In his book The Life That God Blesses, author and pastor Gordon MacDonald records that Oscar Wilde once told this meaningful story:
The devil was once crossing the Libyan desert, and he came upon a spot where a number of small fiends were tormenting a holy hermit. The sainted man easily shook off their evil suggestions. The devil watched their failure, and then he stepped forward to give them a lesson.
“What you do is too crude,” he said. “Permit me for one moment.”
With that he whispered to the holy man, “Your brother has just been made bishop of Alexandria.” A scowl of malignant jealousy at once clouded the serene face of the hermit.
“That,” said the devil to his imps, “Is the sort of thing which I should recommend.”
Tags: envy, Satan
There is a true story about a woman trapped on the top floor of a burning building. Flames and smoke blocked every way of escape. When firefighters arrived, one of the men scrambled up a ladder to the window where the woman was screaming for help, and with outstretched arms he offered to save her. But when she looked down and saw the great distance to the ground below, she panicked and drew back into the room.
The fireman attempting the rescue begged her to trust him for her safety, but his pleas were not heeded. In senseless fear she retreated beyond the fireman’s reach. Finally, being forced to return to the ground, he said to a TV cameraman, with tears in his eyes, “I did everything I could to save her, but she wouldn’t let me!”
Would the Lord one day say to you, “I did everything I could to save them, but they wouldn’t let me!?”
Remember His promise, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Tags: fear, fire, refusal, salvation
Oral Roberts used to tell the story of a football game between the big animals and the little animals. At the start of the second half the big animals were ahead and they gave the tiger the ball. When he reached the scrimmage line, down he went. He hobbled back to the huddle and the big animals asked him, “What hit you?” The tiger said, “That centipede.”
Next they gave the ball to the lion. With a roar he ran to the line of scrimmage, but down he went. The other animals asked him, “What happened?” The lion answered, “It was that centipede!” Next they gave the ball to the rhino. When he too tumbled to the ground at the scrimmage line, they asked, “What happened?” He said, “It was that Centipede!”
“Where was that centipede in the first half?” the big animals asked the coach of the little animals. “Putting on his shoes,” the coach said.
Sometimes our enemy looks so big we’re sure he’ll get the victory over us. But we’ve got powers through the Spirit that Satan can’t conquer. Consider:
- Angels protect us (Psalm 91:11).
- The name of Jesus is above every other name (Philippians 2:9).
- The mighty Holy Spirit lives within us (1 Corinthians 3:16).
Don’t let little centipedes trip you up. You were created to be a winner.
Tags: enemy, little, obstacles, shoes
I took a couple of vacation days Thursday and Friday to repaint our kitchen. After 15 years the walls were nicked and scratched and Anita wanted to change the color. I told her I would do it in the winter, but once the weather broke I would be busy outside. It took the first day just to patch the walls, tape around the cupboards, and cut the old caulk out behind the counters. The second day was painting, repainting, trimming, and re-trimming after I took the tape off.
We don’t like change, yet we spend money and time because we like change. Its my expectation that I’ll never have to paint that room again in my lifetime. We create change so we never have to change it again. Isn’t that an interesting contrast.
What have you recently changed that you never want to change again?
Tags: Change, paint
Years ago I invited a fellow minister from southern Indiana to speak at our church. He preached with a passion and spit out memorized scripture like no one I’ve ever known. Our church loved him because he knew the word.
Some years passed and I heard that he had divorced his wife. The reason: she was not clean. She worked a full time job, was mother to four children, but hated to clean. Laundry piled up and dirty dishes sat in the sink. Clutter was all around the house. So, he divorced her and remarried a beautiful blond ten years his junior.
Sometime after that he called and asked if he could return to speak at New Hope. Although I still treat him as a friend, I will not subject our church to his leadership if he can’t live it. I’m not interested in hearing the Word of God from him if I can’t see the Word of God in his life. He apparently had the word in his head just fine, but he couldn’t get it in his heart! And that’s where the word of God becomes life to us: Character!
Do you agree or do you think I should be more merciful?
Tags: clean, hypocrisy
About ten years ago we had a man by the name of George Bloom attending our church, and he loved to write poetry and prose. He gave me the following entitled ‘Do We Have it Rough’:
If the five billion people in the world were reduced down to a single town of 1,000 people, these statistics would be seen:
a) 20 of the people would be from the USA, 980 from the rest of the world.
b) The 20 Americans would receive half the income, the rest of the town would have to get by on the other half.
c) 303 of the people would be white, 697 non-whites.
d) The 20 Americans would have an average life expectancy of over 70 years, the non-Americans an average under 40 years of age.
e) The 20 Americans would consume 15% of the town’s food supply, even though they make up only 2% of the people, and the lowest income group of the Americans would be better off than the average of the remaining non-Americans.
f) The Americans would use 12 times as much electricity, 22 times as much coal, 21 times as much oil, 50 times as much steel, and 50 times as much equipment as the rest of the people in town.
Still think you’ve got it rough?
Tags: missions, statistics
John G. Paton (1824-1907) was a pioneering missionary who worked in an area that was inhabited by cannibals. The depth of his commitment to Christ was demonstrated by his reply to what an elderly acquaintance said to him as he was making preparations to leave for the field. His friend expressed a fear that Paton might be eaten by cannibals.
Paton responded, “Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your prospect is to be soon laid in the grave and to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or worms.”
That’s a great example of what Paul meant when he wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Live life to the full today.
Tags: cannibal, death, life, missionary