God's Love

We call it mercy - it is God's forgiving love.
We call it providence God's caring love.
We call it kindness - it is God's understanding love.
We call it Christ's passion and death - it is God's proven love.
We call it happiness - it is God's encouraging love.
We call it the will of God it is God's unerring love.
We call it heaven - it is God's rewarding love.
We call it eternity - it is God's unending love.

Dentist

Dentist   A lady was very nervous about her appointment with the dentist. Before leaving home she sought courage by reading the text for the day from her calendar. It was from Psalms 81 verse 10: "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it."

Pressing on ...

In a far country lived a band of minstrels who travelled from town to town presenting music to make a living. They had not been doing well. Times were hard, there was little money for common folk to come to hear the minstrels, even though their fee was small. Attendance had been falling off and early one evening the group met, to discuss their plight.
"I see no reason for opening tonight," one said. "To make things even worse than they may have been, it is starting to snow. Who will venture out on a night like this?"
"I agree," another disheartened singer said. "Last night we performed for just a handful. Fewer will come tonight. Why not give back their meagre fees and cancel the concert? No one can expect us to go on when just a few are in the audience." "How can anyone do his best for so few?" a third inquired. Then he turned to another sitting beside him. "What do you think?"
The man appealed to was older than the others. He looked straight at his troupe. "I know you are discouraged. I am too. But we have a responsibility to those who might come. We will go on. And we will do the best job of which we are capable. It is not the fault of those who come that others do not. They should not be punished with less than the best we can give."
Heartened by his words, the minstrels went ahead with their show. They never performed better. When the show was over and the small audience gone, the old man called his troupe to him.
In his hand was a note, handed to him by one of the audience just before the doors closed behind him. "Listen to this, my friends!" Something electrifying stopped them in their work. Slowly the old man read: "Thank you for a beautiful performance." It was signed very simply --"Your King."

Do what you can ...

The story is told of two men who were talking. One of them was huge, the other quite small. The small man was admiring the size of the larger man. "Boy, if I were as big as you are, I wouldn't be afraid of nothin'. I'd go out into the woods and find me the biggest bear there and tear him limb from limb.

The big fellow smiled. "There'e lots of little bears in the woods. Why don't you go out and tackle one of them?"

This story has a moral that is greatly needed today. Many youth of the church stand on the sidelines telling what they would do if they had the ability of someone else.

Story Of A Bride..

I just like them little stories God's prophet always gave as examples/parables. here's another one, be blessed.

 GOD'S PROVIDED WAY  59-0415A   

 E-49    Reminds me of a little story. Once I... You--all of you know, I used to herd a few cattle. And I thought I was a genuine cowboy. And so, I remember at a ranch that we was working on, there was a... The Armour Company owned it, really, and the cattle out there they was branded, and we grazed them. And so they was... The story goes... Was before I come on the place.  But they had a bunch of young girls, the rancher did. And they were all these little flippy type girls in them days. I think we called them "flappers." And now days they're called "chorus girls," or something. But however, they was a... Flapper mothers is what brought forth chorus girls. Now, what's the chorus girl going to bring forth, what I wonder? I'll preach one of these nights on sowing to the wind and weeping--reaping the whirlwind. That's what we've done.

 E-50    Now, notice this. Then before that the... they... The ranch got all fixed up nice and everything, because the Armour's boy was coming out to visit the ranch out in the west. And they were going to have a big time. Of course, all these girls were going to vamp the boss's, the head boss's boy. You know, they'd marry him. Well then, they understood he was looking for a sweetheart. So they were all fixed up that night, and they was going to really give him an old Western reception. And the shooting their guns and having a big time. And they happened to have a--a girl there, which was a cousin. Her mama was dead, and her daddy was dead. And she had nowhere to go, so she came to live with her uncle. And of all that had to do the work, was her. The other girls just stayed all prettied up all the time, and she had to do all the work.

