Stories to inspire

[FineLinen]

31 Jars of Kindness

Bobbie Gollehon is a returning student at Bakersfield College. Having enrolled in a summer speech class, she was required to give a 10-minute speech as her final exam. Bobbie chose "Random Acts of Kindness" as her topic.

As chance would have it, one of Bobbie’s classmates, Cady, lives next door to Dr. Chuck Wall, President and Founder of Kindness Incorporated. Cady told Bobbie about her neighbor and then asked Dr. Wall to call Bobbie, who wanted to meet him and use information about the Kindness organization as part of her speech. After an extended phone conversation, Bobbie had the material she needed. Her speech was a tremendous success, earning Bobbie an "A" for the class.

But Bobbie didn’t stop there. She loves to can fruit into jam, which she gives to friends and family. Following her contact with Dr. Wall and Kindness Inc., the busy student made up 31 jars of jam—one for each person in her class.

Atop each jar, Bobbie affixed a label printed with the Kindness phrase: Today, I will commit one random act of senseless KINDNESS… Will you? As she handed out the jars of jam, Bobbie asked each class member to pass on her act of kindness. “When you’ve eaten all the jam, I’d like you to wash the jar, fill it with something tasty and pass it along to someone else. Please include this same kindness phrase when you pass it on, and ask your recipients to continue the process of passing it on.”


https://www.kindnessusa.org/storieso...s.htm#90499874

 

[FineLinen]

What Goes Around, Comes Around

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer.

One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.

At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved him?

Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.

His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.


KINDNESS

 

[FineLinen]

Trust

A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge.

The father was fearful so he asked his little daughter,

‘Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river.’

The little girl said, ‘No, Dad. You hold my hand.’

‘What’s the difference?’ Asked the puzzled father.

‘There’s a big difference,’ replied the little girl.

‘If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.’

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.

So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours. Because holding hands is not only about taking care, its also about trust and love you have for that person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpK6...t_radio=1&t=79

 

[FineLinen]

Christopher Yaun (The book Out of a Far Country by Christopher and Angela Yuan.)

“God’s faithfulness is proved not by the elimination of hardships but by carrying us through them.” — Christopher Yuan

When “good student and obedient son” Christopher Yuan turned his back on his family and embraced drugs, homosexuality, promiscuity, and rebellion, his mother Angela (who was struggling through a failing marriage) decided to kill herself.

But a priest gave her a pamphlet describing God’s love — something Angela had never heard before. Something that changed her life completely.

So began the arduous, years-long journey of one determined mother who prayed and trusted God to save her drug-hardened, cold-hearted son, even while Christopher ran further and further into sex, drugs, and illegal activities.

This book is written by mother and son, alternating between Christopher and Angela’s perspective. Today, the family travels around the world telling their story and encouraging others in similar straits — but it is a hard-won victory, one you can read for yourself in this gripping duo-biography.

What I learned: Never give up on those you love — keep praying. Even if it takes many years, there is hope, and the final result may be more beautiful than you ever dreamed.

 

[FineLinen]

The Empty Chair

Inspiring Christian Story about Prayer,Empty Chair

 

[FineLinen]

Rosaria Butterfield

(The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert)

I learned the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin.

How much greater?

About the size of a mustard seed…Repentance is an intimate affair. And for many of us, intimacy with anything is a terrifying prospect.

Rosaria’s story is unusual in that it is one of the few in which a “prodigal” had “everything to lose and nothing to gain” by turning to God. Yet she did it anyway.

Indeed, the first few months (perhaps years) after Rosaria chose to believe and trust in God, she lost everything — her job, her friends, her students and colleagues’ respect, her partner, and her (old, comfortable) life.

Rosaria was an English professor at a small liberal arts college, who hated the way Christians spoke against her beliefs and community. But when she wrote a scathing criticism of one of the local Christian gatherings, to her surprise, she received a thoughtful and kind reply from a pastor who invited her to call him. Curious, she did so.

