Illustrations

Golfer Payne Stewart’s jet crashed in 1999. It appears that the pilot and copilot went unconscious during the flight. Air traffic controllers were unable to communicate with the pilots, and two Air Force jets were sent to investigate.

As they pulled alongside Stewart’s jet they could not see any movement in the cockpit, but they could see that the windows were fogged up. It appears that somehow the cabin lost pressure allowing cold air from the stratosphere in the plane. After the plane ran out of fuel it plunged to the earth below.

Missionaries Dick and Margaret Hillis were caught in China during the Japanese invasion. The couple lived with their two children in the inland town of Shenkiu. The village was tense with fear, and every day brought terrifying reports of the Japanese advance. At the worst possible time, Dick developed appendicitis, and he knew his life depended on making the long journey by ricksha to the hospital. On January 15, 1941, with deep foreboding, Margaret watched him leave.

The story is told of an old Navajo Indian who became rich when oil was found on his property. He took all the money and put it in a bank. His banker became familiar with the habits of this old gentleman. Every so often, the Indian would show up at the bank and say to the banker, “Grass all gone, sheep all sick, water holes all dry.”

A rich man was in the habit of giving his wife an expensive piece of jewelry every year on her birthday. One year he might phone the jeweler and say, “Send me your finest pearl necklace, along with your bill.” Or, “Send me your finest diamond pendant, along with your bill.” Or the finest emerald bracelet or ruby ring. Each time, the jeweler did as the rich man asked, dispatching a messenger to the rich man’s mansion to deliver the jewelry piece in a box along with his bill.

The captain of a ship looked into the dark night and saw a light in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message, “Alter your course ten degrees south.” He promptly received a reply, “Alter your course ten degrees north.”

The furious captain sent another message, “Alter your course ten degrees south. I am a captain!” Soon another reply was received, “Alter your course ten degrees north. I am seaman third class Jones.”

Just as knowing that soap will clean the dirt off our hands does nothing for us until we use it, knowing the facts of the Gospel does nothing for a man until he personally applies them.

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

In her autobiography, My Life, former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir tells the story of her devout Jewish grandfather who lived in Russia. He was required to serve in the Russian army for sixteen years. During that time he tried to keep every Jewish law and custom even though it meant that he faced intense persecution—even being forced to kneel on a stone floor for hours.

Bette Nesmith was a secretary at a bank in Dallas when she decided there must be a way to correct typewriter mistakes without erasing the ink. She cane up with a formula for a fluid that she could use to paint over mistakes. In a short time all of the secretaries in her office were using her correction fluid.

Betty called her product, “Mistake Out,” and began a business selling it full time.When she sold her business to Gillette Company for $47.5 million, it was making $3.5 million every year on sales that grossed $38 million.

“In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality of a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.”—Dwight D. Eisenhower

A mother gave her little girl a quarter and a dollar before church, “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did.”