Use every chance

"Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone."

"Use every chance you have for doing good."

"Whenever you possibly can, do god to those who need it.
Never tell your neighbor to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now."

The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time.
The best time to love is now.

They Call Him the Savior

Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city.

One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures.

She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero.

Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes.

She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture,taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.

It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs.

Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet.

Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother.

Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. 'Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." She did.

Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 158-9

April Fools

One of the most elaborate hoaxes in broadcast history was an April Fool's joke played on the British Broadcasting Corporation's current affairs program Panorama, with its rather dignified host Richard Dimbleby earnestly relating a story about the annual spaghetti harvest filmed in a Swiss-Italian spaghetti orchard.

Cameraman Charles de Jaeger thought up the spoof and related to Denis Norden how it was accomplished.

'Panorama's first famous spaghetti harvest came from my school days in Austria," de Jaeger said, 'when a master was always saying to us, 'You're so stupid you'd think spaghetti grew on trees.'

So it had always been in my mind to do the story and I tried for several years. It was not until I was working on Panorama that I got the go-ahead.

'I went to the Swiss Tourist Office, who said they would help, and I flew to Lugano. It was in March when I thought the weather would be sunny with flowers out. There was a mist over the whole area.

The tourist office guy took me around all over the place; not one blossom out, no leaves out. It was now Tuesday and I could not find anything and said in desperation, 'What can be done?'

'Then we found this hotel in Castiglione, which had laurel trees with leaves on, tall trees. So I said, 'We'll do it here. Let's go down into Lugano and get some handmade spaghetti.'

'We did that, put the strands of spaghetti in a big wooden platter, took that in the car and we drove back. By the time we got there, the damn things wouldn't hang up. They'd dried out.

So we cooked them, tried to put them on the trees, and this time they fell off because they were so slippery.

'Then this tourist guy had a brilliant idea,put the spaghetti between damp cloths. That worked and we got local girls to hang them up,about ten pounds' worth.

Then we got the girls into national costume and filmed them climbing on ladders with these baskets, filling them up, and laying them out in the sun.

And we said in the script, with a guitar playing in the background, 'We have this marvelous festival. The first harvest of the spaghetti.'

'At the end of the three-minute film Richard Dimbleby said, 'Now we say goodnight to this first day of April.'

In spite of that hint, next morning it was surprising the number of people who didn't recognize that the spaghetti harvest was a hoax."

Peter Hay, Canned Laughter, Oxford University Press, Bits & Pieces, March 30, 1995, pp. 19-21

Fruit of the Spirit

Joy

Love in Jubilation

Peace

Love in Repose

Longsuffering

Love on Trial

Gentleness

Love in Society

Goodness

Love in Action

Faith

Love in Endurance

Meekness

Love at School

Temperance

Love in Discipline

Galatians 5:22-23

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her.

She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest.

'His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor," Corrie wrote, 'to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks." 'Up in the church tower," he said, nodding out the window, 'is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what?

After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there's a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope.

But if we've been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn't be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They're just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down."

'And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force,which was my willingness in the matter,had gone out of them.

They came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts."

Source unknown

Things To Do

There are at least four things you can do with your hands.
You can wring them in despair;
You can fold them in idleness;
You can clench them in anger;
Or you can use them to help someone.

Bits & Pieces, January 5, 1995, p. 24

Little Stuff

Success is often reached through the little stuff. When Pat Riley coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1982 to 1990, the team won four NBA championships.

In taking over the New York in 1991, Riley inherited a team with a losing record. But the Knicks seemed able to play above their abilities and even gave the eventual champions, the Chicago Bulls, their hardest competition in the play-offs last May.

How does Riley do it? He says his talent lies in attention to detail. For example, every NBA team studies videotapes and compiles statistics to evaluate players' game performances.

But Riley's use of these tools is more comprehensive than that of his rivals. 'We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don't get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw a foul."

After each game, these 'effort" statistics are punched into a computer. 'Effort," Riley explains, 'is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players.

Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances."

Little Things Do Mean a Lot by Robert McGarvey, Reader's Digest

Values

Values are often unwritten assumptions that guide our actions. Values demonstrate our convictions and priorities. Values are confirmed by our actions, not just our words.

