In 2008, 4,000 books were published on happiness which is significantly more than the 50 which were published in 2000. If people would read the Bible, they would find the key to true joy.
Source: Psychology Today, January 1, 2009
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
On
January 1, 2010 a law went into effect in Texas that requires Department of
Public Safety clerks to ask all driver’s license applicants if they wish to
become an organ donor. The result of the new law more than doubled the number
of registered organ donors.
Think
of what could happen if Christians would ask every person they come in contact
with if they want to trust Christ as their personal Saviour.
B. F. Mills, a preacher from a
generation ago told the following story: “I remember going down stairs in a
hotel about midnight, with some letters in my hand that I wished to mail. The
clerk was not in the office, but a policeman was there, and he said, ‘I will
take your letters and mail them for you.’ I thanked him and handed them to him,
and started up the stairs. As I went I heard a voice say, ‘Why did you not
speak to that policeman about Christ?’
I said, ‘It was because it would
not do any good.’
D. L. Moody wrote the following words next to Isaiah 6:8 in
his Bible: “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do
something. What I can do, I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace
of God I will do.”
Isaiah 6:8: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom
shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
Source: One Thousand and One Thoughts from My Library,Dwight Lyman Moody
In George Foreman’s book, God in My Corner, the former
heavyweight boxing champion writes: “In
1974, before I went to Africa to fight Muhammad Ali, a friend gave me a Bible
to take along on my trip. He said, ‘George, keep this with you for good luck.’
I believed the Bible was just a shepherd’s handbook, probably because the only
verse I knew was ‘the Lord is my
shepherd.’ But I was always looking for luck, so I carried that Bible with
me. I had lucky pennies and good luck charms, so now I added the ‘lucky’ Bible
to my collection of superstitious items.
“The
life of Christianity consists of possessive pronouns. It is one thing to say, ‘Christ
is a Saviour’; it is quite another thing to say, ‘He is my Saviour and my Lord.’
The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the second.”—Martin Luther
Source: Annotations upon Popular Hymns, Charles Seymour Robinson
Kreisler, the famous violinist, said, “Narrow is the road that leads to the life of a
violinist. Hour after hour, day after day, and week after week, for years, I
lived with my violin. There were so many things that I wanted to do that I had
to leave undone; there were so many places I wanted to go that I had to miss if
I was to master the violin.”
Source: Zondervan 2011 Pastor’s Annual, T. T. Crabtree
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
Mendelssohn once visited
the cathedral at Fribourg, and having heard the great organ, went into the
organ loft and asked to be allowed to play it. The old organist, in jealousy
for his instrument, at first refused, but was afterward prevailed on to allow
the great German composer to try the colossal “thunderer” of the cathedral. After standing by in an ecstasy of delight and amazement for a few moments, he
suddenly laid his hands on the shoulders of the musician and exclaimed: “Who
are you? What is your name?”
I am an empty pew.
I vote for the world as against God.
I deny the Bible.
I mock at the preached Word of God.
I rail at Christian fellowship.
I laugh at prayer.
I break the Fourth Commandment;
I am a witness to solemn vows broken.
I advise men to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
I join my voice with every atheist and rebel against human and divine law.
I am an empty pew.
I am a grave in the midst of the congregation.
Read my epitaph and be wise.—Unkown
