Pastoral Resources

Go down to the fish market and look into the crab barrel. They never have to put a lid on it because if one crab starts to crawl out, the others will grab onto him and pull him back down.

That’s what negative peer pressure does. And that’s what you must fight against.

On his deathbed, British preacher Charles Simeon smiled brightly and asked the people gathered in his room, “What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time?”

When they all remained silent, he exclaimed, “The creation! I ask myself, ‘Did Jehovah create the world or did I?’ He did! Now if He made the world and all the rolling spheres of the universe, He certainly can take care of me. Into Jesus’ hands I can safely commit my spirit!”

Hudson Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission , in the closing months of his life said to a friend, “I am so weak. I can’t read my Bible. I can’t even pray. I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child and trust.”

When you say to a child, "Give me a glass," he knows what you are talking about. The word "glass" is associated in his mind with an object. Philosophers like Kant tell us that before we have the phenomenon, i.e., that which can be seen or felt by the senses, we have the noumenon, i.e., that which is conceived of by intellectual intuition. In other words, the object's image is first formed in the mind, and then it is produced as an object. We see a table. It is beautiful. We admire it, but more than that, we accept the fact that behind that object there was a concept in the mind of someone. Or consider the Empire State Building. Before it was erected, it took form in the mind of an architect who transferred his thoughts to paper as a blueprint. Only then could the building be put up for everybody to see. John tells us that Jesus Christ existed before the beginning of the world. The Creator was before the creature.

Elisabeth Elliot writes,

“To be a follower of the Crucified Christ means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss.… The great symbol of Christianity means sacrifice and no one who calls himself a Christian can evade this stark fact. It is not by any means an easy thing to recognize, within a given instance of personal loss, the opportunity it affords for participation in Christ’s own loss.”

- Elisabeth Elliot

At last He cried, with a loud voice: "It is finished!" Perhaps not many on earth heard it, or cared about it when they did hear it; but I can imagine there were not many in heaven who did not hear it, and if they have bells in heaven how they must have rung out that day; "It is finished! It is finished!" The Son of God had died that poor sinful man might have life eternal. I can imagine the angels walking through the streets of heaven crying: "It is finished!" and the mansions of that world ringing with the glad tidings: "It is finished!" It was the shout of victory. All you have got to do is to look and be saved. You have seen the waves of the sea come dashing up against a rocky shore. They come up and beat against the rock, and, breaking into pieces, go back to gather fresh strength, and again they come up and beat against the rock only to be again broken into pieces. And so it would seem as if the dark waves of hell had gathered all their strength together and had come beating up against the bosom of the Son of God; but he drives them all back again with that shout of a conqueror: "It is finished." And with that shout He snapped the fetters of sin, and broke the power of Satan.

While I was at a convention in Illinois an old man past 70 years, got up, and said he remembered but one thing about his father, and that one thing followed him all through life. He could not remember his death, he had no recollection of his funeral, but he recollected his father one winter night, taking a little chip, and with his pocket knife whittling out a little cross, and with the tears in his eyes he held up that cross telling how God in His infinite love sent His Son down here to redeem us, how He had died on the cross for us. The story of the cross followed him through life.

"The highest joy to the Christian almost always comes through suffering," said Alexander Maclaren. "No flower can bloom in Paradise which is not transplanted from Gethsemane. No one can taste of the fruit of the tree of life, that has not tasted of the fruits of the tree of Calvary. The crown is after the cross."

When Jesus said, “If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,” it was the same as saying, “Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.” He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind—the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution.

A little girl once begged a famous preacher to visit her dying mother. "Come and get my mother in," she pleaded. He followed the girl to a slum tenement, and sitting by the mother's bed began to speak of the beautiful example of Christ. But the woman interrupted him saying, "That's no good, mister, no good for the likes of me. I'm a poor sinner and I'm dying!" He was one of those preachers who did not think it proper to speak of the cross and the blood of Christ. But he remembered the simple story of Jesus dying on the cross, which he had heard from his mother, and he explained it all to the woman. "Now," she cried, "you're getting at it! That's the story for me!" The minister said afterward, "The gospel message got her in, and got me in, too!" That's the message that can bring salvation-the cross of Christ.

More than at any time in history, mankind faces a crossroads—one path leading to despair and utter hopelessness, the other leading to total destruction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

At a reception honoring musician Sir Robert Mayer on his 100th birthday, elderly British socialite Lady Diana Cooper fell into conversation with a friendly woman who seemed to know her well. Lady Diana’s failing eyesight prevented her from recognizing her fellow guest until she peered more closely at the magnificent diamonds and realized she was talking to Queen Elizabeth!

Overcome with embarrassment, Lady Diana curtsied and stammered, “Ma’am, oh, ma’am, I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t recognize you without your crown!”

An incident is related in Greek history of a wrestler who was so envious of Theagenes, the prince of wrestlers, that he could not be consoled in any way. After Theagenes died, a statue of him was erected in a public place. His envious antagonist went out every night and wrestled with the statue, until one night he threw it over. The statue fell on him and crushed him to death.

William Barclay gives us an excellent insight into the nature of the true church. He writes:

“Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found, it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there, but one person cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers.

“That precisely is what the church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all people and all nations can be reconciled to God. But before that can happen, they must know about Jesus Christ, and it is the task of the church to bring that about. Christ is the head; the church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon His errands, and a voice to speak His words.”

During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier’s fiancée had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!”

I remember hearing a few years ago a story about a young man away off in Russia. He was a wild, reckless dissipated youth. His father, thinking that if he could get him away from his associates, a reform would be worked, procured a commission in the army for him. And this is a mistake a great many Christian people fall into in dealing with their sons. It is not a change of place they require, it is a change of heart, A change of place will not take them away from the tempter. Well, off to the army this young man went, and, instead of reforming, he gambled and borrowed, and took to drinking as vigorously as ever. At length he had borrowed all the money he could, and, as we say he "had come to the end of his rope." A certain sum of money had to be paid the next day, and he did not see how it could be done without selling his commission, and if he did that he would be compelled to leave the army and go home to his father disgraced. The laws were very rigid in Russia upon the matter of debt, and if he couldn't pay he knew he would have to go to prison.

