Fifty years ago today Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated at a hotel in Memphis, Tenn. With that has come all kinds of
tributes to his “dream,” among other things.
Here’s something not often understood: The movement was the
result of spiritual revival in black churches in the South. That’s important, because
when you step out in faith under unction of the Holy Spirit and with humility you
will be hassled — or worse. Keep in mind the idea that when you bother the
devil he will return the favor.
Anyway, part of any revival necessarily entails social
justice, aping the Prophets — the desire to make things right for everybody.
The kind of “pie-in-the-sky” personal faith to which many subscribe cannot last
long because it has to be shared with a world that’s falling apart. More to the
point, you have to be willing to give your life — as Dr. King once said, “Even
if physical death is the price that some must pay, nothing could be more
Christian.”
And this is why folks who are calling for revival in this
country really don’t know what they’re asking for. They seem to have this idea
that a revival consists of the Holy Spirit merely sweeping people into churches
and changing the moral temperature of the culture so that they can live in it
and simply say that God is with them. Such a mindset deliberately avoids
warfare, including the spiritual kind, which He will never allow. That’s why
much of the American church is so feeble.
Dr. King is dead today precisely because he obeyed the LORD;
remember that he never saw his 40th birthday, and he spoke many
times that he didn’t think he would live very long. “But that doesn’t matter to
me now,” he said the night before because, quoting from “Battle Hymn of the
Republic,” “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the LORD!”
And when you have you can face death with no qualms. So may
we do so in working for justice.
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