By Steve Crain
Do you want to be a casual, chilling, complacent Christian?
“Casual” means “showing little interest or concern; nonchalant: lenient and permissive.”
“Chilling” is a slang word meaning “calm, relaxed, idle and easy going.” Young people often describe relaxing as “chilling out.”
“Complacent” means “self-satisfied and unconcerned.”
In a recent sermon, Pastor Randy Thornton of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., used comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s format of “You might be a redneck, if…” and changed that phrase to
“You might be a casual Christian, if….” Here are some of Thornton’s thought-provokers:
You might be a casual Christian, if you value comfort and personal pleasure over the pursuit of the Kingdom of God.
“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22 NIV).
You might be a casual Christian, if your desire for independence is more important than God’s will.
“A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3).
You might be a casual Christian, if your friends have more influence on you than God does.
“Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character’” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).
You might be a casual Christian, if your eyes are dry and you have no passion for the lost.
“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35).
“God has called us to be fishers of souls, not keepers of the aquarium,” Thornton said.
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last…” (John 15:16).
Paul said, “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
You might be a casual Christian, if you listen to the Gospel without being moved to respond, again.
You might be a casual Christian, if your plans for your future end in retirement and stop short of “well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
You might be a casual Christian, if you have no pleasure in giving to God and hold your tithe for yourself.
“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers…” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
You might be a casual Christian, if…
…your care for what other people think deters you from obedience to the Lord.
…your passion for Jesus was hotter when you were first saved than it is now.
...having fun is more important than serving God.
…what you have and the pursuit of having it is more important than the pursuit of God.
…you avoid the uncomfortable and opt instead to live inside the sacred comfort of your routine.
…you avoid burdens instead of seeking them and carrying them.
…broken relationship stop you from forgiving others.
…if worship is elevated based on the quality of the music rather than on a personal connection with the presence of God.
And you might be a casual Christian, if serving God is regarded as work for those whose rank is a lower on the totem pole than yours, or you say that such work is not your “gifting.”
To find motivation to “totally commit to God,” we should compare the costs of serving God to the benefits; then we should trust God to help us keep our commitments, Thornton said.
“…I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).
Friday, July 3, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Is America a Christian Nation?
by Steve Crain
Is America a Christian nation?
All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. Of those schools, Harvard was founded first and listed this as Rule Number One in its student handbook: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
U.S. President Harry Truman wrote to Pope Pius XII in 1947, saying, “This is a Christian nation.”
“He certainly did not mean that the United States has an official or legally-preferred religion or church,” said Carl Pearlston, writing in 2001. Pearlston, an attorney, a former professor of Constitutional Law and a Jewish conservative, says Truman didn’t mean to slight adherents of non-Christian religions, “But he certainly did mean to recognize that this nation, its institutions and laws, was founded on Biblical principles basic to Christianity and to Judaism from which it flowed.”
Truman also said, “The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul…If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”
Pearlston offers these quotations:
Woodrow Wilson said, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.... America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the tenets of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”
In 1811, New York Chief Justice James Kent said: “...whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government...We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity...Christianity in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of the law of the land....”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said in 1829, “There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.”
Pearlston asked in 2001, “Can America still be called a Christian nation?” He replied, “It is certainly a more religiously pluralistic and diverse society than it was during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. There are increasing numbers of non-Christians immigrating to this country….We live, not under a Christian government, but in a nation where all are free to practice their particular religion, in accommodation with other religions, and in accordance with the basic principles of the nation, which are Christian in origin. It is in that sense that America may properly be referred to as a Christian nation.”
A recent study found a decline in the percentage of Christians in the U.S. Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. In 2008, “Christians” reportedly comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990.
President Barack Obama stated during an April 2009 press conference in Turkey, “One of the great strengths of the United States is – although, as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish Nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”
President Obama was right, in the sense that, as Pearlston states, America has no “official or legally-preferred religion or church.” But, 76 percent of Americans still identify with “Christian culture,” and America was founded on Christian principles. I believe our Founding Fathers envisioned a government that would promote and encourage Christianity. True Christians know that sin and the worship of false gods will destroy a nation, but “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
Is America a Christian nation?
All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. Of those schools, Harvard was founded first and listed this as Rule Number One in its student handbook: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
U.S. President Harry Truman wrote to Pope Pius XII in 1947, saying, “This is a Christian nation.”
