Story of the Spaffords!

Horatio Spafford was a 43 year old lawyer. He lived in a north side suburb of Chicago with his wife, Anna and his five children.

In 1871 his only son died.

A few months later, the Great Chicago fire of 1871 consume Spafford's real estate investment. He lost his entire life savings.

Two years later, Spafford and his family decided to take a vacation to Europe. However, Spafford was delayed by last minute business. He sent his wife and four daughters on the S.S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days.

On November 22, 1873 the ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel, and it sank in twelve minutes, 226 people were killed.

When the survivors of the shipwreck landed in Europe, Anna Spafford cabled her husband, "saved alone. What shall I do?"

Spafford immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home.

In the midst of his sorrow, while sailing near the place of his daughters' death, he wrote the words to the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul."

In spite of their tragedy, in 1881 the Spaffords moved to Jerusalem to meet the needs of the people. Through their service the Spaffords were able to share Christ with the local Muslims and Jewish communities….

See the Source video:

Martin Quèrè

My first visit to the National Seminary of Ampitiya, I met Martin Quèrè, a renowned scholar of Church History. He was greatly respected for his work in Catholic Church of Sri Lanka. As I waited anxiously, with feeble gait and gloomy face, this French priest approached us. He pleasantly greeted us with a smile. At the introduction the Dean said, "Reverend father has two PhDs!" At that moment, swiftly and in a melancholic weak voice, Quèrè replied, "All that is useless, now I can't remember much!" I was astonished. This great man strived his whole life to gain knowledge. Now he is unable to retrieve it clearly. After our brief meeting, he retired to his old room, where he resides for about fifty years. He walked morosely; his face was tainted with a deep sadness.

 "Whence then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding?"  Job 28:20

A Sad Sunday: Beloved Pastor has gun-down at the Church

A unidentified Gunman walked down the aisle of the Illinois  First Baptist Church of Maryville, during the Sunday service and shot the pastor and then stabbed himself. The church web site issued a communiqué:

“On Sunday, March 8, 2009, a little after our 8:15 service began, a man entered First Baptist Church and fired several gunshots at our Senior Pastor, Dr. Fred Winters. Pastor Winters was taken to the hospital but died of his wounds.”

Dr. Winters had been their Senior Pastor since 1987, the same year that he was married to his wife Cindy Lee. He received a BA from Southwest Baptist University (1986), an MA in Systematic Theology and Church History from Wheaton (1986), an MDiv from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1991), and a PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was the former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

 One News Now reported that “First Baptist had an average attendance of 32 people when Winters became senior pastor in 1987; it now has about 1,200 members, according to the church's Web site. Winters also was former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the site.”

He is survived by his wife, Cindy Lee and two children, Alysia Grace and Cassidy Hope.

International Heralded tribune notes the rising violence against the Christian ministers: “Last month, a man shot and killed himself in front of a cross inside televangelist Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. In November, a gunman killed his estranged wife in a New Jersey church vestibule as Sunday services let out.

In July, two people were killed and six wounded in a shooting rampage at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. An out-of-work truck driver who police say targeted the church for its liberal leanings pleaded guilty to the shootings and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.”

The First Baptist Church further stated,

“Please pray for Dr. Winter’s family, our two brave members who were injured when they stopped the assailant, for the assailant himself and his family, and for our church members as they deal with this tragic loss.

In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might not do otherwise, one thing is certain, we, as human beings need a foundation upon which we can live our lives. We at First Baptist Maryville, along with other Christian believers, share this conviction: that foundation is God’s Word. In the pages of the Book we call the Bible, we find the pathway for peace, hope, and a quality of living life despite what circumstances we find ourselves in.

To those who believe in the power of prayer, we covet your prayers right now”

The Fall of a Literary Giant

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was considered to be a man who never been afraid for critical truth under pressing might of the Communist super power. In his speech at the Noble prize for literature he quoted a Russian proverb and said, "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world." He was marked as a man who fearlessly pursue truth and critiqued the political regimes of Soviet Union. He outlived the Soviet Union for more than 17 years, which imprisoned, ostracized and exiled him for many years. His death on August 3, 2008 marks the last of Soviet Union great literary giants.

His first publication called “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (1962) brought the life of a prison camp inmate and it made his mark with the literary giants like Tolstoy, Dostoyevski and Chekov. He wrote critical novels of the totalitarian duress in “The First Circle” (1968) to which he got the Nobel Prize and “The Cancer Ward”(1968). He wrote historical novels like “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973-1978) describing the first hand experiences of horror and life of Soviet labor camp.

His literary tradition was considered as “Prophetic Russian literary tradition,” who saw his role to be an Old Testament prophet to expose and denounce the Kremlin and the West . The key feature in Solzhenitsyn’s literature is the Orthodox Christian frame of reference and traditional Christian values and beliefs.

He defined the role of the author or artist as that of truth-teller against lies in the prevailing culture. Note his words in the Noble lecture:

"One artist sees himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world; he hoists onto his shoulders the task of creating this world, of peopling it and of bearing the all-embracing responsibility for it; but he crumples beneath it, for a mortal genius is not capable of bearing such a burden. Just as man in general, having declared himself the centre of existence, has not succeeded in creating a balanced spiritual system. And if misfortune overtakes him, he casts the blame upon the age-long disharmony of the world, upon the complexity of today's ruptured soul, or upon the stupidity of the public.

