Pastoral Resources

Some people die in ashes.

Some people die in flames.

Some people die inch by inch,

playing silly, little games.

Sitting majestically atop the highest hill in Toledo, Spain, is the Alcazar, a 16th-century fortress. In the civil war of the 1930s, the Alcazar became a battleground when the Loyalists tried to oust the Nationalists, who held the fortress. During one dramatic episode of the war, the Nationalist leader received a phone call while in his office at the Alcazar. It was from his son, who had been captured by the Loyalists. The ultimatum: If the father didn’t surrender the Alcazar to them, they would kill his son. The father weighed his options. After a long pause and with a heavy heart, he said to his son, “Then die like a man.”

On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription: “James Butler Bonham—no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.” No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers. - Bill Morgan

John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, was burned at the stake in 1415. Before his accusers lit the fire, they placed on his head a crown of paper with painted devils on it. He answered this mockery by saying, “My Lord, Jesus Christ, for my sake, wore a crown of thorns; why should not I then, for His sake, wear this light crown, be it ever so ignominious? Truly I will do it willingly.”

After the wood was stacked up to Huss’ neck, the Duke of Bavaria asked him to renounce his preaching. Trusting completely in God’s Word, Huss replied, “In the truth of the gospel which I preached, I die willingly and joyfully today.” The wood was ignited, and Huss died while singing, “Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, have mercy on me.” - P.R.V.

If no one sees you eat it, it has no calories

If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, they will cancel each other out.

Calories don’t count if you eat with someone and you both eat the same amount.

Food taken for medicinal purposes does not count. This includes toast, hot chocolate, and Sara Lee chocolate cake.

If you fatten up everyone around you, you’ll look thinner.

Snacks consumed at a movie do not count as they are part of the entertainment. For example: Mild Duds, popcorn with butter, red licorice and M&Ms.

Pieces of cookies contain no calories. The process of breaking causes a calorie leakage.

Late-night snacks have no calories. The refrigerator light is not strong enough for the calories to see their way into the calorie counter.

Never eat more than you can lift. Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life

There’s one thing to be said for a diet—it certainly does improve your appetite.

E. Wilson

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.

Two good ol’ boys bought a couple of horses that they used to make some money during the summer. But when winter came, they found it cost too much to board them. So they turned the horses loose in a pasture where there was plenty to eat. “How will we tell yours from mine when we pick them up?” one guy asked.

“Easy,” replied the second. “We’ll cut the mane off mine and the tail off yours.”

By spring, the mane and tail had grown back to normal length.

“Now what are we going to do?” asked the first.

“Why don’t you just take the black one?” said the second. “And I’ll take the white one.”

All across this country, the undermining and destruction of the values that children were taught at home is going on in public schools. One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between right and wrong. One of the first things our schools try to destroy is that distinction. The up-to-date way to carry on the destruction of traditional values is to claim to be solving some social problem like drugs, AIDS or teen-age pregnancy. Only those few people who have the time to research what is actually being done in “drug education,” “sex education” or “death education” courses know what an utter fraud these labels are. For those are courses about how right and wrong are outmoded notions, about how your parents’ ideas are no guide for you, and about how each person must start from scratch to develop his or her own way of behaving.

A concert violinist had a brother who was a bricklayer. One day a woman gushed to the bricklayer, "It must be wonderful to be in a family with such a famous violinist." Then, not wanting to insult the bricklayer, she said, "Of course we don't all have the same talents, and even in a family, some just seem to have more talent than others."

The bricklayer said, "You're telling me! That violinist brother of mine doesn't know a thing about laying bricks. And if he couldn't make some money playing that fiddle of his, he couldn't hire a guy with know-how like mine to build a house. If he had to build a house himself he'd be ruined."

If you want to build a house, you don't want a violinist. And if you're going to lead an orchestra, you don't want a bricklayer.

No two of us are exactly alike. None of us has every gift and ability. Our responsibility is to exercise the gifts we have, not the ones we wish we had.

And when it comes to making decisions about your own life and the direction it should take, focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Know yourself. Know what you do well, and then go with your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.

James Whistler, the Victorian artist, showed scant respect for the hierarchy of any profession. When his poodle fell ill with a throat infection, he sent immediately for the country’s leading ear, nose, and throat specialist, Sir Morell Mackenzie. The great man was not amused when he was shown his patient, but he conducted a thorough examination, wrote out a prescription, and left with his fee.

The next day Whistler received a message asking him to call on Mackenzie without delay. Fearing some development in the poodle’s condition, Whistler hurried to the doctor’s house. “So good of you to come, Mr. Whistler,” said Mackenzie as his visitor was shown in. “I wanted to see about having my front door painted.”

Not all people can see God in the various manifestations of life. Two men looking at the same person may make two dissimilar observations; they may form two varying opinions, and their judgments will reflect their differing viewpoints. When Thomas Edison was a young man in school in Ohio, his teacher said he'd never amount to anything because, seemingly, he could learn only science and mathematics. He couldn't pass his other subjects because he wasn't interested in them. The poor fellow nearly despaired when his teacher, at wit's end, recommended his expulsion. He knew he was slow in English and history, but he was sure he was going to amount to something in spite of it. This young man, as everybody now knows, was a genius, an electrical wizard, a pioneer inventor who helped make America's standard of living what it is today.

