It was a stormy night in Birmingham, England, and Hudson Taylor was to speak at a meeting at the Severn Street schoolroom. His hostess assured him that nobody would attend on such a stormy night, but Taylor insisted on going. "I must go even if there is no one but the doorkeeper." Less than a dozen people ...
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One of the most fascinating sites to visit in Washington D.C. is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. For 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a platoon of 30 honor guards protects the tomb through rain, snow and even hurricanes! It's been guarded every minute of every day since 1937.
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Pompeii was a flourishing city in Southern Italy until 79 AD. Suddenly, for two days Mt. Vesuvius erupted and completely destroyed Pompeii in all its pomp. The city was covered in meters of ash and pumice for 1700 years until it was accidentally discovered in 1748.
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In the early 1800's a preacher gave a message to call men to join him on the mission field in Africa. In the audience were only a few women along with a boy. The pastor knew that few women were expected to volunteer to face harsh African jungle conditions. However, he gave the message; and no one responded. What he didn't realize was that he had touched the heart of a little boy whose name was David Livingstone. This boy would grow up to spend the rest of his life ministering to Africa's unreached tribes.
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If you were to visit Paris, you could see the statues of two men, both named Louis.
The first is of Louis XIV, France's absolute monarch. He represents one of the supreme achievements of greatness through power. His philosophy of life was that the whole nation and the world, should serve him.
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Isaiah tells us that the LORD'S Arm shall rule for Him and that He is coming with reward -- and a similar passage in Revelation declares that the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) is coming to reward His saints.
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I used to sell newspaper subscriptions door to door and deliver flowers for a living. I also volunteered for years with my churches inner city bus ministry. My wife waited tables and cleaned houses. She volunteered with a number of ministries, doing youth work and teaching worship dance among other things. Never could we imagine that the Lord would take us to Israel and use us in full time ministry in this capacity. Neither of us ever did anything great in this world but we were faithful in some little things and God found it in His heart to promote us.
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Every day roughly 150,000 around the world die. Death has a way of raising our spiritual temperature and quickening us to re-evaluate life...especially to ask, "Am I doing all that I can do?"
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Charles Swindoll wrote about these men who bring in animals from Africa for American zoos. They say that one of the hardest animals to catch there is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this agile little animal with ease for years.
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If you ever have the chance to visit Jerusalem, one place you must see is Solomon's quarries – also known as Zedekiah's cave.It's a gigantic underground quarry beneath the old city of Jerusalem, an amazing archeological site which offers a glimpse of the handiwork of the builders of the first temple of King Solomon. Can you imagine, as the Temple was under construction, what the craftsmen and the builders must have been thinking about this glorious house they were building?
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We are called to be servants, are we not? Well, what does a servant do? He (or she) carries out the will of his master. A servant doesn't tell his master what to do -- he performs whatever tasks the master requests of him. A servant doesn't choose what days or times it's most convenient to serve his master. A servant's function is simply to follow and obey his master’s instructions. A servant does not develop a vision for the master either. The master is the one with the vision -- and he wants his servants to be ready and available to carry out that vision and bring it to fruition.
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Over the past weekend, we experienced our first major storm of the rainy season in Israel which caused some chaos in the region, especially in Eilat where the airport was forced to close and many of the roads were blocked due to flooding. The region received 140 percent of its annual average within a day. As you can imagine, for some it was quite an event that took them by surprise.
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We tend to focus on the part of that scripture where God does the blessing -- but why did He bless Him? The answer lies in the passage! The Lord told Abraham: "I will bless you --- and you shall be a blessing." Abraham was blessed so that he could be a blessing!
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Reading this parable, we are struck by the serious consequences of failing to produce Kingdom fruit. But there's something I want to particularly point out. Many of the great heroes of the faith -- people like Moses and David, were not given great responsibilities immediately. Each of these men first served as a lowly shepherd, tending sheep. Having tested them first in this humble vocation, God then felt confident to elevate them to positions of greatness -- but it all started with a small step!
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The disciples worried -- we only have five small loaves and two fishes! What ever will we do?? Five loaves and two fishes could never feed the multitudes in the natural realm! But we have a God who is in the multiplication business! He works on an entirely different mathematical equation than we are accustomed to -- He takes the little we offer and turns it into more than we could fathom!
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One of the great marvels of the Roman Empire was the invention of the aqueduct system to provide water over vast distances. It was an absolutely ingenious method which made use of gravity, with stone arches to support the water channels. An aqueduct was built in 109 AD which carried water to the city of Segovia for eighteen hundred years. For nearly sixty generations this aqueduct provided cool water from the mountains above. But fairly recently, it collapsed.
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