Inspirations Essay, Research Paper

Inspirations:

by mixed unknown authors

The Lord’s Baseball Game

Bob was caught up in the spirit where he and the Lord stood by to

observe a baseball game. The Lord’s team was playing Satan’s team.

The Lord’s team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it

was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs.

They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate whose

name was Love. Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because

Love never fails.

The next batter was named Faith, who also got a single because Faith

works with Love.

The next batter up was named Godly Wisdom. Satan wound up and threw

the first pitch; Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass, because

Godly Wisdom does not swing at Satan’s pitches. Ball one. Three more

pitches and Godly Wisdom walked, because Godly Wisdom never swings

at Satan’s throws.

The bases were loaded. The Lord then turned to Bob and told him He

was now going to bring in His star player.

Up to the plate stepped Grace. Bob said he sure did not look like

much!

Satan’s whole team relaxed when they saw Grace.

Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first

pitch.

To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had

ever seen.

But Satan was not worried; his center fielder, the Prince of the air,

let very few get by.

He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him

on the head and sent him crashing on the ground; then it continued over the

fence for a home run!

The Lord’s team won.

The Lord then asked Bob if he knew why Love, Faith, and Godly Wisdom

could get on base but could not win the game. Bob answered that he did not

know why.

The Lord explained, “If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game

you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, faith and wisdom will

get you on base, but only My grace can get you home.”

Romans 3:22-24

The Birdcage…

A man was on the side of the road with a large birdcage. A boy noticed

that the cage was full of birds of many kinds.

“Where did you get those birds?” he asked.

“Oh, all over the place,” the man replied. “I lure them with crumbs, I

pretend I’m their friend then when they are close, I net them and shove

the into my cage.”

“And what are you going to do with them now?”

The man grinned, “I’m going to prod them with sticks, and get them

really mad so they fight and kill each other. Those that survive, I

will kill. None will escape.”

The boy looked steadily at the man. What made him do such things? He

looked into the cruel, hard eyes. Then he looked at the birds,

defenseless, without hope.

“Can I buy those birds?” the boy asked. The man hid a smile, aware that

he could be on to a good thing if he played his cards right.

“Well,” he said hesitantly, “the cage is pretty expensive, and I spent a

lot of time collecting these birds, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll let

you have the lot, birds, cage and all for ten dollars and that jacket

you’re wearing.”

The boy paused, ten dollars was all he had, and the jacket was new and

very special, in fact it was his prized possession. Slowly, he took out

the ten dollars and handed it over, then even more slowly he took off

his jacket, gave it one last look then handed that over too. And then

(well, you’ve guessed it) he opened the door and let the birds go free.

Moral Of The Story…

The Enemy of the world, Satan, was on the side of life’s road with a

very large cage. The man coming towards him noticed that it was crammed

full of people of every kind, young, old, from every race and nation.

“Where did you get these people?” the man asked.

“Oh, from all over the world,” Satan replied. “I lure them with drink,

drugs, lust, lies, anger, hate, love of money and all manner of things.

I pretend I’m their friend, out to give them a good time, then when I’ve

hooked them, into the cage they go.”

“And what are you going to do with them now?” asked the man.

Satan grinned. “I’m going to prod them, provoke them, get them to hate

and destroy each other; I’ll stir up racial hatred, defiance of law and

order; I’ll make people bored, lonely, dissatisfied, confused and

restless. It’s easy. People will always listen to what I offer them

and (what’s better) blame God for the outcome!”

“And then what?” the man asked. “Those who do not destroy themselves, I

will destroy. None will escape me.”

The man stepped forward.

“Can I buy these people from you?” he asked.

Satan snarled, “Yes, but it will cost you your life.” So Jesus Christ,

the Son of God, paid for your release, your freedom from Satan’s trap,

with His own life, on the cross at Calvary. The door is open, and

anyone, whom Satan has deceived and caged, can be set free.

2 Men

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man

was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain

the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The

other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for

hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their

jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he

would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see

outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where

his life would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of

the world outside. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks

and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.

Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow.

Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city

skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described

all

this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close

his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by

the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t

hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the

window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring

water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the

window,

who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the

hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate,

the

other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy

to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him

alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take

his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of

seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window

beside

the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have

compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things

outside

this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even

see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue…There is tremendous happiness in making others happy,

despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness

when

shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the

things you have that money can’t buy.

A FRIEND….

