"King said you should not quit because you're not alone. God is not an absentee landlord. God has not wound the world up like a watch and flung it into the cosmos to take itself away in isolation. God gets involved in human affairs,” said Dr. F. Bruce Williams, speaker for the Campbellsville University chapel service on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Williams serves as the senior pastor at Bates Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, a role he has held since 1986.
Williams noted how MLK Jr. is not only a person who fought the hard battles for African Americans for his day, but died believing in a fair, equitable America for all, and these are lessons that can be applied to today's challenges for equality, as well.
The first lesson Williams shared is to keep going when searching for racial justice -- even when life gets hard or becomes uncomfortable. Or, in MLK Jr’s case, it cost him his own life.
"King was assassinated because he had the audacity to believe that he could implement the dream,” Williams explained.
He went on to share that King “didn’t stop because he was discouraged,” and if “they had not killed him, he’d still be working towards the vision of God.”
Williams, additionally, shared the obvious: for someone like MLK Jr, who had to deal with day-in-and-day-out implications of racism, segregation, all because he was African American, life was not pretty, but this did not stop King, rather, emboldened him.
“No lie can live forever. Truth crushed to the earth will rise again,” he noted, because
God is always on the side of the right. “Moreover, Williams transitioned to connecting how us students can take the lessons that
Christ teaches and apply them to our lives.
"Jesus went about doing good and calls us to do the same. Not so we can be accepted by God. We’re accepted by God as a consequence of our relationship with Christ. But we are saved to do good works."
Likewise, Williams shared how when life is tough, it is crucial to rely upon Christ, as the ultimate example of endurance.
“When they finally caught up with Jesus, they thought they had him.”
“And when they hung him high, stretched him wide, he hung his head and died, they
thought they had him, but all the days were not in. On Saturday, they still thought they had him,
but all the days were not in. Early Sunday morning, he got up with all power in his hand.”
Williams, concluded his sermon by proclaiming that, “because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, life is worth the living.”
Chapel is designed to provide opportunities for corporate worship and exposure through a variety of informative speakers and presentations
Chapels can be viewed on YouTube by searching “Campbellsville University Chapel Playlist.”
Chapels can also be found on the Campbellsville University Facebook page.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that offers over 100 programs including doctoral, master, bachelor, associate and certificate programs. The website for complete information is xp3b.tt99949.com.