As an example, the cries for a mass “exodus” from the public schools is louder now than ever… if you have doubts, visit www.exodusmandate.org.  They have posted a video making a startling comparison.  The video tells the story of Dunkirk, a town on the French coast.  In 1940, at the height of WWII, more than 300,000 Allied troops were trapped in Dunkirk as the German Nazi army closed in.  Rather than allow their capture, an event that might have been a death knell for the Allied cause, French and British civilians gathered 860 boats of various sizes – from fishing boats to pleasure yachts – and ferried the soldiers to safety in Britain.

The founders of the Exodus Movement compare Christian children in today’s public schools to those troops at the village of Dunkirk – besieged by enemies who seek their utter destruction.  The best course of action, the movement claims, is a grassroots effort, much like the improvised armada of Dunkirk, that pulls all Christian children to “safety,” whether it be in Christian schools or to homeshool environments.

There is a constant tightrope for us as Christians.  We are called to be “in the world but not of the world,” a phrase we hear often that is actually drawn from Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17:14-15.  It is a tightrope we constantly walk, and admittedly most of us (myself included) have trouble with one side or the other – that is, we are either too much “of” the world, or we are not enough “in” it.

I would say the trend of Evangelical Christians today is toward the latter.  I can certainly understand this point of view.  In a world that grows increasingly hostile to the Christian faith (at least, to the Christian faith that keeps its substance), it’s easy to put up our defenses.  To avoid the sin that is so prevalent around us, it is easier to separate than to resist.  And so we build our own little cocoon, piece by piece.  We surround ourselves with all things Christian – books, movies, music, church friends.  And as we make our exodus from the public arena, we seal off the cocoon at last.  We’re safe.

Problem is, when we are in the cocoon, we don’t have any way to influence the world outside the cocoon.

Isn’t this what the concepts of “epiphany” and “incarnation” are all about?  Jesus could easily have appeared as a fully-grown man, walked up to the cross and died.  For that matter, he could have found a quicker, less painful and humiliating way to die.  You and I understand this idea, too – we call it efficiency.

But that’s not what happened, is it?  Instead, Jesus took the inefficient route – he really came to be “in” the world.  Born in the messy business of childbirth, surrounded by cattle and dung.  Learning and practicing the all-too-mundane carpenter’s trade as he grew into a man.  Sleeping under the stars, a homeless man wandering from town to town with his band of friends.  Spending the great majority of his time not holed up in the courts of the temple or surrounded by the holy-rollers, but out in the streets, with beggars, prostitutes and thieves. Attending weddings, telling jokes, breaking down in tears because he’d lost a good friend…

It doesn’t sound like Jesus kept himself in a cocoon.  In fact, the holy people of the day accused Jesus of leaning toward the “of the world” bit they were so afraid of!  If there was any Dunkirk-ery going on, it was not geographic or social in nature, but spiritual.  Rather than Jesus being an allegory of Dunkirk, Dunkirk is an allegory of Jesus – who rowed in, got his hands wet, and pulled us from the water that meant certain death for us otherwise.

Jesus was in the world – he pitched his tent, but he didn’t build a permanent home.  He touched the world, but didn’t hold on too tightly.  He listened to the world, but he remembered and reminded us of the story that is beyond the world.  He enjoyed the world and its God-given pleasures, but he regarded them as shadows of the true pleasures that awaited beyond this world.  He took the world in, but he didn’t let the world take him over.  It was only by walking this balance – not efficient, but definitely effective – that Jesus was able to touch so many lives so deeply while he was here that his story is still being spread today.

Jesus is our role model in all things – so why not in this?

How must our cocooning seem to those who really need rescuing from danger?  Think how it must look to people outside the cocoon. We’re saying “come join us! Things are better in here. Just give up all the fun stuff and then we’ll talk.”  Why would anyone want to be a part of that?  No wonder people treat most Christians with distance at best, contempt and loathing at worst.

All of this ranting doesn’t make the fine line any bigger:  It’s still a tough road to walk.  But with Jesus leading the way, the path becomes clearer with every step.  We may not like where it leads us at times, but one glance at Jesus in Gethsemane reminds us that Jesus didn’t always like it either.  We may face ridicule sometimes.  We might even be persecuted, though we’re a long way yet from that.  We might even have to (*GASP*) enjoy the things of the world and enjoy them discerningly.  We might have to resist temptation rather than always run from it.