Eventually, through her interaction with the humble pastor and his wife, and her study of the Bible, Rosaria came to the conviction that God was real and worth believing.

What I learned:

Hospitality and respect for those who believe differently than you do are powerful forces for change. The Bible can speak even to people who are antagonistic to it — as long as they are willing to study it with an open mind. And: God is worth the sacrifice.

 

[FineLinen]

Louis Zamperini

In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away.

That morning, he believed, he was a new creation. Softly, he wept.

Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner and talented mischief-maker whose incredible survival story (30+ days floating in the open ocean after his plane crashed into the sea; then a year in a brutal Japanese POW camp being tormented by a sadistic guard) became a best-selling book, then a movie directed by Angelina Jolie.

But the movie only tells the first half of Louis’s story.

Despite his amazing endurance, and the hero’s welcome he received after returning home, Louis Zamperini struggled hard with the demons of PTSD and revenge. His marriage began falling apart and he nearly hurt his baby daughter and strangled his wife Cynthia.

Then Louis heard the message of the gospel, and turned into an entirely different person…

I once had the privilege of hearing Louis Zamperini speak, before his death. He was humorous, kind, and inspirational. It was hard to believe that he had once gone through such horrible experiences, and that they had twisted him into a hate-filled, bitter man for a period of time. He was so cheerful and sweet!

It was also hard to hear him (the crowd was large and he was an old man at that point). But it was such a privilege and joy to see him in person, even from a distance

What I learned:

Bitterness and vengefulness is vain — it destroys us from the inside out, and hurts those we love as well. Forgiveness is freedom. But forgiveness is not something we can (or want to) muster up on our own. It comes from God.

 

[FineLinen]

Chad Williams

“I had reached my mountaintop, only…the view disappointed me. And there was no higher step to take…Why did I feel so disappointed?” — Chad Williams

After his mentor Scott Helvenston was brutally killed in Iraq, and his death televised, the young Chad Williams vowed to become a navy seal and avenge Scott’s death.

Williams was one of the very few who managed to actually complete SEAL training on his first try.

But Chad found that his victory was strangely empty. He began to party heavily with friends, and lost control of himself, so much so that he frightened his own parents…until he found out about God and His plans for him, and did a total 180 with his life.

SEAL of God is the story of how Chad Williams came to find a mission even more meaningful than the initial dreams of revenge that drove him through the harshest military training for only the most elite soldiers.

What I learned:

Even the greatest worldly accomplishment is empty when you are empty.

 

[FineLinen]

Ashley Smith

“Even though I was fighting the drugs, I still woke up every morning and read a chapter in my Bible…If nothing else good happened in my life, at least I was going to hear God every day.” — Ashley Smith

In 2005, widowed single mother Ashley Smith was in the middle of moving when she was apprehended by an escaped murderer and held hostage in her apartment for seven hours.

Ashley, herself a drug addict who had lost custody of her daughter, had been reading the Bible and The Purpose Driven Life…and when Brian Nichols captured her, she spoke to him and read to him from the book, resulting in Nichols eventually releasing her to go to her daughter.

Nichols later peacefully allowed himself to be re-arrested.

During that process, Ashley Smith broke free of her own drug addiction and not long after, regained custody of her daughter.

Ashley’s story was eventually made into a movie.

What I learned =

Even people who behave (very) badly are not beyond hope (including ourselves).

We too often cut ourselves off from God’s help because of shame or self-reliance, when He really does want to help, if we let Him.

But we have to take responsibility for our choices as well.

 

[FineLinen]

In the next 10 to 20 years:

1 — Auto repair shops will disappear...



2 — A gas/diesel engine has 20,000 individual parts... An electrical motor has 20... Electric cars are sold with lifetime guarantees and are repaired only by dealers... It takes only 10 minutes to remove and replace an electric motor...



3 — Faulty electric motors are NOT repaired in the dealership but are sent to a regional repair shop that repairs them with ROBOTS...



4 — Your electric motor malfunction light goes on ... so you drive up to what looks like a car wash, and your car is towed through while you have a cup of coffee... Then your car comes out on the other side with a new electric motor or component...



5 — Gas stations will go away...



6 — Street corners will have meters that dispense electricity... Companies will install electrical recharging stations ... in fact, they've already started in the developed world...



7 — Smart major auto manufacturers have already designated money to start building new plants that build ONLY electric cars...



8 — The "Coal Industries" will go away... Gasoline/oil companies will go away... Drilling for oil will stop... So say goodbye to OPEC... The Middle East is in trouble...



9 — Homes will produce and store more electrical energy during the day than they use... It will be sold back to "The Grid"... The Grid will store and dispense it, to the industries that are high electricity users. Has anybody seen the Tesla roof??



10 — A baby of today will only see "personal cars" in museums. The FUTURE is approaching faster than most of us can even handle...



11 — In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide... Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt... Who would have thought of that ever happening??



12 — What happened to Kodak and Polaroid will happen in a lot of industries in the next 5–10 years ... and most people don't even see it coming...



13 — Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later, you would never take pictures on film again? With today's smartphones, who even has a camera these days??



14 — Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975... The first ones only had 10,000 pixels but followed Moore's law... As with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment in the beginning ... before it became superior and mainstream in only a few short years...



15 — It will now happen again (but much faster) with Artificial Intelligence (AI), health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs...



16 — Forget the book, "Future Shock," welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution...



17 — Software has disrupted and will continue to disrupt most traditional industries ... (in the next 5 to 10 years...



18 — UBER is just a software tool (they don't own any cars), and are now the biggest taxi company in the world... (Ask any taxi driver if they saw that coming... )



19 — AIR-BnB is now the biggest hotel company in the world ... (they don't own any properties)... Ask Hilton Hotels or the Marriott if they saw that coming...



20 — Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world... This year, a computer beat the best Go-player in the world ... (10 years earlier than expected)...



21 — In the USA, young lawyers already don't get jobs (because of IBM's WATSON) ... you can get legal advice within a few seconds so far the basic stuff ... with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans... So, if you're studying law, STOP IMMEDIATELY... There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future, what a thought and only omniscient specialists will remain...



22 — WATSON already helps nurses diagnosing cancer ... it's 4 times more accurate and many times faster than human nurses...



23 — Facebook now has a 'face recognition' software that can recognize faces better than humans... In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans...



24 — Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars were already here... In the next few years, the entire auto industry will start to be disrupted... You won't want to own a car any more as you will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination...



25 — You will not need to park it, you will pay only for the 'driven distance' and you can be productive while driving. The very young children of today will never get a driver's licence and they will never own a car...



26 — This will change our cities because we will need 90% to 95% fewer cars... We can transform former parking spaces into green city parks...



27 — About 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents (worldwide). That includes distracted or drunk drivers... We currently have one accident every 60,000 miles driven... However with autonomous driving that will drop to 1 accident in about 6 million miles... That will save a million plus lives, worldwide each year...



28 — Most traditional car companies will doubtless become bankrupt... They will try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car ... while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels...



29 — Look at what Volvo is doing right now ... no more internal combustion engines in their vehicles starting this year with the 2020 models... They are using all-electric or hybrid only (with the intent of phasing out hybrid models in the not too distant future)...



30 — Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla... Look at all the companies offering all-electric vehicles... That was unheard of, only a few years ago...



31 — Insurance companies will have massive trouble too ... because, without accidents, the costs of insurance will become cheaper... Their car insurance business model will disappear...



32 — Real estate will change... Because if you can work while you commute, or you can work from your home ... people will abandon their towers to move far away to more beautiful and affordable properties.



