A Massage From The Publisher
“He must increase, but I must decrease” John 3:30 (NAS)
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
The dream of inclusion, appreciation of another’s history or the choices they make concerning their own bodies, where their rights of voting are not disenfranchised, is a dream where everyone is accepted as long as their actions are not design to kill the dream of others.
The great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
As we begin to celebrate the hopes of a dream deferred, let us be mindful that we can not appreciate the fulfillment of the dream unless we rid the temple of RATS.
A temple is a construction set aside for religious or spiritual behavior, such as prayer and sacrifice, or related ceremonies. The Roman Temples in Buddhism symbolize the pure land or pure surroundings of a Buddha. Traditional Buddhist temples are designed to encourage inner and outer peace.
Rats are antagonistic, omnivorous animals that have a preference for areas of human surroundings, where they can without difficulty, discover food. They have intense senses and can leap, tunnel, scale, or gnaw their way into seemingly difficult to get to places. They reproduce exceedingly fast and quickly (up to 150 offspring a year) and have a small number of expected killers. Rats pass on numerous human infections and have often obliterated grain supplies. They are believed expected killers. Rats pass on numerous human infections and have often obliterated grain supplies. They are believed to anticipate the devastation of any house or ship they are living in, and to abandon it; hence, the proverbial saying that ‘rats leave a sinking ship’ low-down, dirty, filthy, stinking rats.
Of course I’m not talking literally about rats and a temple, metaphorically speaking, I’m referring to the temple as a body of people, i.e. families, organizations, churches, ect. and the RATS: Resentment, Animosity, Treachery and Selfishness are the attitudes that will destroy a temple faster than sin ran through Sodom and Gomorrah.
These rats will force upon temples financial destruction, annihilation of possessions, desolation and ruins of entire communities and countries, but none of these measures up to to the human psychological damage that RATS leave behind. They can destroy DREAMS!
When temples are infested with RATS, people go to war with one another and the outcomes are disastrous. James wrote, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” (James 4:1). In our own selfish pursuits, we sometimes invite the RATS to come and live in our temples with no contemplation on how our actions affect other members of our temple.
Before the extermination of the temples is set in motion, a cleansing process has to be initiated within oneself. LIFE: Love Introspection, Forgiveness and Endurance have to be present. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NKJV)
An outlook of an unassuming nature should also set us apart from others. As opposed to longing for ourselves to be noticed, everything we do should be in line with God’s will.
Before the RATS in the temple kill the dream let us choose LIFE to keep the dream of that great man alive for the hopes of all.
Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration!!!
Not I but Christ be honored, loved, exalted;
Not I but Christ be seen, be known, be heard;
Not I but Christ in every look and action;
Not I but Christ in every thought and word. —Hymn by Mrs. A. A. Whiddington
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