The Gospel hidden in mystery should arouse our best and most active faculties. That is why we are commanded to search the Scripture, not simply to read it. It is the great repository of all the truths and mysteries of our faith. It is a rich mine that we ought to dig into and shall never exhaust. Just as gold and diamonds and most other precious stones and metals lie concealed in the depths of the earth, so the most valued things of revelation are concealed by the great Creator and Redeemer from the common view of the world. Only as this mystery stimulates us to dig into the Word shall we unearth the treasures that God has there for us.

John Wesley's preaching was marked by his constant use of the plainest, simplest words our language affords. Writing to one whose style was very high-sounding he said, "When I had been a member of the university about ten years I wrote and talked much as you do now, but when I talked to plain people, I observed that they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style and adopt the language of those I spoke to; and yet there is a dignity in this simplicity which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank." Another preacher said, "If you preach so that the simplest person in the audience can understand you, the most educated is also sure to get the message."

The image of God in which man was and is made has been variously explained in detail. Although scholars may differ on the nuances of the phrase, there is general agreement that it has to do with dignity, destiny, and freedom.

The assertion that man is made in God’s image shows each man his true dignity and worth. As God’s image-bearer, he merits infinite respect. God’s claims on us must be taken with total seriousness. No human being should ever be thought of as simply a cog in a machine, or mere means to an end.

The assertion points also to each man’s true destiny. Our Maker so designed us that our nature finds final satisfaction and fulfillment only in a relationship of responsive Godlikeness—which means, precisely, that state of correspondence between our acts and God’s will which we call obedience. Living that is obedient will thus be teleological—progressively realizing our telos (Greek for “end” or “goal”).

Also the assertion confirms the genuineness of each man’s freedom. Experience tells us that we are free, in the sense that we make real choices between alternatives and could have chosen differently, and theology agrees. Self-determining freedom of choice is what sets God and his rational creatures apart from, say, birds and bees, as moral beings.

Remember the wise words of Richard Baxter to the people of Kidderminster: “Were you but as willing to get the knowledge of God and heavenly things as you are to know how to work in your trade, you would have set yourself to it before this day, and you would have spared no cost or pains till you had got it. But you account seven years little enough to learn your trade and will not bestow one day in seven in diligent learning the matters of your salvation.”

Someone once wrote and asked Emily Post, the etiquette expert of another generation, “What is the correct procedure when one is invited to the White House but has a previous engagement?”

Replied Post, “An invitation to dine at the White House is a command, and it automatically cancels any other engagement.”

A mousy little fellow was waiting on a corner when a car stopped and a huge man got out.

“Excuse me, please,” the big guy said, “but I’m a stwanger in town and I’m lost. Can you diwect me to Wolling Woad?”

The ousy fellow looked at the big guy nervously and said nothing.

“Are you deaf?” the big man wanted to know. “Can’t you speak Engwish?”

Still getting no answer, the big man walked over to a police officer. “Excuse me, please, officer, but can you tell me how to get to Wolling Woad?”

“Rolling Road? Why sure—you go down this street and turn right.”

“Thank you vewy much,” replied the muscleman as he went his way. The officer watched him leave, and then went over to the little fellow. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked. “Couldn’t you tell him how to get to Rolling Road?”

“Howy smoke, officer, are you cwazy? The minute I twied to tell that big wascal how to get to Wolling Woad, he’d have town me wimb from wimb.”

A friend often told me about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service.

“Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”

Writing for the New York Times Magazine, Mauren Dowd and Thomas L. Friedman describe a conversation that once took place between Secretary of State James Baker and President George Bush. With Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak due to arrive for a state visit, Baker hurried into the Oval Office to brief President Bush, telling him what the sore spots were, what favors would be asked, and what aid would be sought. “Mubarak is going to ask for money,” Baker warned Bush before the Egyptian leader entered. “You’re going to have to say no.” “You tell him he can’t have any money,” the president replied. “Turning down money is dirty work. That’s your job, Jimmy. I want to do the good stuff.”

A Glamour magazine survey of 25,000 readers, most of them women between the ages of 18 and 35, reflects a powerful swing to life’s spiritual side: 77% pray, and 87% feel that God is always helping them or has helped them through a particular period in their lives. These readers seem to choose aspects of their religion they can live with and ignore what they can’t, without discarding their faith. For example, the poll finds that nearly half disagree with their church’s teaching on premarital sex, and a third (42% of the single women) disagree with their religion on abortion.

A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentle man put a piece of the precious stone into his hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for several weeks. The boy became frustrated. When would he be told about the jade? He was too polite, however, to question the wisdom of his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instinctively, ‘That’s not jade!’“

Schoolteachers were asked in 1940 to describe the top seven disciplinary problems they faced in the classroom. The problems:

talking

chewing gum

making noise

running in the halls

wearing improper clothing

not putting waste paper in the waste paper basket

In the 1980s, educators were asked the same question by college researchers. Here are the top seven disciplinary problems that modern-day teachers must put up with:

rape

robbery

assault

burglary

arson

bombing

murder

Children from broken homes cause a strikingly disproportionate share of discipline problems in schools and fare far worse academically than their peers from two-parent homes, according to an extensive new study. For every two-parent child disciplined, the study says, teachers took to task three one-parent children. Comparing children from broken homes to those with both parents, the ratio for dropouts was 9 to 5; for expulsions, 8 to 1.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the rising divorce rate means 48% of school children during the next decade will come from one-parent homes.

