Pastoral Resources

The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name “God.”

Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, “Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for he has touched me many times before.” Helen Keller knew something of God’s signature from nature, but it was wordless.

1. Fix something right away or it will get worse.

2. An overabundance of culinary help is detrimental to the pot’s contents.

3. Just because something is shiny, doesn’t mean its a precious metal.

4. That which pleases the eye doesn’t go beyond the epidermis.

5. The capital of Italy was constructed over a long period of time.

6. There comes a time when your canine friend is through matriculating.

7. If you’re going to give advice to others, be sure you follow it yourself.

8. Just because you aren’t punctual doesn’t mean you should quit.

9. If you never try to do anything, you’ll never get anything done.

10. It doesn’t take long for a person without good sense to be separated from his financial assets!

Answers:

1. A stitch in time saves nine.

2. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

3. All that glitters is not gold.

4. Beauty is only skin deep.

5. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

6. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

7. Practice what you preach.

8. Better late than never.

9. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

10. A fool and his money are soon parted.

There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.

1. Ye blind guides (Matt. 23:16).

2. Ye fools (Matt. 23:17).

3. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees…for ye are like whited supulchres…full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness (Matt. 23:27).

4. Ye serpents (Matt. 23:33).

5. Ye generation of vipers (Matt. 23:33).

6. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (Luke 11:44).

7. Ye are as graves which appear not (Luke 11:44).

Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8)

Lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5)

Anointed One (Ps. 2:2)

Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16)

Author of Life (Acts 3:15)

Mighty God (Isa. 9:6)

Branch (Zech. 6:12)

Nazarene (Matt. 2:23)

Bright and Morning Star (Rev. 22:16)

Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6)

Christ (Matt. 1:16)

Rabbi (John 1:38)

Daystar ( 2 Pet. 1:19)

Root of David (Rev. 5:5)

Everlasting Father (Isa. 9:6)

Root of Jesse (Isa. 11:10)

Gate (John 10:9)

Son of David (Matt. 15:22)

Good Shepherd (John 10:14)

Son of God (Mark 1:1)

Holy and Righteous One (Acts 3:14)

Son of Man (Matt. 8:20)

I Am (John 8:58)

True Vine (John 15:1)

Immanuel (Isa. 7:14)

Wonderful Counselor (Isa. 9:6)

King of Kings (Rev. 19:16)

Word (John 1:1)

Lamb (Rev. 5:6-13)

Word of God (Rev. 19:13)

Lamb of God (John 1:29)

 

Back in 1934, when the Cunard line was getting ready to name its greatest ocean liner, the consensus was that it should be named after Queen Elizabeth I. A high official is reported to have had an audience with King George V. “We would like to name the ship after England’s greatest queen,” he told the king. “Well,” said King George, “I shall have to ask her.” The ship was promptly named Queen Mary.

Back in 1934, when the Cunard line was getting ready to name its greatest ocean liner, the consensus was that it should be named after Queen Elizabeth I. A high official is reported to have had an audience with King George V. “We would like to name the ship after England’s greatest queen,” he told the king. “Well,” said King George, “I shall have to ask her.” The ship was promptly named Queen Mary.

As a young man, film director Robert Flaherty spent many months in the far north looking for iron ore and gold. He found neither, but he did shoot 70,000 feet of film in his travels. Someone encouraged him to edit the film and make a documentary, which Flaherty spent weeks doing. But just as he finished, a match from his cigarette dropped among the celluloid, consuming the entire film and burning Flaherty badly. His response to the disaster was a determination to return to the far north and make a film of Eskimo life “that people will never forget.” He did just that, and the result was the classic 1922 documentary, Nanook of the North.

As Napolean was blazing his trail to the throne, he sought to conquer Egypt. Along with him as assistants he had some of the best engineers and scientists of France. It was natural they should talk about the land of the Nile and the part religion had played in its history. They agreed that religion had colored and carved the history of Egypt, but that all religion was only legend and humbug. It couldn't be otherwise, seeing that even God was a myth. So they talked beneath the starry heavens, these thinkers of France. They were atheists, as indeed so many of their fellow countrymen were at that time. Napolean listened and contributed nothing to the conversation, but as he rose to leave he lifted his hand and pointed to the silent stars that shone so brilliantly through the deep black sky. "Very ingenious, Messieurs," he said, "but who made all that?"

