• On average, people fear spiders more than they do dying. However, statistically you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by the bite of a poisonous spider.
• In Erwin, Tennessee an elephant was once hanged for murder.
• About 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens each year.
• Only one in two billion people will live to be 116 or older.
• The first U.S. execution by lethal injection was in 1982.
• When Thomas Edison died in 1941; Henry Ford captured his last dying breath in a bottle.
• A Dentist named Dr. Albert Southwick first proposed the idea of the Electric Chair in 1881 after seeing a man get electrocuted.
• Over 2500 left handed people are killed from using products made for right handed people each year.
• In 1845, President Andrew Jackson’s parrot was removed from his funeral for swearing.
• About 60 percent of big city murders are solved whereas about 75 percent of rural murders are solved.

Ten Most Common Causes of U.S. Deaths

1. Heart Disease
2. Cancers
3. Cerebrovascular Diseases
4. Pulmonary Diseases
5. Accidents
6. Pneumonia & Influenza
7. Diabetes
8. HIV (AIDS)
9. Suicide
10. Homicide & Legal Intervention (police shootouts)

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” —Hebrews 9:27

Marla Maples

At the height of her fame as the other woman in the Ivana and Donald Trump breakup, Marla Maples spoke of her religious roots. She believed in the Bible, she told interviewers, then added the disclaimer, “but you can’t always take [it] literally and be happy.” —Charles Colson, The Body, p. 124

“I am come that ye may have life . . .” —John 10:10

J.W. McGarvey and the Instrument

Topic(s): Denominationalism, Worship

2006 will mark the centennial of the official split between the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. One key difference then and now is the issue of instrumental music in the worship. Two stories surrounding J. W. McGarvey are presented below in the hopes that we may learn from his experiences over 100 years ago.

William Woodson tells the following in the May 5, 1996 issue of Vigil. “First, it was recalled that in the early 1870s, with the knowledge and approval of J. W. McGarvey as one of the elders, a small instrument was placed in the basement of the building of the Lexington Christian Church to be used by the young people in improving their singing. No one, especially McGarvey, would have thought of, let alone approved, moving the instrument upstairs to be used in the worship services.

“Years went by; the youngsters grew up and took their places in the church. And so it occurred that in November 1902 a move was made to introduce instrumental music into the worship services, and McGarvey’s sensitive conscience in this matter forbade his remaining with the Broadway church. The vote taken—370 for and 202 against—meant that what had been refused a few years before was allowed, and the McGarveys went elsewhere.

“One may admire McGarvey’s action on principle in 1902, but that allowance and approval of the organ in the basement in the early 1870s remains a troubling fact. It is not known how many of the youngsters who had been trained in singing with the organ in the basement voted for the organ in the worship, but the likelihood is that few who were so trained voted against its use in 1902.”

Mike Winkler adds the following in his book on Successful Christian Living in Today’s World. This account is from a conversation between Jesse P. Sewell and J. W. McGarvey in January 1903, at the Pearl and Bryan Street Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. “While sitting on the front seat, waiting to speak, brother McGarvey leaned over to brother Sewell and said, ‘Brother Sewell, I want to say something to you, if you will accept it in the spirit in which I mean it.’ Brother Sewell assured him that he would and brother McGarvey continued, ‘You are on the right road, and whatever you do, do not let anybody persuade you that you can successfully combat error by fellowshipping it and going along with it. I have tried. I believed at the start that was the only way to do it. I have never held membership in a congregation that used instrumental music. I have, however, accepted invitations to preach without distinctions between churches that use it and churches that do not. I have gone along with their papers and magazines and things of that sort. During all these years I have taught the truth as the New Testament teaches it to every young preacher who has passed through the College of the Bible. Yet, I do not know of more than six of those men who are preaching the truth today.’ He then affirmed, ‘It will not work.’”

“. . . I am set for the defence of the gospel” —Philippians 1:17

Heads or Tails

In my search for an assistant, I had narrowed the applicants to two women. One had more experience; the other was more personable. I headed for my boss’s office, still undecided. Realizing I needed help, he produced a quarter, saying, “Heads, It’s experience. Tails, it’s personality.” He flipped the quarter into the air and then asked, “Quick! What are you thinking?” “Tails,” I blurted. It was true. I had been wishing it would come up tails. The quarter landed in his palm and without looking at it, he said, “Call Personnel with your executive decision.”

                                                                    —Donna Paciullo, in Reader’s Digest