WORKS VERSUS FAITH
Andrew Bonar said that in the highlands of Scotland sheep occasionally wander off among the rocky crags and get themselves trapped on dangerous ledges. Attracted by the sweet grass on the mountainside, they leap down one to twelve feet to get to it. But they can’t get back up. A shepherd will allow the helpless animal to remain there for days until it becomes so weak it’s unable to stand up. Finally he ties a rope around his waist and goes over the cliff to the rocky shelf and rescues the one that has strayed. Someone asked Bonar, “Why doesn’t the shepherd go down right away?” “Ah,” came the reply, “sheep are so foolish that they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if the herdsmen didn’t wait until their strength is nearly gone.”
A wealthy religious man had in his employ an old gardener, a true believer, who tried to show his boss the emptiness of mere religion without Christ. There was one tree on the rich man’s estate that never bore any fruit. However, one day as the owner was walking in his orchard, he saw some beautiful apples hanging on it. Imagine his surprise, especially when he went to pick some, and found them to be tied on. The gardener by this simple procedure wanted to point out to his employer the difference between real Christianity and pious sham. Religion without Christ is like a barren tree on which the fruit is merely “tied on.”
In a cartoon, some Pharisees are arguing with Jesus about salvation. They said to Him, “We get our salvation the old-fashioned way; we earn it.”
A young Italian boy knocked at the door of an artist’s studio in Rome. When it was opened, he exclaimed, “Please, madam, will you give me the master’s brush?” The painter had died, and the boy, longing to be an artist, wished for the great man’s touch. The lady placed the requested item in the youth’s hand, saying, “This is his brush; try it, my boy.” With a flush of earnestness on his face, he made a supreme effort but soon found that he could paint no better with it than with his own. The lady then said, “Remember, my child, you cannot imitate the great master unless you have his spirit.”
An ordinary working man was about to lose one eye because of a serious infection in it, and he needed an operation. He went to an eye specialist who examined his eye and said, “Yes, I believe I can perform the operation that will give you your sight.” “What is your fee?” the man asked. “My fee is always ‘so much’ for that operation,” the doctor said, mentioning several hundred dollars. “Why, Doctor, I could never pay a sum like that, but I’ll tell you what I can do. I can pay half that much by paying a small amount each week.” “But I can’t do that,” the surgeon said. “I have a standard to maintain in my profession, and I have to charge a regular fee for this operation, and therefore I cannot lower the fee; but there is nothing to stop me from doing it for nothing.”
When one breaks the speed limit, the policeman doesn’t ask him how well he did at his driving the day or week before. He just gives him a ticket for the thing he did wrong.
God doesn’t refrain from punishing the sins of the sinner just because he has been good the biggest part of the time. The penalty for sin must be paid.
If I could preach justification to be bought or to be had by walking a hundred miles or by some torture, who would not seek it? But when it is offered freely, men turn away.… What poor ideas men have of the value of Christ’s gospel if they think they can buy it!
—Charles H. Spurgeon
A young preacher named John Nelson was talking to a rather self-righteous friend. The man exclaimed, “I do not need your Savior! I’m all right. I’ll take my chance in the life I’ve lived. I think God will not be too hard on me.” Nelson answered this boasting by saying, “Friend, if you got to heaven there would be discord. The song they sing in heaven is, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.’ If you got to heaven, you would be singing, ‘Worthy am I because my own good life fitted me for heaven.’ And an angel would throw you over the wall.”
Once a girl found at her back fence an old tin can with a fuzzy tail tied to it. She tugged and tugged on it and out came a stiff dead cat. Into the kitchen she dragged it, flies and all, yelling, “Mommy! Mommy!”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Mommy, somebody just threw away a perfectly good cat.”
Yes, it was perfectly good except it was dead. There is only one thing wrong with self-righteous people. They are dead in trespasses and sins.
A man is rowing a boat on a river just above a dreadful cataract. The current begins to bear him downward; the spectators on the banks give him up for lost. “He is gone!” they all exclaim. But in another moment a rope is thrown out toward the wretched man; it strikes the water near the boat. Now how does the case stand? Do all the spectators call on him to row, to row stronger, to try harder to reach the shore? No, they eagerly cried, “Drop your oars! Give up your desperate attempt!”
