Commonplace Book

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.” The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel: “How could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him”, she accused. “

A hungry man was walking down the street in a village of medieval Turkey. He had only a piece of bread in his hand. He came to a restaurant where some meatballs were being grilled. The cooking meat was so near and the smell so delicious the man held his piece of bread over the meat to capture some of the smell. As he started to eat the bread, the angry restaurant owner seized him and took him away to see a judge. The owner protested, "This man was stealing the smell of my meat without asking permission. I want you to make him pay me for it." The judge thought for a moment, then held up his purse in front of the owner and shook it. "What are you doing that for?" asked the restaurant owner? The judge replied, "I am paying you. The sound of money is fair payment for the smell of food."

A little girl once asked, "If God is inside of me and is so big, why doesn't he break through?" This is the question of this heavenly audit. Why doesn't the grace and love of God break through in the way we speak, in how we act, in the many times we come in contract with others. The issue is accountability and God's chosen way of caring for his children. He has chosen to work in and through us who are called to be a part of the Body of Christ.

The story is told of a young monk asking an older monk, "Father, if God is infinitely merciful, how can he deprive anyone of his heavenly kingdom?" The older monk answered, "Why do you keep turning your head from side to side?" The younger monk replied, "Because the sun keeps hitting me right in the eye and just won't leave me in peace." "Then you've answered your own question," the older monk laughed. "God doesn't deprive anyone of his heavenly kingdom. Some simply cannot bear the light, any more than you can bear the light of the sun."

My husband is an Engineer by profession, I love him for his steady nature, and I love the warm feeling when I lean against his broad shoulders. Three years of courtship and now, two years into marriage, I would have to admit, that I am getting tired of it. The reasons of me loving him before, has now transformed into the cause of all my restlessness. I am a sentimental woman and extremely sensitive when it comes to a relationship and my feelings, I yearn for the romantic moments, like a little girl yearning for candy. My husband, is my complete opposite, his lack of sensitivity, and the inability of bringing romantic moments into our marriage has disheartened me about love. One day, I finally decided to tell him my decision, that I wanted a divorce. “Why?” he asked, shocked. “I am tired, there are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered. He kept silent the whole night, seems to be in deep thought with a lighted cigarette at all times. My feeling of disappointment o

A young man went to seek an important position at a large printing company. He passed the initial interview and went to meet the director for the final interview. The director looked at his resumé, and asked, “Have you ever received a scholarship for school?” “No,” the man replied. “It was your father who paid for your studies?” “Yes.” “Where does your father work?” “My father is a blacksmith.” Then, the director asked the young man to show him his hands. They were soft and perfect. “Have you ever helped your parents at their job?” the director continued. “Never. My parents always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, he can do the job better than I can.” “I have a request for you,” said the director. “When you go home today, go and wash the hands of your father, and then come see me tomorrow morning.” The young man left feeling good about the interview. That night, when he returned home, he asked his father if he would allow him to wash his hands.

Years ago, a little girl was reprimanded by her father for wasting a whole roll of gold wrapping paper. He reprimanded the child and sent her to her room. The next morning in spite of what had happened the night before, she appeared before her father with a huge box wrapped in gold wrapping paper and said, "Here Daddy, this is for you." Swallowing hard, the man opened the box to find nothing inside and again reprimanded the child by telling her that, when you give a present, there is supposed to be something inside. With tears in her eyes she said, "Daddy, the box isn't empty...I blew kisses into it for you." The father hugged his child and begged for her forgiveness. He kept the box by his bed for years; and whenever he felt overwhelmed by life, he would open the box and take one of the precious gifts that his daughter had given him years before. In this time of giving or at any time, let us remember that it truly isn't the gift, but the intent that

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean section to deliver the couple’s new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs. ‘I don’t think she’s going to make it'” he said, as kindly as he could. ‘”There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.’ Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk; she would nev

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word. As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was, and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. When the bo

I'd like you to imagine yourself in the first century of the common era.  You're a Roman citizen, fairly well off.  You wear the best silks against your skin, are fairly well educated in the "classics", can speak both Latin and Greek.  You've just kissed your newly cleaned child, breathing in the scent of the oils used to keep his skin in good condition, and sent him off with his nurse.  Now is a time when you can relax with your light evening meal, bread and dates, figs and a bit of meat, wines perfectly matching.  Life in your city was perfect.  You glance out the window, only in that split second seeing Vesuvius before being frozen in time, dying in superheated gasses and volcanic ash.  The explosion of Mt. Vesuvius was so sudden, the citizens in both the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were perfectly preserved in time, as shown in National Geographic's May 1984 issue.  The saddest part is that these people did not have to die. Scientists confirm what an

I stood in that old church in Richmond where long ago Patrick Henry fired a verbal shot that was heard around the world. It was on March 20, 1775, a day when centuries were crowded into hours. The olive branch men of the time were trying to work out a compromise of peaceful coexistence, although the term hadn't come into use, with George III. But Patrick Henry was fed up with finagling, and that Virginian saw no sense in further negotiation. He said, "I don't know what others will do, but as for me give me liberty or give me death." The dye was cast and the Rubicon was crossed, and all bridges were burned and retreat was impossible. There wasn't any uncertainty about where Patrick Henry stood. He cleared the air and stated the issue. There weren't any third dimensions and middle ground. Such a speech is awfully out of date in this fuzzy day of wooly thinking when experts in double talk, in the art of almost saying something specialize in a straightforward w

Too often in our evangelism we offer salvation without mentioning the cost of commitment. God's grace is given freely but it's given exclusively. God expects his followers to remain faithful. If they turn away from him after he's saved them he gets angry. He describes it as being like the anger of husband whose wife has an affair. So when you choose to follow him make sure it's an exclusive commitment. When we come to the book of Judges, just over the page, we find account after account of the failure of the people to remain faithful and the disastrous outcomes for the nation that result from their unfaithfulness. They remain God's chosen people but the success and happiness that might have been theirs is destroyed. Time and time again God removes his protection from them in order to bring them back to him.