BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

William Andrew Dillard

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED
Parson to person
Never before has the world been so filled with transient folks. Modern transportation and international trade seems to have shrunken the world significantly. Nowadays, one may eat breakfast in California, lunch in New York and dinner in Europe or vice-versa. It is reported that Wal-Mart’s 747 is furnished with beds. Executives may board in late evening in northwest Arkansas, retire, then deplane refreshed and ready for business in the morning in Europe. Just think about it!
Interstate movement multiplies that potential exponentially. The matching of skills and jobs often take one far and wide before retirement age. Then there are those who are given to repeatedly jumping on the moving trains of commerce and opportunity because they feel their life is cast in a day of small things, and they must move on to achieve their potential. Moreover, there are plenty of clichés that speak to that mindset. “A sitting hen lays no eggs,” “The moving wheel has the cargo;” The rolling stone admits no moss;” “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence;” on and on they go. But wait just a minute!
Whatever happened to the idea of “Bloom where you are planted?” Insatiable desires for fame and fortune most often have a disappointing end. Notice how the traveler always wants to be “home” for important occasions? But if everyone became nomadic in the present carousel world, where would home be and who would be there? Additionally, it is most often those who plant deep roots who are able to bloom the longest, and bear the most fruit. It is they who create stability. This principle is definitely applicable within the Lord’s churches. Travelers (missionaries) are scriptural and needed, but what are they, and how shall they proceed minus a base, Rom. 10? Folks should not be afraid of a little responsibility, but “brighten the corner where they are!” This means going beyond normal efforts to enhance the reputation of their God-given church as a spiritual institution in the community. Causes to run away at the slightest challenge to be responsible will always find them. But such challenges are actually marvelous opportunities to shine; to “bloom where they are planted,” and that really counts!

“V” for Victory!

2Th_2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

American Minute with Bill Federer

“V” for Victory! It was on JULY 19, 1941, that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill held up two fingers as a sign of victory.

It became a symbol for all Western European resistance during WWII, with V’s painted on walls and over Nazi posters.

In From War to War (Second World War, 1958, Vol. 1, ch. 4, p. 50), Winston Churchill described Hitler’s Mein Kampf as:

“…the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.”

Before the House of Commons, June 18, 1940, Churchill warned:

“I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization…

The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.”

Churchill continued:

“If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”

Winston Churchill concluded:

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

Earlier in his career, 1897-1898, Winston Churchill fought in northwest India, Egypt and Sudan, serving under the command of General Herbert Kitchener.

As quoted by Stanely Kurtz in “Tribes of Terror” (Claremont Review, 2007/2008), Churchill described Islam as a:

“…system of ethics, which regards treachery and violence as virtues rather than vices.”

Churchill returned to Britain and penned a two-volume work, The (Nile) River War, in which he wrote:

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!…

The fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog… Insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live…

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.”

Churchill continued:

“The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities…but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.”

Churchill concluded:

“No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step;

and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

263 – Sept. 20 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

A courage that honored God

 

1944 – According to Winston Churchill, was the day that the Nijmegen Bridge  over the Waal-Rhine River in Holland, the longest bridge in Europe, fell into American hands in World War II.  Baptist Chaplain Captain Delbert Kuehl tells of the heroism of Henry, a nineteen year old Baptist paratrooper. Because of his Christian witness Henry had been given the nickname of “chaplain” of “H” company, and some less honorable names as well. The Germans were caught by surprise, but as the Americans reached the water, they opened fire. Many of our soldiers were hit by machine gun and mortar fire including Henry. However Henry, ignoring his wounds ministered to the fallen soldiers. Chaplain Kuehl insisted on Henry leaving in one of the boats which he did but then the Chaplain was surprised to see him back again, head bandaged, to assist others to get across even in the midst of heavy fire. He helped load one more man into the boat, and then collapsed, being weakened by loss of blood. At that time Henry, who was semi-conscious, was loaded into the boat and taken back to the friendly side of the river. Chaplain Kuehl said, “I shall never forget the courage of this young Christian Paratrooper—a courage that caused every fighting man to marvel and a courage that honored God.” [Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy (Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953), p 198. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 515-17]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon