LIFE Stories

Since we are exactly 25 days before the eve of Christmas, I presume this would be an apt story to remind us that  "…It is more blessed to give than to receive”.  – Acts  20:35 . +++ It was only a few days before Christmas. The spirit of the season hadn't yet caught up with me, even though cars packed the parking lot of our local Discount store. Inside the store, it was worse. Shopping carts and last minute shoppers jammed the aisles. Hurriedly, I filled my shopping cart with last minute items and proceeded to the long checkout lines. I picked the shortest but it looked as if it would mean at least a 20 minute wait. In front of me were two small children-a boy of about 5 and a younger girl. The boy wore a ragged coat. Large, tattered tennis shoes jutted far out in front of his much too short jeans. He clutched several crumpled dollar bills in his grimy hands. The girl's clothing resembled her brother's. Her head was a matte...

With open hearts greetings for the season, "HAPPY ADVENT TO YOU" May you have the gift of faith, the blessings of hope and the peace of His love.   The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night;  but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.   -Isaiah 60:19 (RSV) Blessings to you  on the first Sunday of Advent  Hope all your days of Advent are filled with joy and cheer and remember to........ ........share it with others as well. 

With the escalating prices surely comes also the cost of all other commodities and services and we are experiencing this in the past many years. "The cost of living is going up but salaries aren’t.” This was the slogan of an Insurance advertisement. We are already feeling the pinch of this gradual inflation. In this inflation life situation, there is a possibility of spiritual danger of we becoming less charitable and less concerned about the needs of the church and the needy. +++ A little girl was given two 1 dollar coins; one to buy sweets for herself and another to put in church box. As she skipped along the street, she dropped one of the coins and it rolled into one of the water drain. Looking into the drain, this cunning and clever girl said, “Oh my God, the coin for the church box is gone down the drain.” And she took the other coin to buy sweets for herself. +++ Think about this. God judges by what we give by what we keep. In Luke  3:11  John the Baptist said, “He who h...

Do not get discouraged when you do not see the answer to your prayers.  Remember there is a war going on in the unseen world and Satan does not want you happy and complete with your needs met, but be encouraged and know that you have angels that watch over you and go to and fro bringing you the answers to your prayers. Matthew 7:7-8, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." +++ Once a man who loved to hunt, and bought two topnotch bird dogs. He kept and trained them in his large back yard. Down the street lived a vicious-looking bulldog who liked to crawl under the fence to attack the two setters. Day after day he would come, and the two setters would tear the bulldog apart, until he could take no more and slip away with his tail between his legs. But, each day, for weeks, he kept returning. And each day would go home ...

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. – Psalm 18:2. I trust you'll be blessed by this message that shows God's protection for His children. As you read this message, remember that God will guide you and protect you all the days of your life because of your trust in Him. +++ Late one evening, a missionary asked the Lord to help him stay awake as he drove through the night to speak at the next church. Just then he saw a hitchhiker walking in the rain and picked him up. As they talked, he discovered that the stranger was a believer and that they actually had many of the same friends. They laughed together, shared stories and, before they knew it, dawn was breaking and the hitchhiker was saying, "Here's where I get out." Before they parted, they had a cup of coffee together at a road side cafe and promised to pray for each other. By now the rain had stopped a...

"For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you" – Isaiah 41:13. +++ Six year old Tommy decided one  Saturday morning  to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. Tommy was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad. He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove, and he didn't know how the stove worked! Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean u...

“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.  – Romans  13:13-14 . +++ Several years ago a Christian girl told me about an incident with a young man who had been asking to date her. He was not a member of the church, and they just didn't have anything in common. She had turned him down twice and now she had said "no" to attending a rock concert with him. In a kind of mock exasperation, the young man asked, "What do you do for fun? You don't dance, you don't drink, you don't attend rock concerts; what do you do for fun?" She replied to the young man, "For fun I get up in the morning without feeling embarrassed, ashamed and guilty about what I did the night before." The young man had nothing more to say. She was right; it i...

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" – Hebrews 4:7. Do you want salvation? Do you want release from the burden of sin? Do you want the peace that passes all understanding? Do you want your sins washed away? Do you want to be a partaker of God's spiritual blessings? If so, then hear the words of Jesus: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" – Matthew 11:28-30. +++ A boy from the country was going to the city to get a job. Before he left, his mother said, "Son, I want you to promise me that you will go to church on Sunday." So he promised, and went to the city. He worked the first week, became acquainted with some of the fellows there, and made some new friends. On the weekend his new friends invited him to go horseback riding with them on ...

"He who has been forgiven little loves little.” – Luke  7:47 . +++ The story is told about a woman who once came to Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia, requesting that the man who killed her husband be put to death. The man had fallen from the top of a palm tree when he had been gathering dates and landed on this lady's husband and killed him. The king said, "It is your right to exact compensation, and it is also your right to ask for this man's life. But it is my right to decree how he shall die. You shall take this man with you and he shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree and then you shall climb to the top of the tree and cast yourself down upon him from that height. In that way you will take his life as he took your husband's. Or perhaps," Ibn Saud added, "you would prefer after all to take the blood money?" The widow took the money. +++ To fail to forgive keeps us bound to the past. It is a killer—not of the one who caused the resentme...

