This Is Jesus Checking In

A Pastor passing through his church in the middle of the day decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.

Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle. The Pastor frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while. His shirt was kinda shabby and his coat was worn and frayed. The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.

In the days that followed, each noon time came this man. Each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap.

The Pastor's suspicion grew, with robbery a main fear. He decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?"

The old man said that he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power.

"I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away; As I kneel here talking to the Lord, this is kinda what I say: 'I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERY DAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM, CHECKING IN TODAY.'"

The Pastor feeling foolish told Jim, that it was fine for him to visit the Church every day. He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime.

Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks." He hurried to the door. The minister knelt at the altar, he'd never done it before. His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there. As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.

I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERY DAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS ALBERT CHECKING IN TODAY."

Past noon one day, the Pastor noticed that old Jim hadn't come. As more days passed without Jim appearing, he began to worry that something might have happened to the man.

At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill. The hospital staff was worried, but he'd given them a thrill. The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward. His smile has a joy contagious. Changed people, were his reward.

The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad when no flowers, calls or cards came, not a visitor he had. The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse's concern: No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn.

Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile; "the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know, that in here all the while every day at noon He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see, He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.

ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,

AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN TODAY."

A Living House

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. 

At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. 

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. 

What on earth is He up to? 

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. 

You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. 

He intends to come and live in it Himself.

C.S. Lewis

Keeping A Promise - Tiger Phong and Tiger Woods

Earl Woods, the father of Tiger Woods, with a photo taken with his good friend, Colonel Tiger Phong.

In the latter days of the Vietnam War, an American Colonel named Earl Woods made a promise. Woods believed that his friend, a South Vietnamese colonel named Vuong Phong, had saved his life. In gratitude for that act, Woods promised to name his son after his friend, who was known as “Tiger.” Sports fans will immediately understand that the promise was kept. That son has immortalized his father’s friend, for most everyone has heard of Tiger Woods.

 J. Michael Shannon

-------------------------
Here is the story in detail,

On the last day of 1975, the day after Eldrick Woods was born, Tiger Woods was born when his father gazed into a maternity glass and saw both the future and the past.

"Don't worry, Woody," Colonel Phong told Earl in a hushed voice, "I've never lost an advisor yet."

"'I'm glad to hear it, Tiger," he whispered back, "but I damn sure don't want to be the first one."

Tiger Phong and Earl Woods were deep in Vietcong country, exactly where, only Phong knew. The two-jeep caravan of the two light colonels from Phan Thiet was a familiar convoy throughout Binh Thuan Province, where Phong was the Deputy Province Chief for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and Woods was more than just his U.S. advisor.

The Americans were pulling out. "I got to go," their commander said. Phong's troops were supposed to take over the fire base, but they were overdue. It was sort of a preview of the coming years.

"That's all right, we can defend it ourselves," Phong asserted.

"What?" Woods said.

"You take this cover, I'll take that. My driver can man the third flank, your driver the fourth."

"Tiger, this is ridiculous."

Phong smiled at his friend. Yes, war is certainly ridiculous.

Before taking his position, Woods retrieved an M-79 grenade-launcher from the jeep and set it down in a row with his M-16 rifle and .45-caliber pistol. For three hours, he sweated.

When the ARVN forces eventually showed up and Colonel Phong finished grinding their captain into a fine dry powder, Woods radioed for a helicopter.

The chopper hadn't flown 50 yards before they were under fire. The VC had been there all along. "Wham, wham, wham, wham, wham!" The rounds shot up through the floor of the helicopter directly between the two colonels. As they twirled out of range, Woods said, "Tiger, you crazy son of a bitch." Colonel Phong just laughed.

Later they had a drink in Earl's quarters, "The Blue Room," their mission central and private retreat. More than one drink. It was Phong who had organized the preposterous paint job -- ceiling included -- that gave the room its identity. It was Woods who nicknamed him "Tiger," an expression of admiration but also irony.

