First Things First: Sharing the Drama and Message

Here are the Marionette family and the message about the Rock #5! Beware, there is a cliffhanger!

The Classic Story

One day a teacher was speaking to a group of students. He pulled out an extremely large jar and set it on a table. Then he produced some large rocks and placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”
Everyone said, “Yes.”
“Really?” he asked. “Let’s see.” He pulled out some gravel and dumped it in. He shook the jar, causing the pieces to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He asked the students again, “Is the jar full?”
His class was catching on quickly. “Probably not,” one of them answered.
“Very good!” he replied. He then brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. When he was finished he asked again, “Is this jar full?”
“No!” the class shouted.
“Excellent!” he replied. Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and poured it into the jar until it was filled to the brim.
The teacher then looked up at the students and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it !”

“No,” the wise teacher replied, “that's not it. The main lesson is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them all in.”

Enjoy Reading?

Here's a suggested list:
Worship: Up With Worship, Anne Ortlund; The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence.

Connect: Life Together, Deitrich Bonhoeffer; We Really Do Need Each Other, Reuben Welch; Sticky Church, Larry Osborne.

Grow: In His Steps, Charles Sheldon; Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster; Growing Places, Jay Kessler.

Serve: The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns; Improving Your Serve, Charles Swindoll; Stretcher Bearers, Michael Slater; Unleashing the Church, Frank Tillapaugh.

Share: Out of the Saltshaker, Rebecca Manley Pippert; The Church of Irresistable Influence, Lewis/Wilkins; Share Jesus Without Fear, William Fay.

First Things First

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sharing the Drama and Message

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