Pastoral Resources

In 1924, two climbers were part of an expedition that set out to conquer Mount Everest. As far as is known, they never reached the summit; and they never returned. Somewhere on that gigantic mountain they were overpowered by the elements and died. After the failure of the expedition, the rest of the party returned home. Addressing a meeting in London, one of those who returned described the ill-fated adventure. He then turned to a huge photograph of Mount Everest, mounted on the wall behind him. “Everest,” he cried, “we tried to conquer you once, but you overpowered us. We tried to conquer you a second time, but again you were too much for us. But, Everest, I want you to know that we are going to conquer you, for you can’t grow any bigger, and we can!”

Did you know that ever since 1811 (when someone who had defrauded the government anonymously sent $5 to Washington D.C.) the U.S. Treasury has operated a Conscience Fund? Since that time almost $3.5 million has been received from guilt-ridden citizens.

Speaking of conscience, E. L. Allen said, "Honestly, what use do we make of our God-given reason? I know what use I make of it. I use it chiefly to provide reasons for what I want to do without admitting it is for pursuing some personal ambition. A man may have his conscience so well disciplined and trained that, instead of blazing a trail before him, it is like a pet dog which just trots obediently at his heels and never so much as barks! 'If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!' "

Not every coin that bears the exact stamp is a genuine coin. Very often, the counterfeit, the base and worthless coin, bears the right stamp also. It isn't the impression that matters so much as the nature of the metal. Many an action that bears the impression of a good conscience is condemned before God as perilous, injurious, and destructive in its issues. The coin must be tested on the touchstone to discover if it rings true. Conscience must be tested on the touchstone of Christian principle and the Spirit of the Master. It is not enough to say, "It seems right to me." We must ask how does this action, this line of conduct, ring on the touchstone of Christian principle? Not what we think but what Christ thinks, what the Master thinks, matters most.

“I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means.”

“Will you please tell me in a word,” said a Christian woman to a minister, “what your idea of consecration is?”

Holding out a blank sheet of paper the pastor replied, “It is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in as He will.”

Feeling a concern for witnessing can mean that you will have to stand up and be counted, and this can bring some degree of abuse. Years ago I was praying with one of my children at bedtime, and I asked him if he had any problems we should pray about. He couldn’t think of any, even though I could think of a number! Rather unwisely, I pressed the point and asked, “Don’t you have any problems at school?” “No,” he replied quite firmly. “Don’t the kids give you a hard time because you’re a Christian?” Again the answer was “No.” Thinking back to my own traumatic school days, I said, “But kids always give you a hard time if you let them know you’re a Christian.” His reply was frank beyond belief: “All the more reason you don’t let them know!” And quite happily he turned over to sleep.

With the refreshing candor of the very young, he had put into words the practical reasons why many Christians don’t witness. They don’t want to take the consequences.

In a recent Michigan State University study, 97% of the faculty members and staff who bet $40 that they could stay with a six-month exercise program were successful.Only 19% of a non-betting group stayed with their six-month program, however. TIP: Consider incentives when you want to change behavior.

One evening when Napoleon was returning to France from the expedition to Egypt, a group of French officers entered into a discussion concerning the existence of God. They were on the deck of the vessel that bore them over the Mediterranean Sea. Thoroughly imbued with the skeptical and atheistical spirit of the times, they were unanimous in their denial of God. It was decided to ask the opinion of Napoleon, who was standing alone wrapped in silent thought. On hearing the question, "Is there a God?" he raised his hand and pointing to the starry firmament simply responded, "Gentlemen, who made all that?"

When pointing out a mistake by another person, always consider the person’s feelings. Milton Berle was dining with his wife, Ruth, in a Hollywood restaurant, when a waiter put too much pepper on her salad. Mrs. Berle tasted it and said, “Hmm. Needs more salad.”

Did you ever wonder...

Was the ark REALLY big enough for all those animals? On first glance, the figures can be frightening. At the time of this writing, science has classified one million different species of animals. With seven of every clean and two of every other kind, it would seem we need space for at least 2,500,000 animals on the ark. Can we just faith it? First, let us note the ark was no toy boat, but a gigantic barge with a volume of 1,396,000 cubic feet (assuming one cubit equals 17.5 inches). The ark had a carrying capacity equal to that of 522 standard stock cars.

(1) What about the multitude of animals, you may ask. Most of that list of a million are worms, insects, one-cell animals and sea creatures who would have no need to be on the ark. In fact, "there was need for no more than 35,000 individual vertebrate animals on the ark."

