Dr. Paul Chappell

The story is told of four high school boys who couldn’t resist the temptation to skip morning classes. Each had been smitten with a bad case of spring fever. After lunch they showed up at school and reported to the teacher that their car had a flat tire. Much to their relief, she smiled and said, “Well, you missed a quiz this morning, so take your seats and get out a pencil and paper.” Still smiling, she waited as they settled down and got ready for her questions.

Then she said, “First question—which tire was flat?”

Source: Unknown

Little Willie’s mother found him with his hand in the cookie jar. She said, “What are you doing?”

He replied, “I’m fighting temptation.”

Source: Unknown

Jim Elliot was one of the martyred missionaries in 1956. He was a passionate Christian who journaled many of his thoughts and prayers. One such entry addressed his concern about impact. He wrote, “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” His impact continues on even though he died over fifty years ago at the age of twenty-nine.

Source: Shadow of the Almighty, Elisabeth Elliot

Lauren McCain was one of the students killed at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. The freshman from Shawnee, Oklahoma left a powerful statement about her faith on her personal web site. The 20-year-old had written, “The purpose and love of my life is Jesus Christ. I don’t have to argue religion, philosophy, or historical evidence because I KNOW Him.”

Source: The New York Times

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

In Family Circus, Billy is talking to his Grandmother. She encourages him to be grateful and says, “Always count your blessings.”  Billy replies, “But I’m not very good at arithmetic.” Thanksgiving is the time to improve in gratefulness.

Source: In Other Words

1. Phone conversations last thirty seconds.

2. Old friends don’t care if you have lost or gained weight.

3. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

4. If someone forgets to invite you to something, they can still be your friend.

5. You can watch a game in silence for hours without your buddy thinking, “He must be mad at me.”

6. You know that great chocolate comes from a vending machine.

7. If another guy shows up at a party with the exact same outfit you are wearing, he just might become your new best friend.

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to “clean up” the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.

On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The quaint stone bears an epitaph not easily seen unless you stoop over and look closely. The faint etchings read:

Beneath this stone, a lump of clay,
Lies Arabella Young,
Who on the twenty-fourth of May,
Began to hold her tongue.

Source: Unknown

Ask anyone about the color of bubble gum and they’ll invariably say “pink.”  In 1928, Walter Diemer accidentally created the first successful batch of bubble gum while playing around with different recipes. He made it pink because, at the time, that was the only food coloring available in the factory. When contemplating whether to discard or memorialize something, it might be wise to chew a piece of bubble gum and think about the initial reasoning behind that particular tradition.

Source: Houston Chronicle

In its early days, Dallas Theological Seminary was in critical need of $10,000 to keep the work going. During a prayer meeting, renowned Bible teacher Harry Ironside, a lecturer at the school, prayed, “Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Please sell some of those cattle to help us meet this need.” Shortly after the prayer meeting, a check for $10,000 arrived at the school, sent days earlier by a friend who had no idea of the urgent need or of Ironside’s prayer. The man simply said the money came from the sale of some of his cattle!

The story is told about an old farm couple who were driving along in their pickup when the wife said, “We never sit all snuggled up in the truck like we used to.” The husband looked at her and said, “I haven't moved.”

When we discover as a church or as individual believers that we aren't as close to God as we once were, understand this, He didn’t move, we did.

Source: Unknown

“I don’t make decisions in public life based on religious belief.”—US Senator John Kerry, then front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who claims to hold strong Roman Catholic beliefs but supports legal abortion and civil unions for homosexual couples.

Source: World Magazine

A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagon-load of corn in the road. The farmer who lived nearby came to investigate. “Hey, Willis,” he called out, “forget your troubles for a spell and come on in and have dinner with us. Then I'll help you get the wagon up.”

“That's mighty nice of you,” Willis answered, “but I don't think Pa would like me to.”

“Aw, come on, son!” the farmer insisted.

“Well, okay,” the boy finally agreed. “But Pa won't like it.”

One morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling. “I'm burdened this morning!” was his reply. But his happy countenance contradicted his words.

So the questioner exclaimed in surprise, “Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?”

“Yes, but it's a wounderful burden--it's an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enought time or words to express my gratitude!”

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you?

John Wesley traveled 250,000 miles on horseback, riding twenty miles daily for forty years, preached forty thousand sermons, produced four hundred books, knew ten languages, and at eighty-three was annoyed when he could not write more than fifteen hours a day without huring his eyes. At eighty-six he was ashamed that he could not preach more than twice a day. He complained, in his diary, that there was an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning.

Source: The Speaker's Quote Book, Roy B. Zuck

1. Redefine your roles regularly
2. Refocus on high priority tasks
3. Request heavenly wisdom
4. Replenish your personal strength (physical, emotional, spiritual)
5. Remember what's important
6. Refine your strengths and weaknesses

One ingenious teenager who was tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He told her, “Now you can hear your stories anytime you want. Isn't that great?” She looked at the machine for a moment and then replied, “No. It hasn't got a lap.”

Source: Unknown

“We'll have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset to win them.”—Robert Moffat

“If a man's business requires so much of his time that he cannot attend the services of his church, then that man has more business than God intended him to have.”—J. C. Penney

“There is more joy in Jesus in 24 hours than there is in the world in 365 days. I have tried them both.”—R. A. Torrey

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”—Dale Carnegie