A ROCKY FOUNDATION

    Gregory of Nyssa lived in Cappadocia (a region in modern Turkey) in the fourth century. His older brother, a bishop, arranged for him to be appointed bishop of the small and obscure and unimportant town of Nyssa (A.D. 371). Gregory objected; he didn’t want to be stuck in such an out-of-the-way place. But his brother told him that he did not want Gregory to obtain distinction from his church but rather to confer distinction upon it. Gregory went to where he was placed and stayed there. His lifetime of work in that place, a backwater community, continues to be a major invigorating influence in the Christian church worldwide (Eugene Peterson: side walk in the kingdom). In Philippians 2:5-9 Paul instructed the Philippians to be willing to take humble positions in their relationships as Jesus “ who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;   rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a se...

    Many years ago, in czarist Russia, a man who was traveling through Siberia, was told the following story by his host. “Timothy an orphan had been brought up by his uncle, who was his legal guardian. When he was 17 he found out that nearly all his inheritance had been wasted by his uncle. He was so angry that in a quarrel he fired a gun at his uncle. Fortunately he only wounded him on the hand. The judge exiled Timothy to Siberia. In Siberia he built a small house and settled next to us.   The injustice he had suffered affected him very deeply. He was so angry and resentful that for a long time he refused to make any contact with his neighbor’s. He spent his time reading books. One time I was able to talk to him over the fence and from that time on we became good friends. We spent many hours together studying the Bible. But, if anyone happened to mention his uncle, he would go as white as sheet. After sometimes he married and his extreme bitterness ended. He we...

                                             In 1977 at the height of cold war, Anatoly Shcharansky , a brilliant young mathematician and chess player was arrested by the KGB for his repeated attempts to emigrate to Israel. He spent thirteen years inside the soviet Gulag. From morning to evening Sccharansky read and studied all 150 psalms in Hebrew.   “What does this give me?” He asked in a letter, “Gradually my feelings of great loss and sorrow changes to one of bright hopes”. Shcharansky so cherished his book of psalms that when guards took it away from him, he lay in the snow, refusing to move until they returned it. During those thirteen years, his wife traveled around the world campaigning for his release. In one visit she told a university audience “in a lo...

    Bob Richard's, the Olympic pole vaulter of years ago, loved to tell the story of a boy who played football. If there was mischief to be done, this kid was doing it. Everything was casual, no big deal. And he added very little to the team. He practiced but wasn't committed. He showed up to play, but never with enthusiasm. He liked to hear the cheers but not to charge the line. One day the coach came over and said, "Hey, kid, here is a telegram for you." The kid said, "Read it for me Coach." The coach opened it and read, "Dear son, your father is dead. Come home immediately." The coach swallowed hard and said, "Kid, take the rest of the week off." In truth, he didn't care if he ever came back. The teams came running onto the field, and lo and behold, the kid. No sooner were they on the side line when the kid started saying, "Coach, can I play tonight? The coach thought, "Kid, you’re not playing tonight. This is the...