Are You Jesus?

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. Well, as such things go, one thing led to another. The sales manager went longer than anticipated and the meeting ran overtime.

Their flights were scheduled to leave out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and they had to race pell mell to the airport. With tickets in hand, they barged through the terminal to catch their flight back home. In their rush, with tickets and brief-cases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.  The 16 year old girl was totally blind I She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"

She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister               " He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His - loye, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would.

Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit. Let's start living like we are worth the price He paid.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Provided by Ken Fritz

 

Power Of Prayer

Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said, "I'll pray for them later?" Or has anyone ever called you and said, "I need you to pray for me, I have this need?" Read the following story that was sent to me and may it change the way that you may think about prayer and also the way you pray. You will be blessed by this one.

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan... While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, "Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards. "At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, ' No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone."

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day that this happened. The missionary told the

congregation the date and the man who interrupted told him this story: "On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and J was preparing 'to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for

you.

In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong; I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?" The men who had

met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were-he was too busy counting how many men he saw.

There were 26.

Grandma's Apron

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath.  Because she  only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along  with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the  oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot woodstove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.  After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to eat.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:  Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the windowsill to cool.  Her granddaughters set theirs on the windowsill to thaw.  They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.  I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

Almighty God

On a Saturday night several weeks ago, this pastor was working late at Almighty God Tabernacle, his church, and decided to call his wife before he left for home. It was about 10:00 PM, but his wife didn't answer the phone. The pastor let it ring many times. He thought it was odd that she didn't answer, but decided to wrap up a few things and try again in a few minutes. When he tried again she answered right away. He asked her why she hadn't answered before, and she said that it hadn't rung at their house. They brushed it off as a fluke and went on their merry ways.

The following Monday, the pastor received a call at the church office, which was the phone that he'd used that Saturday night. The man that he spoke with wanted to know why he'd called on Saturday night. The pastor couldn't figure out what the guy was talking about. Then the guy said, "It rang and rang, but I didn't answer." The pastor remembered the mishap and apologized for disturbing him, explaining that he'd intended to call his wife. The man said, "That's OK. Let me tell you my story. You see, I was planning to commit suicide on Saturday night, but before I did, I prayed, "God, if you're there, and you don't want me to do this, give me a sign now." At that point my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID, and it said, 'Almighty God'. I was afraid to answer."

The Rose And The Thorn

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it.

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom….it died.

So it is with many people.  Within every soul there is a rose.  The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults.  Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us.  We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies.  We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them.  One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

This is one of the characteristic of love.  To look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life, all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul.  Help others to realize they can overcome their faults.  If we show them the “rose” within themselves, they will conquer their thorns.  Only then will they blossom many times over.

 

Seize The Day

I have a friend who lives by a three-word philosophy: Seize the moment.  Just possibly she may be the wisest woman on this planet.  Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.  I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.  How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word "refrigeration" mean nothing to you?

 How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched Jeopardy! on television?   I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gasp and stammer, "I can't.”Check one:

"I have clothes on the line."

"My hair is dirty."

"I wish I had known yesterday."

"I had a late breakfast."

“It looks like rain."

 And my personal favorite: - "It's Monday."

She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect:

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Stevie toilet-trained.

We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.

We'll go on a second honeymoon-when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to",

"I plan on" and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my hips with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to not something on your SHOULD DO list.

 Today is called the "present” because it is a gift from God....

Barber Shop

A man went to a barber shop to have his hair and his beard cut as always.  He started to have a good conversation with the barber who attended him.  They talked about so many things and various subjects.  Suddenly, they touched the subject of God.

The barber said: “Look man, I don’t believe that God exists as you say so.”

“Why do you say that?” – asked the client.

“Well, it’s so easy; you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist.  Oh, tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people?  Would there be abandoned children?  If God existed, there would be no suffering or pain.  I can’t think of a God who permits all of these things.”

The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn’t want to respond so as to prevent an argument.  The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop.  Just after he left the barber shop he saw a man in the street with a long hair and beard (it seems that it had been a long time since he had his cut and he looked so untidy.)

“You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How come they don’t exist?” asked the Barber.  “Well I am here and I am a barber.”

“No!”  The client exclaimed. “They don’t exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and beard like that man who walks in the street.”

“Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the client.  “That’s the point, God does exist, what happens is people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him that‘s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world”