Tag Archives: story

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

November Stories, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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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The Story of Squanto

November Stories, , , , , , , ,

Around 1608 Captain Hunt and a group of English traders landed in the new world at Plymouth, Massachusetts. When the trusting Wampanoag Indians came out to trade with them, the Englishmen took many of them prisoners and took them to Spain where they sold them as slaves.*

A boy, named Squanto, was bought by a kind Spanish monk who treated him with kindness, taught him to speak English and shared the Christian Gospel with him. Squanto eventually made his way to England where he worked in a stable. The owner of the stable, a man named John Slaney, took compassion on the young man and helped him make plans to return to America.

In 1619, a decade after he was kidnapped, Squanto returned to his home but his return was met with heartbreak. During his absence an illness had swept through his people and he had returned to find that everyone he loved was dead.

In 1620 the Pilgrims, seeking the freedom of worship and freedom from the influences of popular culture, sailed to the new world and landed at Plymouth, where Squanto’s tribe had once lived. As they settled in and began to build homes the leader of the tribe with whom Squanto now lived sent another English speaking Indian to greet them. Eventually Squanto helped them know how to fish and plant crops. He also translate a treaty between the new colonists and the Indians that lasted for 50 years.

According to the diary of William Bradford, the governor of the Pilgrims, Squanto “became a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for [our] profit, and never left [us] till he died.”**

Years later, as Squanto lay dying with a fever, Bradford wrote that he “desir[ed] the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven.” Squanto also left all his possessions to his English friends “as remembrances of his love.”

Squanto’s story is an amazing tale of how God turned tragedy and difficult circumstances to the good. Instead of dying with his people in the epidemic, God used the evil of his kidnapping to save Squanto’s life. Then God used Squanto to help save the lives of the Pilgrims, which helped to shape the future of our country. It is God’s goodness and provision even through difficult circumstances that we celebrate when we remember Thanksgiving.

As we approach the holiday season, let’s remember the true story behind the “feast.” And let’s remember that the Bible says, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you” (1Thess 5:18).

The Bible doesn’t say to give thanks in just the good and pleasing things, but in all circumstances. A follower of Christ can do this because no matter what happens, even if you don’t understand why, you know the One sits on the Throne. We don’t give thanks because we like what happened but because we know to whom we belong and that our lives are in His hands. We know the character of God and how He has promised to “work all things together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Written and adapted by Kolby King from numerous sources.

*…it happened there had beene one Hunt … [who]seized upon the poore innocent creatures, that in confidence of his honestie had put themselves into his hands. And stowing them under Hatches, to the number of twentie foure, carried them into the Sraits, where he sought to sell them for slaves, and sold as many as he could get money for. But the Friers of those parts took the rest from them, and kept them to be instructed in the Christian Faith; and so disappointed this new and Devillish project.

A Relation of New England” in
Haklytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes:
In Twenty Volumes (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1906) 19:272-3

**https://bible.org/illustration/story-squanto

Find another detailed reference at: http://www.cupids400.com/english/about/squanto.php

© Copyright 2017 Kolby King

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Relying on God

Stories of God's Goodness, , , , , , ,

Bristol, England. Tuesday, February 8, 1842

Enough food remained in George Mueller’s orphan houses for that day’s meals, but that was it. There was no money to buy bread or milk for the following morning. And two of the orphan houses needed coal.

Mueller believed that if God sent nothing before nine o’clock on Wednesday morning, “His name would be dishonored.” Tuesday afternoon nine plum cakes arrived from a kindly sister. But the situation was still grim, as Mueller noted in his diary: “Truly, we are poorer than ever; but, through grace, my eyes look not at empty stores and the empty purse, but to the riches of the Lord only.”

Any other man responsible for the continual care and feeding of scores of children would have been climbing the walls. But Mueller believed in a God who is eternally faithful. He had, in fact, bet his entire career on the proposition that such a God could be relied upon implicitly and exclusively.