(2) Chipmunk to elephant, let us assume the average size of an animal on the ark to be a sheep. Currently the railroad can fit 120 sheep on a stock car. Doing some fast figuring, the ark needed only to carry 292 stock cars worth of animals. Plenty of room for Noah, his family and extra hay.

Today God provides room for all men to find salvation at the cross. Noah pleaded with men to, "Get on board the ark," and they did not understand until the flood came and took them away. So shall the coming of the Son of Man be (Mat_24:39). Will there be spare room for those you know who could have made it? Are you doing your part?

Did you ever wonder...

Was the ark REALLY big enough for all those animals? On first glance, the figures can be frightening. At the time of this writing, science has classified one million different species of animals. With seven of every clean and two of every other kind, it would seem we need space for at least 2,500,000 animals on the ark. Can we just faith it? First, let us note the ark was no toy boat, but a gigantic barge with a volume of 1,396,000 cubic feet (assuming one cubit equals 17.5 inches). The ark had a carrying capacity equal to that of 522 standard stock cars.

(1) What about the multitude of animals, you may ask. Most of that list of a million are worms, insects, one-cell animals and sea creatures who would have no need to be on the ark. In fact, "there was need for no more than 35,000 individual vertebrate animals on the ark."

(2) Chipmunk to elephant, let us assume the average size of an animal on the ark to be a sheep. Currently the railroad can fit 120 sheep on a stock car. Doing some fast figuring, the ark needed only to carry 292 stock cars worth of animals. Plenty of room for Noah, his family and extra hay.

Today God provides room for all men to find salvation at the cross. Noah pleaded with men to, "Get on board the ark," and they did not understand until the flood came and took them away. So shall the coming of the Son of Man be (Mat 24:39). Will there be spare room for those you know who could have made it? Are you doing your part?

Area of Concern

Constructive Approach

Destructive Approach

Issues

Raises & clarifies issues

Brings up old issues

Feelings

Expresses both positive & negative feelings

Expresses only negative feelings

Information

Complete and honest information

Selective information

Focus

Conflict focuses on issue

Conflict focuses on person

Blame

Accepts mutual blame

Blames other person(s) for problem

Perception

Focuses on similarities

Focuses on differences

Change

Facilitates change to prevent stagnation

Minimizes change, increasing conflict

Outcome

Both win

One wins, one loses; or both lose

Intimacy

Resolving conflict increases intimacy

Escalating conflict decreases intimacy

During a rehearsal at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the great Italian conductor Toscanini offered some constructive criticism to a featured soloist. She was too proud to accept his help, however, and expressed her resentment by exclaiming in anger, “I am the star of this performance!”

Toscanini responded wisely and firmly, “Madame,” he said, “In this performance there are no stars.”

Constructive criticism is an invaluable source of information for those who accept it. Quite often we spend more time justifying, excusing or rationalizing an error, than in trying to understand and benefit from criticism. When we are non-defensive we become aware that constructive criticism is a real compliment to us. The person offering it is usually uncomfortable in doing so, but if he is willing to endure the discomfort in order to help us, we should listen and appreciate his suggestions. He runs the risk of arousing our enmity, but he cares enough for our welfare to take this chance.

A company hired a management consultant to appraise the personnel efficiency reports made out by their managers and supervisors. The consultant expected the reports to be dull going, but found to his surprise that they contained a good deal of intentional—and unintentional—humor. Here are a few examples…

This foreman has talents but has kept them well hidden.

Can express a sentence in two paragraphs any time.

A quiet, reticent manager. Industrious, tenacious, careful, and neat. I do not wish to have this woman as a member of my department under any circumstances.

In any change in policy or procedure, he can be relied upon to produce the improbable, hypothetical situation in which the new policy cannot work.

Needs careful watching since he borders on the brilliant.

Open to suggestions but never follows them.

Is keenly analytical, and his highly developed mentality could best be utilized in research and development. He lacks common sense.

Never makes the same mistake twice but it seems to me he had made them all once.

Radio personality Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin.

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.

Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!”

Dr. George Sweeting wrote in Special Sermons For Special Days It is a fearful thing that people can be “consumed by their own lusts.” Only God’s grace keeps us from the wolf’s fate.

Personal debt in the U.S. is increasing at the rate of $1000 per second and consumer installment debt has mushroomed to a point where it takes approximately $1 out of every $4 that consumers earn after taxes to keep up the payments—not including the home mortgage. For over 250,000 Americans, the burden of debt is so great that he/she declares bankruptcy.

