Christian Stories - Guts And Heart

The Christian Stories Page Is Compiled & Written By Peter O'Neill

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True Christian Stories
Of God Fearing Men & Women...
Who Would Not Be Denied

Oh, A Trouble is a Ton Or A Trouble is an Ounce

A Trouble is What You Make It,

And it Isn't the Fact

That You're Hurt that Counts,

But Only How You Take It?

The Following Are True Stories Of
Those Who Have
Overcome!

Those Who Have Refused to Let
Life's Difficulties Hold Them Down!

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We'll start off our Christian Stories with A Great Video on Team Hoyt who show the World That God Has a Reason for Everything... It is One of the Most Moving Things You Will Ever See!  Their Motto for Over 40 Years...

"YOU CAN"

Dick & Rick Hoyt Showing The World That Anything Is Possible With Love

Christian Stories
Determined To Overcome

As of August 31, 2008, Team Hoyt's "Guts and Heart" Christian Story has had them participate in a total of 984 events, including 229 Triathlons (6 of which were Ironman competitions), 20 Duathlons, and 66 Marathons, including 26 Boston Marathons.

In 1992 they also biked and ran, coast to coast, across the USA — a 3,735 mile journey that took them 45 days.

When asked, what was the one thing Rick wished he could give his father, his reply was "The thing I'd most like is that my Dad could sit in the chair and I could push him... Just Once That I Could Push Him."

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Despite Being Told He Would Be A Vegetable For The Rest Of His Life... Here Is
Rick Graduating From Boston University

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Two Men Look Out Through Prison Bars
One Sees The Mud

The Other Sees The Stars

Sure Makes A Big Difference How You Take Things... How You React To Problems & Difficulties.

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Eric Liddell (1902-1945)

Our Next "Guts & Heart"
True Christian Story
Is That of Eric Liddell...
The famous Olympic Gold Medalist
And China Missionary!

A Man Of Great Faith & Courage

Born to Missionary Parents in China he returned as a boy to England to study. There he excelled in many ways, but was found to have a great gift to run... which he could do like the wind. A great rugby player he soon turned to track and his gift became apparent to the world.

In One Race He Was Unfairly Pushed Down By A Competitor But Unbelievably Got Back Up To Run... and More Unbelievably... He Came Back From The Crash Of Certain Defeat...

To Win!

Below Is The Dramatization Of That Actual Event, Portrayed in The Movie "Chariots of Fire"

God Gets His Greatest Victories Out Of Seeming Certain Defeat

That Video Would Be A Small Capsule Picture Of His Amazing Life & Legacy

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In a Nutshell

Eric Liddell was born to missionary parents who served in northern China and his early years were in a London Missionary Society compound. His parents had been missionaries in Mongolia when the Boxer Rebellion had broken out. The Boxers were a group of people who wanted to kill all foreigners, especially missionaries. Two hundred missionaries and over thirty thousand Chinese Christians were killed in the uprising. And that is another Fascinating Christian Story to be told at a later date.

But back to Eric's Story. When he was five years old, his family returned to Scotland and in 1908 he and his brother were sent to a boarding school in London. It was seven years before they saw their mother again and thirteen years before they saw their father again. It was 1921 before the family were together again, by which time Eric was at Edinburgh University.

Eric excelled at athletics and rugby but an event that took place in 1921 changed the direction of his life. Eric was invited to speak about his Christian faith at a public meeting. This was reported in the Scottish press and Eric started to receive many invitations to share the Gospel. He also continued running and was getting faster and faster. He qualified for the 1924 Olympics and gained notoriety when he refused to run in three events because they had been scheduled to be run on a Sunday. During this time his brother qualified as a doctor and accepted a post as a missionary doctor in China. Eric also applied to be a missionary in China, where his parents were then stationed.

The 1924 Olympics took place in Paris. Harold Abrahams won the 100 meters gold, the race that Eric had refused to run in. Eric won a bronze in the 200 meters, a race in which he was not expected to do well. He was also in the 400 meters where there was even less chance, or so the experts thought! Eric not only won the race but he set a new world record. Eric had gone from being a Scottish hero to a coward and traitor and back to a national hero with an amazing Christian Story.

 Within eighteen months of winning at the Olympics Eric Liddell had given up athletics and was on his way to China to be a missionary. It was a time when the country was in great turmoil and the communists were fighting for power. In 1934 he married and soon had two small children.

However, in 1937 he was asked to go to an area in China that had been devastated by fighting. His amazing Christian Story brought him to be a remote village in an area where three separate factions were fighting for control. The villages had been plundered with many killed and wounded. The young men had been forced to join whichever group had captured the village. This was an eventful and dangerous time for Eric and he did all he could there for the next two years till the situation became too dangerous for his wife and small children. At that point the family took a furlough and they left China for England.

In 1940 Eric returned to China and went back to Siao Chang to continue his mission work. Five months later the Japanese ordered all foreigners to leave the area and Eric went to Tientsin. Shortly after WW2 began and all the foreigners were put under house arrest and in 1943 were interned. Eighteen hundred internees were packed into a small compound for just over two years. Eric Died There and Gave His Life for What He so Firmly Believed... reaching the World for Jesus and Helping Those in Need! He was a Man of Immense Moral Courage who gave up a life of Ease, Fame & Fortune in this world to serve God and to obtain an eternal, glorious future. An eternal Christian Story that Rings Out Through the Ages.

He Put His
Faith...
Before His Personal
Desires & Dreams...
 &
Touched the World For God!
May We All Be So Brave!

For More On The Great & Courageous Life
Of Eric Liddell... Click Here

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