A columnist of heart and mind

A columnist of heart and mind
Interviewing the animals at Children's Fairyland in Oakland. L-R: Bobo the sheep, Gideon the miniature donkey, me, Tumbleweed Tommy the miniature donkey, Juan the alpaca, Coco the pony

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Hero Girls

Two Alameda girls are being hailed as heroes after their quick thinking saved the life of one of their playmates.
On May 1, Anca Hommert, 11, Natalie Lewis, 6, and Rachel Imlay, 10, were playing at Ritter Park when Rachel suddenly sat down and said, "My brain hurts."
She had suffered a stroke, which is rare in children, but not unheard of. According to the National Stroke Association, three kids out of every 100,000 will be struck.
"I looked at Natalie and she looked at me, and we both had the same thought - 'This is not normal,'" said Anca.
She told Natalie, "Run as fast as you can, don't talk to any strangers, get a grownup and come right back."
Natalie took off running while Anca stayed with Rachel, holding her hand and comforting her. "The grownups are coming. You'll be OK," she said over and over.
Natalie dashed to a baseball diamond 200 yards away, where her brother, Tyler, was playing a Little League game.
"Mommy, my friend fell down and broke her brain!" she told her mother, Kim Lewis.
The two of them ran back to Anca and Rachel, joined a few minutes later by another parent, Tricia Parrish.
"Thank God Tricia was there," said Anca's mother, Kappi Bowen. "She's a health professional, so she knew all the right questions to ask. A lot of parents wouldn't know what to do."
After talking briefly with Anca and Natalie, Parrish determined that Rachel hadn't fallen or hit or head - vital information to give the paramedics when they arrived.
By now, Rachel's eyes were starting to roll up, and she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Another parent, Dave Schute, called 911.
Other kids started crowding around to watch, but Anca and Natalie shooed them away to give Rachel more room.
A few minutes later, the paramedics arrived. Thanks to the information Parrish and the girls gave them, they quickly were able to make the proper diagnosis, which doesn't always happen.
The National Stroke Association says the average child stroke patient takes four times longer to get to the hospital than an adult.
"This delay occurs mostly due to the widespread belief that strokes don't happen to children," says its website.
The paramedics rushed Rachel to Children's Hospital in Oakland. She will remain there through the end of July, but she is making steady progress and hopes to achieve a full recovery by this time next year.
And the credit goes to her two friends. According to MayoClinic.com, "Getting prompt medical treatment for stroke is of utmost importance. Quick treatment not only improves the chances of survival, but may also reduce the amount of disability resulting from the stroke."
On Thursday, Anca and Natalie will be named official City of Alameda Heroes at the annual Heroes Awards Breakfast at the Alameda Elks Lodge.
They've already had a more immediate reward: a trip to Tucker's for ice cream. Anca ordered pumpkin flavored; Natalie ordered bubble gum flavored.
Understandably, their parents are beaming with pride.
"The remarkable part is that they didn't melt down, they didn't freak out," said Bowen. "They could have sat down and started sobbing themselves."
But their parents aren't surprised by what they did.
"I've always known Anca was meant to do something special," Bowen said. "This could be it. Or it could just be a preview of things to come."
Anca attributes her composure to her Girl Scout training.
"I was thinking, 'My gosh, I have to pull myself together before I fall apart and do something wrong," she said. "Girl Scouts are all about doing the right thing. So I just followed my conscience, and it told me what to do."
Anca and Rachel are both members of Girl Scout Troop No. 2143. Two weeks ago, the entire troop visited Rachel in the hospital, a visit that lifted spirits on both sides.
Natalie hasn't been to see her yet, but she constantly asks her mom how Rachel is doing.
The day after the incident, Natalie was playing in her front yard when an ambulance roared down the street, siren blaring.
"She started crying," said Lewis. "I said, 'Are you OK?' And she said, 'I was just thinking about Rachel.' So I could tell it was affecting her."
At six, she's still too young to fully comprehend the importance of what she did.
"I don't think she grasps the idea that she's saved somebody's life," Lewis said. All she knows is that she did the right thing."
As for Anca, she had only one regret.
"Mommy, I told a lie," she confessed the next day. "I told Rachel she'd be OK."
"You didn't tell a lie," her mother replied. "She is going to be OK - thanks to you and Natalie."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sierra Hotel!!

