When The Fog Lifted

It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies (British, Dutch, and Germans) under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of semaphore signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.

Late in the day it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N---D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -DE-F-E-A- T-E-D- - -T-H-E- - -E-N- E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!

So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion, the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had crept in on the friends of Jesus. They had "read" only part of the divine message. "Christ defeated" was all that they knew. But then on the third day--Easter Sunday--the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and the world received the complete message: "Christ defeated death!" Defeat was turned into victory; death was turned to life!

--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 165-166.

He Lives Today!

I remember the witness of Bishop Lajos Ordass of the Lutheran Church in Hungary to a small group gathered at the Lutheran World Federation assembly in Minneapolis in 1957. As bishop,
he protested the Communist regime's confiscation of church schools and was imprisoned for twenty months. Later he was under arrest for six years. He was a tall stately man, and I can still see his ashen face as he quietly told his story.

"They placed me in solitary confinement. It was a tiny cell, perhaps six feet by eight feet, with no windows, and soundproofed. They hoped to break down my resistance by isolating me from all sensory perceptions. They thought I was alone. They were wrong. The risen Christ was present in that room, and in communion with him I was able to prevail."

Andrew Wyermann

--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p.
165.

Zingers by Croft Pentz - March 28, 2008

The church is God's workhouse where his jewels are being polished for a palace.

People do not miss church services because they live too far from the church building--it is
because they live too far from God.

A caring pastor will build his church; a caring church will build its pastor.

Marks of a strong church: wet eyes, bent knees, broken hearts.

Some church members are like blotters; they soak it all up but get it backwards.

-- Croft M. Pentz, The Complete Book of Zingers(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
1990).

Buy the Book here

The World Depends on Faith

Howard Hendricks writes...

I didn’t observe any of you come into this room and examine your chair before you sat in it. You just automatically committed yourself by faith to the chair, assuming it would hold you. Most of you got here by car; you slid in the car and turned on the ignition and away you go. You don’t have a clue as to what goes on behind the scene. You can’t explain the process. You just trust it.
The last time you went to a doctor, he wrote out a little prescription. You couldn’t read it. In fact, you wondered if anybody could read the thing! Then you took it to your pharmacist, and you gave it to him. Have you ever discovered when you give a pharmacist a prescription, he always disappears behind the screen? That shakes me up. I often wonder what in the world the guy is doing back there. I wonder if he slept through his course in pharmacy school. But he gives you the little bottle and says, “Take it three times a day,” and by faith you do exactly what he tells you to do. Faith is woven into the system.

—Howard Hendricks, “Faith in Tough Times,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 140.

See: Psalms 118:9; Isaiah 2:22; Jeremiah 17:5.

The Anchor of Faith

The mighty Niagara River plummets some 180 feet at the American and Horseshoe Falls. Before the falls, there are violent, turbulent rapids. Farther upstream, however, where the river’s current flows more gently, boats are able to navigate. Just before the Welland River empties into the Niagara, a pedestrian walkway spans the river. Posted on this bridge’s pylons is a warning sign for all boaters: “Do you have an anchor?” followed by, “Do you know how to use it?” Faith, like an anchor, is something we need to have and use to avoid spiritual cataclysm.

—Paul Adams in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.

See: Romans 14:23; Ephesians 6:16; Hebrews 11:6.

Zingers by Croft - March 13, 2008

Hope is most powerful when backed up by actions.

Faith is to believe what we do not see--the reward of faith is to see what we believe.

Faith is remembering I am God's priceless treasure when I feel utterly worthless.

When I try I fail; when I trust I succeed.

-- Croft M. Pentz, The Complete Book of Zingers
(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990).

Buy the Book here

A Smile Will Do

The following story is from an article titled “Your Daffodils are Pretty,” (Christianity Today, March 2, 1979, p. 18), in which Josephine Ligon tells of a family in the town where she grew up who preached and practiced forgiveness.

Their name was Parsons. On one occasion, Mr. Parsons watched young Josephine get swatted by the broom of a mean old lady in town who didn’t like the neighborhood children getting too close to her property. He stopped Josephine and told her, “Go back and tell Mrs. Brink that you forgive her for hitting you.”

“Say, ‘I forgive you’ to Mrs. Brink?”

Mr. Parsons smiled. “Forgiveness comes in many forms,” he said. “You don’t actually have to say, ‘I forgive you.’ A simple smile will do. You might just tell her that her daffodils are pretty.” It seemed dumb to young Josephine, but in those days children did what their elders told them to do. So, she went back and mumbled something to Mrs. Brink about her daffodils being pretty. Mrs. Brink looked shocked, but it was the last time Josephine ever felt her broom.

On another occasion Josephine and several of her third grade friends put a handful of pencil shavings into the Parsons girl’s sandwich, just to be mean and to make her mad. But she didn’t get mad. Instead, the next day, without any sign of repentance from her persecutors, the Parsons girl brought everyone in the class a large, beautiful, delicious, hand-decorated cookie which said, “Jesus loves you.” Years later Josephine Ligon still remembers that demonstration of forgiveness more than any sermon.

Forgiveness is more than words; it’s action!

—Submitted by Rev. Steven J. Cole, Cedarpines Community Church, Crestline, California.

Beginning Again

Forgiveness isn’t pretending nothing has happened, or pretending that what happened didn’t hurt. It isn’t even forgetting it completely, and it isn’t going back and starting over as though it hadn’t ever happened. Instead, forgiveness is refusing to let anything permanently destroy the relationship. There’s a place for saying, “I’m sorry.” There’s a place for assuring the other person that “all is forgiven.” But the goal of both is to rebuild the relationship. One of the amazing things about a healthy beginning again is that the relationship is often stronger than it was before.

—Kenneth Chafin, How to Know When You’ve Got It Made. Christianity Today, Vol. 29, no. 18.
See: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; Proverbs 17:17