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A pastor had just received the news that he had a terminal illness. The next Sabbath he said to his congregation, "I walked the 5 miles from the doctor's
office to my home. I looked toward that majestic mountain that I love.
I looked at the river in which I rejoice. I looked at the stately trees
that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked
up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps and I said, 'I may not
see you many more times, but mountain, I will be alive when you are gone. And
river, I will be alive when you cease running towards the sea. And stars, I will
be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great pulling-down of the
universe.'"
A pastor was entertained on one occasion in the home of a wealthy oil man in
Texas. After the dinner the man took him up to the roof of his house and
indicated huge fields of oil derricks, and said, pastor, that's all mine. I came
to this country twenty- five years ago penniless, and now I own everything as
far as you can see in that direction." Then he turned to the opposite
direction and indicated waving fields of grain and said again, it's all mine. I
own everything as far as you can see in that direction." Then he turned to
the east, and pointed to huge herds of cattle and said again, "It's all
mine, everything as far as you can see in that direction is mine." One
final time he turned toward the west and pointed to a great virgin forest, and
said again, it's all mine. Twenty-five years ago I was penniless, but I worked
hard and saved, and today I own every thing as far as you can see in this
direction, that direction, that direction, and this direction." Christ was asking His disciples to establish a memorial to Him. Strangely enough, He asked for the most permanent memorial that could be made. Had He asked for some monument to be erected, like the Great Pyramid of Egypt, in time its real worth might be questioned. Had Christ asked for some building of great beauty to be erected in His memory, by now it might have been as the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, a reminder only of another day. Instead He said: "Frequently meet together. Eat a meal with the bread that will remind you of My broken body, and the grape juice of My blood. Look into the faces of one another, and love one another as I did when I was with men, and while you remember My cross, remember that I am coming for you. And wherever you thus meet, I shall meet with you." Monuments might long since have crumbled but this simple memorial still is as fresh and inspiring as when it was first given. ("Choice Illus." W.W. Clay pg. 36-37) A pious but cranky old lady was greatly annoyed because her neighbors forgot to ask her to go on their picnic. On the morning of the event they suddenly realized their affront and sent a little boy to ask her to come along. "It's too late now," she snapped. "I've already prayed for rain." --Sunday School Times A puppy said to a big dog, "I have mastered philosophy. I have learned that the best thing for a dog is happiness, and that happiness is my tail. Therefore, I am chasing it; and when I catch it, I shall have it!" The old dog replied, "I, too, have judged that happiness is a marvelous thing for a dog, and that happiness indeed resides in my tail. But I've noticed that when I chase it, it keeps running away from me; but when I go about my business, it comes after me."
A Roman coin was once found with the picture of an ox on it; the ox was facing
two things -- an altar and a plough; and the inscription read: "Ready
for either". The ox had to be ready either for the supreme moment of
sacrifice on the altar or the long labor of the plough on the farm.
A Sabbath School teacher asked her class: "Can anyone tell me the story of
Adam and Eve?"
A Sabbath School teacher asked her class, "Can anyone tell me what
conscience is?"
A Sabbath School teacher was questioning her pupils after a lesson on God's
omnipotence. "Now children," she asked, "is there anything God
can't do?"
A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back
across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll
sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown." "My dear turtle,"
laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would
go down with you. Now, where is the logic in that?" "You're
right," cried the turtle. "Hop on!" A servant girl said that she prayed all the time. The preacher asked her how she did this. She answered, "When I open my eyes in the morning, I ask God to open the eyes of my understanding. When I am dressing I ask God to clothe me with His righteousness. When I wash my face, I ask God to wash all my sins away. When I begin my work, I pray for strength equal to my tasks. When I kindle the fire, I pray for God to revive the fires of my soul. When I sweep the house, I pray for God to cleanse my heart of all impurities. When I prepare a meal, I pray for God to feed me with the manna from heaven. When I am busy with the little children, I pray for God to give me the spirit of a little child." She had indeed learned how to "pray without ceasing." - W. Hershel Ford, Simple Sermons for Special Days and Occasions, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1956), 20 A sincere compliment is one of the most effective teaching and motivational methods in existence. They may seem to be just so much air, but like the air we use to fill the tires on our automobiles, they can really ease us along life's highway. - Zig Ziglar
A slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest.
