Six Thirty Saturday Nite (Kings & Prophets) - January 21, 2017





Welcome to Six Thirty Saturday Nite! If you’ve been following the news, you know this was a big week, not just for those of us here in the U.S., but for people of faith everywhere. On Monday, we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, before he became known as a great civil rights leader, was most commonly referred to as pastor or reverend. You see, Dr. King was simply a man of God who dared to dream a big dream – a dream he dares us to live out today. ​
Like the men and women of faith we have been talking about from Hebrews 11, Dr. King is in heaven among the great cloud of witnesses, cheering us on in this race we call life. If one man’s dream can integrate segregated schools, merge the white and colored cafeteria lines and allow someone like Rosa Parks to sit wherever she want on the bus, then just imagine the mountains we can move together, each armed with our own mustard seed sized faith.​
The second major event happened yesterday with the imagination of our country’s 45th President, and today crowds are marching all over the world in protest while most of us wait and watch. Depending on where you fall on the political spectrum, this has most likely been either a very good or a very bad week. But what encouraged me was watching our government, who so often opposes public displays of faith, aired what seemed to be hours of public prayer on national TV. In this bitterly divided world we live in, it is refreshing to see those in power acknowledge the existence of an even higher power.​
But we too have power, not just the power to dream big dreams, but to fundamentally change the world around us through acts of love and grace. We do this by committing to do these three things together – pray to the Father, grow in the Son and serve with the Spirit. We must commit ourselves to prayer and to seek the will of our loving Father. We must commit grow, to be rooted in the Bible so we can learn what it means to be more like the Son. And we must commit to serve those around us by putting into practice the talents, gifts and passions given to us by the Spirit in order to build a better future for our children and grandchildren.​
If we can do these three things together as the body of Christ, then we too can see the walls that divide us begin to crumble – just as the people of Israel marched around Jericho in faith, we must learn to follow the heart of our Father. We can be the generation to see Dr. King’s dream come true if we can muster the faith to make it happen. Our enemy, that is Satan the accuser, wants us to be divided. He wants us to build political and racial walls around our neighborhoods and our Facebook feeds. He wants to see darkness overcome the news channels and Twitter. He wants anger and bitterness to overtake the hearts of men.​
But our Lord wants us to be one as He and the Father are one. If He is the Shepherd, then we are to be the sheep dogs who are to run out into the world and show those who are lost how to return home. We are not soldiers; we are ambassadors. We are not the light, but we can reflect His light. We can change this world if we are willing to dream big and to commit to pray, grow and serve together. If you are feeling hurt, scared, lost or marginalized, then I invite you to come home. We are a family, and our Father loves you. Let Christ be our Lord and love be our cause. Let us be known as people of prayer, as peacemakers and as those who truly care.​

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