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Jerry Falwell
We usually face more than one intersection in our lifetime. Life is choice, we will always have to make good choices, in the first quarter and in the last quarter.
Once there was a young girl who had just got her driver’s licence and was quickly popping down the grocery store for her mum. She hadn’t been driving long and didn’t have much experience behind the wheel. It was a wet day and as she came to the intersection that turned towards her house there was some wet leaves that had blown out into the road. She skidded on the wet leaves and slid into a tree. She was thrown into the steering wheel with her chest and her head went through the wind shield. The car door opened and she fell out on the ground.
Her mother was in the front garden and saw the entire thing. She ran down the street frantically, fell down beside the wreck and pulled her daughter’s bleeding face up into her hand. As she looked down into her daughter’s face, little girl looked up at her mother and said, "Mum, I’m going to die. Mum, I’m going to die." Her mother responded, "No you’re not honey! You’re not going to die! Everything is going to be alright, just stay calm."
A neighbour ran out and the mother yelled, "Call an ambulance." The neighbour ran back in and called for help. The daughter said again , "Mum, I going to die." The mother again replied by saying, "No you’re not honey." The girl kept saying she was going to die and her Mother tried to reassure her.
What that young teenage girl said haunts me. The little girl looked up at her mother and said, "Mum, you taught me how to dress. Mum, you taught me how to put on my makeup. Mum, you even taught me how to dance. But Mum, you never taught me how to die!" And she died in her mother’s arms.
GOD KNOWS WHERE WE ARE
Ken Gaub wrote about an experience he had back in the 1990s:
"Do you believe that God not only loves you, but knows where you are and what you’re doing every minute of the day? I certainly do after an amazing experience I had several years ago.
"At the time I was driving on 1-75 near Dayton, Ohio, with my wife and children. We turned off the highway for a rest and refreshment stop. My wife Barbara and children went into the restaurant. I suddenly felt the need to stretch my legs, so waved them off ahead saying I’d join them later.
"I bought a soft drink, and as I walked toward a Dairy Queen, feelings of self-pity enshrouded my mind. I loved the Lord and my ministry, but I felt drained, burdened. My cup was empty.
"Suddenly the impatient ringing of a telephone nearby jarred me out of my doldrums. It was coming from a phone booth at a service station on the corner. Wasn’t anyone going to answer the phone?
"Noise from the traffic flowing through the busy intersection must have drowned out the sound because the service station attendant continued looking after his customers, oblivious to the ringing. 'Why doesn’t somebody answer that phone?' I muttered.
"I began reasoning. It may be important. What if it’s an emergency? Curiosity overcame my indifference. I stepped inside the booth and picked up the phone. 'Hello?' I said casually and took a big sip of my drink.
"The operator said: 'Long distance call for Ken Gaub.'
"My eyes widened, and I almost choked on a chunk of ice. Swallowing hard, I said, 'You’re crazy!' Then realizing I shouldn’t speak to an operator like that, I added, 'This can’t be! I was walking down the road, not bothering anyone, and the phone was ringing... '
"'Is Ken Gaub there?' the operator interrupted, 'I have a long distance call for him.'
"It took a moment to gain control of my babbling, but I finally replied, 'Yes, he is here.' Searching for a possible explanation, I wondered if I could possibly be on Candid Camera!
"Still shaken, perplexed, I asked, 'How in the world did you reach me here? I was walking down the road, the pay phone started ringing, and I just answered it on chance. You can’t mean me.'
"'Well,' the operator asked, 'Is Mr. Gaub there or isn’t he?'
"Yes, I am Ken Gaub," I said, finally convinced by the tone of her voice that the call was real.
"Then I heard another voice say, 'Yes, that’s him, operator. That’s Ken Gaub.'
"I listened dumbfounded to a strange voice identify herself. 'I’m Millie from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You don’t know me, Mr. Gaub, but I’m desperate. Please help me.'
"'What can I do for you?'
"She began weeping. Finally she regained control and continued. 'I was about to commit suicide and had just finished writing a note, when I began to pray and tell God I really didn’t want to do this. Then I suddenly remembered seeing you on television and thought if I could just talk to you, you could help me. I knew that was impossible because I didn’t know how to reach you, I didn’t know anyone who could help me find you. Then some numbers came to my mind, and I scribbled them down.'
"At this point she began weeping again, and I prayed silently for wisdom to help her. She continued, 'I looked at the numbers and thought, "Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I had a miracle from God, and He has given me Ken’s phone number?" I decided to try calling it. I can’t believe I’m talking to you. Are you in your office in California?'
"I replied, 'Lady, I don’t have an office in California. My office is in Yakima, Washington.'
"A little surprised, she asked, 'Oh really, then where are you?'