There are even more serious consequences of this financial tension created by debt: 56% of all divorces are a result of financial tension in the home.

I often visit newcomers in town and find them to be church shopping. They want to know what they can get out of church. Churches are one more consumer commodity. Worship services are not a place for us to serve God and neighbor but a place where people expect to purchase the best: inspiring worship, good music, moving sermons, quality child care. As if we buy God and not vice versa.

It’s great to have two cars and a swimming pool. But there are disappointments. After you’ve made some money and acquired some things, and after the initial excitement has passed, life goes on, just as bewildering as it always was, and the great problems of life and death once again come to the fore.

We know that consumption isn’t the answer, and we ask ourselves what is.

The teenager lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was nowhere to be found. Undaunted, she went outside and in a few minutes returned with the lens in her hand. “I really looked hard for that, Mom,” said the youth. “How’d you manage to find it?” “We weren’t looking for the same thing,” she replied. “You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150.”

Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, “What do you believe?”

“Well, I believe the same as the church.”

“And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.”

Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?”

“Well, I suppose the same thing.”

Christ was content with a stable when he was born so that we could have a mansion when we die.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (1Ti 6:6-8).

Our generation wants it all. Many people who are 30 and under have always had it all. The lack of material things during the Great Depression has affected the attitudes of many older people. So many, both young and old, are concerned with driving the right car, wearing clothes with the right label and vacationing at the "in" places. Yet, having all these only leads to a desire for more.

How we accumulate! The man who has everything needs a place to put it. Our closets are running over. We buy houses with two car garages and then leave our cars outside. The garage is full of things. Mini-warehouses and storage facilities are a growth industry. Is this accumulation perhaps one reason vans and pickup trucks are so popular? We need bigger vehicles to carry what we have.

But has a richer life produced a better life? The most popular prescription drugs relieve anxiety and hypertension. The most popular over-the-counter drugs are aspirin and related pain killers. Also, if abundance brings happiness, we would assume that the people who have the most possessions have the greatest happiness. Yet even the most casual observer can see this is not true.

In his accumulation of things, is not man searching for contentment? The bottom line, according to Paul is not how much you have. The bottom line on personal profit and loss is finding godliness with contentment.

What do we need to be content? Paul's statement is almost heretical to our materialistic ears. All that is necessary is food and clothing. These should be the limit of our earthly desires. Matthew Henry well said, "The necessities of life are the bounds of a true Christian's desires. Truly, the secret of contentment is not having much but wanting little. This is not to say we cannot have more than food and clothing. It means that having more than these presents a temptation (1Ti 6:9). May we, as God's children, refuse to let the world squeeze us into its mold, and refuse to imitate it as it seeks everything to live with and nothing to live for.

Fierce passions discompose the mind,

As tempests vex the sea;

But calm content and peace we find,

When, Lord, we turn to Thee.

In vain by reason and by rule

We try to bend the will;

For none but in the Saviour’s school

Can learn the heavenly skill.

Since at His feet my soul has sate,

His gracious words to hear,

Contented with my present state,

I cast on Him my care.

“Art thou a sinner, soul?” He said,

“Then how canst thou complain!

How light thy troubles here, if weigh’d

With everlasting pain!

“If thou of murmuring wouldst be cured,

Compare thy griefs with mine;

Think what my love for thee endured,

And thou wilt not repine.

“‘Tis I appoint thy daily lot,

And I do all things well;

Thou soon shalt leave this wretched spot,

And rise with me to dwell.

“In life my grace shall strength supply,

Proportion’d to thy day;

At death thou [still] shalt find me nigh,

To wipe thy tears away.”

Thus I, who once my wretched days

In vain repinings spent,

Taught in my Saviour’s school of grace,

Have learnt to be content.

At the height of WWII, Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for taking a stand against Hitler. Yet he continued to urge fellow believers to resist Nazi tyranny. A group of Christians, believing that Hitler was the Antichrist, asked Bonhoeffer, “Why do you expose yourself to all this danger? Jesus will return any day, and all your work and suffering will be for nothing.”

Bonhoeffer replied, “If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I’ll rest from my labor. But today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it’s finished.”

Once, while Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, “What would you do if you suddenly learned that you were to die at sunset today?” He replied, “I would finish hoeing my garden.”

The teaching that when a person dies his soul ceases to exist. On the final judgment day he is brought back to life and judged. This is not a heresy, only an error of interpretation. The Bible is not specific on the condition of the person after death and between the resurrection, however, there are scriptures that strongly suggest man’s continued self-awareness and continued existence after death (Luke 16:19-31; 2 Cor. 5:1-10; Phil. 1:21-23).

