The New Harvest
I was visiting a friend in a Midwest farming community during harvest season. Huge combines churned through his fields, depositing soybeans into waiting wagons. My friend leaped onto one of the wagons to check out his “firstfruits.” What he saw was encouraging. Despite the worst corn crop in 40 years, the soybeans gave him reason to thank God for a good harvest.
Forbidden Fruit
In Galveston, Texas, a hotel on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico put this notice in each room:
It’s Always Needed
It may seem like an ancient relic today, but not too many years ago people in all kinds of trades and vocations found a slide rule to be indispensable. This ingenious instrument was used to make complex mathematic computations quickly.
The Pathetic Pelican
Pelicans, with their huge beaks, are strange-looking birds. But I saw one that was especially weird. Its beak was crisscrossed, as if someone had pulled the upper and lower parts in opposite directions. He was a pathetic sight!
Don’t Get Greedy
Philip Parham tells the story of a rich industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. “Why aren’t you out there fishing?” he asked.
When Someone Is Gone
It was one of those rare times at our house when there was only one child around. Stevie’s older sisters were off at camps and on mission trips, so it was a good time for a father-son airport outing.
Good and Bad Laughter
Doctors and psychologists tell us that laughter is good for us. This is undoubtedly true, because the Bible says that “a merry heart does good, like medicine” (Prov. 17:22).
Why Go to Church?
William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University, was invited to preach in an inner-city church. The service, with its long preliminaries, lasted 21?2 hours. When it was finally over, Willimon was exhausted and asked the pastor, “Why do these people stay in church so long?”
Speak and Do
In ancient Greek dramas, a person behind a curtain spoke the lines while the performer on stage acted out the role. We might refer to the speaker behind the scenes as one who didn’t “practice what he preached.”
