One day, the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, everyone gathered but only one boy came with an umbrella.
That is FAITH!..
When you throw a little kid in the air, he/she laughs because he/she knows you will catch him/her.
That is TRUST!..
Every night when we go to bed, We’re not sure if we’ll ever get up tomorrow, but we still plan for the coming days.
That is HOPE!..
Have FAITH and TRUST in GOD, and never lose HOPE!
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’ She nodded through her tears.. He continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, ‘Mister. …’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, ‘Are you Jesus?’
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you Jesus?’ Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
I dreamed I had an interview with God.
“Come in,” God said. “So, you would like to interview Me?”
“If you have the time,” I said.
God smiled and said: “My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; What questions do you have in mind to ask me?”
“What surprises you most about mankind?”
God answered:
“That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.
“That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.
“That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future.
“That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived.”
God’s hands took mine and we were silent for awhile and then I asked… “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”
God replied with a smile:
“To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.
“To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.
“To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis!
“To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them.
“To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.
“To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.
“To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.
“To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally different.
“To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them…and likes them anyway.
“To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves.”
I sat there for awhile enjoying the moment. I thanked Him for his time and for all that He has done for me and my family, and He replied, “Anytime. I’m here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for me, and I’ll answer.”
Failure doesn’t mean I’m a Failure.
It does mean I haven’t yet succeeded.
Failure doesn’t mean I have accomplished nothing.
It does mean I have learned something.
Failure doesn’t mean I have been a fool.
It does mean I had enough faith to experiment.
Failure doesn’t mean I have been disgraced.
It does mean I dared to try.
Failure doesn’t mean I don’t have it.
It does mean I have to do something a different way.
Failure doesn’t mean I am inferior.
It does mean I am not perfect, nobody is.
Failure doesn’t mean I should give up.
It does mean I should try harder.
Failure doesn’t mean I am helpless and hopeless.
It does mean I need God to succeed.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.
 Psalm 146:5
Priest: Next Sunday, i will preach about the sin of lying. To understand more, i want you all to read John Chapter 17.
…(the following Sunday)
Priest: how many of you have read John Chapter 17?
(almost every hand went up except for a guy who was dressed up like a gangster)
Priest: my son, you haven’t read what i told you?
Guy: well, i can’t seem to find the 17th chapter.
Priest: (smiled) John has only 16 chapters. Let’s now proceed with my sermon about the sin of lying…