Another collection of interesting information that will often make you laugh and be amazed.

1. ILLUSTRATIO S, HUMOR, POETRY A D
QUOTATIO S VOL 7
COMPILED A D EDITED BY GLE PEASE
A
ACCEPTA CE OF TRAGEDY
Boreham, Livingstone had four tin canisters, fifteen inches square that held all his
treasures. One was his wardrobe, one his medicine chest, one his library, and one
his magic-lantern. And everybody knows the grim story of the Boer raid that
stripped him of his little store. “Ah well, he philosophically remarked in his journal,
we shall move more easily now that we are lightened.” The Boers have saved me the
trouble of making a will!” And in his account of his journey of the mouth of the
Coppermind River, Samuel Hearne has a very similar story. A
party of Indians raided his camp and stole a good deal of his property. Hearns’s
only comment is that the weight of our baggage being so mluch lightened, the next
day’s journey was much pleasanter!”
ADVICE
Though a seeker since my birth,
Here is all I’ve learned on earth,
This is the gist of what I know:
Give advice and buy a foe.
Random truths are all I find
Stuck like burs about my mind.
Salve a blister. Burn a letter.
Do not wash a cashmere sweater.
Tell a tale but seldom twice.
Give a stone before advice.
Press for rules and verities,
All I recollect are these:
Feed a cold to starve a fever.
Argue with no true believer.
Think-too-long is never-act.
Scratch a myth and find a fact.
Stitch in time saves twenty stitches.

2. Give the rich, to please them, riches.
Give to love your hearth and hall.
But do not give advice at all. Phyllis McGinley
AFTERLIFE
According to Abba Hillel Silver, “The Torah shows no interest in the career of the
soul after death.” Judaism is “primarily preoccupied with life, with man’s life here
on earth.” Death had no great hope for Jews-Job 10:22, Psa. 94:17, 88:12, 39:12-13,
Isa. 38:18.
ALO E
The Lone Ranger riding with faithful side kick Tonto. Suddenly they were
encircled by hostile red men. A thousand Sioux to the front, 3 thousand Iroquois to
the rear and 2 thousand Apaches on either side. The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto
and said, “It looks bad for us, old pal.” To which he replied, “What do you mean
us, white man?”
ADVICE
“If you ask enough people, you can usually find someone who will advise you to do
what you were going to do anyway.” Weston Smith.
ASSASSI ATIO
The Gallo Brothers headed the assassination squad of the Mafia in the 1950's and
60's. They were responsible for 500 or more assassinations in the U. S. alone in
those years. They were so effective that today most every mob has its own
assassination squad, and killing takes place regularly, and they are seldom solved
even though they are known to be professional murderers. The fact is, it could be
very unhealthy for any police to get involved to deeply in trying to solve such
murders. The Gallo Brothers died one by cancer and the other by gunfire from his
own men.
ATTITUDES
1. William James-"The greatest discovery of my generation is
that human beings can alter their lives by altering their
attitudes of mind."
2. If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;

3. If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,
It's almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost;
For out in the world you'll find
Things begin with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
2. " I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a
choice of attitude."
Judith M. Knowlton.
3. What goes on in our minds affects our bodies either
favorably or adversely. It's been scientifically proven that
beliefs, thoughts and attitudes can alter hormones and
neuropeptide levels of the brain, and the entire body.
Carl Simonton and many other doctors are finding that
people who have cancer have been weakened by emotional and
mental as well as physical factors. He believes that a
person's response to prolonged fear and frustration are major
contributors to this weakening of the body's resistance to
cancer and other diseases.
Dr. Simonton has a simple, common-sense philosophy. He
believes that in order to be or get well, we must be who we
are without repressing ourselves, which leads to fear and
frustration, which in turn can lead to disease, and early
death. He suggests we relax as much as possible, through
play, deep breathing, or physical exercise (if the person is
capable of doing so). The goal is to become quiet and to
feel comfortable and safe. The next step is to visualize and
feel with ENTHUSIASM what you would think, do and say if
perfectly healthy. The last important step is to take
specific action, however small that might be.
4. THE FOLLOWING LARGE COLLECTION OF QUOTES ON ATTITUDE COVERS 17
DIFFERENT PARAGRAPHS. IT IS A LONG WAY TO THE NEXT TOPIC.YOU SHOULD
NEVER NEED MORE ON THIS SUBJECT THAN WHAT IS HERE.
5. It reminds me of a cartoon in which Broom Hilda, the little green witch, is
standing on the edge of a cliff. Across the way, with a deep canyon separating
them, Gaylord, the buzzard, is standing near the edge of another cliff. Gaylord
yells to Broom Hilda, "Come over here with me!"
Broom Hilda looks down at the canyon, then looks at Gaylord and replies, "I can't
jump that far!" Gaylord says, "You're defeating yourself with negative thinking.
I'm writing a book on the power of positive thought, in which I can prove you can
do anything if you have the correct attitude!"
Broom Hilda just stands there, eyes wide, taking all of this in. Gaylord continues,

4. "Tell yourself you can do it--and do it!" ow Broom Hilda is really psyched-up.
She says, "Okay--here I come!" She rears back, kicks up her leg and leaps. She
goes down, down, down...
Gaylord steps to the edge of the cliff and looks at Broom Hilda falling, becoming a
mere dot in the canyon below. Then, as he turns to walk away, he says, "You
know, I think I'll add a chapter on building up your leg muscles."
ATTITUDE: A collection of quotes and insights that stress the key
importance of a proper positive attitude for success in all of life,
and for all persons.
1. Charles Swindoll, the well-known author of numerous books, popular
radio teacher, and president of the largest seminary in the world,
Dallas Theological Seminary, has made a statement on attitude that has
become the most widely spread quote on the Internet. He said, "The
longer I live,the more I realize the impact of attitude on
life.Attitude, to me, is more important than facts,It is more
important than the past,than education,than money,than
circumstances,than failures,than success,than what other people
thinkor say or do.It is more important than appearance,giftedness or
skill.it will make or break an organization ...a school ... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the
attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past ...We cannot change the fact that people
will act in a certain way.We cannot change the inevitable.The only
thing we can do is play on the one string we have.And that is our
attitude ...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90%
how I react to it.And so it is with you."
2. Robert Schuller, Pastor of one of the largest churches in America,
and the TV preacher with the largest audience in America said,
"Unfortunately an unnecessarily too many educated persons with
impressive diplomas are at the bottom of every ladder. Above them can
be found a surprising number of persons with less formal education.
The difference is an added awareness that attitude is more important
than knowledge.
Although facts are the lifeblood of knowledge, attitude is the
lifeblood of wisdom. Indeed, the beginning and the end, the alpha and
the omega, of accomplishment is wisdom.
So Possibility Thinking is the positive mental conditioning of
human attitudes to produce wisdom. And when we have the wisdom to be
a Possibility Thinker, we are wise indeed. Now, let us add to wisdom
all of the knowledge we can acquire, but knowledge without the wisdom
of a positive mental attitude will produce and educated negative
thinker, which explains why a formal education is not enough."
3. In the book, Earl Nightingale's Greatest Discovery, so highly
recommended by many leaders, he writes, "To ask, 'What is the role of
attitude in a person's success of failure?' is much like asking, 'What
is the role of granite in ;the Himalayas?' or 'What is the role of H2O
in the Pacific Ocean?'

5. "Attitude comes very close to being everything about success or
failure. With a great attitude, a person can succeed though he may
start with very little else."
4. YOUR ATTITUDE, NOT YOUR APTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE. THE
ATTITUDE YOU TAKE IS THE LIFE THAT YOU MAKE.
5. Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the great preachers and scholars of
the first half of the 20th century, and author of numerous books
wrote, "We can change any situation by changing our internal attitude
toward it. Nearly fifty years ago my mother sent me to pick a quart of
raspberries and I dragged reluctant feet to the berry patch in
rebellion against an evil world where a small boy who wants to do
something else has to pick raspberries. Then a new idea came: it would
be fun to pick two quarts of raspberries and surprise the family. That
changed everything. I had so interesting a time picking two quarts of
raspberries."
Because his attitude changed the nature of the task at hand
changed, and it went from a pain to a pleasure. David facing Goliath
could have said, "He is so big I could never kill him." Or, "He is so
big I could never miss him." He chose the right attitude and he won a
great victory.
6. Dr. David Schwartz in his book, The Magic Of Thinking Big, writes
what he spoke at over 3000 conventions and management seminars,
"Attitudes do make the difference. Salesmen with the right attitude
beat their quotas; students with the right attitude make A's; right
attitudes pave the way to really happy married life. Right attitudes
make you effective in dealing with people, enable you to develop as a
leader. Right attitudes win for you in every situation." He points
out that your voice often reveals your attitude. You might say good
morning, but your voice is really saying why are you bothering me, or
I am bored with my job. Your attitude may be speaking louder than your
voice. Your attitude is the first thing you communicate about yourself
to others. If it is bad, it will dominate all other forms of
communication, and if it is good, it will do the same.
He gives this personal illustration of how his attitude toward
another person changed her and the relationship. She was a middle
aged elevator operator in his building. She was clearly uninspired by
her work. He noticed one day that she had her hair fixed and he said
to her, "I like the way you have done your hair." The next day when he
stepped on the elevator she said, "Good morning Mr. Schwartz." He had
never heard the woman address another person by name. He had won this
place of importance by having a positive attitude toward her. She
responded with a positive attitude toward him.
7.An Attitude for Mondays: a Sonnet by Anonymous
It's Monday once again, and we are all
Anticipating work with eagerness.
Well, maybe not.Whatever may befall,
However, we must do it,nonetheless.
With such a situation, so inclined,
Resistance can't assist, but merely hurt you;
So I suppose we all should be resigned
To make from this necessity a virtue.
If eagerness comes naturally, 'tis well:
If not, it isn't, and it must be made;

