Pastor Ralph Diehl » test

NEW JOB

pastordiehl — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:00:15 +0000

A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, “Your first job will be to sweep out the store.”

“But I’m a college graduate,” the young man replied indignantly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that,” said the manager. “Here, give me the broom – I’ll show you how.”

We all have to start at the bottom and work our way up, proving ourselves to our overseers every step of the way. What was your experience at starting a new job?

THE TEST

pastordiehl — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:00:04 +0000

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

“Well,” replied the Director, “We fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”

How did that slip by you? I got your focus upon the three options rather than the simple solution. Satan desires to confuse us by setting too many options before us. God’s word only gives us one: obedience. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

“No,” said the Director, “A normal person would pull the plug. Would you like a bed by a window?”

FLOOD!

pastordiehl — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:00:34 +0000

Missionaries Paul and Karen Whitley were our guests last night as they passed through the area. We put them up in our guest room downstairs. About 1:30 they woke us up to tell us there was water in the basement. We immediately checked and saw that storm water was coming into the basement under the outside doors. I hurriedly got the ShopVac but saw it was no use. By the time we went back to bed there was 3 inches of water in the basement, with the sump pump running continuously. Never in fifteen years of living there has the water been within 50 feet of our house.

When I saw we could not control the flooding, I flew into moving important things to a dry place. I started with the closet in my den, which had many family heirlooms, including a family Bible dating back to 1832, family history books, etc., stacked in cardboard boxes on the floor. Then I went to rescue some of my Dad’s coin collection books and packaged proof sets from the ’50s laying on the floor of another room, then rescued twenty or so family photo albums on the bottom shelf of a plastic shelf unit, and a couple of older guns still in the original boxes standing in two inches of water. I appreciate Paul helping in the rescue effort in the middle of the night.

In a moment like that you don’t have time to think. Afterwards I reflected on what we had focused on saving first. It wasn’t expensive things like the computer, TV, or furniture. They can be replaced. It was the irreplacable items that represented family and our lives together.

There seems to be a lesson in every crisis. What lessons have you learned in the testing time?