Values are not a doctrinal statement; they are convictions that determine how our church operates. Values provide the foundation for formulating goals and setting the direction of the church's ministry.

Core values are the 5-10 key statements that reflect the distinctives of a church. Key issues for determining your core values: If the church were really the church, what would it be doing? What makes you angry? What do you get passionate about?

How do you invest your time and money? What's your biggest criticism of the church? For what do you want your church to be known? What are the essential functions of the church?

Determining your core values: Brainstorm a list of potential core values. Make sure each value is easily translated to action. Group similar statements together. Highlight the ones that are the most important. Write a tentative list of 4-7 values. Check for completeness.

Do all the essential ministries of the church flow logically from one of the core values? Describe the specific behaviors that will demonstrate each core value in action.

Bob Logan

What Is Sin?

Sin is anything that is contrary to the law or will of God. For example: if you lie, you have sinned. Why? Because God has said not to lie (Ex. 20:16).

If you do what God has forbidden, then you have sinned. In addition, if you do not do what God has commanded, you sin (James 4:17). Either way, the result is eternal separation from God (Is. 59:2). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 1:3) and unrighteousness (1 John 5:17).

Sin leads to blindness (John 9:41) and death (Rom. 6:23).

Paul, in the book of Romans, discusses sin. He shows that everyone, both Jew and Greek, is under sin (Rom. 3:9).

He shows that sin is not simply something that is done, but a condition of the heart (Rom. 3:3:10-12). In Ephesians Paul says that we are 'by nature children of wrath" (Rom. 2:3). Yet, 'while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6).

The power of sin is centrifugal. When at work in a human life, it tends to push everything out toward the periphery. Bits and pieces go flying off until only the core is left.

Eventually bits and pieces of the core itself go flying off until in the end nothing at all is left. 'The wages of sin is death" is St. Paul's way of saying the same thing.

Other people and (if you happen to believe in him) God or (if you happen not to) the World, Society, Nature,whatever you call the greater whole of which you're part,sin is whatever you do, or fail to do, that pushes them away, that widens the gap between you and them and also the gaps within your self.

For example, the sin of the Pharisee is not just (a) his holier-than-thou attitude which pushes other people away, but (b) his secret suspicion that his own holiness is deficient too, which pushes part of himself away, and (c) his possibly not-so-subconscious feeling that anybody who expects him to be all that holy must be a cosmic SOB, which pushes Guess Who away.

Sex is sinful to the degree that, instead of drawing you closer to another human being in his humanness, it unites bodies but leaves the lives inside them hungrier and more alone than before.

Religion and unreligion are both sinful to the degree that they widen the gap between you and the people who don't share your views.

The word charity illustrates the insidiousness of sin. From meaning a free and loving gift it has come to mean a demeaning handout.

'Original Sin" means we all originate out of a sinful world which taints us from the word go. We all tend to make ourselves the center of the universe, pushing away centrifugally from the center everything that seems to impede its freewheeling.

More even than hunger, poverty, or disease, it is what Jesus said he came to save the world from.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC, (Harper, San Francisco, A Division of Harper Collins Publishers, 1973), pp. 88-89

Sex Survey

The sexual revolution notwithstanding, nearly all married couples are monogamous, two new sex surveys say.

A University of Washington, Seattle, study in October's American Journal of Public Health found 94 percent of married couples had one partner in the previous year.

Likewise, a survey by the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago determined that only about 4 percent of married people had sexual partners other than their spouse during a one-year span.

Overall, infidelity has been practiced by only 21 percent of men and 13 percent of women, according to the survey.

The studies dispute data by such investigators as the Kinsey Institute of Sex Research and author Shere Hite, who have suggested anywhere from one-third to three-fourths of married couples cheat on their mates.

'There probably are more scientifically worthless 'facts' on extramarital relations than any other facet of human behavior," says Tom W. Smith of the National Opinion Research Center.

Smith says adultery is more prevalent among younger people, urban dwellers, the unchurched, and the previously divorced.

Christianity Today, November 22, 1993, p. 42

How Adults and Youth Learn

J. Dennis Miller, president of Church Youth Development states that a problem with educating young people in the church stems from a failure to understand how young people learn.

He claims that adults learn in the following pattern:

1. acceptance of absolutes;

2. subordination of attitudes and actions to absolutes;

3. application of truth received to life experience.

