the Fifth Week after Easter
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There is an old tale about a peasant who, while hoeing in his field during the spring thaw, came across a snake. He raised his hoe to kill it, but the snake begged for mercy. "I am too frozen to do you any harm," it cried. The farmer, full of compassion, picked up the half-dead serpent and put it into his tunic, against his chest. As he began to work, the snake got warmer and warmer. Suddenly, the snake bit the peasant. The peasant frantically reached into his tunic and pulled out the snake, throwing it to the ground.
"Why?" asked the man, "I befriended you. I trusted you."
"True!" hissed the snake as it slithered away, "but do not blame me. You knew I was a snake when you picked me up."
Many people today take sin into their own bosoms and go about their business. Someday when these things have passed away and they are faced with eternity, they will cry out against sin and accuse it. But it will be too late for some! Sin will reply, "You knew I was sin! You knew that I was but for a season. Do not blame me!"
Beware of false gods (Exodus 20:3), false prophets (Matthew 7:15), false Christs (Matthew 24:24), another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4), another gospel (Galatians 1:6), false brethren (2 Corinthians 11:26), false teachers (2 Peter 2:1-2), false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13), and Satan who deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9).
Mrs. Wesley was extremely jealous of her husband. His work set him in the position of friend and counselor to many women. Among his helpers and in the institutions that were springing up under his care, women were employed, and each one was for his insanely jealous wife an object of deadly suspicion. Wesley on his part was apt to be tolerant, in a masculine and broad-minded way, of the facts and relationships of some women, which other women, even the best, would hardly forgive. Sally Ryan, for example, the housekeeper at one of his orphanages, was a woman with a past. She was at this time only thirty-three, but she had three husbands living and was separated from them all. Wesley was in constant correspondence with her, a fact which kindled his wife to fury. She stole Wesley's correspondence to satisfy her doubts. She would travel one hundred miles to see who his companions were at a particular stage of his preaching tour. Her fury threw her sometimes into paroxysms of mad violence and sometimes into acts of almost incredible treachery. She not only stole her husband's letters to satisfy her doubts, but she tampered with them so as to give them an evil sense and put them into the hands of his enemies to be published. Beware of jealousy. It can make the light of God in your heart so dark you see only evil, never good, in everyone.
You can’t quote the Bible indiscriminately. I remember the story of two lawyers during a trial. One thought he would make a great impression on the jury by quoting from the Bible. So he said concerning his opponent’s client, “We have it on the highest authority that it has been said, ‘All that a man has will he give for his skin.’”
But the other lawyer knew the Bible better. He said, “I am very much impressed by the fact that my distinguished colleague here regards as the highest authority the one who said, ‘All that a man has will he give for his skin. ‘ You will find that this saying come from the Book of Job, and the one who utters it is the devil. And that is whom he regards as the highest authority!” - Ray Stedman
The human race is aboard a hijacked jet flying through time. God Himself directed its takeoff from the divine control tower. The initiator of all evil, whom we call Satan, managed to get a boarding pass. When cruising height was reached, he produced his weapons, threatened the pilot, and took control of the jumbo jet and all of its passengers. So it hopped on uncomfortably through history from airport to airport till it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem, an outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, where the Son of God offered Himself as sole hostage in exchange for passengers and crew. The further you push the parallel the more fanciful it seems. But the basic idea of the human race aboard a hijacked jumbo flying through time is sound enough. The passengers must keep a wary eye on the hijacker, induce the pilot to take his directions from God's control tower, and be ready to accept rescue through the sacrifice of the willing Hostage. That is their only escape route.
A sick man turned to his doctor, who was leaving the room after paying a visit, and said: "Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side." Very quietly the doctor said, "I don't know." "You don't know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?!"
The doctor was holding the handle of the door, on the other side of which came sounds of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with eager show of gladness. Turning to his patient, the doctor said, "Did you ever notice that dog? He has never been in this room before. He did not know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I shall pass through with no fear, but with gladness."
There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.
And how endlessly interesting these problem texts make the Bible! Joseph Parker well said, “When the last word has been said about the Bible it will no longer be the Word of God.” We never get to the end of the Bible. It is as wise in its reservations as in its revelations. Enough is reserved to give faith scope for development. Everything needful to salvation and godliness is written with such clarity that all the simple-hearted may understand; but there are other matters which, with wise divine purpose, are presented less lucidly, or even enigmatically, so as to challenge enquiry—matters fascinating, mysterious, or more intricate, but all yielding rich and sanctifying reward to devout exploration.
The Lord told Bezalel, the artist of the Tabernacle, to make the garments of the high priest, with their dazzling gems and elaborate design, “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2 KJV). God’s purpose for these particular works of Bezalel suggests a purpose for all of the arts--to glorify God and to manifest beauty. - Gene Edward Veith
British Children’s Answers To Church School Questions:
Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.
The fifth commandment is Humor thy father and mother.
Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, and a ball of fire at night.
When Mary heard she was to be the mother of Jesus, she went off and sang the Magna Carta.
Salome was a woman who danced naked in front of Harrods.
Holy acrimony is another name for marriage.
The Pope lives in a vacuum.
