Largest black Pentecostal church moves forward with 1st faith-based connection with Israel since MLK

Sited on https://www.israel365news.com/275944/largest-black-pentecostal-church-moves-forward-with-first-faith-based-connection-with-israel-since-mlk/

An initiative is underway that could connect 6.5 million Black Pentecostal Christians with Israel. Though relatively new, this spiritual endeavor was first conceived 60 years ago by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his visit to Jerusalem.

Bishop J. Drew Sheard, the Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), recently wrapped up his historic visit to Israel but Bishop Glenn Plummer remains as COGIC’s Bishop of Israel, continuing the efforts to further relations between the largest Pentecostal denomination and the Jewish state. This initiative is the first faith based connection between Black Christians and Israel since Rev. King was killed in 1968.

Bishop Sheard’s visit to the Holy Land three weeks ago marked the first time the church has held a holy convocation in Israel. With a delegation of over 200 people including dozens of bishops, 150 COGIC delegates, and a separate group hosted by COGIC of Black women in political leadership.

His visit was part of a larger plan to connect with Israel.

“Three years ago, our church made the decision to formally and officially embrace Israel,” Bishop Plummer told Israel365 News. Toward this end, COGIC appointed Bishop Plummer two years ago as the first Bishop to Israel as the first step in building stronger ties between Israel and Black American Christians.

“We wanted to see how we could best serve and be a blessing,” Bishop Plummer explained. “Israel is unique in this regard as it is the home of our faith. So our efforts are to connect our Church with Israel but we also want to connect Black America with Israel.”

The timing of the initiative was auspicious.

“We made this decision in 2019, which was 400 years since the establishment of slavery in the US,” Bishop Plummer explained. The church, founded in 1907 by African Americans who had come out of slavery, reportedly has 6.5 million members, making it the largest predominantly African-American church in the world, represented in over 113 countries.

“Biblically, the Jews were enslaved for 400 years in Egypt. It was the Jewish story of slavery in the Bible that inspired enslaved Blacks in America,” the Bishop explained. “The Blacks likened getting out of slavery to crossing over the Jordan. The Jewish story of being enslaved in Egypt is in our spiritual DNA.”

“You, as Jews, became a people when you came out of slavery and the Lord delivered you and brought you to this land. Now you are back in the land. We have embraced the Hebrew Bible because we have a similar story. So we have a natural love of Israel.”

The Bishop explained that a love of Israel is focused on three things: the land of Israel, the people of Israel, and the State of Israel. Bishop Plummer emphasized that blessing Israel, as stipulated in Genesis, includes all three.

“History has shown time and again that nations who curse Israel are invariably cursed,” Bishop Plummer said. “As Americans, we must acknowledge that the blessings that have come to our country and made it great came to us through Israel.”

Bishop Plummer noted that his church’s initiative is the first of its kind since the passing of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Bishop related a little known story that illustrated the deep spiritual connection Rev. King had with Israel. Rev. King gave his last address on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, at the COGIC headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Known as the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermon, the speech was in support of the striking Black Memphis sanitation workers.

“In the speech, he referenced a New Testament story about a Samaritan and the road to Jericho,” Bishop Plummer explained. “Rev. King made a tangent, describing his visit to Jerusalem with his wife and their car trip to Jericho. Most people were not aware that in 1959, when he was 30 years old, he visited Israel and that it was a life changing experience for him.”

According to Bishop Plummer, most people don’t listen to the entire speech.

“They don’t get that context for the conclusion of the speech,” he said. “But when Rev. King said that he had been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land, he was speaking literally, talking about Jerusalem. And you can describe many places metaphorically as paradise, but the only place in the world that can be called the promised land is Israel.”

“This speech, his final words, was an expression of brotherhood with Israel.”

Bishop Plummer emphasized that at the time of his death, Rev. King was organizing a trip of 5,000 Black Christians to Israel. The trip was delayed due to the volatility following the Six Day War. The trip never took place since Rev. King was killed.

