quotes...

I have been reading a book that I picked up in Atlanta called A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are some gems from the book:

"Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest committment."

"But we must remember that it's possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and deny his existence with your life. The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism but practical atheism - that's the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service."

Speaking to "many Christians in America" - "They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. You have unconciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion."

"I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may."

Quoting Napoleon, "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended upon force. But long ago, Jesus started an empire that depended on love, and even to this day millions will die for him."

"In the terrible midnight of war, men have knocked on the door of the church to ask for the bread of peace, but the church has often disappointed them. What more pathetically reveals the irrelevancy of the church in present-day world affairs than its witness regarding war? In a world gone mad with arms build ups, chauvinistic passions, and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent. During the last two world wars, national churches even functioned as the ready lackeys of the state, sprinkling holy water upon the battleships and joining the mighty armies in singing, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." A weary world pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church morally sanctioning war."

"If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevent social club without moral or spiritual authority."

"The church today is challenged to proclaim God's son, Jesus Christ, to be the hope of men in all of their complex personal and social problems."

"And this is why John said, 'God is love,' so that he who hates does not know God, but he who loves at that moment has the key that opens the door to the meaning of ultimate reality."

Wow! It is so obvious that the Holy Spirit spoke through Dr. King (and is still speaking through him) because reading his words today, they are just as relevant and convicting as I am sure they were then. At the deepest core of his soul, Dr. King was a servant of God who was filled with angst for the present state of the world and just as most of God's prophets, he was hated, rejected and ultimately killed for his bringing of God's word. But also as most of God's prophets, his words and life live on through written accounts, stories and memories.