Greetings dear followers. I realize that it has been a while since we’ve posted. Have we forgotten you? Of course not. The past months has found the flip the script staff and I facing new challenges, and experiencing great victories. One hundred percent of our challenges has indeed shown the greater need of presenting both the love of God to a blinded and needy people and the need of expounding the truths of the Holy Spirit’s insights to many spiritually deprived people.
Writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God as did the apostles; I have found that though we’d love to post everyday the Lord doesn’t allow simply because the post will become all about us and what we can say versus what the Holy Spirit wants to speak through writing.
Our topic on black and white is not a topic on racism but about documentation. Documentation is very important please don’t misunderstand our point today…however like many things in this life that appear to be just and right….documentations can get in the way and can be used to kill, steal and destroy. Let me paint the scenario for the topic of black and white.
School was about to start here in Virginia where I am raising my now 14 year old granddaughter having had her since the age of nine. This school term is her first time entering the high school arena. The school that she was zoned for was not one that she and I took pleasure in her attending. We put in an out of zone application for a closer and better school. After weeks of waiting we received a letter of denial with the reason being conduct.
My grand daughter had gotten into a few scraps in her middle school years that resulted in suspensions and at one time home bound schooling. Now wait,..before you began to pass judgement. I’m sure one or two of us may have gotten into a few scraps and arguments during our school years or maybe even have gotten into altercations in our neighborhood with peers. Black and white simply pinpointed what you did…it didn’t tell the whole story. Let me continue if I may.
All of my granddaughter’s middle school teachers will tell you that she is a very quiet girl. She doesn’t bother anyone and doesn’t like to be bothered by others. Academically she is awesome: an A.B, Honor Roll Student with more A’s than B’s. Sometimes people take quietness to mean a person is weak and passive. This way of thinking is far from the truth. Unfortunately a few of my granddaughter’s peers learned this truth the hard way. These peers bullied grandbaby for quite sometime. Because she didn’t immediately act, the bullies thought they were successful in their establishment of a hard core reputation. They thought they were successful in causing others to fear and bow down to them….until.
Well..the 6th grade bully was defeated three days to the close of the school term. Grand baby was suspended the three days of the remaining school term and seven days into the new school term…..documentation. Two 7th grade bullies were defeated a month and a half before the close of the school term with the altercation landing grand baby to be home bound schooled where she still aced her grades….documentation. The 8th grade bully was defeated two months near the close of the school term with grand baby getting a ten day suspension….documentation.
So…we get the letter of denial from the school of election. I called to the school to converse with someone in regards to the decision. The secretary of the school took my call and hearing my concerns about why we wanted the grand baby to go to the school, all the secretary would do is read to me the infractions written in black and white. So I finally say to her, “What you’re actually saying is my granddaughter is not good enough to come to your school.” Of course the secretary denied that this is what she was saying.
The truth is ….black and white said that this young lady was not good enough to go to this public school.
My grand daughter didn’t take the denial lying down. She wrote a letter to the principals of the school and fought a very good fight in writing. One main paragraph of her letter stated, “I understand that I have infractions on my record yet hear me out. I am an aspiring artist and make very good grades. I don’t want to surround myself with the old peers from the middle school because I’m know my life would go to the left at that school. Please give me a chance.”
Here is a young girl who was begging for life in a new school. Begging for a chance to start afresh around new people in a new place. In all actuality this young girl was applying the principals that we teach the struggling addict: change your people. places and things. Change your playmates, playground and play things. Here is a young student who knows what it takes for her to live.
Her letter prompted the Holy Spirit and I to step in to stand with her in her battle. Many times dear followers if you don’t fight, things don’t happen. You see…we say religiously that “The battle is the Lord’s” but it isn’t. In the old testament times many battles were the Lords’ simply because it was a time of “God with man.” The dispensation of Grace has ushered in “God in us.” Scripture after scripture has spoken to us of how victorious we are in and through Christ. Jesus stated in Acts 1:8a “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Now if the battle is the Lord’s why do you need power? In Luke 10:17-20 Jesus had sent out seventy more disciples other than the 12 who first started with him and he had endowed them with power in their ministry to cast out devils and heal the sick. He’d sent them out to minister to people all over the city. The seventy returned to him excited that even devils were subject to them through the usage of his name. Jesus said “Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” If the battle is the Lords’s then why did the seventy need power? Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 6:10-15: “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” with wiles meaning cunning devices. Paul continues by saying “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” with high places meaning places of authority. Paul advises, admonishes and commands us “wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand.” Paul continues from verse 14 to verse 18 naming the armor with which we should put on to battle or fight. There are countless other new testament scriptures that shows us that the battle isn’t the Lord’s but ours. The exciting news is that with Calvary’s cross and Jesus’ Resurrection we have already been made conquerors. We’ve just got to put our hands to the sword. Many years ago the Lord said to me, “I Will Stand With You In The Opposition But You Have To Fight!” The runner of a race already knows the prize that awaits at the finish line however if he does not run the race then he can’t get the prize. The runner must fight the run and run the fight.
Okay…the Holy Spirit and I stand with grand baby in her fight. I was led by the Holy Spirit to write to the school’s principals as well to say what He wanted to say which happened to be a discourse on black and white.