That path might not be as efficient and clean.  But it comes a lot closer to effectively following Jesus than the cocoon ever will.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Did you think I’d given up on Romans?  I’ve been sorely tempted.  But many of my church folks have told me that these are some of the best sermons I’ve done since I’ve been here.  So I’m continuing.

I think the popularity of these sermons is because they are basic and systematic.  They are basic in that they are designed to speak to the average person with no background in Christianity, but with enough depth that we can all learn or be reminded by studying them.  They are also basic in that they deal with very foundational tenets of the faith.  And they are more systematic than I usually am – my series generally do not last longer than three or four sermons.  Of course, I haven’t (until now) tackled a book more than four chapters.

You may have noticed that I went back and renamed the first few sermons – I renamed the posts by the scripture passage instead of just numbering them “Romans Part 1, Part 2″ and so on.  That’s mostly because I’m finding that as I get deeper into the book, I’m taking more and more time on smaller passages.  Before you know it, I’ll be on “Romans Part 26,” and that seems ridiculous.

Also, between the last post on Romans and this one, I did a very brief sermon on a communion Sunday on the first few verses on Chapter 4 – basically talking about the difference between grace and mercy – grace being what God chooses to give us that we don’t deserve, and mercy being what God chooses NOT to give us that we DO deserve.  It was more of a devotional thought than anything else, and I didn’t type it up.

So, all this to say – here’s the next part in the continuing series on Romans, and Paul’s basic outline of the faith.  As always, remember that this is not a full transcript – only the notes I typed up to get my thoughts together.  So sorry if they’re rough around the edges!

—————————

Just to catch up on where we’ve been, here is a summary of Paul’s argument thus far:

• God has every right to judge us and find us unworthy
  • Every human being has some inkling that a Higher Power exists.
  • So our sins are not ignorant disobedience, but WILLING disobedience. Even those of us who know God’s love and grace do not always do what he asks!
• We have all turned against God in our own ways, every single one of us.
  • And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who did what. Sin is not a matter of quality, but of quantity – and if we have any sin at all, we are guilty. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
• Therefore, nothing WE can do will save us.
  • No matter how well we keep our religion, no matter how good our actions, none of these can make us righteous.
  • Only an act of GOD can make us righteous. We have to place our FAITH and TRUST in him to do what we cannot do.
• So God intervened – he offered us GRACE and MERCY.
  • His only Son as a sacrifice, so that we could be saved by our faith. This is GRACE – receiving what we do not deserve.
  • With Jesus’ sacrifice, God cancelled out the eternal punishment for our sin, making it possible for us to live in his presence. This is MERCY – or NOT receiving what we DO deserve.
• The act required on our part is not something hard – some gigantic feat of self-control or will. Rather, it is FAITH – simple trust that God can do what God says he will do… but a trust that’s strong enough to change the way we live our lives.

The Grand Story

Remember the basic plot line from English 101?

Well, Paul has defined the GRAND STORY for us.  He’s set up the arc of history so that we see what’s going on – what we’re a part of.

• Exposition – God created us to know him and live in relationship with him.
• Initial incident (conflict) – We sinned – that is, we turned to our own ways instead of maintaining that relationship with God.
• Rising Action and conflict – Our sin and unrighteousness drive us from God, and we realize that our actions – no matter how good – are not enough to make things right.
• Climax – God intervenes. Jesus lives, dies and is resurrected, making it possible for us to be made right with God again.
• Falling Action – What is our response?

This is where the story arc ramps back up.  Ever read a story or seen a movie when you thought things were about to be over, and then the plot took a new and unexpected turn?  That’s what we’re dealing with here.  The story’s not simply over when Jesus ascends back into heaven.  If it was, we wouldn’t still be here.  Obviously, the plot has thickened.  The first conflict is resolved, but now we come to the second conflict.

The first story arc was the whole of humanity.  The second story arc that branches from it is replayed in the life of every human being that has ever lived.

The first arc was OUR story arc.  Now this one is YOUR story arc and MINE.  The climax of the first arc – the death of Jesus that makes it possible to make things right – becomes the conflict incident of the next arc.  What will you and I choose to do now that we know?  How will we choose to live?

