These are quotes which stood out to me, possibly for use in a sermon someday. Their presence here does not mean I agree with them, it merely shows that I might want to reference them later. The default view is five random selections. Use the tag list on the right to view all quotes relevant to that theme.
"Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the
leather straps."
World War II produced many heroes. One was Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.
One day while on a mission, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. Unable to complete his mission, he turned around and headed back for the aircraft carrier. As he headed back, he saw a squadron of Japanese Zeroes heading straight for the American fleet. All the American fighters were out on a sortie, leaving the fleet virtually defenseless.
He dove into the formation of Japanese planes in a desperate move to divert them away from the fleet. After a frightening air battle, the Japanese airplanes broke off their assault on the fleet. Butch O'Hare's tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. He was recognized as a hero and given one of the nation's highest military honors. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago is named after him.
Some years earlier, there was a man in Chicago called Easy Eddie. In those days, Al Capone virtually owned the city. Capone's mob was involved in bootlegging booze, murder, and prostitution. Easy Eddie was Al Capone's lawyer and kept Big Al out of jail. In return, Easy Eddie earned big money and lived like a king on an estate so large it filled an entire city block.
But Easy Eddie had one soft spot—a son whom he loved dearly. Eddie saw that his son had the best of everything: clothes, cars, and a good education. Despite Eddie's involvement with the mob, he tried to teach his son right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.
But there were two things Eddie could not give his son—a good name and a good example. Deciding that giving his son these two things was more important than lavishing him with riches, Eddie had to rectify the wrong he had done. He went to the authorities and told them the truth about Al Capone.
Easy Eddie eventually testified in court against Al Capone and the mob. He knew the cost would be great, but he wanted to be an example to his son and leave him with a good name.
Within a year of testifying against the Mob, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. He had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer at the greatest price he would ever pay.
What do these stories have to do with one another? Butch O'Hare was Easy Eddie's son.
Citation: Bruce Cecil, Coachella, California
When I hear someone say, ‘I couldn’t work for a corporation with a profit motive or which demands more than forty hours a week,’ I say something like this: ‘Do you know that the christian slaves to whom Paul wrote were working sixteen hours a day for masters that were fornicating with female slaves, making dirty business deals with trades from other parts of the Roman empire and going to baths and the gymnasium at night for orgies? To these slaves Paul says, ’Treat your masters as though they were Jesus. You are not working for them but for Jesus. And it is worship’.
By: Paul Stevens
Source: Liberating the Laity, InterVarsity Press, 1985, pg l58
A beautiful student goes to a male professor's office and says, in a breathy voice, "Professor . . . . I'd do anything to get an A on your exam."
"Anything?," the professor asks, conspiratorially.
The student leans closer. "Anything," she says.
The professor says, "Would you . . . study?"
In the new book Preaching God's Word (Zondervan), the authors (Terry Carter, J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays) write, "I had a conversation once with a former navy diver about diving deep, really deep. He told me that he had been in situations so deep and dark that it was almost impossible to keep from becoming disoriented and confused. What a terrifying feeling -- being under water, unable to see your hands in front of your face, not knowing which way is up, panic engulfing you. I immediately interrupted my friend, 'So what did you do?' . . .
"Feel the bubbles," he said. . . . When it's pitch black and you have no idea which way to go, you reach up with your hand and feel the bubbles. The bubbles always drift to the surface. When you can't trust your feelings or judgment, you can always trust the bubbles to get you back to the top.'
"Apart from the experience of scuba diving, we need a way to determine what is real and true. Sometimes in life we get disoriented and desperate. At other times, we find ourselves drifting aimlessly. God knew that we would need advice and instructions about how to live. In the sixty-six books of the Bible we have a reality library -- stories, letters, guidelines, and examples from God that tell us what is true and real. In a world that is changing faster than we can imagine, we have something stable, true, and real. . . .
"People who gather faithfully to hear a sermon need something more than noise generated by the surrounding culture; they need a word from God."