This means the disclosure of something that was unknown. There are two types of revelation: natural and special. Natural revelation is that which is revealed about God through what we can see in creation (Rom. 1:20). Through creation we may learn that there is a God, that He is in control, that He has an order, and that He is concerned for our welfare. However, through natural revelation, we are not able to discover the plan of salvation. That comes from special revelation.

Special revelation is that which is given to us through Prophets, the Bible, and even visions and dreams (Num. 12:6-8). The ultimate in revelation is the incarnation of Jesus because He came to reveal the Father to us (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22; Heb. 1:1-3) and to communicate to us the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4) by which comes salvation.

Labour mightily for a healing spirit. Away with all discriminating names whatever that may hinder the applying of balm to heal your wounds...Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.

Adoniram Judson sweated out Burma’s heat for 18 years without a furlough, six years without a convert. Enduring torture and imprisonment, he admitted that he never saw a ship sail without wanting to jump on board and go home. When his wife’s health broke and he put her on a homebound vessel in the knowledge he would not see her for two full years, he confided to his diary: “If we could find some quiet resting place on earth where we could spend the rest of our days in peace. . .” But he steadied himself with this remarkable postscript: “Life is short. Millions of Burmese are perishing. I am almost the only person on earth who has attained their language to communicate salvation. . .”

Four men of the cloth, taking a short breather from their heavy schedules, were on a park bench, chatting and enjoying an early spring day. You know, since all of us are such good friends,” said one, “this might be a good time to discuss the problems that are disturbing us.” They all nodded in agreement. “Well, I would like to share with you the fact that I drink to excess,” said one. There was a gasp from the other three. Then another spoke up. “Since you were so honest, I’d like to say that my big problem is gambling. It’s terrible, I know, but I can’t quit. I’ve even been tempted to take money from the collection plate.” Another gasp was heard, and the third clergyman spoke. “I’m really troubled, brothers, because I’m growing fond of a woman in my church—a married woman. ”More gasps. But the fourth man remained silent. After a few minutes the others coaxed him to open up. “The fact is,” he said, “I just don’t know how to tell you about my problem. ”It’s all right, brother. Your secret is safe with us.”

“Well, it’s this way,” he said. “You see, I’m an incurable gossip.”

What qualities in employees irritate bosses the most? Burke Marketing Research asked executives in 100 of the nation’s 1000 largest companies. At the top of the list was dishonesty. Marc Silbert, whose temporary employee firm commissioned the study, says, “If a company believes that an employee lacks integrity, all positive qualities—ranging from skill and experience to productivity and intelligence—become meaningless.”

Six other factors were discovered, making a total of “seven deadly sins” that can cause you to lose your job. They are listed below in decreasing order of irritation value.

1. Irresponsibility, goofing-off and doing personal business on company time.

2. Arrogance, ego problems and excessive aggressiveness. Bosses dislike those who spend more time talking about their achievements than in getting the job done.

3. Absenteeism and lateness.

4. Not following company policy. Failure to follow the rules makes management feel an employee can’t be trusted.

5. Whining and complaining.

6. Laziness and lack of commitment and dedication. If you don’t care about the firm, they won’t care about you.

Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, recorded his keen observations as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied.

Marriage loses its sacredness...is frequently broken by divorce.

Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.

Feminist movements abound.

Increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general.

Acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion.

Refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities.

Growing desire for and acceptance of adultery.

Increasing interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex-related crimes.

Halford Lucock says, “I was impressed several years ago when I read the Eugene Ormandy dislocated a shoulder while directing the Philadelphia Orchestra. I do not know what they were playing, but he was giving all of himself to it! And I have asked myself sadly, ‘Did I ever dislocate anything, even a necktie?’"

Eugene Ormandy dislocated his shoulder while conducting the Philadelphia orchestra. Maurice Boyd, in his book The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies, speculated that Ormandy may have been conducting Brahms. In the margin of one of his symphonies Brahms wrote, “As loud as possible!” Only a few bars later, however, he wrote in “Louder still!”

I do not know what they were playing, but he was giving all of himself to it! And I have asked myself sadly, ‘Did I ever dislocate anything, even a necktie?’”

Just as the sun can be blotted out by an eclipse, so moods of pessimism and doubt can plunge us into spiritual darkness. At times our situation may seem so desperate that we think even God Almighty can’t carry us through.

That was the gloomy attitude of Robert Cushman, who recorded his despair on the Mayflower in 1620. He wrote, “If we ever make a plantation in New England, God works a miracle! Especially considering how scant we shall be of victuals [vittles], and (worst of all) ununited amongst ourselves. If I should write you of all the things that foretell our ruin, I should overcharge my weak head and grieve your tender heart. Only this I pray you. Prepare for evil tidings of us every day. I see not in reason how we can escape. Pray for us instantly.” In spite of Cushman’s fears, God brought the pilgrims to their destination and enabled them to establish a home in the wilderness.

