On this Day... September 11
• In 1965, Father divine died, despite his claim that he was God. He said he’d arrived on earth in a puff of smoke around the time of Abraham, and though he never had a bank account he was worth $10 million when he died. His 20 million disciples lived in nearly 200 gender-segregated “Heavens.” Women followers wore a “V” on their t-shirts, for “virgin,” but he was often sued by their husbands, who claimed Divine used them as his personal harem. Born George Baker to a former slave in Georgia, the five-foot preacher was once brought into court for disturbing the peace. Judge Smith, a fit man of 50, handed out a savage year’s imprisonment – then just four days later dropped dead. Said Divine, “I hated to do it.”
• In 1931, the founder of the “Cosa Nostra,” Salvadore Maranzano, was killed. A Mafia leader in Castellammare in Sicily, he was outraged when he arrived in New York and his fellow Mafiosi treated him like “a country bumpkin.” He promptly waged war on “Joe the Boss” Masseria in a gangland feud known as the Castellammarese War, and when Joe was killed Maranzano took over, making himself the ‘capo de tutti capi’ – the dreaded “boss of bosses.” He planned to kill Masseria’s former henchmen, Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, but they got there first, hiring four assassins and having Maranzano knifed six times and shot. And that was just the beginning. In the following 48 hours, 40 other leading Mafiosi throughout the country were tortured and killed – the biggest Mafia killing spree in history.
─ from Today’s The Day by Jeremy Beadle (Signet)
God’s Response: “We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.” – James 5:11
“All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.” – Hebrews 11:39-40
God’s Promise: “The godly people in the land are my true heroes!” – Psalm 16:3
─ from One Year Mini Daily Inspiration (OMF Literature Inc.)