That night as he sat in his barracks, heart-broken at the prospect before him, he thought he would take up a paper and figure up his debts, and see how he stood. And here, let me say, it would be well if the sinner would pause occasionally, and try and figure up his sins, and see where he stood with God. Well, this young man put down one debt after another, until they made a long column. The total completely disheartened him; and he just put at the bottom of his figures, "Who is to pay this"? He laid his head upon his desk wearied, and fell asleep. That night the Czar, according to his custom, was walking through the barracks while the soldiers slept, and happened to come to that spot where the young soldier slept. He saw upon the desk the column of debts, and when he came to the bottom saw the question: "Who's to pay them?" and wrote underneath the name "Nicholas." When the young man awoke he took up the paper and found written at the bottom the signature of the Czar of all the Russias. What did it mean? Had an angel dropped down and canceled the debt? It was too good to be true. He couldn't believe it. But by and by the money came from the Emperor himself. This story may be true or not. I don't care whether it is or not; but there is one thing I do know is true, and that is that the great Emperor of heaven is here, and if you put down all your sins and multiply them by ten thousand, He will pay it and shelter you underneath the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth us from all sin.

There was a dachshund once so long

He hadn’t any notion

How long it took to notify

His tail of an emotion.

And so it happened, while his eyes

Were full of woe and sadness,

His little tail went wagging on

Because of previous gladness.

Josh McDowell has been trying to find out what dads are doing in Christian families, and the news isn’t good. In his book The Dad Difference, McDowell reveals that there seems to be a parenting gap. These statistics are from McDowell’s book:

The average teen in our churches spends only 2 minutes a day in meaningful dialogue with his dad.

25% of these teens say they have never had a meaningful conversation with their father—a talk centered on the teens’ interests.

A positive and continuous relationship to one’s father has been found to be associated with a good self-concept, higher self-esteem, higher self-confidence in personal and social interaction, higher moral maturity, reduced rates of unwed teen pregnancy, greater internal control and higher career aspirations. Fathers who are affectionate, nurturing and actively involved in child-rearing are more likely to have well-adjusted children.

The day of resurrection?

Earth, tell it out abroad;

The Passover of gladness,

The Passover of God.

From death to life eternal,

From this world to the sky,

Our Christ hath brought us over

With hymns of victory.

Now let the heavens be joyful,

Let earth her song begin;

Let the round world keep triumph,

And all that is therein.

Let all things seen and unseen

Their notes in gladness blend,

For Christ the Lord hath risen,

Our Joy that hath no end.

William Pickerill was telegraph operator at Mineral Point, a small village in the path of the Johnstown Flood of 1889. His telegraph lines were dead in both directions and soon he heard the roar of floodwaters followed a few moments later by the spectacle of human beings bobbing downstream on its crest. A few hundred feet west of the tower, an engine waited on the tracks.

Pickerill shouted down to the engineer, John Hess, “The dam has broken—clear out or you’ll be washed off the tracks!” Hess tied down his whistle and raced his engine backward toward East Conemaugh. He didn’t stop until he reached the yards; then he jumped out and ran up Railroad Street to his home, arriving in time to gather his family and take them up the hillside. The train whistle blasted away behind him, the only public warning given to the people of that borough. The whistle didn’t stop until the flood picked up the engine, choked its boiler and swept it downstream. In the East Conemaugh railroad yards the Day Express, eastbound from Chicago, was laying over, waiting for word that the tracks had been cleared. Twenty-year-old Jennie Paulson and her traveling companion Elizabeth Bryan sat in the first section, chattering unconcernedly. The young women were headed to Philadelphia for a weekend house party at Elizabeth’s home. When the shriek of engineer Hess’s train whistle was heard, they craned their necks to look up the tracks. Trainmen hurried through the cars, calmly telling the passengers, “Please step up the hillside as quickly as possible,” and refusing to discuss the order further. One man, after hearing the shrill of the whistle, turned to a woman sitting near him and said, “I presume there is no danger.” Then he looked out of his car window and saw a huge mass of trees and water, about 200 or 300 feet away, bearing down on the train and blotting out the horizon. Paralyzed with panic, many of the passengers were engulfed while still inside the train. Others jumped and scrambled for higher ground. Elizabeth and Jennie were among the first passengers to get off the train and start for the hillside.

But once outside the Pullman, Jennie caught her friend’s arm, staring in dismay at the dirty water swirling around her new white kid shoes. They went back to the car for Jennie’s overshoes and were just descending the platform steps when the flood struck the train and carried it off. Many days later, and many miles downstream, their bodies were recovered. Jennie had her overshoes on.

The Dead Sea is so salty that it contains no fish or plant life. What accounts for this unusual condition? There are absolutely no outlets! A great volume of water pours into this area, but nothing flows out. Many inlets plus no outlets equal a dead sea.

This law of nature may also be applied to the child of God, and it explains why many believers are so unfruitful and lacking in spiritual vitality. It’s possible for some people to attend Bible conferences, listen to religious broadcasts, study the Scriptures, and continually take in the Word as it is preached from the pulpit, and yet seem lifeless and unproductive in their Christian lives. Such individuals are like the Dead Sea. They have several “inlets” but no “outlets.” To be vibrant and useful believers, we must not only “take in” all we can, but we must also “give out” in service to others!

The building is not really the Church. God's people are. Yet the Church today spends more money for buildings than for anything else. When an artist was asked to paint a picture of a decaying church, to everyone's astonishment, instead of putting on canvas an old, tottering ruin, the artist painted a stately edifice of modern grandeur. Through the open portals could be seen the richly carved pulpit, the magnificent organ, and the beautiful stained glass windows. To one side was an elaborately designed offering plate for foreign missions -covered by a cobweb!

The deceitfulness of sin is vividly seen in the life of the French philosopher Rousseau. He declared, “No man can come to the throne of God and say, ‘I’m a better man than Rousseau.’” When he knew death was close at hand, he boasted, “Ah, how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reason for remorse or self-reproach.” Then he prayed, “Eternal Being, the soul that I am going to give Thee back is as pure at this moment as it was when it proceeded from Thee; render it a partaker of Thy felicity!” This is an amazing statement when we realize that Rousseau didn’t profess to be born again. In his writings he advocated adultery and suicide, and for more than 20 years he lived in licentiousness. Most of his children were born out of wedlock and sent to a foundling home. He was mean, treacherous, hypocritical, and blasphemous.

A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in two’s for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight point buck.

“Where’s Harry?”

“Harry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail.”

“You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?”

“A tough call,” nodded the hunter, “but I figured no one is going to steal Harry.”

