YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AND TESTED!

A pastor was appointed in a Church in a small town.   Within a few days, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his new home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change (in some western countries, it is the driver who takes the money and gives the change). 

  As he found the extra money, many considerations came to his mind: 'You'd 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 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, and 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 pastor in town?' 

'Yes' he replied.

'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday.'

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

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself 'Christian.'

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Being a Christian is a whole lot like being on Candid Camera. When you least expect it, expect it! Let us hold in our minds, as St. Paul puts it in 2 Cor. 3:2-3 that “you yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.”  

ARE YOU DRIVING TO YOUR RIGHT DESTINATION?

 A woman was driving home one night. The weather was really bad. Rain was very heavy and visibility was very poor. Seeing taillights ahead of her, she followed the car in front. Not being able to see, the car in front seemed to be going in the right direction. So she stuck with it.

All of a sudden the car in front of her came to a stop. She began to wonder what had happened; perhaps the car in front had some engine trouble or hit a deer! She began to feel uncomfortable; thinking being stopped in the middle of the road can often lead to accidents.

Much to her alarm the car in front of her turned off its lights. Her concern was now growing as well as her anger, and she was then startled by a knocking on her window. She looked up and there was a man standing in the pouring rain wanting to speak to her. She cracked the window open and asked the man what the problem was.

The man replied that it was the question he was going to ask her. She retorted that she wasn’t the one who had stopped in the middle of the road and then turned off the car lights. The man’s reply was that they were not in the middle of the road, but in his driveway.  

Obviously, this woman had chosen the wrong leader to follow. She had chosen a leader who would not take her to where she wanted and needed to go. She had chosen the wrong leader and the wrong road.

We have to ask ourselves whether we are driving our lives in the right direction and following a right leader. If not, we will end up, just like this lady, reaching wrong or dead ends.

‘TEN DOLLARS IS TEN DOLLARS!’

An old farmer and his wife always went to the county fair. And, every year they saw the same pilot offering to take people up for a spin in his airplane for $10 a ride. 

Every year, the old farmer asked his wife to give him $10 so he could go up. Every year, the wife responded by getting very mad at him and saying that ten dollars was ten dollars and they couldn’t afford to be so frivolous with what little money they had. 

He told her that he was now 80 years old and if he didn’t go up this year, he never would. In a very angry voice, she repeated that ten dollars was ten dollars. At this point they got into an argument about it. 

The pilot overheard them and offered to make them a deal. He would take them both up for free providing he didn’t hear one word from either one of them during the entire trip. If either of them said anything at all, they would have to pay him the $10. They agreed. 

The pilot put them in, took off and during the course of the next 15 minutes put that plane through every maneuver known to man, including flips, rolls, and nosedives. And he didn’t so much as hear a sound from them. 

When they landed, he congratulated the farmer on not making any noise, and asked him how come they never said anything during all the maneuvers. The farmer said, “Well, I was going to say something when my wife fell out, but like she always told me, ‘Ten dollars is ten dollars!" 

Well, at least they both knew the value of ten dollars, didn’t they?

What are our priorities in life? Jesus tells his disciples, “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”  (Mtt. 16:26)

“LET US MELT DOWN THE SAINTS

AND PUT THEM INTO CIRCULATION”

In a book titled How to Witness Successfully by George Sweeting there is quoted a true story that happened in England during the time of Oliver Cromwell.  There was a shortage of silver to make the coins for the country.  Officers were sent throughout the country in search of silver.  They returned and reported that there is no silver anywhere in the land except the icons of Saints found in the churches.  Oliver Cromwell ordered to bring them with this command, “Let us melt down the saints and put them into circulation.” 

Though Cromwell meant differently, this is the secret of productivity of the Saints. We remember the passion of Christ on the cross these days and this is precisely what has happened in Him on the cross. As St. Paul puts it beautifully in the epistle to Philippians: “… Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on the cross.” (2:5-8).

It is better to be melted down to become useful to the people around than to sit idle in the thrones as saints.  Whoever we call great were people who were willing to be melted down for the sake of the community.  They were people who could not sit idle when they saw the needs around them. In Luke 12:50 we read Jesus saying, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished.”  The inward pressure on him was such that he could not but do it. This is what Paul also says in 2 Cor. 5:14: “the love of Christ constrains us.” 

PRONE TO WANDER … SEAL IT FOR THE COURTS ABOVE

Ron Lee Davis in his book Courage to Begin Again narrates the following story:

It was a bright Sunday morning in 18th century London, but Robert Robinson’s mood was anything but sunny. All along the street there were people hurrying to church, but in the midst of the crowd Robinson was a lonely man. The sound of church bells reminded him of years past when his faith in God was strong and the church was an integral part of his life. It had been years since he set foot in a church—years of wandering, disillusionment, and gradual defection from the God he once loved. That love for God—once fiery and passionate—had slowly burned out within him, leaving him dark and cold inside. Robinson heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horse-drawn cab approaching behind him. Turning, he lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that the cab was occupied by a young woman dressed in finery for the Lord’s Day. He waved the driver on, but the woman in the carriage ordered the carriage to be stopped.

"Sir, I’d be happy to share this carriage with you," she said to Robinson. "Are you going to church?" 

Robinson was about to decline, and then he paused. "Yes," he said at last. "I am going to church."

He stepped into the carriage and sat down beside the young woman. As the carriage rolled forward, Robert Robinson and the woman exchanged introductions. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes when he stated his name. "That’s an interesting coincidence," she said, reaching into her purse. She withdrew a small book of inspirational verse, opened it to a ribbon-bookmark, and handed the book to him. "I was just reading a verse by a poet named Robert Robinson. Could it be…?"

He took the book, nodding. "Yes, I wrote these words years ago." "Oh, how wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Imagine! I’m sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines!"

But Robinson barely heard her. He was absorbed in the words he was reading. They were words that would one day be set to music and become a great hymn of the faith, familiar to generations of Christians:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace’

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

His eyes slipped to the bottom of the page where he read:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it—

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

He could barely read the last few lines through the tears that brimmed in his eyes. "I wrote these words—and I’ve lived these words. ’Prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.’"

The woman suddenly understood. "You also wrote, ’Here’s my heart, O take and seal it.’ You can offer your heart again to God, Mr. Robinson. It’s not too late."

And it wasn’t too late for Robert Robinson. In that moment he turned his heart back to God and walked with him the rest of his days.

Where are you at in your walk with the Lord today? Like the hymn writer, have you found yourself drifting away from the Lord’s arms of love? Has the fire that once burned with passion for Christ grown cold? 

HOLD FAST THE COMPASS

 A ship’s crew can be suddenly obligated to abandon ship and take to the life boats. Such was the case of an American whaling ship in the South Seas. A huge whale struck the ship with incredible velocity. The blow was such that the vessel instantly began to receive water and gradually began to flood. The ship was far from land and out of the normal sea traffic patterns. There was little chance for rescue till they could return to lower latitudes.

The word to abandon ship was sounded and all hands went to work and soon all sea-worthy rafts were loaded to the gun-rail with the necessities of life. When the deck was nearly level with the sea the boats shoved off for safety. After the boats had pulled a hundred yards away, two men leaped into the water and swam for the nearly sunk ship with determination. They reached it just before it completely submerged and disappeared down a hatchway. In a minute or so they emerged again with something in their hands.

As they leap into the water the ship went under. The men were separated from each other and their object of rescue because of the whirlpool that commenced from the sinking hull. They seemed not to be concerned for their own safety as they remained in the turbulence searching for the object which they had carried over the ship's side. Finding it again they bore it away to their comrades in the boat.

What did these strong swimmers carry that they seemed to value more than life? It was the compass! It had been left behind and was remembered almost too late. Now that they have it, they will not let it go. Whatever they lose, they will keep it at all costs, for "it’s their life."

Please bear in mind that whatever is lost, if the compass of life (God Almighty) is not lost, nothing is lost; and if the compass of life is lost, everything is lost.  

PUT ON CHRIST TO LIVE A NOBLE LIFE

The story is told about a man who was born with an awful facial deformity. He grew up alone, rejected, sad and depressed because of his deformity. Everyone in the village looked at him with fright and disgust. No one wanted to associate with him.  

Aggrieved by the hurting behavior of his village, he decided to move to another town to begin a new life. On his way to the new town, he discovered a mask that would make him look handsome.   At first the mask was uncomfortable and he was afraid that people would find out who he really was, but he continued to wear the mask every day.

He could win the favor of all in the new town. He fell in love with a beautiful young girl also.  But one day, an evil woman from his old town came and discovered his true identity. In front of his friends and fiancé, the evil woman forced him to remove his mask. 

When the mask was removed, it revealed a very attractive face. The man’s face had perfectly conformed to the mask he had worn.

Becoming like Christ is similar to this. We are to put on Christ and attempt to live like Christ and look like Christ. At first it may feel unnatural and uncomfortable, and it may be very difficult. But every day, we must put on Christ, and keep striving to be like Christ. Over time, we will grow to look and act more and more like Jesus.  We have to understand and follow the recipe for spiritual growth and success. We have to put forth the effort required to grow and stay on track. The promises and power of God shall be ours in abundance.

St. Peter gives some ingredients for a blessed and fruitful life (2 Pet. 1:1-11). “For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.   Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall;   so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

FIND THE TREASURE IN AND AROUND YOU

There is true and old story told about a man by the name of Ali Facid. He had a small farm and a family. 

One day, the story goes, a Buddhist priest came by and said to Ali, “You know, there are valuable stones called diamonds, and if you find one of these you could be a wealthy man."  Ali Facid went to bed that night, but the words of the old priest haunted him. He was so obsessed that he felt that he must find one of these diamonds so that he could become rich. He sold his farm, put his family out to neighbors and went out to find his acres of diamonds. Months passed. He was broken in body and spirit. His funds were gone. And at the Bay of Barcelona, he threw himself into the sea, never to walk this earth again.

Meanwhile, the man who bought his farm bent over one day and picked up a little stone.  He laid it on the mantle that night not knowing what it was. A few days later the old Buddhist priest came by and saw it and exclaimed; “Ali Facid must be back from his search!” 

“No”, came the response. “Then where did that diamond come from?” The farmer replied; “I was out plowing in the garden and found it there.” And from that very garden, came the jewels and diamonds that today adorn the crown heads of Europe and Russia. In Ali Facid’s own back yard there were acres of diamonds and he knew it not. He threw his life away in search of that which was under his nose the whole time.

How often do we miss the very treasure that God has put right within, before and around us because we are unwilling to open our eyes and see His mighty blessing? How many of us search ourselves and make use of the abilities put into us by our Creator? How many of us discover the possibilities before and around us – in the form of opportunities, persons who  are ready to help and guide us for our betterment?