Favorite Nuggets

Here are a couple of what I call nuggets.....Priceless bits of real touching experiences.

"FAITH IN ACTION"

I recall a most touching lesson from a pastor who ministered in a small town,
and along with his wife shared an intense zeal to minister to the youth of the town. The pastor, along with his other responsibilities, helped a small group of teens, and preteens to acquire a simple knowledge of electricity. He set aside one hour before the Sunday night service to meet with the children and , after all he had a degree in Electrical Engineering, Anyhow, he met and drew simple diagrams on the chalkboard, and tried to enlighted then and get them to appreciate the uses of electricity. Seeing that the lectures were not exactly opening their minds to the somewhat deep subject, he had an idea. One Sunday he brought to the meeting several old worn out electrical appliances, coffee pots, mixers, and the like. The pastor had a particular intrest in one of the boys, let's call him Billy. Billy was a nice 10 year old with his eyes wide open to the world, but he struggled so hard to understand everything that the pastor taught. Billy, shortly after birth was diagnosed with a disorder that left him mentally challenged. Billy loved the pastor and the feeling was mutual. The pastor's wife aften watched her husband's eyes light up when teaching and talking to the young boy. They were almost inseparable. And the best part was that as the pastor's intrest in Billy grew, everyone could see the remarkable progress that God was working in this young man's life. The assignment for this Sunday night was for the children to bring in the old worn out appliances that the children had taken home. The pastor was going to hold up the pieces of each, as model, and explain how they worked. By the way, none of the appliances were repairable, but the pastor instructed them that they would go through the motions of "clumping the parts together" for a visual aid. As meeting time drew near, all of the children were present except for one....Billy. The pastor's wife went out in front of the church to find her husband pacing back and forth on the side- walk. "Where could he be, do you think something's wrong", the Pastor said with a quiver in his voice. There was no way to hide the love he had for Billy. As the wife was turning to go back in she heard her husband sob, When she turned to look at him, she saw a glazed look on his face and tears flowing down his face as he stood with his eyes fixed on something down the street. As she walked out to where he was she saw what the pastor was touched by......walking proudly down the street was Billy. He had the pieces of a worn out toaster under his arms and the pieces of the hopeless appliance were almost dragging the sidewalk.....and under his other arm......a HALF LOAF OF BREAD !
WHO WAS TEACHING WHOM?

NOTHING CAN BE BETTER THAN SOMETHING
Mrs. Green thought that since it was Easter Sunday and the sun was shining bright outside that it would be an excellent time for an outdoor class. Her class was small in size and included 2 of her own children, the youngest, Pam, was a very special 7 year old. Pam was what most doctors would call mildly retarded. Full of vigor and such a smile, Pam skipped gleefully out the door along with the rest of the class. "Since this is Easter, Mrs. Green said, I would like for you children to take these plastic eggs and go out into the field and find something to put in your egg that represents new life." The children all went off into different directions and after about 30 minutes, they returned with their filled eggs. Mrs. Green gathered all of them in her apron and sit with the children in a circle around her. She then proceeded to open , one at a time to reveal each child's findings. The first one she opened had inside a small rock. She thought to herself, this must be Pam's, then a young boy spoke up to claim ownership of that egg and went on to explain "Turn the rock over", and upon doing so this revealed a small growth of moss on the rock. "See, said the boy, new life". She agreed that this was good, and she went through eash egg and every time would wonder if it was Pam's. Finally, she came to the last egg. When she opened it up and it was empty. She felt so sad and said, "Pam, honey, could you not find anything to put in the egg that represents life?" " Oh yes, mother, came her quick reply,....Inside my egg is exactly what they found on Easter morning....EMPTINESS !, Isn't that the best sign of NEW LIFE MOTHER?...THE EMPTY TOMB" MRS. GREEN CRIED. YES, SOMETIMES EMPTINESS MEANS FULLNESS !

Some Wisdom from an old Preacher
I will attempt to include some of the things that I have heard and learned over the years in these nuggets. Studying the Bible, I am constantly amazed at the "things" that I missed the previous time through. This is what GOD , in his infinite wisdom has blessed us with, a real warm spine chilling feeling when we read certain words that seem to "fit" the current situation that we're in. It's no mistake, if we listen, GOD will give us what we need, and when we need it. I learned a lot of cool stuff from an old preacher friend of mine, who has gone on to be with the LORD. PRAISE GOD for him! One day there was a conversation going on and a non-believer scoffed at Christians and said that it was very stupid and childish to believe and trust in someone or something that you couldn't see, and especially someone that you couldn't understand. His philosophy was that if and when he figured out GOD and HIS purpose and became knowledgable enough, then and only then would he consider placing any trust in GOD. After hearing this, my old preacher buddy waited 'till the young man had his say and then he enlightened him: "Ya, know", the preacher said softly, looking up to reveal the 90 plus years in his still gleaming eyes, Ya don't have to understand everything about GOD in order to trust HIM. You don't even hafta, be able to read this BIBLE here, and it's kinda like them 'lectric lights up there, he said pointing upward toward the ceiling with a look of confoundment on his face. I ain't got no idea whatsoever how you can flick that little switch there on the wall and all of a sudden the dark room has enough light for even a man with my sight to thread a needle. How does that electricity work? I ain't got the foggiest idea. But ya know, we all walk right by in a dark house, flip on the switch and don't even slow down. We trust that light, that electricity, and ya' know even them 'lectric bulbs burn out from time to time. The bottom line is, he went on....I don't know how it work's but I SURE AIN'T SITTING AROUND IN THE DARK TILL I GET IT FIGURED OUT !!!!!!" The young man left without saying a word, but I couldn't help but notice that just before he went out the door, he looked up once more at the lights that the preacher pointed out with a puzzled look on his face.

