Results

Instead of saying that man is a creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance! From the same material one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas. Bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them…

The preacher’s wife was trying to use up the last little bit of a stubborn bottle of ketchup when the doorbell rang. She sent her 5 year old to answer the door. It was the president of the women’s group at the church. “Is your mother home? she asked. “Yeah,” he answered. “She’s in the kitchen hitting…

Circumstances alter cases. - Thomas C. Haliburton, The Old Judge Lifetime Speaker’s Encyclopedia, Jacob M. Braude, page 112

My mother had just finished taking a CPR class at a local college when she and I were in the mall and saw a big crowd gathered around a still body. Suddenly my mother took off running at a speed I didn’t know she could muster. “Everyone back,” she yelled. “I know CPR!” Just as she threw herself next…

Ideal environment does not guarantee perfect performance. After all, Adam was in Paradise when he fell! The New Testament was not written on vacation; much of it was penned in jail. Paul was not resting at a pleasure resort when he wrote the Epistles. The Pilgrim’s Progress was not put together in a…

In his book The Divine Yes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975) E. Stanley Jones notes that Swiss climbers have a rope, the strands of which at the center are the strongest and are capable of holding a man up even if all the edges of the rope are worn off. Journal of Religious Speaking, page 44 (med. Blue…

During a long illness, my brother grew a luxuriant beard and mustache. Then while convalescing at a country hotel with his wife, he decided to shave, taking his beard off one day and his mustache the next. Leaving the dining room one morning, my sister-in-law heard one elderly lady say to another, “I…

One man gets nothing but discord out of a piano; another gets harmony. No one claims the piano is at fault. 1800 Quippable Quips, E. C. McKenzie, page 12

Sally: I wonder what’s wrong with that tall blond guy over there. Just a minute ago he was getting awful friendly, and then all of a sudden he turned pale, walked away, and won’t even look at me anymore. Linda: Maybe he saw me come in. He’s my husband. The Fun Joke Book, Bob Phillips, page 58

The man who was suing over an automobile accident was on the stand. The defendant’s counsel took over. “Did you, or did you not,” he asked the plaintiff, “at the time of the accident, when asked if you were hurt, reply that you weren’t?” “Well,” said the plaintiff, “it was like this. I was going along…

Mr. Jones picked the wrong umbrella in a hotel, and the owner called his attention to it. Embarrassed, he offered his apologies and went on his way. The incident served to remind him that he had promised to buy both his wife and his daughter an umbrella, so he purchased them one each, along with one…

Perhaps the classic example in this regard is the study of the identical twin sons of a chronic alcoholic. One twin became an alcoholic. The other became a teetotaler. Both were asked later in life why they had followed their chosen paths. Their answers were identical: “With an alcoholic for a father,…

There’s a story going the rounds that involves a carpet layer who had worked all day installing wall-to-wall, carpeting. When he noticed a lump under the carpet in the middle of the living room, he felt his shirt pocket for his cigarettes – they were gone. He was not about to take up the carpet, so he…

“Overcoming the Circumstances of Life” “We talk about ‘circumstances over which we have no control.’ None of us have control over our circumstances, but we are responsible for the way we pilot ourselves in the midst of things as they are. Two boats can sail in opposite directions in the same wind, according…

So many times I've broken dates with my family to do something for the church. Below is an excerpt from by book, "The Boomerang Mandate, Returning the Ministry to the people of God" that tells about a time I got it right. Last spring, Susan and I scheduled a getaway weekend at a bed and breakfast in…

Circumstances, Adverse 1. Problems often provide us with greater opportunities 2. Problems can promote our spiritual maturity (Ps 105:16ff) 3. Problems prove our integrity (1 Pt 3:15) 4. Problems produce a sense of dependence 5. Problems prepare our hearts for ministry (more empathetic) I’ll say this…

Circumstances Why do you think you've been blessed with the talents, disposition and abilities that make you uniquely you? Why do you think you have the advantages you have? What about the tragedies in your life-why did you have to go through them? One evening in the Fall of 1981, I opened Concentric…

ARE YOU UNDER OR ABOVE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES? A friend of mine once met a lady who was severely depressed by a series of disheartening events. When asked how she was weathering the storm of adversity, she answered, “Quite well, under the circumstances.” “Sister,” he replied kindly yet firmly, “you’ll never…

All Circumstances In her book, THE HIDING PLACE, Corrie Ten Boom relates an incident that taught her to be thankful for things we normally would not be thankful for. Corrie and her sister, Betsy, prisoners of the Nazis, had just been transferred to the worst prison camp they had seen yet, Ravensbruck.…

I read a parable recently that bothered me when I read it the first time. It is a story that was reportedly told by Buddha: A traveler, fleeing a tiger who was chasing him, ran till he came to the edge of a cliff. There he caught hold of a thick vine, and swung himself over the edge. Above him the tiger…