We continue to adjust to each other, an adjustment that started 19 years ago and will never stop because we each continue to grow and change. We will always be different. I think of anniversaries as a time for roses and dinner; she prefers Mexican food and a movie. For Halloween she thinks apples are a good treat; I say, since when did Halloween have anything to do with nutrition?

Don’t mistake it for a solid marriage. There is no such thing. Marriage is more like an airplane than a rock. You have to commit the thing to flight, and then it creaks and groans, and keeping it airborne depends entirely on attitude. Working at it, though, we can fly forever. Only she and I know how hard it has been, or how worthwhile.

There is a very strong tendency on the part of Americans, whether in government or business, that you really have to establish some achievement of your own. In Japan, there is emphasis on continuity. Unless there is something wrong, I build on what my predecessor has built. In the U.S., the new man comes in and very often the value of that man is judged by the things he does differently from his predecessor. This is very destabilizing—you start from scratch. In manufacturing, there is a great deal that can be achieved by continuity.

I see on the chapel speaker calendar that Richard Foster is scheduled. He is one of my favorite writers and in his volume entitled Celebration of Discipline, he has a chapter entitled “The Discipline of Service.” Let me share his thoughts as he contrasts self-righteous service with true service.

Self-righteous service comes through human effort.

True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside.

Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal.”

True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.

Self-righteous service requires external rewards.

True service rests contented in hiddenness.

Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results.

True service is free of the need to calculate results.

Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve.

True service is indiscriminate in its ministry.

Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims.

True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.

Self-righteous service is temporary.

True service is a life-style.

Self-righteous service is without sensitivity. It insists on meeting the need even when to do so would be destructive.

True service can withhold the service as freely as perform it.

Self-righteous service fractures community.

True service, on the other hand, builds community.

The major factor contributing to extramarital relationships is physical and emotional attraction (78 percent), far outdistancing marital dissatisfaction (41 percent).

In a small village in the Bornes jungle, health workers decided to spray the straw huts with DDT in order to control the mosquito population responsible for the spread of malaria. The lizards that normally inhabit the walls of the huts consumed large doses of the DDT and died. The village cats, in turn ate the dying lizards and themselves died. The cats demise resulted in an infestation of rats into the village. The lizards’ death left the straw-consuming caterpillars free to multiply (the lizards feed on the caterpillars) and eventually they gobbled up the straw thatched roofs of the village huts.

No great advance has been made in science, politics or religion without controversy. - Lyman Beecher

A convenience food today is chicken already cooked. In grandmother’s time it was a chicken she didn’t have to kill personally.

1. If I knew I couldn’t fail, I’d try...

2. One lesson I’ve learned the hard way is...

3. Some of the best advice I was given is...

4. One unfulfilled dream of mine is...

5. You would know me better if you knew that I...

6. More than anything, I would like to be remembered as a person who...

7. If I could have a five-minute face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ, I would talk about...

8. Given one day to do anything I’d like, with no economic constraints, I would choose to...

10. What’s the story behind the longest time you’ve gone without sleep?

9. What is your favorite comic strip?

8. Using weather terminology, how would you describe your week (or day)—sunny, partly cloudy, stormy, drizzly, etc.?

7. What was your first job? What do you remember most about it?

6. What is one tradition in your family?

5. If your house were on fire, what three items (not people) would you try to save?

4. What’s the best gift that you ever received as a child?

3. Complete the following: “People might be surprised to find out that ________.”

2. What would you do if you could take a day off work this week?

1. What’s your favorite scar on your body? How did you get it, and can you show it to us?

Challenge the kids at dinner tonight to list twenty things that were not yet invented when you were their age (computers, waterbeds, trash compactors, polyester, space shuttles). Ask which ones are the most helpful, and if we would be better off without some of them. To cap the conversation: Thank God together in prayer for all the good things you enjoy as a family in today’s world.

I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means.

From Texas history comes the story of the conversion of Sam Houston. At one tine, the Texas hero was called “The Old Drunk.” While he was governor of Tennessee, his wife left him. In despair he resigned as governor and tried to escape his problems by going to live among Cherokee Indians. He stayed drunk much of the time. It is said that the Indians, as they walked through the forest, would have to move him out of the path where he lay in a stupor.