  E-51    You, many of you maybe have had that expan--experience, an orphan. It reminds me of the Church of the living God (That's right.): laughed at, made fun of all the time. So she had no clothes seemingly to clean up in when the rancher's son come, the owner's son came. So that night, they had a great big blow-out. And--and she had to stay back in back of the--the bunk house. And so, when they all got out of the dining room from eating, why, she went in and got all of the dishes and washed them. So it happened to be the--the owner, Mr. Armour's boy, walked out at the back and was looking. And it was true, he was looking for a sweetheart. He noticed that little girl, standing in there washing the dishes. There was something about her that seemed real to him.

  E-52    After a few days' visit, one night she was pouring out the dish water at the back of the place, after a hard day's work, and she heard somebody say, "Good evening." And she looked, and it was young Mr. Armour just standing there. And she pulled the straw over her feet; she was bare-footed. And she bowed her head; she felt ashamed. He said, "I've been watching you. And I have found, to what I believe, that you are a virtuous young woman." Said, "I'm out here," said, "I'm so sick and tired of that fancy going-on of the city in Chicago and so forth." Said, "I--I come out here to hunt me a wife." And said, "You just meet that specification." Oh, her heart like to of went... A man of that caliber? ask her, a poor little orphan to marry him? That's about the way I felt one night when I got a invitation to come to the wedding supper. "Want me? a man like me would--would have an invitation to come to the Lord Jesus?" But He asked me. I--I was... I imagine just about as--felt about like she did. "Who am I?" But He told me to come, and I come.

E-53    Then he said to her; he said, "Now, you make yourself ready. One year from this night, I'll be back to get you." Said, "Will you marry me?" She said, "Well, it... Of course I would. But" she said, "I'm not worthy." Isn't that about the way you felt? "I'm not worthy, Lord." He said, "Don't think of that. I'm not looking for clothes and things; I'm looking for virtue. And I--I--I want you for my wife. Will you be?" And he kissed her. And you remember when the Lord put that kiss on your heart, how you felt? Oh, my. Oh, kissed away all my sins, and all my sorrows, and... He--He just made something different. He--He--He said I could... I--I... He's going to bring me to the wedding supper one night.

  E-54    So he said, "Make yourself ready." You remember, the Bible said, "And the Bride has made herself ready," in the robes of the righteousness of the saints. You see? So that little girl only got seventy five cents a week. But, oh, how happy she was that year. Just washing and singing, saving every penny she could. Rest of them went to town and bought new packs of cigarettes, and what more, you know, and their whiskey, and carrying on new decks of cards, and had their big time. But she's just labored away. Why? She was getting ready, making herself ready. And then finally, first thing you know, she got to town, and she got the wedding garment, and got the money that he sent her, and got the wedding garment, and come back. And did them little cousins make fun of her. Ummmm. That's just about the way some of these cousin denominational religion, social gospel, said, "You bunch of little holy-rollers."

 E-55    I talked to a girl here not long ago in Oregon. She said... She's belonged to another denomination. And she said, "Well, what's 'tending your party? If they ever... If they'd be the ones that would be in heaven, I wouldn't want to be there." I said, "You won't have to worry very much unless you change your attitude." See? I said, "You won't have to worry very much." She said, "All that there screaming and carrying on." I said, "Now, wait. You worship Mary. And the Virgin Mary, before God would ever put the wedding garment on her, she had to go up the day of Pentecost and get so full of the Spirit, till she staggered like she was drunk. You ain't coming in anything less." Just remember that. Yes, sir. "And that was, as you call, the mother of God." See? I said, "If Virgin Mary had to go to Pentecost and get the Holy Ghost before she could ever go to heaven, you'll never get in; anything less. Just remember that. That was the Virgin Mary." "Oh, that isn't so." I said, "Do you believe the Bible? Here it is. And Mary was right with them in the upper room. And she got so full of the Spirit until she danced under the Spirit, acting like somebody drunk. And you think you'll get to heaven anything less than that? You'll never do it. Yes, sir. Virgin Mary and all the rest of them had to come the way of the Lord's despised few." So... Yes, sir.

