What Can I Get For a Rib?

There is an old joke about Adam in the Garden of Eden. God comes to visit Adam and recognizes that there is something wrong and asks Adam what the matter is. Adam says, I don’t know… it’s kind of like an empty feeling… I’ve never felt it before. God says, Adam I know what’s wrong with you and I have the cure. It’s a creation called woman; she will love you, fix all your meals, take care of all your needs and make you happy all the days of your life. Adam says… yes God I’d like one of those. God said, OK Adam but for everything there is a price and if I make woman for you it will cost you your right leg. Adam pondered that for a minute and responded… what can I get for a rib? …Obviously something less. In Ephesians 5 we learned that Christ gave up everything for his bride including his life so that he might have an exquisite wife. Husbands are supposed to do the same thing. Unfortunately many don’t and end up with wives who feel under-appreciated and under-loved and don’t live up to their full potential as wives. Husbands the joke is on you if you don’t pay the full price.

Three Shepherds

A successful sheep rancher called his three Shepherds together and assigned them 100 sheep each. He sent them out into the countryside to pasture their sheep with instructions to report back in a year. The first Shepherd found forage for his sheep, cared for the occasional illness or injury that came up, protected them from predators and when the occasional sheep got lost he searched diligently until he found it… dead or alive. He loved his sheep. The second Shepherd behaved in a similar fashion except that when one of his sheep strayed off he would make a cursory sweep for it and call for it by name but if it failed to show up he figured he had made the effort and went back to tending the rest of the sheep and soon forgot about the lost sheep. The third Shepherd found pasture for his sheep but was kind of a “hands off” guy. The sheep needed to learn to tend for themselves and be responsible for themselves. If a sheep strayed off he didn’t look for it. He figured if the sheep didn’t appreciate the benefits of the flock then it could do what it wanted. If it came back… fine but if it stayed away… fine. At the end of the year the Shepherds returned for an accounting of their flocks. The first Shepherds sheep were in good shape and the Ewes had all “lambed” and the flock had increased to 175 sheep. He had lost a few sheep due to predation and health related issues but all in all he had done a good job and managed everything under his control. The second Shepherds flock tallied in at 143 head of sheep. The third Shepherd’s flock had decreased in size to 88 head of sheep due to his faulty philosophy of individual responsibility and a “hands off” approach. The Sheep Rancher fired the third Shepherd for losing so many sheep due to his negligence. The Sheep Rancher is Jesus. The Shepherds are his appointed Elders/Bishops. The sheep are the church. The roundup and tally are the Judgment day.

A Beautiful Bride

A man invited a woman to marry him. He told her that he expected to be the head of their family and that if she accepted his invitation she would have to respect his headship. In return he promised to take care of all her needs even if it meant working two or three jobs to do so and doing without himself… he would take care of her first.

She accepted his invitation and they were married. Through the years many trials assaulted their union but she remained faithful to him and he loved and provided for her. They became “one” in every sense of the word.

The man was Jesus. The wife was humanity. She was blemished and not pretty but Jesus saw the potential for true beauty in her. He washed all her sins away with his own blood and she became a pure and beautiful wife to him. Satan assaulted their marriage but even the “Gates of Hell could not prevail” against their union.

Jesus still offers the invitation to be transformed into something pure and beautiful. Accept his conditions and begin the process.

What Must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?

In Mt. 19:16-22, a man asks Jesus a question,” What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s a great question… almost like a practice test before the Judgment Day. Imagine if Jesus could do a brief review of our spiritual condition and tell us what we have to work on. What a blessing! We potentially could be much better prepared to face the Judgment. Jesus’ first answer to the man was to tell him to follow the 10 Commandments as they relate to how we treat other people; Don’t murder anyone, don’t cheat on your wife, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat and give honor to your parents. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Then Jesus told the man something that is never mentioned in the 10 Commandments. Sell everything you have and become a Disciple and follow Jesus. The man had to think on that one and walked away with sorrow because he highly valued his possessions. Six out of seven things he was OK on. In school that would be an 86… definitely passing and above average but in the Kingdom not good enough to go to Heaven. Christians have to put greater value on compassion for the poor than for their personal financial well-being. Jesus after all gave up everything he had to help those in spiritual poverty and we are to be like him. If not then say Adios to eternal life. The only test we’re going to get before the Judgment Day is a self- test and it’s an open book test. Don’t neglect to make use of it.

Jo-Len's parents, Len and Connie Wright, here for the scheduled C-section on Tuesday.

How to be Poor

Proverbs 13 and 14 describe how people bring themselves into poverty.

- They are lazy

- They won’t listen to advice

- They won’t live according to God’s teachings (wicked

)

- Certain types of wives are foolish and destructive

- Some people spend more time talking than working.

It would seem natural then to have an attitude like…

- They made their own mess and now they have to find their own way out

- They have reaped what they have sown

- I’m going to let them “bottom out”

- They wouldn’t listen to me and I’ve done all I’m going to do for them

However, Proverbs states that to despise the poor is sinful behavior and it dishonors God. He says we are to be “gracious” to the poor. That being gracious brings honor to God.

God doesn’t want us to behave like humans. He wants us to behave like him, to be little gods. No one ever said it would be easy.

No Joke

There’s an old joke about a farmer who was going broke farming so he quit and started selling hammers. He would buy hammers for $3 apiece and sell them for $2 each. He was happy and doing a pretty good business but a friend advised him that for every hammer he sold he was losing $1. His reply? “it’s more profitable than farming”.

That joke is similar to what people sometimes do with their lives. Activities like drunkenness, sexual immorality, unfaithfulness to a spouse, etc. can cause folks to view their lives as being spiritually bankrupt. So they decide to go to church or pray or read the Bible every once in a while without actually correcting the behaviors that got them into such a big mess to begin with.

Going to church, praying and reading the Bible are good things to do but until we take some corrective action in our lives and commit ourselves fully to Jesus Christ and his teachings, we are still “going broke”… Like buying hammers for $3 and selling them for $2. Don’t make a joke out of your lives.