Unknown said...

Great story, Marty. Beautifully told--as usual.
Andy

Anonymous said...

OK - This will work!

Martin: Remember, a blog is more than just text. Utilize the web as a resource and take advantage of it as a way to enhance your story through photos, videos, audio and links to other stories.

Welcome to my world.

Benjie

Anonymous said...

Beautiful blogsite. Beautiful story.

Anonymous said...

Hey! I've been called many things but anonymous is not one of them.

Anonymous said...

NY er cover. I was in Philly this morning and they were interviewing Tony Auth, cartoonist for the Phila Inquirer. He said the same thing, but you said it better, in every way. I now have a place to stand on this sad piece of crap. CAK

Anonymous said...

HEART = MIND, A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

I) HEART DEFINED IN THE BIBLE

[Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, [W.E. Vine, Edited by F. F. Bruce, Fleming H. Revell Co. Old Tappan, N.J., 1981, pp. 206-207]:

"The word came to stand for man's entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements...

As to its usage in the N.T. it denotes

(a) the seat of physical life, Acts 14:17; Jas. 5:5;

(b) the seat of moral nature and spiritual life, the seat of grief, John 14:1; Rom. 9:2; 2 Cor 2:4; joy, John 16:22; Eph. 5:19; the desires, Matt. 5:28; 2 Pet 2:14; the affections, Luke 24:32; Acts 21:13; the perceptions, John 12:40; Eph. 4:18; the thoughts, Matt. 9:4; Heb. 4:12; the understanding, Matt. 13:15; Rom. 1:21; the reasoning powers, Mark 2:6; Luke 24:38; the imagination, Luke 1:51; conscience, Acts 2:37; 1 John 3:20; the intentions, Heb 4:12; cp. 1 Pet 4:1; purpose, Acts 11:23; 2 Cor 9:7; the will, Rom. 6:17; Col. 3:15; faith, Mark 11:23; Rom. 10:10; Heb. 3:12.

The heart, in its moral significance in the O.T., includes the emotions, the reason and the will.

II) HEART FAITH VS HEAD FAITH

[Robert N. Wilkin states, 'SAVING FAITH IN FOCUS', Journal of the GRACE EVANGELICAL SOCIETY, Grace Evangelical Society, Irving, Tx, Robert N. Wilkin, Editor, p. 49-50]:

"HEAD FAITH, HEART FAITH, AND MIND GAMES

How do you convince someone that saving faith is not just faith in the gospel, that it includes commitment, turning from sins, perseverance in obedience, and the like? Since there is no verse in Scripture that identifies saving faith as anything other than believing the gospel, you'd have a hard time proving your view from the Bible. However, there is an easier way.

The best way to sell the idea that saving faith includes the kitchen sink is through the use of pejorative terms like intellectual faith or head faith. Then they espouse the idea that the Bible teaches that the faith that truly saves is heart faith.

There is a tract called 'Missing Heaven by Eighteen Inches.' It argues that you would miss heaven if you believed the gospel with your head rather than with your heart. Head faith is dangerous, it suggests, because you may think you are saved simply because you believe the facts of the gospel. Yet without the heart commitment, that 'faith' is not saving faith at all.

Heart faith can include almost anything. However, heart faith raises potential problems. How much commitment, turning from sins, obedience, and the like is enough? The biblical evidence demonstrates that this supposed distinction between head faith and heart faith is really a mind game.

First, the Scriptures never refer to the head as the source of thinking and feeling. In addition, the word head is never associated with faith in the Bible.

The word head occurs approximately 330 times in the Bible. Of those, the vast majority refers literally to the head. The figurative uses include lifting up the head, which refers to being placed in a position of honor or having one's former status reinstated (Genesis 40:13; Job 10:15), blood or wickedness being on the head, which refers to a guilt and judgment coming against persons for their wicked deeds (1 Kings 2:37, 'Your blood shall be on your own head,' 1 Samuel 25:39, 'The Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head'), and head as ruler or authority over others (2 Samuel 22:44, 'head of the nations,' 1 Corinthians 11:3, 'the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God'). There is absolutely no biblical warrant for speaking of head faith.]

Second, of the two remaining words, heart and mind, the Scriptures often use them interchangeably.

