|
|
(Click here to display the 89 quotes shown above.) A cautious preacher concluded all his sermons with the following statement: "All sinners referred to in my sermon are purely fictitious. Any similarity to members of this congregation, past or present, is strictly coincidental!" A Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; a hand through which Christ helps.
A college girl wrote home:
Dear Mom & Dad,
A farmer made a sign advertising some puppies he had for sale. As he was nailing the sign to the post in his yard, he felt a
tug on his overalls. He looked down
and saw a little boy with a big grin and something in his hand.
A fascinating article appeared
in the Reader's Digest telling about a most unusual tree called the "Bristlecone
Pine." Growing in the western mountain regions, sometimes as high as two or
more miles above sea level, these evergreens may live for thousands of years.
The older specimens often have only one thin layer of bark on their
trunks. Considering the habitat of
these trees, such as rocky areas where the soil is poor and precipitation is
slight, it seems almost incredible that they should live so long or even survive
at all. The environmental
"adversities," however, actually contribute to their longevity. Cells
that are produced as a result of these perverse conditions are densely arranged,
and many resin canals are formed within the plant.
Wood that is so structured continues to live for an extremely long period
of time.
A father took his small son with him when he went to steal
potatoes from his neighbor's field. When
they came to the boundary fence, the father stopped and listened while his eyes
searched from right to left. Silently
he began to climb the fence.
A group of Christians in Russia
were meeting in secret for Bible study in a village near Moscow. Suddenly the
door of their meeting room burst open, and there stood two communist soldiers,
their rifles with bayonets pointed at the Christians.
One of the soldiers said, "We want to be fair about this, so if you
are not really committed to this Jesus and you don't really believe the Bible,
we give you a chance to leave. Now
get up and go if that's you." A Haifa policeman, well versed in the Bible, managed to track down a band of smugglers by applying a passage from the Prophets. The gang used an ass drawn caravan to cross the border into Israel and the policeman was able to capture some of the asses but the smugglers got away. The cop let the beasts of burden go without food for several days and then turned them free. And just as predicted in Isaiah: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib;" the starving animals led police directly to the smuggler's hideout.
A Harvard Business School
professor wrote an open letter to the nation's graduates.
He told them that in one sense they needed to forget what they had
learned in school. He said that
schools tend to put too much emphasis on the idea that success comes as a result
of passing tests. He also said that
too much emphasis is put on individual performance rather than on group effort
and cooperation. In real life, the
professor pointed out, doing well in the workplace depends largely on learning
to succeed in a "web of relationships."
A little boy was climbing a
tree, when he lost his balance, and began to fall. "Jesus, HELP me!"
he cried. A little church in the country was voting on building a new church. Everyone in the church wanted to build, except one older couple that always sat on the front row. They were very much opposed and told all who were in the church that their present arrangement was adequate, and God was not in favor of them building a new church. But the vote was finally taken and the church decided to build, starting the next Monday morning, on the site already chosen. All volunteers were to show up at 8 a.m. The appointed day came and the first man on the job was the very man who had voted against the building. He had his shovel, hammer, saw, overalls--and a good spirit. At lunch time his wife had all the workmen over to her house for a homemade hot lunch. And the same man showed up everyday, until the building was completed.
A little girl had misbehaved,
and as a punishment, at supper time, her parents sat her down at a small table
by herself in the corner of the dining room. A little girl was in bed - scared of the dark. She went into her parent's room and told her mother she was afraid. Her mother said, "It's OK, sweetheart. There's nothing to be afraid of, God is in there with you." The little girl went back to her bed and as she climbed into bed she said, "God, if you're in here, don't you say a word, you'll scare me to death." - Charles Lowery, "Falling Isn't That Bad," SBC Life, Sept. 1997, p. 15
A MAN came into a forest and
asked the Trees to provide him a handle for his ax.
The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree.
No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his ax from it, than he
began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the
forest. An old oak, lamenting when
too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar,
"The first step has lost us all. If
we had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet have retained our own
privileges and have stood for ages."
A man had a dog that seemed to spend the whole day just waiting
for the Empire State Express to pass by. As
it came in sight he would brace himself. Then
as it came by, he would dash with all his speed along the tracks until the last
coach went by.
A man was walking along a narrow path, not paying much attention to where
he was going. Suddenly he slipped
over the edge of a cliff. As he
fell, he grabbed a branch growing from the side of the cliff.
Realizing that he couldn't hang on for long, he called for help. A Methodist dentist, Dr. Thomas Welch, objected to his church's use of fermented wine in the communion service. Experimenting at night in his kitchen he came up with a nonalcoholic grape beverage, which he named "Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine". He approached church officials to persuade them to substitute his beverage for the traditional wine. The elders regarded his suggestion as being an unacceptable innovation. A son, Charles, who was also a dentist, changed the name to Welch's Grape Juice. He set up a production facility in a barn behind the family home. Response was so overwhelming that he gave up dentistry and devoted full time to making and distributing grape juice.
A minister asked a little boy
whether he prayed every day.
A minister habitually told his
congregation that if they needed a pastoral visit, to drop a note in the
offering plate. One evening after services he discovered a note that said,
"I am one of your loneliest members and heaviest contributors. May I have a
visit tomorrow evening?"
A minister was leading a Bible
Study on the book of Acts, when he came to the story of Eutychus - the young man
who sank into a deep sleep while Paul was preaching, and fell from the window
and was picked up dead. A missionary had been witnessing faithfully to a certain man who was an idol worshiper. One day the man placed a small statue and a silver coin on the table in front of the missionary. Then he took two slips of paper and wrote something on each. On the note by the idol he wrote the words heathen god. On the sheet next to the silver coin he wrote the words Christian god.
