Zhang Dexiang from Liaoning province learned the truth of this parable. Five years ago the old farmer buried his life savings of $1,200. With the intervention of a little mold and mildew, he discovered that only $400 of the money was now recognizable enough to be exchanged for new bills at a local bank. It is horrible to bury what God has given you in a hole in the ground.

DON'T FALL ASLEEP - from sermon by Roddy Chestnut

Early on the morning of Feb. 17, 1994 James Rich got into his new twin engine Piper Seneca airplane at an airport near Louisville, KY. The plan was to make a 30 minute flight to Crossville, TN to visit a friend. But he hadn’t slept much the night before. So as his plane left the runway he was pretty tired. After climbing to 3,500 feet he put the plane on automatic pilot. Then he went to sleep. When he woke up--three hours later--he was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico 200 miles from land--and he was running out of fuel. The engine sputtered, then crashed into the Gulf. The plane sank in 45 seconds. Rich--who could not swim--was pulled under by the undertow. The only thing that saved him was two discount-store cushions he clutched under his arms. When they found him he was alive, embarrassed, minus one $70,000 uninsured airplane, and still holding those two cheap cushions under his arms.
James Rich fell asleep at the wheel and flew off course. As Christians we can do the same thing with even more serious consequences.

THE SLOWEST TIME IN MARATHON HISTORY Ernest Canell
Bob Wieland finally crossed the finish line on Thursday, November 6, 1986, the New York City Marathon's 19,413th and final finisher . . . and the first to run a marathon with his arms instead of his legs! Wieland is a 40-year old Californian whose legs were blown off in a Vietnam battlefield 17 years ago. He recorded what race officials said was the slowest time in marathon history: four days, two hours, 48 minutes, 17 seconds. But he was greeted like a champion by race director Fred Lebow, who had written Wieland off as a dropout. When he finished, Wieland shouted, "We love New York!" and repeatedly pumped his arms in the air. He claimed his finisher's medal and explained why he did it: "For the same reason as 20,000 other people. It's the greatest marathon in the country." He also cited three specific reasons: to show his born-again Christian faith; to test his conditioning and to promote the President's Council on Physical Fitness, of which he is a member.
He said, "Success is not based on where you start, it's where you finish, and I finished. The first step was the most difficult, after that, we were on our way home. The joy has been the journey." Wieland started Sunday at 8:23 a.m. more than two hours before the main body of runners. But, moving at an average speed of about one mile an hour, his lead soon vanished; Wieland runs in a sitting position, using his muscular arms like crutches to lift his torso and swing it forward. He sits on a 15 pound saddle and covers his clenched fists with pads he calls "size 1 running shoes." Paul the Apostle said it like this, "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Adapted from an Associated Press story in the Denver Post, Nov 7, 1986.

SUCCESS VS. FAITHFULNESS Joel Smith
Clarence Jordan was a man of unusual abilities and commitment. He had two Ph.D.s, one in agriculture and one in Greek and Hebrew. So gifted was he, he could have chosen to do anything he wanted. He chose to serve the poor. In the 1940's, he founded a farm in Americus Georgia, and called it Koinonia Farm. It was a community for poor whites and poor blacks. As you might guess, such an idea did not go over well in the Deep South of the '40's.

Ironically, much of the resistance came from good church people who followed the laws of segregation as much as the other folks in town. The town people tried everything to stop Clarence. They tried boycotting him, and slashing worker's tires when they came to town. Over and over, for fourteen years, they tried to stop him. Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan had had enough of Clarence Jordan, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all. They came one night with guns and torches and set fire to every building on Koinonia farm, except Clarence's house, which they riddled with bullets. And they chased off all the families except one black family, which refused to leave. Clarence recognized the voices of many of the Klansmen, and, as you might guess, some of them were church people. Another was the local newspaper's reporter. The next day the reporter came out to see what remained of the farm. The rubble still smoldered and the land was scorched, but he found Clarence in the field, hoeing and planting. "I heard the awful news," he called to Clarence, "and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing." Clarence just kept hoeing and planting. The reporter kept prodding, kept poking, trying to get a rise from this quietly determined man who seemed to be planting instead of packing his bags. So, finally, the reporter said in a haughty voice, "Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you've put fourteen years into this farm, and there's nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you've been?" Clarence stopped hoeing, turning toward the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes, and said quietly but firmly, "About as successful as the cross. Sir, I don't think you understand us. What we're about is not success, but faithfulness. We're staying. Good day." Beginning that day, Clarence and his companions rebuilt Koinonia and the farm is still going strong today. - Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, pp. 188-189.

