Or do we?

While following Jesus sounds great in theory, the reality is very different. Most Christians, including many leaders are encouraged to follow their pastor, apostle, TV preacher, author, or another, who is seen or promoted as having a greater spiritual understanding than we have ourselves.

Seminars are held, books read, then programmes instituted, based upon the revelation of the latest 'spiritual guru', who appears to have the answers to life's challenges and/or the operation and growth of the church, that have eluded us 'lesser mortals'.

Sadly, but predictably, these 'prophets' are regularly replaced, as the methods and systems they promote are finally found not to have universal application in all situations. For what works in one situation will not apply to all.

Why is it that we follow others instead of Jesus?

I would suggest there are two primary reasons.

Firstly, we are attracted to the physical more easily than the spiritual. We naturally find it easier to hear, touch and see human leaders than to follow Jesus, who died 2000 years ago. It is easier to listen to another's revelation than to seek our own!

Many know a lot about Jesus but few truly know Jesus!

Secondly, not many are prepared to make the sacrifice, of time, of comfort, of submission, of obedience, required to enter into an intimate personal relationship with Jesus.

If we put as little effort into, for example, marriage, as we do into our relationship with Jesus, the divorce rate would be near 100%!

Jesus doesn't choose the best and brightest to reveal Himself intimately to. Rather those who are prepared to pay the price, to sacrifice their all for Him.

The reality is, we prefer to let others make the sacrifice upon our behalf!

Jesus is standing at the door of our inner being and knocking, so desiring to be let in.

916. Belief is of the mind, worship of the heart, but obedience is of the will.

917. The greatest change we can make is from gratifying our own will to obeying God's will for our life.

918. Obedience to God's will and ways is the very core of the Gospel.

919. Christian maturity develops as we submit to the will of God for our life.

920. In the world, submission is weakness, in God, strength.

921. In the world, submission comes from without, in God, from within.

922. I obey my master. The question is, "who is my master?"

923. Disobedience comes from Adam and Eve. Obedience is modelled by Jesus. Whom will we follow?

924. Disobedience is selfish, Godly obedience, selfless!

925. Obedience and suffering are common bedfellows.

926. Obedience is refined in the fire of testing.

927. If we obey those we respect, it begs the question, "Do we respect ourselves more than Jesus?"

928. If God knows more than me, shouldn't I take His advice?

929. As God grows in me, there is less and less room for me myself!

930. Heaven is reached through obedience to God's will, not simply the recitation of a 'Sinners Prayer'.

931. Godly obedience is the present outworking of belief and faith.

932. I cannot truly say I'm a believer if I'm not prepared to follow the path of the one in whom I believe.

933. Freewill is a choice, obedience the choice of freewill.

934. Doing what God wants us to do when it differs from what we want to do is our true test of obedience.

935. "I will obey You", is the ultimate form of worship.

936. The path of obedience takes a different route to that of our natural understanding.

937. To do what we don't understand, because God said it, is the ultimate test of obedience.

938. It may be easier to die as a martyr, than to die to one's self!

939. As I die, so God grows in me. There is only room for one of us!

940. In God, submission is a sign of success, not one of failure.

One time Melba was sitting next to a man. When he saw Melba reading her Bible he chuckled and said, "You don't really believe all that stuff in there do you?"

Melba replied "Of course I do. It is the word of God."

"Well what about that guy who was swallowed by that whale? You don't believe that, do you?" the man asked.

Melba smiled. "You mean Jonah? Of course I believe it. God doesn't tell fairy tales."

The fellow snorted and asked "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"

Melba said "Well I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven I will ask Jonah."

"What if Jonah isn't in heaven?" the man asked sarcastically.

"Then you can ask him." Melba replied quietly.

372. 'HEBLISH'
Old Simpson, a stubborn opponent of changing anything, was a constant thorn in the side of the Parent-Teachers Association. For one thing, he was loudly against the introduction of foreign languages in the town's junior high school curriculum.

Waving his Bible high in the air, he shouted, "If English was good enough for the prophets and the apostles, it's plenty good enough for me."