Not all of the South Vietnamese soldiers could be called tigers.

The two were closer than friends, brothers. When they weren't fighting side by side, they were playing tennis or tricks. Woods schooled Phong on the rudiments of jazz; Phong gave Woods philosophy. They laughed a tremendous lot, lest they cry a tremendous lot.

But this was a quiet night. Aretha Franklin was singing on the record player. Phong was retelling his dream of being a schoolteacher someday -- he looked like a schoolteacher already. The thing he wished most for his children was just an absence of helicopters.

Woods was thinking of that afternoon in the artillery field: When the Americans left, the Communists should have stormed. Why didn't they? He should be dead. Why wasn't he? Then, and forever, he told himself over and over, "There has to be a reason." 

(Tom Callahan)

Auntie Deborah Wang - Never Alone

Auntie Deborah and her famous husband, Pastor Wang Ming Dao

By Dr. Harold J. Sala.

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

It is said that behind every great man is a great woman. Unquestionably, that was true of Wang Ming Dao. The woman, Deborah Wang, a frail but vibrant saint, endured what no woman should ever have to face. Her husband, Wang Ming Dao, was one of the unofficial architects of the house church movement in China, and when her husband was sentenced to prison for what the Chinese government termed "anti-revolutionary" activities, his wife followed.

For 20 years, this saintly woman was in prison, facing the bitter cold of northern Chinese winters with thin clothes and insufficient food, but she never complained.

In 1989 I met the Wangs for the first time. I'll never forget the afternoon I sat in the humble little apartment in Shanghai and listened to them recount their experiences. While I deeply admired and venerated Wang Ming Dao, I was drawn to the strength of this saintly woman whose smile came from her heart. As she talked about the years of imprisonment, I asked, "Did you ever lose hope?" (After all, 20 years of separation, with very little news and few letters from the one you loved so deeply, is a long time.) Her eyes spoke far more than her answer as she said, "No, never!"

After the Wangs were released from prison, their home became a refuge for those who needed encouragement and counsel. God only knows how many cups of tea Auntie Wang (as her friends called her) served to weary men and women who traipsed up the stairs to their flat for encouragement and help.

What a woman! Two weeks after her husband passed away, at the age of 91, I again visited Auntie Wang. The ashes of her late husband were in an urn on the table near the chair which Brother Wang had used as a pulpit to share the Word. My son-in-law and I sought to comfort her, quoting some of my favorite passages of Scripture. But it was Auntie Wang who really comforted us. She was in her mid-eighties. Successful surgery a few months before had removed one of the cataracts from her eyes, and few details escaped her. When a small piece of paper fell from my lap, it was she who quickly leaned over to pick it up.

"Auntie Wang," I said, "I will pray that you will not be lonely." Pausing for just a moment she spoke with a clear and resolute tone of voice, "I will not be lonely; I was not lonely before." It was what she didn't say that spoke the loudest. On a previous visit, she told me that she had seen her husband but three times during the twenty years of imprisonment. That one word, "before," said so much. I knew what she was thinking.

Those words rang in my ears when a close friend told how Deborah Wang had developed pneumonia and was taken to a Shanghai hospital. With no rooms available, she was given a temporary bed in a hallway, and there in the early hours of the morning on April 18, 1992, she met Him who had been her stay and companion for so many years. As the leaves of the trees were budding, following the cold of a Shanghai winter, Deborah Wang made her entrance into the presence of the Lord, where a faithful and devoted husband awaited her.

The saddest part to me was that she couldn't be surrounded by friends and flowers when the angel sweetly took her hand and escorted her across the threshold of death. But I am sure of one fact: While she was alone, she was not lonely. She had the promise of her Lord who said, "And surely I am with you, always...." (Matthew 28:20). Deborah Wang experienced that, both in life and in death.
Resource reading: Hebrews 13:1-5



Dr. Harold J. Sala, well known speaker, author and Bible teacher, has served as founder and President of Guidelines International, Inc., since 1963. He is the featured speaker on the daily "Guidelines-A Five Minute Commentary on Living" which is broadcast on over 1000 radio stations around the world and translated in over 15 languages. Author of over 40 books published in various languages and hundreds of publications. Residing in Mission Viejo, California, Harold and his wife, Darlene, have three adult children and eight well-loved grandchildren.