For example, 'Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind' (Psalm 73:21). There is synonymous parallelism here. That is, the two halves of the verse are saying the same thing using synonyms. To be grieved in your heart is to be vexed in your mind. The same thing is evident in Hebrews 8:10, 'I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts.' Mind and heart are used synonymously there.

Another example is found by comparing Luke 24:25 and Luke 24:45:

'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.'

'And He opened their understanding [lit. mind], that they might comprehend the Scriptures.'

Those two passages are talking about the same thing. The disciples were slow of heart to believe the prophetic teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures regarding His resurrection. So what did Jesus do? He opened their mind that they might comprehend those Scriptures. There is no difference whatsoever here between believing in the heart or believing in the mind. Compare also 1 Samuel 2:35; Psalm 26:2; Jeremiah 11:20; 20:12; and Ephesians 4:17-18]

Both [expressions] refer to the inner self where one thinks and believes and feels.

The mind is associated with believing in at least three passages (Luke 24:45; Romans 14:5; Ephesians 4:17-18). In these three passages the words believe and faith do not occur. However, synonyms are present. Luke 24:45 [was previously discussed]. In that text, opening of the mind is shown to be antithetical to being 'slow of heart to believe' (verse 25). Romans 14:5 reads, 'Let each be fully convinced in his own mind." Ephesians 4:17--18, which, like Luke 24:45, equates the heart and mind, says, 'The Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened... because of the blindness of their heart.

Third, the mind is not viewed as being inferior to the heart in Scripture. In one of the most famous verses on sanctification in the Bible, Paul exhorted the believers in Rome, 'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind' (Romans 12:2). Similarly, he exhorted the Ephesians believers, 'Be renewed in the spirit of your mind' (Ephesians 4:23), Paul spoke to the Corinthian believers of having 'the mind of Christ' (1 Corinthians 2:16). Luke said that the Lord 'opened [the disciples'] understanding [literally mind in Greek], that they might comprehend the Scriptures,' that is, the Old Testament Scriptures, concerning His resurrection (Luke 24:45).

Fourth, while the words believe and faith occur approximately 450 times in the Bible, only a few passages specify where belief takes place. They speak of believing as though the reader of Scripture knows what that means and where it occurs.

One passage, Romans 10:9-10, directly speaks of 'believ[ing] in your heart.' That is set in contrast with 'confess[ing] with your mouth.' The former is internal; the latter external. The former is by faith alone. The latter includes works. 'Confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus' is the action that involves commitment, obedience, and turning from sins, not 'believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.' Nor is believing with your heart defined as some special kind of faith that might rightly be called heart faith. Paul is merely indicating that saving faith takes place internally, as opposed to confessing Christ in word and deed, which takes place externally....."

{Incidentally, re:

[Ro 10:9]:

(v. 9) "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."

"If you confess" = The word confess in the original text, ("homologeses"), comes from the root words 'homos' meaning 'same' (from which we get the English word homogeneous), and the Greek word 'logo' meaning 'to speak'. It literally means to say the same thing, i.e., to acknowledge what is evident already on the mind. In this case what is evidently already on the mind is that Jesus is Lord. An individual will have it in his mind that Jesus is Lord when he becomes born again through faith alone in Christ alone as Savior, (1 Jn 5:9-13). Then and only then does an individual have the potential of having Jesus Christ as their Lord - only after He becomes his Savior unto eternal life.

The confession when it does occur, (i.e., the acknowledgment that), one's Lord is Jesus Christ - can only come after having been saved not before. It must first be received as a truth by faith alone in Christ alone unto justification, (Ro 10:10a), before it enters the mind as being something one can express with one's lips making it known that one is saved.

The order of faith unto eternal life and then confession is confirmed by the grammatical construction of verse 9: Verse 9 is a reverse cause and effect statement with the effect, confession, coming first - in the subjunctive mood and the cause, (believing), coming second. We know this because the conjunction "ean" which precedes the clause "'confess with your mouth" is the conjunction which is used to introduce the effect in the third class "if" condition and the verb is in the subjunctive mood both of which project a possibility of maybe one will and maybe one won't confess:

So the first part of the verse is the effect, the result: some will and some won't confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord as a result of believing unto eternal life. Thus the second part of the verse, (cause & effect are in reverse order), is the cause, the 'if' portion: if you believe:

"If you... ...believe in your heart." = When you believe then you may or may not confess that Jesus is Lord = if you do then the cause of that confession is that you believed!