Paraffin is next in order after seraphim.
The patron saint of travelers is St. Francis of the sea sick.
Iran is the Bible of Moslems.
A republican is a sinner mentioned in the Bible.
The natives of Macedonia did not believe, so Paul got stoned.
The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.
It is sometimes difficult to hear what is being said in church because the agnostics are so terrible.
Is the Bible inadequate to bring about sanctification by itself? Must we have psychological counseling to become whole? Is all counseling good? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the counseling process? Can we ever become truly whole? If not, how can God use “sick” pastors and counselors? This issue of Focal Point, while not intended to answer all questions related to counseling and sanctification, seeks to address several issues and give examples of the use of biblical concepts with counseling.
As president of an evangelical, Christian seminary, let me emphasize key presuppositions for this issue on counseling:
The Bible is sufficient in its inspiration and its scope of truth to teach us what we need for sanctification (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:3-4). But the Bible doesn’t tell us all we know about people. Any humanly discovered truth about people that is not contradictory to Scripture is helpful as “common sense” or counseling wisdom for therapeutic value.
The appropriate application of biblical truth is essential for holistic growth and greater sanctification. This happens in part through the ministry of Spirit-gifted pastors, teachers and counselors in the ministry of the Body of Christ as they apply biblical truth and sanctified wisdom to believers (2 Peter 3:1-2; James 5:19-20; Hebrews 13:17, 22; Philippians 4:8-9).
Some counsel and counseling is at best misguided and at worst a Satanic lie. All teaching and counsel is based on presuppositions and principles. If those foundations are humanistic their superstructures are condemned to topple (2 Peter 2:17-22; Matthew 7:15-27). Scripture is our ultimate authority for truth and counsel (Hebrews 12:4).
The Holy Spirit in Christian counseling is an essential element in bringing about holistic healing and true freedom at the spiritual level of a person’s life (John 14:26, 16:7-11; Ephesians 4:30; Titus 3:5).
In this life, we cannot be sinless and completely whole, but we are always in the process of becoming more Christlike through God’s sanctifying work (1 John 1:8; Philippians 1:6, 9-11).
While still less than perfect, God chooses to use and does use his servants for his sanctifying purposes in others (Galatians 2:11-21; 1 Timothy 1:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12).
“A communication can be in error only if it fails to live up to the intention of its author...if they fulfill this intention we regard them as inerrant.” The purpose of biblical writers was, “to report the happenings and meanings of the redemptive acts of God in history so that men might be made wise unto salvation.”
1. Lamech, who was Cain’s great-great-great grandson, was the first man recorded to have two wives (Adah, Zillah) (Gen. 4:19).
2. Abraham had three wives (Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah) (Gen. 23:19; 25:1; 16:3).
3. Esau had three wives (Judith, Bashemath, and Mahalath) (Gen. 26:34; 28:9).
4. Jacob had four wives (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah) (Gen. 29:15-35; 30:4, 9).
5. Moses had two wives (Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman) (Ex. 18:2; Num. 12:1).
6. Gideon had many wives and 70 sons (Judges 8:30).
7. Samuel’s father, Elkanah, had two wives (Hannah, Peninnah) (1 Sam. 1:1, 2).
8. King Saul had at least two wives (Ahinoam, Rizpah) (1 Sam. 14:50; 2 Sam. 3:7).
9. David had at least eight wives (Michal, Abigail, Ahinoam, Bathsheba, Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah) plus Saul’s wives (2 Sam. 12:8).
10. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3).
11. King Ahab had more than one wife (1 Kings 20:7).
12. King Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines (2 Chron. 11:21).
13. King Abijah who ruled over Judah had 14 wives (2 Chron. 13:21).
14. King Joash had two wives (2 Chron. 24:1-3).
15. King Ahasuerus had a harem. Two wives are mentioned by name: Vashti and Esther (Esther 1:10-12; 2:1-17).
Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ’s first advent, so both testaments are filled with references to the second coming of Christ. One scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament, where 17 books give it prominence. In the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second advent of Christ—an amazing 1 out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ’s first advent, there are 8 which look forward to His second!
Matt. 16:24-27
Luke 19:11-27
1 Cor. 3:13-15
2 Cor. 5:10
Heb. 10:32-34
Heb. 11:24-26
James 1:12
Rev. 2:10
Rev. 22:12
Matt. 5:10-12
1 Thess. 2:19
Phil. 4:1
John 4:35-6
2 Tim. 4:6-8
The following principles of leadership emerge from biblical teaching:
1. Christian leaders should be certain that their goal is to serve God and others, not to receive the title or honor that comes with leadership.
2. Leaders should not use their position for their own advantage or comfort. No task should be “beneath” them—although some tasks may be delegated. They should not ask others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves..
3. Leaders will seek to distinguish their own preferences from the will and welfare of the group as a whole.
4. Normally the position should seek the leader. There may be some situations in which persons may apply or volunteer. Nevertheless, when someone strongly desires a particular responsibility, his or her motivation should be carefully examined.
