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Christian Illustrations

**Recent Additions**
(14/10/98)The long silence: God has suffered like we have
(6/10/98)The Intimidation factor involving Khruschev
(5/10/98)Out Running your friend and Not the Bear - Steve Brown
(27/9/98)Not Welcome at Church - Philip Yancey
(22/9/98)William Booth's Vision of the lost (Salvation Army Founder)

Lists of Contents
1. Unwanted Son : when love is conditional
2. ConAir: who is really the crazy one?
3. Missionary captured by guerillas (Ian Powell): does Jesus mean a lot or everything?
4. Young man in Germany giving about medical dreams for Christ (Ian Powell) : I will follow Jesus whatever the cost
5. Maravian Brethren's becoming slaves to save the lost (Ian Powell): doing whatever it takes to save the lost
6. The Car Park Miracle (Alan Stewart): how we can be such hypocrites!
7. Life-saving friend in the jungle of Vietnam in the War (Tony Campolo)
8. "Use glue" (Alex Kerr, Lost Japan): things are not always what they seem
9. Titanic (Ian Powell): how perspective changes the whole situation
10.Piano (Charles Swindoll): in the hands of the master


Recent Additions

The Long Silence
At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly - not with cringing shame, but with beligerence.

"Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?" Snapped a pert young brunetter. He ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi Concentration Camp. "We endured terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!"

In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched for no crime but being black!"

In another crowd, a pregant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. "Why should I suffer?" She murmured. "It wasn't my fault."

Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint about against God for the evil and suffering he had permitted in the world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that men had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because they had suffered the most. A Jew, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, thalidomide child.

In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever. Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth - as a man!

Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of the birth be doubted.
Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him our of this mind when he tries to do it.
Let him be betrayed by his closest friends.
Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge
Let him be tortured.

At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone.
Then let him die so that there can be no doubt that he died.
Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last had finished pronoucing sentence, there was a long silence. Nobody uttered another word. No one moved.

For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.

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The Intimidation Factor with Khruschev
Almost thirty years ago, when Nikita Khruschev visited America, he gave a press conference at the Wasington Press Club. The first question from the floor - handled through an interpreter - was:"Today you talked about the hideous rule of your predecessor, Stalin. You were one of his closest aides and colleagues during those years. What were you doing all that time?"

Khruschev's face got red. "Who asked that?" he roared.

All five hundred faces turned down

"Who asked that?" he insisted. Nothing. "That's what I was doing," he said.

Neither Khrushchev nor the reporters spoke up because of intimidation.

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Out Running your Friend and Not the Bear - Steve Brown
Two men were walking in the woods when suddenly they hear the roar of a grizzly bear. Both men know what grizzlies can do, and one of the men immediately sits down to put on his running shoes. His companion blurts out, "you don't really thikn you're going to outrun that bear, do you?"

"Of course I'm not going to outrun that bear," the man replies. "I don't have to. I just have to outrun you."

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(27/9/98)Not Welcome at Church - Philip Yancey
A prositute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick,unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter - two years old!-to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable-I'm required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."

What struck me about my friend's story is that women much like this prostitute fled towards Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer fell welcome among his followers. What has happened?

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William Booth's Vision (Founder of Salvation Army)

He had a vision once, William Booth. He tells the story of the time when he was travelling in a coach, and he was thinking about the millions of people in his own country, who lived in opened rebellion against God, addicted to their sin and ignoring Christ. He said that at this moment I had a vision.

"I saw a dark and stormy ocean, over the top were deep dark clouds, and the wind moaned and the waves would rise up, tower, foam, crashing down only to rise up again, and then he said I noticed in the ocean, that it was filled with millions and millions of people. Poor humans screaming, cursing, crying out, dying . Well that was until I noticed that in the middle of the ocean was a mighty rock, rising out of the ocean. All around the base of this rock I saw had been build vast platforms. I noticed with delight that a few of these poor wretches would be washed unto these platforms and climb out to safety. Then I noticed that others who had already been saved in that way, working hard on the platform with ladders, ropes, boats and any other means possible to rescue other. They would sacrifice themselves, endanger their own lives, they were entirely wrapped up in their effort to save others from the dark ocean.

But as I kept looking, I saw that there were a multitude of others, who took no part in the rescue. They were busy with all other kinds of other past times. What puzzled me though is that they themselves had been rescued at onetime, yet they seemed to show no concern for others who were perishing. And this inspite the fact that they regularly attended lectures which told of how awful it was to be unsaved, and how wonderful it was to be safe and on the rock. Some of these people were absorbed in study and business, in order to make great profits which they could store away. Others amused themselves with constant paintings, sports, music, clothing or tours around the Island. Although, those on the platform said that they would obey their Lord, They didn't seem to hear him calling, calling to them from down in the sea to where he himself had gone.

