Here’s a story I find amusing and amazing. It is tradition that on New Year’s Day each year a parade is held in honor of the beginning of another year. The parade is named the Tournament of Roses Parade (in honor of the hundreds of different flowers on display each year) and is held in beautiful Pasadena, California. The parade is a festival of flowers, floats, marching bands, and the football teams competing in the Rose Bowl game later that day. Different companies or organizations usually sponsor the floats. One New Year’s Day during the Tournament of Roses, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. After several minutes, it was discovered that the float was out of gas. The entire parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas to refill the float. The ironic thing was that this float represented the Standard Oil Company, a large producer of gasoline.

 

The Standard Oil Company’s float didn’t have the power it needed to continue along the parade route. Can you imagine how embarrassing that must have been? Here is an oil company that spent millions advertising their product and who had vast supplies of gas at their disposal, yet they suffered a public failure.

 

However, before we get too cocky, maybe we ought to take a good look at ourseves. Of all the institutions on earth that people look to for hope and help, I would guess, the church is at the top of the list. The sad fact is that we don’t always live up to all the hype. Listen to the songs we sing that exalt the greatness of our God, and for good reason, yet when push comes to shove we often fail. The fault isn’t with God, nor what we say about Him, but with us. We fail to appropriate what He makes available to us and we fail, leaving us in an embarrassing situation. Success doesn’t depend on what we try to do, but what God does through us. It not our job to succeed, but to surrender. In doing so the Holy Spirit enables us to do what we could never do on our own. Without His empowerment we are running on empty, and you can’t get anywhere like that. Being filled with the Spirit is the fuel needed by every Christian to complete the course set before him. Without His aid success is impossible. With His help all things are possible.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,for I wait on thee.–Psalm 25:21

Anyone watching the political landscape is very much aware of the fact that most politicians are dishonest. They do whatever serves them best without any regard for what is right. We see an example of this in this bit of history described in today’s “Powerpoint” by Jack Graham:

Daniel Webster is considered to be one of the most brilliant and eloquent statesmen of the nineteenth century. He was an American political idol. So much so that in 1831, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote,

Let Webster’s lofty face
Ever on thousands shine,
A beacon set that Freedom’s race
Might gather omens from that radiant sign.

But you see, Daniel Webster had political aspirations to become the President of the United States. So he sought the nomination of his party to become the president. And in order to gain the nomination, he changed his views on slavery. Where he had previously opposed slavery, he began to support it.

As a result, Webster was never elected president of the United States and his political star was shattered. Twenty-three years after Emerson had written his original words, he sadly penned these words concerning Daniel Webster.

Why did all manly gifts in Webster fail?
He wrote on Nature’s grandest brow, ‘For Sale’.

For so many people today—even Christians—their integrity is for sale. They’ll make good decisions when there’s little on the line. But when it comes down to it, they’ll get ahead however they can.

Don’t put your integrity up for sale. Stick to your biblical convictions because the reward you’ll receive from God is much greater than anything this world will offer!

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.–Eph. 2:13

A South American Indian told the missionary who led him to Christ. When I was living in the jungle, we never knew a day without fear. When we woke up in the morning, we were afraid. When we went out of our houses, we were afraid. When we walked along the river, we were afraid. We saw an evil spirit in every stone and tree and waterfall. And when night fell, fear came into our huts and slept with us all night long. That is what paganism is. And this is what the world is returning to. All around us, as Christian truth begins to fade, this pagan darkness settles upon the land. How thankful it ought to make our hearts that God has called us out of such darkness!

Without the instruction of those who came to know God and then brought the message to us, we would have been nothing but pagans. Without any light in our darkness other than the natural light that came from our inner being, indicating that there is a God somewhere, we would be living like that still. But now, having once been far off, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

It isn’t merely the death of Christ. Paul says that it is the blood of Christ. It is significant that he uses that term. Death, of course, is not always bloody. You can die without losing your blood. The Scriptures sometimes speak of the death of Christ and more often of the cross of Christ. But still more often they speak of the blood of Christ. Many don’t like this today. They don’t like to think of the cross or of the death of Jesus as being bloody. But God emphasizes it because blood is always a sign of violence. You see, the death of Jesus was not just a simple passing away—dying of old age on a comfortable bed. No, it was a violent death, a bloody, gory, ugly, revolting scene—a man hanging torn and wretched upon a cross with blood streaming down His sides.