At one time, that thoughtful man who became St. Augustine was greatly disturbed because he could not understand the essence of God. "I admit there is a God," he mused, "but how can I know of what He consists?" Christ had come down to earth with the claim that He was God. By His resurrection, which He Himself predicted, He proved that claim. He revealed that God is a Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But how could a mind as developed as that of Augustine accept this? One day as he was walking by the sea, he saw a small boy who, with the help of a shell, was emptying water from the ocean into a hole he had dug in the sand. "What are you doing, son?" asked Augustine. He was impressed by the naive answer, "I'm going to empty all the sea into this hole." Augustine smiled. An inner voice, however, was saying to him, "You are trying to do the same thing by thinking you can understand the depths of God with your limited mind."

The devil is not impersonal like stones or bureaucracies; he is a non-person. The Devil has become all that God is not; he is not beyond personality—he is without it. His purpose in creation is not to destroy God; he knows that he cannot do that. He wants to draw us into the vortex of non-personhood that he has become, and the nothingness of non-being that he is becoming. Satan, in short, aims to take as many of us with him as he can.

The devil and his cohorts were devising plans to get people to reject the Gospel. “Let’s go to them and say there is no God,” proposed one. Silence prevailed. Every devil knew that most people believe in a supreme being. “Let’s tell them there is no hell, no future punishment for the wicked,” offered another. That was turned down, because men obviously have consciences which tell them that sin must be punished. The concave was going to end in failure when there came a voice from the rear: “Tell them there is a God, there is a hell and that the Bible is the Word of God. But tell them there is plenty of time to decide the question. Let them ‘neglect’ the Gospel, until it is too late.” All hell erupted with ghoulish glee, for they knew that if a person procrastinated on Christ, they usually never accept Him.

His overall strategy is to supersede and overthrow the kingdom of God. It is a strategy of destruction. If he was too clever for man in his perfection in Eden, he has a much greater advantage over man in his fallen state.

It has been said that he plans to destroy human government through anarchy. Any student of history can trace this stratagem of the devil, the pervading activity of a malign power, poisoning the stream of human history. He is the mastermind behind the present world system with its lust for power and its political and economic intrigue.

He purposes to destroy human society through debauchery. Any student of sociology can trace a similar pattern in the cycles of human history. In our own day we have seen the world flooded with moral filth to a degree inconceivable fifty years ago.

He aims to destroy true religion through apostasy. Any student of theology and church history can discern recurring heresies and apostasies through the centuries. And in our own day there has been a widespread recrudescence of many of the old heresies in the heretical cults which have been spawned and are now encircling the globe.

As the god of this age, he has set up a complete counterfeit of Christianity. Not without reason did Augustine term him Simius Dei, the ape of God. He has his own trinity—the devil, the beast, and the false prophet; his own church—the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9); his own ministers—ministers of Satan (II Cor. 11:15); his own gospel—another gospel (Gal. 1:6); his own theology—doctrines of devils (I Tim. 4:1); his own sacrifices—sacrifices offered to demons (I Cor. 10:21); his own table and cup (I Cor. 10:21-22).

Everything about him is false. He uses false and counterfeit instruments to achieve his purpose. He employs false teachers (Acts 20:30; II Peter 2:1) who specialize in his theology and “bring in damnable heresies.” They “creep in privily” into the churches and subtly mix truth with error. He enlists the support of false prophets (II Peter 2:1; Matt. 24:11). Professing to have a message from God, they in reality draw their inspiration from hell. He promotes false Christs (Matt. 24:4-5), self-constituted messiahs and deliverers. He [is] aided by false apostles, deceitful workers (II Cor. 11, 13), and false brethren (Gal. 2:4-5) who steal in to spy out the liberty of believers, in order to draw them back into legal bondage.

Paul sums up this aspect of the devil’s activities in these words: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (II Cor. 11:14-15).

What is meant by “the flesh”? Dr. W.G. Scroggie detected ten shades of meaning used in the Bible. In nine of the ten, there is no ethical or theological content. But the tenth, which is the one Paul mainly employs, does have such significance. The flesh may be defined as “man’s fallen nature as under the power of sin.” It is the evil principle in man’s nature, the traitor within who is in league with the attackers without. The flesh provides the tinder on which the devil’s temptations can kindle.

A Finnish infidel once bequeathed his farm to the devil. The will was studied by the courts, and it was decided that the way to carry out the provisions would be to leave the farm untouched by human hands. In a few years it was overgrown with brush, the buildings had tumbled down, and the whole farm presented a scene of desolation and ugliness. That's the way property looks when Satan owns it. Also churches left desolate are the result of Satan's work.

The doubleheader train was bucking a heavy snowstorm as its steam engines pulled it west.

A woman with a baby wanted to leave the train at one of the little stations along the route.

She repeatedly called, “Don’t forget me!” to the brakeman responsible to call out the stations they approached. Her husband was to meet her.

The train slowed to a stop, and a fellow traveler said, “Here’s your station.” She hopped from the train into the storm. The train moved on again.

Forty-five minutes later, the brakeman came in. “Where’s the woman?”

“She got off at the last stop,” the traveler said.

“Then she got off to her death,” the brakeman responded. “We stopped only because there was something the matter with the engine.”

They called for volunteers to go back and search for the woman and child. When they found her hours later, not far from the track where they stopped, she was covered with ice and snow. The little boy was protected on her breast. She had followed the man’s directions, but they were wrong—dead wrong.

Paul declares Christ is the one Mediator between man and God. Peter emphasizes there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our only Authority. His blood has made atonement for our sin. Only He can tell us how to reach our final destination. Depend on the One who has experienced death and provided redemption for you, the One who will walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death.

Spurgeon, that great prince of preachers, was once staying at an inn in one of the valleys of northern Italy where the floor was dreadfully dirty. "I had it in my mind to advise the lady to scrub it," said Spurgeon, "but when I perceived it was made of dirt, I reflected that the more she scrubbed the worse it would be." Just so, God knew that there could be no improvement of the corrupt nature of man except through faith in His Son.