Mueller would not be disappointed. Wednesday morning just after seven he walked confidently to the orphan house on Wilson Street to find out how his Lord was going to provide food for that day. Mueller discovered that the need had already been met. A Christian businessman walking to work early that morning had suddenly wondered whether “Mueller’s children” might need funds. He decided to take something by the homes that evening. But, he later said, “I could not go any further and felt constrained to go back.” The man delivered three sovereigns just in time to make purchases for the orphan’s breakfast.

Timely provisions like this came in to Mueller’s homes countless times in his more than six decades of work. Never once did the orphans lack for food or clothing. There was always enough, sometimes just enough, but the children never knew a moment’s anxiety.

Mueller’s work was entirely supported by donations. During his 63-year career nearly 1,500,000 pounds was given, enough to care for some ten thousand children and to build several orphanages. It was quite an undertaking: two thousand children to be fed each day, their clothes washed and repaired, five large buildings to be kept up, matrons, overseers, nurses, and teachers to be paid.

And, according to Mueller, over these six decades God never missed a step. No child ever went without a meal; no baker or milkman ever settled for an IOU.

But now we come to the real catch: George Mueller accomplished all this without ever once asking a soul for a penny and without ever making any needs known. This man had embarked on his enterprise as a grand experiment. He wanted “something that would act as a visible proof that our God and Father is the same faithful God as ever he was…to all who put their trust in Him.” So this devout believer decided to demonstrate that the Almighty “had not in the least changed” by the fact that “the orphans under my care are provided, with all they need, only by prayer and faith, without anyone being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen, that God is faithful still, and hears prayer still.”*

Reflect

Read Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 1:6 from your Bible.

Respond

God will never lead you to a task that He will not equip you with all you need to accomplish that task. God always provides what we need to serve Him effectively, but sometimes (like Abraham who was promised an heir) we get impatient and try to work out God’s purposes in our own strength, resources, and timing.

How are you relying on God’s strength to accomplish the life and ministry to which He has called you? How has God provided you with the resources you need to be effective in serving Him? (God built some of these resources into you before you were born!) What are you trusting God to do in and through your life?

Your thoughts?

What prayer requests do you have for yourself and others today?

Remember

Many believers expect too little from a God who can do all things. What are you trusting God for in your life and ministry that no man could accomplish apart from the moving of the Holy Spirit?

*Mosley, Steven R., God: A Biography, (Phoenix: Questar Publishers, Inc., 1988), p. 230-232.

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Have a Thankful Heart

Devotions for Childrens Leaders 5, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Read:

A mother and a son lived in a certain forest. One day when they were out a tornado surprised them. The mother clung to a tree and tried to hold her son but the swirling winds carried him into the sky. He was gone. The woman began to weep and pray, “Please Lord bring back my boy. He is all I have. I’ll do anything not to lose him. If you’ll bring him back I’ll serve you all my days.” Suddenly the boy toppled from the sky right at her feet, a bit messed up but safe and sound. His mother joyfully brushed him off. Then she stopped for a moment and appearing a bit frustrated, looked to the sky and yelled, “He had a hat, Lord. Where is his hat?!”

What a reminder about thankfulness. The Lord has so richly provided for us yet sometimes call out for more. We say, “Thank you Lord but where’s the hat?!”*

Reflect

Read Philippians 1:3-5 from your Bible.

Respond

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

A Final Word

Thank you for letting the Lord use you to make a difference in the lives of kids.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE. 

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© Copyright 2017 Kolby King

*Story adapted from a story told on Preaching Today Cassette number 219 entitled “Thank You Lord” as quoted in A Children’s Leader Devotion (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 2.

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Going Forward

Devotions for Childrens Leaders, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Read:

The story is told that when Berlin was being divided into East Berlin, controlled by the Communists, and West Berlin, part of the free world, a group of East Berliners dumped a whole truckload of garbage on the west side. The people from West Berlin thought they’d pick up all the garbage, put it on a truck, and dump it back on the east side. Then they decided that wasn’t the way to handle it. Instead they filled a dump truck with canned goods and other non-perishable food items, went over to the east side, stacked it neatly, and put a sign beside it. The sign read, “Each gives what each has to give.” What a great message! You can only give fruit to others when you are living a fruitful life inwardly yourself. So, here’s the question of the day: What kind of fruit are you producing? You can’t grow fruit if you’re not growing. How are you growing in your walk with Christ? *

Reflect

Read Jude 1:20 from your Bible.

