Pastoral Resources

The Duke of Glouscester, commenting at a luncheon meeting in London: “A home-accident survey showed that 90 percent of accidents on staircases involved either the top or the bottom stair. This information was fed back into the computer to analyze how accidents could be reduced. The computer’s answer: ‘Remove the top and bottom stairs.’”

I am home in heaven, dear ones;

Oh, so happy and so bright.

There is perfect joy and beauty

In this everlasting light.

All the pain and grief is over,

Every restless tossing passed.

I am now at peace forever,

Safely home in heaven at last.

Did you wonder I so calmly

Trod the valley of the shade?

Oh, but Jesus’ love illumined

Every dark and fearful glade.

And He came Himself to meet me

In the way so hard to tread;

And with Jesus’ arm to lean on

Could I have one doubt or dread?

Then you must not grieve so sorely,

For I love you dearly still.

Try to look beyond death’s shadows;

Pray to trust our Father’s will.

There is work still waiting for you,

So you must not idly stand.

Do it now while life remaineth;

You shall rest in Jesus’ land.

When that work is all completed,

He will gently call you home.

Oh, the rapture of that meeting;

Oh, the joy to see you come.

(Sing to the tune of “Home on the Range”)

Oh, give me a bed,

just a hospital bed

and let me sleep all through the night.

Whatever you do,

please don’t wake me at two,

let me sleep til the dawn’s early light.

First Chorus:

Sleep, glorious sleep,

don’t wake me at three for a shot.

Can’t you see, my dear nurse,

that I’m just getting worse

when you wake me at three on the dot?

How often at night

do you turn on my light

for a temp’rature check or a test,

Then I lie here and toss,

getting angry and cross,

will I ever get some rest?

Second Chorus:

Sleep, glorious sleep,

don’t wake me to wa-ash my face,

Let me lie here asleep

in a slumber so deep,

or I’ll get out of this place.

You woke me at two,

now I’m pleading with you,

go away and just leave me alone,

I don’t want to count sheep,

I just want to sleep,

if I need you I’ll call on the phone.

Third Chorus:

Sleep, glorious sleep,

don’t wake me at three or at four,

Let me sleep through the night

til the dawn’s early light,

and I’ll never come here any more!

In this house...

1. We obey our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. We love, honor and pray for one another.

3. We tell the truth.

4. We consider one another’s interest ahead of our own.

5. We speak quietly and respectfully with one another.

6. We do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds.

7. When someone needs correction, we correct him in love.

8. When someone is sorry, we forgive him.

9. When someone is sad, we comfort him.

10. When someone is happy, we rejoice with him.

11. When we have something nice to share, we share it.

12. When we have work to do, we do it without complaining.

13. We take good care of everything God has given us.

14. We do not create unnecessary work for others.

15. When we open something, we close it.

16. When we turn something on, we turn it off.

17. When we take something out, we put it away.

18. When we make a mess, we clean it up.

19. When we do not know what to do, we ask.

20. When we go out, we act just as if we were here.

21. When we disobey or forget any of the rules of this house, we accept the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Courtesy of Tim & Diane Wulburn, Written by Gregg Harris

Baseball player Al Schacht slid into second base and felt a low-thrown ball land under him. Under cover of the dust, Al quickly slipped the ball into his hip pocket. The opposing infielder vainly looked for the ball and finally figured it must have rolled into center field. As he and his teammates frantically searched for the ball, Al completed the circuit of the bases for a home run. But all good things must come to an end—and they did when Al trounced onto home plate and the ball dropped from his pocket. One $50 fine later and Al’s laughter was tempered a little.

A Christian railroad engineer was speaking to a group of fellow workers about heaven. He said, “I can’t begin to tell you what the Lord Jesus means to me. In Him I have a hope that is very precious. Let me explain.

Many years ago as each night I neared the end of my run, I would always let out a long blast with the whistle just as I’d come around the last curve. Then I’d look up at the familiar little cottage on top of the hill. My mother and father would be standing in the doorway waving to me. After I had passed, they’d go back inside and say, ‘Thank God, Benny is home safe again tonight.’ Well, they are gone now, and no one is there to welcome me. But someday when I have finished my ‘earthly run’ and I draw near to heaven’s gate, I believe I’ll see my precious mother and dad waiting there for me. And the one will turn to the other and say, ‘Thank God, Benny is home safe at last.’”

The most creative job in the world involves fashion, decorating, recreation, education, transportation, psychology, romance, cuisine, literature, art, economics, government, pediatrics, geriatrics, entertainment, maintenance, purchasing, law, religion, energy and management. Anyone who can handle all those has to be somebody special. She is. She’s a homemaker.

Q. Will or can a practicing homosexual fulfill the promise of 1 John 5:11-12? (“…God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, He who has the Son has life.”)

A. We could ask the same question about a practicing gossip, or a slanderer, or a drunkard.

In my judgment, it’s necessary to distinguish between wickedness and weakness. I have known practicing homosexuals and drunks who hated what they did. Many years ago, a drunk whom I chided for his drunkenness told me sadly that if I could show him how to hate his drinking before he drank as much as he did after he drank, he’d be cured. Was he weak or wicked? I think he was weak, not wicked, and I also think he was a Christian. A wicked man loves evil and hates righteousness.

Q. Will or can a practicing homosexual fulfill the promise of 1 John 5:11-12? “ God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, He who has the Son has life.”

We could ask the same question about a practicing gossip, or a slanderer, or a drunkard.

In my judgment, it’s necessary to distinguish between wickedness and weakness. I have known practicing homosexuals and drunks who hated what they did. Many years ago, a drunk whom I chided for his drunkenness told me sadly that if I could show him how to hate his drinking before he drank as much as he did after he drank, he’d be cured. Was he weak or wicked? I think he was weak, not wicked, and I also think he was a Christian. A wicked man loves evil and hates righteousness.

During his time as a rancher, Theodore Roosevelt and one of his cowpunchers lassoed a maverick steer, lit a fire, and prepared the branding irons. The part of the range they were on was claimed by Gregor Lang, one of Roosevelt’s neighbors.