As he was wandering about there he came upon a Lion lying down moaning and
groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the Lion did not
pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he came near, the Lion
put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and Androcles found that a
huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all the pain. He pulled out
the thorn and bound up the paw of the Lion, who was soon able to rise and lick
the hand of Androcles like a dog. Then the Lion took Androcles to his
cave, and every day used to bring him meat from which to live. A speaker held up a blank sheet of paper and asked, "What do you see?" The reply was, "A piece of paper." He then placed the paper on the podium, made a tiny dot in the center and held it up again. "What do you see now?" "A dot," was the unanimous reply from the audience. "Imagine this blank paper is a person," the speaker said. "The small dot you saw is his/her biggest fault. The white surrounding the dot represents all of this person's worthwhile qualities which we so easily fail to see. Often a fault seems bigger than it really is and we allow it to overshadow the many positive aspects of that person's personality."
A story from Scotland tells of a mother's dramatic rescue of her child.
Workmen were blasting rock in a quarry. One day after they had attached
the fuse and retired to a safe place and gave the alarm they saw a three year
old child wandering across the open space where danger threatened. Every
passing second meant death was closing in on the child. A teacher was doing her best to discredit the miracles of the Bible. She said, "Take, for instance, the crossing of the Red Sea. We know this body of water was only 6 inches deep." Immediately from the back of the room came the remark, "Praise God for the miracle!" Annoyed, the teacher asked, "What miracle?" "Well," explained the boy, "the Lord must have drowned the whole Egyptian army in just 6 inches of water!"
A Turtle wanted to move to a new place of residence, so he asked an Eagle to
carry him to his new home, promising her a rich reward for her trouble.
The Eagle agreed and seizing the Turtle by the shell with her talons soared
aloft. On their way they met a Crow, who said to the Eagle: " Turtle
is good eating." "The shell is too hard," said the Eagle in
reply. "The rocks will soon crack the shell," was the Crow's
answer; and the Eagle, taking the hint, let the Turtle fall on a sharp rock, and
the two birds made a hearty meal of the Turtle. A little girl was sitting on her mother's knee. She was very fond of her mother. She called her, her "very own mother," and like one who was rejoicing over very precious treasures she was touching, one after the other, the features of her mother's face with her little fingers--her mother's lips, her eyes, her cheeks, her hair. After a while she said, "Mummy, can I see your heart?" The mother said, "I don't know about that, but you can look into my eyes, and see if you can see anything." The child climbed up and peered in; and then she cried out gleefully, "I can see your heart, Mummy, and there is a tiny girl away in there, and it's me!" --Sunday School Times
A wealthy English family once invited friends to spend some time at their
beautiful estate. The happy gathering was almost plunged into a terrible
tragedy on the first day. When the children went swimming, one of them got
into deep water and was drowning. Fortunately, the gardener heard the
others screaming and plunged into the pool to rescue the helpless victim.
That youngster was Winston Churchill. His parents, deeply grateful to the
gardener, asked what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said,
"I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor."
"We'll pay his way," replied Churchill's parents.
A WOLF followed a flock of sheep for a long time and did not attempt to injure
one of them. The Shepherd at first stood on his guard against him, as
against an enemy, and kept a strict watch over his movements. But when the
Wolf, day after day, kept in the company of the sheep and did not make the
slightest effort to seize them, the Shepherd began to look upon him as a
guardian of his flock rather than as a plotter of evil against it; and when
occasion called him one day into the city, he left the sheep entirely in his
charge. The Wolf, now that he had the opportunity, fell upon the sheep,
and destroyed the greater part of the flock. When the Shepherd returned to
find his flock destroyed, he exclaimed: "I have been rightly served;
why did I trust my sheep to a Wolf?' A woman and her husband interrupted their vacation to go to a dentist. "I want a tooth pulled, and I don't want Novocain because I'm in a big hurry," the woman said. "Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible, and we'll be on our way." The dentist was quite impressed. "You're certainly a courageous woman," he said. "Which tooth is it?" The woman turned to her husband and said, "Show him your tooth, dear."
