Quotations from Seasonal Teachings

Q-07
The words of Albert Einstein are strangely akin to the feelings of many a bewildered modern. Said he, "When Naziism came to Germany, I looked to the universities to defend freedom, knowing that they had boasted of their devotion to the truth. They were immediately silenced.

"Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials had proclaimed love of freedom. They were silenced in a few short weeks. I looked to the individual writers who had written much of the place of freedom in modern life. They, too, were mute.

"Only the Church stood squarely across Hitler's campaign to suppress truth. I never had special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration, because the Church alone had the courage and the persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am thus forced to confess that: what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."

Of course Albert Einstein is not yet a Christian. But he and many like him are finding that the Church is more than dead dogma and hollow creed. It is a living, vital, energetic fellowship that has no ax to grind.
No hidden motive.
No secret aim.
It lives and moves and has its being for one specific purpose: To give people life.
From "This Amazing Fellowship (Part 1)"
Church
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Q-10
Dr. Louis Evans, Sr. has pointed out that "In war, a mistake in tactics, a bad carrying-out of a detailed plan, may be forgiven. But no commanding officer is forgiven if he makes a mistake in strategy, the general plan of large-scale action. In this battle of life, you and I may make individual mistakes, but we must not make mistakes in strategy, in the general plan of our days. In football, a man may fumble the ball, even be tackled for a loss, but there is no excuse for a man's not knowing where the goal is."

And so it is with life. You can go anywhere from where you are right now. The place where you stand leads to everywhere. And your life can be exactly what you want it to be. But--
without a goal,
without a destination,
without a master plan,
your life is doomed to a meaningless treadmill existence of getting up in the morning, to go to work, to earn some money, to buy some bread, to get some strength, to go to work again.
From "Making A Living Or Making A Life"
Life, Purpose, Goal
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Q-11
I confess that for many years I didn't understand what that meant. Then one day I came across a little paragraph by William Graham Scroggie. Dr. Scroggie preceded J. Sidlow Baxter as pastor of the great Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was privileged to visit with Dr. Scroggie when Lucille and I held a week-long crusade there in 1950. He was in his eighties at the time, but sharp as a tack!

After talking with him, I bought everything he had written. In one of his pamphlets I found this gem, along with several other thoughts I'm sharing today:
"To be filled with the Spirit means to let the
Spirit possess and control you.
It means you let Him take your mind and think
through it.
It means you let Him take your heart and feel
through it.
It means you let Him take your conscience and
judge through it.
It means you let Him take your tongue and
speak through it.
It means you let Him take your will and act
through it.
It means you let Him take your total
personality and use it as He may please."

Basically, to "be filled with the Holy Spirit"is to give up control. That's not easy for most, if not all, of us to do.
It means letting go and letting God be God in our lives.
Difficult? Yes!
But that's the secret to joy-filled, peaceful, abundant living.
Holy Spirit, Control, Surrender, Obedience
From "The Holy Spirit And You"
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Q-13
It was a solitary angel which began the message of incarnation. But as his song of hope reached its highest note, Luke 2:13 tells us:
"Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly hosts praising God and saying:
'Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men'."
No greater song has ever been sung. No higher note of glory has ever been struck on the scale of praise.

To be sure, the sons of men have had their hours of gladness.
To be sure, they sang their hymns at the moment of creation when--in the beautiful language of (Job 38:7)--
"The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

Yes, the world has had its morning melody
and its evening song.
But never before, or since, was there a song to equal this.
This was a glory oratorio. This was a midnight concert of angelic voices singing: "Peace on earth...good will toward men."

Oh, my friend, do you know what it means to be at peace with God?
Do you know what it means to be at peace with yourself?
Someone has said, "Until Jesus came, there had been no peace since the day Adam sinned. Wars had ranged from the ends of the earth. People had slaughtered one another, heaps upon heaps. There had been wars within as well as wars without. Conscience had fought with mankind and satan had tortured people with thoughts of sin from which there was no remedy. There had been no peace, or hope of peace, since Adam fell.

"But now, when the new born King made his appearance, the very swaddling band in which He was wrapped became the white flag of peace. The very manger in which He lay was the place where the treaty was signed so that warfare could be stopped between a man and his conscience, between a woman and her God."
From "A Baby Makes A Difference"
Christmas, Peace, Incarnation, Despair
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Q-14
This is the answer to those who would have us believe God is an ogre.
This is the answer to those who would have us see God as a morose being who is trying to take away our fun. The straw-strewn stable and the manger are evidence of God's good will toward people.

No greater proof of kindness between the Creator and His creation can possibly be given than when the Creator gave His only son to die for that creation.

That was the purpose of the incarnation.
That was the reason for Christmas.
That was the cause for Christ's visitation.
He came to say to us what only God can say:
"Give me your humanity,
and I will give you my divinity.
Give me your time,
and I will give you my eternity.
Give me your weary soul,
and I will give you my redemption.
Give me your broken heart,
and I will give you my love.
Give me your nothingness,
and I will give you my all"
(Fulton J. Sheen).
From "A Baby Makes A Difference"
Christmas, Hope, Change, Peace, Incarnation, Despair
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Q-15
A recent survey made by the Russell Sage Foundation found that the lowest percentage of giving to charitable purposes is in the group, for want of a better phrase, we call The Middle Class. The highest percentage of giving is from those whom society calls The Poor. The report says that "Apparently the greatest barrier to generous giving is not the high cost of living, but the cost of high living!"
From "God's I Dare You"
Tithing, Giving, Money, Simplicity, Stewardship
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Q-16
Someone has said,
"A man doesn't quibble about the price of hose when his house is on fire."
I've found that when we begin to worry about giving God too much, we're missing the whole point of the matter. The world is on fire and the church is the only agency which can put it out. So may I reiterate: the tithe is the first tenth of our income. If we tip God...that is, if we give Him whatever remains at the end of our personal budget, after comforts, luxuries, vacations, and other things are taken care of, we are likely to find that tithing is a burden. But if we give God, "the first fruits", the number one spot on our personal budget, we will find tithing a delight. And, what is more, God will miraculously give us wisdom to use the remaining 9/10ths in such a way that it will equal, if not exceed, the purchasing power of the full 10/10ths. Don't ask me how, for I don't know. I can simply say from experience, IT WORKS!
From "God's I Dare You"
Tithing, Giving, Money, Stewardship

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Q-18
In one of his books, E. Stanley Jones points out,
"The strongest character that ever walked our planet prayed. His first public act was to stand on the banks of the Jordan river and pray. His last public act was a prayer, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' Between that first and last act, his whole life was saturated with prayer."
The strongest character who ever lived, the man who changed the whole course of history, was not ashamed to pray. No! Prayer is not only strength for the weak, it is fortification for the strong.
From "The Prayer Life Of A Layman"
Prayer, Laymen, Men
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Q-19
Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell has a very poignant paragraph on the question of what prayer is not.

He says:
"First off, prayer is not a blank check on which God's signature appears, guaranteeing us anything upon which we may set our hearts. Infinite wisdom does not put itself at the mercy of the whims and foibles of finite men and women.
"Second, prayer is not a rabbit's foot or other charm used to preserve us from misfortune. During the last war, some such talisman was carried by many soldiers to bring them good luck. This was not an expression of faith. It was a reversion to primitive superstition."

"Third," Bonnell says, "prayer is not a parachute project to be reserved for us to use in some extreme emergency."
(Or, as I like to put it, prayer is not some kind of escape hatch we can expect to bail us out when we find ourselves in a predicament that is over our heads.)

"Fourth," to continue Bonnell's list, "prayer is not a child's letter to Santa Clause. It is not just an appeal devoted to securing things. This type of prayer is often given a central place in our thinking. While the saints and seers and mystics, who were experts in prayer, regarded petition for material things as legitimate, they unfailingly relegated it a secondary place.