We have God’s promises:

• That we will live in a glorious new home with God.
• We will be made new.
• God will bless all the world through us.
• We are being changed even now.
• We can accomplish amazing things through the power of God.

All these promises are wonderful… maybe even TOO wonderful.  In our world, it’s easy to be cynical and to think that God’s promises are too good to be true.

God’s asking us to live in faith – to change the way we live to match what he’s promising us.  These promises are good, but can we really believe them?  We have a good chance at being happy here if we could ignore all this – “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” right?

We have a pretty certain chance of happiness here if we’ll just let ourselves pursue it.  We wouldn’t have to worry about who we hurt, or what kinds of things we did.  We could follow our whims and desires to their very end!  We could be as happy as humanly possible on this earth, then die and take our chances with whatever comes next… if anything.  Is it worth giving all that up, in order to gain something that’s invisible – give up something tangible for something that we can’t prove?

This is why Paul tells us the story Abraham.  How can a man, who was born and died 2000 years before Jesus, be an example of Christian faith?

Abraham the Example

As he does in other places, Paul holds up Abraham is as the primary example of faith.  Abraham exhibits a kind of faith that might seem questionable, even reckless.

He’s grown up in one of the most fertile and cultivated areas of the ancient world – Mesopotamia, at the head of the Persian Gulf.  His father was a well-known and highly-respected merchant, with plenty of wealth to keep a family going for a long time… in other words, an inheritance that was hard to pass up.  Abram had it made.

And then God comes to him and asks him to leave his home behind – all his riches and his inheritance and the security of family.  It was no small thing to leave your family in those days.  You couldn’t just call home, or make a quick trip back to catch up with the parents at Christmas.  Abram knew when he left that he might never see his family ever again.

And all of this when God had asked him to simply leave, with no directions, no map, no GPS… not even a cryptic riddle that would give him some clues about his destination.

Talk about giving up a “bird in the hand!”

God made a promise that seemed almost too good to be true:  Abraham would be the ancestor of a great nation, and all the people of the world would be blessed because of him.  Hard to believe, as Abraham was getting on in age, and it seemed like he and Sarah were unable to have children.  But it was a wonderful promise all the same, and backed up with God’s covenant guarantee.

But circumstances and experience gave Abraham every reason to forget God’s promise and move on.  Abraham remains childless for many years. He has walked where God has asked him to, and instead of blessing, he’s found struggle.

• He has a family quarrel with his nephew Lot, and as a result Abraham is forced to make his home in the harsher parts of Palestine.  Though Lot chose the selfish path, he ends up in trouble and Abraham has to rescue him – twice.
• Still no children.
• Abraham goes to Egypt, lies to protect himself, nearly dies and returns back to Canaan in worse shape than he started.
• Still no children.
• He tells others about his God, and no one wants to listen.  For decades, no one listens or cares – probably because they have second thoughts about a God who treats his followers this way.
• Oh yeah… still no children.

Abraham had family and flocks back home.  Seems like he should have given up the birds in the bush, and gone back to what was stable and sure.  Forget God’s promise – obviously it was impossible!

But he didn’t.  He stayed the course, trusted God.  And he was rewarded.

Faith That Moves

It’s one of my favorite themes for a reason, and one I’ll continue to harp on.  We think of “faith in Christ” as simply a set of beliefs we have to hold – for instance, you simply have to remember in your head that Jesus is the Son of God, and a certain set of facts and ideas.

But time and time again, the scriptures show us – and Paul here reinforces – that FAITH, the kind of faith that saves us, is an ACTION.  If our “belief system” doesn’t lead us to change the way we live, to do something that would make no sense if God didn’t exist, then we don’t really “get” faith.  Abraham’s faith in God wasn’t just his trust that God was going to do something special.  Abraham’s whole life was changed because he believed – and ours will be, too.

This is what I meant about the storyline branching out here.  At the climax of the Big Story – where Jesus is crucified and rasied – each of us finds the beginning of our own plot line.  We’re born sinful and we know it.  We’re confronted with the truth of our nature and with the claims and promises of God.  The rising action asks the question: “What then shall we do?”  Will we simply say with our mouths that these things are true, and leave it at that?  Or will we allow this Truth to shape and change our lives?