  E-56    The people make fun, and they call them a bunch of idiots. Paul said, "In the way that's called heresy..." That's crazy. See, "heresy" is some "heresy, crazy, idiotic." Well, we are called that, because the supernatural is so much different from the carnal things of this world, till it makes people think they're crazy. They said... Why, Paul said to Agrippa, said, "I'm not mad. It's..." "Mad" means "crazy." "I'm not crazy, you think I am. But in the way that's called heresy, I worship the God of our fathers." That's the way I do too. I like that. "In the way..." I'd like to join hands with Paul. I'd like to be there that day when I see him robed in the righteousness of Christ, when I see him crowned. Hallelujah. I want to have the same kind of robe on he had. That's the same kind my Lord wore. That's the reason I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. And tho--Gospel came not in Word only, but through power and demonstrations of the Holy Ghost. That's the way the Gospel is. It's the Word made manifest in our hearts.

  E-57    Now, this little girl, she got ready. She didn't care what... They laughed. Let them laugh if they want to. But she knowed that that kiss that night meant a seal. And so did I, so do you, and every one that had that kiss of the Lord Jesus, that give you the promise, you know what it means. You don't care what the world says. If your cousins wants to make fun of you and say, "You've lost your mind, and you're old fashioned," just go ahead; that's all right. Make her no different, she just kept getting ready. So then, finally come the hour, the sun was going down. So she robed her little self, you know, and got all prettied up. Oh, my. That's the hour the Church ought to be in right now: all robed in His righteousness, filled with His Spirit, powered with His Being, walking in the Light, waiting for the coming of the Lord.

  E-58    There she was, got herself all ready, all cleaned and washed, and the wedding garment on. And you know what? As it got closer, the more critical got her little cousins. They said, "You poor little simple-minded thing, do you mean to tell you that if--if the Armour's son would marry somebody, he would marry somebody like us, somebody who would fit in his society, someone who had education, who had some glamour about them." See, that's what the Church thinks today. But how far off they are. That's right. Way off they are. They...

  E-59    And so, then after while, she... they... She thought he'd delayed. It got later, later. And finally, they said, "Oh, where's he at?" That's what they're saying today. "Where is that One. I heard that stuff forty years ago, He was coming. Where's it at?" Didn't the Bible say they'd say, "Where is that coming of the Lord. All things are just like it was from the beginning?" We're living in that day, friends. Let's take courage now while we're together this afternoon. Go out with a new courage. Go out to win souls. Get ready. The coming's at hand. And the first thing you know, they all got around her, begin to dance, little songs around her, said, "Oh, we'll make fun of her," you know. And made the bride like they was pretending, a bride. That didn't bother her. She watched the little old clock tick around. First thing you know, it was just about one minute. Somebody said, "You... I thought he was going to be here at such-and-such a time." "Don't worry, he will be here," she says. That's all I want to know. He promised He'd be here. That's all I want to know. He's coming; that's all. When, I don't know. But He will be here.

  E-60    Right while they were making the most fun, and saying the--all these different things about her, and--and teasing her, and making fun of her and everything, they heard the wheels a coming, horses hooves a beating, the old grinding of the sand under the buckboard. My, my, she broke through those lines. Out into the yard she went. Who was it? There he was, dressed. The carriage was ready. She run through the little trellis at the end of the yard like that. He jumped out of the carriage and grabbed her into his arms, and he said, "Sweetheart, all year long I've had people watching you." Oh, I'm so glad. The Holy Ghost: The eyes is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me. "All year long, I've been watching you. I seen your virtues. I seen the flirts of other men. I seen all of this, but I seen you were true. Oh, it swelled my heart to know that the woman I was going to marry was true." God, let that be our testimony, let that be our desire today. Live true to Christ. Be true to the calling. Be true to the Spirit.

  E-61    And he grabbed her in his arms, set her up in the buckboard, and turned the carriage away, and on to Chicago. Said, "You've worked and you've toiled, and your little blistered hands will never be blistered again. The things that you've done without, you'll never have to do without again. For one of the swellest homes that can be bought on--on Lakeside Drive in Chicago is waiting for you. We're going to get married now and go live there in peace for the rest of your days." I'm so glad that we might work and toil, and have the spit of the outside, and the frowns, and the scorns, and everything, but someday He will come. Oh, we'll be taken up with Him to meet Him in the air. And those little old cousins just stood there and looked. Oh, some of these days, we'll be caught away. God will catch away His Bride, them who are wearing the wedding garment. Let us bow our heads.

Son Of A King..