A widow whose children had left her one by one to go to the "new country" (as she called it) heard each of them promise to save money and to send for her "very soon." Time passed; the children married and had children, but no mention came of sending for the old mother. She longed to see them, but thinking they lacked the means, she saved up enough money herself to pay them a surprise visit. But, her reception was the reverse of what she had fondly anticipated. Her children, who had prospered, seemed annoyed at their mother's coming, criticized her old-fashioned dress and speech, and had no room for her. The disappointed woman came back and entered a home for the aged, where she proved a blessing to all about her, shedding on those around her the love that her own children had rejected. No bitterness remained in the heart of the aged saint. "It seems to me that I knew what our Lord suffered," she told a friend, "when He came to His own dear people and they gave Him the cold shoulder. Just think! He came unto His own and His own received Him not! I can understand how that wounded His loving heart." Yet she could praise God for the experience since it drew her closer to her Savior and made her more compassionate toward others.

A poet and an artist each examined a painting by Poussin representing the healing of the two blind men of Jericho. The artist asked, "What seems to you the most remarkable thing in this painting?" The poet replied, "Everything in the painting is excellently given-the form of Christ, the grouping of the individuals, the expression in the faces of the leading character, everything." The artist seemed to find the most significant touch elsewhere. Pointing to the steps of a house in the corner of the picture, he said, "Do you see that discarded cane lying there?" "Yes, but what does that signify?" "Why, my friend, on those steps the blind man sat with the cane in his hand. But when he heard Christ had come, he was so sure that he would be healed that he let his cane lie there, since he would need it no more, and hastened to the Lord as if he could already see."

If ye seek Jesus, do not go to His grave. You will not find Him there. Is it not quite striking that after the disciples were convinced that He had risen they never again visited His tomb? At least there is no record of it. Why should they? It was only an incident, a temporary halting place in the experience of our Lord. They did not make pilgrimages to it. They did not esteem it above any other place. They did not bury it beneath tokens of affection. They did not break off pieces of the rock and keep them as relics for seeking souls to look at in the hope of meriting divine favor.

No, after that first Sunday evening, the disciples were done with the tomb. Why should they give their time to the veneration of places, when they had the living Savior with them? To us, Christ is all and in all. He is alive, and He has power to give life. Not by meat and drink, not by pilgrimages and fastings, but by looking unto Him do we enter into life that death cannot touch.

If ye seek Jesus, do not go to His grave. You will not find Him there. Is it not quite striking that after the disciples were convinced that He had risen they never again visited His tomb? At least there is no record of it. Why should they? It was only an incident, a temporary halting place in the experience of our Lord. They did not make pilgrimages to it. They did not esteem it above any other place. They did not bury it beneath tokens of affection. They did not break off pieces of the rock and keep them as relics for seeking souls to look at in the hope of meriting divine favor.

No, after that first Sunday evening, the disciples were done with the tomb. Why should they give their time to the veneration of places, when they had the living Savior with them? To us, Christ is all and in all. He is alive, and He has power to give life. Not by meat and drink, not by pilgrimages and fastings, but by looking unto Him do we enter into life that death cannot touch.

Hubert Brooke comments: "A selfish existence in one, who is in membership with many others, is a contradiction of terms, and must mean loss to all the rest, and misery to the idle member." May not this explain the restless discontent of many who are really united to Christ? They are not subject to the Head; they are not using His gifts for the common profit; they keep for themselves what is given for all. In short, they are disobedient and dishonest, and therefore discontented and missing the joy of the Lord.

Many times the Christian wishes for death in the face of difficulties and trials. He is like the poor man carrying a load of sticks who, when he became tired, sat down on a bank, and laying his sticks on the ground said, "I am sick and tired of this. I wish death would come to relieve me." Instantly, Death slipped up and said, "Here am I; what do you want of me?" "I want you to help me put this bundle of sticks on my back again," said the astonished pilgrim. We are all prone to think that our load of sticks is heavier-that our road more difficult and our enemies more daring than any other Christian's.

A psychologist asked a group of college students to jot down, in 30 seconds, the initials of the people they disliked. Some of the students taking the test could think of only one person. Others listed as many as 14. But the interesting fact that came out of the research was this: Those who disliked the largest number of people were themselves the most widely disliked.

Lines are everywhere! There are lines in parking lots to designate the parking spaces. There are lines drawn at intersections so that pedestrians know where to cross the street. There are little, but important, lines drawn on rulers to show units of measure. There are lines drawn on baseball diamonds, basketball courts, and football fields to help the players and referees know if the balls, and players, are in or out.

Lines can be very important. They help us know where we stand. We are either on one side of the line or the other.

Exodus 32 tells us that Moses drew a line. Here's why: God's people had participated in a drunken party and had worshiped a golden calf. Drunken idolaters! Moses knew that God demands that people love, obey and worship only Him. In a very courageous move, Moses stepped in front of all those people and drew a line by saying, "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come to me...." (Exo 32:26). That day, many crossed the line by standing with Moses and the Lord.

Jesus, too, drew a line when He called those from the multitude to follow Him. Jesus' words make a very clear line: either you are for Christ or you are against Him. That same line exists today. We must decide on which side of that line we will stand.

Many choose to stand on both sides of the line. And for those individuals Jesus replies, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev 3:15-16). There is no middle ground with the Lord. In fact, for those who try, it makes Him sick to His stomach. Take a stand on God's side.

An examining committee of ministers once met to determine the qualifications of Billy Sunday for ordination as a gospel minister. Among other questions fired at the world-famous baseball player was a request that he identify a well-known church father and name some of his writings. Billy was stumped. After fumbling around for a moment, he looked up with a twinkle in his eye and said, "I never heard of him. He was never on my team." The learned theologians deliberated together, but found it hard to make a decision. Finally, one of them moved that Billy Sunday be recommended for ordination, adding, "He has already won more souls for Christ than the whole shebang of us put together." The secret-he was sent by God.

It was only a cold in her head when Mrs. Mosby came to Doc Bradley. The doctor poured out some medicine from his store and told her how often to take it. A few days later he was called to her home, for in those days doctors made housecalls. The cold had settled in her chest. More medicine was prescribed, but the woman died. She could have survived, and it hurt the doctor to know he had prescribed, but the patient did not survive.

A short time after the funeral, the doctor happened to meet Mrs. Mosby's sister and by accident learned that the sick woman had not taken a drop of his medicine, but instead poured it down the sink. The doctor then realized he was not responsible, for the patient had not followed orders.

Obviously the preacher is responsible to prescribe the right medicine. Too many in the church pews listen but do not take the gospel medicine. Only those who listen and follow what is prescribed can expect to find spiritual health.

