Illustrations

Noted historian Thomas C. Reeves, who for many years was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, wrote: “Christianity in modern America is, in large part, innocuous. It tends to be easy, upbeat, convenient, and compatible. It does not require self-sacrifice, discipline, humility, an otherworldly outlook, a zeal for souls, a fear as well as love of God.”

“Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”—A. W. Tozer

The American Atheists organization paid $20,000 for a billboard near the Lincoln Tunnel in North Bergen, New Jersey. The sign had a silhouette of Three Wise Men approaching a nativity. The words, “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON!” were printed in bold. The billboard was meant to encourage atheists to quit celebrating Christmas, and to attack the “myth” that Christianity owns the solstice season.

”A father gave his little girl two dollars and said, “You can do anything you want with one of the dollars, but the other dollar belongs to God.”

With joy she ran to the candy store. On the way she tripped and one dollar fell into the storm drain. She got up and said, “Well Lord, there goes Your dollar.”

Source: Unknown

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”—William Arthur Ward

In an eye-opening study, researchers have found that teenagers who listen to songs with raunchy, suggestive lyrics are more likely to lose their purity than those who do not listen to such songs.

In 2001, researchers surveyed 1,461 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17. Most of the participants were virgins at the beginning of the study. Between 2002 and 2004, the researchers carried out follow-up interviews and found that around 51% of teens whose music collection consisted mainly of music that degraded purity lost their purity within two years.

“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.”—J. Sidlow Baxter

Sandra Bullock won the 2010 Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Ann Tuohy in The Blind Side. The sensational film chronicles a Christian family who took in a homeless young man and gave him the chance to reach his God-given potential. Michael Oher not only dodged the hopelessness of his dysfunctional inner city upbringing, but became the first-round NFL draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. At a recent fund-raiser, Sean Tuohy noted that the transformation of his family and Michael all started with two words.

1. Don’t buy clothing that involves sizes. The chances are one in seven thousand that you will get her size right, and your wife will be offended the other 6999 times.

2. Avoid all things useful. The new silver polish advertised to save hundreds of hours is not going to win you any brownie points.

3. Don’t buy jewelry. The jewelry your wife wants, you can’t afford. And the jewelry you can afford, she doesn’t want.

“If a church changes doctrine and structure to follow its members’ views, it is difficult to see the value of that church and its religion. Religions must claim to be true, and in their essentials, to uphold principles that are universal and eternal. No church that panders to the zeitgeist deserves respect, and very shortly it will not get respect, except from those who find it politically useful, and that is less respect than disguised contempt.”—Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Robert H. Bork