In an HFAPT meeting I had a chance to share with the board our battle with the school’s acceptance of my grand daughter. As we before stated my grand daughter knew what it took for her to be successful and going to the zoned school was not it. I shared with the board members a true story of a man name John who was an alcoholic I’d met in the late 80″s early 90″s when I started the substance abuse ministry. John was an alcoholic who lived in a rooming house. Every one knew that John was what they called a drunk. John’s alcoholism had progressed to where he no longer lived to drink but drank to live. One morning John awakened to terrible shakes. He needed a drink. He had no alcohol in his room nor anything with alcohol in it: no cough syrup, mouth wash or anything. John started knocking on other roomers doors asking for a drink sweating profusely I’m told. Of course everyone turned him away calling him a drunk and telling him how he needed to get clean and sober. John knew these things of course but John also knew something this particular day that the roomers didn’t know. He knew that he needed a drink in order to live. One roomer said that John told her this, “if I don’t get a drink I’ll die.” She denied him a drink and sent him on his way calling him a drunken bum. Around twelve noon this particular day, John’s brother felt the need to visit John at the rooming house. When the brother got to John’s door there sat John slumped over at the outside of his room in the hallway dead. John knew what it took for him to live that day.
Like John my grand daughter knew what it took for her to live and the schools’ denial because of black and white; was pulling the trigger screaming die. We can’t help you to live because black and white says.
In our discourse on black and white the Holy Spirit said, “In some cases black and white doesn’t tell the full story, it simply pinpoints what you did. Black and white doesn’t tell who you are again it simply says what you’ve done. Many people fail to look beyond the black and white to see the person who sits at the end of the sentence. “These documents says you can’t come here” the secretary was saying. “Regardless to how much you want life.. black and white says you must die!”
Our discourse continued with: “Black and white may not have a whole lot of things to say about many of us simply because no one was around us to record things we’ve both said and did in our lives that would’ve had people looking at us sideways or crossing over to the other side of the street when they saw us coming and even possibly shaking their heads at us and wagging their tongues something awful about stuff that spewed from our lips.
My own black and white said of me 40 odd years ago that I was a thief and a liar. It said I was sneaky and disobedient. Black and white said I was a statistical mistake. It said I was hard headed and shouldn’t be accepted by anyone. But…the Master teacher looked beyond my black and white and saw me. He then gave me the greatest gift that could be given to anyone: the gift of chance. When I saw the authenticity of the gift..it changed my life from then to the present and will continue to change my life onward. Chance is a powerful gift.
Our discourse continued with: ” In my research of your school I found that the school does not have a squeaky clean reputation either for some students, faculty and staff. In sharing my findings with my grand daughter this 14 year old did what so many of us adults will not do… she looked beyond the school’s black and white and saw the benefits of her being there.
We then asked, the Holy Spirit and I, “Why can’t you do the same and give this young lady the gift of chance?”
The school like much of society catered to those of them who are excelling and shunned the ones who are failing. Black and white labels unfit. Is there any life beyond the black and white?
Two days after the receipt of our letters the principal called to have a meeting with the Holy Spirit, my grand daughter and I. The meeting was successful and my grand daughter was accepted. My granddaughter was dismissed from the meeting where the principal wanted to converse with me in private. He stated that he is a Christian and loves the Lord yet he was one who stuck to the black and white never looking beyond it to the person on the other end of the period. This principal is the reason God allowed the adversity. God wanted the principal to see beyond the black and white. Oh dear followers God looked beyond your black and white and my black and white and saw us. A song writer wrote the lyrics of “He looked beyond my faults and saw my need. Amazing Grace shall always be my song of praise.”
So many of us have a black and white that has been written not by man but by God. Revelation 20:11-15 reads, “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
These people that John speaks of in Revelation are those of them who have a black and white record but will not turn to the Lord Jesus to allow him to blot out the black and white and write their records in red. These are people who enjoy what the black and white has to say for the right now giving no thought to thereafter. Is your record written in black and white or is it written in red?
I knew that this was a battle that the Lord wanted me to fight in order for him to change the mindset of ones in authority. Many times people in authority are governed by the laws and regulations that man has set with no inklings of thoughts that there is someone who sits in a greater position of authority than they whose ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts but are higher, different and carry a far greater success when applied than any law or regulation that man can institute. Man’s laws and regulations are for the here and now but God’s ways reaches beyond the here and now working for a greater season in eternity. Many times people in authority thinks that because man doesn’t have any black and white on them then they are okay. And for this cause they stick it to some of the ones who does have black and white indicating that black and white has set in stone who these people really are. Yet as we can see the black and white of man doesn’t carry as much weight as does the black and white of Revelation 20. The black and white of man is for the right now…the black and white of God is for a permanent season in eternity.
One other reason I knew it was a battle the Lord wanted me to fight is because my grand daughter’s best friend was accepted in the school and her black and white said excessive absences and 1 major infraction. An infraction is an infraction right? God certainly has his way of doing things doesn’t he?
Perhaps today some of you have been greatly effected by what black and white says or in some instances hasn’t said. Perhaps black and white has written you off and cast you aside. Black and white has maybe even shut doors of opportunity for you. I’ve come to tell you that there is someone who looks beyond the black and white to see who you really are. This someone is Jesus. He said for us to cast our cares upon him for he does care for us. By casting our cares upon Him, Jesus shows us what we should let lay and what we should fight for.
Someone said to me “Well the Bible is black and white.” I had to beg the differ. I said “No the bible isn’t black and white the bible is red.” The blood of Christ Jesus covers all that black and white sets out to destroy, all that black and white steals, all that black and white kills.
Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy but I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly” with abundantly meaning: the fullest of measure. Everything about you and everything that concerns you concerns the Lord. Stop accepting black and white and turn to the Lord Jesus to see what is written in red. He certainly showed a 14 year old girl and He will show you if only you will allow. Selah
Flip the Scripts admin