 A few years ago, a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination, and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration and, at the same time, helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noted that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly." As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?" He stopped in mid stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life, and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk, and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting ure and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day. You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit. Let us live like we are worth the price He paid. Makes you think, doesn't it?
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Mother
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked.
And the guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."
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I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some money back.
The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.'
Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ''Granny,are you sure I don't have enough money?''
The old lady replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.''
Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look a round. She left quickly.
The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.
Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to.
'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas.
She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'
I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.
But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.'
His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.'
My heart nearly stopped.
The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.'
Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me.'
'I love my mommy and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she ha s to go to be with m y little sister.'
Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?'
'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.
The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'
Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!'
'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.'
'My mommy loves white roses.'
A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left w ith my basket.
I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started.
I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind.
Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl.
The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.
Was this the family of the little boy?
Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.
I couldn't stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial.
She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.
I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed forever.. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine.
And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.
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This one should keep us all thinking. |
 This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC.
There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester to prove that God couldn´t exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic.
Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation. At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students: “If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!”
In 20 years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say: “Because anyone who believes in God is a fool. If God existed, He could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can´t do it.”
And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom. And it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students thought that God couldn´t exist. Certainly, a number of christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.
Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll.
He was a christian, and had heard the stories about his professor.
He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid.
But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up, no matter what the professor said or what the class thought. Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith...he hoped.
Finally, the day came. The professor said: “If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!” The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.
The professor shouted: “You FOOL!!! If God existed, He would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!”
He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken.
The professor´s jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall.
The young man, who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God´s love for them and of His power through Jesus...
You have two choices:
1.Pretend you never read this.
2.Pass this along to your christian and none-christian friends, giving them encouragement we all need every day.
When you choose option 2, you have chosen to STAND UP!
In light of the many jokes we tell to one another for a laugh, this is a little different. This is not intended to be a joke, it´s not funny, it´s intended to get you thinking...
Isn´t it “funny” how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world´s going to hell?
Isn´t it “funny” how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says?
Isn´t it “funny” how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say or do anything the Bible says? Or is it scary?
Isn´t it “funny” how someone can say “I believe in God”, but still follow satan? (who by the way also “believes” in God)
Isn´t it “funny” how you can send a thousands jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing?
Isn´t it “funny” how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace?
Isn´t it “funny” how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible christian the rest of the week?
Are you laughing?!
Isn´t it “funny” how when you go to tell someone this, you won´t because you are not sure what they believe or what they will think of you for telling them? Isn´t it “funny” how i can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me?
Will you pass this on?
I did. |
Some folks have a tendency to believe a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. Then along comes a day like today. The two inch snow that was predicted had turned into a six incher, and more in some of the drifts. And at three in the morning, it made for a pretty interesting trip to work. A half-hour later, I had the windshield cleared and backed up to the door to load. By five, the bread was loaded and ready to roll.
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