According to the cattleman’s rule, the steer therefore belonged to Lang. As his cowboy applied the brand, Roosevelt said, “Wait, it should be Lang’s brand.”

“That’s all right, boss,” said the cowboy.

“But you’re putting on my brand,” Roosevelt said.

“That’s right,” said the man.

“Drop that iron,” Roosevelt demanded, “and get back to the ranch and get out. I don’t need you anymore. A man who will steal for me will steal from me.”

A radio news series about honesty in America talked about excuses. The commentator said that people use three types of excuses when guilty of wrongdoing.

The first is outright denial—a rejection of any involvement. Sometimes this is done even though the person is obviously guilty.

The second is the “It’s not my fault” excuse. The person looks around for someone he can blame. (Often it is a loved one - a husband or wife or parent. Sometimes it’s the boss.)

A third form of excuse is the “I did it, but “ approach. In this instance the person blames circumstances for his shortcoming. Either he’s been struggling with some illness or the assignment wasn’t clear or the car’s been giving him trouble.

A United States President asked a certain general a question about another officer. Overhearing his reply which praised the officer, a friend approached him afterwards and said, "General, do you know that the man of whom you spoke is one of your most bitter enemies and misses no opportunity to malign you?" "Yes," replied the officer, "but the President asked my opinion of him; he did not ask for his opinion of me."

Bees can show you something about teamwork. On a warm day about half the bees in a hive stay inside beating their wings while the other half go out to gather pollen and nectar. Because of the beating wings, the temperature inside the hive is about 10 degrees cooler than outside. The bees rotate duties and the bees that cool the hive one day are honey gatherers the next.

What is the recipe for honeymoon salad?

Lettuce alone without dressing.

The story was once told of a woman driver whose car stalled in traffic and she was unable to get it restarted. The fellow who was behind her, and thus unable to move, thought it necessary to constantly show his impatience by honking his horn every few seconds. Finally, the woman walked back to his car and said, "If you will go try to start my car, I'll stay here and honk your horn for you."

So many times in the church this is the case. The one who is not doing anything to help is also the one who makes the most noise complaining that nothing is happening.

The U.S. News and World Report article (“Honor Thy children,” 2/27/95) states: “Rich or poor, white or black, the children of divorce and those born outside of marriage struggle through life at a measurable disadvantage, according to a growing chorus of social thinkers. And their voices are more urgent because an astonishing 38% of all children now live without their biological fathers—up from 17.5% in 1960. More than half of today’s children will spend at least part of their childhood without a father... Some 46% of families with children headed by single mothers live below the poverty line, compared to 8% of those with two parents. Raising marriage rates will do far more to fight crime than building prisons or putting more cops on the streets. Studies show that only 43% of state prison inmates grew up with both parents and that a missing father is a better predictor of criminal activity than race or poverty. Growing up with both parents turns out to be a better antidote to teen pregnancy than handing out condoms...Social scientists have made similar links between a father’s absence and his child’s likelihood of being a dropout, jobless, a drug addict, a suicide victim, mentally ill, and a target of child sexual abuse.”

Some years ago several congressmen, who were devout Christians, were taking a walk one evening. Their conversation drifted to the subject of religion and the state of the world. They were not enthusiastic about the outlook and were just about to agree that the whole world was on the toboggan when they chanced to pass a little chapel. From within came the words of a familiar hymn:

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel's veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

As his face lighted up, one said to the others, "As long as people get together and sing that song, there is hope for the world, after all."

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.

A little over a month before he died, the famous atheist Jean-Paul Sartre declared that he so strongly resisted feelings of despair that he would say to himself, “I know I shall die in hope.” Then in profound sadness, he would add, “But hope needs a foundation.”

Born in a stable

His mother a virgin

He was raised in a carpenter shop

His parents were poor

His people were slaves

His friends were a lowly lot

His chances in life are very slim

He's expected to be a slave

But people in darkness

Saw light in Him and hope of freedom He gave.

The English poet Alexander Pope wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.” But where does man turn when hope dries up?

The director of a medical clinic told of a terminally ill young man who came in for his usual treatment. A new doctor who was on duty said to him casually and cruelly, “You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year?”

As the young man left, he stopped by the director’s desk and wept. “That man took away my hope,” he blurted out.

“I guess he did,” replied the director. “Maybe it’s time to find a new one.”

Commenting on this incident, Lewis Smedes wrote, “Is there a hope when hope is taken away? Is there hope when the situation is hopeless? That question leads us to Christian hope, for in the Bible, hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise.”

There was once a jockey who had an unbelievable winning record. Just before the end of any race, the jockey would lean way over and seemingly speak to the horse. A reporter asked the jockey what he did that made such a difference in the horse’s speed. He replied: “I simply quote a little verse in his ear:

‘Roses are red, violets are blue; Horses that lose are made into glue!”

Sign outside a riding stable:

We haqve fast horses for folks who like to ride fast. We have slow horses for folks who ride slow. We have big horses for big folks, and we have little horses for little folks. And for those who have never ridden horses before, we have horses that have never been ridden.

Satan is not warring over those who are in the world, for he already has them in his grasp. His war is to conquer those who are sitting in the pew. Those who have been reconciled, he longs to take hostage once again. His strategy is deceptive, because he uses them to hinder the work of the church.

First, he deludes them with other goals in life which soon take priority over the work of the church and personal involvement. They become members of the body which become dysfunctional. Hands that will not work. Feet that will not travel to God's appointed place. A mouth that will not confess Jesus to others. Ears that soon fail to listen. A brain that refuses to think and dwell on things above. Lame, blind and deaf, the church struggles to fulfill its purpose.

Second, he lures them into complacency. Having become satisfied with less than God's desire for their lives, they settle for adolescence rather than maturing to adulthood, while at the same time believing they are adults. They fail to meditate upon God's Word, except while sitting in the pew. They give token gifts instead of a sacrifice. They listen to lessons with change or repentance far from mind. Maturity is not even in view, because their eyes have been blinded. Eventually, they find themselves attending but not involved.