"'Don’t you know?' I responded. 'You made the call.'
"She explained, 'But I don’t even know what area I’m calling. I just dialed the number that I had on this paper.'
"'Ma’am, you won’t believe this, but I’m in a phone booth in Dayton, Ohio!'
"'Really?' she exclaimed. 'Well, what are you doing there?'
"I kidded her gently, 'Well, I’m answering the phone. It was ringing as I walked by, so I answered it.'
"Knowing this encounter could only have been arranged by God, I began to counsel the woman. As she told me of her despair and frustration, the presence of the Holy Spirit flooded the phone booth giving me words of wisdom beyond my ability. In a matter of moments, she prayed the sinner’s prayer and met the One who would lead her out of her situation into a new life. I walked away from that telephone booth with an electrifying sense of our Heavenly Father’s concern for each of His children.
"What were the astronomical odds of this happening? With all the millions of phones and innumerable combinations of numbers, only an all-knowing God could have caused that woman to call that number in that phone booth at that moment in time. Forgetting my drink and nearly bursting with exhilaration, I headed back to my family, wondering if they would believe my story. Maybe I better not tell this, I thought, but I couldn’t contain it.
"'Barb, you won’t believe this! God knows where I am!'"
(From a sermon by David Scudder, El Roi "The Strong One who Sees" Part 2, 3/27/2011)
PRECIOUS BLOOD
Several years ago in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, George and Vera Bajenksi’s lives were changed forever. February 16, 1989. A very normal Thursday morning. The phone rang at 9:15 a.m. "There’s been an accident..." It involved their son Ben.
As they approached the intersection of Adelaide and Simcoe Streets near the high school, they could see the flashing lights of the police cars and ambulance units. Vera noticed a photographer and followed the direction of his camera lens to the largest pool of blood she had ever seen.
All she could say was, "George, Ben went home--home to be with his Heavenly Father!" Her first reaction was to jump out of the car, somehow collect the blood and put it back into her son. "That blood, for me, at that moment, became the most precious thing in the world because it was life. It was life-giving blood and it belonged in my son, my only son, the one I loved so much."
The road was dirty and the blood just didn’t belong there. George noticed that cars were driving right through the intersection--right through the blood. His heart was smitten. He wanted to cover the blood with his coat and cry, "You will not drive over the blood of my son!"
Then Vera understood for the first time in her life, one of God’s greatest and most beautiful truths...why blood? Because it was the strongest language God could have used. It was the most precious thing He could give-- the highest price H...
Evangelish Robert Sumner told the story:
When George Gibson Polley was a boy in Richmond, he hit a baseball onto the roof of a six-story building. Since with most sandlot games, it was the only ball the boys had, George promptly climbed up the outside of the building and retrieved it. This was the start of scaling buildings that eventually earned for Polley the title “Human Fly.” Before his career came to a screeching halt at the age of 29 — not from a fall, but a fatal brain tumor — George scaled the outside of more than 2,000 buildings.
He climbed the Custom House in Boston, three buildings in a single day at Hartford, and one time he made it to the thirtieth floor of the Woolworth Building in NYC (at the time the world’s tallest) before being apprehended and arrested by a policeman. It seems that he did not have a permit. Most of the time, however, everything was legal and on the up and up, with store owners hiring him for grand openings and an assortment of sales. He could earn $200 a climb — more than many men were earning in over a month during those depression days.
While I cannot say for certain now, I think it was Polley who came to my hometown on two different occasions when I was just a boy. One time it was to scale the outside of the largest department store building in the city, located at the main intersection, the Chapman-Turner Department Store. the other time was to climb a new hotel located a block away. On both occasions, I recall standing on the sidewalk across the street, open-mouthed, heart in throat, gripping tightly my father’s hand, as Polley slowly, yet confidently, climbed to the top. Since it was standard fare in his act, I assume he pretended to slip and start to fall at least a time or two during each climb, hanging by his fingertips from a ledge.
Polley’s financial success launched a number of other “human fly” careers in those bitter depression days. One of the exciting dare-devils had been announced to climb a large department store building in downtown Los Angeles. A great throng assembled to watch and the man, slowly and carefully, climbed floor after floor up the outside of the building.
When he reached a point very near the top, the crowd watched him feel above his head, both to the right and to the left, for something he could use to raise himself higher. Eventually he spotted what seemed to be a jutting brick or a piece of stone. Since it was inches beyond his reach, he ventured everything on a cat-like spring, wrapping his fingers around the object.
While the crowd below watched in horror, the human fly fell with a scream to the sidewalk and was smashed into pieces. When medical attendants pried back his fingers to see what he had clutched, they found a spider’s web! he had risked everything on what proved to be dried froth! —Robert Sumner.