A Brave Soldier of God

“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10

Roy Pontoh, 15 years old, Indonesia, 1999

The teens could tell that the shouts and chanting were getting closer and closer. An older teen nervously looked at his friend. "The Muslims are coming. We’d better hide the kids," he said. Others, following his lead, helped the smaller children find hiding places in the buildings nearby. Then they hid themselves.

It was January and a crowd of mostly Christian children and teenagers had gathered for a Bible camp at the Station Field Complex of Pattimura University on the Island of Ambon, Indonesia. When the camp was over, cars came to take the laughing, rejoicing children back to their homes. But there were not enough cars to hold the young people.

Mecky Sainyakit and three other Christian men had gone to Wakal village to try to ask the military for additional transportation and the provision of security to take the rest home. But they had not yet come back.

What the kids waiting for rides home didn’t know was that on their way to the village, the men were attacked by a Muslim mob, who pulled them from their car and out onto the road. Mecky and one of the other men were stabbed to death, and later their bodies were burned by the mob. The two other men escaped with their lives.

Back at the university crowds of Laskar Jihad fighters and muslim extremists from the surrounding villages started to gather at the gates, so the remaining adults started to hide the youth around the building, then hid themselves and began to pray.

Eventually the mob broke into the buildings armed with machetes, spears, knives and clubs. They found many of the youth and beat them. The girls and women were forced out of the building, but the boys and men were kept inside. Roy Pontoh was singled out and dragged from the group.

He was asked "Who are you?" and replied "I am a soldier (warrior) of Christ" to which he was struck on the arm with a machete. He was asked the same question again and gave the same reply to which he was struck on the other arm. 

A third time he was asked the same question and replied as before. This time Roy was struck on his stomach with the machete and as he died his last words were "Jesus" (some accounts speak of a prior blow to the stomach ripping into Roy's Bible that he was holding).

The mob dragged Roy’s body out and threw it in a ditch. Four days later, his family found it. Even though they were wracked with grief, Roy’s parents stand proud of their son, who stood strong in his faith to the end.

~~
Whoever declares openly – speaking our freely - and confess that he is My worshipper and acknowledge Me before men, the Son of man also will declare and confess and acknowledge him before the angels of God. -Jesus (Luke 12:8 AMP)

LOVE IS "I STILL KNOW WHO SHE IS".

It was a busy morning, approximately 8.30 am, when an elderly gentleman in his eighties arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in hurry as he had an appointment at 9.00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looked at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I went to evaluate his wound.

On closer examination, it had healed nicely, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.

I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is." I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life."

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be , and will not be.

Old Mr. John's Memory Verse

The story is told of a Sunday class that had been asked the question, "In your time of discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture?" A young man said, "the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want Psalm 23:1."

A middle age woman said, "God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1."

Another woman said, "In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome this world. John 16:33-35."

Then old Mr. John who was 80 years old, with head of white hair and dark black skin, stood up and said with as much strength as he could muster, "and it came to pass 85 times in the Bible."

The class started to laugh a little thinking that old Mr. John's lack of memory was getting the best of him. When the snickering stopped, he said.

"At 30 I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn't know how I would make it. At 40 my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down.

At 50 my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer. It slowly ate away at her. We cried together many a night on our knees in prayer.

At 65 she died. I still miss her today. The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable. I wondered where God was. But each time I looked in the Bible I saw one of those 85 verses that said, 'and it came to pass.'

I felt that God was telling me, my pain and my circumstances were also going to pass and that God would get me through it."

