https://pixabay.com/en/child-boy-dragon-dragon-flight-2887483/
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POINTS OF LIGHT
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Light pierces darkness
Songs, dances, poems, acts of fun
Are all points of light
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davidbrucehaiku: points of light
Day: December 13, 2018
In a blue mood
My Blue Blue Girl
written & performed by George J. Raymond
copyright © 2018 all rights reserved
Proverbs 6 (GENEVA BIBLE)
Proverbs 6
1 My son, if thou be surety for thy neighbor, and hast stricken hands with the stranger,
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth: thou art even taken with the words of thine own mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself: seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbor, go, and humble thyself, and solicit thy friends.
4 Give no sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a doe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the pismire, O sluggard: behold her ways, and be wise.
7 For she having no guide, governor, nor ruler,
8 Prepareth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in harvest.
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.
11 Therefore thy poverty cometh as one that travaileth by the way, and thy necessity like an armed man.
12 The unthrifty man and the wicked man walketh with a froward mouth.
13 He maketh a sign with his eyes: he signifieth with his feet: he instructeth with his fingers.
14 Lewd things are in his heart: he imagineth evil at all times, and raiseth up contentions.
15 Therefore shall his destruction come speedily: he shall be destroyed suddenly without recovery.
16 These six things doeth the Lord hate: yea, his soul abhorreth seven:
17 The haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and the hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that imagineth wicked enterprises, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that raiseth up contentions among brethren.
20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not thy mother’s instruction.
21 Bind them alway upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
22 It shall lead thee, when thou walkest: it shall watch for thee, when thou sleepest, and when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee.
23 For the commandment is a lantern, and instruction a light: and corrections for instruction are the way of life,
24 To keep thee from the wicked woman, and from ye flattery of ye tongue of a strange woman.
25 Desire not her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eye lids.
26 For because of the whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread, and a woman will hunt for the precious life of a man.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt?
28 Or can a man go upon coals, and his feet not be burnt?
29 So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife, shall not be innocent, whosoever toucheth her.
30 Men do not despise a thief, when he stealeth, to satisfy his soul, because he is hungry.
31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, or he shall give all the substance of his house.
32 But he that commiteth adultery with a woman, he is destitute of understanding: he that doeth it, destroyeth his own soul.
33 He shall find a wound and dishonor, and his reproach shall never be put away.
34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He cannot bear the sight of any ransom: neither will he consent, though thou augment the gifts.
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Source: http://www.genevabible.org/files/Geneva_Bible/Old_Testament/Proverbs.pdf
David Bruce: Preachers Anecdotes
• The late country comedian Jerry Clower was a Baptist, but a preacher he greatly respected is Reverend Aubrey Smith, who was pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Yazoo City, Mississippi. For a while, the church Mr. Clower attended in Yazoo City — the First Baptist Church — was without a pastor, so Reverend Smith visited all of the Baptist sick. He would go to the local hospital, get a list of the ill people, and if anyone was a Baptist, he would see them and say, “Until you get a preacher, Brother Aubrey will be right here with you. I want you to know I’m at your side.” Whenever someone at the Baptist church needed funeral services, as when a deacon’s mother died, it was Brother Aubrey who performed the services. He also preached on occasion at the Baptist church until the congregation got a new pastor. For these reasons, Mr. Clower considers Brother Aubrey to be one of the most unforgettable people he’s ever met.
• Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina was active back when Joe McCarthy was making it hot for anyone who believed in the Bill of Rights. He once rose in the Senate and told a story about his Uncle Ephraim going to church although he was nearly crippled by arthritis. The preacher asked various members of the church, “What has the Lord done for you?” All of the members described various good things the Lord had done for them, but when the preacher asked Uncle Ephraim, he replied, “Brother, the Lord has mighty near ruint me.” Senator Ervin then said, “And that is what Senator McCarthy has done to the Senate.”
• As a young reporter, H.L. Mencken covered each Sunday the sermon given by Cardinal Gibbons. Very quickly, he learned that the Cardinal gave essentially the same sermon each Sunday, so one Sunday he didn’t bother to attend the sermon, but merely sent in the usual copy to his newspaper. That happened to be the Sunday that Cardinal Gibbons gave a rousing sermon that ended up on the front page.
• A friend was driving country comedian Jerry Clower around Savannah, Georgia, when the friend said, “John Wesley used to be pastor of that church.” Mr. Clower immediately said, “Stop,” and they went into that church. About the experience, Mr. Clower says, “I felt a tingling all over. Here’s a man that put one foot on Europe and one foot on the United States and preached and started Methodism.”
• In Kentucky, by state law, a preacher can carry a concealed gun on church grounds. This has led Rev. Jeff Hanna, who is the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Galion, Ohio, to wonder what kinds of things a pastor packing a gun might say. Perhaps: “Repent — or I’ll shoot!” “And now, which points of the sermon do you disagree with?” “I have a really new approach to evangelism. Want to hear it?”
• Rabbi Israel Salanter once met a man who wanted to earn his living as a traveling preacher, but he was unable to because he had no sermons to preach. Rabbi Israel helped the man by giving him two sermons that he himself had written, and by coaching the man until he had memorized the sermons. With the aid of Rabbi Israel, the man was able to earn his living as a traveling preacher.
• Reverend Andrew Jumper was the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, Missouri, and one year he was hired to go to spring training to give weekly services to professional baseball players. After one sermon, a player told him, “God gave you a great sermon today.” Reverend Jumper replied, “Yes, but I want you to know I typed it.”
• Dr. Glenn Catlin of the Church of the Beatitudes in St. Petersburg, Florida, once used a remarkable visual aid to preach about Lazarus, whom Jesus rose from the grave. Two nurses wrapped him up in bandages like a mummy, and when an Elder read, “Loose him, and let him go,” the nurses cut away the bandages and he started to preach.
• Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Ward Beecher were friends. Mr. Grant once asked Mr. Beecher, “Why does a little fault in a clergyman attract more notice than a great fault in a bad man?” Mr. Beecher replied, “Perhaps it is for the same reason that a slight stain on a white garment is more readily noticed than a large stain on a colored one.”
• When “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was attending Brandon Baptist Church after retiring from baseball, the pastor of the church, the Reverend Boyd Turner, used to stand in front of Shoeless Joe’s liquor store each Friday as a signal for him to open the till, take out his tithe, and give it to the pastor for the use of the church.
• “Twenty-five percent of the people think the pastor can walk on water; 25% think he doesn’t know enough to come out of the rain; and 50% are satisfied if church is on time and the sermon isn’t too long.” — Msgr. Joseph P. Dooley.
• Glasgow poet George Outram heard a friend praise a preacher whom he felt ought not to be praised, so he composed these lines: “I cannot praise the Doctor’s eyes, / I never saw his glance divine; / He always shuts them when he prays, / And when he preaches he shuts mine.”
• Quaker humorist Tom Mullen once heard a preacher talk about people who try to say “Yes,” but instead constantly say, “Yes, but ….” The preacher said, “We are always saying, ‘Yes, but ….’ Again and again we, too, fall back on our buts.”
• Following church service, a woman told the minister that she had enjoyed the sermon. The minister said, “Don’t thank me. Thank the Lord.” The woman replied, “It wasn’t that good.”
• “Few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon.” — Mark Twain.
• Sermons are like satire. The people who hear them always think they apply to someone else.
• Some good advice for pastors is this: “If you haven’t struck oil in 20 minutes, stop boring.”
• “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” — St. Francis of Assisi.
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Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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