Wednesday, September 29, 2004

DECK OF CARDS

  Deck of Cards  
A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning over in Afghanistan. It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't made a noise.   The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week.   As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk. Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"   The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."   The sergeant said, "Looks like you're going to play cards."   The soldier said, "No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."   The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"   "You see the Ace, Sergeant, it reminds that there is only one God.   The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.   The Three represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.   The Four stands for the Four Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.   The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.   The Six is for the six days it took God tocreate the Heavens and Earth.   The Seven is for the day God rested after working the six days.   The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, in which God saved the eight people from the flood that destroyed the earth for the first time.   The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten but nine never thanked Him.   The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.   The Jack is a reminder of Satan. One of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.   The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.   The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.   When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.   There are a total of 52 cards in a deck, each is a week, 52 weeks in a year.   The four suits represents the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.   Each suit has thirteen cards, there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.   So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."   The sergeant just stood there and after a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?" Pleaselet this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting for us.  

Saturday, September 18, 2004

A SPECIAL GROCERY LIST

A special grocery list

Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store.

She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries.

She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said:
"Please, sir!
I will bring you the money just as
soon as I can."

John told her he could not give her credit, since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.

The grocer said in a very reluctant voice,
"Do you have a grocery list?"

Louise replied, "Yes sir."

"O.K" he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."

Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head
still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down.

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.

The grocer stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said:
"Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had
gathered and stood in stunned silence.

Louise thanked him and left the store.

The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and  said:
"It was worth every penny of it ... Only God Knows how much a prayer weighs."