So also the sinner’s hope lies not in struggling to save himself, but in ceasing to struggle.
One of the great American naval vessels destroyed in World War II was the Wasp. Not until it became apparent that the flames had spread beyond hope of control was the order finally given to abandon ship. A surviving officer, Lieutenant Bodell, later said, “I climbed down the cargo net and dropped off into the water. Then I saw my first sign of panic, because some of those ‘green kids’ had no trust in their lifejackets, and instead of getting clear of the ship, were clinging to its plates by their fingertips—the worst thing you can do.”
A poor, untidy man walked into a little drugstore one evening and said to the druggist, “Please, mister, do you have anything for a bad cold?” The druggist, of course, started to work by his rules and he asked, “Do you have your prescription with you?” The man answered, “No, I ain’t got no prescription with me, but I’ve brought my cold with me.”
This is just the way God wants sinners to come to Him. Do not try to bring a prescription.
WORLDLINESS
The great albatross flies around the world several times in the course of its life. These birds can stand being buffeted by ocean gales for days, but they become seasick if they stand on the deck of a moving ship.
Christians can face buffeting by life so long as they remember that they are in the world but not of it. When they become a part of this world, they lose their Christian joy and power, because they are out of the element for which God created them.
He who marries the spirit of the age today will be a widower tomorrow.
—William Inge
A small girl thoughtfully watched her mother working among the plants in their colorful garden. Suddenly she said, “I know why the flowers grow, Mom. They’re so pretty they want to get out of the dirt!”
Similarly, even though Christians have their roots here on earth, they should not cling to this world. Having been beautified by grace, they should focus their attention on heavenly things.
Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things—whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind—that thing to you is sin.
—John Wesley
A popular tavern moved to another part of the city, leaving the “Ole Inn” vacant. A certain congregation rented the vacated tavern for a few months while remodeling and adding recreation rooms and pool halls to their church. The bar was changed to a pulpit, and temporary pews were installed. The tavern owner, however, had forgotten to take his parrot along, so the bird still sat in his cage in the corner. On Sunday morning the preacher took his place and the parrot squawked, “Say, look here! We have a new bartender!” and when the choir entered, he added, “and a new floor show.” But when the members began to come in, the parrot croaked, “Aark! but the same customers—the same old crowd!”
If you find yourself loving any pleasure above prayer, any book better than the Bible, any house more than the house of God, any table better that the Lord’s Table, or any person more than Christ … take alarm.
—Thomas Guthrie
When some boys caught two chirping baby linnets, they decided to teach these birds to sing by putting them in a small cage and hanging it next to the cage of a pet canary. The canary, of course, sang beautifully, so the boys thought if the linnets were close to it, they too would become good songbirds. Several weeks went by with no apparent results. Then one day the youngsters were startled by a strange noise coming from the canary’s cage. “Listen,” one of them said, “the canary is cheeping like a linnet.”
—H. A. Ironside
Several years ago our family visited Niagara Falls. It was spring, and ice was rushing down the river. As I viewed the large blocks of ice flowing toward the falls, I could see that there were carcasses of dead fish embedded in the ice. Gulls by the score were riding down the river feeding on the fish. As they came to the brink of the falls, their wings would go out and they would escape from the falls.
I watched one gull which seemed to delay and wondered when it would leave. It was engrossed in the carcass of a fish, and when it finally came to the brink of the falls, out went its powerful wings. The bird flapped and flapped and even lifted the ice out of the water, and I thought it would escape. But it had delayed too long so that its claws had frozen into the ice. The weight of the ice was too great, and the gull plunged into the abyss.
—George Sweeting
Worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal and righteousness look strange.
—David Wells
The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.
—William Cowper
WORRY
“Why can’t you sleep?” a wife asked her husband, as he paced the floor at 3 A.M. “Honey, I borrowed a thousand dollars from Sam next door, and I have to pay him back tomorrow,” the husband replied. “I just don’t have the money,” he said wringing his hands. The man’s wife jumped out of bed and flung open the bedroom window. “Sam! Sam!” she shouted. After a few minutes the groggy neighbor opened his window. “What is it?” he mumbled. “You know the thousand dollars my husband owes you? He doesn’t have it,” the woman yelled. Turning to her husband, she said, “Now, you go to sleep and let him pace the floor.”
