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A minister gave an unusual sermon one day, using a peanut to make several important points about the wisdom of God in nature.
One of the members greeted him at the door and said, "Very interesting, Pastor. I never expected to learn so much from a nut."
Some weeks ago I was watching the Health Channel on TV. They showed and described different types of plastic surgery procedures. I was amazed at the things that plastics surgeons can do now-a-days. If you need more luscious lips, they can inject collagen and make your lips downright pouty. If you would like higher looking cheekbones, you can get a tug here and a lift there and presto – cheeks bones to rival Sofia Loren. If you wanted your derričre to be less wide, the plastic surgeons can slim it up. If you need just a bit more here or there, they can augment most parts of your body.
A body builder thought that nature slighted him by giving him calves that were too skinny. I’ll be darn tootin’ if they didn’t put calf implants in his legs in order to make them shapelier. You name it, and they can make it, cut it out, lift it up, push it over, fill it in or tighten it up.
This show really got me thinking. Why would people want to go through the suffering involved in cosmetic surgery? The poor guy with the calf implants limped around for a month because of the pain. Recovery from some of the plastic surgery procedures is downright grueling. Why would people endure all of that? It’s obviously not always a matter of necessity. Most of the procedures are elective. Most of the people are not actors or actresses that depend on their looks to make a living. So why? Some say vanity. But on the show I watched, some of the people interviewed seemed to doubt that they were OK the way they were. They thought that they didn’t quite measure up.
GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature, what in the world is going on down there in the U.S.? What in the world happened to the dandelions, violets, thistles and the stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of color by now. All I see are patches of green.
ST. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. They are called the Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD: Grass? But it is so boring, it’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, bees or birds, only grubs and sod worms. It’s temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing it and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD: The spring rains and the warm weather probably makes the grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites very happy.
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it has grown a little, they cut it......sometimes two times a week.
GOD: They cut it? Do they bale it like hay?
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS: No sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now let me get this straight...they fertilize it to make it grow and when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
ST. FRANCIS: You aren’t going to believe this Lord, but when the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD: What nonsense! I think I like my original plan a lot better… (http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.org/lawnhumor.htm)
In regions of Mexico hot springs and cold springs are found side by side, and because of the convenience of this natural phenomenon the women often bring their laundry, boil their clothes in the hot springs, and then rinse them in the cold springs.
A tourist watching this procedure commented to his Mexican guide: "They must think Mother nature is generous to freely supply suc...
I’m Not Growing Old
They say that I am growing old
I’ve heard them say it times untold
In language plain and bold
But I’m not growing old
This frail old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old I know full well
But I’m not growing old.
What if my hair has turned gray
Gray hair is honorable, they say
What if my eye sight’s growing dim
I can still see to follow Him
Who sacrificed His life for me
There on the cross of Calvary
Why should I care if time’s old plow
Has dug some furrows in my brow.
Another house not made with hand
Awaits me in the glory land.
My hearing may not be as keen
As in the past, it may have been
Still I can hear my Savior say
Come faltering child, this is the way.
The outward man, do what I can
To lengthen out this life’s short span
Shall perish and return to dust
As everything in nature must.
But the inward man the Scriptures say
Ah, the inward man
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old?
I’m safe within the Saviour’s fold
‘Er long my soul shall fly away
And leave this tenement of clay
This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise
To seize the everlasting prize
I’ll meet you on the streets of gold
And prove that I’m not growing old.
- John E. Roberts
The Christian is one who is so uncomfortable with his sin, despising it in himself so much, that he fights, and eventually wins-out against the dominance of sin in his life.
When Thomas Dewey lost the ’48 election to Harry Truman, after everyone expected a Dewey landslide, Dewey later said he "...felt like the man who woke up to find himself inside a coffin with a lily in his hand and thought: ’If I’m alive, what am I doing here? And if I’m dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?’" Genuine believers are embarrassed by sin in their lives. They feel like they don’t belong. A pig will go back to the mud-wallow because he feels at home there. A sheep gets out of a mud-hole quickly, and avoids the next one he sees. That’s the nature of a sheep.
In 1988, author Robert Fulghum had a book published entitled, “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten”. The idea behind the little book was that since the basics of human social behavior are taught us as young children, such as kindness, fairness, cleaning up after yourself, sharing and so on, they are principles that should be obvious to us and remain with us the rest of our lives.
Less than 10 years after the emergence of this book my wife and children and I moved to Del Norte, Colorado. The church we began to attend there was pastored by a man who had just been discharged from the Marines and was now working as a farrier, which is someone who shoes horses. The residual influence of the military, which was his recent experience, and his desire to resonate well with the local ranchers, as a shoer of horses, gave him a proclivity for centering most of his sermon illustrations in military things, or ranching and farming.
Now I have absolutely the greatest respect for the farmer and the need for farmers and the blessing they are to all of us. But there were many of us in that congregation who were becoming increasingly burdened by frequent references to the United States Marines, and the nature of farming.
One Sunday morning as this man presented his quickly composed message, he said, “Now, we’re all farmers here, and we understand…” But the fact was, we were not all farmers there, and this well-known fact drew my attention away from the point he was driving at to consider how many in his congregation he had just lost.
As I began to contemplate this, my wife leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Everything I really need to know about farming, I learned in Kindergarten; ‘E-I, E-I, O’.”
I don’t know what that has to do with anything; I just wanted to tell it to you.
From Clark Tanner’s Sermon: “God Calls to Account”
A minister gave an unusual sermon one day, using a peanut to make several important points about the wisdom of God in nature. One of the members greeted her at the door and said, "Very intere...
BROKEN THINGS
God does not see as man sees. He placed high premium on broken things. He prefers to deal and bless only things and people that are broken. However, when compared to man, the gap is huge. Man prefers things that are not broken and places value on such. Once anything is broken, man's nature is to discard and trash them. Things like broken furniture, mirror, plates, etc are binned by men because his nature abhorred broken things. God however desire to bring man closer to Himself, hence He wants them broken so they can be blessed.
Illus.: “Grumbling Because of Lack of Soap”
In some parts of Mexico hot springs and cold springs are found side by side. And because of the convenience of this natural phenomenon, the women often bring their laundry and boil their clothes in the hot springs and then rinse them in the cold ones. A tourist, who was watching this procedure commented to his Mexican guide, “I imagine that these women think Old Mother Nature is pretty generous to supply such ample, clean hot and cold water here side by side for their free use.” The guide answered, “Not really. There’s a lot of grumbling because they have to bring their own soap!”
