Thank you for continue...Some Great Encouraging
and Faith Building stories...page 1

Where is God's Perfection?
In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children.
Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be main-streamed into conventional schools.
At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a  speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. 

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out,
"Where  is the perfection in my son, Shaya?  Everything God does is done
with perfection.  But my child cannot understand things as other children do.
My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do.
Where is God's perfection?" The audience was shocked by the question,
pained by the father's anguish   and stilled by the piercing query.  " I believe," 
the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the 
perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child.
"He then told the following story about his son Shaya: 

One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya
knew were playing baseball.  Shaya asked, "Do you think they will  let me play?"
Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys
would not want him on their team.  But Shaya's father understood that if his son
was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play.
The boy looked around for guidance from his team-mates.  Getting none, he
took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game
is in the eighth inning.  I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up
to bat in the ninth inning.  "Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly.
Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still
behind by three.  In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and
now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base,
Shaya was scheduled to be up.  Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this
juncture and giveaway their chance to win the game?  Surprisingly, Shaya
was given the bat.  Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya
didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it.
However as Shaya stepped up to the  plate, the pitcher moved a few steps
to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact.

  The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed.

One of Shaya's team-mates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and 
faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.  The pitcher again took a few steps 
forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.  As the pitch came in, Shaya and his 
team-mate swung at the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the
pitcher.  The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the
ball to the first baseman.  Shaya would have been out and that would have
ended the game.  Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a
high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.

Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first.  Run to first." Never in his life
had Shaya run to first.  He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled.
By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball.  He could have thrown
the ball to the second baseman who would  tag out Shaya, who was still running.
But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw
the ball high and far over the third baseman's head.  Everyone yelled,
"Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base
as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases  towards home.  

As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him
in the direction of third  base and shouted, "Run to third."  As Shaya rounded third,
the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home."
Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their
shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and
won the game for his team.  "That day," said 
the father softly with tears now rolling down his  face,
"those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection. 

"Funny how this is so true and shame on us!  Funny how simple it is for people
to trash God and then wonder why the world is going  to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like 
wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the God,
and something good, people think twice about sharing. 

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace,
but the public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Funny isn't it?

Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many
on your address list because you're not sure what they believe,
or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Funny  how I can be more worried about what other people think of me
than what God thinks of  me.  Funny isn't it?!

You never know where someone has been unless you walked in  their shoes...
Thank you for taking time to read this.

 THE TRAIN...............                                                       

There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most the day the bridge
sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks,
allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge.

But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned
sideways across the river, allowing the train to cross it.  A switchman sat in a shack
on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge
and lock it into place as the train crossed.

One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he
looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights.
He stepped onto the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance
when he was about to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but,
to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely
in position, it would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river.

This would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard. He left the bridge turned
across the river and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river, where
there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to
hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now,
and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it,
locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked.

Many lives depended on this man's strength. Then, coming across the bridge from the
direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.

"Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him.
His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was too close;
the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost left his lever
to snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that he could not get back
to the lever in time if he saved his son. Either many people on the train
or his own son - must die.  He took but a moment to make his decision.

The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware
of the tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the on rushing train.
Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man,
still cinging to the locking lever long after the train had passed.

They did not see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked;
to tell his wife how their son had brutally died.

Now, if you comprehend the emotions that went through this man's heart, you can begin
to understand the feelings of Our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son
to bridge the gap between us and eternal life. Can there be any wonder that
He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died?
How does He feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought
to what was done for us through Jesus Christ?

I hope you choose to pass this on.

A GOOD LESSON
A young man, a student in one of our universities, was one day taking a walk with
a professor, who was commonly called the student's friend, from his kindness to those
who waited on his instructions. As they went along, they saw lying in the path
a pair of old shoes, which they supposed to belong to a poor man who was
employed in a field close by, and who had nearly finished his day's work.

The student turned to the professor, saying: "Let us play the man a trick:
we will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see
his perplexity when he cannot find them." "My young friend," answered the professor,
"we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor.  But you are rich, and
may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of this poor man.
Put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how this affects him."

The student did so and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by.
The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had
left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes,
but feeling something hard, he stooped down to feel what it was, and found the coin.

Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his countenance. He gazed upon the coin,
turned it around, and looked at it again and again. He then looked around him on all sides,
but no person was to be seen. He now put the money into his pocket, and proceeded
to put on the other shoe; but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.
His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees,
looked up to heaven and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving in which he spoke of his wife,
sick and helpless, and his children without bread, whom this timely bounty,
from some unknown hand, would save from perishing.

The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears.
"Now," said the professor, are you not much better pleased than if you had
played your intended trick?" The youth replied, "You have taught me a lesson
which I will never forget. I feel now the truth of these words,
which I never understood before: "It's more blessed to give than receive."

Letter From Our Jesus
Ruth went to her mail box and there was only one letter. She picked it up and
looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again. There was no stamp,
no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:

Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table.
"Why would the Lord want to visit me? I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer."
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets.  "Oh my goodness,
I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy
something for dinner." She reached for her purse and counted out it's contents.
Five dollars and forty cents. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least."

She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of French bread, a half-pound
of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk...leaving Ruth with grand total of twelve cents
to last her until Monday.  Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home,
her meager offerings tucked under her arm.

"Hey lady, can you help us, lady?"  Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans,
she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman,
both of them dressed in little more than rags.  "Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know,
and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold
and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady,
we'd really appreciate it."

Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and frankly, she was
certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to.
"Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts
and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight
and I was planning on serving that to Him."

"Yeah, well, okay lady, I understand. Thanks anyway."  The man put his arm
around the woman's shoulders, turned and he headed back into the alley.
As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
"Sir, wait!"  The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them.
"Look, why don't you take this food. I'll figure out something else to serve my guest."
She handed the man her grocery bag.  "Thank you lady. Thank you very much!"
"Yes, thank you!" It was the man's wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering.
"You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one."
Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders.

Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street... without her coat and with
nothing to serve her guest. "Thank you lady! Thank you very much!" Ruth was
chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too.
The Lord was coming to visit and she didn't have anything to offer Him.

She fumbled through her purse for the door key.  But as she did, she noticed another
envelope in her mailbox.  "That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day."
She took the envelope out of the box and opened it.

The air was still cold, but even without her coat,
Ruth no longer noticed. If you love Jesus, send this to ten people

Page 2

Back