“There was a real relationship and he was a Zionist,” Bishop Plummer said. “He laid the foundation and was paving the way for a formal relationship between Black American Christians and Israel. We are pursuing a somewhat delayed continuation of that.”

Bishop Plummer noted the importance of the initiative, explaining that approximately 80% of the 47 million Black Americans are affiliated with a church.

“A small minority are antisemitic and anti-Christian,” Bishop Plummer said. “These are groups like the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan. They have their foundations in rejecting Judeo Christian values. They are very small, about 20,000 people, but volatile and vocal. They rejected Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence. If we can connect with the Palestinians, we would want to give them this message that the only way to effect change is through non-violence.”

Intimacy within your marriage... Is it really gone?

Today's topic touches me in a place where I can still feel the sting of relationship disappointments. For in my own marriage have I sought out the answer to this question upon many occasions. Times when I went the entire day not seeing the smiling face of my husband that once captured my heart. Times when eye contact between us was a thing of the past. Those long passionate stares long since gone, faded and drowned away at the sounds of dishes being washed, children yelling and fighting, and the constant talks of disciplinary action. And even at night when all the children were sound asleep; feeling the woes of an exhausted gasp for air...Finally! Yet those words would be short-lived at the sound of our newborn awaking with shrieks and bountiful gestures that indicated...its play time!!! I would begin to do my best to stay up to get at least an hour with my husband. Reading the bible or watching a movie, we would attempt to spend time together, but to no avail. For what we deemed time spent was actually absent of the true intimacy in the beginning of our relationship. It plagued the moments spent engaged in intimacy, holding each other, kissing each other, and soon, the cares of this world began to circumference our once inseparable bond.

Is this you and your significant other? Well I'm here today to ask you the question that you've probably been wondering, and pondering on. The question that often leads to premature divorce. The question that often times causes one to forsake their treasures for a fool's gold. The question in whose answers are often defrauded by abuse, adultery, and even incest. Whose answers are often misunderstood.

I am here to tell you today with full confidence that intimacy between you is never really gone. It is being suppressed by a lack of time spent, dedication, and effort to bring it back to life. It is being thrown aside due to distractions and even the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. It is being snatched away by the cares of this world as Jesus speaks in Mathew in the parable of the sower. I thought my intimacy between my husband was gone until I realized the forces that were behind those sudden interruptions and exhausting days. For there are forces at work in every moment, that try to destroy the intimacy within a marriage. Satan does not want you to be close when what the One true God desires is Godly offspring. (Malachi 2:15).

I encourage you today to examine what has prevented you from that intimate time with your significant other, whether school, work, home duties, kids, a lack of a gentle responses towards each other, lack of grace towards each other's daily common mistakes or even disappointments in the past, and pray to Jesus to remove the forces working within your home to prevent intimacy between you two in Jesus name. Watch God work miracles in your life. The long lasting kisses will come back. Being held in each others arms all night will come back. Pillow talk will come back. You do not need to leave your spouse to experience intimacy. It is right there where it belongs, waiting for you both to care again, for you both to listen to each other more than getting a point across. For you to ask questions about his or her likes again. Find out something you didn't know before. Have faith in Jesus who can do all things and always remember.

When things are going Good...You still Need JESUS

Amen

The Great I Am...Is a Jealous God?!

12Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15(For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 16Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. 17Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,

Often times I have come to this very scripture and have felt the same puzzling feeling as some may feel this very moment;

"Wait, how can God be jealous?" There are many scriptures that restate this fact throughout scripture. Nahum 1:2 states... 2 God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Or in Joshua 24:19 it says,

“And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” We often times puzzle at the thought of our God being jealous, after all, to us jealousy is a bad thing. We think about that time in our life where we dealt with peers who were jealous of us, never ceasing to leave us alone, but persistent in trying to uproot our security in whatever it was they were jealous about. Or what about that jealous wife or husband that insists that we spend more time with them; Searching our belongings, or following us wherever we go to make sure no one is taking us away from them. There is a paralleling scripture that speaks about God being likened to a husband in James 4:4-6

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy [1] 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

I can relate. There has been countless times where jealousy to me was a bad trait. In the oxford dictionary, to be Jealous means feeling angry or unhappy because somebody you like or love is showing interest in somebody else. Examples given are as follows;

a jealous wife/husband

So, with everything pointing to Jealousy as a horrid trait in someone we usually are dedicated to, such as a spouse, then how can it be a good thing to serve a god who is jealous?