(A)ccepts you as you are]

(B)elieves in “you”

(C)alls you just to say “HI”

(D)oesn’t give up on you

(E)nvisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts)

(F)orgives your mistakes

(G)ives unconditionally

(H)elps you

(I)nvites you over

(J)ust “be” with you

(K)eeps you close at heart

(L)oves you for who you are

(M)akes a difference in your life

(N)ever Judges

(O)ffers support

(P)icks you up

(Q)uiets your fears

(R)aises your spirits

(S)ays nice things about you

(T)ells you the truth when you need to hear it

(U)nderstands you

(V)alues you

(W)alks beside you

(X)-plain things you don’t understand

(Y)ells when you won’t listen and

(Z)aps you back to reality “Flexible people don’t get bent out of shape.”

A Man and God

A man was wondering in the woods pondering all the questions of life, universe,

and his own personal problem. The man could not find any answers so he sought help

from God.

“God!? God?! Are you there God?!”, he shouted.

God responded, “What is it my son?”

“I have a few questions, mind if I ask?”

“Go right ahead, my son..anything.”, God said

“God, what is a million years to you?”

“God said, “a million years to me is only a second”.

“Hmmm”, he wondered. Then he asked again, “God,

what is a million

dollars worth to you?”

God said, “a million dollars to me is only worth a

penny.”

The man lift his eyebrows and proceeded to ask a

final question. “God

can I have a penny?”

And God cheerfully said, “Sure!!…..in a second”.

===

JAMIE B. WALTERS

The Smell of Rain!

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple’s new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s

soft words dropped like bombs. ” I don’t think she’s going to make it,” he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.” Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk She would never talk She would probably be blind She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation And on and on. “No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. “David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements,” Diana remembers “I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn’t listen I couldn’t listen. I said, “No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what the doctors say Danae is not

going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!” As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially “raw,”the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more- but that happy ending is far from the end of her story. One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Danae closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet It smells like rain” Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.” Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children before the rains came her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest-and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

The $20 Bill

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?” Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. “Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air. “My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make

and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him.”

THOUGHT: The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are but by WHOSE WE ARE!

You are special – Don’t ever forget it! Please Pass this onto everyone in your life. You will never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the Hope that it can bring!

Who’ll Take the Son?

A wealthy man and his son loved to

collect rare works of art. They

had everything in their collection,

from Picasso to Raphael. They

would often sit together and admire

the great works of art.

When the Viet Nam conflict broke out,

the son went to war. He was

very courageous and died in battle

while rescuing another soldier.

The father was notified and grieved

deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before

Christmas, there was a knock at

the door. A young man stood at the door

with a large package in his hands.

He said,”Sir, you don’t know me, but I

am the soldier for whom

your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was

carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died

instantly. He often talked about you,

and your love for art.

The young man held out his package. “I

know this isn’t much. I’m not

really a great artist, but I think

your son would have wanted you

to have this.”

The father opened the package. It was

a portrait of his son,

painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had

captured the personality of his son in the

painting. The father was so

drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the

young man and offered to pay him for the

picture.

“Oh, no sir, I could never repay what

your son did for me. It’s a gift.”

The father hung the portrait over his

mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There

was to be a great auction

of his paintings. Many influential

people gathered, excited over

seeing the great paintings and having

an opportunity to purchase

one for their collection. On the

platform sat the painting of the

son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel.

“We will start the bidding with this

picture of the son.

Who will bid for this picture?” There

was silence. Then a voice in

the back of the room shouted. “We want

to see the famous paintings.

Skip this one.” But the auctioneer

persisted. “Will someone bid

for this painting? Who will start the

bidding? $100, $200?” Another

voice shouted angrily. “We didn’t come

to see this painting.. We

came to see the Van Goghs, the

Rembrandts. Get on with the real

bids!” But still the auctioneer

continued. “The son! The son!

“Who’ll take the son?” Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room.

It was the longtime gardener of the

man and his son. “I’ll give $10

for the painting.”

Being a poor man, it was all he could

afford. “We have $10, who

will bid $20?” “Give it to him for

$10. Let’s see the masters.”

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”

The crowd was becoming angry.

They didn’t want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy

investments for their collections. The

auctioneer pounded the gavel.

“Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!” A

man sitting on the second row

shouted. “Now let’s get on with the

collection!”

The auctioneer laid down his gavel.

“I’m sorry, the auction is

over.” “What about the paintings?”

“I am sorry. When I was

called to conduct this auction, I was

told of a secret stipulation

in the will. I was not allowed to

reveal that stipulation until

this time.

Only the painting of the son would be

auctioned. Whoever bought

that painting would inherit the entire

estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!”

God gave his son 2,000 years ago to

die on a cruel cross. Much

like the auctioneer, His message today

is, “The son, the son,

who’ll take the son?”

Because you see, whoever takes the Son

gets everything.

–author unknown

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authors many and unknown received through mail