Beech Tree News Network

Chances are you may have seen the TV rerun of The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, (a date that will live in infamy), according to, then, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.  

Also some may remember the name, Mitsuo Fuchida Japanese Lieutenant Commander.  Commander Fuchida led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, destroying a great part of our U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, plus over 2,000 U.S. Navy personnel killed and many wounded… taking the U.S into World War II.

Oh, you didn’t know…

In my first column of 2019, I’ll drop a little knowledge that I learned listening to, among other things, Sirius XM stations 60’s on 6 and Underground Garage.  Our first little-known fact comes from the ‘60’s.  Before having a pretty great solo career, Elton John was 1/3 of the English R&B group Bluesology with Long John Baldry and Elton Dean.  

The end of a year is a marker of sorts, and it's a great time to take stock or to reflect. As Margaret J. Wheatley said, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/reflection). Reflection can help us identify what’s important.

One night, I dreamed I was nearing the end of my life.  I was asked what I wanted on my tombstone. I said, I knew there were words I had considered having engraved there, but I couldn’t remember what they were.  As I tried to remember, growing more anxious as the minutes ticked by, my husband, Garey walked into the room and said, “There is no such thing as a normal life.”  Those were the words.  I woke up laughing.  It was just like Garey to show up in my dream in order to remind me of something I couldn’t remember.

          What was Noah’s wife’s name (Gen. 7:13)? Did Noah and his wife have any other children besides the three boys (Shem, Ham, Japheth) in his 950 years on earth? Why do we read about Adam and Eve’s three sons and not the other children that they had (Gen. 5:4)?

It’s time for the list you don’t want to be on.  Since we’re coming off Christmas, I guess it could be the naughty list.  Though I refer to it as……the 2018 Big Dummy Awards!

Do you ever want a do-over in life? A do-over has been defined as “a new attempt or opportunity to do something after a previous attempt has been unsuccessful or unsatisfactory” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/do-over). Sometimes in life we get a do-over; but generally, we don’t.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, because I love giving gifts to people that they didn’t ask for or didn’t even know they wanted.  I pay attention.  I listen, not just to what people say, but to what people mean when they say what they say.  I love to see surprise and delight in another person’s eyes.

 Faith is defined as: “firm persuasion; A conviction based upon hearing” (Vine’s, p. 411). Mr. Vine’s definition is based on what the apostle Paul said in Romans 10:17. Paul wrote, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Now that we know how to obtain faith, let us study the Bible and learn what we can do with faith once we have it.