{"id":553,"date":"2016-08-15T22:57:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T03:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/courage\/"},"modified":"2016-08-15T22:57:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T03:57:22","slug":"courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>A Definition<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cCourage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear\u2014not absence of fear.\u201d &#8211; Mark Twain<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>\u201cSigns of the Times,\u201d December 1996, p. 2<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Good Quotes<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost. -Tennis Star Arthur Ashe<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. &#8211; John Wayne<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Marie Antoinette<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end? &#8211; Marie Antoinette, moments before her death<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Preaching Resources, Spring, 1996, p. 71.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Last Stand<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Leonidas, King of Sparta, was preparing to make a stand with his Greek troops against the Persian army in 480 B.C. when a Persian envoy arrived. The man urged on Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the huge Persian army. \u201cOur archers are so numerous,\u201d said the envoy, \u201cthat the flight of their arrows darkens the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cSo much the better,\u201d replied Leonidas, \u201cfor we shall fight them in the shade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Leonidas made his stand, and died with his 300 troops.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today in the Word, November 4, 1993<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Misery Dinner<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Author Leo Buscaglia tells this story about his mother and their \u201cmisery dinner.\u201d It was the night after his father came home and said it looked as if he would have to go into bankruptcy because his partner had absconded with their firm\u2019s funds. His mother went out and sold some jewelry to buy food for a sumptuous feast. Other members of the family scolded her for it. But she told them that \u201cthe time for joy is now, when we need it most, not next week.\u201d Her courageous act rallied the family. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Christopher News Notes, August, 1993<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Nikita Khrushchev<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. \u201cYou were one of Stalin\u2019s colleagues. Why didn\u2019t you stop him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cWho said that?\u201d roared Khrushchev. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, \u201cNow you know why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today in the Word, July 13, 1993<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>The Duchess<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>On May 4, 1897, duchess Sophie-Charlotte Alencon was presiding over a charity ball in Paris when the hall caught fire. Flames spread to the paper decorations and flimsy walls, and in seconds the place was an inferno. In the hideous panic that followed, many women and children were trampled as they rushed for the exits, while workmen from a nearby site rushed into the blaze to carry out the trapped women. Some rescuers reached the duchess, who had remained calmly seated behind her booth. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cBecause of my title, I was the first to enter here. I shall be the last to go out,\u201d she said, rejecting their offer of help. She stayed and was burned to death along with more than 120 others. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today in the Word, April 14, 1993<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Courage is \u2026<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Courage is doing what you\u2019re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you\u2019re scared. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Eddie Rickenbacker, Bits &amp; Pieces, April 29, 1993, p. 12<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Corporate Manager Survey<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>A study was recently completed on corporate managers. In it they were asked if they voiced positions that (1) focused on the good of the company, rather than personal benefit; and (2) jeopardized their own careers. Emerging from this study were the four leader-types which are found in all organizations.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Type #1\u2014courageous. These people expressed ideas to help the company improve, in spite of personal risk or opposition.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Type #2\u2014confronting. These people spoke up, but only because of a personal vendetta against the company.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Type #3\u2014calloused. These people didn\u2019t know, or care, whether they could do anything for the company; they felt helpless and hopeless, so they kept quiet.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Type #4\u2014conforming. These people also remained quiet, but only because they loathed confrontation and loved approval. The researchers discovered that the courageous managers accomplished the most, reported the highest job satisfaction, and eventually were commended by superiors. Their commitment had certainly improved the quality of their lives.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Courage &#8211; You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, pp. 138-139<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Andrew Jackson, Guilty or Not?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Who was United States Senator Edmund G. Ross of Kansas? I suppose you could call him a \u201cMr. Nobody.\u201d No law bears his name. Not a single list of Senate \u201cgreats\u201d mentions his service. Yet when Ross entered the Senate in 1866, he was considered the man to watch. He seemed destined to surpass his colleagues, but he tossed it all away by one courageous act of conscience.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Let\u2019s set the stage. Conflict was dividing our government in the wake of the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson was determined to follow Lincoln\u2019s policy of reconciliation toward the defeated South. Congress, however, wanted to rule the downtrodden Confederate states with an iron hand. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Congress decided to strike first. Shortly after Senator Ross was seated, the Senate introduced impeachment proceedings against the hated President. The radicals calculated that they needed thirty-six votes, and smiled as they concluded that the thirty-sixth was none other than Ross.\u2019 The new senator listened to the vigilante talk. But to the surprise of many, he declared that the president \u201cdeserved as fair a trial as any accused man has ever had on earth.\u201d The word immediately went out that his vote was \u201cshaky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Ross received an avalanche of anti-Johnson telegrams from every section of the country. Radical senators badgered him to \u201ccome to his senses.\u201d The fateful day of the vote arrived. The courtroom galleries were packed. Tickets for admission were at an enormous premium.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>As a deathlike stillness fell over the Senate chamber, the vote began. By the time they reached Ross, twenty-four \u201cguilties\u201d had been announced. Eleven more were certain. Only Ross\u2019 vote was needed to impeach the President. Unable to conceal his emotion, the Chief Justice asked in a trembling voice, \u201cMr. Senator Ross, how vote you? Is the respondent Andrew Johnson guilty as charged?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Ross later explained, at that moment, \u201cI looked into my open grave. Friendships, position, fortune, and everything that makes life desirable to an ambitions man were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Then, the answer came\u2014unhesitating, unmistakable: \u201cNot guilty!\u201d With that, the trial was over. And the response was as predicted.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>A high public official from Kansas wired Ross to say: \u201cKansas repudiates you as she does all perjurers and skunks.\u201d The \u201copen grave\u201d vision had become a reality. Ross\u2019 political career was in ruins. Extreme ostracism, and even physical attack awaited his family upon their return home. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>One gloomy day Ross turned to his faithful wife and said, \u201cMillions cursing me today will bless me tomorrow&#8230;though not but God can know the struggle it has cost me.\u201d It was a prophetic declaration.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Twenty years later Congress and the Supreme Court verified the wisdom of his position, by changing the laws related to impeachment. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Ross was appointed Territorial Governor of New Mexico. Then, just prior to his death, he was awarded a special pension by Congress. The press and country took this opportunity to honor his courage which, they finally concluded, had saved our country from crisis and division. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Courage &#8211; You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, pp. 56-58<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Bears and Humans<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The late Earl J. Fleming, an Alaska state biologist, was perhaps the only man to investigate objectively the bear\u2019s reputation for attacking humans. When Fleming encountered a bear, he neither ran nor shot. At the end of his unique study, he had encountered 81 brown bears, and although several staged mock charges, not one actually attacked. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Mark Walters, Nov., 1992, Reader\u2019s Digest, p. 35<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Sir Walter Scott<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cI often wish that I could lie down and sleep without waking. But I will fight it out if I can.\u201d So wrote one of the bravest, most inspiring men who ever lived, Sir Walter Scott. In his 56th year, failing in health, his wife dying of an incurable disease, Scott was in debt a half million dollars. A publishing firm he had invested in had collapsed. He might have taken bankruptcy, but shrank from the stain. From his creditors he asked only time. Thus began his race with death, a valiant effort to pay off the debt before he died.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>To be able to write free from interruptions, Scott withdrew to a small rooming house in Edinburgh. He had left his dying wife, Charlotte behind in the country. \u201cIt withered my heart,\u201d he wrote in his diary, but his presence could avail her nothing now. A few weeks later she died. After the funeral he wrote in his diary: \u201cWere an enemy coming upon my house, would I not do my best to fight, although oppressed in spirits; and shall a similar despondency prevent me from mental exertion? It shall not, by heaven!\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>With a tremendous exercise of will, he returned to the task, stifling his grief. He turned out Woodstock, Count Robert of Paris, Castle Dangerous, and other works. Though twice stricken with paralysis, he labored steadily until the fall of 1832. Then came a merciful miracle. Although his mental powers had left him, he died September 21, 1832, happy in the illusion that all his debts were paid. (They were finally paid in 1847 with the sale of all his copyrights.)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Thomas Carlyle was to write of him latter: \u201cNo sounder piece of British manhood was put together in the eighteenth century of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Bits &amp; Pieces, August 20, 1992, pp. 16-18<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>12 Sponges<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was completing her first full day of responsibilities. \u201cYou\u2019ve only removed 11 sponges, doctor,\u201d she said to the surgeon. \u201cWe used 12.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cI removed them all,\u201d the doctor declared. \u201cWe\u2019ll close the incision now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cNo,\u201d the nurse objected. \u201cWe used 12 sponges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cI\u2019ll take full responsibility,\u201d the surgeon said grimly. \u201cSuture!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cYou can\u2019t do that!