Illustrations

Two sisters were playing together when eight-year-old Martha insisted that they play school. Five-year-old Jenny wasn’t the least bit interested in thinking about school, but the older sister wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. Finally, little Jenny conceded and said, “OK, I’ll play.” She then added, “Mark me absent!”

Unfortunately, that is the attitude many Christians have towards church attendance.

Source: Unknown

The Israeli settlement of Netzarim in the heart of the Gaza Strip was a point of much conflict with militant Palestinians for several years. The conflict was so great that the settlement was evacuated in 2005.

Those who lived in Netzarim did so at great personal risk because they felt it was an important part of keeping their land free. A schoolteacher, Shlomit Ziv, who lived in Netzarim in 2001 said, “I don’t live where it’s comfortable; I live where it’s important to live.”

Often when we ask for a person’s signature, we will call it their “John Hancock.” This is because of the fifty-six signatures on the Declaration of Independence, one stands out above the rest. That signature belongs to John Hancock. He was the first to sign the declaration and he signed it in a large and legible script so that the King of England could read his name without using glasses.

A woman who traveled abroad without her husband got to Paris and found a fabulous bracelet she’d been looking for. So she sent a wire back home saying, “I have found this beautiful bracelet, one I’ve been looking for all my life. It only costs $7,500. Do you think I can buy it?”

Her husband wired back a short but firm reply, “No, price too high!” And he signed his name. But in the transmission, the comma was left out and the message read, “No price too high.” Oh, she was thrilled! Omitting that comma almost put that guy in a coma.

Tact is one of the lost arts of the twentieth century. I heard about a man who lacked tact. He was the type of person who just couldn’t say anything graciously. He and his wife owned a poodle. They loved this dog. It was the object of their affection. The wife was to take a trip abroad, and she made it to New York on the first day. She called home and asked her husband, “How are things?”

He said, “The dog’s dead!”

She was devastated. After collecting her thoughts, she asked, “Why do you do that? Why can’t you be more tactful?”

The famous and very successful football coach Bear Bryant often told reporters, "I’d croak in a month if I quit coaching." After twenty-five years as the head coach at his alma mater, Bryant announced he would be stepping down at the end of the season. On December 29, 1982, he coached his Alabama football team for the last time in the Liberty Bowl against Illinois. On January 26, 1983, he died of a massive heart attack.

“Commitments are sustained through strong inward motives.”—Unknown

The Lord is my shepherd
That’s relationship!

I shall not want
That’s supply!

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
That’s rest!

He leadeth me beside the still waters
That’s refreshment!

He restoreth my soul
That’s healing!

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
That’s guidance!

For His name’s sake
That’s purpose!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
That’s challenge!

In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report based on a nationwide survey of 10,847 women. They found that twenty percent of first marriages end in divorce or separation within five years while forty-nine percent of premarital cohabitation relationships end within that same time frame. When these time frames are extended to ten years sixty-two percent of cohabitation relationships breakup, while just thirty-three percent of first marriages end.

Source: CDC Press Release, July 24, 2002

Albert Einstein was traveling from Princeton on a train. When the conductor came down the aisle punching tickets Einstein reached in his vest pocket; he could not find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there so he looked in his briefcase, but still could not find it. He looked in the seat next to him, but it was not there.