Mississippi Spurning<\/b><\/p>\n
A good bit of one-upmanship has transpired over the years between Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, the two Mississippians in this week\u2019s showdown for Bob Dole\u2019s job as Senate majority leader. But as Jackson columnist Bill Minor notes, their rivalry pales when compared with a feud waged six decades ago by two other Mississippi senators.<\/p>\n
The nation knew the state\u2019s junior senator, Theodore Bilbo, as a race-baiting demagogue, the author of a bill to ship blacks to Africa. But many Mississippians revered him as a champion of the poor and foe of the mighty. Others in the state despised him as a bribe-taking crook. One rival, preparing to discuss Bilbo in a stump speech, shed his coat and said, \u201cExcuse me. I\u2019m going to skin a skunk. Ladies had better leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mississippi\u2019s senior senator, Pat Harrison, had helped engineer Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s early New Deal. When the Senate majority leader\u2019s job opened up in 1937, Harrison went after it. Nose counts put him in a tie with Kentucky\u2019s Alben Barkley. Harrison\u2019s campaign manager asked Bilbo to consider voting for his fellow Mississippian. Bilbo said he would if Harrison asked him to. That was a big if. Harrison loathed Bilbo and hadn\u2019t spoken to him in years. The response was swift: \u201cTell the son of a bitch I wouldn\u2019t speak to him even if it meant the presidency of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the ballots were in, Pat Harrison was a one-vote loser. But his reputation as the senator who wouldn\u2019t speak to his home-state colleague remained intact. – by Lewis Lord<\/p>\n
US News & World Report, June 17, 1996, p. 12.<\/p>\n
A&M Cadet<\/b><\/p>\n
Bruce Goodrich was being initiated into the cadet corps at Texas A & M University. One night, Bruce was forced to run until he dropped\u2014but he never got up. Bruce Goodrich died before he even entered college.<\/p>\n
A short time after the tragedy, Bruce\u2019s father wrote this letter to the administration, faculty, student body, and the corps of cadets:<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of my family for the great outpouring of concern and sympathy from Texas A & M University and the college community over the loss of our son Bruce. We were deeply touched by the tribute paid to him in the battalion. We were particularly pleased to note that his Christian witness did not go unnoticed during his brief time on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Goodrich went on: \u201cI hope it will be some comfort to know that we harbor no ill will in the matter. We know our God makes no mistakes. Bruce had an appointment with his Lord and is now secure in his celestial home. When the question is asked, \u2018Why did this happen?\u2019 perhaps one answer will be, \u2018So that many will consider where they will spend eternity. \u2018\u201c<\/p>\n
Our Daily Bread, March 22, 1994<\/p>\n
Two Monks<\/b><\/p>\n
One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own.<\/p>\n
The first monk kindly offered, \u201cWe will carry you across if you would like.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d she said gratefully, accepting their help.<\/p>\n
So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.<\/p>\n
After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. \u201cLook at my clothes,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff.\u201d The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.<\/p>\n
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, \u201cMy back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you wondered why I am not complaining?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is what many of us are like in dealing with our families. We are that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our loved ones\u2019 heads like a club, or we remind them every once in a while, when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.<\/p>\n
Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World<\/p>\n
Happy New Year<\/b><\/p>\n
One New Year\u2019s Eve at London\u2019s Garrick Club, British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Symour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member. The two had quarreled in the past and never restored their friendship. \u201cYou must,\u201d Hicks said to Lonsdale. \u201cIt is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a happy New Year.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to his enemy. \u201cI wish you a happy New Year,\u201d he said, \u201cbut only one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today in the Word, July 5, 1993<\/p>\n
Hatred Preserves Pain<\/b><\/p>\n
Shortly after the turn of the century, Japan invaded, conquered, and occupied Korea. Of all of their oppressors, Japan was the most ruthless. They overwhelmed the Koreans with a brutality that would sicken the strongest of stomachs. Their crimes against women and children were inhuman. Many Koreans live today with the physical and emotional scars from the Japanese occupation.<\/p>\n
One group singled out for concentrated oppression was the Christians. When the Japanese army overpowered Korea one of the first things they did was board up the evangelical churches and eject most foreign missionaries. It has always fascinated me how people fail to learn from history. Conquering nations have consistently felt that shutting up churches would shut down Christianity. It didn\u2019t work in Rome when the church was established, and it hasn\u2019t worked since. Yet somehow the Japanese thought they would have a different success record.<\/p>\n