6. For work, when it's resisted, can be hell,
Which we'll avoid, if we enjoy our trade.
So let us all be avid at employment,
Till Friday comes, and with it, true enjoyment!
Originally published in SUL News Notes, March 4, 1994.c
1994, 1995 Fleabonnet Press
8. THE CHINESE ATTITUDE toward life is influenced by Confucian ethics,
which teach Chinese to
respect and love their fellowmen. Chinese will go through all means
not to embarrass another
person,whether friend or foe. They never say "no" to any request or
outwardly disagree with
anything. They have been brought up to mask their feelings, often by
smiling or laughing. If
someone responds to a request with "later" and later "forgets," it
probably means that he or she
cannot do the favor.When two Chinese get to know each other, they have
established guanxi, or
relations. They are obliged to do each other favors; one never says
no to the other person, but
"later" or "maybe".Chinese are also super hosts. Tables are often
filled with food even after
dinner is through. This seems like an incredible waste, but to the
Chinese, empty plates mean
their guests are still hungry and they have failed as hosts.Chinese
modesty does not allow them
to receive flattery, but to give it. Compliments are often brushed
aside with an embarrassed
laugh and a returned compliment.
This attitude seems strange and possibly superficial to us in the
Western world, but it reveals that a whole culture can be influenced
by the establishment of a positive attitude. It may be fake at times,
but it still maintains a positive perspective that encourages
cooperation rather than hostility.
9. Joe Theismann enjoyed an illustrious 12-year career as quarterback
of the Washington Redskins. He led the team to two
Super Bowl appearances--winning in 1983 before losing
the following year. When a leg injury forced him out of football
in 1985, he was entrenched in the record books as Washington's all-
time leading passer. Still, the tail end of Theismann's
career taught him a bitter lesson: "I got stagnant. I thought
the team revolved around me. I should have known it was time to
go when I didn't care whether a pass hit Art Monk in the 8 or the
1 on his uniform. When we went back to the Super Bowl, my approach
had changed. I was griping about the weather, my shoes,practice times,
everthing.Today I wear my two rings--the winner's ring from Super
BowlXVII and the loser's ring from Super Bowl XVIII. The difference in
those two rings lies in applying oneself and not accepting anything
but the best.
His attitude made the difference between being a winner and a
loser. He may have lost even with a positive attitude, but he would
have been a better sport, and a better fellow-player, and a better
person, and thus, a happier person.

7. 10.
January, 1992 - R.D.
In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient,
NormanCousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling
disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out
of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions
can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he
borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment,
consisting of Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns. It
didn't take long for him to discover that 10minutes of laughter
provided two hours of painfree sleep.Amazingly, his debilitating
disease was eventually reversed.After the account of his victory
appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more
than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world.
A person's mental attitude has an almost unbelievable effect on his
powers, both physical and psychological. The British psychiatrist,
J.A. Hadfield, gives a striking illustration of this fact in his
booklet, The Psychology of Power. "I asked three people," he wrote,
"to submit themselves to test the effect of mental suggestion on their
strength, which was measured by gripping a dynamometer." They were to
grip the dynamometer with all their strength under three different
sets of conditions.First he tested them under normal conditions. The
average grip was 101 pounds. Then he tested them after he had
hypnotized them
and told them that they were very weak. Their average grip this time
was only 29 pounds! In the third test Dr. Hadfield told them under
hypnosis that they were very strong. The average grip jumped to 142
pounds.
11. Bits and Pieces, May, 1991, p. 15
C Swindoll, Strengthening your grip, p. 205
Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation's deserts.
All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for.
They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of
dead animals. Instead, they look for
the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what
was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and
gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill
themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking
for. We all do. Steve Goodier,Quote Magazine, in May, 1990 R.D.The
noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the
construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist
thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so
he chose three and asked them this question,
"What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for10
shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on
this job." But the third said, "I'm helping SirChristopher Wren
construct one of London's greatest cathedrals." Your attitude
determines what you are doing in most situations of life for it
determines how you see your task and the value of it to yourself and
to others.
12. Thomas B. Smith,CLU, ChFC, was raised in Princeton, New Jersey.
He is a graduate of Leicester College and received his CLU and ChFC
fromAmerican College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As a salesman and
agency manager for a major insurance company, he has received over 55
awards for excellence in service and leadership. Mr. Smith has also
served as president of two local trade associations and his local

8. United Way. He and his wife Debby divide their time between homes in
New Jersey and Florida.
The author's motivation to write this book is to assist persons of
all ages, environments, social backgrounds, and education to look to
themselves for the desired results in their lives.
He realizes there are many books on the market about positive
attitude, however, this is written from a different perspective. It
is designed to help people make needed changes in their lives to
improve their quality of life. It should be of interest and value to
all persons, but especially those in sales, management, or leadership
positions.
The book has had wonderful success and reviews since it hit the
market early this year. Kenneth R. Hurst, former President of
Prentice-Hall reviewed it and gave the following endorsement: "A clear
and forceful explanation of the basic principles for happiness,
health, and success in life." Table Of Contents
* Chapter 1 - Positive attitude Effect on Life and Health*
Chapter 2 - What Does Stress Have to Do with Attitude * Chapter 3 -
Exercise Your Way to a Sound Mind and Body * Chapter 4 - Motivate
Yourself to Greatness * Chapter 5 - The Relationship of Attitude to
Salesmanship * Chapter 6 - A Positive Attitude Prepares you for
Opportunity
[LINK] 4* Chapter 7 - Commitment, Dedication, Persistence, Conviction
* Chapter 8 - Community Involvement by Managing Your Time
Effectively* Chapter 9 - Is Luck Stimulated by a Positive Self-Image
* Chapter 10 - Enthusiasm's Effect on a Positive Self-Image * Chapter
11 - Managing Your Life and Business by Specific Objectives *
Chapter 12 - The Art of Managing Your Life for Accomplishment *
Chapter 13 - Essentials for High-performance Leadership * Chapter 14
- An Understanding of the Law of Cause and Effect
© copyright 1995 The NetMark Group, Inc.
Here is a quote from his book:
There are three types of attitudes: positive, negative, or
ambivalent.Which one do you possess? IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME
provides the information we need to understand how different attitudes
affect life and health. This insight can help us get the results we
want in all we do: family life,career, physical and mental well-being,
and overall happiness. But it all depends on attitude. The realization
that a positive attitude benefits us in all aspects of everyday life
should motivate us to take stock of ourselves and make the changes
necessary to improve our quality of life.Everyone desires more than
mediocrity, but the key to finding a happier, healthier, prosperous,
and more significant way of life is your own attitude--and the
challenge is changing it!
13. ATTITUDE - THE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE
It's all attitude. Attitude is the way you define and interpret
your experiences...Your attitude about learning and your self-image
profoundly affect one another...Your attitude determines how much you
learn and how well you do...smart students use completely different
study and learning methods because they see things in a completely
different way. They have a completely different attitude.
_________________________________________________________________
WHAT SMART STUDENTS' ATTITUDE IS
Smart students know that you can teach yourself far better than

9. any school possibly can. Because smart students have this
extraordinaryattitude, they approach every aspect of their schoolwork
differently.No school can teach you the way you learn best, so how
much you learn and how well you do is up to you.
_________________________________________________________________
THE SMART STUDENT'S CREDO
All smart students, consciously or unconsciously, share twelve
beliefs or principles about school and the learning
process...Principle #1: Nobody can teach you as well as you can teach
yourself.Principle #2: Merely listening to your teachers and
completing their
assignments in never enough.
Principle #3: Not everything you are assigned to read or asked to
do is equally important.
Principle #4: Grades are just subjective opinions.
Principle #5: Making mistakes (and occasionally appearing foolish)
is the price you pay for learning and improving.Principle #6: The
point of a question is to get you think - not simply to answer
it.Principle #7: You're in school to learn to think for yourself, not
to
repeat what your textbooks and teachers tell you.Principle #8:
Subjects do not always seem interesting and relevant,but being
actively engaged in learning them is better than being passively bored
and not learning them.
Principle #9: Few things are as potentially difficult, frustrating,
or frightening as genuine learning, yet nothing is so rewarding and
empowering.10: How well you do in school reflects your attitude and
your method, not your ability.11: If you're doing it for the grades or
for the approval of others, you're missing the satisfaction of the
process and putting your self-esteem at the mercy of things outside
your control.
Principle #12: School is a game, but it's a very important game.
_________________________________________________________________
These notes were taken from WHAT SMART STUDENTS KNOW, Maximum
Grades,Optimum Learning, Minimum Time by Adam Robinson.
14. HERE IS A SALES TALK, AND NOTE THE EMPHASIS ON THE FIRST OF THE
FIVE POINTS.
THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL, CONSISTENT SALES LIES IN THESE 5
CRUCIALELEMENTS
1) A good rapport and an enthusiastic attitude-
Your attitude is probably 80% of the reason a sale succeeds or
fails.
Attitude is everything!
Have you ever had a little kid tell you about something he really,
really wants? He'll talk so fast that he'll barely get the words
out.He'll be bubbling over with so much excitement that it naturally
drawsyou in. When you're listening to him, you can't help but get
excited,too. His attitude is infectious.That is the kind of enthusiasm
that makes mediocre salesman good, andgood salesman superstars!
There is a direct relationship that exists with your attitude
andrapport with your customer and your end result.
Blah attitude=blah results.

