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WITandWISDOM(tm) - August 14, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: I have no particular talent; I am merely extremely inquisitive. - Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Physicist Source: The Funnies, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andychaps_the- funnies ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Maria was a baroness. Her husband's name was a household word across the U. S. She was on a first-name basis with one of the U. S. senators from our state. She was very wealthy. And she was a member of my church. I was intrigued. I knew there had to be a story. What clever methods had been used to reach her? What brilliant new approach had managed to reach someone in her social class? Turns out it wasn't TV or radio or a stunning multi-media production prepared by a professional evangelist. The method that reached Maria is at least as old as Naaman and Elisha. Maria met Jesus and became a Christian through the witness of her maid. Maria's children had been kidnaped. For months she didn't know where they were. And during that time of turmoil her maid taught Maria to pray. Later, she invited Maria to church. There is a place for technology and organization. There's a place for creativity in witnessing. But let's not over-complicate things. The most powerful form of witnessing is still the simplest: telling someone else what Jesus has done. Most of us experience constant pressure to complicate the life of churches. More programs, more gadgets, more projects, more responsibilities, more. We're seduced into thinking that more is better. But maybe we'd be more effective if we did fewer things, if we ran a little slower, if we simplified. Remember Maria's maid. By John McLarty, Pastor of the North Hill Christian Fellowship, Federal Way, WA., USA. Submitted by Nancy Simpson ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: SLEEPING THROUGH THE SERMON By William Webber I was pastor of a small church in a rural community. Wilbur and his wife, Leah, attended every Sunday morning. Wilbur was a farmer, and whenever he came into the house from the field and sat down, he would fall asleep. It was such a habit that when he came into church and sat in the pew he would also soon fall asleep. I discovered that some of the members of the church were taking bets to see how long I could keep Wilbur awake on Sunday mornings. Wilbur's wife was embarrassed by his behavior, especially when he began to snore. She tried everything to keep her sleepy spouse awake. She complained to him that she was getting calluses on her elbow from poking him in the ribs in a futile attempt to keep him alert. One day while shopping in the grocery store, she saw a small bottle of Limburger cheese. Leah bought it and dropped it in her purse. The next Sunday morning I had just started the sermon when Wilbur began to nod. When I finished the first point in my three-point sermon, I could see I was losing him. As I started the third point, Wilbur began to snore. Quietly, Leah opened her purse, took out the bottle of Limburger cheese and held it under her husband's nose. It worked. Wilbur sat up straight and, in a voice that could be heard all over the church, said, "Leah, will you please keep your feet on your own side of the bed!" From: Chicken Soup for the Soul Daily E-mail, http://www.chickensoup.com/Email.html Source: Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart & Rekindle the Spirit, By Aubery, Patty; Canfield, Jack; Hansen, Mark Victor, Published by Health Communications, Incorporated, Copyright (c) March 2000, All rights reserved, ISBN: 1558747141, http://isbn.nu/1558747141/price Submitted by John L. Bechtel ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: I had the toughest time of my life. First, I got angina pectoris and then arteriosclerosis. Just as I was recovering from these, I got tuberculosis, double pneumonia and phthisis. Then they gave me hypodermics. Appendicitis was followed by tonsillectomy. These gave way to aphasia and hypertrophic cirrhosis. I completely lost my memory for a while. I know I had diabetes and acute ingestion, besides gastritis, rheumatism, lumbago and neuritis. I don't know how I pulled through it. It was the hardest spelling test I've ever had. Source: Good, Clean Funnies, http://www.slonet.org/~tellswor ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Where does the Sun change direction in the sky? From a certain location on the surface of the planet Mercury, the Sun comes to a stop as it moves across the sky, reverses direction, stops, and then reverses direction again. The Sun's odd, apparent path from Mercury's surface is a result of the planet's unusual rotation. It's the only orbiting body in the solar system whose rotation is locked into a resonance that is not one rotation per orbit. Every time Mercury makes two orbits around the Sun, it rotates exactly three times. Since its orbit is far from circular, it moves more quickly in its orbit when it is closest to the Sun. The net result of these two factors is the Sun's strange path when viewed from the point that is directly below the Sun when Mercury is closest to the Sun. More about Mercury: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/mercury.html Source: Cool Fact of the Day, http://features.learningkingdom.com/fact/ |