I never worry about what I will do if I win a battle, but I always know exactly what I will do if I lose one. - Napoleon

There is a well-known story told of Napoleon the First's time. In one of the conscriptions, during one of his many wars, a man was balloted as a conscript who did not want to go, but he had a friend who offered to go in his place. His friend joined the regiment in his name, and was sent off to the war. By and by a battle came on, in which he was killed, and they buried him on the battle-field. Some time after the Emperor wanted more men, and by some mistake the first man was balloted a second time. They went to take him but he remonstrated. You cannot take me." "Why not?" "I am dead," was the reply. "You are not dead; you are alive and well." "But I am dead," he said "Why, man, you must be mad. Where did you die?" "At such a battle, and you left me buried on such a battlefield." "You talk like a mad man," they cried; but the man stuck to his point that he had been dead and buried some months. "You look up your books," he said, "and see if it is not so." They looked, and found that he was right. They found the man's name entered as drafted, sent to the war, and marked off as killed. "Look here," they said, "you didn't die; you must have got some one to go for you; it must have been your substitute." "I know that," he said; "he died in my stead. You cannot touch me: I died in that man, and I go free. The law has no claim against me." They would not recognize the doctrine of substitution, and the case was carried to the Emperor. But he said that the man was right, that he was dead and buried in the eyes of the law, and that France had no claim against him. This story may or may not be true but one thing I know is true; Jesus Christ suffered death for the sinner, and those who accept Him are free from the law.

Napoleon Bonapart was responsible for the death of 500,000 French men in battle, approximately 1/6 of the population. He was exiled by the British for the last 6 years of his life on the Island of St. Helena. His wife Marie Louise never wrote him and married another man while he was still living. He never heard from his son again. he was confined to the house and grounds, needing the escort of a British soldier whenever he ventured anywhere on the island. The tombstone on his grave read simply, “here lies.”

It was 1804. Napoleon Bonaparte stared with frustration across the English Channel toward his nemesis. Behind him was the invincible Grande Armee, nearly 200,000 crack veterans, all straining at the leash to crush the hated English. Everything was ready for the invasion: the transport barges, the escort fleet, ammunition, cavalry, artillery, ambulance wagons, even field bakeries. Every last detail had been meticulously planned. It was merely a matter or crossing the 28 miles of water in a single night’s journey. Yet for month after month Napoleon paced the beach at Boulogne, hesitataing to act. Finally, after over a year of waiting, he suddenly turned his huge army around and marched it into the heart of Europe. The plan to invade England was laid aside forever. The thing that had stopped the great conqueror at the height of his career was the Royal Navy, Britain’s “wall of oak.” Out of sight, just over the horizon, it was nevertheless always foremost in Napoleon’s doubts. And though the future Emperor’s own fleet outnumbered the British, he dared not test it. That is the power of deterrence, that the true effectiveness of a strategic system is in the mind of the enemy.

“What, sir, you would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.”

It was Napoleon who said, "Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing are not explained either by human observation or the nature of things. His birth and the history of His life; the profundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the most admirable solution; His Gospel; His apparition; His empire; His march across the ages and the realms-everything is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverie from which I cannot escape-a mystery which is there before my eyes, a mystery which I can neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing human. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine. Everything is above me. Everything remains grand-of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an Intelligence which certainly is not that of man."

In The Chronicles of Narnia, an allegory by C. S. Lewis, the author has two girls, Susan and Lucy, getting ready to meet Aslan the lion, who represents Christ. Two talking animals, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, prepare the children for the encounter.

“Ooh,” said Susan, “I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie,” said Mrs. Beaver. “And make no mistake, if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then isn’t he safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you!”

Kreisler, the famous violinist, testified to this point when he said, “Narrow is the road that leads to the life of a violinist. Hour after hour, day after day and week after week, for years, I lived with my violin. There were so many things that I wanted to do that I had to leave undone; there were so many places I wanted to go that I had to miss if I was to master the violin. The road that I traveled was a narrow road and the way was hard.”

The Hope College Women’s basketball team had made it to the national playoffs. The final game saw Hope 20 points behind with 10 minutes left to play. The team remained calm and began to narrow the gap. Then with just 5 seconds remaining, a 3 point basket tied the game. The final score was decided by Dina Disney. With no time left on the clock, she sank two free throws to win the game. When television and press interviewers asked her how she stayed calm under so much pressure, Dina said she recited to herself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this by an inevitable chain of causes and effects Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.

