Online Free Stories

Christianity is About a Person Jesus Christ Story

2011-04-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

Story title: Christianity is About a Person Jesus Christ
By: Jack McArdle

      There is an old church in Sweden that is historically important for several reasons, but the thing that strikes the visitor most is the life-size crucifix on the back wall of the church. It hangs directly opposite the pulpit, where the preacher can see it, but where the people cannot. When the guide is asked why the crucifix is hidden like this, he usually tells the following story.
     One Sunday, King Charles XII made an unexpected visit to the church. When the preacher saw the king come in, he threw away his prepared sermon and spent the time talking about the king's virtues and how much he was doing for his people.
    A few days later, the crucifix arrived at the church as a gift from the king. Along with it came a letter in which the king ordered that the crucifix be placed on the wall opposite the pulpit, so that from that time on, anyone who mounted that pulpit to preach, would be reminded of the one he was supposed to be talking about.

Desiring Happines For Others Story

2011-03-30T04:47:00.000-07:00

Story title: Desiring Happines For Others
By: Ernest J. Lewis

   David Garroway was one of the first TV talk-show personalities. After he had become quite wealthy, he was asked one day about his sense of Christmas. He said he had noticed that the older one gets, the harder it is to tell people what you want for Christmas.
     "I've noticed," he said, "that most people ask for something materials for Christmas. This used to amuse me, but it doesn't any more. I happen to be a person who can afford anything he wants. But I find that what I really want, I can't by at all. I want peace/// peace of mind /// peace of soul. The kind of peace you have when you don't really want anything.

     "Nowadays when I ask the question, I phrase it this way: 'What if you had everything you wanted... What if you had all the money in the world.. What if you could buy anything you wanted.. then what would you like for Christmas??'
"One Christmas that is! It's like the little girl who prayed at the end of the day: 'God, I had a great time today.' and then she added, ' I hope you had a good time, too."

You Call This Justice? Story

2011-03-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Story title: You Call This Justice?

In the name of "Justice," some Americans have initiated strange and convoluted lawsuits. Consider the following:
   At a recent boxing match a fan drank too much, got into a fight, and ultimately fell down a flight of stairs. His family wanted "justice," so they hired a lawyer and sued. Included in their lawsuit was "Ticket Master," the company that sold the man the ticket to the boxing match.
    Then there was the man who bought a four seated plane. In order to rig the plane so he could fly it from the back seat, he removed the pilot's seat, along with all its safety equipment. The plane crashed and the man's family sued the company that designated and built it. The family won a million dollars, even though the man altered and deliberately misused the original equipment.

   In order case a young woman was injured when her fiance deliberately smashed into her go cart as they were finishing up their ride around the track. The court ruled that the young man who actually ran into the woman was 85 percent responsible, the young woman herself was 14 percent negligent, and the theme park was one percent involved. However, in the interest of "justice," the theme park was required to pay the entire cash judgment.

A Room in the Lifeboats story

2011-03-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Story title: A Room In The Lifeboats

   Catering to the rich and famous, this luxury liner was advertised as unsinkable. On Titanic's fateful night, passengers who somehow still believed the advertisement refused to get in the lifeboats, even though they were told the ship was going down. They held to their belief in the advertisement that the ship was unsinkable and were actually offended by officers who told them to climb into a cramped lifeboat when they had paid enormous sums for luxurious accommodations.

   Other passengers were unable to enter a lifeboat because of the selfish privileged who felt no concern for anyone but themselves. The first class passengers feared that added weight in the lifeboats would jeopardize their chance for survival. As a result, many of the ship's lifeboats, which were made to hold up to 60 people, left the ship with only 15 people aboard.
    Although there were enough lifeboats to save hundreds more, people either refused to use them or they were left stranded on the sinking liner.

A Tossing the Queen Story

2011-03-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

Story title: Tossing the Queen
By: Cleopatra

During the heyday of the Napoleonic era, French troops fanned out around the globe to share the “best” of France with their colonies and to bring the best things from those colonies back to France.
Included in this “cultural exchange” was a storehouse filled with ancient Egyptian artifacts. As the empire waned, many of these treasures found their way into the basement of the Paris museum.
In the 1940s some workmen uncovered a burial case squeezed into an obscure corner of the basement. They decided that the box would make an excellent storage space for many of the treasures. Without consulting the museum’s caretakers, they simply emptied the contents into the sewer and filled it with odds and ends of Egyptian artifacts. Only later did they discover that they had inadvertently disposed of the remains of Egypt’s most famous personage Cleopatra.

Application : In I Peter 2:7 "Those Who do not believe" In Ignorance people regularly discard things of great value. Jesus Christ is God's
greatest gift to mankind, yet he continues to be rejected by "those who do not believe"

A Hanging By A Thread Story

2011-03-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

Story title: Hanging By A Thread
By: Bert Balling

       One sunny day, a spider glided down noiselessly from a tree and began to run to and fro among the bushes, pulling along his string and building an intricate web, which very shortly ensnared many a tasty insect.
      As the sun was sinking in the evening sky, the spiderspeeded around and across his web and felt a thrill of pride over his work. It had been a wonderfully successful day.
      Before he closed his eyes in sleep, he had one more admiring look around his masterpiece, and noticed that by some oversight he had left the string which supported the whole web from a bit loose and dangling. It was the very first string he had begun to weave with, but now he could see no more use for it. It spoiled the whole symmetry. So he just snipped it off.
     Suddenly the whole web came tumbling down around him and trapped him so completely that he smothered to death.
     That spider's mistake was that he cut off his basic attachment from above.
     People do that, too, when they cut themeselves off from their invisible support from above, who is God.

A Liturgical Reading Story

2011-03-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Song title: Liturgical Reading
By: London Universe

       The famous Irish television personality, Eamonn Andrews, tells this story on himself.
       His parish priest in Dublin asked him whether he would like to take one of the liturgical readings on Sundays, and Eamonn gladly agreed. So late one Saturday, the priest sent one of the altar boys to ask Eamonn if he would take the reading at next day's Mass.

      He refused.. And this was the way he put it to his parish priest, "As far as I am concerned, the Word of God is something absolutely precious. It means an awful lot to me. I have made a lot of sacrifices during my life because of convictions I have about the Gospel. And, therefore, I will not take the Gospel for granted.
      "You are asking me to come along tomorrow and go out and read something I have never seen. If I were doing a television program, I would spend a whole week planning and preparing it. I will not go out there just to read in front of people, without putting a lot of preparation into it, without having it explained to me. I want to know what the people are to get out of it. I want to pray about it."

At Least We're Hones Around Here Story

2011-03-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

     The latest modern addition to our school was the automatic Coca Cola dispenser standing right next to the door to the mess.
      One day, three lively boys came hurdling down the stairs so fast that one of them accidentally bumped against the dispenser and lo and behold, a free bottle of coke popped out."Hey That's what I call fast service, "said Joe.

     "Let's see if it works for me, too, "said Jack. So he slapped the dispenser across the middle and out came a second free bottle of coke.
     The free coke secret was kept in a tight circle of friends.
     Then one hot morning just before the fourth class, Joe rushed down for the last bottle of coke he was keeping on tap for such an emergency. But someone had beaten him to it. It was gone. "Darn it, "he exclaimed. "There must be a thief around here somewhere. Imagine it! Someone stealing in a nice school like this! How low have we sunk?"
     Joe, of course, did not include himself among the thieves.

He was Going To Leave Story

2011-03-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

Story title: He Was Going To Leave
By: Bert Balling

       One day an elderly surgeon said to an aging bishop, "Bishop, I just want to inform you that I'm thingking about leaving the Church. What do you say about that?"
      The Bishop asked the medical man if he could give him a few reasons for his decision. The doctor
looked the bishop squarely in the eye and told him that he was highly disappointed with the Church and all it stood for. "Look," he explained, "the Church has been around for over a thousand years and today people are no better than they ever were. Or would you care to deny that?"
    "What you say is absolutely right, doctor,"said the bishop. "But look at it this way" we've had water on this earth for millions of years, and you still go and get your hands dirty every day, don't you?"
      The doctor thought that one over, put on his hat, and disappeared from the bishop's sight.
      Incidently, he never left the Church.

How Are You Getting You Bearing? Story

2011-03-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

Story title: How Are You Getting ?
By: Robert Schuller

      Two little boys went fishing and caught nothing. Discouraged, they decided to try again the next day. Again they caught nothing. Finally, on the third day they caught a fish. Soon they were both pulling them in one after another. "Hey, it's time to go home, "one little fellow said. "We'll come back tomorrow now that we know where the fish are," And he began to mark a big "X" on the bottom of the boat.
     "What's that for ?" the second boy asked.
     "I'm making a mark so we'll know where to come back to."
      The second lad said, "That's stupid. We may not even get the same boat tomorrow."
     As a fisherman, I learned years go that you take your sightings by a mark on the shore and line it up with something on the opposite shore line.
Then you can find your place again.
    God is the point where you get your bearing for everyday life.

The Value Of The Printed Word Story

2011-03-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Story title: The Value Of The Printed Word
By: Bert Balling

The Russian writer Lev Kopelev had spent many years in prisons and labor camps. Once when he was washing some socks and handkerchiefs in the cellar of a prison, he found a half-burnt book in the garbage heap. It was a Breviary, the official prayer book of every Catholic priest and religious.
    Kopelov took the book to his prison cell and read it every night by the light of the security lights on the prison walls. As a Jew, he loved the Old Testament psalms that filled the book. But what fascinated him most were the "Our Father", the "Hail Mary", and the "Creed." In them he realized that he was repeating prayers which were almost two thousand years old, prayers which have been heard in Roman prisons, in the hurt of slaves, in the cathedrals of South America, in cloisters of monks and nuns, in castles and cathedrals and in his own hometown of Kiev.
   Kopelov says that he carried that Breviary around in his pocket and at night slipped in under his pillow. Those age old texts gave peace to Kopelov's soul. They lightened the burden of his prison days.
   Kopelov never gave away that Breviary. To him is symbolized the value of a book, the potential behind the printed word.

The Night Walker Story

2011-03-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Night Walker Story
By: Christian Science Monitor

I take a walk every evening for physical, mental and emotional benefits. But the main reason is to keep my motive before my eyes. Here is how it works.
     As I turn the last corner, I see my house standing there in the dark. I stand there for a moment and
look at it. I think of my three little sons asleep upstairs, and of my wife, who is either reading or strumming here guitar and singing quitely to herself. I take a deep breath of clean night air and I think, "In the house is all that is most precious to me."
   That is my main reason for taking that evening walk: one mile out and one mile back-- and then that pause to remind myself of the sacred things in my life.
    It is not a bad reason for taking a walk.

A Irritations Help Story

2011-03-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Irritation Help
By: Harry Emerson Fosdick

      Most of us can afford to take a lesson from the oyster. The extraordinary thing about an oyster is this: irritations, like a grain of sand, get into its shell. It does not like them. But when it cannot get rid of them, it settles down to make of them one of the most beautiful things in the world. I makes the irritation into a pearl.

     There are irritations in our lives today, and there is only one prescription: make pearls out of them.
     It may be a pearl of patience. But anyway, make a pearl. And it takes faith and love to do it.

