November 12, 2003

  • Cleaning With Cold Water


    How well does cold water clean?


    A man went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded rural area of the state.   After spending the night, his grandfather prepared breakfast for him consisting of eggs and bacon.


    He noticed a film-like substance on his plate and he questioned his grandfather, "Are these plates clean?" His grandfather replied, "Those plates are as clean as cold water can get them so go on and finish your meal."


    That afternoon, while eating the hamburgers his grandfather made for lunch, he noticed tiny specks around the edge of his plate, and a substance that looked like dried egg yokes so he asked again, "Are you sure these plates are clean?"


    Without looking up from his hamburger, the grandfather says, "I told you before, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them, now don't ask me about it anymore!"


    Later that afternoon, as he was on his way out to get the paper, the dog started to growl and would not let him pass. Grandfather, your dog won't let me out."


    Without diverting his attention from the football game his Grandfather was watching, he shouted, "Coldwater, Move!"




    LOL!  I just thought that was so funny!  lol..

November 8, 2003

  • Just remember, "Our God is an Awesome God!"


    A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible study. The pastor had
    shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice. The young man
    couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"

    After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and
    they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God
    had led them in different ways.

    It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home.
    Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God...If you still speak to
    people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."

    As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest
    thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out
    loud, "God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But
    again, he had the thought to buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought
    about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little
    Samuel ran to Eli.

    "Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk." It didn't seem
    like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk.

    He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward
    home.  As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, "Turn down that
    street."  This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection."

    Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next
    intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh, Half jokingly, he
    said out loud, "Okay, God I will." He drove several blocks, when suddenly,
    he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around.
    He was in a semi-commercial area of town. It wasn't the best but it wasn't
    the worst of neighborhoods either.

    The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like
    the people were already in bed. Again, he sensed something, "Go and give
    the milk to the people in the house across the street." The young man
    looked at the house.

    It was dark and it looked like he people were either gone or they were
    already asleep. He started to open the door and then sat back in the
    car seat. "Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake
    them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."

    Again, he felt like he should go and give them the milk. Finally, he
    opened the door. "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will
    give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I
    want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something but if they don't
    answer right away, I am out of here.

    He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise
    inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?"

    Then the door opened before the young man could get away. The man was
    standing there in his jeans and a t-shirt. He looked like he just got
    out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too
    happy to have a stranger standing on his doorstep.

    "What is it?" The young man thrust out the gallon of milk. "Here I
    brought this to you." The man took the milk and rushed down the hallway,
    speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the
    milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The
    baby was crying.

    The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and
    half-crying, "We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and
    we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just
    praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."

    His wife yelled from the kitchen, "I asked him to send an Angel with some
    milk. Are you an Angel?"

    The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had
    on him and put it in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his
    car and the tears were streaming down his face. He knew that God still
    answers prayers.

    "Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell the storm how big
    your God is! "



    So what's the song that has been replaying between my ears for the past hour?


    ...Praise Him under open skies
    Everything breathing praising God
    In the company
    Of all who love the King...


    AWESOME song!  Thanks to LifeStar7  for the reference! 


    God bless each one of you..

November 4, 2003


  • "Moving Thoughts"



    Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had. It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.


    Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back! Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile. There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real! Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do. May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.


    Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

October 29, 2003

  • Still

    By Bob Perks

    You may have driven by his home a hundred times and never knew
    he lived there. No one did. In the rush of your day, you may
    have seen him walking down the street yet, wouldn't recognize
    his face. No one would.

    Perhaps a time or two you came face to face with him in town.
    I'm sure he said "hello," he always did. But you didn't know
    his name, so you didn't respond. Why would you?

    This night, he lay barely clothed in the icy cold darkness,
    well hidden beneath the bridge, his home. His bed was an old
    refrigerator box someone dumped nearby. His shoes, mismatched
    and worn out, barely covered his swollen, sock-less feet. His
    hands were wrapped in torn pieces of cloth, and his fingers
    were cut and dirty. His pants were stained and ripped, two
    sizes too big for his thin frail body.

