Wednesday's Today in History

Private Eddie Slovik

Edward Donald Slovik (February 18, 1920 – January 31,1945) was a private in the United States Army during World War II and the first American soldier to be executed for desertion since the American Civil War.

Although over twenty-one thousand soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II – including forty-nine death sentences – only Slovik's death sentence was carried out.

Slovik was born in Detroit, Michigan. As a minor, he was arrested several times; the first time, when he was twelve, occurred when he and some friends broke into a foundry to steal some brass. Between 1932 and 1937, he was caught for several incidents of petty theft, breaking and entering and disturbing the peace. In October 1937, he was sent to jail and paroled in September 1938. After stealing and crashing a car with two friends while drunk, he was sent back to jail in January 1939.

In April 1942, Slovik was paroled once more and obtained a job at the Montella Plumbing Company in Dearborn. There he met his wife Antoinette Wisniewski, whom he married on November 7, 1942. They went to live with her parents. Slovik's criminal record had led him to be classified as unfit for duty in the U.S. military ("4-F"), but, shortly after his and Antoinette's first wedding anniversary, Slovik was reclassified as fit for duty ("1-A") and subsequently drafted by the Army.

Slovik arrived at Camp Wolters in Texas for basic military training on January 24, 1944. In August, he was dispatched to join the fighting in France. Arriving on August 20, he was one of twelve reinforcements assigned to Company G of the 109th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 28th Infantry Division.

Wednesday's Today in History

James Cook



Captain James Cook FRS RN (October 27, 1728 (O.S.) – February 14, 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. Ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy, Cook made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, achieving the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia, the European discovery of the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation and mapping of Newfoundland and New Zealand.

After service in the British merchant navy as a teenager, he joined the Royal Navy in 1755, seeing action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveying and mapping much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This allowed General Wolfe to make his famous stealth attack on the Plains of Abraham, and helped to bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society at a crucial moment both in his personal career and in the direction of British overseas discovery, and led to his commission as commander of the HM Bark Endeavour and the first of his three Pacific voyages in 1766.

Cook accurately charted many areas and recorded several islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. His huge achievements can be attributed to a combination of excellent seamanship, his superior surveying and cartographic skills, courage in exploring dangerous locations to confirm the facts (for example dipping into the Antarctic circle repeatedly and exploring around the Great Barrier Reef), ability to lead men in adverse conditions, and boldness both with regard to the extent of his explorations and his willingness to exceed the instructions given to him by the Admiralty.

After Cook and his crew departed, a storm damaged the Resolution, forcing a return to Kealakekua. Suddenly wary, the natives could not understand how a god could have allowed this to happen. Their respect for Cook waned, and relations between the Hawaiians and the foreigners grew tense. A misunderstanding led to a fierce battle, and Cook was killed by angry natives.

Cook died in Hawaii in a with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.

Friday's Yearning for the Infinate

Waiting in Silence

James 1:2–4

"My soul waits in silence for God only" (Psalm 62:1). Some of the best times in prayer are wordless times. I stop speaking, close my eyes, and meditate upon what I have been reading or upon what I have been saying, and I listen inside of myself. I listen deeply. I listen for reproofs. I think of myself as a home with many doors. As I am meditating—and often it helps to close my eyes so I won't be distracted—I unlock doors and open them as I wait. It is here that the Holy Spirit invades. Then, I take circumstances before Him and I listen with doors open.

Please be assured that I have never heard an audible voice. It isn't that kind of answering. It's a listening down inside. It's sensing what God is saying about the situation. His promise is, after all, that He will inscribe His law—His will—upon our hearts and our minds.

It's like what you do when you're in love with a person. Isn't it true—the deeper the love, the less that has to be said? You can actually sit alone together by a fireplace for an hour or two and say very, very little, but it can be the deepest encounter and relationship you know anything about.

Those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength according to Isaiah, but remember: the key is waiting.

There's a sense of stability in trusting the Lord. That's how we wait silently and with a sense of confidence. When we wait for God to direct our steps, He does! When we trust Him to meet our needs, He will!

God tempers us and seasons us, making us mellow and mature when we
wait on Him.