Finally, the third part of the verse: "..you will be saved" is connected with the second part: believe. It is not connected with confess such that confession is required and its omission will block salvation.

So to paraphrase this verse with the meaning that the original language provides, we have the following: 'The possible result is that you will confess (maybe you will and maybe you won't) with your mouth Jesus as Lord as a result of the cause that you believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead which belief alone is what results in your being saved.'}

[Wilken, cont.]

"Four other passages, none of which is dealing with saving faith, indicate indirectly that belief takes place in the heart (Mark 11:23; 16:14; Luke 8:12; 24:25). However, in each of those verses the point is just that belief takes place internally. And, as we have already seen, in the last of those passages believing in the heart is equated with believing with the mind.

Believing in Christ is the sole condition of eternal life. There is no such thing as special types of faith called heart faith and head faith. Saving faith doesn't include commitment, obedience, or turning from sins. It is merely the conviction that Jesus is speaking the truth when He says, 'He who believes in Me has everlasting life.' (John 6:47)."

II) SAVING FAITH DEFINED IN 1 JN 5:9-13 AS ACCEPTING THE TESTIMONY OF GOD

A) [1 Jn 5:9]:

(v. 9) "We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son."

1) THE TESTIMONY OF GOD IS GREATER THAN MAN'S AND IT IS ABOUT HIS SON

This verse states that the testimony of God is superior to any man's because God is Who He is:

He is Sovereign and Almighty. And the particular testimony that author John points to here is the testimony of God which He has given about His son relative to trusting in Him unto salvation unto eternal life to which the next 3 verses attest]:

B) [1 Jn 5:10]:

(v. 10) "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son."

1) BELIEVING IN THE SON OF GOD IN THIS CONTEXT = BELIEVING IN HIM AS CHRIST, AS ONE'S MESSIAH TO SAVE YOU UNTO ETERNAL LIFE

The context of this has already been established in the first verse of chapter 5:

a) [Compare 1 Jn 5:1a]:

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...."

[Kenneth S. Wuest states, ('Ephesians and Colossians in the Greek New Testament', Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Mich, 1963, p15):

" 'Christ' is the transliteration of christos which means 'anointed'....

...In the Church Epistles, the word does not refer to our Lord in His official capacity of the Messiah of the Jewish nation, but as The Anointed of God, the Person chosen from the Godhead to be the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King to accomplish the purposes of God in the plan of salvation."

So to believe that Jesus is the Christ is to believe that His purpose as the Christ = to be your Savior unto eternal life, is true resulting in the reception of becoming born of God, i.e., saved unto eternal life:

b) [Compare Jn 1:12-13]:

(v. 12) "Yet to all who received Him [Christ, (v. 1)], to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God -

(v. 13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

2) BELIEVING IN THE SON OF GOD AS CHRIST = MESSIAH TO SAVE YOU PRODUCES THE RESULT OF HAVING THE TESTIMONY OF GOD IN ONE'S HEART, I.E., ONE'S MIND

"Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony [of God] in his heart." =

Believing in the Son of God [to save you, (vv. 1, 11)] produces the result of having this testimony of God in one's 'heart', (i.e., in one's mind, ref. Heb 4:12). This means that one accepts the truth in what God has said, i.e., His "testimony" about His Son relative to eternal life. And Scripture teaches that God will then deliver on His promise of eternal life to that individual who believes, (Jn 3:16; 36; 5:24; 6:47; etc.). Notice that there is no stipulation made that the acceptance of the testimony of God about His Son, i.e., belief in Christ as Savior had to occur in the heart as opposed to the head or mind.

3) ANYONE WHO BELIEVES IN THE SON [TO PROVIDE ETERNAL LIFE FOR HIM] HAS THIS TESTIMONY OF GOD'S IN HIS HEART = MIND = MENTAL UNDERSTANDING

"has this testimony in his heart" = in his mind, (Jn 12:40; Eph 4:18; Mt 9:4; Heb 4:12, etc.). Scripture equates the expression 'in his heart' with 'in his mind'.

Anyone who believes that the Son will provide eternal life for him has this testimony in his 'heart' such that it is a part of his mental understanding that he is now saved unto eternal life.

B cont.) [1 Jn 5:10 cont.]:

(v. 10 cont.) "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son."

