Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

I remember that it was on birthday on a particular day because of those who have nurtured and reared me. My existence is dependent on what I have taken on board from what I was taught as a youngster. Unfortunately the effects of separation and loss from an early age dictates that an individual  loses the ability to catch or to receive by osmosis the salient things that are required to go from child to boy to man. If this loss is perpetuated from father to son and so on, then a dis-connect with the past will occur and the information that should be filtered down is circumvented at some distant point in the past. The purpose of a rite of passage ceremony is to enable the giver and the receiver to establish a link with the past and continuity with the future. By this link being broken we are condemned to ‘short-termism’ which dictates that we live for the moment without plans or provisions for the future. In many instance we forget who we actually are and act and behave in ways that has been determined by others. William Dubois calls this notion of living in two worlds disconnected from each other, but conjoined like Siamese twins, ‘Double Consciousness’. From the moment I was born I was given all the pre-requisites to become a father. However this’ becoming’ was destined for sometime in the future and my gathering of information over the period of time from birth to my cross-over time, gives me the tools and the connectivity to safely navigate this journey.

The problems we face today, in our homes, in society and in the church of the living God stems from people who are adult chronologically, but still children in their thinking and therefore their actions.  I contend that many people, particularly those who were subjected to ravages of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, have never been taught or given the tools to ‘Cross-Over’. And many people leave this planet without fulfilling their roles of passing on the baton in a clear concise and effective manner. I further contend that, because of the ‘disconnect’, we cannot cross over unless we assume a new identity. This identity can only be found in Jesus Christ, whereby we are able to circumvent the ravages of the Slave Trade and re-connect with the father of creation, Yahweh. Having celebrated by birthday yesterday, I now re-celebrate it today knowing that my real birth occurred when I severed the link with the sin of slavery and plugged into the blessing that is promised to all those who are connected to Abraham. Read Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 103:1-5.