Two boys were playing in the snow one day; when one said to the other, “Let us see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started.
The story is told of various church members and their attitude toward the
midweek service:
Brother A. thought it looked like rain, and
concluded that his family, including himself of course, had better remain at
home. On Thursday evening it was raining very hard, and the same brother hired
a carriage, and took his whole family to the Academy of Music, to hear M.
Agassiz lecture on the “Intelligence of the Lobster.”
Maria Dyer was born in 1837 on the mission field in China where
her parents were pioneer missionaries. Both her parents died when Maria was a
little girl, and she was sent back to England to be raised by an uncle. The
loss of her parents, however, did not deter her young heart from the importance
of sharing the gospel. At age sixteen she, along with her sister, returned to
China to work in a girl’s school as a missionary herself. Five years later, she
married Hudson Taylor, a man well-known today for his life of ministry, faith,
and sacrifice.
When he was appointed as the pastor a church in Cambridge,
England, in 1783 Charles Simeon was delighted. The people of the church did not
share his joy. Many of the prominent members of the church opposed his
convictions on reaching the lost with the gospel.
One-third (35 percent) of Americans today say they have been through a
breakup at least once in the past 10 years.
Americans under age
35 are twice as likely as those between 35 and 54, and nearly five times
as likely as those 55 and older, to have split with a significant other
in the past decade. In fact, 59 percent of respondents between the
ages of 18 and 34 say they have recently experienced a breakup.
Although
half of women (51 percent) say they initiated their most recent split, only 32 percent of men say their partner dumped them.
One of the most gifted speakers in church history was John
Chrysostom—the name comes from a Greek word meaning “golden tongued.” John
was sent from Antioch to what was then Constantinople where he preached
fearlessly in the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. His denunciation of the
lavish extravagance of the rich and ruling class and his condemnation of excess
infuriated many, including Empress Eudoxia who arranged for him to be exiled.
William Booth was greatly stirred by the needs of the poor of
London, and realized that most churches were doing nothing to reach the “undesirables”—drunkards,
morphine addicts, prostitutes, and the poor. He set out to reach them with what
he called the 3 S’s: soup, soap and salvation. Thousands were saved among those
that most churches had no interest in reaching. Booth gave his life for the
cause of reaching others.
Charles Spurgeon told this story of his grandfather James and his faith in God. “He had a large family and a very small income, but he loved his Lord, and he would not have given up his preaching of the gospel for anything.” One day the cow on which the family relied for milk for the children
suddenly died. James Spurgeon’s wife was greatly concerned, but he said, “God said He would provide, and I believe He could send us fifty cows if He pleased.”
A missionary to Africa told the story of an elderly woman who
was reached with the gospel. Though she was blind and could neither read nor
write, she wanted to share her new found faith with others. She went to the
missionary and asked for a copy of the Bible in French. When she got it,
she asked the missionary to underline John 3:16 in red and mark the page it was on so she
could find it. The missionary wanted to see what she would do, so one day he
followed her.
Though he would later be acclaimed as one of the greatest
inventors of history, Thomas Edison’s school career lasted three months. The
teacher believed he was incapable of learning anything and sent him home.
Edison’s mother taught him, and he was on his way to a lifetime of overcoming
what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. Among his most famous inventions
were the commercial incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the
fluoroscope. Most of his inventions required months if not years of dedication
to overcoming obstacles before seeing any results.
In 1555, as part of her
campaign to re-establish the Catholic Church in England, Queen Mary, also known
as Bloody Mary, arranged for John Philpot, one of the leading Protestant
ministers of the day, to be burned at the stake. When his death sentence was
pronounced, Philpot said, “I am ready; God grant me strength and a joyful
resurrection.” Philpot walked to the place of execution on his own, rather than
having to be dragged to it, and when he reached it, he knelt and kissed the
stake at which he would be burned.
In the 1840s, John Geddie left the pastorate of a church in
Canada to take his wife and two small children to the South Sea Islands to
begin a mission work there. After a voyage of more than 20,000 miles, they
arrived in the New Hebrides Islands at Aneityum. The island chain was filled
with cannibals, and more than twenty crew members of a British ship had been
killed and eaten just months before the Geddies arrived on the mission field.
In the sixteenth
century, there was a protestant reformer in England by the name of Hugh
Latimer. He was known as a great preacher of his day and as a result he had
many opportunities to speak. Once he found that he was to preach before the
King Henry VIII of England. As he thought about his great responsibility to
bring a message before the king he realized that the message that God laid on
his heart was not the message that the king would want to hear.
The story is told about a little boy who had been invited to a friend’s
birthday party. He was so excited and started counting the days until the
party. But the morning of the party he was devastated when he found that a
blizzard had struck their little town. The snow was falling in wet, heavy
flakes, and the wind was howling. “I don’t think you should go to the
party,” his father said. The little boy was so disappointed.
In 2005, the Guinness Book of World
Records said that Percy and Florence Arrowsmith held two records—the longest
marriage of a living couple (80 years) and having the largest married couple’s
aggregate age (205 years).
Both Mr. and Mrs. Arrowsmith have
since died, but they left good advice for those who want to have a lasting
marriage. Florence said, “You must never go to sleep bad friends. If you’ve
had a quarrel, you make it up. Never be afraid to say, ‘sorry’.”
When Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford celebrated their golden wedding
anniversary, a reporter asked them, “To what do you attribute your fifty years
of successful married life?”
“The formula,” said Mr. Ford, “is the same formula I
have always used in making cars—just stick to one model.”
Source: Walking Through Your Bible with H.M.S. Richards, H.M.S. Richards
The story is told that Andrew Jackson’s boyhood friends just
couldn’t understand how he became a famous general and then the President of
the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never
succeeded. One of Jackson’s friends said, “Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down
the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times
out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now.”
Another friend responded, “How did there happen to be a fourth
time? Didn’t they usually say three times and out?”
The famous and very successful football coach Bear Bryant often
told reporters, "I’d croak in a month if I quit coaching." After
twenty-five years as the head coach at his alma mater, Bryant announced he
would be stepping down at the end of the season. On December 29, 1982, he
coached his Alabama football team for the last time in the Liberty Bowl against
Illinois. On January 26, 1983, he died of a massive heart attack.
Timothy Stackpole was a New York Firefighter, who was severely
burned in a 1998 fire. After he recovered, he returned to the force despite the
advice of some friends and family and the fact that he could retire comfortably.
He was a great fire fighter and passionate
about his work and was soon promoted to captain. Timothy was one of the fire
fighters that ran into the second tower to try to save some people. When he
did, it collapsed and took his life. He knew his calling—to save people. The Holy
Spirit has called us to a life of service. We should live for Him.
Charles
Spurgeon preached to thousands in London each Lord’s day, yet he started his
ministry by passing out tracts and teaching a Sunday school class as a
teenager. He was eventually invited to obscure places in the country side to
preach, and after that became known as one of the greatest preachers in England.
Spurgeon said: “I am perfectly sure, that if I had
not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure
country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands
of men and women in large buildings all over the land.”