A tidbit is a choice morsel. What is a gospel tidbit? Most are short little stories from a
gospel point of view that I have gathered from here or there (various sources). I did not
write any of them. Some may have floated around on the internet for awhile and may have been
sent to me in emails or newsletters.
How to Handle Life's Problems:
Don't curse them
Don't nurse them
Don't rehearse them
Just disperse them (through praise and trust in God).
4 rows of p's (peas):
5 rows of turnips:
3 rows of squash:
6 rows of lettuce:
Water daily with sincere prayer
preparedness
promptness
perseverance
politeness
turn up for Sunday school and church
turn up with a smile
turn up with determination
turn up with a visitor
turn up with your Bible
squash criticism
squash gossip
squash indifference
Let us be faithful
Let us be unselfish
Let us be truthful
Let us be friendly
Let us be cheerful
Let us give freely
A minister advertised for a servant. The next morning a young man rang the bell. Thinking the young man was responding to the ad, the minister asked, "Can you start a fire in the morning and get breakfast by 7 o'clock?
"I guess so," the young man answered.
"Can you polish the silver, wash the dishes, and keep the house neat and clean?"
"Say," said the young man, "I came here to see about getting married, but if it's going to be that much work, count me out now!"
One dark night on a rural back road, I, an inexperienced driver in one pickup truck, was following my father who was driving a second pickup truck ahead of me. We were returning home from church camp. I was intently watching the road when suddenly, about 75 yards in front of me, the road disappeared! I slammed on the brakes in a panic. Then I looked up to see the tail-lights of my father's pickup off to the left. The road had simply made a sharp 90 degree turn.
How many times do we focus so intently on life's difficult road that we fail to keep our eyes on our Father. We forget He truly is leading us, even when we can't see Him. He will never leave us or forsake us.
A little country girl was walking down the road and passed the country store. A man on the porch
asked her where she was going and what she had in her hand. "Sunday School and my Bible,"
she said. Asked if she believed the Bible and what her lesson was about, she said, "Yes, and it's
about Jonah and the fish that swallowed him." Chided for her belief in that "fish story," she was
asked to explain it. She said, "I believe every word in the Bible but I can't explain how it happened.
I know Jonah survived and I'll ask him how when I get to Heaven." "What if he isn't
there," asked the man, and she said, "Then you ask him."
A woman had some time to kill at an airport. Buying a cup of coffee and a small package of cookies,
she staggered to an unoccupied table. She was reading the morning paper when she became aware of a
rustling at her table. From behind her paper she was flabbergasted to see a neatly dressed young man
helping himself to her cookies. She did not want to make a scene, so she leaned across and took a
cookie for herself. A minute or two passed. He was helping himself to another cookie. By the time
they were down to the last cookie, she was very angry. Then the young man broke the remaining
cookie in two, pushed half across to her, ate the other half, and left. It was then that she looked
into her purse for her ticket only to discover her package of cookies. She had been eating his!
Try hard not to judge others.
The teacher asked the pupils to tell the meaning of loving-kindness. A little boy jumped up in class and
said, "Well, if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread, that would be kindness. But if
they put a little jam and jelly on it, that would be loving-kindness."
Wouldn't it be nice if more people would take their noses out of other people's business, and put
their hearts into other people's problems?
A Christian home will be faithful to church
A Christian home will be an example
A Christian home will practice forgiveness
A Christian home will demonstrate faith
A Christian home will demonstrate love
A Christian home will practice the teachings of Christ
A Christian home will be aware of the presence of God
Gypsy Smith was once asked how to start a revival. He answered, "Go home, lock yourself in your room, kneel down in the middle of your floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start a revival in that ring."
God wishes you to be in health
"I AM the Lord who heals you"
God heals all our diseases
With His stripes we are healed
His word healed all that were sick
God took our infirmities and sicknesses
His words are spiritual life and health to us
Ask and believe in faith and be obedient and it shall be done unto you
"No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right"
Jesus heals all manner of sickness
"Trust Me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give Me glory"
"Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray
over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And their prayer offered in faith
will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven"
(3 John 1:2).
