Prior Date

Archive Index

Next Date

WITandWISDOM(tm) - October 17, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Dogs are a link to paradise . . . to sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace. – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable lightness of Being Source: Guideposts, Copyright (c) November 2005, http://www.guideposts.org ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Did you ever hear of the prayer meeting that shook America? Find a U.S. history book and read about the Fulton Street prayer meeting on September 23, 1857, started by Mr. Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier, a simple merchant in New York. Times were as difficult then as they are right now in America. People were disheartened by depression, unemployment, crime, bankruptcy, and empty church pews. Mr. Lanphier had a great burden for prayer and asked for a noon prayer meeting once a week in his church. The consistory let him do it. They hadn’t much else left to do but to close the doors like other churches had done for lack of membership. On that September day Mr. Lanphier took his place at noon in an empty church. For half an hour he prayed alone, but when the meeting closed at one o’clock, there were six men who had joined him in prayer. Out of that humble meeting came the Spirit wind of a great revival that shook America. It happened so fast that only six months later people prayed everywhere—the churches couldn’t hold them anymore, and in Philadelphia the biggest tent was put up to provide a place for as many as 150,000 praying people who gathered to change America. History tells us that a million people were converted, the churches filled up again, and crime rates went down. God hasn’t changed—we have. It is time to do first things first again. And the first and most important thing is consistent, fervent prayer. Source: These Times, Copyright (c) 1978, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Three teenage thugs ended up in hospital after trying to steal a junior kick-boxing and karate champ's mobile phone. The trio, all aged 17, cornered Pauli Borchardt, also 17, as he made his way home from a friend's house in Hamburg, Germany. After refusing to hand over his mobile phone, which he was using at the time to call his brother, the trio tried to take it by force. But the amateur kick-boxing and karate champ floored all three of them before making it to his home on the same street. One of the thugs was kept in hospital after a passer-by spotted them on the ground and called an ambulance. The other two were released after being treated for cuts and bruises. Police, who initially went to arrest Borchardt after the trio told them a gang of lads led by the 17-year-old had attacked them with baseball bats, were soon put straight and are now investigating the three on suspicion of attempted robbery. Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "I was coming back from Canada, driving through Customs, and the guy asked, "Do you have any firearms with you?" I said, "What do you need?" - Steven Wright Submitted by Bruce ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: My husband, Lawrence, had offered to give the toast at the wedding of his longtime friend Theo. They had shared many happy, and foolish, incidents, and as the day approached, there was much speculation as to which events Lawrence was going to reveal. At the reception when Lawrence rose to speak, the groom looked terrified. "I don't have to tell you anything embarrassing about Theo," Lawrence began, "because for the last three months, he's been so worried about what I might say that he's already confessed everything he could think of to his bride." Submitted by Lorraine