"Fifth, true prayer is not an attempt to change God's mind, or to bring Him around to our way of thinking. It is not a bludgeon to be used to overcome the divine reluctance. It is not a campaign to persuade God to do something He otherwise would have left undone."

Prayer is not a device for getting our wills done on earth through heaven.
It is a desire that God's will may be done on earth through us.

Finally, Bonnell says,
"Prayer is not an escape from duty. It is not some kind of magic which makes up for our slackness or failure to do our job."
God will never do for us what we can do for ourselves. As a matter of fact, the very opposite is true. It is always our extremity that is God's opportunity.
From "The Prayer Life Of A Layman"
Prayer
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Q-20
I think this bit of prose bundles up all I have been saying in a little package you can take away with you this morning:
"He asked for strength that he might achieve,
He was made weak that he might obey.
He asked for health that he might to greater things,
He was given sickness that he might do better things.
He asked for riches that he might be happy,
He was given poverty that he might be wise.
He asked for power that he might have the praise of men,
He was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.
He asked for all things that he might enjoy life,
He was given life that he might enjoy all things."

And so, while he received nothing that he asked for,
Yet he received everything he hoped for.

His prayer was answered. He is, of all men, most blessed.
From "The Prayer Life Of A Layman"
Prayer, Grace
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Q-23
There is an oft repeated phrase that is uniquely pertinent on this dedication day of our "Program For Progress." It is the little couplet: "Money Talks." You've all heard it before. Perhaps as a child you used it yourself to quell some verbose friend whose actions did not measure up to his talk.

"Put your money where your mouth is" was the way they used to say it when I was a boy. It was a challenge to "lay it on the line," to show the sincerity of your words by backing them up with your pocket book.

Well, there is no other situation in which that phrase is more applicable than in the life of a Christian. More than any other individual he is measured, not by what he says, but what he does. These are times when the whole, wide world is saying to Mr. and Mrs. Christian:

"Lay it on the line. Put your money where your mouth is. Money talks."
From "Wrap Your Gift In A Smile"
Money, Obedience, Giving, Stewardship
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Q-24
There is a New Testament story with which you are all familiar. A story which illustrates how Jesus tackled the problem of real and legitimate needs for his kingdom cause. It's the story of His triumphal entry. Do you remember what happened that first Palm Sunday nearly 2000 years ago, before He could complete His mission on that historic day? Let me refresh your memory.

Centuries before, a prophet had prophesied that one day the promised King, the Messiah, would make a glorious entry into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey. That day finally arrived. The Messiah was there. The promised King was ready to make His triumphal entry. All was set for the fulfillment of God's great program except for one thing: Jesus didn't have an animal on which to ride.

As the outstanding Canadian layman, Harold M. Smith, puts it:
"Poverty stopped His program. He could not go a foot further. He had the Heavenly Father. He had the Holy Spirit. He had the eternal truth. He had everything except the necessary physical equipment. He could not go forward and fulfill prophecy that day. He was too poor.

"So it is today, the Lord's triumphal march through the earth is stalled for lack of material things. He has the gospel. The bread of life. The light for which men are crying. But Christians are withholding the physical equipment.

"On that first Palm Sunday, the Lord knew where there was one who would give, and give gladly, in order to further the purpose of his King. And so Jesus sent His disciples to that man with a story to tell.

"Now, notice His technique:
He did not go himself. He sent His representatives.
He did not send men carelessly recruited without giving thought to their abilities. He sent disciples, the best trained men upon whom He could lay his hands.
He did not send them to take up a random collection in the crowd. He sent them to a specific person.
He did not send them with a general request for what could be spared. He ordered them to make a specific request for a designated gift which was in the power of the giver to give.
He did not send them on an errand of apologetic beggary. He sent them with the request of a King.

"How can we, in our day, surpass the divine wisdom of our Lord and Master? How can we improve upon His method?
You know the rest of the story. The man who had what the Lord required gave it. He gave it gladly and without hesitation. Of all that joyous throng on that first Palm Sunday, he was surely the happiest man, for He knew instinctively that what God requires, man cannot afford to keep."
From "Wrap Your Gift In A Smile"
Giving, Tithing, Stewardship, Obedience
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Q-25
There comes a time in the life of each of us when we suddenly realize: we, too, must die. It's not an easy discovery to make. One of the strange things about death is that we somehow find it hard to believe it will ever happen to us.

Even when we are bowed down with the weight of some serious physical infirmity, or when we have narrowly escaped the clutches of the grim reaper by living through some harrowing experience, even then we seem to consider ourselves as being apart from the reality of death.

We keep it at arms length. We just cannot bring ourselves to accept the inevitable. That for us, as for all people,

"There is appointed unto man a time to die" (Heb. 9:27).

I don't mean to suggest or imply that we deny the existence of death. Not at all. There are far too many shattered dreams and haunting memories for that. No, we are all well aware of the brevity of life. We simply assign that brevity to others. As for us, well, we will go on forever.

And then there comes a moment, an event, a "dawning" when in all of its stark reality calls upon us to face the fact we have tried to deny. We suddenly awaken to the realization that death awaits us--just as it awaits others--that in the end we will be granted no exemption or immunity.

It is in that disturbing moment that some people arrive at the sad conclusion that "life is an adventure with an ending." This was the fatalistic deduction of the famous author, William March. He had thought of life as "a succession of bright days which go on forever."
When he discovered that this is not so--that he, too, must die--that try as he might, there was no escape, he says,

"The knowledge came with pain, and then astonishment."
And he concluded fatalistically that "Life is an adventure with an ending."

But it is just here that the spirit of Christ crosses swords with the spirit of fatalism. For as Christians, we do not believe one's history ends with the grave. And we offer as foundation for this deep conviction a person and a promise. The person is history's "great exception." For the life of Jesus ended with the miracle even greater than the one with which it began. To be born of a virgin was miracle enough, or so it would seem. But to conquer death, well, that was God's crowning work of grace.

And because Jesus lives, we too shall live. For through this person we have this promise:
"I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me, though he be dead, yet shall he live"
(John 11:25).

The full glory of that promise was first revealed in a grave yard. The very place where all the evidence seemed to say that death was the final victor was the place God chose to make the great pronouncement that life and death had wrestled for a final fall, and life had won!
From "Come See Go Tell"
Resurrection, Easter, Life, Death, Hope
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Q-26
And both were fitting. As Fulton J. Sheen has pointed out,
"Only unsullied innocence could fully understand the wonder of the incarnation: God clothed in the garments of a man. And likewise, only a repentant sinner, who herself had been raised from the grave of sin to welcome the newness of life in Christ, could fully appreciate the glory of His triumph over death."

And so it was, but God selected as the very first to hear the news that Christ was risen, was one of those whom He had raised from spiritual death. And this is as it should be. For when all is said and done, Easter is first and foremost a day for sinners. It is the final and conclusive proof that Jesus did not "come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:13).
From "Come See Go Tell"
Easter, Resurrection, Incarnation, Christmas, Redemption
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Q-27
"In the history of the world, only one tomb has ever had a rock rolled before it and a soldier set to watch it to prevent the dead man within from rising. That was the tomb of Christ on the evening of Good Friday. What spectacle could be more ridiculous than armed soldiers keeping their eyes on a corpse? But here, sentinels are set, lest the dead walk, the silent speak and the pierced heart quicken to the throb of life. They say He is dead. They know He is dead. They will tell you He will not rise again. But still they watch" (Sheen).
From "Come See Go Tell"
Easter, Resurrection, Death
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Q-28
In his book, Lights Along The Shore, Fulton Ousler presents this moving thought:
"Suppose a man has never seen a seed. You show him one and say: 'This will keep, just as it is, for a long time. However, if I bury it in the ground, it will soon stop being a seed and, instead, will become a plant with leaves, color and fragrance. From one seed will come 100 more.'

