TRUST
A New York City businessman decided to avoid a twenty dollar service charge by replacing the bulb in a seven-foot fluorescent light himself. He managed to smuggle a new tube into his office, but then faced the problem of how to dispose of the old tube. He recalled that a construction site near the subway stop in Brooklyn had a large waste receptacle. He decided to deposit the tube there.
After work that evening the man got on the subway holding the white tube vertically with one end resting on the floor. As the train became crowded, other passengers took hold of the tube, assuming it was a hand rail.
By the time the man reached his stop, he had devised another plan. He simply removed his hand, leaving the other passengers to continue holding the tube, and got off the subway.
If the train came to a sudden stop, those passengers would have learned that their “anchor” was not secure.
I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining,
I believe in love even when I’m alone.
I believe in God even when He’s silent.
Stonewall Jackson and his sister were crossing a treacherous torrent just below the mighty Niagara Falls. The current so rocked and tossed the boat that the woman became terrified. Jackson took her firmly by the arm and turning to one of the two boatmen, said, “How often have you crossed here before?” “Continually, sir, for the past twelve years.” “Did you ever meet with an accident?” “Never, sir.” “Never capsized and lost a life?” “Nothing of the kind, sir.” Turning to his sister, Jackson reassuringly replied, “You heard what the boatman said. Unless you think you can row better than he does, just sit still and trust him as I do.”
—Our Daily Bread
An elderly woman in West Virginia had never ridden in an airplane. Her grandson finally persuaded her to take an air flight. With fear and trepidation, she agreed.
After a short flight, the plane landed. As she deplaned, the grandson asked cheerily, “How did you like the flight, Grandma?” “Well,” she unenthusiastically replied, “I went up in the plane, but I never let my weight down during the whole flight.”
That fearful, distrustful grandma is like many of God’s children. In all His greatness, we too often neglect to rest completely in His all powerful hands.
If sorrow makes us shed tears, faith in the promise of God makes us dry them.
—Augustine
Sure, it takes a lot of courage
To put things in God’s hands—
To give ourselves completely,
Our lives, our hopes, our plans;
To follow where He leads us
And make His will our own—
But all it takes is foolishness
To go the way alone!
When you have nothing left but God, then you become aware that God is enough.
—Rayden
There is no conceivable situation in which it is not safe to trust God.
—J. Oswald Sanders
Trust in God—but tie your camel tight.
—Persian proverb
The men who trust God are the men who can be trusted.
If I really, really trust Him,
Shall I ever fret?
If I really do expect Him,
Can I e’er forget?
If by faith I really see Him,
Shall I doubt His aid?
If I really, really love Him,
Can I be afraid?
A man reportedly said, “I’m not the least bit afraid of thieves breaking into my house. I’ve got the place rigged so if I hear a burglar, I touch a button that sends an electric current to explode the dynamite in my cellar. That would blow the burglar sky high!”
—Leslie, B. Flynn
In what are you trusting? Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment.
Trust in your friends and they will die and leave you.
Trust in money and you may have it taken from you.
Trust in reputation and some slanderous tongue may blast it.
But trust in God and you will never be confounded in time or eternity.
Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.
—Augustine
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
—Corrie Ten Boom
A man was traveling along in a car when he saw a poor fellow standing at the side of the road, carrying a large and heavy sack. He offered him a lift, and the man got in the car but kept the sack on his shoulder. The driver said, “Why don’t you put that sack down?” The man replied, “Well, sir, I’m so grateful you are carrying me I don’t think it is fair to ask you to carry my sack as well!”
—Alan Redpath
A television program preceding the Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, “Left!” and “Right!” As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers’ word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.
—Robert W. Sutton
A father, seeing three small children playing atop a high fence, feared that they would fall; and so he cried, “Come, jump into my arms!” Two of them promptly did so. The other hesitated. Why did the third child react more slowly? The father explained, “The first two obeyed immediately because they were my own children. They knew me and therefore trusted me.” So, too, those who truly know and love the Lord never resist His good leading.
So I go on not knowing,
I would not if I might;
I’d rather walk with God in the dark
Than to walk alone in the light;
I had rather walk with Him by faith
Than to walk alone by sight.
When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust;
When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
That is just the time to trust.
’Tis better to walk by faith than sight,
In this path of yours and mine;
And the pitch-black night, when there’s no light,
Is the time for our faith to shine.
A fellow wrote to a mail-order house: “Please send me the engine you show on page 878, and if it’s any good, I’ll send you a check.”
A week later he received the reply: “Please send the check. If it’s any good, we’ll send you the engine.”
His Way Is Perfect
‘Tis far, far better to let Him choose
The way that we should take,
If only we leave our life with Him,
He will provide without mistake.
We, in our blindness, would never choose
A pathway dark and rough,
And so would never find in Him,
“The God who is enough.”
