A Living House

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. 

At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. 

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. 

What on earth is He up to? 

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. 

You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. 

He intends to come and live in it Himself.

C.S. Lewis

The Parable of the Ten Rooms

This is how my parable begins. Let me call him John. John had a double story house, five plus five rooms. One day there was a gentle knock on the front door. When John opened it was the Lord Jesus. “Please come in”, John pleaded, “I will give you the best room in my house – it is upstairs. Well, Jesus is a gentleman and said “thank you”. 

The next morning someone hammered against the front door. When John opened it who was there? The devil. “No” shouted John, “I don’t want you here” But the devil said “I’m already in” – and a big fight started. Satan poured filthy temptation on him, it was horrible. By the evening John somehow got the victory and threw the devil out. Then he said “wait a minute”. I gave Jesus the best room in the house, why didn’t he come to my rescue?” 

Jesus said to John “Look, you gave me one of the ten rooms…” John was on his knees and said “I can see my mistake. Sorry, Lord. Let’s make 50/50.” Jesus is a gentleman and accepted. 

The next day was a repeat of the day before. Somehow the devil got in and out and John was totally exhausted. “Why didn’t Jesus come to my rescue today? I need to go and ask.” 

The Lord said “My son, why don’t you give me all 10 rooms and then, instead of me staying with you, you stay with me?” 

John broke down. He pulled the key of the front-door from his pocket and handed it to Jesus. Now, he had given it all. 

The next morning, it was still dark, when someone was knocking at the front door so hard that the whole building shook. John jumped frightened and shaken out of bed crying “O, it’s the devil again”, when suddenly he heard footsteps – but this time inside the house. 

Jesus was marching in majesty and power towards the front door. He had the key. It now was His duty to answer the door. John was wondering what would happen and stood right behind Jesus when the Lord opened the door wide. 

Who was it? The devil of course. But when the devil saw Jesus standing in the door he bowed low, very low indeed, and said “Sorry Sir, I knocked on the wrong door!”

Some have given 9 rooms to Jesus and on the door of room number 10 they have written “Strictly Private”. It is there where they have their secret sins and live their double life. But Jesus cannot be cheated. 

C’mon. Let’s sing it together from the bottom of our hearts “Unto Jesus I surrender, unto Him I freely give….I surrender ALL, unto thee my God and Savior, I surrender all.” This is my foolproof recipe for victory! God bless you. 

REINHARD BONNKE.

The Juggler and the Drunk

Late one night, a Highway Patrol officer pulled over a car for speeding on the Interstate. When the officer asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver answered that he was a magician and a juggler and he was on his way to “Make A Wish” event and didn’t want to be late.

The officer explained to the driver he was fascinated by juggling, and if the driver would do a little juggling for him that he wouldn’t give him a ticket. The driver told the officer that he had already sent all of his equipment ahead, so he didn’t have anything to juggle.

Not deterred, the officer said that he had some flares in the trunk of his patrol car and asked if he could juggle them. The driver said that would be fine, so the officer got three flares, lit them and handed them to the driver.

Meanwhile, the bars had just closed in the nearest town, and a somewhat over-served patron was heading down the Interstate on his way home.

Witnessing the roadside juggling performance, the bar patron pulled off the road and parked carefully behind the patrol car. After watching the juggler for a moment, the tipsy bar patron then went over to the patrol car, opened the rear door and got in.

Observing this, the officer went over to the patrol car, opened the door and asked the man what he thought he was doing. The drunk driver replied, “You might as well just take me to jail, cause there’s no way I will never pass that drunk-driving test."