5. We must learn to see each other as valuable to the Lord and basically equal in his sight.
Pornography is a $12-$13 billion-a-year industry—more than the combined annual revenues of the Coca-Cola and McDonnell Douglas corporations.
A farm boy got a white football for Christmas. He played with it awhile and then kicked it over into the neighbor’s yard. The old rooster ran out, looked at it, and called the hens to see it.
“Now look here,” the rooster said, “I don’t want you girls to think I’m complaining, but I just want you to see what they are doing next door.”
In the fall of the year, Linda, a young woman, was traveling alone up the rutted and rugged highway from Alberta to the Yukon. Linda didn’t know you don’t travel to Whitehorse alone in a rundown Honda Civic, so she set off where only four-wheel drives normally venture. The first evening she found a room in the mountains near a summit and asked for a 5 A.M. wakeup call so she could get an early start. She couldn’t understand why the clerk looked surprised at that request, but as she awoke to early-morning fog shrouding the mountain tops, she understood.
Not wanting to look foolish, she got up and went to breakfast. Two truckers invited Linda to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obliged. “Where are you headed?” one of the truckers asked.
‘Whitehorse’
“In that little Civic? No way! This pass is DANGEROUS in weather like this.”
“Well, I’m determined to try,” was Linda’s gutsy, if not very informed, response.
“Then I guess we’re just going to have to hug you,” the trucker suggested.
Linda drew back. “There’s no way I’m going to let you touch me!”
“Not like THAT!” the truckers chuckled. “We’ll put one truck in front of you and one in the rear. In that way, we’ll get you through the mountains.”
All that foggy morning Linda followed the two red dots in front of her and had the reassurance of a big escort behind as they made their way safely through the mountains.
Caught in the fog in our dangerous passage through life, we need to be “hugged.” With fellow Christians who know the way and can lead safely ahead of us, and with others behind, gently encouraging us along, we, too, can pass safely. - Don Graham
Napoleon Bonaparte was a very small man. While in training, he was often chided about his stature. One young officer especially delighted in "pulling rank" on the "Little Corporal," as he was called by the other men of his company. Said the arrogant one, "I am a bigger man than you any day." "Not bigger," replied Napoleon, "just taller." History was to prove how right he was!
A brilliant young man with a magnetic personality went out to the mission field. His salary was just a pittance. A large commercial firm was so eager to obtain his services that they offered him ten times his salary, but he refused. They offered to make it even larger if he would accept. "Oh, the salary is big enough," he told them, "but the job isn't!"
One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, “Mommy, will you stay with me all night?” Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, “I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.”
A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, “The big sissy!”
Original title of Noah Webster’s first spelling book was “A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, Comprising an Easy, Concise, and Systematic Method of Education, Designed for the Use of English Schools in America, Part I, Containing a New and Accurate Standard of Pronunciation.”
Don’t you believe that if every kid in every difficult neighborhood in America were in a religious institution on weekends ... don’t you really believe that the drug rate, the crime rate, the violence rate the sense of self-destruction would go way down and the quality and character of this country would go way up?
The Detroit News carried a humorous little story about Bill Cosby’s aged mother that illustrates how useless gifts are unless they are used. She had been raised in poverty, and the family had very little money as Bill was growing up. As a result, she never had modern conveniences and had gotten accustomed to doing things the hard way. When the children were old enough to get jobs, they often gave their mother appliances as Christmas gifts to make her life easier. But she wouldn’t use them. Bill especially remembered that after a while his mother had two or three toasters. But she left them in their boxes and put them on top of the refrigerator. At breakfast she would still do the toast in the oven. If the boys protested, she would say, “Leave them on the refrigerator. I’m used to doing it the old way.”
Steve Green, who sang six years with Bill and Gloria Gaither, tells about getting to know some of the work crews in the large auditoriums where their concerts were held.
The Gaithers prefer concerts-in-the-round, which means extra work for the “riggers,” who walk the four-inch rafter beams—often a hundred feet above the concrete floor—to hang sound speakers and spotlights. For such work, understandably, they are very well paid.
“The fellows I talked to weren’t bothered by the sight of looking down a hundred feet,” says Green. “What they DIDN’T like, they said, were jobs in buildings that had false ceilings—acoustical tile slung just a couple of feet below the rafters. They were still high in the air, and if they slipped, their weight would smash right through the flimsy tile. But their minds seemed to play tricks on them, lulling them into carelessness.”
Satan’s business is not so much in scaring us to death as persuading us that the danger of a spiritual fall is minimal. No wonder Peter advised us to “resist him, standing firm in the faith” (I Peter 5:9).
The story goes that one time when Bill Moyers was a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was asked to say grace before a meal in the family quarters of the White House. As Moyers began praying softly, the President interrupted him with “Speak up, Bill! Speak up!” The former Baptist minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied steadily, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.”