"The man who has never gardened would call you a fool. A daydreamer. Yet every seed carries within itself the promise of a larger growth and utter transformation. As long as the seed remains a prisoner of its shell, the promise is suspended. The seed must die. It must be buried. In the ground, it must sacrifice everything that makes it what it has been in order that it may develop into what it can become."

There is a lesson in that for us. For there is a sense in which we are seeds. As long as our spirit is encased in a kind of mortal crust, limits are placed upon us by time and space. But when we shed the shell of this life, when we die in Christ, and sacrifice all we have been, then by the grace of God we develop into all God has meant us to be from the beginning. And that's the moment when the full meaning of Easter will dawn upon us.
From "Come See Go Tell"
Easter, Hope, Resurrection
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Q-29
"Before Christ rose from the dead, people thought death was the supreme ruler of the universe. Even though life, at times, was fair and beautiful, it was also transient. Each life, like a flower, faded and fell before the tireless grim reaper. Each day, whatever the promise of its dawn, died on the edge of the Western sky. Each child, however beautiful, passed through adolescence and maturity into death. Like the torches they extinguished at the tombs of their friends, those people who lived before Christ imagined that, at death, life became extinct." (Proppe)
From "Come See Go Tell"
Easter, Hope, Resurrection, Eternal Life
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Q-30
You say you made a foolish marriage? Well, that's something for which you may or may not be to blame. Dr. William Lloyd Phelps of Yale University has said:
"The real test of character is not whether you made a foolish marriage. But after the foolish marriage has been made, to turn that failure into a success."
From "A House Is Not A Home"
Marriage, Home
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Q-31
In the fifth chapter of Genesis there is the story of Enoch. He was one of the Old Testament prophets who really knew what it meant to be empowered by the Spirit of God. In verse 24, there is a simple statement which I think sums up what I have tried to say this morning. It is the wee epitaph which Moses wrote in praise of Enoch.

"He walked with God and he was not, for God took him."

"'He walked with God!' Could grander words be written?
Not much of what he thought or said is told:
Not where or what he wrought is even mentioned;
'He walked with God' - brief words of fadeless gold!

"Such be the tribute of thy pilgrim journey,
When life's last mile thy feet have bravely trod,
When thou hast gone to all that there awaits thee,
This simple epitaph: 'He walked with God!'"
(J. Danson Smith)
From "Ode To The Unknown God"
Holy Spirit, Humility, Simplicity, Obedeience
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Q-32
It was a feeling something like that which caused Studdard Kennedy, the famed British preacher, to pen the lines which have become an inspiration to me and which provided the seed thought for the sermon I preach today. Dr. Kennedy put it this way:
"I'm the king of a tiny kingdom of three sons. I desire above all things that they may grow fair and fine and free.

"Not seldom am I filled with fear because of my responsibility. And because of the knowledge which that fear brings, each day of my life I pray: God save the king."

There is something beautiful in the simplicity of that brief paragraph. It goes right to the core of my obligations as a father. It reminds me that in the economy of God, I was given the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of those loyal "subjects" that comprise my household. For in the plan which God ordained, a man is to be the temporal and spiritual leader of the home. He is to reign supreme over his tiny realm and his rule is to be governed by the law of love.
From "God Save The King"
Father, Home, Children
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Q-33
"Society has little honor for a stubborn person who insists on having his or her own way in unimportant matters. But it honors the one who will stand foursquare without compromise on some great principle of life in which he or she believes. To such people we owe the decisive decisions and changes which have made possible the long upward climb." Anon.
From "Diehards Who Did Not Die"
Conviction, Courage, Belief
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Q-42
In his book, The Immortal Sea, Leslie Weatherhead writes concerning the incarnation:
"Christ's flesh and blood formed the paper God used to send His message to the world. The paper on which He wrote His love letter to all mankind. The incarnation began when Mary said, 'Into thy hands I commend my body' and ended when Jesus said, 'Into thy hands I commit my spirit.'"

To carry the illustration further, the paper may be destroyed. That is to say, Christ's body was put to death. But the significance of the love letter is not in the paper, but in the message. And the message is:
"God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son for your redemption."That's the real meaning of the incarnation. God was in Christ reconciling you to Himself.
From "Stars, Straw And An Angels Song"
Christmas, Incarnation, God's Love, Blood
Q-43
The birth of a baby is always a time of rare excitement. There is something about the ushering of a new life into the world that is filled with wonder. Dr. James Kennedy, a dear friend of mine who is the leading obstetrician in Colorado and, a man who has assisted in bringing literally thousands of infants into the world, said a very interesting thing one night. We were visiting in his lovely home, and in the course of our conversation he said,
"You know, John, as long as I live I will never cease to marvel at the miracle of birth. If I weren't a Christian already, witnessing the birth of a baby would make me one. For only God could have been wise enough to devise so wonderful a plan as this."
From "A Layette For A Baby King"
Birth, Christmas, Wisdom, God
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Q-44
And, as we look back in retrospect, we can see how wonderfully He succeeded. In and through Him, we have
"A Love that can never be fathomed
A Peace that can never be understood
A Joy that can never be diminished
A Beauty that can never be marred
A Wisdom that can never be baffled
A Hope that can never be disappointed
A Glory that can never be clouded
A Light that can never be darkened
A Life that can never die." Anon.
From "A Layette For A Baby King" and "Christ's Greatest Miracle"
Calvary, New Birth, Grace, Salvation, Jesus, Salvation

Someone asked Captain Eddie Rickenbacher what he learned from his more than forty days on a raft at sea. He answered,
"I learned that if you have enough bread to eat and water to drink, you have everything in the world for which to be thankful."
Life for him had been cut down to its irreducible minimums.
rom "Corn Kernels, Drumsticks And God's Kindness"
Simplicity, Thanksgiving, Gratitude
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Q-54
As someone has said,
"The cross, tempered cruelty on the battlefield. It added mercy to justice in the courts of kings. It brought compassion to the orphaned, the aged, the needy, and the unfortunate. It caused people everywhere to think in terms of brotherhood and began the long process of transforming the beastly qualities of people into the virtues of kindness and compassion."
From "What Made Good Friday Good?"
Calvary, Cross
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Q-55
Someone has said,
"The blackest thing in the world is the heart of a flower which has been touched by death as a result of sin. The reddest thing in the world is human blood. The whitest thing in the world is new driven snow. The greatest thing in the world is love."

Do you know what makes Good Friday good? I'll tell you. It is because on that fateful day
"God, filled with the greatest thing in the world,
took the reddest thing in the world,
applied it to the blackest thing in the world and
made it the whitest thing in all the universe--
a human soul cleansed by the blood of Christ." From "What Made Good Friday Good?"

Blood, Sin, Salvation, Grace
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Q-56
I don't know what that cross is for you. I'm only just beginning to understand what it is for me. But I do know there was a cross before Easter and there have been crosses ever since. No matter how hard we try to camouflage it with Easter lilies and the like, the cross still stands there making its necessary and unrelenting demand. And we've got to face it.

As George Buttrick says so succinctly:
"Christianity is not a success story. It is not the account of One who rose from poverty to a throne, but of a love, which for our sakes, came from a throne into our poverty."
From "Prelude To Victory"
Cross, Easter, Hope, Christianity, Sacrifice, Success
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Q-57
Fulton J. Sheen puts it this way:
"If we wish to save our life for eternity,
We must lose it for time.
If we wish to save it for the Father's mansions,
We must lose it for this dull world.
If we wish to save it for perfect happiness,
We must lose it for the fleeting pleasures of mortality.

