Frank Duracher
Meeting People
at the Crossroads
of Faith & Life
Editor-in-Chief:
Allen Satterlee
Content Development
Editor:
Frank Duracher
Editorial Director:
Jeff McDonald
Art Director:
Roger O. Selvage Jr.
W W W . S A I N T E R S E C T I O N . O R G
Boiling Oil
E
very Thanksgiving, I deep-fry a turkey. From my
south�Louisiana upbringing, a deep-fried turkey
is as much a part of Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie
and football.
Much care must be observed through the entire process.
The peanut oil must be a certain temperature, and the bird
must be thoroughly thawed. You carefully lower the turkey into
the boiling oil, taking care not to send scorching oil over the
pot and into the fl ame below. Oh, and it must be done outside.
A bit of carelessness and yours could be the house on the
10 o'clock news that night! One Thanksgiving it was particularly
cold and windy. I was bundled and wearing gloves with only
about an inch of exposed skin around my wrist as I held the
pot handle tightly. A wayward drop of hot oil found that wrist,
and I thought I would die--but I held on!
Legend has it that an attempt was made on the Apostle
John to boil him in oil for not denouncing the name of
Christ--and that John miraculously survived. There is no
scripture to substantiate this, so who knows?
But wait... scripture does tell us about three Hebrew boys
who survived a fi ery furnace and another young man who
spent the night in a den of hungry lions and of another fellow
who killed a mighty giant. I could go on.
Jeremiah 32:17 exclaims: O Sovereign Lord! You made the
Heavens and Earth by your strong hand and powerful arm.
Nothing is too hard for You!
So could our awesome God deliver us from boiling oil?
I believe He could.
Can He deliver you and me from whatever crisis we face
everyday? You betcha!
W
e have quite a few colorful characters
in our nation's history, and certainly
among them is General Sam Houston.
Ask anyone from Texas about Sam
Houston and you are bound to get a response of pride
and patriotism.
Admittedly, for most of his life, Sam Houston had quite a reputa-
tion--and for the wrong reasons. So bad was his drinking and carous-
ing, that Native�Americans who knew him had a special nickname
for him: "Big Drunk."
But for the last decade of his life, Sam Houston "got saved." How
he came to be born�again, and who it was that led him to Christ--well,
that is our iRony this time around.
Sam Houston was the only person to serve as governor of two
Word-Up
Phot
o
by
Mathe
w Br
ady
, c.
1860-
186
3
Sam Houston's
Best
Friend
iRony