“My Life Is a Prayer”

Mary Khoury
17 years old · Damour, Lebanon
During the Lebanese civil war, 1975-1992

Mary Khoury and her family were forced to their knees before their home.  The leader of the Muslim fanatics who had raided their village waved his pistol carelessly before their faces.  His hatred for Christians burned in his eyes.  “If you do not become a Muslim,” he threatened, “you will be shot.”

Mary knew Jesus had been given a similar choice, “Give up Your plan to save sinners, or You will be crucified.”  He chose the cross.

Mary’s choice was similar.  “I was baptized as a Christian, and His word cam to me: ‘Don’t deny your faith.’ I will obey Him. Go ahead and shoot.”  The report of a gun from behind her echoed in the valley and Mary’s body fell limply to the ground.

Two days later, the Red Cross came into her village. Of all her family, Mary was the only one still alive. But the bullet had cut her spinal cord, leaving both her arms paralyzed.  They were stretched out from her body and bent at the elbows, reminiscent of Jesus at His crucifixion. She could do nothing with them.

More words from the Lord came to Mary.  Even though she was now handicapped, she knew God had a plan for her life.

 “Everyone has a vocation,” she said. “I can never marry or do any physical work. So I will offer my life for Muslims, like the one who cut my father’s throat, cursed my mother and stabbed her, and then tried to kill me. My life will be a prayer them.”

Such prayers shatter the governments of those who persecute Christians as billions of dollars spent on atomic bombs could never do.  They also bring those who hate Christians face-to face with the son of God.

Mary’s example encouraged others to take a heroic stand in Lebanon. Many died, were wounded, or fled the country during Lebanon’s civil war.  Some stayed, as did one missionary who was too concerned with his flock to flee to safety. Though the blast from a shell exploding in his home left him deaf in one ear and killed the family of five who lived next door to him he was still strong in spirit.  One ear was enough for him to use in spreading the Gospel.  “People are coming to the Lord every day,” he reported in 1990, one of the worst years of the war.

I have  heard that a lot of you missed the NBC report from Africa on Tuesday for one reason or another.  But fear not!  I have it!  You can watch it be CLICKING HERE. You will see some really interesting things that Bono is involved in.

CLICK HERE.  to see the full report.

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP

EDUCATE YOURSELF:  Go to sites like, one.org, compassion.com, worldvision.org and the like and educate yourself about the problems that are out there.  Insulating yourself from the world's problems doesn't solve anything.

PRAY:  Take time to pray to God for the needs of the world.  Pray for God to soften your heart to the needs out there.  declaration hearts of the congressman that can take action in providing aid to needy nations.

GIVE:  Give some of your time to sign the one.org declaration. CLICK HERE to do it, it only takes a few minutes.  Then get two or three of your friends to do it.  Give some of your time to write a senator, congressman, or the president and tell them to do something about global poverty and preventable illnesses.  Give some of your money to charities and organizations that are doing something to fight off poverty.

Things that are Beautiful:

• The Yosemite Valley
• Laughter
• Music
• Sunrises & Sunsets
• Thunderstorms
• Coral Reefs
• Charity
• Service
• Children Playing
• Sharing
• Nelson Mandela
• Family Meals
• Flowing Rivers
• Generosity
• Faithfulness
• Scripture
• Jesus
• Rainbows
• Kept Promises
• Roses
• Chocolate
• Worship
• Friendship
• Marriage
• Wives
• Truth
• Church Family
• Peace
• Thanksgiving Dinner

Then you think about the word “Beautiful,” there may be a lot if different images that come to mind.  For some of you it is a beautiful landscape or picture of nature.  For others it is a memory of a magical time in life.  For some it may be a person who have really impacted your life through their character and faith.

My Grandma was a beautiful person.  Now if you looked at her, she wasn’t the most attractive person.  Actually she was overweight, short, and walked with a waddle.  From many people’s perspective, she wouldn’t be one of People Magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in the world.  But she was the nicest, kindest, most loving person I have ever known.  She was a woman of great faith and took her faith seriously.  I remember her taking me to mass when we were on vacation on a Tuesday!  Before then, I only thought church was a Sunday thing.  Not to mention the fact we were on vacation, I remember asking myself, ‘Who goes to church on vacation?”  My grandma did and because of her faith, she impacted my life for God in a way I still remember 30 years later.  She was never rich, but always generous.  I never got the best gifts from her, but I always felt at home at her place.  I have the blessing of preaching at her funeral . . . one of the most difficult things that I have ever done in life.