A young coed had two problems common to many students: low grades and no
money. She was forced to communicate to both of her parents, who she knew
would have trouble understanding. After considerable thought she used a
creative approach to soften the blows of reality and wrote:
A young girl 16 years old drove her car to the grocery store. Her mother was
raking the yard. It was a fall day. When the girl came back from the
grocery store, she hadn't been driving long and wasn't familiar with how to use
the car that well and she was going far too fast.
A young lady once laid down a book she'd just finished, with the remark that it
was the dullest story she had ever read.
A young man entered business, failed, and spent seventeen years of his life
paying the bad debts of a worthless partner. He was in love with a
beautiful young woman to whom he became engaged, then she died. He ran for
the legislature of his state and was badly defeated. He ran for Congress
and again was badly defeated. He then sought an appointment to a
government office and was refused. He ran for the United States Senate and
was badly defeated. Then he ran for vice-president of the United States,
with the same result. One failure after another was the story of his life,
but he kept on trying. Then the tide began to turn and he became one of
the greatest men of the United States. A young man, a Christian, went to an older believer to ask for prayer. "Will you please pray that I may be more patient?" he asked. The aged saint agreed. They knelt together and the man began to pray, "Lord, send this young man tribulation in the morning; send this young many tribulation in the afternoon; send this young man...." At that point the young Christian blurted out, "No, no, I didn't ask you to pray for tribulation. I wanted you to pray for patience." "Ah," responded the wise Christian, "it's through tribulation that we learn patience."
A young minister about to deliver his first sermon asked a retired pastor for
advice on how to capture the congregation's attention. Start with an
opening line that's certain to grab them, the older man said. For
example: 'Some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman
who was not my wife.'
A young successful attorney said: "The greatest gift I ever received was a
gift I got one Christmas when my dad gave me a small box. Inside was a
note saying, 'Son, this year I will give you 365 hours, an hour every day after
dinner. It's yours. We'll talk about what you want to talk about, we'll go
where you want to go, play what you want to play. It will be your
hour!'"
Abraham Lincoln once asked a deputation, "How many legs would a sheep have
if it called his tail a leg?" The deputation promptly answered,
"five." "No," said Lincoln, "it would not.
It would have only four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one."
Rodney Wilmoth recalls an experience several years ago when he was the United
Methodist pastor in Fremont, Nebraska. A staff member came to work one
morning saying that the others there would never believe what had happened to
one of her neighbors on her street. Apparently the day before this man had
climbed up on the roof of his house to do some minor repairs.
According to an ancient legend, a man driving one day to Constantinople was
stopped by an old woman who asked him for a ride. He took her up beside him and
as they drove along he looked at her and became frightened and asked "Who
are you?" The old woman replied: "I am Cholera." Thereupon, the
peasant ordered the old woman to get down and walk; but she persuaded him to
take her along upon her promise that she would not kill more than five people in
Constantinople. As a pledge of the promise she handed him a dagger, saying to
him that it was the only weapon with which she could be killed. Then she added:
"I shall meet you in two days. If I break my promise you may stab me." Assurance This
sin-damaged world keeps on struggling, The
storm clouds of life keep on rolling,
A family had a very beautiful vase that was a family heirloom. Their little girl had been told that "it is our family treasure." One day there was a loud crash. The little girl began to wail. Her mother ran into the room and found her daughter crying and the vase broken. She asked her daughter, "what is wrong?". "I broke the family treasure", she cried. Her mother picked her up and said, "Yes, but you are all right." When the girl became a woman she said, "I found out that day that I was the real family treasure." A farmer troubled by a flock of crows in his corn field, loaded his shotgun and crawled unseen along the fence-row, determined to get a shot at the crows. Now the farmer had a very "sociable" parrot who made friends with everybody. Seeing the flock of crows, the parrot flew over and joined them (just being sociable, you know). The farmer saw the crows but didn't see the parrot. He took careful aim and BANG! The farmer crawled over the fence to pick up the fallen crows, and lo, there was his parrot - badly ruffled, with a broken wing, but still alive. Tenderly, the farmer carried the parrot home, where his children met him. Seeing that their pet was injured, they tearfully asked, "What happened, Papa?" Before he could answer, the parrot spoke up: "BAD COMPANY!" A few years ago at this time I was preparing to leave after Christmas for a preaching mission to the Fiji Islands. In preparation, I read some accounts of missionaries who had invested their lives in the South Pacific. One powerful story comes