Warm up: Discussion, catch up with each other after holidays have past; share any resolutions made for this new year, of any resolutions made in the past.
Review: Our key verse for this class, Crosstrainers, is Luke 9:23. Our 2009 Initiative is "365 Holy Days", a play on the word "holiday" which is derived from "holy day". Our key verse for this initiative is Romans 14:5.
Each week this year, our studies will be themed after the nearest holiday; as an example, last week was the first Sunday after New Year's day, and so the focus was new beginnings. Today, our focus is on the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as January 15th would have been his 80th birthday, and MLK day is observed here in the U. S. on the third Monday of January, this year the 19th.
Background: Michael King Jr. was born 1/15/1929 to the Reverend Michael King. After a profoundly impactful trip to Germany the Reverend made in 1934, he changed his and his son's name to Martin Luther King and Jr. to honor the German reformer who sought to bring the focus of Christianity back to the Holy Scriptures, and not so much on the Roman Church.
Upon studying the life and legacy of Dr. King, it is clear his cross to bear through this life in following our Lord Jesus Christ was the cross of racial justice and the defeat of racial prejudice in the United States. It is thanks in large part to Dr. King's life and work that we enjoy the equality of persons that we have here today. I look forward to eternity moreso knowing I will have the opportunity to worship Yahweh together with Dr. King, both of us and all the siblings alive together with Christ.
[A Reading of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech delivered 8/28/1963]
Study alluded passages Isaiah 40:3-5, Amos 5:24
Where our brother Martin's cause was the ending of racial segregation, our cause today in 2009 is the ending of spiritual segregation; the way people are separated from God because of the sin that ensnares and enslaves. We must resolve to do and say and think all that the Lord has for us to think and say and do to help non-Christian people become Christian, before time becomes eternity. May we pray.