HANGING ON TO WIN Winston Churchill

When you feel you cannot continue in your position for another minute, and all that is in human power has been done, that is the moment when the enemy is most exhausted, and when one step forward will give you the fruits of the struggle you have borne.

VICTORY AT ALL COSTS Winston Churchill

You ask, "what is our aim?" I can answer in one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

WHAT LAY BENEATH THE CHURCH BLDG. Joe Harding

Leontine Kelly, a black woman from Richmond Virginia told of the day her father, a Methodist preacher, was sent to a formerly all white church in Cincinnati. She said it was the most magnificent church she had ever seen. It had Gothic architecture. It had beautiful polished wood. It had a beautiful crystal chandelier. It was a church with great history; Presidents had worshipped there and a President had even been married in that sanctuary. The parsonage was so large that every one of the children could have their own room. The church build, parsonage and education buildings occupied an entire city.

Leontine said there was a huge cellar under the 1^st floor of the parsonage. She didn’t go down there except once or twice with her father because it was just a dingy, dark place with a couple of dim light bulbs hanging from long wires, and there were cobwebs and shadows.

Once, she said, her brothers were in the cellar and called her to come down. They had found a hole beside the furnace leading to a tunnel, and they wanted her to go in and explore it. Instead, she went up the stair to her father asking him to go down and "get those guys."

The father went downstairs. She noticed that he was quite excited. Instead of scolding the boys, he said, "Let’s go over to the church and check." They went over to the church building and found that beside the furnace there were some old boards; and as they removed the, they discovered another hoe with other tunnels. He told the boys, "Go home and get on the oldest clothes you have, something you don’t mind throwing away. We are going to crawl through this tunnel; it is lined with bricks and I think we can trust it."

Leontine said that that night around the dinner table at the Calvary Church parsonage in Cincinnati, 5 blocks from the Ohio River, she heard her father tell the story of the Underground Railroad. She learned that it wasn’t a railroad with tracks, but that it was a network for helping slaves to escape to freedom. The slaves were hunted and would have been brutally punished if caught. It was against the law to help them. The Underground Railroad helped slaves get to their freedom in Canada. She heard her father say, "Children, I want you to remember this day as long as you live, for today we have found a station in the Underground Railroad."

Her father went on to say, "You know the greatness of this church is not in its gothic architecture, its beautiful furniture, its crystal Chandelier, or even its social status. The greatness of this church is below us. We are on hallowed ground. These people dared to take the risk to become involved, to care about poor, frightened fun away slaves."

THE LAST JAPANESE SOLDIER OF WWII UPI release

Hiroo Onoda was a lieutenant in the Japanese Army. On December 27, 1944, he was sent to the island of Luband, a 6 by 8 mile island in the Philippines, to wage guerilla war against the United States should that island become occupied by American troops. Initially there were 200 Japanese soldiers with him on that island, but most of them were lost during the first few days of the American occupation in February 1945. Others surrendered over the 6 month period. In April 1946, there were just four left who had not surrendered. In 1949 there were three. By 1954 there were two. And then in 1972, Lieutenant Onoda’s last surviving companion died. Two years later, 30 years after he began his battle, Lieutenant Onoda finally gave up the war.