George Mason, summarizing discussions on the floor of the Constitutional Convention

Notice what happened after 1962-63.

The Court ruled that Secular Humanism is a legitimate religion equivalent to Christianity under the law.- Tricosso v. Watkins, 1963 and again in 1986.

Atheism is ruled a religion. Court decision in 1977

Why is it not a Separation issue for Humanism and Atheism and Witchcraft to be taught in our public schools?

On October 27-28, the first National Summit on Fatherhood took place in Dallas. The summit was sponsored by the National Fatherhood Initiative, a new organization which emphasizes the irreplaceable role of fathers. The invitation-only event drew 300 civic, religious and cultural leaders from around the country. Following the opening address from Vice President Al Gore, 25 speakers and panel members, including Jeff Kemp, addressed the crowd on the subject of fathering and its effect on the family and society. Following are some of the interesting social trends and statistics that were discussed:

Father-absence is statistically correlated to every negative social trend.

In 1960, 17 percent of American children did not dwell with their fathers. Today that number is approaching 40 percent.

The emotion that is most often produced in male children, if they are raised without masculine influence, is anger.

The average age of youth appearing in court is decreasing from 15 to 13.

Teenage girls are beginning to appear more often as the perpetrators of violence.

Self acceptance and self esteem are the most essential characteristics transferred through fathering.

60 percent of America’s rapists, 72 percent of teenagers charged with murder, and 70 percent of long-term prison inmates grew up without fathers.

William Galston, a White House policy advisor who addressed the group, cited his own research showing that when the effect of family structure is taken into account, the apparent difference in crime rates for blacks and whites vanishes.

When we are wronged in some way, our natural inclination is to fight back, to get even. Needless to say, this reaction, though thoroughly human, is almost always in error. “Forgiveness,” said Epictetus, “is better than revenge, for forgiveness is the sign of a gentle nature, but revenge is the sign of a savage nature.”

A dramatic example is the experience of a Hungarian refugee—to protect his privacy we’ll call him Joseph Kudar. Kudar was a successful young lawyer in Hungary before the uprisings in that country in 1956. A strong believer in freedom for his country, he fought Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest with his friends. When the uprising failed, he was forced to flee the country.

When Kudar arrived in the U.S. he had no money, no job, no friends. He was, however, well educated; he spoke and wrote several languages, including English. For several months he tried to get a job in a law office, but because of his lack of familiarity with American law, he received only polite refusals.

Finally, it occurred to him that with his knowledge of language he might be able to get a job with an import-export company. He selected one such company and wrote a letter to the owner.

Two weeks later he received an answer, but was hardly prepared for the vindictiveness of the man’s reply. Among other things, it said that even if they did need someone, they wouldn’t hire him because he couldn’t even write good English.

Crushed, Kudar’s hurt quickly turned to anger. What right did this rude, arrogant man have to tell him he couldn’t write the language! The man was obviously crude and uneducated—his letter was chock-full of grammatical errors!

Kudar sat down and, in the white heat of anger, wrote a scathing reply, calculated to rip the man to shreds. When he’d finished, however, as he was reading it over, his anger began to drain away. Then he remembered the biblical admonition, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”

No, he wouldn’t mail the letter. Maybe the man was right. English was not his native tongue. Maybe he did need further study in it. Possibly this man had done him a favor by making him realize he did need to work harder on perfecting his English.

Kudar tore up the letter and wrote another. This time he apologized for the previous letter, explained his situation, and thanked the man for pointing out his need for further study.

Two days later he received a phone call inviting him to New York for an interview. A week later he went to work for them as a correspondent. Later, Joseph Kudar became vice president and executive officer of the company, destined to succeed the man he had hated and sought revenge against for a fleeting moment—and then resisted.

The laws of nature are the expression of the will of God. God works within the world order in a living way. We may say that the world has two levels: a higher and a lower, a permanent and a temporary, a spiritual and a material. Man belongs to both orders, and he is subject to the laws of both. The same chemical elements that are in him are also in the material world around him. Therefore, he is subject to the operation of material forces such as gravitation, lightning, earthquakes, and such phenomena. In the administration of these natural laws there is absolute impartiality. The sun is completely impartial concerning whom it shines on, and the rain on whom it falls. Nature plays no favorites.