from a missionary to the head-hunting Sawis of Indonesia. He sat in a "manhouse" and told them how God showed Himself to all peoples in Jesus. They yawned and grew restless. However, when he told them about the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, they leaned forward and became interested. As they heard that a kiss, a sign of affection, was the means of betrayal, their eyes sparkled with amazement and respect. But their admiration was for JUDAS, not Jesus, for to these primitive cannibals, DECEIT and BETRAYAL were the highest virtues. The missionary saw it as his mission to try to overcome generations of cultural conditioning so that these people's thinking might be reversed. He persuaded three tribes that were natural enemies to move fairly close together so that he might have access to them. While they were reluctant, they did so because the missionary provided them with tools and medicine. As tension mounted among the tribes, the hostility became so great that he called the "headmen" together and told the tribes to disperse. He announced that he would have to go downstream and work among other people who could get along better. One morning the tribes gathered in an open place. The air was electric with tension. After a period of waiting, a warrior grabbed his nursing child from his anxious wife, ran to a former enemy and handed him the baby. The distraught mother pleaded with him not to do this. Then, abruptly, a warrior from the other side did the same thing. Aghast, the missionary asked what was happening. He was told that the tribes were exchanging a "peace child." As long as the children were unhurt, the tribes would live in peace. Shouts of joy broke out. People began to dance. The peace child made it possible for the tribes to live together without fear. A new era had been born. The missionary finally had an analogy for God's love. He now told the warriors that Jesus was God's "Peace Child!" God did not want to give up His Son to hostile people, but because of His love, He sent a peace child to live among them. The Sawis now heard the story of Jesus with new interest. If Jesus was a Peace Child, it was wrong to betray Him. Judas was no longer a hero. It was a new day for the Sawis. It was a new day for our world when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He brought a whole new set of values. He became God's Peace Child in a darkened world. He still seeks to bring peace to our world. World peace begins in our own heart! Let us point others to the Peace Child of Bethlehem! - Ernie Nivens, Tranquil United Methodist
A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam
until he reached Rembrandt's famous painting "Nightwatch."
Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be
stopped. A short time later, a
distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome with a hammer
and began to smash Michelangelo's beautiful sculpture, the Pieta.
Two cherished works of art were severely damaged.
But what did officials do? Throw
them out and forget about them? Absolutely not!
Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision,
they made very effort to restore the treasures.
A friend of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, once reminded
her of an especially cruel thing that had been done to her years before.
But Miss Barton seemed not to recall it.
"Don't you remember it?" her friend asked. Did You Think To Pray?
A gentleman traveling in Syria, relates how he stopped to watch three
shepherds who were at a well watering their flocks. The three flocks were all
mingled together at the watering place. The traveler could see no difference
between them, and he wondered how they would get them separated again without
great trouble. But presently one of the shepherds stood forth and called out,
"Menah," the Arabic for "Follow me," and sure enough thirty
sheep immediately separated themselves from the indiscriminate mass and began to
follow the shepherd up the hill. Then, a second shepherd lifted the cry, "Menah,"
and a second flock separated themselves and started after him, while the rest of
the sheep remained as unconcerned as if no one had spoken at all. A husband and his wife arose one Sabbath morning and the wife dressed for church. It was just about time for the service when she noticed her husband hadn't moved a finger toward getting dressed. Perplexed, she asked, "Why aren't you getting dressed for church?" He said, "Cause I don't want to go." She asked, "Do you have any reason?" He said, "Yes, I have three good reasons. First, the congregation is cold. Second, no one likes me. And third, I just don't want to go." The wife replied, wisely, "Well, honey, I have three reasons why you should go. First, the congregation is warm. Second, there are a few people there who like you. And third, you're the pastor! So get dressed!" James S Hewett, ed ILLUSTRATIONS UNLIMITED p182
A jungle tribe learned to trap monkeys by their own greed. Tribesman
simply left bright colored beads in glass jars where the monkeys could spot
them.
A lady in an airport bought a book to read and a package of cookies to
eat while she waited for her plane. After
she had taken her seat in the terminal and gotten engrossed in her book, she
noticed that the man one seat away from her was fumbling to open the package of
cookies on the seat between them. She
was so shocked that a stranger would eat her cookies that she didn't really know
what to do, so she just reached over and took one of the cookies and ate it.
