Skip to main content

Thoughts From Elizabeth Sherrill

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. Four years ago I did discover (according to my DNA results) that I have a little Irish in me, though unlike some I know, I do not tend to make a big deal about the day. In fact, it sometimes slips by me unnoticed. Yet, when I was reading a devotional today, I found the entry quite interesting -- a mix of history, combined with a true story of determination, and a lesson of faith -- all mixed into one! So I decided to share it. It comes (once again) from the Guideposts Daily Devotional, 2018 edition. The author is Elizabeth Sherrill.



I do hope you find it as interesting as I did - though I must confess that my fascination with it was likely due (in part) to the fact that I'm from just outside Boston, and happened to do a report on the events mentioned in this entry when I was in the 8th grade. I have even visited all the places that are referenced, which also surely piqued my interest in it. At any rate, an early "Happy Saint Patrick's Day" to those of you with Irish blood (even though St. Patrick was not Irish!) and "Happy Evacuation Day" -- which you will learn about if you read on. Enjoy.
"Everything is possible for the one who believes."
Mark 9:23
"When I moved to Massachusetts, I discovered that in Boston, March 17 is not only Saint Patrick's Day, but also Evacuation Day, with military drills by Revolutionary War reenactors. It's all to honor a young Boston bookseller who took on an "impossible" task. British troops had occupied Boston. Thousands of redcoats were billeted (given orders to house in civilian houses) in the city, and a fleet of warships blockaded the harbor. In 1775, George Washington arrived to take charge of the ragtag Continental army. If only he could place cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking the harbor, he saw at once that he could force the British to withdraw. But, as everyone knew, the Americans had no cannons.
True, word had traveled east that the Green Mountain Boys had captured Fort Ticonderoga with its plentiful artillery. But that was three hundred miles and a mountain range away, in upstate New York. This is when twenty-six year old Henry Knox appeared at Washington's headquarters: "I can bring you those cannons." So began the most astonishing logistics feat of the Revolutionary War. Commandeering oxen from farms along the route, Knox's expedition arrived at Ticonderoga in December. There they constructed huge reinforced sleds, loaded them with sixty tons of cannons and equipment, hitched them to teams of oxen, and began the cold and laborious trek across the frozen Hudson River and the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
One Spring morning the British looked up to see what could not possibly be: a ring of cannons lining the hill above them. There was a hasty assembling of redcoat ranks, a swift raising of a thousand sails, and on March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, never to return. It was the Continental army's first victory, an all-important morale booster for the difficult years ahead.
Teach me, Father, that the word 'impossible' has no place in the life of faith (II Kings 6:15-17)."


When faced with a seemingly impossible task, what is your response? Faith that looks to God for a way, or defeat that looks at the circumstances and resigns itself to not even trying?

Looking to the God for Whom Nothing is Impossible, Pastor Jeff






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts From Horatius Bonar

Dear Friends, If you are like me, you may have had a bad experience in the past with churches that stressed “holiness.” Not because churches shouldn’t, but because the focus was placed on outward conformity to externalisms, or a prescribed set of moralism’s that sucked the atmosphere of grace out of the church. In fact, the more effort-based versions of “holiness” are stressed, the more grace disappears – and the vacuum left in its wake is filled with even more rigid standards of morality and law-based duties – driving all who truly struggle with sin into hiding or pretending. And of all the books I have ever read on holiness (or godliness) none (in my opinion) hold a candle to “God’s Way of Holiness” by the Scottish minister Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). A book I have given to numerous people to read. If you were one who was turned off, or wounded, by a form of holiness based on what Bonar calls, “constrained externalism” or self-effort, I offer you this selection as a taste of w...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Christian Quotes

Dear Friends, Everyone (I assume) has a “favorite” Christian quote. Over the years I have collected and memorized many! So, today, I simply typed in my search engine “Favorite Christian Quotes” to see which one’s other people liked best and share them with you – assuming, of course, that if they spoke to others they might also speak to you. If you have one that you found extremely helpful, and is not included here, I would like to know what it is, and ask that you might take a moment at the end to pass it along to me. Thanks! Enjoy. “Please do not feel you have the right to judge me simply because I sin differently than you.” Anonymous “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why.” Mark Twain "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “The proper understanding of everything in life begins with...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts from John Powell

Dear Friends, Sometimes you come across a story that sticks with you. This particular true story was one I read in 1897 and still remember today. Therefore, I thought I would share it with you. It comes from a book entitled “He Touched Me” by John Powell. Powell was a professor and counsellor at Loyola University in Chicago, with degrees in Psychology, the Classics, and Theology, and at the time when the events of this story transpired he was going through some inner struggles himself – events he chronicles in another book, “Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am?” At that time a lady came to him for counselling – who in the end changed his outlook on counselling. This is her story, and one that changed him. Enjoy. “A neurotic friend was weaving in and out of my life a few years ago. Each time we met there was the same neurotic whine, the same indecision, the same egocentric focus that is born out of deeply embedded pain from past trauma. It became clear that after many counsellin...
Post a Comment
Read more