Have you ever been caught in a revolving door? It just keeps on going around and you cannot get out. Some people are like that, they have no direction as to where they are going. You may ask someone, "Where are you going?" The person will answer, "I don't know." Then how will you know when you get there? Besides its common use as the entrance to a house or building, this word is used metaphorically as the entrance to anything. Jesus said that He is the door, the entrance, into the kingdom (Joh 10:7-9). The door of faith is the opportunity of belief offered to the Gentiles in Act 14:27. Elsewhere it means opportunity.

Paul refers to a great door opening to him in 2Co 2:13. Rev 4:1 says, "I looked and a door was opened." Do we have the ability to see the open doors, and if so, do we go in and avail ourselves of the opportunities that await us? Jude talks about people who have no direction, driven about by winds first one way then another. This accomplishes nothing. Ephesians 4 speaks of being carried about by every wind, again depicting no direction.

Some brethren show no more direction after being a Christian for thirty or forty years than they did when they first obeyed. This is the door that goes nowhere. They have gone through the door but stopped, so in essence it has taken them nowhere. Paul relates to this when he says, "By reason of time you ought to be teachers, you have that need that someone teach you again what be the first principles" (Heb 5:12).

As a minister was addressing a group of men, he took a large piece of paper and made a black dot in the center of it with a marking pen. Then he held the paper up before the group and asked them what they saw. One person quickly replied, “I see a black mark.” “Right,” the preacher replied. “What else do you see?” Complete silence prevailed. “Don’t you see anything other than the dot?” he asked. A chorus of noes came from the audience. “I’m really surprised,” the speaker commented. “You have completely overlooked the most important thing of all—the sheet of paper.” Then he made the application. He said that in life we are often distracted by small, dot-like disappointments or painful experiences, and we are prone to forget the innumerable blessings we receive from the hand of the Lord. But like the sheet of paper, the good things are far more important than the adversities that monopolize our attention.

This reminds me of a bit of verse which, though I admit is somewhat trite, does express good practical advice. Someone has written: “As you travel down life’s pathway, may this ever be your goal:/ Keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole!”

Yes, rather than concentrating on the trials of life, we should fix our attention upon is blessings. Let us say with the psalmist, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits” (Psalm 68:19). - R. W. D.

On May 4, 1897, duchess Sophie-Charlotte Alencon was presiding over a charity ball in Paris when the hall caught fire. Flames spread to the paper decorations and flimsy walls, and in seconds the place was an inferno. In the hideous panic that followed, many women and children were trampled as they rushed for the exits, while workmen from a nearby site rushed into the blaze to carry out the trapped women. Some rescuers reached the duchess, who had remained calmly seated behind her booth.

“Because of my title, I was the first to enter here. I shall be the last to go out,” she said, rejecting their offer of help. She stayed and was burned to death along with more than 120 others.

God originally determined 30 years as the ideal span of life for all animals, including mankind. The donkey, the dog, and the monkey considered it much too long, however, and begged God to reduce their years by 18, 12, and 10. Being healthy, vigorous, and somewhat greedy, the man asked to be given those extra years.

God agreed, so man’s years totaled 70. The first 30 are his own and they pass quickly. The next 18 are the “donkey years,” during which he has to carry countless burdens on his back. Then come the “dog years”…12 years when he can do little but grow and drag himself along. This is followed by the “monkey years,” his closing 10, when he grows rather strange and does things that make children laugh at him.

The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”

The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much. But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

A lady had a little child that was dying. She thought it was resting sweetly in the arms of Jesus. She went into the room and the child asked her: "What are those clouds and mountains that I see so dark?" "Why, Eddy," said his mother, "there are no clouds or mountains, you must be mistaken." "Why, yes, I see great mountains and dark clouds, and I want you to take me in your arms and carry me over the mountains." "Ah," said the mother, "you must pray to Jesus, He will carry you safely," and, my friends, the sainted mother, the praying wife, may come to your bedside and wipe the damp sweat from your brow, but they cannot carry you over the Jordan when the hour comes. This mother said to her little boy, "I am afraid that it is unbelief that is coming upon you, my child, and you must pray that the Lord will be with you in your dying moments." And the two prayed, but the boy turned to her and said: "Don't you hear the angels, mother, over the mountains, and calling for me, and I cannot go?" "My dear boy, pray to Jesus, and He will come; He only can take you." And the boy closed his eyes and prayed, and when he opened them a heavenly smile overspread his face as he said, "Jesus has come to carry me over the mountains."

Dear sinner, Jesus is ready and willing to carry you over the mountains of sin, and over your mountains of unbelief. Give yourself to Him.

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

“Still it has the heart of an eagle,” replied the naturalist, “and can surely be taught to fly.” He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food.

Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.

While visiting the U.S. after World War II, Winston Churchill was aboard a train bound for Missouri with President Harry Truman. They were in a special car which had the presidential seal hung up on a wall. Truman noticed Churchill studying the seal and he pointed out that he had changed it so that the eagle on the seal was turned toward the olive branch instead of the arrows.

“Why not put the eagle’s head on a swivel,” suggested Churchill. “That way you could turn it to the right or the left, depending on what the occasion warranted.”

The easy roads are crowded

And the level roads are jammed;

The pleasant little rivers

With the drifting folk are crammed.

But off yonder where it’s rocky,

Where you get a better view,

You will find the ranks are thinning

And the travelers are few.

A man from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched smartly off. The father hollered to his youngest son, “Billy, go get mother.”

An item in the May 2, 1985, Kansas City Times reminds us of a story you may be able to use in an evangelistic message. The item had to do with the attempt by some fans of O. Henry, the short-story writer, to get a pardon for their hero, who was convicted in 1898 of embezzling $784.08 from the bank where he was employed.

But you cannot give a pardon to a dead man. A pardon can only be given to someone who can accept it. Now, for the story.

Back in 1830 George Wilson was convicted of robbing the United States Mail and was sentenced to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but he refused to accept it. The matter went to Chief Justice Marshall, who concluded that Wilson would have to be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”

For some, the pardon comes too late. For others, the pardon is not accepted.

