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DR. R. G. LEE ON THE BIBLE
The late Dr. R. G. Lee, former pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis TN expressed the value of God’s Word in this way:
"The Bible is a book beyond all books as a river is above and beyond a rivulet. The Bible is a book beyond all books as the sun is above and beyond a candle in brightness. The Bible is a book beyond all books as the wings of an eagle is above and beyond the wings of a sparrow. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, immeasurable in influence, infinite in scope, divine in authorship, human in penmanship, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, and inspired in totality. This is the Book that has walked more paths, travelled more highways, knocked at more doors and spoken to more people in their mother tongue than in other book this world has ever known or will know."
(From a sermon by Rev. John D. Jones, That Ye May Grow, 7/20/2011)
There is a classic story about procrastination and it goes like this. An American eagle was flying high over the Niagara River on a cold and wintry day. He saw a dead bullock (young bull) floating down river. He thought to himself, "What a great feast!" He landed and sank his talons deep into the carcass and began to feed on it. He thoroughly enjoyed the feast and was unwilling to let it go. He thought that he had plenty of time to withdraw. He continued to eat. He decided that he would let go at the last minute. Not long after that he was approaching the falls. He tried to fly away. However, he was in for a rude awakening when he found that his feet were frozen to the carcass. In the end, he fell with the carcass. (Paraphrased: Chaplain Forest D. Davies. Biblical Prisoners. Duluth: Priory Books, 1988, pp. 1-2).
A farmer was walking through the forest one day when he found a young eagle that was hurt. The farmer saved the eagle from the dangers of the forest. He took it home and put it in his chicken lot where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a Forest Ranger passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds is living in the chicken lot with the chickens. The farmer replied since he had given it a home in the chicken lot and feed it chicken feed it acted like the chickens it lived with. It was no longer a great eagle of the wild outdoors but a chicken of the tame chicken lot.
"Still it has the heart of an eagle," replied the Ranger, "and can surely be taught to fly." He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing his friends the chickens walking by and eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.
The Ranger took the eagle from the chicken lot to the roof of the house and urged him to fly again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and this new world and jumped down once more and flapped his eagle wings just enough to get back to the chicken lot for the chicken food. Finally the Ranger took the eagle to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, " You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle looked around, back towards the way that they had come from the chicken lot and then up to the sky. Then the Ranger saw another giant eagle soaring on the current of the wind coming toward them. As the giant eagle passed by the chicken lot eagle slowly stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.
It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the chicken lot. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken because he now knows that he is an eagle of prey not a bug and feed eater that is restricted to the ground forever.
Theology News and Notes, October, 1976, quoted in Multnomah Message, Spring, 1993, p. 1. (Modified by the sermon author)(www.christianglobe.com)
Scripture: Ezekiel 17:3b
“A great eagle with broad wings full of many-colored feathers came to
Lebanon. He took hold of the highest branch of a cedar tree”
"Twigs" written by Chris Harken from Maple Grove, Minnesota USA
A female eagle has an interesting way of picking a mate. She will pick
up a twig and fly high into the air and drop it. Male eagles will fly
beneath her and try to catch the twig. She will do this until a male
has caught the twig three times.
The reason is the female is testing the male for his ability to catch
young eagles as they are directed out of the nest for flight. When its
time for the young eagle to fly on its own the mother eagle pushes her
young out of the nest. She carries the young eaglets on her back up
high into the air and shakes them off. It is the responsibility of the
father to swoop down and catch the young eaglets until they learn to
fly on their own.
Just as the female eagle is testing the male for his reliability, a
believer will be tested by God in his or her faithfulness and
dependability.
Similarly in our walk with God we often times run into difficult
situations that require us to make decisions. These decisions are
cl...
EATING A BALD EAGLE
A forest ranger is making rounds in a remote part of the wooded reserve when he comes across an unkempt man, sitting at a make-shift campfire, and, to the ranger's astonishment, eating a fish and a bald eagle.
The man is consequently put in jail for the crime. He was soon brought to trial for his crime. The Judge asked the man, "Do you know that eating a bald eagle is a federal offense?"
"Yes, I do, Judge," replied the man, "but if you will let me argue my case, I'll explain what happened."
"You may proceed."
"I got lost in the woods and hadn't had anything real to eat for two weeks," the man explained. "I was so hungry, I was eating plants to stay alive. Next thing I see is a Bald Eagle swooping down at the lake grabbing a fish. I thought 'If I startled the eagle, I could maybe steal the fish.' Low and behold, the eagle lighted upon a nearby tree stump to eat the fish. I threw a stone toward the eagle hoping he would drop the fish and fly away. Unfortunately, in my weakened condition, my aim was off, and the rock hit the eagle squarely on his poor little head, and it killed him. I thought long and hard about what had happened, but figured that since I had killed it, I might as well eat it, since it would be more disgraceful to let it rot on the ground."