10. Good attitude=good results.Enthusiastic attitude=excpional resuls!
The legendary insurance sales tycoon, W. Clement Stone once said, "It
is not the attitude of the prospect that matters, it's the attitude of
the salesman!"So forget the customers attitude. Their attitude means
very little.
Successful results almost completely hinge on the
exceptional,enthusiastic attitude of the salesman.
2) A professional appearance-No doubt about it, your clients make
strong judgments about who you are by the way you look. Good or bad--
it's the way it is. When you first meet a new client, the only thing
they have to judge you by is your appearance.
Your appearance has to convey an image of trust!
It is very hard to convince someone to buy something from you when
they don't have any trust in you.Imagine a guy walking into your home
with a day growth on his face,straggly hair, and a shirt with salsa
stains on it.
What would you think?
Wouldn't you feel a little uncomfortable? Just a little?
You'd probably be trying to devise an excuse to get him out of your
house.So go to the ther extreme and travel the extra yard here. Invest
in a uniform, I.D. badge, and professional pants. The way you look has
a drastic impact on the amount of work your client would like you to
do.
3) Goals-Determine in advance what you would like to achieve at
this customer's home. Do you want to add her sofas to the cleaning
too? Maybe you want to sell her a full house of protection. Or perhaps
you would like gain at least 5 referrals from this customer.Whatever
it is you would like to achieve, put that goal in your mind and
resolve to yourself that nothing is going to stop you! A very
successful carpet cleaner used to tell me, "Have the mind set that
your customer has your money in his pocket, you have his protection in
your truck, and you are not leaving until you make the exchange."
4) Expectations-
5
When you're making an offer to your client, offer it in a way that
shows your client that you expect that they'll want to have it and
you'd almost be shocked if they didn't.
There is a wrong way and a right way to make your delivery.You
could say, "Um, the protection will work really well for you...do you
wnt it?"Or use a delivery that shows you expect your customer to buy,
"Mrs. Jones, as you can see, our protection is an outstanding
value,it'll save you money, it'll keep your carpet cleaner a whole lot
longer, and you have nothing to lose because we guarantee it in
writing. Now would you like me to put it throughout the house or just
in the living room, dining room, and hallway?"
See the difference?
5) A demonstration system-
The most successful carpet cleaners I've spoken with have mastered
the art of the 'demo'.
Want to persuade your customer that you can make her carpet as
clean as new? Give 'em a demo.
Want to persuade your customer to buy protection?--Show 'em how it
works.
If you're selling your customer a deodorizer- let her smell it.
A dramatic demonstration is probably the most powerful
'convincing'tool that you can ever pull out on a customer.
You've heard the cliché 'Seeing is believing'? Well that is the
reason'demos' are so powerful. Seeing something performed is

11. inarguable,incontestable proof that it works.Door to door vacuum
salesman have used the 'demonstration' for years.I once had a vacuum
salesman come to my home (my marketing curiosity got the best of me)
and try to sell me, get this, a $2200.00 vacuum!This thing wasn't just
some 'vacuum', it was a 'sucking machine from
hell'. It did everything but wash your truck.
Well, I didn't buy one, but the numerous eye opening demonstrations
on the virtues of this 'cleaning monster' almost got me to. It was
just these demonstrations that made this vacuum so appealing. This guy
couldn't even 'quote' a price until he gave all of his 45 minute
demonstration. The demonstration was the marketing 'backbone' of his
business.Without it, he was some poor guy with an overpriced piece of
equipment.
Demonstrations are truly powerful. Use them as often as you can.Ron
Meyer is the owner of Preferred Marketing, a firm specializing in
money making cost effective marketing techniques for carpet
cleaners.Ask for your free report on jealously guarded marketing
secrets that not 1 in 10,000 carpet cleaners know of!!
Back To Preferred Marketing Home Page
Copyright (c) 1996 Preferred Marketing.
15. THE POWER OF ATTITUDE CHAPT/07
To illustrate the power of attitude, consider the magnet. We all
know that magnets attract some things and not others. Metal objects
will leap at a magnet if the magnet is strong enough. But, wood,
paper,rubber, will not react at all. The forces inside of certain
metals compel them to respond. Life is often the same.
Take a look around you at the university. Have you ever noticed how
the most popular students in school stick together? They do that
because they possess similar qualities; they have outgoing
personalities. The same thing is true of any group of people. The
people with similar interests tend to find one another no matter how
large the group, the school, or the community. Those who are
interested in many things have many friends. Those who have few
interests have few friends.
Take a look around our city. You'll see that some parts of town are
nice and clean, with well-kept houses and yards. Other parts are
filthy, with dilapidated houses and yards overgrown with weeds.The
sections that are dirty and run-down don't have to look that way.But,
the people who live in those areas don't care how their houses look.
They don't fix things that break, or clean things that get dirty; they
don't put any effort into anything. People who live there don't care
how their houses look, and these neighborhoods draw people of that
same type.
The people who live in the sections where everything is neat and
clean do care about how their place looks. They repair things and keep
things clean. They make an effort. Likewise, these areas attract
others who care about themselves and the neighborhood where they live.
Another example of people sticking together is right here in our
fraternity. Brothers that prefer living in a neat clear room do not
continue to live with those that have no pride in the appearance of
their room. They seek to live with others that will keep a clean
room.Likewise, brothers that prefer a quiet clean living situation
have moved out of the fraternity house and into apartment living.
Personal conduct is the strongest social magnet. The positive aspects
of being a gentleman with good character strongly attracts others. On
the other hand, the negative aspects of personal conduct result in
pushing others away. Consider the wholesome attractive image of

12. KappaSigma gentleman, and then compare that to the image of a heavy
drinking, drug using, loud party man. I'm sure you agree, one attracts
admirers and the other pushes quality people away.
Can a magnet be a mixture of other things? Can a magnet attract
nonmetallic materials? No! The magnetic forces are interrupted. If you
attempt to mix in other ingredients the magnet will loose its power.
The Power of Attitude (cont'd) CHAPT/07 Page 2When people try to
mix mature and immature attitudes, they loose their magnetic power.
Likewise, when a Kappa Sigma gentleman conducts himself like a loud
heavy drinking party man he will loose his credibility. He will become
an insincere person and others will see his folly.
Many in our house are seeking "to have it both ways." On the one
hand they talk about being a genuine brother--a gentleman and a
scholar--while on the other hand their conduct rages out of
control.So far, it hasn't worked. They waiver back and forth, neither
hot nor cold.
Our strength will come from a sincere commitment to one another and
the common ideals of Kappa Sigma Fraternity--PRIDE, HUMILITY, AND
RESPECT. When a brother sincerely commits himself to Kappa Sigma, his
attitude and conduct reflect his commitment. Sometimes, things worth
having are most difficult to obtain. Brothers, let us unite and stand
together for the Star and Crescent.
15. ATTITUDE NOT CIRCUMSTANCES February 5, 1996
The circumstances of our lives are never as important as our
attitudetoward those circumstances. Kitty Lunn has proven this
dramatically.
Nine years ago her spine was almost severed when she slipped on an
icystep. The classically trained ballerina didn't land on her toes.
Shefell flat on her back, embarrassed that she couldn't
getup.........one moment she was an actress hacking out a living in
acity where actresses outnumber cabbies. The next, she was
paralyzedfrom the waist down, a life member of a group she never
expected tojoin -- the disabled.
"I wanted to end my life -- not because I was disabled, but
becausethe pain was so terrible," Lunn says. "There was a comfort in
knowingthat if I didn't kill myself on one particular day, I could
always doit the next."When her pain finally disappeared, after five
surgeries and 300stitches, Lunn chose to live, and so choosing, set
off on an inspiringjourney no one could have predicted.
And she has become a role model for disabled teen-age girls, who
lookat Lunn in her wheel chair (see her accomplishment and beauty)
andlearn that it is possible to hope........"When you have lost your
ability to walk, you feel you owe it to the nondisabled world to
spend the rest of your life learning how to walk again," says Lunn,
who spent two agonizing years in day-long physical therapy because
doctors kept telling her she might walk again. Finally, one
doctor told her the truth, Lunn didn't feel sadness, but relief.
"Since then, I have discovered a way to take my 30 years of dance
training and raise it to a new level" She said.This summer, Lunn
will dance on the world's stage at the arts festival held during
the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She helped choreograph one of her
dances. It's called Inside My body There is a Dancer. (USA
Today, 1-11-96)
Can you believe that? With God's help -- with the resources
availableto us, we can all dance, despite the circumstances.

13. These are my Perceptions. I'm Maxie Dunnam at Asbury
TheologicalSeminary.
16. Perceptions April 8, 1996 A GUTSY WOMAN REFUSES TO BE A VICTIM
"Sharon Komlos has been blind since 1980, but that grim fact has only
sharpened her focus as Florida's most eloquent advocate for the
victims of violent crime.
"Recently, State Attorney General Bob Butterworth demonstrated some
extremely acute vision of his own in naming the Boca Raton woman
hisassistant director for the Division of Victim Services and Criminal
Justice Programs. "Komlos, 45, was attacked 15 years ago while
driving her car in
Broward County. She was shot and blinded by her assailant, who then
took her to his apartment and raped and stabbed her. Amazingly, the
mother of three survived the attack and eventually testified
againsther attacker, who was convicted and sentenced to 100 years in
prison.
No one could have faulted Komlos if she had retreated into a
shelter
of darkness and self-pity after her ordeal, but she chose instead
to
turn her misfortune into a beacon of hope and fulfillment for crime
victims. She began making public speeches on fighting crime and in
1982 joined the Palm Beach County chapter of
CrimestoppersInternational as a volunteer spokeswoman. Crimestoppers
coordinatestelevision reenactments of unsolved crimes, persuades
newspapers topublish photographs of fugitives, and operates tip lines
that offercash rewards for information that helps police solve crimes.
In her spare time, Komlos raised her children, who were 3, 7 and 9
atthe time she was blinded. One has graduated from college, another
hasnearly earned a degree and the youngest recently graduated from
highschool." (Palm Beach County (FL) Sun-Sentinel, June 26, 1995, p.
6A).
Two truths clamor to be heard through this woman.
1) It is not the circumstances of life that shape us -- but
ourresponse to those circumstances.
2) Any event, however horrible and tragic, can be a beginning and
notthe end.
These are my perceptions. I'm Maxie Dunnam at Asbury
17. PEOPLE WHO NEVER GIVE UP February 26, 1996 We don't look for
people who never fail, we look for people who never give up.
That sentence, in large block letters spanned two pages in Fortune
magazine. There was also a dramatic picture of a young man
splattered
down in the mud, gripping a football, with wrenching pain and
determination on his face.It was an advertisement for Tenneco. Part
of the next text said,
One thing we demand from our employees is perseverance.Throughout
Tenneco, the objectives we set force people to stretch.
The standard for success is high, and the tolerance for "best efforts"
is low.
Which is not to suggest that we expect perfection. We accept failure
as a part of life. But if the first approach to a problem
doesn't work, there has to be a back up. And a back up for that one.

