This teenager knew he was risking his life when he chased a suicide bomber away from his school -
But he did it anyway... presumably because he wanted to save the lives of his friends and colleagues...
Hooray that such courageous people still exist in the world...
It reminds me of the greatest Hero...
“I have full contentment and faith that God is totally sovereign, and no matter how I write my own plan, He’s going to do what’s best for me to make me more like Christ.... No matter how I do in my sport, I know it’s perfect because of the promises and hope He has given me.”
- Great quote from USA gold medalist diver David Boudia http://www.beyondtheultimate.org/athletes/David-Boudia.aspx
Here's a cool story about a hero lifeguard, who decided to disobey company rules to save a swimmer drowning outside his coverage area, knowing that he would probably get fired.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/us/florida-lifeguard-fired/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
He did in fact get fired. Yet, his actions may well be worth emulating... what do you think?
Some cool quotes from Phil Humber (Chicago White Sox pitcher) -
"I didn’t have that peace because I wasn’t looking in the right place for it. I wasn’t resting in the fact that God has my best interest in heart because I’m a child of his."
"For so long, I was trying to make it about me. I was going to make it happen because of how hard I was working. ... But because of the road I took, I couldn’t deny the fact that it was God doing it, that God had a plan."
"[Phil says that] every time he walks off the mound, he prays that God would be glorified: 'As Christians, that’s really our mission. Wherever we’re at, whatever we’re doing, that God will be glorified in what we’re doing. And he can be glorified in our low moments or in our best moments.' "
Taken from this article http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/19433
Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, Phil Humber, wow, lots of public giving-credit-to Jesus Christ from the sports world this year! May it increase yet more... and from all spheres of society...
My dearest wife;
God, by His holy will, has prolonged my prison sentence to five years and four month. I very much long for the day that I will be reunited with you my dear wife, our children and God's people in the church.
My dear, listen to me; not only as a wife, but also as a Christian woman who has come to understand who God is and how deep and mysterious His ways are. Yes! I love you, I love the children and I would love to be free in order to serve God. But, in here, God has made me not only a sufferer for His Name's sake in a prison of this world over which Christ has won victory, but also a prisoner of His indescribable love and grace.
I am testing and experiencing the love and care of our Lord every day. When they first brought me to this prison, I had thoughts which were contrary to what the Bible says. I thought the devil had prevailed over the church and over me. I thought the work of the gospel in [country] was over. But it did not take one day for the Lord to show me that He is a sovereign God and that He is in control of all things - even here in prison.
The moment I entered my cell, one of the prisoners called me and said, ‘Pastor, come over here. Everyone in this cell is unsaved. You are very much needed here.’ So, on the same day I was put in prison, I carried on my spiritual work.
My dear, the longer I stay in here, the more I love my Savior and tell the people here about His goodness. His grace is enabling me to overcome the coldness and the longing that I feel for you and for our children. Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Am I out of my mind? Am I a fool?’ Well, isn't that what the apostle had said, ‘Whether I am of sound mind or out of my mind, it is for the sake of Christ.’ (2 Cor. 5:13)
My most respected wife, I love you more than I can say. Please help the children understand that I am here as a prisoner of Christ for the greater cause of the gospel.
(originally posted in 2010)
-- a recent letter from a Christian in prison in an African country...
see http://members.opendoorsusa.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=45641.0&dlv_id=0 and http://www.opendoorsusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=17
"There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now... To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that's not how I want to do things anymore. I'm thinking about how can I trust God more? How can I surrender more?"
-- Jeremy Lin
Three articles today, the first article the most important:
1. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/28/iranian-pastor-faces-execution-for-refusing-to-recant-christian-faith/ - Youcef Nadarkhani was today sentenced to death because he converted to Christianity from Islam. This "apostasy" death penalty will be the first in Iran since 1990. Excerpt below from the article:
When asked to repent, Nadarkhani stated: "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?"
"To the religion of your ancestors, Islam," the judge replied ....
"I cannot," Nadarkhani said.
Hooray to you, Youcef Nadarkhani!!! Thank you for the awesome example of holding to the truth about Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost! As Jesus Christ Himself promised in Revelation 2:10 - "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." May God bless you and your family.
2. http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/09/by-dan-phillips-from-2009-brian.html - Great article discussing the balance in "sanctification" (the process of becoming more holy, after having first been "justified" (legally reckoned righteous in God's sight) through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ) in the Christian life exemplified in this verse from Philippians 2:12-13 - "12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Some Christian groups tend to err more on the one side (focusing on the "work", forgetting that it is God living within us who is the only one powerful enough to change us) and some on the other side (saying "let go and let God", forgetting that there is still work involved on our part in the process of sanctification). Dan Phillips shows the error of those who go too far in the latter direction.
