The Forty-Day Journey of Promise

Day Seventeen: From Hellcat to Heaven Saint!

Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.

“How Can You Forgive Me, Charlie?”

African American believers clung to their identity in Christ. They understood that who they were in Christ redefined how they related to those who had sinned against them.

Charlie provides a remarkable example. He had been enslaved by “Mars’ Bill” who kept his back constantly sore from whippings. Charlie then escaped, joined the “Yanks,” and became a Christian. As a freeman, he met Mar’s Bill again thirty years later.

Recognizing each other across a crowded street, Bill hollers to Charlie, “Charlie, do you remember me lacerating your back?”

Charlie replies, “Yes, Mars.”

Bill then asks, “Have you forgiven me?”

By now, a large crowd has gathered, for Charlie and Bill are some distance apart and talking loud. After Charlie shouts that he has indeed forgiven his old, cruel master, Bill is shocked.

“How can you forgive me, Charlie?”

I Serve a God of Love

Charlie’s answer is amazing.

“What is in me, though, is not in you. I used to drive you to church and peep through the door to see you all worship, but you ain’t right yet, Marster. I love you as though you never hit me a lick, for the God I serve is a God of love . . .”

Old Mars’ Bill then moves toward Charlie, hand held out, tears streaming down his face.

“I am sorry for what I did.”

Charlie grants forgiveness.

“That’s all right, Marster. I done left the past behind me.”

The Power of Redeeming Love

Charlie then testifies to Christ’s redemptive power.

“I had felt the power of God and tasted his love, and this had killed all the spirit of hate in my heart years before this happened. Whenever a man has been killed dead and made alive in Christ Jesus, he no longer feels like he did when he was a servant of the devil. Sin kills dead, but the spirit of God makes alive. I didn’t know that such a change could be made, for in my younger days I used to be a hellcat.”

From hellcat to heaven saint. From a hateful spirit to Christlike love. That’s the power of our new identity in Christ.

Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)

1. African American converts celebrated their new identity in Christ. How aware are you of your new position in Christ as a saint and your new relationship to Christ as a child of the King? How do you apply your new identity in Christ to your personal life and relationships?

2. If Charlie could forgive his former master for such unspeakable cruelty, what does this say to us today about forgiveness and reconciliation in our lives and relationships?

3. Charlie teaches us that racial reconciliation begins with our reconciliation in Christ. How could this principle impact current attempts at racial reconciliation in our nation?

The Anatomy of Anxiety

Part 19: Dancing to the Heartbeat of Redemption

Note: For previous posts in this blog mini-series, please visit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

Purpose: Does worry, doubt, or fear get the best of you sometimes? Do you wonder where anxiety comes from and how to defeat it in your life and the lives of those you love? Then we need a biblical anatomy of anxiety. We need God’s prescription for victory over anxiety.

A Discipleship Process

Let’s begin to explore the first of ten dynamic elements for victory over anxiety. As we do, please understand this principle:

Conquering enslavement to fear is a discipleship process, not an exhortation event.

Victory does not come from being exhorted to “be anxious for nothing.”

Ongoing victory over anxiety requires an ongoing process of growth in grace—just like victory in any other area of life.

And, it requires a comprehensive process of progressive sanctification in all areas of life.

The first area, the core area, is spiritual victory.

Spiritual Victory: Dancing to the Heartbeat of Redemption

Conquering fear is first and foremost a spiritual matter.

Consider Romans 8:14-17.

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear (phobos, phobia, paralyzing terror), buy you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now I we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

Acknowledge False Enslavement to Fear

Spiritually, our first “step” in overcoming fear is to confess our fear.

“Father, I acknowledge that I’ve allowed myself to become enslaved to a mood of fear.”

The emotion of fear itself is not a sin. But enslavement to fear is. Paul calls it “doulous phobos”—slaves to fear. Until we take personal responsibility for allowing ourselves to become fear’s slave, we will never experience emancipation.

Accept Grace Connection to Your Father

Putting off enslavement to fear must be combined with putting on acceptance of freedom in Christ.

“Father, by grace through faith I accept my new Spirit of adulthood, of sonship. I cling to You, Daddy, Father. I am not a fearful little kid. I am Your adult son or daughter. I replace fear with Father. I replace spiritual separation anxiety with spiritual acceptance in my Father’s forever family. I accept by faith my new identity in Christ. I am a joint heir with Jesus.”

What Paul says in Romans 8:14-17, he reiterates in 2 Timothy 1:6-7.

“Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind and self discipline.”

Christian, do you understand your birthright?

Believer, do you know who you are in Christ?

“Father, thank you for the flame of courage and boldness you implanted in me the moment I was saved and made a new creation in Christ. I commit to doing my part of fanning into flame the fire that is already lit within me. I refuse and reject the spirit of timidity. I accept and receive the spirit of power, love, wisdom, sound mind, and self discipline that now defines who I am in Christ.”

Making It Real

1. What do you fear? Write your own prayer of confession of false enslavement.

2. Do you know who you are in Christ? Write your own prayer of acceptance of your new identity in Christ.

3. Reject the old, receive the new. Consciously refuse to see yourself as a timid, fearful child. Consciously see your new image in Christ: adult, son, daughter, powerful, loving, wise, sound mind, self-disciplined.

4. Dance. Dance to the heartbeat of redemption—the new you in Christ. Anxiety and fear says, “Be shy. Sit on the sidelines. Don’t dare dance. Refuse to get in the game. Victory in Christ says, “Be bold. Get off the bench. Dare to dance. Choose to enter the game!”

The Rest of the Story

Knowing who we aren’t (the old false me) and who we are (the new me in Christ) begins our spiritual healing. But we also need to understand Who God is and His relationship to us. In our next post we explore how to apply those truths practically in our victory over anxiety.