“He certainly did not mean that the United States has an official or legally-preferred religion or church,” said Carl Pearlston, writing in 2001. Pearlston, an attorney, a former professor of Constitutional Law and a Jewish conservative, says Truman didn’t mean to slight adherents of non-Christian religions, “But he certainly did mean to recognize that this nation, its institutions and laws, was founded on Biblical principles basic to Christianity and to Judaism from which it flowed.”
Truman also said, “The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul…If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”
Pearlston offers these quotations:
Woodrow Wilson said, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.... America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the tenets of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”
In 1811, New York Chief Justice James Kent said: “...whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government...We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity...Christianity in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of the law of the land....”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said in 1829, “There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.”
Pearlston asked in 2001, “Can America still be called a Christian nation?” He replied, “It is certainly a more religiously pluralistic and diverse society than it was during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. There are increasing numbers of non-Christians immigrating to this country….We live, not under a Christian government, but in a nation where all are free to practice their particular religion, in accommodation with other religions, and in accordance with the basic principles of the nation, which are Christian in origin. It is in that sense that America may properly be referred to as a Christian nation.”
A recent study found a decline in the percentage of Christians in the U.S. Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. In 2008, “Christians” reportedly comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990.
President Barack Obama stated during an April 2009 press conference in Turkey, “One of the great strengths of the United States is – although, as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish Nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”
President Obama was right, in the sense that, as Pearlston states, America has no “official or legally-preferred religion or church.” But, 76 percent of Americans still identify with “Christian culture,” and America was founded on Christian principles. I believe our Founding Fathers envisioned a government that would promote and encourage Christianity. True Christians know that sin and the worship of false gods will destroy a nation, but “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Father's Day - Not Easy for Everyone
By Steve Crain
Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it’s an important day – a time to honor living fathers and fathers who have passed on.
My wife, Carol, who was born in Oakland, California, remembers seeing her father only twice. Carol’s mother left her marriage and took Carol, who was then one and one-half years old, to her Pennsylvania homeland. Carol was seven or eight and staying one night at her maternal grandparents’ house when a man knocked on their door.
Carol, sitting at a kitchen table when her grandmother opened that door, saw the man in the darkness but didn’t recognize him. Her grandmother stepped outside to talk. When she reentered, she told Carol, “That was your father.”
Carol didn’t see him again until she was a college student in Greenville, S.C. After graduating from high school, she asked her mother to locate her father. Carol mailed one of her graduation pictures to him (he lived in New Jersey), and they arranged to meet in Greenville in the fall. He arrived with his second wife, their five children and a German Shepherd dog. Carol had mixed feelings about their meeting and never communicated again with her father. She keeps a small, framed picture of him sitting on the mantel in our home. The photo – taken before he and Carol’s mother separated – shows her father in his army uniform.
Though our children (two adult daughters) treat me royally on Father’s Day, and Carol enjoys seeing me in good relationship with our offspring, I am aware on each Father’s Day that Carol knows what it’s like “to grow up without a father in the home.”
The Psalmist comforts “the Carols of this world” and all of us with these words: “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides upon the heavens by his name JAH (the LORD), and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, and a judge (a defender) of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families: he brings out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land” (Psalm 68:4-6).
Psalm 27:10 offers these words: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
The writer of Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God has promised, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (KJV). A modern version translates that verse this way: “I will not give you up or desert you.”
No matter how well or how poorly our parents fill or filled their roles, we should honor (respect) our parents because God asks us to do so. Respecting parents is tied closely with respecting God and people placed in authority over us.
Augustine asked, “If anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare?”
The fifth of God’s Ten Commandments contains a promise along with its directive: “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).
I talked years ago with a teenager whom I’ll call “Dan.” Dan’s parents left him with his maternal grandmother when he was a baby, and she, with small income, was raising him. Dan harbored mixed feelings toward his father, whom he infrequently saw. I pointed out that his father “brought him into the world” and though he might not be a good father, the man Dan knew as his father “was” his father. Dan was an excellent athlete, and I mentioned that he probably inherited his physical coordination from his dad, who participated in sports as a young man. I wanted Dan to find some way – even a small way – to respect his father and avoid self-destructive tendencies spawned from father-child conflict.
Doug, who worked as a personnel director, once told me that his father served as a pastor. One of Doug’s childhood jobs was to polish his dad’s shoes each Saturday night and get them ready for Sunday morning. One week, his dad punished Doug for something Doug had no part in. His dad later realized he’d wrongfully punished Doug, but he said nothing. Saturday night came, and as Doug picked up one of his dad’s shoes, he found an apology note from his dad placed inside that shoe. Doug smiled as he told me that story. I’m sure he would have preferred to hear words from his father’s lips, but the note in the shoe was his father’s “way.”
Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it is an important day.
Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it’s an important day – a time to honor living fathers and fathers who have passed on.
My wife, Carol, who was born in Oakland, California, remembers seeing her father only twice. Carol’s mother left her marriage and took Carol, who was then one and one-half years old, to her Pennsylvania homeland. Carol was seven or eight and staying one night at her maternal grandparents’ house when a man knocked on their door.
Carol, sitting at a kitchen table when her grandmother opened that door, saw the man in the darkness but didn’t recognize him. Her grandmother stepped outside to talk. When she reentered, she told Carol, “That was your father.”
Carol didn’t see him again until she was a college student in Greenville, S.C. After graduating from high school, she asked her mother to locate her father. Carol mailed one of her graduation pictures to him (he lived in New Jersey), and they arranged to meet in Greenville in the fall. He arrived with his second wife, their five children and a German Shepherd dog. Carol had mixed feelings about their meeting and never communicated again with her father. She keeps a small, framed picture of him sitting on the mantel in our home. The photo – taken before he and Carol’s mother separated – shows her father in his army uniform.
Though our children (two adult daughters) treat me royally on Father’s Day, and Carol enjoys seeing me in good relationship with our offspring, I am aware on each Father’s Day that Carol knows what it’s like “to grow up without a father in the home.”
The Psalmist comforts “the Carols of this world” and all of us with these words: “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides upon the heavens by his name JAH (the LORD), and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, and a judge (a defender) of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families: he brings out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land” (Psalm 68:4-6).
Psalm 27:10 offers these words: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
The writer of Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God has promised, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (KJV). A modern version translates that verse this way: “I will not give you up or desert you.”
No matter how well or how poorly our parents fill or filled their roles, we should honor (respect) our parents because God asks us to do so. Respecting parents is tied closely with respecting God and people placed in authority over us.
Augustine asked, “If anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare?”
The fifth of God’s Ten Commandments contains a promise along with its directive: “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).
I talked years ago with a teenager whom I’ll call “Dan.” Dan’s parents left him with his maternal grandmother when he was a baby, and she, with small income, was raising him. Dan harbored mixed feelings toward his father, whom he infrequently saw. I pointed out that his father “brought him into the world” and though he might not be a good father, the man Dan knew as his father “was” his father. Dan was an excellent athlete, and I mentioned that he probably inherited his physical coordination from his dad, who participated in sports as a young man. I wanted Dan to find some way – even a small way – to respect his father and avoid self-destructive tendencies spawned from father-child conflict.
Doug, who worked as a personnel director, once told me that his father served as a pastor. One of Doug’s childhood jobs was to polish his dad’s shoes each Saturday night and get them ready for Sunday morning. One week, his dad punished Doug for something Doug had no part in. His dad later realized he’d wrongfully punished Doug, but he said nothing. Saturday night came, and as Doug picked up one of his dad’s shoes, he found an apology note from his dad placed inside that shoe. Doug smiled as he told me that story. I’m sure he would have preferred to hear words from his father’s lips, but the note in the shoe was his father’s “way.”
Father’s Day is not an easy occasion for everyone, but it is an important day.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Fatalism or Free Will?
by Steve Crain
I believe God gives us “free will,” allowing us to choose many of the paths we take.
For centuries, Christians have debated extreme “predestination” versus “free will.”
A story goes that an older Christian believed all that happened in his life was “predestined” or “meant to be.” He rose from bed one morning, walked to his home’s staircase and fell down a long flight of steps. Hurting, he got up, looked at the staircase and said, “I’m glad that’s over."
Non-Christians also talk about “destiny.” Someone said destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable or that an individual chooses his destiny by selecting various paths throughout his life.
I’ve heard of soldiers who say a man won’t die in battle until a “bullet has his name on it” or “until his number is up.”
Here is an old Arab tale about “destiny”:
A merchant sent his servant to market. The servant returned trembling and said, “Master, just now in the crowded marketplace I was jostled by someone, and I turned and saw it was Death that jostled me. Death looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Please, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Damascus and there Death will not find me.”
The merchant lent him a horse, and the servant rode as fast as the horse could gallop. The merchant then went to the marketplace, saw Death standing in the crowd and said, “Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?”
“That was not a threatening gesture,” Death said. “It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Damascus.”
As a child in 1956, I heard the song “Que Sera, Sera,” meaning (in French and in several “romance languages”) “Whatever Will Be, Will Be.” Singer Doris Day first recorded these lyrics to that song’s first verse:
“When I was just a little girl / I asked my mother what will I be / Will I be pretty, will I be rich / Here’s what she said to me / (chorus): Que sera, sera / Whatever will be, will be / The future’s not ours to see / Que sera, sera / What will be will be.”
