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2003 Aurora Production, Ltd.

All Rights Reserved

Activated Magazine No.9 [Traditional Chinese]

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Love wasn’t put in

your heart to stay.

Love isn’t love till you

give it away!

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A story is told of a well-to-do lady whohad become a Christian late in life. One

day she was walking along the city street ac-companied by her granddaughter. When abeggar approached them, the old lady lis-tened to his tale. She then took a bill fromher purse and placed it in his palm. At thenext corner a Salvation Army volunteer waswaiting, and the old lady dropped a gift intoher kettle. Her granddaughter looked at herwith curiosity and then said: “Grandma, Iguess you have lost a lot since you became aChristian, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” said the old lady, “I have. I havelost a quick temper, a habit of criticizingothers, and a tendency to spend all my sparetime in frivolous social events and pleasuresthat mean nothing. I have also lost a spiritof greed and selfishness. Yes, indeed, I havelost a good deal.

“And what I have gained is invaluable!-Peace of mind; power in prayer; a Friendwho is always with me, who knows, loves,and protects me; fulfillment and richness inlife that I never knew existed; faith that al-lows no room for fears; a promise of a won-derful heavenly home when I’m throughwith this earthly one-and much more! Yes,I’m happy about what I’ve lost, and what Ihave gained is priceless!”

The Bank of Heaven

“Take this to the poor widow wholives on the edge of town,” the old Germanshoemaker told his young apprentice, hand-ing him a basket of fresh garden vegetables.The shoemaker worked hard at his trade and

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God sees

unselfish-

ness and

He will

reward it.

Ga in b y G i v i n g

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cultivated his little garden patch to make ends meet,yet he always seemed to be giving away what little hehad.

“How can you afford to give so much away?” hewas asked.

“I give nothing away,” he said. “I lend it to theLord, and He repays me many times. I am ashamedthat people think I am generous when I am repaid somuch. A long time ago, when I was very poor, I sawsomeone even poorer than I. I wanted to give some-thing to him, but I could not see how I could afford to.However, I did give, and the Lord has helped me eversince. I have always had some work, and my gardengrows well. Since then I have never stopped to thinktwice when I have heard of someone in need. No, evenif I gave away all I have, the Lord would not let mestarve. It is like money in the bank, only this time thebank-the Bank of Heaven-never fails, and the interestcomes back every day.”

God loves to give you more than you can giveHim. The more you give, the more He’ll give you inreturn.

God may not always reward you in mere dollarsand cents; it may be in protection from accidents, mis-fortunes or serious illnesses that would have cost you ahundred times more than anything you have given. Butin whatever way it comes, He will reward you.

Give and It Shall Be Given unto You!

According to legend, there was once an abbeywhich had a very generous abbot. No beggar was everturned away, and the abbot gave all he could to theneedy. The strange thing was that the more he gaveaway, the richer the abbey seemed to become.

When the old abbot died, he was replaced by anew one with exactly the opposite nature-he was meanand stingy. One day an elderly man arrived at themonastery, saying that he had stayed there years be-fore and was seeking shelter again. The abbot turnedthe visitor away, saying that the abbey could no longerafford its former hospitality.

“Our monastery cannot provide for strangers likeit used to when we were wealthy,”he said. “No one seems to make giftstowards our work nowadays.”

“Ah well,” said the stranger, “Ithink that is because you banished abrother from the monastery.”

“I don’t think we ever did that,” said the puzzled abbot.

“Oh yes,” was the reply. “Andhe had a twin. The one you banishedwas called ‘Give’ and his twin was‘It shall be given unto you.’ You ban-ished ‘Give,’ so his brother decidedto go as well.” •

Vocabulary

1. approach--

2. volunteer--

3. curiosity--

4. tendency--

5. frivolous--

6. fulfillment--

7. abbey--

8. abbot--

9. stingy--

10. banished--

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Right from the start I knew that this wasdefinitely not my day. I had looked for-

ward to that evening, when my friend Marekand I were to make a trip by train to Moscow,but it seemed that everything was goingwrong.

By the time we got in the car to leavefor the train station, it was getting late. I be-gan to worry that we wouldn’t make it to thetrain on time. As we attempted to drive off,the car wouldn’t start. Time was running out!We piled into a friend’s van, and were onour way at last. Then we missed a turn, gotlost, and had to go back the way we hadcome.

I prayed, “Lord, I’m sorry we’re solate. I know that You never fail, so please dothis miracle that we need so desperately!Delay the train! Please, Lord!”

As we pulled up to the station, Ilooked at the clock. It read one minute tillthe train’s departure. It was impossible tomake it!

“Jesus, please!”-And I was off, run-ning to catch the train. Marek ran behindme.

By the time I reached the platform,the doors were shut and the train was al-ready moving. The train began to pick upspeed.

“No! It can’t be! Jesus, why don’t Youstop the train?”

I jumped up on the step by the traindoor. Then I realized that the doors werelocked and there was nobody in that car tolet me in.

There I was, hanging onto the door ofthe rapidly accelerating train. Realizing thatit was no use trying to get in, I thought I’dbetter jump off. “But the ground is coveredSa

ved

from

dea

th b

y G

od H

imse

lfF

rom

Mag

da,

Uk

rain

e

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with ice,” I thought to myself, with growinghorror. “If I land on the ground, I’ll prob-ably slip right back onto the tracks!” But Isaw no other choice.

As I jumped, my foot caught on thetrain’s step and I was pulled underneath thetrain. Desperately, I grabbed for somethingunder the train. The train kept picking up speed.

My head dragged and banged on theground, between the train’s wheels. My longhair hung loose, and to this day I still can’tunderstand why it didn’t get caught in the fast-moving wheels. The loud noise of the train’swheels on the tracks drowned out all othersounds. Screaming would have been of no use.

At that moment I gave up all hope. Iprayed, “Jesus, in a couple of minutes I’ll beseeing You face to face. What am I going tosay? What was my life worth?” I waited fordeath. I wasn’t scared, but I was so sorry thatI had not done more with my life that I hadnow so foolishly thrown away. If only I couldhave another chance!

My hands felt so sore and tired, andthey were freezing! How much longer couldI hold on?

Then suddenly the train stopped.I later found out that the train’s con-

ductor heard some commotion on theplatform, looked out, saw my boot stickingout from under the train, and pulled the emer-gency brake. The whole ordeal had lasted justa few minutes.

I expected to be badly injured, but toeveryone’s amazement I only had a fewscratches and bruises.

“She was saved by God Himself,” theconductor said, in awe. A crowd gathered, andeveryone stared at me in disbelief. And therewas Marek. He had lost sight of me before Ihopped on the train, and then had turned backto look for me when he saw the train moving.When he heard people screaming that a girlhad fallen under the train, it hadn’t even oc-curred to him that it could have been me!

We boarded the train, and the nextmorning we arrived safely in Moscow.

Thinking back on that day, it’s hard tobelieve that it really happened to me. I’m surean angel was with me. I didn’t see him, but Iknow he was there. I wasn’t alone!

Now I understand that my life does notbelong to me. Perhaps it did at one time, butI foolishly threw it away. Then the Lord, inHis wonderful mercy, took it into His handsand gave it back to me. Now I truly belong to

Him! .

“As the

train be-

gan to

pick up

speed, I

waited for

death.”

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