Unless there is a Good Friday on our life,
There will never be an Easter morning.
Unless there is a cross,
There will never be an empty tomb.
Unless there are scars,
There will never be a glorified body.
Unless there is a crown of thorns,
There will never be a halo of light."
Unless you are willing to die to the world, you will never be alive to Christ. Unless you lose your life in Him, you will never find it again.
From "Prelude To Victory"
Cross, Sacrifice, Obedience, Life, Victory
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Q-58
To quote Sheen again:
"One of the reasons some people fear death is because they have no practice dying. Most of us die only once when we should have died a thousand times. Indeed, we should have died daily. Death is a terrible thing for the person who only dies once. But, for the one who has died to himself many times before, it is beautiful."
From "Prelude To Victory"
Death, Sacrifice, Obedience, Surrender, Victory
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Q-67
P. L. Cuyler pointed up the immeasurable worth of a mother's influence when he said, "God made mothers before He made ministers!" And no one can erase the lines which have been drawn in our character by the indelible influence of a mother's hand.

We may make light of the fact that we are tied to mother's apron strings, but we never forget the fact that, like hoops of steel, they have held us to life's highest ideals. And blessed are the apron strings of a mother if they bind her offspring to the Christ of God.
From "From Frustration To Fruition"
Mother, Home, Children
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Q-68
Oliver Cromwell said his mother's influence was more than that of all the people with whom he had come in contact. When he became ruler of England, he welcomed his mother to the palace at Whitehall where she lived with him. And when she died, she was buried in Westminster Abbey amongst the kings.

When President Garfield took the oath of office in 1881, he gave his mother what has now become famous as the "Inaugural Kiss", as he embraced her before the assembled multitudes and, amid wild enthusiasm, said, "You, mother dear, are responsible for this."
George Washington.
Calvin Coolidge.
Woodrow Wilson.
Henry Ward Beecher.
General Hooker.
Charles Dickens.
The list could go on and on as men of high and low estate, from every principality in power, step forward to testify to the influence of a Godly mother. Indeed, "Her children rise up and call her blessed."
From "From Frustration To Fruition"
Mother, Home
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Q-69
Dr. Roy Burkhart suggests:
"Some people marry because they are in love with marriage, rather than in love with the person they marry." Commenting upon this, Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg says, "That is fatal. But it is equally fatal to be in love with the church as an organization,
its programs,
its activities,
its committees,
its boards and
athletic teams without being in love with the Person who is at the heart of the church, namely, Jesus Christ."
From "Big Oaks and Little Acorns"
Holy Spirit, Church, Jesus, Pentecost
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Q-70
Thank God for such a church! For, as Edwin T. Dahlberg has observed,
"In these days when men are shaking with fear at the mere thought of global war...when we are living on the slopes of a nuclear volcano which is gurgling night and day with the lava of hate...when human passions are throwing their sulfuric fumes and lurid glow over every landscape of life...how wonderful to know there is one great Living Force, thr Church, which could lead us out of the maze into which our sin has lead us."
From "Big Oaks and Little Acorns"
Church, Holy Spirit, Body of Christ, Pentecost
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Q-71
Almost from the moment of its inception, the Christian church has cast its shadow across the pages of history. As one historian has put it:
"Within one generation it had penetrated the ancient Mediterranean world. It re-shaped empires and survived their falls. It's superior moral and spiritual qualities destroyed old pagan religions or drove them into disuse.

"Through the middle ages, it preserved and transmitted culture into learning. When abuses crept into its life, it demonstrated a saving ability to institute and carry through self-reform.

"And in the past 150 years, a new missionary movement has carried its tenants to the ends of the earth, expanding its bounds to all the queer and distant corners of the world.

"There have been ups and downs in its influence, but the trend has been upward, and today it enjoys the widest influence in human affairs in its history."
From "Big Oaks and Little Acorns"
Holy Spirit, Church, Pentecost
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Q-72
Call it meddling if you wish, but as Graham A. Hodges reminds us:
"Jesus dared to go to the nations capital and openly defy, among other practices, the outlandish charges made for sacrificial animals. He invited Himself to Zacchaeus' house and thereafter caused him to restore stolen goods. He took it upon Himself to drive the money changers from the temple. And Christ still calls for us to interfere in the course of the world's wickedness and of the selfish ways of mankind."

That does not mean the church must get into politics. There is very little place for religious pressure groups marching on Washington. That is simply power politics cloaked in the name of religion and can be just as vicious and un-Christian as many of the evils we ought to condemn.

But nonetheless, as Graham Hodges concludes:
"The church at its best pokes itself into all sorts of situations. It dares to tell men they are sinners, and calls them to repentance."
From "Big Oaks and Little Acorns"
Church, Holy Spirit, Body of Christ, Pentecost, Influence, Witnessing

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Q-73
I love what the late John Snape once said.
"I enjoy my lodge and luncheon club. I know all the grips and passwords. But when the black-robed messenger stopped his chariot at my door and took away the one I love the most, I arose, not to go down to the lodge and luncheon club, but to stumble out into the out-stretched arms of the Christian church."

Just this last week, I came across this wonderful expression of affection for the church.
"Before I was born, my church gave to my parents ideals of life and love which made my Christian home a place of strength and beauty.

"In helpless infancy, my church joined my parents in dedicating me to Christ, in praying for me, and in promising to help me toward a knowledge of Christ.

"My church enriched my childhood with the romance of faith and the lessons of the Christian life which have been woven into the texture of my soul. Sometimes I seemed to have forgotten and then, when otherwise I might have surrendered to foolish and futile standards of life, the gospel which my church taught became radiant, insistent and inescapable.

"In the stress and storm of adolescence, my church heard the urge of my soul and guided my footsteps by lifting my eyes to the living Christ.

"When first my heart knew the strange awakenings of love, my church taught me to chasten and spiritualize my affection; she sanctified my marriage and blessed my home.

"When my heart was seamed with sorrow and I thought the sun could never shine again, my church drew me to the Friend of all the weary, and whispered to me of another home and the hope of another morning eternal and tearless."

Truman Douglas once said,
"The church does not have a mission, it is a mission."
From "Big Oaks and Little Acorns"
Church, Holy Spirit, Body of Christ, Pentecost, Influence, Witnessing
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Q-74
He began his business on April 14, 1902, with $5OO in cash and a million dollars in determination, by opening a dry goods store in a little mining town in Wyoming.

At the start he lived with his wife in the attic above the store, using a large empty dry goods box for a table, and smaller boxes for chairs. When their first baby came, the young wife wrapped the baby in a blanket and let him sleep under the counter while she helped her husband wait on customers. Today he heads the largest chain of dry goods stores in the world. Over 1600 of them, covering every state in the union, bear his name, J. C. Penny.

If you'd like to read a thrilling story, a kind of spiritual autobiography, let me loan you my copy of Jim Penney's book "Fifty Years With The Golden Rule".

His life, however, was not without problems. Prior to the crash in 1929 he had made some unwise personal commitments and overnight his vast fortune of literally millions of dollars was wiped out. He was left absolutely penniless.

Like so many of us, he blamed everybody else for his problems and he was so harassed with worry he couldn't sleep and developed an extremely painful ailment known as shingles. Finally, he went to a doctor who ordered him to bed immediately, assigning day and night nurses to the case.

Describing the situation, J. C. Penney writes:
"I was filled with panic. The plain fact was that I did not have money to pay for such care. The doctor prescribed rather strong sedatives to give me a chance to sleep, but nothing seemed to help. I got weaker day by day. I was broken, nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I felt as if even my family and friends had forsaken me.

"One night the doctor gave me a sedative, but the effect soon wore off and I awoke with an overwhelming conviction that this was my last night on earth. Things I wanted to say to my wife and children rushed into my mind and I got out of bed, turned on the light and wrote several letters. When they were finished I sealed them, turned out the light and returned to bed, thinking that I would sleep now, never doubting that when the morning came I would no longer be alive.

"But in the morning I was alive. To awaken again was a strange kind of surprise and in some vague way I knew there must be a reason. I got up, put on my clothes, and wandered downstairs thinking I could get some breakfast, but the dining room was not yet opened. I felt as though an immense aloneness had closed me in. I stood there uncertain in an emptiness that seemed to me to have no horizon.