Anyhow if they did hear him they did not feel as they had time to work with him. And I noticed something very odd indeed. Those people on the platform were always calling on Him to come to them, to make them happier, to assure them that they would never fall off the rock. To answer some doubts and troubles they had with the letters he had sent to them. Sometimes they would get together at the top of the rock and look across to the mainland where they imagined He dwelled, and cry, oh come to us, oh come and bless us please. And all this while this great being was by his spirit, among the poor, blind creatures in the angry deep. Putting his arms around people, pulling and pushing them towards the platform. And as he did so he would look up all so longingly but all so in vain. To those upon the rock, and he would cry out with his voice hoarse from crying, come and help me, come and work with me.

Then I understood. All those in the sea were those cut off from God and perishing. The rock was the cross the only place of safety and forgiveness. And on the rock people used their time and abilities in two basic ways. Either for themselves or the unsaved. They were either passengers or soldiers. My friends do not be deceived by appearances. Men and things are not what they appear to be. If they are not on the rock they are in the sea. Jesus is calling all his people to love as he loves, to see as he sees, to go down to the ocean, to put all they have at his disposal, forget your pride your love of ease, your ambitions, your love of comfort, and come down to where you are needed. We've had a very nice time as Christian, much fun, much joyful singing, many nice outings. Go now and tell him that you will heed his voice, and go down and spend yourselves for the perishing.

William Booth finishes up by saying, now what will you do?

You see that vision of reality? That people are perishing, and God has not saved you so that you can sit there with your ticket, and say how lovely to be on the rock. In the end I guess there are three basic positions, you can still be a slave, or you can be kind of a spectator and a supporter, keen that other people should be saved, but still more looking on than doing anything, or you can have enlisted, become a soldier, to fight along side Jesus, the great warrior, the great liberator. To bring people out of the darkness, out of the dungeons, and into a glorious knowledge of Jesus. At this point you have to work out which is you and which do you want to be you. Because Jesus is calling us to go with him and make disciples.
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1. Unwanted Son

A boy had just returned from Vietnam and called his father and mother who lived in Boston. He said to his mother, "I just called to tell you I am on my way home, and I want to bring a buddy home with me."

His mother said, "Sure, bring him along for a few days." The son said, "But, mother, there is something I must tell you abut this boy, one leg is gone, one arm is gone, one eye is gone, and his face is disfigured."

The mother said, "Well, go ahead and bring him, but only for a few days." The son said, "But, mother, he is going to live the rest of his life with us." She replied, "No, son, he can't stay. He would be an embarrassment to us. What would people think? Besides, we just can't be bothered with caring for someone in that shape. The son hung up.

A few hours later the police called from California to Boston. The police sergeant at the other end said, "We just found a man with one arm, one leg, one eye, and a disfigured face, who has committed suicide. The identification papers on the body say he is your son."

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2. Quote from ConAir
In the scene Nicolas Cage, the good guy, is trying to rescue the situation which is that he is on a plane with some of the world's most dangerous criminal who have taken control over the plane by over powering the guards. He has just had to kill one of the prisoners because he had found out that he was a free man instead of having a 15 year sentence as he had claimed. Cage comes up from down below, looks at his hands and shakes his head, regretting what he had to do. A pychotic serial killer, Garland Greene is sitting next to him and after seeing Cage shake his head and looking at his hands remarks:

Greene: "Two went down and one came up" (acknowledging the fact that he knows what Cage has just done.)
Cage: "It wasn't my fault"
Greene: "You don't have to tell me. Most murders are crimes of necessity rather than desires. But the great ones, Darner, Gassy, Bundy ... They did it because it excited them.
Cage: "Don't you talk to me. I've got nothing in come with them, with you. They were insane"
Greene: " Now you're talking semantics. What if I'd told you insane is working 50 hours a week in the same office for 50 years, and at the end of which they tell you to piss off, ending up in some retirement village, hopinh to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time. Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?
Cage: "Murdering 30 people, semantics or not is insane"