Graduates Welcome To The Real World Story

2011-03-10T04:32:00.001-08:00

Story title: Graduates Welcome To The Real World
By: Reader's Digest

     Congratulations, school leaves and graduates. Welcome to the real world where there are no end of term breaks and Christmas holidays start on the night of December 24. Some of your predecessors have compiled some wise bits of advice. They go like this:

     Having a drink with the boys every night after work is a bad idea. Notice that the boss does not do it. That's why he's the boss and they're the boys.
    Buy and alarm clock that works.
Never date a girl whose father calls her "Princess. " Most probably she believes it.
    If you don't like your job, quit. Otherwise, shut up.
    Dirty laundry never goes away.
    Be nice to ordinary people. You're still one of them.
   No one sells a car because it runs too well.
   Someday your family will be all you have. Treat them right.
   There is no such a thing as free lunch.

A Civic Duty Story

2011-03-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Civic Duty
By: Indian Christian

      The story is told of a king who placed a heavy stone in the middle of the road and then hid and watched to see who would remove it. All kinds of people came up to it and worked their way around it. Some loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clean. But all of them dodged their duty of getting the stone out of the way.

     At last a poor peasant came along; he was carrying vegetables to town for sale. He came up to the stone, took a good long look at it, laid down his load of vegetables and with his shoulder rolled the stone into the gutter.
    When he came back, he found a purse full of money which had lain right under the stone. He opened it and found it full of gold pieces and a note from the king, which said that the money was for the one who would remove the stone.

A Graduation Gift Story

2011-03-08T04:51:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Graduation Gift Story
By: Reader's Digest

   Comedian David Brenner came from a poor family. When he graduated from high school, he was given an unforgettable gift.

   "Some of my friends got new clothes, a few rich ones got new cars,"
he remembers. "After I had my diploma in my hand, my father came over, congratulated me, and reached into his pants pocket and took something out. I extended my hand, palm up and he let his present drop into it.. a five cent coin called a nickel!
"Then he said to me, 'Buy a newspaper with that. Read every word of it. Then turn to the classified ad section and find yourself a job. Get out into the world. It's all yours now.
    "I always thought that was a great joke my father had played on me.. until a few years ago in that Army, I was sitting in a foxhole thinking about my family and my life. It was then that I realized that my friends had gotten only new cars, or only clothes. My father had given me that whole world. What greater gift could there be?"

Raising Money for the Church story

2011-03-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

Story title: Raising Money For The Church
By: Tony Castle

      They tell the story of an Anglican pastor in England who wanted to build a new tower for the village church. He hit upon the Gospel idea of distributing money to his 100 villagers and telling them to invest and bring back the profits within six months. He did even better than the man in the Bible: he repead 13 times as much as he sowed.

      Villagers found many ways to reap where the pastor had sown. Some took the one pound which they had received, and invested it in anything from rabbit raising to shoe shinning, to lemonade selling. One lady bought clay. made ceramic pots and sold them for 96 pounds. One lady bought cake mix, baked a couple cakes and had a little tea party which earned 43 pounds.
     Unlike the master in the Gospel parable, the pastor did not have to scold any of his flock for burying their money. One lady even put her money into a slot machine, and it doubled. Since it was for a good cause, the pastor closed an eye.

Giving Self Story by William Barclay

2011-03-06T06:36:00.000-08:00

Story title: Giving Self
By: William Barclay

    A very conscientious Christian lady looked back on her girlhood in a big city. She was from a well to do family and as she put it. "The poor were our pets." On Sunday it was the favorite charity of these superior Christians to make the rounds of the cells at the police station. The men in particular did this. They visited the week end drunks, lectured them, forced them to take the pledge, and then bailed them out of jail so they would be back to work on Monday.

    These do gooders were smugly respectable, very visibly in a different moral category from those to whom they gave..
    The had one fault: they never gave themselves. When we stoop and give from on high, even out of the sense of Christian duty, but we never give ourselves, our giving is incomplete.
    No gift is complete unless we ourselves are in it.

If I Could Only Do It All Over Again Story

2011-03-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

Story title: If I Could Only Do It All Over Again
By: Hans Dieter Schelauske

     Anyone celebrating any birthday beyond seventy is repeatedly pestered with the usual question, "What was the secret of you long life?"
     An elderly num, Sister Ruth, was asked," What would you do if you had a chance to do it all over again?"
    She said, "As you see, I'm a nun. As such, I belong to a group of orderly, organized people who live a regular and healthy life. So that's what I did, too. But there were times when I had my silly

moments. And if I could do it all over again, I would like to have more of those silly moments. In other words, the next time around, I would not do so much planning. I would leave more to chance. You know, I'm one of those people who carry around a thermometer, hot water bottle and raincoat just in case. The next time around, I would leave all that gear at home. I would get up before dawn and walk barefoot in the dewy grass. I would take a ride or two on a merry to round. And I would not trouble my head about what anyone else thought about it."
    What this gray haired Sister was saying was: "I'd trust in God more and leave most of the running of my life to him."

Be Patient With our kid Story

2011-03-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

Story title: Be Patient With our kid Story

This is a true story which happened in the States. A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three year old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint of the truck. The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital.

Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery and saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?" The father went home & committed suicide.

Touching and inspiring story that's remind us the important of life that things of this world that time welcome will all gone. Also remind us the important of forgiveness than revenge, every time we take a discipline with our kids let us all thinks first, it is a reasonable to punish or it's okey to tell him about his mistakes.

Heaven For The Humorist Story

2011-03-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

Story title: Heaven For The Humorist
By: Tony Castle

     There is the story of an Irishman who died suddenly and went up for divine judgement. He felt very uneasy, for he didn't think he had done much good on earth. There was a long line of people ahead of him, so he settled down to look and listen.

     After consulting his big book, Christ said to the first man in line, "I see here that I was hungry and you gave me to eat. Good on you! Go on into heaven.
    To the second he said, " I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, " and to the third, "I was in prison and you visited me."
    And so it went on. As each man ahead of him was sent to heaven, the Irishman examined his conscience and felt that he had a great deal to fear. He'd never given anyone food or drink, and he hadn't visited prisoners or the sick.
    Then his turn came. Trembling, he watched Christ examining the book. Then Christ looked up and said, "Well, there's not much written here; but you did do something: I was sad and discouraged and depressed and you came and told me funny stories which made me laugh and cheered me up. Get along to heaven.."
    This story makes the point that no form of charity should be undervalued or neglected.

Blood Brothers Story

2011-03-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Story title : Blood Brother Story
By: Readers' Digest

   Louis Soto drove more than one thousand miles so he could roll up his sleeve and give to the blood bank in a faraway city.
    He wants to give blood in every state capital in the USA. He has already given blood in every major city and town in his home state of Virginia. To date he has personally given more than one hundred liters of blood over 30 years.
The Soto family has 11 children and now that they are grownup, giving blood has become a family affair. They travel by two caravans to wherever blood banks are low.
    "People always say they don't have time to give blood," says retired construction worker Louis Soto. "But I say, 'Look! I just drove 41 days to donate some blood. You can surely spare an hour."
    He wears a lapel button announcing. "I'm a Blood Buddy,"

Generosity Story

2011-03-01T03:37:00.000-08:00

Story title: Generosity
By: Edmund Fuller

   This story is about an earthquake in China. When it happened, a farmer was standing on a hilltop surrounded by his rice fields. Suddenly he saw the ocean rush away from the shore like some large animal crouching for a leap. He knew that leap would be a devastating tidal wave.
   He saw his neighbors working in the low rice fields, and when that tidal wave came back, they would all be swept away by its force. Somehow he had to call them to the safety of his hill.

So without thinking twice, he set fire to his straw stack and furiously rang the temple bell. His farmer neighbors thought his farm was on fire and rushed up the hill to help him. They had hardly reached the top, when they heard and saw the swirling wall of water swish through the field they had just left.
   Then it was that they realized how the farmer had saved their lives. From that day on, they went to the temple to pray for their neigbhor to whose generosity they owed their lives.

A Christ Centered Prison Story

2011-03-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Christ Centered Prison Story
By: Charles Colson in Christianity today

   Humaita Prison in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, houses 350 offenders. For the past 18 years it has been run not by the State but by Christian volunteers who became part of Prison Fellowship Brazil several years ago.
   I have been in prisons in 31 countries and in half the prisons in America. I have never seen an institution like Humaita. Its secret is more than just humane conditions and job training, crucial as these things are. The secret is found in a small cell in the prison's high security area.

    Our escort, an inmate "officer of the day" who carried the keys to the prison, led us to the notorious solitary punishment cell. In years past, prisoners had been thrown into it naked. were served one meager meal each day through a slot in the door, and were sometimes so crowded on top of one another that they suffocated. But we were told there was now only one prisoner in the cell.
   The inmate swung open the heavy steel door a crack and then stopped, asking if I was sure I wanted to go in. I nodded. Still, my stomach tightened as the doors swung open.
   But as I entered, I saw fresh flowers, an altar, and a central crucifix, with a banner proclaiming "Estamos Juntos: We are together." that he had served the sentence for all in that prison, and that he was with them still. And because of this knowledge of the suffering Christ among them, the offenders in Humaita are daily reminded of a truth that many of us offenders who line church pews every Sunday perhaps take for granted.

Hammering Your Finger Story

2011-02-28T04:37:00.000-08:00

Story title: Hammering Your Finger
By: Bert Balling

    One day, the British author Hilaire Belloc was walking along the docks in New York City when he saw an African American nailing together wooden boxes. Every now and then the man would hammer his finger and then wince with pain for some minutes. Belloc did not believe what he was seeing and so he walked over to the workman and asked, "I beg you pardon, but could you tell me why you keep hitting you finger with hammer?"

"Well," drawled the old man, "I don't reckon you whites would understand something like this."
     But the Britisher kept asking and then got this explanation: " You bet it hurts me when I hammer my finger. But I do it on purpose. It gives me so much pleasure in Between times, just to know that I'm not in pain continuously, as some sick people are."
     The author shook his head in disbelief and then on a second thought, came up with this personal observation, "Maybe he's trying to tell me to be more appreciative of other people's sufferings."

How To Harness Energy Story

2011-02-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

Story title: How To Harness Story
By: Michael Korda in Reader's Digest

     The first rule of success is to have energy. Energy is a desire to get things done.. and done correctly, and it has to have a specific goal.
     The trick to develop energy is to split one's workday into small specific goals. Here is the story of how one successful businessman did it.
He speaks for himself:

      "For years I began workday in a state of anxiety and rage. My desk was a sea of messages and mail when I arrived. Phones were ringing and people were lined up to see me. Within two hours I felt beat and resentful of not having completed one single task.
     "So I decided that I had to change something. I decided that I had to start the day by accomplishing something, no matter how small. So I decided that I would spend the first hour answering mail. I would take no telephone call, I would see no one. I treated the mail as a separate block of work. After I had read it, answered it, and taken whatever action the mail called for, I rewarded myself with a cup of coffee. And then took a walk around the office.
     "It wasn't long before I looked forwarded to my first hour; it gave me a sense of achievement and purpose. It allowed me to apply my energy to a limited task. I began the day with a success. That was psychologically important."

