For illustations on this page, click titles:

Feeling Your Age

How Will You Run?

Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

There are only four words in the English language which end in"-dous":: tremendous, horrendous,
stupendous, and hazardous.

Los Angeles's full name is: El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula
and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: "L.A."

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Tigers have stripped skin, not just stripped fur.

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver
 in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Top of Page

Just Wouldn’t Listen

When the space shuttle Challenger lifted into the sky and blew up seventy-three seconds into its flight,
the world was shocked.
Most of us have seen the videotape of that terrible moment many times.
And we can recreate the picture in our minds of a deep blue sky marked with twisted trails
of smoke and large chunks of metal plummeting toward the ocean.

And we know, as we recall the grim specter of the explosion, that among the falling pieces were the bodies
of some of America's finest men and women.
Most of us also know that the investigations into the cause of the tragedy pointed out some serious shortfalls
in human judgment and materials management.

The New York Times put it frankly: “The ultimate cause of the space shuttle disaster was pride.”
A group of top managers failed to listen carefully to the warnings of those down the line who were concerned
about the operational reliability of certain parts of the booster rocket under conditions of abnormal stress.

The people in charge were confident that they knew best and they would not change the launch schedules.
They were wrong!
 
-- Gordon MacDonald, Rebuilding Your Broken World.
 
See: Prov 11:3

Top of Page

Result Of Sin!

The story is told of an eagle perched on a block of ice just above Niagra Falls.
The swift current carried the ice and its majestic passenger closer to the edge of the great precipice.
The cries of other birds and animals warning the eagle of danger that lay ahead were to no avail.

"I have great and powerful wings," he boasted. "I can fly from my perch at any time. I can handle it."

Suddenly the edge of the falls was only a few feet away.
The torrent of water rushed the block of ice over the great falls.
The eagle spread his powerful wings to mount up over the impending doom only to discover too late
that his claws had become frozen to the cake of ice.

Do we need say more?
None of us is immune to the consequences of sin!

Top of Page

Feeling Your Age?

Think you're not getting old?
Then consider this:

The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980.
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them, not a movie.

CCCP is just a bunch of letters.
They have only known one Germany.
They are too young to remember the Space shuttle blowing up, and Tienamin Square means nothing to them.

They do not know who Momar Qadafi is.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
Bottle caps have not only always been screw off, but have always been plastic.

Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
The expression, "You sound like a broken record, " means nothing to them.
They have never owned a record Player.
They may have heard of an 8-track, but chances are they probably have never actually seen or heard one.

The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.
As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 33 cents.
Zip codes have always had a dash in them.
They have always had an answering machine.

Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have many seen a black and white TV.
They have always had cable.
There have always been VCR's, but they have no idea what Beta is.
They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
They were born the year that the Walkman was introduced by Sony.

Rollerskating has always meant inline for them.
The Tonight Show has always been with Jay Leno.
They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
Popcorn has always been cooked in a microwave.

They have never seen Larry Bird play,  and they think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a Football player.
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
The Vietnam War is as ancient to them as WWI, WWII or even the Civil War.
They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
They never heard the terms "Where's the beef?", "I'd Walk a mile for Camel", or "De plane, de plane!".
They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.

The Facts of Life, Silver Spoon, The Love Boat, Miami Vice, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Taxi are shows
they have likely never seen.
The Titanic was found? They thought we always knew where it was.
Michael Jackson has always been white.

Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not musical groups.
McDonalds never came in Styrofoam containers.
Do you feel old now?

Remember, the people who don't know these things will be in college this year.

Top of Page

Take A Stand!

In his book, Thirteen Days to Glory, author Lon Tinkle tells about Colonel Jim Bowie and the brave defenders of the Alamo.
That sacred Texas shrine had only 183 defenders against a huge army led by Santa Anna.
On March 3, 1836, two hours before dusk, the Mexican guns quit firing.

William Travis lined his men up in a single line inside the Alamo.
He told them no reinforcements were coming and that their destiny was sealed.
"Our doom is certain," Travis told the weary men.

Travis then pulled his sword from its sheath and drew a line in the dirt floor in front of them and asked every man
who was determined to stay in the Alamo and die to cross the line.
Topley Holland was the first man across the line.
Others quickly followed--Daniel Cloud, Micajah Utry, Davy Crockett.

