First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because we were always outside playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms. We had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

God won’t ask what kind of car you drove.
He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

God won’t ask the square footage of your house.
He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet.
He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

God won’t ask what your highest salary was.
He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

God won’t ask what your job title was.
He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of our ability.

God won’t ask how many friends you had.
He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived.
He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors.

God won’t ask about the color of your skin.
He’ll ask about the content of your character.

God won’t ask why it took you so long to seek salvation.
He’ll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven, and not to the gates of Hell.

• “Greater is the authority of the Scriptures than all the powers of the human mind.”
   Augustine

• “Nobody ever outgrows scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”
   C.H. Spurgeon

• “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
   Theodore Roosevelt

• “No educated man can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”
   Theodore Roosevelt

• “…if God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
   William Tyndale (reply to an educated man who was defending erroneous teachings of the church)

• “Give me the plenary, verbal theory with all its difficulties rather than the doubt. I accept the difficulties and humbly wait for their solution. But while I wait I am standing on the rock.”
   Bishop J.C. Ryle

• “There are things in the old Book which I may not be able to explain, but I fully accept it as the infallible Word of God, and receive its teachings as inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
   Robert E. Lee

• “Nobody ever mastered the Bible by occasionally opening it and reading a random verse or two. Nobody ever mastered it by listening to someone else preach, no matter how gifted that person might be. The only way to master this Book is to study it as diligently as a doctor studies medicine or as an astronomer studies the stars.”
   John Phillips

• “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
   Unknown

• “In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.”
   Robert E. Lee

• “We accept the Scriptures as an all-sufficient and infallible rule of faith and practice, and insist upon the absolute inerrancy and sole authority of the Word of God. We recognize at this point no room for division, either of practice or belief, or even  sentiment. More and more we must come to feel as the deepest and mightiest power of our conviction that a ‘thus saith the Lord’ is the end of all controversy.”
J.M. Frost from “Baptist Why and Why Not” published in 1900 by the Sunday School Board

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
• Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.”
• Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
• Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
• William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

“Poor Faulkner, Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
• Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.”
• Moses Hadas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”
• Abraham Lincoln

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
• Groucho Marx

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
• Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
• Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play. Bring a friend… if you have one.”
• George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.”
• Winston Churchill, in reply

God made
Adam bit
Noah arked
Abraham split
Joseph ruled
Jacob fooled
Bush talked
Moses balked
Pharaoh plagued
People walked
Sea divided
Tablets guided
Promise landed
Saul freaked
David peeked
Prophets warned
Jesus born
God walked
Love talked
Anger crucified
Hope died
Love rose
Spirit flamed
Word spread
God remained.

Many times man has attempted to destroy the Bible.

In A.D. 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christians and their Bible. The persecution that followed was brutal. Over a burned and extinguished Bible, Diocletian built a monument on which he wrote these triumphant words, “Extincto nomene Christianorum” (the name Christian is extinguished).

Twenty-five years later, Diocletian was dead and the new Emperor Constantine commissioned fifty copies of the Bible to be prepared at government expense.

In 1776, Voltaire, the French philosopher, announced, “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.”

One hundred years later Voltaire was dead and his own press and house were being used to print and store Bibles by the Geneva Bible Society.

One hundred years from the day of Voltaire’s prediction, the first edition of his work sold for eleven cents in Paris, but the British government paid the Czar of Russian one-half million dollars for an ancient Bible manuscript.

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down (keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches).

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let your brain get idle. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and Lots of time with that friend.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is our self. Live while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love — whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, or hobbies. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but not to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The young man held out this package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”

But the auctioneer persisted. “Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?”

Another voice cried angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!”

But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

“We have $10, who will bid $20?”

“Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.”

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!”

A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”

“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!”

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: “The son, the son, who’ll take the son?”

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.