14. (Fortune, Oct, 1995)
I read that and thought of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to
conquer Mt. Everest.The first time he tried, he failed. He was
knighted by the Queen of England, and at that gala occasion, on the
wall behind the head table, was a huge picture of Mt. Everest.
The people gave him a standing ovation for even daring to attempt
the climb. When they ceased applauding, Hillary turned his back to
the audience, faced that picture of the awesome mountain and
said, "Mt. Everest, you have defeated me once and you might defeat
me again. But I'm coming back again and again, and I'm going to win
because you can't get any bigger, Mt.Everest, and I can."What an
attitude! What a difference it would make if we would say when we face
the mountains in our own lives, "You may defeat me once,you may defeat
me twice, but you're not going to defeat me forever.I 'm coming back,
and I'm going to win, because you can't get any bigger,and I can!"
(Perceptions I, p.22)
There is nothing wrong with failure --but giving up is always
deadly.
These are my perceptions. I am Maxie Dunnam at Asbury Theological
Seminary.
ATTITUDE
1. John was taken up in a airplane by a friend and he noticed that he
spent a lot of time watching a certain instrument. What is it he
asked, and he was told it is the
attitude indicator. The attitude of the plane is its position in
relation to the horizon.
That position dictates the planes performance. If you want to change
the planes performance you have to change its attitude. Put it in a
more high attitude and it will climb. Put it in a more down attitude
and it will dive. The plane follows its attitude. John got to
thinking, this is true for us as well as planes. A bad attitude will
lead to poor performance, and a good attitude will lead to a
successful performance.
No wonder Paul says in Phil 2:5, "Your attitude should be the
same as that of Christ Jesus." Paul gives us examples of just what
that attitude is.
1. He was selfless-v. 3-4.
2. He was secure-v. 6-7.
3. He was submissive-v. 8.
You will note that an attitude is a choice. It does not depend
on feelings. It sets the tone for feelings to follow, and does not
wait for them to lead the way. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I
say rejoice says Paul Regardless of the situation have a spirit of
praise. David was determined to praise God even when life was a mess.
He says in Psa. 34:1, " I will bless the Lord at all times; His prasie
shall be continually be in my mouth." That was not a feeling, but an
attitude.
Was life often unfair and frustrating for David? Yes it was, but
he had made a choice of the kind of attitude he would have. He had a
choice to be negative with a nose down attitude and take a dive, or
have a nose high attitude and climb. The choice of attitude
determines the direction you go. Up and down are not just directions,
they are attitudes. Studies show that students with high aptitude
still fail
because of a bad attitude. A good aptitude with a bad attitude means

15. failure. If you go through life with a chip on your shoulder people
will naturally think you are a block head.
68% of customers quit a store or product because of an attitude
of indifference to them by some employee. The people who make any
organization grow are those with good attitudes. Teddy Rosevelt
said, "The most important single ingredient to the formula of success
is knowing how to get along with people." And John D. Rockefeller
said, "I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any
other ability under the sun."
My life may touch a dozen lives
Before this day is done
Leave countless marks of good or ill
E'er sets the evening sun.
A young bride from the East followered her husband to the U.S.
Army camp on the edge of the California desert. Living conditions
were primitive. The only housing was in a run down shack near an
Indian village. The heat was unbearable-115 in the shade. The wind
blew dust all over everything. The days were long and boring. She
wrote to her mother and said she was coming home. She just could not
take it anymore. In a short time she received a reply. It was a
little poem that said,
"Two men looked out of prison bars, one saw mud, the other stars. She
read these lines over and over and realized she had to look up and not
down, and change her attitude. She began to look for stars.
She started to make friends among the Indians, and they taught
her to weave and make pottery. She learned of their history and
culture, and she began to appreicate the beauty of the desert. She
collected cacti
and shells that had been deposited when it had been an ocean floor.
She became an expert and wrote a book about desert life. Nothing had
changed. It was the same desert, but she had changed her attitude,
and the result was she saw stars, and was happy where she saw only mud
before.
Someone said, "Your attitude at the start of any task will affect
the outcome more than anything else." A team with a hopeless attitude
will likely loose. The patient who is optimistic has a better chance
for recovery. It is not just alls well that ends well, but alls well
that begins well. The attitude sets the stage and determines the role
we play before the play begins. Our attitude says it will be a
tragedy or a comedy, and then we go and play out our attitude.
Everyone else was saying of Goliath, "He is so big I can't face him."
David was saying, "He is so big I can't miss him."
The elder brother of the Prodigal missed out on the celebration.
He was left out because of his bad attitude. He cut himself off by
his bad attitude. He could have looked at his privileges and his
possessions, and had a very positive attitude that would have made him
a leader in the celebration. He choose to have a bad attitude and
miss the party alltogether. Victor Frankl said, "The last of the
human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of
circumstances." It is not what happens to us but what happens in us
that makes us winners or losers. That is why a good attitude is the
key to success.
ATTITUDE
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: To choose one's attitude in

16. any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way. -Viktor Frankl concentration
camp survivor. Philippians 2:12-18
Joe Theismann enjoyed an illustrious 12-year career as quarterback of the
Washington Redskins. He led the team to two Super Bowl appearances--winning
in 1983 before losing thefollowing year. When a leg injury forced him out of
football in 1985, he was entrenched in the record books as Washington's all-time
leading passer. Still, the tail end of Theismann's career taught him a bitter lesson:
I got stagnant. I thought the team revolved around me. I should have known it was
time to go when I didn't care whether a pass hit Art Monk in the 8 or the 1 on his
uniform. When we went back to the Super Bowl, my approach had changed. I was
griping about the weather, my shoes, practice times, everthing.
Today I wear my two rings--the winner's ring from Super Bowl XVII and the
loser's ring from Super Bowl XVIII. The difference in those two rings lies in
applying oneself and not accepting anything but the best. January, 1992 - R.D.
In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, orman Cousins tells
of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as
incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that
negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So
he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of
Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns. It didn't take long for him
to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of painfree sleep.
Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of
his victory appeared in the ew England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received
more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world. Today
in the Word, MBI, 12-18-91
A person's mental attitude has an almost unbelievable effect on his powers, both
physical and psychological. The British psychiatrist, J.A. Hadfield, gives a striking
illustration of this fact in his booklet, The Psychology of Power. "I asked three
people," he wrote, "to submit themselves to test the effect of mental suggestion on
thier strength, which was measured by gripping a dynamometer." They were to
grip the dynamometer with all their strength under three different sets of
conditions. First he tested them under normal conditions. The average grip was
101 pounds. Then he tested them after he had hypnotized them and told them that
they were very weak. Their average grip this time was only 29 pounds! In the
third test Dr. Hadfield told them under hypnosis that they were very strong. The
average grip jumped to 142 pounds. Bits and Pieces, May, 1991, p. 15
Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation's deserts. All vultures
see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But
hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the
colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the
past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on
what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird
finds what it is looking for. We all do. Steve Goodier, Quote Magazine, in May,

17. 1990 R.D.
The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the
construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would
be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them
this question, "What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for 10
shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on this job."
But the third said, "I'm helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London's
greatest cathedrals."
A chaplain was speaking to a soldier on a cot in a hospital. "You have lost an arm
in the great cause," he said. " o," said the soldier with a smile. "I didn't lose it--I
gave it." In that same way, Jesus did not lose His life. He gave it purposefully.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
- - DECLARED TO BE
...... Consuming fire: ... Heb 12:29|
...... Abundant: ... Ex 34:6; Ps 33:5|
...... Compassionate: ... 2Ki 13:23|
...... Enduring: ... Ps 23:6; 52:1|
...... Eternal: ... De 33:27; Ps 90:2; Re 4:8-10|
...... Faithful: ... 1Co 10:13; 1Pe 4:19|
...... Glorious: ... Ex 15:11; Ps 145:5|
...... Good: ... Ps 25:8; 119:68|
...... Gracious: ... Ex 34:6; Ps 116:5|
...... Holy: ... Ps 99:9; Isa 5:16|
...... Immortal: ... 1Ti 1:17; 6:16|
...... Immutable: ... Ps 102:26,27; Jas 1:17|
...... Incorruptible: ... Ro 1:23|
...... Invisible: ... Job 23:8,9; Joh 1:18; 5:37; Col 1:15; 1Ti 1:17|
...... Jealous: ... Jos 24:19; a 1:2|
...... Just: ... De 32:4; Isa 45:21|
...... Light: ... Isa 60:19; Jas 1:17; 1Jo 1:5|
...... Long-suffering: ... u 14:18; Mic 7:1|
...... Love: ... 1Jo 4:8,16|
...... Merciful: ... Ex 34:6,7; Ps 86:5|
...... Most High: ... Ps 83:18; Ac 7:48|
...... Omnipotent: ... Ge 17:1; Ex 6:3|
...... Omnipresent: ... Ps 139:7; Jer 23:23|
...... Omniscient: ... Ps 139:1-6; Pr 5:21|
...... Only-wise: ... Ro 16:27; 1Ti 1:17|
...... Perfect: ... Mt 5:48|
...... Rich: ... Ps 104:24; Ro 2:4|
...... Righteous: ... Ezr 9:15; Ps 145:17|
...... Satisfying: ... Ps 65:4; Jer 31:12,14|
...... True: ... Jer 10:10; Joh 17:3|