Cursing And Swearing Story

2011-02-24T05:27:00.000-08:00

Story title: Cursing And Swearing Story
By: Marian Wise in Reader's Digest

   A little old lady went into a pet shop and wanted to buy a parrot But the owner of the store told her."Oh, you don't want him. He uses some pretty terrible language. Why don't you get a puppy or a cat?"
     "No. I want that parrot, " the lady insisted, and put her money on the counter. The owner shrugged his shoulders and made the sale.
Back home, the lady started playing with the parrot, stroking his feathers and petting him when all of a sudden he screamed out some dirty words. In shock, the lady grabbed the parrot and put him in the fridge. When she later took out the shivering bird, she warned him that every time
he used dirty language, he'd be put back into the fridge.
    Things went well for a couple days until the cat tried to put its paw through the parrot's cage. He really got upset and the air was blue with his language. So into the fridge he went.
   As he sat there freezing, he looked around and saw a frozen chicken that had turned into a block of ice. "what on earth did YOU say?" the parrot
asked him..

Distractions at Prayer Story

2011-02-24T04:36:00.000-08:00

Story title: Distractions At Prayer
By: Bruno Hagspiel

     While journeying on horseback one day, St. Benedict met a farmer walking along. "You've got any easy job." said the farmer. "Why don't I become a man of prayer? Then I, too, would be travelling on horseback."
     "You think praying is easy replied the saint." If you can say one 'Out Father' without any distraction, you can have this horse."

"Its a bargain." said the surprised farmer.
    Closing his eyes and folding his hands, he began to say the "Our Father" aloud: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kindom come..."
    Suddenly he stopped and looked up, "Shall I get the saddle and bridle, too?"

Little Rivets, Big Disaster Story

2011-02-23T02:37:00.000-08:00

Story title: Little Rivets, Big Disaster Story

Over 1,500 people died in the worst maritime disaster of all time the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage from England to New York. On an April night in 1912, the luxurious 900 foot cruise ship hit an iceberg and sank. At least that's what historians believe, as well as the script writers of the hit movie.

An international team of divers and scientists has chalellenged that theory. Using sound waves to probe through the wreckage lying in mud some two and a half miles below the surface, they discovered that the damage was surprisingly small. Instead of a huge gash, they found six relatively narrow slits across six watertight holds.
Further, a salvage team recovered several of the rivets which secured the damaged hull. Analysis revealed the rivets were made of a low grade steel. This has led scientist to propose that the titanic sank not because of a collision with the iceberg, but because of a few small rivets of inferior quality. Had these rivets held, the ship may have survived the impact of the collision.

The Cross Room Story

2011-02-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Cross Room Story

    A young man at the end of his rope groaned in distress as he prayed."Lord, I can't go on. My cross is too heavy to bear."
"My son, " the Lord replied with compassion, "if you can't bear its weight, come with me to the cross room. There you may exchange you cross for any other cross you choose."
    Filled with relief, the young man sighed, "Thank you, Lord." Briskly entering the cross room, he mindlessly discarded his own cross and searched for one he'd rather carry. He saw many other crosses, some so large the tops weren't even visible. After winding in and out of the rows of crosses, he spotted a tiny cross leaning against the far wall. "I'd like that one, Lord,"he whispered.
   And the Lord replied, "My son, that is the cross you brought in."

Finding Happiness in Tibet Story

2011-02-20T04:21:00.000-08:00

Story title: Finding Happines in Tibet Story

   A bright young premed student from Harvard University journeyed to the mountains of Tibet during the summer following his sophomore year. There he met a monk who said to him, "Don't you see how you are poisoning your soul with your success-oriented way of life? Your idea of happiness is to stay up all night studying for an exam so you can get a better grade than you friend. Your idea of a happy marriage is not finding a woman who will make you whole, but winning the girl that everyone else wants. That's not how people are supposed to live. Life is not a competition. Give it up. Come join us in an atmosphere where we share, live in harmony, and love one another. Here you can find true happiness."
   The young man had completed four years at a competitive high school to get into Harvard and had worked hard to become one of the top premed students in his class at the university. He was ripe for the appeal of the Tibetan monk. He called his parents and told them that he would not be coming home. He was dropping out of school to live in a Buddhist monastery.
   Six months later, he wrote his parents: "Dear Mom and Dad, I know you weren't happy with the decision I made last summer, but I want to tell you that I am doing great. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing. no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I've become the number two disciple in the entire monastery, and I think I can become number one by June!"

The Mystery of the Mop Story

2011-02-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Mystery of the Mop

Everyone at the State University knew that Donner Hall had the best parties. All night dancing and beer guzzling attracted the largest weekend crowds by far especially on the notorious second floor. By midnight every Friday and Saturday, the entire second floor was three inches deep in smashed beer cans, empty wine bottles, and stale potato chips.
   But by about 7:00 a.m. the next morning, all of the garbage was removed. The second floor residents assumed the conscientious school janitors came bright and early. before anyone woke up, to sweep up the mess.
Early one Saturday morning, Chris, still hung over from Friday night's party, stumbled out of his bed to head for the bathroom. Noticing a freshly vacuumed second floor, he mumbled to himself, "I guess the janitors came early again to get rid of the mess."
    On reaching the bathroom, however, his nose warned him the mess wasn't completely eliminated. A trail of vomit soiled the bathroom floor, ending at the point where someone was just then mopping it up. Chris thought to himself, I'm glad the janitor is doing the dirty work so we don't have to.
   At the second of Chris's shuffling, the supposed janitor looked up. Shocked, Chris realized the person mopping up the vomit was Marco, his next door neighbor.
   "Marco man, what are you doing? " Chris asked.
Marco answered simply, "I'm cleaning up."
"Why? You weren't even at the party last night."
"Because I'm a Christian."
No janitor had ever cared enough to clean up every Monday morning. It had been Marco the whole time.

The Prize funny Story

2011-02-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Prize Story

A billionaire oil tycoon from Texas decided to find a husband for his only daughter, a rather homely 18 year old. He initiated his search by inviting local bachelors to a party in his backyard. A large, elegantly designed swimming pool dominated the yard. As the men edged by it to get their refreshments, they saw it was filled with man eating sharks, piranhas, alligators, and other animals that wouldn't think twice about eating you alive. Clustering beside the pool, the bachelors puzzled over the strange sight.

   Just then the tycoon appeared on the patio and gave an emotional speech, telling how much he loved his daughter and expressing how much he wanted her to marry someone deserving of her. He then laid out the Deal.
   "Anyone who will jump in the swimming pool and swim to the to the other side will have their choice of a check for one million dollars with no questions asked or the title deed to my most profitable oil field or the hand of my daughter in marriage and you place in my will, which will result in you inheriting my entire fortune."
   The bachelors were speechless. Their questioning looks seemed to say that none of them would be crazy enough to risk his life.. even for all that money.
   The long silence was finally broken by a splash. Everyone turned to see one of the men swimming to the far side of the pool as fast as any Olympic swimmer. Leaping out of the water, he shook himself and stalked back to the tycoon. With a hug and a handshake, the tycoon congratulated the young man on a fine swim. "Son, would you like a million dollar check? he asked.
   "No sir, I wouldn't, "responded the young man politely, and slightly out of breath.
   "Fine, " said the tycoon." Then would you like my most profitable oil field?"
   "No sir," he replied, getting a hold on himself. With a tear in his eye the tycoon asked," Then, my boy, would you like my only daughter's hand in marriage?"
   To the surprise of the gawking bachelors, the young man replied, "No sir."
   Puzzled and a little hurt, the tycoon asked," Well then, son, what do you want?"
   "I only want one thing," answered the young man with assurance. "I want the name of the guy who pushed me in the pool."

A Purifying Fire Story

2011-02-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Purifying Fire

Violent winds drove a devastating fire through Yellowstone National Park a few years back. Hot, dry weather mocked heroic fire fighters who battled day and night trying to save lives, buildings, and precious landscapes. In spite of their efforts, this monster fire scorched thousands of acres. When the smoke cleared, blackened and starkly bare hills had replaced the beautifully forested wilderness.

A few months after the fire, a national park forest ranger escorting a group of tourists through the park shocked them by saying, "Apart from the structures burned and the lives that were endangered, this fire was the very best thing could have happened to this park."
He explained the need for the choking underbrush to be totally cleared out."Then from the ashes, "he continued, "come wonderful nutrients for the soil. New life is now allowed to spring forth. The future of Yellowstone forest land depends upon purifying fires every 50 years or so. What we viewed as tragedy was nature's way of preserving and protecting the future You won't believe how beautiful this park will be in about 10 years."

New York Power Story

2011-02-10T04:32:00.000-08:00

Story title: New York Power

Still fresh in the memory of many is the huge power failure that involved much of the northeast United States in November 1965. At 5:18 p.m. New York City went black. So did some 80,000 square miles of New York state, most of seven others states, and most of Canada's province of Ontario. Whether the cause was a generator feeding power at the wrong frequency or a switch thrown in error by some utility company employee was hard to determine.

Millions of people living in New York and the surrounding area had no light and no power, and many of them were stuck for the night in subway train stations, office buildings, and in tunnels under the East River. The blackout meant some 200 planes in the air above New York's Kennedy International Airport had to be rerouted to air fields in other states where runway lights were still burning. Overall loss in business due to the blackout, which lasted in some areas up to 13 hours, was estimated at $100,000,000. A tire company, for example, lost $50,000 worth of tires when power failed during a critical curing process. A car manufacturer had to throw away 50 engine blocks because high-speed drills froze while boring piston holes. Bakeries in New York alone reported a loss of 300,000 loaves of bread, which were spoiled when the power went off.
All in all, modern civilization as Americans and Canadians knew it came to a halt that November night bacause the power supply on which they depended had been cut off.

The message of this story is that, as a Christian we need the Holy Spirit not only convicts you of sin, but also leads you into all truth and gives you the confidence and power that you need to live a successful Christian life.

Never Too Late Story

2011-02-09T04:49:00.000-08:00

Story title: Never Too Late

On June 8, 1972, a nine year old Vietnamese girl, her clothes flaming from gasoline bombs, fled the American led assault on her village of Trang Bang. With her eyes screwed shut and her mouth spread wide in a scream of pain, she was captured on film in America's most remembered Vietnam wartine photo.

In officer John Plummer's nightmares, this picture flashed huge, in black and white, to a sound track of children screaming. His order had directed bombers to shower Kim Phuc's village with the chemical explosive. For years, guild over destroying and maiming the villagers haunted the officer. Women and alcohol were his escape of choice.
Twenty years after the destruction of the village, officer Plummer asked Christ to take control of his life, unleashing God's ultimate power to end guilt. Although free from guilt, he carried inside himself scars somehow linked to the thick, white scars on the neck, arm, and back of the now grown Vietnam girl. Six year later, Plummer knew he needed to find her. In an effort to meet her face, he tracked her down while she was visiting America.
Unlike the June 1972 event, no photographer captured the moment when Plummer explained to Kim Phuc who he was. But in the middle of a busy sidewalk, the soldier, now 49 years old, and the child, now 33 years old, embraced. " She just opened her arms to me, "Plummer later said. "I fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say is, 'I'am so sorry. I'm just so sorry.'"
"It's all right. "she replied as she patted Plummer's back. "I forgive. I forgive.

