Byron Sarracino, from the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, answers the difficult question, “What about all the injustice and suffering?” He takes us back to where it all began, in the Garden of Eden and shows how these touch every person in the world. People everywhere do wicked things. Evil, suffering, and injustice is universal problem. People everywhere do wicked things. There is a day coming when God will judge all these things. Byron points to Jesus, who despite the wickedness of man, came to save whoever will put their trust in Him.

Byron is a Christian Native American.

Check out more important questions and answers to and from First Nations people here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcRGo7ymJ8Wwzdz6rio7nXv8

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Byron Sarracino – Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico – talks about historical trauma and faith… and how we have a choice regarding how we respond to the evil things that have been done by the church and those claiming to be Christian. He had to work through this himself, asking, “Is Jesus like the people who did these things?”

Check out more important questions and answers here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcRGo7ymJ8Wwzdz6rio7nXv8

Byron Sarracino shares his own story of how he decided to believe and trust in Jesus. Byron is from the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. As a Christian Native American, he is one of many Indigenous people from different tribes and nations across North America and around the world who follow Jesus Christ.

You can listen to his full story here: https://withoutreservation.com/byron-sarracino-laguna-pueblo-part-1/

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

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Is Jesus the whiteman’s God? Mark Custalow, from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, answers this common question and perception that Christianity is the white man’s religion. He points out the truth that Jesus is not a white man but from the Middle East where the Christian faith actually has it’s roots among a tribal people. The carriers of the Gospel to the Americas were Anglo people. But that doesn’t make Christianity is a white man’s religion.

Mark is speaking from a Christian Native American – First Nations perspective. He points out that God is the Creator of all people.

Related: Christianity is not the white man’s religion. It is not the whiteman’s gospel. Pictures of a white Jesus are inaccurate and misleading. Christianity did not have it’s beginnings in Europe. Being a Christian is not tied to or dependent on one’s ethnicity. Jesus came for the Human race. The Gospel is God’s answer for the need of every person no matter their skin color, language, or identity. Jesus came for people from every tribe and nation. He said Himself, in the Bible in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

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Transcript:

– Man, I’ve had a lot of native people in native communities tell me that they see Jesus as a white man’s God and Christianity as a white man’s religion.And to an extent I get that, I understand that. There’s been much, much travesty, much tragedy that’s been perpetuated on our native people in our native communities over the course of our history more times than we should have had to endure.

So, yeah, so the other thing that we deal with as native people is that the carriers of the gospel to us were in fact Anglo people, they were white people. And so by perception, it’s an easy logical thing to conclude, well, this is a white man’s God, it’s a white man’s religion, we have our own religion.

But in truth, that’s not the case.

Now, ultimately, this is a leap of faith. And that’s what God, our creator requires of us. He requires of us that we approach Him by faith.

And when we approach Him by faith, as He requires on His terms, this is what He tells us, that He is God, the creator of all people. He’s the creator of all cultures, not just white culture or black culture or Asian culture, but of native culture as well.

The diversity of cultures that we see in all the world were created by our God, not by mistake, but by intention. The Bible says that when God created us, He created us in His image.

When God sent a message about Himself, He sent it through a tribal people like our people, it was the Jewish people, but they were tribal just like we are. They weren’t in fact white, they were brown skin much like we are. So Christianity, although those who, the messengers who brought the gospel to us at first were of white skin, God is much bigger than any color of humanity. He’s a creator of all colors and humanity.

And the religion, it’s really not a religion, it’s a relationship… And we come to Him on His terms. And He came to make a way for us to know Him personally.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

You can also listen on The Storyteller radio app.
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Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-storyteller-radio-app/id1550371468

Or you can visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com

Some people say that it’s not possible to be both a Christian and Native American / First Nations. Is following Jesus tied to ethnicity? Can you be an Indigenous follower of Jesus? Mark Custalow, from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, addresses the question, “Can I be a Christian and Native to?”.

There is only one Creator God and He is the Creator of culture. His intent was that people would spread throughout the earth and multiply, which would inevitably lead to a diversity of cultures. Mark shares the story of what happened when people did not do as God instructed… how He created languages which would become the foundation for the cultures of the world.

Our ethnicity is given to us by God. In the bigger way we all belong to the Human race. God made us all. He is interested in people – all people – people who are different in language, culture, color, and location. God tells us that Jesus came for people from every language, tribe, and nation. So, yes, it is possible to be Native, First Nations, Indigenous, African, Asian, Hispanic, Middle-Eastern, Anglo, Hispanic, and every other background and mixture – and be a follower of Jesus.

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Transcript:

I hear a lot of people in our Native culture and our tribes, tribal communities saying, “Hey, can I be a follower of Jesus and a Native at the same time? Can I be a Christian and Native too?” And the answer is absolutely resoundingly, “Yes.”

And here’s why. Do you know that God is a creator of cultures? There’s a story in the Bible that talks about how God wanted humanity to express all of His diversity, and humankind rebelled against that. And they came and said, “God, we know a better way.” God came down and said, “No, I created you with a perfect plan, and My plan was there for there to be a diversity of cultures.” And so He forced that people couldn’t understand each other. They had different languages because of a miracle that God created, and they dispersed to different parts of the earth where God led them to have and develop these cultures that He intended in the first place.

The Bible says at the end of time, in the book of Revelation, it describes what Heaven’s going to be like. The Bible says, “Around the throne of God will be people from every nation, language, and tribe represented around the throne.” God doesn’t want us to lay down the cultures He created to become who He wants us to be. He wants those cultures to express part of the beauty of His creation.

Now, we’ll hasten to say this. We’ve taken what God created beautiful, and we’ve perverted it. We’ve diluted it. We’ve made it something different than what He intended. And so there are, in fact, parts of our culture that are challenged by the truth of the Gospel – sinful parts of our culture that the Gospel says, “That sin, that’s wrong, and we need to jettison those things.” But that’s not all of our culture.

There’s part of our culture that God created beautifully in His image to express all that He is. You and I are trophies of His grace. We’re reflections of His glory, and how He created us even culturally was intended by God to express that beauty. The key is you and I following God’s lead in determining what part of our culture is challenged by the gospel, what part of our culture expresses the diversity and the beauty that God intended us to have. And when we are there, we will reflect even greater the beauty of all that God is, and the watching world will look at us and marvel and say, “Man, I want to be part of that.” So let’s embrace that part of the culture that God gave us as a gift that He gave to us. Let’s jettison all that doesn’t please God, and let’s be the creation that He designed us to be.

End Transcript

Interested in true-life stories of First Nations people from across Native North America who are following Jesus Christ without reservation? Check out The Storyteller on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm4Y5qad3GcSgJ3xizrCxCWaA-ZO7eUdK

You can also listen on The Storyteller radio app.
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tithely.app.c40776
Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-storyteller-radio-app/id1550371468
Or you can visit our website: www.withoutreservation.com