Napoleon’s genius had been attributed to many things, but, above all, he was a superb natural leader of men. Like any wise leader he was aware that his own success would have been nothing had his men not been willing, even eager, to follow him. Obviously he could not know and personally inspire every man in his vast army, therefore he devised a simple technique for circumventing this difficulty. Before visiting a regiment he would call the colonel aside and ask for the name of a soldier who had served well in previous campaigns, but who had not been given the credit he deserved. The colonel would indicate such a man. Napoleon would then learn everything about him, where he was born, the names of his family, his exploits in battle, etc. Later, upon passing this man while reviewing the troops, and at a signal from the colonel, Napoleon would stop, single out the man, greet him warmly, ask about his family, compliment him on his bravery and loyalty, reminisce about old campaigns, then pin a medal on the grateful soldier. The gesture worked. After the review, the other soldiers would remark, “You see, he knows us--he remembers. He knows our families. He knows we have served.”

Ted Williams, baseball superstar of 40s and 50’s was known as a “natural hitter.” Once was asked about this natural ability and replied, “There is no such thing as a natural-born hitter. I became a good hitter because I paid the price of constant practice, constant practice.”

Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me.

An illustration of what one may learn from nature, if he only has eyes to see, is the example of a man who looked into his tropical aquarium one day and saw on the surface a tiny creature, seemingly half fish and half snake, not an inch long, writhing in what seemed its death agony. With convulsive efforts it bent head to tail, now on this side, now on that, springing in circles with a force truly remarkable in a creature so small. "I was stretching out my hands to remove it," said the aquarium owner, "so that it would not sink and die and pollute the tank, when in the twinkling of an eye its skin split from end to end, and there sprang out a delicate fly with slender black legs and pale lavender wings. Balancing itself for one instant on its discarded skin, it preened its gossamer wings and then flew out of an open window. The impression made upon me was deep and overpowering. I learned that nature was everywhere hinting at the truth of the resurrection."

I have a friend whose daughter is into the whole ecological scene. Thankfully, she married a man of like passion, so it’s a good match.

Not long ago the two of them, along with their preschool son were driving, up the East Coast, not far from the Atlantic. They came upon a sign that intrigued them: “Naturist Camp: 3 Miles,” with an arrow pointing toward the ocean. Thinking they might meet up with some new friends who love the natural world, they turned. A couple of miles along the two-lane road, they looked into the distance and were shocked to see three people on bicycles, riding toward them…totally nude.

Realize their mistake, they were suddenly embarrassed that their son would see the oncoming bikers before they could get turned around. The dad slammed on the brakes, tried his best to do a quick U-turn as he and his wife worked hard to divert their son’s attention. Neither worked. The boy was staring intently while his dad was steering intensely.

Both parents were amazed when they heard their boy burst forth, “Look, Mom and Dad—none of them are wearing safety helmets!”

Now, that’s what I call staying focused.

In South Africa, naturist club owner Beau Brummell was irked by accusations from morals watchdogs that a shriveling Transvaal drought was brought on by the “sin” of nude togetherness at his 1000-acre farm. So he asked his 370 visitors to get dressed. And, for the first time in two months, it poured rain. “It’s enough to make me become a monk!” Brummell said.

Attending church in Kentucky, we watched an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father’s arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow—until the child captured everyone’s attention by crying out in a charming Southern accent, “Ya’ll pray for me now!”

Shortly after joining the Navy, the new recruit asked his officer for a pass so he could attend a wedding. The officer gave him the pass, but informed the young man he would have to be back by 7 p.m. Sunday.

“You don’t understand, sir,” said the recruit. “I’m in the wedding.”

“No, you don’t understand,” the officer shot back. “You’re in the Navy!”

A couple of navy stories may help illustrate the sad result of internal strife and the positive result of unity.

Two battleships met in the night and began to attack each other. In the conflict, a number of crewmen were severely wounded, and both vessels were damaged. As daylight broke, the sailors on the ships discovered to their amazement that both vessels flew the English flag.

Many years earlier, just before the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the British naval hero Lord Nelson learned that an admiral and a captain in his fleet were not on good terms. Sending for the two men, he placed the hands of the admiral and the captain together. Then, looking them both in the face, he said, “Look—yonder is the enemy!”

