Black History Month goes by faster than any other month! I believe it was Dick Gregory who said, “They didn’t mind giving us that month with all dem’ days missing.”
“They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it.” (Acts 12:10 NIV).
Step on it! (“Lest Our Feet Stray…”)
African Americans have come through the guard posts of slavery (1619-1865), Jim Crow (1865-1965) in this nation. Then we came to the iron gate guarding against economic advancement which was securely locked behind a red line. Discriminatory redlining practices were designed to lock African Americans out of suburban neighborhoods and deny them loans, while financially supporting developers who were mass-producing neighborhoods for Whites with exclusionary clauses to prevent anyone from selling homes to African Americans dating back to 1933 (www.npr.org).
But iron gates set up and guarded by human gatekeepers cannot block our progress if we keep our eyes on God, our hand in His hand, and our feet on the forward path. In the words of our national anthem:
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, …
Thou who has by Thy might led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee!
After Peter was led out of the jail by an angel of God, he passed the first and second guard posts and then came to an iron gate that opened by itself. Why?! Today, many businesses have doors that open by themselves when we walk in front of them. It is because we have stepped on something under our feet that signals the door to open when we step on it. Peter did not stray from following God’s angel and in doing so, he stepped on the enemy’s head. That was the trigger for the gate to open!
The iron gates we face in life, designed to block our forward progress, have been erected by the devil and his emissaries. Instead of turning around and going back to our places of confinement, we only need to keep following Jesus Christ. Stay with God, for “with God, nothing shall be impossible” (Mt. 19:26).
Just keep moving forward! In moving forward to the gate, you are symbolically stepping on the enemy’s head! And it will trigger the gate to open so you can walk through like Peter! There is no red line, no exclusionary clause that can lock us out if we don’t let our feet don’t stray from following Jesus Christ. So, keep moving and step on it!
Focus Quote: “For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two.” –Psalm 107:16 NKJV
Coming Next Month! Faith For Fiery Trials Vol. 2, Men’s Ed. Co-authored by A. Sumner!
NOTE: Pastor John P. Kee, who has been in the hospital for a while now, texted me while I was completing this message. He wrote only four words: “I’m getting better Sir.” Some of you know he is an old high school student of mine from about my second year of teaching at Hillside High in Durham. Please keep him in your prayers.