SPIRITUAL AMNESIA 64-0411

  E-22    One time in the south, I read a story from down here where they--when they used to have slaves. They'd take those people and sell them on the market, just like you would a used car. And then, there was a buyer--broker who would come by and pick up these slaves, and trade them and just like you would a car, or something. And those slaves was away from their home country. They were from Africa. The Boers kidnapped them, brought them over here to the islands, and then smuggled them into the United States and sold them for slaves, from out in Jamaica and around.  Now, we find that those people were sad. They'd been kidnapped from their own home. They'd been taken out by an enemy, and they were sad. They'd never see their husband no more, their wife no more, their father, mother, their children. They were absolutely. They had to whip them with whips to make them work, for they was sad people.

  E-23    And one day a broker came by a certain plantation; and he saw a bunch of slaves out there working. And he went in and asked the owner, he said, "How many slaves you got?" Said, "About a hundred." Said, "You got any you'd swap or sell?" He said, "Yep." Said, "Let me look them over." And he went out in the field and watched them. And he seen them have to whip them around. And after while he saw one young man they didn't have to whip. He had his chest out and his chin up: didn't have to whip him. So the broker said, "I'd like to buy that slave." And he said, "But he's not for sale." He said, "Well, what's the difference with that slave?" Said, "Is that slave the boss over the rest of them?" He said, "No, he's just a slave." He said, "Well, maybe you feed him different?" He said, "No, he eats in the galley with the rest of the slaves." He said, "Well, what makes him so different from the rest of the slaves?" He said, "Well, this I wondered too for a long time. But one day I learned that over in the homeland where he come from, his father is the king of the whole tribe. And though he be an alien, and away from home, yet he knows he's the son of a king, and he--he conducts himself like the son of a king."

  E-24    I thought, "But that... If a Negro coming from Africa and knowed that his father was a tribesman, and a king over a tribe, what ought it to do to a Christian that's borned again, a man or woman that our Father is the King of heaven in glory?" We should conduct ourselves as Christian men and women. We should act like it, dress like it, talk like it, live like it. Though we be an alien, yet we are children of the King.

The Rambling man and the Tornado...

ONCOMING STORM 60-0229

  110    I was in a meeting not long ago. I'm looking at a--a colored brother setting here, I suppose, him and his wife. And I've been watching him since I been preaching, nodding his head, and re--rejoicing in the meeting and just brought me to a--a thought.

There was a boy come into the meeting one time, and as soon as the service was over, he--he ran to me, and he said, "Parson." He was a southerner. And he said, "Parson, I's wants to find the Lord Jesus tonight." I was having a healing service.

And I said, "Certainly, my brother, I am more than happy to lead you to Him." He said, after he had gave his heart to the Lord; he said, "I wonder... I guess you are wondering why I run up out here like this." Said, "I heard you were in the city, and I just come up to see what--to see you." He said, "I'll tell you my story." He said, "I more or less been a wanderer." Said, "My old mother was a real Christian. My sisters was Christian. I had one Christian brother." Said, "I was the baby of the family, and a spoiled child to begin with, 'cause they babied me, was so good to me." But said, "I would not take heed to my mother or my godly relation. I wanted to be a wanderer. I wanted to live a man's life." He said, "I thought that being a Christian was more like for the women or the weak." He said, "And I become a cook, and I was very good at my trade." And said, "Something, another, I wanted to go to the north. And one day I staggered in on a pulp camp, where they were cutting pulp wood. And I was broke. And I said to the foreman, 'Could you use a cook?'" He told his recommendations, that he had in his pocket, from different great places where he had been a chef.

115    And he said, "Well, we have one now." He said, "But, however, until you're able to get around, we can give you a little bit of money on the side. We got an elderly colored woman in there now, which is a good chef. But go in, talk with her, maybe she could use you. And if she could, we can give you a little spending money till you get on your feet." He said that was as good as he wanted. And said he went in there, and he met the old woman, and said he helped her around for two or three days.

