THE LIVING PARABLE OF TALENTS Bits & Pieces 1/7/93

When the Riviera United Methodist Church in Dedondo Beach, California needed more money than the Sunday collections were bringing in, their preacher – Orlie White – remembered the biblical parable of the talents. Putting that parable into practice, White filled a collection plate with $10 bills and invited each of 200 parishioners to take one. He asked them to use the money to try to make more money, then to return the original $10 and the amount earned to the church.

One woman brought needles and yarn and crocheted covers for clothes hangers, which she sold for a profit of $38. Another used the money to enter a bowling tournament and own a $75 prize for the church. A man and woman pooled their stake and bought a share of stock for $20; three months later they sold it for more than $50.

By the end of the year, the original $2,000 had grown into $8000.

GIVE THE TURKEY TO THE CHURCH From Paul Harvey Broadcast 11/22/95

The Butterball Turkey company set up a hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years.

The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had been kept below 0 degrees the entire time. But the operator warned the woman that, even if it were safe, the flavor had probably deteriorated, and she wouldn’t recommend eating it.

The caller replied, "That’s what we thought. We’ll just give it to the church."

A CRUMMY LESSON Fountain Sq. Ch of Christ, Indianapolis 9/29/97

Mrs. Baughman was a Sunday School class teacher in my 6th grade class. One morning she brought a pan of brownies to our class. As the goodies sat tantalizingly over by her chair she gave each child a slip of paper marked with a household expense: house payment, phone bill, credit card bill, entertainment, and so forth. My slip had car payment on it.

Before long, Mrs. Baughman picked up the tray of fresh brownies and began naming the expenses named on the papers. As we gave her our expense slips, she redeemed each one for a brownie from the pan. Finally, the last brownie had disappeared. But one boy named Donald still held his unredeemed slip. "God!" called Mrs. Baughman. Donald came forward, hoping the teacher had one more brownie hidden somewhere.

With a knife, Mrs. Baughman scraped the crumbs from the bottom of the pan into Donald's napkin. He got a pretty raw deal, I thought - just the crumbs.

"The brownies represent your money," the teacher explained to us. "If you don't give God his share right away, he probably won't get anything at all except maybe the crumbs."

We never forgot that illustration from our 6th grade Sunday School class. It was the day my friend Donald got only brownie scrapings, and I learned that God should have 1st rights to everything I have. In the years since, I have struggled with giving and priorities, but whenever I recall that "crummy Sunday morning lesson", I know who must come first in my life.

I once heard a man give his testimony of coming to Christ after many years of alcoholism, self indulgence and waste. When he finally came to Christ, his family's finances were in a state of disrepair. One night, while attending a Revival at his church, he looked into his wallet for something to put into the offering plate. All he had was a $20. He and his wife looked at one another, remembering a significant bill that was coming due, she squeezed his hand in agreement, and, he placed the $20 in the plate. He said that they both experienced something like a lifting of a burden from their shoulders.

Upon arriving at home, there on the dining room table was an envelope containing the precise amount that they needed to pay their creditor. He marveled at the grace of God in supplying his need at the just the right time with just the right amount of money. But who put the money there? One of God's stewards, who saw himself as letting his light shine in this man's life so that he could see that good work and glorify his Father.

TIGHT LITTLE ISLANDS Time, 9/26/88

At high tide they sit barely 2 ft. above the Pacific - when the ocean is calm - and are no

larger than a pair of king-size beds. Yet the two coral promontories, known as

Okinotori-shima (Off-shore Bird Islands), 1,300 miles southwest of Tokyo, are the southernmost points of Japanese sovereignty. Under international law, they provide the country with an exclusive, fish-rich economic zone of 163,000 sq. mi., an area larger than Japan itself - as long as they remain above water.

The islands. which once covered several square miles, are eroding at an alarming rate. To keep them from vanishing, a fleet of 17 ships and 200 workers have spent five months building concentric rings of 9000 steel blocks and pouring concrete around the two rocky specks. The project will take three years to complete and will cost $224 million.

