Jack Taylor, in his best-selling book The Key to Triumphant Living tells that even as a minister, he came to a point of almost complete exhaustion trying to live the Christian life in his own strength. Jack wrote that after he became a Christian, no one told him about the Holy Spirit. So he thought he had to live the Christian life on his own. His father was a farmer&...
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Many people are living defeated Christian lives simply because they do not know about the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. In Pecos County in West Texas, there is a famous oilfield known as Yates Pool. It was called Yates Pool because the oilfield was discovered on a sheep ranch that was owned by Mr. Ira Yates. During the Depression years Mr. Yat...
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The carnal Christian is a Christian who is seeking to live the Christian life in his own strength and no longer surrenders his life on a day-to-day basis to God. The carnal Christian is the most miserable kind of person there is. He is like the third of the three boys who were going swimming one hot summer day. As they neared the swimming hole, one of them broke into...
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Nothing quenches the work of the Spirit like unbelief. And nothing releases the Spirit like faith. Did you know that you can do almost anything by faith? I mean anything! President Dwight D. Eisenhower once told about the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II, codenamed Operation Overlord. He said, “From the beginning we knew that we were going to win. W...
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Some time ago I read a story by Robert Lee Sharpe. He told that early in his life, he and his father took a broken hoe and a broken rake down to the blacksmith shop one day to be fixed. A few days later they went back to old Mr. Trussell’s blacksmith shop and the hoe and the rake were fixed as good as new. The father asked old Mr. Trussell, “How much do I...
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Several years ago I stood here in this pulpit and told you about the need to start a work in Mexico. I said we needed to start by getting a preacher and covering his salary at $100 a month for one year. That night we had a deacon’s meeting. And when we started the meeting, one of our deacons stood up and he said, “Pastor, I can give that $1,200. Let me tel...
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Dr. Bill Hinson, the chaplain at Baylor University, told of a salesman friend of his who was driving through the back roads of Missouri some time ago when he came upon a little country gas station/grocery store. It had a gravel driveway and just one gas pump in the front. While the attendant filled his car, he turned and walked into the little grocery store. The store...
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Bob Lilly, the Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys, in a testimony to our church several years ago said, “On the first day of training camp, Coach Tom Landry said to the squad, ‘My priorities are God, family, and the Dallas Cowboys, and they are in that order.’” Like it is for most of you, my family is near the top of my priori...
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Roger Babson, who was for many years America’s foremost statistical expert and adviser on financial affairs, saw parallels between his church and the exchange on Wall Street. He said, "In Trinity Church I can exchange my fears for courage, my worries for faith, my nervousness for patience, and my selfishness for justice, kindness, and the things that really coun...
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