Joel C Gregory writes: "I've always been fascinated with hummingbirds, so fragile, tiny, and beautiful There are actually 320 kinds of hummingbirds The Encyclopedia Britannica tells us that the tiniest among them is the Bee Hummingbird It is 2 1/8 inches long, and half of that is tail feathers and beak It only weighs five grams, just about the same weight as several aspirins would be in your hand And yet that bird can hover, it can go up and down, sideways, and in and out with the most amazing grace and flexibility It flaps its wings ninety times a second And that little bird somehow knows that when it begins to get cold, for its own health, it's best to leave far Northern Canada and migrate across the United States and the Gulf of Mexico, all the way to the Panama Canal Zone And it knows when to turn around and go back Just an accident? If you think so, you're the type who believes there could be an explosion in a printing plant and unabridged dictionaries would fall from the sky! Jesus points to the birds and says, 'Look at God's concern for that small creature-and learn.'
"God cares Even for little hummingbirds And that means He cares for us."
The Donahueite world-view is of a linear life. When a certain number of years have elapsed, it’s over. Period. It’s a pathetic picture, and one people seldom look at unless it is forced upon them—as it was with poignancy and wit in City Slickers. While this movie may not rank among the great morality plays of all time (and some would find parts of the film offensive), it certainly drives the point home, along with the cattle.
Comedian Billy Crystal plays the part of a bored baby boomer who sells radio advertising time. One the day he visits his son’s school to tell about his work along with other fathers, he suddenly lets loose a deadpan monologue to the bewildered youngsters in the class:
Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast.
When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.
Thirties you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?”
Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.
Fifties, you have a minor surgery—you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery.
Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway.
Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, “How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?”
The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call mama.
Any questions?
In his autobiography, Just as I Am, Billy Graham tells about a conversation he had with John F. Kennedy shortly after his election:
“On the way back to the Kennedy house, the president-elect stopped the car and turned to me. ‘Do you believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?’ he asked.
‘I most certainly do.’ ‘Well, does my church believe it?’
‘They have it in their creeds.’
‘They don’t preach it,’ he said. ‘They don’t tell us much about it. I’d like to know what you think.’
I explained what the Bible said about Christ coming the first time, dying on the Cross, rising from the dead, and then promising that he would come back again. ‘Only then,’ I said, ‘are we going to have permanent world peace.’
‘Very interesting,’ he said, looking away. ‘We’ll have to talk more about that someday.’ And he drove on.”
Several years later, the two met again, at the 1963 National Prayer Breakfast.
“I had the flu,” Graham remembers. “After I gave my short talk, and he gave his, we walked out of the hotel to his car together, as was always our custom. At the curb, he turned to me.
‘Billy, could you ride back to the White House with me? I’d like to see you for a minute.’
‘Mr. President, I’ve got a fever,’ I protested. ‘Not only am I weak, but I don’t want to give you this thing. Couldn’t we wait and talk some other time?’
It was a cold, snowy day, and I was freezing as I stood there without my overcoat.
‘Of course,’ he said graciously.”
But the two would never meet again. Later that year, Kennedy was shot dead. Graham comments, “His hesitation at the car door, and his request, haunt me still. What was on his mind? Should I have gone with him? It was an irrecoverable moment.”
President Calvin Coolidge didn’t like to attend dinners, but he was prevailed upon to attend one function at which he was to be presented with a cane.
The man making the presentation went on at great length and finished up by saying, “The mahogany from which this cane is fashioned is as solid as the rock-bound coast of Maine, as beautiful as the sun-kissed shores of California!”
Mr. Coolidge accepted the cane, posed for a picture, then stood there for a few moments, staring at the cane. The audience sat hushed. Finally, the President spoke.
“Birch,” he said, and sat down.
During quail season in Georgia, an Atlanta journalist met an old farmer hunting with an ancient pointer at his side. Twice the dog ran rheumatically ahead and pointed. Twice his master fired into the open air. When the journalist saw no birds rise, he asked the farmer for an explanation.
“Shucks,” grinned the old man, “I knew there weren’t no birds in that grass. Spot’s nose ain’t what it used to be. But him and me have had some wonderful times together. He’s still doing the best he can—and it’d be mighty mean of me to call him a liar at this stage of the game!”
Ornithologist and artist Roger Tory Peterson once found that his eyesight was changing, so he went to an optometrist. The man told Peterson that his eyes needed a rest, and that he should take time out from close, detailed work to focus on objects in the distance. “What do you advise?” the ornithologist asked. “Bird watching,” was the reply.
A “Do it yourself” catalog firm received the following letter from one of its customers: “I built a birdhouse according to your stupid plans, and not only is it much too big, it keeps blowing out of the tree. Signed, Unhappy.
The firm replied: “Dear Unhappy, We’re sorry about the mix-up. We accidentally sent you a sailboat blueprint. But if you think you are unhappy, you should read the letter from the guy who came in last in the yacht club regatta.”
Fun seekers of the 1890s looked to the horseless carriage for new thrills. But 100 years ago this week, at least one driver found that the automobile can also be a hazard.
On May 30, 1896, motorist Henry Wells hit bicyclist Evylyn Thomas on a New York City street. It was America’s first auto accident. Thomas’s injury: a broken leg; car that Wells was driving: a Duryea motor wagon; Well’s penalty: a night in jail;
The first automobile fatality: Henry H. Bliss (Sept. 13, 1899); how he died: a car hit him after he stepped off a New York streetcar.
