A ROCKY FOUNDATION

  Keith was diagnosed with malignant brain tumors. He fought back with all his strength, enduring radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. However he was only 45 years old when he died. After the church service, they went to the graveside where Keith’s pastor made some brief remarks. It is customary to throw soil into the grave; “from dust you came and to dust you return” at the end of the service. But, this pastor did something unusual. He took some petals from a red carnation and scattered them on the coffin while reciting, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. This was symbolic; flowers represent life. Flowers bloom from the earth, life comes forth from death. Looking at the coffin, he said, “Rest well, Keith. Death will not have the last word. We will see you again.” Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 was centered on Christ. His objective was to show his audience that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messia...

         Max from Vietnam writes this amazing story ‘My grandfather had an amazing memory. Whenever we came to join him in rural Gansu, he taught us about Christ from fragments of verses he had learned from a pastor. In 1995 my grandfather gathered us all together. He said “I have taught you about Christ for over fifteen years from the memory of a pastor who died so that I might have faith. But I have no more to teach you. I committed about five hundred verses of Scripture to memory from that pastor, and I have expounded each of them to you a hundred ways since then. It’s time for us to find the rest of the sacred texts.” We all looked at each other. This sounded impossible; we asked him who would find for us these texts. He replied “God will; we must pray”. We prayed…and prayed …and prayed. For two years we prayed, nothing happened. But for the faith of my grandfather, some of us would have moved to another faith. He was firm: “God is testing us to see if we ...

                      A world-famed musician, standing before a great audience, took up a violin, and played upon it so remarkably that his listeners sat in rapt attention. One string of the violin broke. He played on as though nothing had happened. The second string broke and though the audience was amazed still he continued to play as before. Then the third string broke, leaving but one, and while the people held their breath, he played on beautifully. At last the fourth string broke and the great musician raised his violin and bringing it down with all his might dashed it to pieces. The people thought that in anger he had ruined a very valuable instrument. He then told them that he had purchased that violin for three dollars; that he had used it to show them that it was not so much the instrument as the master hand that played it which determined the quality of music. In the very first sermon preached by the Church, Apostle...

  When a man loves God with all his heart and walks with Him, there is an atmosphere about him. Corrie’s ten Boom’s father was such a man. Casper ten Boom’s influence on the children cannot be properly measured. Eternity will tell the true story of his daily impressions on the family. He walked with God as he worked in his watch repair shop and guided his family. Because he was a truly godly man from deep within, the very character of his person touched every aspect of his house. Casper ten Boom was an everyday, all the day Christian. All day long he linked the Word of God to the things that were happening around their everyday lives. He knew his Bible because he was reading and meditating in it all the time. He was well known for his ability to debate the scriptures. Casper walked with his God; many aspects of his life can validate this, but his prayer life is the crowning proof. He had his times of private prayer which opened the way for the spirit of prayer that was up...