October 11

On average, a U.S. citizen causes over 100 times more damage to the global environment than a person in a poor country. The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person and 30 times more than a person in India. The richest 25 percent of the world's population use 86 percent of all forest products, 75 percent of energy, 72 percent of steel production. The poorest use only two percent of the world's resources.

The Freedom to Sing
The French have a story about a millionaire in his palace who spent his days counting his gold. Beside the palace was a poor cobbler who spent his days singing as he repaired people's shoes. The joyful singing irritated the rich man. One day he decided to give some gold coins to the cobbler. At first the cobbler was overjoyed, and he took the coins and hid them. But then he would be worried and go back to check if the coins were still there. Then he would be worried in case someone had seen him, and he would move the coins and hide them in another place. During all this, he ceased to sing. Then one day he realized that he had ceased to sing because of the gold coins. He took them back to the rich man and said, "take back your coins and give me back my songs."

The minister of a well-attended, strong, and enthusiastic church often showed himself ready and able to deal with any situation that might come up. One Sunday, just as he was reaching the climax of his message, his own young grandson entered the church, ran to
the center aisle, started making loud beeps and vrrrmms like a car without a muffler, then zoomed right toward him. The minister stopped his message, pointed severely at his grandson, and commanded, "Jack, park the car immediately beside your mother on that
chair (pointing), turn off the ignition, and hand her the keys." The message continued undisturbed ... after a good laugh by the congregation.

How big is the internet? An interesting tidbit in an column on the difficulty of tracing terrorists' online activity: The National Security Agency, one of 16 intelligence agencies, estimates by next year, the Internet will carry 647 petabytes of data each day. "That's 647 followed by 15 zeros," "and by way of comparison, the holdings of the entire Library of Congress (130 million items, including 30 million books that occupy 530 miles of book shelves) represent only 0.02 petabytes."

An American couple visiting a German village stepped into a small shop to look for souvenirs. The woman sneezed. "Gezundheit!" said the clerk "Charles," said the American woman to her husband, "we're in luck. There's somebody here who speaks English."

The Purpose of Coffee Hour - Coffee was always served at our church after the sermon. One Sunday our minister asked one of the smaller members of the congregation if he knew why we had coffee hour. Without hesitating, the youngster replied, "To wake people up before they have to drive home."

"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--try to please everybody." -- Herbert Bayard Swope

You are here to make a difference by serving God and others. Whenever you serve others, in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of his purposes for creating you. We weren't placed on earth just to breathe, eat, take up space and have fun. God fashioned each of us to make a unique contribution with our lives. Rick Warren


"... Sometimes, faith helps ordinary men and women do the humanly impossible: to forgive, to love, to heal, and to redeem. It makes no sense. It is the most sensible thing in the world. The Amish have turned this occasion of spectacular evil into a bright witness to hope. Despite everything, a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
- Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News, writing about last week's Amish school shooting

Fifty-two percent of polled Americans admitted that they "re-gift" presents or say they will do so in the future. Four percent of those polled say they do this because they don't like the person they are giving the gift to. - Source: TIME magazine (Oct. 16, 2006)

"We think if we can disperse adequate information, people will be convinced that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and turn to him. Those methods don't work any longer. I'm not sure they ever did. People aren't looking for information about God. They want to experience God, himself. Information leaves them bored, uninterested. Experience, especially the ultimate experience any human being can ever have, leaves them breathless.
And that's exactly what we have to offer." - Mark Tabb, Mission to Oz

Morris goes to his rabbi for some needed advice.
"Rabbi, tell me if it is proper for one man to profit from another man's mistakes."
"No, Morris, a man should not profit from another man's mistakes," answered the rabbi.
"Are you sure, Rabbi?"
"Of course, I'm sure. In fact, I'm positive," exclaimed the Rabbi.
"Ok, Rabbi, if you are so sure..... how about returning the two hundred dollars I gave you for marrying me to my wife!"

"I noticed you always carry my photo in your handbag. Why?" a husband asked his wife.
"When there is a problem, no matter how impossible, I look at your picture and the problem always disappears," she said. The man smiled. "You see how good I am for you?" he asked. "Yes," she said. "I see your picture and say to myself, 'What other problem can there be that is worse than this one?'"