A Meeting with the Top Dog Story

2011-02-08T05:36:00.000-08:00

Story title: A Meeting with the Top Dog Story

The president of the Doggie Vittles dog food company summoned his managers to an emergency meeting in his office.
Pacing the room, he barked out a series of questions.
    "Men and women, my fellow employees! Tell me! What dog food company has the most nutrious dog food in all of America?"

The managers all shouted back, "Doggie Vittles, sir!"
    " And what dog food company has the most attractive packaging of any dog food company in America?"
    "Doggie Vittles, sir!" they replied in unison. "And what dog food company has spent more on advertising than any other dog food company in America?"
    "Doggie Vittles, sir!" they yelled back. The president paused before shouting out a last question. "Then why -- why aren't we selling more dog food than any other dog food company in America?"
   The room went very quiet. Finally, someone in the back of the room spoke up.
"Well, sir, it's because the dogs don't like it."

The Graduation Gift Story

2011-02-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Graduation Gift Story

About to graduate from high school, a young man from a wealthy family was anticipating his gift. It was the custom in that affluent neigbhor hood for the parents to give the graduate a new car.

   Jason and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation they found that perfect car. Jason was certain that this car would be his son graduation night. Imagine his disappointment when, immediately following the graduation ceremony, Jason's father handed him a small, elegantly wrapped package. It must be the keys to my new car, Jason thought.
   Upon opening the gift, though, all he found was a bible with his name imprinted on the front. A Bible? He took it out, looking to find car keys in the box. Empty! Jason was so angry that he threw the Bible down and stormed out the house. His father tried to stop him, but Jason kept on running. He and his father never saw each other again.
   News of his father's death finally brought Jason home again. As he went through the possessions he was about to inherit from his father, he came across the graduation Bible. Brushing away the dust, he opened it and began idly flipping through the pages. A paper tucked inside caught his eye and he pulled out of the Bible a cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation, in the exact amount of the car he and his father had chosen.

The Tomato Frog Story

2011-01-30T02:45:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Tomato Frog Story

Deep in the Costa Rican jungle lives the small tomato frog. Red in color like a tomato, he has a unique defense against predators. Once he's attacked, he emits a deadly, milky white poison all over his skin. As

the attacking animal bites into a tomato frog, it tastes the poison and spits the frog out of its mouth.
Unfortunately, by the time the predator spits out the frog, the traumatized amphibian dies anyway.

Lesson of the story is...
As believers in Jesus often suffer from the tomato frog's bane. We wait to pray and employ our spiritual defenses or offenses until after Satan has already attacked and caused damage in our lives.

Monkey Addicts Story

2011-01-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

Story title: Monkey Addicts Story

A scientist conducted an experiment in which he made cocaine available to some monkeys. These monkeys could pull a lever in their cages to release a little cocaine into their feeding tray. Not surprisingly, the monkeys became addicted to the drug. As the experiment continued, the scientist found that if the addicted monkeys could get additional cocaine hits any time they wanted by just pulling the lever, all of them would overdose. They all ended up killing themselves.
The scientist then tried another experiment with addicted monkeys. He began to withhold the fix when the monkey pulled the lever. Over and over these monkeys pulled the lever, trying to get cocaine. They continued to pull the lever not ten times, not a hundred times, or even a thousand times. Those addicted monkeys pulled it an average of 12,800 times!

As an application, a addiction is a powerful tools that can rule the lives of people that includes addiction to work, food, gambling or even sex, alcohol, or drugs. There are some that finally reach a point where they lose any hope of breaking free.

The Baby Wildebeest Story

2011-01-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Baby Wildebeest Story
Wildebeests, a type of African antelope also known as gnus, migrate yearly in huge herbs to the plains of Tanzania's Serengeti to mate and to birth their young. Also on the Serengeti Plain roam vicious predators, inlcluding the hyena. In this hostile setting a newborn wilderbeest has about 15 minutes to get up and run with the adult herb. Slow starters risk becoming hyne lunch.
   Discovery Channel showed film of a wilderbeest giving birth on the Serengeti. Her baby barely had time to get used to breathing when the mother nudges it to get it standing. Picture the newborn on wobby hind legs with its forelegs still bent underneath its bobbing head. Between the mother's nudging and the baby's inexperience, the newborn is worn out after minutes of repeated attemps to stand.
    Then the camera picks up a hyen approaching stiiff-legged with lowered head and slightly bared teeth. The mother wilderbeest bravely steps between the hyena and the baby, but another hyena appears, followed closely by a third. The mother lunges at the newcomer. Although it backs away, another skulks in close to the helpless infant. Before long a circle of hyenas occupies the mother wildbeest while othe hyenas eat the baby.
    Meanwhile, spread out nearby, literally thousand of other wildbeest graze, now and then lifting their heads to watch the desperate mother attempt to fight off the hyenas. Any of them could easily help save the newborn, but not a single one does.

Jimmy's Ranch Story

2011-01-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

When Jimmy was a little boy, he wanted to be a cowboy. He spent countless hours in front of the television, watching reruns of Gunsmoke and Bonanza. He just knew that someday he would live on a ranch, wear a big cowboy hat, and ride the range just like all his cowboy heroes. When I grow up. Will you help me be a cowboy?"

    "Sure, son," said his dad, smiling down on his little cowpoke. As the years went by, Jimmy grew into a fine young man. As you might expect, he outgrew his childhood fantasy of becoming a cowboy and turned instead to girls, sports, studying, and preparing himself for a career in the business world.
    One day Jimmy went to his father again and said, "Dad, I want to go to college and get a good education. Will you help me?"
    His dad said, "College? Son, you can't go to college. When you were seven, you said you wanted to be a cowboy. So I bought you a ranch in Texas with fifty head of cattle! There's no money for you to go to college. Beside, you need to take care of that ranch. It's all yours."
    "But Dad! said Jimmy. "I was just a child when I said that! I didn't know then what I know now! don't want a ranch! I want an educational!"

God knows exactly what you need...
Have you wondered why God doesn't answer you prayers exactly the way you want him to? Maybe it's because we're like Jimmy. As God's children, we don't always know what's best for us.

Fortune And The Poor Man by Brothers Grimm

2011-01-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Story title: Fortune And The Poor Man
By: Brothers Grimm

         There was a poor man who complained loudly that life had been unfair. "Most of those who are rich did nothing to gain their wealth," he wailed to anyone who would listen. "They inherit their money from their parents."
         One day, as the man was walking home after having expressed his bitter feelings to some of his friends, Fortune appeared before him and said, "I have decided to provide you with wealth. Hold out your purse, and I will fill it with gold coins. But there is one condition: if any of the gold fails out of the purse onto the ground everything I gave you will become dust. Be careful. I see that your purse is old; do not overload it."
         The poor man was overjoyed. He loosened the strings of his purse and watched as Fortune started to pour a stream of golden coins into it. The wallet soon became heavy.
         "Is that enough?" Fortune asked.
        "Not yet," the man replied. Fortune poured in several more coins, so that the purse was filled, and then asked again, "Shall I stop now?" The man answered,
         "Not yet, just a few more."
          But at that moment, the purse split apart, the gold coins fell to the ground, and the treasure turned to dust. Fortune disappeared, and the greedy man was left with an empty wallet.

Being Proud Of A Handicap by reader's Digest

2011-01-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

Story title: Being Proud Of A Handicap
By: Reader's Digest
Written by Ethel Chapman

     A little boy had broken his leg and had to use a crutch. Sometimes he forgot about it and tried to run and then he would fall and hurt himself. How he hated that crutch !

    But his grandfather understood..So, one night while the boy was in bed, the old man painted the crutch red. In the morning the boy was astounded. He loved red... and now he was proud to show off that crutch. After the red had worn off, the boy woke up one morning to find a little bell attached to the hand bar. It tinkled whenever we walked, and people could even hear him coming.. Now he enjoyed his handicap, he crutch.
     That boy grew up to become a doctor, who still has a slight limp from his childhood accident. He keeps the little red crutch hanging on the wall of his office. Sometimes it gives him an excuse to pass on to a patient his grandfather's idea that a burden is carried more easily if we take pride in carrying it.

You Can't Hide Happiness story by Reader's Digest

2011-01-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

Story title: You Can't Hide Happiness
By: Reader's Digest
Writer Nina Fischer
    My dad was a carpenter and he never liked to get dressed up into nice clothes. But when my mother died, Dad bought a handsome suit and was dressed to the teeth as he went heart broken to her funeral.

     A year or so later, I was in a clothing store and saw a suit similar to the one Dad had worn at Mom's funeral. I got into a conversation about Dad and his dislike for dressing up. Then the elderly salesman said to me, "My dear child, I knew your Dad. He often came in here to admire the fine clothes we stock. But he never bought any. He always said that you kids needed things more that he needed clothes.
    When I heard that, my eyes filled with tears. But the old man went on to say." Your father told me that he always felt dressed up inside himself. And I believed him. He smiled so much, he just had to be wearing a really nice suit around his heart."

Listening story by National Canvas Goods

2011-01-20T17:27:00.000-08:00

Story title: Listening
By: National Canvas Goods

        A group of applicants in a steamship office were waiting to be interviewed for a job as wireless operator. The room was filled with such a buzz of conversation that they paid no attention to the dots and
and dashes which began coming over the loudspeaker. Then in came a newcomer who sat down quietly by himself. Suddenly, he snapped to attention, walked into the private office and came out smiling.
   "Say, " one of the crowd called out, "how'd you get in ahead of us? we were here first."
    "One of you would have got the job," he answered, " if you had listened to the message from the loudspeaker."
    "What message?" they asked, surprised.
    :"Why, the code." the stranger said. "It said: 'The man I want must always be alert. The first man who gets this message and comes into my office will be placed on one of my ships as radio operator.""

The Value of a Minute story by Tony Castle

2011-01-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Song title: The Value of a Minute
By: Tony Castle

        When the ill-fated ocean liner the "Titanic" steamed majestically on he maiden voyage to New York on April 14, 1912, there were more than 2,000 people enjoying the ship's snug comforts.'

       One of the tragic incidents of that night is recalled by the Washington Post. In the wheel room a uniformed officer was humming at his job as he effortlessly guided the ship at a record-breaking speed. The phone rang. A minute passed. Another minute.. The officer could not be bothered, he was busy.. The third precious minute passed... The officer, his trivial task completed, picked up the phone, "This is the lookout at the bow of the ship. Iceberg straight ahead! Reverse engines!"
      But it was too late. As he rushed to the controls, the "pride of the seas" crashed into the iceberg amid a deafening roar.
     Three precious minutes, which could have save 1,600 lives.

School Certificate story by Frank Mihalic

2011-01-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Story title: School Certificate
By: Frank Mihalic

         A man took a picture to a gift shop to have it framed. At the counter he heard a lady customer telling the sales clerk that she wanted a frame for a picture worth $ 20, 000.