"It was then I heard the thread of an old familiar hymn: 'Be not dismayed what'eer betide, God will take care of you…'

"It seemed to be coming from a part of the building which contained the chapel. Without even knowing it, I moved slowly toward the sound. The music grew clearer and the words distinct,
'All you may need he will provide,
God will take care of you.'

"I entered the chapel, sank down in a seat in the back as the song continued:
'No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you.
Lean, weary one, upon his breast,
God will take care of you.'

"Quietly, someone read a passage from scripture:
'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest for your souls; For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'

"A prayer followed and in myself I spontaneously groaned:
'Lord, I can do nothing. Will you take care of me?'

"The next few minutes something happened. I cannot explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I had a feeling of being lifted out of an immensity of dark space into a spaciousness of warmth and brilliant sunlight. The thought flashed through my weary mind that if I had held myself responsible for my success, then I was also responsible for my failure.

"But the great thing was that now I knew God with His boundless and matchless patient love was there to help me. God had answered me when I cried out: "Lord, I can do nothing. Wilt You take care of me?"

This was his answer. "A weight lifted from my spirit. I came out of that room a different man. I had gone in bowed with paralyses of spirit, utterly adrift. I came forth with a soaring sense of release from a bondage of gathering death to a pulse of hopeful living. I had caught a glimpse of God."

That is what I offer to you this morning: a glimpse of God!
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 1"
Worry, Hope, Faith, God's Love, Healing
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Q-75
Stephen Leacock came at this same idea with a paragraph whose poignancy pierces through all the cobwebs of our procrastination in living. He wrote:
"How strange it is, our little procession of life! The child says, 'When I'm a big boy.' But what is that? The big boy says, 'When I grow up.' And then, grown up, he says, 'When I get married.' But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to, 'When I'm able to retire.' And then, when retirement comes, he looks back over the landscape traversed; a cold wind seems to sweep over it; somehow, he has missed it all and it is gone. Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour."

What a powerful statement that is. "Life is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour."
How we ought to burn it upon our minds and engrave it upon our hearts. Repeat it with me:
"Life is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour."

Therefore, live today! For "This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24).
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Life, Today
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Q-76
Thomas Carlyle put it this way:
"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand."
In the verse which is our text, Jesus said in twenty-six words what modern psychiatry is now echoing nearly 2,000 years later:
"Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Life, Today
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Q-77
Dr. George W. Crane points out that along with its spiritual implications, "Respect for the Sabbath has both a psychological and medical advantage."
If we spend our Sundays and holidays worrying about our work-a-day problems, if we carry our burdens to bed with us and allow them to rob us of our badly needed sleep, we're well on our way to a first class neurosis.

If we're going to learn "How to Worry and Like It", then we've got to take a vacation from our worries once in a while. We've got to learn how to use Sunday the way God intended us to use it: for worship, rest and recreation. And we've got to learn to lay down our troubles when we go to bed at night.

Dr. Crane uses the illustration of a man carrying a suitcase and points out that when he stops to converse with a friend, he usually sets the suitcase down. When he gets on the train or plane, he doesn't wear himself out by holding it throughout the trip. In much the same manner, he suggested that "efficient worrying" means we must learn to lay down our worries at regular intervals in order that we may catch our breath.

"Some problems cannot be solved in an hour or even a day."
So, suggestion number two is capitalize upon the divine directive to rest one day in seven and, whatever your problem, lay it down at bedtime and on Sunday.
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Rest, Sabbath
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Q-78
Henry Ford put it this way.
"When I can't handle events, I let them handle themselves."
K. T. Keller, former president of the Chrysler Corporation, said
"When I'm up against a tough situation, if I can do anything about it, I do it. If I can't, I just forget it."
Epictetus, the Roman philosopher, said something similar 19 centuries ago:
"There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
All these men are simply saying: "Cooperate with the inevitable" or, as the Mother Goose rhyme puts it:
"For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none:
If there be one, try to find it.
If there be none, never mind it!"

You see, none of us is so endowed with emotional and physical energy that we are able to wage war on both the inevitable and that part of our life which can be changed. Therefore, we must
"either bend with the inevitable sleet storms of life or resist them and break."
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Today, Trust, Relinquishment
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Q-79
Reinhold Nibeuhr, the famous theologian, cut right through to the heart of the matter in this little prayer which he wrote and which Alcoholics Anonymous has adopted as its official statement of faith.
"Grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change:
The courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference."
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Relinquishment, Courage, Wisdom, Acceptance
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Q-80
Dr. William James, who was professor of philosophy at Harvard University, said
"The sovereign cure for worry is religious faith. It is one of the forces by which men live. A total absence of it means collapse."

One of the most distinguished psychiatrists of any day is Dr. Carl Jung, and in his monumental work "Modern Man In Search Of A Soul," he says, "During the past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of the earth have consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among all of my patients in the second half of life, that is to say over 35, there has not been one whose problem, in the last resort, was not finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because they had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers. And none of them has been really healed who did not regain their religious outlook."

The Psalmist said,
"Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5).
The book of Proverbs adds
"In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path" (Prov. 3:6).
If you will place your life in the hands of Almighty God, you'll find an inner peace and tranquility which will sustain you amid the storms of life.

You'll become like the ocean, the surface of which may be tossed and torn by the turbulent winds which blow, but the depths of which are undisturbed. Get hold of God. Let God get hold of you. And the hourly vicissitudes of life will seem small and insignificant. You will have a heart-peace and a soul-calm which will make you ready for any duty the day may bring.
From "How To Worry And Like It - Part 2"
Worry, Relinquishment, Peace, Faith, Trust, Acceptance
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Q-81
Walt Whitman asks,
"Have you learned lessons only of those who admire you, and were tender with you, and stood aside far you? Have you not also learned great lessons from those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you, or disputed the passage with you?"
Let us thank God for those who love us enough to help us see our faults and thus overcome them. But let us also recognize that unless we become a vacuum…a bubble…a mere non-entity in life…we will be criticized and sometimes unjustly.
From "The Fine Art Of Being Critical"
Criticism
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Q-82
Jung, the famous psychiatrist, writes,
"When we do not dare acknowledge some great sin, we deplore a small sin with greater emphasis."
From "The Fine Art Of Being Critical"
Criticism, Judgment
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Q-83
When Napoleon met his great and final defeat, he was a big enough man to admit his main problem was himself. He said:
"No one but myself can be blamed for my fall. I have been my own greatest enemy, the cause of my own disastrous fate."
From "The Fine Art Of Being Critical"
Criticism, Responsibility
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Q-84
Dr. Cecil Osborne comes at this idea with characteristic directness:
"Don't confess the sins of other people, confess your own. That will keep most of us busy most of the time. We don't stand much of a chance of setting the world right, but we can succeed in setting our own lives right. If you can be victorious in that, it is no small attainment, and heaven will sounds its praises for the one who wins the victory."
From "The Fine Art Of Being Critical"
Criticism, Responsibility, Confession, Self
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Q-85
As someone has said:
"We may be right of our criticism of other people's weaknesses, but we are not commanded to be right. We are commanded to love!"
Let me repeat that:
"We may be right of our criticism of other people's weaknesses, but we are not commanded to be right. We are commanded to love!"
Jesus said:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind and soul and thy neighbor as thyself."
From "The Fine Art Of Being Critical"
Criticism, Responsibility, Love

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Q-86
I have never read Basil King's book, "Conquest Of Fear". Actually, it was written in l92l, two years before I was born. Apparently it was an important book, for I have seen it quoted a number of times. One of the professional magazines to which I subscribe recently carried this paragraph from its preface. I suppose it might be called Basil King's Confession:
"When I say that during most of my conscious life I have been a prey of fears, I take it for granted that I am expressing the case of the majority of people. I cannot remember the time when dread of one kind or another was not in the air. In childhood it was the fear of going to bed. Later it was the fear of school, the first contact of a tender little soul with life's crudeness. Later still there was the experience which all of us know of waking in the morning with the feeling of dismay at what we have to do on getting up. Fear haunts all of us in one way, and another in another, but everyone in some way. A mother is afraid for her children. A father is afraid for his business. The clerk is afraid for his job. There is not a home, or an office, or a factory, or a school, or a church in which some hang-dog apprehension is not eating at the hearts of men, women and children who go in and out."

