Embracing GRACE relations in the body of Christ

S3:E3

Show Notes:

Jesus follower, wife, mother, military veteran, USAFA ’97 graduate, counselor, nutritional healing-foods lover, author. These phrases all describe today’s guest, Aurelia Smith. Aurelia served as an active-duty Air Force officer both in the United States and abroad and separated from the military in 2002 as a Captain, and she’s been involved with OCF in many capacities since her cadet years.

GRACE: God’s Reconciliation At Christ’s Expense.

To say race relations is a complex issue is an understatement, and every facet of this topic cannot be covered in this one episode. Aurelia and I simply sat down to start the conversation, talk through Aurelia’s experiences in the military community, and her passion for helping other believers answer the question: How do I minister to the person in front of me who’s hurting from an ethnic or cultural incident?

Aurelia and I are both members of OCF’s R7:9 Project (Revelation 7:9) committee, which examines the critical subject of race relations and explores how believers should engage in this topic in a biblical manner.

Throughout this episode, Aurelia mentions a few books and resources linked below:

• One Race One Blood: The Biblical Answer to Racism by Ken Ham and Charles Ware
• Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation by Mark Vroegop
• Ministering to Military Women: Biblical Help & Hope by Aurelia Smith
• Truth in Love podcast, episode 358
• Truth in Love podcast, episode 369
• Programs at Spring Canyon
• Programs at White Sulphur Springs
• Caleb Challenge Career Transitions Strategies

If you have an idea for a guest, topic, or story that I should consider for a future episode of the show, send an email to [email protected] or visit OCF’s new “Be a Guest” webpage.

As you listen to this conversation with Aurelia, here are a few questions to ponder in your personal time, with a small group, or with a mentor:

1. What does it look like to engage with race relations in a biblical manner as Christ followers?
2. How should the passages Aurelia read from John chapters 13 and 17 shape our understanding of the love and unity to which we’re called?
3. How can you align your heart with God’s heart for the nations expressed in Revelation 7:9?
4. In what ways does your local church engage with today’s topic?
5. How would you respond to the first situation Aurelia described in which an interracial couple faces backlash within the church body?
6. What Scripture would you share with Adam in the second scenario?
7. What counsel would you give Tanya in the third scenario?
8. How can OCF as a ministry to the military community continue to engage with the topic of GRACE relations? Contact R7:9 Project Coordinator Larry Simpson to continue the conversation: [email protected].