One day I was listening to an older pastor concerning how he prepared his messages, He said that on his desk he kept an old card board shoebox. Whenever he came across a good thought, illustration, points for a message, he would write it down and place it in the shoebox. When he was short of inspiration he would always go to the box to see what he had.
When computers became common, I set up a file 'shoebox' and when I get similar thoughts I save them in my electronic shoebox and still do.
I thought it would be good to include some on the web site, and when you have a good thought, illustration, points to ponder, quotation, funny story, send them to us and if possible we will include them on this page.
E-mail Paul:
"The Lord is my Shepherd” “I shall not want” “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” “He leadeth me beside the still waters” “He restoreth my soul” “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” “For His name sake” “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death” “I will fear no evil“ “F or Thou art with me” “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me” “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my
enemies” “Thou anointest my head with oil” “My cup runneth over” “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life” “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord” >That's
Relationship! >That's Supply! >That's Rest! >That's
Refreshment! >That's Healing! >That's Guidance! >That's Purpose! >That's Testing! >That's Protection! >That's
Faithfulness! >That's Discipline! >That's Hope! >That's
Consecration! >That's Abundance! >That's Blessing! >That's Security!
St. Augustine said that God loves very person as though there were no one else to love. Likewise, He deals with each of us as though there were no one else to deal with. He knows all about us and therefore knows what it takes to get our attention. The way God gets our attention and brings us to a degree of humility is by manifesting His glory.
The gospel message says: "You don't live in a mechanistic world ruled by necessity; you don't live in a random world ruled by chance; you live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and Easter. He will do things in you that neither you nor your friends would have supposed possible."
Eugene H. Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work
God's Word is designed to make us Christians, not scientists, and to lead us to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. It was not God's intention to reveal in Scripture what human beings could discover by their own investigations and experiments.
- John R. W. Stott, Christian Basics
Silence is one of the deepest disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don't need to straighten others out.
- Richard J. Foster, Seeking the Kingdom
A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.
- Warren W. Wiersbe in Leadership