Because Christ is in us, we have the assurance that our sins are forgiven. The Lord Jesus came into the world to pay the price for our sins. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Early in the 16th century, England was visited by Erasmus, one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance. While he was at Cambridge, he made a profound impression on at least one of its scholars. Thomas Bilney had been feeling the emptiness of the religion he had been taught. He felt that Erasmus had knowledge of a secret that was hidden from English eyes, and vowed he would purchase every book that came from the great master’s pen. Erasmus had translated the New Testament into Latin, so Bilney purchased a copy of it. He summarized its effect upon him by saying:

My soul was sick and I longed for peace, but nowhere could I find it. I went to the priests, and they appointed me penances and pilgrimages. Yet by these things my soul was not set free. But at last I heard of Jesus. It was then, when first the New Testament was set forth by Erasmus, that the light came. I bought the book, being drawn by the Latin rather than by the Word of God, for at that time I knew not what the Word of God meant. On my first reading I chanced upon these words, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” This one sentence through God’s inward working did so light up my poor bruised spirit that the very bones within me leaped for joy and gladness. It was as if, after a long dark night, day had suddenly broke.

Bilney knew himself to be a sinner and trusted Christ to save Him. The indwelling Christ gave him the assurance that his sins were truly forgiven, and he gave his life to unfolding to others the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Little Philip, born with Down’s syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully.

The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table.

Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether a flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, That’s stupid. That’s not fair. Somebody didn’t do their assignment.”

Philip spoke up, “That’s mine.”

“Philip, you don’t ever do things right!” the student retorted. “There’s nothing there!”

I did so do it,” Philip insisted. “I did do it. It’s empty. The tomb was empty!”

Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class. He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg.

The Australian coat of arms pictures two creatures—the emu, a flightless bird, and the kangaroo. The animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to the Australian citizens. Both the emu and kangaroo can move only forward, not back. The emu’s three-toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backwards, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverse by its large tail. Those who truly choose to follow Jesus become like the emu and kangaroo, moving only forward, never back (Luke 9:62)

Justin Martyr, one of the early Church Fathers, started out in his youth on a search for the highest wisdom. He tried a stoic, who told him that his search was vain. He turned to a second philosopher, whose greed for money quenched any hope of assistance from him. He appealed to a third, who required a preliminary knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry. Just think of a soul thirsting after God and pardon and peace, being told, "You can't have any of this until you've got a college degree." How many would be shut out from God's presence! In his helplessness, Justin Martyr applied to a follower of Plato, under whose guidance he began to have some hope that he was on the right track. But one day, when earnestly groping after the truth, he was met by a nameless old man who talked to him about Jesus Christ. Immediately he felt he was at the end of his quest. "Straightway," says Justin, "a flame was kindled in my soul," and if not in the actual words, yet in the spirit he sang,

"Thou, O Christ, art all I want;

More than all in Thee I find."

Ray had been in a coma for four days. Once powerful and muscular, his arms lay quietly at his flanks. Physically exhausted and consumed by his two-year struggle with colon cancer, he lay in his hospital bed motionless, a living chrysalis in an inverted cocoon. He would soon die, most likely within the day.

My hospital visit that morning brought me to Ray’s room at 5:30. The nursing station and patient rooms were quiet and, in one of the paradoxes of hospital life, even peaceful—if such a thing as peace is possible in a place where life and death constantly vie for dominance. Sitting silently at his bedside, Ray’s wife of 40 years, Jean, had placed her small hand softly on her husband’s right shoulder. No examination would be necessary today. In deference to Jean’s vigil, I pulled a chair abreast of hers and joined her silent watch, conjointly marveling at the physical stamina and endurance of the human body and pondering the mystery of the approach of physical death. Lost in our private thoughts and beset by personal memories of this marvelous man, we sat together, bonded by our grief and captivated by the drama slowly unfolding before us.

Suddenly, an awesome thing happened. Lasarus like, Ray sat bolt upright in his bed. Fiercely clutching the sides of his bed, Ray contracted his arms as he gasped with apparent abject horror into the void at the foot of his bed. This totally unanticipated activity was immediately followed by an equally unexpected loosening of his vocal cords—silent for these four days—in a terrifying scream that cascaded down the quiet hospital corridor.

In four short clauses that reverberate even today in my mind as I reflect on his death ten years ago, Ray screamed into the early morning surrounding his bed: “No! I don’t want to go...I don’t want to die...I won’t go!” Completely exhausted by this emotional and physical outburst, Ray collapsed into the bed, gasped the humid air of the hospital room two or three times, and died.

King Hezekiah would understand.

At an evangelistic meeting someone was converted. The next day one who was at the meeting saw the newly converted man put his hand into a chicken coop. "Say," called the older Christian, "I thought you were converted last night." Of course, it was evident that he was about to steal a chicken. His answer was, "I was converted sir, certainly I am, but I am just trying out the strength of my resolution." The wise reply of the older Christian was, "It is safer to fight Satan on your own ground than on his."

Back in 1820 the average person in England wrote only three letters a year. And with good reason. Letters in those days were mailed without a cover and could be read by anyone.

But William Mulready had an idea to ensure privacy—the envelope. On a visit to France Mulready noticed that messages from an important person often were completely enclosed in “a little paper case...impervious to the peering eyes of the curious.”

The idea of sending letters shielded from curious eyes was an instant success. The volume of letters handled by the British postal service soared beyond anyone’s expectations.

Today, there are billions of Mulready’s “little paper” envelopes safely traveling around the world.”

While waiting in a cemetery to conduct a funeral service, Charles Simeon walked among the graves, looking at the epitaphs. He found one that arrested him.

When from the dust of death I rise,

To claim my mansion in the skies,

E’en then shall this be all my plea--

“Jesus hath lived and died for me.”

He was so impressed with that gospel message that he looked for someone in the cemetery with whom he might share it. He saw a young woman, obviously distressed, and called her over to read the epitaph. He took her address and visited her the next day. The home was a scene of poverty and squalor. The woman’s old mother was dying of asthma, and two little children, very dirty, were trying to warm themselves by a small fire. Simeon prayed with the family, visited them again, and found assistance for them.

Later, the young woman told Simeon that she had been in the cemetery five hours and was contemplating suicide when he called her to read the epitaph. Because of his concern she trusted Christ and the family situation was changed.

In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives little animal called the ermine, known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.

Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life. - HGB

Think gently of the erring;

You know not of the power

With which the dark temptation came

In some unguarded hour;

You may not know how earnestly

They struggled, or how well,

Until the hour of weakness came

And sadly thus they fell.

Think gently of the erring;

Oh, do not now forget

However darkly stained by sin,

He is your brother yet;

Heir of the self-same heritage,

Child of the self-same God.

He has but stumbled in the path

Which you in weakness trod.

