Tuesday, October 8, 2013

OPEN MIKE TUESDAY........Heros and Miracles

Do you believe in miracles? Is there a personal hero you have hidden in your heart? Who is a hero and what constitutes a “miracle”.  A standard definition of miracle is this:
A miracle is an extraordinary event caused by the power of God. Faith is necessary in order for miracles to be manifested”
Does a miracle have to be other-worldly to be divinely appointed? I believe like Anne Frank that “Despite everything, I believe that all people are good at heart”. If goodness be of God; can He “fire up” that basic goodness in an ordinary man or woman to inspire them to act in a way that they would not normally act? Even to the disregard their own lives and be; well heroic?  And, regardless of any or none at all “religious affiliation”. Can we transcend an affiliation in order to be the “angels” that we are? We marvel at heroic efforts in history and wonder, “How did they find the courage to do that?”  Or we may even ask “What were they thinking?”

Today is open mike Tuesday and our guest is this man;Bob Michels. I was really touched by his story of heroism, but I feel that heroism is another word for love for our fellow beings. My husband is a truck driver, and I know everyone has a “bad truck driver story”, but I know that my husband has seen a lot of “road tragedies” none of which he has caused. He was the person jumping out of his truck to help an unfortunate driver. I hope that this would never happen to my husband or anyone, but if you saw something like this, would you help? 

HERO DAD PULLS DRIVER FROM BLAZE (check out this link)

Bob Michels and his family were en route to Disneyland when a big rig driver in front of them veered off the highway, where it crashed and burst into flames. " I knew I had to stop and do something", said Bob who abruptly stopped, jumped the guard rail and ran toward the fire to pull the driver from the wreckage. Wife Aimee admits she "freaked out" as the scene unfolded but the whole family is proud of his selfless feat. Bob has yet to meet the female driver, who suffered non-life threatening injuries and was rushed to the hospital. In the meantime, the family did make it to Disneyland where he was named "honorary citizen" for the day.(courtesy CBS-Losangeles videos on Yahoo Screen)  
An ancient prophet, when confronted with the end of his appointed work, and contemplating the future of mankind, even their belief in God and love of their fellow beings pondered:  15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?  19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold I say unto you (that) he changes not; if so He would cease to be God; and He ceases not to be God; and (He) is a God of miracles.20 And the reason why he ceases to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believes in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth. Book of Mormon 19:15-16;19-21

Another hero was a man named Ephraim Hanks, a member of the early church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was a regular guy, who loved just being a guy and doing "guy" things; hunting and fishing and stuff. But he joined the Church and heeded the call to serve God and his people. During his time, many members of the church had left their primary location in Nauvoo, Illinois due to persecution, to travel to the Utah territory. Many of these people either walked, drove wagons or pulled handcarts over a thousand miles. One of these groups of people came from England and joined the Martin and Willie handcart company .It was hard going and they started late, toward the end of the summer and suffered through an early winter culminating in a "Storm of the Century". I can say that we have something in common with these folk in that most of us have "survived" at least one storm of the new 21st century. So the prophet Brigham Young had a dream, even an impression that these people were on their "last leg", that survival was dire and he asked for volunteers to go out and find them and help them. Ephraim Hanks volunteered. He was set apart to do this work, which included finding them, providing food for them and healing them. The Lord blessed Ephraim with the gift of healing, of restoring life into a previous lifeless body, to lift the heavy arms and strengthen the feeble knees. I love this story.


"If the world is going to be saved, we have to do it" Gordon B Hinckley       

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