    He was a broken man who cried himself to sleep each night, but
    couldn't shed a tear. In his frustration tonight, he cried out
    for help. With his hands stretched out before him, he screamed
    with all he had left in him, "God! I need you!" Then, lowering
    his hands, he frantically searched around the box next to him,
    finally finding what he wanted. He sighed, as he held his only
    life treasure close to his heart. It was a small bible given to
    him years ago. Inside the cover, barely legible, was the
    inscription, "God loves you, still!"

    "God!," he cried. "I am nothing! I have wasted the life you
    have given me."

    Lying there a few minutes, listening to the cars pass overhead,
    his tortured spirit wore him down as he reflected back on a
    lifetime of failure. Weakened now, he struggles to breathe.

    "God, do you still love me?" he cried. Suddenly he is shaken by
    the sound of someone nearby.

    "Are you alright?"

    "God, is that you?"

    "Are you alright?"

    He coughs and gasps for air. "God, do you still love me?" he
    asks again.

    Then a bright light appears at the open end of his make-shift
    home. Blinking, struggling to focus, he sees a silhouette of
    a man against the light.

    "God, do you still love me?" he whispers now.

    "Yes, God loves you, be still." the stranger replied.

    He is relieved. "Still" he whispers.

    Then, the man no one saw, the face no one recognized, the man
    without a name, died in a home no one knew about. "Still!" he
    sighed with one final breath.

    Yes, God loved him..."Still!"

    No matter the condition of your life, the circumstances you
    find yourself in right now, be assured..."God loves you, still!"



    What a sad story do you not agree?  Yes, still, God loves YOU!  

October 18, 2003

  • Zing


    A voyaging ship was wrecked during a terrible storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a nearby small, deserted island.  In their great despair, the two survivors agreed that they had little
    recourse but to go to opposite ends of the island and try to flag down a passing ship. They both also agreed that they would pray to God for deliverance.

    The first thing the man on the north side prayed for was food. The next morning, a fruit-bearing tree miraculously appeared on his side of the land and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren.

    After a few more days, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife.

    The very next day another ship was wrecked, and miraculously, the only survivor was a woman who swam to the north side of the island. On the south side of the island, things continued to look pretty dismal.

    Then the man on the north side prayed for shelter, clothing, and more food. The next day, like magic, all of these things were given to him. Meanwhile, the second man still had nothing.

    Finally, the first man prayed for a boat so that he and his wife could leave the island. To his delight, in the morning he found a very small boat docked on his side of the island.

    So the man boarded the boat with his wife and prepared to leave. Since the boat was very small, he felt their chances of survival would be better if he left the other man behind on the island. In addition, he
    also felt a bit of disdain for his companion since apparently, none of his prayers had been answered.

    As he pushed the small boat away from the shore, he heard a voice from heaven ask him: "Why are you leaving your friend behind?"

    "LORD, he is a very tough person," replied the first man, "and his chances of survival are good. And besides that, this boat is just too small for three people. But I do want to ask You one thing before we go. Please tell me LORD why did You answer all of my prayers and none of his?"

    "But you are terribly mistaken," the LORD said in rebuke. "Your friend unselfishly asked for only one thing in prayer, which I granted."

    "Please tell me LORD," the first man asked curiously of God, "What exactly was it that he prayed for?"

    "He asked that all of your prayers be answered."



    Now who was the one that had the most faith in the Lord?  The second man must have had much joy and confidence in the Lord.  Knowing that God will grant prayers if it is in His will is good enough.  May it be on earth as it is in heaven..knowing Him and being of His ways (like the second man most likely was) is what I'm striving for.  Encourage and love your brother/sister today!  Mistakenly thinking that he/she will pull through the tough times on his/her own is not good enough.  May Christ be in each one of us turning us into givers and not so much as takers.    



September 27, 2003




  • Good Argument


    A man went to a barber shop to have his hair and his beard cut as always. He started to have a good conversation with the barber who attended to him. They talked about many things and various subjects.

    Suddenly, they touched on the subject of God.

    The barber said: "Look man, I don't believe that God exists as you say so."

    "Why do you say that?" - asked the client.


    "Well, it's so easy, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Oh, tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be no suffering nor pain. I can't think of a God who permits all of these things."

    The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn't want to respond so as to prevent an argument. The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop. Just then he saw a man in the street with long hair and beard (it seems that it had been a long time since he had his cut and he looked so untidy).

    Then the client again entered the barber shop and he said to the barber:
    "You know what? Barbers do not exist."

    "How come they don't exist?"-asked the barber. "Well I am here and I am a barber."

    "No!" - the client exclaimed. "They don't exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and beard like that man who walks in the street."

    "Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is those people do not come to me."

    "Exactly!"- affirmed the client. "That's the point. God does exist, what happens if people don't go to Him and do not look for Him?  That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."





     

September 26, 2003


  • Sandcastles and The Power of Holding Hands



    I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge, with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spent so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people, most importantly God, endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has God's hand (and of course, friends too) to hold will be able to laugh... and start again..


     

September 25, 2003




  • There once was a little girl who had a bad temper. Her mother gave her a bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper, she must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.


    The first day the girl had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence.


    Finally the day came when the girl didn't lose her temper at all. She told her mother about it and the mother suggested that the girl now pull out one nail for each day that she was able to hold her temper.


    The days passed and the young girl was finally able to tell her mother that all the nails were gone. The mother took her daughter by the hand and led her to the fence. She said, "You have done well, my daughter, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. " You can put a knife in a person and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.


    Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.







    That was another good one.  Thank God for plugging up the holes in me!  Sure, there are holes that are kind of semi-divots still, but God is still working on those...the bad ones take time to heal, and it is my prayer and hope that they will vanish when I meet Him in heaven.   Though sometimes we hurt by the words said by others, God still loves you and wants to show you just how much if you only let Him.  Yes, you can find peace and joy in Christ, even through tribulation.  Think about it..God doesn't just send you peace and joy, but instead, peace and joy flow through Christ Jesus and Him alone. 


    Romans 12:2


    Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.


September 19, 2003

  • I've just read this and I'm reminded of how powerful and loving God really is!  Awesome story told by our pastor a few weeks ago!



          A young man who had been raised as an atheist 
          was training to be an Olympic diver. The 
          only religious influence in his life came from 
          his outspoken Christian friend The young 
          diver never really paid much attention to his 
          friend's sermons, but he heard them often. 
          One night the diver went to the indoor pool 
          at the college he attended. The lights were 
          all off, but as the pool had big skylights 
          and the moon was bright, there was plenty 
          of light to practice by.

          The young man climbed up to the highest 
          diving board and as he turned his back to 
          the pool on the edge of the board and extended 
          his arms out, he saw his shadow on the wall. 
          The shadow of his body, was in the shape 
          of a cross.The man felt a strange feeling, like someone was
          speaking to him.

          Instead of diving, he knelt down and finally 
          asked God to come into his life. As the young 
          man stood, a maintenance man walked in and 
          turned the lights on. The pool had been drained 
          for repairs. 


September 4, 2003

  •  

    What a touching story!  This is another one of my favorites and worth archiving.  Now how many of you have treasured childhood memories that you find pleasure and encouraging to look back on?  Life is so special, and words said to one another are sometimes taken for granted..little do we know how much we keep in the back of our mind sometimes..

    May God bless..

     

    Too Busy for a Friend...

    One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

    Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

    It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

    That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

    On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments.

    No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

    Several years later, one of the students was killed in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

    The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

    As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes..." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

    After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

    "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

    Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

    "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

    All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

    Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

    "I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

    Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

    That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

    The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

    So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.