City Called Heaven

Almighty God, ruler of heaven and earth, all lands are yours. So too, all people are your beloved. We know this night that not all rulers are just. We pray that you protect the innocent. That you guide all people to turn away from destruction. Lead us out of the nightmare of violence, and protect everyone in harm's way. Topple every tyrant, and establish your peace among nations. Though that dream seems far away, it is yours, and may it ever be ours. Amen. Mid Night waiting-3 , by Rajesh98 .

Fifty years ago this April 4, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. We have now been without him longer than he walked on earth. His public ministry lasted a mere 14 years. Called as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954, he quickly became a leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. Following its success, his ministry expanded well beyond the call of a tall-steeple pastor. Since his assassination, Martin King has become an icon of American righteousness, and deployed as a symbol in service of many different agendas. Probably most often, he is used as a heroic symbol of racial progress. We conveniently forget how much opposition King encountered. We forget how few people and organizations joined with him, even at the height of his success and popularity. We forget how, after having made gains in civil rights in the South, King was fought to his death when he took on civil rights in the North, the evil of the Vietnam War, and economic justice for poor people of all

Hope is dead. Good can never win, evil is just too powerful. Jesus is rotting in the tomb. April Fool! For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25 "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice." "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always." On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the