The lilting melody of “Que Sera, Sera” seemed comforting to me in 1956. That song’s message seemed to be “Relax; many things – maybe all things – are beyond your control.” While some people may find solace in that song, there is also an inherent fatalism in its message.
French novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-90) is credited with saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Karr’s quote seems to convey that the more we change things, the more we tend to live out patterns that do not change. There seems to be a bit of “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic” flavor in that quotation.
In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1643), God “freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.”
Someone asked me, “If God knows who will be saved and who won’t, how do people have ‘free will’ to choose their destinies?”
That’s a hard question, but I believe God’s foreknowledge of how things will turn out does not exclude the free will he gives to each of us. We can only partially understand the “mind of God” – “his ways are higher than our ways” – so we trust the character of God, who is good, loving, just and merciful.
The Lord is longsuffering (patient), “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Christians differ over how much control each person has over his own life. Someone said that if human responsibility is overemphasized, Christianity turns into legalism, without an appreciation for God’s power acting in lives. If God’s responsibility is overemphasized, Christianity turns into fatalism, losing the emphasis on obedience to God and service to others.
I believe God gives us “free will.” Let’s decide to follow Christ, block out worldly, fatalistic thoughts and make daily God-honoring choices.
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15 (NIV).
I believe God gives us “free will,” allowing us to choose many of the paths we take.
For centuries, Christians have debated extreme “predestination” versus “free will.”
A story goes that an older Christian believed all that happened in his life was “predestined” or “meant to be.” He rose from bed one morning, walked to his home’s staircase and fell down a long flight of steps. Hurting, he got up, looked at the staircase and said, “I’m glad that’s over."
Non-Christians also talk about “destiny.” Someone said destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable or that an individual chooses his destiny by selecting various paths throughout his life.
I’ve heard of soldiers who say a man won’t die in battle until a “bullet has his name on it” or “until his number is up.”
Here is an old Arab tale about “destiny”:
A merchant sent his servant to market. The servant returned trembling and said, “Master, just now in the crowded marketplace I was jostled by someone, and I turned and saw it was Death that jostled me. Death looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Please, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Damascus and there Death will not find me.”
The merchant lent him a horse, and the servant rode as fast as the horse could gallop. The merchant then went to the marketplace, saw Death standing in the crowd and said, “Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?”
“That was not a threatening gesture,” Death said. “It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Damascus.”
As a child in 1956, I heard the song “Que Sera, Sera,” meaning (in French and in several “romance languages”) “Whatever Will Be, Will Be.” Singer Doris Day first recorded these lyrics to that song’s first verse:
“When I was just a little girl / I asked my mother what will I be / Will I be pretty, will I be rich / Here’s what she said to me / (chorus): Que sera, sera / Whatever will be, will be / The future’s not ours to see / Que sera, sera / What will be will be.”
The lilting melody of “Que Sera, Sera” seemed comforting to me in 1956. That song’s message seemed to be “Relax; many things – maybe all things – are beyond your control.” While some people may find solace in that song, there is also an inherent fatalism in its message.
French novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-90) is credited with saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Karr’s quote seems to convey that the more we change things, the more we tend to live out patterns that do not change. There seems to be a bit of “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic” flavor in that quotation.
In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1643), God “freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.”
Someone asked me, “If God knows who will be saved and who won’t, how do people have ‘free will’ to choose their destinies?”
That’s a hard question, but I believe God’s foreknowledge of how things will turn out does not exclude the free will he gives to each of us. We can only partially understand the “mind of God” – “his ways are higher than our ways” – so we trust the character of God, who is good, loving, just and merciful.
The Lord is longsuffering (patient), “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Christians differ over how much control each person has over his own life. Someone said that if human responsibility is overemphasized, Christianity turns into legalism, without an appreciation for God’s power acting in lives. If God’s responsibility is overemphasized, Christianity turns into fatalism, losing the emphasis on obedience to God and service to others.
I believe God gives us “free will.” Let’s decide to follow Christ, block out worldly, fatalistic thoughts and make daily God-honoring choices.
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15 (NIV).
Friday, June 5, 2009
John Harper's Last Convert
By Steve Crain
Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, died Sunday, May 31, 2009.
She was just over two months old when she was wrapped in a sack and lowered into a lifeboat in the icy North Atlantic, according to AP reporters Meera Selva and Jill Lawless. Dean, 97, died in her sleep “where she had lived – in Southampton, England, the city her family had tried to leave behind when it took the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage, bound for America.”
The Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, and sank within three hours. Dean was one of 706 people – mostly women and children – who survived. Her 2-year-old brother and her mother also survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died.
John Harper also died that night, and Mark Dever tells this awesome story about him in a chapter of “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” (Reference: Moody Adams, “The Titanic’s Last Hero: Story About John Harper,” Columbia, S.C.: Olive Press, 1997, 24-25):
John Harper was born into a Christian home in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1872. At about 14 years of age, he became a Christian and began to tell others about Christ. At 17, he began to preach, going down streets of his village and pouring out his soul in pleading for men to be reconciled to God.
After five or six years of preaching on street corners and working in a mill during the day, Harper was taken in by the Rev. E. A. Carter of Baptist Pioneer Mission in London. This set Harper free to devote his whole time and energy to evangelism.
In September 1896, Harper started his own church with 25 members. It numbered over 500 when he left 13 years later. During this time, he was both married and widowed. Before he lost his wife, he was blessed with a beautiful daughter named Nana.
Harper almost drowned several times. When he was two-and-a-half years old, he fell into a well but was resuscitated by his mother. At the age of 26, he was swept out to sea by a reverse current and barely survived. And at 32, he faced death on a leaking ship in the Mediterranean.
While pastoring his church in London, Harper continued his fervent evangelism. The Moody Church in Chicago asked him to come to America for meetings. Those meetings went well, and a few years later, Moody Church asked him to return. Harper boarded a ship – the “Titanic” – with a second-class ticket at Southampton, England, for the voyage to America.
Harper’s wife had died just a few years before, and he had with him his only child, Nana, age six. What happened after this is known mainly from two sources. One source is Nana, who died in 1986 at the age of 80. She remembered being woken up by her father a few nights into their journey. It was about midnight, and he said their ship had struck an iceberg. Harper told Nana that another ship was almost there to rescue them, but, as a precaution, he was going to put her in a lifeboat with an older cousin, who had accompanied them. As for Harper, he would wait for the other ship. Nana and her cousin were saved.
An unidentified Scotsman is reportedly the only other source of information concerning Harper’s last earthly actions. Here is that account:
In a prayer meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, some months or years after the Titanic sank, a young Scotsman stood up and in tears told this unusual story of how he was converted.
He said he was on the Titanic the night it struck the iceberg. He had clung to a piece of floating debris in the freezing waters.
“Suddenly,” he said, “a wave brought a man near – John Harper. He, too, was holding a piece of wreckage.
“He called out, ‘Man, are you saved?’
“‘No, I am not,’ I replied.
“He shouted back, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’
“The waves bore (Harper) away, but a little later, he was washed back beside me again.
“‘Are you saved now?’ he called out.
“‘No,’ I answered.
“‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ Harper said.
“Then losing his hold on the wood, (Harper) sank. And there, alone in the night with two miles of water under me, I trusted Christ as my saviour. I am John Harper’s last convert.”
Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, died Sunday, May 31, 2009.
She was just over two months old when she was wrapped in a sack and lowered into a lifeboat in the icy North Atlantic, according to AP reporters Meera Selva and Jill Lawless. Dean, 97, died in her sleep “where she had lived – in Southampton, England, the city her family had tried to leave behind when it took the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage, bound for America.”
The Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, and sank within three hours. Dean was one of 706 people – mostly women and children – who survived. Her 2-year-old brother and her mother also survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died.
John Harper also died that night, and Mark Dever tells this awesome story about him in a chapter of “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” (Reference: Moody Adams, “The Titanic’s Last Hero: Story About John Harper,” Columbia, S.C.: Olive Press, 1997, 24-25):
John Harper was born into a Christian home in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1872. At about 14 years of age, he became a Christian and began to tell others about Christ. At 17, he began to preach, going down streets of his village and pouring out his soul in pleading for men to be reconciled to God.
After five or six years of preaching on street corners and working in a mill during the day, Harper was taken in by the Rev. E. A. Carter of Baptist Pioneer Mission in London. This set Harper free to devote his whole time and energy to evangelism.
In September 1896, Harper started his own church with 25 members. It numbered over 500 when he left 13 years later. During this time, he was both married and widowed. Before he lost his wife, he was blessed with a beautiful daughter named Nana.
Harper almost drowned several times. When he was two-and-a-half years old, he fell into a well but was resuscitated by his mother. At the age of 26, he was swept out to sea by a reverse current and barely survived. And at 32, he faced death on a leaking ship in the Mediterranean.