Almost 50 years ago Elie Wiesel was a fifteen-year old prisoner in the Nazi death camp at Buna. A cache of arms belonging to a Dutchman had been discovered at the camp. The man was promptly shipped to Auschwitz. But he had a young servant boy, a pipel as they were called, a child with a refined and beautiful face, unheard of in the camps. He had the face of a sad angel. The little servant, like his Dutch master, was cruelly tortured, but would not reveal any information. So the SS sentenced the child to death, along with two other prisoners who had been discovered with arms. Wiesel tells the story:

One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows. Roll call. SS all around us; machine guns trained: the traditional ceremony. Three victims in chains—and one of them, the little servant, the sad-eyed angel. The SS seemed more preoccupied, more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, almost calm, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him. This time the Lagercapo refused to act as executioner. Three SS replaced him. The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. “Long live liberty!” cried the two adults. But the child was silent.

“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. “Bare your heads!” yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. “Cover your heads!” Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. but the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive...For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows.” That night the soup tasted like corpses.

The magazine article summarized the life of a former winning NCAA basketball coach and network sports announcer. Throughout his colorful coaching career he had been obsessed with the game and with winning. But years later, stricken with cancer, he came to realize the triviality of the goods and values to which he had been passionately devoted. “You get sick and you say to yourself, ‘Sports means nothing,’ and that feels terrible.”

Because he had spent little time with his wife and children, he confessed, “I figured I’d have 20 years in the big time, who knows, maybe win three national titles, then pack it in at 53 or 54….I was going to make it all up to them, all the time I’d been away….It sounds so silly now….But it went on and on, that insatiable desire to conquer the world.”

A certain person listening to Bramwell speak asked another in the audience how it was that Bramwell had something that was new to tell every time he preached. "Why," said he, "you see, Brother Bramwell lives so near the gates of heaven that he hears a great many things that we don't get near enough to hear anything about." Is this true of you and me or are we near enough to hear God when He speaks?

A forester near Hamburg, Germany, found an unusual bird's nest. It was a tiny tin can in which a full-grown cuckoo was imprisoned. Apparently the can had been used by some smaller bird for a nest, and the cuckoo egg had been left there in accordance with the custom of the cuckoo of leaving eggs in other birds' nests. When the eggs hatched, the foster parents discovered that they had a stranger in their home-a cuckoo. When flying-time came, all were able to leave the nest but the cuckoo who was too large to get through the opening in the can. So the foster parents continued to feed the imprisoned bird who, for lack of exercise, had become so fat that it filled the entire can. Its misery was ended only when the forester opened the can and let the bird out. Many men never fly, spiritually speaking, because they are never able to break the bonds that hold them to the narrow restrictions of the single viewpoint of truth they have chosen. God will break the bonds of the man of faith who deliberately opens his heart and mind to "the whole counsel of God" as found in His Word from Genesis to Revelation.

On a blank leaf of his Bible a man had drawn a circle with several radii converging on the center, which he called "Christ." On the radii were written the names of different denominations of Christians. Underneath were written the words, "The nearer to the center the nearer to one another."

Before I heard the doctors tell the dangers of a kiss, I had considered kissing you the nearest thing to bliss. But now I know biology and sit and sigh and moan; Six million mad bacteria, and I thought we were alone.

“Faith and holiness are inextricably linked. Obeying the commands of God usually involves believing the promises of God.”

A minister must be learned, on pain of being utterly incompetent for his work. But before and above being learned, a minister must be godly. Nothing could be more fatal, however, than to set these two things over against one another. recruiting officers do not dispute whether it is better for soldiers to have a right leg or a left leg: soldiers should have both legs.

It seems odd that certain who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others. —C. H. Spurgeon

Writer Amos Wells reflected our need for thorough Bible study in this verse:

I supposed I knew my Bible,

Reading piecemeal, hit or miss,

Now a bit of John or Matthew,

Now a snatch of Genesis,

Certain chapters of Isaiah,

Certain Psalms (the twenty-third),

Twelfth of Romans, first of Proverbs —

Yes, I thought I knew the Word!

But I found that thorough reading

Was a different thing to do,

And the way was unfamiliar

When I read the Bible through.

You who like to play at Bible,

Dip and dabble, here and there,

Just before you kneel, aweary,

And yawn through a hurried prayer;

You who treat the Crown of Writings

As you treat no other book,

Just a paragraph, disjointed,

Just a crude, impatient look.