Beautiful can also be used to describe a moment in time.  Ever had a moment when you just stopped and looked at the event you were a part of from a different perspective just to take it all in?  Kind of looked at where you were as if you were floating above the scene and just said, “This is just great, this is just beautiful!” 

I think Jesus had one of these moments at the Last Supper.  A moment when he just stopped and looked at it from above.  A time where he looked at all these followers and reflected on how far they have come, how much they have grown up, how much they have learned in the last three years and said to himself, “This is beautiful.”

I imagine God looking at the creation when it was all brand new, watching Adam and Eve discovering themselves and all the new animals with so much joy, and thinking to himself, “This is beautiful.”

What are some of those beautiful moments in your life? 

So I had the opportunity to see three movies this past weekend.  Now I am not one to post movie reviews here, but if you have a choice of what movie to see next, this might help you to thin k twice before going and seeing what everyone else is seeing:

UNITED 93:  This is a documentary style movie that takes you inside the FAA, the Defense Dept Command Center and United Flight 93 which was supposed to crash in to the capitol building before the courage of the passengers worked to bring it down prematurely.  It is gripping, edge of your seat suspense.  It is also highly respectful of those involved in that fateful day.  This is an important movie that needs to be seen.

Over The Hedge:  This is laugh out loud FUNNY!  Great animation.  Hilarious characters.  Cute, not stupid.  Just see this movie if you want to have fun.

The DaVinci Code—I really debated as to whether or not I wanted to see this movie for one reason:  Did I want Dan Brown, the author of The DaVinci Code book to my money? After teaching on it for four weeks on Sunday morning, seeing all sorts of news stories and specials on what is wrong with the story.  I am convinced that this is much, much more than JUST a story.  In my opinion it is intentionally deceptive and borderline blasphemous.  Friends of mine who have gone to church their whole life were left with questions of their faith after seeing this movie.  However, the bottom line is that the movie is BORING!  Two and a half hours of boring dialogue, no suspense, and bad acting.  Save your money, check out the book if you really want to know about it and read it, for the book is far more entertaining.  I encourage you to spend your money elsewhere.

Five Ways to Respond to The DaVinci Code:

1.  Let this START GREAT conversations with people about Jesus and The Church

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”

1 Peter 3:15-17

Take what you have learned in the past four weeks of Bible Class and use that information to let you have an informed discussion about Jesus and his Divinity, the authority of scripture, and Absolute Truth with those friends of your who see it.

2.  Let this CONTINUE YOUR QUEST for TRUTH as it is REVEALED IN SCRIPTURE. 

“For the word of God is living and active.”

Heb 4:12

If you read the book or see the movie, don’t let those questions just sit there!  Seek the Truth in Scripture!  Build a regular Quiet Time and develop your faith by building a stronger foundation of what is right.

3.  TRUST what has been passed down for GENERATION AFTER GENERATION.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”

Hebrews 12:1

Know that you can trust the traditions of the church, those who have gone before you in faith, the trustworthiness of the Bible.  The DaVinci Code is FICTION.  Even though Dan Brown writes that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals are accurate.” THIS IS FALSE.  That statement is also part of the fiction work and is intended to help you suspend belief of what is really true to increase the drama in his book.

4.  Call a LIE a LIE.

Don’t condone falsehood with silence.

When you see something that is wrong—say that it is wrong.  Don’t just sit there and let is sit there without any challenge.  When you see something that is a lie, say, “That’s not right!”

5.  Be the BEST EXAMPLE of Christianity to those around you.

“Preach the word at all times . . .  If necessary, use words.

--St. Francis

This is the best way to respond to everything The DaVinci Code brings up is to be the best example of Christianity to those around you.  Be honest, a person of integrity, purity, righteousness and truth.  Be a servant.  Love those who others don’t.  And most of all walk the walk.

Last night I went to a church in Menlo Park to hear one of my favorite authors speak.  One of the words he used more than once was the word, "Beautiful."  It began me thinking, what a wonderful word Beautiful is.  It is often misused and overused as well.  It is a very diverse word that has a tremendous amount of flexibility and adaptability.