18. ...... Universal: ... Ps 145:9; Mt 5:45|
...... Unsearchable: ... Job 11:7; 37:23; Ps 145:3; Isa 40:28; Ro 11:33|
...... Upright: ... Ps 25:8; 92:15|
AUGUSTI E
I was weeping in the most bitter contritition of my heart, when I heard the voice
of children from a neighboring house chanting, "take up and read; take up and
read." I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent
of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to
open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned
to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in
silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: " ot in revelry and
drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its
lusts." o further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of
this sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the
darkness of doubt vanished away. Augustine
The following biographical/devotional is taken from Prodigals and Those Who
Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham, 1991, Focus on the Family Publishing, Page 3-
11:
Few men are so great that the main course of history is different just because
they lived, thought and spoke. Saint Augustine is one of those few. He is a great
"bridge personality" of history. Christopher Dawson has written of him, in St.
Augustine and His Age, "He was to a far greater degree than any emperor or
barbarian warlord, a maker of history and a builder of the bridge which was to
lead from the old world to the new." In a little room off the King's Library in
the British Museum a small exhibit is devoted to Augustine, who lived from
A.D. 354 to 430. The exhibit consists chiefly of specimens of his writings, with
copies of works that range from the Dark Ages to the first scholarly edition in
the seventeenth century. The display gives some indication of his extraordinary
popularity throughout the age of faith.
Augustine's works were more widely read than any other author's from the
eighth through the twelfth centuries, and even during the late Middle Ages he
was constantly being rediscovered by clever men.
He speaks to this present age as mightily and sweetly as he spoke to the age of
dying Roman Imperialism because "hearts speak to hearts," and if ever there
was a great heart to speak, it was his, and if ever there were small and
frightened hearts who need his words, they are ours. But Augustine's early life
gave no indication he was to become such a strong voice of faith. He was born in
Tagaste, a small town in what is known today as Algeria, but during his teenage
years his family moved to Carthage in the part of orth Africa that belonged to
Rome.
His devout mother, Monica, taught her young son carefully and prayerfully.
His brilliance concerned her deeply, especially when, as a young man, he cast
off his simple faith in Christ for current heresies and a life given over to
immorality.

19. Later, Augustine wrote:
I could not distinguish between the clear shining of affection and the darkness
of lust. . .I could not keep within the kingdom of light, where friendship binds
soul to soul .. .And so I polluted the brook of friendship with the sewage of lust.
The details of his sin may differ from ours. (He had a mistress for many years
and an illegitimate son.) But Augustine's story is still the story of many of us:
The loss of faith always occurs when the senses first awaken. At this critical
moment, when nature claims us for her service, the consciousness of spiritual
things is, in most cases, either eclipsed or totally destroyed. It is not reason
which turns the young man from God; it is the flesh. Skepticism but provides
him with the excuses for the new life he is leading. This started, Augustine was
not able to pull up halfway on the road of pleasure; he never did anything by
halves. In the vulgar revels of a wild youth, he wanted again to be best, to be
first, just as he was at school. He stirred up his companions and drew them
after him. They in their turn drew him. Still his mother prayed, though, as
Augustine recalls, it showed no result.
I will now call to mind my past foulness, and the carnal corruptions of my soul;
not because I love them, but that I may love You, O my God. For the love of
Your love I do it; reviewing my most wicked ways in the very bitterness of my
remembrance, that You may grow sweet unto me (Your sweetness never failing,
Your blissful and assured sweetness); and gathering me again out of my excess,
wherein I was torn piecemeal, while turned from You, the One Good, I lost
myself among a multiplicity of things...I was grown deaf by the clanking of the
chain of my morality, the punishment of the pride of my soul, and I strayed
further from You, and You left me alone, and I was tossed about, and wasted
and dissipated, and I boiled over in my fornications, and You held Your peace,
O Thou my tardy joy!...I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled
around me like a boiling oil.
Carthage made a strong impression on Augustine. For a young man to go from
little Tagaste to Carthage was about the same as one of our youths going from
the small community of Montreat, orth Carolina, to Los Angeles. In fact,
Carthage was one of the five great capitals of the Roman Empire. A seaport
capital of the whole western Mediterranean, Carthage consisted of large new
streets, villa, temples, palaces, docks and a variously dressed cosmopolitan
population. It astonished and delighted the schoolboy from Tagaste. Whatever
local marks were left about him, or signs of the rube, they were brushed off in
Carthage.
Here Augustine remained from his seventeenth to his twenty-eighth year. He
absorbed all Carthage had to offer, including the teachings of the Manichaeans
(a religious sect from Persia).
Augustine recalled those dark days and his mother's continued intercession on
his behalf: Almost nine years passed, in which I wallowed in the mire of that
deep pit, and the darkness of falsehood (Manichaeism)...All which time that
chaste, godly and sober widow...ceased not at all hours of her devotions to
bewail my case unto You. And her prayers entered into Your presence; and yet
You suffered (allowed) me to be yet involved and reinvolved in that darkness.
He also recalled how God comforted his mother during that time, showing her

20. that all things would eventually work together for good. First He gave her a
vision: She saw herself standing on a certain wooden rule, and a shining youth
coming towards her, cheerful and smiling upon her..He having...enquired of her
the causes of her grief and daily tears, and she answering that she was
bewailing my perdition, he bade her rest contented, and told her to look and
observe, "That where she was, there was I also." And when she looked, she saw
me standing by her in the same rule.
Desperate over his Manichaean heresy, Monica begged a bishop, a man deeply
read in the Scriptures, to speak with her son and refute his errors. But
Augustine's reputation as an orator and dialectician was so great that the holy
man dared not try to compete with such a vigorous jouster. He answered the
mother wisely that a mind so subtle and acute could not long continue in such
adroit but deceptive reasoning. And he offered his own example, for he, too,
had been a Manichaean.
But Monica pressed him with entreaties and tears. At last the bishop, annoyed
by her persistence and moved by her tears, answered with a roughness mingled
with kindness and compassion, "Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are
living.
It is not possible that the son of such tears should be lost." In his twenty-ninth
year, Augustine longed to go to Rome, the most magnificent city in the world,
the seat of learning and, to many, the center of the universe.
Fearing for the spiritual and moral well-being of her son, Monica pled
unceasingly with him not to go. But the day came that she watched with
apprehension the tall masts of the ship in the harbor, as they swayed gently
above the rooftops. She had waited all day with Augustine in the debilitating
heat for the right tide and wind for him to sail to Rome. Augustine persuaded
his mother to seek a little rest in the coolness of a nearby chapel. Exhausted, she
promptly fell asleep. At dawn she awoke and searched the rooftops for the
masts of the ship. It was gone.
But Augustine's heart was heavy, heavier than the air weighted by the heat and
sea-damp -- heavy from the lie and the cruelty he had just committed. He
envisioned his mother awakening and her sorrow. His conscience was troubled,
overcome by remorse and forebodings. He later wrote: I lied to my mother, and
such a mother, and escaped...That night I privily departed, but she was not
behind in weeping and prayer. And what, O Lord, was she with so many tears
asking of You, but that You would not permit me to sail? But You, in the depth
of Your counsels and hearing the main point of her desire, (regarded) not what
she then asked, that You (might) make me what she ever asked.
Augustine was guided to Rome and then farther north where, after listening to
Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan and the most eminent churchman of the day,
he left the Manichaeans forever and began again to study the Christian faith.
One day, under deep conviction: I cast myself down I know not how, under a
certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed
out an "acceptable sacrifice to You." And, not indeed in these words, yet to this
purpose, spake I much unto You: "and You, O Lord, how Long? How long,
Lord, (will) You be angry, for ever? Remember not our former iniquities," for I
felt that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words: How long, how

21. long, "to-morrow, and to-morrow?" Why not now? why not is there this hour
and end to my uncleanness? So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter
contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of
boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take
up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently
whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words; nor could I
remember ever to have heard the like.
So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a
command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find...
Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius (his friend) was sitting; for
there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened,
and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: " ot in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh..." o
further would I read; nor needed I for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a
light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt
vanished away.
Then putting my finger between, or some other mark, I shut the volume, and
with a calmed countenance made it known to Alypius. And what was wrought
in him, which I knew not, he thus showed me. He asked to see what I had read:
I showed him; and he looked even further than I had read, and I knew not what
followed. This followed, "Him that is weak in the faith, receive;" which he
applied to himself, and disclosed to me. And by this admonition was he
strengthened; and by a good resolution and purpose, and most corresponding
to his character, wherein he did always very far differ from me, for the better,
without any turbulent delay he joined me.
(Then) we go in to my mother, we tell her; she (rejoices): we relate in order how
it took place; she leaps for joy, and...blessed You, "Who (are) able to do (more
than what) we ask or think"; for she perceived that You (had) given her more
for me, than she was wont to beg by her pitiful and most sorrowful groanings.
As we know, Augustine would go on to more than fulfill all his godly mother's
hopes and prayers, becoming a bishop and a defender of the truth. Having
come home at last, this prodigal would help build a house of faith that stands to
this day. In the words of Malcolm Muggeridge: "Thanks largely to Augustine,
the light of the new Testament did not go out with Rome's but remained amidst
the debris of the fallen empire to light the way to another civilization,
Christendom."
As for Monica, her work on earth was done. One day shortly after Augustine's
conversion, she announced to him that she had nothing left to live for, now that
she had achieved her lifelong quest of seeing him come to faith in Christ. Just
nine days later, she died.
In the Bible we read of a prodigal whose father kept a vigil for his return,
seeing him when he was "yet a great way off." We who are spiritual
beneficiaries of Augustine can be thankful that Monica was an equally loving
but not so passive parent.
Whenever Augustine ran, she followed him; whenever he came home, she
challenged his rebellious ways. For Augustine, she surely embodied on earth

22. what he and many other prodigals have learned about our heavenly Father -- a
truth best stated in this quotation from the Confessions: "The only way a man
can lose You is to leave You; and if he leaves You, where does he go? He can
run only from Your pleasure to Your wrath."
AUTHORITY
This illustrations is well known but here it is for the record:
In U.S. avel Institute Proceedings, the magazine of the aval Institute, Frank
Koch illustrates the importance of obeying the Laws of the Lighthouse. Two
battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in
heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on
watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so
the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.
Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, "Light, bearing on the
starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
The lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," which meant we were on a dangerous
collision course with that ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: 'We are on a
collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.'"
Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees."
The captain said, "Send: "I'm a captain, change course twenty degrees.'"
"I'm a seaman second-class," came the reply. "You had better change course
twenty degrees."
By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send: 'I'm a battleship.
Change course twenty degrees.'"
Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse."
We changed course.
In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado, Word Publishing, 1991 Page 153
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard
for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and
no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter
was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to
the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next
person in line.
"Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of
chicken?"
"Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to
each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said.
"Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this
time he would throw a little weight around.
"Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."