Third, he tantalizes their sense with false teachings with the purpose of taking others off course. Having become numb, new sensations must fill the void. Having not understood God's purpose they change their attitude from not wanting to go beyond what is written to stretching the limits as far as they can. Deluded themselves, they delude others to a false sense of security. They now must seek bigger, greater sensational things to keep the momentum going so their individual spirits can feel fulfilled. The appearance of great things happening blinds their eyes to the fact they have been taken hostage, and pride keeps them from being set free.

Fourth, he stalemates their vision with past accomplishments. Boasting in the glory of a successful past program they fail to launch out into new, more productive, fruitful efforts. They might even nurture a program long after its death. Individuals stop teaching and serving others after just a few victories. They fail to dream of God's use of their lives and God's vision for the church.

If the church and we as individual members are ever going to be what God desires, the hostages in the pews must be freed. The only thing that can set them free is the truth. No mystical, sensational experience, just reasonable, plain truth. Only the Bible can reveal if we are held hostage. Only the Bible can set and keep us free. Read it, study it, and make it yours, that you might heed the warnings and not be taken hostage.

In order to uncover the processes that destroy unions, marital researchers study couples over the course of years, and even decades, and retrace the star-crossed steps of those who have split up back to their wedding day. What they are discovering is unsettling. None of the factors one would guess might predict a couple’s durability actually does: not how in love a newlywed couple say they are; how much affection they exchange; how much they fight or what they fight about. In fact, couples who will endure and those who won’t look remarkably similar in the early days.

Yet when psychologists Cliff Notarius of Catholic University and Howard Markman of the University of Denver studied newlyweds over the first decade of marriage, they found a very subtle but telling difference at the beginning of the relationships. Among couples who would ultimately stay together, 5 out of every 100 comments made about each other were put-downs. Among couples who would later split, 10 of every 100 comments were insults. That gap magnified over the following decade, until couples heading downhill were flinging five times as many cruel and invalidating comments at each other as happy couples.

“Hostile put-downs act as cancerous cells that, if unchecked, erode the relationship over time,” says Notarius, who with Markman co-authored the new book We Can Work It Out. “In the end, relentless unremitting negativity takes control and the couple can’t get through a week without major blowups.”

Here’s another study that says hostility can hurt your heart.

Doctors from Coral Gables, Fla., compared the efficiency of the heart’s pumping action in 18 men with coronary artery disease to nine healthy controls.

Each of the study participants underwent one physical stress test (riding an exercise bicycle) and three mental stress tests (doing math problems in their heads, recalling a recent incident that had made them very angry, and giving a short speech to defend themselves against a hypothetical charge of shoplifting). Using sophisticated X-ray techniques, the doctors took pictures of the subjects’ hearts in action during these tests.

For all the subjects, anger reduced the amount of blood that the heart pumped to body tissues more than the other tests, but this was especially true for those who had heart disease.

Why anger is so much more potent than fear or mental stress is anybody’s guess. But until we see more research on this subject, it couldn’t hurt to count to 10 before you blow your stack.

Aesop's fables contain many helpful moral lessons for us. One of them is about a man and a satyr who, having struck up an acquaintance, sat down together to eat. The day being wintry and cold, the man put his fingers to his mouth and blew upon them. "What's that for, my friend?" asked the satyr. "My hands are so cold," said the man, "I do it to warm them." In a little while some hot food was placed before them, and the man, raising the dish to his mouth, again blew upon it. "And what's the meaning of that, now?" asked the satyr. "Oh," replied the man, "my porridge is so hot, I do it to cool it." "Then," said the satyr, "from this moment I renounce your friendship, for I will have nothing to do with one who blows hot and cold with the same mouth."

As we were leaving the lobby of a hotel in which we were staying, our three-year-old son looked down at the doormat with the hotel logo on it.

“Hey!” he exclaimed. “That’s on our towels at home.”

On one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini found himself locked in by his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the old turnkey shut him in a cell and walked away. Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock wouldn’t open.

Finally, ever more desperate but completely exhausted, he leaned against the door--and it swung open so unexpectedly that he nearly fell headlong into the corridor. The turnkey had not locked it.

Percentage of middle-level executives:

who spend 50 or more hours per week on their jobs: 77

Who spend 60 or more hours each week: 26.

A man became envious of his friends because they had larger and more luxurious homes. So he listed his house with a real estate firm, planning to sell it and to purchase a more impressive home. Shortly afterward, as he was reading the classified section of the newspaper, he saw an ad for a house that seemed just right. He promptly called the realtor and said, “A house described in today’s paper is exactly what I’m looking for. I would like to go through it as soon as possible!” The agent asked him several questions about it and then replied, “But sir, that’s your house your describing.”

Mark Hatfield tells of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called “House of Dying,” where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers face daily. “How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?” he asked.

Mother Teresa replied, “My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful.”

Congressman addressing House of Representatives: “Never before have I heard such ill-informed, wimpy, back-stabbing drivel as that just uttered by my respected colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio.”

A cute little girl was sitting on top of a pile of luggage in a hotel lobby. Her parents were at the desk registering for their room. A sympathetic lady asked the little girl if they were visiting relatives in the city. "Oh, no," the girl replied. "We're going to live at this hotel until we find a house. My Daddy has a new job and we had to sell our house and move." The lady said, "Oh, it's too bad you don't have a home." To which the girl replied, "Oh we have a home-it's just that we don't have a house to put it in."

If you drop it - pick it up;

If you sleep on it - make it up;

If you wear it - hang it up;

If you spill it - wipe it up;

If you turn it on - turn it off;

If you open it - close it;

If it rings - answer it;

If it whines - feed it;

If it cries - love it.

Instead of writing the usual “housewife” title while filling out a form asking for his spouse’s occupation, one man wrote in: “Domestic Goddess.”