Later, he went to Texas, where he became the great hero of the Texas revolution when he routed General Santa Ana’s Mexican army. Houston’s battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” helped win independence for Texas. He carried the daughter of a Baptist preacher and later trusted Christ, but he still had some of his old tendencies. One day as he rode along a trail, his horse stumbled. Houston spontaneously cursed, reverting to his old habit. Immediately he was convicted of his sin. He got off his horse, knelt down on the trail, and cried out to God for forgiveness. Houston had already received Christ, but God was teaching him to live in fellowship with him moment by moment. And as soon as the Holy Spirit made Sam Houston aware of his sin, he confessed it.

Nineteenth century Scottish preacher Horatius Bonar asked 253 Christian friends at what ages they were converted. Here’s what he discovered:

Under 20 years of age 138

Between 20 and 30

85

Between 30 and 40

22

Between 40 and 50

4

Between 50 and 60

3

Between 60 and 70

1

Over 70

0

Converted men as a class are indistinguishable from natural men; some natural men even excel some converted men in their fruits; and no one ignorant of doctrinal theology could guess by mere every-day inspection of the “accidents” of the two groups of persons before him that their substance differed as much as divine differs from human substance.

A convict, dying of a loathsome disease in the Arizona State Prison at Florence, was given a New Testament one day by a visiting prison worker. He started to read it and became so convicted of sin that he hurled it the length of the cell. When the Book landed on the floor, it fell open to the First Epistle of John. A verse boldly outlined in red caught the angry convict's eye. He stooped down to look at it, and this is what he read: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." That message brought him to his knees, crying out to God for forgiveness, for cleansing, for healing. He became a new man in Christ Jesus. He started a Bible class for the convicts, and in time secured an unconditional pardon from the Governor of Arizona. The governor's pardon freed him from prison, but the pardon the Lord gave brought him purity of spirit, soul, and body, and through him brought many others into the Kingdom.

Jesse Pullen was a converted drunkard. One day, as he tried to lead an old companion to Christ, the man expressed a fear that he would not hold out. Pullen said to him, “I’m the engine man on a little steam boat in the summer. I don’t wait until I get up enough steam to carry me across the lake before I start. I would blow the boat all to pieces if I did. When I get about twenty pounds of steam up, I call out to the captain, ‘All right, go ahead!’ Down in the hold I have plenty of coal. As fast as we use up the steam, we make more, and so we go across the lake.” His friend saw the point.

Historian and art critic Robert Hughes tells of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment on a maximum-security island off the coast of Australia. One day, with no provocation he turned on a fellow prisoner and beat him senseless. Authorities shipped the murderer back to the mainland to stand trial, whereupon he gave a straightforward, passionless account of the crime. He showed no sign of remorse and denied having held any grudge against the victim. “Why, then?” asked the bewildered judge. “What was your motive?” The prisoner replied that he was sick of life on the island, a notoriously brutal place, and saw no reason to keep on living. “Yes, yes, I understand all that,” said the judge. “I can see why you might drown yourself in the ocean. But murder? Why murder?” “Well, I figure it’s like this,” said the prisoner. “I’m a Catholic. If I commit suicide I’ll go straight to hell. But if I murder I can come back here to Sydney and confess to a priest before my execution. That way, God will forgive me.”

Difference between a conviction and a preference, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. A preference is a very strong belief, held with great strength. You can give your entire life in a full-time way to the service of the preference, and can also give your entire material wealth in the name of the belief. You can also energetically proselytize others to your preference. You can also want to teach this belief to your children, and the Supreme court may still rule that it is a preference. A preference is a strong belief, but a belief that you will change under the right circumstances. Circumstances such as: 1) peer pressure; if your beliefs are such that other people stand with you before you will stand, your beliefs are preferences, not convictions, 2) family pressure, 3) lawsuits, 4) jail, 5) threat of death; would you die for your beliefs? A conviction is a belief that you will not change. Why? A man believes that his God requires it of him. Preferences aren’t protected by the constitution. Convictions are. A conviction is not something that you discover, it is something that you purpose in your heart (cf. Daniel 1, 2-3). Convictions on the inside will always show up on the outside, in a person’s lifestyle. To violate a conviction would be a sin.

Bachelor Bob: “I got a cookbook for Christmas from my mom, but after checking out some of the recipes, I decided to toss it into the garbage can.”

Married Marvin: “Too much fancy work in it, eh?”

Bachelor Bob: “You said it! Every recipe began with the same words: Take a clean dish...How unrealistic can you get?

A little boy told a salesclerk he was shopping for a birthday gift for his mother and asked to see some cookie jars. At a counter displaying a large selection of them, the youngster carefully lifted and replaced each lid. His face fell as he came to the last one. “Aren’t there any covers that don’t make any noise?” he asked.

Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep. Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet—which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back!—declared it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come so as to avoid the Secret Service! (Yes, the loan was paid back.)

There were two Christians occupying the same cottage, each bound to keep his own side of the house well thatched. They were sadly divided denominationally, one being a Baptist and the other a Presbyterian. After repeated battles with words, they were not on speaking terms. One day these men were at work on the roof, each thatching his own side, when they met at the top and were forced to look into each other's faces. One of the men took off his cap, and scratching his head said to the other, "Johnnie, you and me, I think, have been very foolish to dispute as we have done concerning Christ's will about our churches, until we have clean forgot His will about ourselves; we have fought so bitterly for what we call the truth, that it has ended in spite. Whatever is wrong, it's perfectly certain that it never can be right to be impolite, unneighborly, unkind-in fact, to hate one another. No, that's the devil's work, not God's! The same thing may be the matter with the church as with this house. You are working on one side, and I am on the other, but if we only do our work well, we will meet at the top at last. Give me your hand, old neighbor!" So they shook hands and were the best of friends ever after.

The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members. - William Temple

The “Coronary and Ulcer Club” lists the following rules for members…

1. Your job comes first. Forget everything else.

2. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are fine times to be working at the office. There will be nobody else there to bother you.

3. Always have your briefcase with you when not at your desk. This provides an opportunity to review completely all the troubles and worries of the day.

4. Never say “no” to a request. Always say “yes.”

5. Accept all invitations to meetings, banquets, committees, etc.

6. All forms of recreation are a waste of time.

7. Never delegate responsibility to others; carry the entire load yourself.

8. If your work calls for traveling, work all day and travel at night to keep that appointment you made for the next morning.

9. No matter how many jobs you already are doing, remember you always can take on more.

A study was recently completed on corporate managers. In it they were asked if they voiced positions that (1) focused on the good of the company, rather than personal benefit; and (2) jeopardized their own careers. Emerging from this study were the four leader-types which are found in all organizations.

Type #1—courageous. These people expressed ideas to help the company improve, in spite of personal risk or opposition.

Type #2—confronting. These people spoke up, but only because of a personal vendetta against the company.

Type #3—calloused. These people didn’t know, or care, whether they could do anything for the company; they felt helpless and hopeless, so they kept quiet.

Type #4—conforming. These people also remained quiet, but only because they loathed confrontation and loved approval. The researchers discovered that the courageous managers accomplished the most, reported the highest job satisfaction, and eventually were commended by superiors. Their commitment had certainly improved the quality of their lives.

A study was recently completed on corporate managers. In it they were asked if they voiced positions that (1) focused on the good of the company, rather than personal benefit and (2) jeopardized their own careers. Emerging from this study were the four leader-types which are found in all organizations.

Type #1—courageous. These people expressed ideas to help the company improve, in spite of personal risk or opposition.

Type #2—confronting. These people spoke up, but only because of a personal vendetta against the company.

Type #3—calloused. These people didn’t know, or care, whether they could do anything for the ompany; they felt helpless and hopeless, so they kept quiet.

Type #4—conforming. These people also remained quiet, but only because they loathed confrontation and loved approval.

The researchers discovered that the courageous managers accomplished the most, reported the highest job satisfaction, and eventually were commended by superiors. Their commitment had certainly improved the quality of their lives.

An English professor wrote the words “Woman without her man is a savage” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.

The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is a savage.”

The women wrote: “Woman! Without her, man is a savage.”

Perhaps you have sometime visited the Lincoln Memorial in our nation's capital. In this white marble structure millions of people have stood and looked upon the overpowering statue of Lincoln by sculptor Daniel C. French. When the statue was unveiled in 1922, it was discovered that the facial features of Lincoln were grossly distorted by faulty lighting. Corrections were later made so that viewers may now see that face as it really is.

Lighting is so important in seeing a thing clearly. If we view life solely in the light of competition and conflict, we are not seeing all of it. If we look upon all other persons strictly in the light of some mean thing somebody once did to us, we are not seeing them as they are. Grotesque caricatures can be made when distortion lights are used. We can color what we see by the light in which we choose to see it.

We should seek to see all things in all the light there is-the illumination of the Spirit and the word of Scripture.

Someone told G. Campbell Morgan that the preacher must catch the spirit of the age. Immediately this great preacher answered, "God forgive the preacher who does that. The preacher's business is to correct the spirit of the age." May we add that a witness for Christ must endeavor thoroughly to understand the spirit of the age-without conforming to it-in order to know what to correct.

