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Ok, this is a sort of sequel to my previous post. That night I was Guided to read more about the man I'm named after:
Eric Liddell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell
He was born to Scottish missionaries in China and became a missionary himself. Not a single bad word can be found to describe him. Everyone loved him and he loved everybody. Exactly what the world needs more of and that's what he tried to teach: love...even when imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in World War 2.
" He preached on St Paul’s letter, 1 Corinthians 13 and Matthew 5 – 7 ~ the Sermon on the Mount. I can remember him saying at the end of the series on the Sermon on the Mount something like this ~ ‘Read the sermon on the mount over and over again, ponder it’s meaning and apply it to your daily life, do not try to explain it away, do not dilute its meaning but face up to its challenge’. Then he would say ‘let’s add it on to the end of the Apostles Creed and when you finish saying the Apostles Creed say I believe in the Sermon on the Mount’. And I intend, with God helping me, to apply it to my life. That was what Eric Liddell taught us to do."
-Rev. Dr. Norman Cliff
"A friend once offered me a very attractive little pistol to protect myself particularly agains bandits. Eric, who happened to be there at the time, shouted, "Don't touch it!" If you have that in your pocket you will depend on it rather than God and I would refuse to travel with You"."
-Dr. Kenneth McAll
"t was around this time, in another Bible Study on the Sermon on the Mount that he confronted us with the words from Mathew 5 verse 43. “Love your enemy.”
Was this a real possibility, could we really love the Japanese military police?
Was this just an ideal that we should aim at?
Or was it a practical reality?
The discussion that followed tended towards the idea that this was the ideal. We quoted the last words in the chapter stating “Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”
Eric beamed as he said, I also thought that was the case, but then I took on board the next words. “Pray for them that persecute you.”
He told how he had started to pray for the Japanese. Eric said, we spend a lot of time praying for all our loved ones and the people we like but Jesus told us to pray for the people we don’t like, our enemies!
He challenged us to start praying for the Japanese.
When you pray you are God centred, when you hate you are self centred. It is hard to hate the people God loves, praying changes your focus. "
Which means I need to pray for the racists, which made me feel better.
If you want to learn more about Eric, I highly recommend this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/
It will be getting its own entry at some point.
Eric Liddell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell
He was born to Scottish missionaries in China and became a missionary himself. Not a single bad word can be found to describe him. Everyone loved him and he loved everybody. Exactly what the world needs more of and that's what he tried to teach: love...even when imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in World War 2.
" He preached on St Paul’s letter, 1 Corinthians 13 and Matthew 5 – 7 ~ the Sermon on the Mount. I can remember him saying at the end of the series on the Sermon on the Mount something like this ~ ‘Read the sermon on the mount over and over again, ponder it’s meaning and apply it to your daily life, do not try to explain it away, do not dilute its meaning but face up to its challenge’. Then he would say ‘let’s add it on to the end of the Apostles Creed and when you finish saying the Apostles Creed say I believe in the Sermon on the Mount’. And I intend, with God helping me, to apply it to my life. That was what Eric Liddell taught us to do."
-Rev. Dr. Norman Cliff
"A friend once offered me a very attractive little pistol to protect myself particularly agains bandits. Eric, who happened to be there at the time, shouted, "Don't touch it!" If you have that in your pocket you will depend on it rather than God and I would refuse to travel with You"."
-Dr. Kenneth McAll
"t was around this time, in another Bible Study on the Sermon on the Mount that he confronted us with the words from Mathew 5 verse 43. “Love your enemy.”
Was this a real possibility, could we really love the Japanese military police?
Was this just an ideal that we should aim at?
Or was it a practical reality?
The discussion that followed tended towards the idea that this was the ideal. We quoted the last words in the chapter stating “Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”
Eric beamed as he said, I also thought that was the case, but then I took on board the next words. “Pray for them that persecute you.”
He told how he had started to pray for the Japanese. Eric said, we spend a lot of time praying for all our loved ones and the people we like but Jesus told us to pray for the people we don’t like, our enemies!
He challenged us to start praying for the Japanese.
When you pray you are God centred, when you hate you are self centred. It is hard to hate the people God loves, praying changes your focus. "
Which means I need to pray for the racists, which made me feel better.
If you want to learn more about Eric, I highly recommend this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/
It will be getting its own entry at some point.
