August 2018 Signs of the Times Newsletter

[Stan]

August 2018 Signs of the Times Newsletter! The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues ofSigns and These Times. ***************************      Haddon Robinson tells of a 1919 Rose Bowl game between Georgia Tech and the University of California. Shortly before half-time a California player, Roy Riegels, recovered a fumble and in the confusion started running the wrong way! Sixty-five yards later, just before he would have scored for the opposite team, one of his own teammates tackled him.      During half time, Roy sat in a corner and cried.      Finally, just before playing time, Coach Nibs Price said, “The same men that played the first half will start the second.”      Roy looked up and said, “Coach, I can’t. I’ve ruined you. I’ve ruined the University of California. I’ve ruined myself. I can’t face that crowd in the stadium.”      Coach Price put his hand on Roy’s shoulder and said, “Son, get up and go on back, the game is only half over.”      Seen from the Easter perspective, no matter what the failure, the game is always only half over.—By Larry Neagle, Signs of the Times, March 1988. Quote: “In praying for others’ faults, recollect how long you have been correcting your own.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, April 18, 1911. *************************** Don't miss the ­­­­­­­­September 2018 issue of Signs of the Times: To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or CLICK HERE to order online. ***************************      John Dewey was standing nearby while watching his son play in a puddle of water. A friend walked by and remarked that his son would catch a cold and asked why he didn’t tell his son to get out of the puddle.      Mr. Dewey thoughtfully replied that he was just trying to figure out how to help his son to want to get out.      The only decision-making that counts is the decision-making that comes from within. With God’s law, or will, inscribed on our hearts, our obedience will spring from inward promptings rather than from outward restraints.—By Norman E. Lunt, These Times, March 1983. Quote: “Every part of this law [Ten Commandments] must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God.”—By John Wesley, Our Times, April 1946. *************************** NEW from Pacific Press—A Great Song by Ursula Weigert. A Great Song is the story of a boy who fell madly in love with classical music at the age of twelve, practicing enthusiastically—first his violin and later the organ. It’s the chronicle of a young man who, instead of following his father’s wish that he become a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, studied music. This is the biography of a young musician who earned the opportunity to conduct the world’s leading symphony orchestras. Finally, it is the celebration of a world-class conductor who is also an exceptional person, loved and respected by concertgoers and musicians worldwide. CLICK HERE to read the first chapter of this book online. CLICK HERE to order online or from your local Adventist Book Center, call 1-800-765-6955. ***************************      Unusual as it sounds, in 1968 the University Christian Movement with offices at the Interchurch Center, New York City, voted itself out of existence. On their door was posted this sign: “Gone out of business—didn’t know what our business was.”      Humorous perhaps, but sad for those who spent many months devoted to a cause only to discover that they were unnecessary and would not be missed. How many others go through life, only to end up in a blind alley? Dreams of youth junked along a hundred highways, no time to start over. No smiles. No peace. Only regrets and sighs.—By Herbert E. Douglass, Signs of the Times, June 1985. Quote: “Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.”—By Joseph Addison, These Times, April 1971. *************************** Please place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Want to connect with your neighbor? Maybe a loved one far away? Each monthly issue of Signs of the Times®offers a colorful and interesting presentation of the full gospel message. The result is changed lives! Send a subscription today. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine-yearly-us-subscription.html ***************************      The Duke of Wellington was listening to a group of Christian men talk as they discussed the possibility of success in missionary efforts among the unsaved. They turned to the duke and asked whether, in his judgment, such efforts were likely to prove a success in comparison to the expenditure and cost. The old soldier replied, “Gentlemen, what are your marching orders? Success is not the question for you to discuss. If I read your orders aright, they run thus, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’ Gentlemen, obey your marching orders.”      The question to ask as we work in the final days of earth’s history is not, “Do we have enough resources?” or “Will our efforts be successful?” The question is rather, “Are we willing to be faithful to God’s call regardless of the outcome, regardless of the sacrifice?”      Paris Reidhead, a missionary from the mid-1900s, tells the story of two young Moravians who heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British slave trader had two thousand to three thousand slaves. No preachers or clergy were ever allowed on the island, as he didn’t want his slaves to learn about Christ. However, the thought that all those slaves might live and die without ever knowing the gospel was too much for these young Moravian men.      So they thought of a plan. They decided to sell themselves to the British slave trader. This they did, then they used the money from the sale to pay their passage to the island where they were committing their lives to his service.      As the ship that would carry the young men to their destination left the pier in Hamburg, Germany, many of the Moravians came to see these two lads off. The families were weeping for they knew they’d never see these boys again. Some wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. The boys were in their early twenties with their whole lives ahead of them. For them, this wasn’t a four-year term of mission service. They’d sold themselves into lifelong slavery, simply that as slaves they could be as Christians where these other slaves were.      As the gap widened between the dock and the ship, one lad with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow raised his hand high in the air and shouted across the water the last words that were ever heard from them. They were these: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” From then on, this became the call of the Moravian missionaries!      God is looking for faithful men and women—men and women who will pick up the torch, not worried about applause, not worried about the wages they will or won’t receive, and not worried about the sacrifices they will endure. God is looking for faithful men and women who will recognize the urgency of the times and be willing to agonize and organize, realizing that the success of their mission lies only in their steadfast dependence upon Him. He’s waiting for men and women who will carry His torch over the finish line so we can go home.--From Daring to Ask for More by Melody Mason. Quote: “The standard of the Golden Rule is the true standard of Christianity; anything short of it is deception.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, May 30, 1916. *************************** CLICK HERE to see hundreds of Adventist E-Books. These books are available on Kindle, Nook and iBooks. ***************************      Among the ancients was a fable that there fell from heaven a mysterious mirror, endowed with such strange properties that one needed but to turn it forward, and it would reflect all the future; to turn it backward, and it would reflect all the past; to turn it upward, and it would reveal all above; to turn it downward, and it would disclose all beneath; to turn it toward one’s own breast, and it would reflect all within.      This we know was but a fancy. Yet what they pictured in fiction, we possess in fact; what with them was a daydream, is with us a glorious reality.      “The Word of God,” wrote one, in using the foregoing illustration, “is that marvelous mirror, fashioned and burnished by infinite skill, which has been committed to man in order that it may reveal to us eternity past, foreshadow to us eternity to come, unshroud to us the horrors of the world of darkness, un-curtain to us the splendors of the world of light, and unbare to us the mysteries of the complicated world within us—reflecting a man on his own self, till he is forced to exclaim: ‘Come, see a book that told me all that ever I did. Is not this the book of God?’”      What a wonderful book. When we turn to the remarkable disclosures it makes, we are filled with amazement, and we ought to be filled with deepest adoration for Him who reveals such marvelous things. No other book occupies so great a place, exerts so potent an influence, or is competent to produce such important results. Earth’s noblest structures are its monuments; the best institutions have originated in its spirit, and are supported by its friends. Even skeptics and critics, much as they sneer at its age, and confidently as they predict its overthrow, are constrained to acknowledge, in their candid moods, that “this book has taken such a hold on the world as no other.”—By Ernest Lloyd, Signs of the Times, January 14, 1919. Quote: “Prayer should be the foundation of every structure we build for Christ.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times. *************************** CLICK HERE to find the largest selection of materials to help you give a Bible study! ***************************      John Wesley preached on an average of fifteen sermons a week. Instead of breaking down under it, when seventy-three years old he writes that he was far abler to preach than when three and twenty. His brow was then smooth, his complexion ruddy, and his voice strong and clear, so that an audience of thirty thousand could hear him without difficulty.      This vigor he ascribes to continual travel, early rising, good sleep, and an even temper. “I feel and grieve; but, by the grace of God, I fret at nothing.”—From King’s Business, Signs of the Times, October 18, 1921. Quote: “If God’s place in the soul is empty, nothing else can ever fill it.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, August 22, 1911. *************************** Carry Pocket Signs with you wherever you go—have them ready to share with others.CLICK HERE to see a wide assortment of great tracts. *************************** The Footprints of Life      A man one day was reviewing the footsteps he had taken during his life. He noticed that all over the mountains and difficult places he had traveled he could see only one set of footprints, but over the plains and down the hills he saw two sets of footprints, as if Someone had walked by his side.      Turning to Christ, he said, “There’s something I don’t understand. Why is it that down the hills and over the smooth and easy places You walked by my side, but over the rough and difficult places I walked alone?”      Jesus answered, “It is true that while your life was easy I walked at your side, but when the walking was hard and the paths difficult, I realized that was the time you needed Me most, and that is why I carried you.”—Unknown, These Times, August 1980. *************************** Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others.

[Stan]

These are always interesting