Thank you for the music, the icecream, the wonders of life ....

Last week I took my children to a restaurant. My six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As we bowed our heads he said, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And Liberty and justice for all! Amen."

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice-cream! Why, I never! "Hearing this, my son burst into tears and asked me, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?" As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table. He winked at my son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer." "Really?" my son asked. "Cross my heart."

Then in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, I bought my kids ice cream at the end of the meal. My son stared at his for a moment and then did something I will remember the rest of my life. He picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is good already.

Author unknown. Published by www.bethelstone.com

Just a few drops more ... and more ... God's turns our drops into floods of blessing

It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. Crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The creeks and streams were long gone back into the earth. It was a dry season that would bankrupt several farmers before it was through. Water rationing would soon wipe out our farm.

Then I learnt a lesson in sharing and witnessed the only miracle I have seen with my own eyes. I was making lunch when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walk to the woods. He walked with a serious purpose. I could only see his back, but he seemed to walk with great care.

He carried on walking carefully to the woods and running back to the house, for over an hour. Finally I couldn't take it any longer and I crept and followed him on his journey. He cupped both his little hands in front of him as he walked, taking care not to spill the little water he held in them.

Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He had a much higher purpose. Then I saw the most amazing site. Several large deer loomed in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I almost screamed for him to get away.

A huge buck with elaborate antlers was dangerously close. But the buck did not threaten him, nor did he move as Billy knelt down. And I saw a tiny fawn laying on the ground, obviously suffering from dehydration. It lifted its head with great effort to lap up the water cupped in my son's hand.

When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house and I hid behind a tree. I followed him back to the house, to a spigot that we had shut off the water to. Billy opened it all the way, to catch what drips there were in his makeshift "cup", as the sun beat down on his little back.

Clearly the trouble he had gotten into for playing with the hose the week before and the lecture he had received about not wasting water, influenced his behavior. No wonder he didn't ask me to help him.

It took almost twenty minutes for the drops to fill his hands. When he stood up and began the trek back, I was there in front of him. His little eyes just filled with tears. "I'm not wasting," was all he said. As he began his walk, I joined him...with a small pot of water from the kitchen.

I let him tend to the fawn. I stayed away. It was his job. I stood on the edge of the woods watching the most beautiful heart I have ever known working hard to save another life. As the tears rolled down my face began to hit the ground, they were suddenly joined by other drops...and more drops.

I looked up at the sky. It was as if God, himself, was weeping with pride. Some will probably say that this was all just a huge coincidence. That miracles don't really exist. That it was bound to rain sometime. And I can't argue with that...I'm not going to try. All I can say is that the rain that came that day saved our farm ... just like the actions of one little boy saved another. For God does ultimately reward our persistent faithfullness and He brings breakthroughs so we may know that He is God.

Author unknown, published by http://www.bethelstone.com/

Billy Graham's new suit - for a man who knows where he is going

Billy Graham is now 86 years old with Parkinson's disease. In January 2000, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon in his honor.

Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, 'We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you'. So he agreed.

After wonderful things were said about him, Dr. Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, 'I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger.

When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn't find it.

The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.' Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.' Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going.''

Having said that Billy Graham continued, 'See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion.

You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am .. I also know where I'm going.'

Source: unknown, published by www.bethelstone.com

The gravity of life drags us down, but God gives us hope ...

When you are four, success is not wetting your pants.

When you are ten, success is finding friends.

When you are sixteen, success is getting a driver’s license.

When you are eighteen, success is being able to vote.

When you are twenty-one, success is being independent.

When you are thirty, success is being married with children.

When you are forty, success is having solid investments.

When you are fifty, success is holding on to those investments.

When you are fifty-five, success is being free of your children.

When you are sixty, success is being independent.

When you are sixty-five, success is not having to vote.

When you are seventy, success is holding on to your driver’s license.

When you are seventy-five, success is holding on to friends

.… and when you are eighty, success is not wetting yourself.

Such is the cycle of life, the wheel of fortune – we live, we love, we learn to cry. Too soon we find how small we are, how little we know.

We come into the world naked and helpless and leave the same way. Whether we are rich or poor, famous or infamous, all privileges end at death’s door, the great and ultimate equalizer.

I once had a vision of heaven. I was jumping for a ball and then just kept going, shouting as I went that “we are going”. I remembered moving at lightning speeds until I arrived in a waiting lounge. My wife and children were already there, but they had a film over their eyes. My dream interpreted this correctly in terms of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 13, “we see through a glass darkly, now in part, but then face to face”.

Then suddenly the scales fell off and an angel called us to a large wooden door. But the door was a mess. It was covered in graffiti, nails, oil, grime and paint. Yet when the angel opened the door, the opposite side was gilded, beautiful, sublime – a masterpiece.

Again the dream interpreted itself, revealing that the door out of this world abuts onto the door to the next world. There is no interlude. We are either in this world or in the next. There is no suspension or vacant wandering, for “to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord”. For many that meeting place with God is something to dread, although Churchill wondered if God was up to the ordeal. For the faithful, death is the prize for a race well run.

Fanny Crosby, the greatest hymn-writer in history was asked if her blindness troubled her. “No” she said, “for when I first see I will be looking on His face”. What a hope, what a peace, what a victorious life.

The angel beckoned us to enter, but I hesitated. “I am not worthy to enter”, I said, gasping at the sublime and transcendent glory that lay beyond. “You are right”, said the angel, “yet what Christ did for you has made you worthy anyway”.

Little boys float their boats as proof of their claims and boasts about the floatability of their creations. Well, the only proof of whether our lives can withstand eternity and endure its scrutiny happens when we die. Like Noah and his ark, we only get one test-run and it is a live test. The culmination of our life work, is the ultimate moment of reckoning for all.