Many years ago, the Chinese farmers theorized that they could eat their big potatoes and keep the small potatoes for seed. Consequently, they ate the big potatoes and planted the small potatoes. As a result of this practice for many years, the Chinese farmers made the startling discovery: nature had reduced all their potatoes to the size of marbles.

A new understanding of the law of life came to these farmers. They learned through bitter experience that they could not have the best things of life for themselves and use the leftovers for seed. The law of life decreed that the harvest would reflect the planting.

"And on top of the pillars was lily design" (I King 7:22).

At first glance this text doesn't appear to be promising, as a text, does it? The natural reaction to a little decoration high on top of some pillars is, "So what's so great about that?" To appreciate the significance of this text you have to add the cubits in these pillars. Hiram, who was helping build Solomon's fabulous temple, fashioned two tall pillars of bronze 18 cubits high: A cubit was about 18 inches, the distance from a man's elbow to the tip of his middle finger. So the pillars were 27 feet tall. In addition to that, each pillar had a capital 7 1/2 feet high, 7 rows of "trellis work designs," and 2 rows of pomegranates. Add it all up and you are about 58 feet in the air. Now on top of all that, Hiram put the lily work.

The question this forces us to ask is why did Hiram bother to do this? Why, do all that intricate work and then put it up on the top of these pillars where people could barely see it, let alone appreciate it? Most of us would consider such a thing a waste of time, energy, and money. Can't you just hear a lot of people saying, "There's no point in going to all of that trouble!"

Well,' there's no point at all "unless you happen to believe what Hiram and the others undoubtedly believed about their work. They believed they were working for God's glory and, therefore, they should give their best. Maybe they put those lilies there just so God could see them and appreciate the dedicated skill that made them possible.

Do you find it difficult to think of God taking note of good work and actually enjoying and appreciating it? The Bible tells us to do all our work with this awareness. Paul urged slaves to work "with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart: with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men..." (Eph. 6:5-7). Paul told these slaves to do their work from their hearts and for the glory of God. That appears to be the way Hiram went about his work and I believe that's the way we should go about ours.

HOW LONG CAN I WORK? Charles W. Ridlen

I used to say "How long must I work?" Now I know it is good to work, and now I say, "God, how, long may I work?" What about you? May God give us all one hundred years to work for Him if that be His will. "Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6)

HAVE YOU THROWN AWAY WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN? Poem John Noble reprinted in "SPOKES"

Have you made someone happy, or made someone sad?

What have you done with the day that you had?

God gave it to you to do just as you would,

Did you do what was wicked, or do what was good?

Did you lift someone up or push someone down?

Did you lighten some load, or some progress impede,

Did you look for a rose or just gather a weed?

What did you do with your beautiful day,

God gave it to you, did you throw it away?

In the days of the Czars in Russia there was a park at St. Petersburg's Winter Palace. In that park there was a beautiful lawn, a bench, and two guards beside the bench.

Every three hours the guards were changed. No one knew why, but one day an ambitious young lieutenant was put in charge of the Palace Guard and he started wondering and asking questions. In the end, he found a cobwebby little old man, the Palace historian.

"Yes," the old man said, "I remember. During the reign of Peter the Great, 200 years ago, the bench got a fresh coat of paint. The Czar was afraid that the ladies in waiting might get paint on their dresses, so he ordered one guard to watch the bench. The order was never rescinded. Then in 1908, all the guards of the Palace were doubled for fear of revolution. So the bench has had two guards ever since.

Pierre De Gaulle, mayor of Paris, examining the huge Paris City Hall in search of space, found a sign reading "Bureau of Claims Payments for the flood of 1910." Two white-bearded octogenarians looked like startled Rip Van Winkles when the officials walked in. A little questioning produced the fact that the claims were all paid. In fact, the last claim was paid in 1913, some 36 years earlier.