The Farmer and the Preacher

There’s a classic old story about a conversation between a farmer and a preacher. The story goes that the preacher was driving down a country road when he came upon the most beautiful farm he’d ever seen in his lifetime spent traveling rural roads. He could only compare it to a beautiful painting. It was by no means a new farm, but the house and buildings were well constructed and in perfect repair and paint. A garden around the house was filled with flowers and shrubs. A fine row of trees lined each side of the white gravel drive. The fields were beautifully tilled, and a fine herd of fat dairy cattle grazed knee-deep in the pasture. The site was so arresting the preacher stopped to drink it all in. He had been raised on a farm himself, and he knew a great one when he saw it

It was then he noticed the farmer, on a tractor, hard at work, approaching the place where the preacher stood beside his car. When the farmer got closer, the preacher hailed him. The farmer stopped the tractor, idled down the engine, and then shouted a friendly “hello!” The preacher said to him, “My good man, God has certainly blessed you with a magnificent farm.” And then, there was a pause as the farmer took off his cape and shifted in the tractor seat to take a look at his pride and joy. He then looked at the preacher and he said, “Yes, He has, and we’re grateful. But you should have seen this place when He had it all to Himself.”

Well, the preacher looked at the strong, friendly features of the farmer for a moment, smiled, and with a wave of his hand climbed back in his car and continued on his way. And he thought, that man has given me my sermon for next Sunday.

Every farmer along this road and in this country has been blessed with the same land, pretty much, and the same opportunity. Each has worked his farm according to his nature. Every farm, every home of every family in the country is the living reflection of the people who dwell in it. He understood that the land we’re given was not the acres we buy for our farm or the lot on which we build or buy a home, but rather the life we give it, what we do with what we have. Our lives are our plots of ground, and that’s the land we sow and from which we are then obliged to reap the resulting harvest. And the way we’ve sown will be reflected in every department of our lives.

Well, the farmer that the preacher had just talked to would reap an abundant harvest, not just when the time came for gathering his crops, but every time he looked around the place, every time he returned from town to that white gravel drive and trees that lined it and the fine home and gardens that stood at the end of it. He was grateful for what he had. But he knew that it was not what is given us that makes the difference, but rather what we do with it, what we make of what we have. Yes, sir, the preacher thought as he smiled and drove his car along the road to town. He had his sermon for next Sunday, and it would be a good one.

Each one of us is a farmer. Our lives are the plots of ground that have been given to us free and clear. If we’re wise, we too, will reap the abundant harvest, for the planting is left strictly to us.

Earl Nightingale

Faithful Old Dog Awaits Return of Master Dead for Seven Years

Hachiko the Faithful Dog

Hachiko is on now on display at the Tokyo Museum of Art.

Each year on April 8th at a solemn ceremony in Tokyo's Shibuya railroad station, hundreds of dog lovers do homage to the loyalty and devotion of an Akita dog, Hachiko, faithful pet of Dr. Eisaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo University.


Hachiko was born in Odate, Japan in November 1923, a white male Akita dog. At the age of two months, he was sent to the home of Professor Ueno of the Agricultural Department of the Tokyo University. The professor's home was in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. The professor commuted to the agricultural department in Komaba and the agricultural experimental station in Nishihara.


Tragedy struck on May 21, 1925, when Dr. Ueno did not return because he had suffered a stroke and died at the university. Hachiko was eighteen months old. The next day and for the next nine years, Hachiko returned to the station and waited for his beloved master before walking home, alone. Nothing and no one could discourage Hachiko from maintaining his nightly vigil. It was not until he followed his master in death, in March l934, that Hachiko failed to appear in his place at the railroad station.

A rare photo of Hachiko

Hachiko was sent to homes of relatives or friends, but he always continued to await his master, who was never to return, at the train station.


The fidelity of Hachiko was known throughout Japan, owing to an article, "Faithful Old Dog Awaits Return of Master Dead for Seven Years" in the October 4, 1933 issue of Aashi Shinbun (Asahi News). Upon his death, newspaper stories led to the suggestion that a statue be erected in the station. Contributions the from the United States and other countries were received. 


Today, the statue of the Akita, Hachiko, pays silent tribute to the breed's faithfulness and loyalty. A bronze statue of Hachiko was put up at his waiting spot outside the Shibuya railroad station, which is now probably the most popular rendezvous point in Shibuya. Hachiko was mounted and stuffed and is on now on display at the Tokyo Museum of Art.

YOU'LL FIND JESUS THERE

"Tomorrow morning I'll open up your heart" the surgeon said to the 8 year-old-boy.

"You'll find Jesus there," the boy said.

The surgeon continued, "I'll open your heart and check the damage."

"You'll find Jesus there," the boy said.

"When I see the damage, I will suture you back up and then think about the next step," said the surgeon.

"You will find Jesus in my heart because my Sunday school teacher told me so. She said it says so in the Bible. Besides that, our Sunday school songs say He lives there," said the boy.

The surgery took place the next day. After the surgery the surgeon began to make notes of what he found. In his mind there was no hope and no cure. The little boy would die within a matter of months.

The thought began to get to the doctor and all of a sudden the doctor shouted to God, "Why did you do this to the boy? Why can't he live a normal life?"

God spoke to the surgeon's heart and said, "The boy is a part of my flock and will always be a part of my flock. When he is with me there will be no more suffering and pain. He will have comfort and peace. One day his parents as well as you will join him and my flock will continue to grow."

The next day the surgeon went to the boy's room and sat down with the parents beside the bed.

In a moment or two, the boy opened his eyes and asked very quietly, "What did you find in my heart?"

With tears flowing down his cheeks, the surgeon said, "I found Jesus there."

(author unknown)

Facing Trials Like a Blacksmith

The next time you face a trial in life, remember this story:

You perhaps recall the story of the blacksmith who gave his heart to God. Though conscientious in his living, still he was not prospering materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion more trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before. Everything seemed to be going wrong.

One day a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the little gorge to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said "It seems strange to me that so much affliction should pass over you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, God's help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can't help wondering why it is."

The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he had thought the same question before. But finally, he said "You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. And this I do until it is finished."

"But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse's shoe."

He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop. "When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything."

He went on, "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind, if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only don't throw me on the scrap heap."

Power To Pump Well Water

C.T. Studd shortly after his arrival in the African bush (1910)

I don’t know if you’ve heard the story of C. T. Studd the great Christian missionary. He went to a fair years and years ago and was captivated by a man pumping a well. 

The thing that grabbed him was how fast he was pumping and how long he was able to pump. He said to himself, "No man can do that. What kind of vitamins does he take? What kind of exercise program is he on?" He walked over to get a closer look. He found that the man dressed in Oriental garb was not a man. He was a stick figure. His elbows were hinges. He was not pumping the well, the well was pumping him. It was an artesian well. You see, there was a power that turned the man.

I believe that’s exactly what Paul is saying. He says, "I want you to know something. I want you to know it’s not you doing it for God. It’s God doing it in and through you as you bow before Him." Listen, it’s a 200% relationship. It’s 100% my willingness to obey, yield and bow, but it’s also 100% His power, His presence and what He can do in and through me that I cannot do and certainly will never deserve.

by Dr. Wayne Barber

Evangelist Billy Graham

William Franklin Graham, Jr ...better known as Billy Graham, is an evangelist and an Evangelical Christian. He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple U.S. presidents and was number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist.

Graham has preached in person to more people around the world than anyone who has ever lived. As of 1993, more than 2.5 million people had stepped forward at his crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior." As of 2002, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped two billion.

Graham was close with every American President from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush, who said it was a conversation with Graham that led him to become a Christian.

For many years Graham wrote a daily advice column à la Dear Abby, where every reader's dilemma was answered with the same ultimate advice: Come to Christ. His many books include How to be Born Again. 

In 1953, Graham started World Wide Pictures, a Christian studio that has been cranking out Christian films ever since. In WWP films, the protagonist's problems are resolved by finding Christ. In several of these films, Christ is found at a Billy Graham rally. Graham is retired, and his son Franklin Graham is now CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Thirteen Tears: A Columbine Legacy

In Death, Rachel Scott Becomes A Powerful Witness For Christ

Rachel Scott was having lunch with a friend outside when the horror began to unfold at Columbine High School near Denver on April 20, 1999.

Two of their classmates, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, approached with guns and fired several shots, wounding both.

As the boy lay stunned and Rachel tried to crawl away, Harris lifted Rachel by her hair and asked, “Do you believe in God?”

“You know I do,” she answered.

“Then go be with him,” Harris said, and shot her in the head.

She was the first to die that morning.

Rachel was 17, and in the year before her murder she had grown more committed in her relationship with God.

Like most teenagers, she struggled with things like sexual temptation and alcohol abuse. She was no perfect saint, but something had changed. She had become kinder to others, including those like Dylan and Eric, who were part of the “trench coat mafia” — teens who dressed in black, listened to nihilistic music, played violent video games and hated Christ and Christians.

In an Internet video, Klebold said, “Thank God they crucified that a______.”

Rachel counted the cost of her decision to follow Christ and suffered the deep pain of loneliness when her friends at Columbine turned away from her because of her faith. But she would not go back.

In one of her journal entries, dated April 20, 1998 — exactly one year to the day before she died — she wrote: “I am not going to apologize for speaking the Name of Jesus, I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything … I will.”

A few days later, she wrote: “This will be my last year, Lord. I have gotten what I can. Thank you.”

She often told friends she believed she would die young and wouldn’t live long enough to marry or have children.

Sometime after she died, her father, Darrell Scott, received a telephone call from a stranger in Ohio. The man told Darrell “you’ll probably think I’m crazy when I tell you why I called, but I have had a recurring dream about your daughter. …”

In his dream, the man said, he had seen a stream of tears flowing from Rachel’s eyes, and they were watering something, but he couldn’t see what it was.

Would that mean anything to him or his family, the man asked.

No, Darrell said, it didn’t mean a thing. But he took down the man’s number and promised to call if it ever did mean anything.

Darrell had forgotten about the strange message until seven days later when he got a call from the sheriff’s office telling him he could pick up the contents of his daughter’s school backpack, which had been riddled by bullets.

Sitting in his truck, Darrell sorted through Rachel’s belongings and read through her final diary. When he got to the last page, there was a picture Rachel had drawn the morning she was murdered. It was of a pair of eyes crying, and the 13 tears turned to drops of blood as they watered a rose that grew out of a Columbine plant.

Thirteen was the number of victims that Harris and Klebold killed that day before taking their own lives.

I heard Darrell Scott tell this story to a crowd of thousands of teenagers at Ichthus in Wilmore, Ky., in April 2002 — days after a similar deadly rampage at a secondary school in Germany.

He believed his daughter knew she would be used by God for something good. She had said she would touch millions of lives around the world. On the day of her funeral, which was a tribute to her faith, CNN had its largest audience ever.

Rachel believed little acts of kindness could make a big difference as others paid them forward.

“I have a theory that if one person will go out of their way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction of the same,” she wrote.

After her death, her family found an image of her hand that she had traced on the back of her dresser in which she had written, "These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will someday touch millions of people's hearts."

Ironically, at almost the same time, Eric Harris had also used the phrase “chain reaction” in one of his hate-filled messages: “We need to start a revolution,” he said. “We need to get a chain reaction going here.”

Some would say these things are coincidences and that it’s naive to think tragedies like Columbine have any meaning. There was a time I would have thought so too. I’m  a journalist with a liberal arts education and therefore prone to skepticism. At times, I have doubted that God exists. But I’ve come to  believe there is a struggle going on in our world between the spiritual forces of darkness and light.