The Judge says he would take a recess to analyze the defendant's testimony. Fifteen minutes goes by, and the Judge returns.
"Due to the extreme circumstances you were under and because you didn't intend to kill the eagle, the court will dismiss the charges." The Judge then leans over the bench and whispers: "If you don't mind my asking, what does a bald eagle taste like?"
"Well, Your Honor, it is hard to explain. I guess the best comparison I can make is, it's a bit more tender than a California Condor, but lacks the tang of a Spotted Owl."
(From a sermon by J.D. Tutell, He Prepares a Table, 2/3/2011)
Opening; Illustration:
Mama eagles are caring loving creatures. Somewhere along the line the mama eagle decides it’s time the baby eagles learn to fly. She takes the little eagle out of the next and flies up as high as she can go. At this point, she drops the fledgling, and he falls fast. The fledgling has never flown in his life. The ground is coming up, his heart is ready to burst, and he knows there is no way he is going to survive. But, the mama eagle is watching closely and at the last moment she swoops down and catches the baby eagle. The mama eagle then flies back up and lets go again. She does this until he learns to fly.
The Lord bore the Israelites on eagle’s wings. When they had no water or food, He swooped down and provided it for them. When Moses faced the Red Sea, God swooped down and parted it. When the walls were falling down, He swooped down and saved Rahab and her family. When you were wandering lost in life, He swooped down and saved you. When David was facing a giant, He swooped down and dropped him with one stone.
Proposition: If God is all powerful and He’s on your side...how can you lose?
From Sherry Proskine’s Sermon: Overcoming Your Giants
It’s reported that a preacher in Redrock, Mississippi prayed this sermon: “Oh Lord, give Thy servant this mornin’ the eyes of the eagle and the wisdom of the owl; connect his soul with the gospel telephone in the central skies; ‘luminate his brow with the Sun of heaven; possess his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination, grease his lips with ‘possum oil, loosen his tongue with the sledge hammer of Thy power; ‘lectrify his brain with the lightnin’ of the word; put ‘petual motion on his arms; fill him plum full of the dynamite of Thy glory; ‘noint him all over with the kerosene oil of Thy salvation and SET HIM ON FIRE. Amen!”
The following incident won the runner-up prize in the 1999 Darwin Awards:
A Vermont native, Ronald Demuth, found himself in a difficult position. While touring the Eagle’s Rock African Safari (Zoo) with a group of thespians from St. Petersburg, Russia, Mr. Demuth went overboard to show them one of America’s many marvels. He demonstrated the effectiveness of "Crazy Glue"... the hard way.
Apparently, Mr. Demuth wanted to demonstrate just how good the adhesive was, so he covered the palms of his hands with the adhesive, and jokingly placed them on the rear end of a passing rhino. The rhino, a resident of the zoo for the past thirteen years, was not initially startled as it has been part of the petting exhibit since its arrival as a baby.
However, once it became aware of its being involuntarily stuck to Mr. Demuth, it began to panic and ran around the petting area wildly making Mr. Demuth an unintended passenger.
"Sally [the rhino] hasn’t been feeling well lately. She had been very constipated. We had just given her a laxative and some depressants to relax her bowels, when Mr. Demuth played his juvenile prank," said James Douglass, caretaker. During Sally’s tirade two fences were destroyed, a shed wall was gored, and a number of small animals escaped. Also, during the stampede, three pygmy goats and one duck were stomped to death.
As for Demuth, it took a team of medics and zoo caretakers’ to remove his hands from her buttocks. First, the animal had to be captured and calmed down. However, during this process the laxatives began to take hold and Mr. Demuth was repeatedly showered with over 30 gallons of rhino diarrhea.
"It was tricky. We had to calm her down, while at the same time shield our faces from being pelted with rhino dung. I guess you could say that Mr. Demuth was into it up to his neck. Once she was under control, we had three people with shovels working to keep an air passage open for Mr. Demuth. We were able to tranquilize her and apply a solvent to remove his hands from her rear," said Douglass. "I ...
It was related that once when the Duke of Wellington remained to take communion at his parish church, a very poor old man went up to the opposite aisle, and reaching the Communion table, knelt down close by the side of the Duke. (Immediately, tension and commotion interrupted the silence of the church.) Someone came and touched the poor man on the shoulder, and whispered to him to move farther away, or to rise and wait until the Duke had received the bread and the wine.
But the eagle eye and the quick ear of the great commander caught the meaning of that touch and that whisper. He clasped the old man’s hand and held him to prevent his rising; and in a reverential but distinct undertone, the Duke said, "Do not move; we are equal here." (Pulpit Helps 3/91)
George Rennau
A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26, 1997. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmist practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."
And for plenty of good reasons, since it:
· Can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
· It is a major component in acid rain.
· It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.
· Accidental inhalation can kill you.
· It decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
· It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.
He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical. Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the chemical was H20 (water). The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?" He feels the conclusion is obvious.
