Parable

Moral Story: The Carpenter’s Tools

A moral story was told in church this morning. I am sharing it. I hope you can pick up the meanings from the story. Surely it is not about ‘ME ME ME’.

Some tools lived together in a carpenter’s shop. They were having many problems getting along, and often complained that others were not doing their share of work. One day, they met to discuss their issues.

The Hammer spoke first, for he served as the chairman. “Brother Drill,” he began, “you and your family are so noisy. And you seem to spin in circles, but go nowhere.”

The Drill quickly spoke up. “It’s true that I go around in circles, and my work makes noise. But at least I am sharp. Pencil is small and often so dull that he makes a bad impression. He needs to be sharpened a bit if he expects to be of any use around here.”

Pencil felt defensive and spoke up. “Yes,” he began, “I am a little blunt at times, But it is because I work hard at my job. At least I am not rough like Sandpaper here. It seems all he does is rub things the wrong way!”

That remark made Sandpaper really angry. “Hey, what about Ruler here? He measures others by his standards, as though he is the only one right around here.”

Ruler surveyed the group and said, “I will go if I have too, but then so must the Screwdriver. He is so annoying, always tightening here and loosening there.”

Screwdriver angrily spat out, “Fine with me! I will go, but Plane must go, too. His work is superficial; there is no depth to it!” he said.

To this, Plane leveled his terse reply, “Saw’s cuts hurt. She divides instead of unifies.”

Saw rose up to answer these accusations when suddenly a noise at the door stopped all conversation.

The Carpenter walked in, ready to begin the day’s work. He put on his tool belt and stepped to the workbench. He picked up the pencil and ruler. Carefully he measured and marked the wood before him. He sawed along the marks and then planed the cut edges of the wood to smooth the rough edges. He hammered joints into place and drilled holes for screws to make the piece sturdy. Then he sandpapered the wood to a silky smoothness. All day long He worked, using first one tool and then another.

At the end of the day, He gave a hearty blow and blew the dust from the finished product. And then He said, “Beautiful! I could not have done it without my tools. Each one had an important role to play. No one tool could have done all the jobs. They are all important.”

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Story Credit: I am not the originator of this story. Thank you to this person.

Kena Slapped Wrote In Sand, Got Saved Wrote On Stone, Why?

A story was told in a sermon at Zion Serangoon Bible-Presbyterian Church this morning. It went like this…

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything wrote in the sand:

Today my best friend slapped me in the face.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning – but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near-drowning, he wrote on a stone:

Today my best friend saved my life.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone. Why?”

The other friend replied… his reply is in the photograph below.

Pastor Eddy Lim disclosing the answer…

The Story About A Little River

The story is told about a little river.

The little river said, “I can become a big river.” It worked hard, but there was a big rock. The river said, “I’m going to get around this rock.” The little river pushed and pushed, and since it had a lot of strength, it got itself around the rock.

Soon the river faced a big wall, and the river kept pushing this wall. Eventually, the river made a canyon and carved a way through. The growing river said, “I can do it. I can push it. I’m not going to let down for anything.”

Then there was an enormous forest. The river said, “I’ll go ahead anyway and just force these trees down.” And the river did.

The river, now powerful, stood on the edge of an enormous desert with the sun beating down. The river said, “I’m going to go through this desert.” But the hot sand began to soak up the whole river. The river said, “Oh no, I’m going to do it and I’m going to get myself through this desert.” But the river soon had drained into the sand until it was a small mud pool.

Then the river heard a voice from above: “Just surrender. Let me lift you up. Let me take over.”

The river said, “Here I am. Take me!”

The sun lifted up the river and made the river into a huge cloud. The sun carried the river over the desert and let the cloud rain down and made the fields far away fruitful and rich.

There will be moments in our lives when we stand before a desert and want to do it ourselves. But there is the small voice that comes to us reminding us, “Let go. Surrender. I will make you fruitful. Yes, trust me.”

Let this story ends with a quote: “Work as if everything depended upon work and pray as if everything depended upon prayer.” Yes, let us do our level best, and let God take care of the rest. Amen.

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This story was copied from my church bulletin of 27 September 2015.

裸体来到这人间，也会裸体离开这世界。

你们听过这个故事吗？看完后会有什么反应呢？

金钱本身并不邪恶。但贪财是万恶之根。

金钱本身并不邪恶。但贪财是万恶之根。

有一位男士。有一天他对妻子说：“当我死了，妳必须把我所有的钱和我埋葬在一起。”

他要她把钱放在他棺材里。以为她会履行他的最后遗愿，他也没有再提起此事。

这个男人是一个真正的小气鬼。在他的职业生涯，当他真正需要时，他才舍得花钱。他把所有的钱存在一个小鞋盒里。

当他最终离开了人世，他的尸体放置在棺材里。他的妻子和她好友坐在他棺材旁边。当仪式正要结束，棺材即将被覆盖时，他的妻子说，“等一下！”。

她走过去，把小鞋盒放在棺材里。她的朋友问她，“妳疯了，真是愚蠢把全部的钱放进去！”

她回答朋友说：“是的，我必须保持我的诺言，我是一个好基督徒，我从来没有违背承诺。我数了他所有的钱，把钱放进我的银行账户，并给他写了一张支票放在鞋盒里！”

—

这个故事的寓意：金钱本身并不邪恶。但贪财是万恶之根。我们裸体来到这个人间，也会裸体的离开这个世界。

记得那只鸭子

上个星期天早上在教堂，牧师讲了“记得那只鸭子”的故事。

一对老夫妻在农场过看愉快的生活。有一天两个孙子来拜访他们：翔立和他妹妹丹丹。

翔立拿着一个弹弓而跑到树林里去玩了。不管他怎么练习，他仍然无法射中目标。入门气馁，他疲惫地走回家吃午饭。

当他往回走的时候，他看到了奶奶的宠物鸭。一时的冲动，他让弹弓一飞，打中鸭子的头部，并把它打死了。

他感到震惊和悲痛。在恐慌中，他把死鸭子躲在木堆里。一抬起头来，他见到了妹妹。丹丹已经看到了这一切，但她什么也没说。

午饭后，奶奶说：“丹丹，让我们洗洗碗吧。” 但丹丹说，“奶奶，哥哥对我说，他希望今天在厨房里帮忙，是不是哥哥？” 然后，她低声对他说，“还记得那只鸭子吗？”

因此，翔立把碗洗了。

后来爷爷问孙子想去钓鱼吗。奶奶却说，“我很抱歉，我需要丹丹帮我做晚饭。” 但丹丹笑着说，“嗯，没有问题，可是哥哥告诉我他很想留下来帮忙奶奶。” 她又低声说，“记得那只鸭子吗？”

丹丹去钓鱼和翔立留了下来做晚饭。

之后几天翔立做了他与丹丹的家务。他终于无法忍受下去了。他来到奶奶的面前，忏悔的告诉奶奶是他把鸭子杀死。

奶奶跪了下来，给她的孙子一个拥抱，并说：“亲爱的，我知道。你看，我站在窗前，我看到了整个事情。因为我爱你，我原谅你了。

但是，我只是想知道你会让丹丹多长时间使你为她的奴隶。”

这个故事有什么寓意呢？

这故事中，翔立有两个选择。

起初他选择隐藏内疚。因此，每天每夜他被丹丹（恶魔）铲和威胁。

最后，他终于觉悟了。做错事要承认，知错能改。他请求原谅，收回他的快乐和自由地行走。

幸福是被原谅，宽恕带来快乐。

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Read the English version of Remember The Duck.