... require much imagination to envision a scenario wherein King would be gunned down. King noted on that very night that the "... nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around."2 Others are equally certain that King did not have a premonition about his own death. John Cartwright, who holds the professorship at Boston University which bears King's name, believes that King was not predicting his own death. Rather, according to Cartwright, Dr. King was only aware that the arc of justice is long and ...
... she bent down and looked through the opening into the grave and saw that Jesus was indeed gone. Don’t you wonder why she hadn’t looked into the tomb on her first visit? Was it too dark? Was she too startled and too afraid? Did she have some premonition that Jesus’ body would be taken away to be desecrated in one way or another - perhaps to be put on public display to prove that he was still dead? She really shouldn’t have been afraid of the inside of a tomb, especially a grave that have never been ...
... a message - a message that needed to be delivered, a message of judgment. The following morning, Eli asked for a report. "Samuel, what did God tell you last night? Don’t hold back anything. Whatever it is, tell me the whole truth." He must have had a premonition. Samuel told him all that the Lord had said. And it wasn’t easy. For his first message from God was an announcement of solemn doom on Eli and his family. But Samuel faithfully reported all. So it is with the Gospel. The messenger of God is ...
... , wouldn’t you say? Yes, but not good enough. Another newspaper story may provide a better one. It told of Donna, who was given only a few months to live after doctors discovered that she had a degenerative heart muscle. Her fifteen-year-old boyfriend had a premonition about his own death. He told his mother that, when he died, he wanted Donna to have his heart. Three weeks later he died from a burst blood vessel in his brain. His heart was implanted in Donna, just as he had wished. Both stories help us ...
... . Then about 2 or 3 a.m. she came up ever so gradually to the border between sleep and waking. She moved, put her arms above her head and dozed off again. All was still quiet, peaceful and relaxed. She had no fearful apprehensions, no premonitions, no worries. "People who sometimes sleep with their arms above their heads will understand what happened next. It was a minor matter. Her left arm simply grew tired of the position. She was dimly aware of the discomfort. It continued. Still dozing, she tried to ...
... same afternoon. The doctors gave him a strong shot designed to relax him and allow him to sleep. Instead, the shot had the opposite effect, and he became wide awake and hysterical. After a few days, as his condition deteriorated day by day, J. C. Penney had the premonition that he was going to die. At 10 o''clock one night he wrote farewell letters to his wife and to each of his children and went to bed. He awoke the next morning, very surprised. He couldn''t believe he was still alive! He put on his robe ...
... can. About thirty years ago one of the popular Country Western hit songs was titled, "Please, Mr. Custer, I Don't Wanna Go." It was an amusing ballad and many found it delightful listening. The ballad told the story of a poor army soldier who had a premonition of impending doom and who wanted to be left at camp instead of going with the foolhardy General George Custer as he was about to start on that campaign that ended in his famous "last stand." Again and again we hear the soldier say, "Please, Mr. Custer ...
... Walking Then, suddenly, their fear turned up the volume. Like the bow of a ghost ship emerging from a fog bank, something was aiming for them out of the storm. A phantom? Another boat about to be thrown at them by the wicked winds? A premonition of death? They were terrified. And amazed as well, for there was an eerie calmness surrounding this apparition. No waves bounced it, no breezes billowed whatever rags it might own. Swirling about it were the claws of death, but they could neither claim nor impede ...
... . Some of you recognize the name, Harriet Tubman. Before the Civil War Harriet was one of the most courageous leaders of the Underground Railroad, leading at least 300 slaves to their freedom in the North. At one point in her courageous journeys, Harriet had a premonition that her three brothers, all still slaves, were in trouble. She decided then and there that her brothers would be with her on the next Underground Railroad to the North. With the help of a literate friend, she sent a coded letter to her ...
... Pie.” The folk rock tune is said to have memorialized the death of music legend Buddy Holly, who died in an unexpected plane crash, along with other musicians. But Don McLean himself tells a different story. When McLean was 15 years old, he had a premonition that his father was going to die. A few days later, it happened. His father died right in front of him. McLean says, he cried for two years. He felt pain, loss, grief, and guilt. After that, he experienced additional losses and grief in his life ...
... , Jesus had been bounced around, experienced highs and lows, and was possibly ready to listen to any whisper of temptation that came along. The third thing Luke wanted us to know was that this story was a foreshadowing of an ominous future. Notice again the premonition of more bad things to come that Luke used to close the episode: “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Round one went to Jesus, said Luke, but round two and who knows how ...