LifeChurch

One day an elderly man entered into a hospital.  He was grumpy from being on medication and the nurses thought him to be insane, as he yelled for his wife to get the apple basket.  By the time they had checked him into his room the nurses were exhausted from the fight he was putting up.

“Sir you have to calm down we are doing everything we can for you” they would try to explain.

“I don’t need your help” the grumpy man would yell “I want my apple basket”.  He finally slept.  The nurses sighed with relief and talked among themselves whether they should call the hospital psychologist about the old man and his obsession with the apple basket.

As they talked and laughed about the situation the wife came in carrying the basket of apples.  They looked kind of stunned as she asked if she could see her husband and deliver his basket.  Sure, they agreed as they watched her slip past into his room.

Curiosity consumed them over the next few weeks as they tended to the elderly man.  He was eaten with cancer and the doctors had given him no hope of survival.  He turned out to be a very calm, happy man once he had his basket.  His wife, they noticed, would come in with apples and go out with apples and the curiosity grew even more till one nurse couldn’t stand the suspense.

One night as he was nearing the end, the nurse sat down in a chair by the wife and asked, “May I ask why do you have that apple basket?  I just don’t understand the significance.“

“I am an apple farmer by trade he sighed.  From the time I was 20 till the day I do die I will forever have my apples” said the man.  The nurse nodded thinking she understood.  He just likes his work, she thought, assured now he was a little bit crazy.

As she started to leave, the old man asked her to sit down.  “At age 20 I was saved, I accepted the Lord as my Savior.”  “Oh no,” the nurse thought, “Here comes the lecture on religion.”

The old man continued.  “The day I accepted the Lord as my Savior I got this basket, and each time I had a problem or concern that I could not handle, I put an apple in the basket un-shined.”

“Why?” the nurse said shaking her head.

“Because it reminded me to give those problems to the Lord for him to shine.  See my basket now,” he stated. “ As my problems disappear so do the apples.  As I get new problems, ones I cannot handle alone, I put an apple in.”

The humble nurse looked into the basket… only one apple was there.

With that, he took a big breath and grabbed his wife by the hand and faded into eternal sleep.  The wife paused for a moment and got up from her place to take from the basket the last remaining apple.  She whispered in his ear that his reward awaits him in heaven.

The nurse stayed still and asked with tears in her eyes, “what do you think his riches will be?”

The wife knew what they were, eternal life with Jesus Christ.  But she could see the concern and sadness upon the young nurses’ face and handed her the apple and said “the biggest apple pie you can imagine!”

That was the day the young nurse was saved, and from that day on she always had a basket by her bed.

Have a great Thanksgiving week!

A story is told of a preacher who moved to Houston, Texas long time ago.  Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area.  When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.  As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give the quarter back.  It would be wrong to keep it.  Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter.  Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it.  Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”  The driver with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town?  I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere.  I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.”

When the preacher stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, and held on, and said, “O God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.”

Judas sold Jesus for 30 silver coins.  Maybe for many of us in 21st century, we exchange our love for Jesus with football (sports) on T.V., leisure activity, success, or for the sake of our children’s future.  Something to think about as we are coming closer to the end of this year.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend!

I believe a good story should be told again and again.

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going.  After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening.  The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.  Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.

The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing.  In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs.  After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone.  Then he sat back in his chair, still silent.

The host watched all this in quiet fascination.  As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more.  Soon it was cold and “dead as a doornail.”  Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.  Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon.  I shall be back in church next Sunday.”

Keep on glowing in your life, be part of your church and actively engage in.  Heb. 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (NIV)

Have a great week and see you on Sunday!

In an interview in the Winter 2004 issue of Leadership Journal, John Ortberg talked about the teachable value of failure in ministry.  He said it is important to, “Teach that failure is essential to learning.  And it’s not the same as competence.  ‘I read a study involving a pottery class.  They divided students into two groups.  One group would get A’s by making one really good pot.  The other one would get A’s by making 50 pots, no matter what they looked like.  Guess what?  The students in the 50-pot group made the best pots!  They’d make one and it would be no good.  And they’d make another one, get a little better.  They’d make another one, get a little better.  They just kept learning how to make better pots.’  ‘The one-pot group put all this pressure on themselves over one pot, but they never learned how to make a pot well because they didn’t fail enough.’”

It is truly good to be reminded that it’s okay to make mistakes and fail time to time.  As matter of fact, knowing that I don’t belong to “one pot” group, it is refreshing!  1 Cor. 1:27 says, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”  I have read this verse inserting my name instead of underlined phrase.  I found it to be very encouraging.  May this encourage you as well throughout this week.

God bless!

I am sure you have seen squirrels busily running around doing something.  I often see one or two squirrels running across the back yard fence of mine and making tons of noises.

Our Daily Bread had a story of a man noticing by his office window, squirrels racing against winter to bury their acorns in a safe, accessible place.  Their commotion amused him.  Then he realized how he saw an entire herd of deer came through his back yard and yet made no sound.  He also noticed how different those two creatures are.  While deer don’t prepare for winter, squirrels would prepare for winter to come.  When the winter comes, deer would anything and everything they can to survive (even ornamental shrubs) but squirrels survive through food they saved up.

There are lessons to learn from both creatures about how we should act in our faith in God.  The squirrel teaches us that we ought to prepare for the future when we are able to work.  We should be ready for the rainy days and when resources are scarce.  God gives us seasons of plenty (Prov.12:11) and lead us to green pasture (Psalm 23) for the seasons of need.

On the other hand, we should be like deer trusting God totally.  God instructs us to share our abundance with those in need (Deut. 24:19) and He will meet our needs (Matt. 6:33).  How awesome it is to experience God timely provision.

So I say, work as diligent as you can, make as much as money you can, save as much as you can, give/share as much as you can, and trust God to meet our needs.

Have a blessed week!

It is said that once, a long time ago, a mouse was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat.  A magician took pity on it and turned it into a cat, but then it became afraid of a dog.  So the magician turned the cat into a dog.  Now, the dog began to fear the cougar.  Therefore, the magician turned the dog into a cougar whereupon it was full of fear for a hunter.  At this point the magician threw up his arms, and turned the cougar into a mouse again saying, “Nothing I do for you is going to be of any help because you have the heart of a mouse.”

We don’t need to have a heart of a mouse because God is with us.  God spoke through prophet Isaiah, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isa. 41:10).  What a promise!  He is WITH you, He is YOUR God, He will STRENGTHEN you, and He will UPHOLD you.

Therefore, don’t be afraid!  Don’t worry!  Don’t be stressed out!  Our God is greater, stronger, and higher than any other and there is none like Him.

Have a blessed week!

There is a theory called, “broken windows” which holds that ignoring the little problems such as graffiti, litter, or broken windows creates a sense of irreversible decline that leads people to abandon the community or to stay away.  Therefore, the theory states that vandalism and other crimes can be preventive by well maintaining and monitoring urban environments.  Both theory and practice have been embraced by some big city mayors, most notably Rudy Giuliani.  Since the implementation of new policy, the crime rate has dropped in 1990s in New York City.

Even at home when a certain part of the house is messy, then there is less guilty feeling in not cleaning after myself since it was messy to begin with.  If a few dishes were not washed, then adding a couple more dishes to be washed seems no big deal and that is the precise the human nature described in this theory.

I believe this theory also applies in our spiritual life, too.  When we don repent of our sin and be cleansed by His blood but ignore it because we think of our sin as insignificant, that’s when we “walk in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1).  No wonder King David wrote “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).  Let’s not wait but quickly fix those “broken windows” in our lives through His grace.

I hope and pray that we would regularly search our heart to confess and repent of our sin so that we may offer our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”  (Rom. 12:1).

Have a wonderful week!

Dasrath Manjhi (1934-2007) is a farmer from India.  His wife fell ill one day and ultimately died because the hospital was too far away.  There was an enormous mountain between his village and the hospital and he couldn’t take her in time.

The government refused to help, so Dashrath took it upon himself to make the road for his village.  So he spent the next 22 years of his life digging through the mountain… literally “moving mountains” for the rest of the village so that no one would face the same fate as his wife.  Everyday of the next 22 years, Dashrath Manjhi chipped away the mountain little by little.

Before lost his life to cancer, he transformed a one-foot-wide passage into a 360 ft-long, 30 ft-wide road accessible by bicycle and motorcycle.  He cut the trip to the hospital down from 43 miles to 1 mile.  The lives of the people in his village will NEVER be the same.

Dasrath bought a shorter access to hospitable for a village.  The bible mentions of one man who brought ONLY salvation to the entire humanity, Jesus Christ.  He, too, died bridging our access to God.  “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:4-5).

Thank you Jesus for making the way for us to come to God.

There is a story of when Queen Victoria was once at a diplomatic reception in London. The guest of honor was an African chieftain.  All went well during the meal until, at the end, finger bowls were served.  The guest of honor had never seen a British finger bowl, and no one had thought to brief him beforehand about its purpose.  So he took the finger bowl in his two hands, lifted it to his mouth, and drank its contents — down to the very last drop!  For an instant there was breathless silence among the British upper crust and then they began to whisper to one another.  All that stopped in the next instant as the Queen, Victoria, silently took her finger bowl in her two hands, lifted it, and drank its contents!  A moment later 500 surprised British ladies and gentlemen simultaneously drank the contents of their own fingerbowls.

It was “against the rules” to drink from a fingerbowl, but on that particular evening Victoria changed the rules — because she was, after all, the Queen.

It reminds me of an incident found in the Bible.  One time Jesus and His disciples were going through the grainfields, His disciples were hungry and they picked some heads of grain and ate them.  Then the Pharisees saw that and criticized to Jesus, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”  Jesus reminded the Pharisees about how David entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread and said in Matt. 12:8, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

It was “against the tradition and rules” but Christ changed the rules – because He is, after all, the Lord of the Sabbath!

Have a blessed Lord’s Day and wonderful week!