23. "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the
chicken. Move along, mister."
Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, Page 5-6
For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the
heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as
the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of
course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped
them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first.
But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. In 1589 Galileo
summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then
he went to the top and pushed off a ten- pound and a one-pound weight. Both
landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that
the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right.
-- Bits & Pieces, January 9, 1992, pp. 22,23.
Amy Carter brought an assignment home one Friday night while her father
was still President. Stumped by a question on the Industrial Revolution, Amy
sought help from her mother. Rosalynn was also fogged by the question and, in
turn, asked an aide to seek clarification from the Labor Department. A
"rush" was placed on the request since the assignment was due Monday.
Thinking the question was a serious request from the Prez himself, a Labor
Department official immediately cranked up the government computer and
kept a full team of technicians and programmers working overtime all
weekend...at a reported cost of several hundred thousand dollars. The massive
computer printout was finally delivered by truck to the White House on
Sunday afternoon and Amy showed up in class with the official answer the
following day. But her history teacher was not impressed. When Any's paper
was returned, it was marked with a big red "C." May, 1981 Campus Life, p. 59
STATISTICS A D STUFF
God-ordained authorities:
Government: Rom 13, 1 Pt 2:17
Employer: Eph 6, 1 Pt 2:18
Husband: 1 Pt 3:1, Col 3:18, Eph 5:22
Parent: Eph 6
Elders: Heb 13:17
AUTOMOBILE
While the family of Harry Bliss mourned, they surely had no idea of the tide of
grieving his death would unleash. He died in 1899 in ew York City, the first
recorded automobile fatality. Many million times since the tragedy, his death
has been reenacted, and not even a single one of us has escaped the pain. If
Jesus had come along 1900 years later and traveled in a Ford or Toyota instead
of on foot or by donkey, no doubt he'd have been concerned about responsible
driving habits. Rev David Peterson, 1st Pres Ch, Spokane, WA

24. AUTO OMY
Another poll sheds light on this paradox of increased religiosity and decreased
morality. According to sociologist Robert Bellah, 81 percent of the American
people also say they agree that "an individual should arrive at his or her own
religious belief independent of any church or synagogue." Thus the key to the
paradox is the fact that those who claim to be Christians are arriving at faith
on their own terms -- terms that make no demands on behavior. A woman
named Sheila, interviewed for Bellah's Habits of the Heart, embodies this
attitude. "I believe in God," she said. "I can't remember the last time I went
to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It's 'Sheila-ism.' Just my
own little voice." Against the ight, Charles Colson, Page 98
AVAILABILITY
While waiting in a cemetery to conduct a funeral service, Charles Simeon
walked among the graves, looking at the epitaphs. He found one that arrested
him.
When from the dust of death I rise,
To claim my mansion in the skies,
E'en then shall this be all my plea--
"Jesus hath lived and died for me."
He was so impressed with that gospel message that he looked for someone in the
cemetery with whom he might share it. He saw a young woman, obviously
distressed, and called her over to read the epitaph. He took her address and
visited her the next day. The home was a scene of poverty and squalor. The
woman's old mother was dying of asthma, and two little children, very dirty,
were trying to warm themselves by a small fire. Simeon prayed with the family,
visited them again, and found assistance for them. Later, the young woman told
Simeon that she had been in the cemetery five hours and was contemplating
suicide when he called her to read the epitaph. Because of his concern she
trusted Christ and the family situation was changed. Wycliffe Handbook of
Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 217
AVARICE.
1. O cursed Lust of God: when for thy sake
The Fool throws up his interest in both worlds,
First starv'd in this, then damn'd in that to come.
AVERAGE
The average male is: 5' 9" tall and 173 pounds. Is married, 1.8 years older than
his wife and would marry her again. Has not completed college. Earns $28,605
per year. Prefers showering to taking a bath. Sends about 7.2 hours a week
eating. Does not know his cholesterol count, but it's 211. Watches 26 hours and
44 minutes of TV a week. Takes out the garbage in his household. Prefers white
underwear to colored. Cries about once a month--one fourth as much as Jane
Doe. Falls in love an average of six times during his life. Eats his corn on the cob
in circles, not straight across, and prefers his steak medium. Can't whistle by

25. inserting his fingers in his mouth. Prefers that his toilet tissue unwind over,
rather than under, the spool. Has sex 2.55 times a week. Daydreams mostly
about sex. Thinks he looks okay in the nude. Will not stop to ask for directions
when he's in the car. From Men's Health, quoted in Parade Magazine, 12-29-91,
p. 5
On an average day in the USA: 1,169,863 people take a taxi, 176,810,950 eggs
are laid, 21,000 gallons of oil are spilled from tankers and barges, 63,288 cars
crash, 28 mailmen are bitten by dogs, 2 billion $1 bills are in circulation,
industry generates nearly 1 pound of hazardous waste for every person in
America, 1.1 million people are in the hospital, the U.S. Postal Service sells 90
million stamps, handles 320 million pieces of mail and delivers 833,000
packages, 180,000 people buy new radios, 500 million cups of coffee are drunk,
80 million people hear Muzak, 10,205 people give blood, $54,794 is spent to
fight dandruff, bricklayers lay 22,741,000 bricks, amateurs take 19,178,000
shapshots, 9,077 babies are born, 2,466 children are bitten by dogs, 5,962
couples wed, every one of us produces nearly 6 pounds of garbage. from
American Averages, 1980, Willian B. Mead and Myron Feinsilber, Doubleday
AWARENESS
Upon entering the little country store, the stranger noticed a sign saying; DA GER!
BEWARE OF DOG! posted on the glass door. Inside he noticed a harmless old
hound dog asleep on the floor besides the cash register. He asked the store
manager, "Is THAT the dog folks are supposed to beware of?" "Yep, that's him,"
he replied. The stranger couldn't help but be amused. "That certainly doesn't look
like a dangerous dog to me. Why in the world would you post that sign?"
"Because"; the owner replied, "before I posted that sign, people kept tripping over
him."
awareness
The man who cannot wonder is but a pair of
spectacles behind which there is no eye.
Thomas Carlyle
I want you to become aware that you already possess all the inner
wisdom, strength, and creativity needed to make your dreams come true.
This is hard for most of us to realize because the source of this
unlimited personal power is buried so deeply beneath the bills, the car
pool, the deadlines, the business trip, and the dirty laundry that we
have difficulty accessing it in our daily lives. When we can't access
our inner resources, we come to the flawed conclusion that happiness and
fulfillment come only from external events. That's because external
events usually bring with them some sort of change. . . .We can learn to
be the catalysts for our own change. . . .you already possess all you

26. need to be genuinely happy. Sarah Ban Breathnach
We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand. . . and
melting like a snowflake.
Let us use it before it is too late.
Marie Edith Beynon
A greater poverty than that caused by lack of money is the poverty of
unawareness. Men and women go about the world unaware of the beauty, the
goodness, and the glories in it. Their souls are poor. It is better to
have a poor pocketbook than to suffer from a poor soul.
Jerry Fleishman
The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much on faces or
voices or healing power suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our
perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and
our ears can hear what is there about us always.
Willa Cather
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as
good as dead: his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein
Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe, the
longer and more earnestly I reflect on them: the starry heavens without
and the moral law within.
Immanuel Kant
What else is going on right this minute while ground water creeps under
my feet? The galaxy is careening in a slow, muffled widening. . . . The
sun's surface is now exploding; other stars implode and vanish, heavy
and black, out of sight. Meteorites are arcing to earth invisibly all
day long. On the planet the winds are blowing. . . .Somewhere, someone
under full sail is becalmed, in the horse latitudes, in the doldrums; in
the northland, a trapper is maddened, crazed, by the eerie scent of the
chinook, the snow-eater, a wind that can melt two feet of snow in a day.
The pampero blows, and the tramontane, and the Boro, sirocco, levanter,
mistral. Lick a finger: feel the now.
Annie Dillard
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake
Half the joy of life is in the little things taken on the run. Let us
run if we must--even the sands do that--but let us keep our hearts young
and our eyes open that nothing worth our while shall escape us.
Victor Cherbuliez
A man can know nothing of mankind without knowing
something of himself. Self-knowledge is the property
of that man whose passions have their full play, but
who ponders over their results.
Benjamin Disraeli
An enlightened mind is not hoodwinked;
it is not shut up in a gloomy prison till
it thinks the walls of its dungeon the
limits of the universe, and the reach

