All
Generations Christian Church Of Brownstown
This is the time for the shame of the Indian to be removed. We have always been taught by white man that it is wrong to be who we are. My own family denied their Indian heritage in the early 1900ıs due to this teaching. Because it was shameful to be Indian we could not own land. All our land was taken from us and we were given small portions of useless land that white man did not want. So that my own great-grandparents could have some land of their own they left the Oklahoma Reservation for Cherokee peoples and went to Missouri and pretended they were Dutch by taking the name of a family that he had worked for near the reservation. After being gone from the reservation for almost a year the Indian bureau sent a representative to try and make them take a number identification and sign a paper stating they were enrolled Cherokee. My grandfather and uncle assisted their father in making him tear up the paperwork and chased him away by gunpoint. This is now the shame of our family. We did not stand up and be who we were. We denied our roots to own a piece of land and to become white. We thought it was better. Since I have become a Christian I have realized that God is no respecter of persons. He does not look down on any man for his skin color or his culture. God made us and embraces us as we are. He changes us to become more like Him. If we are made in the image of God as the bible says then He is a perfect blend of every color and culture there is in this world. In Christ we become one people and like God we have many different aspects to our personality. Expressing our individual cultures in praise and worship is the personality of our culture. As I spend time in prayer for my people both white and Indian I sense deep within that this is the time for the white man to stop trying to make the Indian white. Now is the time to let the Indian become a first people of this nation and free him to worship the Creator who not only created the Indian but all men and women of every kindred, tribe and tongue. He created the universe. He is our God and we want to worship him in the way that brings honor to him. The bible tells us in Psalms over and over again to praise him with instrument and song. We have many types of instruments in this world and all are to be used to honor and worship our creator. Letıs become who we are and worship our Creator with flute, drum, musical instruments of all sorts, with song and dance. Did not Creator intend for us to worship Him even as all the others in this world do. Does not the bible say in Revelation that John the disciple heard the angels singing a new song ³You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.² (Rev 5:9-10) Where does it say in the scripture that we must become white or black or any other color to become Godıs child? Must we put aside who Creator has made us to be to become a Christian? No, a thousand times no. We must remain who we are and give all of ourselves to Him in our praise and worship in order to truly honor, respect and love our God. He is worthy that we lift up praise in our native tongue, native regalia and with our own style of song, music and dance. Truly this complete giving of who we are to Creator God is what brings him pleasure. When we give of ourselves with our whole heart and soul we bring him glory and honor that is a fragrant incense before him. We can join the multitude that praise and worship their Creator in their native ways . . . Irish, Scottish, Aborigine, Hawaiian, Mexican, English, Asian, etc. Never has God asked for anything less than all of us. Being Indian and honoring him in an Indian way is giving Him what He has asked for. Signed... Deborah Fielding: One who is Cherokee, Chippewa, Iroquois, English, French, Irish, and American. All are peoples with their own individual culture. I choose to be what God has made me.
Deborah
Fielding
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