Respond

One of God’s purposes for you is to grow day by day with Him. After, this is eternal life—Not just going to Heaven, but knowing God (John 17:3). How well are you growing? Are there things in your life that are stunting your growth? What is your plan for a closer walk with Christ?

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

If you’re not going forward, you’re probably going backwards. Growing takes time and is a process. God takes six hours to grow a mushroom but sixty years to grow an oak tree. Which do you want to be?

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE. 

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*John Maxwell, Be All You Can Be (publisher, date, and page unknown).

© Copyright 2017 Kolby King

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Give Thanks

Family Devotions - Thanksgiving, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thanksgiving Day – Family Devotion

This is a great story to share with family around the dinner table. It is also a great way to create an opportunity to share the Gospel with people in your family who may not know Christ.

Read the following story:

Ravensbrook, Germany 1944

(During World War II Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom were arrested by the Germans for helping people the Nazis were hurting. Both sisters were strong Christians. )

Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom, prisoners 66729 and 66730, were led into Barracks 28, past rows of worktables and into a large dormitory room filled with great square tiers stacked three high. Here they would sleep, squeezed among hundreds of other inmates at the concentration camp.

Fighting claustrophobia, Corrie and Betsie squirmed into an upper deck and found their assigned places on the reeking straw. Suddenly Corrie jerked up, striking her head on a cross- slat. Something had pinched her leg. The two sisters scrambled off the tier and dropped down in a narrow aisle. Moving to a patch of light they saw them—fleas! “The place is swarming with them!” Corrie groaned. “Betsie, how can we live in such a place?”

The insects were the last straw for Corrie. She and her sister had been starved and humiliated. They’d endured filth, cold and back-breaking labor. They’d witnessed unforgettable cruelties. And now to be infested with fleas…Corrie wondered how she could go on.

Betsie had an answer. She’d read it in the Bible that morning—in First Thessalonians, where Paul urged believers to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God…”

Betsie suggested they thank God for every single thing about their new barracks. Corrie stared around at the dark, foul-smelling room and couldn’t generate much gratitude. Betsie thought of two things to thank God for. They’d been assigned to this place together and they’d managed to hang on to their Bible. Corrie murmured assent.

Clutching the Bible, Betsie prayed, “Thank You for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages. Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, thank You that many more will hear!” Corrie grudgingly murmured assent.

Betsie continued serenely: “Thank You for the fleas and for…”

This was too much for Corrie. “Betsie,” she interrupted, “there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

But Betsie insisted, “’Give thanks in all circumstances.’ It doesn’t say, ‘In pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

There in the narrow aisle Corrie bit her lip and thanked God for the fleas.

Corrie and Betsie did find many women in Barrack 28 eager to hear from those pages. Each evening after receiving a cup of turnip soup they’d make their way to the rear of the dormitory where a bare light bulb cast a yellow circle on the wall, and they would read from the Bible. Soon a large group of women were gathering to listen.

The Ten Booms always read from the Scriptures. They translated their Dutch verses into German, and then eager listeners packed together on the tiers would pass the precious words back in French, Polish, Russian, Czech. To some it seemed a small preview to Heaven.

Night after night the meetings grew larger and yet no guard ever came near. So many wanted to join that the sisters started a second service after roll call. Guards patrolled everywhere at the camp; half-a-dozen always paced about in the center room of the barracks, yet for some reason none ever entered this dormitory. The women couldn’t understand it.

