The Kingdom of God

1. GRACE PEACE No Pain • HOPE • No Racism • No Violence • FAITH • NO SIN • The Kingdom of God • MERCY • LOVE • EQUALITY • JOY • JUSTICE

2. Do you have a dream?

3. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a kid from the South who spurred the start of a revolution.

4. In 1955 he organized the Montgomery Alabama bus boycott, launching the Civil Rights movement in America. He was 27 years old.

5. In 1963 youth became involved in peaceful protests with King in Birmingham, Alabama. Two thousand children and youth skipped school to protest racial segregation.

6. They were met with police violence, including fire hoses and police dog attacks.

7. Masses of kids were arrested, filling Birmingham’s jails.

8. As a result, King organized a march of 200,000 whites and blacks in Washington, D.C. It was the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history.

9. There he delivered the famous “I have a dream” speech. He was 34 years old.

10. Though he was often a victim of violence, King determined never to use violence as the answer to conflict.

11. He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1964 for his nonviolent efforts to end the injustices of segregation. He was 35 years old.

12. King believed: “It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he should lift himself by his own bootstraps. It is even worse to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps when somebody is standing on the boot.”

13. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Despite his work towards peace, violence claimed his life.

14. But he had begun a revolution that turned a nation upside down. He was 39 years old when he died.

15. “I say to you today my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

16. “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

17. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

18. “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight.” (Isaiah 40:4-5)

19. “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

20. “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”

21. “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’" (Amos 5:24)

22. “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING!’”

23. “When we allow freedom to ring – when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city…”

24. “… we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual…”

25. “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, We are free at last.”

26. King made his famous “I have a dream” speech when he was 34 years old.

27. You’re probably a lot younger than 34 now.

28. At one time, Martin Luther King, Jr. was your age.

29. And he had a dream.

30. Today, what Kingdom dreams are growing in you?

31. Finish these Sentences for Yourself: • I Have a Dream for the World… • I Have a Dream for My Life…