Knowing something as an adult is based primarily upon remembering information and intellectual learning.

Youth, Miller contends, learn in a different way:

1. evaluation of life experience;

2. discovery of attitudes and actions which validate their life experiences;

3. identifying truth based on their relevance to life experience;

4. acceptance of truths that prove reliable from life experience. Life experience is the main influence on the learning young mind.

Source unknown

Truth

The truth that makes men free is for the most part

the truth which men prefer not to hear.

- Herbert Agar -

Preaching Resources, Spring 1996, p. 71.

Car Accident

It wasn't like Scott Kregel to give up. He was a battler, a dedicated athlete who spent hour after hour perfecting his three throw and jump shot during the hot summer months of 1987.

But just before fall practice everything changed. A serious car accident left Scott in a coma for several days. When he awoke, a long rehabilitation process lay ahead.

Like most patients with closed head injuries, Scott balked at doing the slow, tedious work that was required to get him back to normal,things such as stringing beads. What high school junior would enjoy that?

Tom Martin, Scott's basketball coach at the Christian school he attended, had an idea. Coach Martin told Scott that he would reserve a spot on the varsity for him,if he would cooperate with his therapist and show progress in the tasks he was asked to do.

And Tom's wife Cindy spent many hours with Scott, encouraging him to keep going. Within 2 months, Scott was riding off the basketball court on his teammates' shoulders.

He had made nine straight free throws to clinch a triple-overtime league victory. It was a remarkable testimony of the power of encouragement.

Our Daily Bread, April 9

Sand in His Shoes

Imagine all the obstacles a person might have to overcome if he were to walk from New York City to San Francisco.

One man who accomplished this rare achievement mentioned a rather surprising difficulty when asked to tell of his biggest hurdle.

He said that the toughest part of the trip wasn't traversing the steep slopes of the mountains or crossing hot, dry, barren stretches of desert. Instead, he said, 'The thing that came the closest to defeating me was the sand in my shoes."

Our Daily Bread

Much Grace

It does not matter where He places me or how.

That is rather for Him to consider than for me.
For the easiest positions, He must give grace; and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.

So, if God places me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance?
In positions of great difficulty, much grace?
In circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength?

As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible,
or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone.
His resources are mine, for He is mine!

- J. Hudson Taylor -

Law Like a Brush Fire

A duck hunter was with a friend in the wide-open land of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke.

Soon he could hear crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the terrible truth; a brushfire was advancing, so fast they couldn't outrun it.

Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for,a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them.

Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come.

They didn't have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near,and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt, untouched. Fire would not pass where fire already had passed.

The law is like a brushfire. I cannot escape it. But if I stand in the burned-over place, not a hair of my head will be singed. Christ's death has disarmed it.

Adapted from Who Will Deliver Us? by Paul F. M. Zahl

We are Under Grace (Rom. 6:15)

Some years ago, I had a little school for young Indian men and women, who came to my home in Oakland, California, from the various tribes in northern Arizona.

One of these was a Navajo young man of unusually keen intelligence. One Sunday evening, he went with me to our young people's meeting. They were talking about the epistle to the Galatians, and the special subject was law and grace.

They were not very clear about it, and finally one turned to the Indian and said, 'I wonder whether our Indian friend has anything to say about this."

He rose to his feet and said,

'Well, my friends, I have been listening very carefully, because I am here to learn all I can in order to take it back to my people.

I do not understand all that you are talking about, and I do not think you do yourselves. But concerning this law and grace business, let me see if I can make it clear. I think it is like this. When Mr. Ironside brought me from my home we took the longest railroad journey I ever took.

We got out at Barstow, and there I saw the most beautiful railroad station and hotel I have ever seen.

I walked all around and saw at one end a sign, 'Do not spit here.' I looked at that sign and then looked down at the ground and saw many had spitted there, and before I think what I am doing I have spitted myself. Isn't that strange when the sign say, 'Do not spit here'?

'I come to Oakland and go to the home of the lady who invited me to dinner today and I am in the nicest home I have been in. Such beautiful furniture and carpets, I hate to step on them. I sank into a comfortable chair, and the lady said, 'Now, John, you sit there while I go out and see whether the maid has dinner ready.'