371. THANK GOD I'M AN ATHIEST.
T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. They'd been worn all week long and they needed the air!

370. SOME EVIL
A lady had been teaching her three-year-old daughter the Lord's Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime the girl repeated it after her. One night the three-year old said she was ready to solo. The lady listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer.

ANSWER:
Elephants do not really have 'graveyards,' but field workers and other people occasionally encounter several unexplained elephant skeletons in one location. Once, people believed these places were elephant graveyards. These people speculated that elephants could sense when they were going to die and took themselves to graveyards just before their deaths.

Another, more probable explanation sees the 'graveyards' as a result of the elephant's teeth. Elephants wear out their molars from eating coarse vegetation. And, after an elephant has worn out six sets of molars, no more molars grow in to replace the old ones. As the last set of molars wears down to nubs, old elephants frequently retreat to swamps to fend off starvation by eating soft water plants. Eventually, these animals do die, though, often while they are in the water. Their bodies sink below the water and remain there for years. Later, if the swamp dries out, the bones of several old elephants may be found in the newly exposed land. (Death comes to all - turtles, elephants and us!)

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
What infamous Countess was a mass murderer?

SOME FUN FACTS

37. GROWING CLAWS
Your thumbnail grows the slowest; your middle nail, the fastest. (All finger -nails, and less thumb-nails!)

38. TRY IT!
Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and white worms like fried pork rinds. (So I am told!)

39. GETTING THE WIND UP!
To produce as much electricity as a nuclear power station, the turbines for a wind farm would need to occupy an area of approximately 140 square miles (362.598 square kilometres!). (Not forgetting the wind too, of course.)

A WORD PUZZLE FOR YOU

Make another word from this word using all the letters.

TINNER

A - The transfiguration
B - His baptism
C - His temptation
D - His crucifixion

Source: www.biblequizzes.com

!!!!!!! The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. The pragmatist, being thirsty, drinks the water.

!!!!!! What's the greatest worldwide use of cowhide? To hold cows together.

!!!!! For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord.

!!!! Some people itch for success when they should be scratching for it.

!!! It hurts to be on the cutting edge.

!! The most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

CLEANLINESS: For some reasons, humans seem to enjoy immersing themselves in running water. Attempts to get humans to lick themselves clean have proven interesting, if unproductive.

COMMUNICATION: Humans are unable to speak a proper language. Therefore, you should communicate a point loudly, repeatedly, and if at all possible, at about three in the morning. Any attempts at human-to-cat communication can be dealt with by simply ignoring it until it stops.

FEEDING: Morning feeding should start promptly when your human is fast asleep, preferably three or four minutes before the alarm is supposed to go off. Recommended methods of waking your human include: sitting on its face, screaming in its ear, and biting its hair.

MATING: Human mating behavior is fascinating. Unfortunately, humans tend to get easily spooked by prolonged study of courtship rituals, and resort to shoe-throwing behavior.

TOILET TRAINING: A human's natural tendency is to not change your litter box. Although experts in human behavior believe it can be attributed to the "laziness reflex," this can be easily corrected through what is called "shoe therapy." Just remember that a human shoe looks a lot like a human toilet, and you should be fine.

Following these simple tips is the first step towards a long and productive cat/human relationship.

43. THE BOSS
A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical looking parrots on a perch and says: "The parrot to the left costs 500 dollars".

"Why does the parrot cost so much?" the customer asks. The owner says, "Well, it knows how to use a computer."

The customer asks about the next parrot and is told "That one costs 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system."

Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot and is told "That one costs 2,000 dollars." Needless to say this begs the question "What can IT do?"

To which the owner replies "To be honest I have never seen it do a thing but the other two call him boss!"

44. AT THE AUCTION
One day a man went to an auction. While there, he bid on a parrot. He really wanted this bird, so he got caught up in the bidding. He kept on bidding, but kept getting outbid, so he bid higher and higher and higher. Finally, after he bid way more than he intended, he won the bid - the parrot was his at last!

