Smoking<\/b><\/p>\n
Eamon De Valera was an Irish statesman who served three times as prime minister of Ireland and subsequently as her president. After the Easter rebellion of 1916, De Valera was sentenced to penal servitude. While traveling to prison, he took out his pipe and was about to light it when he stopped suddenly and said, \u201cI will not let them deprive me of this pleasure in jail!\u201d He immediately threw away the pipe and from that day on he never smoked again.<\/p>\n
Today in the Word, June 18, 1995<\/p>\n
Wealthy Eccentric<\/b><\/p>\n
A wealthy eccentric died and left a million dollars to his nephew, John. When the will was read at the lawyer\u2019s office, the lawyer said to John, \u201cAccording to your uncle\u2019s instructions, payment of your inheritance will depend on choices that you must make.\u201d The lawyer held his two fists out in front of him and asked, \u201cDo you choose what is in my right hand or in my left hand?\u201d<\/p>\n
John decided to take what was in the attorney\u2019s right hand. The lawyer opened his left hand to reveal a gold coin and a silver coin. \u201cHad you chosen this hand,\u201d he said, \u201cyou would have received a substantial share in a gold mine or a silver mine in Chile.\u201d Then he opened his right hand to reveal a nut and a coffee bean. \u201cThese represent a million dollars\u2019 worth of nuts or coffee from Brazil,\u201d said the attorney. \u201cWhich do you choose?\u201d John decided on the nuts.<\/p>\n
A week went by before John arrived in Brazil to take charge of his holdings. In the interim, fire destroyed a huge warehouse where the nuts that John had inherited were stored and coffee prices doubled. Since John hadn\u2019t gotten around to insuring his holdings, he soon was bankrupt.<\/p>\n
He barely had enough for his airfare home to New York or Los Angeles, where he could stay with a friend. He chose Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Just before he took off, the New York plane came out on the runway\u2014it was a brand-new super jet. For the connecting flight to Los Angeles, the plane was a 1928 Ford trimotor with a sway back that took half a day to get off the ground. It was filled with crying children and tethered goats. Over the Andes one engine fell off. Our man crawled up to the cockpit and said, \u201cLet me out if you want to save your lives. Give me a parachute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pilot agreed but said, \u201cOn this airline, anybody who bails out must wear two chutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
John jumped from the plane and as he fell he tried to make up his mind which rip cord to pull. Finally he chose the one on the left. It was rusty, and the wire pulled loose. He pulled the other handle. The chute opened, but its shroud lines snapped. In desperation the poor fellow cried out, \u201cSt. Francis save me!\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly a great hand reached down from Heaven, seized the poor man\u2019s wrist and let him dangle in midair. Then a gentle voice asked, \u201cSt. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bits & Pieces, May 25, 1995, pp. 6-8<\/p>\n
Tea or Coffee?<\/b><\/p>\n
British prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the Waddesdon estate of the 19th-century Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued: \u201cTea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTea, please,\u201d answered Asquith.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, India, or Ceylon, sir?\u201d asked the butler.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLemon, milk, or cream, sir?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMilk, please,\u201d replied Asquith.<\/p>\n
\u201cJersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?\u201d asked the butler.<\/p>\n
Today in the Word, May 5, 1993<\/p>\n
Choices and Responsibility<\/b><\/p>\n
The words of Eleanor Roosevelt ring true:<\/p>\n
One\u2019s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility. <\/p>\n
Little House on the Freeway, Tim Kimmel, p. 143<\/p>\n
Unchoice<\/b><\/p>\n
When you have to make a choice and don\u2019t make it, that is in itself a choice. – William James<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Luciano Pavarotti<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song,\u201d tenor Luciano Pavarotti relates. \u201cHe urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers\u2019 college. On graduating, I asked my father, \u2018Shall I be a teacher or a singer?\u2019\u201c <\/p>\n
\u2018Luciano, my father replied, \u2018if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.\u2019\u201c <\/p>\n
\u201cI chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it\u2019s laying bricks, writing a book\u2014whatever we choose\u2014we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that\u2019s the key. Choose one chair.\u201d- Luciano Pavarotti<\/p>\n
Guideposts<\/p>\n
God Without Disguise<\/b><\/p>\n
When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. – C.S. Lewis<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Means Determine End<\/b><\/p>\n
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. – H.E. Fosdick<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Elimination <\/b><\/p>\n
Film maker Walt Disney was ruthless in cutting anything that got in the way of a story\u2019s pacing. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for SNOW WHITE, recalls working 240 days on a 4 1\/2 minute sequence in which the dwarfs made soup for Snow White and almost destroyed the kitchen in the process. Disney thought it was funny, but he decided the scene stopped the flow of the picture, so out it went. <\/p>\n
When the film of our lives is shown, will it be as great as it might be? A lot will depend on the multitude of \u201cgood\u201d things we need to eliminate to make way for the great things God wants to do through us. – Kenneth Langley <\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smoking Eamon De Valera was an Irish statesman who served three times as prime minister of Ireland and subsequently as her president. After the Easter rebellion of 1916, De Valera was sentenced to penal servitude. While traveling to prison, he took out his pipe and was about to light it when he stopped suddenly and … Continue reading “Choice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}