I look around at the beautiful pictures, at the grand piano, and I walk all around those rooms. I am looking for a sign; and the sign I am looking for is, 'Do not spit here,' but I look around those two beautiful drawing rooms, and cannot find a sign like this.

I think 'What a pity when this is such a beautiful home to have people spitting all over it,too bad they don't put up a sign!' So I look all over that carpet, but cannot find that anybody have spitted there. What a queer thing! Where the sign says, 'Do not spit,' a lot of people spitted. Where there was no sign at all, in that beautiful home, nobody spitted.

Now I understand! That sign is law, but inside the home it is grace. They love their beautiful home, and they want to keep it clean. They do not need a sign to tell them so. I think that explains the law and grace business."

As he sat down, a murmur of approval went round the room and the leader exclaimed, 'I think that is the best illustration of law and grace I have ever heard."

Illustrations of Bible Truth by H. A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 40-42

Motivation

A ten-year-old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school.

After the first day, the boy's parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door.

For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime.

This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card.

The boy walked in with his report card,unopened,laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red 'A" under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son's room, thrilled at his remarkable progress.

'Was it the nuns that did it?", the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, 'No."

'Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?"

'No."

'The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?"

'Nope," said the son. 'on that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the 'plus sign,' I just knew they meant business!"

America Online:McKinleyIB, Nov. 6, 1997Catholic School

Miracle, Miracles, purpose of

Definition of Miracles

Grudem defines a miracle as follows:

'A miracle is a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and wonder and bears witness to himself." He justifies this definition by awe, or amazement in such a way that God bears witness to himself (Systematic Theology, chapter 52).pointing out the deficiencies in other commonly proposed definitions:

'For example, one definition of miracles is 'a direct intervention of God in the world.' But this definition assumes a deistic view of God's relationship to the world, in which the world continues on its own and God only intervenes in it occasionally.

This is certainly not the biblical view, according to which God makes the rain to fall (Matt. 5:45), causes the grass to grow (Ps. 104:14), and continually carries along all things by his word and power (Heb. 1:3). Another definition of miracles is 'a more direct activity of God in the world.' But to talk about a 'more direct' working of God suggests that his ordinary providential activity is somehow not 'direct,' and again hints at a sort of deistic removal of God from the world.

Another definition is 'God working in the world without using means to bring about the results he wishes.' Yet to speak of God working 'without means' leaves us with very few if any miracles in the Bible, for it is hard to think of a miracle that came about with no means at all: in the healing of people, for example, some of the physical properties of the sick person's body were doubtless involved as part of the healing.

When Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, he at least used the original five loaves and two fishes that were there. When he changed water to wine, he used water and made it become wine. This definition seems to be inadequate.

Yet another definition of miracle is 'an exception to a natural law' or 'God acting contrary to the laws of nature.' But the phrase 'laws of nature' in popular understanding implies that there are certain qualities inherent in the things that exist, 'laws of nature' which operate independently of God and that God must intervene or 'break' these laws in order for a miracle to occur.

Once again this definition does not adequately account for the biblical teaching on providence.

Another definition of miracle is, 'an event impossible to explain by natural causes.' This definition is inadequate because

(1) it does not include God as the one who brings about the miracle;

(2) it assumes that God does not use some natural causes when he works in an unusual or amazing way, and thus it assumes again that God only occasionally intervenes in the world; and

(3) it will result in a significant minimizing of actual miracles, and an increase in skepticism, since many times when God works in answer to prayer the result is amazing to those who prayed but it is not absolutely impossible to explain by natural causes, especially for a skeptic who simply refuses to see God's hand at work.

Therefore, the original definition given above, where a miracle is simply a less common way of God's working in the world, seems to be preferable and more consistent with the biblical doctrine of God's providence.

This definition does not say that a miracle is a different kind of working by God, but only that it is a less common way of God's working, and that it is done so as to arouse people's surprise.

Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, by Jack Deere (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), pp. 270-271

Healing Incident Investigation

Once I tried to get a friend, who was also a theological professor, to investigate a miracle that had taken place through the ministry of another seminary professor.

The seminary professor who had been used to do the miracle was a conservative evangelical, who is held in high esteem across the body of Christ, and who had begun to believe in the miraculous gifts.