One day I was walking through the streets of York, in England. I saw a little way ahead a soldier coming toward me. He had the red uniform on of the infantry--the dress of the army. I knew at once when I saw him that he was a soldier. When he came near me I stopped him. I said, "My good man, if you have no objection I would like to ask you a few questions." "Certainly, sir," said he. "Well, then, I would like to know how you first became a soldier." "Yes, sir, I will tell you. You see, sir, I wanted to become a soldier, and the recruiting officer was in our town, and I went up to him and told him I wanted to enlist. "Well, sir, he said, 'All right,' and the first thing he did, sir, he took an English shilling out of his pocket, sir, and put it into my hand. The very moment, sir, a recruiting-sergeant puts a shilling into your hand, sir, you are a soldier." I said to myself, "That is the very illustration I want."

That man was a free man at one time--he could go here and there; do just what he liked; but the moment the shilling was put into his hand he was subject to the rules of war, and Queen Victoria could send him anywhere and make him obey the rules and regulations of the army. He is a soldier the very minute he takes the shilling. He has not got to wait to put on the uniform. And when you ask me how a man may be converted at once, I answer, just the same as that man became a soldier. The citizen becomes a soldier in a minute, and from being a free man becomes subject to the command of others. The moment you take Christ into your heart, that moment your name is written in the roll of Heaven.

The Romans were prodigious road builders. They spent five centuries completing a road system that extended to every corner of their empire and eventually covered a distance equal to 10 times the circumference of the earth at the equator. This included over 80,000 km. (50,000 mi.) of first-class highways and about 320,000 km. (200,000 mi.) of lesser roads.

Before the Romans built a road, they conducted a survey. They could calculate distances to inaccessible points, run levels with accuracy, measure angles, and lay out tunnels and dig them from both ends with a vertical shaft. Road surveyors considered the slope of the land and questions of defense. Where necessary (as in the regions of Cumae and Naples), they cut tunnels through mountains with a skill that aroused admiration for centuries. Because Romans tried to build straight roads—often over hills rather than around them—slopes frequently were steep; 10 percent grades were common.

When building an important road, Roman engineers dug a trench the full width of the road and 1.2 to 1.5 mi. (4 to 5 ft.) deep. The roadbed was built up with successive layers of large and small stone and rammed gravel; sometimes there was a layer of concrete. Normally roads were surfaced with gravel, which might rest on a bed of mortar. Near cities, in places where traffic was heavy, or in the construction of an important road, engineers paved the surface with large, carefully fitted stones about 30 cm. (12 in.) thick and 45 cm. (18 in.) across.

The type of construction varied with expected traffic, terrain, and available materials. Mountain roads might be only 1.5 to 1.8 m. (5 to 6 fit.) wide, with wider places for passing. Main roads were 4.5 to 6 m. (15 to 20 fit.) wide. The Appian Way was about 5.5 m. (18 ft.) wide—wide enough for two wagons to pass [a]breast—and paved with basaltic lava.

Stone bridges were usually built where roads crossed streams. Such construction was possible because the Romans had concrete much like that in use today. To make lime mortar set under water and resist water action, the road engineers had to add silica to the mixture. The Romans had large quantities of volcanic sand (pozzolana), which had a mixture of silica in proper proportions.

Unfortunately, records do not tell us how long it took to build Roman roads or how large the road gangs were that built them. The Appian Way—”Queen of Roads” and forerunner of many other Roman roads on three continents—was begun in 312 B.C. as a road for use in the Samnite Wars. The 211 km. (132 mi.) to Capua must have been completed within about a decade. Ultimately, the Appian Way reached southward 576 km. (360 mi.) from Rome to Brundisium on the Adriatic Sea. The road system was gradually extended through the efforts of numerous Roman emperors. Agustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Vespasian were among those who launched great road-building projects.

Some Roman roads have been used throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times. The Appian Way, on which Paul traveled to Rome (cf. Acts 28:13-15), is still an important artery of western Italy. It is a mute reminder of the glory of the time when all roads led to Rome.

I want to tell you how I got my eyes open to the truth that God loves the sinner. When I went over to Europe I was preaching in Dublin, when a young fellow came up to the platform and said to me that he wanted to come to America and preach. He had a boyish appearance; did not seem to be over seventeen years old. I measured him all over, and he repeated his request, and asked me when I was going back. I told him I didn't know; probably I should not have told him if I had known. I thought he was too young and inexperienced to be able to preach. In course of time I sailed for America, and hadn't been here long before I got a letter from him, dated New York, saying that he had arrived there. I wrote him a note and thought I would hear no more about him, but soon I got another letter from him, saying that he was coming soon to Chicago, and would like to preach. I sent him another letter, telling him if he came to call upon me, and closed with a few common-place remarks. I thought that would settle him, and I would hear no more from him. But in a very few days after he made his appearance. I didn't know what to do with him. I was just going off to Iowa, and I went to a friend and said: "I have got a young Irishman--I thought he was an Irishman, because I met him in Ireland--and he wants to preach. Let him preach at the meetings--try him, and if he fails, I will take him off your hands when I come home." When I got home--I remember it was on Saturday morning--I said to my wife: "Did that young man preach at the meetings?" "Yes." "How did they like him?" "They liked him very much," she replied: "He preaches a little different from you; he preaches that God loves sinners." I had been preaching that God hated sinners; that he had been standing behind the sinners with a double-bladed sword, ready to cut the heads of the sinners off. So I concluded if he preached different from me, I would not like him. My prejudice was up. Well, I went down to the meeting that night, and saw them coming in with their Bibles with them. I thought it was curious. It was something strange to see the people coming in with Bibles, and listen to the flutter of the leaves. The young man gave out his text, saying: "Let us turn to the third chapter of John, and sixteenth verse: 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'" He didn't divide up the text at all. He, went from Genesis to Revelation, giving proof that God loved the sinner, and before he got through two or three of my sermons were spoiled. I have never preached them since.