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3. Missionary captured by guerillas (Ian Powell)
There was a missionary in South-East Asia, who was captured by some guerillas, and freedom fighters and they were Marxists. He actually walked with them for three weeks through the jungles. And he had quite a good relationship with group of freedom fighters, and they talked about Marxism and they talked about Jesus and they went backwards and forwards. When the missionary was released - this guy's a missionary; he's gone overseas to share the faith. The leader of the freedom fighters said something very interesting: he said "I see that your message about Jesus is more powerful than ours. But we will win, because Jesus means a lot to you, but the revolution means everything to us." And the question I keep asking myself is : Is Jesus my most important hobby or is this business of life and death. That the one who died for me is the one I can't wait to share with others. And I'm anxious for others and I'm praying God please give me a chance to share , please may it come up with my family. Is that the first thing, does Jesus mean a lot to us or it everything. (Ian Powell : KYC 1990 "Learning the game by watching others play)

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4. Young man in Germany giving about medical dreams for Christ (Ian Powell)
There was a Old guy at a church that I went to, went across to East Germany about ten years ago. And he met a young man at a church who came from a family of doctors. Generations had been doctors; and ever since he was child he wanted to be a doctor. Now apparently in the East German school, about in year ten you get streamed off either into technical type schools or academic type schools. All the way through junior high, he was sharing with his friends about Jesus. He was regularly called up by the principal and told to shut up. When he got near the end of year ten he was told, if you do not stop speaking about Jesus you will be streamed into a technical school, which means that he will never ever be able to become a doctor. And that's not just financial , that's his dream for the future. All he has to do is be silent about Jesus until he's into those sort of academic school. This old man asked the young guy what did you do? He said I kept speaking about Jesus and he was now in the middle of a technical high school, his whole dream gone. And then he said to this friend of mine, "I will follow Jesus, Vas est al costet, whatever the cost."And following Jesus means becoming fishers of men like him. We need to go and reflect. Will we be those who follow Christ whatever the cost, because it will cost and it will be painful at times. But it is the only thing worth living for, its the only reason why we are left here. To know Christ and to make him known and the question for you and for me, is to work out : is that what we are going to live for? And when you forget will you let brother and sister Christians remind you, and will you set yourself back on to the right course. To make known to others the marvellous things God has done, who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (Ian Powell : KYC 1990 "Learning the game by watching others play")

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5. Maravian Brethren's becoming slaves to save the lost (Ian Powell)
There was a group of missionaries from a couple of centuries called the Maravian Brethren. They heard of various needs, and two of the most impressive stories, these are young people just like ourselves, with the same hopes and the same desires for comfort and joy. They heard of a leper colony in Africa, where there was a huge wall built around it and it was guarded by soldiers and once you were found to have leprosy you were taken in and you never got out. There were farms, there were shops, and there was a graveyard in there. And these guys asked the obvious question who shares the gospel with them? So they didn't write books and send them in which they could have. Two of the young men went in and they never came out. That is the level at which they cared. Another couple of the young men, were trying to reach out to the slaves in the Carribbean. And they found that they had no time where they could actually find the slaves and speak to them. So two of them where sold as slaves and they lived and died as slaves. Not just for a week or two, they shared themselves, they went in amongst them. Now I'm not telling you that to make you feel guilty, I'm saying it's that sort of thing that says I want to be able to reach these people, I want to share myself with them so I can get the gospel to them. (Ian Powell : KYC 1990 "Learning the game by watching others play")

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6. The Carpark Miracle

What is that you fill your head with? Some people are very concerned about eating health food and that sort of thing, and then pump sewerage into their head. You aren't what you eat, you are what you think. Now I'm going to admit something to you that may surprise some of you but for most of you it won't.

I struggle with pornography. I struggle with pornography. I can't believe it! He just said that to two and a half thousand people - did he say that, he did! He's on the Katoomba platform! Yeah I do and why do I say it? I'll tell you why. Because I know that there are two and a half thousand of you here and I'll bet half of you struggle with it too. I'll bet half of you struggle with it. You've got to believe the bible. You see Galatians 5:17 says the sinful nature fights with the spirit of God in you. They are in conflict with one another and that terrible struggle of I hate it, its sickening and yet ... I somehow want to look at this, and it's a struggle. And I know that many of you struggle with it too.

And it's every where isn't it. It's in the newsagent, it's on the television, you drive down any road, Parramatta road, whatever and there's a fifty foot long Elle Macpherson in her underwear. I know that at least half of you see it. And worst of all you walk into the video shop and there it is. And it's not just in the adult section but all over the place. And folks, I must say that I don't know how the girls struggle with this. It doesn't seem to be as much a problem with the ladies, but I don't know, for some ladies maybe it is, but I know for the guys it is. It is the unspoken about plague among young Christian men.

