Not long before
she died Marghanita Laski, a well-known secular humanist and novelist, told
an interviewer: “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I
have nobody to forgive me.”
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
D. L. Moody visited a
prison called “The Tombs” to preach to the inmates. After he had finished
speaking, Moody talked with a number of men in their cells. He asked each
prisoner this question, “What brought you here?” Again and again he received
replies like this: “I don’t deserve to be here.” “I was framed.” “I was falsely
accused.” “I was given an unfair trial.” Not one inmate would admit he was
guilty. Finally, Moody found a man with his face buried in his hands, weeping. “And
what’s wrong, my friend?” he inquired.
“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of
the tongue you may never get over.”—Franklin, Benjamin
“Anger dwells only in the
bosom of fools.”—Albert
Einstein
“If a small thing has the
power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?”—Sydney J.
Harris
“He who angers you conquers
you.”—Elizabeth Kenny
“Speak when you are angry and
you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”—Ambrose
Bierce
“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”—Benjamin
Franklin
Mysophobia is
fear of dirt. Hydrophobia is fear of water. Nyclophobia is the fear of darkness.
Acrophobia is fear of high places. Taxophobia is fear of being buried alive. Xenophobia
is fear of strangers. Necrophobia is fear of the dead. Claustrophobia is fear
of confined places. Triskaidekaphobia is
fear of the number 13.
Persistence paid off for American astronomer
Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet Pluto. After astronomers calculated a
probable orbit for this “suspected” heavenly body, Tombaugh took up the search
in March, 1929. Time magazine recorded the investigation: “He examined scores of
telescopic photographs each showing tens of thousands of star images in pairs
under the dual microscope. It often took three days to scan a single pair. It
was exhausting, eye-cracking work, in his own words, “brutal, tediousness.” And
it went on for months. Star by star, he examined 20 million images.
“Will you please
tell me in a word,” said a Christian woman to a minister, “what your idea of
consecration is?” Holding out a blank sheet of paper the pastor replied, “It is
to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in
as He will.”
Source: Unknown
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
In 1990 newspapers reported that city workers in
Newport Beach, California, were sifting through two and
one-half tons of trash, looking for $42,500 mistakenly discarded at the Great
American Bank and hauled away by garbage trucks. That’s a significant loss of
money, but it is only money. The loss of human lives and souls is infinitely
more significant. Soulwinning deserves our best effort.
Source: 1000 Windows, Robert C. Shannon
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
When Leonardo da Vinci was painting his
masterpiece, The Last Supper, he selected as the person to sit
for the character of Christ a young man, Pietri Bandinelli, who was connected with the Milan Cathedral as chorister. Years passed before the great
picture was completed, and when one character only—that of Judas Iscariot—was
wanting, the great painter noticed a man in the streets of Rome whom he selected as his model.
Speaking to his physician, John cried in great
perplexity, “I might not live a week!”
“Of course you may not, John, but very
likely you will, and the medicine will be in the house; it will keep; and if
you find yourself getting worse, you could take some. I shall not charge
anything for it. If you should feel worse tomorrow you might begin even then.”
“Sir, I may be dead tomorrow!”
“When would you propose to begin your medicine
then, John?”
“Well, sir, I hoped you would tell me to begin today.”
A Hebrew lady once told how seeing another Christian’s faith
converted her: She was fleeing the German Gestapo in France during World War II.
She knew she was close to being caught and she wanted to give up. She came to
the home of a French Huguenot. A widow lady met her and said that it was time
to flee to a new place. This Jewish lady said, “It’s no use, they will find me
anyway. They are so close behind.” The Christian widow said, “Yes, they will
find someone here, but it’s time for you to leave.