The man didn't say anything but soon reach over and took another.
Well, the woman wasn't going to let hem eat them all, so she took
another, too. When they were down
to one cookie, the man reached over, broke the cookie in half, and got up and
left. The lady couldn't believe the
man's nerve, but soon the announcement came to board the plane.
A lady traveler was spending the summer m Switzerland, and one day she
strolled out to a shepherd's cabin. As she peered into it, she saw the shepherd
at work and his sheep lying around near him. One was lying on some straw
somewhat afflicted. On inquiry she found that its leg was broken, and she was
much surprised when the shepherd admitted that he broke the leg himself. He then
went on to explain to his astonished visitor that this particular sheep was the
most wayward one in the flock. It would not mind his voice; but, on the
contrary, would wander off from the rest, and risk its life on some steep
precipice over which it was liable to fall and be killed. Not only was it
disobedient, but it was constantly leading others astray. Finally, the shepherd
broke its leg. A little girl was walking with her daddy under a starlit sky. After several moments of silence, she remarked, "Father, I've been thinking. If the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, just imagine what the right side will be!" -Christian Endeavor World
A man bought a new hunting dog. Eager
to see how he would perform, he took him out to track a bear.
No sooner had they gotten into the woods than the dog picked up the
trail. Suddenly he stopped, sniffed
the ground, and headed in a new direction.
He had caught the scent of a deer that had crossed the bear's path.
A few moments later he halted again, this time smelling a rabbit that had
crossed the path of the deer. And
so, on and on it went until finally the breathless hunter caught up with his
dog, only to find him barking triumphantly down the hole of a field mouse. A man by the name of
Isidore Zimmerman served 25 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Because of false testimony, he was convicted of killing a New York
policeman. In time his innocence
was proven, however, and in 1962 he was released.
One of the sad elements of his story is what happened after that. Even
though innocent all along, he could not escape the stigma of being an
ex-convict. What few jobs he could
get didn't last long when employers learned he had served time.
His record was cleared, but he was not fully accepted by society. A man called his neighbor
to help him move a couch that had become stuck in the doorway.
They pushed and pulled until they were exhausted, but the couch wouldn't
budge. "Forget it," the man finally said.
"We'll never get this in."
A man was out walking in the desert at night when a voice said to him,
"Pick up some pebbles and put them in your pocket, and tomorrow you will be
both sorry and glad." Adversity When
things go wrong as they sometime will, - Unknown A bishop said to Louis XI of France, "Make an iron cage for all those who do not think as we do, an iron cage in which the captive can neither lie down nor stand straight up." It was fashioned, the awful instrument of punishment. After a while, the bishop offended Louis XI, and for fourteen years he was in that same cage and could neither lie down nor stand up. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again."--Rev. W. W. Landrum A boy was walking with his father along a lonely road at night carrying a lantern. He told his father he was afraid because the lantern showed such a little way ahead. The Father answered, "That is so, but if you walk straight on you will find that the light will reach to the end of the journey." God often gives us light for only a little way ahead, but He always gives at least that, and so He always gives us light enough for the whole journey.--Christian Endeavor World
A Burmese Christian tells the following parable: A little banyan
seed said to a palm tree one day, "I am weary of being tossed about by the
wind; let me lodge in your branches." "Remain as long as you
like," was the reply. Soon the
tree forgot all about its tiny guest, but the seed did not remain idle. Immediately it began to work its roots under the bark and
into the heart of the trunk itself. Finally
the tree cried out, "What are you doing?" "I'm only the little seed you allowed to rest among your
boughs," came the reply. "Get
out!" exclaimed the palm. "You've
become too large and strong!" "I
cannot leave you now," said the banyan.
"We have grown together, and I would kill you if I tore myself
away." The tree tried
desperately to shake itself loose, but to no avail.
Eventually its graceful leaves turned brown, and its trunk wasted away;
but the banyan continued to thrive until its host could not longer be found.
A certain woman went down from
Washington to Richmond and ran over a nail, which punctured her tire and left
her stranded by the side of the road. After
raising the hood of her car and tying a scarf to her radio antenna, she locked
the door handles and sat in the car, praying for the Lord to send help! |