URGENT CALL for PRAYER AND ACTION - 1/23 UPDATE: ''American Pastor Saeed's sham trial in Iran began on Monday. Iran claims that his conversion to Christianity and work in house churches politically undermines the Islamic Republic. His Iranian attorney, who had less than 24 hours to prepare, strongly argued that Pastor Saeed's faith did not threaten Iran's national security. This was Pastor Saeed's only day to present a defense, and his father was the only family member allowed at trial. On Tues., Iran violated American Pastor Saeed's most basic human rights by barring him and his attorney from a trial that could lead to his death. Iran forced fellow Christians to testify against Pastor Saeed and told one witness to prepare to testify again in a month. Despite the promises from the "hanging judge" trying his case that Saeed would be released on bail and a sentence could be expected next week, Iran has denied bail and Saeed remains in jail. Demand the U.S. State Department speak out against this ongoing atrocity and demand Pastor Saeed's immediate. (The U.S. State Department's response has been abysmal; it has failed to demand this American citizen's release.)... There is still time to speak out and call for international pressure on Iran. We must not be silent. Please keep this in PRAYER and SIGN THE PETITION with almost 200,000 others to ask for his release > http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-iranian-abuse-imprisonment
Sec. Clinton Testifies About Bengazi Attack On Libyan Embassy:
As the Lord leads, please pray:
- That the truth of what happened WILL come forth and ALL who allowed it to happened would be held accountable.
- For the EFFECTIVE protection of all of America’s diplomat corps wherever they are serving.
- For adequate funding to secure the safety of our ambassadors and consuls, and for the wise use of funds allocated to the State Department.
Athiest Group Seeks End To Use of the Bible in Inaugration: Spokeswoman for "Securlar Coalition for America" said: "I think you’ll see us move away in the United States from feeling like God has to be mentioned in everything and anything." She sees a bit of that momentum, however slowly, in the current president."
As the Lord leads, please pray:
- For a strong return to the values and faith that has made and kept America great. ("Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Psalm 33:12).
- That the true intentions of secular and atheist groups in America will be understood.
- For a spiritual awakening and revival across our country. (2 Chron. 7:14)
"King's Dream - The Good Society and the Moral Law;" - by: Chuck Colson [A commentary from yeas ago re-presented.]
|January 21, 2013, http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries
More than forty years ago, on August 28, 1963, a quarter million people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. They marched here for the cause of civil rights. And that day they heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, a speech in which he challenged America to fulfill her promise.
“I have a dream,” he said, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ ”
While we know of the speech, most people are unaware that King also penned one of the most eloquent defenses of the moral law: the law that formed the basis for his speech, for the civil rights movement, and for all of the law, for that matter.
In the spring of 1963, King was arrested for leading a series of massive non-violent protests against the segregated lunch counters and discriminatory hiring practices rampant in Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, King received a letter from eight Alabama ministers. They agreed with his goals, but they thought that he should call off the demonstrations and obey the law. King explained why he disagreed in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “One might well ask,” he wrote, “how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer “is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws,” King said, “but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
How does one determine whether the law is just or unjust? A just law, King wrote, “squares with the moral law of the law of God. An unjust law ... is out of harmony with the moral law.” Then King quoted Saint Augustine: “An unjust law is no law at all.” He quoted Thomas Aquinas: “An unjust law is a human law not rooted in eternal or natural law.”
This is the great issue today in the public square: Is the law rooted in truth? Is it transcendent, immutable, and morally binding? Or is it, as liberal interpreters argue, simply whatever courts say it is? Do we discover the law, or do we create it?
Many think of King as a liberal firebrand, waging war on traditional values. Nothing could be further from the truth. King was a great conservative on this central issue, and he stood on the shoulders of Augustine and Aquinas, striving to restore our heritage of justice rooted in the law of God.
Were he alive today, I believe he’d be in the vanguard of the pro-life movement. I also believe that he would be horrified at the way in which out of control courts have trampled down the moral truths he advocated. From the time of Emperor Nero, who declared Christianity illegal, to the days of the American slave trade, from the civil rights struggle of the sixties to our current battles against abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and same-sex “marriage,” Christians have always maintained exactly what King maintained.
King’s dream was to live in harmony with the moral law as God established it. So this Martin Luther King Day, reflect on that dream—for it is worthy of our aspirations, our hard work, and the same commitment Dr. King showed.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
No comments:
Post a Comment