THIS WEEK’S GRAPHIC
Is based on a portion of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
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Welcome to THE TIMOTHY REPORT for March 22, 2004
“To assist, encourage, enable and equip”
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THE TERROR OF THE UPSIDE DOWN LIFE
Several years ago a woman was spending her holidays on one of the barrier islands in South Carolina. It happened to be the time of year when the loggerhead turtles (huge, three-hundred-pound sea turtles) were laying their eggs. One night a very large female dragged herself onto the beach and laid her eggs. The woman did not want to disturb the turtle, so she left and came back the next morning, anxious to find where the turtle had laid her eggs. Alarmingly, what she found were some tracks heading the wrong direction. The turtle apparently lost her bearings and wandered into the hot sand dunes where death was certain. The woman followed the tracks and soon found the turtle covered with hot dry sand. Thinking quickly, she covered the turtle with seaweed, poured cool seawater over her, and ran to notify a park ranger. He arrived in a few minutes in a jeep. The ranger flipped the turtle over, wrapped tire chains around her front legs, and hooked the chains to the trailer hitch on the jeep. Then he drove off, dragging her through the sand so fast her mouth filled with sand and her head bent back as if it would break. At the edge of the ocean, he unhooked her and flipped her right side up. She didn't move. The water began to lap against her body, cleaning off the dry sand. When the waves were much larger, suddenly she began to move, slowly at first, and then when the water was deep enough, she pushed off into the water and disappeared.. The woman makes this observation:
Watching her swim slowly away and remembering her nightmare ride through the dunes, I notice that sometimes it is hard to tell whether you are being killed or being saved by the hands that turn your life upside down.
--Mike Yaconelli, in “Dangerous Wonder,” (pp. 118-119)
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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FOR USE IN MINISTRY
Here are some other helpful links which can help answer questions about Christ:
A short presentation of the heart of Christianity
http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/
A flash presentation of the gospel message. Helpful if you want to follow along in your Bible.
http://www.harvest.org/knowgod/index.php/27.html
A look behind the symbolism of the Cross and what it means for you.
http://www.atstracts.org/digitracts/the_cross/
A variety of presentations that may fit your situation more specifically.
http://www.needhim.org/
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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LOVE OF GOD ON THE CROSS
WHAT God did makes sense. It makes sense that Jesus would be our sacrifice because a sacrifice was needed to justify man's presence before God. ... However, WHY God did it is absolutely absurd. When one leaves the method and examines the motive, the carefully stacked blocks of logic begin to tumble. That type of love isn't logical; it can't be neatly outlined in a sermon or explained in a term paper. ... It IS inexplicable. It doesn't have a drop of logic nor a thread of rationality. And yet, it is that very irrationality that gives the gospel its greatest defense. For only God could love like that.
--Max Lucado in "God Came Near"
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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CATCH THE JESUS STREAM
Some years ago when airlines first started transatlantic flights to Europe, they noticed that on some flights the plane would arrive an hour or so ahead of schedule without the wear and tear on the engine normally expected for that length of flight.
The airline people couldn’t understand it, because they did not know as much about the weather as we do today. So as they began trying to figure out how this could happen, they discovered a weather phenomenon known today as the jet stream.
When an airplane gets into that jet stream, it is propelled forward by the wind so that even though it may be going the same air speed as the plane not in the jet stream, it is really going faster, because it is carried along by the force of the jet stream winds. So rather than fighting the air currents, a plane in the jet stream is actually being carried on the air.
Your trials may have you in turbulence right now. You may feel as if you are flying in the face of a strong wind….What you need to do is catch the “Jesus stream.” When you catch that Jesus stream, He will carry you along in the way you need to go.
If you catch the Jesus stream, He will take you where you are trying to go; He will get you there ahead of schedule, and you won’t experience all of the wear and tear you would if you tried to go it alone. How do you get in the Jesus stream? Just cry out to Him, “Lord, save me!” He will.
--Tony Evans
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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POKING HOLES IN THE DARKNESS
Robert Louis Stevenson, best known for his adventure story Treasure Island, was in poor health throughout much of his childhood and youth. One night when he was quite sick, his nurse found him with his nose pressed against the frosty pane of his bedroom window.
"Child, come away from there. You'll catch your death of cold," she fussed.
But, the young Robert Stevenson wouldn't budge. He sat, mesmerized, as he watched an old lamp lighter slowly work his way through the black night, lighting each street lamp along his route.
"See, look there," Robert pointed, "there's a man poking holes in the darkness."
We Christians are to be just like that. We are to be people who are poking holes in the darkness. As we look around us today we see that there is plenty of darkness in which we must be poking holes of light. There's plenty in the world around us to depress us today. We are reminded of Job's wife who advised him to "curse God and die." It was Voltaire who having been beaten by his doubts who said, "I wish I had never been born." Oscar Wilde put it this way, "There's enough misery in every street in London to disprove God." George Bernard Shaw said, "If the other planets are inhabited, they must be using this earth as their insane asylum." There is negativism and pessimism all around us. What the world needs today are light-hearted, soul-minded and spirit filled Christians who will faithfully punch holes in the darkness with good news.
