The Bible on the Second Coming

Dr. George Sweeting once estimated that “more than a fourth of the Bible is predictive prophecy…Both the Old and New Testaments are full of promises about the return of Jesus Christ. Over 1800 references appear in the O.T., and seventeen O.T. books give prominence to this theme. Of the 260 chapters in the N.T., there are more than 300 references to the Lord’s return—one out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 N.T. books refer to this great event…For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are eight on Christ’s second coming.”

Source: Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 40.

Contributed by: Guy Caley

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C. S. Lewis on Temptation

C. S. Lewis made these insightful observations about temptation: “No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. That is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is…Christ, because He was the only Man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only Man who knows to the full what temptation means.”

Source: Today in the Word, November, 1998, p. 24

Contributed by: Drew Mills

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The Lowest Shelf

“I used to think, that God’s gifts were on shelves—one above another, and the taller we grow, the easier we can reach them. Now I find that God’s gifts are on shelves—one beneath another, and the lower we stoop, the more we get!”

— F.B. Meyer

Contributed by: James Westervelt

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Most Common English Words

I was fascinated when I read the following research a number of years in Dennis Waitley’s Empires of the Mind. Waitley reported that although there are approximately 450,000 words in the English language, about 80% of our conversations use only about 400 words. The most common words in the English language are. . . “I,” “Me,” “My,” and “Mine.”

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To Make Men Good

Many churches years ago had mourners benches. Charles Allen in his book God’s Psychiatry said “Today we want God’s blessing without the pain of God’s purging. We want sermons on how to win friends, how to have peace of mind, how to forget our fears. But we must remember that Christ came to make men good rather than merely to make men feel good.”

Contributed by: Richard McNair

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Sin is a Bully

In his book Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey writes:

“There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons. But then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him five dollars a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.”

Too many people feel it is easier just to pay the bully than it is to learn how to defeat him.

Source: Sherman L. Burford, Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership

Contributed by: William Neel

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True Silence

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body nourishment and refreshment.

Source: William Penn

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Who Would You Be?

A reporter asked George Bernard Shaw if he could live his life over, and be any person he has known or any other person in history, who would he be? Mr. Shaw replied, “I would be the man that George Bernard Shaw could have been, but never was.”

Contributed by: David Taylor

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“I’m Fine.”

Farmer Joe decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe. “Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine’?,” questioned the lawyer.

Farmer Joe responded, “Well I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the…”

“I didn’t ask for any details,” the lawyer interrupted, “just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine’!”

Farmer Joe said, “Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road…”

The lawyer interrupted again and said, “Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question.”

By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer and said to the lawyer, “I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie.”

Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, “Well, as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway, when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

“Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.

Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me. He said, “Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?”

It was then that I said, “I’m fine.”

____

Today, there’s no need to say, “I’m fine.” We are not fine. We have been touched by death because of sin.

Contributed by: Andrew Chan

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Are You a Peacemaker?

Several years ago, I was in a Bible study in which we were studying the Sermon on the Mount. It was most interesting because of the diversity of people we had in the study. You remember that passage, “Blessed are the peacemakers…”

The discussion centered on the situation in the world today. On the wars and famines, and the terrorism, the factions. Many in the group mentioned how they hoped that somehow God would work in the world today and bring about peace. One of the ladies in the room, said something, which just grabbed me. She said, “It seems like God and Jesus Christ is calling us to be ‘peacemakers,’ not just ‘peace-hopers.'”

This is one of those statements where we all have to stop and examine what we are doing, just as James asks us to. “Is what I am doing right now—right here, in the family, in the workplace, at the church—does it make me a peacemaker?”

Contributed by: Thomas Morgan

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