Xavier Breath
Active Member
Hello! I am a friend of Pattimax, and she encouraged me to join this forum. This is the first on-line forum I have been a part of since 1978. Back then, I had a PLATO terminal connected via a 1200 BAUD (yes, That's 1200 Bits per Second!) phone line to the network of mainframes which were the first connected computers on what later became the World Wide Web. I had email of sorts, and live chat at the bottom of the screen, and there were "message boards". Al Gore may have invented the internet, but my father laid down the gravel on which the information superhighway was paved.
I have been conducting a free-form Bible Study at a local jail for the past 8 years. I go the first Tuesday of each month and so far, the bulls have always let me go at the end of my hour. I let the inmates pick the lesson each month, which saves me a lot of preparation time but requires a certain amount of scrambling to find verses and a message that finds its way to the central Truth I believe about God: that He loves each one of us, has the ability to be involved in each of our individual lives, wants us to be happy (beer is proof, quoth Ben Franklin), and longs for us to turn from our own wisdom and control, instead asking for His and submitting our will to His.
I believe that as Christians, we are to judge less, love more, give more, and keep God at the center of our lives. No greater love has any man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. God, on the other hand, in the person of Jesus Christ, laid down His life for those who were not His friends, who did not love Him, or even know Him!
Why would God do this?
Here is an email I got for Christmas from a friend:
I look forward to getting to know all of you!
I have read a few of the threads, and will read more, and get up my courage to post a thought or two.
I have been conducting a free-form Bible Study at a local jail for the past 8 years. I go the first Tuesday of each month and so far, the bulls have always let me go at the end of my hour. I let the inmates pick the lesson each month, which saves me a lot of preparation time but requires a certain amount of scrambling to find verses and a message that finds its way to the central Truth I believe about God: that He loves each one of us, has the ability to be involved in each of our individual lives, wants us to be happy (beer is proof, quoth Ben Franklin), and longs for us to turn from our own wisdom and control, instead asking for His and submitting our will to His.
I believe that as Christians, we are to judge less, love more, give more, and keep God at the center of our lives. No greater love has any man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. God, on the other hand, in the person of Jesus Christ, laid down His life for those who were not His friends, who did not love Him, or even know Him!
Why would God do this?
Here is an email I got for Christmas from a friend:
Code:
God and the Geese
There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays.
His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived.
They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.
"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"
So she and the children left, and he stayed home.
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm.
He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside.
But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.
Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.
"Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"
He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.
Then, he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -- and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.
He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"
Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.
As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:
"Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!"I have read a few of the threads, and will read more, and get up my courage to post a thought or two.
