This past Sunday morning, I shared a message titled Everyday Heroes. It was based on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three Hebrew children whose story is recounted in Daniel 3. As a part of my message, I recounted the story of "The Miracle of Dunkirk".
The source for my story is a piece titled "But if Not", taken from the Presidential Address of Dr. Robert B. Sloan, Jr. to the students of Houston Baptist University on February 18, 2009. Later, he posted the story on his personal web page (Cf. his blog dated Monday, March 11, 2013).
Many people inquired about the story, so I am reposting it here. The source page is linked at the bottom of this blog entry.
Did you know that a Bible verse once helped save the British army? Up until the 20th century, nearly the entire English speaking world used the King James translation of the Bible. We all shared a common text. People were also more Biblically literate than most are today, so if you quoted a Bible verse people would usually recognize the reference. Bible stories like those in the book of Daniel were very familiar.
I'm very sorry to say that, by and large, the scriptures are not faithfully taught today, even in many Christian pulpits. We get some interesting pop psychology and leadership exhortations, but it is fairly unusual to enter a Christian church and hear the minister take a piece of scripture, read it, explain it, teach it, and apply it. I challenge you to recover the significance of scripture in your life.
I exhort you, if you're going to be a minister, or a lay reader, or a Bible teacher of any sort, teach the scriptures. I exhort you as a follower of Jesus Christ, let your life, your heart, your character, and your worship be shaped by the word of God.
I spent some time with my sister this week. A year older than me, she is now a grandmother. Every time I talk to her, she is dying to tell me some new thing her little three year old grandson has said or else done. Admittedly, her stories are funny. In light of this, I thought I would post a piece today that celebrates the joys of childhood.
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, "Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait." Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
A father was at the beach with his children when his four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"
A mother was teaching her three-year-old The Lord's Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, the child repeated it after the mother. Then one night the child was ready to solo. The mother listened with pride to the carefully enunciated words, right up to the end. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail..."
A three-year-old boy went with his dad to see a litter of kittens. On returning home, he breathlessly informed his mother, "There were 2 boy kittens and 2 girl kittens. "How did you know?" his mother asked. "Daddy picked them up and looked underneath," he replied. "I think it's printed on the bottom."
Another three-year-old put his shoes on by himself. His mother noticed that the left shoe was on the right foot. She said, "Son, your shoes are on the wrong feet." He looked up at her with a raised brow and said, "Don't kid me, Mom. They're the only feet I got!"
On the first day of school, about mid-morning, the kindergarten teacher said, "If anyone has to go to the bathroom, hold up two fingers." A little voice from the back of the room asked, "How will that help?"
A mother and her young son returned from the grocery store and began putting away the groceries. The boy opened the box of animal crackers and spread them all over the table. "What are you doing?" his mother asked. "The box says not to eat them if the seal is broken" the boy explained. "I'm looking for the seal."
We laugh at these things because, for children, everything is so simple. And then again, maybe this is how it should be. Ironically, perhaps, we may have unnecessarily complicated life as adults. It may just be that, the simpler life is, the better off we are.
The Heavenly Father obviously delights in the childlike faith and trust of His children. No doubt, few things bring Him more joy!
In his book, Cross Ties Devotionals, Bill Denton recounts an old story that carries a powerful truth. It is the cautionary tale of a desert nomad who was reclining on his cot one night out in the middle of nowhere. He was inside his tent and it was very dark. He had a candle burning beside his bed that gave off just enough light to see his immediate surroundings. Presently, being hungry, he selected a date from his fruit bowl and bit into it.
When he did, however, he found a worm, or at least half of one. He lay the date aside and took another date from the bowl and bit into it. Once again, he discovered another worm. This troubled him greatly, as he was hungry, and especially as he liked the taste of the dates.
What should he do? He thought it over and came up with a solution. He leaned over and blew out the candle. Then, there in the darkness, he quickly ate the rest of the dates.
Wow! Imagine a man who was so driven by his desire for fruit that he willingly turned off the light so as not to see the danger his eating it posed. The lesson of this little parable is self-evident: we must be careful not to allow our appetites to rule our reason.
While this truth applies to everyone, it is especially relevant for Christians. We, above all people, must remember not to let our appetites overrule our convictions. And this is true whatever these appetites be - physical, emotional, financial, sexual, or any other type.
In short, what we believe must always determine how we behave, and not vice versa. We must be ruled by the standards of God's Word, which do not change according to the vicissitudes and/or dictates of any given situation.
This means that whether we choose to acknowledge the morality (or lack thereof) of any given activity is irrelevant. What is relevant is what God's Word has to say on the subject. In short, turning off the light to make the activity more palatable will not change the effect that our engaging in it will have on our souls. What it is, to be frank, is what it is.
Remember that the next time you are tempted to blow out the candle of conscience.
In my summertime travels, I have found one thing to be fairly constant. Church signs everywhere tend to contain little single sentence sermons. Now, many of these are quite humorous. Others are more serious. Most all are thought-provoking.
remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
but bedbugs and mosquitoes come pretty close.
and the back of the church.
but temptation bangs on the front door forever!
he is dead. So why should you?
I don't know why some people change churches. What difference does it make which one you stay home from?
"Stop, Drop, and Roll" won't work in Hell.
In prayer, don't give God instructions, just report for duty!
SOURCE: Such collections of sayings are found on multiple web sites. Example: http://thinkgodnow.com/gpage5.html.
A well-worn one-dollar bill and a similarly distressed twenty-dollar bill both arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation.
The twenty-dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the country. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed... "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean..."
