If Only That Horse Were A Member Of My Church

Enter this provocative collection of inspirational and often amusing anecdotes, one-liners, poems, and parables, and share in the "Inspirations of Artichokes" and "The Strength of a Child," learn to recognize "A Living Thief" and a "Burma Buddhist," and experience the self-realization of "The Gossiping Preacher." These 201 gentle lessons in faith, love, and Christian living will touch your heart and tickle your funny bone. The volume includes a handy topical index, and is perfect for pastors and laypersons who need a humorous or poignant anecdote, an illustration for a sermon or speech, a short message for a bulletin or newsletter -- or a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. Charles W. Byrd is manager of Cokesbury Books and Church Supplies, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a division of the United Methodist Publishing House. He attended Berea College and the University of North Carolina and is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Duke Divinity School.

Another devotional from the best-selling One Year line, The One Year Devotional of Joy and Laughter is specifically designed to brighten your day with laughter and joy. Joy is a special type of happiness. Each one of us needs to and should create habits in our lives that encourage us to look on the bright side of our circumstances and see the goodness in what God has given us. This devotional is a daily joy break—something all of us need.

From childhood, we're taught one central, non-controversial idea about morality: self-sacrifice is a virtue. It is universally accepted that serving the needs of others, rather than our own, is the essence of morality. To be ethical—it is believed—is to be altruistic. Questioning this belief is regarded as tantamount to questioning the self-evident. Here, Peter Schwartz questions it. In Defense of Selfishness refutes widespread misconceptions about the meaning of selfishness and of altruism. Basing his arguments on Ayn Rand's ethics of rational self-interest, Schwartz demonstrates that genuine selfishness is not exemplified by the brutal plundering of an Attila the Hun or the conniving duplicity of a Bernard Madoff. To the contrary, such people are acting against their actual, long-range interests. The truly selfish individual is committed to moral principles and lives an honest, productive, self-respecting life. He does not feed parasitically off other people. Instead, he renounces the unearned, and deals with others—in both the material and spiritual realms—by offering value for value, to mutual benefit. The selfish individual, Schwartz maintains, lives by reason, not force. He lives by production and trade, not by theft and fraud. He disavows the mindlessness of the do-whatever-you-feel-like emotionalist, and upholds rationality as his primary virtue. He takes pride in his achievements, and does not sacrifice himself to others—nor does he sacrifice others to himself. According to the code of altruism, however, you must embrace self-sacrifice. You must subordinate yourself to others. Altruism calls, not for cooperation and benevolence, but for servitude. It demands that you surrender your interests to the needs of others, that you regard serving others as the moral justification of your existence, that you be willing to suffer so that a non-you might benefit. To this, Schwartz asks simply: Why? Why should the fact that you have achieved any success make you indebted to those who haven't? Why does the fact that someone needs your money create a moral entitlement to it, while the fact that you've earned it, doesn't? Using vivid, real-life examples, In Defense of Selfishness illustrates the iniquity of requiring one man to serve the needs of another. This provocative book challenges readers to re-examine the standard by which they decide what is morally right or wrong.

This is the third part of my collection of anecdotes from an old book of anecdotes. I have not written anything. I have only compiled them. It will be very useful for party goers. The beauty of the book is that the anecdotes are arranged topic wise. Students may use this book for essay writing. Anecdotes regarding doctors, salesmen, sportsmen, politicians, authors, producers and other people from various walks of life are covered in this part.

"Wit, humor, quotations, sayings, poems, attention-getters, sentence sermons -- 1,344 delightful scraps"--Cover