In God We Trust

             In Great Britain during the Nazi bombing of London, the King of England issued an order that the children of London would be taken to the countryside so that they could escape the dangers of the war. Authorities literally sent trainload after trainload of children into the country.

            The story is told that on one of these trains there was a brother and a sister. They had no more than left the station when she began to cry; she had no idea where they were going.

            Her brother put his arm around her and, with a tear in his eye, said, "I don't know where we're going either, but the King knows so don't worry."

            We need some childlike faith like that. History is like a meandering river, twisting and turning. I don’t know where history is going, but I believe that the King knows. And I praise Him for it.

           

Judging by Appearances

            A favorite story of mine is the one about a juggler who is driving to his next performance and is stopped by the police. "What are those machetes doing in your car?" asks the cop.

            "I juggle them in my act."

            "Oh, yeah?" says the doubtful cop. "Let's see you do it." The juggler gets out and starts tossing and catching the knives. Another man driving by slows down to watch.

            "Wow," says the passer-by. "I'm glad I quit drinking. Look at the test they're giving now!"

            In the gospel of John, a number of people judge Jesus by his appearance and earthly pedigree. Jesus tells them, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24 ESV). In spite of his warning, the majority of the people do judge him by appearances. They never recover from their mistake.

Walking

            Where is your heart? What is your passion? What is your priority in life? What do you naturally think about—without thinking?

            Rick Atchley told the story of the late Pat Kelly, formerly a major league baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles who later became an evangelist. While playing for Baltimore, Kelly’s manger was the fiery Earl Weaver.  

            Kelly dropped by Weaver’s office one day and said, "Earl, it sure is good to walk with Jesus."

            Without even looking up, Earl Weaver said, "Well, that's nice. But what I really wish is that you would learn to walk with the bases loaded."

            Those two had hearts in different places. Those two were walking on different paths.

Field of Dreams

           An expectation in the beautiful motion picture, FIELD OF DREAMS, was that people would come to the baseball diamond that Ray had built in his cornfield. The movie touchingly ends with a line of cars, stretching for miles, containing people coming to the diamond in the cornfield.

            A few years after the movie was released, I read something neat in the NEW YORK TIMES. On the baseball diamond where they filmed FIELD OF DREAMS, which was built in a real cornfield on a real farm in Iowa, people were coming to play baseball. They would come from morning till night. Strangers were getting together and playing baseball, just like kids.

            Someone built it, and they really did come.

            Does this not show us that there really is a hidden desire, a deep need within each of us, for relationships? There is a spark within us that desires to transcend the day-to-day struggle for success and possessions; it takes us back to our roots and to those values that go beyond time and space. It is the desire for community.

            I think the Church should be a place where that kind of community can be found.

Your Sin Will Find You Out

A sermon illustration site on the Internet told about a group of high school students at Renaissance High School in Detroit. Some young people decided to play hooky in order to go to an afternoon rock concert downtown.

Let’s hope they enjoyed it because the next day, the DETROIT NEWS printed on its front page a photograph taken at the concert. Guess who was in the photo? Those students.

Assistant principle, Dr. Elijah Porter, was a faithful reader of the newspaper. He made good use of that which he learned that morning.

No Community

            Several years ago, a courier sent the following to READER’S DIGEST:

As a courier for an express delivery service, I tried to deliver a package that required refrigeration, but found no one home. I went to the house next door and told the woman who answered that I had a package for her neighbor. 

"Oh, she works Monday through Friday and every other Saturday," said the woman, "and some Sundays. She leaves about 7:40 in the morning and gets home around 5:30, unless she goes to the store, in which case it's closer to seven. And she's going to the store tonight because her kids are coming to visit—one all the way from California!"

            When she paused to take a breath, I asked if she would accept her neighbor's package. "Oh, no, I can't do that," she said. "I don't know her that well."

            Some people don’t want to experience community; they want to keep others at arms length. God calls for people to live in community.

Beauty

I am glad we serve a God who values inner beauty over outer beauty. I can relate to a woman who told about her experiences at a beauty salon.

She was in need of a beauty make-over, and told her story like this:

I went to my salon with a fashion magazine photo of a gorgeous, young, lustrous-haired model. I showed the stylist the trendy new cut I wanted and settled into the chair as he began humming a catchy tune and got to work on my thin, graying hair.

I was delighted by his cheerful attitude until I recognized the melody. It was the theme from "Mission: Impossible."

Can you relate?