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Some Veterans Bear Visible Signs Of Their ... PRO
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 16, 2001 (message contributor)
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg--or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She--or he--is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another--or didn’t come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor that has never seen combat--but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor die unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket--palsied now and aggravatingly slow--who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever...
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John Sutherland Bonnell, The Great Preacher Of A ... PRO
Contributed by Aaron Householder on Sep 30, 2004
John Sutherland Bonnell, the great preacher of a generation ago, has suggested five questions which are useful in evaluating Christian effectiveness and commitment. Look Closely at them to judge your strengths and weaknesses as a disciple of Christ. 1. Does my life witness each day to the power ...read more
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The Great Blondin
Contributed by Kelvin Mckisic on Jan 28, 2007
The Great Blondin The Great Blondin was a daredevil whose stage was Niagara Falls, where a tightrope was stretched across the great falls which he would walk across and back again. In his show he would ask the crowd if they believed that he could walk across and back again. The crowd would ...read more
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When A Train Goes Through The Tunnel And It ... PRO
Contributed by Aaron Householder on Sep 30, 2004
"When a train goes through the tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still ...read more
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One Day Out Of The Blue An Old Friend Of Mine ( I ...
Contributed by Jeff Leigh on Jul 23, 2005
One day out of the blue an old friend of mine ( I will call him Keith) phoned me to say he was in town and wanted to catch up. We hadn’t seen each other for over 15 years - I wasn’t a Christian when we were friends. Him and I were hell raisers, we were into anything and everything not good. Anyway ...read more
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In 1968 I Worked With A Nurse At Bethesda Naval ...
Contributed by Jack Valentino on May 24, 2005
In 1968 I worked with a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital who told me one day after I had just lost it with a co-worker. “You know you are only as big as the things you let bother you” Although I wasn’t in the mood to hear it at that time, it did impact me. However she didn’t respond much better ...read more
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