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| A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Evangelist Robert L. Summer tells about him in his book The Wonder of the Word of God. The victim's face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the explosion had destroyed the nerve endings in his lips. One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had "read" through the entire Bible four times. |
| When he was 7 years old, his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them. At age 9, his mother died. At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn't good enough. At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At 26, his business partner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. At 37, on his third try he was elected to Congress, but two years later, he failed to be reelected. At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At 47, he failed as the vice-presidential candidate. At 49, he ran for the Senate again, and lost. At 51, he was elected president of the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln, a man many consider the greatest leader the country ever had. Some people get all the breaks. |
| The story is told about a Russian lumberjack who lived many years ago when Russia was at war with the armies of Napoleon. Napoleon's troops seemed to be winning as they were advancing up into Russia. All the Russian people had retreated into the highlands except for this one fearless Russian lumberjack, who kept cutting down trees as the enemy approached. They captured him and decided to brand him and take him to Napoleon as a token of their conquest. After building the fire and getting the iron red hot, they placed the letter N into the man's palm. Before they realized what was happening, the lumberjack took the ax and cut off that hand, and spoke in his Russian language, "Now there is no part of me that does not belong to Russia." |
| Steve Brown related the story of a British soldier in the First World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted. Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he ended up wandering in the pitch-black night, hopelessly lost. In the darkness he came across what he thought was a signpost. It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could read it. As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ. He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had climbed a roadside crucifix. Brown explained, "Then he remembered the One who had died for him -- who had endured -- who had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches. "
As a runner, when you are tired, afraid and discouraged, the best way I know to get your second wind is to strike a match in the darkness and to look on the face of Jesus Christ.
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| When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did. |
| The Bohemian reformer John Hus was a man who believed the Scriptures to be the infallible and supreme authority in all matters. He died at the stake for that belief in Constance, Germany, on his forty-second birthday. As he refused a final plea to renounce his faith, Hus’s last words were, “What I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood.” |
| It is said that during the Revolutionary War, General Washington came up to the Brandywine, near Philadelphia, with his army, and thy crossed over the bridge. Some soldiers went to him afterward and said: "General, what had we better do with the bridge, burn it or leave it there, lest the enemy may drive us back, and we shall want to retreat?" General Washington thought a minute, raised his hands in the great majesty of his mighty generalship, and cried out, "Burn the bridge." It is victory or death. |
| Three men were playing cards for stakes on a commuter's train. Needing a fourth player, they asked a fellow sitting nearby if he would join them. Politely he declined. After trying several others without success, they again approached the same fellow. When again he graciously refused, they asked why he wouldn't play. He replied, "I have no hands."
"What are those things dangling by your side?"
"Those are hands," he admitted. "But," he added, "not my hands. Two years ago I gave myself to Christ. He owns me now. These hands belong to him. And he doesn't wish them to gamble."
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