispers softly or declares loudly: 'You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.' It is certainly not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: 'You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless, you are despicable, you are nobody - unless you can demonstrate the opposite.' These voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That's the great trap. It si the trap of self-rejection.”
― John M Perkins

“The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn't that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness...there is that voice...that whispers softly or declares loudly: 'You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.' It is certainly not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: 'You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless, you are despicable, you are nobody - unless you can demonstrate the opposite.' These voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That's the great trap. It si the trap of self-rejection.” - Henri Nouwen”
― John M Perkins

“But we have to overcome our fears. Fear will immobilize us or cause us to do things that are ungodly.”
― John M Perkins

“We were very afraid. But our fears made our prayers more powerful, more honest. "God we need You! Lord, help us!" God uses the person who does what He says int he midst of fear. Courage is born in the face of fear.”
― John M Perkins

“I feel like that on a lot of days. And it's at these times that I reflect on what it will be like to see my mother. A lot of people say that she was a "Fannie Lou Hammer" type of woman. My mother would challenge the plantation owners if they were unfair. She died because her body was too weak to nurse me, a seven-month-old baby. She died that I might live. I look forward to crossing the threshold of heaven and rushing into her arms. I'll tell her that I picked up the mantle of reconciliation and ran hard until my day was done. I want to know that she is proud of me. I want to hear her say, "You did well, son." Then I'll go looking for my two sons, Spencer and Wayne. It's going to be some kind of reunion. That "great camp meeting in the sky"...where we'll see Jesus and touch the face of God.
Yes, my steps are a little slower now...but my spirit is energized. I still have joy. I am full of hope for the future. We will get there. We will get there - together. We will get there - as one.
"When we all get to heaven,
what a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
we'll sing and shout the victory!”
― John M Perkins

“We are all brothers and sisters. We are all of one blood (Acts 17:22-31).”
― Madelyn Rose Craig, Names, Nations, and the New Testament