In December 1944, the German army launched an unexpected attack. In what was to become known as the Battle of the Bulge, a deep salient was driven in the Allied lines. Writing in WW II about the reaction of the American troops to this attack, James Jones said "No one of these little road junction stands could have had a profound effect on the German drive. But hundreds of them, impromptu little battles at nameless bridges and unknown crossroads, had an effect of slowing enormously the German impetus… These little die-hard "one man stands," alone in the snow and fog without communications, would prove enormously effective out of all proportion to their size."

There's an old favorite gospel song entitled "Where He Leads Me." The chorus goes like this:

Our human nature would like to change the chorus so it sounds like this:

FOCUS & PREVAIL H. Norman Schwarzkopf Leadership Fall 97 p. 113

First focus on your strengths. I have two dogs. One is a 15 pound wire-haired Dachshund. The other is a 90 pound German Shepherd. The Dachshund is the leader. Why? Because he has never looked in a mirror. He’s not focusing on the fact that he weighs only 15 pounds. He thinks, I can take on this big dog and prevail. Even though the German Shepherd is bigger by an order of magnitude, the Dachshund doesn’t focus on his inadequacies; he focuses on his adequacies….

The people who are most inspiring to me are people who have an unshakable belief in the rightness of their mission; they become selfless servants of their mission and their cause. That belief is automatically transferred to their followers.

Failure cannot be part of the vocabulary of the extraordinary leader. You must have confidence in yourself, confidence in your team, confidence that no matter how tough the challenge is, We will prevail." That type of attitude can quickly turn around a fearful organization.

Awhile back on the Merv Griffin Show the guest was a body builder. During the interview, Merv asked, "Why do you develop those particular muscles?"

The body builder simply stepped forward and flexed a series of muscles from chest to calf. The audience applauded.

"What do you use all those muscles for?" Merv asked. Again, the muscular specimen flexed, and biceps and triceps sprouted to impressive proportions.

"But what do you use those muscles for?" Merv persisted. The body builder was bewildered. He didn’t have an answer other than to display his well-developed frame.

A rich man went to heaven and was led on a tour by St. Peter. As he was being led around, he noticed a beautiful mansion on one of the hillsides. "Whose home is that?" he asked.

"Oh, that home belongs to your gardener," replied St. Peter.

"Great," thought the rich man. "If he gets that type of home, I can hardly wait to see what I’ll receive."

Then they came upon another, more grand home, and the rich man looked to St. Peter and asked, "whose home is that?"

"Oh, that’s so and so’s house. He was a missionary to South America and gave of his life to plant churches amongst their many tribes for over 30 years."

"Wow," he thought, "I can hardly wait to see my mansion."

In time, they came to an 8*8 shack in the valley – no windows and no front porch, little bit of a door with cloth hanging down over it. In shock the rich man asked: "whose place is that?"

"Well, that yours," replied St. Peter.

"Mine!?" the rich man practically shouted. "What’s going on here. My gardener gets a mansion, a missionary gets a mansion. What happened to me?"

"Well," replied St. Peter, "to be honest with you, we did the best we could with what you sent us.

The Duke of Wellington was a prominent politician and military genius of his day (he was the one who led the troops that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo). When he wasn't in the halls of political decision or on the field of battle, Wellington loved to hunt. One day, while he was out in woods and hills he had never been to before, he got separated from his friends and became lost. Off in the distance, he saw a young man watching a flock of sheep and approached him for help. He asked the boy if he would lead him to a nearby village. "No," replied the boy, "I must watch my father's sheep. I cannot leave them, but I'll give you directions."

"That's not good enough," replied Wellington, "I don't know these woods and I may get lost again. Surely these sheep will not wander off while you lead me to the village." Again the boy refused. The duke asked "Don't you know who I am?" The boy was suitably impressed but still refused. Wellington offered to pay the value of the father's sheep. The boy politely refused saying that he would not leave his charge for anything. Finally, the Duke gave up and accepted the boy's directions and made his way eventually to the village. Later, he found the boy again, and having had time to reflect on the young man's loyalty and reliability to his father, rewarded both the boy and his family.

