Quotes
- We’re all like the moon, we have a dark side we don’t want anyone to see. - Mark Twain
- No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true. - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Flattery
Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher. King Louis demanded, “What does this mean?” Fenelon replied, “I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king.”
Pet Food
My brother adopted a snake named Slinky, whose most disagreeable trait was eating live mice. Once I was pressed into going to the pet store to buy Slinky’s dinner. The worst part of this wasn’t choosing the juiciest-looking creatures or turning down the clerk who wanted to sell me vitamins to ensure their longevity. The hardest part was carrying the poor things out in a box bearing the words “Thank you for giving me a home.”
Adolph Hitler
He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity—with no inward reality!
Testimony
A rather pompous-looking deacon was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. “Why do people call me a Christian?” the man asked. After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”
The Hen and the Nest
There was a preacher who was interviewing with a pastoral search committee. An English teacher headed the committee, and was very concerned that the future pastor spoke properly. “When the hen is on the nest, does she sit or set?” he asked the candidate. The hopeful pastor was frustrated. He didn’t know what to say, and his career was on the line. Finally he replied, “It really doesn’t matter if she’s sitting or setting. What I want to know is this: when she cackles is she laying or lying?”
The Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) failing to penetrate the mystery of the divine and human natures of Christ, offered four precautions that would protect the Christian from error when contemplating this mystery.
1. Attribute true and proper divinity to Christ.
2. Attribute true and proper humanity to Christ
3. Do not so mingle the human and divine that you end up with a being neither human nor divine.
4. Do not dissect Christ so that there are two persons in one being.
Resource
- Christian Child Rearing, P. Meier, Baker, 1977, pp. 58ff
Frozen Lake
If you plan to do any ice skating or driving around on a frozen lake this winter, here’s a useful piece of information from the National Weather Service. The Service estimates that six inches of clear lake ice that has not been heavily traveled on can bear the weight of one person on foot. Under the same conditions, it would take about twenty-four inches of ice to hold a car or a light truck.
Resource
- Wake Up Calls, Ron Hutchcraft, Moody, 1990, p. 80