One day Betsie discovered exactly why they could enjoy their island of religious freedom. There was a mixup about sock sizes in her knitting group. They’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it. But she refused to step through the door into the room. None of the guards would either. They said, “That place is crawling with fleas!”*

Giving Thanks
God wants us to have thankful hearts and to give thanks in everything, not just when things turn out good or when they go the way we want. Because of who God is and what God can do, we can give thanks in every situation, no matter what.

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Participate – Go around your family and have everyone say something for which they are thankful.

SAY – Of all the thing for which we can give thanks, the greatest of all is that God loves each of us so much that he sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. The Bible says, “But God shows His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Depending on the situation, you might:

(1) Ask if anyone would like to share the story of how they gave their life to Christ.

(2) Share your story of how Jesus saved you and because of that how you know for sure that you’re going to Heaven.

(3) Simply conclude with a prayer of thanks.

CONCLUDING NOTE: Betsie Ten Boom continued living for Jesus in some of the harshest conditions imaginable until she died of illness in the Nazi concentration camp. She is said to have died with an angelic smile on her face. Corrie, her sister, was released because of a clerical error one week before all the women prisoners were executed as the war was coming to an end. Concerning her miraculous release she said, “God does not have problems. Only plans.” She became a very powerful Christian influence and speaker concerning the grace of God and her experiences during World War II. She continued to serve the Lord until her death in 1983 at the age of 91. To learn more about Corrie and her faith, visit www.tenboom.org.

*Steven R. Mosley, God a Biography, (Phoenix: Questar Publishers, Inc., 1988), p. 189-191.

Find more family devotions in:

72 Family Devotions for Spiritually Training Your Kids
ON SALE for $5.99. Regular price: $9.99 USD. Nonfiction.
Featuring 72 action-packed, easy-to-lead family devotions. Set aside a night or two each week for a “special time” where you and your kids can have family fun together and learn valuable lessons from God’s Word. No advanced planning is needed. Anyone can do this. The ebook contains devotions concerning a variety of topics including salvation, fear, trust, sin, forgiveness and much more.

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“I Don’t Need This Anymore”

330ministries, Changed Lives, Stories, , , , , , , , , , ,

A number of years ago, I stood outside an old, leaning house. Years of neglect marked the small place. There was trash strewn across the front yard and it was squished along of row of other inner-city homes. Across the street was an abandoned field with chest-tall grass and I could hear dogs barking all around. Standing next to a pile of beer cans on the front porch, I gently knocked on the door. When it opened, my visitation partner and I saw one of the biggest men I’ve ever seen. He was taller than the door frame and his shadow filled the sides. He invited us inside and we stepped forward to see him in the light. He was muscle from head to toe, wearing only gray shorts, and as he closed the door, he began to make fists. I had spoken to him earlier on the phone and he had been expecting us but he suddenly became angry. Muscles grew across his body as he stiffened. He raised his fists to his head and everything inside me screamed, “Get out of here. He’s going to kill you!” But then he turned and leaned on the wall.

“I hate my life,” he said as tears streamed down his face.

“Kenny,” I said, “Let’s sit down and talk.”

I sat in the middle on the couch, sandwiched between this giant of a man and my friend who immediately began sharing Jesus with him. This man was a ex-convict, just recently out of prison but already back in a world of hurt and trouble. He never told us what he had done to spend so many years in jail, only that if he told us, “you would want to leave this place and never talk to me again.”

I watched this man argue that God could never forgive him and then soften as the Holy Spirit brought conviction and truth. At last, I watch as he bowed his head and prayed one of the most simply but powerful prayers I’ve ever heard, “God, I got nothing to give you but if you’ll take me, I’ll come. Amen.”

He looked up. For the first time, a smile filled his face. His eyes, that had looked so dead, now looked so alive. God had saved him!

Moments later, as we continued talking about his new life in Christ, he stood up and grabbed something from the coffee table. We followed to the kitchen as he lifted a beer can and drained it down the sink. “I don’t need this anymore.”

God changes lives. Pray for us as we seek to reach those who normally wouldn’t come to church.

Learn more about this ministry at www.330events.org.

©Copyright 2017 Kolby King

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