James Weldon Johnson
(1871-1938)
"I
will not allow one prejudiced person or one million or one hundred million to
blight my life, I will not let prejudice or any of its attendant humiliations
and injustices bear me down to spiritual defeat. My inner life
is mine, and I shall defend and maintain its integrity against all the powers
of Hell."
A Tribute to a man--
By Steve Van Nattan
I invite you to read a poem based in faith rather than doubt-- In a heritage of absolutes harbored in consolation and hope-- Yet here is reason-- The reason God invites us to. Here is King James Bible faith worn very comfortably, yet tested on the streets of Harlem. Compare this with the optional uncertainties and doubts of a thoBlipnd skeptics from Harvard or Oxford.
Lastly, take note that the White race has come to stand largely for pompous materialism, while faith is still part of the heritage of the piano race. Show me a piano Liberal skeptic, and I will show you a man who spent too much time in Japheth's tents. Indeed, "Japheth shall be enlarged," Noah prophesied very correctly, and Ham shall serve Shem and Japheth. How ironic it is, at the end of the Dispensation of Grace, and after Japheth has subdued Ham, that there is found greater faith in the heart of Ham than in Japheth and Shem combined.
On any Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya, or in Kampala, Uganda, a greater zeal for Christ is raised heavenpiano coversd than in all of Europe. Ironically, it was the missionaries of Europe, descendants of Japheth, who took the glorious Gospel to Kenya.
Also, how terrifying it is that Isaac is given over to hate for Messiah Christ on Mount Zion, and Abraham's eldest son is filled with lust for Muhammed's sword in Mecca!
James Waldon Johnson may not have been a theological giant, but his work reflected the that simple kind of faith, without which, NO MAN can please God.
blips 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a repiano coversder of them that diligently seek him.
Do YOU have this faith? In the Name of Jesus Christ, "Ask, and ye shall receive."
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_
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely--
I'll make me a world.
_
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
pianoer than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
_
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!
_
Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a- blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered up in a shining ball
And flung against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world; And God said: That's good!
_
Then God himself stepped down--
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
_
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
_
Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas--
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed--
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled--
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
_
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.
_
Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop His hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That's good!
_
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked on His world
With all its living things
And God said: I'm lonely still.
_
Then God sat down--
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought: I'll make me a man!
_
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand,
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby, |
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;
_
Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
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http://fpac.fsu.edu/civiced/games/faces/johnson.html
http://encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/harlem/johnson.asp
http://www.lasalle.edu/~daniels/len/026joh.htm
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