         The clerk gasped and stammered and explained that although the shop did not usually handle such expensive items, they would certainly do their best.
         The customer said that she was satisfied with that. Then she opened her carrying bag, took out her son's college diploma, and laid it on the counter.
        Do we ever realize how much of an investment any boy or girl in school for ten years turns out to be? How much thousands of dollars a year it costs parents and taxpayers in clothes and food and books, in equipment and building and teacher salaries and school fees.
        The pupils' part of that unwritten contract is to study hard to earn that diploma which they and their parents will rightfully want to frame and display as a valuable picture worth $20, 000.
        The next time you go into the office of a doctor or teacher or lawyer, notice the framed diplomas and certificates hanging on the wall.
        Behind them is the untold story of generous parents and patrons and governments who have no diplomas to display for making possible the diploma you are looking at.

God on Trial Story by Carlos Valles

2011-01-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

Story title: God On Trial
By: Carlos Valles

      There was a theatre play doing the rounds in European cities. It kept the audience speechless. It was a very simple play that needed only the setting or scenery of a courtroom.

     In this court, man was accusing and judging God for all the suffering he had inflicted upon humans. There were plenty of witnesses to prove that statement.
   God, for his part, offered no defence and refused to cross examine witnesses. He just stood silently, expecting the final sentence.
    The judge, representing man again, stood up, summed up the charges against the defendant and then passed sentence. " I condemn you, "he began, " to be born as a man, to suffer poverty, to be driven into exile, to be misunderstood and persecuted, to be betrayed by your own friends and abandoned, to be tortured in body, and die a violent death in the prime of life."
    After God, the defendant, was sentenced, the entire courtroom was filled with silence. And that is how and where the play ended.
   Everybody realized that God had already served his sentence, and so he knew what he was doing. He never asked of anyone else what he himself had not suffered first.

Facing Criticism Story by William Barclay

2011-01-14T03:39:00.000-08:00

Story title: Facing Critism
By: William Barclay

     Harold Nicholson was a building English politician. At the start of his career, he went to old Stanley Baldwin for advice. The political veteran said something like this to him, "You are going to be a statement and try to handle the affairs of this country. Well, I have had a long experience of such a life, and will give you three rules you had better follow.

     "First, if you subscribe to a press cutting agency, cancel your subscription at once.
    "Second, never laugh at your opponent's mistakes.
     "Third, get used to hearing people atttribute bad motives to what you are doing."
     You can be as good as Jesus and yet have people criticize anything you do. Not matter what Jesus did, someone was against it.
     Sometimes it seems that we just can't win: we're damned if we do someting, and we're damned if we don't.
   But don't get upset about it. Little boys throw stones only at trees which bear fruit.

Parable Of The Pencil Story by James A. Feehan

2011-01-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

Story title: Parable of the Pencil
by: James A. Feehan

A religion teacher in South Africa often used the following parable in her mission clinic. They called in the "Parable of the Pencil." It can be very effective in teaching or preaching, especially if the pencil is used as a visual aid. Many lessons can be drawn from it for a diversity of occasions.

A man invented the pencil, held it in his hand and said to it; I want you to remember four things: First, your goodness or true worth is within you.Secondly, you'll need to be sharpened as you go through life. Thirdly, you'll be in someone else's hand. Finally, you'll be expected to leave you mark."

Slow Starters Can Win Story by Reader's Digest

2011-01-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

Story title: Slow starters Can Win
By: Reader's Digest

      There is a gallery of famous people who were slow starters. Winston Churchill seemed so dull as a boy that his father thought that when he grew up, he would not be able to earn a living in England.

      Naturalist Charles Darwin did so poorly at school that his father once told me, " You will be a disgrace to the family."

      The famous writer G.K.Chesterton could not read until he was in the third grade. One of his teachers told the fat boy, "If we could open your head, we probably would not find any brain, but only a lump of white fat."
     The inventor Thomas Edison's first teacher called him a dunce.
     The genius Albert Einstein's parents were worried about his poor performance in school. He was good only in mathematics. In fact, he teacher asked him to leave school, telling him, "Einstein, you'll never amount to anything."
    Looking back now, we see how wrong the judgement was about all these men, who have made an undying name for themselves in history.

The Medium Can Change The Message Story gems of thought

2011-01-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Medium Can Change The Message
By: Gems of Thought

   Year ago an elderly illilterate carpenter received some mail and he was very upset about it. A letter was a very unusual thing in his life and he was worried about what might be in it. So he hurried over to the butcher shop and the rough-voice muscle man behind the counter read it aloud.

"This is a letter from your son, "he shouted, "and it says: ' Dear Dad, I am sick and haven't a single cent. Send me some money quick. You son Bill.""
   Influenced by the hard tones of the reader, the carpenter became read with rage and exploded, "Who does that kid think he is, telling me what to do? I won't give him a cent."
   In a fit of anger, the carpenter walked back home. But along the way he met his friend the soft spoken tailor. He stopped him and confided, "I want you to see this letter my boy sent me."
   The tailor took the letter and read it aloud in his usual calm and cultured way. Suddenly the message sounded different to the carpenter. It came across as appealing and plaintive. It left the carpenter deeply saddened. "Poor Bill, "he said with worry in his voice. "He's in bad shape. I'd better send him some cash fast."
So off he went to wire some money to his son.
The message can often depend on the medium! How true!

Yes To God Story by Tony Castle

2011-01-10T02:41:00.000-08:00

Story title: Yes To God
By: Tony Castle

   A famous write tells the following story about herself :
   Occasionally I meet someone who seems to have a secret, some special knowledge that sets that person apart. Such a person was Rudy Free. I met her when she was conducting a Holy Land tour.

   I said to myself, " She was a good listener, a troubleshooter, an organizer, a mother hen to all 72 of us..
and a real mother to her two children. Yet, she never tired; she was never out of sorts. I wanted to know what her secret was.
   Then, back home, I visited Ruby. And I discovered her secret. There it was, a two word motto over her kitchen sink. It said: " YES, LORD."

Meaning Of Christmas Story by Walter B. Knight

2011-01-09T04:12:00.000-08:00

Story title: Meaning Of Christmas
By: Walter B. Knight

    The doctor walked out of the delivery room and approached and anxious father in a New York Hospital. He told him, " I'am sorry to inform you but your baby lived only two hours after its birth, though
we did everything we could to save life."
    As the sympathetic doctor was about to leave, the quick-thinking father said, " I read only recently that human eyes are needed in corneal operations. Could my baby's eyes be used to enable someone to see again?"
   The next day the Red Cross carried an eye to two different hospitals.
    In one, a corneal graft restored the sight of a working man with a large family. In the other sight was given to a mother.
    Some two thousand years ago a baby came into our sin-blinded world to give spiritual sight to all who will receive it without money and without price. "The people who walked in darkness, saw a great light. " ( Isaiah 9:1)

Forgiveness Heals Story by Willian Barclay

2011-01-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

Story title: Forgiveness Heals
By: William Barclay

     A girl was being treated for several months for anemia but without any success. So her doctor decided to send her to a sanatorium faraway.

    The first thing she got there, she underwent a thorough physical examination. And the examining doctor found her blood count to be completely normal. The referring doctor double checked it and could not believe his eyes. So he called in the girl and asked her, " Has anything out of the ordinary happened in your last visit?
      "Yes," she admitted. " Suddenly I was able to forgive someone against whom I had borne a nasty grudge all my life. At that moment, I felt comletely changed inside."
     So now the doctor knew the answer. Her mental attitude had changed, and the very state of her blood had changed with it.
    Being angry at someone can be stupid, because the other person might not even be aware of it. So, the only one being harmed is ourself.

Waiting At The Heavenly Gate Story

2011-01-07T03:01:00.000-08:00

Story title: Waiting At The Heavenly Gate Story
By: Bert Balling

    The thirty three day Pope, John Paul the First, used to tell this story about three famous cardinals. They all died and appeared together at the heavenly gate. Peter met them, apologized for being very busy, and asked them to take a seat in the cushiony chairs. They waited and waited and nothing much happened. Then a beautiful elegantly dressed young lady arrived and Peter let her right in. The cardinals turned up their noses and one complained, "It looks like purple does not open doors around here."

    After a good long wait, Peter does not open doors around here." to the cardinals, "If your eminences will give me leave, I'll explain the case of the young lady. Well, she's the daughter of a prominent millionaire. She a tragic accident, and died on the spot. Millions of people heard the story on radio, read it in the newspapers and saw it on television. They were never the same again: it had made them think of their own death. As a result, more of them turned to God than all of your books and sermons have ever converted.
    "So now you see that that young lady did more for souls that all three of you put together."

Worry Story By Bruno Hagspiel

2011-01-06T01:40:00.000-08:00

Story title: Worry
By: Bruno Hagspiel

     One of the most famous men you have met, who lived on an imaginary islan, was Robinson Crusoe.
     Do you remember anything about him, perhaps from a movie? Well, he had a very useful way to make important decisions without worry. He would think about his problem, then he would draw two columns in his notebook. In one, he would put down the reasons why he write down the reasons why he should not do that certain thing. One colymn was FOR an idea; the other wa AGAINST the idea. Then he would line up these reasons like a row of soldiers and make them pass inspection. As he was going along, the right decision would always pop into his mind.
   Each time you have a decision to make, instead of worrying and fretting over what to do, why not try this simple Robinson Crusoe method? It will save you many a headache.

Real Leaders Story

2011-01-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

Real Leaders
By: William Barclay

   History records how Alexander the Great and his army were dying of thirst after marching eleven days. Suddenly they came upon some local farmers who were fetching skins full of water from a hidden river. Seeing

the famous general choked with thirst, they offered him a helmet filled with water. He asked them to whom they were carrying the water. They told him, "To our children. But your life is more important than theirs. Even if they all perish, we can raise a new generation."
   Then Alexander took the helmet into his hands and looked around to see all his soldiers eyeing the water and licking their dry lips. He did not have the courage to drink, but gave back the water untouched to the farmers. " If only I would drink," he explained, " the rest of the soldiers would be out of heart"
   At that, the souldiers rallied around him as never before and defied their fatigue and their thirst." To follow such a leader is a privilage," they said.
A real leader never demands of his men what he will not hear himself.

The Death Of A V.I.P. Story

2011-01-03T04:38:00.000-08:00

The Death Of A V.I.P. Story
By: Victorian Rose News

   Recently we were saddened by the death of one of our committee's most valuable members, who went by the name of Someone Else. His passing leaves a gap which will be hard to fill. Someone Else had been with the committee from the beginning. He always did more than the normal person's share of work.
   Whenever there was a job to do, whenever a helping hand was needed, whenever we needed someone just to listen... one word was on everybody's lips: "Let Someone Else do it".
Whenever there was a need for volunteers, everone took it for grandted that someone Else would step forward.
   Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing to be super-human. But a person can do only so much. And if we're going to be honest about it, we'll have to admit that we all expected too much of Someone Else. Perhaps that is what killed him.

The Scar Study Story

2011-01-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Scar Study

A scientific researcher gathered 10 volunteers for a special psychological study called the Scar Experiment. Separating the volunteers into 10 different cubicles without mirrors, she explained that the purpose of the study
was to examine how other people would respond to a stranger with a physical deformity, such as a facial scar.
Using makeup trick straight out of Hollywood, the scientist put bloody and gruesome scars on each volunteer's lef cheek. She showed each volunteer the new "scar" with a small hand-held mirror and then put the mirror away.
The researcher's final step in each cubicle was to tell each volunteer that she needed to put some finishing powder on his or her scar to prevent it from smearing. In reality, she used a tissue to wipe off the scar.
The volunteers, however, believed they still had scars on their faces. Each volunteer was then sent out into the waiting rooms of different medical offices with instruction to notice how strangers in the office responded to the scar.
After the appointed time, all 10 volunteers returned with the same repor. They noticed that strangers were more rude to them, less kind to them, and stared at their "scar".

