Tag Archives: history

Aren’t you Glad God isn’t Like the Presidential Turkey Pardon

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The Presidential Turkey pardon began in 1947 as a PR stunt of the National Turkey Federation by donating one of their finest turkeys to the President of the United States. For 25 years the publicity stunt proceeded without a hitch, until in 1963 when President Kennedy, looked at his turkey and said, “Let’s keep him going.”

This is what happens: About 25 “good” turkeys are picked from a crowd of about 20,000. They are sent to the president to “strut their stuff” and only one or two are chosen (and sent to a Thanksgiving parade at Disneyland). They eventually end up at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, and sheltered in a coop on the historic estate.*

Aren’t you Thankful that God doesn’t look for the “good” turkeys in the crowd but He extends His love and care to all? The Bible says, “But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

And again, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

Happy Thanksgiving to all the “Turkeys” out there!

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*Written and adapted by Kolby King from numerous sources.

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If I Believed What You Say…

Devotions for Childrens Leaders 4, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Read:

Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him and he was condemned to death. On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk. Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses. The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading. “The Consolations of Religion,” was the reply. Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell. Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase without a tremor? Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, “You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings”? All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached. Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon.

“Sir,” addressing the preacher, “if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”*

Reflect

Read Revelation 20:11-15 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

“I still, from my armchair, preach in great revivals. I still vision hundreds walking the aisles to accept Christ. I still feel hot tears for the lost . . . . I want no Christmas without a burden for lost souls, a message for sinners, a heart to bring in the lost. May food be tasteless, music a discord, Christmas a farce if I forget the dying millions; if this fire in my bones does not still flame. Not till I die or not till Jesus comes will I ever be eased from this burden, these tears, this toil to save souls.” -John R. Rice, age  85

(Part of a 1980 Christmas letter dictated few days before his death)**

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*Leonard Ravenhill. Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1959), p. 32.
**Curtis Hutson, ed., Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers), preface.

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Accountability

Devotions for Childrens Leaders 3, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Read:

During World War II, a plant of parachute packers achieved notoriety because their parachutes only opened 19 out of 20 times. That’s an average of 95%, and although that will get you an ‘A’ in school, when you’re jumping out of a plane, it’s just not good enough. The manager of the plant developed a strategy to increase reliability. He required the packer to test the parachutes themselves. It wasn’t long until quality rose to 100%. That’s the principle of accountability at work.*

Reflect

Read Joshua 24:21-22 from your Bible.

Respond

Parachute packers need accountability and so do the leaders of children. To whom are you accountable and why do you think it’s important?

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

The value of accountability is that it “pressures” us into right living. Try asking one or two of the following questions to those with whom you are serving this week.

Quiet Time

What are you reading this week in your daily time with God?

Scripture Memory

What verse have you been focusing on lately?

Prayer

How have you seen God work in your prayer-life recently?

Attending Worship Service

What did you get out of the worship service today?

Overall

What is God doing in your life right now?

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE. 

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 31.

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Opportunities

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Read:

Sometimes an idea has to slap you in the face; it’s the only way providence can get your undivided attention. “It was a beautiful Lake Michigan day–puffy white clouds, light breeze, not too hot,” recalls 23-year-old Joanne Marlowe. “I was pretty depressed about my business, and decided to walk across the street to the beach, something I had never had time for. I laid out my towel. To pamper myself, I spent a lot of time putting on suntan oil. Just as I stretched out, a gust of wind picked up the towel and covered me in sand. I hit the roof. “A friend said, ‘Joanne, instead of getting angry, why don’t you figure out a fix?’ So instead of relaxing on the beach, I spent the day coming up with prototypes in my mind.” Eight weeks later she introduced a line of weighted beach towels and sold 4.5 million dollars worth of them, out of her house, within the first year.*

Reflect

Read James 1:2 from your Bible.

Respond

What do you do when life throws you a lemon? Why not make lemonade? What do you do when winds of trouble blow your towel away? Make a weighted towel. Have you had any wind or lemons in your life lately? How can this week’s verse make a difference in your life? When discipline problems arise in your class, how do you view them? Is it a burden or is it an opportunity? Discipline problems are never just “problems” to be overcome or set aside but opportunities to meet a child’s need individually and to make a difference in his life.

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

When the ice cream melts, make a malt.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE. 

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*If It Ain’t Broke, Break It, page 157, quoted in A Children’s Leader Devotion (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 23.

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