The Wicker Basket

The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the
mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson.
Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen
table reading from his old worn-out Bible. His grandson
who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way
he could.

One day the grandson asked, 'Papa, I try to read the Bible
just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do
understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good
does reading the Bible do?' The Grandfather quietly turned
from putting coal in the stove and said, 'Take this old
wicker coal basket down to the river and bring back a
basket of water.'

The boy did as he was told, even though all the water
leaked out be fore he could get back to the house. The
grandfather laughed and said, 'You will have to move a little
faster next time,' and sent him back to the river with the
basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again
the old wicker basket was empty before he returned home.
out of breath, he told his grandfather th at it was 'impossible
to carry water in a basket,' and he went to get a bucket instead.
The old man said, 'I don't want a bucket of water; I want a
basket of water. You can do this. You're just not trying hard
enough,' and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted
to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could,
the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy
scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his
grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said,
'See Papa, it's useless!'

'So you think it is useless?' The old man said, 'Look at the basket.'

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized
that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old wicker
coal basket, it was clean.

'Son, that's what happens when you read the Bible. You might not
understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will
change you from the inside out.'

Moral of the wicker basket story: Take time to read a portion of
God's word each day; it will affect you for good even if you don't
retain a word.

Thought for Today: Gods Love is like the ocean, you can see its
beginnings but not its end.

I really like this story because I don't retain things too well
anymore...old age may have something to do with it but I
just figure my brain just gets overloaded! God isn't concerned
about your brain anyway, He's more concerned about your heart.

Coldness Toward Spouse

This Week's Funny

An old man was lying on his deathbed. He had only hours to live when he suddenly smelled chocolate chip cookies. He loved chocolate chip cookies more than anything in the world.

With his last bit of energy he pulled himself out of bed, struggled across the floor to the stairs, and headed down the stairs into the kitchen. There his wife was baking those aromatic cookies.

As he reached for one—SMACK! He felt a slap across the back of his hand. His wife scolded, "Leave those alone; they're for the funeral!"

—Earliest known source: Tamara Norden, Shorewood, WI, on Prairie Home Companion web site, Fifth Annual Joke Show, (4-1-00); submitted by Brett Kays

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Shopping Plan

TODAY'S CLEAN LAUGH


In the frozen foods department of our local grocery store, I noticed a man shopping with his son.

As I walked by, he checked something off his list, and I heard him whisper conspiratorially to the child;

"You know, if we really mess this up, we'll never have to do it again."

*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*
http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

Preacher's Best Years

This is an old joke but one of the best Preacher jokes ever!

TODAY'S CLEAN LAUGH

A preacher, who shall we say was "humor impaired," attended a conference to help encourage and better equip pastors for their ministry.

Among the speakers were many well known and dynamic speakers. One such boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn't my wife!" The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, "And that woman was my mother!"

The crowd burst into laughter and delivered the rest of his talk, which went over quite well.

The next week, the pastor decided he'd give this humor thing a try, and use that joke in his sermon. As he surely approached the pulpit that sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It suddenly seemed a bit foggy to him.

Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!"

The congregation inhaled half the air in the room.

After standing there for almost 10 seconds in the stunned silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out, "...and I can't remember who she was!"

*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*
http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

Rewiring

TODAY'S CLEAN LAUGH

Because our former small-town parish was not a wealthy one, our pastor was dependent on parishioners for upkeep and maintenance of the church.

Once he asked my husband, Sam, to rewire the confessionals. The only way to reach the wiring was to enter the attic above the altar and crawl over the ceiling by balancing on the rafters.

Concerned for my husband's safety, I waited in a pew.

Unbeknownst to me, some parishioners were congregating in the vestibule. They paid little attention to me, probably assuming I was praying.

Worried about my husband, I looked up toward the ceiling and yelled, "Sam, Sam, are you up there? Did you make it okay?"

There was quite an outburst from the vestibule when Sam's hearty voice echoed down, "Yes, I made it up here just fine!"