--J. Robert White
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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JESUS DIDN’T TURN AWAY
On the twenty-first of April, 1864, in the little village of East Leister in England, Jane Merrick, a school teacher, cradled in her arms, her precious little son that had just been born. Taking a character from the Bible whom she loved, John the Baptist, she named her son John - John Merrick. The joy was short-lived. Before very long, he began to develop hideously. John Merrick, later to be called the "Elephant Man" was an indescribable genetic disaster. Soon his head began to take on the misshapen effects that would later cause women to gasp upon seeing him, and run sick to their stomachs from the encounter. One of his arms grew so large that it looked as though it were the trunk of an elephant, while his left arm remained entirely normal. His spine began to curve and he began to develop huge segments of skin unnecessarily, and they putrefied and had a terrible odor. John Merrick then lost his mother - the only one who loved him, at age 12, in a tragic accident. All he knew was gone. As a teenager, rejected of society, looking increasingly more obnoxious and hideous by the day, John Merrick ran away from home. He soon found himself in the hands of an unscrupulous exhibitor, who made a sign advertising the Elephant Man, and charged two-pence apiece for a look at this hideous human. He was suffering from what was later called Van Recklehausen's syndrome, a genetic disease now known as multiple neurofibermetosis. And that poor man, at age 20, had become so deformed, such a recluse, and though he was a sensitive spirit, so utterly beaten down, that he could scarcely even look up through his one good eye at those who stared at him.
When he was 20 years old, in 1884, a physician by the name of Fredrick Trebis happened to pay the two-pence to see him, and became interested in him. He eventually moved him to London Hospital. Trebis thought that this man would never be able to communicate. But then one day, he finally understood him for the first time. And do you know what he was doing? He was repeating one of the two things he had read - the Bible. And that young man, the Elephant Man as he is known today, was repeating the twenty-third Psalm: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil."
Realizing that he was a thinker and that he was sensitive, Trebis began to bring various people to meet him. One day, a beautiful widow met John Merrick. When she was ready to leave, instead of the same reaction that most women had, she pressed forward and took John Merrick by the hand. When she did, it was the first human touch from a woman that he had felt since his mother died, and he began to weep. Trebis, sensing the unusual situation, and knowing that Merrick had become a student of the theater, brought to see him a person that Merrick thought he would never see. Mrs. William Kindle of the Drury Lane Theater came into the room. Like most people, the first moment she saw him, she was utterly repulsed. She managed to keep back the expression that she felt in her heart so that it did not come to her face. But as often as Merrick would look away, as she later testified, she herself would turn away and shake her hands and head and fight back the tears from her eyes. She could not imagine a human being so hideously misshapen, so totally repulsive. How In the world could she even carry on a conversation with him? Then God began to do a work in her heart. Do you know what happened? When she got ready to leave, God spoke to her heart. She got up; she crossed the room. And she approached John Merrick, the Elephant Man, and not only did she extend her hand, but she embraced him in her beautiful arms. As she leaned over, this famous, beautiful actress, planted on the misshapen, inarticulate lips of John Merrick, the only precious kiss he ever experienced in his whole life. His shoulders began to wrench. Tears burst from those eyes. And he began to weep, understanding what it had taken for her to do that.
Do you not understand that that's exactly what we're talking about when we speak of what Jesus did for us? Indeed, Jesus did even more than that for us. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Eternal God, holy and exalted, above sin, without the taint of iniquity in heaven above, looked down at our misshapen, malformed sinful selves. Jesus did not turn away from us. He placed the kiss of grace on us and received us. On the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ stretched out His hands, embraced us everyone, and it was heaven kneeling down to plant upon our lips the kiss of the Divine.
--J. Mike Minnix
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS
One of the modern masters, touched by the ancient spirit of religious art, has given us the interior of the Carpenter's house at Nazareth when the hour is "toward evening and the day is far spent." The mellow light of the setting sun floods the workshop, bringing into relief every shaving on the floor and the rough tools hanging on the wall, and softens the distant blue seen through an open window. The Carpenter has had a long day and after many hours of striving and toiling is wearily stretching himself in the doorway. Standing at full height, with upturned face and extended arms, his form casts a shadow across the poor room, and a woman kneeling in a corner recognizes the ominous outlines of the Cross and the Crucified Man. In this picture art has represented with much insight that feature of Jesus life which distinguishes it from every other and has invested it with a lonely, unapproachable sadness. It was not a life which happened to end on a Cross, a woeful tragedy; it was a life perpetually under the shadow of a Cross.
--John Watson
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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THE TREE SPEAKS
Friends, I am delighted to share with you my life story...