One of the most eloquent admonitions I have ever encountered along these lines is in Bishop Burnet’s preface to the classic work The Life of God in the Soul of Man, written by Henry Scougal in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Here is what Burnet wrote:

“There is scarce a more unaccountable thing to be imagined, than to see a company of men professing a religion, one great and main precept whereof is mutual love, forbearance, gentleness of spirit, and compassion to all sorts of persons, and agreeing in all the essential parts of its doctrine, and differing only in some less material and more disputable things, yet maintaining those differences with zeal so disproportioned to the value of them, and prosecuting all that disagree from them with all possible violence; or if they want means to use outward force, with all bitterness of spirit. They must needs astonish every impartial beholder, and raise great prejudices against such persons’ religion, as made up of contradictions; professing love, but breaking out in all the acts of hatred.”

One of the most eloquent admonitions I have ever encountered along these lines is in Bishop Burnet’s preface to the classic work The Life of God in the Soul of Man, written by Henry Scougal in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Here is what Burnet wrote:

“There is scarce a more unaccountable thing to be imagined, than to see a company of men professing a religion, one great and main precept whereof is mutual love, forbearance, gentleness of spirit, and compassion to all sorts of persons, and agreeing in all the essential parts of its doctrine, and differing only in some less material and more disputable things, yet maintaining those differences with zeal so disproportioned to the value of them, and prosecuting all that disagree from them with all possible violence; or if they want means to use outward force, with all bitterness of spirit. They must needs astonish every impartial beholder, and raise great prejudices against such persons’ religion, as made up of contradictions; professing love, but breaking out in all the acts of hatred.”

But little is gained if opinions are crammed into men; and this is likely to be the case where they are not permitted to inquire and to doubt. At the same time it must be remembered that no spirit is more unfriendly to that indifference of mind so essential to freedom of inquiry than that which arises in the conduct of controversy. When we become advocates we lay aside the garb of philosophers. The desire of victory is often stronger than the love of truth; and pride, jealousy, ambition and envy, identifying ourselves with our opinions, will lend their aid to pervert our judgments and to seduce us from our candor. A disputatious spirit is always the mark of a little mind. The cynic may growl, but he can never aspire to the dignity of character. There are undoubtedly occasions when we must contend earnestly for the truth; but ... we should look well to our own hearts, that no motives animate us but the love of truth and zeal for the highest interests of man.

Disputes between married couples are no different from those between friends outside of marriage. Few friendships can survive constant or frequent quarrels. Friends learn to curb the impulse to say bitter words in the interest of preserving the friendship.

In the same way, happily married couples learn to withhold the bitter criticism or cutting retort in order to avoid unpleasantness and to enjoy greater companionship.

Following the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was visiting in Kentucky where one lady showed him the remains of what had been an enormous, old tree. This tree stood directly in front of her house. She bitterly cried to General Lee of how its limbs and trunk had been shattered by Federal artillery fire. Having poured out her anguish she looked to the old soldier for a condemnation of the North. Following a brief silence, Lee responded, "Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it."

It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to take root and add bitterness to your future. Memory is a marvelous thing, particularly when it brings us wisdom or joy; however, forgetfulness is equally marvelous for it allows others to succeed where once failure reigned.

Forgiveness does not always mean that we trust the individual. In his weakness this does neither him nor you any favors. Forgiveness is the measure of putting yourself on his side, not seeking revenge but success. It is the opening of opportunity's doors, to say "try again, I will not shut you out." This requires setting aside or forgetting the emotions which might halt forgiveness.

Clara Barton, Red Cross founder, was asked if she remembered an especially cruel thing done to her years before. When she seemed not to recall it, a friend asked, "Don't you remember?" "No," said Miss Barton, "I distinctly remember forgetting it." God has forgiven us, is it now time that we forgive others so that we can get on to a bright future. Is some cruelty holding you back? Forgive and Live.

In his book Facing Loneliness, J. Oswald Sanders writes, “The round of pleasure or the amassing of wealth are but vain attempts to escape from the persistent ache.… The millionaire is usually a lonely man and the comedian is often more unhappy than his audience.”

Sanders goes on the emphasize that being successful often fails to produce satisfaction. Then he refers to Henry Martyn, a distinguished scholar, as an example of what he is talking about. Martyn, a Cambridge University student, was honored at only 20 years of age for his achievements in mathematics. In fact, he was given the highest recognition possible in that field. And yet he felt an emptiness inside. He said that instead of finding fulfillment in his achievements, he had “only grasped a shadow.”

After evaluating his life’s goals, Martyn sailed to India as a missionary at the age of 24. When he arrived, he prayed, “Lord, let me burn out for You.” In the next 7 years that preceded his death, he translated the New Testament into three difficult Eastern languages. These notable achievements were certainly not passing “shadows.”

On December 16, 1944, 18 members of a reconnaissance platoon held off a battalion of crack German storm troopers in the Belgian hamlet of Lanzerath. Few history books note that their gallant stand gave Allied forces time to begin mounting the defense that eventually won the famous Battle of the Bulge. One of the platoon members was Will James, who after the war slipped into oblivion for nearly 4 decades. During that time he underwent numerous painful surgeries as a result of his war wounds. Not until 1981, through the efforts of U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill and columnist Jack Anderson, was he awarded, posthumously, the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.