This answer didn't come to me until now. A year ago, as a backsliding lukewarm christian, I departed from the church in search of my purpose. This search led me through many pathways including Hinduism, Buddhism, Hare Krishna, and eventually the conscious community of Baltimore MD, and New Age Ideas and beliefs. I admit, I fell head first. I was captivated by the array of cultural principals and ideologies that I thought fit my own. I was mesmerized by the array of cultural food dishes, and hairstyles, and Afro centrist clothing that made me feel like I belonged. But most of all, the peace I felt I had attained, the daily routine of sun-gazing and meditation felt like I was finally connected to my soul. It wasn't until my husband and I began to follow a group called, "Galighticus, that we seen the dark side to this otherwise earthly bliss. We were being led into the worship of other Gods through Channeling messages, sharing dreams, burning ancestor money, and even obtaining statues of Deities and honoring past lifetimes. We had fallen outside of the grazing meadows of our true shepherd, Jesus Christ. It was then, that God became Our Jealous God. He sought us out in the midst of such darkness and confusion. He led us to see this spiritual leader for who he really was. He began charging his clients over $3000 just to speak to him, and double that amount to go to seminars. God began pointing out the spirit of Greed in his messages of manifestation. We couldn't deny God's internal alarms sounding off in our conscience. But that's not all! God not only made it evident to us what we were taking such delight in and away from him to adore, but he also sent messengers to come and get us. We began meeting people in the truth who were sharing the gospel. The messages they were sharing just so coincidentally matched the messages of Deuteronomy 28 and God's anger towards the worship of other Gods. He did not stop there. He pursued us until we could no longer help but to question all we were learning. In fact, while studying with our dear Hare Krishna brothers and sisters, we read from the Bhagavad Gita itself that "The supreme lord was the only true lord to be worshiped, and to worship him through other deities was false."

That's when we knew we had fallen away from our God. That's when we knew we were outside of the boundaries of his protection and his light. We eagerly began studying scripture. What we found was everything we needed to understand what danger we had gotten ourselves into. But most of all, like Revelations 2:4... We had abandoned our first love.

How could we have went so far in pursuit of peace and happiness, that we forgot about the one who created it? How could we have gotten so mesmerized by the outward appearance of more than one god, that we forgot about 2 Timothy 3:3-8

3 But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. 6 For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected.

Jesus himself even stated that many would come in his name with false doctrines that would even deceive his elect, but that he warned us beforehand so that we would not be deceived.

MATHEW 24:24 King James Bible

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

We were that elect being deceived. We were those sheep being led to the slaughter. I am so grateful that our God, The Great I Am, is a Jealous God. I am so grateful for the mercies of his salvation, for him dying on the cross for us to have grace. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ's mercy and love for us that he would go out of his way to make sure that no one can pluck us from his hands...Like John 10:27-29 says...

…27My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. 28I give them eternal life,and they will never perish.No one can snatch them out of My hand.29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.…

It is because of his jealousy for us that he has reached down into the darkness of confusion to draw us back to him. It is because of his husbandry that he has enforced our belonging to him in such a jealous way as to snatch us out of the fire of deceit that leads to death, to a reprobate mind, and eternal life without God,...

JUDE 1:22-24

…22And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt; 23saveothersby snatching them from the fire;and to still others show mercy tempered with fear,hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—…

HALLELLUYAH!!!HALLELLUYAH!!!HALLELLUYAH!!!

I AM SO GRATEFUL OUR GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD!!!!