Most of today’s worries are like puddles; tomorrow they will have evaporated.
—Teen Esteem
Life is very simple. The first thing to remember about life is—don’t worry about it. Really, there are only two things to worry about; either you’re successful or you’re not successful. If you’re successful, there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re not successful, there are only two things to worry about. Your health is good or you are sick if your health is good, there’s nothing to worry about. If your health is bad, there are only two things to worry about: either you’re going to live or you’re not going to live. If you live there’s nothing to worry about, and if you don’t live, you have only two things to worry about. Either you’re going to heaven or you’re not going to heaven. If you are going to heaven, there’s nothing to worry about, and if you go to the other place, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your old friends, you won’t have time to worry.
—Milton Berle
To carry worry to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.
—Teen Esteem
If you do the best and the most you can today, don’t worry about tomorrow.
—B. C. Forbes
You don’t get ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what’s eating you.
—Vicki Baum
How to Worry Scientifically
1. Never worry over rumors or what “they” say. First get the facts.
2. Know definitely your worry problem. Write it down. Face it.
3. Worry about only one problem at a time.
4. Set a definite day, afternoon, or night for worrying.
5. Never worry in bed, in the dining room, living room, or at church.
6. Select an air-conditioned room. Lean back in an easy chair.
7. Set a time limit. If you must go beyond it, give yourself credit for time-and-a-half.
8. Never worry with a frowning face. Smile, sing, or whistle.
9. Never worry when you are tired, sick, angry, or depressed.
10. Never worry while working, playing, visiting, shopping, or gossiping.
11. There are two times never to worry—when you can help the situation and when you cannot.
12. Never worry alone. Take it to the Lord and leave it there (Prov. 3:5–6).
We have only two things to worry about. One is that things will never get back to normal. The second is that they already have.
What parents think children worry about:
1. Nuclear war.
2. Terrorism.
3. Being kidnapped.
4. Possible divorce of parents.
What children worry about:
1. Grades at school.
2. Having friends.
3. Being teased or bullied.
4. Being embarrassed.
—Work and Family Newsletter
Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s trouble.
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
—Swedish proverb
Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
—G. W. Lyon
In Stonewall, Texas, at a ceremony recognizing highway beautification, President Lyndon B. Johnson told his audience he was feeling fine because he had followed the advice of an old woman who once said, “When I walks, I walks slowly. When I sits, I sits loosely. And when I feel worry comin’ on, I just goes to sleep.”
If I don’t have something to worry about, I worry!
Most of our worries are reruns.
Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I really do not know
Why it is these human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
Sign over a chaplain’s door: “If you have worries, come in and let’s talk them over. If not, come in and tell us how you do it.”
A man was worrying all the time about everything. He was a chronic worrier. Then one day his friends saw him whistling. “Can that be our friend? No, it can’t be. Yes it is.” They asked him, “What happened?” He said, “I’m paying a man to do my worrying for me.” “You mean you aren’t worrying anymore?” “No. Whenever I’m inclined to worry, I just let him do it.” “How much do you pay him?” “Two thousand dollars a week.” “Wow! How can you afford that?” “I can’t. But that’s his worry.”
I’ve joined the new Don’t Worry Club,
And now I hold my breath
I’m so afraid I’ll worry
That I’m worried half to death.
—R. Lofton Hudson
Statisticians at the University of Wisconsin have studied the things human beings worry about. They found that the average individual’s worries can be divided into four headings: First, there are the things that never happened, which constitute 40 percent of the worries. Second, there are things over and past that couldn’t be changed by all the worry in the world, and they are another 30 percent of the total. Third, there are petty worries and needless worries, which are 22 percent. Fourth, there are legitimate worries, and these are only 8 percent of the whole.
A Chinese man said he could write the biography of every American in three words: Hurry, Worry, Bury.
In 1871 a young man, a medical student, was a worrier. Then one day he read twenty-one words that changed his life. Later he founded the Johns Hopkins University and was the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. The twenty-one words were written by Thomas Carlyle: “Our main business is not to see what dimly lies at a distant, but to do what clearly lies at hand.” The man was Sir William Oscar.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things beyond the power of our will.
—Epictetus
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Was it worth it?
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.
—Corrie Ten Boom
Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere.
“I tried counting sheep, like you advised me,” a clothing manufacturer told his partner, “but I couldn’t get to sleep anyway. I counted thousands of sheep. Then, before I realized what I was doing I sheared them, combed the wool, spun it into cloth and made the cloth into suits. But I lost twenty dollars on each suit—and for the rest of the night I lay awake worrying.”
You can’t change the past, but you ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.
I am an old man and have had many troubles, most of which never happened.
—Mark Twain
Worry produces doubt in a threefold direction: (1) God’s love is doubted. Worry implies that He cares little for His blood-washed children. (2) God’s wisdom is doubted. Worry indicates that He is not able to plan for His own, that He does not know what is best for them who belong to Him. (3) God’s power is doubted. Worry says His grace is not sufficient for our needs.
—Herbert Lockyer
Don’t worry about tomorrow. Remember, God is already there.
Don’t tell me worry doesn’t help. I know better. Things I worry about don’t happen.
Worry is the interest we pay on trouble before it is due.
—Dan Cresten
Worry distorts our thinking, disrupts our work, disquiets our soul, disturbs our body, disfigures our face. It destroys our friends, demoralizes our life, defeats our faith, and debilitates our energy.
—William Arthur Ward
Tranquilizers have done wonders for dealing with the stresses and strains of modern life. For the first time in history, people aren’t having nervous breakdowns. What they’re having is calm breakdowns.
—Bob Orben
An old man was asked what had robbed him of joy the most in his lifetime. He replied, “Things that never happened.”
A chicken-hearted knight had to go on a long journey so he tried to anticipate all problems. He carried a sword and armor in case he met someone unfriendly, a large jar of ointment for sunburn and poison ivy, an axe for chopping firewood, a tent, blankets, pots and pans, and oats for his horse. He then rode off—clanking, gurgling, thudding, and tinkling. He was a moving junk pile. When he was halfway across a dilapidated bridge, the boards gave way and he and his horse fell into the river and drowned. He had forgotten to pack a life preserver.
The moral of the story is that when we overburden ourselves with the anticipation of trouble, Fate is laughing her head off. She can provide us with troubles we could never have foreseen in our wildest dreams.
—Martin Buxbaum
WORSHIP
Worship is the overflow of the heart that asks nothing of God.
—Carl Armerding
A small boy was taken to a church worship service for his first time. Seeing a board on the wall with names, he asked his mother about it. She said, “That’s the plaque with names of people who died in the service.” Surprised, he asked her, “Was it the 9:30 or 11:00 service?”
To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.
—William Temple
When a monarch of the British Empire is crowned, the Archbishop of Canterbury holds the crown in front of the one seated on the throne. Holding the crown, he speaks in one direction to the audience in Westminster Abbey, “I present to you Elizabeth of Windsor. Will you do her homage?” The people respond, “We will.” Then he addresses another part of the audience in another direction with the same question and the same response, and then to a third part. Only then does he crown the monarch.
The basic human needs are work, play, love, and worship.
—Richard C. Cabat
Worship is a love affair; it is making love to God.
—J. Vernon McGee
The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol be;
Help me to tear it from Thy throne
And worship only Thee.
—William Cowper
If Socrates would enter the room, we should rise and do him honor. But if Jesus Christ came into the room, we should fall on our knees and worship Him.
—Napoleon
We slander God by our eagerness to serve God without knowing Him.
—J. Oswald Chambers
As a boy Lewis Sperry Chafer woke up every morning to the sound of his mother singing a hymn in the kitchen. She always sang the same one:
When morning guilds the skies,
My heart awakening cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work or prayer
To Jesus I repair,
may Jesus Christ be praised!
Worship isn’t crawling through a small hole to some theological wonderland. It is falling back upon God and finding that He is everywhere and anywhere you can fall.
—Kenneth C. Wilson
When Robert Kennedy visited the Amazon, he conversed with a Brazilian Indian, who had recently come to Christ but was not known to Kennedy, through a translator. “What do you most like to do?” Kennedy expected an answer like “hunting with bows and arrows” or “canoeing.” The Indian answered, “Being occupied with God.”
