Forum 7
This forum celebrates God working through a person. The stories are not necessarily connected, but they all have a focus on the dignity of life and the importance of each individual. The power of one is to discover our destiny in Christ. We are called to trust and to serve.
In Christ our hope is glorious...
bring on tomorrow ~ we can make a difference.
Contents
The Power of One The Last Roman Triumph Thank you for helping me ~ at 21 weeks! The Power of One Cross Illustration of the Power of the Cross Forum Index
Fleming was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog.
He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself.
Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a carriage pulled up at the Scotsman's modest home. A nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.
At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family home.
"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. "If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."
In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St .Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia and he was saved by Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill and his son was Sir Winston Churchill.
The 'Power of One' comes through in this story as it connects the circumstances of a boy stuck in a bog with the discovery of penicillin and the defeat of Nazism. What glorious hope can come from the most unexpected situation when the value of an individual is respected. Next we will look at the way in which one man changed the hedonistic values of a civilisation...
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The Last Roman Triumph! Telemachus was a monk who lived in Asia Minor about the year 400 AD. During his life time gladiatorial games were very popular in Rome. The gladiators were often slaves or political prisoners who were condemned to fight each other unto death for the amusement of the spectators. The sight of blood and gore on the arena floor fascinated people. Telemachus was very disturbed that the Emperor Honorius (who was a Christian) sponsored the games and that many people who called themselves 'Christian' went to see them. What, he wondered, could be further from the Spirit of Christ than the cruelty of these gladiatorial games? The bishops and priests spoke against them, but most people were deaf to their message. Telemachus realised that talking about this evil was not enough. But what could he accomplish - one lone monk against the whole Roman Empire? He had no power and the games had been part an established part of Roman life. One day in prayer, Telemachus sensed that the Holy Spirit was encouraging him to leave his community and go to Rome ~ which at that time was the metropolis at the centre of the greatest empire the world had ever known. When Telemachus arrived in Rome he was caught up into a celebration of a recent victory by the Roman Legions over the Goths. As a part of a holiday festival a circus was being staged for the jubilant multitudes. Telemachus didn't know exactly where he was going in Rome... but he allowed himself to be swept along by the crowds. He soon found himself on the way to the Colosseum for the circus. When the crowds arrived at the Colosseum they began to get excited by the sounds of the lions roaring their challenge and the gladiators preparing for combat. Telemachus followed the crowd into the Colosseum. There to his horror he was confronted with callous gut-wrenching carnage. Gladiators fought one another to the death. They slaughtering their hapless foes without pity as entertainment for the bloodthirsty crowds. Telemachus felt he had to do something. He simply couldn't stand by while human beings were being beheaded, disembowelled and dismembered before his very eyes. He ran down the steps of the stands, leapt into the arena, and began darting back and forth between the fighters crying: 'Forbear, forbear, in the name of Christ I beg you to forbear.' When the crowd saw the scrawny figure of the monk running frantically about the arena, ducking and weaving between the combatants - they took Telemachus to be a bit of welcome comic relief and roared their approval. But as time went on some of the people in the crowd began to hear what 'the mad monk' was saying and more and they came to realise that Telemachus was actually trying to spoil their bloody fun. Then they turned against him, hissing and booing, and bellowing at the top of their voices for his quick dispatch. The gladiators lunged at the monk with thrusts of their swords... and the audience buried him under a hailstorm of projectiles and stones. When the furore was over Telemachus lay dead in the middle of the arena. During the silence that followed his death - it was as if the monk's last cry began to echo around the arena: 'Forbear, forbear. In the name of Christ I beg you to forbear.' Telemachus died - but not in vain. His work was accomplished the moment he was struck down. The shock of his death changed the hearts of the crowd. Then they saw the hideous aspects of this vice to which they had surrendered themselves. Emperor Honorius issued an edict that day - forbidding all future gladiatorial games. And so it was that about the year 404 AD, one individual - filled with the love of Christ - dared to say "No!" and the gladiatorial games ceased. Prayer: "Lord help me to remember that I am just one person who cannot change the whole world... but I do have the power to change the life of one person. Fill me with the courage of the Holy Spirit so that I may serve your purposes in my life." Reference: |
Let's move on from Rome to science and behaviour today. Again we pick up on the value of the individual as we explore the enigma of our society's capacity to both heal and destroy. This in turn leads us to God's perfect provision available to every person...
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Thank you for Helping Me!
Hand of Hope This picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The
baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from
his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics
nurse in During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed, hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life." Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us that a pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person." Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 per cent successful. One Life: possibilities with God unlimited!
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The Power of One Cross Come on a journey with me in your imagination. Come on a journey back through time... back to the three crosses standing on the hill of Calvery ~ outside the walled city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago. Come on this journey as we seek peace with God...
Gordon's
Calvary as it may be seen today
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Illustration of the Power of the CrossSometimes we struggle to get to the place where we can let go of our feelings to the point of forgiving others. Other times there can be a need to forgive - but we may not be aware of this reality. My parents were divorced when I was a boy of six, and I didn’t see much of my dad, right up to his death in 1962. At that time I was sixteen and living in Sydney. In 1987 my Mum also died. After the funeral I found myself alone in the family home at Turramurra, a suburb of Sydney. I was in the kitchen and opened a cupboard in which I found some family albums. As I thumbed through them I discovered one album of family documents, which included the case for divorce which my mother had submitted to the court in 1952. This was the first time I was to learn anything substantial about the reason for my parents divorce. As I read the document, I became aware of all the steps my mum had taken to try and keep the marriage alive. I found myself in tears. Then, in my imagination, it was as if my dad was sitting at the other end of the kitchen table. I found myself saying out loud: "Dad, I forgive you, I forgive you dad, it could have been me". Here was a need for forgiveness that I hadn't previously realised. Yet in the kitchen alone, the Holy Spirit brought me to this experience. As I forgave my dad, I experienced a deep inner sense of the blood of Jesus Christ healing the wounds of the past and bringing me to wholeness. This experience of forgiveness, peace and inner healing brought real blessing to my composure and relationships with others. A lot of my reserve and apprehension, which came from a fear of rejection, was healed that day. The blood of Jesus Christ had been applied to my heart through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I was set free from something which had been holding me up.
Peter Kentley |
See also:
How do I become a Christian
Discovering Love
Entree to Faith