John Piper similarly summarizes it well, in his biography lecture on William Tyndale ( http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/always-singing-one-note-a-vernacular-bible ) - "How did William Tyndale accomplish this historic achievement? We can answer this in Tyndale’s case by remembering two ways that a pastor must die in the ministry. We must die to the notion that we do not have to think hard or work hard to achieve spiritual goals. And we must die to the notion that our thinking and our working is decisive in achieving spiritual goals."
3. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904563904576588583893732362.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_careerjournal - interview of Harvard's Nitin Nohria by Melissa Korn entitled "Dose of Humility With a Harvard MBA". Notice especially this excerpt:
"But there seems to be a big difference between people's understanding of their responsibilities as business leaders and their capacity to live up to those when faced with pressure or temptation."
That is to say, business executives usually KNOW the right thing to do, but for some reason, strangely enough, when major temptation comes along, they sometimes choose NOT to do it. Why ever could that be?
This is a perfect example of the limitations of secular ethics. Ethics courses can teach you various "systems of ethics", e.g. consequentialism, virtues ethics, deontological ethics, etc. But when "pressure or temptation" arises, people must decide whether it is "worth it" to them... Why should one choose to follow the particular system of ethics? At some level of pressure or temptation secular morality doesn't work any more - the rewards (in this earthly life) for doing the right thing are not as attractive as the relief or pleasure or gain offered from doing the unethical (/wrong) thing. But if God is watching, and if our actions have eternal consequences, we can have solid ground for rejecting the wrong thing, knowing that we will be fully repaid in the age to come.
Like Youcef Nadarkhani.
Here is an interesting article called "The War Against Girls", a good book review of "Unnatural Selection" by Mara Hvistendahl.
Here's an excerpt:
"Despite the author's intentions, "Unnatural Selection" might be one of the most
consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion. It is aimed,
like a heat-seeking missile, against the entire intellectual framework of
"choice." For if "choice" is the moral imperative guiding abortion, then there
is no way to take a stand against "gendercide." Aborting a baby because she is a
girl is no different from aborting a baby because she has Down syndrome or
because the mother's "mental health" requires it. Choice is choice."
Here is another interesting article called "The Search for the Historical Adam".
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=92509
It summarizes the state of the continuing controversy about whether God created the human race directly in the persons of Adam and Eve, or whether God "used evolution" over millions of years to bring us to where we are today. The same compromises and arguments are occurring, with the theistic evolutionists / progressive creationists / old-earthers saying "it really doesn't matter" and the rest of us Bible-believers saying "it really does matter."
The article is unfortunately biased toward the theistic evolution point of view, but it does spotlight the incredible pressures in the intellectual spheres in the creation/evolution discussion these days.
Great quote from Tim Keller -
"[Paul] most definitely wanted to teach us that Adam and Eve were real historical figures. When you refuse to take a biblical author literally when he clearly wants you to do so, you have moved away from the traditional understanding of the biblical authority. If Adam doesn't exist, Paul's whole argument - that both sin and grace work 'covenantally' - falls apart. You can't say that 'Paul was a man of his time' but we can accept his basic teaching about Adam. If you don't believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul's teaching."
And finally, a closing quote from the most awesome book of all, the Bible... Ephesians 1:3-12. I see so many of my nonChristian friends inwardly hungry for significance (especially men) or for love (especially women), all day long... vainly seeking in this or that activity or place. If only they could know and experience our great God! ...the God who loves us fiercely, beyond measure, and will never stop loving us, and Who has called us to true, eternal, significance through being adopted by Him:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory."
Consider Mary's attitude: "And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)
We don't always get to choose our role. The announcement to Mary that God had chosen her as the mother of the Messiah must have been a shock. In some ways it was a great assignment; a great honor. In other ways it was a very painful assignment, as she would have to endure a lot of grief from her friends and family thinking she had committed fornication, then later experience the pain of seeing her son Jesus rejected and killed by her nation.
The world is currently watching as the heroic Japanese "Fukushima Fifty" nuclear workers risk huge doses of radiation and subsequent cancer, repeatedly entering damaged nuclear power plants that randomly explode every few days... all because they are faithful to their duty and their country, and because they are the only ones who can help.
You may be in a situation right now that you would extremely rather not be in. But if we belong to Jesus, we can simply submit to whatever assignment He gives us. It may be painful here and now, but the end result of submission to God is great beauty, the salvation of other precious souls, and greater eternal joy.
"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison..."
2 Corinthians 4:17
COURAGE and LOVE:
Here is a short video excerpt (only 90 seconds) of Pakistani Christian politician Shahbaz Bhatti explaining why he planned to continue representing the oppressed minorities in his country despite receiving death threats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBTBqUJomRE
Two days ago Bhatti was murdered. Now he is experiencing the JOY of being with Jesus Christ forever, in eternal happiness and approval and glory!
Luke 21:10-19
Then He continued by saying to them, "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.
"But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name.
"Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives."
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