27. of its own chain the outer verge of intelligence.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I saw Fair Haven Pond with its island, and meadow between the island and
the shore, and a strip of perfectly still and smooth water in the lee of
the island, and two hawks, fish hawks perhaps, sailing over it. I did
not see how it could be improved. Yet I do not see what these things can
be. I begin to see such an object when I cease to understand it and see
that I did not realize or appreciate it before, but I get no further
than this. How adapted these forms and colors to my eye! A meadow and an
island! What are these things? Yet the hawks and the ducks keep so
aloof! and Nature so reserved! I am made to love the pond and the
meadow, as the wind is made to ripple the water.
Henry David Thoreau
If I had influence with the good fairy who
is supposed to preside over the christening
of all children I should ask that her gift to
each child be a sense of wonder so
indestructible that it would last throughout
life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom
and disenchantment of later years, the sterile
preoccupation with things that are artificial,
the alienation from the sources of our strength.
Rachel Carson
I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light but who see
nothing in sea or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books. It
were far better to sail forever in the night of blindness with sense,
and feeling, and mind, than to be content with the mere act of seeing.
The only lightless dark is the night of darkness in ignorance and
insensibility.
Helen Keller
AWFUL EXPERIE CE
1. While hunting deer in the Tehema Wildlife Area near Red Bluff in
northern California, Jay Rathman climbed to a ledge on the slope
of a rocky gorge. As he raised his head to look over the ledge
above, he sensed movement to the right of his face. A coiled
rattler struck with lightning speed, just missing Rathman's right
ear. The four-foot snake's fangs got snagged in the neck of
Rathman's wool turtleneck sweater, and the force of the strike
caused it to land on his left shoulder. It then coiled around
his neck. He grabbed it behind the head with his left hand and
could feel the warm venom running down the skin of his neck, the
rattles making a furious racket. He fell backward and slid
headfirst down the steep slope through brush and lava rocks, his
rifle and binoculars bouncing beside him. "As luck would have
it," he said in describing the incident to a Department of Fish
and Game official, "I ended up wedged between some rocks with my
feet caught uphill from hy head. I could barely move." He got
his right hand on his rifle and used it to disengage the fangs
from his sweater, but the snake had enough leverage to strike
again. "He made about eight attempts and managed to hit me with
his nose just below my eye about four times. I kept my face

28. turned so he couldn't get a good angle with his fangs, but it
was very close. This chap and I were eyeball to eyeball and I
found out that snakes don't blink. He had fangs like darning
needles...I had to choke him to death. It was the only way out.
I was afraid that with all the blood rushing to my head I might
pass out." When he tried to toss the dead snake aside, he
couldn't let go--"I had to pry my fingers from its neck."
Rathman, 45, who works for the Defense Department in San Jose,
estimates his encounter with the snake lasted 20 minutes. Warden
Dave Smith says of meeting Rathman: "He walked toward me holding
this string of rattles and said with a sort of grin on his face,
'I'd like to register a complaint about your wildlife here.'"
Swindoll, Quest For Character, p. 17-18
B
BABIES I HEAVE
Dr. Robert Mounce wrote, “The specter of a newborn babe suffering eternal
punishment is entirely unacceptable in a moral universe. We could never conceive
of a God whose nature is love planning or allowing such a hideous miscarriage of
justice. Therefore we accept the alternative-that is, that babies are accepted into
God’s presence on the basis of Christ’s atoning work even though they are
incapable of exercising personal faith in Him.”
BAD DAY
Jamie Buckingham writes, “Feeling the need to boss someone around, I asked my 16
year old son to assist me. The first thing I did after he joined me on the roof was to
warn him what I would do if he clumsily missed his step and busted a hole in the
ceiling. The second thing I did was turn around, miss the two by eight with my foot
and stick it through the exposed ceiling board-directly over his bedroom. I figured I
had saved enough money for the day and spent the rest of the afternoon doing my
specialty, picking up bent nails from the patio. Later that afternoon, without the
carpenters around to make me feel inferior, I took my son back out to show him
how to saw up the discarded roof trusses. In quick order I stepped on a nail,
dropped a huge plank on my foot, and sawed through the cord on the electric saw.”

29. BEST A D SECO D BEST
And alert journalist splashed a pail of milk on a auto to put out a fire. He saw the
blaze in the car in front of him and he signaled the driver to pull over to the side and
get out. He flagged down a passing milk truck and told the driver he needed a half
gallon of milk, which he quickly poured on the flames. It was messy and expensive
to clean it up, but when milk is the only thing available there is no sense to quibble
about it being less than the best, for in that situation second best is the best.
BODY OF CHRIST BROKE
Two hands have haunted me for days, two hands of slender shape,
All crushed and torn as in the press, is bruised the tender grape.
In work or meals, in prayer or play, those mangled pawns I see,
And a plaintive voice keeps whispering: “These hands were pierce for thee!”
Yes, even so, ungrateful one, these hands were pierced for thee.”
Throu toil and danger pressing on, as throu a firey flood,
Two slender feet beside my own, marry every step with blood.
The swollen veins so rent with nails, it breaks my heart to see,
While the same voice cries out afresh: “These feet were pierced for thee!”
‘For me, dear Lord, for me?’
“Yes, even so, ungrateful one, these feet were pierced for thee.”
As on we travel toward the close, these wounded feet and mind,
Distented still the vision grows, the more and more divine.
For in my Guide’s wide opened side, the cloven heart I see.
And tender voice sobs like a psalm: “This heart was pierced for thee!”
‘For me, Great God, for me?’
“Yes, enter in, my ransomed one, this heart was pierced for thee!”
BOR
Boreham writes, “What helpless things we were when we arrived from out the
everywhere!
ot a rag to our back, nor a word on our lips, nor a thought in our minds. It is
positively distressing to reflect that we arrived in such sorry straits! We began in
utter beggary and total bankruptcy. The marvel is that we were not instantly
arrested for having flung ourselves on the charity of the universe without any visible
means of support!
We were undesirable immigrants of the worst kind. We could produce no
penny of capital. We could offer no equivalent in the way of labor-skilled or
unskilled; we had not the power to promise to recoup any advances made on our
behalf, and we lack even the intelligence to perceive the extreme delicacy and
embarrassment of our awkward predicament. When I hear a man talking haughtily

30. of his independence and self-reliance, I like to remind him of the condition in which
he first appeared on this planet.”
BRIDE OF CHRIST
Barnhouse writes, “In our salvation we were married to him. He is was who took
the vows first of all: I Jesus, take thee sinner, to be my bride. And I do promise and
covenant before God and these witnesses, to be thy loving and faithful Savior and
Bridegroom; in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow,
in faithfulness and in waywardness, from time for eternity.
And then we looked up to him and said, I sinner, take thee Jesus to be my
Savior and my Lord. And I do promise and covenant before God and these
witnesses to be thy loving and faithful bride, in sickness and in health, in plenty and
in want, in joy and in sorrow, for time and for eternity.
BROKE
Will Rogers was known for his laughter, but he also knew how to weep. One day he
was entertaining at the Milton H. Berry Institute in Los Angeles, a hospital that
specialized in rehabilitating polio victims and people with broken backs and other
extreme physical handicaps. Of course, Rogers had everybody laughing, even
patients in really bad condition; but then he suddenly left the platform and went to
the rest room. Milton Berry followed him to give him a towel; and when he opened
the door, he saw Will Rogers leaning against the wall, sobbing like a child. He closed
the door, and in a few minutes, Rogers appeared back on the platform, as jovial as
before.
If you want to learn what a person is really like, ask three questions: What makes
him laugh? What makes him angry? What makes him weep? These are fairly good
tests of character that are especially appropriate for Christian leaders. I hear people
saying, "We need angry leaders today!" or "The time has come to practice militant
Christianity!" Perhaps, but "the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness
of God" (James 1:20).
What we need today is not anger but anguish, the kind of anguish that Moses
displayed when he broke the two tablets of the law and then climbed the mountain
to intercede for his people, or that Jesus displayed when He cleansed the temple and
then wept over the city. The difference between anger and anguish is a broken
heart. It's easy to get angry, especially at somebody else's sins; but it's not easy to
look at sin, our own included, and weep over it.
The Integrity Crisis by Warren W. Wiersbe, Thomas elson Publishers, 1991, Page
75-76

31. In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson founded the
University of Virginia. Because Jefferson trusted that students
would take their studies seriously, the code of discipline was
lax. Unfortunately, his trust proved misplaced when the
misbehavior of students led to a riot in which professors who
tried to restore order were attacked. The following day a
meeting was held between the university's board, of which
Jefferson was a member, and defiant students. Jefferson began by
saying, "This is one of the most painful events of my life," was
overcome by emotion, and burst into tears. Another board member
asked the rioters to come forward and give their names. early
every one did. Later, one of them said, "It was not Mr.
Jefferson's words, but his tears." Today in the Word, March 29,
1993
Five broken things in the Bible and the results achieved by them:
1) Broken pitchers (Judges 7:18,19) and the light shone out
2) A Broken Box (Mark 14:3) and the ointment was poured out
3) Broken Bread (Matt 14:10) and the hungry were fed
4) A Broken Body (I Cor 11:24) and the world was saved
5) A Broken will (Psa 51:17) and a life of fulfillment in Christ
BROTHER
1. There is a story that Ivan S. Turgenev, the Russian writer, met a beggar who asked him for
money. "I felt in my pockets," he said, "but there was nothing there. The beggar waited, and his
out-stretched hand twitched and trembled slightly. Embarrassed and confused, I seize his dirty hand
and pressed it. "Do not be angry with me, brother" I said, "I have nothing with me." The beggar
raised his bloodshot eyes and smiled. "You called me brother," he said, "that was indeed a gift."
BROTHERS
1. Thank God for brothers. We know the first murderer was a brother.
Cain killed his brother Able, and we know that conflict between brothers
runs all through the Bible from Jacob and Esau to the Prodigal and his
older brother. But we focus so often on this unbrotherly love that we
forget that Jesus chose to two sets of brothers to be His disciples.
They were Peter and Andrew; James and John. And in the Old Testament
God choose twelve brothers to be the foundation for the twelve tribes of
Israel. Those brothers were often sub-saintly and down right scoundrels
at times, but the bottom line is, by the grace of God they all end up as
one big happy family.
These twelve brothers can represent everything bad and everything
good about brothers depending upon when you look at their history. They
are truly a mixed bag of virtues and vices. In 1864 Robert Lincoln, son
of the President jumped aboard a train pulling out from Jersey City
Station. He lost his balance and was falling when a man by the name of
Edwin Booth reached out and grabbed him, and saved his life. Within a
week he received a letter of thanks from Washington, but in less than a
year this man was hidding in shame because of his brother. John Wilkes
Booth had shot and killed President Lincoln. Here were two brothers,
one who was acurse and one who was a blessing.
Edwin did go on to become the nations most able performer of
Shakespeare, and the first actor to have his name and bust in the
American Hall Of Fame. But his brother John lives in Infamy as the
assassin of one of Americans greatest heros.
The Cain-Able theme is so strong that we forget to focus on the