An old farmer, who was about to die, called his 2 sons to his bedside and said, "My boys, my farm is and the fields are yours in equal shares. I leave you a little ready money, but the bulk of my wealth is hidden somewhere in the ground, not more than 18 inches from the surface. I regret that I've forgotten precisely where it lies."

When the old man was dead and buried, his 2 sons set to work digging up every inch of ground in order to find the buried treasure. They failed to find it, but as they'd gone to all the trouble of turning the soil, they thought they might as well sow a crop - which the did, reaping a good harvest.

In autumn as soon as they had an opportunity, they dug for the treasure again, but with no better results. As their fields were turned over more thoroughly than any others in the neighborhood, they reaped better harvests than anyone else. Year after year, their search continued. Only when they had grown much older any wiser did they realize what their father had meant.

CECIL B. DEMILLE'S GREAT FAILURE Bits and Pieces May 27, 1993 p. 15

It pays to ask questions to make sure that people understand what you are saying. The great movie maker, Cecil B. DeMille would agree.

DeMille was making one of his great epic movies. He had 6 cameras at various points to pick up the overall action and 5 other cameras set up to film plot developments involving major characters. The large cast had begun rehearsing the scene at 6am. They went through it 4 times and now it was late afternoon. The sun was setting and there was just enough light to get the shot done. DeMille looked over the panorama, saw that all was right, and gave the command for action.

One hundred extras charged up the hill; another hundred came storming down the same to hill to do mock battle. In another location Roman centurions lashed and shouted at 200 slaves who labored to move a huge stone monument toward its resting place.

Meanwhile the principal characters acted out, in close up, their reactions on the hill. their words were drowned out by the noise around the, but the dialogue was to be dubbed in later.

It took 15 minutes to complete the scene. When it was over, DeMille yelled, "Cut!" and turned to his assistant, all smiles. "That was great!" he said.

"It was, C.B.," the assistant yelled back. "It was fantastic! Everything went off perfectly!"

Enormously pleased, DeMille turned to face the head of the camera crew to find out if all the cameras had picked up what they had been assigned to film. He waved to the camera crew supervisor.

From the top of the hill, the camera supervisor waved back, raised his megaphone, and called out, "Ready when you are C.B!"

BAMBOO PATIENCE Beacons of Light, Buffalo Christian Church 10/96

In the Far East the people plant a tree called the Chinese bamboo. During the 1st 4 years they water the plant with seemingly little or no results. Then the 5th year they again apply water and fertilizer - and in 5 weeks' time the tree grows 90 feet in height! The obvious question is: did the Chinese bamboo tree grow 90 feet in 5 weeks or did it grow 90 feet in 5 years? The answer is: it grew 90 feet in 5 years. Because if at any time during those 5 years the people had stopped watering and fertilizing the tree, it would have died.

Poem BY EDWARD E. HALE ON POTENTIAL Bits and Pieces 2/29/96 p.23

I am only one, but still I am one.

I cannot do everything, but I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

THE ROUTE TO SUCCESS FOR THE COLONEL Bits and Pieces 3/2/95 Vol. M No. 15

One of the pitfalls people over 40 fall into is thinking that it's too late. It's an old cliche but the simple fact is that it's rarely too late for anything.

Some years ago, a man over 60 was offered nearly $200,000 for a restaurant motel service station business that he'd spent his life building up. He turned down the offer because he loved the business and wasn't ready to retire yet.

Two years later, at the age of 65, he was flat broke with no income to look forward to but a small Social Security check each month. The state had built a new highway bypassing his business and he lost it. Most people would have been crushed by such a blow, but he refused to give up.

Instead he took stock. There was one thing he knew how to do - fry chicken. Maybe he could sell that knowledge to others. He kissed his wife goo bye and in a battered old car, with a pressure cooker and can of specially prepared flour, set out to sell his idea to other restaurants. It was tough going and he often slept in the car because there wasn't enough money for a hotel room.

A few years later he had built a nationwide franchised restaurant chain called Kentucky Fried Chicken. The man was Colonel Sanders.