Auto accidents: in 1937: 7 million; in 1970: 16 million; in 1994: 6.5 million; auto accident deaths in 1937: 39,643; in 1970: 54,633; in 1994: 40,676.
First speeding arrest: New York cabdriver Jacob German (May 20, 1899); his speed: 12 mph; state that enacted the first speed limit: Connecticut (May 21, 1901); the law: 15 mph on country highways, 12 mph within city limits.
Early safety feature: a “pedestrian catcher” mounted on the front of the car; year the first seat belt was developed: 1908; year the government required new cars to have front-seat lap-shoulder belts: 1968; first company to sell cars with air bags: General Motors (1974).
Interviewer: “I see your birthday is May 5, Ms. Beale. May I ask what year?”
Ms. Beale: “Every year.”
Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), former president of Harvard University, had a birthmark on his face that bothered him greatly. As a young man, he was told that surgeons could do nothing to remove it. Someone described that moment as “the dark hour of his soul.”
Eliot’s mother gave him this helpful advice: “My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of that hardship…But it is possible for you, with God’s help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.”
A bishop of a century ago pronounced from his pulpit and in the periodical he edited that heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God. Oh, the irony that Bishop Wright had two sons, Orville and Wilbur! Wright was wrong. Sure of himself, but wrong.
This month, residents of Boston will commemorate the 61st anniversary of the bizarre disaster which occurred Jan. 15, 1919, following the failure of a 90 foot molasses storage tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company. The tank toppled shortly after noon that day, releasing a tidal wave of 2.3 million gallons of goo weighing 27 million pounds which swallowed and sweetened everything in its path.
In one of the most bizarre games in college football history on November 11, 1939, Texas Tech and Centenary racked up an amazing seventy-seven punts. Yes, you read it right--seventy-seven punts! Texas Tech punted thirty-nine times, Centenary thirty-eight times, both hitting the all-time record list. Sixty-seven punts were made on first down, including twenty-two in a row in the third and fourth quarters. Texas Tech finished with minus one yard of offense; Centenary rolled up a big thirty yards total. The final score was 0-0. Nobody won, nobody lost--nobody took many risks.
Black Bart was a professional thief whose very name struck fear as he terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line. From San Francisco to new York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. Between 1875 and 1883 he robbed 29 different stagecoach crews. Amazingly, Bart did it all without firing a shot. Because a hood hid his face, no victim ever saw his face. He never took a hostage and was never trailed by a sheriff. Instead, Black Bart used fear to paralyze his victims. His sinister presence was enough to overwhelm the toughest stagecoach guard.
Booker T. Washington describes meeting an ex-slave from Virginia in his book UP FROM SLAVERY: “I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to The Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased.
“Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands.
In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay his debt, but that he had given his word to his master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise.”
The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of Judgment Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to gray and by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that religious age, men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came. The Connecticut House of Representatives was in session. And as some men fell down and others clamored for an immediate adjournment, the Speaker of the House, one Colonel Davenport, came to his feet. He silenced them and said these words: “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought.”
October 7, 1969 the Montreal, Canada police force went on strike. Because of what resulted, the day has been called Black Tuesday.
A burglar and a policeman were slain. Forty-nine persons were wounded or injured in rioting. Nine bank holdups were committed, almost a tenth of the total number of holdups the previous year along with 17 robberies at gunpoint. Usually disciplined, peaceful citizens joined the riffraff and went wild, smashing some 1,000 plate glass windows in a stretch of 21 business blocks in the heart of the city, hauling away stereo units, radios, TVs and wearing apparel. While looters stripped windows of valuable merchandise, professional burglars entered stores by doors and made off with truckloads of goods. A smartly dressed man scampered down a street with a fur coat over each arm with no police around, anarchy took over.
During WWII six Navy pilots left their aircraft carrier on a mission. After searching the seas for enemy submarines, they tried to return to their ship shortly after dark. But the captain had ordered a blackout of all lights on the ship. Over and over the frantic pilots radioed, asking for just one light so they could see to land. But the pilots were told that the blackout could not be lifted. After several appeals and denials of their request, the ship’s operator turned the switch to break radio contact--and the pilots were forced to ditch in the ocean.
The following story was often told by Charles Haddon Spurgeon: “A cruel king called one of his subjects into his presence and asked him his occupation. The man responded, I’m a blacksmith.’ The ruler then ordered him to go and make a chain of a certain length.
“The man obeyed, returning after several months to show it to the monarch. Instead of receiving praise for what he had done, however, he was instructed to make the chain twice as long.
“When that assignment was completed, the blacksmith presented his work to the king, but again was commanded, ‘Go back and double its length!’ This procedure was repeated several times. At last the wicked tyrant directed the man to be bound in the chains of his own making and cast into a fiery furnace.”
Like that cruel king, sin exacts from its servants a dreadful price: “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). But the good news is the last part of that verse: “The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you are not a Christian, consider the consequence of your sin. Then “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). - RWD
Do we have blanket immunity from Satan’s invasion? No, that protection is conditional on our responsible participation in God’s plan for our protection. Dr. Unger writes: “The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer ungrieved by sin (Eph 4:30) and unquenched by disobedience (1 Thes 5:19) most certainly precludes invasion by a demon spirit. But who dares assert that a demon spirit will not invade the life of a believer in which the Holy Spirit has been grieved by serious and persistent sin and quenched by flagrant disobedience?”
