Seeds 4 I am no longer anxious about anything . . . for He, I know, is able to carry out His will and His will is mine. It makes no matter where he places me or how. that is rather for Him to consider than for me. For the easiest positions he must give me grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient. So if God place me in great perplexity, must he not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? . . . His resources are mine, for He is mine." ~ Hudson Taylor Lessons From Teardrops Two little teardrops were floating down the river of life. One said to the other, "Who are you?" It replied, "I am a teardrop from a girl who loved a man and lost him. Who are you?" The first responded, "Well, I am a teardrop from the girl who got him! How Close? A nobleman wished to engage a man to drive his coach and horses. When the applicants arrived, he asked each one the same question, "How near can you drive to the edge of a cliff without going over?" The first applicant's answer was a few feet. The next applicant's answer was a few inches. But then came a man who replied, "My lord, I keep as far away from the edge of a cliff as I can." he was appointed. The Shoemaker's Dream One night a cobbler dreamed that the next day Jesus was coming to visit him. The dream seemed so real that he got up very early the next morning and hurried to the woods, where he gathered green boughs to decorate his shop for the arrival of so great a Guest. He waited all morning, but to his disappointment, his shop remained quiet, except for an old man who limped up to the door asking to come in for a few minutes of warmth, while the man was resting, the cobbler took a new pair of shoes from his shelf and saw to it that the stranger was wearing them as he went on his way. Throughout the afternoon the cobbler waited, but his only visitor was an elderly woman. He had seen her struggling under a heavy load of firewood, and he invited her, too, into his shop to rest. Then he discovered that for two days she had nothing to eat; he saw to it that she had a nourishing meal before she went on her way. As night began to fall, the cobbler heard a child crying outside his door. The child was lost and afraid. The cobbler went out, soothed the youngster's tears and , with the little hand in his, took the child home. When he returned, the cobbler was sad. He was convinced that while he had been away he had missed the visit of his Lord. Now he lived through the moments as he had imagined them: the knock, the latch lifted, the radiant face, the offered cup. He would have kissed the hands where the nails had been, washed the feet where the spikes had entered; then the Lord would have sat and talked to him. In his anguish, the cobbler cried out, "Why is it, Lord, that Your feet delay? Have You forgotten that this was the day?" Then soft in the silence a voice he heard: "Lift up your heart, for I have kept My word. Three times I came to your friendly door; Three times My shadow was on your floor. I was the man with the bruised feet; I was the woman you gave to eat. I was the child on the homeless street." ~ Leo Tolstoy Once, when a great fire broke out at midnight, and people thought that all the inmates had been taken out, way up there in the fifth story was seen a little child crying for help. Up went a ladder, and soon a fireman was seen ascending to the spot. As he neared the second story the flames burst in fury from the windows, and the multitude almost despaired of the rescue of the child. The brave man faltered, and a comrade at the bottom cried out, "Cheer," and cheer upon cheer arose from the crowd. Up the ladder he went and saved the child because they cheered him. If you cannot go into the heat of the battle yourself, if you cannot go into the harvest field and work day after day, you can cheer those that are working for the Master. ~ Moody Selected Rules of Archbishop Benson *Not to murmur at the multitude of business or shortness of time. *Not to magnify undertaken duties by seeming to suffer under them, but to treat all as liberalities and gladness. *Not to call attention to trivial experiences. *Before censuring anyone, obtain from God a real love for him. Be sure that you know and allow for all the allowances that can be made for him. *Not to seek praise, gratitude, respect or regard from superiors or equals of age or past service. *Not to feel uneasiness when your advice or opinion is not asked, or is set aside. *Never let yourself be placed in favorable contrast with another. *Not to hunger for conversation to turn on yourself. *To bare the blame rather than share or transmit it. The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin Worry means there is something over which we cannot have our own way, and in reality, is personal irritation with God...Never let anything push you to your wits' end, because you will get worried, and worry makes you self interested and disturbs the nourishment of the life of God...? ~Chambers The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman; He purposeth a crop." ~Samuel Rutherford The will of God will never call you where the grace of God cannot keep you. Acres of Diamonds Once there lived an ancient Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. He owned a very large farm. He had orchards, grain-fields, and gardens; he had money at interest and was a wealthy and contented man. He was contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented. One day there visited the old Persian farmer one of those ancient Buddhist priests, one of the wise men of the East. he sat down by the fire and told the farmer...that if he had one diamond the size of his thumb, he could purchase the country, and if he had a mine of diamonds, he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth. Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, "I want a mine of diamonds," and he lay awake all night. Early in the morning... he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in the charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds...At last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that pay at Barcelona, in Spain, when a great tidal wave came rolling in between the pillars of Hercules, and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again. The man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm one day led his camel into the garden to drink, and as that camel put its nose into the shallow water of that garden brook, Ali Hafed's successor noticed a curious flash of light from the white sands of the stream. he pulled out a black stone having an eye of light reflecting all the hues of the rainbow. He took the pebble into the house and put it on the mantel which covers the central fires, and forgot all about it. A few days later, this same old priest came in to visit Ali Hafed's successor, and the moment he opened that drawing-room door, he saw that flash of light on the mantel and he rushed up to it and shouted; "Here is a diamond; Has Ali Hafed returned?" "Oh, no, Ali Hafed has not returned, and that is not a diamond, That is nothing but a stone we found right out here in our own garden. "But," said the priest, "I tell you I know a diamond when I see it..." Then together they rushed out into that old garden and stirred up the white sands with their fingers, and lo! there came up other more beautiful and valuable gems than the first. Thus was discovered the diamond mine of Golianda, the most magnificent diamond mine in all the history of mankind, excelling the Kimberly itself. The Kohinoor, and the Orlotf of the crown jewels of England and Russia, the largest on earth, came from that mine. Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own cellar, or underneath his own garden, instead of wretchedness, starvation, and death by suicide in a strange land, he would have had "acres of diamonds." ~From the book Acres of Diamonds If you reach the place where you can't learn from every man you meet, then you are over the hill." Error hidden has tremendous power. Error brought to the light and confessed loses all of its power." The secret of Christian quietness is not indifference, but the knowledge that God is my Father - He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, and worry becomes an impossibility. ~Chambers Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. ~Psalm 119:165 |
