Happiness In Matthew 5, Jesus begins a sentence with the same words, “Blessed are...” eight different times. What does it mean to be blessed? It is a religious sounding word, isn’t it? It is pregnant with virtue–a stained glass sort of a word. The truth is, the Greek word simply means happy. In English,…

John Todd was a famous minister of the 1800's and he grew up in Vermont, but he lost both of his parents when he was six years old. And, since there were so many kids in the family, they didn't know what to do with all the children and so they found an aunt who said, "I will be happy to take John in."…

The motion picture “Faith Like Potatoes” tells the true story of Angus Buchan, a South African farmer who learns what true faith really is. Angus comes to South Africa in the middle of racial turmoil and economic disruption to begin a new life for himself and his family. The hard work of reclaiming an…

I saw one the other day who was about to suffer from the surgeon’s knife. It was a serious operation, about which all stood in doubt, but I was happy to see her as composed in the prospect of it as though it had been a pleasure rather than a pain. Thus calmly resigned should a Christian be. How many…

We are sometimes apt to think that a charge that is unfounded is very cruel to us. I have heard people say sometimes, and I have laughed when I have heard them say it, “Mr. So-and-so has charged me with such-and-such a thing, but I am quite innocent. I should not have minded if I had been guilty.” I…

HANGING IN AN ART GALLERY YOU FIND A PICTURE THAT SUMMARIZES THIS MESSAGE SO WELL. FRAMED THERE YOU SEE A MOUNTAIN SCENE OF GREAT PEACE AND TRANQUILITY, BUT THE STILLNESS OF NATURE IS ABRUPTLY CONTRASTED TO A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY, FOR IN THE CLEARING IS WHAT USED TO BE A LOG CABIN. ONLY NOW ALL THAT REMAINS…

When John Philpot, the martyr, was addressing a young man about to die for Christ, he said to him, “Brother, you are a vessel in the great house of your Master, and this day he will scour you, scour you hard, but remember you will soon stand upon the shelf, shining bright and glorious.” Sometimes pains,…

There was a crest and motto that some of the old Reformers used to use, and that I commend to any of you who are under trial. It was an anvil with a number of hammers, all broken, lying around; and this was the motto when translated, “The anvil breaks many hammers.” And how does it do this? Not by striking:…

STRENGTH The threat of war is having a positive impact on soldiers preparing for a possible conflict with Iraq. On a recent Sunday morning, eight young men approached the altar in a canvas church, received blessings from a chaplain, and were baptized in a freshly dug pool. They emerged to applause from…

Life is Beautiful is a film about a man and his son captured by Nazis to a concentration camp. The father tried his best to entertain his son so that the boy would not realize their situation. He showed his love by keeping his son happy in the camp until he was taken away to be executed. Love is not…

In October, 1935, the African nation of Ethiopia was occupied by the fascist forces of Benito Mussolini. Ethiopia, traditionally a Coptic Christian culture, had over the centuries endured the brutal tyranny of Islam and other oppressors, and were now faced with another trial of significance. Their much…

PERSISTENCE/PAIN On August 19, 2003, 15-game-winner, Mark Mulder left the mound against The Boston Red Sox with a stress fracture in his hip. And when he did, the hopes of a 4th straight playoff bid for the Oakland Athletics left with him—or so the pundits said. Even with their usual push toward the…

Had Abraham stopped in Ur of the Chaldees with his friends and rested there and enjoyed himself, where would his faith have been? He had God’s command to leave his country to go to a land that he had never seen, to sojourn there with God as a stranger, dwelling in tents, and in his obedience to that…

EMERGENCY NUMBERS PRINT OUT AND KEEP IT WITH YOUR BIBLE. USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY! HANDY REFERENCE LIST OF EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS When in sorrow.....................................call John 14 When men fail you.................................call Psalm 27 When you have sinned..............................call…

The man that has seen affliction, when he is blessed of God, has the disposition to cheer those that are afflicted. I have heard speak of a lady who was out in the snow one night, and was so very cold that she cried out, “Oh, those poor people that have such a little money! How little fuel they have,…

Sometimes comfort needs to be more than words. “The New York Times reports that touch is its own complicated, highly accurate, highly effective signaling system.” They interpret that to mean that high fives and sympathetic touches can say more than words. --Reader’s Digest, May 2010, p24 Illustration…

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.” —Jim L. Wilson Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 91. Philippians 3:10 (HCSB) My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed…

A tree of common fruit may be let alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning. I have noticed that in those countries where the best wine is made, the vinedressers cut the shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is a…

RESTORATION Donna grew in a Christian home in South Carolina. She went to church beginning in nursery school. In high school and her early college year she devoted herself to Christian youth groups, and even served as a summer missionary teaching the Bible to young people from 50 churches. In her later…

Hardships For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. [7] Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. (Job 5:6-7 NIV) I'd like to think that calamity will visit everyone but me, but I know it isn't true. Calamity will visit your home, and it will…

In THANKS! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. writes, “Thankfulness to God often occurs not only within the shadow of suffering, but also, paradoxically, is made possible through it.” —Jim L. Wilson —THANKS!, 116 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (HCSB) “Give thanks in everything,…

In the olden time when the gospel was preached in Persia, Hamedatha, a courtier of the king, having embraced the faith, was stripped of all his offices, driven from the palace, and compelled to feed camels. This he did with great content. The king passing by one day saw his former favorite at his ignoble…

\\ A man sobering up from the night before is sitting through the Sunday sermon, finding it long and boring. Still feeling hung over and tired, he finally nods off. The preacher has been watching him all along, noticing his apparent hangover and is disgusted. At the end of the sermon, the preacher decides…

Could it be true that Mike Tyson has finally realized his shortcomings? After his four-year-old daughter died in a treadmill accident, Tyson was emotionally touched by the people who reached out to help him. He realized “The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. I thought I was…

Chinese pastor Samuel Lamb summarized his life and ministry: “more persecution, more growth.” Lamb was imprisoned in 1958 for refusing to register his house church with the government. Sentenced to 20 years of hard labor, he spent two decades working in the coalmines. He used the time to teach Christianity…