A guide at Blarney Castle in Ireland was explaining to some visitors that his job was not always as pleasant as it seemed. He told them about a group of disgruntled tourists he had taken to the castle earlier in the week.
“These people were complaining about everything,” he said. “They didn’t like the weather, the food, their hotel accommodations, the prices, everything. Then to top it off, when we arrived at the castle, we found that the area around the Blarney Stone was roped off. Workmen were making some kind of repairs.”
“This is the last straw!” exclaimed one lady who seemed to be the chief faultfinder in the group. “I’ve come all this way, and now I can’t even kiss the Blarney Stone.”
“Well, you know,” the guide said, “according to legend, if you kiss someone who has kissed the stone, it’s the same as kissing the stone itself.”
“And I suppose you’ve kissed the stone,” said the exasperated lady.
“Better than that. replied the guide. “I’ve sat on it.”
The body is a delicate instrument which needs to be looked after with great care. Yet many of us don't value it as we should or take sufficient care of it. God has made each of us a living musical instrument, so to speak, capable of showing forth His praise. Each of us is like a harp of a thousand strings on which the most varied and beautiful music may be played. Every part of our body is skillfully constructed and admirably adapted to do its proper work. God has tempered or blended every organ to produce a harmonious whole. But this instrument is exceedingly liable to go wrong. The least thing spoils it and makes it unfit for its work. Unless it's properly treated we can't use it to the best advantage to glorify or show forth the perfect nature of God, its Architect and Creator. This is also true of the body of Christ, His Church. We are His members, diverse in our make-up and performance but duty-bound to blend our differences to produce harmonious music and praise that will attract the world instead of repelling it. Just as we wouldn't listen very long to an orchestra whose instruments were out of tune, neither will the world listen to Christians who sound forth the gospel against a background of divisions and quarrels.
Do we really understand when we say "Bless me, God?"
The word for bless in the Greek New Testament is eulog�o, which means to speak well of.
We are really quite daring when we ask God to speak well of us. When we bless God we are eulogizing or speaking well of Him, and He indeed is worthy of being well spoken of. But how dare we ask Him to speak well of us? In the Bible, God's words are God's actions. The Lord created the world with His word. So when we ask God to speak well of us, it is the same as asking Him to act in our lives.
So many of us have the wrong idea about the blessing of God. We have a tendency to believe that God should hold a rubber stamp and automatically approve our plans.
"How can you look so pleasant tonight?" a man asked his friend. "You have had a score of interruptions this afternoon, when you had plans to accomplish so much." "That is all right," was the answer. "Every morning I give my day to Christ. I take what He sends. These interruptions came in the way of duty. Why should I complain about the service He has appointed?"
Would you really ask God to bless you if you knew that He might interrupt your planning?
In the Antarctic summer of 1908-1909, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters. They set off with four ponies to help carry the load. Weeks later, their ponies dead, rations all but exhausted, they turned back toward their base, their goal not accomplished. Altogether, they trekked 127 days.
On the return journey, as Shackleton records in The Heart Of The Antarctic, the time was spent talking about food—elaborate feasts, gourmet delights, sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of eating.
Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS.” We can understand Shackleton’s obsession with food, which offers a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends for our quest for righteousness.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It was Andrew Carnegie who said, "Comrades, I was born in poverty and would not exchange its sacred memories with the richest millionaire's son who ever breathed. What does he know about mother or father? These are mere names to him. Give me the life of the boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, angel, and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, exemplar, and friend-no servants to come between. These are the boys who are born to the best fortune. Some men think that poverty is a dreadful burden and that wealth leads to happiness. What do they know about it? They know only one side; they imagine the other. I have lived both, and I know there is very little in wealth that can add to human happiness beyond the small comforts of life. Millionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smiles away."
The supreme blessing in which one can truly know the goodness of God is not temporal possessions, but the eternal blessing that God has called us to—His holy gospel. In this gospel we hear that God will be gracious to us for the sake of His Son, will forgive and eternally save us, and will protect us in this life against the tyranny of the Devil and the world. To someone who properly appreciates this blessing, everything else is a trifle. Though he is poor, sick, despised, and burdened with adversities, he sees that he keeps more than he has lost. If he has no money and goods, he knows nevertheless that he has a gracious God; if his body is sick, he knows that he is called to eternal life. His heart has this constant consolation: Only a short time, and everything will be better.”
In 1773, the young pastor of a poor church in Wainsgate, England, was called to a large and influential church in London. John Fawcett was a powerful preacher and writer, and these skills had brought him this opportunity. But as the wagons were being loaded with the Fawcetts’ few belongings, their people came for a tearful farewell.
During the good-byes, Mary Fawcett cried, “John, I cannot bear to leave!”
“Nor can I,” he replied. “We shall remain here with our people.” The wagons were unloaded, and John Fawcett spent his entire fifty-four-year ministry in Wainsgate.
