These November Days

Core education is captured in this acronym: RRR

But RRR is not what you think it is.  In my world it is Reading, aRithmetic and Remembering!

A knowledge of history is vitally important for decision making today.  To not know history is to repeat the mistakes made then that caused pain and disasters.  We must be students of history!  After all, the Bible is mostly a history book.  Paul said this about history: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for…” (I Timothy 3:16).  He was talking about the Old Testament which was the history of mankind, especially that of the Jews.  It was the history that God wanted recorded for wisdom and decision making forward.  We must be students of history!

So here is a little history of these days of November:

Nov. 18, 1978 – 913 followers of Jim Jones and of the Peoples Temple committed suicide in Guyana, South America by drinking poison-laced Koolaid.  When we speak of “drinking the Koolaid” – it is in reference to this story.

Nov. 19, 1863 – Abraham Lincoln followed up a two hour speech delivered by a famous orator with his 272 word “speech” in which he declared:  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here…  Wrong!  It is very well remembered!

The opening line: Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

The closing line: That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Those lines are famous yet today and important for today!  Our founders established a country for liberty with the belief that all men are created – CREATED!  And all men are EQUAL!  A nation UNDER GOD!  Oh, that we would embrace those words of history today!

Nov. 19, 1959 – Jim Yost was born in PA.

Nov. 20, 1944 – The terrible battle for a very small atoll (2 miles long) in the middle of the Pacific commenced.  The battle for Guadalcanal lasted 6 months and saw about 3,000 Americans killed, while the battle for Tarawa also saw 3,000 Marines killed or wounded in just 3 days.  There were 5,000 elite Japanese troops well-fortified and heavily armed but only 17 were taken alive.

Nov. 21, 1620 – Forty-one men on the Mayflower signed an agreement to submit to mutual laws in order to have some unity and strength.  In that document they declared:  Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith… solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another… and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid.

For the glory of God.  For the advancement of Christianity.  Realizing God’s presence!  WOW!

Nov. 22, 1963 – Three very, very famous men died:  Aldous Huxley, President John F. Kennedy and C. S. Lewis.  They died within 8 hours of each other on the very same day.  They are yet today large players in American culture as one represented mysticism and pantheism (nature worship), one represented humanism and progressivism, and one represented faith in God.  Those three philosophical streams are still moving people today.