When I was a young tree, I wished to be the most famous, admired and honored tree on the whole earth. I grew taller, thicker and stronger. One day, some people gathered around me discussing something seriously. "They will definitely honor my beauty," I proudly thought. An hour later, I heard the deadly saw cutting through my trunk. My agony overtook me. My body became a dehydrated piece of wood. I was exposed to sun heat and floods more than you can imagine. Life was hopeless, meaningless and gloomy. But one day, everything radically changed.
Thanks to my dryness (that turned to be the source of my strength) I was chosen to be the tree that the Holy Son of God got crucified to. Only since then, I have become the most honored, admired and famous of my breed. His body hid all my flaws. His blood quenched my thirst and dryness. His weight rooted me deep in earth. No winds nor earthquakes could shake me. His cries to the Heavenly Father awakened my dead feelings. His death granted me recognition. I was transformed to be "The Cross".
Overwhelmed by joy, peace, love, life and revival, I could not feel the pain of the nails. He took all the pain in His Healing Hands. Actually, if it were not for those nails, I would never be able to get closer and closer to and unite with Him.
Your life may be similar to mine. Trust that all your wishes will become true in Jesus and in His own way that surpasses your imagination. Life is full of nails. If you rebel, dragging yourself far from Jesus, you will carry the whole pain. But if you get closer to Him, He will take over the whole pain in His Hands.
Look at the sinless Son of God hung on me -- think of His sacrifice. Jesus deeply loves you. Will you trust Him to deliver you to the glory of His knowledge?
--“Daily Wisdom,” a ministry of Gospel Communications, May 29, 2001
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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THE IMAGE OF THE CROSS
Nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains of North America stands a rugged peak. For nine months each year, it lies robed in snow, indistinguishable from a dozen others surrounding it. But as summer arrives and the air warms, the mountain slowly sheds its blanket of white, revealing a massive emblem. High above the neighboring valleys, an 1100-foot vertical gouge bisects a 400-foot horizontal groove, forming an almost perfect image of a cross. This sight is so impressive that famous American artist Thomas Moran visited the mountain to paint it in 1875. The peak is aptly named "The Mountain of the Holy Cross."
In winter, only an expert could single out this particular peak from those around it. But in summer, any child could look at these mountains and easily choose "the one with the cross on it." The only real difference in this mountain and the all the others is the enormous image etched into its face.
We spend much of our lives creating a thick layer of "achievements." We climb the career ladder, push our kids to excel, move to a better neighborhood, pursue another degree or promotion, all in the hope that we will somehow become more popular, wealthy, powerful, or influential. Like a thick blanket of snow, our conquests and achievements cover us, deposited one flake at a time until we are totally obscured. For many of us, self-esteem and self-worth come from what we have accomplished or how much we can buy or who we know.
Yet one day, we will awaken to a new reality, an endless day in which all our values will be turned upside down. All that we have done, said, created, bought, and built will be brushed away, melted like snow under the gaze of our eternal Father. Deep within each one of us He will seek the one thing, the only thing He truly cares about: the imprint of the cross, the mark of His Son.
Nothing else matters to Him. And on that day, nothing else will matter to you. Do you possess the one thing that really matters?
--“Daily Wisdom,” a ministry of Gospel Communications, November 7, 2000
Moran’s painting can be viewed here:
http://www.nga.gov/feature/moran/holycrossbig.html
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Nearly everytime Jesus is mentioned in the Scriptures as being at the right hand of God, He is sitting. Nearly everytime. But there is one instance, and only one that I can find, where Jesus is seen standing on the right hand of God. What significance is that, and how can it encourage and comfort us when a loved one has died?
Always on the search for another story or illustration? Ever hesitate to use any particular story because you've used it too many times already?
Here's a solution! "Funeral Ideas and Illustrations" contains more than 100 stories, poems, and quotations for use in funerals or in Bible studies or sermons on death.
The items found in this collection come from a wide variety of sources. There may be some stories and/or poems you've used for years, and there are some you've never seen before. Some of the sermon outlines and messages are original material. And it's only $5.
In this collection, you will find:
--A sermon specifically designed for the Thanksgiving Season
--A poem written by a wife and son of a relatively young man who passed away.
--What a man wrote after losing three children to death
--Which hymn encouraged Daniel Webster in his final hours
--What Golda Meir said when asked if Israel would allow Nikita Kruschev's body to be buried in Israel
--An encouraging poem which is great to use in a funeral when a grieving spouse is left behind.
--A portion of a letter a Godly woman left behind for her family to read after she had gone on to be with the Lord.
--Mary Pickford's wonderful analogy of death
--Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's viewpoint of his own approaching death
--The word early Christians used to describe the place where they placed the bodies of loved ones when they died--a comforting, encouraging thought!
Visit http://www.timothyreport.com/funeral.html to view sample illustrations and to learn how to get your copy.
(The Timothy Report, Swan Lake Communications, www.timothyreport.com
March 22, 2004)
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