The 37 Nails

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger,they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

The Knots Prayer

Dear God,

Please untie the knots

that are in my mind,

my heart and my life.

Remove the have nots,

the can nots and the do nots

that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,

may nots, and

might nots that find

a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,

would nots and should nots

that obstruct my life.

And most of all, dear God,

I ask that you remove from my mind

my heart and my life all of the am nots

that I have allowed to hold me back,

especially the thought

that I am not good enough.

Amen

God's Discipline

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."¹

Billy Graham commented how, "When a ship's carpenter needed timber to make a mast for a sailing vessel, he did not cut it in the valley, but up on the mountainside where the trees have been buffeted by the winds. These trees, he knew, were the strongest of all. Hardship is not our choice; but if we face it bravely, it can toughen the fiber of our souls."

And that's exactly why God disciplines us and allows us to go through trials. They are designed to strengthen us and help us to grow healthy and strong. And while "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful," what we always need to remember is that "the Lord disciplines those he loves."²

 
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you love me as I am, but love me too much to leave me as I am. Thank you, too, that you allow trials to come into my life to help me grow, mature and become strong. Help me to accept your discipline and use it to fulfill your purpose for my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."

1. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV).
2. Hebrews 12:11,6 (NIV).

<:))))><

By Dick Innes

Too Much Temptation Out There!

Karine and her two sons, Jaeden (right) and Gareth(left)

Six-year old Jaeden had found video games to be addictive and needed his mother's help to break the addiction. (During my time, which six-year old ever thought of doing that?)  For almost two weeks, the little boy was doing fine with his abstinence until the final day which was on a Sunday. 

 

After Sunday School, Jaeden could not be found playing with his usual group of friends. He was with eight-year old Chantel, the pastor's daughter, in a classroom far away from where most of the kids were playing. Lynda, the pastor's wife, found only two of them together and was curious. She was surprised by the answer that Jaeden gave. 

 

He said, "I am not joining the rest of the kids because there is too much temptation out there!" 

 

What Jaeden meant was that many of the children were playing with hand-held video games and he was afraid to be tempted by them. 

 

Two weeks prior to the abstinence, Jaeden had prayed to the Lord with his mother, "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." According to Karine, her eldest son was really determined to fight this temptation. Whenever Jaeden scored victories over the temptation, she reminded him to cherish the victorious moments. 

 

After the two-week self-discipline rigor was over, little Jaeden broke out in a loud song and worshiped  the Lord with gusto, "Thru YOU, I can do Anything; I can do All things, cos it's You who gives me strength - Nothing is Impossible!"

Not a Good Luck Charm

George Foreman, the former heavyweight boxing champion writes in his book "God in My Corner":

In 1974, before I went to Africa to fight Muhammad Ali, a friend gave me a Bible to take along on my trip. He said, “George, keep this with you for good luck.” I believed the Bible was just a shepherd’s handbook, probably because the only verse I knew was “the Lord is my shepherd.” But I was always looking for luck, so I carried that Bible with me. I had lucky pennies and good luck charms, so now I added the “lucky” Bible to my collection of superstitious items.

After I lost the fight, I threw the Bible away. I never even opened it. I thought, The Bible didn’t help me win, so why do I need it? I thought I’d get power simply from owning it; I didn’t realize that I needed to read it and believe what it says.  Since then, I’ve come to understand that the Bible is my road map, not my good luck charm. 

(George Foreman, God in My Corner, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007, p.91)

George Foreman Lost 85 Pounds

George Foreman was a two-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world. At age 45, he became the oldest man in the world to win the title. In his book, God in My Corner, he writes

 When I started my comeback, I had to get rid of some excess George. I was extremely overweight. In the nearly ten years I had been out of boxing, I had ballooned from 220 to 315 pounds. And it wasn’t muscle that I gained!

To get back into an exercise regimen, I started with the basics—running every day. I was so out of shape that I couldn’t go far. At first, I couldn’t even make it around my block, which was about a mile. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, huffing and puffing. 

Just imagine a big, fat guy, gasping for air, barely able to jog around the block, who claims that he will be the heavyweight champion of the world again! I looked ridiculous to everyone who saw me. I’m sure they laughed as they peeked through their curtains early in the morning while I slowly shuffled past their houses. Only two people on this entire planet believed I could recapture the title—my wife and me.

But I had to get my weight down. I would walk and run, walk and run. Finally, I was able to run the whole time without walking. Then I began running longer distances, and with the combination of a proper diet and regular exercise, the fat continued to melt away. I kept running for the next eight months, until I finally got down to my fighting weight—229 pounds. The flab was fun to put on, but hard to take off. However, I wouldn’t have won the championship title if I first hadn’t gotten rid of that extra weight. 

(George Foreman, God In My Corner, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007, p. 169)

In similar fashion, our habits of sin can become dead weight that prevents us from effectively engaging in spiritual warfare. Spiritual discipline is absolutely essential. 

I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave.

1Cor.9:26-27 - NKJV

Can You Sleep When The Wind Blows?

Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer.

"Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him.

"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him.

The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters.

He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"

The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot.

Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

MORAL: When you're prepared spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?

The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. We, as believers in Christ, secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. We don't need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the midst of the storms.

Sleep well.

Fixing Our Eyes

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.(Hebrew 12:2)

In the cotton farming country around Lamesa, Texas, where I grew up, the land was flat and the cotton rows often where as straight as an arrow. 

I asked a farmer how he made the rows so straight. He said, "When I plow a new role I fix my eyes on an object at the far end of the field and never look back. You can't plow looking back. 

- Calvin T. Partain, Proclaim,Oct-Dec 1995, Pg11 

The Spiritual Karate

In the movie Karate Kid, young Daniel asks Mister Miagi to teach him karate. Miagi agrees under one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction and never question his methods. 

Daniel shows up the next day eager to learn. To his chagrin, Mister Miagi has him paint a fence. Miagi demonstrates the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down. Daniel takes days to finish the job. 

Next, Miagi has him scrub the deck using a prescribed stroke. Again the job takes days. Daniel wonders, What does this have to do with karate? but he says nothing. 

Next, Miagi tells Daniel to wash and wax three weather-beaten cars and again prescribes the motion. Finally, Daniel reaches his limit: "I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is have me do your unwanted chores!" 

Daniel has broken Miagi's one condition, and the old man's face pulses with anger. "I have been teaching you karate! Defend yourself!" Miagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself with an arm motion exactly like that used in one of his chores. Miagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow with a motion used in his chores. 

After Daniel successfully defends himself from several more blows, Miagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to discover what the master had known all along: skill comes from repeating the correct but seemingly mundane actions. The same is true of godliness.

The Sheep With A Broken Leg

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11)

Robert Munger writes about an American traveling in Syria who became acquainted with a shepherd. Each morning he noticed the shepherd taking food to a sheep that had a broken leg. As he looked at the animal, he asked the shepherd, "How did the sheep break its leg? Did it meet with an accident, fall into a hole, or did some animal break its leg?"

"No," said the shepherd, "I broke this sheep's leg myself."

"You broke it yourself?" queried the surprised traveler.

"Yes, you see, this is a wayward sheep; it would not stay with the flock, but would lead the sheep astray. Then it would not let me near it so I had to break the sheep's leg so that it would allow me, day by day to feed it. In doing this it will get to know me as its shepherd, trust me as its guide, and keep with the flock."²

Sometimes, just sometimes, when we insist of going our own stubborn way and leading others astray, the Shepherd of the fold, may have to "break our leg" too for our own good and that of others. 

SOURCE: DICK INNES

Robert Boyd Munger in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan