October 15, 2020This week Karen found a movie called “Selma” which portrays one of the most heart-wrenching chapters of American history: when innocent children were killed in a church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. headed a march in Selma, Alabama for civil rights. After watching many well-known actors in this film, we were impressed by their determination to make a difference in our world today.
One of the most widely-quoted poems in history was written by an Englishman who lived in the Victorian era. William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) suffered from tuberculosis from the age of 12 and had his left leg amputated below the knee at age 20. A few years later, facing a similar prognosis for his right leg, Henley sought help from a renowned surgeon in Edinburgh. During his stay in hospital for three years, Henley wrote many poems, including “Invictus,” the last stanza of which reads:
In the October 2020 edition of “Turning Points” magazine, Dr. David Jeremiah references several well-known people who have quoted this poem: Sir Winston Churchill in the British House of Commons in 1941, Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa in 2013, and Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995. Dr. Jeremiah observes: “That the same theme could be embraced by people on either side of the line between good and evil demonstrates just how thin that line is – and how easy it is to allow something honorable (like perseverance and commitment) to become dishonorable (like pride and self-sufficiency).”
In a similar vein, there is the sad story of a deranged man named Charles Guiteau, who shot James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, on July 2, 1881. I read about this in Dr. Jeremiah’s book “Revealing the Mysteries of Heaven.” Guiteau was part of the Oneida Community in upstate New York, whose founder believed “that Jesus had returned to earth in A.D. 70, making it possible for us to currently experience the Millennial Kingdom.” Garfield died a couple of months after being shot and Guiteau was hanged the following year. To learn more about this tragic story, please visit: https://www.history.com/news/the-assassination-of-president-james-a-garfield.
May we seek to reflect the truth and humility of our wonderful Lord in all that we say and do. More than ever, we need to know what the Word of God says and teach others its truths.
Scripture for the weekend: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” Isaiah 61:1 (NKJV)
Thought for the weekend: “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there.” – C.S. Lewis
Steve