God wants us to remember that violent death, because violence is the ultimate result of paganism. It is the final expression of a godless society. Cruelty arises immediately when love and truth disappear from society. And God is reminding us that when humanity had done its worst, had sunk to its lowest, had vented its anger in the utter wretchedness and violence and blood of the cross, His love reached down to that very place and, utilizing that violent act, began to redeem, to call back those who were far off and bring them near—in the blood of Christ.

And in the blood of Jesus, all the advantages the Jews had were conferred upon the Gentiles. Ignorant, pagan, darkened, foolish, struggling, hopeless—nevertheless, they had just as much access to God in the blood of Christ as any Jew ever had with his temple, his law, his priesthood, and his sacrifice. By this the apostle is trying to emphasize to us the exceedingly amazing wonder of the grace of God, which laid all these liabilities aside and reached out to us and found us just as we were and brought us near by the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. What a gift to give thanks for!–Ray Stedman

Here is a message on parental responsibility by William Bacon Stevens that should awaken us to our need of holiness. Even if you are not a parent, if you profess to be a child of God someone is watching you to see if there is any evidence of it. What do they see? Stevens wrote:

We aid and abet the spiritual death of our children, by our irreligious example–both in doing that which is positively wrong, and in neglecting to do what is as positively required. As young as our child is–it has learned to join together precept and practice. And if we are professors of religion, our child has put along side of this profession–our daily walk and conversation, and is perpetually drawing inferences from the one to the other, either for, or against, the truth which we profess.

Uncurbed tempers, ill-governed passions;
unbridled tongues, uncharitable words;
lack of meekness, and gentleness, and truth;
lack of sobriety of mind, and kindliness of heart;
the absence of that strict conscientiousness which should mark all our actions;
neglect of the Bible and of prayer;—
irrepressible worldliness, in ever dwelling upon “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?”
–are leaving indelible impressions upon the minds of our offspring! So that, copying our habits of thought, speech, and action–our child’s character in its essential characteristics, may be formed for eternity; before its mind is able to receive the precepts which perhaps we occasionally teach.

One of the divinest secrets of a happy life—is the art of extracting comfort and sweetness from every circumstance. We must develop the habit of looking on the bright side. It is a magic-wand whose power exceeds that of any fabled magician’s to change all things into blessings. Those who take cheerful views, find happiness everywhere; and yet how rare is the habit! The multitude prefer to walk on the dark side of the paths of life.

There are those who take to gloom—as a bat to darkness, or as a vulture to carrion! They would rather nurse a misery—than cherish a joy. They always find the dark side of everything, if there is a dark side to be found. They appear to be conscientious grumblers, as if it were their duty to extract some essence of misery from every circumstance. The weather is either too cold or too hot; too wet or too dry. They never find anything to their taste. Nothing escapes their criticism. They find fault with the food on the table, with the bed in which they lie, with the railroad-train or steamboat on which they travel, with the government and its officials, with merchant and workman—in a word, with the world at large and in detail.

They are chronic grumblers. Instead of being content in the state in which they are—they have learned to be discontented, no matter how happy their lot! If they had been placed in the Garden of Eden—they would have discovered something with which to find fault! Their wretched habit empties life of all possible joy—and turns every cup to gall.

On the other hand, there are rare people who always take cheerful views of life. They look at the bright side. They find some joy and beauty everywhere. If the sky is covered with clouds—they will point out to you the splendor of some great cloud-bank piled up like mountains of glory. When the storm rages, instead of fears and complaints—they find an exquisite pleasure in contemplating its grandeur and majesty. In the most faulty picture—they see some bit of beauty which charms them. In the most disagreeable person—they discover some kindly trait or some bud of promise. In the most disheartening circumstances, they find something for which to be thankful, some gleam of cheer breaking in through the thick gloom.

When a ray of sunlight streamed through a crack in the shutter, and made a bright patch on the floor in the darkened room—the little dog rose from his dark corner, and went and lay down in the one sunny spot; and these cheerful people live in the same philosophical way. If there is one beam of cheer or hope anywhere in their lot—they will find it! They have a genius for happiness. They always make the best out of circumstances. They are happy as travelers. They are contented as boarders. Their good nature never fails. They take a cheerful view of every perplexity. Even in sorrow, their faces are illumined, and songs come from the chambers where they weep. Such people have a wondrous ministry in this world. They are like apple trees when covered with blossoms, pouring a sweet fragrance all around them.(J. R. Miller)