The conquerors started by refusing to allow churches to meet and jailing many of the key Christian spokesmen. The oppression intensified as the Japanese military increased its profile in the South Pacific. The \u201cLand of the Rising Sum\u201d spread its influence through a reign of savage brutality. Anguish filled the hearts of the oppressed\u2014and kindled hatred deep in their souls.<\/p>\n
One pastor persistently entreated his local Japanese police chief for permission to meet for services. His nagging was finally accommodated, and the police chief offered to unlock his church \u2026 for one meeting. It didn\u2019t take long for word to travel. Committed Christians starving for an opportunity for unhindered worship quickly made their plans. Long before dawn on that promised Sunday, Korean families throughout a wide area made their way to the church. They passed the staring eyes of their Japanese captors, but nothing was going to steal their joy. As they closed the doors behind them they shut out the cares of oppression and shut in a burning spirit anxious to glorify their Lord.<\/p>\n
The Korean church has always had a reputation as a singing church. Their voices of praise could not be concealed inside the little wooden frame sanctuary. Song after song rang through the open windows into the bright Sunday morning. For a handful of peasants listening nearby, the last two songs this congregation sang seemed suspended in time. It was during a stanza of \u201cNearer My God to Thee\u201d that the Japanese police chief waiting outside gave the orders. The people toward the back of the church could hear them when they barricaded the doors, but no one realized that they had doused the church with kerosene until they smelled the smoke. The dried wooden skin of the small church quickly ignited. Fumes filled the structure as tongues of flame began to lick the baseboard on the interior walls.<\/p>\n
There was an immediate rush for the windows. But momentary hope recoiled in horror as the men climbing out the windows came crashing back in\u2014their bodies ripped by a hail of bullets. The good pastor knew it was the end. With a calm that comes from confidence, he led his congregation in a hymn whose words served as a fitting farewell to earth and a loving salutation to heaven. The first few words were all the prompting the terrified worshipers needed. With smoke burning their eyes, they instantly joined as one to sing their hope and leave their legacy. Their song became a serenade to the horrified and helpless witnesses outside. Their words also tugged at the hearts of the cruel men who oversaw this flaming execution of the innocent.<\/p>\n
Alas! and did my Savior bleed? and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?<\/p>\n
Just before the roof collapsed they sang the last verse, their words an eternal testimony to their faith.<\/p>\n
But drops of grief can ne\u2019er repay the debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give myself away \u2018Tis all that I can do!<\/p>\n
At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away \u2014 It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day.<\/p>\n
The strains of music and wails of children were lost in a roar of flames. The elements that once formed bone and flesh mixed with the smoke and dissipated into the air. The bodies that once housed life fused with the charred rubble of a building that once housed a church. But the souls who left singing finished their chorus in the throne room of God.<\/p>\n
Clearing the incinerated remains was the easy part. Erasing the hate would take decades. For some of the relatives of the victims, this carnage was too much. Evil had stooped to a new low, and there seemed to be no way to curb their bitter loathing of the Japanese.<\/p>\n
In the decades that followed, that bitterness was passed on to a new generation. The Japanese, although conquered, remained a hated enemy. The monument the Koreans built at the location of the fire not only memorialized the people who died, but stood as a mute reminder of their pain.<\/p>\n
Inner rest? How could rest coexist with a bitterness deep as marrow in the bones? Suffering, of course, is a part of life. People hurt people. Almost all of us have experienced it at some time. Maybe you felt it when you came home to find that your spouse had abandoned you, or when your integrity was destroyed by a series of well-timed lies, or when your company was bled dry by a partner. It kills you inside. Bitterness clamps down on your soul like iron shackles. The Korean people who found it too hard to forgive could not enjoy the \u201cpeace that passes all understanding.\u201d Hatred choked their joy.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until 1972 that any hope came. A group of Japanese pastors traveling through Korea came upon the memorial. When they read the details of the tragedy and the names of the spiritual brothers and sisters who had perished, they were overcome with shame. Their country had sinned, and even though none of them were personally involved (some were not even born at the time of the tragedy), they still felt a national guilt that could not be excused.<\/p>\n
They returned to Japan committed to right a wrong. There was an immediate outpouring of love from their fellow believers. They raised ten million yen ($25,000). The money was transferred through proper channels and a beautiful white church building was erected on the sight of the tragedy.<\/p>\n