So now it is the spoken about plague and I'll tell you why. Its poison, guys, it's poison. Why? Well it treats women like animals; or like things to be used. And you know they're not. I've got three lovely little girls at home, eight, six and one they are. And you know they're my daughters. Every woman shown in pornography was someone's little girl. It creates all the wrong expectations about a partner. Totally unrealistic. No one, not even the girls in real life; looks like the way "they" are presented. And worse, it divorces sex from love and intimacy. It poisons your mind. And I hate it; but I struggle with it and we need to stop it.

And so I say to you do not struggle alone. Don't struggle alone, I have a couple of mature Christian friends who I talk to and ask "How's it going?" Ed Vaughn is one of them. So there's no need for two and a half of you to ask me when you see me "how it going with that.....?" It's all right, Ed Vaughn asks me and I've got someone else who asks me, and they are mature Christian brothers. And I know, Ed going to ask me ...

Don't struggle with alone but fight it!! I'll give you two other reasons not to go near it. The first is, I think, week by week I stand up at the church that I go to and teach the bible. How can I look at that stuff and then stand up and teach the bible to people. And for you week by week you go to your church, and do whatever sort of ministry that you do. How can you front up week by week with God's people when you've done that? But an even better reason, even a better reason is... that God hates it! It makes him nauseous. God is ready to forgive you. Ready to make a fresh start. Don't fight it alone; but fight it because its poison!

Now I ask you, are you consistent in your life as week by week you hear the word of God. What is it you struggle with; I don't know, it might be gossip, it might be generosity, it might be pornography? What is it you struggle with? It matters how we live, it matters how we treat others, it matters how we live before God. See other people see it, other people see hypocrisy. How much more does God see it? Now I'm not trying to put you on a guilty trip, I do not say, the bible does not say that you will be sinless, if you make a mistake, if you fall over, get up again and ask God to forgive you and start again, but what the bible does say, is that if you hear, you must obey. Don't be a hearer only, hear it and do it. It matters. And we need to be the same people the other 166 hours of the weeks as we are at church, the same people.

Let me conclude by asking you if you've ever been involved in the carpark miracle? You've probably seen it. You may have even been involved in it. I stayed with some friends a while a go in a church, its a fair way from here, and my mate was driving. We were talking about ordinary things on the way to the church, and we pulled up in a carpark. And as we pulled up, another one of the people who came to the church, a young guy, pulled up in his car. My friends got out and said "Brother, brother, how good it is to see you, what a beautiful day, sister, praise the Lord," and then they laughed and said - "the carpark miracle!"

Now I'll tell you what the car park miracle is. Its when a husband and wife have been fighting in the car on the way to church. Or its when you're in the car on the way to church, whingeing about the minister. Or whingeing about the song leader or the youth leader. Or the elder, or who ever it is. Or you've driven like a maniac to get to church. You've given someone that particular finger in the traffic - with the fish sticker on the back! Or as you've driven to church with a friend you've gossiped about somebody, you've gossiped about them. And you pull up in the carpark, and you get out of the car. You see someone, maybe even the person you've gossiped about, and the car park miracle happens - "brother, sister, praise the Lord how are you? It's the carpark miracle.

Jesus' word for it was hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. And he hated it with a passion. The people of Israel in the time of Amos didn't have cars, but they had the carpark miracle. They were different people in public religion to the rest of their lives, and it made God sick. And my brothers and sisters, we need to pray, that God will enable us to live such lives during the week , that we don't need the carpark miracle.

Would you pray with me. Lord we thank you that you've given your word to us, we pray that you will make us not just hearers of your word but doers as well. Please give the grace to change where we need to change, please make us like Christ in how we treat each other at church, and please make us the same way in the rest of our lives. And we ask for this in Jesus name. Amen.

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7. "You can make a difference" (Tony Campolo)

A friend of mine was on a train travelling out of Victoria Station in London. Across from him in the compartment were two men in their early thirties. Twenty minutes out of the station , one of them had an epileptic seizure. Perhaps you know how frightening such a seizure can be. The man stiffened and fell heavily out of his seat. Immediately , his friend took off his own jacket, rolled it up and put it behind his friend's head. He blotted the beads of perspiration from his brow with his handkerchief, talked to the stricken man in a quiet manner and calmed him. When the seizure was over, he lifted his friend gently back to his seat.

Then he turned to my friend and said, "Mister, please forgive us. Sometimes this happens two or three times a day. My buddy and I were in Vietnam together, and we were both wounded. I had bullets in both my legs and he had one in his shoulder. The helicopter that was supposed to come for us never came to pick us up.

