Nuggets from Wayne’s Library

Note: I did not write the following. I have copied and saved them over the years.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me show love;
Where there is inquiry, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek,
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born.
To eternal life, Amen

Footprints

One night, a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky, scenes from his life flashed. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that there was only one set of footprints many times along his life’s path, and it happened at the very lowest and saddest times.

This bothered him, and he questioned the Lord about it. Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you walked with me all the way. But I have noticed that there is only one set of footprints during the most troublesome times of my life. I don’t understand why you would leave me when I needed you most.

The Lord replied, My precious, precious child. I love you, and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

By: Margaret Fishback Powers

Two Seas of Palestine

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt 16:25 NKJV).

The following parable brings home the truth of our Masters word.

There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Slashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it, stretching out their thirsty roots to sip healing waters. Along its shores, children play as children played when He was there. He loved it. He could look across its silvery surface when He spoke His parables. And on a rolling plain not far away, He fed the five thousand people.

The river Jordan flows South into another sea. Here, there is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, and no children’s laughter. Travelers choose another route unless it is for urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its waters, and neither man, beast, nor fowl will drink.

What makes this mighty difference in these neighboring seas? Not the River Jordan. It empties the same good water into both. Not the soil on which they lie. Not the country roundabout.

This is the difference. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it, other drops flow out, and the giving and receiving continue in equal measure.

The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps.

The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The Other Sea gives nothing. It is named the Dead Sea.

There are two kinds of people in the world.

There are two seas in Palestine.

Only the persons who continue full of life are like the Sea of Galilee, which gives and lives.

Five Minutes After We Get To Heaven

It may be a moment or after months of waiting, but soon I shall stand before my Lord. Then, in an instant, all things will appear in a new perspective.

Suddenly, the things I thought important—tomorrow’s tasks, the plans for the dinner at my church, my success or failure in pleasing those around me—will matter not at all. And the things to which I gave but little thought—the word about Christ to the man next door, the moment (how short it was) of earnest prayer for the Lord’s work in far-off lands, the confessing and forsaking of that secret sin—will stand as real and enduring.

Five minutes after I’m in heaven, I’ll be overwhelmed by the truths I’ve known but somehow never grasped. I’ll realize then that what I am in Christ comes first with God and that when I am right with Him, I do the things that please Him.

I’ll sense that it was not just how much I gave that mattered but how I gave – and how much I withheld. In heaven, I’ll wish with all my heart that I could reclaim a thousandth part of the time I’ve let slip through my fingers, that I could call back those countless conversations that could have glorified my Lord – but didn’t

Five minutes after I’m in heaven, I believe I’ll wish with all my heart that I had risen more faithfully to read to the Word of God and wait on Him in prayer – that I might have known Him while still on earth as He wanted me to know Him.

A thousand thoughts will press upon me, and though overwhelmed by the grace that admits me to my heavenly home, I’ll wonder at my aimless earthly life. I’ll wish… if one my wish in heaven – but it will be too late.

Heaven is real and hell is real, and eternity is but a breath away. Soon, we shall be in the presence of the Lord we claim to serve. Why should we live as though salvation were a dream – as though we did not know?

Source: Moody Monthly, January, 1952

My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below,
With tiny lights, like heaven’s stars, reflecting on the snow.
The sight is so spectacular; please whip away that tear.
For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,
But the music sounds can’t compare with the Christmas choir up here.
I have no words to tell you the joy their voices bring.
For it is beyond description to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me. I see the pain inside your heart.
But I am not so far away; we really aren’t apart.
So be happy for me, dear ones; you know I hold you dear,
And be glad I’m spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I send you each a special gift from our heavenly home above.
I send you each a memory of my undying love.
After all, love is a gift more precious than pure gold.
It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my father said to do,
For I can’t count the blessings or love he has for each of you.
So have a merry Christmas, and whip away that tear.
Remember, I’m spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

The Deaths of the Apostles

It is interesting to follow the lives and deaths of the apostles. Below is some of the information I’ve collected concerning their deaths. If I had a choice in dying, I would choose to go out like John. Luckily, people don’t crucify people today for being called to study history.

Matthew – the toll collector turned gospel writer – Speared in Ethiopia – almost all mention Ethiopia south of the Caspian Sea (not Ethiopia in Africa), and some Persia and the kingdom of the Parthians, Macedonia, and Syria.
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James – Herod Agrippa I began (A.D. 42-44) a new persecution of the Church in Jerusalem; after the execution of James, the son of Zebedee, this ruler had Peter cast into prison, intending to have him also executed after the Jewish Pasch was over. According to legend, his bones were taken to Spain.

Matthias – the replacement for Judas – Stoned, then beheaded in Jerusalem.

Andrew – brother of Peter – Crucified. Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross. The crossed bars of the Scottish flag are derived from this belief. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and Russia.

Mark – a Gospel writer whom Peter converted – Was dragged to death in Alexandria.

Peter – Later sources say that Peter went to Rome, was martyred (64-68) under Nero, and was buried on Vatican Hill. Nero ordered him to be crucified. According to Jerome, Peter was crucified upside down because he stated that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as the Lord.

Paul – Originally called Saul – Nero ordered his beheading.

Jude – Brother of James – Crucified at Edessa – part of Mesopotamia or Armenia 72 AD.

Thomas – preached in India – Saint Thomas’ Mount in Madras {mah-drahs’} is the traditional site of his martyrdom. He was impaled by a spear.

Luke – The gentle doctor – Supposedly hanged in Greece.

Simon – Crucified in Britain.

Bartholomew – According to tradition, he was martyred in Armenia.

John – Is the only one to have escaped a violent death, although he was almost boiled in oil. He lived a long life to record the Revelations.

Refining Silver

A class was discussing a verse in the Bible about purification, and one of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, and then she thought again about the verse that says, ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’ She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. It would be destroyed if left a moment too long in the flames.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’ He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy—when I see my image in it.’

If you are feeling the heat of the fire today, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you. Pass this on right now. Someone needs to know that God is watching over them at this very moment.

And, whatever they’re going through, they’ll be a better person in the end. “Life is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.”

If I were the Devil

1. I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

2. I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man’s effort instead of God’s blessings;

3. I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people instead of the other way around;

4. I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

5. I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership;

6. I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

7. I would make it socially acceptable to take one’s own life and invent machines to make it convenient;

8. I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that life of animals are valued more than human beings;

9. I would take God out of the schools where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;

10. I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them;

11. I would get control of the media so that every night I could pollute the minds of every family member for my agenda;

12. I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation. I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation;

13. I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art;

14. I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled at;

15. I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agendas as politically correct;

16. I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date the Bible is for the naive:

17. I would dull the minds of Christians and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional;

I GUESS I WOULD LEAVE THINGS PRETTY MUCH THE WAY THEY ARE!

Words from Paul Harvey

From Bondage to Bondage

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’ ‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’ ‘From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promises the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy.

Those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline, University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy. Some forty percent of the nation’s population has already reached the ‘governmental dependency’ phase.

In 2024, we may be in the “apathy to dependence” phase.

Have we thought about this.

Aim at Heaven and you get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you get nothing.

Quote from C.S. Lewis

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