These are a few articles collected and written by the readers of this magazine.

The Key to the Master’s Orders

“Pray ye, the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:38

The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood today because that may mean the invasion of God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Naturally in this world prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is actually stupid from the common-sense point of view. 

There are no nations in Jesus Christ’s outlook, but the world. How many of us pray without respect of persons, and with respect to only one person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction and sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that laborers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people are all around are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord’s time over energized activities. Suppose crisis comes in your Father’s life or your brothers life, are you there as a laborer?  “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a “special” work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s one, one who is not above his master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our lord calls no special work. He calls to Himself, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest”, and he will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.

Taken from My Utmost for His Highest, a book of Classic Devotionals, by Oswald Chambers.

Shortcuts…?

By Emily Klesick

Okay, so in recent attempt to shorten the amount of time it takes to melt beeswax, I managed to learn that it is probably better to be patient than anxious!  I wasn’t trying to splatter hot wax all over myself, it just sort of happened because I tried to take a shortcut!  

A lot of times I think we as Christians are always trying to find the answers sooner than what God provides. We want to know God’s will for our lives before He chooses to give it to us. We wish to take a shortcut! We need to learn to wait and not get ourselves into a mess trying to cut corners. Waiting may seem endless, but you know, you will probably be glad you waited in the end! So forget the shortcuts and wait on the Lord for His timing! :-D

The Incomparable Christ                  He was wounded for our trangressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of out peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

He came from the throne of the Father to the womb of a woman. He put on humanity He became Son of Man that we might become the Sons of God.

He was born in a supernatural way, lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity. He had neither wealth nor influence, yet the wisdom of man never matched His wisdom. Never has a man spoken like this man.

His family was inconspicuous and uninfluential. In infancy He startled a king. As a boy he stunned theologians with His knowledge and wisdom, for He was taught of God. In man hood He ruled the elements and quieted the raging sea. He healed the multitudes without medicine, and fed thousands from a boy’s lunch. Even demons obeyed Him and He gave back life to those who died.

He never wrote a book, yet none of the libraries of the world could contain all the books inspired by him or written about Him. He never wrote a song, yet he furnished the tune of more songs than all the song writers combined. He never founded a college, yet all the colleges together can not boast of as man students as he has.

He never marshaled an army, yet no leader ever had more volunteers. 

Great men have come and gone, yet He lives on. Herod could not kill Him, Satan could not tempt Him to sin, Death could not destroy Him, and the grave could not hold him.

He laid aside His purple robe for that of a peasant’s gown. He was rich, yet for are sakes became poor. He slept in another’s manger; He rode on another’s donkey; He was buried in someone else’s grave.

He conquered death and rose on the third day as He said He would. He ascended in to heaven and is now at the right hand of the throne of God. One day he will return with power and great glory to judge the world when every knee shall bow to Him as Lord – His friends gladly, but His enemies seeking for a place to hide from His face. He is the Perfect One, the Only One who can Satisfy the soul. He gives everlasting life to those that love him and obey His commandments.            Submitted by Emily Klesick

Holding Fast to Him

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him.
I will protect him, because he knows My name.”
Psalm 91:14

   The world is full of things (many of them good) that threaten to replace God in our hearts. But God says that our love for all things earthly must come only after our love for Christ. He must be first and foremost in our hearts. God has promised to deliver and protect us when we hold fast to Him in love and resist the strong pull of other desires. There will always be other things that endanger our affection for Christ. But when we choose to remain steadfast in our devotion to Him even when it is difficult, our relationship with Him is strengthened. Then His love becomes all the more meaningful and rich in our hearts. Just to know Him in a deeper way is reward enough. For, although ultimately we look to our eternal reward in heaven someday, Jesus proves that a close relationship with Him while we are here on earth is an amazing prize in itself.

   Don’t let the world and all the appealing things it has to offer pull you away from Jesus. Hold fast to Him in love, and He will deliver you.

~ Abigail

Sister to Sister
Submitted by HannahBeth Vincent

   ~ One thing my sisters and I do is leave little notes around each other's rooms. My sister Sarah (10) and I are constantly doing that! Sometimes it's nothing more than "Hey Hannah, when are you going to pay me for the cards I made for your friend?" or "Sarah, don't forget to do the dishes!" but it's always exciting for us to just get a note from someone. No matter what the contents! :)     
   ~ Another thing is, start a story club! My sisters and I all meet for about 30 minutes to an hour each week, and since I'm the oldest, I give them each a story idea or "assignment" and then for the rest of the time, we write our stories. At the end, we all read our stories aloud to each other. We love it, and it really helps with our writing skills, and has broadened my imagination more than I can say!   
   ~This idea is more for both brothers and sisters, but you could work it so its boys vs. girls if you wanted to.  Last summer I started our very own family summer reading "contest." I typed up all the rules for a 4 week program, and divided us into two groups: the younger children who can't read or are still new to reading and may need help, and then the older children who don't need help. Both groups were separate, and each had different categories that the children could win prizes in, such as Most Books Read, Most Pages Read, Most Minutes Read, Most Authors Read, etc. In each group, I made one category per child in that group, that way each sibling will get a chance to have a prize. One of the rules for us older children, was that in order for our reading to count, we had to help the younger ones with their reading, that way its not just one person helping the younger ones. The prize doesn't have to be big....for this summer, I saved up money and treated them each to some ice cream, but in the future I'll probably get them bookmarkers, or something like that. My sisters enjoyed the summer program so much, that they requested we do it every month, only with just us girls! 
   ~One more thing my sisters and I enjoy, is every other month (we've shortened it to once every three months now) we have a girls night. On girls night, we watch a girly movie (Pride and Prejudice has been the movie of choice for several of our nights!) dress up in our favorite dresses, we older ones give each other moderate makeovers, have a tea party, and do girly stuff. :) Our parents let us do it on Fridays, since we can sleep in on Saturday morning, but sometimes we like to do it earlier in the evening so we aren't quite so giddy from staying up so late. We have such fun times together!                    Thank you HannahBeth ~