When Corrie Ten Boom of The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie’s father comforted her with words of wisdom. “Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?” “Why, just before we get on the train,” she replied. “Exactly,” her father said, “and our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too.

Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.”

For many years I’ve publicly challenged the widely-held belief that one of two marriages ends in divorce. It was obviously not true. Some academics incorrectly calculated this ratio by noting that 1.2 million divorces and 2.4 million marriages were reported for 1981. The truth finally prevails. A Louis Harris poll now calls the one-of-two divorce rate a myth. “What was left out is that there are 54 million other marriages that are going on very nicely. By combining ongoing and new marriages in any single year, only 2 percent of existing marriages will end in divorce.

A number of academics made a sensational splash out of it.” Dr. Lee Salk comments, “This survey is incredibly important. It tells us that TV’s Cosby family is depicting a better picture of American family life than anything else.

Clarence Jordan, author of the “Cotton Patch” New Testament translation and founder of the interracial Koinonia farm in Americus, Georgia, was getting a red-carpet tour of another minister’s church. With pride the minister pointed to the rich, imported pews and luxurious decoration. As they stepped outside, darkness was falling, and a spotlight shone on a huge cross atop the steeple.

“That cross alone cost us ten thousand dollars,” the minister said with a satisfied smile.

“You got cheated,” said Jordan. “Times were when Christians could get them for free.”

Michael Jinkins

An old, low-caste woman in India was once asked the cost of a temple being built. She turned to the missionary in surprise and said, "Why, we do not know! It is for our god. We do not count the cost!" She could certainly have put many followers of Christ to shame. Before we take the step of faith we want to know the cost.

A few years ago a Dutch professor took time to calculate the cost of an enemy soldier’s death at different epochs in history. He estimated that during the reign of Julius Caesar, to kill an enemy soldier cost less than one dollar. At the time of Napoleon, it had considerably inflated—to more than $2,000. At the end of the First World War, it had multiplied several times to reach the figure of some $17,000. During the Second World War, it was about $40,000. And in Vietnam, in 1970, to kill an enemy soldier cost the United States $200,000.

Wedding

$2480

Ring

$ 400

Honeymoon

$ 920

Furnishings

$4240

Some years ago, a college student took a psychology course in which another student tried to argue that Jesus was not greater than other men. The student stated that he could probably do everything Jesus had done. As a public service to those who have such lofty aspirations, we are publishing a partial list of things which you MUST do if you think that you can do everything that Jesus did.

Feed five thousand unexpected guests, and then have your amount of garbage exceed the amount of food with which you began.

Have a raging storm stilled at your command, and the wind and the waves stop simultaneously.

Become such a threat to a significant portion of the religious establishment that they demand that you be executed. (You must do this by what you say. You are not allowed to use demonstrations, riots, card-burnings, or picket signs, or any form of violence.)

Rise from the dead after you have been executed and pronounced dead.

That is enough of the easy things. Now let's look at some requirements which are more exacting. (By the way, you need not accept the Bible in order to KNOW that Jesus accomplished these things.) By 1900 years after your death (from which you rose), you must have accomplished the following:

Every week, millions of people must gather in thousands of places for the sole purpose of telling about what a good person you were.

Thousands of hospitals and schools must have been built and be operating in your name.

The calendar, used in most of the world, must be dated from the time of your birth.

Men must still consider it worth their time to prove that you were a fake. (If you really were a fake, you would have been forgotten long before now.)

Your life must be considered to be the standard and ultimate goodness for a large portion of the world, and even for those who claim no association with the entity you founded to honor and serve you.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, YOU MUST HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ALL THIS IN 3 1/2 YEARS.

According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man’s feet and gave him food and drink.

The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, “Don’t you worship God?”

The old traveler replied, “I worship fire only and reverence no other god.”

When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his his tent into the cold night air.

When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, “I forced him out because he did not worship you.”

God answered, “I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?”

Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars. One day the man’s banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor of St. Peter’s Church in Neville Square.”

A farmer went each week to the Farmers’ Market to sell, among other things, the cottage cheese and apple butter made on his farm. He carried these in two large tubs, from which he ladled the cottage cheese or apple butter into smaller containers the customer brought.

One day he got to market and discovered he’s forgotten one ladle. He felt he had no choice but to use the one he had for both products.

Before long he couldn’t tell which was which.

That’s the way it is when we try to dispense the good news of Christ using hearts, minds, and tongues too recently immersed in the coarseness and one-up-manship of the world. Nobody gets any nourishment.

