(I actually started this article thinking I could sift all the Lord’s wonderful statements down to the Top 10. Now, I see how naive that was!  I couldn’t even get through Matthew’s Gospel with ten, much less the other three gospels. Therefore, here are 10 of the best from Matthew, presented in order of their occurrence.)

“You are the salt of the earth…. You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14).

In these two brief statements, the Lord forever set the pattern for believers: we are to be different from the world and change agents in it.  We are against the world in order to be for it. Without salt, putrefication sets in; without light, darkness.

You are severely needed in your part of the world, Christ-follower. But only if you are willing to be salt and light: different, consistent, influential, cooperative with others of like values and identity, and sometimes a little lonely.

“When you pray, do not keep babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:7-8).

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In the Arizona desert, there is a little critter called a “stick lizard.” On days when the temperature is sky high and the desert floor is like a hot plate, this little animal runs around with a stick in its mouth. When its feet become too hot to stand, it stops, pokes the stick in the sand, and climbs up on it. Then, after they cool, he hops off, grabs the stick in his mouth, and he’s gone again.  — I want to be like the stick lizard: going on and doing my job when everyone else stays home because they can’t take the heat.

I posted that on Facebook the other day.

Where did I get the story? I found it in Smithsonian magazine some years back.

Well, I did and I didn’t.

It was actually a letter to the editor of the Smithsonian. But I never forgot it, and have used the stick lizard in the occasional article, devotional and sermon over these years. He seems like such a survivor, a tiny creature that has figured a way to overcome obstacles.

And now, I find out it’s not so.

One of my Facebook friends, a pastor in Arkansas, commented that according to “clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com,” the stick lizard does not exist. It’s “old-timer, tall-tale hooey,” he said, but “it amuses the tourists.”

Another great sermon illustration shot down by reality.

Now, in all fairness, all we have said is that an Arkansas pastor “said” someone named Clay Thompson says this. I have not followed up to see if there is such a person, if he said such, and if he has evidence the critter is fictional. The letter to the editor of the Smithsonian does not make the animal exist, and the report of a nay-sayer does not prove he doesn’t.

Having a reference to cite as the source of a great story or quote is always good policy, but simply saying “Thom DickenHarry said this” does not make it so.

People play this little game with the Scriptures. Case in point.

A couple of years back, I ran across a newspaper column where prominent columnist  Cal Thomas was taking a potshot at some preacher or other for living lavishly.  He did so by quoting our Lord: “Do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his support” (Matthew 10:9-10).

Did Jesus say that? He sure did. The quote is accurate.

But that’s not all He said on that subject.

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The Old Testament is saturated with references on loving God’s law.

Love a law?

Apparently it’s such a big deal with God that He had Scripture-writers to urge it everywhere. The First Psalm, for instance, goes: His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law does he meditate day and night. And the 119th Psalm mentions the law in each of its 176 verses. We’re talking serious affection for the law here.

Normally, in our minds at least, we substitute the word “law” with “the Word.” Meditating on the entire Word of God seems to make more sense, and is something I find myself doing easily and often.

But love the law?

Until two days ago, the idea made little sense to me. But then I saw something on the side of the interstate that has changed forever how I think about that.

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As a child, I was enthralled by the story of “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.”

This ancient Arabian story tells of an everyday working guy, Ali Baba, who happens to overhear thieves discussing their hidden treasure. He follows them to their cave, hears the magic words Open Sesame (our English version of what they said, no doubt) which opens the door, and follows them inside. There he discovers a king’s ransom in jewels and gold. Later, using the (ahem) password, Ali Baba returns and helps himself to the treasure.

You can see why a child would love that story. It contains so many of the elements we all like in a good story: free gold, easy living, the bad guys are conned, and simple words that do wondrous things.

I don’t know any magic words other than I love you, thank you, you’re beautiful/you’re important/you are smart, and please. However, in studying the Holy Scriptures, I have come across a few which seem to work like Ali Baba’s door. We open it and find all kinds of treasures inside.

Here are a few such scriptures. See what they open up for you.

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His name was Emile Cailliet. In later life he became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and then Princeton Theological Seminary. His story is so special, so well-loved, it has been told and retold over the years. If you question that, “google” his name. I googled “the book that understands me” and found versions of Cailliet’s story of all shapes and sizes, with one preacher even referring to him as “Emile Clay.”

Lately, I’ve been downsizing my library and tossing out superfluous, dated files. in running across this blessed story of Emile Cailliet, I knew it had to be retold here for the benefit of those encountering it for the first time.

Cailliet was born in a small French town, received an education that “was naturalistic to the core,” and grew up a pagan. He did not lay eyes on a Bible until he was 23 years old. As a lad of 20, he fought on the front lines of World War I and saw atrocities unspeakable. If he had been an atheist before the horrors of that war, his unbelief was now set in stone.

When a German bullet felled Cailliet, an American field ambulance crew saved his life. In time, his badly shattered arm was fully restored during a 9 month hospital stay. While recovering, he married a Scotch-Irish lass he had met in Germany just before the war. She was a deeply committed Christian. Cailliet later said, “I am ashamed to confess that she must have been hurt to the very core of her being as I made it clear that religion would be taboo in our home.”

Emile informed his wife that no Bible would ever be allowed in their home. And yet, he found himself longing for meaning in life. In his reading — and he was a voracious reader — he went through everything he could find to satisfy the yearnings of his heart and soul. He said, “I had been longing for a book that would understand me.”

A book that would understand me.

Unable to find such, Cailliet decided to prepare one of his own. Over the next few years, he filled a leatherbound pocket book with significant quotations he discovered in his reading. “The quotations, which I numbered in red ink for easier reference, would lead me as it were from fear and anguish, through a variety of intervening stages, to supreme utterances of release and jubilation.”

At least, that was the plan.

Finally, the day arrived when Emile Cailliet put the finishing touches on his book, the “book that would understand me.” He walked outside the house, sat down under a tree, looked around at the bright blue sky, and opened his precious anthology. This was going to be a great experience.

“As I went on reading, however, a growing disappointment came over me.” Far from speaking to his life and situation, the various quotations simply reminded Cailliet of their context, of where he had found them, and nothing more.

“I knew then that the whole undertaking would not work, simply because it was of my own making.” Dejected, he put the book back in his pocket.

He had no idea what to do then. But God did.

God was up to something at that exact moment.

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