His "Confession" has a familiar ring, doesn't it? It expresses our own feelings so well it almost seems as if he were putting words in our mouth. For we, too, are full of fears. Someone has called this the "Century of Fear". Another has said it is the "Age of Anxiety".
From "Fear - A Beast Or A Boost"
Fear
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Q-87
In his book "Mastering Fear", Preston Bradley declares:
"We can never rightly understand fear unless we see both faces of it. One, like a grave and wise teacher who schools us to shun those things which are bad for us. The other, a mocking demon, frightens us with imaginary specters of harm or mischief."
True freedom comes from banishing negative fear…the evil face of the beast that can destroy us and cleaving to affirmative fear… the compassionate face of the friend which can give us a boost toward abundant living. In other words, the real problem is not getting rid of fear, but learning how to use it constructively.
From "Fear - A Beast Or A Boost"
Fear
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Q-88
There is a little column in the newspaper called "Mirror of Your Mind". I think its author is Dr. Albert Edward Wiggam. Sometime ago it carried the observation that one fear held by many people is the fear of failure. Seventy-five per cent of the people interviewed confessed it was their strongest fear. Interestingly enough, it was not confined to any one economic or age group. The rich, the poor, the young, the old, the learned, and the unlearned all had one thing in common. Fear of failure.
From "Fear - A Beast Or A Boost"
Fear
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Q-89
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said something like this:
"One of the greatest reliefs of life is to discover your own mediocrity".
The quickest way I know to develop a neurotic personality is to try to be something you aren't.
There is no greater strain than attempting to live up to an assumed character. As Preston Bradley points out,
"It is like being on the stage before all the world, all day and every day, with all men waiting to hiss a bad performance." "To thine own self be true" is still some of the best advice ever given.
From "Fear - A Beast Or A Boost"
Fear, Self
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Q-90
Roger W. Babson, the famous economist, says,
"When I find myself depressed over world conditions, I can, within one hour, turn myself into a shouting optimist".
How does he do it? In a unique manner. He goes into his library, walks to a shelf containing books on history, closes his eyes and picks one out. With his eyes still closed, he opens the book at random and points to a spot with his finger. Then he opens his eyes and begins to read.

He says:
"The more I read, the more sharply I realize the world has always been in the throes of agony, that civilization has always been tottering on the brink. The pages of history fairly shriek with tragic tales of war, famine, poverty, pestilence, and man's inhumanity to man. After reading history for an hour, I realize that bad as conditions are now, they are infinitely better than they used to be."

What a terrific exercise in practical psychology. I've tried it myself and it works. I highly recommend it to you. But whether you try it or not, the important thing is that in some way or other you square your thoughts about this world with the facts of history. You will discover that things are not much different than they always were. More important, you will discover that wherever the grace of God has been allowed to operate in the lives of men, the light of hope shines more brightly than it ever did before.
From "Fear - A Beast Or A Boost"
Fear, Self, Optimism, Grace
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Q-110
Russell Criddle in "Love Is Not Blind" wrote an amazing story of what it means to be blind and then to see again. He had one of those miraculous operations of modern surgery and this is how he described what it meant to see.

"Everything looked beautiful. Nothing looked ugly. The wad of paper in the gutter, the words alone convey an idea of filth but I saw white, black and straight lines: color and symmetry unbelievably different from any other wad of paper in any other gutter.

"But after all, there was the beauty of people. Some children were playing in the driveway. An old lady walked toward us, and passed. I felt no great thrill that I was no longer blind; only the awful sense of beauty thrilled me to the limit of endurance.

"I hurried into the house, went to my room, and buried my head in the pillow. Not because I could see, but because I had not the capacity to digest so much grandeur. I wept."
From "The Blight Before Christmas"
Vision, Life
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Q-112
Don't think for a moment the problem of alcohol is just on Skid Row, or that it only involves the few unfortunates who are "allergic to alcohol". We are just playing the ostrich when we think alcohol only captures people with personality disorders. Right here in Morgan Park and Beverly Hills, not over a month ago, your Pastor was in one of the most beautiful homes of this fashionable neighborhood counseling with as fine a person as you'll ever meet. Wonderful education and personality who is, nonetheless, an alcoholic. How did it start? Through social drinking!

As Edwin T. Dahlberg points out,
"You cannot see these people fallen down, helpless by a living room lamp and unable to get up; their children crying, frightened and embarrassed; their homes mortgaged because of drink bills and loss of employment…you cannot see those things, as a minister does, without knowing the problem of America is not just alcoholism, but alcohol…period."

In the United States today there are more victims of alcohol than of the diseases of cancer, tuberculosis and polio put together. But even that is not the real issue, for Dr. Dahlberg goes on to say that more is at stake here than
mental health,
or holiday accidents,
or loathsome social behavior,
or the problem of absenteeism in industry.
What is at stake here is nothing less than the soul of America and the eternal salvation of each individual.
From "The Blight Before Christmas"
Alcohol
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Q-113
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to investigate juvenile delinquency recently made this tremendous observation:
"We often criticize our churches for failing to instill moral values in our children, but we forget that we send our youngsters to Sunday School for one hour a week to learn about honesty and clean living and then permit them to spend six days and twenty-three hours a week in a society that, too often, puts more emphasis on getting ahead than how you got there.

"The truth is that we tend to be a nation that preaches one set of moral standards to our children but uphold another set of standards as perfectly all right for adults. Cocktails and high balls are considered indispensable to almost every adult social gathering, particularly among the well-to-do. Yet we are shocked by disclosure of wide spread drinking of intoxicants among imitative teenagers."
From "The Blight Before Christmas"
Alcohol
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Q-114
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to investigate juvenile delinquency recently made this tremendous observation:
"We often criticize our churches for failing to instill moral values in our children, but we forget that we send our youngsters to Sunday School for one hour a week to learn about honesty and clean living and then permit them to spend six days and twenty-three hours a week in a society that, too often, puts more emphasis on getting ahead than how you got there.

"The truth is that we tend to be a nation that preaches one set of moral standards to our children but uphold another set of standards as perfectly all right for adults. Cocktails and high balls are considered indispensable to almost every adult social gathering, particularly among the well-to-do. Yet we are shocked by disclosure of wide spread drinking of intoxicants among imitative teenagers."
From "The Blight Before Christmas"
Alcohol, Influence, Youth
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Q-115
Alcoholism is both a physiological and psychological problem. Not only is it impossible for you to know whether or not your child is one of the one-in-fifteen who is physiologically allergic to alcohol, but it is also impossible for you to know whether or not your child will ever develop psychological needs which he or she feels must be satisfied with alcohol. Your kids may see you take an occasional drink to let yourself down after the rigors of a particularly hard day's work, and begin by doing the same. But the trouble with the problem drinker is that sooner or later all business days become hard days. All problems become insurmountable without the aid of "a quick one". And no one in all of God's green earth can tell who will develop those psychological needs for alcohol.
From "The Blight Before Christmas"
Alcohol
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Q-116
In the lead paragraph of this week's issue of "Between The Lines", Charles Wells makes a searching comment:
"This Christmas is desperately needed. With the mind of the world hovering over the threats and fears that center in Palestine, how fortunate that all must pause now and listen to the voice of God speaking through the cry of a little child born so long ago amidst these same sandy hills."

