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

If you’ve found this helpful, Please Subscribe, Like, and Share!

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

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

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.”

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

If you’ve found this helpful, Please Subscribe, Like, and Share!

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.
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

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.

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

If you’ve found this helpful, Please Subscribe, Like, and Share!

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

It’s not uncommon to face rejection from family members and friends when someone chooses to follow Jesus. Mark Custalow, from the Mattaponi tribe in Virginia, answers the question, “Is following Jesus worth it?” He makes a strong case that it is. Mark is a Christian Native American.

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

If you’ve found this helpful, Please Subscribe, Like, and Share!

Transcript:

You know, God created us to need relationship, to need love. I know that because I observed that. I’m a student of human behavior, my own heart.

We are all created to need love and to belong. God placed us in the context of families. When we were born, you were birthed into your mother’s womb. She gave birth to you and you live and you’re in the context of a family, right? We all have different family experiences, some good, some not good.

Some families, because of their deeply held traditions and belief, believe that if you leave that faith or belief that they’ve taught you, that they kind of excommunicate you. In fact, that’s exactly what they do. They kick you out of the family and they say, “You’re dead to us. We don’t want to have anything to do with you.” And if that’s your case, if you’re saying to me today, “Hey, if I believe this Jesus, then my family is going to kick me out.” That’s a brutally hard decision because there’s a part of you that wants to belong. And you belong by birth to the family that you were birthed in and raised by.

But you’ve got to know that God is your Creator and He loves you more than all of your family combined. He holds your eternal destiny in His hands and He’s offering you an eternity in Heaven if you’ll but trust Him by faith.

So yes, believing in Jesus may cost you your family. You know there are some people that believed in Jesus and He called them to be missionaries, to go places and it costs them their lives.

Christianity doesn’t solve all your problems. It doesn’t take all your problems away. It gives you a hope in the midst of all of our problems that God is greater than our problems. We can trust Him and regardless of what happens to our body, our soul is secure for all of eternity in Jesus.

So I don’t want to deceive you into thinking that if you believe in Jesus, everything’s going to be nice and rosy for the rest of your life. There’s actually a cost to following Jesus. And that road of following Jesus may come at the cost of your family saying, “Believe in Jesus and you’re dead to us.”

I would ask you what’s more important to you, this temporary earth suit and temporary relationships or the eternal destination of your soul, abiding with the Creator God who made you in His image and wants you to live with Him for all of eternity without end. Because the alternative is in eternity and hell forever without escape, without end.

Don’t reject the love of God. He’s made a way specifically for you. And any costs we have to pay pales in comparison to the price that Jesus paid to purchase your soul.

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