When the dedication service for the new building was held, a delegation from Japan joined the relatives and special guests. Although their generosity was acknowledged and their attempts at making peace appreciated, the memories were still there. Hatred preserves pain. It keeps the wounds open and the hurts fresh. The Koreans\u2019 bitterness had festered for decades.<\/p>\n
Christian brothers or not, these Japanese were descendants of a ruthless enemy. The speeches were made, the details of the tragedy recalled, and the names of the dead honored. It was time to bring the service to a close. Someone in charge of the agenda thought it would be appropriate to conclude with the same two songs that were sung the day the church was burned. The song leader began the words to \u201cNearer My God to Thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
But something remarkable happened as the voices mingled on the familiar melody. As the memories of the past mixed with the truth of the song, resistance started to melt. The inspiration that gave hope to a doomed collection of churchgoers in a past generation gave hope once more. The song leader closed the service with the hymn \u201cAt the Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n
The normally stoic Japanese could not contain themselves. The tears that began to fill their eyes during the song suddenly gushed from deep inside. They turned to their Korean spiritual relatives and begged them to forgive. The guarded, callused hearts of the Koreans were not quick to surrender. But the love of the Japanese believers \u2014 unintimidated by decades of hatred\u2014tore at the Koreans\u2019 emotions.<\/p>\n
At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away \u2026<\/p>\n
One Korean turned toward a Japanese brother. Then another. And then the floodgates holding back a wave of emotion let go. The Koreans met their new Japanese friends in the middle. They clung to each other and wept. Japanese tears of repentance and Korean tears of forgiveness intermingled to bathe the site of an old nightmare.<\/p>\n
Heaven had sent the gift of reconciliation to a little white church in Korea.<\/p>\n
Little House on the Freeway, Tim Kimmel, pp. 56\u201361<\/p>\n
Sigmund Freud<\/b><\/p>\n
Armand M. Nicholi, M. D. , professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that Sigmund Freud died at the age of 83, a bitter and disillusioned man. Tragically, this Viennese physician, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, had little compassion for the common person. Freud wrote in 1918, \u201cI have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all\u201d (Veritas Reconsidered, p. 36). Freud died friendless. It is well-known that he had broken with each of his followers. The end was bitter.<\/p>\n
Discoveries, Summer, 1991, Vol 2, No. 3, p. 1<\/p>\n
Wrong Man<\/b><\/p>\n
A man in Spokane (Mr. Russell) had arranged for the minister from a large church to perform his wedding. The day came and the minister didn\u2019t. The minister sent a replacement. The man was upset, and never forgot the incident. 30 years later my wife had a garage sale. My mother was there helping. A neighbor came over and they introduced themselves. He heard her last name and asked, \u201cAre you related to a minister?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d she said, \u201cmy husband is one.\u201d \u201cWell, I could tell you a thing or two.\u201d My mother replied, \u201cGo ahead, I\u2019ve heard it all.\u201d \u201c30 years ago he was supposed to perform my wedding\u2026\u201d and he told his story. My mother asked, \u201cHow long ago was that?\u201d \u201c30 years\u201d he said. \u201cWell, it couldn\u2019t have been my husband. We only moved here 25 years ago.\u201d For 30 years Mr. Russell had been bitter at the wrong man! – J. U.<\/p>\n
John Underhill, Spokane, WA.<\/p>\n
No Grudges<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a few arguments with people,\u201d comedian Buddy Hackett once confessed, \u201cbut I never carry a grudge. You know why? While you\u2019re carrying a grudge, they\u2019re out dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Nursing Grudges<\/b><\/p>\n
No matter how long you nurse a grudge, it won\u2019t get better.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
The Oyster<\/b><\/p>\n
Think about the oyster. It takes a grain of sand and turns it into a beautiful pearl. Too often we are just the opposite\u2014we take pearls and turn them into grains of sand.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Rattlesnake<\/b><\/p>\n
A rattlesnake, if cornered, will sometimes become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is\u2014a biting of oneself. We think that we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves.<\/p>\n
E. Stanley Jones, Reader\u2019s Digest, December 1981<\/p>\n
Resource<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 Swindoll, Growing Strong, p. 166.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mississippi Spurning A good bit of one-upmanship has transpired over the years between Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, the two Mississippians in this week\u2019s showdown for Bob Dole\u2019s job as Senate majority leader. But as Jackson columnist Bill Minor notes, their rivalry pales when compared with a feud waged six decades ago by two other … Continue reading “Bitterness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}