TADPOLES
Years ago, I had just finished a series of special meetings at the church pastored by my 90ish year old friend. The result was wonderful and several souls came to know JESUS as their SAVIOUR! On the final day of the revival meetings, we went to a nearby fishing lake. As I waded on out into the water , the preacher stood there firm on the lake shore , and with his bible held high above his head, he began to preach concerning the scriptures that he had just read. "Some folks believe that to get to heaven all you gotta do is just go down into the water and let the water "WASH YOUR SINS AWAY". I'll tell you that only the blood of JESUS can wash away your sins. Baptism is an outward display of an inward change. Water baptism alone can't save nobody.....I don't care if you've been baptized so many times that the tadpoles know your social security number....salvation is ONLY through the blood of JESUS!

CYCLONE MAC

This story was passed on to me years ago at the end of a service by a fellow preacher and is true. Just for the record, there really was a preacher in the mountains of N.C. by the name of CYCLONE MAC. And this is an account of a story that includes him. A small church down toward the eastern part of the state was in a week of revival and the young evangelist noticed that every night an elderly gentleman occupied the same spot on the very back bench and night after night, during the "altar call" he couldn't help but notice that the man would cry and jerk and every night he just knew that the man was gonna come on up to the altar. The preacher allowed how that he could almost feel the conviction of the SPIRIT on this man's soul. On the final night of revival, the young preacher stood in the alter and pleaded for anyone who didn't know JESUS to come on up and accept HIM before it was too late. As the you man spoke, and just as he was beginning his closing prayer, the elderly man stood up and slowly, yet deliberatly made his way to the altar down front. Several people joined him and they all prayed and many were saved and delivered from their sins. As the crowd hugged and shook hands and made their way to the parking lot outside, the evangelist stopped the man and started to talk to him. The young man looked into his eyes and saw a peace and joy that he had witnessed before and knew that this only came from a visit to the throne of grace. As he spoke, the aged man shook the young preacher's hand and told him of his newfound salvation. After a minute the preacher said, "Sir, Can I ask you something?" "Sure, preacher", the elder replied. "I watched you all week, and noticed that every night you seemed like you were wanting to come to the altar, but you never did. I wanna know, for my own future reference, was there anything that I said, or some song that was sung, ....what made you decide to give in to JESUS?" The old man looked up and said ,"Well, young man, I'd like to tell you that it was something that you preached, but fact is ...it started 70 years ago." "70 years ago?", the preached asked. "Yep, 70 years ago I lived up in the mountains near Asheville N.C. and there ain't nobody liked to fish as much as me, except for maybe my friend ,Ralph. Well, I'd hit him up to go fishin and he'd drive us up in his A-model to a fishin spot and we'd go and stay all week-end long. I'd always take a bottle of shine and stay pretty well soused and we'd fish and have a big time. Well, one summer day I went over to Ralph's place and had my pole, some bait , a hunk of cornbread, some fried fatback and a bottle of corn licker." When I met Ralph he told me that he'd take me fishin if I'd go with him to a brush-arbor meeting. Actually they was havin preachin in an old tobacco barn across the way and Ralph, being a Christian and all was always trying to get me to go with him to church. I tried to talk him into going fishin straitaway, but he said that if'n i didn't go to preachin with him, we could forget fishin. Well, I thought, to myself that we'd go and what would it take , maybe an hour and then we'd be on our way. Well, it was gettin dark and as we rounded the corner at the top of the stand of pines, we could see the barn down below and as we got closer they was singing some old hymn and the place was lit up real bright with lanterns that everybody brought and hung up on the posts of the bard and some on stakes drove up in the ground. I ain't seen so many people in my life. I asked Ralph who was preachin and he said that everybody was coming to hear the "MAN OF GOD", CYCLONE MAC. I didn't see no preacher and I whispered, where's he at? Ralph said that MAC usually stays up in the loft and prays till he gets the call from GOD to start preaching. I'll never forget trying to mouth the words of "BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES" while everybody sung out so loud and I had no idea what the song was all about anyway. Just as the crowd was finishing the last verse of the song, I heard a scream that sounded like a wildcat and the next thing I knew I saw somebody swing out of the loft and he landed on his feet right in from of me. It was CYCLONE MAC ! There he stood, dressed in coal black suit with a wide-brimmed hat pulled down in his face and a handlebar mustache that must've been at least a foot long from tip to tip. And he had a bible sorta wrapped around his arm and he had to be the meanest lookin character that I'd ever seen in my life. I DIDN'T LIKE HOW HE LOOKED, and when he commenced to preachin' I DIDN'T LIKE WHAT HE HAD TO SAY!. He was as loud as he was rough lookin and it didnt take but a few minutes till I figured that fishin did'nt mean that much to me, so I told Ralph bye and I got outta there. The last thing I remember before I left was havin old CYCLONE stare me right in the eye and scream that if there was anybody here that didn't know JESUS personally as their Saviour, then they were on their way to a devil's hell! " "So, preacher, it wusn't anything in particular that you said tonight, but you know what?......It sure does feel good to know that after 70 years I finally got old . . .
CYCLONE MAC OFF MY BACK!

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