New Life'n

"If it wasn't for God and those firefighters coming thru that wall..."

Six of the nine who died came from Charleston Fire Station No.16.  Jonathan Tyrrell was saved by firefighters from the same station:

The lights went out. He tried 911 again. This time, the call went through. The operator transferred him to a firefighter. We're on the way, the voice told him. Get down as low to the floor as possible

About two minutes later, he heard firefighters outside. He yelled to them...The firefighters used axes to hack a hole in the wall. The opening was only about a foot and a half wide. Tyrrell felt two pairs of strong hands hauling him out. He was too lightheaded to focus on his rescuers' faces. One had red hair. Another had a tattoo...

Yesterday, Jonathan and his wife and 5-year-old daughter went looking for his rescuers.  They found them.

She was the world's most famous stay-at-home mom

From the Charlotte Observer story on Ruth Graham's death:

"We live in a world where, if you're not touching lots and lots of people, you're not important. If everybody would do what Ruth has done, this would be a better place. She cared about her neighbor."

Her father, Dr. Nelson Bell, gave up a promising career as a baseball pitcher to become a doctor and move to China as chief surgeon...her mother, Virginia, tutored her in their home....missionaries were seen as the enemy by some.

She returned to the United States in 1941 to attend Wheaton College...One date with a tall, thin farmer's boy from Charlotte turned her head and changed her life.

A timid Billy Graham got up the nerve to take her to a Sunday afternoon production of Handel's "Messiah" -- the first step of a romance...he didn't dare hold her hand on that first date.

With the $75 he saved for the honeymoon, they traveled to nearby Blowing Rock.Their union began a partnership that endured worldwide evangelism, adulation, politics and, perhaps most challenging of all, distance.

He would crisscross the world for Christ; she'd remain at home in Montreat, raising what grew to be a family of five children...It wasn't easy...she reminisced about sleeping with Billy's tweed jacket during the nights he was off saving souls.

The familiar story told by various Grahams is how Ruth Graham had had it up to here one day trying to discipline born-to-be-wild Franklin -- so she locked him in the trunk of her car as they went through the fast-food window in Asheville.

Franklin Graham, who now runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, recalled: "The waitress was shocked when she saw Mama open the trunk and hand me my food."

Another story HERE.

Shelter from the storm

An Iraqi boy hides behind a US soldier after a suicide bombing in Baghdad Monday.  From the front page of the NY Times yesterday.

Ever been glad you could hide behind someone armed with strength, who stood solid when everyone else ran with fear?

Falwell

I asked my friend Steve the first thing he thought when he heard Jerry Falwell died.  He jumped right up and started talking...

You go to breakfast -- then back to your office for another day.

You're planning, scheduling, returning phone calls, making decisions, dealing with all the little and big problems...

You've got the pressure and challenges of a big church and university...you're preparing for another commencement...Newt Gingrich is coming...

And in the middle of it you fall over -- dead.

The Bible says, "absent from the body, present with the Lord" --

And instantly you're with Jesus -- and everything's perfect and you're celebrating and there's no pressure, no problems -- just pure joy that's gonna last forever.

50 years at the highest, most visible level of public life and ministry -- done -- and never a scandal!

To others -- you're a social force.

To others -- you're controversial.

Not to the Lord.

To the Lord -- "well done good and faithful servant."

Steve also said 20 years ago he read a book by Falwell.  Right out of Bible school, Falwell was going to start a church in Macon, GA with a buddy.  But a group of people in Lynchburg, VA also wanted him to go there and start a church.  He didn't know what to do.  But he ended up feeling God was saying something to him -- "you choose; I'll bless it."  Knowing what happened, Steve said that really rattled his cage and he's never forgotten it.

So -- if God told YOU -- you choose, I'll bless it -- what would YOU choose?
                           _______________________________

And who said this? --

My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person,..Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California...

Does God exist?

Watch the debate!

Brave. Like his dad.

He's 8.  You know what happened.

"Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens?"

I have a pretty low threshold of intense, in-your-face scenes on TV and at movies.  I don't even like to get to the theater early enough to see the previews -- they're usually so loud and intense that I find myself holding my breath and gripping the armrest.  But there's something about the intensity that nature and creation sometimes turn loose that has the opposite effect -- I can't take my eyes off it.  This is the video from the storm chasers you may have seen on TV.  It's from the system that ended up going thru Kansas last week.  The chaser guys get pretty excited -- I can handle the video, but I have to turn them down.

That day

The definitive story -- up to now.  Long.  Horrible.  Don't read it unless you're willing to feel their pain -- 

Violand thought he heard the gunman reload three times. He could not hold back odd thoughts: "I wonder what a gun wound feels like. I hope it doesn't hurt. I wonder if I'll die slow or fast." He made eye contact with a girl, also still alive. They stared at each other until the gunman left...

The investigators interviewed Grewal and the four other roommates. No, they had not seen guns around the suite, but Cho was a strange guy. Wouldn't talk. Played the same songs over and over on his laptop. Didn't like to turn the light off in his room. Had a bike that he rode around campus late at night. Would not go out with them, except one rare time when they got him drinking at a party and he said he had an imaginary girlfriend who called him Spanky. Never saw him with a girl, though, or any friends whatsoever...Once he was sent to counseling and said he might as well kill himself. He started shaving his head down to a fuzz cut. Wore contact lenses. Used something for his acne. Was working out at the campus gym. Had been getting up really early recently...

Jesus wept, too

Who they were

Continual updates from the Roanoke Times

How one dad found out -- "And then it just started to reveal itself to me that something was wrong.  So I gathered my family and we drove down..."

He held the door closed while his students escaped --

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee,..Students started opening windows and jumping out."

They laughed at him --

"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China..."

"There were just some people who were really mean to him and they would push him down and laugh at him,..He didn't speak English really well and they would really make fun of him."

Why we do wrong -- (on the video NBC has, the shooter blames everyone but himself)

"I'm going to let you in on a secret. I'm going to give you a foolproof technique...that is the most powerful and most potent defense against Satan you could ever employ. If you do what I say, and follow these instructions every time you are tempted...I guarantee this will solve your problem..."

And, though these were written in response to 9-11, they answer the same kinds of questions heard now:

• Is there any hope?
• Where was God that day?
• How do I answer questions (including my own)?
• How do I pray for bad people?

Sean and Jeff and Jesus

How neighbors tried to help officers Clark and Shelton -- HERE.  And neighbors say they'll never be the same -- HERE

Theology for hurting people -- "how theology works to help hurting people see themselves and their world more nearly from God's perspective"

"Why would Jesus let us die? Doesn't he love us?" -- a dad answers his 5-year old daughter's question