In the movie The Taking of Pelham 123, a New York City subway dispatcher, Walter Barger (Denzel Washington), is called upon by the police and FBI to draw from his extensive knowledge of the subway system in order to help outsmart a dangerous criminal mastermind...
John Wesley, the great Methodist evangelist, was once crossing the Atlantic on his way to America with Mr. Olgethorpe, who was to be the governor of Savannah, Georgia. On one particular day during the voyage, Wesley heard a great commotion down in the governor's cabin....
The guy was obviously down in the mouth as he sat on the park bench. He was so depressed looking that a policeman who was patrolling the area sat down and sought to console him. "Something the matter?" asked the policeman of the young man who was staring into space....
In 1758, Princeton College called Jonathan Edwards to be their next President. The New England theologian went ahead of his wife, Sarah, to begin the new job while she stayed back to wrap things up on the home front. In the in-between,...
During my time as a police officer in N. Ireland we were shown a training video that advocated the importance of speaking positively to oneself should you be shot or seriously injured in the line of duty. Speaking calmly, consistently, and confidently to oneself about a positive...
In "Lectures to My Students" the great English preacher C. H. Spurgeon, recounts the memory of a friend of Martin Luther regarding the great Protestant Reformer's praying. Theodorus said of Luther, "I overheard him in prayer, but good God, with what life and spirit did he pray!...
The great Baptist preacher Adrian Rogers told of a time when he was a student pastor in the Indian River County area of Florida, a region known for its citrus growers. On one occasion a deacon in the church gave him a rather generous helping of delicious oranges....
In January of 1967, three American heroes, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, perished in the first great tragedy to hit the infant American space program. The crew of Apollo 1 was busy conducting preflight tests when an electrical spark triggered a flash fire in the oxygen rich...
Coach Bobby Bowden of Florida State liked to inspire his teams with parables. According to Tennessee Titans center Kevin Long, who played under Bowden, one of Bowden's favorite stories centered on his playing days in college baseball. Bowden had never hit a home run...
A janitor would wait patiently each week for a group of seminarians to finish their basketball game before cleaning the gym. While he waited, he would sit in the stands and study his Bible. One particular day, as the seminarians were exiting the gym, they noticed the janitor engrossed in bible...
In his famous lectures to the ministerial students of Spurgeon's College, the great English Baptist, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was fond of saying, "that a minister ought to have one blind eye, and one deaf ear." According to Spurgeon, survival in the ministry...
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The famed astronomer Percival Lowell spent many years studying and surveying the surface of Mars. Through this scientific pursuit he believed he saw canals of water on Mars and set about mapping them carefully. By the time Lowell published his findings, he...
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In Ecclesiastes 9:18 we read that, "one sinner destroys much good." In the wisdom and warning of this verse, Solomon reminds us about the domino effect of sin. There is a contagious power to sin that we often overlook. One sinner and one sin can inflict...
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Three sisters, ages ninety-two, ninety-four, and ninety-six, lived together. One night the ninety-six-year-old filled the bath. She put one foot in and then paused. "Was I getting in the tub or out of the tub?" she shouted to her sisters. The ninety-four-year-old yelled back...
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On October 31, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 departed from Anchorage, Alaska, for a direct flight to Seoul, Korea. Unknown to the flight crew, the computer engaging the flight navigation system contained a one-and-a-half-degree routing error....
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After the Civil War in the fall of 1865, John Broadus and the faculty of the fledgling Southern Baptist Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina, became burdened for more preachers of the gospel to help heal the nation's gaping wounds. To help remedy that...
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John Chancellor, at the age of 67, was just easing his way into retirement after 43 years in the broadcasting business as a journalist. He was seen often on the NBC Nightly News. At this point in his life, there was not a cloud in the sky. All was well, and life was good....
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John Wesley was a tireless servant of God, and a man who had little use for leisure time. Across his lifetime, this eighteenth-century English evangelist planted churches, established orphanages, opposed slavery, wrote books, trained and ordained...
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The story is told of a time when a great Scottish preacher prayed in the morning service for rain. As he went to church in the afternoon his little daughter said, "Here is the umbrella, Papa." The seasoned church leader looked quizzically and asked, "What...
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Abraham Lincoln was a man known for his wit and wisdom. On one occasion he asked a critic, "How many legs would a dog have if you counted its tail as a leg?" The man thought for a minute and then said, "Five." "No," retorted Lincoln! "The answer is four....
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