While pastoring his church in London, Harper continued his fervent evangelism. The Moody Church in Chicago asked him to come to America for meetings. Those meetings went well, and a few years later, Moody Church asked him to return. Harper boarded a ship – the “Titanic” – with a second-class ticket at Southampton, England, for the voyage to America.
Harper’s wife had died just a few years before, and he had with him his only child, Nana, age six. What happened after this is known mainly from two sources. One source is Nana, who died in 1986 at the age of 80. She remembered being woken up by her father a few nights into their journey. It was about midnight, and he said their ship had struck an iceberg. Harper told Nana that another ship was almost there to rescue them, but, as a precaution, he was going to put her in a lifeboat with an older cousin, who had accompanied them. As for Harper, he would wait for the other ship. Nana and her cousin were saved.
An unidentified Scotsman is reportedly the only other source of information concerning Harper’s last earthly actions. Here is that account:
In a prayer meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, some months or years after the Titanic sank, a young Scotsman stood up and in tears told this unusual story of how he was converted.
He said he was on the Titanic the night it struck the iceberg. He had clung to a piece of floating debris in the freezing waters.
“Suddenly,” he said, “a wave brought a man near – John Harper. He, too, was holding a piece of wreckage.
“He called out, ‘Man, are you saved?’
“‘No, I am not,’ I replied.
“He shouted back, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’
“The waves bore (Harper) away, but a little later, he was washed back beside me again.
“‘Are you saved now?’ he called out.
“‘No,’ I answered.
“‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ Harper said.
“Then losing his hold on the wood, (Harper) sank. And there, alone in the night with two miles of water under me, I trusted Christ as my saviour. I am John Harper’s last convert.”
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Memorial Day Reflection
Chester Vernon Steele (1918-1943) who died at 25 years of age in World War IIby Steve Crain
A few days after my wife Carol and I wed in August 1970 in Greenville, S.C., we visited the Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia, and the gravesite of her Uncle Chester Vernon Steele.
We stopped at the cemetery on our way to see some of Carol’s relatives who lived in her native land of Washington, Pennsylvania. Winchester National Cemetery lies about 80 miles west of Washington, D.C., and was established during the Civil War.
“Grandma and Grandpap wanted him buried where his grave would be taken care of,” Carol said of Chester Steele, a U.S. soldier who died in North Africa during World War II. He was the younger of two boys (and six girls) born to Carol’s maternal grandparents, Benjamin Newton Freeland Steele and Rose Ella White Steele.
A framed photograph of a smiling Uncle Chester wearing a military uniform sits on our mantel. I sometimes pause to view the image of a soldier who died before Carol was born. I’ve wondered what kind of man he would have become if he had lived to return to Pennsylvania.
I’ve often heard these sayings: “Freedom isn’t free” and “All gave some, but some gave all.”
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who died in our nation’s service. It’s about coming together to honor those who gave their all.
Here is a bit of Memorial Day history:
President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 declared Waterloo, N.Y., the birthplace of Memorial Day, but it’s difficult to prove the origins of the day. The observance probably had many separate beginnings. Planned or spontaneous gatherings of people to honor the war dead in the 1860s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead. The movement culminated in U.S. General John A. Logan’s May 5, 1868 official proclamation recognizing Memorial Day. The day was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1873, New York became the first state to officially recognize the holiday, and by 1890, all northern states recognized Memorial Day. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their war dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). Memorial Day is now celebrated in almost all states on the last Monday in May.
To remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed in Dec. 2000. The resolution asks that on Memorial Day at 3:00 p.m., local time, Americans voluntarily and informally observe in their own ways a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to “Taps.” We are asked to set aside one day of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who gave their all in service to their country.
Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe, once stood before Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea. Pilate said, “Don’t you know I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you?”
Jesus said, “You have no authority over me at all, except what was given to you from above” (John 19:11). Jesus acknowledged that God instituted human government to provide order and protection.
Paul wrote, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God” (Romans 13:1). However, when rulers tried to stop the New Testament church from preaching about Jesus, Peter and the apostles said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
God should be first and country second. But one’s country is important, and until “time is no more,” those who enjoy freedom of religion should respect God-ordained government.
“Freedom isn’t free.” Our nation sometimes defends our freedoms with military force and asks citizens – especially the young – to serve.
Uncle Chester’s photograph reminds me that some who served in our country’s military made “the ultimate sacrifice.” On Memorial Day, let’s honor those who gave their all.