32. positive side of brothers and their unity which is the dominent theme of
the closing chapters of Genusis. Minnesota history has been greatly
enriched by the lives of the two Mayo brothers who built the clinic
known around the world. They were very different kinds of
personalities. Dr. Charlie being the one who loved human contact, and
who knew how to put people at ease before surgery. Dr. Will, on the
other hand, was gifted in administration, and not gifted in relating and
making friends.
One day Dr. Will watched Dr. Charlie walk away with a trio of
friends and he said to Charlies wife who sat there with him, "Everybody
likes Charlie, don't they? They aren't afriad of him. No one ever
claps me on the back the way they all do him." And then after some
reflection he added, "But I guess I wouldn't like it if they did." He
could have resented it, and like Joseph's brothers, tried to fight it,
or eliminate it, but he took the wise route and recognized God had made
them different, and he accepted that difference. They work together to
save thousands of lives. People tried to get them divided for their own
ends, but they never let anyone drive a wedge between them. They spent
their whole lives together in unity, and died only a few months apart in
1939.
BUILD
A Builder Or a Wrecker
As I watched them tear a building down
A gang of men in a busy town
With a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and the side wall fell
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
And the men you'd hire if you wanted to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, " o, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need."
"I can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do."
And I thought to myself, as I went my way
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Am I shaping my work to a well-made plan
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks to town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
"O Lord let my life and my labors be
That which will build for eternity!"
--Author Unknown
The Increase, 35th Anniversary Issue, 1993, Page 9
BURDE
1. I took a burden to the Lord

33. To cast and leave it there.
I knelt and told Him of my plight,
And wrestled deep in prayer.
But rising up to go my way
I felt a deep despair,
Fro as I tried to trudge along,
My burden was still there!
Why didn't you take my burden, Lord>
Oh, won't you take it please.
Again I asked the Lord for help,
His answering words were these:
My child, I want to help you out
I long to take your load
I want to bear your burdens too
As you walk along life's road.
But this you must remember,
This one thing you must know....
I cannot take your burden
Until you let it go. Betty Curti
BUREAUCRACY, TOP-HEAVY
The Swedish navy felt the need to construct a huge battleship,
with 64 guns set in two decks, for its fleet. The "Vasa" was a
beautiful ship, but it was top-heavy and did not have adequate
ballast. On August 10 it began its maiden voyage from the
Stockholm harbor. While the crew waved to the king and the
crowds, the ship heeled after a violent gust of wind. The "Vasa"
slowly righted itself, but moments later it listed again--so far
that water washed into the lower gunport. To the amazement of
the people on shore, the Vasa sank and an estimated 50 lives were
lost. Rediscovered in 1956 and salvaged in 1961, it can be seen
today in Stockholm.
ovelist and essayist George A. Birmingham was in his nonliterary
life a clergyman in Ireland where he was pestered by bishops and
other authorities to fill in recurring questionnaires. He took
particular umbrage against the annual demand from the education
office to report the dimensions of his village schoolroom. In
the first and second years, he duly filled in the required
figures. The third year he replied that the schoolroom was still
the same size. The education office badgered him with reminders
until Birmingham finally filled in the figures. This time he
doubled the dimensions of his schoolroom. obody queried it. So

34. he went on doubling the measurements until "in the course of five
or six years that schoolroom became a great deal larger than St.
Paul's Cathedral." But nobody at the eudcation office was at all
concerned. So, the next year, Birmingham suddenly reduced the
dimensions of his colossal classroom "to the size of an American
tourist trunk. It would have been impossible to get three
children in that schoolroom." And nobody took the slightest
notice, for nobody needed the information. But the system did,
and the system had to be satisfied. Patrick Ryan in Smithsonian
BUREAUCRATIC
Red tape is neither new nor a strictly American bureaucratic
invention. It is said that there was a time when the windows of Windsor
Castle were never washed on the inside and the outside at the same time.
The outside of the windows was under the jurisdiction of Woods and
Forest while the inside was under the jurisdiction of the Lord Stewards.
It took a forced meeting of the two departments before both sides of the
windows could be washed on the same day.
BUR OUT, cf. Workaholic
The "Coronary and Ulcer Club" lists the following rules
for members...
1. Your job comes first. Forget everything else.
2. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are fine times to be
working at the office. There will be nobody else there to bother
you.
3. Always have your briefcase with you when not at your
desk. This provides an opportunity to review completely all the
troubles and worries of the day.
4. ever say "no" to a request. Always say "yes."
5. Accept all invitations to meetings, banquets,
committees, etc.
6. All forms of recreation are a waste of time.
7. ever delegate responsibility to others; carry the
entire load yourself.
8. If your work calls for traveling, work all day and
travel at night to keep that appointment you made for eight the
next morning.
9. o matter how many jobs you already are doing,
remember you always can take on more.
Bits & Pieces, January 7, 1993, Page 9-10
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once told of an incident that may
have seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound
influence on the rest of his life. The winter he was 9, he went
walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-

35. nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the
field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in
the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight, and then young
Frank's tracks meandering all over the field.
" otice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the
cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see
how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important
lesson in that."
Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how this
experience had greatly contributed to his philosophy in life.
"I determined right then," he'd say with a twinkle in his eye,
"not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had." Focus on the
Family letter, September, 1992, Page 14
Young Richard Sears was a railroad agent in Redwood,
Minnesota when he discovered he could order watches from the
manufacturer, then reship them to agents down the line who sold
them to local people. Sears launched a mail-order company, later
teaming up with Alvah Roebuck. By 1894, Sears Roebuck & Co. had
a 300-page catalog, but orders rolled in so fast that Sears
simply burned order forms when he fell too far behind! A
brilliant businessman named Julius Rosenwald brought order to the
chaos, making many changes and innovations as he made the company
work. By 1908, Sears himself was out of the picture, but even in
Rosenwald's massive overhaul of the business, he was wise enough
to preserve the best of the past -- the "book", the famous Sears
catalog, which has earned a place in American folklore.
Today in the Word, September 8, 1992
The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique.
The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the
runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all
the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him. Fan The
Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 32
Imagine a wick that is placed in oil, and then lit. If the oil
runs out, the wick burns. As long as there is oil, the wick
doesn't burn. As long as we are living in dependence on the
power of the Holy Spirit, we don't burn out. The question to
ask: what's burning?
On Jan 25, 1990, Avianca Flight 52 from Colombia crashed just 15
miles short of ew York's Kennedy International Ariport, killing
73 passengers. Reason: the plane just ran out of gas. Under
international reuglations, an airliner must carry enough fuel to
reach its destination as well as its assigned alternate, plus
enough extra to handle at least 45 minutes of delays. Due to low
fuel condition, the Avianca pilots had requested "priority" (not
"emergency") landing. Because the exact word "emergency" was
not used, and due to heavy traffic and bad weather conditions,
the ill-fated plane was placed on a holding pattern...until it

36. simply ran out of gas.
A first-grader wondered why her father brought home a briefcase
full of work every evening. Her mother explained, "Daddy has so
much to do that he can't finish it all at the office." "Well,
then," asked the child innocently, "why don't they put him in a
slower group?" Daily Bread, August 8, 1989
Do not be in too great a hurry. There is time for everything
that has to be done. He who gave you your lifework has given you
just enough time to do it in. The length of life's candle is
measured out according to the length of your required task. You
must take necessary time for meditation, for sleep, for food, for
the enjoyment of human love and friendship; and even then there
will be time enough left for your necessary duties. More haste,
less speed! The feverish hand often gives itself additional
toil. "He that believeth shall not make haste." F.B. Meyer in
Our Daily Walk
Parents rate their inability to spend enough time with their
children as the greatest threat to the family. In a survey
conducted for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Corp., 35
percent pointed to time constraints as the most important reason
for the decline in family values. Another 22 percent mentioned a
lack of parental discipline. While 63 percent listed family as
their greatest source of pleasure, only 44 percent described the
quality of family life in America as good or excellent. And only
34 percent expected it to be good or excellent by 1999. Despite
their expressed desire for more family time, two-thirds of those
surveyed say they would probably accept a job that required more
time away from home if it offered higher income or greater
prestige. Moody Monthly, December, 1989, p. 72
Of nineteenth-century preacher Robert Murray McCheyne: After
graduating from Edinburgh University at age fourteen in 1827 and
leading a Presbyterian congregation of over a thousand at age
twenty-three, he worked so hard that his health finally broke.
Before dying at age twenty-nine he wrote, "God gave me a message
to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse
and now I cannot deliver the message." Of Peter Marshall, former
chaplain of the U.S. Senate, "In Peter's case, I am certain that
it was not God's ideal will that he die of coronary occlusion at
forty-six" (Catherine Marshall, in Something More). After his
first heart attack a friend asked, "I'm curious to know
something. What did you learn during your illness?" "Do you
really want to know?" Peter answered promptly. "I learned that
the Kingdom of God goes on without Peter Marshall." quoted in E.
Skoglund, Burning out for God, p. 12, 30
BURNOUT
1. Harold Kushner wrote, "I am often asked to speak to medical staffs,
hospice workers, and other caregivers about how to deal with victims of