A Lesson From A Squirrel

A few years ago while walking, I saw a squirrel fall from a tree. This is something that I never expected to see. I have often watched squirrels perform all kinds of amazing acrobatic feats. I have seen them do a tightrope walk across a telephone wire; I have seen them jump from the nimble branch of one tree to the nimble branch of another tree; I have seen them make all kinds of graceful jumps, climbs, and hops. I am amazed at all that they can do. However, I never expected to see one fall! It happened as the squirrel jumped from one tree to another. It may have misjudged the distance or perhaps the strength of the branch on the other side. The squirrel fell from quite a distance up, doing a "belly-buster" as it hit the ground. The squirrel seemed unhurt. He got up apparently unscathed and perhaps a little embarrassed. I just never expected to see a squirrel fall; it was something that was just not supposed to happen.

There are a lot of things that happen but are not expected to happen. It has been said, "You can expect the unexpected." The following is a list of some things to think about which people do not expect to happen but often do.

The Failure of Marriage

The Bible teaches that marriage is to be for life. In Matthew 19:6, Jesus said, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" Jesus said, in Matthew 5:32, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery" Many people understand this passage; they intend for their marriage to last a lifetime, and they never expect it to fail. However, in spite of expectations, marriages sometimes do fail. The success of a marriage is not automatic. Marriage must be entered into with a determination that the relationship is to last for a lifetime. Also, two people must work to make sure that their marriage is a success. If they do not, the unexpected may happen; the marriage may fail.

Children Who Go Astray

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Ephesians 6:4 says that children are to be brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Christians should greatly desire and expect that their children will grow up and become faithful Christians. Again, this is not automatic, so it is important that parents teach and train their children in the Lord's way. If they do not, their children may fail in the most important part of their life, which is their relationship with God.

Preachers Who Preach False Doctrine

Preachers are to preach sound doctrine 2 Timothy 4:3, Titus 2:1. They have a very important responsibility. Many will listen to a particular preacher over a period of time and gain confidence in him. Their confidence, however, may ultimately produce complacency as they stop being on guard against false doctrine. Consequently, they neither "try the spirits" I John 4:1 nor "search the scriptures daily" to see if what is taught is correct Acts 17:11.

Strong Christians Falling

Christians are commanded to grow 2 Peter 3:17,18. Many Christians do grow, and they become strong and mature as children of God. Most everyone knows that there is a chance that a weak Christian can fall. However, we do not expect it of a spiritually mature Christian. It is not automatic that even a strong Christian will remain faithful all of his life. Paul, who obviously was a strong Christian, said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." He also warned, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" 1 Corinthians 10:12 Are you a strong Christian? If so, do not take it for granted that you cannot fall. Instead, take heed, be careful, and continue to grow 2 Peter 1:5-11.

Being Lost Eternally

The Bible clearly teaches that the lost will dwell an eternity in hell Matthew 25:46. Many people believe in some sort of punishment after death, but very few people view hell as a threat to them. A survey showed that only 1% of our population felt that hell was a threat to them. Most everyone expects to be saved even though they are not Christians or are not faithful Christians. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Many people expect to be saved but will not be. Salvation is not automatic.

Christians need to be on guard. It is not automatic that our marriage will be a success, our children will grow up to be faithful Christians, preachers will always preach the truth, Christians (even strong ones) will remain faithful and never fall, or that we will go to heaven instead of hell. We must not assume too much in any of the above areas.

Remember the story of the squirrel. Things often happen that we never expect to happen.

~J. Mike Johnson In Gospel Power

Home and Family:

The Rich Family In The Church

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home.

A month before Easter the minister of our church announced that a special offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. We thought if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that months electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby sat for everyone we could.

For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders. That month was the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having money the church would give them.

We had about 80 people in church, so figured whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the Minister reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.

That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church!

On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some of the teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new cloths, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put the $10 bill and each of us put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked her what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 bill and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk; we just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whoever needed them.

I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor. That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor.

I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed that I didn't want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time.

We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor.

We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse.

At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they need money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached in her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church." Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of the "little over $100." We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so?

From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus! z

By Eddie Ogan ~ adapted

A Sacrificial Offering

The story above, whether true or just a parable, teaches us a number of lessons. These lessons seem to be of another day and time as families spent time together seeking ways to sacrifice and serve others rather than themselves. WW II had just ended, many had learned the lessons of ultimate sacrifice for home, country and God. Life did not revolve around possessions so much as around relationships. To coin a phrase “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”

In many ways those who have never had possessions or who have learned to live with only the necessities of life, who have not tasted the luxuries of wealth,  and who have endured loss, have an advantage over those of later generations born to the wealth of American society. But, as the $1 bills in the story tell, even in that time, the majority didn’t truly understand the meaning of sacrificial giving. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that a dollar was a lot of money in those days (kids today probably won’t believe that) but the implication is that no matter how much prodding and reminding the minister did, not much thought or effort seems to have gone into the majority’s sacrifices. 

It was recently announced from our pulpit that bro. Alan Hitchen was making plans to return to Malawi and South Africa again this fall and was in need of funds to defray the costs of getting there to preach the Gospel. (Did you notice in our story how little things have changed in Africa in the last 54 years?) How many of us have even given that work a second thought? How many of us are making and implementing plans for a Sacrificial Offering? Who will we be represented by in the story above? We Have been so Blessed. God be Thanked!  

RDT.sr