Three days before a bomb blast rocked his home in January Dr Martin Luther King Jr had an encounter that marked him for the rest of his life After receiving a threatening phone call King found himself pondering an exit strategy from the civil rights movement Then prayers emerged from his soul ldquo I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right But now I am afraid I have nothing left I rsquo ve come to the point where I can't face it alone rdquo After his prayer there came quiet assurance King noted ldquo Almost at [... more]

The protocols at the restaurant in my childhood neighborhood were consistent with social and racial dynamics in the late s and early s The kitchen helpers mdash Mary the cook and dishwashers like me mdash were Black however the in-restaurant patrons were White Black customers could order food but they had to pick it up at the back door Such policies reinforced the unequal treatment of Blacks in that era Though we rsquo ve come a long way since then we still have room for growth in how we relate to each other as people made in the image of [... more]

At the pastor rsquo s invitation at the end of the church service Latriece made her way to the front When she was invited to greet the congregation no one was prepared for the weighty and wonderful words she spoke She had relocated from Kentucky where in December devastating tornadoes had taken the lives of seven of her family members ldquo I can still smile because God rsquo s with me rdquo she said Though bruised by trial her testimony was a powerful encouragement for those facing challenges of their own David rsquo s words in Psalm which point to [... more]

ldquo God is crying rdquo Those were the words whispered by Bill Haley rsquo s ten-year-old daughter as she stood in the rain with a group of multiethnic believers in Jesus They had come to Virginia rsquo s Shenandoah Valley to seek God and make sense of the legacy of racial discord in America As they stood on the grounds where former slaves were buried they joined hands in prayer Then suddenly the wind began to blow and it started to rain As the leader called out for racial healing the rain began to fall even harder Those gathered believed [... more]

Brittany exclaimed to her coworker at the restaurant ldquo There rsquo s that man There rsquo s that man rdquo She was referring to Melvin who first encountered her under different circumstances While he was tending to the lawn of his church the Spirit prompted him to start a conversation with the woman who appeared to be a prostitute Her reply when he invited her to church was ldquo Do you know what I do They wouldn rsquo t want me in there rdquo As Melvin told her about the love of Jesus and assured her of His power to [... more]

The early spring weather was refreshing and my traveling companion my wife couldn rsquo t have been better But the beauty of those moments together could have quickly morphed into tragedy if it weren rsquo t for a red and white warning sign that prompted me I was headed in the wrong direction Because I hadn rsquo t turned wide enough I momentarily saw a ldquo Do Not Enter rdquo sign staring me in the face I quickly adjusted but shudder to think of the harm I could have done to my wife myself and others if I rsquo d [... more]