I read a very interesting article today about caterpillars. It is absolutely amazing how much research you can accomplish while waiting a torturous amount of time to see a doctor! Anyway, it seems that a caterpillar's natural enemy is the wasp (which in summers past we have had flying around our house like an Air Force squadron) and the little woolly worms have no natural means of defence. So what do they do? They sing the blues to their friends, the ants.
Really!
Scientists have long noticed that caterpillars tend to attract gangs of ants who will, if their amigo is attacked, defend him! At first these scientists figured that the caterpillars must be feeding their bodyguards, but that didn't seem quite right. As soon as an ant got his portion of chow, he would head back for the anthill, while the other ants followed their caterpillar around like a faithful puppy dog. then someone finally hit upon the real key: sweet talk. The caterpillars, those silver-tongued devils, produce some kind of sound that attracts the ants. That is a nice piece of information to have if you are a caterpillar; or a Christian! Please consider a couple of life lessons from this...
First: if you have to buy friends with food (or anything else for that matter), you will only have friends as long as they are eating (or having some other desire met). Personal relationships that are built upon good communication always outlast those that rely on gifts.
Second: sweetness of speech builds a protective bond between people. The book of James warns all of us about the destructive powers of the tongue (James 1:26; James 3:1-10), and the caterpillar parable shows us its positive qualities.
So, as you crawl through life this week, speak as kindly as possible to everyone (Proverbs 12:25; 25:11; Colossians 4:6). In the never-ending battle to be promoted to a butterfly first-class, you will find that building deep bonds of Christian friendship is a key factor (Proverbs 18:24).
Ant It The Truth,
Pastor David Blevins
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Reach Out And Touch...Someone
I have lost my notepad-the notepad on which I write down all the things that I must do on a given day! (Question: How do you remember to buy a new notepad when you can't write down on the front of your old notepad, "Buy a new notepad?" The irony is staggering!) It did get me to thinking, though, about the various records that we, and others, keep of our lives.
My little book/notepad was good for my life only and, thus, practically useless to anyone else. But please carefully consider the following....
Verizon recently belched forth their new phone books for New York City. There were literally millions of copies (over 5,000 tons of paper worth) and if you laid them all end to end, you could walk from here to Knoxville, Tennessee, on a pavement of phone books, provided that you had some strange desire to do so. If you stacked them all one on top of the other...well, that would be an indication that you had way too much time on your hands. And for all of this, the books are incomplete since 30% of New Yorkers paid a fee for an unlisted number and hundreds of thousands more only use their cell phone, having done away with the old dinosauer landline.
That is just New York City. When the Kuwaitis bailed out just ahead of the Iraqi invasion almost 20 years ago, they took along a floppy disc containing a complete register of the nation's citizenry.
Those are just lists of names. When William of Normandy conqured England, he compiled a two-volume set listing not only each citizen's name, but his possessions as well. This was, of course, for tax purposes and was appropriately dubbed "The Dooms Day Book."
Revelation 20:12-15 tells us that God keeps a set of books of His own. One volume, like the Kuwaiti microchip, lists every single citizen of Heaven. The other-a multi-volume set, records the name of every single person who has ever lived, along with an account of the debt of sin that is owed to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Unlike the phone book, no one can remain unlisted. One way or another, God has your number!
So, how about it? Are you in the Dooms Day Book or are you in the registry of the citizens of Heaven? The choice is yours and it totally depends upon what you do with God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you trust Him as your personal Savior today?
Reach Out And Touch...Someone,
Pastor David Blevins
My little book/notepad was good for my life only and, thus, practically useless to anyone else. But please carefully consider the following....
Verizon recently belched forth their new phone books for New York City. There were literally millions of copies (over 5,000 tons of paper worth) and if you laid them all end to end, you could walk from here to Knoxville, Tennessee, on a pavement of phone books, provided that you had some strange desire to do so. If you stacked them all one on top of the other...well, that would be an indication that you had way too much time on your hands. And for all of this, the books are incomplete since 30% of New Yorkers paid a fee for an unlisted number and hundreds of thousands more only use their cell phone, having done away with the old dinosauer landline.
That is just New York City. When the Kuwaitis bailed out just ahead of the Iraqi invasion almost 20 years ago, they took along a floppy disc containing a complete register of the nation's citizenry.
Those are just lists of names. When William of Normandy conqured England, he compiled a two-volume set listing not only each citizen's name, but his possessions as well. This was, of course, for tax purposes and was appropriately dubbed "The Dooms Day Book."
Revelation 20:12-15 tells us that God keeps a set of books of His own. One volume, like the Kuwaiti microchip, lists every single citizen of Heaven. The other-a multi-volume set, records the name of every single person who has ever lived, along with an account of the debt of sin that is owed to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Unlike the phone book, no one can remain unlisted. One way or another, God has your number!
So, how about it? Are you in the Dooms Day Book or are you in the registry of the citizens of Heaven? The choice is yours and it totally depends upon what you do with God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you trust Him as your personal Savior today?
Reach Out And Touch...Someone,
Pastor David Blevins
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