The following day--Sunday--there was an immense crowd flocking into the hall, and he said, "Let us turn to the third chapter of John, sixteenth verse: 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life '" and he preached the fourth sermon from this verse. He just seemed to take the whole text and throw it at them, to prove that God loved the sinner, and that for six thousand years he had been trying to convince the world of this. I thought I had never heard a better sermon in my life. It seemed to be new revelation to all. Ah, I notice there are some of you here who remember those times remember those nights. I got a new idea of the blessed Bible. On Monday night I went down and the young man said, "Turn to the third chapter of John, sixteenth verse " and he seemed to preach better than ever. Proof after proof was quoted from Scripture to show how God loved us. I thought sure he had exhausted that text, but on Tuesday he took his Bible in his hand and said: "Turn to the third chapter of John, sixteenth verse,'" and he preached the sixth sermon from that verse. He just seemed to climb over his subject, while he proved that there was nothing on earth like the love of Christ, and he said "If I can only convince men of His love, if I can but bring them to believe this text the whole world will be saved." On Thursday he selected the same text, John iii., 16, and at the conclusion of the sermon he said: "I have been trying to tell you for seven nights now, how Christ loves you, but I cannot do it. If I could borrow Jacob's ladder and climb up to heaven, and could see Gabriel there and ask him to tell me how much God loves me, he would only say, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." How a man can go out of this tabernacle after hearing this text, saying, "God does not love me," is a mystery to me.

J. Dennis Miller, president of Church Youth Development states that a problem with educating young people in the church stems from a failure to understand how young people learn. He claims that adults learn in the following pattern:

1. acceptance of absolutes;

2. subordination of attitudes and actions to absolutes;

3. application of truth received to life experience.

Knowing something as an adult is based primarily upon remembering information and intellectual learning. Youth, Miller contends, learn in a different way:

1. evaluation of life experience;

2. discovery of attitudes and actions which validate their life experiences;

3. identifying truth based on their relevance to life experience;

4. acceptance of truths that prove reliable from life experience. Life experience is the main influence on the learning young mind.

At the end of a tour of the United States in 1963, Helmut Thielicke, the distinguished German preacher-theologian, was interviewed by a group of journalists and theological students. One of those present at the press conference asked Thielicke what he considered to be the most important question of that time for Americans. His carefully measured answer is just as relevant now as it was then, particularly in a discussions of excellence:

I would rather—if you will permit me to make a judgment—mention an entirely different problem as being the most important question which you are facing. Not a single person ever raised it in any discussion I had in this country (it would therefore appear that people are astonishingly unconscious of it); and whenever I raised it myself, it seemed to evoke a kind of disconcerted amazement, I might almost say, a kind of embarrassment, which was probably the reason why nobody ever broached the subject. I mean the question of how Americans deal with suffering. Yes, you have heard aright; I mean the problem of suffering. If I have not been totally blind on this journey, I believe I have seen that Americans do not have this color on their otherwise so richly furnished palette....

Again and again I have the feeling that suffering is regarded as something which is fundamentally inadmissible, distressing, embarrassing, and not to be endured. Naturally, we are called upon to combat and diminish suffering. All medical and social action is motivated by the perfectly justified passion for this goal. But the idea that suffering is a burden which can or even should be fundamentally radically exterminated can only lead to disastrous illusions. One perhaps does not even have to be a Christian to know that suffering belongs to the very nature of this our world and will not pass away until this world passes away. And beyond this, we Christians know that in a hidden way it is connected with man’s reaching for the forbidden fruit, but that God can transform even this burden of a fallen world into a blessing and fill it with meaning.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend their incomes as follows:

1. Shelter

23%

1. Transportation

21%

2. Food

15%

3. Retirement plans

8%

4. Utilities

7%

5. Clothing

5%

6. Entertainment

5%

7. Medical care

5%

8. Savings

3%

9. Insurance

(excluding care and home)

1%

10. Miscellaneous

7%

Driving through Texas, a New Yorker collided with a truck carrying a horse. A few months later he tried to collect damages for his injuries. “How can you now claim to have all these injuries?” asked the insurance company’s lawyer. “According to the police report, at the time you said you were not hurt.” “Look,” replied the New Yorker. “I was lying on the road in a lot of pain, and I heard someone say the horse had a broken leg. The next thing I know this Texas Ranger pulls out his gun and shoots the horse. Then he turns to me and asks, ‘Are you okay?’”

If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, your peace, and your sleep for it … if all that you dream and scheme is about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it … if you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it and lose all your terror of the opposition for it…if you simply go after that thing you want with all of your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith, hope and confidence and stern pertinacity … if neither cold, poverty, famine, nor gout, sickness nor pain, of body and brain, can keep you away from the thing that you want…if dogged and grim you beseech and beset it, with the help of God, you WILL get it!

When Henry Norris Russell, the Princeton astronomer, had concluded a lecture on the Milky Way, a woman came to him and asked, “If our world is so little, and the universe is so great, can we believe God really pays any attention to us?” Dr. Russell replied, “That depends, madam, entirely on how big a God you believe in.”

What would have happened had Moses tried to figure out what was needed to accomplish God’s command? One of the biggest arithmetical miracles in the world was required in the desert.

Moses led the people of Israel into the desert....Now what was he going to do with them? They had to be fed, and feeding 3-1/2 million people required a lot of food. According to the U. S. Army’s Quartermaster General, Moses needed 1500 tons of food a day, filling two freight trains, each a mile long. Besides, you must remember, they were cooking the food (not to mention for keeping warm, and if anyone tells you it doesn’t get cold in the desert don’t believe them!). Just for cooking this took 4000 tons of firewood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long and this is only for one day!!! They were for forty YEARS in transit!!!

Let’s not forget about water, shall we? If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes (no bathing?!), it took 11,000,000 gallons EACH DAY—enough to fill a train of tanker cars 1800 miles long.

And another thing! They had to get across the red sea in one night. Now if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and require 35 days and nights to complete the crossing. So to get it over in one night there had to be a space in the Red Sea 3 miles wide so that they could walk 5,000 abreast. Think about this; every time they camped at the end of the day, a camp ground the size of Rhode Island was required, or 750 square miles.

