Juneteenth 2024

Divine Call Ministries (of So Cal) Blog-Post | June 19, 2024

A 2024 JUNETEENTH REMEMBRANCE

Galatians 5:1 Amplified

It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].

WHAT IS JUNETEETH?

^{Reprinted from Donna Williams Smith, “What is Juneteenth.“, Wake-Up America Newsletter, DWS-Enterprises, June 18, 2020.}

THE YEARNING FOR FREEDOM: The great Civil Rights Movement of our generation, inspired by the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., was conceived in the womb of the desire for freedom. Even now after entering the twenty-first century, the struggle for individual, community, and national freedom continues. However, despite thousands of years of human effort to achieve an enduring and stable state of freedom, most of humanity (not just Black Americans) is still enslaved to bondages that hold it back and suffocate personal and national dreams.^[^1]

JUNETEENTH REMEMBRANCE

JUNETEETH (June + nineteen, or June 19, 1865) commemorates the Federal Government’s enforcement of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation with a subsequent order known as “General Order#3”. The Confederate State of Texas ignored President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation which ordered the “immediate” release of all enslaved persons on January 1st, 1863… never informing their slaves that there had been such a Proclamation.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, just as importantly, but somehow never emphasized…promised “Federal Protections” of freed persons…it stated “I (President Lincoln) do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward (forever) shall be free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

IT HAD BEEN business as usual for Texan slaveholders, who continued to avail themselves of the free labor of approximately 250,000 men; women & children…their systematic brutalization and enslavement lingered on for another 2.5 years past the intended January 1, 1863 expiration date.

DELINQUENT ALBIET; the Federal Government enforced Lincoln’s declaration by sending Federal Troops into Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865; under the leadership of General Gordon Granger; Union Army. The General entered Galveston and read aloud the Federal orders (General Order #3) – telling Texas slaveholders what they already knew in their heads, but not in their hearts.

THE TEXANS had to be compelled by threat of force to cease their domination and remove the psychological and physical shackles, symbolic of hundreds of years of forced servitude. After which…the former slaves burst into ardent celebration!

First Celebrations
ORIGINAL JUNETEETH celebrations were rich in religious tradition; with the freed slaves coming together for religious services and the giving of thanks to God, with shouting; dancing; exuberant praise and worship; and singing all manner of spiritual songs and hymns.

Traditions
IN PAST YEARS, celebrations included the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation; Parades; Rodeos; testimonials from former slaves; inspirational speakers from prominent Blacks of contemporary eras; festivals; fireworks; food, fun, etc. But also the former slave communities in a spirit of brotherhood and love; exercised their new rights and bought land for the first time…establishing parks across Texas including Emancipation Park in Houston, Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia, and Emancipation Park in Austin.

THE CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE Fact Sheet advises that Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. All 50 states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a holiday or observance, and at least 28 states and the District of Columbia have designated Juneteenth as a permanent paid and/or legal holiday through legislation or executive action (Galena 2024).

BITTERSWEET that the “Juneteenth – General Order#3”, still today, has never been fully implemented. Black Americans still struggle for full recognition based on their individual and diverse personal merit; instead of the color of their skin.

Divine Call Ministries (of So Cal) Reflections

FREEDOM IS THE CENTRAL THEME AND VALUE OF CHRISTIANITY. Being redeemed and set free from sin, bondage, and fear is the preeminent goal of Christianity. ^[2] Could it be that the enemy of our souls has strategically embedded in the minds of those he holds captive a disdain for Christianity and all it represents because it is to his advantage for us to be vulnerable to the captivity that sin in our lives facilitates? Those enslaved by the bondage of sin are his to control. Those enslaved by sin are compelled to do things against their better judgment. They lack the strength of character and spiritual fortitude to refuse that next hit (of cocaine, illegal amphetamine, or opiate), or for that matter, say “no” to any of the temptations of their lower nature.

Someone said, (paraphrasing) that living in a modern world where imagination rules the day is not an easy thing to navigate.

HOWEVER, WE are reminded daily by negative providence that Sovereign control has not been relinquished – ALMIGHTY GOD’S SUPREME purposes as written in Scripture prevail. Correspondingly Divine Call Ministries stands on the Eternal Covenant Promises of YAHWEH (Jehovah – The Eternally Existent One) and relinquishes any preconception of self-reliance. The Mission, Vision, and Values of this Ministry are THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST as the ONLY way to TRUE FREEDOM from the bondage of sin, and THE WAY to eternal freedom by making Jesus Sovereign Ruler on the Thrones of our hearts.

HELP US LORD JESUS!

JESUS’ MISSION – Isaiah 61:1-2

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed and commissioned me
To bring good news to the humble and afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up [the wounds of] the brokenhearted,
TO PROCLAIM RELEASE [from confinement and condemnation] to the [physical and spiritual] captives
And freedom to prisoners,
To proclaim ^[a]the favorable year of the Lord.

^{[a]The same as a day of salvation (49:8), and the year of my redeemed (63:4)}