The one dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church ..."
Many people travel this time of the year. As a pastor, I do not begrudge folks the opportunity to get away for a little while. Hopefully my previous posts have made plain that I understand the value of rest and relaxation.
At the same time, it is important to remember that the work of the church continues even in our absence. Her ministries, here missions commitments, her programming - all these things continue throughout the vacation season. In fact, in many respects, with children's programs, student programs, and the like, the church actually has greater demands on her limited resources in summertime than in other seasons of the year.
No matter where you attend worship, I hope you will be faithful to support the ongoing work of your church throughout the year, and especially during the good old summertime. Most all of us get a vacation; the church and her ministries do not.
*SOURCE: This joke has been around quite some time. Of course, the message it contains is no doubt responsible for its longevity. It is available widely, both in publication and on the World Wide Web. One such example is: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/jokes-one-dollarand-twenty-dollar-bills/.
As He always was, Jesus was wise here to point out the importance of a little rest. "R&R", as we call it, can do wonders for a person's spirit. People have instinctively understood this principle down through the ages.
Years ago (June 6, 1994, to be exact), the devotional publication titled Our Daily Bread carried the following anecdote that had first been recorded over 2500 years ago. It regards Aesop, the ancient Greek slave whose Fables are so renown, and it well underscores the importance of rest.
In ancient Athens, a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.
Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bow implies."
My wife and I have spent the last few days doing just that. We have unstrung our bows and relaxed a little. Already, I can tell a huge difference. Already, my spirit is refreshed; as is hers.
During this time of summer vacation, I trust you will also take some time to unstring your bow. Get out from under the tension for a little while. You will be glad you did. Your strength will return. And your aim is sure to be truer in the days ahead.
Recently, I received the following list of trivial items by e-mail. I cannot necessarily account for the validity of many of these things. But I enjoyed reading them nonetheless. Perhaps you will as well.
Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers. That is why it is found in some medicines.
Wow! I didn't know most any of this. And yet, it strikes me that, in the world in which we live, we are bombarded with so much information that no one person could reasonably be expected to be read up on everything. And what is more, most of the information that does come our way is quite useless. Indeed, only a few things are vitally important to know.
Which leads me to my point: most all of the above trivia falls into the former category. It is interesting, to say the least. But critical? Hardly. While I love trivia, I could probably live out most of my remaining life and never really need to know or else benefit by any of this information.
Not only should these truths be known; they should also be embraced and acted upon. I hope you will read them again. And as you do, I hope you will seriously consider their relevance for you and your life. Embrace them. Take them to heart. Act upon them. For more than any other truths, these really are worth knowing!
ia/. Obviously, individual pieces of the trivia, such as the ones involving scientific or historical information, are posted on more authoritative sites which are devoted to given fields of knowledge.
John McCain, U. S. Senator from Arizona and one time Republican Party Presidential Nominee, was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who went on to become a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from carriers during the Vietnam War. He was almost killed in the horrible fire that occurred aboard the USS Forrestal in 1967.
Later that year, Captain McCain was flying a bombing mission over Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, when he was shot down. Seriously injured, he was taken captive, where he was held as a prisoner of war for the next five and a half years.
Along with numerous other prisoners, he experienced recurring episodes of horrific torture all throughout his imprisonment. In spite of this, we are told, he refused all out-of-sequence early repatriation offers. Sadly, however, lifelong physical limitations have accompanied him as a result of his brutal internment in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton".
Twenty one years later, in a speech given before the 1988 Republican National Convention, then freshman U.S. Senator McCain related the following story.
Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967.
Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country-and our military-provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to pledge allegiance to our flag and our country.
Amen! And may God look after and bless all those who have sacrificed so much to make the rest of us free!
SOURCE: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/mccain-flag.htm#.UdQ-msfD85s. Note that this story occurs in several variations on the internet; but that it is deemed true by most all websites specializing in matters relating to issues of veracity. Check also: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/jul/02/chain-email/fellow-pow-acks-up-mccains-story/. (Note: If the politifact site defaults to its home page, just key in POW FLAG in the search bar.) See as well http://www.snopes.com/rumors/soapbox/McCain.asp.
In 1940, we are told, a young folk singer by the name of Woody Guthrie (yes, the father of folk singer Arlo Guthrie of The City of New Orleans fame), was fresh off of his travels crisscrossing the nation during the Great Depression. He had been listening to Kate Smith's version of God Bless America as it received extensive radio play on the eve of World War Two.
While he admired the song, he thought that he himself could pen one equally as powerful in its ability to evoke national pride. From his perspective, however, he wanted to create a song that spoke to the heart of the common man. As a result, he sat down and wrote what was to become another classic piece of American patriotism: "This Land is Your Land".
As a child, I grew up singing this song in school on a fairly regular basis. I can still remember the images that the lyrics conjured in my mind. It made me proud to be an American then; and it still does today.
As we approach our nation's 237th birthday, I thought I would post those lyrics here today. If you are like me, you may find it hard simply to read these words without singing them as you do. Either way, I hope they evoke wonderful images in your head. And I hope they inspire you as much as they do me.
NOTE: Though long dead himself, Woody Guthrie does have an official website. It is: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/. Through the years, many copyright issues have apparently arisen over his works. Guthrie, himself, it appears, as a champion of the ordinary man, was less concerned with this matter than others.
Wikipedia's article on Guthrie point out that a number of different organizations currently claim copyright for many of Guthrie's songs. Apparently, legally, such claims only apply to original elements of the song that were not in the public domain version we all know and love.