MLKJ - I have a dream... Part II

I have a dream....

Oh – how many people have dreams, or ideas of what the future may look like – or more so how the future should look for the better of everyone.

I have a dream 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." - Martin Luther King Jr.

What a great dream! A dream where everyone would truly be considered equal.

You know – I would say that Jesus himself had a dream for us. One that would have shown as equals – but in a far much more beautiful way than just that.

MLKJ – is one who really held values in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. What's interesting is people look up to MLKJ as a Civil Rights Activist. People also tend to look up to Mahatma Gandhi in a way where he sought peace.

What's interesting – is although Gandhi may not have been a Christian – you will find one notable piece of information about Gandhi. At a certain point in his life – Gandhi, started to read the Sermon on the Mount, and not just once, but read the Sermon on the Mount every single day!

Before I continue – I highly recommend reading the Sermon on the Mount – found in Matthew Chapters 5 – 7 – or you can perhaps watch the video here(ignore the time – but the passage is 25 minutes long):

Interesting facts now, don't you think? MLKJ held to Christians values most specifically the Sermon on the Mount values – and Gandhi truly thought that the Christians he didn't like should be more like their Jesus, in the way described in the Sermon on the Mount.

Fascinating stuff I say! I also say this because both of these people were Civil Rights Activists and people would listen to both of these people. Were they dreaming up some new idea and/or concept? Absolutely not!

This was an idea and concept that Jesus taught about 2000 years ago. A concept of love your enemy, love your neighbour as yourself, and most notably, when people talk about freedoms – they will point to people like MLKJ, Gandhi, and others – but rarely do people point to the Great Teacher of this – who is Jesus.

What's interesting is Jesus himself said:
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

I'm not saying Jesus taught Gandhi nor did He teach MLKJ – but I can tell you one thing, the things that Jesus said, or the things that Jesus did obviously had an effect on these people and on many others.

The Sermon on the Mount – Love, Hope, Peace. Yes there are harsh words in there – but those harsh words are to demonstrate if we actually do love ourselves, but also that we love our neighbours as ourselves.

I would say – the best outlook on Hope in that Sermon on the Mount comes in the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the poor in Spirit

Blessed are they that mourn

Blessed are the meek

Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness

Blessed are the merciful

Blessed are the pure in heart

Blessed are the peacemakers

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake

It's clear here – Jesus was addressing different groups of people – but at the same time the same people. He's showing his Love and compassion – awareness that people are going through tough times. The thing is – it doesn't just end with who he's addressing – it continues with what the blessing shall be.

What's interesting though – is it doesn't stop there. He continues after the Beatitudes to state that “You are the salt of the Earth” - so just because you are merciful 100% of the time, doesn't mean you can be trampled on. You can address how you feel and still be merciful and pure in heart, etc.

MLKJ – in his I have a dream speech did things quite similar.

I have a dream....INPUTS IDEA/DREAM HERE.....SAYS what we need to do to reach that idea/dream.

As said before – giving a person Hope is a powerful thing. Take it away from people and usually they don't want to listen to you. Take hope away from people, and they'll walk away.

Hope isn't just something that Religious people need. Hope is something that all people need. Jesus knew that. MLKJ taught in that way, and how many others provide that same type of delivery.

If you want to be like someone – study what they did; study what they studied; study what their teachers taught.

If I want to be like Jesus – I should very much look at the Bible for this. All the information I can get is from there. I may get some insight from outside the Bible – but it's important to study even those details, as some details may contradict what Jesus said.

If I want to be like Jesus – I have to believe and agree that it's ok for a man to cry. Did you know the shortest verse in the Bible is: “Jesus wept.”?

If I want to be like MLKJ – I need to learn where he got his ideas from for “I have a dream”.

MLKJ - I have a Dream - Part I

I have a dream....

A well known phrase that people have learned from the famous speech of Martin Luther King Jr.(MLKJ)

What I will say about MLKJ is probably nothing new to you – but perhaps there will be things here that you will come to learn or come to see that's different from what you once thought.

MLKJ will probably be most remembered by Americans as Civil Rights activist – but we can't just stop there.

What allowed him to rise up and be heard? What allowed him to rise up and be listened to? What allowed his words to still be known to us even today.

If someone were to start talking to you and perhaps say “I have a dream” - you're probably already thinking about that speech. Where did these words or even concepts come from?

MLKJ – was not only a Civil Rights activist, but was also a pastor in a Baptist Church. Now – please don't get this Baptist church confused with the Westoboro Baptists – as they are totally different and nothing alike.

You see – I'll be honest, but as a Christian, I can understand a person's view or understanding as a Christian. Here's what I will say – if someone has decided to become a Pastor in a church – this isn't a simple decision. This is a devotion, a dedication, and would have taken something to have changed them forever.

Now from a Christian perspective – ask any Christian really. Once a person reads the Bible – they will not be the same, ever. Even if the person disagrees with it – there will be perhaps one thing that will influence them and that one thing has just changed their life, forever!

What I would really take from the Bible is something as simple as this:

Matthew 7:28-29 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:  29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

These are the final 2 verses from the Best Sermon ever delivered – the sermon famously known as: The Sermon on the Mount(found in Matthew Chapters 5-7).

I myself asked the question – how did Jesus get such authority? Why were people so amazed at His doctrine/teaching? How?

From a Christian point of view – I'd simply say, read the Bible, and not even the entire Bible – read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John a few times and you'll start to see why.