Speak gently to the erring;

You yet may lead them back,

With holy words and tones of love,

From misery’s thorny track;

Forget not you have sometimes sinned,

And sinful yet may be;

Deal gently with the erring, then,

As God has dealt with thee.

A brief, simple, but expressive eulogy was pronounce by Martin Luther upon a pastor at Zwickau in 1522 named Nicholas Haussmann.

“What we preach, he lived,” said the great reformer.

I would not give much for your religion unless it can be seen. Lamps do not talk, but they do shine.

(1) Revelation 4:1-2. John, a symbol of the church, is taken up to heaven.

(2) Daniel 9:27. The Antichrist signs a covenant for seven years with the nation of Israel. This is the event that inaugurates the Tribulation period.

(3) Revelation 6:1-2. Christ opens the first of the seven-sealed scroll, and the rider on the white horse (probably Antichrist) appears, using diplomacy and the promise of peace to establish his one-world government.

(4) Revelation 6:3-4. The second seal introduces a great world war.

(5) Revelation 6:5-6. The third seal begins the suffering of famine and inflation (the aftermath of war).

(6) Revelation 6:7-8. The fourth seal results, as do all wars, in death, but in this case it totals one-fourth of the people and living creatures. By today’s population standards, that would amount to one-and-a-half billion people.

(7) Revelation 6:9-11. This passage introduces the martyrdom of those who are converted under the preaching of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses described in chapter 7. An innumerable number of people receive Christ and are martyred by the government leader and harlot (the religious system described in chapter 17), who gets her power from the Antichrist. Note that evangelism during this period is back in the hands of the Jews. Since the church is absent, the 144,000 apostle-Paul-type believers will make powerful evangelists.

(8) Revelation 6:12-17. This sixth seal exhibits the wrath of God poured out in the form of a mighty earthquake, the like of which has never been experienced. It is so severe that people call on the rocks to fall on them.

(9) Revelation 8:1-6. The seventh seal introduces the Seven Trumpet Judgments, ending the first quarter of the Tribulation period and preparing for an even worse period called the “day of His [God’s] wrath.”

(10) Revelation 8:7. The first trumpet judgment results in one-third of all trees and green grass being burned up by hail, fire, and blood cast upon the earth.

(11) Revelation 8:8-9. The second trumpet sees a great mountain of sulfur falling into the sea and destroying a third-part of the sea and all living creatures in it and a third of the shipping vessels. Think of The Poseidon Adventure multiplied times one-third of all the world’s ships!

(12) Revelation 8:10-11. The third trumpet causes a great star (or meteor) called Wormword (or “bitter”) to fall on the fountains of water and third of rivers to turn bitter, resulting in the deaths of millions.

(13) Revelation 8:12. The fourth trumpet results in one-third less sun, moonlight, and stars, extending the darkness of night.

(14) Revelation 8:13. A special angel flies around the earth, warning that worse judgments are to come.

(15) Revelation 9:1-12. The fifth trumpet introduces hideous demon-like creatures such as scorpions and locusts out of the bottomless pit. Not able to kill men, they torture them so badly that they “will seek death and will not find it.”

(16) Revelation 9:13. The sixth trumpet introduces two hundred million horsemen (demon spirit-like death angels), who kill one-third of the people. This will occur between the fortieth and forty-second month of the first part of the Tribulation, which brings to 50 percent the population that is destroyed by God before the midpoint of the Tribulation. These individuals have taken the mark of the Beast and are considered incorrigibles. Since estimates of upwards of a quarter of those living at that time still be saved under the preaching of the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7:9, it is possible that 75 percent of the population 25 percent by martyrdom) will have been destroyed during the first half of the Tribulation period.

Now do you understand why I say that even a mid-Tribulation view of Christ’s coming for His church would mean enormous suffering to millions of believers?

It seems much more reasonable, particularly in the light of His promises to save His church from the “wrath to come,” that He would have His church from the “hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” That would certainly be characteristic of our loving, merciful, forgiving heavenly Father and Bridegroom. The saints who are martyred during the Tribulation are not part of the church. They are defined in Revelation 7:14 as “the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, and [have] washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

(17) Revelation 11:3-14. The Two Witnesses prophesy 1,260 days—a ministry which, if taken literally, would correspond with the forty-two months of judgments already described.

Obviously, these two witnesses are real people with miraculous powers like Moses and Elijah, here to preach and witness during the entire first half of the Tribulation. It may be through their witness that the 144,000 are saved and sent out preaching. As dreadful a time as this will be, God is faithful to provide plenty of gospel preaching to the nations.

(18) Revelation 11:15. The seventh trumpet judgment introduces the awesome events described in chapters 12-18 and the most severe set of judgments yet reported, the Vial Judgments.

(19) Revelation 17:1-18. Describes the destruction of the Babylonish, false religious system—the great harlot—which will merge all the religions of the world during the first part of the Tribulation (which will take place easily after the church is raptured). This system will be so powerful that it will dominate both the Antichrist (“the beast”) and the ten kings at that time. But because of their hatred for the harlot, at the midpoint of the Tribulation, they will make war on her and kill her.

(20) Revelation 13:1-3. In the process of killing the harlot Mystery Babylon, the false religious system, somehow the Antichrist is killed and gets “a deadly wound” that is healed. In chapter 12 Satan himself is cast out of heaven, where he has been “the accuser of our brethren,” and now he enters Antichrist’s body and resurrects him to a new and even more vicious life.

(21) Revelation 13:4-10. Antichrist, now incarnated, will force the remaining people of the earth to worship him, except those whose names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life (see 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10).

(22) Revelation 13:11-18. The False Prophet will replace the slain religious system, forcing people to worship Antichrist and his image, or be killed. Everyone will be compelled to display a 666 mark in order to hold a job and “buy and sell.”

Plainly, if the church were to go through the Tribulation, she would not survive it. And I find no scriptural evidence that any believers will remain at the end of the Tribulation to be raptured, if that event is post-Trib. Remember, the worst half of the Tribulation period, which our Lord termed the Great Tribulation, has not yet begun! That last forty-two month period is covered by the Vial Judgments.

(23) Revelation 16:1-2. The first vial causes giant sores on those who rejected Christ and instead accepted the mark of the Beast, signifying their worship of him.

(24) Revelation 16:3. The second vial is poured out on the sea, turning it “to blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.”

(25) Revelation 16:4. The third vial turns the rivers and other sources of water to blood (an especially just judgment because the people remaining had killed so many Tribulation saints).