QUOTE: Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all. - Annie Dillard The Writing Life (HarperCollins)

Albrecht Durer was an artist in the early 1500's who, when he was a young struggling artist, shared a room with his friend - another struggling artist. They formed a pact: one of them would work at manual labor to support their physical needs, while the other worked at his craft until it developed the patrons necessary to pay the bills... then the other artist could begin his artistic work. Durer's was the first to work at his craft and his friend spent his time earning whatever he could as a laborer. Durer eventually became recognized and began to sell some of his work. It was time for his friend to develop his skills. However, the friend had used his hands so much in hard labor that they had become gnarled and stiff and unable to continue in his calling. Durer was heart broken. Then one day, as Durer was working on a painting, he heard mumbling in the next room. Thinking something might be wrong, he rose from his seat and walked to the door. There, he saw his friend bowing over a meal of bread and wine, his hands folded in prayer. From that scene, Durer painted one his most remembered paintings and gave a memorial to the faithfulness of his friends hands.

CAME 7000 MILES TO FINISH RACE Our Daily Bread

At 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. It was almost dark. The last of the marathon runners were stumbling across the finish line.

Finally, the spectators heard the wail of sirens on police cars. As eyes turned to the gate, a lone runner wearing the colors of Tanzania staggered into the stadium. His name was John Stephen Akhwari. He was the last contestant to finish the 26-mile 385-yard contest. His leg had been injured in a fall and was bloodied and crudely bandaged. He hobbled the final lap around the track. The spectators rose and applauded him as though he were the winner.

After he had crossed the finish line, someone asked him why he had not quit. He replied simply, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

Not all heroes receive medals. Yet those who faithfully live for Christ, as the apostle Paul did, know that someday they will receive a crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). The Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward all those who long for Christ's return, and are faithful in spite of difficulties.

NOW PLANT THE POTATOES R.Digest 9/95 p. 69

The inmate was well aware that all prison mail passes through censors. When he got a letter from his wife asking about the family garden - "Honey, when do I plant potatoes?" - he wrote back, "Do not, under any circumstances, dig up our old garden spot. That's where I buried all my guns."

Within days his wife wrote back, "Six investigators came to the house. They dug up every square inch of the back yard."

By return mail she got his answer: "Now is the time to plant potatoes."

DON'T ROCK THE BOAT FOR JESUS - by Richard M. Bowman from Disciple Renewal May/June 1995

(To the tune of "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus")

1. Don't rock the boat for Jesus, Ye sailors of the cross.

Lift high your job security it must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory, His sailors shall He lead.

I'm happy to serve Jesus, but don't ask me to bleed.

2. Don't rock the boat for Jesus, my status it is quo.

I won't offend the system, that might cost me some dough.

I really want to serve Him, against unnumbered foes,

As long as I don't have to, step on anybody's toes.

3. Don't rock the boat for Jesus, you'll be left in the lurch.

He cannot guarantee you, someday a great big church.

So I will sail for Jesus, albeit in the rear.

My first concern must always, be for my own career.

4. Don't rock the boat for Jesus. His strength may let you down.

I'll trust DENOMINATION! And thus I'll win the crown.

I'll swim real hard for Jesus, I'll try to stay afloat.

But please, don't ever ask me, for Him to rock the boat.

QUOTE: Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is cash - spend it wisely!

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" James 4:8

The encyclopedias tell us that the sun is thousands of times larger than our planet earth. Yet it is interesting what we do when that vast sun is so low on the horizon and glaring into our eyes. We simply put up our hand in front of our face and block out the irritating light. Imagine that... our tiny hand can block out the sun!

The reason this is possible is obvious. The hand, although extremely small, is very close; while the sun, although extremely large is far away. We often experience this same phenomenon with our problems. God is much bigger than our problems, yet our problems are often so real, so close, and so personal to us that they seem too much for even God to handle. And the situation becomes even worse if we are not close to God. (I Kgs. 8:27)

Between the atheist who would not dream of financially supporting the church and the Christian who will not support the Lord's church.

Between the skeptic who does not believe the Bible and the negligent Christian who never reads it?

