Monday, January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
I found this on the web....and wanted to share it with you all..........andy
"Martin Luther King was gifted academically. At 19 he had a bachelor's degree. He excelled in all his studies and acheived other high academic achievements before accepting his first pastorate at age 25. He had been resident in his pastorate in Montgomery, Alabama for less than a year when an event occurred that began a movement that would change the direction and conscience of a nation.
A black woman defied a city ordinance that required her to give up her bus seat to a white person and was subsequently arrested. In response, King led a series of peaceful protests that attracted national media attention and began the civil rights movement he would lead until his assassination in 1968.
King was committed to a doctrine of non-violent civil disobedience, based on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi in India. It was this strategy, followed in the face of terrible violence committed against King and his fellow protesters, that led to the civil rights movement taking the moral "high ground" against it's opponents. One striking incident was a march in Birmingham, Alabama where nationwide TV viewers saw King's non-violent protesters attacked by police dogs and batons. The courage and conviction of King and his followers to not fight back resulted in a huge moral victory for the civil rights movement.
In 1963 King organized a march of 200,000 on Washington D.C. to draw attention to the discrimination towards black people in the USA. Here he gave his I Have A Dream speech, widely considered to be one of the greatest speeches ever made.
Arrested many times, subjected to numerous death threats, stabbed!! Martin Luther King brought about great social, educational and political changes to bring equality to the black people of America. His intelligence, charisma and passion for truth made him one of the truly great leaders of a generation.
In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
He was a man who saw his destiny, who saw a vision of the way things could be, and dedicated (indeed, sacrificed) his life to pursue that vision. King believed he was born and gifted for "such a time as this" (Read the book of Esther in the Old Testament). Tragically, but not unexpectedly, he was killed by a gunman's bullet on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, paying the ultimate price for the values and vision he committed his life to.
His legacy was, and is, the world was most definitely changed as a result of his life.
BOTTOMLINE Martin Luther King was a gifted man. He had to make a choice to stand up for justice, or to do nothing. He believed the risks he took were worth it. He was also convinced he was gifted for a specific role. To be the leader of the civil rights movement that changed America.
The catalyst of all this was the courageous stand he took for the rights of one black woman. May we all have that same courage to stand for justice, and to stand against injustice, in whatever form it appears. Perhaps a similar stand in your situation, city, country will release God's destiny in your life also. "