----------
After reading “Memorial Day Reflection,” Elaine H. of South Carolina wrote in an e-mail to S. Crain on May 23, 2009:
Re: the National Moment of Remembrance
Shortly after lunch on Memorial Day, 2004, I read in Dear Abby about the 3 pm moment of remembrance. I suggested to Russ (her husband) that I thought it would be nice if he stood on our front porch and played “Taps” on his trumpet at 3 pm. His response was that the neighbors would think he was CRAZY!!
After thinking about it, though, he decided he wanted to do it. I called my cousin Fred, who lives less than a quarter mile from our house – our house is on a hill and so is Fred’s. I told Fred what Russ was going to do and that I thought if he and his wife Kate stood on their porch they would probably be able to hear the trumpet because the wind was blowing in their direction.
Now you need to know some background on this.
Fred was 86 years old at that time (he is now 91 and still going strong). Fred was a fighter pilot in WWII, shot down behind enemy lines, captured and put in a German prison camp. I’ve forgotten how long he was in prison, but I remember that Allied forces freed them just shortly before he was scheduled for execution.
Russ served in Vietnam. He was stationed in Korea and did periodic temporary duty in Vietnam as a sniper. He and some friends formed a band and entertained the troops in areas where it was too dangerous for the USO to go.
On that Memorial Day just before 3 pm, Fred and Kate drove up in our yard (this was too important to him to just stand on his porch and hope to hear the trumpet). He was wearing his cap with his military insignias on it. Fred, Kate and I stood at attention in the yard facing the porch where Russ stood and played “Taps.” It was a special moment – the patriotism and the emotion were indescribable. When Russ finished, we ALL had tears in our eyes, there were no words – no one could speak. Fred shook Russ’ hand and the look between them was something only two soldiers could share. I’m in tears now just thinking about it. WOW!
Elaine
---------------------
From: Steve Crain, Saturday, May 23, 2009 11:19 PM
To: Elaine H., Re: A reflection of my own
Elaine,
What a wonderful story you sent! It brought tears to my eyes. Perhaps you will let me use your account of the event at some time in my writing? I would give you credit. Okay?
Tell (your husband) Russ thanks for his service. I have a site www.vietnamdrawings.blogspot.com that shows some drawings I did in Vietnam in 1971. Perhaps Russ might like to look at them?...Again, thanks and let me know about permission to use your story, if you will.
Steve C.
--------------------
On May 23, 2009, at 11:48 PM, Elaine H. wrote to Steve Crain:
You are welcome to use the story.
I’m sorry to say, my dear, sweet Russ passed away August 18, 2005 – 5 days before our 30th wedding anniversary.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
The Hearts of Mothers
by Steve Crain
“Do you have children?” a young dental hygienist asked me during one of my routine checkups.
I said, “Yes,” and told her the ages of the two adult daughters my wife Carol and I cherish.
“I have a son; he’s eight months old,” said the trim, blond hygienist whose husband works as a golf course manager.
“That keeps you busy,” I said.
“Oh, yes, but if we decide to go somewhere special, we take him with us,” she said. “He’s starting to ‘pull up’ and will soon be walking.”
“It’s great you’re committed to having children,” I said. “You may better appreciate this statement when your son is older, but someone said, ‘The decision to have a child is a decision to take your heart out and let it walk around on the earth.’”
She was silent for a short time before she said, “That’s enough to bring a tear to an eye.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t have given her that quotation. I didn’t mean to cause her to lose the joy of telling of her son’s endearing baby behavior. I wondered what crossed her mind in the seconds between my statement and her reply? Did she envision her son growing away from her during his teenage years? Did she see him as a young man wearing a military uniform and waving as he boarded a plane?
I was no more than six years old when my mother looked at me while she said to a lady visiting our house, “They say war comes around about every 18 years.”
I remember thinking I would probably follow in the footsteps of my father, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in Germany during World War II. Mother had known the stress of waiting for her husband to return, and she seemed concerned about my future. Mother’s statement came to my mind many times before I entered the U.S. Army. I spent a year in Vietnam but saw no combat.
“The decision to have a child is a decision to take your heart out and let it walk around on the earth.”
Many mothers have “poured out their hearts in prayer” for their children. They’ve prayed for children who “made them proud” and prayed for wayward sons and daughters.
While living years ago in Greenville, S.C., I often listened to the Rev. Oliver B. Greene’s “The Gospel Hour” radio broadcasts. Greene was born in 1915 in Greenville, South Carolina, and based his ministry in that city. He died in 1976.