What other explanation could there be for the Holocaust or the horror of Rwanda in 1994, when nearly a million people were butchered by their neighbors? How else could one account for the incredible stories of forgiveness, redemption and grace that followed those tragedies? And how else could the death of a 17-year-old girl in Colorado lead hundreds of young people at a rock music festival in Wilmore to come forward to repent of their sins and choose to be reborn into a more abundant life?

I believe that at the end of this spiritual conflict, Christ will be the victor and will make all things new, as he promised. It is a struggle in which no one can remain neutral. Rachel Scott learned that at a tender age and chose a side.

Which side are you on?

by Randy Patrick

http://kyvoice.com/winchestersun/newerworld/?p=418

Rachel Scott - The Unstoppable Teenager

The story of Rachel Scott, a teenage victim of Columbine High School (USA) tragedy. It's another powerful tale of unstoppable worship. 

On 20 April 1999, two bitter twisted students entered the gounds of the school with guns and explosives, planning to wreak havoc. One of the grudges they were bearing was against Christians, and when they found Rachel Scott that grude was made very clear. 

The killers shot her twice in the legs and once in the upper body. As she struggled to crawl away to safety, they pulled her up by the hair, and asked, "Do you believe in God?" They thought they'd won the battle; expecting her to back down from her faith with whimpering "no". But this bleeding, unstoppable bravely affirmed, "You know I do." Furious with that answer they yelled, "Then go be with Him" and shot her right through the head."

Imagine the heart of God in that moment, as one of His precious worshipers threw her life on the line for His glory. In a gruesome moment of decision, she chose His honour over her survival. And if it affects us so much, imagine what effect it must have on the heart of Jesus.

By Ricky Sim

http://thepraiseandworshipconnection.blogspot.com/

The last WWII soldier: didn't surrender until 1974!

On December 17, 1944, the Japanese army sent a twenty-three year old soldier named Hiroo Onoda to the Philippines to join the Sugi Brigade. He was stationed on the small island of Lubang (Philippines), and his orders were to lead the Lubang Garrison in guerrilla warfare. As Onoda was departing to begin his mission, his division commander told him, "You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we'll come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that's the case, live on coconuts! Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily." It turns out that Onoda was exceptionally good at following orders, and it would be 29 years before he finally laid down his arms and surrendered.

In February 1945, towards the conclusion of World War II, he was still there when the Lubang Island was reclaimed by the Allies, but Onoda, and several other men, hid in the dense jungle. Onoda continued his campaign, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers, Akatsu, Shimada, and Kozuka. One of his comrades, Akatsu, eventually surrendered to Filipino forces, and the other two were killed in gun battles with local forces—one in 1954, the other in 1972—leaving Onoda alone in the mountains. For 29 years, he refused to surrender, dismissing every attempt to convince him that the war was over as a ruse. In 1959, Onoda was declared legally dead in Japan.

Found by a Japanese student, Norio Suzuki, Onoda still refused to accept that the war was over unless he received orders to lay down his arms from his superior officer. Suzuki offered his help, and returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter. In 1974 the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He flew to Lubang and informed Onoda of the defeat of Japan in WWII and ordered him to lay down his arms. Lieutenant Onoda emerged from the jungle 29 years after the end of World War II, and accepted the commanding officer's order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his Arisaka Type 99 rifle still in operating condition, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades. Though he had killed some thirty Philippine inhabitants of the island and engaged in several shootouts with the police, the circumstances of these events were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.

After his surrender, Onoda moved to Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer. He released an autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, shortly after his surrender, detailing his life as a guerrilla fighter in a war that was long over. He revisited Lubang Island in 1996, donating $10,000 for the local school on Lubang. He then married a Japanese woman and moved back to Japan where he established a nature camp for kids. At the camp Onoda shares what he learned about survival through resourcefulness and ingenuity. As of today, he's still living in Japan.

