Yo Marine!
Awesome story, man: God bless Urbana, & all who reach out with the Word of life!
Links in neatly with this Christian email I got just now @ Decatur double whammy:-
By Bill Ellis
Special to ASSIST News Service
SCOTT DEPOT, WV (ANS) -- February is a bit unusual in 2004. Being “leap year” means that it has 29 days which happens every four years. The first Sunday was also the first day of the month which gives us a rare five Sundays in the shortest month of the year.
February is celebrated as “Black History Month”, a time when we honor some of the great African-American leaders of our nation. During the first week of the month I again watched the powerful and penetrating story of slavery called “ROOTS”.
It staggers my mind to think that there was once slavery in our nation and that it continues to exist in so many places in today’s world including Africa. The long, long history of slavery is not a credit to the human race.
Slavery is generally thought of as “forced labor”, being in bondage and captivity. Longinus called it “A prison for the soul, a public dungeon.” Servants have some choice in the matter, especially if they are regarded as housekeepers, cooks, butlers, or attendants.
Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1856-1915, born in slavery, became one of the greatest reformers, educators, scientists, and writers in the history of America. He once lived and taught at Malden, West Virginia, a town less than 30 miles from where I live and famous because of its salt mines and most famous citizen. Among the great lessons he taught and left us in his books is this one: “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” He founded the great Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and through his work there left the world a lasting legacy.
It was never my privilege to meet Martin Luther King, Jr., though I did meet and was on the program with his wife, Coretta Scott King, in an area-wide meeting in Decatur, Illinois. Many of my friends knew him well and worked closely with him. One such friend is James Earl Massey, universally recognized as one of the great preachers of the modern era. He was the speaker for a series of Lenten Services sponsored by the Decatur Area Council of Churches the week following King’s death on Thursday, April 4, 1968. I was an active participant in those services during one of the most traumatic weeks in our nation’s history. We were thankful to have a preacher in our city who could speak from his broken heart to ours and to give a strong word of comfort, assurance, and wisdom to our community.
Writing years later in his autobiography, "Aspects of My Pilgrimage", published in 2002 by the Anderson University Press, Dr. Massey said: “ . . . I did not go to Atlanta. I reasoned that I could best honor King’s memory and our friendship by staying and serving that week in Decatur where racial troubles had mounted.”
Massey was interviewed on a radio talk show in Decatur on the day of the funeral for Martin Luther King. He would liked to have been present with his friends. Memories of blessed and happy times with King raced through his mind as he watched the televised event alone in his hotel room. But he was not alone. He felt the comforting presence of the Lord both he and his fallen brother, Martin, had served.
Martin Luther King was one of the most dominant, polished, effective, and influential public speakers I ever heard. To this day I appreciate hearing his powerful messages.
It was on April 3, 1968, the evening before his assassination, that King gave an address in Birmingham, Alabama, in which he said: “I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land . . . “
Many times, somewhere in the world, I have been surrounded by people whose skin was in various shades of brown and black. I was in a decided minority. I was totally dependent on them. Not once did they ever fail me. I experienced their love, respect, and benevolent concern. They were practicing what we have called “The Golden Rule” and know so little about. Jesus put it this way: “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise” (Luke 6:31 NKJ).
There is so much we can learn from each other if we can trust each other. If you have any intention of living in God’s heaven someday it would be a good idea to learn to live here with others who may be a little different from us -- whoever “us” may be.
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I was really blown away, last week, when Leah played me a CD over the phone, of her big, black pastor, Cleveland Bradfield, singing: phenomenal voice!
God bless!
Ian