A Gospel Hour website describes Greene’s youthful life as “that of a wastrel, living in wanton wickedness. Drinking, stealing, bootlegging, immorality – he was a veteran of all those vices. But at age 20, God saved that wayward youth when he attended a revival meeting (solely in an attempt to date a pure country girl) and heard a sermon on ‘The wages of sin is death.’” Greene said he moved “from disgrace to grace.” In 1939, at age 24, Greene bought a tent, and for 35 years conducted revivals across America, until failing health forced him to stop.
During one of his radio programs, I heard Greene tell of “coming home drunk” when he was an unsaved young man. He heard his mother praying for him as he passed her room. A sermon may have convicted Greene and clinched his decision to follow Christ, but his mother had prayed for him for many years.
When the angel Gabriel traveled to Galilee and told Mary she would give birth to Jesus, Mary was joyful. After Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph (Jesus’ stepfather) carried Jesus to Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord.” The elderly Simeon “came by the Spirit into the temple” and took Jesus in his arms.
“And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yes, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul, also…” (Luke 2:35).
Mary knew the joy of giving birth to Jesus Christ, “the Light of the world,” and she knew the soul-piercing pain of seeing her grown son, her “sweet little holy child,” suffer rejection and endure the agony of crucifixion.
Dear Father, bless all the mothers who have known and will know the joys and sorrows that come from being willing to take their hearts out and let them walk around on the earth.
“Do you have children?” a young dental hygienist asked me during one of my routine checkups.
I said, “Yes,” and told her the ages of the two adult daughters my wife Carol and I cherish.
“I have a son; he’s eight months old,” said the trim, blond hygienist whose husband works as a golf course manager.
“That keeps you busy,” I said.
“Oh, yes, but if we decide to go somewhere special, we take him with us,” she said. “He’s starting to ‘pull up’ and will soon be walking.”
“It’s great you’re committed to having children,” I said. “You may better appreciate this statement when your son is older, but someone said, ‘The decision to have a child is a decision to take your heart out and let it walk around on the earth.’”
She was silent for a short time before she said, “That’s enough to bring a tear to an eye.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t have given her that quotation. I didn’t mean to cause her to lose the joy of telling of her son’s endearing baby behavior. I wondered what crossed her mind in the seconds between my statement and her reply? Did she envision her son growing away from her during his teenage years? Did she see him as a young man wearing a military uniform and waving as he boarded a plane?
I was no more than six years old when my mother looked at me while she said to a lady visiting our house, “They say war comes around about every 18 years.”
I remember thinking I would probably follow in the footsteps of my father, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in Germany during World War II. Mother had known the stress of waiting for her husband to return, and she seemed concerned about my future. Mother’s statement came to my mind many times before I entered the U.S. Army. I spent a year in Vietnam but saw no combat.
“The decision to have a child is a decision to take your heart out and let it walk around on the earth.”
Many mothers have “poured out their hearts in prayer” for their children. They’ve prayed for children who “made them proud” and prayed for wayward sons and daughters.
While living years ago in Greenville, S.C., I often listened to the Rev. Oliver B. Greene’s “The Gospel Hour” radio broadcasts. Greene was born in 1915 in Greenville, South Carolina, and based his ministry in that city. He died in 1976.
A Gospel Hour website describes Greene’s youthful life as “that of a wastrel, living in wanton wickedness. Drinking, stealing, bootlegging, immorality – he was a veteran of all those vices. But at age 20, God saved that wayward youth when he attended a revival meeting (solely in an attempt to date a pure country girl) and heard a sermon on ‘The wages of sin is death.’” Greene said he moved “from disgrace to grace.” In 1939, at age 24, Greene bought a tent, and for 35 years conducted revivals across America, until failing health forced him to stop.
During one of his radio programs, I heard Greene tell of “coming home drunk” when he was an unsaved young man. He heard his mother praying for him as he passed her room. A sermon may have convicted Greene and clinched his decision to follow Christ, but his mother had prayed for him for many years.
When the angel Gabriel traveled to Galilee and told Mary she would give birth to Jesus, Mary was joyful. After Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph (Jesus’ stepfather) carried Jesus to Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord.” The elderly Simeon “came by the Spirit into the temple” and took Jesus in his arms.
“And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yes, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul, also…” (Luke 2:35).
Mary knew the joy of giving birth to Jesus Christ, “the Light of the world,” and she knew the soul-piercing pain of seeing her grown son, her “sweet little holy child,” suffer rejection and endure the agony of crucifixion.
Dear Father, bless all the mothers who have known and will know the joys and sorrows that come from being willing to take their hearts out and let them walk around on the earth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