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

This first one includes some documents I wrote in the first part of 2007 regarding baptism by immersion.  For those of you who aren’t Baptist (and maybe even for some who are), it has been a long-standing Baptist practice to require anyone who wants to join a Baptist church to be baptized by immersion.  Most will still accept someone who was immersed somewhere else – though there are a few who want you to be baptized in THEIR particular church.  If you were baptized by other methods – sprinkling, pouring, etc. – then you have to be re-baptized in the “proper” way.

I had long disagreed with this practice, but never had a chance to figure out why.  Then in late 2006, when the church began discussing changes to our bylaws, a few other church members asked if we would consider changing this policy.  It led me to do a LOT of research on the practice, and to draw some conclusions of my own.

The documents are linked here in two PDF files – one is a LONG version, that goes into detail of the history of baptism, original words used to describe baptism in the New Testament, and argument based on other biblical principles.  The other is a shortened version that uses that research to answer some of the common defenses given for the practice of re-baptism.

Feel free to use these for your own study – and I look forward to your comments!

baptism-and-immersion-long-version (PDF)

baptism-and-immersion-question-answer (PDF)

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Then we moved here, and assumed that things were the same.  But they weren’t.  We tried to recycle, but there were no facilities within reasonable driving distance (fortunately there’s one nearby now).  We were concerned about conserving water and energy, but it didn’t seem that anyone else was.  Things like ride-sharing, car-pooling, and selecting times to mow your yard… these things are simply not a priority out here.

Why conserve in a place like this?  After all, we use much less electricity and water than our nearby urban neighbors!  We don’t have any mega-businesses that process thousands of pounds of paper a day.  Volunteers (or inmates) keep our roadsides clean of trash.  And ozone emissions are far from the minds of folks who don’t have to experience everyday the realities of smog and air pollution.

Come out to Southside Virginia and you’ll see what I mean.  Take the drive we usually make to Wal-Mart or into Richmond.  Seeing beautiful countryside like this everyday makes it hard to believe that our environment might be in trouble.

And because of that, we frequently encounter attitudes that are indifferent – if not downright hostile – to any kind of “green” activities.  Global warming is a hoax, some claim, and say that all this “green” stuff is useless… especially out here in the country.

So does “going green” make a difference in rural, small-town communities?  After all, many of these folks have been “green” for a long time – relying on agriculture and nature for their livelihood, it’s in their best interests to make sure they take care of some of those necessary things.  Talk about recycling – any farmer knows you have to “recycle” the land by leaving it fallow sometimes.  Conservation seems only natural when we’re in drought and the crops aren’t getting enough water!

But there’s so much more to taking care of the world than just doing what benefits us directly.  And that mindset – “We’re a small town and don’t contribute much to the problem… why does it matter if we’re ‘green’?” – can be used to excuse almost anything.  “I only have one vote… why does it matter if I vote?”  “I’m not tithing on a million dollars or anything… why does it matter if I give?”  “We’re just one household in a few billion… why does it matter if we recycle?”

It matters.  It always does.  Usually when we talk about how insignificant our contribution to something might be, we are trying to excuse ourselves of some responsibility that inconveniences us.

While I breathe deeply and say a prayer of thanks each time I notice the beautiful scenery on our country roads, I sometimes feel my breath catch with fear.  I know that, global warming notwithstanding, if things continue the way they are, even these beautiful scenes will one day be erased.  Melting ice caps may or may not be a reality – but as the cities expand, as people look for quieter places to live, and as our global society changes, things like trash, smog, and energy shortages will someday be as common in Lunenburg county as they are in third-world mega-cities.

The science of global warming, while persuasive, is still far from being solid fact.  But that doesn’t matter – stewardship is a fact of life for Christians, and (like it or not) the world is something we’ve been made stewards of.  From the very beginning, the greatest resource entrusted to human beings was not money, not precious minerals, not vast oil fields… but creation itself.  We were placed here to “care for it and maintain” the earth (Genesis 2:15), not simply to use it to our own devices.  Jesus didn’t explicitly speak to global warming, but I cannot imagine that he would come to our polluted planet today, and not be appalled at the waste and misuse we inflict on it.

