The guard began to scan up and down the aisles, and there I saw my son playing with toys, but he was clearly in a state of panic. My son was all by himself among people he did not know. Our first child was feeling lost and alone, and I did not know what to do. I asked the guard, “Do you have an intercom?” He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Keep the camera on him.” Then I got on the intercom and said, “Ralph.” My son looked around because he recognized my voice. I continued, “Stay where you are.” He started looking around. “It’s Daddy,” I said. “Don’t move. I see you although you can’t see me. Stay where you are. I’m coming.”

In those moments, when you think that God cannot see you or that you cannot see God, always remember that God sees you. The invisible hand of God is active and is looking after your life.

In your times of storm, you have to keep your eye on Jesus, who is steady, so that when everything else is up and down and bouncing, you can maintain your footing.

The Northbridge Earthquake, as it was called, was the most damaging earthquake to strike the United States since the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. As with most earthquakes, the Northbridge Earthquake happened along a fault. Faults are cracks in the earth’s crust where rocks on either side of the crack have moved. Most earthquakes are caused by a sudden jolt along geologic faults. The faults are jolted because of the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates. The tremendous energy that is released creates shock waves, which result in violent shaking. Most faults are hard to detect because they are buried deep beneath the surface. While earthquakes appear to happen suddenly, the conditions that cause them typically take hundreds of years to develop.

Earthquakes are geological phenomena that cannot be predicted, controlled, or stopped. However, there is another kind of earthquake that can be predicted, and, most importantly, it can be prevented. I’m talking about a moral earthquake. Like natural earthquakes, moral earthquakes happen along fault lines. Faults are proclivities and propensities within the heart that, given the right stimulus and the right conditions, can cause an eruption of moral failure.

The meanness we experience is actually carry-over from what we’ve been through. Hurting people end up hurting people.

You need to plant your life in some soil that is good so that you can increase in knowledge. You ought to keep on growing. If you are today where you were last year, then you need to check your soil.

The Corinthians were sickly and feeble because they suffered from spiritual cohesion. They rejected the life-giving truth. They were attempting to survive on a limited, local, traditional diet, but their souls were famished because their minds were closed. (II Corinthians 3:14)

Now, in case you know nothing about canoeing, it is a strictly two person operation. We managed to get into our canoe without falling into the lake. We pushed off from the dock, only to be told by the nature trip guide that we were in the canoe backwards and needed to go back to the dock to get ourselves turned around in the right direction. We managed this also, without falling into the lake.

Our next learning experience was our roles as partners in this adventure and how to use the paddles. Now the person in front has the responsibility to determine the direction of the canoe, and the person in the back provides the power.

In your relationship with God, you are in a two person canoe. God provides the direction and power, you just need to follow instructions.

The candidate missed a golden opportunity because of an unguarded moment. He traded a three-million dollar compensation package for a three-cent pat of butter. What a tradeoff! Have you stopped to calculate some of your losses lately?

It was distressing to me, for it was midnight, and I was scheduled to eulogize a minister in New York at 11 o’clock in the morning. I rushed to the nearest counter with my ticket in hand and a tone of panic in my voice. The agent was calm as I explained my predicament.

He said, "You are all right. The flight does terminate here, but you have continuing reservations. There is a plane at gate two bound for New York."

All human beings are on an earth-terminating flight, but followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have continuing reservations. Like the apostle Paul, they can shout: "If [or when] the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Corinthians 5:1)

Grizzly Adams attempted to discourage this young woman and told her, “I admire that you are looking for your lost brother, but I want to tell you that wolves inhabit the part of the wilderness that you are talking about, and you don’t need to go into the wolf country! There are ravenous, blood-thirsty wolves there that have been known to tear people apart.” So he told her, “Please stay out of the wolf country.”

When I reread Matthew 10:16, I had to title a sermon, “The Wolf Country.”

The church congregation was invited to attend a worship service at a guest church. At the last moment, the guest host pastor had been able to secure the well-known sermon illustrator, since the original preacher had been unable to preach that day.

After the service and over a meal, a deacon said to the guest preacher, “You are really a good illustrator, but you should have given our pastor credit for some of those illustrations you used.” The guest preacher said, "Is that right?" To which the deacon responded, "Oh yes! I'll go out to my car and get a couple of his tapes so that you can hear him do some of those illustrations and you will hear how great of an illustrator he is.”

Life is similar to watching a movie. We become so engrossed in living until we lose all track of time. We have laughed, cried and endured the pains, tensions, anxieties and frustration of all that comes through the years of one’s existence. Then suddenly our beloved is taken away from us. The good news is that there are three invisible words on the screen of life for all believers, “To be continued.”