The Mouse in House!!!

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain? The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me."" I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. "Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember the mouse in the house.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hebrews 13:16 

Know your Power!!!

In a seminary mission class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push.

After pondering his problem, he devised a plan.

He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off.

As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station.

When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood.

Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable."

He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life.

For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20,

"How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God." 

When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.

Faith requires action!!!

Blondin's greatest fame came in June of 1859 when he attempted to become the first person to cross a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile across the mighty Niagara Falls.

A crowd gathered to watch him attempt this deadly walk.

The silent tension turned to cheers as they watched him walk out, turn and come back.

He asked the crowd, “How many believe that I can walk to the other side and back while pushing a wheelbarrow?”

They shouted, “We believe, we believe!”

The tightropewalker did in fact walk out and back with a wheelbarrow. Upon his return, he asked, “Do you believe I could wheelbarrow a person across the tightrope.”

Again the crowd responded with enthusiastic affirmation.

“Very well, then,” he asked, “Who would like to get in?” The crowd fell silent. No one offered to get in the wheelbarrow. Nobody put their belief in Blondin to the test.

The Blondin story goes that no one did!

Trusting Christ is not simply assenting to the facts of the gospel message. There is a decision that implies actually getting into the wheelbarrow.

Are you in the crowd or in the wheelbarrow? ?

Don't worry, Jesus has carried many across to Heaven's gates. He can be trusted!!

To whom much is given, of him much is required!!!

Ken Walker writes in Christian Reader that in the 1995 college football season 6-foot-2-inch, 280-pound Clay Shiver, who played center for the Florida State Seminoles, was regarded as one of the best in the nation. In fact, one magazine wanted to name him to their preseason All-American football team. But that was a problem, because the magazine was Playboy, and Clay Shiver is a dedicated Christian.

Shiver and the team chaplain suspected that Playboy would select him, and so he had time to prepare his response. Shiver knew well what a boon this could be for his career. Being chosen for this All-American team meant that sportswriters regarded him as the best in the nation at his position. Such publicity never hurts athletes who aspire to the pros and to multimillion dollar contracts.

But Shiver had higher values and priorities. When informed that Playboy had made their selection, Clay Shiver simply said, ‘No thanks.’ That’s right, he flatly turned down the honor. ‘Clay didn’t want to embarrass his mother and grandmother by appearing in the magazine or giving old high school friends an excuse to buy that issue,’ writes Walker. Shiver further explained by quoting Luke 12:48:

‘To whom much is given, of him much is required.’

“I don’t want to let anyone down,” said Shiver, “and number one on that list is God” 

Work Attitude!!!

An elderly carpenter was due to retire.

He told his employer of his plans to leave the business and start a life of leisure with his wife and extended family.

He would miss the money, but the time was right and he was ready to hang up his hammer.

His boss was disappointed as the carpenter had been a loyal and diligent worker for many years, so he was sad to see him go.

He asked for one last favour, requesting that the carpenter could build one last house before retiring.

The tradesman agreed, but it was soon clear that his heart wasn’t in it.

He took shortcuts, used inferior materials and put in a half-hearted effort.

In the end the final product was well short of his usual standards, a disappointing way to end his career.

When the job was finished, the employer came to inspect the work.  After taking a look around, he handed the keys to the carpenter and said, “This is your house, it’s my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked and embarrassed.

If only he had known, he would have made sure that everything was perfect.

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! - Matthew 25:21

The Ant and the Contact Lens

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took hold on the rope and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.

Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet Below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff.

She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every  stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it?  An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it.

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the  incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want Me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Study the Manual!!!

Jeremy wrestled with the machine before him. He would figure out how to make this engine work if it was the last thing he did! (Which, based on his progress so far, looked very likely.) How could something so simple be so complicated?

"Still puzzled over it?" The voice came from his older brother Andy.

Jeremy nodded. "Puzzled as ever. This is just such a difficult mess. I do wish someone would write about the particular problem I'm facing here. It seems everything I can find deals with other aspects of engines."

Andy pulled a book off the worktable and blue the dust off it. "What's this?" he asked.

"That's the instruction manual Dad wrote," Jeremy replied.

"Are you reading it?"

Jeremy cringed. Truth to tell, he had been reading it, but he'd basically read it out of duty rather than really expecting it to help. "Sort of," he replied.

"Didn't Dad design the engine...and write the manual for those working it?" Andy asked.

"Ummm...yes," Jeremy replied sheepishly. Why did Andy have to ask such tough questions?

"I see," Andy commented. "Well, maybe it would have some answers." With that word of advice, Andy left the room.

Jeremy pulled back out his manual. Here he'd been complaining rather than seeing what his dad had to say. Although his particular problem didn't seem to be addressed in the index, Jeremy remembered his dad telling him that the manual contained all he would need to know--and all would include guidance for this glitch.

Over the next several days, Jeremy poured over the manual. In doing so, he learned much about his father's heart and plan for the engine. He began to see the problem he faced in a whole new perspective. As he gazed upon his father's incredible design and the care with which he did everything, he began to change. And slowly but surely, he began to understand clearly what steps to take. What a precious gift his father had given him in that manual!

"O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation." Psalm 119:97-99

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3:16-17