I think he's right. It seems almost providential to me that amid the chatter of machine gun fire, as men practice the art of destruction, and the bursting of land mines, as neutral forces try to dull the savage teeth of war, it is almost providential, I say, that amid those ominous sounds should be heard the echo of a baby cry.

If only we would learn to take that baby seriously. If only those who pondered the ways of peace would listen to the wisdom of the angel's song that "Peace on Earth is only for men of good will."
If only for a moment we would take our eyes off the mud, there is a chance we might see the stars.
From "They Saw Stars"
Christmas, Peace, Simplicity
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Q-117
The other day, Susie Thayer dropped by the office with a wonderful quotation from Henry VanDyke who once said:
"It's a good thing to observe Christmas day, but there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is They Saw Stars."

In the little paragraph which Mrs. Thayer so thoughtfully brought by, VanDyke goes on to say:
"Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and
desires of little children?
To remember the weakness, the loneliness of people who
are growing old:
To stop asking how much your friends love you and ask
yourself whether you love them enough;
To bear in mind the things that other people have to bear
in their hearts;
To try to understand what those who live in the same house with you
really want, without waiting for them to tell you,
To trim your lamp so it will give more light and less smoke,
And to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;
To make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden
for your kindly feelings.
With the gate open. Are you willing to do these things,
even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.

"Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world?
Stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than
death?
And that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem 1900
years ago is the image and brightness of eternal love?
Then you can keep Christmas.

And, if you keep it for a day, why not always?
But you can never keep it alone."
From "Keeping Christmas"
Christmas, Love, Obedience, Simplicity
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Q-118
It was not a preacher, but a plumber, who once made this significant remark:
"What is blocking God's plan for a better world is not the gross sin of what we call the underworld, with its bootleggers and narcotic rings, but rather something wrong in the spirit of religious people. The gravest menace to society is not a gunman, not the gangsters in the movies, but the unspiritual church."

To that criticism, we should couple a statement made by Reinhold Niebuhr when he said,
"All too often the church is an institution designed to make selfish people think they are unselfish."
From "Keeping Christmas"
Simplicity, Christmas, Church
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Q-119
As Chris H. Tice, a retired Methodist minister from England, writes
"No man who thinks frankly and courageously about life and its possibilities can deny a feeling of inadequacy, if not helplessness. That sense of inadequacy is both a humiliation and a stimulus. It is humiliating to a man to have to confess that he has neither the wisdom or strength for life in his world, but it is also a stimulus because it is out of that inadequacy…that helplessness…that he cries to God."
From "In The Beginning God"
New Year, Hope, Man
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Q-137
When Maxim Gorky visited Coney Island and saw the masses of people hurrying about in pursuit of pleasure, he said, "What an unhappy people it must be that turns for happiness here."
From "The King Was In The Counting House"
Happiness, Life, Hopelessness
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Q-138
Salvation is free! As Peter Marshall once put it,
"It is God's great gift. You can't buy it nor can you earn it. It is not a reward dangling before the Christian like a carrot before a mule. It is not something the church has to peddle and, as a minister, I am not selling anything. Salvation is not for sale. It is a gift. It is given away."
From "The King Was In The Counting House"
Grace, Salvation
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Q-139
By and large we are a race of "rut-walkers". We fall into an agreeable groove of doing things and trudge along in it forgetting that:
A rut is just little more than a grave with the ends kicked out.
And yet, while none of us likes to change, we are constantly being reminded by that faint whisper within that we need to change.
From "The King Was In The Counting House"
Change, Growth
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Q-145
My good friend, Dr. Ron Meredith, pastor of the great First Methodist Church of Wichita, Kansas, tells how one day he picked up a book from a shelf in his library. It was by Charles Duell Kean entitled, Making Sense Out of Life. Dr. Meredith says:
"I thought if he could do that, he could surely tell me whether or not I am immortal. I read the first chapter on immortality and then, turning the page, discovered that the printing press had gone haywire, and had superimposed three pages on that second page. It was a meaningless blur!"

There is something parabolic about Dr. Meredith's experience for, as he goes on to say,
"So often people look with mortal eyes to see beyond the sunset and find only a blur. They probe for the deepest of meanings and all they have to show for their yearning is a sense of empty frustration. What they really need is a word from God!"
From "Have You Been Fitted For Easter?"
Easter, Hopelessness, Life, World Problems
***
Q-152
There are those who advocate that a child must not be prejudiced or conditioned religiously, but must be allowed to choose for himself.

J. Edgar Hoover has something to say about this fantastic idea:
"Why all this timidity in the realm of spiritual guidance and growth? You don't wait until your child is old enough to decide whether or not he wishes to go to school, or whether or not he wants to take a bath to see that he is clean. Or until he is old enough to know whether or not he wishes to take medicine to see that he takes what will make him well.

"Let's be done with the old wives' tale about 'too much religion when I was young, my parents made me go.' Do you suppose because you insist over his protests that junior take his bath tonight he will turn out to be a 'bathless groggins' when he is 21?

"Do you suppose that because you insist he take his medicine, he will take up Christian Science ten years from now?

"What shall we say when Junior announced he doesn't like Sunday School or church? That's an easy one," says Mr. Hoover. "Just be consistent. Your firmness and example will furnish a bridge over which youthful rebellion may travel into rich and satisfying experiences in personal religious living. The parents of America can strike a most effective blow against the forces which contribute to juvenile delinquency, if our mothers and fathers would take their children to Sunday School and church regularly."

That's not a theologian speaking, but rather the Director of the F.B.I., and he's saying that instead of being afraid to guide our children we ought to recognize that if we don't, someone else will!
From "What Every Child Deserves"
Children, Parents, Home
****
Q-153
Ruth Elmquist, in her book Golden Moments of Religious Inspiration, says:
"I was five years old before I knew that 'the everlasting arms', talked about in the bible, belonged to God and not my father. One of my favorite verses, which I often heard my Daddy read around the breakfast table, was 'The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms'.

She goes on to say:"I knew exactly how those arms felt. Often my parents had to take me with them to Sunday night service because my father was the preacher and my mother sang in the choir. Wrapped up in a blanket, I was parked on two chairs turned seat to seat in the dark Sunday School room and told, 'Go to sleep now, Ruthie.'

"At first I was terrified, for it was as black in there as the inside of my mitten. But pretty soon I would hear the choir begin 'Rock of Ages Cleft For Me' and the organ would grow and grow 'till its booming base notes shook my chair-bed. By the time they got to 'Hiding In Thee', I would be asleep.

"After church I would only half wake up when dad would come for me, enough to feel his strong arms under me gently, to sense who he was, to feel his rough coat against my cheek, his heart beating strong and sure under my ear. 'Bless her, she slept right through. Do you think this blanket is enough for her, sugar?', he would ask my mother. And then the everlasting arms would carry me home."
From "What Every Child Deserves"
Children, Home, Parents
****
Q-150
I often quote Ron Meredith, my Methodist friend from Wichita, Kansas. You have heard me mention him so often, I'm sure the next time you're in Wichita you'll want to hear him. I hope you do, because he is a wonderful preacher. I remember hearing Ron say something like this:

"Most of us spend more time and energy deciding than in doing what we finally decide. And thus, we divide our strength, subtract from from our energy and add to our burden. Jesus didn't protect people from the necessity of choice. He simply gave them bigger decisions to make. Our first problem is not to worry about how to be a Christian. Our first responsibility to to make the major decision to be one. And when we make that master commitment of our lives to Jesus Christ, all other choices come easy."
From "What Does It Mean To Be Born Again? Part 2"
Decision, Choice, Commitment, Born Again, New Life
****
Q-151
I like what Peter Marshall says in his book: "Mr. Jones Meet The Master. Let me quote it. He writes:

"Now let us the honest, do we really want to find him? Ask yourself, am I, after all, seeking God with my whole heart? Or must I say in honesty, 'I want God and yet I don't want Him, at least not yet. Am I really seeking God with my whole heart?'

