© 2021 Don Pinson | [Download]
(Link not working? Right-click and select “Save As”.)
In the thick forests of the Virginia coastal region, Indian children had played for generations. They had imagined themselves brave warriors or as the mothers of great chiefs. They knew the land and how to gain their living from it. However, no one in 1607, could imagine the power that one of these young lives would have on the destiny of America. But she was no surprise to God, her Creator. He had planned her life, as short as it would be, to be one of the most useful in history.
Her name was Pocahontas and she met the Jamestown settlers quickly after they had landed. Captain John Smith, the bold adventurer, wanted to meet the natives. He left the safety of the group shortly after they landed and went looking for the inhabitants of the region. However, his experience with them would not prove altogether friendly. He was quickly captured and taken to Chief Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas. After preparing a meal for him and treating him like an honored guest, suddenly the Indians turned on him, apparently preparing to kill him. They bound him and laid his head on a large stone. Then, picking up clubs and dancing wildly, they advanced toward him. Smith expected at any moment to be beaten to death. But then, in a shocking move, young Pocahontas, only eleven or twelve years of age, suddenly moved toward him, taking his head and pulling it up into her lap, she bent over him, shielding him from the screaming braves and cried out to her father to spare his life. By the mercy of God, Powhatan did spare Smith’s life. Indeed, he accepted Smith into the tribe as a brave friend. That friendship would Continue reading
tacked on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany a document that changed the course of history. Martin Luther was that young priest, and his bold act threw off the religious yoke of “the tyranny of the mind”. And while most in America now think of October 31st as Halloween, that’s a “Johnny-come-lately” idea. Up until the mid-1800s, on October 31st, we celebrated “Reformation Day”, for that was the day the mind of man began to be set free from hundreds of years of living in the fear of what other men thought. Once again, man began to learn that only God has the right to shape our minds for He created us, and thus by rights, owns us and our minds. What Martin Luther did would start to restore the precious freedom Jesus talked about when He stated,
Woodrow Wilson said:
On October 8th, 1918, an Army corporal from the mountains of Tennessee did an amazing thing while fighting in World War I. Alvin York, a shy young man, who didn’t even want to go to war, performed so well in the line of duty he would later be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. York, who had been converted to Christ after being known as a “hell-raiser”, struggled with going to war because Jesus had taught that we should be peacemakers. However, he finally reasoned from the Bible that, as he would say,
Jamestown would not have survived without him. Plymouth may not have survived without him. America might not even be in existence had it not been for this one individual. I’m referring to John Smith; soldier, adventurer, and—you might be surprised to know—Christian. One of the most colorful individuals in all of history, this Englishman with the very common name, John Smith, is also one of the most important individuals in all of history. Not that you’ll find much about him in the textbooks of our day. It’s interesting how many great individuals have been completely ignored by modern-day historians. But that’s another subject. Why was John Smith so important to America?