In disappointment, trouble, and pain,
We turn to God without dismay
And prove how wonderful, good and wise,
Is God’s own perfect way.
Years ago the English steamer Stella was wrecked on a rocky coast. Twelve women were put in a lifeboat, but the boisterous sea immediately carried it away. Having no oars, they were at the mercy of the winds and the waves, and they spent a fearful night being tossed about by the raging tempest. They probably would have lost hope if it had not been for the spiritual stamina of one of the women, Margaret Williams, who was well known for her work in sacred oratorios. Calmly she prayed aloud for divine protection. Then, urging her companions to put their trust in the Lord, she encouraged them by singing hymns of comfort. Throughout the dark hours her voice rang out across the water. Early the next morning a small craft came searching for survivors. The man at the helm would have missed the women in the fog if he had not heard Miss Williams singing the selection from Elijah, “Oh, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him!” Steering in the direction of her strong voice, he soon spotted the drifting lifeboat. While many others were lost that night, those trusting few were rescued.
To do Thy will is more than praise,
As words are less than deeds;
And simple trust can find Thy ways
We miss with chart of creeds.
Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord,
What may thy service be?
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word,
But simply following Thee
—J. G. Whittier
Oliver Cromwell’s secretary was dispatched to the continent on some important business. He stayed one night at a seaport town and tossed on his bed, unable to sleep.
According to an old custom, a servant slept in his room and on this occasion slept soundly enough. The secretary at length wakened the man, who asked how it was that his master could not rest.
“I am so afraid something will go wrong with the embassage,” was the reply.
“Master,” said the valet, “may I ask a question or two?”
“To be sure.”
“Did God rule the world before we were born?”
“Most assuredly he did.”
“And will He rule it again after we are dead?”
“Certainly He will.”
“Then, master, why not let Him rule the present too?”
The secretary’s faith was stirred, peace was the result, and in a few minutes both he and his servant were sound asleep.
A distressed believer once said to a Christian counselor, “It’s hard for me to trust God when everything looks dark.” The man replied, “Well, brother, if you can’t trust someone when he’s out of your sight, he isn’t worth much. So, too, if you can’t trust God in the dark, you really don’t consider Him trustworthy.” Then pointing to a baby chick that had just taken refuge beneath a large hen, he added, “See that little chick hiding under the wing of its mother? As long as it’s there, it can’t see anything, but it’s still protected and secure.” Opening his Bible to Psalm 91, the counselor continued, “Notice it doesn’t say ‘under His wings shalt thou see,’ but ‘under His wings shalt thou trust.’ ”
A drugstore in Galveston, Texas, was in existence for twenty years. The owners decided to have an anniversary celebration. They put all their filled prescriptions—all one million of them—all over the wall. Over them they put a sign with the words, “Trusted—One Million Times.”
God has been and can be trusted many more times than that.
TRUTH
Unless we love the truth we cannot know it.
—Blaise Pascal
Truth is stranger than fiction, but only because fiction is limited to possibilities.
—Mark Twain
Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth.
—Cicero
It is not hard to find the truth. What is hard is not to run away from it once you have found it.
—Etienne Gilson
No man should be angry at what is true.
—Plato
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
—Plato
The fewer the voices on the side of truth, the more distinct and strong must be your own.
—Channing
A preacher made the mistake on Saturday afternoon of showing two boys the Bible lesson he was planing too read Sunday morning. When he turned his back, the boys glued the pages together. Next morning, the preacher read at the bottom of one page, “And Noah when he was 120 years old, took unto himself a wife who was,” and then, turning the page, “300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, built of gopher wood and pitched within and without with pitch.” Puzzled, he paused. Then he read it again. And again he paused, nonplused. Looking up, he said, “Beloved, I have read the Bible through many, many times, but this is the first time I have ever read this. But I believe the Bible to be true from cover to cover. So I accept it as proof that we are fearfully and wonderfully made!”
TWO NATURES
Suppose a farmer put duck eggs under a chicken. Then after they were hatched, the ducks followed the hen. But then a thunderstorm came and the ducks delayed behind in a puddle of water. But the hen did not like water and so she could not understand why the ducks stayed behind in the puddle.
Why did the ducks like water and the hen not? Because ducks have duck nature and hens have hen nature.
In a particular nation two competing factions were fighting for control of the country. Eventually, with the help of an outside army, one faction won the war and assumed control of the nation’s government. But the losing side did not stop fighting. They simply changed their tactics to guerrilla warfare and continued to fight. In fact, they were so successful that the country supplying the outside help could not withdraw its troops.
So it is with the Christian. Satan has been defeated and the reign of sin overthrown. But our sinful natures resort to a sort of guerrilla warfare to lead us into sin. This results in the struggle between the Spirit and our sinful natures.