Another artist, recognizing a higher power above, gladly works as a humble apprentice beneath God's heaven; then, however, his responsbility for everything that is written or drawn, for the souls which perceive his work, is more exacting than ever. But, in return, it is not he who has created this world, not he who directs it, there is no doubt as to its foundations; the artist has merely to be more keenly aware than others of the harmony of the world, of the beauty and ugliness of the human contribution to it, and to communicate this acutely to his fellow-men. And in misfortune, and even at the depths of existence - in destitution, in prison, in sickness - his sense of stable harmony never deserts him."[1]

He was a firm believer of authors or artists should not partake in falsehood and not to support and propagate false conduct:

". . . the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions! Let THAT enter the world, let it even reign in the world - but not with my help. But writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! " [2]

That was the his important contribution to the 20th century literature.

After 1964, his works were band and soon after the publishing of “Gulag” 1974, he was expelled from Soviet Union. Later he was allowed to return back to Russia. However soon after his return he did wham criticisms on the Mikhail Gorbachyov to Vladimir Putin regimes. Some argue that west has used Solzhenitsyn in the cold war times to embrace the Soviets by giving a Noble prize, just after his 7 years of literary success. Yet his contribution and effort towards the 20th century literary world is unfathomable.

The New York Times states his extreme measures to published “Gulag”:

“Publishers in Paris and New York had secretly received the manuscript on microfilm. But wanting the book to appear first in the Soviet Union, Mr. Solzhenitsyn asked them to put off publishing it. Then, in September 1973, he changed his mind. He had learned that the Soviet spy agency, the KBG, had unearthed a buried copy of the book after interrogating his typist, Elizaveta Voronyanskaya, and that she had hung herself soon afterward.

He went on the offensive. With his approval, the book was speedily published in Paris, in Russian, just after Christmas. The Soviet government counterattacked with a spate of articles, including one in Pravda, the state-run newspaper, headlined “The Path of a Traitor.” He and his family were followed, and he received death threats.

On Feb. 12, 1974, he was arrested. The next day, he was told that he was being deprived of his citizenship and deported.”

Dr. Alebert Mohler wrote,

“He was a man of massive courage and literary ability -- a central character of the twentieth century. He was a moralist to the core, affirming human dignity against Communist oppression and Stalin's murder of millions. Even so, he carried on an affair with the woman who became his second wife and the mother of his sons. He seemed ungrateful to America, but he also saw what many Americans, blinded by historical optimism, could not or would not see in the weakness of the West.

He returned to Russia a prophet, but also a man who seemed strangely out of his times. In his case, a great life of the twentieth century lingered awkwardly into the twenty-first. Nevertheless, his great courage and his literary achievement remain a tribute to the human spirit. Even more, Solzhenitsyn's moral vision serves as a reminder that Christianity alone provides an adequate grounding for human dignity.

When asked once about the force of his writings, Solzhenitsyn explained: 'The secret is that when you've been pitched head first into hell you just write about it.' The world was changed because he did just that.”

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[1] http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-lecture.html

[2] Ibid.

Life & Death: what should we make out of them

Harriette Cole's column Sense and Sensitive, had an interesting post appeared on the last Tuesday [1].

Lori, Harlem, NY writes:

Dear Harriette: A woman I admire from distance for many years suddly died. I got word of it but remain somewhat in shock. She really did have a good life, but there something about death that is so final. It is end. And it makes me think about the what-ifs. I know life isin't promised, but I don't have my stuff together, if you know what I mean. If somebody who seemed to have her life together just suddenly lost it, what hope is there for me?

Note the Harriette's response:

Dear Lori: Use this time as an opportunity to look at your life differently. No moment is promised other that the one you are in. Are you living to your potential? Are you cherishing the happy times learning from the challengers before you? Are you welcoming each moment Or are you worrying yourself sick?

You have the power to choose to welcome every day with greater clarity and forcus. Get your life in order. Organized your home, your finances, your friendships, and your relationships. Get clear so you can be ready for anything, including death.

What a shallow answer is this. Many think if you lived a life to its full potential, that would be a great success. This is the classical response of Ecclesiastics.

Few Months back I read a book from Bart Ehrman named God's Problem on the theme of suffering. He was a "born-agin" believer converted through Youth for Christ and then in his later years of theological studies became an agnostic. The book was unfortunately, a superficial handling of the subject. He has not covered all the biblical aspects of suffering including the fall of humanity. However, he also comes to the same conclusion to which Harriette Cole has arrived.

He conclude his book:

"We should love and be loved. We should cultivate our friendships, enjoy our intimate relationships, cherish our family lives. We should make money and spend money. The more the better. We should enjoy good food and drink. We should eat out and order unhealthy desserts, and we should cook steak on the grill and drink Bordeaux. We should walk around the block, work in the garden, watch basketball, and drink beer. We should travel and read books and go to museums and look at art and listen to music. We should drive nice cars and have nice homes. We should make love, have babies, and raise families. We should do what we can to love life-it's a gift and it will not be with us for long.

[tell this to majority world (third world) suffering people like who are living in Sri Lanka]*

But we should also work hard to make our world the most pleasing place it can be for others-whether this means visiting a friend in the hospital, giving more to local charity or international relief effort, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, voting for politicians more concerned with the suffering in the world than with their own political future, or expressing our opposition to the violent oppression of innocence people. What we have in the here and now is all that there is. We need to live life to its fullest and help other as well to enjoy the fruits of the land.

In the end, we may not have ultimate solutions to life's problems. We may not know the why's and wherefore's. But just because we don't have an answer to suffering does not mean that we can not have to respond to it. Our response should be to work hard to alleviate suffering wherever possible and to live life as well as we can"[3].

What about the words of Jesus:

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:34-38 NRSV).

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[1] The Dallas Morning News, "Comics and Puzzles" Tuesday August 5, 2008.

[2] Picture: "The Cup of Death" (1885) By Elihu Vedder (American artist, 1836-1923)

[3] Bart D. Ehrman, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question-Why we suffer (New York: Harper One, 2008), 277-278.

*comment is mine