As he was paying for the parrot, he said to the Auctioneer, "I sure hope this parrot can talk. I would hate to have paid this much for it, only to find out that he can't talk!"

ANKARA, TURKEY (Worthy News)- Protestants in the eastern Turkish province of Van have finally succeeded in opening a house church after seven years of struggling with local bureaucracies, yet they are still concerned by the hostile rhetoric coming from their local officials.

"They see us as persons who deceive people and who have a secret agenda," elder Vahit told Hurriyet Daily News. "It is not just the concept of a mission that causes prejudice, but also the concepts of 'house prayer' and 'house church.' The quintessential reason behind the fear is ___ the rhetoric employed by some of the (Turkish) leaders, which deeply saddens us, besides the prejudices formed by the public."

Shortly after the church was opened, Mustafa Bilici - a Van deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party - lamented the occaision with Islamic-inspired anti-Semetic rhetoric.

"It is great heedlessness to open new churches in Muslim societies that are acting as stooges for Zionist activities," he said.

Yz said his congregation, composed of Turks, Azeris, Afghans, Kurds, Iranians and others, only want to worship freely.

"Our doors are open to anyone who wants to get to know us," he said.

The Protestant group had met in a private home for seven years while it appealed to local governments to obtain a license to be recognized as an official place of worship.

"Due to a lack of sufficient church buildings and (the authorities' refusal) to grant a Religious Designation License, there are over 100 house groups and rented places of worship all across Turkey," said Yz.

Yz pointed out that Christian clerics have been attacked and threatened in eastern Turkey, notably the murder of Andrea Santoro - a priest who was killed in Trabzon - as well as the Zirve Publishing House murders in Malatya.

"It is striking that (these) incidents have taken place in eastern provinces," said Yildiz. "For that reason, we are being very careful ___ the way is being paved for similar attacks as long as the true perpetrators remain unexposed and judiciary penalties are not applied; no one will have the courage to commit such heinous attacks if the judiciary mechanism functions as it is supposed to."

Yz said that unless these mechanisms are in place, Christians here will continue meeting in house churches due to continued threats and attacks.

It matters not whether you are a 'oneness', 'twoness', or 'trinitarian' believer. The concept still applies. For we're all very good at putting God in a box, limited to the walls of our theology and understanding. But, one day, we will know all the truth of the great mystery of God.

In the meantime, if you can grasp this simple, yet profound concept, I'm sure it will open up new realms of understanding for you too about God and His plans for His people in these end days.

It certainly developed my faith tremendously, being able to grasp more of God's mighty plan for me. And for you too!

LIFE'S ROSES AND THORNS Life may be short,
It could be long.
Will we be caught?
Or end up strong?

Money comes,
Money goes.
We do our sums,
But no-one knows.

Healthy one day,
Sick the next.
For wellness we pray,
When ill - now vexed.

All's under control,
Now it falls apart!
We're first on a roll,
Then back to the start!

In God too, we must face this place,
For all's not smooth, in life's race.

Him we are called, ever to revere,
And in daily life, to persevere.

He hasn't promised a fine bed of roses,
Nor simple solutions, to all life poses.
For roses were created with thorns you see,
Representing life problems, for you and me.

Yet when we see the rose in triumphant bloom,
Its shining beauty overwhelming the gloom,
The thorns' pricks and scratches are all worthwhile,
Put aside, forgotten, when with pleasure we smile.

For there cannot be a rose, without the thorns,
So with trial and testing, we do lock horns.

In order to become the rose God wants us to be,
We must overcome the thorns of life, you see.

Then He will pick us, now His richest bloom,
Taking pride of place in His heavenly room.
Eternal blooms, never ever to fade,
For by His hand, we have been made.

My sincere thanks to all who have helped! It certainly is a 'true truism' that 'many hands make light work'.

May we remember this reality in the church too.

Now is time to put my feet up - but I have to write this PGIM! One day soon - maybe! No definitely!

Until next week___

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD.

His servant and yours

David Tait

Today's 'Word Puzzle' Answer: INTERN