A father wrote to his son,

Who was faraway from home;

“I have sent you a beautiful gift,

It may be delayed, but ‘twill come;

It is what you have wanted most,

And have asked for many days;”

And before the child received the gift

He voiced his thanks and praise.

Our Father saith unto us:

“Your need shall be supplied;

Ask and receive that your joy be filled,

And My joy in you abide.”

Shall we wait to thank till we see

The answer to every prayer?

Forbear to praise till we feel

The lifted pressure of care?

Nay, let us trust His word

And know that the thing is done,

For His promise is just as sure

As a father’s to his son.

- Annie Johnson Flint

Two little girls were counting their pennies. One said, "I have five pennies." The other said, "I have ten." "No," said the first little girl, "You have just five cents, the same as I." "But," the second child quickly replied, "my father said when he comes home tonight he would give me five cents, and so I have ten cents." Trustfully, she counted what her father had promised. That's exactly how a Christian can be poor in the estimation of the world and at the same time be rich. He counts as his whatever his Heavenly Father has.

In 1722, Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf of Saxony founded a colony of pietist believers called “Herrnhut,” later known as Moravians.

He also traveled to America and set up communities that began to send out missionaries, first to Greenland, then to the West Indies, then beyond.

By the time Zinzendorf died in 1760 some 300 missionaries, all laypersons, had gone out from the various colonies.

In 1738 when some of the challenges of missionary life had become clear, Zinzendorf wrote his famous instructions, many of which sound strangely modern, despite their 18th-century language. Here is a selection, reprinted with permission from World Encounter, mission magazine of the Lutheran Church in America, copyright 1980.

It is better to send people into the wide world than to send no one. But you should be warned about the following temptations:

To have even the slightest dealings with clergymen.

To think about your purpose in the land only when you get there.

To test your vocation on the heathen once you are among them.

To give up because something doesn’t work immediately.

To begin to make your home too comfortable, forgetting that you are really a traveler, a pilgrim among the nations.

To be prejudiced against the heathen because they are neither efficient nor pious, and to be irritated by how badly they run things.

To seek even the slightest advantage at the expense of your brothers.

To fill up whole diaries with descriptions of difficulties but write little or nothing about the ways in which our Savior has helped you.

To forget that one can do far more with a believing heart than with many word.

To judge your colleagues and particularly your superiors according to their personalities and then allow your relationship to be influenced by whether or not you approve of them.

To make a general rule of the experience you and two or three others have had.

To make so many plans that in the end you can’t carry out any of them, but throw up the whole task.

Out of boredom to make up new articles of faith.

Vindictiveness.

To lose sight of the Savior.

Letting a quarrel last longer than a day.

To reflect and think that if you were somewhere else you would not have to die, or that things would be different for you; to think that the present lot which God has given to you can be avoided.

For any pretext or whatever reason to give the devil an opportunity to outwit us, to cast us down or to rob us of our peace.

It is not always a bad sign to be troubled by something.

To embellish the heathen with names of people, not even those of Luther, Herrnhut or Zinzendorf.

A poverty-stricken woman was found on Christmas Day eating a dinner that consisted of a piece of bread and a small fish. A minister who visited her spoke commiseratingly of the poverty of her fare, to which the old woman with face aglow, replied, "Poor fare? Dear heart, don't you see that the Lord has laid tribute on land and sea to feed me this blessed Christmas Day?" This woman owned the earth, though she ate only bread and herring for Christmas dinner.

Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer—Acts 5:41.

If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together—Romans 8:17.

This weighty burden thou dost bear,

This heavy cross,

It is a gift the Lord bestows,

And not a loss;

It is a trust that He commits

Unto thy care,

A precious lesson He has deigned

With thee to share.

Rejoice that He so honors thee

And so esteems

Of highest worth; the crown of thorns

With Him to wear,

And all the suffering of that crown

With Him to bear,

That by and by His glory, too,

With Him thou’lt share.

- Annie Johnson Flint

PPM is a technique for discussing or criticizing ideas. The basic rule: You must state two plus points before you can state a minus. This counteracts negativism by forcing you to focus on the positive side on an idea first. In group situations, PPM encourages shy people to offer their ideas without being afraid of a barrage of criticism.

It is estimated that 500,000 Americans have counterfeit diplomas or credentials.

1. False Christs Matt. 24:24; 1 John 2:18

2. False apostles Rev. 2:2; 2 Cor. 11:13

3. False teachers 2 Peter 2:1; 2 Tim. 3:8

4. False brethren Gal. 2:4; 2 Cor. 11:26