\u201d blazed the nurse. \u201cThink of the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. \u201cYou\u2019ll do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today in the Word, April 7, 1992<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Always Someone to Say You are Wrong<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. &#8211; Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>A Class Act<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>One day in 1956, songwriter Johnny Mercer received a letter from Sadie Vimmerstedt, a widowed grandmother who worked behind a cosmetics counter in Youngstown, Ohio. Vimmerstedt suggested Mercer write a song called \u201cI Want to Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces When Somebody Breaks Your Heart.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Five years later, Mercer got in touch to say he\u2019d written the song and that Tony Bennett would record it. Today, if you look at the label on any recording of \u201cI Wanna Be Around,\u201d you\u2019ll notice that the credits for words and music are shared by Johnny Mercer and Sadie Vimmerstedt. The royalties were split 50\u201350, too, thanks to which Vimmerstedt and her heirs have earned more than $100,000. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>In my opinion, Mercer\u2019s generosity was a class act. By \u201cclass act,\u201d I mean any behavior so virtuous that it puts normal behavior to shame. It was a class act, for instance, when Alexander Hamilton aimed high and fired over Aaron Burr\u2019s head. Benjamin Geggenhiem performed a class act on the Titanic when he gave his life jacket to a woman passenger and then put on white tie and tails so he could die \u201clike a gentleman.\u201d That same year, 1912, Capt., Lawrence became so frostbitten and lame on Robert Scott\u2019s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Rather than delay the others in their desperate trek back from the Pole, he went to the opening of the tent one night and said, \u201cI am just going outside and may be some time.\u201d He thereupon walked to his death in a blizzard. Certainly a class act. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>On the stage, the tradition that the show must go on has produced a number of class acts. Katharine Hepburn and Orson Welles have both appeared on-stage in wheelchairs. During the run of The King and I, Gertrude Lawrence was dying of cancer but told no one. When she missed a series of performances, the producers wrote her lawyers, suggesting she was faking illness. They warned that if this continued, she would forfeit her share of the profits. The letter arrived on a Monday; Gertrude Lawrence had died over the weekend. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>It was a class act of a different order, but a class act nonetheless, for writer Laurence Housman to take off his jacket at a proper English tea party so that a man who had just arrived in shirt sleeves would not feel embarrassed. Even simple good sportsmanship can rise to the level of class act, as it did with tennis player Mats Wilander in the semifinals of the 1982 French Open. At match point, a shot by Wilander\u2019s opponent was ruled out. Wilander walked over to the umpire and said, \u201cI can\u2019t win like this. The ball was good.\u201d The point was played over, and Wilander won fair and square. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>John Berendt, Esquire, April, 1991<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Impromptu Recital<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Mstislav \u201cSlava\u201d Rostopovich is a world-famous cellist. Since his exile from his native Russia in 1974, he has lived in the West. he is currently music director of the National Symphony Orchestra here in Washington. When the Kremlin hard-liners pulled their August Coup, \u201cSlava\u201d was in Paris. Instead of scurrying back to the U.S. and safety, he and his family flew straight home to Moscow. There, he took up his place in the \u201cWhite House,\u201d the Russian Federation Building that President Boris Yeltsin and his elected allies vowed to hold against every assault. In the darkened corridors, someone gave him a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, but he returned it. Rather, he took out his cello and gave an impromptu recital to break the awful tension of the siege. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Washington Watch, Vol 2, #11, Sept, 1991<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>No Apology<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Hugh Lattimer once preached before King Henry VIII. Henry was greatly displeased by the boldness in the sermon and ordered Lattimer to preach again on the following Sunday and apologize for the offence he had given. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The next Sunday, after reading his text, he thus began his sermon: \u201cHugh Lattimer, dost thou know before whom thou are this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king\u2019s most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life, if thou offendest. Therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou comest\u2014upon Whose message thou are sent? Even by the great and mighty God, Who is all-present and Who beholdeth all thy ways and Who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>He then preached the same sermon he had preached the preceding Sunday\u2014and with considerably more energy. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 126<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>A Definition<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it. &#8211; W.T. Sherman<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Organized Crime Fighter<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>When I was a small boy, I attended church every Sunday at a big Gothic Presbyterian bastion in Chicago. The preaching was powerful and the music was great. But for me, the most awesome moment in the morning service was the offertory, when twelve solemn, frock-coated ushers marched in lock-step down the main aisle to receive the brass plates for collecting the offering. These men, so serious about their business of serving the Lord in this magnificent house of worship, were the business and professional leaders of Chicago. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>One of the twelve ushers was a man named Frank Loesch. He was not a very imposing looking man, but in Chicago he was a living legend, for he was the man who had stood up to Al Capone. In the prohibition years, Capone\u2019s rule was absolute. The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But single-handedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman and without any government support, organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens who were determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch\u2019s life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago. Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out his faith. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Each Sunday at this point of the service, my father, a Chicago businessman himself, never failed to poke me and silently point to Frank Loesch with pride. Sometime I\u2019d catch a tear in my father\u2019s eye. For my dad and for all of us this was and is what authentic living is all about. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Bruce Larson, in Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, pp. 124-5<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>King Frederick the Great<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The Prussian king Frederick the Great was widely known as an agnostic. By contrast, General Von Zealand, one of his most trusted officers, was a devout Christian. Thus it was that during a festive gathering the king began making crude jokes about Christ until everyone was rocking with laughter\u2014all but Von Zealand, that is. Finally, he arose and addressed the king: <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cSire, you know I have not feared death. I have fought and won 38 battles for you. I am an old man; I shall soon have to go into the presence of One greater than you, the mighty God who saved me from my sin, the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are blaspheming. I salute you, sire, as an old man who loves his Savior, on the edge of eternity.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The place went silent, and with a trembling voice the king replied, \u201cGeneral Von Zealand\u2014I beg your pardon! I beg your pardon!\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>And with that the party quietly ended. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today In The Word, August, 1989, p. 7<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Resource<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Who You Are When No One\u2019s Looking, Bill Hybels, IVP, 1987, p. 13.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>The Lion\u2019s Tail<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Adrian Rogers tells about the man who bragged that he had cut off the tail of a man-eating lion with his pocket knife. Asked why he hadn\u2019t cut off the lion\u2019s head, the man replied: \u201cSomeone had already done that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>He Couldn\u2019t Swim<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the floundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child\u2019s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray\u2019s free hand felt something\u2014possibly a rock\u2014protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. \u201cIf I can just hang on until help comes,\u201d he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard\u2019s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can\u2019t swim. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Paul Harvey, Los Angeles Times Syndicate<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Peer Pressure<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>There was a test conducted by a university where 10 students were placed in a room. Three lines of varying length were drawn on a card. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. But 9 of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. One student was the stooge. The usual reaction of the stooge was to put his hand up, look around, and realizing he was all alone, pull it back down. This happened 75% of the time, with students from grade school through high school. The researchers concluded that many would rather be president than be right. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>C. Swindoll, 3\u201327-84<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>The Easy Road<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>The easy roads are crowded  And the level roads are jammed; The pleasant little rivers With the drifting folk are crammed.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>But off yonder where it\u2019s rocky, Where you get a better view, You will find the ranks are thinning And the travelers are few.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>If it Hurts<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>David, a 2-year old with leukemia, was taken by him mother, Deborah, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman\u2019s prognosis was devastating: \u201cHe has a 50\u201350 chance.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain\u2014the mother\u2019s ordeal can be almost as bad as the child\u2019s because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of him mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap\u2014a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. \u201cIf it hurts, remember it\u2019s because he loves you,\u201d Deborah said. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, \u201cThank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Miracles of Courage, Monica Dickens, 1985<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Where the Going\u2019s Smooth<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>Where the going\u2019s smooth and pleasant  You will always find the throng, For the many\u2014more\u2019s the pity\u2014 Seem to like to drift along.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>But the steps that call for courage, And the task that\u2019s hard to do In the end results in glory For the never-wavering few.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Edgar A. Guest<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Mushrooms<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>A condemned prisoner awaiting execution was granted the usual privilege of choosing the dishes he wanted to eat for his last meal. He ordered a large mess of mushrooms. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cWhy all the mushrooms and nothing else?\u201d inquired the guard. <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cWell,\u201d replied the prisoner, \u201cI always wanted to try them, but was afraid to eat them before!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source Unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Definition \u201cCourage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear\u2014not absence of fear.\u201d &#8211; Mark Twain \u201cSigns of the Times,\u201d December 1996, p. 2 Good Quotes \u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/courage\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Courage&#8221;<\/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-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","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=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}