Do you think that Moses sat down and figured out the logistics of what God told him to do before he set out from Egypt? I doubt it. He had faith that God would take care of everything. Let us have courage, we share the very same God!

I thought the sun was blotted out of my sky - that I had so sinned against God that there was no hope for me. I prayed - the Lord knoweth how I prayed—but I never had a glimpse of an answer that I knew of. I searched the Word of God; the promises were more alarming that the threatenings. I read the privileges of the people of God, but with the fullest persuasion that they were not for me. The secret of my distress was this: I did not know the gospel. I was in a Christian land; I had Christian parents; but I did not understand the freeness and simplicity of the Gospel.

I knew it was said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” but I did not know what it was to believe in Christ.

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no further I found a little chapel with fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning because of the snow. A poor man, a shoemaker went into the pulpit to preach.

His text was, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” There was, I thought a glimpse of hope for me in his text. He began thus: “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now that does not take a deal of effort. It isn’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just ‘look.’ Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, ‘Look unto me.’ Many of you are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourself.

Then the good man followed up his text in this way: “Look unto Me; I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look! I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. Oh, look to me! Look to Me!”

Then He turned his attention to me. He said, “Young man, you look very miserable. And you will always be miserable - in life and in death in you do not obey my text. But if you obey, now, this moment, you will be saved.”

Then he shouted, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ; look NOW!” He made me start in my seat; but I did look to Jesus Christ.

There and then the cloud rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun. I could have risen that moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me that before - trust Christ, and you shall be saved!

The devil challenged St. Peter to a baseball game. “How can you win, Satan?” asked St. Peter. “All the famous ballplayers are up here.” “How can I lose?” answered Satan. “All the umpires are down here.”

Unseen, yet loved. A kind mother had one day been talking with her little girl about the duty of loving God. The child replied, "Mother, I have never seen God; how can I love Him?" The mother made no answer then.

A few days after, she received a package from a friend who lived a great way off; and in the package was a beautiful picture-book for the little girl. The child took the book and was for some time entirely engrossed in looking at the pictures, but soon she exclaimed, "Oh, mother! How I do love the good lady that sent me this book!" "But you never saw her, my dear," said the mother. "No," answered the child; "but I love her because she sent me this beautiful present." "My child," said the mother, "you told me the other day that you could not love God because you have never seen Him. And yet you love this kind lady whom you have never seen, because she has given you a present. Now you have all around you the presents which God has given you. Why can't you love Him for His presents?"

The South Pole could be called the healthiest place on earth because there’s no pollution, no dust, and very few people. The air is as fresh and clean as it must have been everywhere before man began pouring industrial wastes into the atmosphere.

Furthermore, it’s one of few locations where man is not bombarded by germs. Not only is it too cold for them to be active, but there’s nothing for them to live on. And since winds start at the South Pole and move northward, they tend to keep away any contaminants from that region. Now you’d think people would be eager to live in such a germ-free environment but they’re not. With temperatures that drop to 100 degrees below zero, it’s just too cold.

“It was so cold where we were,” said the Arctic explorer, “that the candle froze and we couldn’t blow it out.”

“That’s nothing,” said his rival. “Where we were, the words came out of our mouths in pieces of ice and we had to fry them to hear what we were talking about.”

This exercise is meant to create awareness of how easily we can become critical of those we love the most. Keep track of the number of times you answer “Yes” to the following statements.

1. I feel critical toward my partner three times a week or more.

2. I feel critical toward my partner for how he or she looks.

3. I feel critical toward my partner for how he or she talks.

4. I feel critical toward my partner for how he or she relates to others.

5. I feel critical toward my partner for his or her values.

6. I feel critical toward my partner for his or her household habits.

7. I wish my partner were more like me.

8. I think my partner is capable of changing in the ways that I want.

9. I think my partner behaves in certain ways just to annoy me.

10. I find it hard to forgive my partner for not living up to all of my expectations.

11. I find it hard to accept the ways in which my partner is different from me.

12. My parents often criticized me when I was a child.

13. My partner often accuses me of being critical.

14. I wish I were more accepting of my partner.

15. One (or both) of my parents often criticized the other.

How deep is the ocean; how high is the sky? At its deepest, in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific, the ocean reaches 6.856 miles. The troposphere, which includes the layer of air we breathe, is about 10 miles high, but the atmosphere extends upward more than 600 miles.

How do I know that Christ has risen?

What proof have I to give?

He touched my life one blessed day,

And I began to live.

How do I know he left the tomb

That morning long ago?

I met Him just this morning,

And my heart is still aglow.

How do I know that endless life

He gained for me that day?

His life within is proof enough

Of immortality.

How do I know that Christ still lives,

Rich blessings to impart?

He walks with me along the way

And lives within my heart.

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Mat 6:9). To hallow the name of God is to regard it as holy, to treat it differently from all other names.

One of the ten commandments warned, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name" (Exo 20:7). Those who hallow the name of God take special care to avoid light, meaningless and profane reference to God in their daily speech.

We must realize, however, that hallowing the name of God is not just a matter of vocabulary. Many people fail to hallow God's name, who would never think of using His name in a vulgar or obscene context. They simply do not take God seriously in the way they live. Every day is consumed with activity that does not take God into consideration. Problem solving becomes a matter of relying on human resources. God is nowhere to be found in the picture. Which is the more serious breech of God's command? To speak God's name profanely? Or to give lip service to Him in church and then ignore Him in everyday life?

Several years ago, J. B. Phillips wrote an interesting book which he titled, Your God Is Too Small. In the book he wrote about some inadequate concepts of God, and Mike Cope suggests that our God is "too middle-sized." We affirm a lot of things about God. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is majestic and glorious. He is the God to Whom we must give account. We are invited to draw near to Him. Our doctrine of God is right on target.

But when it comes to practical living, then we are not sure God is capable of doing all those things He has promised. Cope suggests we do not believe what we know. You can talk about Him in Bible class, but when you are struggling with the mortgage payments or a sick child or the loss of a job, Bible-class talk about God tends to sound rather hollow. That is because we believe in a middle-sized God. He is big enough to judge us in eternity, but not big enough to help with the job problem. To hallow the name of God means to treat His name with respect, not only in the way we talk, but also in the way we trust.

