NAILS IN THE FENCE

There once was a little boy who had a bad

temper. His father gave him a bag of nails

and told him that every time he lost his temper he

must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had

driven 30 nails into the fence. Over the next

few weeks, as he learned to control his anger,

the number of nails hammered daily

gradually dwindled down. He discovered

it was easier to hold his temper than to

drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t

lose his temper at all. He told his father

about it and the father said that was great,

and now he suggested that the boy

should pull out one nail for each day that

he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally

able to tell his father that all the nails

were gone. The father took his son by the

hand and then led him to the fence.

He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at

the holes in the fence. The fence will never be

the same. Always remember that

when you say things in anger,

they leave a scar just like this one.

You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.

It won’t matter how many times you say

“I’m sorry”, the wound is still there.

A verbal wound is

as bad as a physical one.

Actually, a verbal wound can take much

longer to heal, than a physical one.

Good friends are very rare jewels indeed. They

make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

They lend an ear, they share words of praise

and they always want to open their hearts to us.

…I am an addict I stopped by the South Side Mardel Christian book store after work today and walked out with 6 (six) new books. That puts the total at 41 books I am now reading simultaneously- 42 if you count the Bible itself. I need to commit to finishing one of these books (other than the Bible) all the way thru and then finishing each in turn. I am building quite a library. I will end up showing you and also quoting from all of the other books I bought tonite. However, I am particularly enthused about this ONE book- probably the one I will devour in its entirety first. It is entitled
“What Jesus Demands From The World”- by John Piper.

Man, not only is it an awesome book, but it fits perfectly into what you have just said, also into our class setting and into the dialog.

Believe it or not I also just found the PDF version of the book online here:

http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_bwjd.pdf

Man this one is potent. Scroll thru the first few pages of the book enough to see the table of contents displaying the chapter headings. The table of contents alone reads like a lesson or sermon. I would absolutely love having a class based upon this book!
I am ready to get out into the world and spread some Agape.

Hear some good sermons on peacemaking HERE.

Romans 12:14-21 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[a] Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[b]says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[c] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Footnotes:

1. Romans 12:16 Or willing to do menial work
2. Romans 12:19 Deut. 32:35
3. Romans 12:20 Prov. 25:21,22

More about Traditional Christian Peacemaking

LINK

The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.

The cross of the Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, by slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power went with them. The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.

All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament or made its outline before their faces as a magic sign to ward off evil, then it became at best a weak emblem, at worst a positive fetish. As such it is revered today by millions who know absolutely nothing about its power.

The cross effects its ends by destroying one established pattern, the victim’s, and creating another pattern, its own. Thus it always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible.

With perfect knowledge of all this Christ said:

Luke 9:23 (NIV) “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

So the cross not only brings Christ’s life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer’s life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.

This, and nothing less, is true Christianity, though we cannot but recognize the sharp divergence of this conception from that held by the rank and file of evangelicals today. But we dare not qualify our position. The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger of the Lamb turned Lion.

We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do–flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make of Christianity something other than it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true cross.

If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end. Only then can we rise in fullness of life to establish a pattern of living wholly new and free and full of good works.

The changed attitude toward the cross that we see in modern orthodoxy proves not that God has changed, nor that Christ has eased up on His demand that we carry the cross; it means rather that current Christianity has moved away from the standards of the New Testament. So far have we moved indeed that it may take nothing short of a new reformation to restore the cross to its right place in the theology and life of the Church.