  117    And one night, said he was laying there, and he said he kept noticing the flashes across the side of the wall. And after while he wondered, "Is that... Is somebody outside?" And said, after while he heard a--a deep roar, and it was a thunder. And said, outside he heard some voices talking, and they said, "You know, we better get back to the horses, and take care of them, because we may not be here very long." Said he took the cover off his head, and listened up to the wall. And the lightning flashed, and he saw his boss and the teamster. And he understood by their talk, that there was coming a storm across the mountains, which we call up in the north lands "a northerner," comes quickly, without warning. You don't have time to do nothing. The mountains are so high; they just break right over at once.

  119    And that flashing had been lightning. And he said, "You know, we may not be here after while." Said, "That sounds like a terrible twister coming." And then he said, "I begin to think, 'Well, I hope it doesn't strike here,' said, 'because I know I'm not ready to go.'" And sometimes you wait too long, you know. So then he said, "Just in a few moments, the wind begin to blow, and the trees begin to rock." And said he listened. The canvas was between he and where the--the old lady slept, and said, "She was beating on that canvas. She said, 'Son? Oh, son?'" He said, "Yes?" She said, "Would you come over to my side? I have a lantern lit." And said, "I went over to her, because I was scared to death." And said, "She had a lantern setting on an old soap box. And she said, 'I'd like to ask you something.'" Said, "Yes, ma'am." Said, "Is you ready to meet the Lord?" He said, "Then I really got scared." Said, "No, ma'am, I'm not." "Why," she said, "honey, I want you to tell me something. You'd better make ready now, 'cause you may have to meet Him, unprepared in the next few minutes." Said, she said, "Will you kneel with me here?"

124    Said, "We knelt down by the side of that old soap box." He said, "Parson, I'm going to tell you the truth; I was too scared to pray." He said, "The trees was slamming against that building, and the lightning a-flashing, the thunders a-shaking. I was too scared to pray." Said, "I started to say, 'Lord, be merciful,' and bang would go the lightning. I'd said, 'Where was I at? Lord, be merciful,' bang would go the lightning." He said, "But I learned a lesson." He said, "That old sainted woman set just as cool and happy as she could be." Said, "She talked to Him like she'd knowed Him since she was a baby, like He was her father or her mother." Said, "She was no more disturbed than nothing." Said, "I was scared to death." Said, "Finally I got these words out, and I said, 'Lord, if You'd just let me live, and I'll find a place where it's more quieter, I'll come to You." He got another chance, but you might not. When the judgments of God begin to pour out, there's no more chance. You've got your chance now. This is your chance.

128    The storm was on him. He said, "Parson, is it possible for a man like me to be tucked away in that safety, that when death begins to come upon me, that I can enter up to talk to Him like that old saint did?" I said, "Son, the Blood of Jesus Christ that made her that way can make you that way right now." I was standing by my automobile. He was a well-dressed boy, cultured, educated. He fell on his knees in the muddy yard and there he found that hiding Place, that Refuge in a time of storm, that Rock in a weary land. You don't have to be weary as long as you're in the Rock. The Rock is one place that's not weary. The Rock is a satisfying place. You can just set back and look out, just as safe as you can be.

  132    There is a hour coming, and now is (and the sealing is about over), that where every man and woman on the face of the earth is going to be in that place of Refuge, like it was in the days of Noah, or on the outside of It. You have to make your decision. That safety is Jesus Christ. That... He is the only Place, the only One Who has Eternal Life. No man can come to the Father, but by Him. He is the Ark of our safety. The Holy Spirit bears record with us now, that we've passed from death unto Life. And when we look at the grave, and know that each one of us is going there...

  134    We see the newspapers and the oncoming storm. When you go home tonight, do me one favor, don't go to bed till you read Revelations the 8th chapter. You see the oncoming plagues and storms, that shall hit the earth, and thunders and lightnings are going to shake the heavens. Woes are going to pass over the nation. Men will rot in their flesh. Diseases will strike them the doctors knows nothing about. But remember, before that took place there was a sealing went forth. And the death angels and the plagues was commissioned by God, "Don't come near any of those who has the Seal in their forehead." And the Seal of God is the baptism of the Holy Spirit; Ephesians 4:30 says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day of your redemption." No matter how hard the ark rocked, no matter how many times the lightning struck close to it, "Ten thousand shall fall on your right, and thousands to your left, and it shall come not nigh thee." The Holy Spirit...