Now – if MLKJ was a pastor, a man teaching the Word of God – he would've had to have read this once or twice – or so you'd think at least.

Wikipedia has it documented currently as follows:

King's faith was strongly based in Jesus' commandment of  loving your neighbor as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His non-violent thought was also based in the injuction to turn the other cheek in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52).

Love your neighbour as yourself, love your enemies, pray for your enemies and bless your enemies.

Now – I don't know about you, but if you love your enemy, would your enemy not listen to you? What I find interesting about this though is Jesus had an authority. People listened to him. He was able to gather 5000 men on one occasion and 4000 men on another occasion.

What did Jesus do to be able to gather so many people together?

I'd say there are a few things: His message was one of hope; one of love; and one eliminating violence and implementing Peace.

What did MLKJ talk about? Hope(I have a dream); love(the message is all out of love); and one eliminating violence and implementing peace(We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal).

Now – the difference between MLKJ and a majority of politicians is simple: A politician may deliver a message of Hope, Love and eliminate violence – but how often does the politician hold to that view? How often does the politician change?

The politician's view changes after their message because there are so many influences, and they want to please everyone so that they will get elected/re-elected.

Who did Jesus seek to please? God himself. Who did MLKJ seek to please in these speeches? Nobody else other than Jesus.

If you can hold down to these simple values – don't try to please the world because in the process you will end up losing yourself(paraphrased from Matthew 16:26)

MLKJ, imo raised up an army. An army that's ongoing even today. An army that is being transformed over and over – and one day, this army will free us.....

I have a dream.....

Doctor Who - Part IV

You know......I've said it before – and I'll say it again – I enjoy Doctor Who, and I enjoy re-watching episodes seeing the Doctor travel across space and time helping people.

Before I continue – I must give the usual quote from River Song: “Spoilers!” - as if you haven't watched the episode and are planning to – some of these things are spoilers.

Now – to somewhat understand this – I'd recommend watching the clip below – or if you don't feel like watching the clip – then just read the quote underneath the clip:

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.” - The Doctor

So – people may not understand this – but essentially to give a quick example – imagine being able to travel in time – and you go say 7 days in the future – when you get there, you meet up a friend who said something about something you did 2 days ago – you'd literally have no idea what they're talking about because you didn't experience that event yet – you skipped ahead in time and need to go back where you should be and relive out those 7 days.

So – the point in this BLOG is not to explain the concept of Time Travel – nor is it to say if it's real or not. I'm hear to do a comparison of two different events and show how they can relate to one another.

In Season/Series 4 of Doctor Who, there's an episode titled: The Fires of Pompeii.

Now – Pompeii is a historic event that we know to be true. So – the Doctor and his companion Donna, travel back in history to Ancient Rome – to find themselves in Pompeii on Volcano day. The Doctor goes about doing his normal stuff, essentially stating to Donna they had to leave. She asked if they could stop the event from happening and save all those people. The Doctor then explains something to Donna: Pompeii – Volcano Day is a fixed point in time, he cannot stop it from happening, and has to let it happen.

On their way back to the TARDIS(his spaceship/Time Machine) they find out it's been misplaced. A merchant sold it to someone – and now they have to go about finding it.

Allons-y then!

They go to find the TARDIS – and come into a Roman's family's home. While in the home the Doctor and Donna talk for a few moments when the Doctor finds something seems odd/wrong. So after finding out a few things – The Doctor discovers that there are aliens underneath Mount Vesuvius. These aliens – are planning to take over the entire world and essentially kill all humans.

Now – the big decision comes about. The Doctor can leave let the aliens do as they please and destroy the World – or the Doctor can kill the alien threat by causing Mount Vesuvius to erupt.

The Doctor can kill the lives of the ~20,000 people or he can walk away and know that this would mean the end of Human life as we know it.

A fixed point in time.  Need I say what he did?

Talk about a judgement that had to be made.

Now, what I find interesting about this – here comes the comparison – is there are a lot of people who doubt the Holiness, Sovereignty, or the Love of the God of the Bible. Yes you can clearly see it in the New Testament – although you can see Judgement in Revelation also – but that's another blog topic in itself. The thing is what most people focus on in the Old Testament is how God killed so many people.

You have the Hebrews who disobeyed God by building the Golden calf, you have the Egyptians who wouldn't let the Hebrews go, you have the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and so much more...

We're so quick to judge this God – without understanding the why. If we understood the why, we'd perhaps be ok with it. You think?

Doctor Who, killed 20,000 people; killed the Daleks; killed the Time Lords(or did he); and the list goes on and on and on. Yet people still love him.

Why? Because you see a judgement need to be made poured out on those people for the sake of everyone else.

Yes – I may be adding stuff that's not in the Bible itself, but what if the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah never happened? Would we still be here today? Was there a purpose for this destruction?

The Bible says the people in Sodom and Gomorrah were pure evil. Would this eventually have led to the end of the Human race? Perhaps? These details we don't have. We cannot change the past – all I can tell you is that, Sodom and Gomorrah was a fixed point in time.

Isaiah 40:28 And now, have you not known? Have you not heard? The eternal God, the God that formed the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, nor be weary, and there is no searching of His understanding.

You know – I don't know why God killed all those people with those events: the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.

All I can say is this: You can't love a God who would do that – and don't know why he did those things, yet you can love a Doctor guilty of the same acts because you know why he did it?  Has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps those events happened in history for your best interest?