Out of that experience, Fawcett wrote the beautiful hymn, “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”
In illustrating the interdependence of one another’s spiritual gifts in a local church, Gary Inrig, in Life in His Body shared the following story:
Several years ago, two students graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The highest ranking student in the class was a blind man named Overton and, when he received his honor, he insisted that half the credit should go to his friend, Kaspryzak. They had met one another in school when the armless Mr. Kaspryzak had guided the blind Mr. Overton down a flight of stairs. This acquaintance ripened into friendship and a beautiful example of interdependence. The blind man carried the books which the armless man read aloud in their common study, and thus the individual deficiency of each was compensated for by the other.
After their graduation, they planned to practice law together. No believer is complete by himself, we are to minister to one another, as a family.
This story was related by Donald Grey Barnhouse.
One of the golfers on the pro tour some years ago was a pompous egomaniac with the emotional maturity of a six-year-old. He could do nothing wrong and always had a quick excuse for any loss: it was a lousy course, the other golfers were cheating, the weather was terrible, etc. As if these faults were not enough, he was also not above hustling a few extra dollars playing amateurs in cities on the tour for $50 a hole.
One day he was approached by a man wearing dark glasses and carrying a white cane who offered to play him for $100 a hole.
“Why, I can’t play you,” the professional protested. “You’re blind, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” replied the man. “But that’s all right. I was a state champion before I went blind. I think I can beat you.”
Now the conceited one had not been doing well lately--he needed the money. Anyway, blind or not, if the guy was crazy enough to challenge him…well, why not? “You did say $100 a hole?”
The blind man nodded.
“Well, all right. It’s a deal. But don’t say I didn’t warn you--you’ll lose your money. When would you like to play?”
“Any night at all,” replied the blind man. “Any night at all.”
In illustrating the interdependence of one another’s spiritual gifts in a local church, Gary Inrig, in Life in His Body shared the following story: Several years ago, two students graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The highest ranking student in the class was a blind man named Overton and, when he received his honor, he insisted that half the credit should go to his friend, Kaspryzak. They had met one another in school when the armless Mr. Kaspryzak had guided the blind Mr. Overton down a flight of stairs. This acquaintance ripened into friendship and a beautiful example of interdependence. The blind man carried the books which the armless man read aloud in their common study, and thus the individual deficiency of each was compensated for by the other. After their graduation, they planned to practice law together. This story was related by Donald Grey Barnhouse. No believer is complete by himself, we are to minister to one another, as a family.
Six blind men approached an elephant. Each man put out his hand to touch some part of the elephant's anatomy and thought he had grasped the whole. To one the elephant was like a tree, to another like a wall, to a third like a fan, to a fourth like a snake, to a fifth like a spear, and to a sixth like a rope-depending on whether they had touched his leg, his side, his ear, his trunk, his tusk, or his tail. The poem in which this fable is contained concludes that all of them were right, though each of them was wrong. It takes a synthesis of all aspects of God and His creation to get a complete picture of Him-and none of us is so gifted as to be able to comprehend this, though we make some progress as we open our hearts and minds to the various facets of truth we encounter on our heavenward journey.
A wife whose husband had embezzled thousands of dollars simply would not believe it of him. She loved her husband. So did a close friend, but this friend had to appear in court for the truth's sake and witness against him. The man was pronounced guilty by two courts and sentenced to a jail term, but his wife still refused to believe the truth. Was her kind of love of any help to his sinful and eternal condition? No, it only encouraged him to persist in perpetuating a lie. Real love is not blind to the truth. It does not reject truth for fear that it will not survive the blow. It accepts truth as the basis of the redemptive work of love.
Isn't light self-revealing? Do we need to stand out in the street and shout to those who pass by, "That's the sun," as we point to it in all its brightness? The sun is self-revealing in the same sense that Jesus Christ was and is the Light of the world. The fact that John the Baptist came to give his witness about the Light did not in any way steal from it the power to reveal itself. The necessity for the human testimony of the Baptist is a clear indication of the complete depravity of man, his inability to comprehend that which is spiritual. His mind and heart have been so darkened by sin that, seeing the Light, he does not recognize it as the Light. We must also remember what men and women actually saw down here on earth was a human Jesus. Their darkened vision could not see anything superhuman in Him. It was necessary for someone like John the Baptist to tell them that this One who walked with them and who ate with them was the Light.
In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked.
Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.”
Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room—Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned.
As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny’s smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?’
Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he’d agreed to donate his blood. He’s thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he’d made his great decision.
Johnny, fortunately, didn’t have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary’s, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.
In the Waco, Neb., Peace Lutheran Church bulletin: “Last Sunday’s bulletin should have read: ‘Erich Honecker, the deposed communist leader of East Germany,’ rather than ‘the decomposed communist leader.’”
Correction printed in the Russellville, Ky., News-Democrat & Leader: “Dorothy Combs listed in the District Court news pleaded not guilty, not guilty.”
From the Fresno, Calif., Bee: An item about the Massachusetts budget crisis made reference to new taxes that will help put Massachusetts ‘back in the African-American.’ The item should have said ‘back in the black.’”