-Charles R. Swindoll-

Friday's Yearning for the Infinite

"His ways are everlasting."-Habakkuk 3:6

What He hath done at one time, He will do yet again. Man's ways are variable, but God's ways are everlasting. There are many reasons for this most comforting truth: among them are the following-the Lord's ways are the result of wise deliberation; He ordereth all things according to the counsel of His own will. Human action is frequently the hasty result of passion, or fear, and is followed by regret and alteration; but nothing can take the Almighty by surprise, or happen otherwise than He has foreseen. His ways are the outgrowth of an immutable character, and in them the fixed and settled attributes of God are clearly to be seen. Unless the Eternal One Himself can undergo change, His ways, which are Himself in action, must remain for ever the same. Is He eternally just, gracious, faithful, wise, tender?-then His ways must ever be distinguished for the same excellences. Beings act according to their nature: when those natures change, their conduct varies also; but since God cannot know the shadow of a turning, His ways will abide everlastingly the same. Moreover there is no reason from without which could reverse the divine ways, since they are the embodiment of irresistible might. The earth is said, by the prophet, to be cleft with rivers, mountains tremble, the deep lifts up its hands, and sun and moon stand still, when Jehovah marches forth for the salvation of His people. Who can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? But it is not might alone which gives stability; God's ways are the manifestation of the eternal principles of right, and therefore can never pass away. Wrong breeds decay and involves ruin, but the true and the good have about them a vitality which ages cannot diminish.

-C.H. Spurgeon-

What has touched you this week?

Wisconsin Badgers

GO BADGERS!


Capital One Bowl Champs , beating the Razorbacks to finish the season 12-1!

Wednesday's Today in History

Curse of the Bambino (1920)

The curse of the Bambino was an urban myth or scapegoat cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series after they sold Babe Ruth, sometimes call the "The Bambino," to the New York Yankees. The flip side of the curse was New York's success - after the sale, the once-lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports. While some fans took the curse seriously, others used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Talk of the curse effectively ended in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series and went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2007
Happy New Year to y'all out there reading this blog! Sorry for the lack of entries latley, life has been a bit chaotic and has not allowed me to be be apart of blog world. But now that the holidays are coming to a close, I will be able to get back to being a part of this world.

I Made It Back

Back In Wisconsin

Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement for my journey home to Lacrosse Wisconsin. I made it back last night (12/23/2006) at 5:30 p.m. just having had a disaster free 1100 miles trip! I made it just under 16 hours, and spent a bit over $200 dollars in gas! I want to thank Jonathan Moorhead for writing my "Yearing for the Infinite" on Firday, it was a very challenging message and I hope that y'all enjoyed it as much as I did. I send out Christmas wishes to everyone that reads this blog!

Friday's Yearning for the Infinite: The Lord’s Supper - Remembrance and the Neglected Element of Hope

Of all my years of faithful church attendance, I have never once heard a pastor incorporate the element of hope into the Lord’s Supper. Yes, we are to remember the body and blood of the Lord Christ in his suffering and death, but do we stop there?

During the so-called "Last Supper," Jesus refrained from drinking wine and said, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom" (Matthew 26:29). Can we really neglect Jesus’ words when we celebrate the Supper? Would Jesus have us to simply remember His death and not look forward to that which his death purchased? Is the designation "Last Supper" a misnomer?

It is my persuasion that the Lord’s Supper should not be only a remembrance of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, but also a foretaste of the Messianic banquet. Thanks be to God for giving us hope through his death.

Wednesday's Today in History

Louisiana Purchase 1803


The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of more than 529,911,681 acres of territory from France in 1803, at the cost of about 3 cents per acre; $15 million or $80 million francs in total. If adjusted for the relative share of GDP, this amount would equal approximately $390 billion 2003,* or about $1800 per hectare.

The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current U.S. state of Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta that drain into the Missouri River, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River including the city of New Orleans.

The land included in the Purchase comprises 22.3% of the territory of the modern United States.** The purchase was an important moment in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possible unconstitutional.

*The relative value in U.S. dollars - Economic History Services
**http://encyclopedia.tfd.com