"My friend picked me up, mister, and he carried me for three and a half days out of that jungle. The Viet Cong were snipping at us the whole way. He was in more agony than I was. I begged him to drop me and save himself , but he wouldn't let me go. He got me out of that jungle, mister. He saved my life. I don't know how he did it and I don't know why he did it.

"Four years ago, I found that he had this condition, so I sold my house in New York, took what money I had, and came over here to take care of him." And then he looked at his friend and said, "You see, mister, after what he did for me, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for him."

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8. "Use glue" (Alex Kerr, Lost Japan)
"A friend of mine studies the art of bonkei: she learned how to place curiously shaped rocks and bonsai plants on a tray spread with sand to create a miniature landscape. But … the final secret eluded her: no matter what she did, her sand never held together in the perfect waves and ripples of the master's precisely arranged grains. Finally, after many years …she was told the answer. She bowed at the feet of the master, and he spoke. 'Use glue,' he said"

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9. Titanic
I want you to imagine that we are on a very beautiful and large ocean liner, and you've cracked one of those jobs that ministers and doctors can get, where you get a free tour because you are the boat doctor. Its a lovely cruise and the only problem is that you've got a toothache. And I don't mean a mild headache, I mean one of those ones that really tears your head off. That's your problem. Now as you're fumbling around looking for a drug to deaden the pain, a passenger knocks on your door and you open it up and they're weeping, the young man tells you that he needs some tranquilizers because he's girlfriends just dumped him and gone off with someone else. And he needs help badly, and then a crew man comes in with one of his arms chopped off in one of the engines. And he sort of thinks he needs helps too. And you're trying to work out whose got the bigger problem. Now if you can pan back from the boat you see that it is a black hulled thing with four funnels and you see the name on the front, and it says the SS Titanic. Now at that point, once you see that , all the problems change don't they. I mean what is your problem? Your problem is not that you have a tooth ache any more, no matter how much it hurts. Your problem is that you're on the Titanic. And you know that that boat ran into a few difficulties, on its one journey. Also your responsibility to the other passengers who've come in with their toothaches and missing arms, is really to say, look I'm sorry about your girlfriend and I'm sorry about your arm, or I'm sorry about whatever problem you have, but your real problem, your real need is that you need to get off the boat. And what really determines how we live and what our priorities are is what we see to be our problems. What we see to be the situation, it's a question of vision. Its a question of whether or not we see clearly our situation. Now one of the fantastic things about the bible is that you can listen to Jesus and hear what he says is our situation And the mark of a Christian is that we believe what Jesus says, even if we do not see any evidence except that he says it, or his apostles say it to us.

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10. Piano (Charles Swindoll)
Ignace Jan Padereswski, the famous Polish pianist and statesman, was once scheduled to perform at a great concert hall in America. It was a black-tie affair - a high-society extravaganza.

Present in the audience that evening was a woman who had brought her nine-year-old son, hoping that he would be encouraged to practice the piano if he could just hear the great Padereski at the keyboard. Weary waiting for the concert to begin - and being there against his wishes anyway - the lad squirmed restlessly in his seat. Then, as his mother turned to talk with friends, the boy slipped out of his seat and down the aisle, strangely drawn by the ebony concert grand sitting majestic and alone at the centre of the huge stage. He sat down on the tufted leather stool, placed his small hands on the black and white keys, and began to play "Chop Sticks."

Suddenly the crowd hushed, and hundreds of frowning faces turned in his direction. Irritated and embarrassed, some began to shout: "Hey, get that boy away from there!" "Where's his mother?" "Somebody stop him!"

Backstage, Paderewski heard the uproar and the sound of the simple tune. When he saw what was happening, he hurried onto the stage. Without a word to the audience, he walked up behind the lad, reached his arms around either side of him, and began to improvise a countermelody. As the two made music together, the master pianist kept whispering in the boy's ear: "keep going. Don't quit, son. Keep on playing … don't stop … don't quit."

So it is with us. We hammer away at life, and sometimes it seems about as significant as "Chop Sticks." Then, about the time we are ready to give up, along come the master, who leans over and whispers: "Don't quit. Keep going," as He provides His finishing touch of grace, love, and joy at just the right moment.

Are you one of those weary pilgrims? Is the road getting long? Is hope wearing a little thin?

Don't quit. Keep on. Finish the course.

Are you discouraged? Do you wonder if you'll ever get this parenting business right? Will your hopes and dreams ever be realised? Does it seem too long a wait?

Don't give up.

Listen to the Master whispering: "He who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6)

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