Marsha's Blog

 A few weeks ago I mentioned Eric Lidell in a blog.  He was the “Flying Scotsman” of 1924 Olympic fame.  The movie in1981 that launched his story into world news was “Chariots of Fire”.  Who can hear the theme song and not want to go jogging?   The other day, while surfing through the Christian movie channel online, we found “On Wings of Eagles”.  It’s a more modern version of Eric Lidell’s life story, taking up where “Chariots of Fire” left off. It was well done and stayed true to the man, but it lacked the beautiful music of the former movie, and since it focused on his death was not near as much fun to watch. I was left, however with the thought that I had gotten a glimpse of the “real” hero of the faith.  And while I’m at it, here’s another “hero”, but this one is a fictional character. His name comes up in the book “Hawaii”, by James Michner, and goes by Abner Hale. In the story, which was loosely based on truth, he was a Congregationalist missionary to Hawaii in the early 1800’s.

 For some time now, I’ve been talking about “Heroes of the Faith”: those remarkable men, women and children who by their trust in the Lord left a legacy that blesses us all to this day. While looking for more “faith giants” to report on, I came across one of Tony’s Creation magazines and found an article about Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, he was not what we would call a “hero of the faith”, since he seems to have abandoned God as he grew older. But I was surprised to find that Einstein had heroes of his own, three of them, in fact. Each was known for his advances in science and each merited a picture on Albert’s study wall. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is best-known for his discoveries about gravity and the subsequent motions of the planets and stars. Michael Farady (1791-1867) had a lot to do with our understanding of electricity, and, James Maxwell (1831-1879) is responsible for a unified theory of electricity, magnetism and light. The things these three accomplished in their lifetime

 Good morning all,   Last week I was talking about something I came across in the 17th chapter of Luke.  Today I’d like to talk about a little ‘hero’ that I may have mentioned in this blog years ago. The story following last week’s passage is what brought her back to my mind.   First a little refresher, from Luke 17:11-19,   “Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ When He saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go;

 Today I found an interesting passage in the Bible, a verse that really caught my attention as we soldier on through this series of  “Heroes of the Faith”. It’s in Luke 17, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. To begin with, let’s talk about the generation that we see growing up around us. For myself, that would be two generations away from mine, as I look at the lives of our grandchildren.  Let me be fair: if you have any distinguishing trait, such as the color of your skin, or the heritage that defines you, or if there’s anything about you that has resulted in your being set apart by someone’s definition of cruel ways, then you might possibly be singled out as someone in need of a special exemption from normal living. Please hear what I’m saying -  I’m generalizing here - but there may be a case for special treatment and an extra measure of mercy and grace.    Now, let me get to the thing that caused me to pause and consider this morning. It’s a fact that I personally h

 Tony and I took a few days off this last week to “chill out” up in Far North Queensland. I use the term loosely, since the temperatures are nearly ten degrees warmer in Cairns than back home on the Gold Coast. We’re officially in Springtime here Down Under, and ten degrees can make a big difference in the swimming pool!  But our main reason for going north is the sad fact that, with all the CoVid restrictions, we’re pretty much limited to travel within the State. Now I won’t mention to “some” of you out there, but since Queensland is two and half times bigger than Texas, we do have lots of options. Oops, I mentioned it; sorry about that!    It’s called the Tropical North up there for a reason … it’s HOT and WET, but also beautiful, with abundant flora and fauna everywhere you look. The night of our arrival in our Cairns hotel, I was graced by the presence of an Africa Sized Cockroach who, even with the room lights on, just wandered into our room to say boo.   Tony, ever the hero, play