August 6, 2003 V1N21
Hi, so how have all of you been? God's been merciful to those of us who live here in California's central valley and the weather has actually been down in the 80's. God's so good.
Following is a story that brings to mind 1 Corinthians 12:15...
Threatened
This is a very simplistic story, but a powerful message. Think about it...
A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife
opening a package; what food might it contain? He was aghast to discover
that it was a mouse trap! Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed
the warning, "There is a mouse trap in the house,
there is a mouse trap in the house."
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I
can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to
me; I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house."
"I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I
can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, "Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a mouse
trap; am I in grave danger, Duh?"
So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the
farmer's mouse trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the
house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife
rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.
The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever.
Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer
took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with
her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it
does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we
are all at risk.
~Sumitted by Deborah Epp
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Your Cross
Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,
there will always be sunshine after the rain.
Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall,
but God's always ready to answer your call.
He knows every heartache, sees every tear,
a word from His lips can calm every fear.
Your sorrows may linger throughout the night,
But suddenly vanish at dawn's early light.
The Savior is waiting somewhere above,
To give you His grace and send you His love.
Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,
God always sends rainbows after the rain.
~submitted by Deborah Epp~
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Verse of the Week
"Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God." Job 37:14. Sometime during your day, just stand still and know that God loves you.
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Prayer & Praise
To everyone: =) I sent in a prayer request earlier to ask everyone to pray for us on July 19th. That was the day our loghome, which we currently live in now, was to be sold over auction along with personal property... I guess the request probably got lost and that's o.k. Our house did not sale the 19th and so we are still here, resting in the Lord and feeling His peace and His grace. It is all sufficient. None of our stuff sold well and over all it could be looked at as a very disappointing day but God is asking us to trust HIM! I am asking now for your prayers as we do that. Blessings ~ Anna Margaret Troyer
I am not going to be able to to the next two word studies. A very close friend of mine was killed in an accident saturday, the funeral is Wednesday and I will be staying her family for a while. I don't know when I will be back home.
I would also like to put in a prayer request for this family. The name of the family is Cambell, they are NOT related to the campbells in loveland.
The girl that was killed was 19, the oldest of the family and she was saved.
If you could put that in I would greatly appreciate it.
God Bless!
april
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Selected Sayings
1. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
2. Like fire, truth can warm and sustain life...like fire, truth can destroy if it is misused.
3. The remedy for injuries is not to remember them.
4. Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens.
Smiley
There was this lady who was visiting a church one Sunday. The sermon seemed to go on forever, and many in the congregation fell asleep. After the service, to be social, she walked up to a very sleepy looking gentleman, extended her hand in greeting, and said, "Hello, I'm Gladys Dunn." And the gentleman replied, "You're not the only one ma'am, I'm glad it's done too!!"
Well, as you can see the survey results are finally in (whew!); see below for more info. I would like to thank everyone who responded.
I would like to see more participation in the Prayer & Praise section and Verse of the Week. If you have an article, poem, quote, smiley, or testimony I would like to see those too!
E-mail address is ready4anything_2003@yahoo.com and the website is at www.oocities.org/ready4anything_2003. God bless all of you!
Staff: Editor in Chief: Jesus Christ
Assistant Editors: Jamie Scharf & April Pilgrim
Website Coodinator: Josh Champagne
Contributers: Deborah Epp
Anna Troyer
April Pilgrim
Jamie Scharf
Ready4Anything Survey
Thanks to everyone who responded! Below are the combined results...
1. On a 1 to 10 scale, (1 being low and 10 being high), how would you rate R4A? 8.3
2. What has been your favorite issue so far? "All" was most popular with individual issues being #8, #10, #14, #15, #16, #17, and #18.
3. What has been your favorite feature? In order of which got the most votes: main story, smiley, word study, and Selected Saying.
4. If you were editor of R4A what would you do differently? Various suggestions included:
studies of books done by Christian giants (like Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, etc.).
having people who send in prayer requests keeping the rest of us updated
having a theme for each issue.
And a totally unrelated question:
6. What do you prefer reading--nonfiction or fiction, and what types? And why do you prefer reading those types?
In order of most votes: Nonfiction, fiction, biography, historical fiction, missionary stories, and devotional.