“Not doing thine own ways” (Is. 58:13) not doing your normal work, making it a day of rest

“Nor finding thine own pleasure” including amusement, entertainment, self-seeking fulfillment

“Nor speaking thine own words” frivolous conversation or meaningless talk

By realizing that the Lord’s Day begins the previous evening (Gen. 1:5)

By entering into teaching, fellowship, self-examination, prayer with other Christians at church (Heb. 10:24-5)

By giving as God directs and blesses (1 Cor. 16:2)

By making it a day of spiritual refreshment and physical rest (Is. 58:14)

1. By exalting Jesus Christ, His Son (Matt. 3:17; Col. 1:15-19)

2. By proclaiming the message of the cross (I Cor. 1:18-2:5)

3. By believing in God and his promises (Heb. 11:6)

4. By asking for wisdom (1 Kings 3:10, Col. 1:9-14; James 1:5-8)

5. By staying away from sexual sin (Eph. 5:3,4,10; 1 Thess. 4:1-8)

6. By sharing the gospel with unbelievers (I Cor. 9:14-27, 10:31-33)

7. By giving to others in time of need (Phil. 4:10-20; Heb. 13:16)

8. By submitting to authority (Rom. 8:7-8, Col. 3:20; 1 John 3:22)

9. By praising God for all things (Ps. 69:30-31; Heb. 13:15-16)

How do we value ONE YEAR? Ask a student who failed a grade.

How do we value ONE MONTH? Ask a Mother whose baby arrived prematurely.

How do we value ONE WEEK? Editor’s of weekly newspapers know.

How do we value ONE HOUR? Ask someone who lies terminally ill waiting for a loved one who is late.

How do we value ONE MINUTE? Ask someone who missed a plane, a train, a very important engagement that would never be rescheduled.

How do we value ONE SECOND? Ask and Olympic Medalist, someone who just missed having an accident, or someone saying good by to a loved one they will never see again.

An aged lady left Buffalo by boat for Cleveland to visit a daughter living there. Soon a dreadful storm arose and many of the passengers, fearing death, gathered for prayer. Only the aged lady seemed unconcerned about the tempest as she sat with her hands folded and prayed. After the storm had subsided, some of the passengers were eager to know the secret of her calmness. They gathered around her and asked her the reason. "Well, my dear friends," she replied, "it is like this. I have two daughters. One died and went home to heaven. The other lives in Cleveland. When the storm arose, I wondered which of them I might visit first, the one in Cleveland or the one in heaven, and I just left it to the Lord; for I would be glad to see either."

This question will bring a variety of answers. A confusion of views is evident in the following sampling of opinions gathered for the Radio Bible Class program ‘Sounds of the Times’:

“God wouldn’t send you to hell.” (New York)

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.” (Boston)

“You have to believe in God.” (Miami)

“There is nothing I can do about it.” (New York)

“I don’t dare say that I know I’m going.” (Los Angeles)

“Keep the Ten Commandments.” (San Francisco)

“How I live my life...being kind to other people.” (Boston)

“Jesus gave His life for my salvation.” (Los Angeles)

“I couldn’t care less.” (Boston)

“Be a good person.” (Gainesville)

“I feel I’d go to hell.” (San Francisco)

A shoe manufacturer who decided to open the Congo market sent two salesmen to the undeveloped territory. One salesman cabled back: “Prospect here nil. No one wears shoes.”

The other salesman reported enthusiastically, “Market potential terrific! Everyone is barefooted.”

In Spain there is a very old proverb which says, "All laws go the way that kings desire." Behind this is an interesting story. About the beginning of the twelfth century there was a debate about whether the country's churches were to use Gothic or Roman prayer books in their services. The question eventually came before Alfonso VI, who was king at the time. Alfonso decided to leave the matter to chance, so he threw a copy of both prayer books into a fire declaring that the one that survived the ordeal should be chosen. However, when the Gothic missal survived the blaze, the king immediately threw it back into the fire and chose the Roman liturgies. Thus was the matter decided, and the proverb became popular throughout the country.

You know when you are growing old when…

Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work, your knees buckle and your belt won’t.

You sit down in a rocking chair and you can hardly get it going and you regret all those times you resisted temptation.

If you go into a bar, you order Geritol on the rocks. You think gay means happy and vivacious.

You look forward to spending a quiet evening at home.

Your back goes out oftener than you do.

You know all the answers but no one asks the questions.

Your little black book contains a lot of phone numbers but they all end in M.D.

Your mind makes agreements your body can’t keep.

You finally get it all together and then you can’t remember where you put it.

You get tired dialing long distance.

You can’t seem to get around to procrastinating.

Your favorite newspaper column is 25 years ago today - or more.

You don’t need an alarm clock to get up at 6 a.m.

After painting the town red, you wait a long time before applying a second coat.

You burn the midnight oil by 9 p.m.

You feel like the morning after and you haven’t even been any place.

Anything under a quarter isn’t worth bending over to pick up.

Your pacemaker opens the garage door whenever you see a pretty lady go by.

You might get winded playing checkers.

The only whistles you get are from the teakettle.

Your children begin to look middle aged.

The gleam in your eye is just the sun reflecting on your bifocals.

You stop to think and sometimes you can’t get started again.

You sink your teeth into a nice juicy steak and they stay there.

You finally make it to the top of the ladder but it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

Now if you have any of the above symptoms, you might consider joining the geriatrics club.

After church one Sunday, I noticed my five-year-old son Dennis writing intently. “Dad,” he said, “how do you spell ‘God’?” Pleased that he must have been paying attention in church, I told him.

And then he asked, “How do you spell ‘Zilla’?”

Do you rush, push, shout and become generally unpleasant on Sunday mornings? Do you complain about church? Are you irregular in your attendance? Are you over-conscientious about matters that are not really important? Do you always criticize the pastor, the choir, the length of services and the usher crew? Then don’t be surprised if your children grow up to look at Sundays as the worst day of the week.

