Brief Messages for Time Limited Readers Part 6

These brief messages were created by Rev. Duane Maxey, who I consider to be my main mentor after Rev. J. Herbert Norton.

Brief Messages For Time-Limited Readers 05

THREE POIGNANT ILLUSTRATIONS

01 -- YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD

A man distributed tracts for many years on a street corner.  Finally, seeing no visible results, he gave up.  When he returned to the same spot two years later, he saw another individual handing out Gospel leaflets as he had done.  Striking up a conversation, he discovered that the man had become a Christian through a salvation tract given him on that corner about two years before.  The convert added, "Many times I've come back here to find that earnest worker and thank him, but he never returned.  I decided he must have died, and so I've taken his place!"  The first man suddenly realized that his work had not been in vain.  Much encouraged he went back to giving out tracts the very next day.  "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).

"Oh, Dear Jesus, with the above story, please encourage every reader who is laboring in Your Harvest that has been tempted to think his or her labors have been in vain because no visible results have been seen!  In Thy Name I pray, Amen."

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02 -- THE ONE JOINING THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO HEAVEN

Two travelers, who fancied they were abundantly able to take care of themselves, entered a railroad passenger car when the train was being made up and found comfortable seats.  They had dropped into conversation when a porter looked in and told them to go forward.  "What is the matter with this coach?" they asked. "Nothing," he grinned, "only 'tain't coupled onto anything that'll take you anywhere."

Some folks love to join, this, that, and the other thing -- Lodges, Clubs, Labor Unions, Religions, even professed-Christian Churches, but none of these things are "coupled onto anything" that will take one to Heaven.  One can even join the most godly Christian Church on earth without moving one tiny bit toward Heaven.

There is only ONE JOINING that will take us to Heaven, and it is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:17, which speaks of being "JOINED TO THE LORD."  Get genuinely coupled with the Lord Jesus spiritually, and, since "All power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18), He will "pull you through" -- all the way into the Holy City.  Oh, by the way, "FAITH" is the coupling link to Him!

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03 -- OUR SOVEREIGN GOD HAS NOTHING FOR SALE

One day, a poor girl ventured into the garden of the Queen's palace at Balmoral [Scotland] and approached the gardener, telling him that her mother was lying very ill and that she longed for a flower such as she had seen in the Queen's gardens.  It was winter time, and the flowers were rare at that season.  The child had saved a few pennies and wished to buy rose for her sick mother.  The gardener had no authority to give away the Queen's flowers, and he said, when she offered to pay:  "THE QUEEN HAS NO FLOWERS FOR SALE."

The gardener would have sent the poor child away, but it chanced that the Queen herself was in the greenhouse and, unobserved either by the gardener or his little customer, had overheard the conversation.  As the child was turning away sorrowful and disappointed, the Queen stepped from behind her flowery screen and addressed the child, saying:  "The gardener was quite right, my child, he has no authority to give you the flowers you want nor does the Queen cultivate flowers for sale; but the Queen has flowers to give away."  Then, suiting the action to the word, she lifted from the basket into which she had been snipping the flowers, a handful of rare roses and gave them to the child saying:  "Take these to your mother with My love, and tell her that the Queen sent them.  I am the Queen." -- H. F. Sayles

"What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).  Nothing! All of this earth's riches combined could not buy one's escape from Hell and Admittance into Heaven.  God has NOTHING! -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! -- FOR SALE!  He owns all, for He created it all.  But, while we cannot purchase Heaven at any price, OUR SOVEREIGN GOD DOES HAVE SALVATION TO "GIVE AWAY"! -- "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

How do we obtain this "unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. 9:15)? -- the way that little girl got the gift of those beautiful flowers from the Queen of Scotland: -- by COMING TO OUR SOVEREIGN GOD down the pathway of repentance and then, by faith, "without money, and without price" (Isa. 55:1) receiving the "free gift" (Rom. 5:15) of His Loving Salvation: -- "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).