"On October 28, 1987, the rear door of a Metropolitan Armored Car swung open on Interstate 71 in Columbus, Ohio. Bags of cash were dumped on the highway. `It looked like snow, it was so thick,’ said officer Bob Kinney, who was called to the intersection of Interstates 70 and 71 after motorists and pedestrians jammed traffic when they stopped to scoop up the $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. Company officials refused to say how much money was lost but sources indicated it was more than $1 million."
IN PHILADELPHIA
My father died in a Philadelphia hospital in 1999. Some weeks before his death, I was able to spend a few days with him. I stayed at the home of some friends in Washington Crossing, just a few miles north of Philadelphia, and each day I would drive into the city.
The first morning that I made the trip, I was stopped at a traffic light on Arch Street, and I was there just long enough, I suppose, to begin looking around. What I saw moved me deeply.
To my left was a cemetery, and right there, just a few feet beyond the curb, was the burial place of Benjamin Franklin, one of our nation's founding fathers. I looked to my right and a little ahead, and there were two signs. One said, 'Betsy Ross House,' and it told how many blocks it was to the home of the woman who crafted the very first American flag. The other sign said this. It said, 'Site of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1789.'
There I was, in my car, waiting at an intersection in a large and busy city. But this was an intersection like no other I had ever encountered. This was the very cradle of American history. It was enough to take my breath away. I felt like a child; I could almost reach out and touch greatness.
Our nation had its birth in Philadelphia. In fact, Independence Hall was just a few blocks away from Dr. Franklin's grave. It was on July 4, 1776 that Ben Franklin became one of the fifty-six patriots that signed the Declaration of Independence. Others in that circle were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both future presidents, and, of course, John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was the only active clergyman to sign the document.
WARNING SIGNS
At an intersection, the green light changes to yellow;
At the theater the house lights flash;
In the Battalion Tactical Operations Center a Warning Order comes down from Brigade;
At the airport terminal the boarding call comes over the intercom;
At a railroad crossing the lights begin to flash;
In a small Midwestern town the tornado siren screams;
On the football field the two minute warning sounds;
In the cargo bay of a C-140 a red-light comes on;
In the Desert of Judea, a voice of one calling in the wildernes...
Unusual Laws in Kansas
Laws are important in any society in order to keep peace and order. But there are laws and then there are laws. Here are some laws that are still on the books in our state of Kansas.
• In Derby, it is illegal to hit a vending machine that stole your money.
• In Dodge City, it is illegal to spit on the sidewalk.
• In Lawrence, it is illegal to wear a bee in your hat…and all cars entering Lawrence must sound their horn to warn the horses of their arrival.
• In Topeka, it’s illegal to sing the alphabet on the streets at night…and dead chickens cannot be hauled across Kansas Ave…and finally, in Topeka, you cannot yell at haunted houses.
• Oh…one more…In Wichita, before proceeding through the intersection of Douglas and Broadway, a motorist is required to get out of their car and fire three shotgun rounds into the air. That is if you can get to that intersection with a loaded gun in your car, now-a-days.
There are some pretty silly laws that are still on the books, and I’m sure there was a reason for each one of them at the time. I’m also sure there are lots of people breaking these laws each day in those towns…probably at this very moment…law-breakers whether they know it or not.
And usually, Christians don’t think of themselves as law-breakers, but believe it or not, followers of Christ have been and still are people who will break the law.
From a sermon by David E. Watters, Breaking the Law...For God’s Sake, 8/14/2011
GREED: ARMORED TRUCK ACCIDENT
Oakland, Calif. (AP) - People jumped out of cars in rush hour traffic, grabbing bags of money that fell out of a Brink's armored truck, and apparently got away with it.
"I saw one guy strike an old lady who was reaching for one bag," said Willie Greenwood, who was behind the truck in his car when the Brink's back door popped open and out plopped the bags.
"Another guy jumped onto my bumper and leaped into the crowd," said Greenwood. "It went on for three or four minutes. I couldn't move my car because there were so many people in the street."
Brinks' representatives wouldn't say how much money was lost in the Wednesday morning rush hour scramble at the intersection of 14th and Harrison streets. But bags of coins hit the pavement, scattering and rolling every which way and sacks of bills fell out too, according to Greenwood, 28, a stock clerk for American President Lines.
"It was crazy," he said. "All the traffic stopped. People were coming from every direction. They were grabbing money and putting it in their pockets. Old people, young people and guys in business suits."
Greenwood grabbed a plastic bag of coins wedged beneath the front tire of his car. Then he telephoned the police.
"I tried to tell them what had happened, but they kept me on hold for so long I finally hung up," Greenwood said.
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