That is when the proud, abusive and offensive will be leveled and the downtrodden righteous will finally validate their decisions to serve God.

So look up. There is a price to pay for following Jesus, but as the Psalmist said in Psalm 73, “we have gazed on His glory and seen the end of the wicked”. The same psalmist almost stumbled in his own faith until he saw his faith in perspective and realized that it will be worth it all when we see Him face to face.

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com

Along came a spider ... a story about God's deliverance through seemingly everyday insignificances ...

During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire, he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him came up the ridge, they would quickly searchall the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be your will, please protect me.Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you. Amen."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close. He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one."

Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.
As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave.
"Ha," he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor."

As the enemy drew closer, he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another.

As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.

"Lord, forgive me," prayed the young man. "I had forgotten that in you, a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget what God can work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways.
And remember, with God, a mere spider's web becomes a brick wall of protection.

Source: Author Unknown, published by http://www.bethelstone.com/

A Christian prison .... an unusual social expiriment built around a special, long-term inmate ....

Twenty years ago the Brazilian government turned a prison near the city of Sao Jose dos Campos, over to two Christians. It was renamed Humaita, to be run on Christian principles.

With the exception of two full-time staff, all work is done by inmates. Chuck Colson visited the prison and made this report:

I found the inmates smiling - particularly the murderer who opened the gates and let me in. Wherever I walked I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas, people working industriously. The walls were decorated with Biblical sayings.

My guide escorted me to the torture cell. "Today", he told me, "that block houses only a single inmate. As we reached the end of a long concrete corridor and he hesitated.

Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a crucifix, beautifully carved by the Humaita inmates - the prisoner Jesus, hanging on a cross.

"He's doing time for the rest of us," my guide said softly."

Source: Max Lucado at www.maxlucado.com

www.bethelstone.com

A lesson in human(e) leadership ... a word of encouragement could achieve much, save much ...

During his college years, Sherman Rogers spent a summer in an Idaho logging camp. When the super­intendent had to leave for a few days, he put Rogers in charge. "What if the men refuse to follow my or­ders?" Rogers asked. He thought of Tony, an immigrant worker who grumbled and growled all day, giving the other men a hard time.

"Fire them," the superintendent said. Then, as if reading Rogers' mind, he added, "I suppose you think you are going to fire Tony if you get the chance. I'd feel badly about that. I have been logging for 40 years. Tony is the most reliable worker I've ever had. I know he is a grouch and that he hates everybody and everything. But he comes in first and leaves last. There has not been an accident for eight years on the hill where he works."

Rogers took over the next day. He went to Tony and spoke to him. "Tony, do you know I'm in charge here today?" Tony grunted. "I was going to fire you the first time we tangled, but I want you to know I'm not," he told Tony, adding what the superintendent had said. When he finished, Tony dropped the shovel­ful of sand he had held and tears streamed down his face. "Why he no tell me dat eight years ago?" That day Tony worked harder than ever be­fore -- and he smiled! He later said to Rogers, "I told Maria you first foreman in deese country who ever say, 'Good work, Tony,' and it make Maria feel like Christmas."

Rogers went back to school after that summer. Twelve years later he met Tony again. He was superintendent for railroad construction for one of the largest logging companies in the West. Rogers asked him how he came to Califor­nia and happened to have such success. Tony replied, "If it not be for the one mi­nute you talk to me back in Idaho, I keel some­body someday. One minute, she change my whole life."

One minute. Have you got one minute to thank someone? A minute to tell someone what you sincerely like or appreciate about her? A minute to elaborate on something he did well? One minute. It can make a difference for a lifetime.

Source unknown published by http://www.bethelstone.com/

I am coming to visit you .... a challenge to all believers about what we woudl do if Jesus came to our homes ....

Ruth went to her mail box and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again. There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:

Dear Ruth, I’m going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I’d like to stop by for a visit. Love Always,Jesus.

Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. “Why would the Lord want to visit me? I’m nobody special. I don’t have anything to offer.”

With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. “Oh my goodness, I really don’t have anything to offer. I’ll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner.”

She reached for her purse and counted out its contents. Five dollars and forty cents. “Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least.”

She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of French bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk…leave Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday.Nonetheless, she felt as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.

“Hey lady, can you help us, lady?” Ruth had been so absorbed in herdinner plans, she hadn’t even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.Look lady, I ain’t got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it’s getting cold and we’re getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady, we’d really appreciate it.”

Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to.

“Sir, I’d like to help you, but I’m a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I’m having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him.”

“Yeah, well, OK lady, I understand. Thanks anyway.”The man put his arm around the woman’s shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley.
As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart. “Sir, wait!” The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. “Look, why don’t you take this food. I’ll figure out something else to serve my guest.” She handed the man her grocery bag.

“Thank you lady. Thank you very much!” “Yes, thank you!” It was the man’s wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering.“You know, I’ve got another coat at home. Here, why don’t you take this one.”

Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman’s shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street…without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest. “Thank you lady! Thank you very much!”

Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn’t have anything to offer Him. She fumbled through her purse for the door key.

But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox. “That’s odd. The mailman doesn’t usually come twice in one day.”

She took the envelope out of the box and opened it:

Dear Ruth,It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat.Love Always,Jesus.

The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed
God Bless You.

source: Fr Eugene Lobo SJ at God in all things (http://godinallthings.stblogs.com)

www.bethelstone.com

God exists ... as do barbers.

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said, “I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber, “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! That’s what happens when people do not go to Him and don’t look to Him for help. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”


Source: FR EUGENE LOBO SJ at God In All Things (http://godinallthings.stblogs.com/)

www.bethelstone.com