Jesus said, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. – Matthew  5:41 . +++ An old legend relates that long ago God had a great many burdens which He wished to have carried from one place to another on earth. So He asked the animals to lend a hand, but all of them began to make excuses for not helping: the elephant was too dignified; the lion, too proud; and so on. Finally the birds came to God and said, “If you will tie the burdens into small bundles, we’ll be glad to carry them for you. We are small but we would like to help." So God fastened upon the back of each one a small bundle, and they all set out walking across the plain to their destination. They sang as they went, and did not seem to feel the weight of their burdens at all. Every day the burdens seemed lighter and lighter, until the loads seems to be lifting the birds, instead of the birds carrying the burdens. When they arrived at their destination, they discovered that when they removed their ...

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” – Ecclesiastes 9:10. No matter whose employ we are in every one of us is working for him or herself. We delude ourselves if we think otherwise. +++ When former astronaut Frank Borman became head of Eastern Airlines, he was determined to make the service of his company the best in the industry. On one occasion he noticed an employee sitting with his feet perched on a desk ignoring the telephone which was ringing relentlessly. "Aren't you going to answer the phone," Borman asked. "This isn't my department," the employee answered without any hint of concern. "I work in maintenance." "Not anymore you don't," Borman barked. +++ It's the person who is faithful in the little things who gets entrusted with bigger and better responsibilities.  That is true in both, man's economy and God's. As Christians in the hereafter we won't be judge...

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28. +++ Once I saw a lady come sailing out of a local shopping center in a wheelchair which made me hold my breath. She was as happy and joyful as any mother I had ever seen. In this handicapped mother's lap sat her little boy. He laughed out loud as his mother did a fancy spin in her wheelchair. Round and round they went. When I neared them I asked the lady, "You seem very happy in spite of your predicament." She promptly replied, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." Spinning round and round they went by, laughing with delight as they disappeared into the crowd. +++ I realize that there are many tragic situations in this life, as we live in a world that has broken us. But for all those who have put their faith and trust in him, and accepted him as their Savior and Lord, are more than conqueror...

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6. +++ I recall one lady who complained bitterly to me, saying in a mournful tone, "I can't understand why God gave me such a terrible husband." "Who chose your husband?" I asked. "God," she said, totally convinced in her mind that He did. +++ There was nothing I could do to get this extremely unhappy woman to see that it wasn't God who chose her husband, but it was she. With people like this it's, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's made up." Or, as another saying goes, "A man/woman convinced against his/her will, is of the same opinion still." As said before, unhappy people are attracted to other unhappy people and, if they marry, they have unhappy marriages. The opposite is also true in that happy people are attracted...

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” – James 1:2. +++ Once many reporters gathered at a Chicago railway station waiting to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a big man, six-feet-four tall with bushy hair and a large mustache. Reporters were excited to see him and expressed what an honor it was meet him. Cameras were flashing, compliments were being expressed—but seeing beyond the adulation the Noble Peace Prize winner noticed an elderly Afro-American woman struggling to carry her two large suitcases. "Excuse me," he said as he went to the aid of this woman. Picking up her cases, he escorted her to a bus and then apologized to the reporters for keeping them waiting. The man was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary-doctor who had invested his life helping poor and sick people in Africa. A member of the reception committee remarked to one of the reporters, "That's the first time I ever saw a sermon walkin...

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we [Christians] who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. – Romans 12:4-6 . In God's kingdom there is a place for everyone. There are no exceptions to this rule. Thus it is important that everyone is in his or her place if God's work on earth is going to be done harmoniously. +++ Sir Michael Costa, the celebrated conductor, was holding a rehearsal. As the mighty chorus rang out, accompanied by scores of instruments, the musician playing the piccolo (a little pint-sized flute) thinking perhaps that his contribution would not be missed amid so much music, stopped playing. Suddenly, the great leader stopped and cried out, "Where is the piccolo?" The sound of that one small instrument was essential to the harmony, and the conductor missed it when it ...

A priest traveling on a train in Europe was the sole occupant of a compartment, except for a young man reading a newspaper. The youth was also a Christian, but so weak was his faith, and so many were his temptations , that he told the priest he did not think he would be able to stand life a week longer. The priest took from his pocket a Bible and a penknife and said, "See, I will make this penknife stand up on the cover of this Bible, in spite of the rocking of the train." The young man, thinking that this was some conjuring trick, watched the proceeding with interest, saying, "I am afraid that it will not be very easy to do that , sir." "But," said the priest, "I am doing it." "Oh, but you are holding it," retorted his fellow passenger. "Why of course. Did you ever hear of a penknife standing up on its end without being held up?" "I see," was the young man's comment. "I see you mean...

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ” – Matthew 5:9. +++ Before slavery was abolished, slave markets were very common in the developed countries. Here, poor and helpless people were exhibited in the public and sold for a price like animals or vegetables. A rich man bought a young slave from the market to work in his farm. The slave was a Christian and obeyed his master's orders with love and respect. Impressed by his innocence and dedication, the landowner asked him to accompany him during his next visit to the slave market to buy more slaves for his new farms. Reaching the slave market, they saw a large number of slaves displayed for sale. The owner sought the opinion of the slave in selecting suitable slaves. The slave pointed at an old and frail man and pleaded to purchase him. The rich man was reluctant  as the man was old and weak, but the young slave insisted. Finally the old man was bought and brought to the farm. The you...