Try a worthier procedure,

Try a broad and steady view;

You will kneel in very rapture

When you read the Bible through.

If your cause is just, if your principles are pure, and if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.

Charles Hodge points out the overwhelming need of humanity:

Our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.

Our pride, vanity, and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of His holy law.

We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfection, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our fist and highest duty.

We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what His law requires us to be.

If we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world—and might even be more difficult to save.

Whether we want to recognize it or not, many of us are like the Christian who went to the village merchant to purchase a pair of shoes. He was outfitted with a suitable pair and went away happy. Some weeks later he brought the shoes back. "Didn't they fit? Weren't they good?" asked the merchant. "Yes." "Then why are you returning them?" "Because they don't have a squeak." It appeared the man wanted a pair of shoes that would squeak as he walked up the aisle of the church. He wanted something that would draw attention to himself.

A braid appears to contain only two strands of hair. But it is impossible to create a braid with only two strands. If the two could be put together at all, they would quickly unravel.

Herein lies the mystery: What looks like two strands require a third. The third strand, though not immediately evident, keeps the strands tightly woven. In a Christian marriage, God’s presence, like the third strand in a braid, holds husband and wife together.

- Cathern Paxton

When I hear my friends say they hope their children don’t have to experience the hardships they went through—I don’t agree. Those hardships made us what we are. you can be disadvantaged in many ways, and one way may be not having had to struggle.

Two fellows decided to go into the produce business. They had a pickup truck, and drove 100 miles into the country, brought watermelons for fifty-cents each, and then drove back to town and sold them two for a dollar. At the end of the day they had just as much money as when they started. One hollered, “I told you we wouldn’t make a profit unless we got a bigger truck!”

In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life.

For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, “How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.” When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.

- Ernest B. Beevers

Dr. Willard Harley, a Massachusetts psychologist, surveyed the basic needs of men and women in marriage and found (this is amazing) that the needs are completely different. According to Dr. Harley’s survey,

The top five basic needs of the female in marriage are:

1. Affection

2. Communication

3. Openness/Honesty

4. Financial Support

5. Family Commitment

The male’s top five basic needs are:

1. Sexual Fulfillment

2. Recreational Companionship

3. An Attractive Wife

4. Domestic Support

5. Admiration

Looking at both lists, it becomes obvious that if we give our spouses what we need, hoping to receive the same in return, we will miss the mark every time. Therefore, instead of giving what we need, we must affair-proof our marriages by striving to give what our partners need.

A parent does not give a child everything that he asks for. If my little boy came to me and told me just before supper that he wanted a lollipop, should I give it to him? Of course not. Then, if he turns to me and says, "But Daddy, I need it," he can say it as many times as he wishes. He is not going to get a lollipop just before supper. The expression of a need does not always represent a true need. Many times we act more inconsiderately before our Heavenly Father than our children act before us. We give utterance to our wants as if they were real needs. Let us watch this tendency. God is never fooled. He knows a real need from a want.

Some people have the idea that once the relationship is established between God and man, nothing more is needed. This is a mistake. When a child is born it has the general nature and characteristics of its parents, but does it not continue to need their loving care? It could not live without it. So it is with us and God. He gives us of His nature, His fullness; we become His children, but we need Him constantly and uninterruptedly if we are to go on living spiritually. Our lives as Christians cannot be maintained at all unless it is He who maintains them. This is unlike our earthly parent-child relationship in one sense, however. In our relationship with God we never outgrow our need to be dependent on Him. And though, in the New Testament, Christian maturity is enjoined on all believers, this process of spiritual growth never brings us to a point where we may become independent of God. We are given to understand that our relationship to Him is always that of children. Woe unto anyone who ceases to be a child of God in his own estimation and thinks he has grown up sufficiently to be independent of God!

According to a third century rabbi, Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David reduced them to eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah made them six (Isaiah 33:14, 15). Micah 6:8 binds them into three commands. Habbakuk reduces them all to one great statement: The just shall live by faith.

Let us not be like that man who is always quick to judge his fellowmen: If he is poor, he is a bad manager. If he is rich, he is dishonest. If he needs credit, he can't get it. If he is prosperous, everyone wants a favor from him. If he's in politics, it's for pie. If he is out of politics, you can't place him, and he's no good for his country. If he doesn't give to charity, he's stingy. If he does, it's for show. If he is actively religious, he is a hypocrite. If he takes no interest in religion, he's a hardened sinner. If he shows affection, he's a soft specimen. If he seems to care for no one, he's cold-blooded. If he dies young, there was a great future ahead of him. If he lives to an old age, he has missed his calling.

