A ROCKY FOUNDATION

                   A little babbling brook springs forth from an ancient hill side, flows down the hill liberally supplying everything on its path with pure cool water. Supplying the water as it flows down does not empty it for the deep fountain inside the belly of the hill continues unceasingly to replenish it. The little brook flows down the hill, deepening and swelling. It then pours all its water into a river, withholding not a drop. The river flows towards the ocean, pouring itself out continuously.   The tributaries which come streaming from the hills keep the river constantly brimming. The ocean perpetually sends up its vapor to the sky, which falls as rain on the hill. The ocean is not emptied, for the rivers are constantly flowing in. The heaven and earth see to it that the little brook shall never fail to sing its joyous song, “Men may come and go, but I go on forever.” In Philip...

         Several years ago a young girl in   Los Angeles went to Biola College. She felt called to go to China as a missionary, so she took all of the required courses. When she finally applied to the mission board to go to China, they asked her to take a medical test. After her test the doctor said, “There is no way you could ever go to China.” She was rejected because she had a heart problem that would have been aggravated in China. And so, after all of those years of training and preparing, she received the disappointing news that she could not go. She cried before the Lord because of the frustration of her life ambition. But one day she came across another girl, who also felt the call to go to China as a missionary. This young woman was qualified but lacked the funds. She said to the poor girl, “I have an idea, we can be partners.” “I will get a job and half of what I make, I will send to you, to support your work in China”. They made a pact; she ...

  An airline pilot would always look down keenly whenever he was flying over a particular lake in Tennessee. One day his co-pilot asked why he always did this. The pilot pointed out and said to his co-pilot: “See that little lake? When I was a kid I used to sit in a rowboat down there, fishing. Every time a plane would fly overhead, I would look up and wish I was flying it. Now I look down and wish I was in a rowboat, fishing.” In Philippians 4: 10-13 Paul says “   I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.   I can do all this through him who gives me strength”. Contentment is that sweet inward quiet, an inner sense of rest and peace. Paul was a contented man. In verse 11, he says, “I have learnt to be content.” He was anxious for nothing (v.6...