In 2008, 4,000 books were published on happiness which is significantly more than the 50 which were published in 2000. If people would read the Bible, they would find the key to true joy.
Source: Psychology Today, January 1, 2009
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
There was a fellow who was
about to jump from a bridge. An alert police officer slowly and methodically moved
toward him, talking with him all the time. When the officer got within inches
of the man he said, “Surely nothing could be bad enough
for you to take your life. Tell me about it. Talk to me.” The would-be jumper
told how his wife had left him, how his business had gone bankrupt, and how his
friends had deserted him. Everything in life had lost meaning. For thirty
minutes he told the sad story—then they both jumped.
Billy Bray was a Cornish miner who
accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour in 1823 at the age of 29. He lived a life
of drunkenness and debauchery before his salvation, but he became such an
outgoing witness and testimony for God that he became known as “God’s glad man.”
One time he was digging potatoes from
his garden and felt the devil oppressing him. It seemed to him that the devil
said, “Billy Bray, God doesn’t love you. If He did, He wouldn’t give you such
puny potatoes and so few.”
In a Charlie Brown Christmas
Charlie Brown was having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit so Linus
said, “Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful
season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
Unfortunately, some Christians seem to have the same problem as Charlie Brown when we should be lifting up our Lord and Saviour.
A Russian countess accepted the Lord
Jesus as her Saviour and was open about her testimony. The Tsar was displeased
and threw her into prison. After 24 hours with the lowest level of Russian
society, in the most miserable conditions imaginable, he ordered her brought
into his presence. He smiled sardonically and said, “Well, are you ready now to
renounce your silly faith and come back to the pleasures of the court?”
Massena, one of Napoleon’s
generals, suddenly appeared with eighteen thousand men before an Austrian town
which had no means of defense. The town council had nearly decided to surrender
when the old dean of the church reminded them that it was Easter and begged
them to hold services as usual and to leave the trouble in God's hands. This
they did; and the French hearing the church bells ringing joyfully concluded
that an Austrian army had come to relieve the place and quickly broke camp.
Before the bells ceased ringing, all the Frenchmen had vanished.
“There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which
is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the
heart. This blessed joy is very contagious. One dolorous spirit brings a kind of plague into
the house; one person who is wretched seems to stop all the birds from singing wherever he goes . . . [But]
the grace of joy is contagious.
Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy
joy will strengthen you for your daily labor.
Rick Chollet was a financially successful entrepreneur until March 18, 1991.
He had even been the president of Brookstone Company, a small mail order business that he transformed into a national retail leader selling products for craftsmen. But on March 18 Mr. Chollet locked the garage door of his New Hampshire
house, climbed into his BMW, and turned on the engine. He left behind a note
that read, “Please forgive me, but the thought of going through the torture of
living is just too much to bear.”
A young woman named Anne Steele had encountered one
trial and disappointment after another. Her mother died when she was three, and
when she was nineteen she suffered a severe hip injury that left her an invalid. Eventually she fell in love and was engaged to be
married, but the day before the wedding her fiancé drowned.
“Researchers have found almost no correlation between
income levels and happiness. Between 1957 and 1990 income levels in the U.S. doubled.
Yet at the same period, people’s levels of happiness did not increase. In fact,
reports of depression actually increased tenfold. Incidence of divorce,
suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse also rose dramatically.”
The story is told about two wives who were doing their laundry in a laundry mat. They were both mending their
husband’s pants.
One wife said,
“My husband is so miserable. Nothing goes right at work, and he can’t find
anything good on television. Our home is a place of despair. When we go to
church, the song leader is terrible and the pastor is an idiot.
The other wife
said “My husband is so excited.” He can’t wait to go to church. He loves the sermons.
We laugh all the time and enjoy our family.
A mother gave her little girl a quarter and a dollar before
church, “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other
for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the
mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little
girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man
in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot
more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did.”
Norman Cousins was hospitalized with a rare, crippling form of arthritis. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old “Candid Camera” reruns. It didn’t take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain free sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed.
One morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was
feeling. “I'm burdened this morning!” was his reply. But his
happy countenance contradicted his words.
So the questioner
exclaimed in surprise, “Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?”
“Yes,
but it's a wounderful burden--it's an overabundance of blessings for
which I cannot find enought time or words to express my gratitude!”
In 1973, a horse named Secretariat became a legend in his time. Not only did Secretariat win the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, but he
did it with an unprecedented performance. At the Belmont Stakes, he not
only won the race by 31 lengths, but he set new records along the way
as he went faster with each phase of the run. For one-and-one-half
miles, that famous thoroughbred ran faster every second. Secretariat was
accelerating at such an incredible pace that his trainer noted if the
race had been extended another lap, his heart would have literally
exploded.