A healing had occurred in the eyes and ears of a little boy. I called the boy's father (they lived in another state) in order to verify the miracle. The father said it was true and that he had medical documentation.

When I told the story to my friend, the cessationist professor, I urged him to call and investigate. He did not even want the phone number. When I questioned his reluctance to investigate, he told me that he did not doubt that the miracle had occurred, but he doubted that God had done it! So there was no need for him to investigate.

The facts of the case were:

1. A seminary professor, who held historic orthodox theology,

2. asked God in Jesus' name

3. to do a miracle on a little child

4. from a Christian family,

5. and the miracle was performed immediately.

Even with these facts, which my friend would not dispute, it was easier for him to believe that Satan had done the miracle rather than Jesus! The secessionist mindset often precludes any sincere investigation.

Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, by Jack Deere (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), p. 272.

Infidelity

Dear Ann Landers: You have printed many letters about extramarital affairs. Here are some things your readers should be aware of: About half the men and a third of the women who are cheating say they are perfectly content and there is nothing wrong with their marriages. Being religious does not prevent infidelity. Women are as willing as men to have an affair.

Fewer than 10 percent of those having an affair will divorce their spouses to marry their lovers. A large percentage of those who do often have another divorce. People who have affairs are more likely to be divorced, distressed and disappointed.

The chemistry that drives an affair lasts anywhere from a few weeks to three years before it cools down. Infidelity can happen to anyone. Here are a few tips for your readers to affair-proof their marriages. I call them 'the four P's" for prevention: Be protective of your marriage. Avoid risky situations such as long lunches with a co-worker or drinks for two after work.

Most people do not plan to be unfaithful. Be positive. Look for what is right in your spouse and tell him or her daily. People who have love affairs are often looking for appreciation and affirmation. Be polite.

Always talk to your spouse with respect. Be careful what you say to each other and how you say it. Show courtesy and caring in the way you treat one another. Be playful, and make fun, sex, and humor a mainstay in your marriage. Schedule time to play with one another, and have a 'date night" at least once a week.

Marriages can and do survive affairs, and many become stronger having weathered the crisis but not without pain and a genuine desire to recommit.

L.S., Ph.D., Seattle, Spokesman-Review, October 4, 1997

Marilyn Monroe

Years ago Father John Powell told the story of Norma Jean Mortenson:

Norma Jean Mortenson. Remember that name? Norma Jean's mother, Mrs. Gladys Baker, was periodically committed to a mental institution and Norma Jean spent much of her childhood in foster homes. In one of those foster homes, when she was eight years old, one of the boarders raped her and gave her a nickel. He said, 'Here, Honey.

Take this and don't ever tell anyone what I did to you.' When little Norma Jean went to her foster mother to tell her what had happened she was beaten badly. She was told, 'Our boarder pays good rent. Don't you ever say anything bad about him!' Norma Jean at the age of eight had learned what it was to be used and given a nickel and beaten for trying to express the hurt that was in her.

Norma Jean turned into a very pretty young girl and people began to notice. Boys whistled at her and she began to enjoy that, but she always wished they would notice she was a person too,not just a body,or a pretty face,but a person.

Then Norma Jean went to Hollywood and took a new name,Marilyn Monroe and the publicity people told her, 'We are going to create a modern sex symbol out of you.' And this was her reaction, 'A symbol? Aren't symbols things people hit together?' They said, 'Honey, it doesn't matter, because we are going to make you the most smoldering sex symbol that ever hit the celluloid.'

She was an overnight smash success, but she kept asking, 'Did you also notice I am a person? Would you please notice?'

Then she was cast in the dumb blonde roles. Everyone hated Marilyn Monroe. Everyone did. She would keep her crews waiting two hours on the set. She was regarded as a selfish prima donna. What they didn't know was that she was in her dressing room vomiting because she was so terrified.

She kept saying, 'Will someone please notice I am a person. Please.' They didn't notice. They wouldn't take her seriously. She went through three marriages,always pleading, 'Take me seriously as a person.' Everyone kept saying, 'But you are a sex symbol. You can't be other than that.' 'Marilyn kept saying 'I want to be a person. I want to be a serious actress.'