So earth stewardship is the oldest of all stewardships.  It’s not our only task, and maybe not our foremost, but it is certainly our oldest.  And now that we’re aware and able to be better stewards of our world, we simply must.  It’s not a suggestion, or something we can decide to do later when it looks like things really are getting worse.  It’s a command for the here, the now.  It’s not simply a political command, or a corporate one.  It’s a spiritual and personal command – “take care of what you’ve been given, or even what you have will be taken away.” **

For more information on how the Bible speaks to earth stewardship and how Christians can do our part, go to the new website set up by the Baptist Center for Ethics – www.thegreenbible.org.

** – A free paraphrase of Jesus’ moral of the Parable of the Talents.  See Matthew 25:14-30 for one record of this parable.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Anyway, this guy makes me want to be an interim minister.  He gets away with stuff some pastors only dream about.  For instance, he said his newsletter article at the end of last year was “Are We A Church Or a Nursing Home?”  He reviewed the characteristics of a church: People come voluntarily, they come with a primary objective of taking care of others, and a good portion of the group’s money goes toward helping others.  Nursing homes, however, are places where people don’t really want to go, where people let others take care of THEM, and places where most of the money is spent on taking care of themselves.

Just as a matter of reference, he called the local country club and asked them what percentage of their yearly budget was donated to outside charitable causes.  The answer was surprising in light of his current church’s budget: 15%.  As a closing statement, he said, “We don’t even qualify to be a Country Club.  So what ARE we?”

Please know that my current church is NOTHING like this, but it sure would be nice to feel like you could say something like that.

Maybe I WOULD have the courage to write something like that… with my letter of resignation copied on the opposite page.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

To be a witness
does not consist
in engaging in propaganda,
nor even in stirring people up,
but in being a living mystery.

It means to live
in such a way
that one’s life
would not make sense
if God did not exist.

- Emmanuel Célestin Cardinal Suhard (April 5, 1874—May 30, 1949)

Just wanted to share – Happy Monday!

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

I get some of my best writing done in airports. I’m not sure why that is… I think it’s because when I’m in an airport, I’m usually waiting on something. I think a lot when I’m waiting.

Waiting affords us the chance to think a little more deeply about things than we usually do. I think we’re lost the art of waiting, much like we’re lost the art of silence. We don’t like silence anymore – when things are quiet, we start to think, start to deal with the stuff that’s going on in our heads. Waiting is the same way – it gives us time to think, so we would rather occupy ourselves another way: shopping, listening to music, reading a book, just walking around the airport. We can’t just sit still and think and wait.

There’s something about “active waiting” that makes us come to terms with what we’re waiting on. I’m waiting to get on an airplane for a long journey. And up until now (after a 24-hour weather delay), I haven’t had time to sit and realize how much I’ve been looking forward to this trip. I’ve been waiting, hoping, expecting. And now the time is almost here. Just sitting still for these few minutes has helped me see more clearly what I’m waiting on, what I expect and hope to happen. It’s a moment of active waiting, and I think it will make the moment – when it arrives – even more clear and special because I really took time to WAIT for it.

Come to think of it, we spend a good deal of our lives waiting on something – actively or passively. I’m not just talking about waiting in lines or waiting in traffic; we do plenty of that too. But what about those intangible things? Waiting for Mr. or Ms. Right to come along; waiting for our big break; waiting for that annoying pain to go away; waiting for things to finally go our way; waiting for that bad thing we just know is going to happen; waiting to die.

We wait. It’s part of being limited to one-way time travel. And if we counted all the moments we spent waiting for things vs. all those moments we actually spent enjoying the things we were waiting for… well, let’s just say we’d find things way out of balance. It would be even worse when we realize that usually when we come to a moment we’ve been expecting, we’re too busy waiting for the NEXT moment to even notice.

What if we lived our lives in active waiting instead of passive waiting? What if we took the time, on occasion, to sit and really WAIT – to think about the things we’re expecting and what that expectation is doing to us? Will getting married REALLY change things? Will that baby REALLY make things better between us? Will this vacation REALLY be just what I need?