Kennedy said, “Ask him again. Something may be lost in translation.” But the Indian gave the same answer. This was an excellent definition of true worship.
WRITING
When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.
—Enrique Jardiel Poncela
“We’re not illiterate; we pick up all our trash.”
One owl to another: “I can never remember when to use who and when to use whom.”
—Ray Rothco
The forcible writer stands boldly behind his words with his experience. He does not make books out of books, but he has been there in person.
—Henry David Thoreau
A ten-year-old boy was struggling through a book that was rather difficult for him. His uncle asked him if he was a “slow reader.” He answered, “No, I’m a fast reader—it’s just that the author of this book was a slow writer!”
If I had more time I would have written more briefly.
—Cicero
Why is a good writer like a criminal? Because they both like short sentences.
—Richard Crusta
A worker asked for a pay raise and got this note back from his supervisor.
“Because of the fluctuational predisposition of your position’s productive capacity as juxtaposed to standard norms, it would be momentarily injudicious to advocate your requested increment.”
The puzzled worker went to the supervisor and said, “If this is about my pay raise, I don’t get it.”
“That’s right,” said the supervisor.
“He is such a great preacher; has he written any books?”
“Yes, he plans to publish them posthumously.”
“Well, I hope it will be soon!”
I hate to write, but I love to have written.
—Robert Louis Stevenson
“What bothers you most about the people you interview?” someone asked Phil Donahue. Without hesitation he answered, “People who float a battleship of words around a tugboat of thoughts.”
Writing is like baking a cake for the people I love.
—Belva Plain
I love being a writer; the only thing I can’t stand is the paperwork.
—Peter DeVries
Getting started is the hard partof writing. It’s like opening a bottle of olives. You get the first olive out of the bottle and the rest come out easily.
There is nothing in the world that should not be expressed in such a way that an affectionate seven-year-old boy can see and understand it.
—Leo Tolstoy
Put it before them briefly, so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.
—Joseph Pulitzer
Never try to impress people with the profundity of your thought or by the obscurity of your language. Whatever has been thoroughly thought through can be stated simply.
A few years ago a young copywriter was trying to write an ad for a new kind of soap. Here is what he came up with: “The alkaline element and fats in this product are blended in such a way as to secure the highest quality of saponification, along with a specific gravity that keeps it on top of the water, relieving the bather of the trouble and annoyance of fishing around for it at the bottom of the tub during his ablutions.”
A more experienced writer later said the same thing in two words: “It floats.”
—Bits & Pieces
Novelist Sinclair Lewis was supposed to deliver an hour-long lecture to a group of college students who planned to be writers. Lewis opened his talk with a question:
“How many of you really intend to be writers?”
All hands went up.
“In that case,” said Lewis, “my advice to you is to go home and write.”
With that, he left.
—Bits & Pieces
Sherwood Anderson’s first publishers, recognizing his potential, arranged to send him a weekly check in the hope that, relieved of financial pressure, he would write more freely. After a few weeks, however, Anderson took his latest check back to the office. “It’s no use,” he explained. “I find it impossible to work with security staring me in the face.”
—The Little, Brown Anecdote Book
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.
—Benjamin Franklin
Sooner or later a busy man learns to write things down. It’s the best way to capture things we are apt to forget. “The strongest memory,” says an old proverb, “is weaker than the palest ink.”
An overconscientious journalist was admonished by his editor, “Never write anything unless you are absolutely certain that it is true, and when you are not sure, say so very specifically.”
The next story he turned in was a masterpiece of hedging. It read as follows: “It is rumored that a party was given yesterday by several reputed ladies. It was said that Mrs. Smith was the hostess and all the alleged guests were local people. Mrs. Smith claims to be the wife of Mr. Joseph Smith, who purports to be the president of the supposed First National Bank.”
—Speak the Language of Success
Someone in the congregation sent a note to the pulpit. The note read, “Bill Jones having gone to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the congregation for his safety.” The preacher was somewhat nearsighted and he did not observe the punctuation. He read the notice but he read it in this way, “Bill Jones, having gone to see his wife, desires the prayers of the congregation for his safety!”
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public.
—Winston Churchill