That Mystery Floating Alongside

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  “The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling glassy shimmer of the sea. But I saw at once something elongated and pale floating very close to the ladder. Before I could form a guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky. With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous glow. One hand, awash, clutched the bottom rung of the ladder. He was complete but for the head. A headless corpse! The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven. At that I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship’s side. But even then I could only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired head. Howev...

Occupation: Evangelism

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"The major preoccupation of any man's life is his daily employment. But if Jesus Christ has no part in that major occupation of your life, then he is Lord only of the margins. The spare time. The left-overs!

Did you ever notice that the important figures of the Bibles are not the monks and priests? They are shepherds and fishermen and tax gatherers and soldiers and politicians and tentmakers and physicians and carpenters. These are the ones who occupty the center of the stage. You can tell good news about God's actions among men at a water cooler in an office or over a lunch bucket. you can heal a hurt in a car while you are driving home. You can teach the truth that frees and enlightens anywhere."

Ray Stedman, from his sermon on Ephesians 4:11-12, "The Contemporary Christ."

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