I think if we all took more time to actively wait, we just might find that our expectations and the actual realities will match up more often. And in the meantime, we’ll learn to appreciate the other 98% of our lives… the time we spend waiting.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Lent is on the way. It’s a season I look to with both excitement and dread. Excitement, because it is a very meaningful time of year to me. Dread, because I know that my habit is usually to give something up. I dread that because not only is it a hard thing to do, it’s something I usually end up giving in to at some point or another (I dread the guilt, in other words!).

And I must confess that I have a difficult time understanding the traditions behind Lent, as well – things like Mardi Gras and Fat/Shrove Tuesday, the idea that fasting only takes place on the weekdays, not eating meat and so on. These are things I’ve done a little research into, and I understand the basic idea and all… I just don’t think it makes the season any more meaningful to me. It’s probably a result of the tradition I grew up in, in which folks talked about things like Lent and Advent in the same hushed tones of voice that they used to talk about satanic rituals and cult gatherings.

Things have changed for me (fortunately). But while I understand Lent now and the penitence that many observe, I still confess to some ignorance of all the traditions surrounding it.

I remember in high school when some older friends of mine decided to “get saved” and join the church. At a lunch after worship on the Sunday they were baptized, they told us how they’d spent their Saturday night: They’d gone out drinking, smoking, having sex, and all kinds of other crazy things (or at least they told us they did, and judging from how I’d seen them act at other times, I didn’t find it hard to believe). Our youth leader was shocked and seemed sad. I remember simply being confused. At the time, it didn’t make sense. Now it does make sense, I’m sorry to say – too much sense.

This year, I’ve decided to “add on” instead of taking away. I’m going to get up on the weekdays and go over to the church early for prayer and devotion. I’ll do it at a time that will allow others to join me before they head to work or other tasks, and I hope some others will join me. This is something I don’t do regularly enough, I admit. I don’t know if it will be meaningful or not, but I certainly know it’ll do me more good than giving up chocolate.

But that’s me. If you’re reading this, how do YOU plan to observe Lent this year? Are you used to observing it at all? How does your church observe Lent?

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Next Monday, most of us will celebrate a day that we probably take for granted most years. The observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday was established as a federal holiday in 1986, 18 years after his untimely death on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. Sadly, to most of us it has become simply a day off from work, school, or whatever we do on a normal basis; certainly not a day to celebrate the life of a man who made a profound impact on his century.

King was a controversial figure during his own lifetime, and still remains a controversy today. Like many historical figures who are no longer able to defend themselves, King today finds his legacy threatened. He has posthumously been called a Communist and, ironically enough, both a Republican and a Democrat. He was either in league with the government or secretly trying to overthrow it. Some allege he cheated on his wife. He has been accused of plagiarism.

But no matter your opinion of King’s political and private activities, his was a life to celebrate – not just for the racial message he preached, but for the spiritual lessons he taught us. Two such lessons come immediately to my mind.

First, as a pastor, King was able to help Christians of all races see that God does not look on us as black, white, Hispanic or Asian. When God looks at us, he does not see our accomplishments or our failures. He sees us as beloved creations made in his image, as children who need his love and care. And if that is how God sees others, that is how we should see others as well.

Second, King chose a surprising way to fight the inequality faced by black Americans of his day – a way that endures as an example of Christ-like resistance. Rather than join in the violent attacks that others had launched against an unfair system, King chose to lead his followers to resist by non-violent means: sit-ins, marches, protests and boycotts.

King did this because he took to heart a lesson Jesus has tried to impress on us time and time again: When we use violence to combat violence, the only result is more pain and death. While war is sometimes necessary (and how thankful we are for those who fight for us), Jesus showed us that in the end, love and forgiveness are the only ways to break the cycle of sin and hatred.

Have we learned these lessons ourselves? They are not sideline issues. I am constantly confronted with both of these decisions on an almost daily basis. Will I strike back when I am attacked, continuing the cycle of violence and sin that has consumed the human race for millennia? Will I look at and treat others according to the things they appear to be – black or white, rich or poor, success or failure, Christian or other? Or will I see and treat people as the precious children of God, whom God has given to my care? No matter what I may think, I really am my brother’s keeper.

Let’s take a moment this MLK Day to celebrate the work of a man who gave his life – figuratively and literally – to fight the unjust and unequal treatment of all God’s children. And let us, like him, learn the lessons of Christ and allow King’s spiritual legacy to live on through us.

©2010 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.