[The Mayor]

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January 19, 2009

Impossible?

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READ: Matthew 5:38-42

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I tell you not to resist an evil person. —Matthew 5:38-39

When Nobel Chairman Gunnar John delivered his presentation speech for Martin Luther King’s 1964 Peace Prize, he quoted Jesus: “Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:39). As Mr. John noted: “It was not because he led a racial minority in their struggle for equality that Martin Luther King achieved fame. . . . [His] name will endure for the way in which he has waged his struggle.”

In 1955, King had led a year-long, peaceful boycott to protest segregation on buses. He paid a high price. His home was bombed, and he was assaulted and arrested. He never retaliated. Eventually he was murdered.

How contrary Dr. King’s peaceful example stands to my fleshly nature! I want justice now. I want retribution. I want others to pay for their wrongdoing, especially when it’s directed at me. What I do not want is to turn the other cheek and invite them to take another swing.

Haddon Robinson comments on the lofty standards Jesus set forth in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), calling them “goals . . . not impossible ideals. [Jesus] wants His disciples to strive toward these goals to master a new kind of life.”

Amid the injustices of life, may we have the courage, faith, and strength to turn the other cheek.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend—though it be blood—to spend and spare not—
So send I you to taste of Calvary. —Clarkson
Š 1968 Singspiration.

It takes true strength to refuse to retaliate.

Bible in One Year: Genesis 46-48; Matthew 13:1-30

[jaycee]

Thank you for our Daily Bread devotion this morning. Very informative since we all have the tendency to retaliate even though it makes things worse. Have a good day. We had snow coming down like crazy a little while ago but it seems to be finished now. Its very cold though.

[JustAmy]

January 19. 2009


Graphic by Billie

The Owl, And The Wind

Oh, did you hear the wind last night
A-blowing right at you?
It sounded just as though it said,
"Oooo-ooo-oooo!"

The wind now has a playmate,
Just as most children do,
He sits up in a tree, and hoots,
"To-whoo, to-whit, to-whoo,"

So when you hear the owl and the wind
Just at the close of day,
They're calling to each other
To come out and play.

~ Madeline A. Chaffe ~

[JustAmy]

Happy Monday, Rus.
Thank you for today's scripture lesson.
Your ODB posts guides us to the right path.

Have a Marvelous Monday and a Warm Week. :)

[geologist]

“It takes true strength to refuse to retaliate.”

On a different subject ... President did marvelously during his entire adminstration and especially toward the ending of it; he did not lower himself to get into retorts and defensive rhetoric positions regarding all the attacks, slanders, twisted and ugly words spoken against him.

Thank you, President George W. Bush for your grace and courage, and honor.