A missionary heard about a
native chief who had five wives. A nineteenth century painting shows a long row of beggars waiting in a soup line. They are all ragged and sleazy looking. But around the head of one, barely perceptible, is a halo. One of them is Christ! You may see no halo around the heads of your brothers and sisters in need, yet to serve them is to serve Christ, for the King is hidden in them.
A number of years ago, in a mental institution just outside
Boston, Mass., a young girl known as "Little Annie" was locked in the
dungeon. This institution was one of the more enlightened ones for the treatment
of the mentally disturbed. However,
the doctors felt that a dungeon was the only place for those who were
"hopelessly" insane. In
Little Annie's case, they saw no hope for her, so she was confined to a living
death in that small cage which received little light and even less hope. About
that time, an elderly nurse in the institution was nearing retirement. She felt there was hope for all of God's creatures, so she
started taking her lunch into the dungeon and eating outside Little Annie's
cage. She felt perhaps she could
communicate some love and hope to the little girl.
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 Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. The workmen called to the child and waved their arms, but he only looked on their strange antics with amusement. No man dared run forward knowing the explosion was only seconds away. The child most certainly would have been killed, had not his mother appeared at this moment of crisis. Taking in the situation at a glance she did what her mother's heart dictated. She did not run toward her son or yell to frighten him. Instead, she knelt down, opened wide her arms and smiled for him to come. Instantly the child ran towards her. Shortly later the area shook with the force of the explosion, yet the child was safe in his mother's arms. What a picture of the grace of God and of the cross. With outstretched arms on the cross Jesus gives his gracious invitation to the world. Indicating we are to come to him for eternal safety. Will you come to Jesus? - Pulpit Helps 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 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?'
When she came to the
intersection that turned towards her house there were some wet leaves that had
blown out into the road and she skidded on the wet leaves and she slid into a
tree and was thrown into the steering wheel with her chest and her head went
through the wind shield. The car
door opened and she fell out on the ground.
Her mother up the street raking leaves saw the entire thing. She heard
the tires screech and watched the car hit the tree. She ran down the street with
all of her strength. She fell down
and pulled her daughter's bleeding face up into her hand.
As she looked down into her daughter's face, here is what the girl said
to her before the mother could say a word.
The little girl looked up at her mother and said, "Mama, I'm going
to die. Mama, I'm going to
die." Her mother responded,
"No you're not honey! You're not going to die!
Everything is going to be all right, just stay calm."
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." According to an old Swedish proverb, worry gives a small thing a big shadow. According to tradition, when the apostle John was bishop in Ephesus, his hobby was raising pigeons. On one occasion an Ephesian elder passed his house as he returned from hunting. When he saw John playing with one of his birds, he gently chided the old bishop for spending his time so frivolously. John looked at his critic's bow and remarked that the string was loosened. "Yes," said the huntsman, "I also loosen the string of my bow when it's not in use. If it always stayed tight, it would lose its rebounding quality and fail me in the hunt." "And I," said John, "am now relaxing the bow of my mind so that I may be better able to shoot the arrows of divine truth." Across the grasslands of East Africa, live some of nature's most fascinating animals. The rhinoceros, a two-horned terror of tremendous speed, size and agility, is feared by most of the creatures in the wild. Being one of the most dangerous animals in the world, the rhino is avoided by most animals, that is, except the buffalo bird. Watching the rhinoceros in his natural habitat, you would see these birds perched on his back. From time to time, some would be pecking into his back much as a woodpecker would work away at an old tree. Others would be flying about the head of the rhino and still others lighting on his ears and pecking away. The most amazing thing is that the rhino does not attack, for the two have an understanding. From birth, the rhino has poor eyesight. In addition, his body is covered with parasites which he cannot control. The flock of birds on his back do him a great service by eating these parasites, which are the whole of their diet. If there is any danger in the area, these birds let out a shrill call warning the rhino of what he cannot see. In return for this service, they are protected from their natural predators by one of Africa's largest mammals. In a real sense, these two totally different animals of the world kingdom are fulfilling the responsibilities of mutual friendship.
A new mother stayed with her parents for several days after the birth of
her first child. One afternoon she
remarked to her mother that it was surprising the baby had dark hair, since both
her husband and she were blond. The
grandmother said, "Well, your daddy has black hair."
To which the daughter replied, "But, Mama, that doesn't matter,
because I'm adopted." With an embarrassed smile, that mother said the most
wonderful words her daughter had ever heard: "I always forget." Vera Czermak, of Prague, Czechoslovakia, discovered her husband was cheating on her. She contemplated both murder and suicide. Choosing the latter, she leaped out of a third-story window. She suffered only minor injuries, however, because she landed on her husband on the street below, killing him. – Lookout
The president of a Christian college was seated in his office when
a brokenhearted father, who had recently lost his only son in a tragic accident,
pushed open the door, and in anguish asked, "Where was God when my son's
life was snuffed out?"
"Pebble Beach on the coast of California is a lovely area
that typifies the advantages of friction. Ceaseless
waves thunder ashore and dash the beach. The
pitiless pounding of the waves tosses and grinds the stones together.
They are dashed against the rugged, ageless cliffs . . . This action goes
on year after year. The result is round, polished stones that are collected by
tourists as ornaments. Near Pebble
Beach is a quiet cove. A natural
formation serves as a breakwater. Sheltered
by the cliff are numerous stones. They
are unsought and unwanted. They
have been spared the wear caused by the pounding waves.
They have remained rough and unpolished." |