"Do we really want to find Him? Are there not some things we love better than Him, the neat little compromises we make whereby religion will not interfere too much with what we want to do. We know that conflict.

"We want Him and we don't want Him. We want His way and we don't want His way. We pray Thy will but we mean our will. We want to be clean but still cling to the things that make us unclean. We are against strong drink but we must be sociable. We want to be Christian but we don't want our friends to think we are queer. We want to live in two worlds. But He said long ago, 'You can't.' So we settle down to compromise.

"We will go to church, serve on its committees and support the church financially. But don't ask us, God, to change. And then we wonder why we cannot find Him. It is still true. 'If, with all your heart, you truly seek me, you shall ever surety find me.'"

"God is not hiding. We are. God is not pretending. Look at the cross. We are pretending. Look into your own heart and see. Do you really want to find Him? Then listen! He is not far away.
"I read a story of a woman who was trying to find God. She had a dream which she dreamed more than once, that she was standing in front of a thick, plate-class window. As she looked at it, it seemed to her that God was on the other side. She hammered on the window, trying to make Him see her, but without success.

"She grew more desperate and began to call to Him, and found herself shouting at the top of her voice. And then a quiet, calm voice at her side said, 'Why are you making so much noise? There is nothing between us.'

"And that's what you need to know if want to find Him. There is no distance between you and Him except an unsurrendered will. Won't you think now of His presence and test it by an act of faith so you, too, will know that He is near? Won't you close your eyes now--and with the faith you have though it be small--tell Him that you believe. Tell Him that you want Him--that with all your heart you want him--now!"
From "What Does It Mean To Be Born Again? Part 2"
Decision, Choice, Commitment, Born Again, New Life
****
Q-154
Listen to the voice of scripture:
"Come now and let us reason together."
"Prove me now, saith the Lord of Hosts."
"Try the spirit's to see if they be of God."
"Test all things; hold fast to that which is good."
As David Wesley Soper emphasizes in his fascinating book Epistle To The Sceptics",
"God is not afraid of human thought; He fears, for our sake, only the absence of it."
From "Some Negative Thinking, Too, Please"
Doubt, Faith, Skepticism
****
Q-155
In his book, The Tragic Sense of Life, Unanumo, the Spanish mystic, gives a rather startling benediction when, at the conclusion of his volume, he writes: "May God deny you peace, but give you glory!"
From "Some Negative Thinking, Too, Please"
Doubt, Faith, Skepticism, Peace
****
Q-156
I think Robert J. McCracken is right when he says there must always be a place for reverent agnosticism. The kind of agnosticism Paul expressed in his letter to the Corinthians:

"Now we see through a glass darkly…now I know in part."
As a matter of fact, as Dr. David Wesley Soper suggests:
"God is much more of an unbeliever that any atheist. He does not believe at all, not even a little bit, in the false gods we prefer to Him. Our man-made gods of race and class; of nation and creed. When men refuse to be sceptical, as God is sceptical, bigotry, hypocrisy and cruelty cripple human life and enslave the human spirit. When men refuse to be sceptical, as God is sceptical, then insanity dethrones sanity and life becomes a mad, wild jungle. Scepticism is neither more or less than man's necessary effort to distinguish between sense and nonsense in every dimension of his world."

Certainly we need some great beliefs!
Certainly we must have some great convictions.
But there are some things we ought to doubt, too!
There are some things we ought to disbelieve.

From "Some Negative Thinking, Too, Please"
Doubt, Faith, Skepticism, Belief
****
Q-157
Curtis Nims put it this way:
"There is hope for a person who lives by his belief. There is no hope for a person who lives by his disbelief.

"There is hope for the person who holds the door ajar. There is no hope for the person who shuts the door.

"There is hope for the one who cries, 'Maybe'. There is no hope for the one who says, 'Never'.

"There is hope for those who say, 'Perhaps.' There is no hope for those who cry out, 'We know it can never be.'"
From "Some Negative Thinking, Too, Please"
Doubt, Faith, Skepticism, Belief, Hope
****
Q-158
In a paraphrase of the words of Leonard Ravenhill,
"(You will be) free from selfish ambitions, and so (have) nothing to be jealous about.
(You will have) no reputation, and so (have) nothing to fight about.
(You will have) no possessions and, therefore, (have) nothing to worry about.
(You will have) no rights and, therefore, cannot suffer any wrong.
(You will) already (be) dead, so no one can kill (you)."
From "The Ego And I"
Ego, Self, Surrender
****
Q-159
In his book, How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, Andrew Carnegie suggests that one of the ways to overcome discouragement is to cooperate with the inevitable.

Now he wasn't suggesting that we become fatalists. He was simply pointing out that there are some things in life we cannot change, and we might as well admit it.
There are some experiences we cannot avoid.
There are some loads we cannot escape.
They are part of life, so let's accept them. Let's cooperate with the inevitable.

That's exactly what Jesus was saying in a different way 1900 years before Andrew Carnegie was born. "In the world you have tribulation."
From "Reversing Life's Reverses"
Testing, Tribulation, Hope, Problem
****
Q-160
As someone has said so well,
"Life consists of endless possibilities cleverly
disguised as seemingly insurmountable problems."
From "Reversing Life's Reverses"
Testing, Tribulation, Hope, Problem, Life, Attitude
****
Q-161
Over in Leichester, England, there is a church which is over 300 years old. It is a beautiful spot. An architectural gem. Just inside the entry hangs a plaque which reads:

"When everything Holy was, throughout the land, being destroyed or profaned, this church was built to be glory of God by Sir Robert Shirley whose singular praise it was to have done the best of things in the worst of times."
From "Reversing Life's Reverses"
Testing, Tribulation, Hope, Problem, Life, Attitude
****
Q-186
The very first Christmas service did not take place in a typical church. In fact, it wasn't held in a church at all. Instead of Gothic arches and stained glass windows there was a midnight sky from which "silver winters stars hung still and white."

Instead of plush-lined theater seats or even hard, straight-back walnut pews, the congregation sat huddled on the rugged rocks which lined a wind swept field. The choir loft was a low hanging cloud and the pulpit was a hillside made bright by the light of one great star.
From "The Very First Christmas Service"
Christmas
****
Q-187
Harold Blake Walker points out,
"Coming close to Christ is not a matter of geography. One cannot imagine a less promising place for an encounter with God than a barren, rugged field outside the little town of Bethlehem in Judea. But great moments of the soul can happen any place where God lets his ladder down."
That can happened on a subway train or in an elevator car. In in a jail cell or executive suite. In a palatial mansion or a tenement apartment heated with a pot bellied stove.

God cannot be confined to the four walls of even the most aesthetically beautiful building. He reveals himself whenever and wherever people feel a sense of need, even as the shepherds did as they sat huddled on the stony soil of an open field outside Bethlehem.
From "The Very First Christmas Service"
Christmas, Peace, God, Incarnation
****
Q-188
Walter A. Maier writes, "Among the most valuable paintings in all the art galleries of the world is Raphael's glorification of the Christ child and his mother. Five million dollars could not buy this painting. But if you receive God's Christmas gift and have the beauty of Jesus imprinted on your heart, you have a blessing that makes five million dollars seem paltry.

"One of the most costly pieces of property in the world is the site of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. No amount of money could purchase this reputed spot of our Savior's birth. Streams of blood have flown from 10,000 wounds, as many have tried to seize this place. Yet, if you have God's Christmas gift and kneel in spirit at the Christ child's manger -- even though you are out of work, out funds, out of supplies -- you are richer than if you held title to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. For when Christ is born in your heart, you have the blessed assurance that all is well with your soul -- a treasure no amount of money can buy."
From "The Very First Christmas Service"
Christmas, Grace, Salvation, New Birth