As much as 77% of everything we think is negative and counterproductive and works against us. People who grow up in an average household hear “No” or are told what they can’t do more than 148,000 times by the time they reach age 18. Result: Unintentional negative programming.

A survey asked mothers to keep track of how many times they made negative, compared with positive, comments to their children. They admitted that they criticized ten times for every time they said something favorable. A three-year survey in one city’s schools found that the teachers were 75% negative. The study indicated that it takes four positive statements from a teacher to offset the effects of one negative statement to a child.

A young psychology student serving in the Army decided to test a theory. Drawing kitchen duty, he was given the job of passing out apricots at the end of the chow line.

He asked the first few soldiers that came by, “You don’t want any apricots, do you?” Ninety percent said “No.”

Then he tried the positive approach: “You do want apricots, don’t you?” About half answered, “Uh, yeah. I’ll take some.”

Then he tried a third test, based on the fundamental either/or selling technique. This time he asked, “One dish of apricots or two?” And in spite of the fact that soldiers don’t like Army apricots, 40 percent took two dishes and 50 percent took one!

In a survey parents were asked to record how many negative—as opposed to positive—comments they made to their children. Results: they criticized 10 times for every favorable comment.

Another survey revealed teachers were 75% negative.

It takes four positive statements from a teacher to offset the effects of one negative statement to a child.

A 64-year-old woman, whose decomposed body was found in her dilapidated Houston home recently, was discovered frozen to death for five months. She was forgotten all winter and spring by neighbors and family members. Neighbors described her as someone who “didn’t have anything to do with anybody, and nobody had anything to do with her.”

This occurred after her children had grown up and moved away, and then her husband’s death. She had two children, one of whom lived about 10 miles from his mother’s house.

If you’re looking for the racist in the abortion debate, start with Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and its hateful “Negro Project.” Sanger called African Americans “human weeds” and said “more children from the fit, less from the unfit.” Yet when she was the subject of a recent cable TV tribute, liberals offered not a whisper of protest.

Today’s Planned Parenthood seems just as racist as its founder. International Planned Parenthood officials eagerly promoted condoms and abortions—but not medicines or clean water—for Third-World delegates attending the recent United Nations women’s conference in China (see “Postcard from Beijing,” pp. 1-3).

Another liberal icon, evolution theorist Charles Darwin, provided the intellectual underpinnings for 20th-century genocides of every kind when he wrote that “the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races.” That would seem to warrant calls for Darwin’s expulsion from diversity-minded public school classrooms, yet he remains a noncontroversial figure among liberals.

When my wife, Diana, and I met a new couple at church one Sunday, we stopped to introduce ourselves and to exchange pleasantries. We described the friendly neighborhood we lived in, and listened sympathetically as they lamented that theirs was just the opposite.

Saying our good-byes, we got in our cars and drove home. As we approached our house, we were horrified to see that our new-found friends were pulling into the driveway next to ours.

Neil Simon, who wrote The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, was asked on the Dick Cavett Show whether making a lot of money concerned him. The studio went dead silent when Simon answered, “No...what does concern me is the fear of dying.”

Q. What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?

A. A nervous wreck.

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 185

The secret to neutralizing fear is to embrace the threatened disaster and count it as not too high a price to pay for obedience to Christ. This attitude of faith may not totally eliminate the uneasiness and apprehension. It will, however, allow you to go ahead and act in obedience to Christ. The problem of fear is not the fear itself, but the fact that we allow it to immobilize us. Being afraid is no sin. Shrinking back fearfully from obedience is sin fear can stop you in your tracks as a Christian .but it doesn’t have to. You can trust God (and) move ahead in obedience because you understand fear and know how to deal with it.

Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, “Are you sure I will never sing again?” The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. “I’ve had many good times singing the praises of God,” he said. “And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God.” There in the doctor’s presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn:

I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,

And when my voice is lost in death,

Praise shall employ my nobler power;

My days of praise shall ne’er be past,

While life, and thought, and being last,

Or immortality endures.

Never again will I say, "I can't," for "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Phi 4:13).