On paper, Michael Hillis was a sound enough pilot. When things went wrong, though, the 29-year-old captain tensed up. For that reason, Hillis had been asked to leave Cincinnati-based Comair, but he caught on quickly with American Eagle, and was at the controls of Flight 3379 as it descended toward the airport in Raleigh, N.C. At exactly 30 seconds after 6:33 p.m., two minutes and 4 miles from the airport, a panel light in the cockpit lit up. Hillis and his copilot, Matthew Sailor, had been trained to recognize the light as a signal that an engine had quit. Quickly, they set about determining which one. In doing so, however, they forgot about flying the plane. At 1,400 feet, the Jetstream 32 began to drop fast. Hillis and Sailor reacted immediately. It was too late. The plane smashed into the woods, and 15 of the 20 people aboard died, including Hillis and Sailor. Investigators pawing through the rubble came to a surprising conclusion: Neither of the plane’s engines had failed at all. Most likely, the light was faulty.

To escape the distress caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to his good providence; give the present wholly to his love by being faithful to his grace.

Astronomers once blamed the inaccuracy of the images viewed in their telescopes on atmospheric disturbances. Later investigation revealed that a good deal of the disturbance of telescopic images arises from currents within the telescope itself. But though we cannot altogether eliminate the conditioning of outside influences in our quest for truth, we must attempt to free ourselves as much as possible from the disturbing currents within-the moods, tempers, sympathies, and fears that falsely bias the soul.

Calvin, who saw that the Devil’s chief device was disunity and division and who preached that there should be friendly fellowship for all ministers of Christ, made a similar point in a letter to a trusted colleague: “Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so fast as lies in their power. That there ought to prevail among them such a reverence for the ministry of the word and the sacraments that wherever they perceive these things to be, there they must consider the church to exist...nor need it be of any hindrance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which has not retained some remnants of former ignorance.”

I remember one mother who heard that her boy was impressed at our meeting. She said her son was a good enough boy, and he didn't need to be converted. I pleaded with that mother, but all my pleading was of no account. I tried my influence, with the boy; but while I was pulling one way she was pulling the other, and of course her influence prevailed. Naturally it would. Well, to make a long story short, some time after I happened to be in the County Jail, and I saw him there. "How did you come here?" I asked; "does your mother know where you are?" "No, don't tell her; I came in under an assumed name, and I am going to Joliet for four years. Do not let my mother know of this," he pleaded; "she thinks I am in the army." I used to call on that mother, but I had promised her boy I would not tell her, and for four years she mourned over that boy, She thought he had died on the battlefield or in a Southern hospital. What a blessing he might have been to that mother, if she had only helped us to bring him to Christ. But that mother is only a specimen of hundreds and thousands of parents. If we would have more family altars in our homes, and train them to follow Christ, the Son of God would lead them into "green pastures," and instead of having sons who curse the mothers who gave them birth, they would bless their fathers and mothers.

Roger Simms, hitchhiking his way home, would never forget the date—May 7. His heavy suitcase made Roger tired. He was anxious to take off his army uniform once and for all. Flashing the hitchhiking sigh to the oncoming car, he lost hope when he saw it was a black, sleek, new Cadillac. To his surprise the car stopped. The passenger door opened. He ran toward the car, tossed his suitcase in the back, and thanked the handsome, well-dressed man as he slid into the front seat. “Going home for keeps?” “Sure am,” Roger responded. “Well, you’re in luck if you’re going to Chicago.” “Not quite that far. Do you live in Chicago?” “I have a business there. My name is Hanover.”

After talking about many things, Roger, a Christian, felt a compulsion to witness to this fiftyish, apparently successful businessman about Christ. But he kept putting it off, till he realized he was just thirty minutes from his home. It was now or never. So, Roger cleared his throat, “Mr. Hanover, I would like to talk to you about something very important.” He then proceeded to explain the way of salvation, ultimately asking Mr. Hanover if he would like to receive Christ as his Savior. To Roger’s astonishment the Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road. Roger thought he was going to be ejected from the car. But the businessman bowed his head and received Christ, then thanked Roger. “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

Five years went by, Roger married, had a two-year-old boy, and a business of his own. Packing his suitcase for a business trip to Chicago, he found the small, white business card Hanover had given him five years before. In Chicago he looked up Hanover Enterprises. A receptionist told him it was impossible to see Mr. Hanover, but he could see Mrs. Hanover.

A little confused as to what was going on, he was ushered into a lovely office and found himself facing a keen-eyed woman in her fifties. She extended her hand. “You knew my husband?” Roger told how her husband had given him a ride when hitchhiking home after the war. “Can you tell me when that was?” “It was May 7, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army.” “Anything special about that day?”

Roger hesitated. Should he mention giving his witness? Since he had come so far, he might as well take the plunge. “Mrs. Hanover, I explained the gospel. He pulled over to the side of the road and wept against the steering wheel. He gave his life to Christ that day.”

Explosive sobs shook her body. Getting a grip on herself, she sobbed, “I had prayed for my husband’s salvation for years. I believed God would save him.”

“And,” said Roger, “Where is your husband, Mrs. Hanover?”

“He’s dead,” she wept, struggling with words. “He was in a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home. You see—I thought God had not kept His promise.” Sobbing uncontrollably, she added, “I stopped living for God five years ago because I thought He had not kept His word!”