33 — Electric cars will become mainstream by about 2030... Cities will be less noisy because all new cars will run ONLY on electricity...



34 — Cities will have much cleaner air...



35 — Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean, eventually free...



36 — Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years ... but you can now see the burgeoning impact ... and it's just starting to get ramped up...



37 — Fossil energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid ... to prevent competition from home solar installations ... but that simply cannot continue... Technology will take care of that strategy in the not too distant future...



38 — Health: The Tricorder X price will be announced this year... There are companies who will build a medical device called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, a sample of your blood, then you breathe into it... It then analyzes 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease... There are dozens of phone apps out there right now for health...


WELCOME TO TOMORROW

To think, I used to complain about my parents and grandparents being "out of it." Now it just might be you and me that's "out of it."

 

[FineLinen]

Explain God.

"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers."

"God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off."

"God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have."

"Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church."

"Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K."

"His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important."

"You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time."

"You should always go to Church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway."

"If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.

"But you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases.

And that's why I believe in God."

-Danny Dutton age 8 third grade homework assignment-

 

[FineLinen]

Nabeel Qureshi (Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus)

“All suffering is worth it to follow Jesus. He is that amazing.” — Nabeel Qureshi

Nabeel was not a prodigal in any outward way. The son of loving devout Muslim parents, Nabeel Qureshi was clean-cut, well-educated, kind, respectful, and quite happy with his life.

But then Nabeel met David Wood, a staunch Christian who had once spent time in jail for attempting to kill his father, and who came to know the love of God through the challenge of a fellow inmate.

For six years, best friends and debate partners David and Nabeel argued back and forth, challenging each other and digging deep to figure out whose beliefs were actually true.

Nabeel, like Rosaria Butterfield had everything to lose and seemingly nothing to gain for rejecting his Muslim roots and turning to Christ. But in the end, he chose to follow where he saw the evidence leading him.


What I learned:

The most powerful friendships are those without ulterior motives. In other words, don’t befriend someone to “convert” them — everyone can tell. But true friendship also means trusting each other enough to wrestle with uncomfortable topics rather than smooth them over and pretend they don’t exist. And, as with Rosaria Butterfield’s story: God is worth the sacrifice.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ne...esus-rzim.html

 

[FineLinen]

Sylvia’s mother suffered a stroke.

Over the next several weeks, Sylvia moved her mom from the hospital to a rehabilitation center and then to a retirement center.

Sylvia sold her mother’s condominium, completely setting up a new apartment at the retirement home. She spent hours cleaning, boxing, and moving her mother’s things from the condo, while simultaneously preparing a second household. She was exhausted, but every one of her actions was an expression of
love for her mom.

Shortly after the move, Sylvia’s mother began finding fault with her daughter. Every decision, every sacrifice, came up short in the older woman’s eyes. Sylvia began to break down. God spoke to Sylvia, though, urging her not to be bitter. The unfair criticism of her mother propelled Sylvia to a deeper walk with the Lord, what author Gigi Graham Tchividjian calls “triumphant suffering.”

Sylvia continued to love and serve her mother until the older woman’s last day on earth. Even though the circumstances were trying, Sylvia remembered that her Savior, out of love, had also suffered for her. That sacrifice inspired Sylvia to persist in her own triumphant suffering.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"In this world you shall have tribulation"....

BUT

"Fear not I have overcome the world!"

 

[FineLinen]

The Weight of the Glass

Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students.

As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical “glass half empty or glass half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.”

The moral =

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down.

 

[FineLinen]

The Father Who Lost 2 Sons

This is about what’s normally called The Parable of the Prodigal Son. That’s only one of the two sons in the parable, the younger boy. The older boy is the one—the other son—who is lost. And the point about changing the name of the parable is that the parables are almost always misnamed.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep is not about the lost sheep. All the sheep ever did was get lost. The parable is about the passion of the shepherd who lost the sheep to find the sheep. His passion to find is what drives the parable; and consequently it isn’t the Prodigal’s lostness, wasting all his money on wine, women and song in the far country; and it isn’t the elder brother’s grousing and complaining and score keeping that stands against him. What counts in the parable is the father’s unceasing desire to find the sons he lost—both of them—and to raise both of them up from the dead.

