In 1871 evangelist Dwight L. Moody preached a series of sermons on the life of Christ in old Farwell Hall in Chicago for five nights. As he was following the life of Christ from the cradle to the judgment hall, I said that he made the greatest blunder he ever made in his life.
With the firebell (a common sound) ringing in the background, Mr. Moody finished his sermon with the question: “What shall I do with Jesus?” He said, “Now, I want you to take the question with you and think it over, and next Sunday I want you to come back and tell me what you are going to do with Him.”
That night the Great Chicago Fire destroyed Farwell Hall as well as the church Moody pastored. He never saw that crowd again. And he learned a valuable lesson. Moody never again closed a meeting without an invitation to accept Christ.
When have you delayed something until it was too late?
Tags: delay, mistakes, Moody
1841 saw a bitterly contested presidential campaign between five political leaders in the Whig Party. William Henry Harrison, fondly known as “Tippecanoe” because of a military success in 1811, was running against Henry Clay and others. Henry Clay had publicly stated that Harrison was unfit for public service because he lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider (rather than champagne).
Harrison took that negative and turned it into a campaign theme: Log Cabin and Hard Cider. Nationwide, Whigs organized parades that featured crudely made floats of log cabins with outside latchstrings. Plenty of barrels of hard cider, of course, were available for drinking. Tiny paper replicas or metal badges of log cabins were handed out. Newspapers printed a cartoon sketch of a log cabin, with a big cider barrel next to the door and a coonskin on the wall. Ordinary people identified with Harrison and he gained a large following. It was the first modern political campaign.
What was meant for evil, politicians turned into good. God loves to do the same thing, if we keep our attitude right (Genesis 50:20).
When have you seen God take what was meant for evil and turn it into good?
Tags: defeat, Harrison, log cabin
Presidential candidates spend months in the limelight striving for attention and support. Presidential candidate wives typically just follow along. But once a candidate gets elected, his shadow becomes “First Lady”. She is then sought after for interviews. And, historically, First Ladies tend to be very wise women indeed.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, once made this searching statement: “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
Wise King Solomon said it like this: “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver” (Proverbs 16: 16).
Do you agree with Eleanor? Do you believe it is fair to judge a person’s philosophy of life on the choices he or she makes?
Tags: choices, decision, Roosevelt
Former President Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?” Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days.
Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready.”
When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,” the cobbler said to his indecisive customer.
“I learned right then and there,” Reagan later said, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.”
There are decisions we have to make everyday. Some are easy, but some a more difficult. Freedom of choice is valued highly in America. This reminds me of the scripture: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
When can you remember someone else making a decision for you?
Tags: choice, decision, Reagan
Today is the last day of my vacation; I go in to the office tomorrow. Anita and I went to Fort Wayne to do some shopping and check on a door we need to replace (a closet door warped badly due to the high humidity during and after our flood) because it won’t shut and the veneer split. We had a good time together and ate at my favorite restaurant: Logan’s.
After we got back, I stained the last several pieces of baseboard trim and finished putting down the trim in the bathroom. Now the pressure is off until Alan Roth arrives to install the carpet in a week or so. I was able to clean up the stacks of papers I had stacked up on my desk for the past three months and sort through some paperwork on my make-shift desk upstairs. Anita is pleased and we can see light at the end of the tunnel.
It all reminds me of those powerful three words Jesus spoke from the cross: “It is finished!” What a sense of accomplishment Jesus must have felt to come to the end of His 30 year mission. What major project have you recently completed and how did it make you feel to be finished?
It was a secret only a few knew. Along the banks of the railroad track about a quarter of a mile north of US 6 at the east edge of Butler was a wonderful wild strawberry patch. When I was a kid I discovered this treasure and I rode my bike there for a snack for several years. Nothing tastes better than something you can get for free. Because I wanted to keep the berries for myself I never told anyone.
Is it possible that we want to keep the secret of God’s love for us all to ourselves, so we keep it a secret from others? There is always a never ending supply of grace available. Don’t keep that secret any longer; tell someone else what a treasure you have found.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys the field” (Matthew 13:44).
What treasure have you found that you kept secret?
Tags: hidden, secret, treasure
Al Mazerolle was fighting for the Allies in Normandy in France on D-day, the historic turning point in World War II that led to the defeat of the Nazis. A little girl, Edith Bodin, had been shot by the fleeing Nazis and dropped in a ditch for dead. The bullet, perilously close to her heart, likely would have killed her had it not been for Mazerolle. He made a daring dash through bullets and exploding shells to rescue Edith. Doctors operated on her. She survived.
Decades later, when a D-day anniversary was being observed in Normandy, Mazerolle went to France from his home in British Columbia. Edith Bodin, now middle-aged and having never seen him since she was a girl, had tears streaming down her cheeks when she saw Mazerolle. Throwing her arms around the old man, she exclaimed, “Savior!”
Who was teh person instrumental in telling you about Jesus? They were a part of your salvation. Perhaps today would be a good day to send them a thank you.
Tags: courage, risk, salvation, World War II