Shut Up and Fish Story

2010-11-18T04:42:00.000-08:00

Old Pete had a knack for catching fish. Every weekend Old Pete went
fishing and returned with dozens of fish. Nobody knew how he did it.
When other fisherman were unable to land more than three of four, Old

Pete always came back with stringer after stringer of freshly caught fish.
   Curious, the fish and game warden decided to investigate. He followed
Old Pete out to the lake, and when he launched his boat at the
dock, the warden asked if he could ride along and observe.
   "Sure," said Old Pete. "Hop in."
    Old Pete started up his outboard motor. When they arrived at an
obscure reach of the lake, Pete stopped the boat. The warden sat back
and watched.
   Reaching into a box, Pete pulled out a stick of dynamite, lit it, and
tossed it into the water. After the explosion dead fish soon started rising
to the surface. Old Pete took out a net and started scooping them up.
   "Wait a minute!" said the warden. "What do yo think you're doing?
You can't do that! I'll put you in jail, buddy! You'll be paying every fine in
the book! You'll never fish again!"
   Old Pete calmly put down his net, picked up a second stick of dynamite,
lit it, and toosed it in the warden's lap.
   "So are you gonna sit there criticizing me all day," he asked the
panicked warden, "or are you gonna fish?"

REFLECTION
The fish and game warden was quickly transformed from passive observer
to, shall we say, enthusiastic participant. It's always easy to critisize other
people from a distance, but what will you do when you find yourself in a
similar situation? Decisions aren't nearly as neat and clear when you're the
one in a tough place.

Story of The Two Frog Hanging in There

2010-11-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was a wise and cheery soul;
The other one took a gloony view
And bade his friend a sad adieu.

Said the other frog with a merry grin,
"I can't get out, but I woun't give in!
I'll swim around till my strength is spent,
Then I will die all the more content."

And as the swam, though ever it seemed,
His struggling began to churn the cream
Until on top of pure butter he stopped
And out of the bowl he quickly hopped.

The moral, you ask? Oh it's easily found:
If you can't get out, just keep swimming around.

Story of Earthly Treasures

2010-11-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Knowing the would die soon, a rich man had all his assets conveted
into gold bars, put them in a big bag on his bed, drapped his body over
the bag of gold, and breathed his last. When he woke up, he was at the

gate of heaven.
    Saint Peter met him at the gate and with a concerned look on his face
said," Well, I see you actually managed to get here with something from
earth! But unfortunately, you can't bring that in."
     "Oh please, sir,"said the man. "I must have
it. It means everything to me."
    "Sorry, my friend, "said Saint Peter. "If you
want to keep that bag, then I'm afraid you'll
have to go to, you know, the other place.
You don't want to go there, believe me."
    "Well. I won't part with this bag."
    "Have it your way," returned Peter. "But
before you go, would you mind if I looked in
the bag to see what it is that you're willing
to trade eternal life for?"
   "Sure,"said the man. "you'll see. I
could never part with this."
    Saint Peter looked in the bag and
with a puzzled look on his face said to the man, "You're willing to go to
hell for... pavement?"

REFLECTION...
What's coming between you and God? You maney? You possesions?
Your status? Your friend? You fun? You may be sure that none of it can
compare with what God has prepared for you in I corinthians 2:9). "What
good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26.

Story of A Bad Future Investment

2010-11-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

Ancient Egyptians fervently believed in an afterlife, So much so that
Egyptian burial rituals are the only custom familiar to most moderns. For
thousands of years their misguided faith motivated them to build
immense tombs with an ingenuity of design, as well as a cost in labor,

money, and blood, that still astonishes people.
Over the centuries the Egyptians prepared each other for eternity by
mummifying countless people, animals, and even insects. Within a few
centuries, Egypt had critical excess of mummies reverently wrapped in
where, later Egyptians got creative. Nineteenth century European trevelers
exploring Egypt sent home reports of household roofs thatched with
mummies or ground mummies used for fertilizer. Hustling Egyptians sent
make paper. Even more bizarre, millions of mummies were used in place
of scarce timber for Egypt's wood-burning locomotives a far cry from
the destiny that the original emblamers imagined for their beloved
departed and a reminder of the fallacy of holding to a well-intentioned.

REFLECTION..
Ancient Egyptians were right to believe there's life after death, but it's
downhill from there. Almost every world religion, in fact, teaches that death
is not the end. They go wrong, however, with their belief that we can prepare
for eternity through our own efforts.
Many current false religions, cults, and New Age philosophies offer elaborate
schemes for achieving eternal life or for managing your reincarnation.
The Bible teaches that there's only one way to gain eternal life, though it's
through believing that Jesus Christ gives eternal life to those who have faith
in him ( John 3:16 ).

A Story Of a Get a Bigger Frying Pan

2010-11-14T02:27:00.000-08:00

Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, the
other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he

put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisher
man caught a big fish, he threw it back.
The experienced fisherman watched this go
on all day and finally got tired of seeing
this man waste good fish."Why do you keep
throwing back all the big fish you?" he asked.
The inexperienced fisherman replied,"I only have a
small frying pan."

Reflection of the story..
Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throw back the big plans, big dreams,
big jobs, big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small. We
laugh at that fisherman who didn't figure out that all he needed was a
bigger frying pan; yet how ready are we to increase the size of our faith?
thing bigger that you can handle. That means we can confidently walk
into anything God brings our way. You can do all things through Christ
(Philippians 4:13).
Nothing is too big for God.

A Story Of The King Of The Universe

2010-11-12T07:10:00.000-08:00

A doctor at a mental institution was making his rounds one evening when
he heard shouting from one of the cells.

     "I am the King of the Universe! I am the Ruler of the World! From now
on everyone will do what I say because I am the Supreme Commander of
the Galaxies!"
    The doctor investigated, opening a door to find a man in his skivvies,
standing on a chair, beating his chest and yelling, "I am the King of the
Universe!"
    "Harry!" interrupted the doctor over the man's shouting. "Harry, get
down off that chair! And quiet down! You're disrupting people who are trying
to sleep!
    "I am the King of the Universe!"
   "Harry, you are not the King of the Universe!"
   "Yes I am!" he cried all the louder.
   "And just what makes you think you are King of the Universe?" asked
the doctor.
   "God told me I was King of the Universe!" shouted Harry.
Just then a voice erupted from another cell down the hallway:" I did not!"

Reflection of the Story..

You know the type. They may not exactly claim to be God, but they're convinced
that God has given them the final word on what's true and not true,
what's right and what's wrong. Are they candidates for mental institutions,
or simply deluded? Is ego or ambition a factor? Or is it an understandable
need for centainty and firm answers in a world filled with theories and opinions that are constantly changing?

Story of Where Did I Come From?

2010-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

     A little boy had to write a report for school, so he went to his mother and asked,"Mom, where did I come from?"
     Surprised at hearing such a question from her child, the mother discreetly answered, "Um, the stork brought you." "And where did YOU come from?" the boy continued."Well, the stork brought you. Now go to your room, No more questions, please."
     But the boy persisted. "What about grandma? Where did come from?
      " Look, the stork brought grandma, the stork brought me, the stork brought you! Now go to your room. I do not want to talk about this any more!" So the little boy went to his room and began writing this report.
"Our family hasn't had a normal birth in three generations.."

Moral Lesson of the story...

Do you ever wonder how you got here? The world sometimes gives you answers that are about as stupid as " the stork brought you." Don't believe it. You don't get here by accident. You're not just a highly developed monkey. The Bible tells us that you were "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalms 139:14).
      Reducing the mysteries of the universe to something that we can measure is like parents telling small children tall tales so they'll stop asking questions.
      Don't let tall tales invented in the of science rob you of your faith. No one knows exactly how God did it, but we know that God created everything, including you and I and he knows each of us by name. Not only that, he loves and desires a personal relationship with each person he has created. He wants to have a personal relationship with you.

STORY : New Ideas by William Barclay

2010-03-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

Story title : New Ideas
By: William Barclay

    Normally nothing moves more slowly than a church. Religious people have a passion for the old.
    Some of today's most useful discoveries were made by men who dared to be and think different, and suffered for it. The man with something new always has to fight.
    The church branded Galileo a heretic when he taught that the earth moved round the sun.
Lister had to fight the old line doctors to prove his antiseptic technique, which is standard today in all operations.
    The idea that "something always has been done this way" stifles all attempts to improve. And just because something has " never been done this way " may very well be the best reason for trying it.
    As motherly Pope John twenty third put it, "The truth of Christianity do not change, but how we explain them does change."

STORY : Where Are You, Lord? by Brewer Mattocks

2010-03-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

Story title : Where Are You, Lord?
By: Brewer Mattocks

     The parish priest in a town named Austerity climbed way up into the church's steeple to be nearer to the Lord. He wanted to hand down God's Word to his parishioners, like Moses of old. Then one day he thought he really heard God say something.
     So he cried aloud from the steeple, " Where are you, Lord? I can't seem to hear your voice clearly".
     And the Lord replied, "I'm down here among my people. Where are you?"

STORY : Influence Of Christianity by Bruno Hagspiel

2010-03-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Story title: Influence Of Christianity
By Bruno Hagspiel

    We have all heard the story of the "Mutiny on the Bounty," When nine mutineers, six local men, and ten local women were put ashore on Pitcairn Island. As a result of one of them making some crude alcohol, eventually all of them died except Alexander Smith. He found a Bible, read it, and decided to
build up a state with the islanders, based directly on the Bible.
     Twenty years later an American ship came by and found there a completely Christian community. It had no jail. because there was no illiteracy. Nowhere in the world were human life and property so safe. That is what can happen if people take the Gospel message seriously/
    Don't believe the old cliche that Christianity has been tried and has failed. The truth is, as Chesterton put it, that Christianity has been found too hard and not been tried.
     The Christianity who are crowding the jails today are in there for having FAILED to follow Christianity.

STORY: Approachableness by William Barclay

2010-03-19T04:13:00.000-07:00

Story title: Approachableness
by William Barclay

      The Gospel story about the mothers bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed, tells the kind of person he was. Children would go to him. That is no small compliment. Many big men scare children away.
      A famous preacher once said that no one could be a follower of Jesus some people nowadays would, "They're only kids; don't bother about them."

But Jesus would never follow that advise. No one was ever a nuisance to Jesus. He was never too tired... or too busy. You did not need a ticket to see him. You did not have to go through the proper channels.
     How many people have been lost to the cause of Christ forever because clergymen turned them away. They had come at meal time. They had not taken the trouble to make an appointment.. This was the pastor's day off..
    Having time for people is the best compliment which we can pay them. That was Christ's secret weapon.