Never again will I admit lack, for "My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Phi 4:19).

Never again will I fear, for "God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2Ti 1:7).

Never again will I harbor doubt and lack of faith, for "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear" (Psa 27:1).

Never again will I allow the supremacy of Satan over my life, for "the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1Jo 4:4).

Never again will I admit defeat,for "God always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him" (2Co 2:14).

Never again will I lack wisdom, for "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (Jam 1:5).

Never again will I be worried and frustrated, "Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1Pe 5:7).

Never again will I be in bondage,for "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2Co 3:17).

For more than half a century, I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 40 years, I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. I have nine assistants always at work corresponding in German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Russian, and other languages. Then, as pastor of a church with 1200 believers, great has been my care. I have had charge of five orphanages; also at my publishing depot, the printing and circulation of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles. But I have always made it a rule never to begin work till I have had a good season with God.

These are the words of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died at the beginning of the twelfth century: "If I should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pain of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, I would rather be thrust into hell without sin than go into heaven with sin."

When actress Sophia Loren sobbed to Italian movie director Vittorio De Sica over the theft of her jewelry, he lectured her: “Listen to me, Sophia. I am much older than you and if there is one great truth I have learned about life, it is this—never cry over anything that can’t cry over you.”

A pastor who visited an old man suffering from painful rheumatism found him with his Bible open in front of him. The minister noticed that the word "proved" was written repeatedly in the margin. He turned over a few pages and found, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." "Proved." And so it went on through the Book. Next to Joh 1:12 he had written "Proved." He had received Christ by believing and had indeed become a child of God. He had proved that promise of God's Word. Millions of other born-again believers could write "proved" next to this verse. There isn't a single one who has put this promise of God to the test and been disappointed.

It's a strange thing that some people can never have enough of the world; but no matter how little of the Lord they have, they seem to feel it is enough. When I was a lad an old gentleman took some trouble to teach me a little knowledge of the world. With this in view, I remember, he once asked me when is a man rich enough? I replied, "When he has a million dollars." He said, "No." "Two million?" "No." "Ten million?" "No"; "A hundred million?" which I thought would settle the question. He still continued to say, "No." I gave up and confessed I could not tell and asked him to tell me. He gravely said, "When he has a little more than he already has, and that is never."

On her golden wedding anniversary, my grandmother revealed the secret of her long and happy marriage. “On my wedding day, I decided to choose ten of my husband’s faults which, for the sake of our marraige, I would overlook,” she explained. A guest asked her to name some of the faults. “To tell the truth,” she replied, “I never did get around to listing them. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, ‘Lucky for him that’s one of the ten.’”

In his early years, American landscape photographer Ansel Adams studied piano and showed some talent. At one party, however, as Adams played Chopin’s F Major Nocturne he recalled that, “In some strange way my right hand started off in F-sharp major while my left had behaved well in F-major. I could not bring them together. I went through the entire nocturne with the hands separated by a half-step.”

The next day a fellow guest gave Adams a no-nonsense review of his performance: “You never missed a wrong note!”

Our thanks to an unknown author for the following lyric testimony to God's providence:

Lord, I have never moved a mountain and I guess I never will. All the faith that I could muster would not move a small ant hill. Yet, I will tell you, Lord, I am grateful for the joy of knowing Thee, and for all the mountain moving, down through life you have done for me.

When I needed some help You lifted me from the depths of great despair. And when burdens, pain and sorrow have been more than I can bear, you have always been my courage to restore life's troubled sea, and to move these little mountains that have looked so big to me.

Many times when I have had problems and when bills I have had to pay, and the worries and the heartaches just kept mounting every day, Lord, I do not know how you did it. I cannot explain the wheres or whys. All I know is that I have seen these mountains turn to blessings in disguise.

No, I have never moved a mountain, for my faith is far too small. Yet, I thank you, Lord of Heaven, you have always heard my call. And as long as there are mountains in my life, I will have no fear, for the mountain-moving Jesus is my strength and always near.

Vision is the ability to understand the history, the present condition, and the potential of the church, and to conceive a plan for action that will maximize the ministry potential. More often than not, vision is a result of having spent much time absorbing the facts about the community, knowing the resources upon which the church can call (people, funding, facilities, equipment, etc.), and devising sound but creative strategies for moving forward. Vision always entails progress: it is never satisfied with the status quo.