(Exodus 15:26).
(Psalm 103:3).
(Isaiah 53:5).
(Matthew 8:16).
(Matthew 8:17).
(Proverbs 4:22).
(John 15:7).
(Psalm 84:11).
(Matthew 4:23).
(Psalm 50:15).
(James 5:14-15). NLT
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
(Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27).
And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to
one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me...
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital
in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the Clinic.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a
truly awful looking man. Why, he is hardly taller than my eight-year-old, I thought as I
stared at the stooped, shriveled body.
But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet, his voice was
pleasant as he said, Good evening. I have come to see if you have a room for just one night. I
came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there is no bus until morning.
He told me he had been hunting for a room since noon but with no success; no one seemed to have
a room. I guess it is my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more
treatments...
For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me, I could sleep in this rocking
chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning. I told him we would find him a bed,
but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked
the old man if he would join us. No thank you. I have plenty and he held up a brown paper bag.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It
did not take a long time to see that this old man had an over sized heart crowded into that
tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children and her
husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He did not tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with thanks
to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was
apparently a form of skin cancer. He was thankful for the strength to keep going.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning,
the bed linens were neatly folded, and the little man was out on the porch.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great
favor, he said, could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I will not
put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair. He paused a moment and then added, your
children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children do not seem
to mind. I told him he was welcome to come again.
And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought
a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that
morning before he left so that they would be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4 a.m., and I
wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring
us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters
packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that
he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly
precious.
When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor
made after he left that first morning. Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I
turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!
Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice But, oh if only they could have known him, perhaps
their illness would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to
have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the
good with gratitude..
(Matthew 25:40).
When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I
remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.
On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned
biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did
was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I do not
remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly
on that biscuit and eat every bite!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad
for burning the biscuits. And I will never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his
biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at
work today and she is real tired. And besides- a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"
Life is full of imperfect things- and imperfect people. I am not the best at hardly
anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I have
learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults- and choosing to
celebrate each others differences- is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy,
growing, and lasting relationship.
(Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31).
One evening an old man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside every person.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt,
resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,
empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather- "Which wolf wins?"
The old man replied simply, "the one you feed."
So the question is...which wolf are you feeding?
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked- for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit
will of the Spirit reap everlasting life
(Galations 6:7-8).
Unless you have walked in the shoes of the ministers wife you can never understand
the loneliness and isolation that comes with the job. Although her husband takes
the role of church leader and is almost always front and center, it takes a
unique woman to stand in the wings and provide the support he needs to be what he
has to be for his "flock". Behind closed doors she is the strength, guidance and
support that keeps these men focused on their faith- grounded, and prepared to deal
with the enormous responsibility God has given them. They are the angels God
blesses our church leaders with to care for and truly represent what the
"missing rib" means. They are protectors of the most vulnerable and most attacked
part of a pastor- his heart. The best description of this type of woman is a
"Proverbs 31" woman.
Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is worth more than precious rubies.
Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She will not hinder him
but help him all her life. She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. She is like a
merchant's ship- she brings her food from afar. She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast
for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls. She goes out to inspect a
field and buys it- with her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard
worker. She watches for bargains- her lights burn late into the night. Her hands are busy
spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens
her arms to the needy. She has no fear of winter for her household because all of them have
warm clothes. She quilts her own bedspreads. She dresses like royalty in gowns of finest cloth.
Her husband is well known, for he sits in the council meeting with the other civic leaders.
She makes belted linen garments and sashes to sell to the merchants. She is clothed with
strength and dignity, and she laughs with no fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are
wise, and kindness is the rule when she gives instructions. She carefully watches all that goes
on in her household and does not have to bear the consequences of laziness. Her children stand
and bless her. Her husband praises her- there are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last- but a woman who fears
the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly
declare her praise
(Proverbs 31:10-30).
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