A woman in Georgia had only a bag of peanuts, but she did something more noble with it. It was on the occasion of Henry Ford's 1st visit to the Berry Schools at Mt. Berry, Georgia. As Ford was leaving, Miss Martha asked him for a dime. Mr. Ford smiled and said, "Is that all you want? I am usually asked for gifts larger than a dime."

"A dime is all I want, Mr. Ford, but I do want to show you what I can do with 10 cents."

When Henry Ford left town, Martha Berry purchased 10 cents worth of green peanuts and planted them. Several years later Mr. Ford visited her again, and she showed him the returns in money which could be directly traced to that 10 cents worth of peanuts. Mr. Ford was so pleased that he gave her a new building, and 2 years later gave her a whole quadrangle of beautiful Gothic stone buildings. Hundreds of lives have been lifted toward heaven in these buildings and they have made names for themselves.

"... upon...an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee" (Ps. 144:9)

An elderly gentleman at midweek mtg. offered this prayer: "Oh Lord we will praise Thee; we will praise thee with an instrument of 10 strings." People wondered what he meant, but understood when he continued, "We will praise Thee with our two eyes (2) by looking only unto Thee. We will exalt with our two ears (2) by listening only to Thy voice. We will honor Thee with our own two hands (2) by working in Thy service. We will honor Thee with our own two feet (2) by walking in the way of Thy statutes. We will magnify Thee with our tongues (1) by bearing testimony to Thy loving kindness. We will worship Thee with our hearts (1) by loving only Thee. We thank Thee for this instrument, Lord keep it in tune. Play upon it as Thou wilt and ring out the melodies of Thy Grace! May its harmonies always express Thy glory!"

Have you ever thought of yourself as "an instrument of 10 strings?" When Frances Ridley Havergal penned the familiar words "Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord, to Thee," she was expressing the need of making every member of our physical bodies responsive to the Lord's will. Paul underscores the same truth when he exclaims,"...Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13).

WILLIAM BORDEN - NO REGRETS Our Daily Bread Dec 31, 1988 Dennis J. DeHaan

In 1904, William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy Estate, graduated from a Chicago high school a millionaire. His parents gave him a trip around the world. Traveling through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe gave Borden a burden for the world's hurting people. Writing home, he said, "I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field."

When he made this decision, he wrote in the back of his bible two words: "No Reserves." Turning down high paying job offers after graduating from Yale University, he entered two more words in Bible: "No Retreats".

Completing studies at Princeton Seminary, Borden sailed for China to work with Muslims, stopping first at Egypt for some preparation. While there he was stricken with cerebral meningitis and died within a month. A waste, you say! Not in God's plan. In his Bible underneath the words "No Reserves" and "No Retreats", he had written the words "No Regrets."

Leslie B. Flynn illustrated in his book "Worship" this story of stewardship:

"A man was packing a shipment of food contributed by a school for the poor people of Appalachia. He was separating beans from powdered milk, and canned vegetables from canned meats. Reaching into a box filled with various cans, he pulled out a little brown paper sack. Apparently one of the pupils had brought something different from the items on the suggested list. Out of the paper bag fell a peanut butter sandwich, an apple, and a cookie. Crayoned in large letters was a little girl's name, 'Christy - Room 104.' She had given up her lunch for some hungry person."

Whenever we give out of heart of concern for people in need, we are making a sacrifice that please the Lord (Heb. 13:16)

MY FIRST POEM by Dale Rabineau 1/3/95 Butler Newsletter

When I was young, I bought a watch,

Because the time of day

Kept slipping by, which meant that time

Was ticking fast away.

I'd always heard that watches were

Designed for keeping time.

If time was in my pocket,

I could truly call it mine.

It wasn't long before the watch

I'd bought began to rust.

With passing time, my keeper of the time

Had turned to dust.

As years went by, I learned that time's

Not something you can buy;

My watch was called a watch because

It watched the time roll by.