The story, of course, you know. The story begins with the father having two sons and the youngest son comes to the father and says, “Father, divide the inheritance between me and my brother.” What he’s in effect saying is, “Dear Dad, drop dead now, legally. Put your will into effect and just retire out of the whole business of being anything to anybody and let us have what is coming to us.” So the youngest son gets the money and the older brother gets the farm. And off the younger brother goes. What he does, of course, is he spends it all—blows it all—on wild living. When he finally is in want and working, slopping hogs for a farmer and wishing that he could eat what he’s feeding the pigs, he can’t stand it. When he finally comes to himself he says, “You know, I’ve got to do something. How many hired servants of my father’s are there who have bread enough to spare and I’m perishing here with hunger? I know what I’m going to do.”

The Father Who Lost Two Sons

 

[FineLinen]

Dance Like No One's Watching -Crystal Boyd-

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we're frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We'll certainly be happy when they're out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?

Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D. Souza. He said, "For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with...and remember that time waits for no one. So, stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you're off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you die, until you're born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

 

[FineLinen]

The empty chair

"No. I was not expecting you," said Bob. "Who are you?".

"I'm the new minister at your church," he replied. "When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?"

Puzzled, Pastor James shut the door.

"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, 'Bob, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.'

'Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I'll be with you always.' Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you're doing with me right now.'

So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

James was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with Bob, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon.

"Did he die in peace?" he asked.

"Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death.

Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?

Pastor James wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we all could go like that."

 

[FineLinen]

William Cowper

There is a magnificent hymn born out of distress, "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants the footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm."

The background of the hymn =

His life was in shambles. He was not a Christian. He was filled with despair and discouragement. In fact, so overcome with despair was he that he determined to take his life by taking poison.

Instead of dying, he became deathly ill.

He bought a gun and tried to shoot himself, but the gun would not go off.

In great anger, he threw the gun away, got a rope and tried to hang himself.

The rope broke.

Then, in utter desperation, he hired a carriage in London and instructed the driver to take him to the Thames River.

The driver could not find the Thames River! The fog had settled in so thickly on the town that even a London cabdriver got lost!

After several hours he brought Cowper back to his apartment. He went up to his room, totally dismayed, and his eyes fell upon a Bible. He opened that Bible and began to read. He read of the love of a heavenly Father who loved even William Cowper.

Astonished by the events that had just taken place, he read of the sovereign providence of God working all things after the counsel of His own will.

He embraced Him as his Saviour and wrote the wonderful words of that great hymn.

 

[FineLinen]

 

[FineLinen]

General Robbie Risner

For seven and a half years, North Vietnamese soldiers held him and dozens of other soldiers in the "zoo" (a POW camp in Hanoi.)

Misery, solitary confinement, starvation, tortures and beatings were routine.
Interrogators twisted broken legs, sliced skin with bayonets, crammed sticks up nostrils, and paper in mouths. Screams echoed throughout the camp, chilling the blood of other prisoners.

“Everything was sad and dismal. It was almost the essence of despair. If you could have squeezed the feeling out of the word despair it would have come out gray, dull and lead-colored, dingy and dirty … ”

How do you survive seven and a half years in such a hole? Cut off from family. No news from the U.S. What do you do?

Risner stared at a blade of grass. Several days into his incarceration, he wrestled the grate off a floor vent, stretched out on his belly, lowered his head into the opening, and peered through a pencil-sized hole in the brick and mortar at a singular blade of grass. Aside from this stem, his world had no color. So, he began his days, head in vent, heart in prayer, staring at the green blade of grass. He called it a “blood transfusion for the soul.”