THE RICH MAN AND THE POOR CARPENTER
One day a good, rich man noticed the miserable conditions in which a certain poor carpenter lived. He decided to help the poor man and commissioned him to build a beautiful house. He told the carpenter, "I want this house to be ideal. Use only the best
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United Methodist
COLOR OF THE VIEW
"There is a house in New England where the owner designed a unique feature. The owner of the house often took visitors to the tower and would ask them to look through one of the windows. Each of the four windows was different. The red-tinted window could make it look like a hot
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United Methodist
Have you ever experienced the power of healing words that were either spoken to you or that you spoke to another? We must admit that there are also times when our actions speak louder than words. “Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once told about a contest he was asked to judge. The
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United Methodist
Why is this touching so important? “Dr. Brandt points out that as late as 1920, the death rate among infants in some founding hospitals in America approached 100 percent. Then Dr. Fritz Talbot of Boston brought over from Germany an unscientific sounding concept of “tender loving care.”
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United Methodist
Someone (Zan Holmes) reminds us of our marching orders as Christians: "Christianity is a come-and-go affair. We come up to the mountain, but we must go back down again. We come to worship, but we must go to serve." (Raymond McHenry. ed. McHenry’s Quips, Quotes And Other
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United Methodist
There is the story of a boy who attended a church that had stained-glass windows. When asked the meaning of the word saint, he said, “they are people the light shines through”. (Charles E. Bugg. ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annnual 2002. J.
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United Methodist
Someone (Hugh Black) has put it this way: “At the end of life we shall not be asked how much pleasure we had in it, but how much service we gave in it; not how full it was of success, but how full it was of sacrifice; not how happy we were; not how ambition was gratified,
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United Methodist
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"The story is told of a shoplifter who writes to a department store and says, "I’ve just become a Christian, and I can’t sleep at night because I feel guilty. So here’s $100 that I owe you."
"Then he signs his name, and in a little postscript at the bottom he adds, "If I still can’t
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United Methodist
Someone (Len Sullivan) recalls a story from their family history about his grandparents. "In the late 1920s my grandparents married and moved into Grandpa’s old family home. It was a clapboard house with a hall down the middle. In the ’30s they decided to tear down the old house and build
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United Methodist
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Unlike other countries that have a pay-as-you-use toll system on major roads, Switzerland expects drivers using its autoroute system to pay an annual fee of 40 Swiss francs. When you pay, you get a windshield sticker you display for the rest of the year.
Traditionally, traffic police give
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United Methodist
“On Sunday, February 18, 2001, NASCAR lost one of its greatest drivers. Dale Earnhardt Sr., also known as "The Intimidator," was in third place on the last lap of the Daytona 500 when his car was tapped from behind and sent head-on into the wall at 180 mph.
In a matter of moments it was
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United Methodist
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“A daughter complained to her father about how hard things were for her. "As soon as I solve one problem," she said, "another one comes up. I’m tired of struggling."
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen where he filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon
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United Methodist
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“An anonymous soul has expressed it well:
Love is the spark that kindles the fires of compassion.
Compassion is the fire that flames the candle of service.
Service is the candle that ignites the torch of hope. Hope is the torch that lights the beacon of faith.
Faith is the beacon that reflects
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United Methodist
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“The early Latin writer, Tertullian of Carthage, declared that the one thing that converted him to Christianity was not the arguments they gave him, because he could find a counterpoint for every argument they would present. “But they demonstrated something I didn’t have. The thing that
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United Methodist
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I read a story of a father who was preparing to go on a trip to grandma’s house over the Thanksgiving Holidays. He describes the episode as if it were a theology lab. This father and mother began comparing their mental notes of spiritual perceptions. He said, “A journey is a journey, whether the
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United Methodist
Most children are not naturally aggressive. There are times when children might seem demanding, impatient or even perhaps unreasonable. They do not usually push themselves into the being the center of attention. I once read the story about a tiny boy who was seated at the dinner table in his high
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United Methodist
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"The intensive care waiting room is a different world. No one is a stranger. They help one another. They grieve with one another and shed tears of joy together. There is no distinction of race or class. Vanity and pretense vanish. Everything focuses on the next doctor’s report or the
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United Methodist