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A guide at Blarney Castle in Ireland was explaining to some visitors that his job was not always as pleasant as it seemed. He told them about a group of disgruntled tourists he had taken to the castle earlier in the week.
"These people were complaining about everything," he said. "They didnt like the weather, the food, their hotel accommodations, the prices, everything. Then to top it off, when we arrived at the castle, we found that the area around the Blarney Stone was roped off. Workmen were making some kind of repairs." "This is the last straw!" exclaimed one lady who seemed to be the chief faultfinder in the group. "Ive come all this way, and now I cant even kiss the Blarney Stone."
"Well, you know," the guide said, "according to legend, if you kiss someone who has kissed the stone, its the same as kissing the stone itself." "And I suppose youve kissed the stone," said the exasperated lady. "Better than that." replied the guide. "Ive sat on it."
Bits & Pieces, January 9, 1992, p. 11.
The circumstances of life often speak to us like Lucy one day spoke to Charlie Brown. Lucy said to Charlie Brown "Sometimes, I feel we are not communicating: You, Charlie Brown, are afoul ball in the line drive of life. Youre often in the shadow of your own goal post youre a miscue. You re 3 putts on the 18th green. You are a 7-10 split in the 10th frame. You have dropped a rod and reel in the lake of life. Youre a missed free throw. Youre a shacked 9-iron, a called 3rd strike, a bug on the windshield of life! Do you understand? Have I made myself clear?"
But the Christian who is living as a disciple considers that which he is confidently assured of-that he will be like Christ one day and that as he lovingly surrenders to God, he can be blessed by becoming more like Christ today. Then he replies like Paul in verse 31, "God is for me!"
We live in a strange community, where it is not uncommon to see bumper stickers that say things like, I am Light, or Due to circumstances within our control Armageddon has been cancelled. But the one that really gets me is the one that reads simply, I AM. Thank God, the I AM doesn’t drive a VW van. If the guy driving that van has numbered our days, we’re in trouble. Somehow I don’t think he was the one that hung the stars in space and sustains all things by his word. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
An umpire named Babe Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with sharp disapproval at the call, the legendary Ruth turned to the umpire with disdain and said, "There’s 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was ball, tomato head." Suspecting that the umpire would erupt with anger, the coaches and players braced themselves for Ruth’s ejection. However, the cool headed Pinelli replied, "Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts." Believers need to realize that God’s judgment is the only on...
What do you do with an Apostle Paul? Now there was one committed guy. Paul, if you dont quit preaching, we are gonna stone you! Well, thats been done before! Look, Paul, if you dont quit preaching we are gonna throw you in jail! Hey, guys, could you send me back to Rome. They let me out of jail last time right before I could get the jailer saved! If you could just send me back there
Paul if you dont quit preaching, were gonna kill you.! Could you please? Ive been in this dilemma for a long time: To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! If you could just bump me off!
What do you do with an Apostle Paul? You cant kill him! Hes already dead!
Wrong Righteousness
Quote: "If you dont know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." - Yogi Berra
Text: Romans 10:1-4
Prop: a new US $20 bill (or adapt for local currency)
Summary: Some people try to get to heaven on their own by being a good person. The only righteousness that is real is what the Lord Jesus gives us.
Look at this new $20 bill (US currency). We pay for things with money. The color of money used to be green, but this has some red and blue in it now. The moneymakers put some things in this bill so you would know it was genuine. [Show each security feature.] One is this magnetic strip, another is the watermark of the persons face, and another is this two-tone ink on the number twenty. It is green at this angle, and gold at another angle. If you present this as payment, anyone who receives it can tell it is real. Some people try to cheat and make fake money. The money they make on their own is called a counterfeit. That reminds me of something the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans.
[Read Romans 10:1-4]
Paul wanted his own people, the Israelites, to be saved from their sins. He said they were eager to please God but they did not understand what God wanted. The Israelites thought if they kept following all of Gods laws and commands that it would be enough to please God. They thought if they were good and did nice things that would be all that was necessary to get to heaven. That was the wrong kind of righteousness. It was a fake. The only righteousness that is real is what the Lord Jesus gives us. Paul made it clear that we need Gods righteousness. That means we must be willing to accept Gods goodness, not try to be good on our own.
How can we do that? We can accept what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus completed the work of the law there. That is the real, genuine thing that God accepts. Jesus died as a sacrifice for all the bad things we have done. As an old hymn says, Jesus paid it all! We gave God our sin, and God gave us forgiveness and His goodness. That does not seem like a fair trade, but God loves us so much he was willing to do that.
[Read John 3:16] Whosoever includes you. Whosoever includes me. God is so good to us. God wants us to be good, but He does not want us to try to get to heaven by trusting our own goodness to save us. He has provided the way: His Son Jesus.
Let us pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for paying the price for my sins. Amen.
Soon after Paul and Marilyn were married, Paul stopped wearing his wedding band.
"Why dont you ever wear your ring?" Marilyn asked.
"It cuts off my circulation," Paul replied.
"I know," she said. "Its supposed to."
The next time you feel like GOD cant use you, just remember...
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul wa...
There was an incident that occurred in connection with an encampment of Shantung soldiers located at Shanghai. One day a dog came into their camp with some pages from a book in his mouth. The soldiers caught the dog and began to read the papers. They were pages from a Bible being printed in their language. They became very interested and followed the dog to a Christian hospital, asking for more of this kind of literature. The Christian hospital was glad to help. This brought forth an opportunity for Dr. Goforth and a Chinese evangelist to visit the camp. Two hundred men were enrolled as inquirers. If God can use a dog to deliver his Word, then he can use any of us, including me. [Walter B. Knight, Knights Master Book of New Illustrations (Eerdman: Grand Rapids, 1956), 622.]
If I were to take a long piece of super-duper duct tape and stick it firmly to your hairy arm, how would you prefer to have it removed if you only had these two choices: Slowly, pulling out one hair at a time, or suddenly, ripping it off instantly?
Most of us would prefer a quick rip. Well, when we look at how Paul describes our condition under the law, he pulls it off very, very slowly. He describes in detail the pain of living under law and seeking to satisfy the righteous requirements of it with merely the power of the sinful flesh. Ouch! Who will deliver me! Lets look at it together.
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