Years ago in a church I pastored, we had a faithful member. She was there every time the doors were opened. In a previous church she had been the president of the Women’s Missionary Union. As the leader of that ministry she had often led that church to pray for missions—for the conversion of the heathen and for the church to send missionaries to distant lands. One day a black family joined our church. And she and her husband walked out and never came back again. Can you believe that a lady would pray for the conversion of the people in Africa, but then a person of African descent joining our church would cause her to walk out and never come back again? Can you believe that she would give money and raise money to give to missionaries to preach to them, but didn’t want them to sit in her church? We are masters at building walls that shut people out and I tell you that such attitudes and behavior have no place in the kingdom of God. Our Lord Jesus did not come to build walls; he came to tear them down.
