by mixed unknown authors The Lord’s Baseball Game Bob was caught up in the spirit where he and the Lord stood by to observe a baseball game. The Lord’s team was playing Satan’s team. The Lord’s team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate whose name was Love. Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because The next batter was named Faith, who also got a single because Faith The next batter up was named Godly Wisdom. Satan wound up and threw the first pitch; Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass, because Godly Wisdom does not swing at Satan’s pitches. Ball one. Three more pitches and Godly Wisdom walked, because Godly Wisdom never swings The bases were loaded. The Lord then turned to Bob and told him He was now going to bring in His star player. Up to the plate stepped Grace. Bob said he sure did not look like Satan’s whole team relaxed when they saw Grace. Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had But Satan was not worried; his center fielder, the Prince of the air, He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him on the head and sent him crashing on the ground; then it continued over the The Lord then asked Bob if he knew why Love, Faith, and Godly Wisdom could get on base but could not win the game. Bob answered that he did not The Lord explained, “If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, faith and wisdom will get you on base, but only My grace can get you home.” The Birdcage… A man was on the side of the road with a large birdcage. A boy noticed that the cage was full of birds of many kinds. “Where did you get those birds?” he asked. “Oh, all over the place,” the man replied. “I lure them with crumbs, I pretend I’m their friend then when they are close, I net them and shove “And what are you going to do with them now?” The man grinned, “I’m going to prod them with sticks, and get them really mad so they fight and kill each other. Those that survive, I The boy looked steadily at the man. What made him do such things? He looked into the cruel, hard eyes. Then he looked at the birds, “Can I buy those birds?” the boy asked. The man hid a smile, aware that he could be on to a good thing if he played his cards right. “Well,” he said hesitantly, “the cage is pretty expensive, and I spent a lot of time collecting these birds, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll let you have the lot, birds, cage and all for ten dollars and that jacket The boy paused, ten dollars was all he had, and the jacket was new and very special, in fact it was his prized possession. Slowly, he took out the ten dollars and handed it over, then even more slowly he took off his jacket, gave it one last look then handed that over too. And then (well, you’ve guessed it) he opened the door and let the birds go free. The Enemy of the world, Satan, was on the side of life’s road with a very large cage. The man coming towards him noticed that it was crammed full of people of every kind, young, old, from every race and nation. “Where did you get these people?” the man asked. “Oh, from all over the world,” Satan replied. “I lure them with drink, drugs, lust, lies, anger, hate, love of money and all manner of things. I pretend I’m their friend, out to give them a good time, then when I’ve hooked them, into the cage they go.” “And what are you going to do with them now?” asked the man. Satan grinned. “I’m going to prod them, provoke them, get them to hate and destroy each other; I’ll stir up racial hatred, defiance of law and order; I’ll make people bored, lonely, dissatisfied, confused and restless. It’s easy. People will always listen to what I offer them and (what’s better) blame God for the outcome!” “And then what?” the man asked. “Those who do not destroy themselves, I will destroy. None will escape me.” “Can I buy these people from you?” he asked. Satan snarled, “Yes, but it will cost you your life.” So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid for your release, your freedom from Satan’s trap, with His own life, on the cross at Calvary. The door is open, and anyone, whom Satan has deceived and caged, can be set free. 2 Men Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his life would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.” Epilogue…There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy. A FRIEND…. (E)nvisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts) (T)ells you the truth when you need to hear it (X)-plain things you don’t understand (Z)aps you back to reality “Flexible people don’t get bent out of shape.” A man was wondering in the woods pondering all the questions of life, universe, and his own personal problem. The man could not find any answers so he sought help “God!? God?! Are you there God?!”, he shouted. God responded, “What is it my son?” “I have a few questions, mind if I ask?” “Go right ahead, my son..anything.”, God said “God, what is a million years to you?” “God said, “a million years to me is only a second”. “Hmmm”, he wondered. Then he asked again, “God, God said, “a million dollars to me is only worth a The man lift his eyebrows and proceeded to ask a And God cheerfully said, “Sure!!…..in a second”. The Smell of Rain! A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple’s new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs. ” I don’t think she’s going to make it,” he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.” Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk She would never talk She would probably be blind She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation And on and on. “No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. “David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements,” Diana remembers “I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn’t listen I couldn’t listen. I said, “No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!” As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially “raw,”the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more- but that happy ending is far from the end of her story. One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Danae closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet It smells like rain” Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.” Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children before the rains came her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest-and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well. The $20 Bill A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?” Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. “Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air. “My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him.” THOUGHT: The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are but by WHOSE WE ARE! You are special – Don’t ever forget it! Please Pass this onto everyone in your life. You will never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the Hope that it can bring! Who’ll Take the Son? A wealthy man and his son loved to had everything in their collection, would often sit together and admire When the Viet Nam conflict broke out, very courageous and died in battle The father was notified and grieved the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said,”Sir, you don’t know me, but I your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, The young man held out his package. “I really a great artist, but I think The father opened the package. It was painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.” The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected. The man died a few months later. There of his paintings. Many influential seeing the great paintings and having The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this Who will bid for this picture?” There the back of the room shouted. “We want Skip this one.” But the auctioneer for this painting? Who will start the voice shouted angrily. “We didn’t come “Who’ll take the son?” Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the Being a poor man, it was all he could will bid $20?” “Give it to him for “$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?” They didn’t want the picture of the son. investments for their collections. The “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!” A shouted. “Now let’s get on with the The auctioneer laid down his gavel. over.” “What about the paintings?” called to conduct this auction, I was in the will. I was not allowed to Only the painting of the son would be that painting would inherit the entire The man who took the son gets everything!” God gave his son 2,000 years ago to like the auctioneer, His message today Because you see, whoever takes the Son
The Essay on The Man after God’s Own Heart
David, King of Jews, possessed every weakness and sin that “a man of blood” is capable and yet God still showered and bestowed him with abundant blessings. He was the adulterer of Bathsheba whom he forced to go with him to bed and convinced to lie about her pregnancy to her husband Uriah. He was the murderer of his friend Uriah whom he sent in front of the battlefield if only to own Bathsheba. He ...
Bibliography:
authors many and unknown received through mail