When I think of the wonderful parts of the word beautiful, the LAST thing that comes to my mind is physical beauty.  I think one of the worst uses of the word beautiful is the way People Magazine and the like use it to define the 50 Most Beautiful people in the world.  The problem with that is that they define beauty as an outward characteristic.  I don’t think God really cares much about one’s outward appearance.  The thing that I really get excited about when I think of Amy aren’t her outward characteristics.  The things that rank high on my list of what makes Amy beautiful are as follows:

• Her love and devotion to her faith—Amy has always been someone who has challenged me in my faith through her example and her careful encouragement and confrontation when I have done or said something that just wasn’t in line with Christianity.
• Her care and concern for our marriage—Amy is always thinking about what could make our relationship better and what are those things we should do to bring us closer together.  She is also respectful of what makes me unique and my differences and has adapted to that by allowing me times to “be myself.”
• Her love and nurturing of our children—I am more of a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” kind of parent where Amy is right there by Abby and Madeline’s side to help them when they need it.  I think there are places for both kinds of parenting that help to develop a child.  I am so glad she is there to balance that part of my personality.
• Her compassion to those less fortunate than her—I may be the one who touts a lot of social justice causes and concern for those who are poor and needy, but Amy is the one who really helped push my heart in that direction. 
• Her sense of morality and justice—Amy knows what is right and wrong.  She is one of the nest counselors I have to bounce ideas off of to know whether I am doing the right thing or not. 

These are the kinds of qualities that make someone really, really beautiful.  Not the mascara, fancy clothes, and fine perfume.  Frankly, I have met a lot of physically beautiful people who are some of the ugliest people I have ever met.  Those with great looks many times have been some of the most selfish, self-centered, greedy, shallow people I have ever met.  I wonder why that is?  Anyways, I think that is why Paul tells women to, “dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”  I don’t think that this is only for women.  I think we all should define beauty and handsomeness from the INSIDE-OUT.   

The First Jesus Freak
Jerusalem, Israel ·  34 AD

Across the courtroom, the young man on trial continued preaching.  The jury fidgeted nervously as he told of their religious heritage and forefathers.  What did Abraham and Moses have to do with this Jesus?  Another young man in the audience, about the same age as the defendant, seemed not to be listening.  His mind was already made up on the matter of this Jesus follower.  The crowd of Jewish leaders, however, grew more agitated at every word from the young defendant.

Suddenly the preacher turned to the audience.  “You stubborn and hard

headed people!  You’re always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just like your ancestors did.  The killed the prophets who told about the coming of the Righteous One.  And now you have turned against Him and killed Him.  You have received the law of God, but you have not kept it.”

When the crowd heard this, they were even more furious, but the defendant ignored their growing anger.  His face glowed like that of an angel, and he stopped talking and pointed to the ceiling.  “Look!  I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

This was too much.  Yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him.  The dragged him out of the city to stone him.  He continued preaching all the way.

The young man who had be in the audience, one Sal of Tarsus, followed after them. He stood a short distance away from the defendant, looking steadily at the sky as the mob grew larger.  The cries grew more heated now.  A man handed Saul his coat, then stooped to pick up a stone as though waiting for the signal from Saul.  Saul lowered his gaze, then looked directly into the man’s eyes and nodded.  It was time to silence the young preacher.

Stephen, the defendant, continued despite the crowd’s jeers, because the Man he was telling them about was so important to him.  He couldn’t stop talking about Him.  Several more men had now removed their coats, handed them to Saul, and began gathering rocks, many of them so large that the men had to lift them with two hands.

“This blasphemer must be dealt with!”

“He speaks against Moses!”

“We don’t want to hear about your Jesus anymore!”

A rock sailed past Stephen’s head.  He stopped speaking long enough to duck it, dazed for a moment, then stood to continue.  The second rock caught him near his temple, and he fell to his knees.  Another hit his shoulder.  Then there were too many to count.

“No more Jesus talk!

“Let this be a lesson to all who would proclaim this Jesus!”

Another stone found its mark.  Then another.  He couldn’t open his eyes for the sting of the blood.  His clothes were torn by the blows and blood dripped freely from the tatters.  He began to pray, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” The he scanned the crowd until his eyes locked with those of the young man with held a bundle of coats.  “And Lord,” he continued, “do not hold this sin against them.”

When he said those words, Stephen died.

Slowly men gathered their coats from young Saul, who was soon alone with the body of the young preacher.  Saul had come to Jerusalem to help silence this growing craze about Jesus of Nazareth.  Despite his hatred, he could not shake the young man’s words and ho fearlessly he had faced death.  He stood staring at the body of the first martyr for this Jesus.  The glow that had so angered Saul was still on the young man’s face.  He had seen it as the smug pride of a heretic, but could it have been something else?  He quenched the thought and turned away, more determined than ever to crush this Jesus movement.

Saul did not persecute men like Stephen for much longer.  One day soon after, on his way to Damascus to imprison more believers, he saw Jesus.  From that encounter he later became Paul, the first Christian missionary, who traveled everywhere proclaiming the name of Jesus.  He eventually wrote a good part of the New Testament.

It started with a seed placed in his heart by a young man full of faith, grace, and power—a Jesus Freak who could not stop telling people about Jesus, even it meant his life.