In the Chicago Tribune: “The last sentence of Mike Royko’s column was omitted in some editions of Thursday’s Tribune. The last line should have said: ‘eeeeyaaach.’ The Tribune regrets the error.”
In her book, North to the Orient, Anne Morrow Lindberg, tells about the oriental symbolism of trees:
The bamboo stands for prosperity.
The pine tree means long life.
The plum tree suggests courage.
Mrs. Lindberg asked a friend why the plum tree stood for courage. The answer: "Because it puts out its blossom while the snow is still on the ground."
The Christian should adopt the plum tree as our example. We should show our Christian attitudes at times when they are needed the most.
Be kind and forgiving to those who mistreat you.
Be understanding and open-minded to those who are prejudiced toward you.
Stand for moral ideals when it is contrary to popular custom.
Have the courage and strength to do the difficult thing by "putting out your blossoms" when it is difficult.
Dr. J.H. Jowett, speaking of the time when he was in Northfield, says, "I went out early one morning to conduct a camp meeting away off in the woods. The camp dwellers were two or three hundred men from the Water Street Mission in New York. At the beginning of the service, prayer was offered for me, and the supplication opened with these inspired words: 'O Lord, we thank Thee for our brother. Now blot him out.' Then the prayer continued: 'Reveal Thy glory to us in such blazing splendor that he shall be forgotten.'"
Blue Monday, that post-weekend, down-in-the-dumps day, may indeed be dangerous to your health. More men die suddenly of heart disease on Monday than on any other day of the week, reports a group of University of Manitoba researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Your heart also knows about TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday), because that’s the workday when the fewest men die of heart attacks.
A long-term follow-up study of nearly 4,000 men found that 38 had died of sudden heart attacks on Monday while only 15 died on Friday. For men with no history of heart disease, Monday was particularly dangerous. Among that group, an average of 8.2 heart attack deaths occurred on each of the other six days of the week, while nearly three times as many occurred on Monday.
“Psychological stress has been related to sudden cardiac death, and it may be that return to work serves as a stressor,” says Dr. Simon W. Rabkin, one of the researchers. But being at home on Blue Monday didn’t help much either, since 46.7 percent of the fatal heart attacks occurring in the home also happened on Monday. “The warning ‘Beware of Mondays’ should be stimulus for further research to determine why,” Rabkin adds.
We have gotten accustomed to the blurred puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in churches and expect nothing better. From some previously unimpeachable sources are now coming vague statements consisting of a milky admixture of Scripture, science, and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients because each one works to cancel the others out.
Little by little Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever.
Few executives can afford the luxury of a conscience. A business that defined right and wrong in terms that would satisfy a well-developed contemporary conscience could not survive. When the directors and managers enter the board room to debate policy, they park their private consciences outside. If they didn’t they would fail in their responsibility to the company that pays them. The crucial question in board rooms today is not, “Are we morally obligated to do it?” but rather “What will happen if we don’t do it?” or “How will this affect the rate of return on our investment?” No company employs a vice president in charge of ethical standards, and sooner or later the conscientious executive is likely to come up against a stone wall of corporate indifference to private moral values. In the real world of today’s business, he is almost surely a troubled man.
The body needs about three quarts of water a day to operate efficiently. It helps break up and soften food. The blood, which is 90 percent H2O carries nutrients to the cells. As a cooling agent, water regulates our temperature through perspiration. And without its lubricating properties, our joints and muscles would grind and creak like unused parts of some old rusty machinery.
As Vice President, Richard Nixon came upon President Eisenhower one day signing an immense stack of mail in his office. Mr. Nixon watched quietly for a moment and then asked the General how, with all that mail, he ever found time to think about the big problems of the country.
Ike replied: “Dick, I really haven’t spent that much time on these letters. In fact, in some instances they probably don’t even say exactly what I want them to. But you’ve got to learn that, if you get bogged down in all the fine print and little detail you’ll never get anything accomplished as President.
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
One of the most tragic events during the Reagan Presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.
A few days after the tragedy, I recall coming across an extraordinary story. Marine Corps Commandant Paul X Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany, hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.
As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were but two words—“Semper Fi” the Latin motto of the Marines meaning “forever faithful.”
With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country—those who have remained faithful.
In Elmer Bendiner’s book, THE FALL OF FORTRESSES, he describes one bombing run over the German city of Kassel:
Our B-17 (The Tondelayo) was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a twenty-millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.
On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks—eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. Even after thirty-five years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.
He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them.
One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually, they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.”
Sometimes when I’m talking to teens, I draw an analogy between the bonding capacity of the body and adhesive tape. Adhesive tape is not made for repetitive use. The strongest bond adhesive tape is capable of making is formed with the first surface to which it is applied. You can remove the tape and reapply it to other surfaces several times, and it will still adhere. However, with every application, some of the adhesiveness has been compromised. Finally, if you continue the practice long enough, there will not be enough adhesiveness left to make the tape stick to any surface. God intended that the bond between mates be the closest and strongest one they are capable of forming. That is why Paul makes it very clear that the body is not for fornication.
