I was reading the story of a railway switchman who testified that he swung his lantern at the crossing as an automobile sped toward a fast train. In spite of the warning, the car sped on, and the driver was killed. The switchman was exonerated. He later confided to a friend that he had no light in his lantern. What an awful guilt would be upon me if I didn’t give you a fair warning of three things.
A young man was converted during special evangelistic meetings held in a mining village. Wanting to do something for God, he bought some tracts and was distributing them one day, when he met some former companions. They decided to deride him for his faith in Christ. “Hey! Can you tell me where Hell is?”
After a moment’s hesitation, the newly converted man replied, “Yes, at the end of a Christless life.”
In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without a parachute.
If we look through a piece of red glass, everything is red; through blue glass, everything is blue; through yellow glass, everything is yellow, and so on.
The glorious truth is that when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, God looks at us through the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees us in all the white holiness of His Son. That is the great New Testament doctrine of the imputation of our sin to the account of Christ and His righteousness to our account.
Faith is worthless in itself. If faith is not properly founded, it can lead to nothing other than disaster. One night cars sped along the main highway between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The drivers had faith in their cars and in the bridges over the streams. They passed over some bridges at fifty or sixty miles per hour. Everything was lovely, the concrete spans stood firm over the rivers and bayous, and the cars went on their way. Suddenly, the twin taillights in front of a truck melted into the road and disappeared.
Some years ago a bargeman and a collier were in a boat above the rapids of a cataract, and found themselves unable to manage it, being carried so swiftly down the current that they must both inevitably be borne down and dashed to pieces. One was saved by grasping a rope that was thrown to him. The same instant that the rope came into his hand, a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless and confused bargeman, instead of seizing the rope, laid hold on the log.
A traveler upon a lonely road was set upon by bandits who robbed him of everything he had. They then led him into the depths of the forest. There, in the darkness, they tied a rope to the limb of a great tree, and bade him catch hold to the end of it. Swinging him out into the blackness of surrounding space, they told him he was hanging over the brink of a giddy precipice. The moment he let go he would be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. And then they left him. His soul was filled with horror at the awful doom impending.
A certain missionary society, in order to gain access for a missionary to work in some of the African tribes, sent down trinkets to be bartered with the natives. Among them was a package of little hand mirrors, such as ladies use.
The natives had never seen their own faces except in the waters of some lake or stream. So the news of this wonderful instrument by which people could see their features was spread abroad. The missionary was invited by the tribe after tribe to visit them with his hand glass.
Come with me to an underpass outside of the freight yards of one of our great railroad centers. Here are two or three men – hobos, vagabonds, tramps. One says, “I hope that I will have a million dollars.” Another says, “I hope that I will have two million dollars.” A third says, “I hope that I will have ten million dollars!” The total assets of the three amount to forty-three cents!
In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people were preparing to have a “hurricane party” in the face of a storm named Camille. The wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when Police Chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark. A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved. Peralta yelled up, “You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm's getting worse.” But as others joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Peralta's order to leave.
The Gospel of John introduces Jesus as “the Word.” In Stanislas Dehaene’s book about the human brain, Reading In The Brain, he notes that the average English adult reader has 50,000 or more words stored in his mental dictionary. In a fraction of a second the brain matches the word being read with the memorized meaning of that word. The Apostle wasn’t privy to Dehaene’s research, yet he still seemed to understand that though there are many words, there is only one Word that translates to eternal life.
In 1934, a British magazine told the story of young Prince Edward and a visit he made to a small hospital where thirty-six hopelessly injured and disfigured veterans of the First World War were tended. He stopped at each cot, shook hands with each veteran, and spoke words of encouragement. He was conducted to the exit but observed that he had only met twenty-nine men. At that point he questioned those present, “I understood you had thirty-six patients here. I have only seen twenty-nine.”
I had just finished preaching four times to several hundred teenagers at a harvest rally in Norfolk, Virginia. The youth pastor drove me to the airport where I was to catch a plane to Baltimore, Maryland. I was scheduled on US Airways, Flight 4476, to Philadelphia and then on to Baltimore. The airport in Norfolk was easy to find. When I arrived, there were no lines at the ticket counter, whatsoever. I proceeded to the kiosk where I checked in without a problem, and then I headed for Gate A-11. The terminal was amazingly desolate.
It was Easter Sunday, 1973. Uganda groaned under the terror of Idi Amin. Still fresh in young Pastor Kefa Sempangi’s memory was a face burned beyond recognition, the sight of soldiers cruelly beating a man, and the horrible sound of boots crushing bones—all for the crime of being a Christian. But Easter of 1973 Pastor Sempangi bravely and openly preached on the risen Lord in his town’s football stadium to over 7,000 people. After the service, five of Idi Amin’s Secret Police followed Sempangi back to his church and closed the door behind them.
“If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” I asked the children in my Sunday school class. “NO!” the children all answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again the answer was, “NO!”
“Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?” I asked them again. Once more they all answered,“NO!”
The Gospel of John introduces Jesus as the “Word.” In Stanislas Dehaene’s book about the human brain, Reading in the Brain, he notes that the average adult English reader has 50,000 or more words stored in their mental dictionaries. In a fraction of a second the brain matches the word being read with the memorized meaning of that word. The Apostle John wasn’t privy to Dehaene’s research, yet he still seemed to understand that though there are many words, there is only one Word that translates to eternal life.—Source, Houston Chronicle
A young father wanted to read a magazine but he was being bothered by his little daughter, Vanessa. Finally, he tore a page out of his magazine on which was printed a map of the world. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to Vanessa, and said, “Go into the other room and put this back together for me.” After a few minutes, Vanessa returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together. The father was astonished and asked how she had finished so quickly. “Oh,” she said, “On the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus.
An attorney, after meditating on several Scriptures, decided to cancel the debts of all his clients that had owed him money for more than 6 months. He drafted a letter explaining his decision and its Biblical basis and sent 17 debt canceling letters via certified mail. One by one, the letters were returned by the Postal Service, unsigned and undelivered. Perhaps a couple people had moved away though not likely.