(26) Revelation 16:8-9. The fourth vial will intensify the sun’s heat until ungodly men blaspheme the name of God.

(27) Revelation 16:10-11. The fifth vial will cause darkness to cover the throne of Antichrist and his entire kingdom. The sores will continue unrelentingly, producing such agony that men will gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme God and refuse to repent.

(28) Revelation 16:13-16. The sixth vial sends lying demon spirits out to the kings of the whole world to bring them down to “the battle of that great day of God Almighty,” more popularly known as the Battle of Armageddon.

(29) Revelation 16:17-21. The seventh vial result sin a judgment of Almighty God that destroys the entire world system and judges all unsaved men severely. But even though enormous hailstones fall, the unregenerate still refuse to repent. This judgment is so devastating that it prepares the world for the coming of Christ to set up His earthly kingdom.

(30) Revelation 18:1-24. The destruction of commercial and governmental Babylon—the New World Order for which man has yearned ever since his rebellion at Babylon—now occurs, possibly during the seventh vial since it fits there (verse 19) just before earth’s final judgment. It will totally collapse the Antichrist’s system and further pave the way for the best event of the Tribulation.

(31) Revelation 19:11-21. We finally witness the Glorious Appearing of Christ in Power and Great Glory as King of kings and Lord of lords to set up His thousand-year reign on this earth.

What is mercy? Just ask David McAllister, a blind, 77-year-old ex-convict.

Twenty-two years ago McAllister kidnapped 10-year-old Chris Carrier, shot him and left him for dead in the Florida Everglades. Although blinded in his left eye by the bullet, the boy survived. David McAllister escaped, and for more than two decades the case went unsolved. That is until last fall when a distraught McAllister, his frail body bedridden in a Miami nursing home, confessed to the crime.

After learning of the confession, Carrier, now 32, visited McAllister at his nursing home. But Chris did not go in anger or bitterness. Rather, he went to pray with his would-be murderer and share the good news of Jesus that had transformed his own life. You see, Chris Carrier lives on the side of mercy.

A Christian businessman who had suffered heavy losses was tempted to doubt the goodness of God. "Why did He allow these reverses to come to me?" he questioned. One night as he sat dejected and discouraged before the fireplace, his six-year-old son came and sat in his lap. Over the mantle hung a motto that read, "God's works are perfect." "Daddy, what does perfect mean?" asked the boy. Before the father could reply he continued, "Does it mean that God never makes a mistake?" The thought was just what the father needed. Hugging his son to him he said, "Yes, Johnny, that's just what it means!"

One day a boy and his father went into the mountains. They took shelter from a storm in the lee of some great gray boulders that lay like sleeping giants close to the crest of a lonely ridge. As the two looked upward, they saw the wind lay its grim hands on a mountain pine that towered from the summit of the ridge. It was a sentinel that could escape no danger, an outpost to receive the first shock of the enemy's attack. Savagely the wind tore at it, shook it violently, and howled through the branches.

To the boy, the tree, strong though it was, seemed about to be torn to pieces. "Look, Father!" he said, pining upward, "what the wind is doing to that pine!" The full fury of the blast just then made the pine shudder and sway. It heaved desperately against the black sky.

"Storms are an old story to that tree," said the father. "A tree like that lives in a struggle from the time it is high enough to catch the first breath of air. Tennyson says a tree is 'storm-strengthened on a windy site.'The strongest trees are always those that have weathered the greatest number of gales. Besides, the question is not what is happening to the tree, but what is happening in the tree."

"The pine does not really seem to mind fighting the storm, does it?" the boy asked.

"No, because it is able to withstand the strongest wind," the father answered. "It is the same with us. It really does not matter what happens to us, but it matters a great deal what happens in us."

One time many years ago, the king of Hungary found himself depressed and unhappy. He sent for his brother, a good-natured but rather indifferent prince. The king said to him, “I am a great sinner; I fear to meet God.” But the prince only laughed at him. This didn’t help the king’s disposition any. Though he was a believer, the king had gotten a glimpse of his guilt for the way he’d been living lately, and he seriously wanted help.

In those days it was customary if the executioner sounded a trumpet before a man’s door at any hour, it was a signal that he was to be led to his execution. The king sent the executioner in the dead of night to sound the fateful blast at his brother’s door. The prince realized with horror what was happening. Quickly dressing, he stepped to the door and was seized by the executioner, and dragged pale and trembling into the king’s presence. In an agony of terror he fell on his knees before his brother and begged to know how he had offended him.

“My brother,” answered the king, “if the sight of a human executioner is so terrible to you, shall not I, having grievously offended God, fear to be brought before the judgment seat of Christ?”

When I was in London, there was one lady dressed in black up in the gallery. All the rest were ministers. I wondered who that lady could be. At the close of the meeting I stepped up to her, and she asked me if I did not remember her. I did not, but she told me who she was, and her story came to my mind. When we were preaching in Dundee, Scotland, a mother came up with her two sons, 16,17 years old. She said to me, "Will you talk to my boys?" I asked her if she would talk to the inquirers, as there were more inquirers than workers. She said she was not a good enough Christian--was not prepared enough. I told her I could not talk to her then. Next night she came to me and asked me again, and the following night she repeated her request. Five hundred miles she journeyed to get God's blessing for her boys, Would to God we had more mothers like her. She came to London, and the first night I was there I saw her in the Agricultural Hall. She was accompanied by only one of her boys--the other had died. Toward the close of the meeting I received this letter from her:

"DEAR MR. MOODY: For months I have never considered the day's work ended unless you and your work had been specially prayed for. Now it appears before us more and more. What in our little measure we have found has no doubt been the happy experience of many others in London. My husband and I have sought as our greatest privilege to take unconverted friends one by one to the Agricultural hall, and I thank God that, with a single exception, those brought under the preaching from your lips have accepted Christ as their Savior, and are rejoicing in his love."

That lady was a lady of wealth and position. She lived a little way out of London gave up her beautiful home and took lodgings near Agricultural Hall, so as to be useful in the inquiry room. When we went down to the Opera House she was there when we went down to the east end, there she was again, and when I left London she had the names of 150 who had accepted Christ from her. Some have said that our work in London was a failure. Ask her if the work was a failure, and she will tell you. If we had a thousand such mothers in Chicago we would lift it. Go and bring your friends here to the meetings. Think of the privilege, my friends, of saving a soul. If we are going to work for good, we must be up and about it.