The best line I’ve heard in a while comes from Brenda Crim, one of our SBC missionaries in Alaska. She said, “Everything I own got its start in the offering plate of a Baptist church!”

Pastors and staffers (and our families) say, “Amen” to that. That humbling thought makes us grateful for those faithful brothers and sisters who year after year give to the Lord out of their love to Him and thus keep His church strong.

“Preaching the parables is like playing the saxophone — it’s easy to do poorly.” Don’t know who said it. A pastor, no doubt.

“The woman in John 8 was just a stone’s throw from dying.”

A man asked his friend, “When you stand before the Lord, what do you think will be the first question He will ask you?”

The friend said, “He won’t ask me a thing. He’ll look at me and say, ‘That one’s mine.'”

When seminary president Jeff Iorg went from the pastorate into denominational work, his predecessor said, “The things you will do in this job that mean the most to you, no one else will ever know about.” He soon discovered the truth in that. My guess is it’s true in 90 percent of our lives.

If I ever write my memoirs, Lord help me please not to do what a pastor friend of mine did. He’s been gone for a while now, but I located a copy of his autobiography on the internet and purchased it recently. Yesterday I read interesting and inspiring things from his life, then began to encounter a series of putdowns of those of us who believe the Bible and take it at face value.

For instance, this:

“At the 1962 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in San Francisco, fundamentalism reared its ugly head. It challenged the orthodoxy of (such-and-such a book), published by Broadman Press.” He added, “The Broadman Press did itself no honor in capitulating and withdrawing (said) book. And the fundamentalists had their nose in the Southern Baptist tent.”

Now, in the religious circles I revolve in, the word “fundamentalist” is the equivalent of the racially provocative “N” word. One man’s fundamentalist is another fellow’s liberal. It’s all relative. To some preachers and some denominations — you can believe this or not, but it’s true — Jerry Falwell was a raving liberal. And to others, Harry Emerson Fosdick (or name your favorite liberal) was (is) a right-wing nut. It all depends on where you are, on your point of view.

My point here is that I wish my pastor friend had not issued such a blanket put-down of those of us who believe the Bible and think our denomination’s publishing house should print only materials consistent with that.

Meanwhile, I’m guessing that up in Heaven, my friend wishes he could expunge that paragraph and a few like it. Thank God for the blood of Jesus which washes away all our sin, even the sins of preachers who think we are doing the work of the Lord when we put down our brothers and sisters.

This morning I brought a bag of books from home to lay on the table so when pastors arrive for our monthly executive committee meeting, they can select some for their libraries. As I arrived, Freddie Arnold was putting the last of perhaps 300 books on two tables for the same purpose. “Someone sent them to us a while back,” he said, “and I just found them in the closet.”

So, I did exactly what you think I did. Laid my books on the table among all the others, then cocked my head sideways and read the titles of every book out there so I could take my pick. When I returned to the office, I had in hand 10 books. Most were on prayer (I’m still building my library for the book on prayer I’ll be doing this year), but two or three others were special for other reasons. There was “Surprised by Joy” by C. S. Lewis. And I found a book I used to own a half-dozen copies of. “Love Must Be Tough” by James Dobson speaks to a husband or wife whose spouse is being pulled away from the marriage by something — alcohol, an affair, the job, something. This book has saved a lot of marriages by its great advice. Over the years, I would lend the books to people I was counseling and eventually, they all disappeared. The books, not the people.

What was Dobson’s great advice? In my opinion, the best thing in it is this bit of wisdom. When your spouse says he/she wants out of the marriage, your tendency is to do the absolutely worst thing you can do: wimp out. “Oh, please don’t leave. I’ll do anything you say. I love you, I need you.” And you dissolve into a puddle of tears.

Dobson asks the reader to remember what it was that attracted your spouse to you in the first place. It was your strengths, not your weakness. So, don’t be weak. Be strong.

Specifically, what that means is to stand on your feet and declare, “You are making the mistake of your life,” and take charge of your life. Show your mate what a capable person you are and that you can function without him/her. Put some mystery into your life. Don’t be so predictable. It’s precisely the opposite of our tendencies and not at all what the spouse was expecting.

In his book “The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person,” E. Stanley Jones tells of a transformation he witnessed in Japan.

“A Japanese banker said to me, ‘Before the war we had a saying that “business is like a folding screen. It won’t stand unless it is crooked. Make it straight and it will fall.” We acted on that. The consequence was that we had a very bad reputation for our goods — beautiful, but shoddy. Then at the close of the war we decided to change and adopt the Christian idea of loving your neighbor as yourself and doing unto others as you would have them do to you. We did this nationally, and the government watched all the goods manufactured in Japan and made them conform to the new pattern. Result? Our reputation went up and now Japanese manufactured goods are tops and our economy is humming.'”

Had Enron and World.com and AIG and a host of other companies adopted that policy for themselves, this country would not be in the economic shape it’s in.

If you ever write a book, I’d suggest you not put the good stuff at the back because most people will never see it. But in his book, “To Believe is to Pray,” Michael Ramsey (late Archbishop of Canterbury) has a chapter titled “The Place of Prayer” at the very end. The final paragraph is a keeper:

“The church is called to be a community which speaks to the world in God’s name and speaks to God from the middle of the world’s darkness and frustration. The prayer with beautiful buildings and lovely music must be a prayer which also speaks from the places where men and women work, or lack work, and are sad and hungry, suffer and die. To be near to the love of God is to be near, as Jesus showed, to the darkness of the world. That is ‘the place of prayer.’ ”

Many years ago, I purchased a book written to assist parents in helping their children come to faith in Jesus. The 35th and final chapter was titled, “Finally, all you can do is pray.” It made me angry.

“Finally” implies that prayer is the last thing to do, and “all you can do is pray” the least thing. Both assumptions are as wrong as possible. As the title of Mr. Ramsey’s book says, “To believe is to pray.” If you believe, you’re praying. If you’re not praying, you do not believe. What could be plainer?

Well, here’s one from the inimitable J. Vernon McGee to sort of balance the equation (the British archbishop on the one hand, and the California radio preacher on the other).

Someone says to Dr. McGee, “Do you think the world is getting better?” He answers, “Yes, I do.” Someone else comes along and says, “Dr. McGee, don’t you think the world is getting worse?” I say, “Yes, I do.” “Well,” you may say, “what in the world are you trying to do? Go with both crowds?” No, both are true. (This is from his commentary on Psalm 2.)

Believers always have a lot to choose from. If we want to be pessimistic and complain, there are plenty of reasons. If we want to be optimistic and joyful, we have even more reasons. So, joy and faith are choices we make, just as are unhappiness and unbelief.

I choose to believe and to rejoice. I believe the Book, I love the Lord, and I treasure my Christian friends. God has proven Himself faithful to me ten thousand times. I would be most ungrateful to start doubting Him now.

Have a great day. It’s your choice.