God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

Wow.  Just wow.

 

Well, let's just continue to pray fervently for our leaders.

 

Surely, all of us here can agree on that. 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

 

 

World welcomes Obama with open arms, demands
By Christiane Amanpour
CNN Chief International Correspondent


NEW YORK (CNN) -- A page of history has been turned and a tsunami of goodwill is rumbling across the Atlantic to the Pacific, from pole to pole and across our many continents.

President-elect Barack Obama has brought America back, and yet he inherits a monumental mess.

No sooner had he said "I do" than world leaders, pundits and of course the media started weighing in with their wish lists.

The Times of London said Obama had revitalized U.S. politics. In Germany, Der Spiegel called Obama's rise "astonishing," while the Times of India called Obama an "advocate of strong partnership with India."

Al Jazeera said Obama had "surfed to power on a wave of voter discontent generated by the failures of President George Bush and the Republican Party" and added that he faces "unique challenges." It continued that his country was "sick of war."

Actually, the whole world pronounced itself sick of what it perceived to be Bush's multipronged military approach. From the start, President Obama will have to tackle the campaign pledge that defined his candidacy: bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq and ending the war there.

At the same time, he has to tackle a Rubik's Cube of America's overstretched and fatigued forces, to figure out how to redeploy more to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat in Afghanistan.

And next door in Pakistan, he must devise a strategy to rescue a failing state, bolster democracy and simultaneously crack down on al Qaeda and Taliban militants there.

Then there's the decades-long Middle East peace process. Most credible observers in the United States and abroad believe there is little chance of achieving actual peace without a solid U.S. return to a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

And what about Iran? Many believe that's Foreign Policy Challenge Number 1A, if not Number 1, because of Iran's nuclear program.

Iran officially reacted to Obama's victory with cautious optimism, praising the end of what it termed "Bush's defeated policies." It added that Obama "can play an important role in future relations between the U.S. and Asia and the Middle East."

Here in America, many former secretaries of state and other officials also believe in playing that role. They say an Obama administration should explore the possibility of engaging with Iran and even restoring diplomatic relations as a way to help solve challenges such as Iran's nuclear program and its role in regional power politics in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.

Obama can ride the wave of warm welcome from European and other global allies, but he is already being encouraged to restore an era of cooperation and compromise after the unilateral approach of the Bush administration.

And then there are the other items in his in-tray, none of which are small matters.

Obama is being urged to lead on climate change, close down the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and restore America's position as the world's main defender of human rights, and work through all of this amid the worst global financial crisis in 100 years.

It is no enviable task, but America's next president starts with a world of best wishes.

PS to the Boss. Just let me know which threads are ok with you to continue, ok? I'll use this board accordingly.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

 

Now these things abide...faith, _____, and love.

 

 

---

Tom:

and...

 

Um....why do you think all those people have been seen crying and celebrating everywhere? Better yet, why do you think that CHURCHES full of African-Americans have been seeing crying "Hallelujah!" and all that? Would it have anything to do with the relationship between 1) Christian faith and 2) the Civil Rights Movement?

 

Why did my maternal grandfather, who served this country proudly in WWII, take huge pride and gave huge praise when he was ABLE to vote for a person of color in the Democratic primaries...as a MAN OF FAITH? (Bless his heart, he didn't make it to see this "historic" event...but he believed it was coming.  Rest, Granddaddy! )  Figure it out yet?

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

A significant chunk of MLK Jr's last speech before his assassination...the last part...

 

--------------------------

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.

One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base.

Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.

Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother.

Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop.

At times we say they were busy going to church meetings--an ecclesiastical gathering--and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the casual root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.

But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass."

And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?".

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood--that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said.

I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze.

Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

---------------------------------

See anything, Brother Turtle? 

 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am."