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- God wants to use the suffering of our ethnicity to give a divine message of hope, deliverance, and restoration to the world. When the world looks at African-American people and sees the hope, deliverance, and restoration that God has worked in us after the suffering of slavery, it will be a testimony to the power of Almighty God.
- God wants to use the suffering of our ethnicity to give a divine message of compassion, deep feeling, devotion, and piety to this world. God wants the world to look on black people and see our suffering and understand what compassion is all about.
- God wants to use the suffering of our ethnicity to create "transethnic" communities to model love and reconciliation. He wants to show the world what a true microcosm of Heaven would look like--red and yellow, black and white, worshiping God here on earth, right now, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let me summarize this chapter with five important truths:
1. Family mess is the tip-off that there is something seriously wrong with your family. Don't ignore it or say, "Well, you know, that's just the way we are." Pay attention to it.
2. Family mess is the tip-off that there is something beyond natural circumstances impacting your family: generational bondage. When you remember that your great-granddaddy was an alcoholic and you remember your grandfather was an alcoholic and you remember your father was an alcoholic, you need to pay attention to that pattern.
3. Family mess is the tip-off that you need someone or something greater than you if you are going to be healed. Counseling is great, but only Jesus Christ can truly straighten out family mess.
4. Family mess can alert you to areas of struggle or sin that you should be aware of. This is like number two. If you're a woman and your great-grandmother always had three or four men hanging around, and your grandmother did too, and your mother did too, guess what sin you're going to have to watch out for in your own life?
5. Family mess can alert you to areas of struggle or sin where God wants to work. He wants to move right in at the deepest, most difficult part of your life to bring healing and transformation.
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