Oilcloth and linoleum may both look bright and shiny, but under the stress of daily wear the cheap oilcloth soon wears out, while the inlaid linoleum gives good service for many years. The stresses of life soon show up the shoddy material of which human peace is made, but stress only brings out more brilliantly the divine peace that Christ brings to the heart.

The divine “scheme of things,” as Christianity understands it, is at once extremely elastic and extremely rigid. It is elastic, in that it includes a large measure of liberty for the creature; it is rigid in that it includes the proviso that, however created beings choose to behave, they must accept responsibility of their own actions and endure the consequences.

During an interview with Mr. Lincoln long after he had been inaugurated President, a friend asked him if he loved Jesus. The President buried his face in his handkerchief and wept and sobbed. He then said amid his tears, "When I left home to take the chair of the State I was not then a Christian. When my son died-the severest trial of my life-I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and looked upon the graves of our dead who had fallen in the defense of their country, I then and there committed myself to Christ. I do love Jesus. The spectacle of that crucified One which is before my eyes is more than sublime-it is Divine."

A gentleman having an appointment to meet President Lincoln at five o'clock in the morning went a quarter of an hour before the time appointed. While waiting for the appointed time he heard in the next room a voice as if in grave conversation, and asked an attendant standing by, "Who is talking in the next room? "It is the President, sir," replied the attendant. "Is anybody with him?" the gentleman inquired. "No; he is reading the Bible." "Is that his habit so early in the morning?" "Yes, sir, he spends every morning from four o'clock to five in reading the Scriptures and praying."

A woman seeking counsel from Dr. George W. Crane, the psychologist, confided that she hated her husband, and intended to divorce him. “I want to hurt him all I can,” she declared firmly.

“Well, in that case,” said Dr. Crane, “I advise you to start showering him with compliments. When you have become indispensable to him, when he thinks you love him devotedly, then start the divorce action. That is the way to hurt him.”

Some months later the wife returned to report that all was going well. She had followed the suggested course.

“Good,” said Dr. Crane. “Now’s the time to file for divorce.”

“Divorce!” the woman said indignantly. “Never. I love my husband dearly!”

With divorce and dual careers, parents spend 40% less time with their children than parents did a generation ago.

A study of divorced couples with preschool children shows that after a year of divorce, 60% of men and 73% of women feel they made a mistake and should have tried harder to make marriage work. People have no idea how much anguish and stress is caused by divorce.

From U.S. Census Bureau reports:

1920

1 divorce per 7 marriages

1940

1 divorce per 6 marriages

1960

1 divorce per 4 marriages

1972

1 divorce per 3 marriages

1977

1 divorce per 2 marriages

Tod had left his wife and children for another woman, but Linda, his wife, refused him a divorce. She said that she still loved him and that he could still love her. One morning, after a night of empty sex and not much sleep, he drove to their house and saw his wife through the window getting the breakfast ready and the children off to school—as he said, “doing what she had to do to keep their life, her life, my life intact.”

He was overcome with a sense of her commitment to holding together a warm good life. He asked her that day to let him come back, recognizing that she was his very right, and much beloved wife.

Time, Sept. 1993, quote from a professor at George Washington University School of Law

Sixty percent of American children born today will see their parents divorced by the time they are 18. Of those children who have suffered this pain of divorce, half of them will see a second divorce before they are 18.

“Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17).

When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or “cobbler,” as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.

On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoeshop.

It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.

What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.

One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, “I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?” He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, “They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!”

“Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god.”

“Harry,” he said, “I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, ‘Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.’ I want Him to be able to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”

Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.

Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, believed that Christians should do all things wholeheartedly, not just those actions that can be seen. He reasoned, “As our Father makes many a flower to bloom unseen in the lonely desert, [let us] do all that we can do, as under His eye, though no other eye ever take note of it.”

The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman, become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly “as to the Lord.” This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss-up whether he should sweep rooms or compose symphonies. A mole must dig to the glory of God and a cock must crow.

More than 90 people conducted an all-night search for an eight-year-old boy named Dominic. While on a skiing trip with his father, this little boy apparently had ridden a new lift and skied off the run without realizing it. They hoped to find Dominic somewhere on the snowy mountain slope before it was too late.

As each hour passed, the search party and the boy's family became more and more concerned. By dawn they still had found no trace of him. Two helicopters joined the search, and within fifteen minutes had spotted ski tracks. A ground team followed the tracks which changed to small footprints. The footprints lead to a tree where they found the boy at last.

"He's in super shape," the area search and rescue coordinator announced to the anxious family and press. "In fact, he's in better shape than we are right now." A hospital spokesman said the boy was in fine condition and was not even admitted.

The rescuer explained why the boy did so well despite spending a night in the freezing elements: His father had enough forethought to warn him what to do if he became lost, and his son had enough trust to do exactly what his father said.

Dominic protected himself from possible frostbite and hypothermia by snuggling up to a tree and covering himself with branches. As a young child, he never would have thought of doing this on his own. He was simply obeying his wise and loving father.

Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would the fact not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? If you are really a product of a material universe, how is it that you don’t feel at home there?

