Sermon Central
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When Charles Goodyear Was Just Twenty-Six Years ... PRO
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007 (message contributor)
When Charles Goodyear was just twenty-six years old, he had made his first fortune. He had set up the first hardware store in America that sold only domestically manufactured farm implements. Everything was going in his direction. Then suddenly, things changed. Several of his suppliers closed their doors, unable to make a profit anymore, and Goodyear’s store soon followed, and he found himself in debtor’s prison.
Many people would have given up at that point, but Charles Goodyear had a dream. It was a dream to mass-producing rubber products. The problem with rubber at this time was that no one could stabilize it. In hot weather, it became sticky and soft. In cold weather, it was brittle and hard, and easily cracked. Since he had nothing much else to do with his time, he spent his days in prison experimenting with his wife’s rolling pin, trying to find the right formula that would make rubber stable and useful.
After prison, he continued his quest, spending the next five years in looking for just the right formula. But nothing worked. Many of us, most of us perhaps, would have given up and tried to find some other way to make a living, but Goodyear kept trying. Everywhere he went, and with everything he tried, he seemed like a failure.
In 1839, he went into a general store to demonstrate a new formula, but the gathered men laughed at him. In disgust, he threw his mixture on the potbellied stove in the store. He stormed out of the store, angry and humiliated once again, but just at the...
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I Read The Autobiography Of George Carey, The ... PRO
Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Jul 15, 2004
I read the autobiography of George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon after he became a Christian he was called up to do his National Service in the Royal Air Force. He writes that the first test of his Christian discipleship was to follow the advice of his vicar which he found ...read more
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Flying A Plane Down PRO
Contributed by Christian Cheong on Jul 6, 2004
FLYING A PLANE DOWN Robert and his pilot friend Wesley went for a flying trip from Indianapolis to Muncie, Indiana, in June 1998. During the flight, his pilot had a heart attack and slumped over the controls. He was dead. The Cessna 172 single-engine plane began to nosedive and Robert grabbed ...read more
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M.blaine Smith Says About This In His Book ...
Contributed by Jeff Simms on Jun 28, 2005
M.Blaine Smith says about this in his book “Knowing God’s Will” that the “prospect of changing the will apart from prayer is about as good as ...read more
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