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Neglecting the Midweek Service

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.”

Illustration Topics
Church
Faithfulness
Priority

Keep What Is Precious

Things bought at garage sales don’t usually end up on the evening news, but a Chinese bowl bought by a New York family in 2007, became famous in April of 2013. The new owners paid just three dollars for what turned out to be a bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty that was more than one thousand years old. Until someone told them what they really had, the family had the bowl stuck on the mantle over their fireplace. When they placed the bowl with Sotheby’s Auction House for sale, it was estimated to go for approximately $200,000.

Illustration Topics
Integrity
Priority
Money

Don’t Leave Jesus Out

Adolph Menzel created a painting titled Frederick the Great’s Address to His Generals Before the Battle of Leuthen. This historical piece depicts Frederick’s speech to his generals in December 1757 during the Seven Years’ War before their famous battle in Silesia against the Austrians.

Illustration Topics
Time
Priority

The Fastest Man Alive

It took less than ten seconds for Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt to cover the one hundred meter distance on the Olympic track and win the gold medal in London. Those few seconds cemented his status as the “fastest man alive” and placed him on the winner’s podium once again. But the race was not won in those seconds—it was won by hours and hours of practice, workouts, weightlifting, special diet, and coaching.

Illustration Topics
Work
Sacrifice
Priority
Dedication
Desire

Do the Most Important Things First

Industrialist Charles Schwab was a key figure in Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire. Frustrated with his inability to get everything done, he once reluctantly agreed to meet with a consultant named Ivy Lee, who was recommended to him by John D. Rockefeller. Schwab had little use for consultants, but since Rockefeller recommended Lee so highly, he scheduled the meeting. Lee’s proposal was elegantly simple.

Illustration Topics
Time
Priority

Investing Time

Charles Francis Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams and grandson of President John Adams, kept a diary. One day he entered: “Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted.”

His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: “Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!” The father thought he was wasting time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time.

Illustration Topics
Time
Priority
Parenting
Fathers
Children

Too Busy To Pray

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day!
I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t take time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task.
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered, He answered, “You didn’t ask!”

I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided, “Why, child, you didn’t knock!”

I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn’t show me. He answered me, “But you didn’t seek.”

Illustration Topics
Time
Priority
Prayer
Poetry

General MacArthur’s Priority

“By profession, I am a soldier, and take pride in that fact, but I am prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; a father only builds, never destroys.  The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation of life; and while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me, not from the battle, but in the home repeating with him our simple, daily prayer, our Father Who art in Heaven.”—General Douglas MacArthur

Illustration Topics
Priority
Prayer
Parenting
Fathers

Grasping a Shadow

Henry Martyn, a Cambridge University student, was honored at only 20 years of age for his achievements in mathematics. In fact, he was given the highest recognition possible in that field. And yet he felt an emptiness inside. He said that instead of finding fulfillment in his achievements, he had, “Only grasped a shadow.”

Illustration Topics
Priority
Bible
Missions
Service

Christ Is All That Matters

Joni Erickson Tada had a terrible accident that left her a quadriplegic. In spite of her physical limitations she became an accomplished author and artist. Over 25 years ago she married her husband, Ken. For her wedding she had planned to come down the center aisle in her motorized wheel chair. Just before her grand entrance she noticed two distressing problems. First, she had rolled over her beautiful gown and made a big grease spot and tear in it. Then, the flowers in her lap had slipped and had lodged between her leg and the chair.

Illustration Topics
Worship
Priority
Marriage
Love

Don’t Forget Your Purpose

A preacher was in Atlanta, several years ago, and noticed in the restaurants section of the Yellow Pages, an entry for a place called Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, “Hello! Church of God Grill!”

Illustration Topics
Church
Direction
Faithfulness
Money
Priority
Wealth

Expensive Garbage

Americans shell out more for garbage bags than 90 of the world’s 210 countries do for everything.

Source: Global Political Economy and the Wealth of Nations, Philip O’Hara
Illustration Topics
Statistic
Money
Priority

Playing Store

A little boy and his father were playing store. The father offered to pay a nickel for a set of binoculars, and the boy said, “Dad we’re playing store, we’re not playing church!”

Source: Unknown
Illustration Topics
Children
Giving
Humor
Money
Priority

Financial Priorities

A lady was standing in front of a casino when she was approached by a desperate looking man, “Please!” the man begged frantically, “Could you possibly spare $500. My wife is very sick, and I really need the money to take her to the doctor and to buy her the medicine she needs.”

The lady looked at him suspiciously and said, “If I give you $500, how do I know you won’t just go into a casino and gamble it all away?”

The man quickly responded, “Oh no, I wouldn’t do that! I’ve got gambling money!”

Illustration Topics
Humor
Money
Priority
Marriage

First Things First

Surprised to see an empty seat at the super bowl stadium, a diehard fan remarked about it to a man sitting nearby. “It was my wife’s,” the man explained, “But she died.” “Oh! I’m very sorry to hear that,” said the man. “Yet I’m really surprised that another relative, or friend, didn’t jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for her.” “Beats me,” he said. “They all insisted on going to the funeral.”

Source: Unknown
Submitted by Gabriel Ruhl
Illustration Topics
Priority
Marriage
Humor

They Wouldn't Give Up

1. Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three. He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures in his legs. It did not look as if he would live. But he would not give up. In fact, he later ran the half-mile in less than two minutes.

2. Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up. He became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952.

Illustration Topics
Work
Dedication
Priority

Picking up the Wagon

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.”

Illustration Topics
Work
Humor
Patience
Priority

Personal Devotions

In the 1880s a young man who was an earnest Christian found employment in a pawnshop. Although he disliked the work, he did it faithfully as unto the Lord until a more desirable opportunity opened for him. To prepare himself for a life of Christian service, he wrote on a scrap of paper the following resolutions: “I do promise God that I will rise early every morning to have a few minutes—not less than five—in private prayer.

Illustration Topics
Spiritual Growth
Priority
Prayer
Faithfulness
Dedication
Contentment

TV and Grades

The A.C.

Illustration Topics
Priority
Media
Family
Time

Overtime and Family

A New York Times article on people who are sick of too many hours at work tells the story of Diane Knorr, a former dot—com executive: “The first time I got a call way after hours from a senior manager, I remember being really flattered and thinking, wow! I'm really getting up there now.” But gradually, her work and family life became a blur with hours that were hard to scale back. “If I leave at 5:00 and everyone else leaves at 6:30, I might look like the one who is not pulling his weight,” she said. In college, Mrs.

Illustration Topics
Work
Time
Priority
Mothers
Family
Parenting

Pagination

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