Do all the good you can,

in all the ways you can,

for all the people you can,

while you can.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds

Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

9. People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them.

Help them anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

A young man was an organist in a large church in Texas. He was a fine musician, but, being blind, was unable to read in the faces of his audience the great pleasure his music was giving. His caressing touch on the keyboard sent out through its great pipes the songs of his soul. People would talk to each other about the beauty and the uplifting influence of his music. Often his music sent tears down furrowed cheeks. But no one ever thought to tell the organist, who was longing to hear a word of response.

One morning it was announced that he would not play after that service. His decision was final; another organist must be secured. After the service a woman who had enjoyed his music thoroughly went up to him, and said, very earnestly, "I am sorry you will not play for us any longer. I have enjoyed your music so much. It helped me greatly; it soothed and comforted me when I sorrowed. I have thought many times I would tell you what an inspiration I have received through your music. I thank you for it."

The young man's voice faltered and tears rushed to his sightless eyes as he whispered, "Oh, why didn't you tell me sooner? I needed comfort and inspiration, too."

A lady in the church who invited her neighbor to go to services with her kept count of the times the neighbor refused. It came to 49. She pleasantly mentioned the count to her friend as she issued her fiftieth invitation at the time of a special meeting. At first the friend declined again but later called and said she would go. "If you are interested enough in me to ask me 50 times to go, I will go with you and see what it is like." She went out and liked what she saw. She returned and she was converted-all because someone did not give up too soon.

Have you heard about the fellow who was seriously ill? A visitor asked him if he was willing to turn his life over to God and renounce the devil. "I am willing to give my life to God," he said, "But a man in my condition should not be making any enemies."

We may laugh, but we must not forget that the strength and influence of the devil is real. In fact, the number of his followers is increasing. Satan's church is growing and new groups are beginning. Satan's Bible is available in many bookstores. More and more signs of devil worship are now appearing in graffiti.

Never forget that the devil has one goal. He wants your soul. His desire is for all men to be in hell for eternity. He is the embodiment of evil. Twelve times the New Testament calls him "the evil one." He has the power to enter a person (Luk_22:3). With his craftiness, he can use even the best of people to achieve his ends (Mat_16:23). He can trap man and take him captive (2Ti_2:26). He can fill the heart of man and lead him to death (Act_5:3).

It is not old-fashioned or anti-intellectual to believe in a living, powerful person of evil. Perhaps we need to see more vividly the contest in which we are participants. "I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me" (Act_26:17-18).

Instead of joking about him, perhaps we need to restore a custom of the early church. Tertullian, (A.D. 155-222) recounted how converts not only confessed the Christ, but also said, "I renounce you Satan and all your service and all your works."

We may not be a member of Satan's church but we can still be his follower (1Ti_5:15). This is because we serve him by default. If we do not totally and wholeheartedly serve the Lord, we automatically become servants of Satan. "Do not you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Rom_6:16).

The old dragon, the serpent, is not all-powerful. In fact, we can fight against him and win if we will seek divine assistance (Rom_8:13, Rom_8:26). We can resist him and flee his influence (Jam_4:7). Our weapons and strength are mighty, and we can fight against him and triumph (Eph_6:13-18).

With such strength, we need not fear the devil. Yet we must constantly be alert to his schemes and devices. He wants us, he is powerful, but he can only win if we let him. "For we are not unaware of his schemes" (2Co_2:11).

"Though I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful'" (Job 9:27 NASB).

Rejections, defeats, and failures that all of us have experienced can create enough negative feelings to destroy us. Be careful! Often the most painful wounds are not the scars that are outwardly seen, but the hidden wounds deep in the heart. Being hidden, they are often the most dangerous.

Setbacks in our lives can take the joy out of living. Our faith is weakened and if we collect enough hurts it will stop us from wanting to press forward. Even success can make one the target of criticism. Don't let the hurts hurt you!

Look at Job. A man of the land of Uz, blameless, upright, one who feared God, and one who turned away from evil. Job had seven sons and three daughters, a beautiful family. He was considered "the greatest of all the men of the East." He lost it all in the twinkling of an eye. He lost his health, wealth and family. He hurt. His wife hurt. His friends hurt. He was knocked down but not out. He had lost some of the passionate power to grow and some of his enthusiasm had diminished but he checked his negative thinking and that of his wife and friends and stated, "I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful." How could he do that after undergoing so much hurt?

Along the shoreline in California it is a common sight to see whales stopping alongside rocks to scrape off barnacles as they migrate from Alaska to Mexico. In our lifetime we also will pick up a collection of personal hurts that will attach themselves like parasites sapping the life out of us. They must be scraped off.

How did Job do it? The same way we can do it-through faith. Faith is the only thing that can heal the hurts. Job scraped the barnacles off. It was painful! It hurt! The scars would remain but his life was put back together. Strong belief in God was the medicine. His wife, his friends could not help him-only God could!

There is a story about a little eagle that fell out of its nest and landed in a turkey farm. The eagle grew up among the turkeys and, although he looked a bit different, he learned to waddle like a turkey, bob his head like a turkey, and act like a turkey.

One day the young eagle looked up into the sky and saw a beautiful eagle soaring above. The little eagle in the turkey yard thought, Oh, I would love to be able to do that! As the eagle soared overhead, it looked down and saw the young eagle below. Suddenly it swooped down to the ground and asked, "What are you doing here?"

The little eagle replied, "I am just here in the turkey yard where I have always been."