And so on that Saturday night, at the age of 35 when all beautiful women are supposed to be on the arm of a handsome escort, Marilyn Monroe took her own life. She killed herself. When her maid found her body the next morning, she noticed the telephone was off the hook. It was dangling there beside her.

Later investigation revealed that in the last moments of her life she had called a Hollywood actor and told him she had taken enough sleeping pills to kill herself.

He answered with the famous line of Rhett Butler, which I now edit for church, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't care!' That was the last word she heard. She dropped the phone,left it dangling.

Claire Booth Luce in a very sensitive article asked, 'What really killed Marilyn Monroe, love goddess who never found any love?' She said she thought the dangling telephone was the symbol of Marilyn Monroe's whole life. She died because she never got through to anyone who understood.

Dynamic Preaching, June, 1990

Studies and Surveys

1. A study at a Midwestern school showed that 80% of the women who had intercourse hoped to marry their partner. Only 12% of the men had the same expectation - Robert J. Collins in the Chicago Tribune, quoted in HIS, February, 1976

2. Sex is not the most important part of a love relationship. A Syracuse University survey asked married couples to rank the 10 most important things in a marriage relationship.

Caring, a sense of humor and communication came in first, second and third. Sex came in ninth, just ahead of sharing household duties.

Dr. Thomas Lickona

Stalled Engine

There is no situation I can get into that God cannot get me out. Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen.

After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all.

After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.

Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, 'There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again."

At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, 'Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of.

If you trust me, you will be all right." That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years.

James Brown, Evangeline Baptist Church, Wildsville, LA, in Discoveries, Fall, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 4.

God's Will

I am not sent a pilgrim here, My heart with earth to fill; But I am here God's grace to learn, And serve God's sovereign will.

He leads me on through smiles and tears, Grief follows gladness still; But let me welcome both alike, Since both work out his will.

No service in itself is small, None great, though earth it fill; But that is small that seeks its own, And great that seeks God's will.

Then hold my hand, most gracious Lord,Guide all my doings still;And let this be my life's one aim,To do, or bear thy will.

Source unknown

Missionary Protection

Pray for:

1. Protection from Satan's attacks on their faith and calling, tempting them to quit and go home.

2. God protect their marriages and families. Protect them from doing so much work that they neglect their families.

3. Protect them from getting so busy doing things for God that they forget to sit and listen to Him.

4. They could forget to find unhurried time for Bible meditation and prayer.

5. Protect them from losing their spirit of worship, love and devotion to you, Lord.

6. Protect them from divisiveness, criticism and crankiness with each other.

7. Protect their unity in Christ, their love for each other, their commitment to each other.

8. Protect their willingness to serve one another, and to esteem their sisters and brothers better than themselves.

9. Protect them from conflicts with local believers and national church leaders.

10. Protect them from squabbling over budgets and properties.

11. Protect them from misinterpreting each other's motives.

12. Protection from even hinting that the way we do it in America is best.

13. Protection from using their control of money to get their own way.

14. Unity in Christ among missionaries and believers is so important because unbelievers watch them. So they can see and grasp the good news that God loves them so much that He sent Jesus to this world.

15. Protection from defection for their souls, not their bodies.

16. Our primary concern should be for our missionaries perseverance in faith.

Jesus did ask God to protect his disciples, but not the kind of protection we usually think of. He warned them of what might happen. He simply asked His Father to protect the disciples 'so that they be one as we are one."

1. They needed protection from fighting, jealousy and clamoring for position.

2. If the evil one cannot destroy their faith, he will disrupt their work by sowing dissension in their ranks.

3. If he can get our missionaries or us to believe gossip and suspect each other's motives, Satan does not have to resort to terrorism.

4. If he can maneuver them into head-on collisions with the national believers, he doesn't need car crashes to wipe them out.

Lord, teach us to pray for our missionaries more effectively, daily.

Protection From What? by Jim Reapsome

Jealousy and Envy

There is a distinction between jealousy and envy. To envy is to want something which belongs to another person. 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house, his wife or his servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something which we possess will be taken away by another person. Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety which comes when we are afraid that the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival.

We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children, will be lured away by some other person who, when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable and successful.