STORY: Achievement by Edmund Bok

2010-03-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Story title: Achievement
By: Edmund Bok

     There is a legend about an Indian chief who used to test the strength of his young braves by challenging them to climb up the side of the mountain as far as they could go without stopping. On an appointed day, four braves left at daybreak.
     The first returned with the branch of a spruce tree to show how high he had gotten. The second
came back with a twig of pine. The third brought an Alpine shrub. The fourth returned by the light of the moon. He was worn and exhausted, his feet torn by the rocks.
     "Well, what did you bring back? And how high did you get?" asked the chief.
     "Chief," said the brave, "where I went there were no trees of shrubs or even flowers, only rocks and snow and barren land. I am worn and torn and exhausted and have come home late. But" and here a wonderful light came into his eyes " I have seen the ocean."

STORY: Obedience Save by William Barclay

2010-03-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

Story title: Obedience Save
by William Barclay

      A veteran Navy man insisted that discipline and obedience were absolutely essential. They had to condition a sailor to obey orders automatically and unquestioningly. His life might one day depend on that. He gave and example out of his own life.
    He was working on a tugboat which was towing a very heavy ship through rough seas. The vessel
was attached to the tug by a wire cable. Suddenly a gust of wind and spray shot up and there came a loud word of command from the officer in charge of the tug. "Down!" he shouted.
On the spot, all the crew members fell to the deck. At that moment the wire cable snapped and its loose end whipped about like a maddened steel snake. If any man had been struck by it, he would have been cut in half.
     Instant obedience saved those lives.

STORY : Joy In Suffering by Joel Fritz

2010-03-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

Story title : Joy In Suffering
by: Joel Fritz

    I remember a crippled man in the hospital where I was chaplain for a few years. He was unbelievably disfigured. His body was twisted like a corkscrew and all he could do was sit in bed, day and night. If someone came to visit him, he could not even turn his head enough to make eye contact.
    Whenever I came around to visit him, my standard greeting would be, "Well, how are thing today?"

And his answer was always the same: "Just fine, thank you."
    Now, deep down in my own heart, I knew that if I were answering for him, I could truthfully have said each time, " Well, things are a lot worse with me than with you, " and I could have understood.
    But seeing this man suffering and hearing him answer so lightheartedly, always did something to me: I always left the room both humble and joyful.

STORY: Mixing Priorities by Carlos Valles

2010-03-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

Story title: Mixing Priorities
by: Carlos Valles

     If we like something very, very much, it can get our judgment out of focus. It can mix up our priorities. It can make us put the cart before the horse, or let the tail wag the dog.
    Take a practical case. A workman from Madang is delighted to find that buses going to lae now have television in them. So do the ones travelling to Goroka. Our man has to make his usual trip to Lae to go to work. He buys his ticket and hops aboard the bus. As he is taking his seat, he asks the
driver what video they'll be showing today. He finds that it is one has already seen. So he gets off the bus and goes over to the Goroka one, which travels in the opposite direction.
     They will be showing his favorite movie during that trip.
     So off our man goes, changes his ticket, and eventually lands in Goroka. What for? Nothing really.. But it doesn't matter. Seeing his favorite movie made up for it.
    That is a typical case of a person who mixes up priorities. People like that put what they LIKE to do ahead of what they HAVE to do.
    Would you hire someone like that?

STORY: International Co-operation by Rockefeller Foundation

2010-03-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

Story title: International Co-operation
by Rockefeller Foundation

   Whether we wish it or not, even in war we help our enemies, proving
that we are, despite our antagonism, one big, though sometimes unhappy,
family.
   An American soldier wounded by the Japanese owes his life to the
Japanese scientist Kitasato, who islolated the germ of tetanus. A Russian
soldier is saved by a blood transusion, which came to him from Landsteiner,
an Austrian. A German soldier is shielded from typhoid with the help of the
Russian, Metchnikoff. A Dutch marine in the East Indies is protected from
malaria because of experiment by an Italian called Grassi. A British flier
in North Africa escapes death from surgical infection because of a
Frenchman, Pasteur, and a German called Koch and their work with bacteria.
    Need knows no language or language barriers.
    Or as someone put it: "We are all brothers under the skin."

STORY: Goodness Gives You AWAY by Tony Castle

2010-03-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

Story title: Goodness Gives You Away
by: Tony Castle

    There is an orintal fable about a man who owned a ring set with a
beautiful jewel. Whoever wore the ring became so pleasant in character that
everyone loved him. The ring was a charm that passed down from father
to son.
    But then, there was a father with three sons, all of whom he loved
equally. So he had two other rings made which looked exactly like the magic
one. On his deathbed, he called in each son and gave him a ring. Later on,
a dispute arose about who had the charmed ring that could do so much good
ot its owner.
    So the three sons went to a wise judge to solve their problem. He
examined the rings closely and said," I can't tell which is the magic ring but
you yourselves can."
    "We?" they said in astonishment. "How?"
    "Like this," said the judge. "The magic ring is supposed to give
sweetness to the character of the person who wears it. So the only way you
can prove to the rest of us that you have the magic ring is by showing us your
sweetness of character. So, be kind and good and truthful and you will
prove you are the owner of the ring."

STORY: A Prophet Away From Home by Jacob Braude

2010-03-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

Story title: A Prophet Away From Home
By: Jacob Braude

     They tell this story about Nikita Kruschev, the former heavy set
head of Russia. He went to his tailor and asked him to make him a three
piece suit. The tailor took the big man's extensive measurements, then
measured the cloth Kruschev had brought along, and said that he did not
have enough cloth for a three piece suit. All he could make of it would be
trousers and a coat.
     Krushshev was unhappy and took back his cloth. Within a few days
he had to make a visit to Yugoslavia, he went to a tailor, laid his bolt of
material on the computer and had the tailor measure him and it. The man
found that he could easily make Krushshev a stylish suit which included
even a vest. Puzzled, Krushchev asked why it was that the Russian tailor
said he did not have enough cloth, while this tailor said he had more than
enough.
    "Well, " replied the Yugoslav tailor, " in Russia you are a bigger man
than you are here."
     Christ said the opposite:"No prophet is a big man in his won country."

STORY : Happy Ending by Herbert Prochnow

2010-03-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

Story title: Happy Ending
By: Herbert Prochnow

     They tell the story of the old dog who saw a puppy chasing its tail, and
asked,"Why are you chasing your tail?"
      Said the puppy, "I have mastered philosophy. I have solved the
problems of the universe, which no dog before me had rightly soloved. I have
learned that the best thing for a dog is happines. And happiness for me is my tail. Therefore, I'am chasing it. And when I catch it, I shall
have it."
      Said the old dog, " My son, I also have paid attention to the problems of the universe in a small way.
And I, too, have formed some opinions. I, is in my tail. But I have noticed that when I chase my tail, it keeps running
away from me. But when I go about my business, my tail comes after me."
      And so does happiness!

STORY : Keep Looking Up by Willi Hoffsuemmer

2010-03-12T03:40:00.000-08:00

Story title : Keep Looking Up
By: Willi Hoffsuemmer

     While God was creating this earth, he asked the animals what wishes they had, and he fulfilled them all.
      But when the humans heard about this, they were upset because they had never been consulted. "We'll never be satisfied with the way this earth was made, "they complained to the Lord.
    "You're not supposed to be, "replied the Lord. "This earth was not meant to be your home. Heaven is your home."
      That is why, ever since then, animals walk with their eyes looking towards the earth, while humans stand erect and look towards heaven.

STORY : How A Conscience Works by June A. Westgaard

2010-03-12T03:32:00.000-08:00

Story title: How A Conscience Works
By: June A. Westgaard

      Ann Connolly was shopping for groceries. While she was momentarily distracted, someone snatched her purse from her shopping cart.
      It so happens that Miss Connolly carries in her purse a talk back beeper device for telephone paging. So, as soon as she missed her purse, she hurried over to the store manager's office and dialed her own number into the telephone. This automatically activated her beeper talk back phone. Then she spoke into the manager's phone, knowing that her voice would be transmitted to the beeper in her purse, which was always turned up loud and clear for just such an emergency.
     One of the store attendants said afterwards that you should have seen that surprised man standing there with her purse and the purse was talking and saying for all to hear: " Take this purse to the manager's office, immediately!
    And he did!

STORY: Love Is Kind by Willian Barcly

2010-03-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

Story title: Love Is Kind
by: William Barcly

      John Wesley on one of his countless journeys shared a carriage with an Army officer. They had a lively interesting conversation, but the officer's language was salted with swear words. Though it went against Wesley's grain, he showed no displeasure.
     When the coach stopped for a lunch break, Wesley used the opportunity to have a word with the officer. "I wonder if I might ask you a favor, "Wesley asked. " We will be travelling some distance together, and if I should forget myself and us a swear word in front of the ladies, would you kindly correct me?"
       The officer got the point immediately and painlessly/
        That it known as kindness in word.

STORY: Gambling by Fifth Wheel

2010-03-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

Song title: Gambling
By: Fifth Wheel

Any person who bets on the horses follows inspirations that come. One race track classic is the story of the perfect inspiration which came to a bettor when he visited the track on his birthday. It happened to be the fifth day of the fifth month. On the program he found a horse named Quintuplets, which means
five babies born on the same day. Now to make it even more interesting, Quintuples was in the fifth position in the fifth race. So at the five dollar window he bought five tickets on this horse and settled back to collect on this "sure thing."
Quintuplets played the game all the way, and did not spoil the inspiration in fives. She came in fifth!

STORY: Proposing Diplomatically by B.T. Botkin

2010-03-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

Story title: Proposing Diplomatically
By: B.T. Botkin

The man from the outback was very shy; the maiden was beautiful and seemed to him too wonderful to be asked for. He went on loving her silently for ten years. He built a fine home, with garden and barns, but he had not dared to propose.
When everything was finished and furnished, he invited the maiden and her family over to see his
state. They all went through the house together and visited the barns and other buildings. Finally he managed to get Anna separated from her family. They went together to see some of the outbuildings. At one stage they stood silently looking into the pigpen. He looked up to her sweetly and said, "Anna, shall WE keep a pig?" And Anna said, "Yes"

STORY : Lifeblood by Friedrich Dietz

2010-03-08T04:13:00.000-08:00

Story title: Lifeblood
By Friedrich Diez

     An eight-year-old boy had just gotten over a serious illness, when his sister came down with the same sickness. The doctor knew that the only way to save her was to use the antibodies which had developed in the boy's blood. That would require a blood transfusion.
     So the doctor asked the little fellow if he would be willing to donate blood to his sister. The young
fellow hesitated, his eyes were filled with fear and shock. But then he pulled himself together and bravely said, "Yes, Doctor. My sister can have my blood."
     After the blood transfusion had been made, the little boy quietly asked the doctor, "How soon will I have to die now?"

STORY: Weep No More, My Lady by Gems of Thought

2010-03-08T04:06:00.001-08:00

Story title: Weep No More, My Lady
By: Gems of Thought

When I quit this mortal shore,

And live around this earth no more,

Don't weep, don't sigh, don't grieve, don't sob

I may have struck a better job.

Don't go and buy a large bouquet

For which it may be hard to pay.

Don't hand around me feeling blue.

I may be better off than you.

Don't tell the folks I was a saint,

Or anything you know I ain't.

If you have stuff like this to spread,

Please hand it out before I'm dead.

If you have roses, bless you soul,

Just pin one in my buttonhole.