The great eagle looked and said, "Spread your wings, boy. You do just what I do. Follow me." Then he flapped his wings and lifted off the ground.

The young eagle tried it, too. "Wheeee! This is all right!"

"See," the mature eagle said, "you have been living among these turkeys so long that you were beginning to believe you were something you are not! Follow me, and you will find out what you really are."

So the little eagle began to soar and fly. He loved it. But the turkeys down below called out to him and said, "Hey, little guy, what are you doing up there? You belong down here."

"No, I don't," called the young eagle. "I used to belong there, but now I am what I was created to be. I do not belong with you anymore."

One Christmas Eve, as late Christmas shoppers hurried along the street, a crippled newsboy stood on his crutches offering his papers to the passersby He looked happy, and his crutches were decorated with evergreens.

One man greeted him with a cheerful smile, "My boy, you surely have the Christmas spirit."

The boy replied "What's the use of putting on a sour face? Sure, I am poor and lame, but that's no reason for looking glum I won't get presents like other boys at Christmas, but I can have fun, too So I decorated my crutches just to make them seem special for Christmas."

If we go out to seek joy, it will elude us If we go out to impart joy, we will find it This Christmas, whether you have little or much, it makes no difference It is your attitude that counts.

Percentage of American teens who say they want to be like their parents: 39%

Percentage of American teens who say they want to be like their parents: 39%

A young girl in an institution for the handicapped was approached by a well-meaning but tactless woman who wrote on her slate, "My dear, why are you deaf and dumb?" Tears came into the girl's eyes. Then, after a pause, taking the pencil and slate she wrote, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." She could very well have asked in turn, "Why do you hear and speak?" Isn't it strange that we ask all our questions about life's sufferings and not about its blessings? Do we take it for granted we deserve them?

Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery, an Englishman who was not ashamed to assert his faith in God, was invited to speak at the opening of a hymn book publisher's new printing plant. He urged rewriting some of the hymns which he found dismally at odds with man's true nature.

Montgomery said, "We sing, 'O Paradise, O Paradise, How I long for Thee.'But we do not really long for that. We long to stay on here a bit longer."

Then he added, "I would like to see an author write 'O Paradise, O Paradise, I have a little shop, and just as long as profits last, here I mean to stop.'"

A couple of years ago, a member of my church’s vocal team, and I were invited by a Christian leader named Yesu to go to southern India. There we would join a team of people from various parts of the U.S. We were told that God would use us to reach Muslims and Hindus and non-religious people for Christ. We all felt called by God to go, but none of us knew what to expect. When we arrived, Yesu met us and invited us to his home. Over the course of the next few days, he told us about his ministry. Yesu’s father, a dynamic leader and speaker, had started the mission in a Hindu-dominated area. One day a Hindu leader came to Yesu’s father and asked for prayer. Eager to pray with him, hoping he would lead him to Christ, he took him into a private room, knelt down with him, closed his eyes and began to pray. While he was praying, the Hindu man reached into his robe, pulled out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly. Yesu, hearing his father’s screams, ran to help him. He held him in his arms as blood poured out onto the floor of the hut. Three days later, his father died. On his deathbed he said to his son, “Please tell that man that he is forgiven. Care for your mother and carry on this ministry. Do whatever it takes to win people to Christ.”

A pastor in New York urged an intellectual but dissipated man to become a Christian. The man replied, "I cannot believe in the inspiration of the Bible, in the deity of Christ, or in prayer." "Do you believe in your own sins?" asked the pastor. "Oh, yes," replied the honest soul; "there is no doubt about my being a sinner and sometimes I am in hell!" "Are you willing to bring your sins to Christ for forgiveness and let Him, whatever you think of Him, take your guilt?" "But," he said, "I cannot believe in the inspiration of the Bible, or in the deity of Christ, or in prayer." "Just now," persisted the wise pastor, "I am not asking you to believe these things. You know you are a sinner, and in sin there is a taste of hell. Now, I offer you Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. Will you accept Him as such, and leave all questions that puzzle you for future solution?"

The man went to his home, and that night he accepted the Christ he knew as his Savior, and came to the meeting the next night to tell the people the joy of forgiveness that was in his soul. After several days of testimony which led others to Christ, the pastor gently asked, "What do you think now of the deity of Christ?" "Such a Savior," he said, with great emotion, "must be divine; if He were not divine He could not have done what He has done for me!"

A sign in a convenience store read, "Check Cashing Policy: To err is human. To forgive, ." It's a funny way to recognize the fact that we make mistakes, but it's also evidence of the way many people think about forgiveness.

To forgive is to accept within yourself the consequences of the sins of others. It means to accept the pain, the problems and the burden that comes when someone sins against you. Forgiveness is neither an easy nor a frequent gift.

This is what God has done for us: "...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1Pe 1:18-19 NKJV). What did God give for your forgiveness? It wasn't money or anything of wealth or value in worldly terms. He gave His Son. Jesus took upon Himself the burden of our sins.

Peradventure some sinner will say, “perceive nor feel any weight in myself, do I ever so many sins.” To whom we answer that if a dog having a great stone bound about his neck is cast down from a high tower, he feels no weight of that stone as long as he is falling down, but when he is once fallen to the ground he is burst all to pieces by the reason of that weight.