First Baptist Church of Manayunk in Philadelphia purchased an old abandoned house next to the church to expand its parking lot back in the late 1960s. For more years than anyone could remember, a bed of Daffodils (Easter Lillies) had bloomed to welcome each new Spring.

The construction company contracted to tear down the building and to pave the new lot did so in the Fall, so no thought was given to the old flower bed which was leveled off and covered over with eight inches of black asphalt or tarmac. A huge roller then came in and compacted the asphalt down to four inches of rock hard pavement. Everyone enjoyed the new parking lot and soon forgot about the old house and garden. That was, they forgot about it until Spring. The first thing noticed was that an area of asphalt was cracking upward and then just in time for Easter, those dormant, buried and forgotten daffodils burst forth, right up through the pavement to bloom and celebrate the Resurrection.

Nothing could hold those daffodils back, nothing could hold Jesus in the grave, and nothing will hinder the resurrection of the dead some day. I’m gonna stay ready.

Tags: daffodils, life, resurrection

Some time back I remember reading about a Christian who was raised in a log house. He went back years later to visit the old place. As he walked up to the now-deserted cabin, he remembered that as a youngster he had planted some walnuts along a stream that ran through the farm. When he went down to the creek, he discovered a beautiful row of stately walnut trees.

Then he recalled that he had also hidden some nuts in the attic. He was curious to see what had happened to them, so he climbed into the dark attic and poked around in a corner until he found them. What a difference! Those he had stored were nothing but dry and dust-covered nuts, while the ones he had planted had become flourishing green trees!

Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). What seeds have you planted today?

Tags: life, plant, reaping & sowing, walnut

After his tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sergeant Jones was sent to a stateside induction center where he advised new recruits about their government benefits, especially GI insurance. Soon he had an almost 100% sales record for the GI insurance. His officers were amazed. Rather than ask him how he did it, an officer stood in the back of the room one day and listened to Jones’s sales pitch.

Jones explained the basics of GI insurance to the new recruits and then said, “If you have GI insurance, and go into battle and are killed, the government has to pay $35,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don’t have GI insurance, and go into battle and are killed, the government has to pay only a maximum of $3,000. He concluded, “Now which bunch of GI’s do you think they are going to send into the battle first?”

No one wants to die early. We all want the assurance of a long life. The recruits thought that if they purchased the insurance, they might get to live a little longer. But God has our timing set. Let’s trust Him to watch over our lives. God is the best insurance policy.

Tags: humor, life

The late Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch prisoner of the Nazis during World War II and wrote several Christian books about her experiences. She had a great illustration of God at work in the life of a believer. She brought to the platform a limp, worn out glove and talked about how useless it was in that condition. Then she put her hand into that same limp glove, and, abra-cadabra, strength came to the glove.

The glove looked the same and still appeared worn and faded, but the hand within gave it new life. With that hand inside, that limp glove had the power to pick up things, throw things, and accomplish great tasks.

So it is with us. Although we may be limp and powerless, worn out with life’s pressures, yet when the Spirit of God comes within us there is nothing that we cannot do. Of course, it wasn’t the glove, but the hand, that had life. And so it is with us, not me, but the Spirit within that accomplishes great things.

Tags: Corrie ten Boom, glove, life, power, Spirit

This week we’re going to look at the subject of grace = unmerited favor; favor we don’t deserve. The airline had mangled Debbie’s luggage. Then her purse disappeared. Instead of entering the airport through an enclosed corridor, she stumbled off the plane in the pouring rain. She was drenched, far from home with no money, no identification, and no dry clothes.

Under normal conditions Debbie would have been furious, but that night it didn’t matter. She had just survived the crash of Flight 1420 in Little Rock, Arkansas. “When I walked off that plane,” Debbie said, “I walked off with nothing, then I stopped and thought, I have everything.” She had suddenly realized that her life was more important than all she had lost.

The fact that God allows me to continue to breathe is grace, considering my past failures. Let’s quit griping about what we’ve lost and focus on what He has permitted us to keep. That’s God’s grace.

Tags: favor, grace, life

In his book The Fisherman and His Friends, Louis Albert Banks tells about a man who was spending a summer near the shores of Lake Superior. One day he came upon an old pine that had been blown down by a recent storm. Knowing something about trees, he was intrigued by that huge evergreen lying on the ground. He examined it closely and figured it was at least 250 years old. What impressed him most, however, was what he discovered when he stripped away the bark. It was evident to him that on the day the tree fell it was still growing.

That’s the way it should be in the life of a believer. The years pass and our physical strength declines. The outward man perishes, but the inner man should keep on developing – mentally, emotionally, and above all, spiritually – until the day we depart.

How have you been growing this week?

Tags: growth, life