*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*
http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

Now is Passing

From one of Albert Eienstein Books

While people keep waiting and waiting for something big to happen in life, the “now” is passing them by. Do you know how fast a “now” passes? At the rate of 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light. So no matter how much you love and enjoy a particular “now”, that's how fast it becomes a “was”. That “now” is never coming back, and that “was” turns into some”going to be”. So if you don̓?t learn from the “was's”, you're going to have bad “going to be's”. Which completes the cycle by bringing in had “now's”. Thus, the only time you can switch around from a negative to a postive is in the “now”. Because you have to do it now. You can't just think of doing it now because it rapidly becomes a “was” and it's too late. And “going to be”,is you may do it and you may not. So if you do it now, you know it's done and you've got it. If you have a good “now”, you have a good “was”, which leads to a good “going to be”. In other words, by taking advantage of a “now”, you have a good “was”, from which you can learn and change your whole cycle of life.
That's why I never used the word “if” anymore, because an "if" is a never “was”.

Hermanu Minkowski
Physics Teacher

TODAY'S CLEAN LAUGH

If you are an animal lover please visit the link at the bottom of the post. *Hand Dryers* My pastor friend put sanitary hot air hand dryers in the rest rooms at his church and after two weeks took them out. I asked him why and he confessed that they worked fine but when he went in there he saw a sign that read, "For a sample of this week's sermon, push the button." *Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!* http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

EYE LAUGH "Cat and Dog Agents" http://www.cybersalt.org/g06.php?id=120

Masquerade of Innocence

This Week's Funny

A woman was working one night in a Honeybaked Ham store. The store was equipped with security cameras, and she was watching the small, black-and-white monitors when she saw a woman come in the store, walk down the handicapped ramp, and go between two shelves. To the clerk's amazement, this woman grabbed a ham off the shelf and stuffed it up her dress. With the ham wedged between her thighs, the woman waddled toward the door.

The clerk was stunned and wondered what she should do. Should she yell out? Follow the woman?

Just then, the ham dropped out from between the woman's legs. It hit the metal handicapped ramp with a loud bang, and then rolled and clanged to the bottom.

The thief didn't miss a beat. She quickly turned her head and yelled out, "Who threw that ham at me? Who threw that ham at me?" Then she ran out of the store.

—Kevin A. Miller, vice president, Christianity Today International

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Cat Sitting

One night while I was cat-sitting my daughter's indoor feline, it escaped outside. When it failed to return the following morning, I found the beast clinging to a branch about 30 feet up in a spindly tree. Unable to lure it down, I called the fire department.

"We don't do that anymore," the woman dispatcher said. When I persisted, she was polite but firm. "The cat will come down when it gets hungry enough."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Have you ever seen a cat skeleton in a tree?" she said.

Two hours later the cat was back, looking for breakfast.

*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*
http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

Three-Year Argument

The monks at a remote monastery deep in the woods followed a rigid vow of silence. Their vow could only be broken once a year—on Christmas—by one monk. That monk could speak only one sentence. One Christmas, Brother Thomas had his turn to speak and said, "I love the delightful mashed potatoes we have every year with the Christmas roast!" Then he sat down. Silence ensued for 365 days.

The next Christmas, Brother Michael got his turn and said, "I think the mashed potatoes are lumpy, and I truly despise them!" Once again, silence ensued for 365 days.

The following Christmas, Brother Paul rose and said, "I am fed up with this constant bickering!"

—Strive to Humor daily e-mail list (12-19-01); submitted by Doug Diehl, San Antonio, Texas

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Meditation:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on
those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has
dawned.
-- Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)

_______________________________________________________________

Quotation:
Visit, I beseech thee, O Lord, this habitation with thy
mercy, and me with thy grace and salvation. Let thy holy
angels pitch their tents round about and dwell here, that no
illusion of the night may abuse me, the spirits of darkness
may not come near to hurt me, no evil or sad accident oppress
me; and let the eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in my soul
and body, filling every corner of my heart with light and
grace. Let no deed of darkness overtake me; and let thy
blessing, most blessed God, be upon me for ever, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650]
See the book at http://cqod.com/r/rs074