October 2009 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

[Stan]

The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times.

***************************

It was in 1874 that Mr. Moody and Ira Sankey had been holding an evangelistic meeting for three months in Edinburg. They had gone to Glasgow, and on their way to Edinburg to hold a farewell meeting. Mr. Sankey bought a newspaper before starting, wanting to hear the latest American news. In one corner of the little paper he found the words of a poem—“Ninety and Nine.” Mr. Moody was sitting by him in the car.

“Mr. Moody,” he exclaimed, “I’ve found what I’ve been wanting for several years—a shepherd’s song.”

“Read it,” Mr. Moody answered, at the same time commencing a home letter from home. Mr. Sankey began, but found Mr. Moody so engrossed in his letter that he concluded to wait.

They reached Edinburg and had a grand meeting. The third evening Mr. Moody, Dr. John Brown, and some others had addressed the crowded house. There was a deep silence—the silence of deep religious feeling.

“Sing your hymn,” a voice seemed to say to Mr. Sankey.

“I can’t; it has no music.”

“Sing your hymn,” came again.

Sankey never disobeyed such a voice in a great meeting, and gave himself to the guidance of the Spirit. Seating himself at a small organ, he began, not knowing how he might close. The hymn was born of that hour. No note has ever been changed. The twenty-third Psalm is familiar to every Scotchman; he usually sings it at least once a day. A shepherd song peculiarly appeals to him.

Mr. Moody came down from the pulpit, leaned over the organ, and with tears in his eyes, asked, “Mr. Sankey, where did you get that hymn?” The day before he had not heard it because of his interest in his letter.

The sister of the author of the words was seated up in one of the galleries, but the crowd was too great for her to reach Mr. Sankey when the meeting closed.

She wrote him after he had gone to the Highlands to hold another meeting. And so he discovered the authorship of the poem. The lady who had written the words had been dead some years. Afterwards he visited her sisters, and they showed him her little room where the “Ninety and Nine” had been written. As he stood in the room he prayed that God would continue to use the song to show the lost ones His tender shepherd care and love.

And then, as he sang for us those tender, loving words, eyes grew moist, and hearts stirred at their pathos.—The Methodist Recorder, reprinted in Signs of the Times, April 4, 1895.

Quote: “Jesus eloquently affirmed from the cross a higher law. He knew that the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good.”—By Martin Luther King, Jr., Signs of the Times, July 1997.

***************************

Don't miss the November 2009 issue of Signs of the Times: “The Ultimate Lesson of Healing,” “Daniel’s Amazing Time Prophecies,” “When Life Ends,” “Darwinism: What About the Science?,” “Surviving Divorce,” and other important articles.

To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com

***************************

Helen Keller was once asked this question: “How do you hope to approach old age?” Characteristic of this, one of the world’s most famous women, the following classic answer was given:

“You are the first person who has asked me point-blank how I intend to approach old age. I cannot help smiling—I who have these many years declared that there is no age in the spirit! Age seems to me only another handicap, and it excites no dread in me.

“Once I had a dear friend of eighty, who impressed upon me the fact that he enjoyed life more than he had done at twenty-five. ‘Never count how many years you have, as the French say,’ he would insist, ‘but how many interests you have. Do not stale your days by taking for granted the people about you, or the things which make up your environment, and you will ever abide in a realm of fadeless beauty.”

“Then and there I resolved, vestal-like, to cherish an inextinguishable flame of youth. I have tried to avoid ruts—doing things just because my ancestors did them before me—leaning on the crutches of vicarious opinion—losing my childhood sense of wonderment. I am glad I still have a vivid curiosity about the world I live in.

“Age, I suppose, like blindness, is an individual experience. Everybody discovers its roseate mountain peaks, or its gloomy depths, according to his or her temperament. It is as natural for me, certainly, to believe that the richest harvest of happiness comes with age as that true sight and hearing are within, not without. Confidently I climb the broad stairway that love and faith have built to heights where I shall ‘attain to a boundless reach of sky.’ ”—Our Times, August 1950.

***************************

NEW from Pacific Press—Blessings by Jerry D. Thomas. This modern-day paraphrase of Ellen White’s classic work Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing will give you a fresh new perspective into the words of Christ delivered on the mount that day.

Read the first chapter of this book online at http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/olink.tpl?sku=0816322848 Order online or from your local Adventist Book Center--1-800-765-6955.

***************************

The story is told of a battle during World War II in which a pig wandered into the no-man’s land between opposing armies. Distracted, the U.S. troops began taking potshots at the pig instead of shelling the enemy. They killed the pig, but they lost the battle—not because the enemy’s forces were superior but because they lost their focus.

Losing your focus will defeat you every time. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”—By Kay D. Rizzo, Signs of the Times, March 1998.

Quote: “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.”—By Mark Twain, Signs of the Times, November 1996.

***************************

Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Praying for your friend or neighbor? Add them to your Signs list and they’ll receive twelve life changing issues of Signs of the Times®. Start using this proven soul winner today. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com

***************************

Ever heard the story about the old mule that fell into a well? The well was deep and dry, and the mule was old and heavy. So the farmer decided that rather than try to haul the animal out, he’d kill two birds with one stone by burying the mule in the useless well. But, as the shovelfuls of dirt began to hit the mule’s back, it simply shook them off and stepped up! And it wasn’t long before the old mule, dirty and exhausted but quite alive, stepped triumphantly out of the well!

That parable offers important insights into worry management. Face your problem directly, courageously, and honestly. Refuse to give in to panic, anxiety, and self-pity. Remind yourself that we can shake off many problems that threaten to bury us and use them to step up.—By Victor M. Parchin, Signs of the Times, May 2000.

Quote: “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”—By Samuel Smiles, Signs of the Times, October 6, 1890.

***************************

Visit a new, exciting website—Renewed and Ready: http://renewedandready.com/

***************************

Bruce Olson was the unlikeliest of heroes. In high school, he was the kind of kid everyone avoided—the pale, skinny, nearsighted boy who always ran into things. Most painful of all, Bruce felt like a stranger in his own home. His dad was very distant and critical. It seemed like family members were always fighting each other; things went best when they didn’t talk to each other. Increasingly, Bruce withdrew into his own world. But something changed Bruce, something I’ll tell you about shortly.

Sometime after Bruce experienced this life-transforming change, he read an article about the mysterious Motilon people deep in the jungles of Columbia and got the wild idea that he should go and help them. So he saved up money for a one-way plane ticket and took off for South America.

Now, the Motilones had killed just about every outsider who had set foot in their territory. And Bruce was only nineteen years old. He’d never been in a rain forest before. He had no sponsoring organization. He had no training in cross-cultural communication. In other words, he had very little chance of surviving. But this strange kid with the wild vision managed to win the trust of the Motilon tribe. It took a long time. Bruce suffered a great deal; he was even tortured by the Indians. But an incredible love kept him reaching out. Let me tell you about one breakthrough.

At one point, an outbreak of pinkeye struck the Motilon people. In no time, the whole tribe seemed to have it. Antibiotics cure pinkeye easily, but the Motilones didn’t want to have anything to do with Bruce’s medicines. Instead, they kept going to their old healer.

Bruce wanted to help heal these people. So he rubbed his finger in the corner of the eye of a man who had a particularly bad case of pinkeye. Then he smeared the pus in his own eye. Soon he had a serious infection. Then Bruce went to the Motilon healer for help. He allowed her to sing her incantations. Then he handed her an antibiotic. He asked her to apply that to his eyes as she sang her songs. In three days, Bruce’s eyes had cleared up. After that, he persuaded the woman to apply the antibiotic to others. Soon, the whole tribe was cured.

Now, what gave the introverted, nerdy high school kid the courage to travel from Minnesota to Columbia? What gave him the love to risk his own health—his life—to help people he had never met?

One day back when Bruce was a lonely misfit, he began reading in the New Testament about Jesus Christ. And this Person, Christ, started to become more and more real to him. One verse in particular grabbed his attention:

“The Son of man [Christ] has come to save that which was lost.” Matthew 18:11.

This confused, hurting teenager felt very lost indeed. But he grasped the fact that Jesus Christ had come into the world to save the lost, to save him. That was wonderful news!

But how does a lonely, isolated kid in Minnesota make contact with the Son of God?

A verse in Romans pointed the way: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9.

“That’s all?” Bruce thought with amazement. “Just believe? I don’t have to do something heroic?”

Bruce decided to respond to this incredible offer. He began to pray. In the very first real conversation he’d ever had with Jesus Christ, Bruce told Him about his fears, about his sense of inadequacy, about the desire for change. That was the beginning of the relationship that changed this young man forever.

Bruce describes the experience in these words: “I realized a peace coming into me. It wasn’t just a silence ending the war inside of me. It was alive, and it was making me alive. I knew that I didn’t ever want that peace, that stillness, to go away.”

Jesus is not just another figure in history. Christianity is not just another religion. Jesus is a Person who still comes into human lives.

He wants to transform you, too.—By Mark Finley, Signs of the Times, May 2001.

Quote: “The cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”—By Oscar Wilde, Our Times, September 1949.

***************************

Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others. If this FREE newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend, and you would like to receive it directly on a monthly basis, email: join-signsnews@lyra.pacificpress.com

You are subscribed to signsnews as stanjensen@mac.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to leave-34699-30853.27ac0ca86e06d1822d546ed038ea33ae@lyra.pacificpress.com

Pacific Press, 1350 N Kings Rd, Nampa, ID 83687, (208) 465-2500.

[phkrause]

I enjoy it every time I read it dgrimm.

pk