The Knots Prayer

Dear God,

Please untie the knots

that are in my mind,

my heart and my life.

Remove the have nots,

the can nots and the do nots

that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,

may nots, and

might nots that find

a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,

would nots and should nots

that obstruct my life.

And most of all, dear God,

I ask that you remove from my mind

my heart and my life all of the am nots

that I have allowed to hold me back,

especially the thought

that I am not good enough.

Amen

Following God in Obscurity

In Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson recounts the story of the fourth century church father Gregory of Nyssa whose brother Basil had arranged for him to be made bishop of Cappadocia. 

"Gregory objected," Peterson writes. "He didn't want to be stuck in such an out-of-the-way place. His brother told him he didn't want Gregory to obtain distinction from his church but to confer distinction upon it." 

Is this not what Christ wants for us as well? To seek the good of the small places in which he has placed us and to confer distinction upon them by serving him with humility there? The path of glory is often an obscure one. It is the way of the cross.

—John Koessler, "George Bailey Lassos the Moon," on his blog A Stranger in the House of God (3-18-10)

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More about

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Early Church Father and Doctor of the Church

Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of St. Basil the Great and St. Macrina.  Born around 330 AD, Gregory married and spent several years of his life in secular employment before he entered the monastery founded by his elder brother.  He was consecrated Bishop of Nyssa in 371 and fought tirelessly for the Trinitarian faith of Nicaea that was reaffirmed by the great Creed of the Council of Constantinople, which he attended.  In the last few years of his life, he traveled a great deal since he was in great demand as a preacher, teacher, and spiritual writer. 

St. Gregory of Nyssa was a theologian of great depth and originality.  He wrote famous treatises against trinitiarian herietics Eunomius and Apollinarius and instructed new Christians about the the Trinity, Incarnation, Redemption and Sacraments in his Catechetical Orations.  But his theological reflections far surpassed controversy and cathechesis--indeed, St. Gregory provides us with the first systematic presentation of Christian doctrine since Origen over 150 years earlier.  

Gregory wrote many reflections and commentaries on Scripture, most notably his Life of Moses and homilies on the Lord's Prayer, the Song of Songs, and the Beatitudes.  His most important contribution was in the area of spirituality.  While his brother gave eastern monasticism its structure and organization, Gregory provided its heart and mystical vision. For this reason he came to be know as "Father of Mysticism."

St. Gregory of Nyssa died around the year 395 AD and is revered as one of the greatest of the Eastern Church Fathers.  He, his brother Basil and their friend St. Gregory of Nazianzen, are known as the Cappadocian Fathers, from the region in modern Turkey from which they came.  His feast day is March 9th.

The Wish of A Dying Preacher

The old preacher had spent 40 years pastoring in the same church and was highly respected in the community. 

The end of his life was drawing near and as he lay on his death bed he ask for the local banker and the local lawyer to come and spend his last hours with him. 

Both were impressed that they would be ask and discussed amoung themselves what great pearl of wisdom the old pastor wished to share with them. As they enter his room he motioned for one to sit on his left and one on his right. 

As they sat down a great peace came upon the man of God, thirty minutes passed and not a word was spoken. 

Finally the banker leaned forward and ask, "Reverend, we were wondering what great pearl of wisdom you may want to share with us since you called us here."

The old preacher looked at him and replied, "As you know Jesus has been my example all my life, and since he died between two theives I decided that's the way I wanted to go".

Ruling By Being Obedient

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Pryor Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. 

"Your Majesty," said Prior Richard, "do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king." 

"I understand," said Henry. "The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you." 

"Then I will tell you what to do," said Prior Richard. "Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you." 

When King Henry died, a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient." 

When we tire of our roles and responsibilities, it helps to remember God has planted us in a certain place and told us to be a good accountant or teacher or mother or father. Christ expects us to be faithful where he puts us, and when he returns, we'll rule together with him. 

Steve Brown, Key Biscayne, Florida.