But do it while I'm at my best

Instead of when I'm safe at rest

STORY : Suffering As A Sign Of Love by Jewish Folklore

2010-03-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Story title: Suffering As A Sign Of Love
By: Jewish Folklore

    Two Jews once came to a small town rabbi and told him, " Our wise men at home have told us something that keeps bothering us because we can't understand what it means. They keep saying that we must with equal joy receive both the good and the evil which God sends. Tell us, rabbi, how can we possibly do such a thing?"
     "Well, I'll tell you, "answered the rabbi. "Just go over to the and told him their problem. He laid his
pipe down on the table, smiled, and told the two of them, "I'm the last person on earth you should have asked that question. You should really have gone to someone else. I'm not qualified to answer that question because I've never gotten anything evil from God's hand."
      The two of them, however, knew for a fact that this old rabbi's life had actually been one long struggle with pain and need.
       But now they understood what it meant to see suffering as a sign of love.

STORY : Keeping In Touch by Quote

2010-03-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

Story title: Keeping In Touch
By: Quote

    Roger Schutz, director of Taize, the world famous ecumenical monastery in France, tells this story about one of his little nieces.
    She had grown up in the country of Zaire in Africa and had an African playmate who was her age. He was on orphan and was very lonely. He had built himself a little shack leaning against the high stone wall that separated the backyard of the girl's home from the open field where the little boy
played. There was no door or gate in the garden wall, so the little girl could not see the orphan boy on the other side. But she found a hole in the wall and used to put her hand through it and hold the little boy's hand.
      The two children never ever saw one another. They could not speak to one another because they did not know one another's language. And yet, they comforted each other by holding hands.
      There are times in life when words fall flat, but our sense of touch speaks volumes. Take the baby cuddled in the nest of its mother's arms. Take a nurse's snoothing hand on our fevered brow. Take an encouraging pat on the back. or a comforting hand on our shoulder.

STORY: The Complaint Book by Carlos Valles

2010-03-04T02:06:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Complaint Book
By: Carlos Valles

      We seem to thrive on grievances. The first requirement in any registered establishment is a complain box, clearly visible. Sometimes its title is softened to "suggestion box."
      An Indian missionary tells this story on himself: "One day I was passing through a small out of the way station. There was not a soul around. But a sign in big red letters caught my eye. It proclaimed
an essential message to the non existing public. The words screamed at me: 'Complaint book available.'
      "That tiny station had no bulletin board with timetables or notices. It had no restaurant or even waiting room. It lacked the barest essentials. But there WAS a complaint book. That gave the place some sort of status. Any self respecting railway station must have a complaint book, even if it had nothing else.
     "Then a wicked thought passed my mind. If there were no complaint book, where could I complain that there was no complaint book?"

STORY: Truthfullness by Paula Philips

2010-03-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

Story title: Truthfullness
by: Paula Philips

A group of young school teachers were taking a routine efficiency test. When they came to Part Three, they found a long list of book titles and authors. The directions said:" Check off the books you have read."
When the examiners later checked the papers. they found that one third of the teacher had checked almost every book on the list. Some checked every one.

This had nothing to do with proving that the teachers were well read. It only proved that many of them were liars, because 25 of the 50 books listed did not even exist. They had been invented by the examiners as a means of checking both the truthfulness and efficiency of the teachers.

STORY: Freedom To Serve by Tony Castle

2010-03-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

Story title: Freedom To Serve
By: Tony Castle

Several hundred years ago a wealthy plantation owner was attracted by the heartbreaking sobs of a slave girl who was about to step up to the auction block to be sold. Moved by an impulse of compassion, he bought her for a very high price and then disappeared into the crowd.
When the auction was over, the clerk came over to the sobbing girl and handed her her bill of sale,
telling her who her owner now was. To her astonishment, the unknown planter had written the word FREE across the paper that should have delivered her to him. She stood speechless as, one by one, the slaves were claimed by their owners and dragged away. Suddenly she threw herself at the feet of the clerk and exclaimed, "Where is the man who bought me? I must find him, He has set me free. I must serve him as long as I live!"

STORY: Training By Example by Bert Balling

2010-02-28T05:51:00.000-08:00

Story title: Training By Example
By: Bert Balling

      Albert Schweitzer is known all over the world as a theologian, a philosopher, a medical doctor, and a musician; but most of all, as a dedicated missionary who spent more than 50 years nursing lepers in the jungles of Lambarene in West Africa.
     Once when he was on home leave back in Europe, some of his relatives asked him for some advice
on the best way to raise children. Schweitzer did not launch out int0o a long explanation. His answer was cut and dried, short and simple and, therefore, all the more convincing.
     "So you want to know the best way of raising children?," he said. "Well, first by good example. Second, by good example. Third, by good example."

STORY: Solving Troubles by H. Middle Swarth

2010-02-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

Story title: Solving Troubles
By: H. Middle Swarth

   A barefoot boy of four was walking along the street eating an ice cream cone. Suddenly some bigger boys rushed around a corner and knocked the boy and his ice cream to the ground. The boy sat there glaring at the tragedy before him. Just then an old lady, who had seen it all happen, walked over to the child and said, "Laddie, the very worst thing has happened to you. But stand up, and I'll show
you something."
     The little boy stood up. " Now put your foot right on top of the ice cream. Step hard and watch it jump through your toes."
     The boy did just that and the old lady laughed with delight, saying, "I'll bet there isn't another boy in this town who has tickled his toes with ice cream."
     "Now you just run home and tell your mother about your funny experience. And remember this for life" whatever happens, you can still have fun."
     Those words of my childhood have helped me all through life. Because, come to think of it, it IS rather silly to take one's troubles too seriously.

STORY: White Less Defined by Reader's Digest

2010-02-28T05:23:00.000-08:00

Story title: White Less Defined
By: Reader's Digest

   Lillian Carter, the lively mother of President Jimmy Carter, had set up an interview with an aggressive woman reporter who made it clear with her very first question that she intended to take measure of this sharp tongued little woman and her upstart son.
    "Your son," the reporter began, "has been traveling the United States, telling people not to vote for
him if ever lies to them. Can you, knowing a son only a mother can, honestly say he's never told a lie?"
    "Well, perhaps a little white lie now and then, " Miss Lillian countered.
     "And what, "snapped back the reporter, "is the difference between a white lie and any other kind? Define white lie for me."
      "I'm not sure I can define it, "Miss Lillian said sweetly, "but I can give you an example. Do you remember that when you came in the door a few minutes ago, I told you how good you looked and how glad I was to see you?"

STORY: Playground Inspiration by Irene Sax in Newsday

2010-02-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

Story title : Playground Inspiration
By: Irene Sax

      Jane Nidetch was a 214 pound housewife. She was desperate to lose weight. After two steady months of dieting, she was still 50 pounds overweight. So she invited six overweight friends to her house to share her diet and talk about how to stay on it.
     Today, 28 years later, one million members attend 25,000 Weight Watchers' meeting in 24 countries every week.
     Mrs. Nidetch says she got her inspiration to help people take control of their lives, from a childhood
incident. As a teenager she used to walk past a playground. Mothers brought kids there to play, and then they would get so deep in gossip that they completely forgot about the children. The toddlers sat on their swings, but no one was giving them a push start. So she gave each of them a push. And you know what happens after that: the swinger starts pumping and swinging by himself.
    "That's what my role in this weight watching has been, " says Mrs Nidetch, "I'm here to give others a push start."

STORY: How God Hears All Prayers by Arthur Tonne

2010-02-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

Story title: How God Hears All Prayers
by Arthur Tonne

     "In the synagogue I heard different men praying men praying," said a puzzled little boy. " I must be awfully hard for God."
"Why? What do you mean?" asked the rabbi gently.
    "Well, the woodcutter was praying for cold weather. The fruit seller was praying for mild weather.
The farmer was praying for rain and the brick maker for dry weather. Now those are all godly men. How does God know how to answer all their prayers?"
     "How is the weather now?" asked the rabbi.
     "Dry and mild."
     "And last week?"
      "Let me see on Monday and Tuesday it rained, and on Thursday it was cold."
      "See how the Lord answered all their prayers?" the rabbi said/

STORY: The Grand Total Of It All by Willi Hoffsuemmer

2010-02-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

Story title: The Grand Total Of It All
By: Willi Hoffsuemmer

    They tell the story of an intelligent young king who ordered all the learned professor of his kingdom to gather and write down all the wisdom of the world. They got right down to work and forty years later, they had a thousand books packed with wisdom. The king, who had meantime reached sixty years of age, told them, "I cannot possibly read a thousand books. Reduce all that wisdom to basics."
    After ten more years the professors reduced the world's wisdom to a hundred volumes. "That's still
too much," said the king." I'm already seventy years old. Condense all that wisdom into absolute essentials."
    So the wise men tried again and squeezed all the wisdom of the world into just one book. But by that time the king was lying on his deathbed. so volumes of wisdom down to just one sentence."People live, they suffer, the die. The only thing that outlives them is love."

STORY: Happy Family Life by Willi Hoffsuemmer

2010-02-26T06:12:00.000-08:00

Story title: Happy Family
by Willi Hoffsuemmer

     A poor woodcutter lived contentedly in a little house at the edge of the forest. He earned his daily bread by chopping down trees. But no matter how tired he was, he and his family always ended the day with laughing and singing.
     Every evening the king passed by this happy household as he was walking back to his castle. It
annoyed him that ordinary working people could be so happy. So one day he sent his messenger down to the woodcutter to tell him,"The king has given orders that by tomorrow morning you must have fifty bags full of sawdust ready for him. If you don't, you and your whole family will be killed."
   "That's an impossible order," said the woodcutter . But his wife kept up his good spirits and told him, "You're right. But let's not worry about it. We have all had such a good life together, that tonight we should again sing and make merry as usual. That is the way we have lived and that is the way we should die."
     So they had the biggest party ever. After everyone had gone off to sleep, the woodcutter and his wife stayed up talking until sunrise. "Soon it will all be over, "sobbed the lady of the house.
     "Don't worry, "said her husband. "It is better to die in peace and contentment, than to live a life of fear and sorrow."
    Just the there was a knock at the door and the woodcutter let in the expected messenger from the king. He slowly and sadly entered the house and told the woodcutter, "Cut twelve hardwood planks for a coffin. The king died last night."

STORY: Identity Crisis by Carlos Valles

2010-02-25T02:54:00.000-08:00

Story title: Identity Crisis
by: Carlos Valles

   They tell the story of a really "bushy" farm boy from way outback who had come into a big town for the first time in his life. He felt completely lost among the crowds that shoved him around the stores and supermarkets. The outdoor vegetable market was open even at night and so when our farm boy got sleepy, he found a hidden spot under one of the tables and laid himself down to sleep.

But he had a problem: he looked like so many other people in the crowd that when he would awaken in the morning, how would he be able to find himself... and not mistake himself for someone else? So he bought a nice red balloon and tied it to his ankle and contentedly went off to sleep.
     A practical joker notice what the farmer boy had done and so after the boy was soundly asleep, he untied the balloon from ankle and tied it to his own.
     When the farmer lad awoke in the morning and saw his identifying balloon tied to someone else's ankle, he scratched his head in bewilderment and said to himself, "If I am not me, then who in the world am I ?"
     Do you really know who you are? How can you prove it?