Dr. Gary Collins, in Homemade, July, 1985

Power

Power can be used in at least two ways: it can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed. The energy in ten gallons of gasoline, for instance, can be released explosively by dropping a lighted match into the can.Or it can be channeled through the engine of a Datsun in a controlled burn and used to transport a person 350 miles.Explosions are spectacular, but controlled burns have lasting effect, staying power.The Holy Spirit works both ways. At Pentecost, he exploded on the scene; His presence was like 'tongues of fire" (Acts 2:3). Thousands were affected by one burst of God's power. But He also works through the church,the institution God began to tap the Holy Spirit's power for the long haul. Through worship, fellowship, and service, Christians are provided with staying power.

Source unknown

A Father

His shoulders are a little bent, His youthful force a trifle spent, But he's the finest man I know, With heart of gold and hair of snow.

He's seldom cross and never mean; He's always been so good and clean; I only hope I'll always be As kind to him as he's to me.

Sometimes he's tired and seems forlorn, His happy face is lined and worn; Yet he can smile when things are bad: That's why I like my gray-haired dad.

He doesn't ask the world for much, Just comfort, friendliness, and such; But from the things I've heard him say, I know it's up to me to pay.

For all the deeds he's done for me Since I sat rocking on his knee; Oh, not in dollars, dimes, or cents,That's not a father's recompense.

Nor does he worship wealth and fame, He'd have me honor Jesus' name.

Source unknown

TV Is My Shepherd

The TV set is my shepherd. My spiritual growth shall want. It maketh me to sit down and do nothing for his name's sake. Because it requireth all of my spare time. It keepeth me from doing my duty as a Christian, because it presenteth so many good shows that I must see.

It restoreth my knowledge of the things of the world and keepeth me from the study of God's Word. It leadeth me in the paths of failing to attend the evening worship services and doing nothing in the kingdom of God.

Yea, though I live to be 100 I shall keep on viewing television as long as it will work, for it is my closest companion. Its sound and its picture, they comfort me.

It presenteth entertainment before me and keepeth me from doing important things with my family. It fills my head with ideas which differ from those set forth in the word of God.

Surely, no good thing will come of my life, because my television offereth me no good time to do the will of God; thus I will dwell crownless in the house of the Lord forever.

Source unknown

Kneeling to Pray

A young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling.


Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do.

'Well," said the chaplain, 'you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don't provoke them."

For weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one day he met him, and asked ,"By the way, did you take my advice?"

'I did, for two or three nights."

'How did it work?"

'Well," said the young man, 'I felt like a whipped hound and the third night I got out of bed, knelt down and prayed."

'Well," asked the chaplain, 'How did that work?"

The young soldier answered: 'We have a prayer meeting there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the rest."

Oh, friends, I am so tired of weak Christianity. Let us be out and out for Christ; let us give no uncertain sound. If the world wants to call us fools, let them to it. It is only a little while; the crowning day is coming. Thank God for the privilege we have of confessing Christ.

Moody's Anecdotes, pp. 73-74

Destroyed by Fire

Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, talking movies, and more than 1000 other things.

December 1914 he had worked for 10 years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. This particular evening spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room.

Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film, and other flammable goods were in flames. Fire companies from eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile.

Everything was destroyed. Edison was 67. With all his assets going up in a whoosh (although the damage exceeded two million dollars, the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof), would his spirit be broken?

The inventor's 24-year old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind. 'My heart ached for him," said Charles. 'He was 67,no longer a young man,and everything was going up in flames.

When he saw me, he shouted, 'Charles, where's your mother?' When I told him I didn't know, he said, 'Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.'' The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, 'There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew."

Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.

Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick, Thomas Nelson, 1978, pp. 82-3, and Bits and Pieces, November, 1989, p. 12

Law Like a Brush Fire

A duck hunter was with a friend in the wide-open land of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon he could hear crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the terrible truth; a brushfire was advancing, so fast they couldn't outrun it.

Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for,a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come.

They didn't have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near,and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt, untouched.

Fire would not pass where fire already had passed.
The law is like a brushfire. I cannot escape it. But if I stand in the burned-over place, not a hair of my head will be singed. Christ's death has disarmed it.


Adapted from Who Will Deliver Us? by Paul F. M. Zahl

Runaway Daughter

Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city.

One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself.

With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all.

And at each place she left her picture,taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.

It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken.

Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother.

Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. 'Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." She did.

Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 158-9.