WOW! Dr A.R. Bernard
"He says his church's approach is more conversion-based. Because man has fallen from original creation, there is a disconnect from God. For the person to be born again, it is a restoration to the original intention of God -- back to the original purpose of creation. This once again empowers the human spirit to dream and soar and become, to deal with the negative environment to which we are all born into, and to give a wholesome direction to our worship and our sense of being. "I want people to be empowered in that way," Bernard says."
"As he climbed the corporate ladder by day during the '60s and early '70s, he began a search for the truth. His search led him into the martial arts, drugs, spiritualism, the occult, and Tibetan Lamaism. He eventually became a practicing member of the Nation of Islam for five years, which was then under Elijah Muhammad. Bernard says at that time what impressed him about the Nation was not Allah, but the positive impact it had on the Black community. "It represented everything young Black men were looking for: order, strength, self-worth," he says. At a racially turbulent time, these qualities were highly attractive. "We were all scratching for a strong identity, and this provided one," he says. At that time he says the Black community only had two choices - whether or not to follow Malcolm X or Dr. King, men with two very different approaches."
"I teach from the Bible that whatever we refuse to repent of, we are destined to repeat. And the next time, the stakes will be so much higher."
Amazing.. I was shocked when I read that he was a former practicing Muslim. Indeed with God all things are possible!
"Love is centered in the will, not the emotion. If love is only centered in the emotion, then God cannot command us to love Him, to love people, He can only ask if we feel it - cos somedays we feel love, somedays we don't. Once you commit to love, you make a decision to love."
"You cannot truly love without the freedom of choice."
"The image of God must be in your life so that you can live at maximum productivity and fruitfulness. The order of God must be in your life."
"Effectiveness in life demands order. Order demands a clear plan of action."
"It's not 'them' and 'us', it's us."
"You never grow beyond the people that influence you. As you move from one stage to another, your intimacy with the people around you must change. In the spatiality of relationships, you must not allow people to hold you down."
"Let no one rush into your life."
"In Babylon, you can thrive and flourish!"
"Jesus let the tare grow next to the wheat because He is convinced that the tare would have no impact on the wheat whatsoever."
posted by Ling @ 12:55 AM
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