Phillips Brooks, the great American preacher of the 1800s, asked the operator of a local livery stable for the best horse he had. Brooks explained, “I am taking my wife for a ride and I want the very best for the occasion.”
As the livery man hitched up a horse to a buggy, he said, “This animal is about as perfect as a horse could be. It is kind, gentle, intelligent, well-trained, obedient, willing, responds instantly to your every command, never kicks, balks, or bites, and lives only to please its driver.”
Brooks then quietly said to the owner, “Do you suppose you could get that horse to join my church?”
What a joy it would be if all Christians who joined churches would fit that description.
Tags: character, church, Horse
When explorers Lewis & Clark blazed a trail across the American wilderness they brought along a French guide and his Shoshone wife, Sacajawea. Every night the guide offered his wife to the men for a price and every night they refused. Eventually, needing supplies, they asked the chief of a nearby Indian tribe for help. Through Sacajawea, he replied, “No. White man lie and cheat.”
Just then the guide’s wife spoke up and said, “These men are different. They keep their promises to their wives back home.” After hearing how they’d refused to commit adultery, the chief gave Lewis & Clark their supplies. Shortly thereafter they crossed the Great Divide and claimed the Northwest. But their biggest accomplishment wasn’t new territory – it was character! Jesus said, “From…out of a person’s heart, come…sexual immorality…adultery…eagerness for lustful pleasure…they…defile you and make you unacceptable to God” (Mark 7:21-23 NLT).
When God said, “Do not commit adultery,” he intended husbands and wives to be faithful to each other. Character doesn’t come out in the wash.
Tags: adultery, character, Lewis & Clark
Anita and I enjoy watching those old movies with a happy ending. The other night we watched You Can’t Take it With You, a 1938 comedy directed by Frank Capra, who also directed Its a Wonderful Life nine years later. Both films starred Jimmy Stewart and Lionel Barrymore.
Jimmy Stewart and Lionel Barrymore looked quite a bit younger than we remembered them in this 1938 film. And, in an interesting twist, Lionel Barrymore, who played villain Henry Potter in the famous Christmas film, played the kindly hero Grandpa Martin Vanderhof in You Can’t Take it With You.
Every December we watched the gruff conniving Potter role and so I kept expecting some trickery out of Grandpa in this older film, which never did materialize. I suppose its human nature for us to judge people based upon one incident and then trust or not trust them based upon what we’ve seen.
But Christmas is about God becoming man to change our character. Thank God I’m not judged the way I used to be. Merry Christmas.
Tags: character, judging