Finding the right balance between the work place and home front can be a guilt trip, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Look over the list of possible improvements you can make in the way you balance career and family. But instead of viewing this as one more long list of things to do, imagine yourself already doing something on the list. The mind doesn’t distinguish between imagined and real success when it draws upon positive experiences, even imaginary ones, to reinforce good habits-in-the-making. Try imagining yourself combining work and family life in the ways listed below.

Keep it simple. It is doesn’t add to the happiness of your family, then change it.

Set aside time after dinner to help your kids with their homework.

Remember what you were like as a kid, and cut some slack for your kids. Keep important things in focus: family unity, values, fun and education.

Listen at all times: to mealtime stories, to the chatter over dishwashing, to bedtime prayers.

Create family rituals: Saturday morning pancakes, Sunday night pizza, Monday night health club, Thursday night piano recital.

Include children in your planning and decision-making regarding things like weekly chore assignments, summer vacation plans and special monthly events.

Hold family councils once a month to discuss pet peeves, rules, rewards and punishments.

Be both loving and firm in setting, negotiating and enforcing rules.

Let the answering machine take calls during the dinner hour and at bedtime. Or, take the phone off the hook.

Loves isn’t something you buy. Your kids spell it T-I-M-E and it costs more than M-O-N-E-Y.

It’s better to play 15 or 20 minutes spontaneously and have fun, then go do chores, work or other priorities, than to spend all day at the zoo (or ballgame or the mall) feeling angry, guilty, or worried.

Find one common mission or cause that your family loves to do together, instead of splintering your volunteer activities in several different directions.

This partial list was gleaned from “How Does a Mother Do It?” That’s the title of a brochure published by Mars Candy that compiles tips for Working Mother of the Year. We’ve adapted it. More importantly, what do you believe—and do—about this delicate balancing act?

Sherman and Hendricks have a seven-step process that, if left unrecognized, could lead to moral compromise:

1. A failure to commit ahead of time to do the right thing.

2. Underestimating evil and flirting with dangerous temptations, thus being exposed to far more powerful evils.

3. A failure to recognize the numerous forms of compromise lurking at every corner of life.

4. A failure to recognize the smooth flatteries and enticing fantasies of temptations. For example, overstating expenses on your expense report. After all, you company has a large budget and you’ve been a loyal employee who works overtime.

5. Succumbing to slick rationalizations. I have a Christian acquaintance who is proud of the fact that through the process of bartering he can avoid paying additional income tax, even though this is illegal.

6. A sudden, deliberate choice to give in to sin.

7. A failure to consider the costly consequences of sin.

A Father and his small son were out walking one day when the lad asked how electricity could go through the wires stretched between the telephone poles. “I don’t know,” said his father. “I never knew much about electricity.” A few blocks farther on, the boy asked what caused lightning and thunder. “That too has puzzled me,” came the reply. The youngster continued to inquire about many things, none of which the father could explain. Finally, as they were nearing home, the boy said, “Pop, I hope you didn’t mind all those questions.” “Not at all,” replied his father. “How else are you going to learn!”

A stranger who once visited a church where the service proved to be formal, prayed so loudly, the usher bent over him and whispered, "You don't have to pray so loud-God is not deaf!"

In response, the stranger whispered softly to himself, "God isn't deaf, but He is a long way from this place."

1. Since you think about four times faster than a person usually talks, do you use this time to think about other things while you’re keeping track of the conversation?

2. Do you listen primarily for facts rather than ideas when someone is speaking?

3. Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand?

4. Can you tell from a person’s appearance and delivery that there won’t be anything worthwhile aid?

5. When someone is talking to you do you appear to be paying attention when you’re not?

6. Do certain words and phrases prejudice you so you cannot listen objectively?

7. When listening are you distracted by outside sights and sounds?

Several cotton farmers were whiling away a winter afternoon around the potbellied stove. They soon became entangled in a heated discussion on the merits of their respective religions. The eldest of the farmers had been sitting quietly, just listening, when the group turned to him and demanded, “Who’s right, old Jim? Which one of these religions is the right one?”

“Well,” said Jim thoughtfully, “you know there are three ways to get from here to the cotton gin. You can go right over the big hill. That’s shorter but it’s a powerful climb. You can go around the east side of the hill. That’s not too far, but the road is rougher’n tarnation. Or you can go around the west side of the hill, which is the longest way, but the easiest.

“But you know,” he said, looking them squarely in the eye, “when you get there, the gin man don’t ask you how you come. He just asks, ‘Man, how good is your cotton?’”

A few years ago, Joseph M. Stowell and his wife had the joy of teaching the Word of God in Hawaii. It was February, which happens to be when the humpback whales arrive. Humpback whales are about 40 feet long at maturity and weigh about one ton per foot. They carry a thousand pounds of barnacles, and when they jump, or "breach," they extend themselves totally in the air, and then free-fall back into the ocean. You can see the splash five miles away.

During the Stowell's stay, they went out on a whale-watching boat. As they watched the whales jump and play almost within reach, the guide told them that the whales come down from Alaska every year to calve in the warm Hawaiian waters. Year after year, each family comes back to the very same place around the island. When the calves are born (they weight about five tons), they are born breech-or tail first. If they were born head first, these air-breathing mammals would drown during the birth process. As a baby whale is born, another humpback whale comes alongside and pushes it up to the surface to help the baby take his first breath of air.

The guide also said that the humpback whale sings a "song" that can be heard more than 50 miles away under water. Every one of these whales sings the same song. Each year, the song changes slightly, and every humpback whale in the world will sing that year's song. Amazing! Incredible! What a display of the wonderful creative power of our God!

A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26, 1997. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmist practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide.”

And for plenty of good reasons, since it:

Can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.

It is a major component in acid rain.

It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.

Accidental inhalation can kill you.

It decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.

It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical. Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the chemical was H20 (water). The title of his prize winning project was, “How Gullible Are We?” He feels the conclusion is obvious.