Colonel Jim Bowie was sick and unable to cross the line so he called for help and four men sprang to the side of his cot
and lifted him over the line as the other men cheered.

On March 6, the Alamo fell and the brave defenders within her walls died.
They made the choice that counted most and the Republic of Texas was born out of their shed blood.

 -- BROADMAN COMMENTS, Volume 49,
(Nashville: Broadman, 1993), p. 104.

Top of Page

Murphy’s Laws

Nothing is as easy as it looks; everything takes longer than you think;  if anything can go wrong it will.
A day without a crisis is a total loss.
The other line always moves faster.

The chance of the bread falling with the peanut butter and jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost
of the carpet.
 Inside every large problem is a series of small problems struggling to get out.
Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.

No matter how long or hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper.
Any tool dropped while repairing a car will roll underneath to the exact center.
The repairman will never have seen a model quite like yours before.

You will remember that you forgot to take out the trash when the garbage truck is two doors away.
Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.
The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train.
Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.

Top of Page

It Pays To Listen!

Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound
of the dots and dashes which began coming over a loudspeaker.

Suddenly one of them rushed into the employer's office.
Soon he returned smiling. "I got it!" he exclaimed.

 How did you get ahead of us?" they asked.
“You might have been considered if you hadn't been so busy talking that you didn't hear the manager's
coded message," he replied.

It said, “ The man I need must always be on the alert.
The first one who interprets this and comes directly into my private office will be hired. "

The lesson is clear:
Too many Christians are not really tuned in, so they do not hear God's directives.

Top of Page

Not That Kind Of Person

Former University of Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel is no Playboy, at least not a member of the magazine's all-American college preseason  football team.
Wuerffel, a devout Christian and son of an Air Force minister, declined an invitation to be name the magazine's
National Scholar Athlete of the Year.

His decision cost him an expense-paid trip to a posh Phoenix resort, site of a photo shoot.
"It didn't take any thought at all," said Wuerffel, who as a junior finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

Florida spokesman John Humenik said the magazine, known for its sexual content and photos of nude women,
accepted Wuerffel's decision.
"It would've been a lot of fun, and that's fine for some," Wuerffel said.
"I'm sure there's a good bit of the population out there that would think I'm silly for doing this.
But there's also a good bit of the population that would understand that's not the type of person
I would want to portray myself as."

- USA Today, Friday, May 10, 1996
"Wuerffel Rejects Playboy" p. 3C

Top of Page

How Will You Run?

From Inspiring Losers by Bud Greenspan, author of 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History
--Sports Illustrated, February 26, 1996
 
“The marathon draws its inspiration from a legendary runner name Phidippides, who was dispatched to Athens
in 490 B.C. to deliver news of the Greek victory at Marathon.

Upon arriving, Phidippides delivered his news, collapsed and died.
What price will our race demand of us?

Is the news so worth telling that we cannot but  finish the run?
Will the victories of Christ for us not be the greatest news that anyone could hear?
How will we run the race?
How will we finish?

“ How shall they hear without a  preacher?” (Rom.10:14)?
Rom.10:14 "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

Top of Page

Hymns For Everday

• The Dentist's Hymn - "Crown Him with Many Crowns"
   
• The TV Weatherman's Hymn - "There Shall be Showers of Blessing"
   
• The Contractor's Hymn - "The Church's one Foundation"
   
• The Tailor's Hymn - "Holy, Holy, Holy"
   
• The Golfer's Hymn - "There is a Green Hill Far Away"
   
• The Politician's Hymn - "Standing on the Promises"
   
• The Optometrist's Hymn - "Open Mine Eyes that I Might See"
   
• The IRS Hymn - "All to Thee"
   
• The Gossiper's Hymn - "Pass it On"
   
• The Electrician's Hymn - "Send the Light"
   
• The Shopper's Hymn - "Sweet by and by"

Top of Page

We Do Reap!

The Consequences of Lord Byron’s Life!
 
Lord Byron, a brilliant poet, spent his life in a mad search for pleasure.
Moderns would say, "He tried to live it up."

Then in despair he wrote:
The thorns I have reaped are of the tree I planted.
They have torn me and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a tree.”

Top of Page