Between the atheist who does nothing to build up the Lord's Church and the Christian who finds fault with others but does nothing himself?

Between a man of the world and a person in the church who lives like a man in the world?

Between a man of the world who lives for self and a person in the church building who lives for self but not God?

These are tough questions for Christians living in a tough world. The fact is, Christians make no difference until they are different.

An interesting fable is told of a rich man who wanted to help a poor man. The rich man hired the poor man to build a house on the hillside and went away on a long journey. The carpenter said to himself "My boss is away and I can use cheap materials for the parts of the house which will not show. The house will be weak and undesirable and nobody will know except me."

But when the rich man returned he said, "The house isn't for me - it's for you."

The carpenter accepted the key in astonishment. Instead of a first class home he now had a fourth-class home.

ARE YOU FAITHFUL copied

1. If your car starts one out of 3 times, do you consider it FAITHFUL?

2. If your paper boy only brought your paper in good weather, would you consider him

FAITHFUL?

3. If you failed to show up to work 4 or 5 days a month, would your boss consider you FAITHFUL?

4. If your refrigerator quit a day every now and then, would you consider it to be FAITHFUL?

5. If your water heater greeted you with cold water one morning a week, would it be FAITHFUL?

* Jesus said - "Be faithful unto death, to receive the crown of life."

REWARDS FOR FAITHFULNESS Leadership Summer 1987 p. 48

H.C. Morrison was a life-long missionary to China. He had been working in China for years and were returning to New York to retire. He had no pension; his health was broken; he was defeated, discouraged, and afraid. He discovered he was booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big game hunting expeditions in Africa.

No one paid any attention to him. And he watched as barges floated out with bands, there were flags and banners and streamers everywhere. The fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.

As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."

"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way," his wife said.

"I can't help it; it doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President's arrival, but no one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly.

His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"

A short time later, he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"

"The Lord settled it with me," he said. "I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as thought the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, 'But you're not home yet!'"

DON'T STOP OR YOU'LL DROP "The Sword and Staff" Vol 30 #1 1992, p. 15

When I was taking lessons to fly an airplane, I learned early in the training that in order to keep it flying you had to keep your speed up. If you didn't, down you would come. Christianity is much like an airplane - WHEN YOU STOP, YOU DROP!

When you stop praying, you go down!

When you stop studying your Bible, you go down!

When you stop attending, you go down!

When you stop being involved, you go down!

No wonder Paul wrote: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58). What was the one talent man's problem in Matthew 25? He did nothing! Whatever you do, don't stop or you'll drop!

RESULT OF PERSISTANCE Jacob Riis in R.Digest 3/79 p. 204

I look at a stonecutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the 100 and 1st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

W.B. Hinson liked to tell the story of a cobbler who lived in Edinburgh. One day the newly installed minister of the shoemaker's church made his first call at the shoe shop. As the pastor talked, he used some lofty theological language. The cobbler replied with understanding and deep spiritual insight that left the preacher astonished. "You should not be cobbling shoes," he said. "A man with such thoughts and such a manner of expressing those thoughts should not be doing secular work." The cobbler was quick to reply, "Sir, take that back!" "Take what back?" asked the preacher. "That I am doing secular work," responded the shoemaker. "Do you see that pair of shoes? They belong to widow Smith's son. Her husband died last summer. She is supported by her boy, who keeps a roof over their heads by working outdoors every day. Bad weather is coming. The Lord said to me, `Will you cobble widow Smith's boy's shoes so he won't catch cold and come down sick this winter?' And I said, `I will!' Now you preach sermons under God's direction, I trust. And I will cobble that boy's shoes under God's direction. One day when the rewards are given out, He will say to you and me the same sentence, `Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'"

HOW IMPORTANT IS ONE VOTE -- "The Election Judge's Manual"

In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.

In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be executed.

In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German.

In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the Union.

In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment.

In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.

In 1876, one vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency of the U.S.

In 1923, one vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party.

In 1941, one vote saved Selective Service -- just weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked.