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Showing posts with label faithfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faithfulness. Show all posts

Friday, February 21, 2025

Faithful Also In Much

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Here is an article by an unknown author that I wanted to share.

Text:  Psalm 23:4; 1 Corinthians 10:13.

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 The sign in the window read: "Boy Wanted". Young John Simmons, though he was lazy, saw his opportunity and applied. He was quickly hired by elderly Mr. Peters. The pace was leisurely so he enjoyed the job.

 Toward the middle of the afternoon however, he was sent up to the attic -- a dingy place full of cobwebs and infested with mice. "You will find a long, deep box there," explained Mr. Peters. "Please sort out the contents and see what should be saved." John was disappointed. It was a large container, and there seemed to be nothing in it but old junk. After a few minutes he went back to the ground floor.

 Asked by the proprietor if he had completed his work, he replied, "No, sir, it was dark and cold up there and I didn’t think it was worth doing." At closing time he was paid and told not to return. The next morning the old sign "Boy Wanted" appeared in its usual place.

 Crawford Hill was the next to be employed. When he was asked to tidy up the same box, however, he spent hours separating the usable nails and screws from the things to be discarded. Suddenly he raced down the stairs all excited. "At the very bottom I found this!" he exclaimed, holding up a 20-dollar bill. 

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At last the store owner had discovered a conscientious boy to whom he could entrust his business when he retired. Years later Mr. Peters said, "This young man, who is now my successor, found his fortune in a junk box!" Then, correcting himself, he added, "No, he actually found it in his mother’s Bible because he heeded the verse she made him memorize: ’He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much!’"

William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

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Brother Roop teaches the Bible












Friday, August 9, 2024

The Covenant Of Faithfulness

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Text: Psalm 119:89-90; Galatians 6:9.

 THE COVENANT OF FAITHFULNESS


In modern times we define a host of relations by contracts.

These are usually for goods or services and for hard cash. The contract, formal or informal, helps to specify failure in these relationships.

The Lord did not establish a contract with Israel or with the church. He created a covenant. There is a difference. Contracts are broken when one of the parties fails to keep his promise. If, let us say, a patient fails to keep an appointment with a doctor, the doctor is not obligated to call the house and inquire, "Where were you? Why didn’t you show up for your appointment?" He simply goes on to his next patient and has his appointment secretary take note of the patient who failed to keep the appointment. The patient may find it harder the next time to see the doctor. He broke an informal contract.

According to the Bible, however, the Lord asks: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!" (Isaiah 49:15) The Bible indicates the covenant is more like the ties of a parent to her child than it is a doctor’s appointment.

If a child fails to show up for dinner, the parent’s obligation, unlike the doctor’s, isn’t canceled. The parent finds out where the child is and makes sure he’s cared for. One member’s failure does not destroy the relationship.

A covenant puts no conditions on faithfulness. It is the unconditional commitment to love and serve.

SOURCE: Bruce Shelley

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Acres of Diamonds

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

From the book, "Acres of diamonds."

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In the year 1843, a man was born who was to have a profound effect upon millions of people. His name was Russell Herman Conwell. He became a lawyer, then a newspaper editor, and finally a minister. It was during his church career that an incident occurred that was to change his life and the lives of countless others.

One day a group of young people came to Dr. Conwell at his church and asked him if he’d be willing to instruct them in college courses; they all wanted a college education but lacked the money to pay for it. He told them to let him think about it and come back in a few days.

After they left, an idea began to form in Dr. Conwell’s mind. He asked himself, "Why couldn’t there be a college for poor but deserving young people?" And before very long the idea consumed him. Why not, indeed. It was a project worthy of 100% dedication, complete commitment.

And almost single-handedly, Dr. Conwell raised several million dollars, with which he founded Temple University, today one of the country’s leading schools.

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He raised the money by giving more than 6000 lectures all over the country, and in each one of them he told a story which he called "Acres of Diamonds." It was true story which had affected him very deeply and had the same effect on his audiences. The money he needed to build the college came pouring in.

The story was of an African farmer who heard tales of other farmers who had made millions discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself. So he sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems which brought such high prices in the markets of the world. Finally, the story goes, worn out and in a fit of despondency he threw himself into a river and drowned.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch – or farm in this case – the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing the small stream on the property when suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light from the stream bottom. He bent down, picked up the stone – it was a good-sized stone – and, admiring it, later he put it on his fireplace mantle as an interesting curiosity.

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Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he’d found. When the farmer said no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered.
 
Well, the farmer had trouble believing that. He told the man that his creek was full of such stones, not as large perhaps as the one on the mantle but, well, they were sprinkled generously throughout the creek bottom.

Needless to say, the farm that the first farmer had sold so that he might find a diamond mine turned out to be the most productive diamond mine on the entire African continent.

The first farmer had owned, free and clear, acres of diamonds, but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere.

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Well, the moral is clear. If the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state and, since he already owned a piece of the African continent, to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere all of his wildest dreams would have come true.

Now the thing about this story that so profoundly affected Dr. Conwell and subsequently millions of others, was the idea that each of us is at this moment standing in the middle of his or her own acres of diamonds.

If we only had the wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in which we are now engaged, to explore ourselves, we’d usually find the riches we seek, whether they be financial or intangible or both.

Before we go running off to what we think are greener pastures, let’s make sure that our own is not just as green or perhaps even greener. It’s been said that if the other guy’s pasture appears to be greener than ours, it’s quite possible that it’s getting better care. Besides, while we’re looking at other pastures, other people are looking at ours.

The book "Acres of Diamonds" can be read online PDF