4) ON THE OTHER HAND ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE GOD'S TESTIMONY ABOUT HIS SON MAKES GOD OUT TO BE A LIAR

"Anyone who does not believe has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son." =

Disbelieving the testimony of God that eternal life is secured solely through believing in the Son of God is tantamount to calling God a liar. So to be saved one must believe in the testimony of God about His Son relative to eternal life. Anything less and anything more than a one time moment of accepting the testimony of God about His Son relative to eternal life, i.e., believing in it would make this verse untrue. And the next verse tells us what that testimony is which individuals must believe in order to have eternal life]:

C) [1 Jn 5:11]:

(v. 11) And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

1) THE TESTIMONY OF GOD ABOUT HIS SON IS THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE TO MANKIND THROUGH HIS SON

Notice that eternal life is described as something that is given, i.e., a gift, (cp Eph 2:8), to mankind and that gift it is established is in the possession of the individual, i.e., given to him, when he believes the testimony of God about eternal life being through His Son. So believing the testimony of God about His Son incorporates such testimony within the mind of the individual, (v. 10), resulting in that individual having the Son, i.e., having eternal life]:

D) [1 Jn 5:12]:

(v. 12) He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."

1) HAVING THE SON = BELIEVING IN THE TESTIMONY OF GOD ABOUT HIS SON = HAVING ETERNAL LIFE

"He who has the Son has life" = He who believes in God's testimony about His Son - that the Son will provide eternal life for him if he merely believes in the Son doing this, has eternal life, (Ref. v. 10)

2) HE WHO DOES NOT HAVE THE SON = HAS NOT BELIEVED IN GOD'S TESTIMONY ABOUT HIS SON = DOES NOT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

"He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." = To have the Son means to believe that He will provide eternal life for you. To not have the Son is to not take God at His Word, (i.e., believe), that the Son alone will provide eternal life for you. And he who has not believed in Christ as Savior "Does not have [eternal] life."

a) [Compare Jn 3:18]:

"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already [unto condemnation], because he has not believed in the name of the One and only Son of God."

"believed in the name of" = believed in the capacity and willingness of God to grant eternal life as a gift - just for trusting alone in Him alone, (Jn 3:1-18; Ro 3:21-24).

3) IF YOU BELIEVE WHAT GOD HAS TESTIFIED TO ABOUT HIS SON THEN YOU WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE BECAUSE GOD SAYS SO

If you believe what God has testified to about His Son, then you will have eternal life because God says so. God being Who He is as it is clearly indicated in verse 9: a sovereign God Whose testimony is greater than man's, He will deliver. And John writes these verses about eternal life for the following reason]:

E) [1 Jn 5:13]:

(v. 13) I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you many know that you have eternal life."

1) JOHN'S MESSAGE OF ETERNAL LIFE WAS WRITTEN SO THAT ALL WHO BELIEVE IN THE NAME OF, I.E., THE CAPACITY OF, THE SON TO PROVIDE ETERNAL LIFE FOR THEM MAY KNOW THAT THEY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

So, taking God at His Word about eternal life through His Son provides assurance that you do NOW possess the gift of life everlasting in heaven never to lose it, (cp. Eph 1:13-14).

Consider if one could know now at the point of faith alone in Christ alone that one is absolutely saved, then it obviously would not depend upon any future thoughts, words, or deeds of the believer only on the faithfulness of God to keep His promise.

Anonymous said...

The NASCAR Foundation Blood and Marrow Drive seeks to provide unique experiences at many different tracks that bring out the goodwill and community pride in all race fans. In addition to giving blood, fans are also encouraged to join the National Marrow Donor Program Registry of volunteer marrow donors.

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See the table below for a list of participating tracks.

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Anonymous said...

Clotaire Papaille

Anonymous said...

Bread and Circuses anyone? You know I really don’t care about something as private as what goes on inside other peoples’ marriages - its the lowest kind of voyeurism. I just feel that the ‘timing’ of the disclosure was what we should be concentrating on here. Is it to distract us from Obama’s weak polling performance? So we are distracted from Obama? To remind us of the Clinton’s marriage? Or is it to remind us that women are the victims and the press feast upon it like they went out of their way to trash Clinton’s hopes of getting the nomination.
I wish women’s infidelity to their husbands was reported once in awhile to even up the score card. But that’s not going to happen, is it?